Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 1.1
॥
Devanāgarī
दत्तात्रेयो महायोगी भगवान्भूतभावनः । चतुर्भुजो महाविष्णुर्योगसाम्राज्यदीक्षितः
Transliteration (IAST)
dattātreyo mahāyogī bhagavānbhūtabhāvanaḥ | caturbhujo mahāviṣṇuryogasāmrājyadīkṣitaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
दत्तात्रेयः महा-योगीdattātreyaḥ mahā-yogīDattatreya, the great yogi
भगवान् भूत-भावनःbhagavān bhūta-bhāvanaḥLord, who brings beings into being
चतुः-भुजः महा-विष्णुःcatuḥ-bhujaḥ mahā-viṣṇuḥfour-armed Maha-Vishnu
योग-साम्राज्य-दीक्षितःyoga-sāmrājya-dīkṣitaḥconsecrated to the sovereignty of yoga
Translation
"Dattatreya, the great yogi, Lord, who brings beings into being, four-armed Maha-Vishnu, consecrated to the sovereignty of yoga…"
Version
e3cf51e4f393 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The book opens by naming the speaker, and this is worth reading closely: chatur-bhujo maha-vishnuh, "four-armed Maha-Vishnu." That is, everything that will be said about the eight limbs of yoga is said by Vishnu, who has taken the form of Dattatreya. For the Vaishnava reading this circumstance is no small matter, and it is worth explaining why. Yoga is ordinarily held to belong to the Shaiva or the impersonal tradition; here its teacher is named Vishnu directly, with mention of four arms — that is, in a form, not as an impersonal first principle.
Dattatreya himself is a remarkable figure. His name means "the [son] given [by] Atri": by tradition, three gods — Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva — appeared to the sage Atri's wife, Anasuya, and were born of her as one. Hence he is depicted three-headed and honored by all three communities alike.
The Bhagavatam counts him among the direct descents of the Lord (1.3.11) and says he taught the doctrine of the self to Yadu; and the Uddhava-gita records his famous discourse on the twenty-four teachers he learned from — among them the earth, the wind, a bee, and a child. The expression yoga-samrajya-dikshita, "consecrated to the sovereignty of yoga," deserves special note: consecration, diksha, is the rite by which one enters service, and samrajya is "sovereignty, universal rule." That is, the teacher of yoga is described as anointed to a kingdom, not as one who attained it by exercise.
The last word again distinguishes two understandings of the subject, and the distinction matters. Yoga as a craft is acquired by practice, and its teacher is a master of technique. Yoga as a kingdom is given, and its teacher is a sovereign; and then the pupil comes not for techniques, but for citizenship.