Upanishads · Yogakuṇḍalinī 1.63
॥
Devanāgarī
शुष्के मले तु योगी च स्याद्गतिश्चलिता ततः । अधोगतिमपानं वै ऊर्ध्वगं कुरुते बलात्
Transliteration (IAST)
śuṣke male tu yogī ca syādgatiścalitā tataḥ | adhogatimapānaṃ vai ūrdhvagaṃ kurute balāt
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
शुष्के मले तु योगी चśuṣke male tu yogī cawhen the impurity has dried, the yogi, and
स्यात् गतिः चलिता ततःsyāt gatiḥ calitā tataḥthe course then becomes mobile
अधः-गतिम् अपानं वैadhaḥ-gatim apānaṃ vaithe downward-going apana, indeed
ऊर्ध्व-गं कुरुते बलात्ūrdhva-gaṃ kurute balātupward-going does he make it, forcibly
Translation
"When the impurity has dried, [then] the yogi, and the course, become mobile. The downward-going apana he forcibly makes upward-going…"
Version
298e0dec607f · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The word mala, "impurity, filth, scum," here stands in the same sense as dosha stands elsewhere; and it is said to dry up. The image is physical and good: impurity is not washed away or cleaned out, but dries up — as silt dries in a dry riverbed and falls away by itself. This image is present in Vaishnava books too, and applied there to the same subject. Anartha-nivritti, "the falling away of the unneeded," is described there not as a struggle, but as a falling away: what has ceased to be fed dries up on its own.
The difference between the two teachings lies not in the image, but in what does the drying. Here it is dried by heat obtained through breath; there — by attention being carried over to something else, and the former left without food. This method, I think, is truer and safer, and here is why. Burning-out requires force and damages what is nearby; withholding of food requires nothing but constancy, and touches nothing beside it.
It is worth adding that this verse repeats the forty-second line almost word for word; and such repetitions are no rarity in this book. They show that we are dealing with a compilation drawn from verses that once circulated separately, not the composition of a single pen; hence the repetitions and the discrepancies of image.