Upanishads · Varāha 5.39
॥
Devanāgarī
स्वात्मानं च श्रियं ध्यायेदमृतप्लावनं ततः । बलं समारभेद्योगं मध्यमद्वारभागतः
Transliteration (IAST)
svātmānaṃ ca śriyaṃ dhyāyedamṛtaplāvanaṃ tataḥ | balaṃ samārabhedyogaṃ madhyamadvārabhāgataḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
स्व-आत्मानं च श्रियं ध्यायेत्sva-ātmānaṃ ca śriyaṃ dhyāyetlet him contemplate himself and Shri
अमृत-प्लावनं ततःamṛta-plāvanaṃ tataḥthen, the bathing with nectar
बलं समारभेत् योगंbalaṃ samārabhet yogaṃlet him begin the yoga of power
मध्यम-द्वार-भागतःmadhyama-dvāra-bhāgataḥfrom the side of the middle gate
Translation
"Let him contemplate himself and Shri, then the bathing with nectar; let him begin the yoga of power from the side of the middle gate."
Version
756abced13e3 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The prescription of verse thirty-four on contemplating Shri is repeated; and worth noting is that it is repeated right in the middle of a craft-oriented description. That is, the goddess's name stands neither at the start of the chapter, as an invocation, nor at the end, as a conclusion, but within the technique, between the contraction of muscles and the raising of power. This detail is telling: even where everything is set out as technique, the matter does not proceed without an address to a Person.
Let us add the word madhyama-dvara, "middle gate," that is, the middle passage. The word "gate" fits here and deserves noting. Gates are what one opens; and in the preceding examination (5.23, 5.30) we noted that this image runs through the whole chapter: the path exists, and it is locked.
The Vaishnava side holds the image of gates, and has its own expression: dvaraka means "having gates," and this is the city that is His. Let us add what it says of "bathing with nectar," for this phrase is found in its practice too. It bathes an image, and this bathing is called abhisheka; and the nectar for a person is what remains after the bathing — charana-amrita, discussed when reading the Bhasma-jabala (2.42).
That is, there too nectar flows, and there too it is received; but it flows from another's feet onto one's head, not from one's own crown into one's own stomach. This direction is, in my view, the whole difference.