Upanishads · Bhāvanā p14
॥
Devanāgarī
सर्वसंक्षोभिण्यादिचतुर्दशारगा देवताः
Transliteration (IAST)
sarvasaṃkṣobhiṇyādicaturdaśāragā devatāḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सर्व-संक्षोभिणी-आदि-sarva-saṃkṣobhiṇī-ādi-Sarvasaṅkṣobhiṇī and the rest
चतुर्दश-आर-गाः देवताःcaturdaśa-āra-gāḥ devatāḥthe deities going along the fourteen spokes
Translation
Sarvasaṅkṣobhiṇī and the rest — the deities going along the fourteen spokes.
Version
f02656f4c1dd · published Aug 6, 2026, 6:48:41 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The fourteen channels are equated to fourteen deities of the fourteen-cornered circle; and this is exactly the circle that, in the Tripurā-tāpanī (55), was called the fourth and "giver of every welfare." Here it becomes clear what this whole book was written for. Anyone who has read that larger book remembers the long mapping of the nine circles and their inhabitants; and here the same mapping is applied to a person, and in the place of each circle stands something of his own: apertures, tastes, senses, channels, breaths.
This method is called in tantra dehastha-devatā, "deities dwelling in the body," and is widespread. Its intent is understandable: if a person is a small likeness of the world, the diagram of the world should imprint itself upon him too. The Vaiṣṇava side accepts the thought of likeness — the body in these books is more than once called a city and a temple — but with one qualification that matters. A likeness is a likeness, not an identity: a map resembles the land, but is not the land, and no one feeds on drawn bread.
Hence the rite among Vaiṣṇavas is not transferred inward entirely. Mental service is recognized and valued; but it is also recognized that material offering does something mental service does not: it requires labor, time, and expense — that is, something actually given up.