Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 4.33
॥
Devanāgarī
उद्गारादिगुणः प्रोक्तो व्यानाख्यस्य महामुने । धनञ्जयस्य शोभादि कर्म प्रोक्तं हि सांकृते
Transliteration (IAST)
udgārādiguṇaḥ prokto vyānākhyasya mahāmune | dhanañjayasya śobhādi karma proktaṃ hi sāṃkṛte
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
उद्गार-आदि-गुणः प्रोक्तःudgāra-ādi-guṇaḥ proktaḥbelching and the rest is called the property
व्यान-आख्यस्य महा-मुनेvyāna-ākhyasya mahā-muneof the one named vyana, O great sage
धनञ्जयस्य शोभा-आदिdhanañjayasya śobhā-ādiof dhananjaya, swelling and the rest
कर्म प्रोक्तं हि सांकृतेkarma proktaṃ hi sāṃkṛteis called its work, O Sankriti
Translation
"Belching and the rest is called the property of the one named vyana, O great sage; of dhananjaya, swelling and the rest is called its work, O Sankriti."
Version
ef38af1c14c0 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Dhananjaya, "conqueror of riches" — the breath which, by these books, does not leave the body even after death; to it is ascribed the swelling of a corpse. This detail stands throughout the yogic charts and deserves comment, for it shows the limit of the whole system. This system undertakes to explain everything that happens in the body, and hence is obliged to explain decay too. It has explained it — by ascribing it to the breath that remains.
Let us say plainly that this explanation explains nothing. It is a name given to a phenomenon, and no more: to call swelling the work of dhananjaya is the same as calling sleep the work of a sleeping-power. This kind of move recurs throughout the history of every science, and there is no need to fault the ancients for it — they had nothing to compare it against. It is only worth remembering that a fully filled chart and an explained phenomenon are different things.
The Vaishnava side speaks of what happens to the body after death simply and briefly, and in this lies its advantage. The Gita: "as a person, casting off worn-out garments, takes up new ones, so too the embodied one, casting off worn-out bodies, enters others, new ones" (2.22). As for the discarded garment, the Gita does not reason about it at all — and this, in my view, is the right allotment of attention. The question "what becomes of the body" is a question about a thing already left behind; and to dwell on it more than on the question "who left it" is to look in the wrong direction.