Upanishads · Rudrākṣajābāla 2.16
॥
Devanāgarī
चतुर्दशमुखं चाक्षं रुद्रनेत्रसमुद्भवम् । सर्वव्याधिहरं चैव सर्वदारोग्यमाप्नुयात्
Transliteration (IAST)
caturdaśamukhaṃ cākṣaṃ rudranetrasamudbhavam | sarvavyādhiharaṃ caiva sarvadārogyamāpnuyāt
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
चतुर्दश-मुखं च अक्षंcaturdaśa-mukhaṃ ca akṣaṃand the fourteen-faced seed
रुद्र-नेत्र-समुद्भवम्rudra-netra-samudbhavamarose from the eye of Rudra
सर्व-व्याधि-हरं च एवsarva-vyādhi-haraṃ ca evaand takes away every disease
सर्वदा आरोग्यम् आप्नुयात्sarvadā ārogyam āpnuyāthealth let one always obtain
Translation
And the fourteen-faced seed arose from the eye of Rudra; it takes away every disease, and health is always obtained.
Version
dde0d36a67b0 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The list of faces ends at fourteen, and the last seed is brought back to what the book began with: rudra-netra-samudbhava, "arisen from the eye of Rudra." This return deserves noting as a sign of good construction. It began with a tear and ends with a tear; everything in between is the branching of one thing.
Sarva-vyādhi-hara, "the taking away of every disease," is promised, and one must speak honestly of this, for here the book promises what plainly does not happen. Let us say it plainly: a seed does not heal. A person relying on it instead of a physician does wrong — both toward himself and toward those who depend on him.
Let us also say what can be said in defense of such a promise. Antiquity did not distinguish healing and rite as sharply as we do: āyurveda and mantra went side by side, and in medical treatises herb and word stand together. To reproach the book for not knowing our division would be to demand of it the impossible.
The Vaiṣṇava side reasons soberly about healing and does not deny illness. Its books are full of stories of devotees falling ill and dying; and in not one of them is illness named a sign of lack of faith. There is, however, a word of its own about illness worth citing, for it removes needless fear. The Bhāgavatam says that for one who is devoted, the punishment for the past is diminished: what remains is small in place of great — like a dream of misfortune in place of misfortune itself (10.14.8, where the devotee accepts what happened as a remainder, not a sentence). The point here is not that there will be no illness, but how to receive it.