Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 6.42
॥
Devanāgarī
निरुध्य वायुना दीप्तो वह्निरूहति कुण्डलीम् । पुनः सुषुम्नया वायुर्वह्निना सह गच्छति
Transliteration (IAST)
nirudhya vāyunā dīpto vahnirūhati kuṇḍalīm | punaḥ suṣumnayā vāyurvahninā saha gacchati
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
निरुध्य वायुना दीप्तःnirudhya vāyunā dīptaḥretained, kindled by the wind
वह्निः ऊहति कुण्डलीम्vahniḥ ūhati kuṇḍalīmthe fire lifts kundalini
पुनः सुषुम्नया वायुःpunaḥ suṣumnayā vāyuḥagain by sushumna, the wind
वह्निना सह गच्छतिvahninā saha gacchatigoes together with the fire
Translation
"Retained, kindled by the wind, the fire lifts kundalini; again the wind goes by sushumna together with the fire."
Version
70eb0ece0c62 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
What the whole technique was built for is described: the fire, kindled by the retained breath, lifts the coiled power, and it travels the middle passage upward. The image is drawn from a forge: bellows fan the fire. Breath is the bellows, fire is the one in the middle of the body (4.1).
Worth noting is that this whole work is described as material: it is fanned, lifted, led. There is no petition here, no address. This is, in substance, the whole cast of yoga as a teaching: a person does something to himself, and the result follows from what is done, as heat follows from blowing.
The Vaishnava side objects to this cast not by saying it does not work, but by what was already discussed when reading the Yoga-kundalini: the yogic book itself acknowledges there that union is not achieved by practice, but is given from a teacher's mouth (2.5, 2.8). Let us add a second point relevant here. If the highest is attained by work, then it is a consequence; and a consequence cannot be higher than its cause. My work is finite, my powers are finite; and what comes of them will be commensurate with them.
This argument is made constantly in Vaishnava books and serves as the ground of the whole teaching on grace. The infinite cannot be earned by the finite; and hence it is either given, or not attained at all. Hence too the verse of the Katha, cited when reading the fourth khanda (4.62), rejects three means in a row — learning, capacity, wide reading — and ends: yam eva esha vrinute tena labhyah, "whom He chooses, by him is He attained."