Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 4.23
॥
Devanāgarī
विश्वोदराभिधा नाडी कन्दमध्ये व्यवस्थिता । प्राणोऽपानस्तथा व्यानः समानोदान एव च
Transliteration (IAST)
viśvodarābhidhā nāḍī kandamadhye vyavasthitā | prāṇo'pānastathā vyānaḥ samānodāna eva ca
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
विश्वोदरा-अभिधा नाडीviśvodarā-abhidhā nāḍīthe passage by the name vishvodara
कन्द-मध्ये व्यवस्थिताkanda-madhye vyavasthitāis situated in the middle of the bulb
प्राणः अपानः तथा व्यानःprāṇaḥ apānaḥ tathā vyānaḥprana, apana, likewise vyana
समानः उदानः एव चsamānaḥ udānaḥ eva casamana and udana likewise
Translation
"The passage by the name vishvodara is situated in the middle of the bulb. Prana, apana, vyana, samana and udana likewise…"
Version
e5a03f4df4eb · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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A new subject begins — the vayus, "winds," that is, the kinds of breath; and this is now discourse of substance, not mere placement. Five chief ones are named: prana, apana, vyana, samana, udana. The teaching of them is older than the books on yoga and is already found in the ancient Upanishads.
It is worth saying at once what is meant here, because the word "wind" is misleading. The discourse is not of air, but of five movements of life: inhaling, expelling, distributing, equalizing, and raising. The Prashna Upanishad devotes a whole question to this and explains them through a comparison with a kingdom: as a king appoints officials — "you govern such-and-such villages, you such-and-such" — so too the chief breath distributes the others to their places (3.4).
The comparison deserves noting: the breaths are described as servants, who have a chief and each their own district. The Vaishnava side adds to this what settles everything for it, and adds it through the same comparison. If the breaths are servants, then there is also one whom they serve; and the Prashna leads directly to this, asking further who then is chief in the body — and answering that it is the purusha, "the person," not the breath.
A verse of the Katha states the same still more definitely: "neither by the inbreath nor by the outbreath does any mortal whatever live; rather they live by something else, in which these two rest" (2.2.5). This verse deserves being remembered while reading the whole fourth khanda. Breath will here be the subject of long labor; but breath itself, by the testimony of the Upanishads, is not life, but only that which life makes use of.