तस्य हैतस्य पञ्चाङ्गानि भवन्ति चत्वारः पादाश्चत्वाराङ्गानि भवन्ति सप्रणवं सर्वं पञ्चमं भवति हृदयाय नमः शिरसे स्वाहा शिखायै वषट् कवचाय हुं अस्त्राय फडिति प्रथमं प्रथमेन संयुज्यते द्वितीयं द्वितीयेन तृतीयं तृतीयेन चतुर्थं चतुर्थेन पञ्चमं पञ्चमेन व्यतिषजति व्यतिषिक्ता वा इमे लोकास्तस्माद्व्यतिषिक्तान्यङ्गानि भवन्ति
tasya haitasya pañcāṅgāni bhavanti catvāraḥ pādāścatvārāṅgāni bhavanti sapraṇavaṃ sarvaṃ pañcamaṃ bhavati hṛdayāya namaḥ śirase svāhā śikhāyai vaṣaṭ kavacāya huṃ astrāya phaḍiti prathamaṃ prathamena saṃyujyate dvitīyaṃ dvitīyena tṛtīyaṃ tṛtīyena caturthaṃ caturthena pañcamaṃ pañcamena vyatiṣajati vyatiṣiktā vā ime lokāstasmādvyatiṣiktānyaṅgāni bhavanti
It has five limbs: the four quarters are four limbs, and the whole together with the praṇava is the fifth. “To the heart — namaḥ”, “to the head — svāhā”, “to the crown-lock — vaṣaṭ”, “to the armour — hum”, “to the weapon — phaṭ”. The first is joined with the first, the second with the second, the third with the third, the fourth with the fourth, the fifth with the fifth, and interweaves. For these worlds are interwoven; therefore the limbs too are interwoven.
ddc83b0b80d4 · published Jul 29, 2026, 4:39:50 AM UTC
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The ritual part: the five aṅga-mantras with which the utterer invests five places of the body.
The heart, the head, the lock of hair at the crown, the “armour” — shoulders and chest, and the “weapon” — a clap of the palms above the head. Each has its exclamation: namaḥ, svāhā, vaṣaṭ, hum, phaṭ.
This rite is common to all the schools that know the mantra; we examined it in the fourth verse of the fourth Upaniṣad of the pūrva-tāpanī of the Rāma-tāpanī, where it was called nyāsa.
But here there is something of its own, and it is in the last words.
It is said: vyatiṣiktā vā ime lokāḥ — “for these worlds are interwoven”, and therefore the limbs are interwoven.
The verb vyati-ṣañj means “to intertwine, to cross”. Not “standing side by side” — interwoven, like threads in cloth.
Here is the ground of the rite: the parts of the mantra are laid on the body overlapping not by the whim of a rubric, but because the worlds are so built. The nyāsa does not depict the universe — it repeats it.
Note the count too: four quarters plus the whole with the praṇava. The fifth is not added to the four — it is the four themselves, taken entire. So in the universe too the fourth does not stand in the row.