Upanishads · Yogakuṇḍalinī 2.1
॥
Devanāgarī
अथाहं सम्प्रवक्ष्यामि विद्यां खेचरिसंज्ञिकाम् । यथा विज्ञानवानस्या लोकेऽस्मिन्नजरोऽमरः
Transliteration (IAST)
athāhaṃ sampravakṣyāmi vidyāṃ khecarisaṃjñikām | yathā vijñānavānasyā loke'sminnajaro'maraḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अथ अहं सम्प्रवक्ष्यामिatha ahaṃ sampravakṣyāminow I shall set forth
विद्यां खेचरी-संज्ञिकाम्vidyāṃ khecarī-saṃjñikāmthe science called khechari
यथा विज्ञान-वान् अस्याyathā vijñāna-vān asyāhow one knowing it
लोके अस्मिन् अ-जरः अ-मरःloke asmin a-jaraḥ a-maraḥin this world, unaging, undying
Translation
"Now I shall set forth the science called khechari — how one who knows it is, in this world, unaging and undying".
Version
f6374f483bdc · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The second chapter begins, and its subject is khechari, "she who walks in the sky." Of the name itself it was spoken when reading Tripuratapini (67): kha means "sky, void, opening," chara — "walking." In yogic books this names the position in which the tongue is turned back behind the palate, into the nasopharynx.
Let me say at once what this will be about, so the reader knows in advance. Attaining this position, in later manuals, requires cutting the tongue's frenum — gradually, over months; and the book will say so directly. This passage, like a similar one in Shandilya (1.7.52), must be called what it is: this must not be done.
The promises, from the very start, are given at their extreme: ajaro amarah, "unaging and undying." Not "long-lived," but immortal in this world. Worth noting is the change of tone. The first chapter promised health and peace, and made reservations; the second begins with immortality and will make none.
This change, I think, is a change of genre. The first chapter was written by a craftsman; the second — by one praising his own means. And they must be read differently: the first as a manual, the second as a eulogy.
The Vaishnava side does not share promises of bodily immortality, and explains why. The body is that which has a term; and the extension of that term, however great, is an extension, not an annulment. The Gita speaks of worlds up to the very world of Brahma: "all worlds are subject to return" (8.16); and so the promise "you will not die" in the language of these books means only "you will die later."