Upanishads · Varāha 5.18
॥
Devanāgarī
पूरकः कुम्भकस्तद्वद्रेचकः पूरकः पुनः । प्राणायामः स्वनाडीभिस्तस्मान्नाडीः प्रचक्षते
Transliteration (IAST)
pūrakaḥ kumbhakastadvadrecakaḥ pūrakaḥ punaḥ | prāṇāyāmaḥ svanāḍībhistasmānnāḍīḥ pracakṣate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
पूरकः कुम्भकः तत्-वत्pūrakaḥ kumbhakaḥ tat-vatinhale, retention, likewise
रेचकः पूरकः पुनःrecakaḥ pūrakaḥ punaḥexhale, inhale again
प्राणायामः स्व-नाडीभिःprāṇāyāmaḥ sva-nāḍībhiḥbreath control by one's own passages
तस्मात् नाडीः प्रचक्षतेtasmāt nāḍīḥ pracakṣatetherefore they describe the passages
Translation
"Inhale, retention, likewise exhale, inhale again — [this is] breath control by one's own passages; hence they describe the passages."
Version
2030fda382ca · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The three parts of the breathing exercise are named: puraka ("filling"), kumbhaka ("the pot," that is, retention), rechaka ("emptying"). Discussed at length when reading the Jabala-darshana (6.1–6.18); there is no need to repeat it. Let us add one word about kumbhaka, for its name is curious.
Kumbha means "pot"; retention is so named because the body during it is likened to a filled vessel, held. Worth noting is that the pot appears here for the third time in this literature, and each time in a new matter: the space in a pot (the image of the soul), a full pot in the ocean (4.18), and now breath retention. This word, in the language of the craft, was ready to hand for everyone, and hence found its way into both lofty subjects and lowly ones.
Let us add what the Vaishnava side says of breathing exercises, and which it does not exclude from its own practice. It neither forbids nor praises them; its one remark, stated already by Rupa Gosvami, is: a means requiring strict conditions cannot be universal, and a universal means must be accessible to everyone. Let us add what takes the place of the breathing exercise for it, for the place is not empty.
It has its own work with breath, and it is simple: the Name is uttered aloud, and uttering aloud of itself lengthens the exhale and evens out the breath. That is, what is achieved here by technique is obtained there incidentally; and this is, in my view, a good example of its general rule: do not separately arrange what comes of itself with the main occupation.