Upanishads · Yogakuṇḍalinī 1.31
॥
Devanāgarī
गुल्मप्लीहादिकान्दोषान्क्षयं पित्तं ज्वरं तृषाम् । विषाणि शीतली नाम कुम्भकोऽयं निहन्ति च
Transliteration (IAST)
gulmaplīhādikāndoṣānkṣayaṃ pittaṃ jvaraṃ tṛṣām | viṣāṇi śītalī nāma kumbhako'yaṃ nihanti ca
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
गुल्म-प्लीह-आदिकान् दोषान्gulma-plīha-ādikān doṣāndisorders — tumor, spleen, and the like
क्षयं पित्तं ज्वरं तृषाम्kṣayaṃ pittaṃ jvaraṃ tṛṣāmconsumption, bile, fever, thirst
विषाणि शीतली नामviṣāṇi śītalī nāmapoisons — "cooling" by name
कुम्भकः अयं निहन्ति चkumbhakaḥ ayaṃ nihanti cathis holding destroys, and
Translation
"Disorders — tumor, spleen, and the like, consumption, bile, fever, thirst, and poisons — this holding, called "cooling", destroys".
Version
e5dbffd12dca · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The list is again medical, and in it are two things worth speaking of apart. The first — trisham, "thirst." Here the promise is plausible and verifiable: inhalation through a moist, rolled tongue does indeed relieve dryness of the mouth, and in heat this helps. The observation is true.
The second — vishani, "poisons." Here the promise is impossible, and this must be said plainly. No breathing technique neutralizes poison; and a man bitten by a serpent who sits down to breathe instead of running for help will die.
These two things stand in the same line, and herein lies the whole difficulty of such books. Beside a precise observation stands a promise taken from nowhere; and the reader can distinguish them only by common sense, for the book itself does not. Hence a rule worth holding while reading this whole literature, and it applies not to it alone. Where a treatise speaks of what is verifiable, it may be trusted; where it promises the impossible, one must not believe it — and must not, on that account, suppose that everything else collapses too.
The Vaishnava side does not resist this kind of distinction and uses it itself: in her books there are places where the Name is promised to remove even a mortal sin — and there, too, it is stated, as discussed when reading Devi (22), that to count on this is the gravest of offenses.