Chapter Three

Practice

The Lord said, “There is a divine lotus in the heart adorned with a heavenly linga.1 It contains the syllables from ka to ṭha,² has twelve spokes and is beautiful.

Prana resides right there. It is said to be adorned with desires, endowed with beginningless karma, and joined with the ego.

Prana has various names according to its different activities. It is not possible to list them all.

Prana, apana, samana, udana, and vyana, the fifth; naga, kurma, krikara, devadatta, and dhananjaya.

I have stated the ten main names here in this text. The winds perform their tasks in the body driven by their own karmas.

Furthermore, of those ten, five are chief, and of them, prana and apana are said by me to be the most important agents.

Prana is in the heart, apana in the anus, samana in the region of the navel, udana in the region of the throat, and vyana pervades the body.

The five winds beginning with naga bring about the following in the body: belching, opening the eyes, hunger and thirst, yawning, and hiccuping, the fifth.

He who thus knows the body to be the egg of Brahma is freed from all sins and goes to the ultimate destination.

Now I shall quickly teach how to succeed in Yoga. Yogis who know this do not fail in their practice of Yoga.

If it comes from a guru’s mouth, wisdom is potent. If it does not, it is barren, it is impotent, and it brings great suffering.

He who zealously makes his guru happy and is devoted to his wisdom quickly gains the reward of that wisdom.

The guru is the father, the guru is the mother, the guru is God. This is certain. As a result he is served by his pupils in thought, word, and deed.

Everything that is good for the self is obtained through the grace of the guru, so the guru is to be served constantly, or else no good will happen.

After walking clockwise around him three times, the yogi should touch his lotus feet with his right hand and prostrate himself before them.

With faith, perfection is assured for those who are self-possessed. For others there will be no success, so one should practice zealously.

Perfection will never happen for those who are devoted to worldly attachments, who do not have faith, who do not worship their gurus, who are very social, who delight in lying, who speak harshly, and who do not please their gurus.

The first mark of perfection is the conviction that one’s practice will bear fruit. The second is having faith, the third is honoring one’s guru.

The fourth is equanimity, the fifth restraint of the sense organs, and the sixth curbing of the diet. There is no seventh.

After finding a guru knowledgeable in Yoga and receiving instruction in Yoga, the yogi should carefully and resolutely practice in the way taught by the guru.

In a beautiful hermitage the yogi should sit on a seat in Padmasana and practice breath exercises.

His body straight and his palms together, the wise yogi should pay homage to his guru and then to Ganesha on the right side and Kshetrapala and Ambika on the left.

Then the wise yogi should block Pingala with his right thumb, inhale through Ida, and hold his breath for as long as he can.

Then he should exhale through Pingala—gently, not quickly—before inhaling through Pingala and holding his breath for as long as he can.

He should exhale through Ida—gently, not quickly. Using this method of Yoga he should do twenty kumbhakas.3

Energized and free from all dualities, he should practice kumbhakas in this way four times every day at the following junctures: dawn, midday, sunset, and midnight.

If he energetically practices thus every day for three months, then his nadis are sure to be purified forthwith.

When the nadis of the yogi who has beheld the Ultimate Reality are purified, his sins are destroyed and the arambha state arises in him.

Signs are seen in the yogi’s body as a result of the purification of the nadis. For your benefit, I shall list all these physical signs in brief: he sits up straight, he is fragrant, he is beautiful, and he is a receptacle for the nectar of the gods.

Arambha, ghata, parichaya, and then nishpatti: these stages of Yoga arise in all Yogas.

I have described arambha. Now, for the mastery of breath, I shall describe the next, which results in the destruction of all suffering and sin.

The yogi has a strong digestive fire, eats well, is happy, has a beautiful body, is big hearted, and has great willpower and strength. All these signs are sure to arise in the body of the yogi.

Now I shall teach what is to be avoided, the great hindrances to Yoga, so that yogis can cross the ocean of the sorrows of samsara.

