Upanishads · Varāha 5.72
॥
Devanāgarī
निष्पत्तिश्चेति कथिताश्चतस्रस्तस्य भूमिकाः । कारणत्रयसंभूतं बाह्यं कर्म परित्यजन्
Transliteration (IAST)
niṣpattiśceti kathitāścatasrastasya bhūmikāḥ | kāraṇatrayasaṃbhūtaṃ bāhyaṃ karma parityajan
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
निष्पत्तिः च इति कथिताःniṣpattiḥ ca iti kathitāḥand completion — thus are named
चतस्रः तस्य भूमिकाःcatasraḥ tasya bhūmikāḥits four stages
कारण-त्रय-संभूतंkāraṇa-traya-saṃbhūtaṃborn of the three causes
बाह्यं कर्म परित्यजन्bāhyaṃ karma parityajanabandoning external action
Translation
"And completion — thus are named its four stages. Abandoning external action, born of the three causes…"
Version
9e76625f9675 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Four stages of yoga are named, differing from the seven stages of knowledge given in the fourth chapter: arambha (beginning), ghata (the vessel), paricaya (familiarity), nishpatti (completion). This division belongs to the hatha-yogic writings and will be set out in the verses following. Worth noting that within one book two ladders have come together — one of seven stages, one of four — and this is again a mark of compilation, discussed more than once.
Let us add what deserves saying of the names themselves, for they are curious. The second stage is called ghata, "the vessel": the body, filled and locked, is likened to a vessel; and this vessel is already the fourth in our book, discussed when reading the eighteenth verse. The fourth is called nishpatti, "completion, emergence," from nis-pad, "to come forth, to succeed"; that is, not "attainment," but "that which has come forth."
The Vaishnava side looks on such lists without hostility and says one thing only: any ladder is good, provided one knows where it is set. Its own ladder, given when reading the fourth chapter (4.1), ends with the word prema, "love"; and every one of its rungs is named by feeling, not by bodily state. This difference, in my view, states most briefly of all how the two teachings differ: one measures the path by what has happened within the person, the other by whom he has drawn nearer to.