Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 3.8
॥
Devanāgarī
निपीड्य सीवनीं सूक्ष्मं दक्षिणेतरगुल्फतः । वामं याम्येन गुल्फेन मुक्तासनमिदं भवेत्
Transliteration (IAST)
nipīḍya sīvanīṃ sūkṣmaṃ dakṣiṇetaragulphataḥ | vāmaṃ yāmyena gulphena muktāsanamidaṃ bhavet
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
निपीड्य सीवनीं सूक्ष्मंnipīḍya sīvanīṃ sūkṣmaṃpressing the seam finely
दक्षिण-इतर-गुल्फतःdakṣiṇa-itara-gulphataḥwith the left ankle
वामं याम्येन गुल्फेनvāmaṃ yāmyena gulphenathe left with the right ankle
मुक्त-आसनम् इदं भवेत्mukta-āsanam idaṃ bhavetthis will be the free sitting-posture
Translation
"Pressing the seam finely with the left ankle, and the left with the right ankle — this will be the free sitting-posture."
Version
8ed0090cad54 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Mukta-asana, "the free sitting-posture," is named so, one must suppose, for its purpose: it is the posture for one who seeks mukti, liberation. We have already met the word mukta twice in this book — in Sankriti's question about jivan-mukti (1.3) and in the description of one who has attained (1.23) — and here it is applied to a posture. This transfer deserves noting, for it shows a trait of ritual language already spoken of. A word denoting a goal readily passes onto a means: a posture is called liberating, a bead ferrying, ash purifying.
The transfer is harmless in itself, so long as it is remembered to be a transfer. It goes wrong when this is forgotten, and the means begins to be taken for the cause. The Vaishnava side has against this a rule worth repeating — the rule of sambandha, "relation." Any means is useful only insofar as it connects one to Him; taken out of that relation, it remains a technique and works as a technique, that is, not at all.
Hence its books insist that a mantra is taken from a teacher, an image is honored as a Person, and a book is read as speech addressed to oneself. All of this is a way of preserving the relation, without which means become mere things. As for the posture itself, it is described as briefly as the others, and it is hard to distinguish it from the next, which bears the same name, from this description alone.