Upaniṣads · Jābāladarśana 4.29
॥
Devanāgarī
उदानसंज्ञो विज्ञेयः पादयोर्हस्तयोरपि । समानः सर्वदेहेषु व्याप्य तिष्ठत्यसंशयः
Transliteración (IAST)
udānasaṃjño vijñeyaḥ pādayorhastayorapi | samānaḥ sarvadeheṣu vyāpya tiṣṭhatyasaṃśayaḥ
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
उदान-संज्ञः विज्ञेयःudāna-saṃjñaḥ vijñeyaḥnamed udana, let it be known
पादयोः हस्तयोः अपिpādayoḥ hastayoḥ apiin the legs and in the arms
समानः सर्व-देहेषुsamānaḥ sarva-deheṣusamana, in all bodies
व्याप्य तिष्ठति अ-संशयःvyāpya tiṣṭhati a-saṃśayaḥpervading, dwells, without doubt
Traducción
"Named udana, let it be known [as dwelling] in the legs and in the arms; samana, without doubt, dwells pervading all bodies."
Versión
c4874624fdbc · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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Udana — from ud-an, "to breathe upward": the ascending breath; samana — from sam-an, "to breathe together": the equalizing one. Digestion is ascribed to samana: it distributes what has been eaten evenly through the body, whence its name. The five breaths, thus, are fully charted: one receives, another expels, a third distributes, a fourth equalizes, a fifth raises.
Worth noting is that all five are described as functional acts, and none is called either conscious or, properly speaking, alive. They do their work as a pump and a pipe do theirs. Here lies the consideration the Vaishnava side repeats every time the discourse turns to vital forces, and it deserves stating.
The five breaths, for all their work, know no one. They do not rejoice, do not remember, do not choose. And whoever reads this book — knows, remembers, and chooses; and hence he is neither one of them nor their sum.
This argument is made constantly in the Upanishads and forms their favorite move: to list everything a person is not, and to point to the one doing the listing. The Brihadaranyaka expresses this with the famous phrase neti neti, "not this, not this" (2.3.6); and the Katha, with a question: "by whom is the mind that is thought thought? who impels breath to go forward?" (1.2.4 and 2.1.3).
What the Vaishnava side does not accept in this move is the last step: the conclusion that in the end no one remains. It says that "not this, not this" strips away the coverings, not the one who wears them; and that if there were nothing to strip away, there would be no one to strip it either.