Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 4.18
॥
Devanāgarī
पूर्वभागे सुषुम्नाया राकायाः संस्थिता कुहूः । अधश्चोर्ध्वं स्थिता नाडी याम्यनासान्तमिष्यते
Transliteration (IAST)
pūrvabhāge suṣumnāyā rākāyāḥ saṃsthitā kuhūḥ | adhaścordhvaṃ sthitā nāḍī yāmyanāsāntamiṣyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
पूर्व-भागे सुषुम्नायाःpūrva-bhāge suṣumnāyāḥin the front part of sushumna
राकायाः संस्थिता कुहूःrākāyāḥ saṃsthitā kuhūḥat raka, kuhu is placed
अधः च ऊर्ध्वं स्थिता नाडीadhaḥ ca ūrdhvaṃ sthitā nāḍībelow and above, the standing passage
याम्य-नासा-अन्तम् इष्यतेyāmya-nāsā-antam iṣyatereaches to the right nostril
Translation
"In the front part of sushumna, at raka, kuhu is placed; the passage standing below and above reaches to the right nostril."
Version
3b6cf6d1709b · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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Raka is named — the day of the full moon; and kuhu — the day of the new moon. Both words are names of lunar days, set here as names of places in the body. This correspondence deserves examination, for it is a model of the whole structure of such thought.
Within the body a lunar month is found: full moon and new moon, waxing and waning. Breath running to the left is called lunar; running to the right, solar; and the whole work with breath is described as bringing sun and moon into union. Hence, incidentally, the word hatha in the name "hatha-yoga": it is glossed as ha ("sun") and tha ("moon"), while the word hatha itself means "force, effort."
The correspondence of the celestial and the bodily is, let us say again, an ancient and not senseless device; but conclusions cannot be drawn from it, and this has already been said when reading the Rudraksha-jabala. The Vaishnava side is indifferent to the moon and sun within the body, but not to the moon and sun in the sky; and it is worth saying why the difference. In its books the luminaries are not images of inner powers, but creations and servants: the Gita speaks in the first person — "I am the light in the moon and in the sun" (7.8), and "having entered the earth, I sustain beings by My power; and, having become the sap of the moon, I nourish all plants" (15.13).
This last verse deserves noting: there the moon is named not as a symbol of something within a human being, but as that which literally nourishes plants. The relation to the world here is not figurative; and hence heaven remains heaven, and the body remains the body.