उपनिषद् · Bhasmajābāla 2.37
॥
देवनागरी
तत्र प्राच्यामैश्वर्यस्थानम् । दक्षिणायां विचालनस्थानम् । पश्चिमायां वैराग्यस्थानम् । उत्तरायां ज्ञानस्थानम्
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
tatra prācyāmaiśvaryasthānam | dakṣiṇāyāṃ vicālanasthānam | paścimāyāṃ vairāgyasthānam | uttarāyāṃ jñānasthānam
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
तत्र प्राच्याम् ऐश्वर्य-स्थानम्tatra prācyām aiśvarya-sthānamthere, in the east, the place of sovereignty
दक्षिणायां विचालन-स्थानम्dakṣiṇāyāṃ vicālana-sthānamin the south, the place of movement
पश्चिमायां वैराग्य-स्थानम्paścimāyāṃ vairāgya-sthānamin the west, the place of dispassion
उत्तरायां ज्ञान-स्थानम्uttarāyāṃ jñāna-sthānamin the north, the place of knowledge
अनुवाद
«There, in the east — the place of sovereignty; in the south — the place of movement; in the west — the place of dispassion; in the north — the place of knowledge».
संस्करण
8a08e32c5713 · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Four directions are assigned to four subjects: sovereignty, activity, dispassion, knowledge. This distribution, on reflection, is an inventory of human paths: power, action, renunciation, knowledge. And worth noting: all four are placed within a single city, only in different quarters.
This thought is a good one and, to my mind, more precise than many. The paths do not exclude one another and are not cancelled: they are different sides of one place; and a person walking one is not in another city, but in another quarter of the same one. The Vaishnava side counts the same number of paths and arranges them the same way — not as rivals, but as steps or facets. The Gītā devotes separate chapters to them: action, knowledge, renunciation, concentration; and it acknowledges every one as valid.
Its difference is in what is added — a fifth — devotion; and it is set not beside the four, but above them: the Gītā says the yogī is above ascetics, the knowers, and the doers, and «of yogīs, the one who worships Me with faith is most fully united [with Me]» (6.46–47). Worth noting too that among the four there is no love. Sovereignty, activity, dispassion, knowledge — all these are ways of dealing with the world; not one of them is a relation to a person.
The addition of the fifth is, in essence, all that the Vaishnava side has added to the common inheritance.