Upanishads · Bhāvanā p16
॥
Devanāgarī
सर्वसिद्धिप्रदा देव्यो बहिर्दशारगा देवताः
Transliteration (IAST)
sarvasiddhipradā devyo bahirdaśāragā devatāḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सर्व-सिद्धि-प्रदाः देव्यःsarva-siddhi-pradāḥ devyaḥthe goddesses giving every attainment
बहिः-दश-आर-गाः देवताःbahiḥ-daśa-āra-gāḥ devatāḥthe deities of the outer ten-spoked [circle]
Translation
The goddesses giving every attainment — the deities of the outer ten-spoked [circle].
Version
93502801bd3f · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The ten breaths are equated to the ten deities of the outer ten-cornered figure — the very one that, in the Tripurā-tāpanī (56), was called the fifth, "attaining every goal." This correspondence, considered closely, is wittily made. The circle of "attaining every goal" is given to the breaths; and breath is that without which no goal is attained, and which at the same time leaves no choice.
The thought here, apparently, is this: the power by which a person attains something is not himself, but what breathes within him; and as long as it breathes, he can; and when it stops, he can do nothing. The Vaiṣṇava side says the same more directly and without a diagram. The Bhāgavatam calls Him prāṇānāṃ prāṇaḥ, "the breath of breaths," and the Kaṭhaka says: "not by breath and not by the eye is He seen" (2.3.12), and yet breath is from Him. The difference between the two ways of speaking is only that here the breaths are called deities, and there His power; but both say the same thing: the source of motion is not in the moving thing.
It is worth adding an observation anyone can verify. Breath is the one involuntary movement of the body that can be governed by will — and hence it became, in all these books, the place where a person touches what is not under his control. The heart cannot be stopped or hastened; breath can be held; and on this narrow crack between will and nature the whole science of breath rests.