Upanishads · Yogakuṇḍalinī 1.58
॥
Devanāgarī
योगाभ्यासेन मे रोग उत्पन्न इति कथ्यते । ततोऽभ्यासं त्यजेदेवं प्रथमं विघ्न उच्यते
Transliteration (IAST)
yogābhyāsena me roga utpanna iti kathyate | tato'bhyāsaṃ tyajedevaṃ prathamaṃ vighna ucyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
योग-अभ्यासेन मे रोगःyoga-abhyāsena me rogaḥ"from the practice of yoga, my
उत्पन्नः इति कथ्यतेutpannaḥ iti kathyatedisease has arisen", so it is said
ततः अभ्यासं त्यजेत् एवंtataḥ abhyāsaṃ tyajet evaṃthen he abandons the practice, thus
प्रथमं विघ्नः उच्यतेprathamaṃ vighnaḥ ucyatethe first hindrance is called
Translation
""From the practice of yoga has my disease arisen", so it is said; then he abandons the practice. This is called the first hindrance".
Version
960233954be9 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The list of ten hindrances begins, and the first is named with an observational insight that does the author credit: a man fell ill and decided the exercise was to blame. Worth noting is how true and how true to life this observation is. Nine causes of illness have just been named — sleeping by day, waking by night, excesses, bad food, strain — and yet the one found guilty is the exercise, because it is new.
This trait in man is general and has nothing to do with yoga in particular. Whatever a man began recently is the first to fall under suspicion; and what he has done for years, and what eats at him, is not suspected, because it is habitual. Hence a rule worth every newcomer remembering. Before blaming the new, one must count up the old; and nine times in ten it will turn out that the trouble is not in what was added, but in what was left as it was.
The Vaishnava side applies this rule to the complaints she hears constantly: "I began to repeat, and life became harder." Her answer is always the same: look at what else changed at that time; and it most often turns out that the heaviness came from where it always had, only before it was blamed on fate. Separately, a word must be said about vighna, "hindrance, obstacle." It is of the same root as the name of Ganesha — vighna-raja, "lord of obstacles," discussed when reading Tripuratapini (76).