Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 4.55
॥
Devanāgarī
विषुवायनकालेषु ग्रहणे चान्तरे सदा । वाराणस्यादिके स्थाने स्नात्वा शुद्धो भवेन्नरः
Transliteration (IAST)
viṣuvāyanakāleṣu grahaṇe cāntare sadā | vārāṇasyādike sthāne snātvā śuddho bhavennaraḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
विषुव-अयन-कालेषुviṣuva-ayana-kāleṣuat the times of equinoxes and solstices
ग्रहणे च अन्तरे सदाgrahaṇe ca antare sadāand at an eclipse, and in the interval, always
वाराणसी-आदिके स्थानेvārāṇasī-ādike sthāneat Varanasi and other such places
स्नात्वा शुद्धः भवेत् नरःsnātvā śuddhaḥ bhavet naraḥhaving bathed, let a person be pure
Translation
"At the times of the equinoxes and solstices, and at an eclipse, and always in the interval, — having bathed at Varanasi and other such places, let a person be pure."
Version
54e38382da34 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
This line stands apart and at first glance contradicts its neighbors: it was just said that bathing does not purify, and here bathing is prescribed. The contradiction resolves if one remembers what this whole khanda speaks of. The times and places just transposed inward are here named the same inward ones: the equinox is breath's entry into the base (4.44), Varanasi is the place between the brows (4.48).
That is, one is told to bathe within oneself, not in the Ganges. This reading is plausible and, apparently, correct. It must be said, however, that with such a manner of writing the book becomes unfalsifiable: any ritual injunction of it can be declared allegory, and vice versa.
This flaw is common in such compositions, and deserves being named directly. Where everything can be understood both literally and figuratively, the reader is free to choose; and where the reader is free to choose, the book no longer teaches him, but serves as his mirror. The Vaishnava side holds against this a rule already discussed when reading the Bhasma-jabala: to prefer the direct reading, mukhya-vritti, and turn to the figurative only where the direct one yields an absurdity.
This rule is one of the central ones in its interpretation of the Vedanta-sutra and serves as its chief tool in dispute with the nondualist reading. For where every statement of relation is declared an accommodation, and every statement of unity direct, the choice is made before the reading, not by it.