Sour, astringent, pungent, salty, mustard, and bitter flavors; too much walking, bathing in the early morning, burning oil, stealing, violence, hatred of others, pride, insincerity, fasting, untruthfulness, folly, cruelty to animals, the company of women, the use of fire, too much chatter—whether good natured or not—and overeating: the yogi should definitely give up these.

I shall teach the means to quick success in Yoga, the secret of the finest, perfected masters, by which perfection is sure to arise.

Milk, ghee, sweets, betel without lime, camphor, unhusked and ground food, a beautiful hermitage, fine cloth, listening to philosophical discourses, constant dispassion, domestic duties, singing the name of Vishnu, listening to harmonious music, resolve, patience, austerity, purity, modesty, understanding, and attendance upon one’s guru: the yogi should always practice these observances to the utmost.

Yogis should always eat when the wind has entered the sun. The best practitioners rest when the wind has entered the moon. The wise do not practice straight after eating or when hungry.

At the time of practice, one should first eat milk and ghee. Then once the practice is established, this rule need not be observed.

The practitioner should eat small amounts frequently. He should practice kumbhakas daily at the aforementioned times.

Then the yogi will be able to hold his breath for as long as he wants. Through being able to hold the breath for as long as he wants, kumbhaka is sure to be perfected. When Kevalakumbhaka is perfected, nothing in the world is impossible for the yogi.

At the yogi’s first attempts, sweat is produced on his body. When sweat is produced, the wise yogi should rub it in or the essential constituents of his body will be lost.

In the second stage there is trembling, in the middle stage the practitioner is said to jump about like a frog, and from further practice a good practitioner can fly.

When the yogi sitting in Padmasana leaves the ground, know that to be mastery of air, the destroyer of the darkness of samsara.

One should observe the rules for Yoga that have been mentioned until sleep, defecation, and urination diminish. The yogi who experiences the ultimate reality is not ill or depressed.

Neither sweat, saliva, nor worms, nor imbalances of kapha, pitta, and vata arise in the body of the practitioner.

Then the practitioner need not observe dietary restrictions. The yogi is not troubled if he eats very little or very much.

Through the power of practice, the yogi obtains Bhuchari siddhi,4 whereby he can move like the animals which are hard to catch when hands are clapped.

In Yoga, there are a lot of fearsome obstacles that are hard to avoid, despite which the yogi should keep on striving, even if he is at his last gasp.

Thereupon the practitioner, sitting in private with his sense organs restrained, should intone the syllable om in order to get rid of obstacles.

By means of pranayama, the wise practitioner is sure to destroy all the karmas he has previously acquired and those which have arisen in this life.

The best yogi gets rid of the various good and bad deeds he has amassed in the past by means of sixteen pranayamas.

Oh! He should burn his enormous mountains of sin with the doomsday fire. Then, free from sin, the yogi should destroy his store of merit.

By means of pranayama the lord amongst yogis attains the eight powers, crosses the ocean of sin and merit, and becomes the lord of the three worlds.

Only by gradual practice can the yogi hold his breath for three ghatikas,5 by which he is sure to get the complete success that he desires.

Mastery of speech, the ability to go where he wants, long-distance vision and hearing, subtle sight, the ability to enter another’s body, the power of producing gold by smearing objects with one’s feces and urine, and the capacity to make things invisible—these, and the ability to move through space, arise in great yogis.

When the great ghata stage arises for the practitioner of pranayama, then there is nothing that he cannot accomplish on the wheel of samsara.

It is called ghata because prana and apana, nada and bindu, and jivatma and paramatma come together and unite.6

Only when the yogi is able to hold the breath for one yama⁷ without tiring does pratyahara arise. It definitely does not happen otherwise.

The lord of yogis should think ‘I am that’ of whatever he perceives. He gains mastery over whichever sense organ is used to understand this principle.

When through application of the practice he can hold his breath for a full yama, then the yogi should practice kumbhaka once a day.

When the yogi’s breath does not move for eight dandas,8 then that wise man has the power to stand on his thumb as if he were made of air.

