Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 1.4
॥
Devanāgarī
सांकृते श्रुणु वक्ष्यामि योगं साष्टाङ्गदर्शनम् । यमश्च नियमश्चैव तथैवासनमेव च
Transliteration (IAST)
sāṃkṛte śruṇu vakṣyāmi yogaṃ sāṣṭāṅgadarśanam | yamaśca niyamaścaiva tathaivāsanameva ca
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सांकृते शृणु वक्ष्यामिsāṃkṛte śṛṇu vakṣyāmiSankriti, listen, I shall tell
योगं स-अष्ट-अङ्ग-दर्शनम्yogaṃ sa-aṣṭa-aṅga-darśanamthe yoga seen in eight parts
यमः च नियमः च एवyamaḥ ca niyamaḥ ca evarestraint and observance
तथा एव आसनम् एव चtathā eva āsanam eva caand likewise sitting
Translation
"Sankriti, listen, I shall tell the yoga seen in eight parts: restraint and observance, and likewise sitting…"
Version
0b3d0218cb4b · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The list of eight limbs begins, and it must be said at once that this is the very same list expounded in Patanjali's Yoga-sutras (2.29) and repeated in every book on yoga. The word darshana, which gives the book its name, means "seeing, vision," and in philosophical usage means "a teaching, a view": the six classical Indian systems are called shad-darshana, "the six views." Hence the title can be read two ways: "the Vision/View of Jabala," that is, his view — and "the seen," that which opens before the eye.
The order of the limbs deserves examination, because it is not arbitrary but forms the chief content of every instruction on yoga. The first two — yama and niyama, "restraint" and "observance" — concern conduct: what not to do and what to do. They stand before any exercise, and this circumstance is, in our day, most often forgotten.
Hence it must be said plainly: by this reckoning, a person who has sat down in a posture and taken up breathing, without first beginning with non-harming and truthfulness, has not begun yoga at all. He has taken up a bodily exercise, and to call this yoga is to mistake the third rung for the first. The Vaishnava side accepts this order and adds to it what, for it, settles everything. The Gita, having set out the eight limbs in full (the sixth chapter), ends it with a verse that overturns the whole list: "of all yogis, the one who with faith honors Me, dwelling within, with his inner being — that one I hold most fully united, in My reckoning" (6.47).
That is, the ladder is upheld, but its summit turns out to lie not in the depth of concentration, but in a turning toward a Person.