यदि लूतानां प्रलूतानां यदि वृश्चिकानां यदि घोटकानां यदि स्थावरजङ्गमानां सचरति सचरति तत्कारी मत्कारी विषनाशिनी विषदूषिणी विषहारिणी हतं विषं नष्टं विषं हतमिन्द्रस्य वज्रेण विषं हतं ते ब्रह्मणा विषमिन्द्रस्य वज्रेण स्वाहा
yadi lūtānāṃ pralūtānāṃ yadi vṛścikānāṃ yadi ghoṭakānāṃ yadi sthāvarajaṅgamānāṃ sacarati sacarati tatkārī matkārī viṣanāśinī viṣadūṣiṇī viṣahāriṇī hataṃ viṣaṃ naṣṭaṃ viṣaṃ hatamindrasya vajreṇa viṣaṃ hataṃ te brahmaṇā viṣamindrasya vajreṇa svāhā
«If [the poison] is of spiders and small spiders, if of scorpions, if of horses, if of the immovable and the moving — "moving, moving… destroying poison, corrupting poison, carrying away poison: poison is slain, poison has perished, slain by the thunderbolt of Indra, slain in you by brahman — svāhā».
eb5583a00736 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The list is widened beyond serpents, and it deserves noting who is included. Lūtā — spider; vṛścika — scorpion; ghoṭaka — horse. The last is curious: a horse in a list of venomous things is unexpected, and what is likely meant here is not poison but a bite or a kick.
Then it says sthāvara-jaṅgamānām, “of the immovable and the moving”; and this is the standard Sanskrit expression for “everything there is.” That is, the list ends by encompassing everything: plants and animals alike. This detail matters, for it shows how poison was conceived in this practice: not as a substance of a particular kind, but as any harm entering the body.
Hence bites, bruises, and, as the next passage will say, weapon wounds, boils, and even unclean spirits fall under it. The Vaiṣṇava side does not make such an extension and does not charm away illnesses; but it is worth saying that it too distinguishes ādhibhautika, ādhidaivika, and ādhyātmika — three kinds of suffering: from other beings, from higher powers, and from oneself. This distinction, in its practice, serves not for cure but for relation: suffering of every kind is accepted as karma-vipāka, “the ripening of deeds,” and that one who regards it as a grace does not seek a culprit was discussed reading the Dattātreya (2.6).
That is, where this book runs through the sources of trouble to name and ward them off, that other teaching says the source does not matter — what matters is how it is received.