Upanishads · Bhāvanā p18
॥
Devanāgarī
क्षारको दारकः क्षोभको मोहको जृम्भक इत्यपालनमुख्यत्वेन पञ्चविधोऽस्ति
Transliteration (IAST)
kṣārako dārakaḥ kṣobhako mohako jṛmbhaka ityapālanamukhyatvena pañcavidho'sti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
क्षारकः दारकः क्षोभकःkṣārakaḥ dārakaḥ kṣobhakaḥcorroding, tearing, churning
मोहकः जृम्भकःmohakaḥ jṛmbhakaḥdarkening, distending
इति अपालन-मुख्यत्वेनiti apālana-mukhyatvenathus, by the predominance of non-excretion
पञ्च-विधः अस्तिpañca-vidhaḥ astiit is fivefold
Translation
Corroding, tearing, churning, darkening, distending — thus, by the predominance of non-excretion, it is fivefold.
Version
c2cdd7fd96d5 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Five actions of the second five, and all of them, unlike the previous, are destructive: corroding, tearing, churning, darkening, distending. This list is, in essence, an inventory of ill health. Anyone who has suffered from the stomach will recognize what is described: corroding — heartburn; churning — nausea; distending — bloating; darkening — that heaviness in the head that comes from poor digestion.
Something more important than the list is noted here too: the very thing that digests, under a poor course, corrodes. The fire is one; and the difference between "digested" and "corroded" is not a difference of strength, but of measure and order. This observation is applied more broadly in these books, and it deserves attention. Every power in a person is two-faced: what he lives by is also what corrupts him, if taken out of measure and out of time. Desire, examined when reading the Tripurā-tāpanī (38), is built the same way; so are anger and attachment.
Hence the Vaiṣṇava side does not teach tearing out the powers, but teaches proportioning them. The Gītā says: "for one moderate in food and rest, moderate in action and sleep — yoga carries away suffering" (6.17); and the word yukta, "fitted, proportioned," stands there four times in a row.