Upanishads · Yogakuṇḍalinī 1.35
॥
Devanāgarī
तथैव स्वशरीरस्थं चालयेत्पवनं शनैः । यथा श्रमो भवेद्देहे तथा सूर्येण पूरयेत्
Transliteration (IAST)
tathaiva svaśarīrasthaṃ cālayetpavanaṃ śanaiḥ | yathā śramo bhaveddehe tathā sūryeṇa pūrayet
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तथा एव स्व-शरीर-स्थंtathā eva sva-śarīra-sthaṃso too, dwelling in one's own body
चालयेत् पवनं शनैःcālayet pavanaṃ śanaiḥshall he move the wind slowly
यथा श्रमः भवेत् देहेyathā śramaḥ bhavet dehewhen weariness comes into the body
तथा सूर्येण पूरयेत्tathā sūryeṇa pūrayetthen by the sun shall he fill
Translation
"So too shall he slowly move the wind dwelling in his own body; when weariness comes into the body, then shall he fill by the sun".
Version
a92299eb2d30 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Here is the line for whose sake all these technical passages are worth reading: yatha shramo bhaved dehe, "when weariness comes into the body" — then stop and move to something else. The measure is set not by the number of repetitions or by a term, but by weariness, that is, by what a man feels himself. This reservation, in manuals on bodily exercise, is the highest expression of common sense, and it deserves special note. It means that the exercise is done up to weariness, not through it; and anyone who has ruined his health with zeal knows what that difference is worth.
Here too lies the explanation of why this book can be trusted in its craft. Three times in the breath section it sets the measure by the self: "by one's own strength" (1.12), "as much as one wishes" (1.24), "when weariness comes" (here). A treatise that has reminded its reader three times of his own measure was written by someone who watched people injure themselves.
The Vaishnava side holds the same measure in spiritual labor and speaks of it in the same words. Service driven to exhaustion ends in aversion; and so her rules state plainly that a beginner must be given what he can bear, not a model performance. It is worth adding that the word shrama means both "weariness" and "labor, effort." One word for two notions — and in the language itself one can see that labor and fatigue are inseparable; but the measure lies in stopping where the second begins to devour the first.