Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 6.37
॥
Devanāgarī
शिरोमध्यगते वायौ गिरिप्रस्रवणं यथा । पश्चात्प्रीतो महाप्राज्ञः साक्षादात्मोन्मुखो भवेत्
Transliteration (IAST)
śiromadhyagate vāyau giriprasravaṇaṃ yathā | paścātprīto mahāprājñaḥ sākṣādātmonmukho bhavet
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
शिरः-मध्य-गते वायौśiraḥ-madhya-gate vāyauwhen the wind has gone into the middle of the head
गिरि-प्रस्रवणं यथाgiri-prasravaṇaṃ yathālike a mountain torrent
पश्चात् प्रीतः महा-प्राज्ञःpaścāt prītaḥ mahā-prājñaḥafterward, gladdened, great in wisdom
साक्षात् आत्म-उन्मुखः भवेत्sākṣāt ātma-unmukhaḥ bhavethe becomes directly turned toward the self
Translation
"When the wind has gone into the middle of the head, like a mountain torrent, — afterward, gladdened, great in wisdom, he becomes directly turned toward the self."
Version
a9c8068170bb · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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Worth noting is the last word: atma-unmukha, "turned with face toward the self." Un-mukha literally means "with face lifted, turned toward"; and this word, in Vaishnava practice, is one of the chief ones, and stands, moreover, paired with its opposite. Its opposite is vimukha, "turned away in face"; and of it we spoke when reading the second khanda (2.4), where the question stood of why the soul became bound.
The answer given then was: bondage is vimukhata, "turning-away," beginningless and underivable from causes. Here the opposite movement is named: unmukha, "turning-toward." This pairing of the two words deserves holding on to, for it gives the whole teaching in two words. The fall is a turning away from; liberation is a turning toward. And neither one is a gain or loss of anything: the direction changes, not the composition.
This understanding is, in my view, the best of all that have been proposed about bondage, and here is why. It does not require explaining where ignorance came from — a question on which the nondualist reading stumbles, discussed when reading the end of the fourth khanda (4.63). A turning needs no substance and leaves no trace: one who has turned has gained nothing and lost nothing but a direction.
And it also explains why liberation is described now as recognition, now as a meeting. Having turned, a person both recognizes and sees; and both descriptions speak of one movement from two sides.