Upanishads · Varāha 5.60
॥
Devanāgarī
कुम्भेन कुम्भयेत्कुम्भं तदन्तस्थः परं शिवम् । पुनरास्फालयेदद्य सुस्थिरं कण्ठमुद्रया
Transliteration (IAST)
kumbhena kumbhayetkumbhaṃ tadantasthaḥ paraṃ śivam | punarāsphālayedadya susthiraṃ kaṇṭhamudrayā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
कुम्भेन कुम्भयेत् कुम्भंkumbhena kumbhayet kumbhaṃby retention let him retain the retention
तत्-अन्तः-स्थः परं शिवम्tat-antaḥ-sthaḥ paraṃ śivamwithin it, the supreme Shiva
पुनः आस्फालयेत् अद्यpunaḥ āsphālayet adyaagain let him strike now
सु-स्थिरं कण्ठ-मुद्रयाsu-sthiraṃ kaṇṭha-mudrayāvery firmly, with the throat lock
Translation
"By retention let him retain the retention; within it, the supreme Shiva; again let him strike now, very firmly, with the throat lock."
Version
f0fe026ca0cc · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Worth noting the verb asphalayet, "let him strike," from a-sphal, "to strike, to clap." This word appears in the description of techniques and means a blow: one strikes with the breath as one strikes at a door. This image recurs through the chapter and will become the chief one in the following verses, where the three knots are to be pierced.
Let us add what deserves saying of the very structure of this language. It is the language of a siege: one locks, strikes, pierces, raises. That is, the relation to one's own body and to the highest is arranged on the model of the taking of a fortress.
Compare the language in which the Vaishnava side speaks of the same, and the difference will be seen at once. There the verbs are different: to hear, to sing, to remember, to serve, to bow, to ask. This is the language of a household, not of a siege: this is not how one treats a fortress to be taken, but how one behaves with the master in whose house one lives.
Let us add what follows from the difference of the two languages. A fortress can be taken by force; the master cannot be taken by force — one can only enter, if let in. And hence in one teaching the chief word is abhyasa, "exercise," and in the other kripa, "grace"; and of the fact that a means is a condition, not a cause, discussed when reading the Jabala-darshana (10.9).