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Upanishads · Jābāli 13
॥
Devanāgarī
यास्य द्वितीया रेखा सा दक्षिणाग्निरुकारः सत्वमन्तरिक्षमन्तरात्मा चेच्छाशक्तिर्यजुर्वेदो माध्यन्दिनसवनं विष्णुर्देवो देवतेति
Transliteration (IAST)
yāsya dvitīyā rekhā sā dakṣiṇāgnirukāraḥ satvamantarikṣamantarātmā cecchāśaktiryajurvedo mādhyandinasavanaṃ viṣṇurdevo devateti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
या अस्य द्वितीया रेखाyā asya dvitīyā rekhāwhichever is its second line
सा दक्षिण-अग्निः उ-कारःsā dakṣiṇa-agniḥ u-kāraḥthat is the southern fire and the sound “u”
सत्वम् अन्तरिक्षम्satvam antarikṣamclarity, the mid-air
अन्तर्-आत्मा च इच्छा-शक्तिःantar-ātmā ca icchā-śaktiḥthe inner self, and the power of will
यजुर्-वेदः माध्यन्दिन-सवनंyajur-vedaḥ mādhyandina-savanaṃthe Yajurveda, the midday pressing
विष्णुः देवः देवता इतिviṣṇuḥ devaḥ devatā itiViṣṇu is its god, its deity
Translation
“Whichever is its second line is the southern fire and the sound ‘u,’ clarity, the mid-air, the inner self, the power of will, the Yajurveda, the midday pressing; and its deity is the god Viṣṇu.”
Version
936b32761381 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The second line is given to Viṣṇu, and it deserves note exactly where it stands. It is the middle one: between Prajāpati below and Mahādeva above. And its correspondences are these: clarity (sattva), the mid-air, antarātmā (“the inner self”), icchā-śakti (“the power of will”), the Yajurveda, midday.
This distribution deserves examination, for it is at once just and one-sided. It is just: Viṣṇu in this literature really is the lord of clarity; the Gītā says that sattva leads upward, and that the maintenance of the world is His task, and that it is accomplished through clarity. The middle position, too, is just: Viṣṇu is the one who stands between — between creation and destruction, between birth and end; and the name sthiti, “maintenance,” means precisely the middle.
What is one-sided is that He is placed within a series. It is exactly this that the Vaiṣṇava side objects to, and its objection was cited reading Pañcabrahma and Varāha (4.32). Its position is this: Viṣṇu is not one of the three; the three are the administrators of the three qualities, while He is beyond the qualities, and all three issue from Him.
The Bhāgavatam (1.2.23) says this outright: sattvaṃ rajas tama iti prakṛter guṇās tair yuktaḥ paraḥ puruṣa eka ihāsya dhatte — “clarity, passion, and darkness are the qualities of nature; the one Highest Puruṣa, joining with them, assumes [three forms] here.” That is, Viṣṇu as administrator of clarity is a manifestation, not the limit itself; and so this mapping is correct as a ritual inventory and incorrect as theology. Add, too, the word icchā-śakti, “power of will,” assigned to this line: in Śaiva reckoning will stands above action and below knowledge; and this order is, to my mind, sensible.