Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 4.16
॥
Devanāgarī
यशस्विन्याः कुहोर्मध्ये वरुणा सुप्रतिष्ठिता । पूषाश्च सरस्वत्या मध्ये प्रोक्ता यशस्विनी
Transliteration (IAST)
yaśasvinyāḥ kuhormadhye varuṇā supratiṣṭhitā | pūṣāśca sarasvatyā madhye proktā yaśasvinī
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
यशस्विन्याः कुहोः मध्येyaśasvinyāḥ kuhoḥ madhyebetween yashasvini and kuhu
वरुणा सु-प्रतिष्ठिताvaruṇā su-pratiṣṭhitāvaruna is firmly established
पूषाः च सरस्वत्याः मध्येpūṣāḥ ca sarasvatyāḥ madhyeand pusha, between it and sarasvati
प्रोक्ता यशस्विनीproktā yaśasvinīis named yashasvini
Translation
"Between yashasvini and kuhu is firmly established varuna; and pusha, between it and sarasvati, is named yashasvini."
Version
7737c3a04979 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The placement ends, and worth noting in it is something easy to overlook: the line contradicts itself. In the preceding line, yashasvini was placed "behind and before pingala"; here she is placed "between pusha and sarasvati." The two indications can be reconciled only with a stretch, and we have already seen this in the third khanda, where mukta-asana was described twice, differently.
The conclusion is the same, and deserves repeating one last time for this book. Before us is a compilation; different schools held different schemes; the compiler gathered them without reconciling them. Now let us say why this does not undermine the book — because the conclusion "since this is imprecise, everything is unreliable" is a hasty conclusion, and a wrong one for reading ancient books.
Schemes of the channels are a language for describing experience, not observations of a fixed object. Different schools, describing the same felt thing, could chart it differently, as different peoples divide the same spectrum differently into colors. The Vaishnava side draws from this its usual rule and applies it broadly: do not build upon details. Build upon what the books agree on and what is expounded, not merely listed.
Applying the rule to the fourth khanda, let us say: all agree that breath and mind are connected, that the path runs along the middle, and that entry into it is closed. This is its content; and how many passages there are exactly, and which is where, belongs to the school, not to the teaching.