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Upanishads · Saubhāgyalakṣmī 2.4
॥
Devanāgarī
श्रवणमुखनयननासानिरोधनेनैव कर्तव्यम् । शुद्धसुषुम्नासरणौ स्फुटममलं श्रूयते नादः
Transliteration (IAST)
śravaṇamukhanayananāsānirodhanenaiva kartavyam | śuddhasuṣumnāsaraṇau sphuṭamamalaṃ śrūyate nādaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
श्रवण-मुख-नयन-नासा-निरोधनेन एवśravaṇa-mukha-nayana-nāsā-nirodhanena evaonly by closing the ears, mouth, eyes, and nose
कर्तव्यम्kartavyamit must be done
शुद्ध-सुषुम्ना-सरणौśuddha-suṣumnā-saraṇauin the pure channel of the suṣumnā
स्फुटम् अमलं श्रूयते नादःsphuṭam amalaṃ śrūyate nādaḥclearly and purely the hum is heard
Translation
"It must be done only by closing the ears, mouth, eyes, and nose; and in the pure channel of the suṣumnā the hum is heard clearly and purely."
Version
0e991e1c0e6e · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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Here is a passage where the device explains itself, and it is worth voicing this. One closes the ears — and hears. That is, the cutting-off of outer hearing is done for the sake of the inner; and about nāda, "the inner hum," it was said when reading the Jābāla-darśana (6.36) and the Varāha (2.83).
It is worth saying what this phenomenon is, for it is observable and not an invention. Anyone who has firmly plugged his ears in silence hears ringing, noise, or humming; and the phenomenon has an ordinary explanation — one hears the flow of blood and one's own ear's noise. Yogic books took this for a door and built on it a whole craft, nāda-yoga.
Let us say plainly: from the fact that a sound is heard, it does not follow that it is a voice. Let us add what the Vaiṣṇava side holds in place of this craft. It too listens, and listening is the first of its nine occupations; but it listens not to its own noise, but to another's speech: a name, a story, a song.
This distinction, to my mind, is the most essential of all we have discussed in the yogic chapters. The inner hum is one's own: it sounds even for the deaf to the teaching, and for the wicked, for blood flows in everyone. A heard name is another's: it has come from outside, and so it can bring what was not already in the person.