Upanishads · Varāha 5.67
॥
Devanāgarī
योगाभ्यासात्ततो वेधो जायते तस्य योगिनः । इडापिङ्गलयोर्मध्ये सुषुम्नानाडिमण्डले
Transliteration (IAST)
yogābhyāsāttato vedho jāyate tasya yoginaḥ | iḍāpiṅgalayormadhye suṣumnānāḍimaṇḍale
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
योग-अभ्यासात् ततः वेधःyoga-abhyāsāt tataḥ vedhaḥthen, from the practice of yoga, piercing
जायते तस्य योगिनःjāyate tasya yoginaḥis born for that yogi
इडा-पिङ्गलयोः मध्येiḍā-piṅgalayoḥ madhyebetween ida and pingala
सुषुम्ना-नाडि-मण्डलेsuṣumnā-nāḍi-maṇḍalein the circle of the sushumna passage
Translation
"Then, from the practice of yoga, piercing is born for that yogi — between ida and pingala, in the circle of the sushumna passage."
Version
fdd6b8c98294 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Worth noting that the middle path is defined through two extremes: it lies "between ida and pingala." This definition is constant in yogic books, and it holds a thought worth voicing. The middle path is not a third alongside two: it is what opens when the two extremes are balanced.
That is, it is not chosen but obtained — obtained by ceasing to incline to either side. This thought appears in Indian literature beyond yoga alone, and worth noting that the Buddha named his own path with the same word: madhyama-pratipad, "the middle way," and explained it likewise, through the rejection of two extremes. The Vaishnava side does not object to the very thought of a middle; its remark concerns what is to be counted as the middle.
Its own definition of the middle was given when reading the Jabala-darshana (7.4) and is voiced by the word yukta-vairagya, "united renunciation": neither indulgence nor exhaustion, but use. Let us add the verse of the Gita that expresses this most briefly of all, cited when reading the forty-seventh verse of this chapter: yoga belongs neither to one who eats too much nor to one who does not eat at all (6.16). That is, there too a middle; but a middle not between two passages in the body, but between two ways of dealing with the world.