Upanishads · Rudrākṣajābāla 2.4
॥
Devanāgarī
चतुर्मुखं तु रुद्राक्षं चतुर्वक्त्रस्वरूपकम् । तद्धारणाच्चतुर्वक्त्रः प्रीयते तस्य नित्यदा
Transliteration (IAST)
caturmukhaṃ tu rudrākṣaṃ caturvaktrasvarūpakam | taddhāraṇāccaturvaktraḥ prīyate tasya nityadā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
चतुर्-मुखं तु रुद्राक्षंcatur-mukhaṃ tu rudrākṣaṃbut the four-faced rudrākṣa
चतुर्-वक्त्र-स्वरूपकम्catur-vaktra-svarūpakamhas the form of the Four-Faced One
तत्-धारणात् चतुर्-वक्त्रःtat-dhāraṇāt catur-vaktraḥfrom wearing it, the Four-Faced One
प्रीयते तस्य नित्यदाprīyate tasya nityadāis always pleased by it
Translation
The four-faced rudrākṣa has the form of the Four-Faced One; from wearing it, the Four-Faced One is always pleased by it.
Version
34f347e8f8be · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Catur-vaktra, "the Four-Faced One," is Brahmā, the creator: his four faces are turned to the four directions and, by tradition, utter the four Vedas. The structure of the listing becomes fully clear here, and it is worth naming: a god of the matching number is fitted to the number of grooves. One is the highest principle, two the two-in-one form, three the three fires, four the Four-Faced One, five the five-faced.
This pairing rests on the coincidence of number, not on substance; and this must be said outright, or the list will look like a revelation, when it is a correspondence. Such a mode of thought in Indian books is called bandhu, "connection": whatever is alike in number or structure is taken to be connected. This is not superstition in the crude sense, but an ancient way of ordering the world, and the whole of Vedic symbolism is built on it.
What it lacks is also worth naming. Connection by number is reversible and arbitrary: for three grooves one could find as many triads as one likes — three fires, three guṇas, three worlds, three times; and the book chose one of them without explanation. The Vaiṣṇava side uses the same device, but keeps it in its place — as an ornament of speech, not as proof. Where a disputed point must be settled, it turns not to correspondences but to śabda, the testimony of scripture, and yukti, reasoning; numerical resemblance is not admitted as an argument.