Upanishads · Yogakuṇḍalinī 1.79
॥
Devanāgarī
जायाभवविनिर्मुक्तिः कालरूपस्य विभ्रमः । इति तं स्वस्वरूपा हि मती रज्जुभुजङ्गवत्
Transliteration (IAST)
jāyābhavavinirmuktiḥ kālarūpasya vibhramaḥ | iti taṃ svasvarūpā hi matī rajjubhujaṅgavat
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
जाया-भव-विनिर्मुक्तिःjāyā-bhava-vinirmuktiḥrelease from birth and becoming
काल-रूपस्य विभ्रमःkāla-rūpasya vibhramaḥthe whirling that has the form of time
इति तं स्व-स्व-रूपा हिiti taṃ sva-sva-rūpā hiso its own true nature, indeed
मती रज्जु-भुजङ्ग-वत्matī rajju-bhujaṅga-vatis thought — as a serpent in a rope
Translation
"Release from birth and becoming — the whirling that has the form of time. So its own true nature is thought — as a serpent in a rope".
Version
61b89938e179 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The rope and the serpent appear; this simile was discussed when reading Katharudra (13) and Rudra-hridaya (34), and three objections to it were given there. Worth noting, though, is how unexpectedly it stands here. Eighty lines the book has spoken of the body, of food, of the nostrils, of the locks and the count of days; and suddenly, out of nowhere — rope, serpent, and "all is illusory."
This shift shows we are dealing with a seam: a tail of abstract verses, which had circulated in other collections, has been stitched onto a composition about bodily work. Such seams were discussed when reading Tripuratapini (102), where verses about the objectless mind were found in three different books. It is worth saying, though, what makes this seam understandable. Every composition about a means must, sooner or later, say how it all ends; and the author of the bodily part could not say this, for his subject was techniques. So he took what was at hand in his milieu.
The Vaishnava side, in a similar position, acts otherwise, and takes for its ending not the abstract, but the Name. All her compositions, whatever their subject — rite, conduct, rule — end by naming the One for whose sake all of it was, and so they have no such seam. Separately, a word must be said about vibhrama, "whirling, confusion, delusion." It is of the same root as bhramate, "whirls" (1.72); and in one book the same word names both the state of the power at its rise and delusion. This, I think, is not carelessness but the honesty of language.