Upanishads · Yogakuṇḍalinī 1.81
॥
Devanāgarī
पिण्डब्रह्माण्डयोरैक्यं लिङ्गसूत्रात्मनोरपि । स्वापाव्याकृतयोरैक्यं स्वप्रकाशचिदात्मनोः
Transliteration (IAST)
piṇḍabrahmāṇḍayoraikyaṃ liṅgasūtrātmanorapi | svāpāvyākṛtayoraikyaṃ svaprakāśacidātmanoḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
पिण्ड-ब्रह्माण्डयोः ऐक्यंpiṇḍa-brahmāṇḍayoḥ aikyaṃof the body and the world-egg, unity
लिङ्ग-सूत्र-आत्मनोः अपिliṅga-sūtra-ātmanoḥ apiof the sign and the thread-self, too
स्वाप-अव्याकृतयोः ऐक्यंsvāpa-avyākṛtayoḥ aikyaṃof sleep and the unmanifest, unity
स्व-प्रकाश-चित्-आत्मनोःsva-prakāśa-cit-ātmanoḥof the self-luminous and consciousness-self
Translation
"Unity of the body and the world-egg, of the sign and the thread-self too; unity of sleep and the unmanifest, of the self-luminous and consciousness-self".
Version
41d0a4da14a5 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The line enumerates four pairs declared one, and the first deserves unpacking, for it is the foundation of this whole way of thinking. Pinda — "a lump, a body"; brahmanda — "Brahma's egg," the universe. And they are said to be one.
This is the famous position about the small and the great world: man is the universe in small form. It was discussed when reading Bhavana (p14), where the whole book was built on such a correspondence. This position is in some ways true and useful: man really is composed the same way the world is composed, for he is made of the same stuff and by the same laws. But from a resemblance of structure it does not follow that they are identical, and this too was said there: a map resembles the terrain and is not the terrain.
The other three pairs are of the same kind. Svapa and avyakrita, "sleep and the unmanifest": the state of deep sleep is likened to primal nature, and by resemblance (in both nothing is distinguished) identity is declared. The Vaishnava side answers all such equations with one argument, worth stating once and for all. Resemblance by a negative mark proves nothing. In deep sleep nothing is distinguished, and in the unmanifest nothing is distinguished; but in an empty room, too, nothing is distinguished, and it does not follow that an empty room is primal nature.