Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 2.1
॥
Devanāgarī
तपः सन्तोषमास्तिक्यं दानमीश्वरपूजनम् । सिद्धान्तश्रवणं चैव ह्रीर्मतिश्च जपो व्रतम्
Transliteration (IAST)
tapaḥ santoṣamāstikyaṃ dānamīśvarapūjanam | siddhāntaśravaṇaṃ caiva hrīrmatiśca japo vratam
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तपः सन्तोषम् आस्तिक्यंtapaḥ santoṣam āstikyaṃausterity, contentment, faith in being
दानम् ईश्वर-पूजनम्dānam īśvara-pūjanamcharity, worship of the Lord
सिद्धान्त-श्रवणं च एवsiddhānta-śravaṇaṃ ca evaand hearing of the doctrine
ह्रीः मतिः च जपः व्रतम्hrīḥ matiḥ ca japaḥ vratamshame, understanding, and repetition — [ten] observances
Translation
"Austerity, contentment, faith in being, charity, worship of the Lord, hearing of the doctrine, shame, understanding, and repetition — [the ten] observances."
Version
cfe8eb82543d · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The second khanda begins — on the niyamas, "observances," that is, on what one is to do, as against the yamas, which spoke of what not to do. There are again ten, whereas in Patanjali there are five (Yoga-sutras 2.32): purity, contentment, austerity, self-study, devotion to the Lord. Worth noting is what has made it into this list, for its composition is interesting.
There is here what is obvious for a book on yoga: tapas (austerity), santosha (contentment), japa (repetition). And there is what one would not expect in an impersonal teaching: dana (charity), ishvara-pujana (worship of the Lord), astikya (faith). It is on these three that we must pause.
Astikya is from asti, "is": literally "is-ness," that is, the conviction that something exists beyond the visible. The words astika ("believer") and nastika ("unbeliever") are from the same root, and by the latter India named the Buddhists and the Charvakas. Ishvara-pujana, "worship of the Lord," stands in the list of observances on a level with austerity; that is, service to a Person is recognized as an obligatory rung, not a preparation for the incapable.
The Vaishnava side insists on this and points out that Patanjali himself, for all his abstraction, included ishvara-pranidhana, "surrender of oneself to the Lord," both in the list of observances and among the means to samadhi (Yoga-sutras 1.23), saying: ishvara-pranidhanad va, "or, alternatively — by surrender of oneself to the Lord." The word va, "or, alternatively," deserves special note. It means that self-surrender is an independent path, not merely an auxiliary means: one may proceed by the whole ladder, or by this alone.