Upanishads · Varāha 5.43
॥
Devanāgarī
एवं चतुष्पथो बन्धो मार्गत्रयनिरोधकः । एकं विकासयन्मार्गं येन सिद्धाः सुसङ्गताः
Transliteration (IAST)
evaṃ catuṣpatho bandho mārgatrayanirodhakaḥ | ekaṃ vikāsayanmārgaṃ yena siddhāḥ susaṅgatāḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
एवं चतुष्-पथः बन्धःevaṃ catuṣ-pathaḥ bandhaḥthus, the fourfold-path lock
मार्ग-त्रय-निरोधकःmārga-traya-nirodhakaḥblocking three paths
एकं विकासयन् मार्गंekaṃ vikāsayan mārgaṃopening one path
येन सिद्धाः सु-सङ्गताःyena siddhāḥ su-saṅgatāḥby which the perfected are well-united
Translation
"Thus, the fourfold-path lock, blocking three paths and opening one — by which the perfected are well-united."
Version
1468738a1a46 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The design is expressed here at its briefest, and deserves holding onto: three paths are locked, one is opened. This construction is a general rule of all concentration, and is broader than the craft discussed here. Attention is gathered not by intensifying it, but by cutting off the rest; and anyone who has stopped his ears to read knows this from experience.
Let us add what the Vaishnava side adds to this rule, and which forms its constant distinction. It agrees the rest must be cut off; but insists that cutting off alone does not open. If three paths are locked and the fourth is not opened, the result is not concentration but anguish; and anyone who has tried doing nothing knows this too.
Hence its rule requires that there first be somewhere to go: first the object, then the cutting-off of the rest. Its ground was cited when reading the fourth chapter (4.5) and is stated by the Gita's verse 2.59: for the fasting one, objects retreat, but the taste remains; and it departs param drishtva, "having seen the Highest." That is, the order is the reverse of the one here: not "lock three and one will open," but "open one — and three will fall away."
This difference is, in my view, the most practical of all we have discussed: it determines where to begin.