Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 4.35
॥
Devanāgarī
सुषुम्नायाः शिवो देव इडाया देवता हरिः । पिङ्गलाया विरञ्चिः स्यात्सरस्वत्या विराण्मुने
Transliteration (IAST)
suṣumnāyāḥ śivo deva iḍāyā devatā hariḥ | piṅgalāyā virañciḥ syātsarasvatyā virāṇmune
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सुषुम्नायाः शिवः देवःsuṣumnāyāḥ śivaḥ devaḥof sushumna, the god is Shiva
इडायाः देवता हरिःiḍāyāḥ devatā hariḥof ida, the deity is Hari
पिङ्गलायाः विरञ्चिः स्यात्piṅgalāyāḥ virañciḥ syātof pingala let it be Virinchi
सरस्वत्याः विराट् मुनेsarasvatyāḥ virāṭ muneof sarasvati, Virat, O sage
Translation
"Of sushumna, the god is Shiva; of ida, the deity is Hari; of pingala let it be Virinchi; of sarasvati, Virat, O sage."
Version
68da9281c164 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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Deities are distributed among the passages, and it is worth looking at the distribution: sushumna — Shiva, ida — Hari, pingala — Virinchi (that is, Brahma). This distribution is Shaiva, and we have already seen the like in the Rudraksha-jabala, where the root of the bead was given to Brahma, the stem to Vishnu, and the mouth to Rudra. There is no need to repeat what was said there. Only worth noting is that the order is the same here too: one's own — in the middle, the others at the sides; and every community makes such a chart in its own way.
More remarkable is something else, and it deserves pausing on. Hari is given ida — the left, lunar, cool passage, tied to rest and nourishment. This correspondence, by chance or not, turned out apt. Vishnu, in His own books, is above all the One who sustains and nourishes: the name Vishnu is derived from vish, "to pervade," and His action is described as sustaining.
And the moon, in Vaishnava books, is tied to Him directly. The Gita says: "having become the sap of the moon, I nourish all plants" (15.13); and the whole imagery of coolness, moisture, and nourishment in its literature belongs to Him. Hence, if this chart is read not as theology but as what it is — a compilation of correspondences — the correspondence of Hari with the cool, nourishing passage is, in my view, among the most apt in the whole book.
Virat, given to sarasvati, is the "universal form," already discussed when reading the Ganapati; and it is fitting here, for sarasvati leads to the tongue, and the universal form is described first of all as speech.