उपनिषद् · Yogakuṇḍalinī 1.76
॥
देवनागरी
भूतेऽल्पे चाप्यनल्पे वा वाचके त्वतिवर्धते । धवयत्यखिला वाता अग्निमूषाहिरण्यवत्
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
bhūte'lpe cāpyanalpe vā vācake tvativardhate | dhavayatyakhilā vātā agnimūṣāhiraṇyavat
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
भूते अल्पे च अपिbhūte alpe ca apiand at little, and also
अन्-अल्पे वाan-alpe vāat not-little
वाचके तु अति-वर्धतेvācake tu ati-vardhatein the expressed, however, it greatly grows
धवयति अखिलाः वाताःdhavayati akhilāḥ vātāḥit purifies all winds
अग्नि-मूषा-हिरण्य-वत्agni-mūṣā-hiraṇya-vatlike fire and crucible — gold
अनुवाद
"And at little and also at not-little, in the expressed it greatly grows; it purifies all winds, as fire and crucible [purify] gold".
संस्करण
e1c0ad74b52e · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
A simile is given, and it is physical: agni-musha-hiranya-vat, "as fire and crucible [purify] gold." Musha is a crucible, a clay vessel for smelting; and the purification here is described as smelting: gold is placed in a crucible, set on fire, and the impurity departs. This simile is constant in Indian books and applied there to everything — to the purification of body, mind, speech. It is worth dwelling, though, on what it requires.
Smelting requires three: gold, crucible, and fire. Gold alone will not purify; a crucible without fire will do nothing; fire without a crucible will scatter the gold. That is, here too purification is a matter of union, not solitary effort.
The Vaishnava side uses the same simile and assigns the roles directly. Gold is the soul; fire is hearing and singing; and the crucible is the company of those walking, sadhu-sanga, which holds the molten metal in form and does not let it spread. This distribution, I think, explains something important — why solitary zeal so often comes to nothing. Fire may exist even for one alone; there is no crucible — and all that has melted spreads out and hardens wherever it falls.
It is worth adding that in the word dhavayati, "purifies," itself, the root dhav means "to wash, to rinse"; so that in one line two images of purification have come together — smelting and washing.