Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 8.2
॥
Devanāgarī
प्राणे बाह्यानिलं तद्वज्ज्वलने चाग्निमौदरे । तोयं तोयांशके भूमिं भूमिभागे महामुने
Transliteration (IAST)
prāṇe bāhyānilaṃ tadvajjvalane cāgnimaudare | toyaṃ toyāṃśake bhūmiṃ bhūmibhāge mahāmune
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
प्राणे बाह्य-अनिलं तत्-वत्prāṇe bāhya-anilaṃ tat-vatin prana — the outer wind, likewise
ज्वलने च अग्निम् औदरेjvalane ca agnim audareand in the burning — the belly's fire
तोयं तोय-अंशके भूमिंtoyaṃ toya-aṃśake bhūmiṃwater — in the portion of water, earth
भूमि-भागे महा-मुनेbhūmi-bhāge mahā-munein the portion of earth, O great sage
Translation
"Likewise, in prana — the outer wind, and in the burning — the belly's fire; water in the portion of water, earth in the portion of earth, O great sage."
Version
8612abd990f5 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Five bringings-together are named: space with space, wind with wind, fire with fire, water with water, earth with earth. The design of the exercise deserves stating, for it is intelligible and requires no belief in the miraculous. A person is used to considering his body separate: here am I, and there is the world. This exercise breaks the habit by showing: what is in me is the very same thing that is outside me.
And indeed: the air in the lungs was the air of the room a minute ago, and will be so again; the water in me was rain; the earth in the bones was food, and before that a field. There is no boundary here except a conventional one; and the exercise makes this evidence felt, not merely thought. The Vaishnava side accepts this consideration fully and adds to it its own conclusion, worth naming.
If the body is a loan from common matter, then it is not mine; and everything a person calls his own is taken on loan and subject to return. The Bhagavatam says this sharply: one who considers himself the body, and the bodily his own, is called go-khara, "a cow and a donkey" (10.84.13) — that is, livestock, for livestock lives exactly this way. Let us add that two conclusions are possible from this, and the difference between them is great. One can conclude: so I do not exist, only the elements exist. Or: so I am not this, and one must ask who, then, I am, and whose. The first conclusion is drawn by Sankhya, the second by the Upanishads; and it is with the second that the book will now proceed.