Upanishads · Varāha 5.55
॥
Devanāgarī
हंसः शक्तेरधिष्ठानं चराचरमिदं जगत् । निर्विकल्पः प्रसन्नात्मा प्राणायां समभ्यसेत्
Transliteration (IAST)
haṃsaḥ śakteradhiṣṭhānaṃ carācaramidaṃ jagat | nirvikalpaḥ prasannātmā prāṇāyāṃ samabhyaset
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
हंसः शक्तेः अधिष्ठानंhaṃsaḥ śakteḥ adhiṣṭhānaṃthe swan is the foundation of power
चर-अचरम् इदं जगत्cara-acaram idaṃ jagat[and] of this world, moving and unmoving
निर्विकल्पः प्रसन्न-आत्माnirvikalpaḥ prasanna-ātmāwithout differentiation, with a clear self
प्राणायां समभ्यसेत्prāṇāyāṃ samabhyasetlet him practice breath-retention
Translation
"The swan is the foundation of power [and] of this world, moving and unmoving; without differentiation, with a clear self, let him practice breath-retention."
Version
6d0b796a31d5 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Worth noting the word prasanna-atma, "with a clear self," from pra-sad, "to become clear, to become favorably disposed." From the same root comes the word prasada, "grace," discussed when reading the forty-second verse. The detail of language here is curious: one word means both clarity in a person and favor in the highest.
That is, the language does not distinguish between a person's own clearing and another's becoming favorably disposed toward him; and this coincidence is, in my view, no accident. The Vaishnava side draws its own remark from it, worth citing. Clarity and grace are one event seen from two sides: when the higher becomes disposed, the lower clears.
And hence it calls the food offered and returned by the same word prasada: what has come back from Him carries His disposition within it — and the one who receives it clears. Let us add what is prescribed in the verse: nirvikalpah, "without differentiation," and, in the same breath, to practice breathing. This combination is inwardly incongruous, and worth noting.
Exercise requires differentiation: one must distinguish inhale from exhale, one interval from another, the correct from the incorrect. That is, a person is told to be without differentiation and, at the same time, to do what without differentiation is impossible. We have noted such incongruities more than once; and each time they point, in my view, to one thing: an undifferentiated state cannot be the foundation of an active life, and an active life is what a person actually lives.