Upaniṣads · Jābāladarśana 4.28
॥
Devanāgarī
व्यानः श्रोत्राक्षिमध्ये च कुकुभ्द्यां गुल्फयोरपि । प्राणस्थाने गले चैव वर्तते मुनिपुङ्गव
Transliteración (IAST)
vyānaḥ śrotrākṣimadhye ca kukubhdyāṃ gulphayorapi | prāṇasthāne gale caiva vartate munipuṅgava
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
व्यानः श्रोत्र-अक्षि-मध्ये चvyānaḥ śrotra-akṣi-madhye cavyana, in the ears and eyes
कुकुभ्द्यां गुल्फयोः अपिkukubhdyāṃ gulphayoḥ apiin the sides and in the ankles
प्राण-स्थाने गले च एवprāṇa-sthāne gale ca evain the place of prana and likewise in the throat
वर्तते मुनि-पुङ्गवvartate muni-puṅgavadwells, O bull among sages
Traducción
"Vyana dwells in the ears and eyes, in the sides and in the ankles, in the place of prana and in the throat, O bull among sages."
Versión
8a3733cc1355 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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Vyana — from vi-an, "to breathe apart, to distribute": the distributing breath, acting throughout the whole body. Worth noting is that its places are named scattered: ears, eyes, sides, ankles, throat. That is, it has no district of its own, and is everywhere.
Definition by omnipresence in the body is unique in this list; the other breaths are tied to places. It is worth saying too what is ascribed to vyana in the Upanishads. The Prashna says it moves through seventy-two thousand passages and that by it the connection between the parts is maintained (3.6).
That is, this is what makes the body one, not a set of parts. The notion of such a binding force is everywhere in Indian thought, and it is worth comparing to how the Vaishnava side speaks of the same. For it, what binds the whole is named not a movement, but a Person; and the Gita says: "by Me, as a thread through pearls, all this is strung" — mayi sarvam idam protam sutre mani-gana iva (7.7).
The image of the thread deserves examining. The pearls do not become the thread and each remains itself; the thread does not absorb them, but holds them together, and without it they would scatter. Here lies the whole difference between the two ways of understanding unity. By one, the whole is that in which the parts vanish; by the other, it is that by which the parts are held together, remaining themselves. And the image of the thread with the pearls is, in my view, the best argument for the second, for it explains both unity and multiplicity, canceling neither.