Upanishads · Prāṇāgnihotra 1.5
॥
Devanāgarī
जीवला नघारिषां माते बध्नामोषधिम् । यातयायु रुपाहरादप रक्षांसि चातयात्
Transliteration (IAST)
jīvalā naghāriṣāṃ māte badhnāmoṣadhim | yātayāyu rupāharādapa rakṣāṃsi cātayāt
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
जीवलाः न-घारिषांjīvalāḥ na-ghāriṣāṃlife-giving, not destructive
मा ते बध्नामि ओषधिम्mā te badhnāmi oṣadhimto you I bind the herb
यातयायुः अपाहरात्yātayāyuḥ apāharātmay it take away what carries off life
अप रक्षांसि चातयात्apa rakṣāṃsi cātayātand drive the rākṣasas away
Translation
Life-giving, not destructive — to you I bind the herb; may it take away what carries off life, and drive the rākṣasas away.
Version
5f64c5e55939 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The third verse of the herb-hymn, and it is now direct healing: the herb is bound to the sick person, as a bandage is tied. Note the word jīvala, "life-giving," from jīv, "to live." That is, the herb is called not a medicine, but a giver of life; and the distinction is not merely verbal.
A medicine is a means that acts by its own composition. A giver of life is something that brings life from somewhere; and one addresses it as a person — "to you I bind." This address is used throughout Vedic hymns for everything: for herbs, for waters, for weapons, for a post. Everything a person deals with is, for him, alive and listening.
The Vaiṣṇava side does not reject this relation and does not consider it childish. It explains it thus: in every thing there is an adhidevatā, "presiding deity," discussed when reading the Pañcabrahma (p4); and so addressing a thing is addressing not the matter, but the one attending it. Let us add what follows from this for Vaiṣṇava practice.
A person for whom things are dead treats them as expendable material, and our whole way of living is a consequence of this conviction. A person for whom things belong to someone treats them carefully — not out of sentimentality, but because they are another's; and the difference between these two ways is seen not in argument, but in how a house looks and what is left after a person is gone.