Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 7.11
॥
Devanāgarī
पूरयेदनिलं विद्वानापादतलमस्तकम् । पश्चात्पादद्वये तद्वन्मूलाधरे तथैव च
Transliteration (IAST)
pūrayedanilaṃ vidvānāpādatalamastakam | paścātpādadvaye tadvanmūlādhare tathaiva ca
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
पूरयेत् अनिलं विद्वान्pūrayet anilaṃ vidvānlet the knowing one fill with wind
आ-पाद-तल-मस्तकम्ā-pāda-tala-mastakamfrom the soles of the feet to the crown
पश्चात् पाद-द्वये तत्-वत्paścāt pāda-dvaye tat-vatafterward, both feet, likewise
मूल-आधारे तथा एव चmūla-ādhāre tathā eva caand the muladhara likewise
Translation
"…let the knowing one fill with wind from the soles of the feet to the crown; afterward both feet, likewise, and the muladhara likewise…"
Version
dd36f5622bde · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The technique is reversed: now the whole body is filled at once, from soles to crown, and then attention is led from bottom to top. Worth noting is the phrase a-pada-tala-mastakam, "from the soles to the crown": the body is taken as a whole, not by parts. This order — first the whole, then the parts — is, in my view, sound, and is used in teaching any craft. First one shows the thing whole, so there is somewhere to attach the details.
Let us add what stands behind this in the exercise itself. To fill the whole body with attention at once is harder than a single point; but it is also more useful, for no place is left forgotten. The Vaishnava side speaks of the body as a whole in one respect worth naming. Its initiation rite includes nyasa, "placing," where the names of the Lord are applied to parts of the body; and the sense of that rite is to declare the whole body belonging.
The relation to the technique here is curious. Here the body is worked on in order to master it; there — in order to give it away. This difference runs through everything, and deserves stating one last time for this book. Yoga is mastery; devotion is surrender. And both paths require labor, but of a different kind: one must acquire power, the other must renounce it.