Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 4.1
॥
Devanāgarī
शरीरं तावदेव स्यात्षण्णवत्यङ्गुलात्मकम् । देहमध्ये शिखिस्थानं तप्तजाम्बूनदप्रभम्
Transliteration (IAST)
śarīraṃ tāvadeva syātṣaṇṇavatyaṅgulātmakam | dehamadhye śikhisthānaṃ taptajāmbūnadaprabham
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
शरीरं तावत् एव स्यात्śarīraṃ tāvat eva syātthe body, thus, let it be
षट्-णवति-अङ्गुल-आत्मकम्ṣaṭ-ṇavati-aṅgula-ātmakamconsisting of ninety-six finger-widths
देह-मध्ये शिखि-स्थानंdeha-madhye śikhi-sthānaṃin the middle of the body, the place of fire
तप्त-जाम्बूनद-प्रभम्tapta-jāmbūnada-prabhamshining like molten gold
Translation
"Let the body, then, be of ninety-six finger-widths; in the middle of the body is the place of fire, shining like molten gold."
Version
260b7a57a5b2 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The fourth khanda begins, the longest one, and it opens not with breath but with a description of the body. This order is customary in books on yoga, and it deserves explaining why. Breath, by this teaching, moves through passages; to speak of its control, the passages must first be described; and to describe the passages, the body must first be laid out.
A measure is given: shan-navati-angula, "ninety-six finger-widths." The finger-width, angula, is a measure equal to the breadth of one's own thumb, about two centimeters; ninety-six of them give roughly the height of a person. Worth noting is that the body is measured by its own owner's finger. The measure, then, is not universal, but personal: everyone's own body is his own ruler. This device is common and sensible in ancient measurements: it makes the description fit a person of any height.
Shikhi-sthana, "the place of fire," is what will later be called the manipura-chakra; shikhin, "having a crest," means "fire" — for the tongue of flame, which resembles a little crest. The Vaishnava side knows all these descriptions and does not reject them; but makes little use of them, and it is worth saying why. It holds that service does not require knowing the arrangement of one's own channels, just as speaking does not require knowing the arrangement of the larynx.
Hence its books rarely describe the body, and usually for a different purpose — to show its frailty. The Bhagavatam describes in the greatest detail the development of the embryo and old age (3.31), but not in order to govern it, rather so that the reader will not take it for himself.