Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 3.13
॥
Devanāgarī
आसनं विजितं येन जितं तेन जगत्त्रयम् । अनेन विधिना युक्तः प्राणायामं सदा कुरु
Transliteration (IAST)
āsanaṃ vijitaṃ yena jitaṃ tena jagattrayam | anena vidhinā yuktaḥ prāṇāyāmaṃ sadā kuru
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
आसनं विजितं येनāsanaṃ vijitaṃ yenaby whom the sitting-posture is conquered
जितं तेन जगत्-त्रयम्jitaṃ tena jagat-trayamby him the three worlds are conquered
अनेन विधिना युक्तःanena vidhinā yuktaḥjoined with this discipline
प्राणायामं सदा कुरुprāṇāyāmaṃ sadā kurualways perform breath control
Translation
"By whom the sitting-posture is conquered, by him the three worlds are conquered; joined with this discipline, always perform breath control."
Version
b0f99d5f8f7b · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The khanda ends with a resounding pronouncement: "by whom the sitting-posture is conquered, by him the three worlds are conquered." The exaggeration here is plain; but it is worth examining what stands behind it, for the thought is not empty. Asanam vijitam, "the sitting-posture conquered," means not the ability to assume a posture, but the capacity to sit in it long, without noticing the body. The Yoga-sutras speak of this: the posture is attained when "effort ceases" — prayatna-shaithilyat (2.47).
Here lies the substance of the praise. A person whose body has stopped calling attention to itself has freed the attention that was always occupied with the body; and compared with the earlier state, this is indeed much. Let us add, however, what should be added. The three worlds are not conquered by this, and the book itself knows it: seven more rungs lie ahead of it.
The turn of phrase "one who conquered that conquered everything" is, in these books, a way of closing a section. We have met it in every preceding book, and each time it fell at the end of a section; to take it as an assertion is as wrong as to take the words "there is no doubt here" as an assertion. The last line announces the next subject: pranayamam sada kuru, "always perform breath control." To this the fourth khanda will be devoted — the longest in the book, sixty-three verses; and it will begin, as we shall see, not with breath at all, but with a description of the body and its channels.