Upanishads · Yogakuṇḍalinī 1.74
॥
Devanāgarī
प्रकृत्यष्टकरूपं च स्थानं गच्छति कुण्डली । क्रोडीकृत्य शिवं याति क्रोडीकृत्य विलीयते
Transliteration (IAST)
prakṛtyaṣṭakarūpaṃ ca sthānaṃ gacchati kuṇḍalī | kroḍīkṛtya śivaṃ yāti kroḍīkṛtya vilīyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
प्रकृति-अष्टक-रूपं चprakṛti-aṣṭaka-rūpaṃ caand having the form of the eightfold nature
स्थानं गच्छति कुण्डलीsthānaṃ gacchati kuṇḍalīit reaches the place, Kundali
क्रोडी-कृत्य शिवं यातिkroḍī-kṛtya śivaṃ yātihaving embraced, it goes to Shiva
क्रोडी-कृत्य विलीयतेkroḍī-kṛtya vilīyatehaving embraced, it dissolves
Translation
"And Kundali reaches the place having the form of the eightfold nature; having embraced, it goes to Shiva; having embraced, it dissolves".
Version
53bf4fc58fa2 · published Aug 7, 2026, 7:25:06 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Here is the line for whose sake the whole composition was written, and in it stands a word that cannot be passed over: krodi-kritya, "having embraced." Krodi-kri means "to press to the breast, to enfold in an embrace"; kroda is breast, bosom, embrace. And it is said twice: having embraced, it goes; having embraced, it dissolves.
This passage must be examined carefully, because here two teachings converge, and here too they part. The first half is a pure statement about two: one can embrace only another. This word tolerates no single person; the embracer and the embraced are two, and the act itself implies that they are not confused.
The second half says viliyate, "dissolves"; and here the teaching turns toward merging. Let me answer with what stands in the verse itself. Dissolution is named after the embrace and through the embrace; that is, it is the outcome of a relation, not its cancellation. And if the outcome of an embrace is declared to be the disappearance of the embracer, one must ask: who, then, was embracing, and for what?
The Vaishnava side answers this by holding the first half and declining the second. Two embrace and remain two; and in her books the highest state is described precisely as an embrace — not as the disappearance of the one who embraced. The word viliyate she understands as it was understood when reading the sixty-second line: not annihilation, but disappearance from sight — like salt in water, unseen, though the water is salty.