Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 5.5
॥
Devanāgarī
आरभ्य चासनं पश्चात्प्राङ्मुखोदङ्मुखोऽपि वा । समग्रीवशिरःकायः संवृतास्यः सुनिश्चलः
Transliteration (IAST)
ārabhya cāsanaṃ paścātprāṅmukhodaṅmukho'pi vā | samagrīvaśiraḥkāyaḥ saṃvṛtāsyaḥ suniścalaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
आरभ्य च आसनं पश्चात्ārabhya ca āsanaṃ paścāthaving taken up the sitting-posture, then
प्राङ्-मुखः उदङ्-मुखः अपि वाprāṅ-mukhaḥ udaṅ-mukhaḥ api vāfacing east, or even facing north
सम-ग्रीव-शिरः-कायःsama-grīva-śiraḥ-kāyaḥwith even neck, head, and body
संवृत-आस्यः सु-निश्चलःsaṃvṛta-āsyaḥ su-niścalaḥwith a closed mouth, wholly motionless
Translation
"…having taken up the sitting-posture, then, facing east or facing north, with neck, head, and body even, with mouth closed, wholly motionless…"
Version
1df5d534eb4c · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The details of positioning: facing east or north, mouth closed, body motionless. Of even neck, head, and body it was already said when reading the third khanda, and there is no need to repeat it. Worth noting is samvrita-asyah, "with closed mouth." This rule has a material explanation — one should breathe through the nose, not the mouth — and another, less obvious.
A closed mouth is silence; and anyone who has sat silently in company knows that silence changes one's state faster than motionlessness does. The Vaishnava side does not reject silence as a practice, but does not rank it high either, and it is worth saying why. The reason is that its chief means is sound. In it one repeats, sings, reads aloud; and the vow of silence, mauna, is understood by its teachers in its own way — as abstention from idle speech, not from speech altogether.
This definition deserves citing, for it eases life for many. In it, one is called a keeper of silence not because he does not speak, but because he does not speak idly; and a person who has not opened his mouth all day, but has replayed all his grievances in his mind, is not counted a keeper of silence. As for the directions, east is the direction of sunrise, north the direction toward which the Himalayas lie and the sun moves in the favorable half-year. Neither of these grounds is an argument, and the book does not give them; custom here is older than explanations.