Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 4.7
॥
Devanāgarī
सुषुम्ना पिङ्गला तद्वदिडा चैव सरस्वती । पूषा च वरुणा चैव हस्तिजिह्वा यशस्विनी
Transliteration (IAST)
suṣumnā piṅgalā tadvadiḍā caiva sarasvatī | pūṣā ca varuṇā caiva hastijihvā yaśasvinī
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सुषुम्ना पिङ्गला तत्-वत्suṣumnā piṅgalā tat-vatsushumna, pingala, likewise
इडा च एव सरस्वतीiḍā ca eva sarasvatīand ida and sarasvati
पूषा च वरुणा च एवpūṣā ca varuṇā ca evaand pusha and varuna
हस्ति-जिह्वा यशस्विनीhasti-jihvā yaśasvinīhasti-jihva, yashasvini
Translation
"Sushumna, pingala, and likewise ida and sarasvati, and pusha and varuna, hasti-jihva, yashasvini…"
Version
44a02bc9e918 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The list of the fourteen chief passages begins, and it is worth glancing at their names, for the names speak of the teaching's origins. Sarasvati is the name of a river and the goddess of speech. Pusha and Varuna are the names of Vedic gods. Hasti-jihva means "elephant's tongue," Yashasvini — "the glorious," Kuhus — the name of the new-moon day, Shankhini — "conch-like," Gandhara — the name of a country.
This mixture deserves noting: here are gods, and rivers, and parts of animals' bodies, and calendar days, and regions. A list composed of such disparate material is, in all likelihood, a compilation: different schools named their passages in their own ways, and the compiler gathered them into one list. This is confirmed also by the fact that the lists in different books do not agree: the Shiva-samhita and the Hatha-yoga-pradipika name other names and a different number.
The conclusion is the same as before, and deserves repeating for clarity. Such lists should not be read as an exact description of some fixed arrangement. They should be read as a school's dictionary: a set of names by which the people of that school denoted what they distinguished in their own experience.
The Vaishnava side does not dispute these names and does not propose its own. It rarely enters into such descriptions at all; and when asked why, it answers that the path it speaks of does not run through channels, and so their map is not needed.