After this, with practice the yogi attains the stage of parichaya, when the breath leaves the sun and the moon and stays still.

The breath heaped on breath9 is sure to take hold of the action shakti, pierce the chakras, and enter the space in the Sushumna.

When through application of the practice the parichaya stage arises, the yogi is sure to see the three groups of karma.

He should then use the syllable om to destroy the groups of karma. The yogi should prepare his body in such a way that he can experience the results of his karma.

Then the great yogi should practice the fivefold dharana, by means of which he masters earth and the other elements and has nothing to fear from any of them.

The wise yogi should practice dharana for five ghatikas on the Adhara, the same on the place of the penis, for five ghatikas on the region above there, and likewise on the area between the navel and the heart, and for five ghatikas above the center of the eyebrows. The lord of yogis cannot then be destroyed by earth and the other elements.

The wise yogi who practices dharana of the five elements does not die even in a hundred deaths of Brahma.

Only by gradual practice does the yogi reach the nishpatti stage, by which he escapes the seeds of beginningless karma and drinks the nectar of immortality.

When samadhi automatically arises together with nishpatti, the impetuous breath takes hold of consciousness and the action shakti, hurries through all the chakras, and comes to rest in the knowledge shakti.

In order to remove problems, the technique of mastering the breath is now to be taught, by which diseases are sure to be destroyed on this wheel of samsara.

For the wise yogi who fixes his tongue at the root of the palate and drinks prana, there is complete elimination of his diseases.

The clever yogi, who drinks in cool air with his mouth in the shape of a crow’s beak and knows the operations of prana and apana, becomes a worthy recipient of liberation.

For the wise yogi who duly drinks air and nectar every day, fatigue, fever, old age, and illness are no more.

The lord among yogis, who turns his tongue upwards and drinks the liquid from the moon, is sure to conquer death within just one month.

He should tightly press the aperture at the uvula and drink correctly. Meditating on the goddess Kundalini, he becomes a sage within six months.

To alleviate a wasting disease, he should drink in air at the beginning and end of the day with his mouth in the shape of a crow’s beak, visualizing the air at Kundalini’s mouth.

With his mouth shaped like a crow’s beak, the wise yogi should breathe in air day and night. Long distance hearing and sight arise, together with discernment.

Pressing his teeth together, he should drink in air very gently. With his tongue turned upwards, the wise yogi quickly conquers death.

He who practices it every day for just six months is freed from all sin and gets rid of diseases.

By practicing for a year he is sure to conquer death. Therefore the best of practitioners should practice zealously.

After three years of practice he is sure to become Bhairava. He obtains the powers of becoming infinitesimal and so forth and automatically conquers all the elements.

If he turns his tongue upwards and remains thus for half an instant, the yogi is quickly freed from diseases, death, and decrepitude.

While he presses it, he should visualize his tongue as joined with prana. Death does not happen for him. Truly, I have told you the truth.

By practicing thus, he becomes a second God of Love. He gets neither hungry nor thirsty, he neither sleeps nor swoons.

By means of this technique, the lord of yogis becomes able to move about the earth as he wishes and no misfortunes befall him.

When he practices this, he is not reborn, he sports with the gods, and he is not tainted by good and bad deeds.

There are eighty-four asanas of various kinds which I have taught. Out of these I shall take four and describe them.

The practitioner who knows Yoga should regularly and carefully press his perineum with his heel and place the other heel above the penis.

In a lonely place and free from disturbances, he should look between his eyebrows and remain motionless, his senses restrained and his body straight.

This is known as Siddhasana. It grants perfection to adepts. Through practicing it, one quickly obtains the nishpatti state of Yoga.

– Siddhasana

Siddhasana should be used regularly by those practicing pranayama. The yogi can use it to cast off samsara and reach the ultimate destination.

This secret asana is the greatest on earth. Merely by thinking of it, the yogi is freed from sin.

Carefully place both feet, soles upward, on the thighs and similarly put the hands, palm upwards, on the middle of the thighs.

Focus the gaze on the tip of the nose, push the uvula upward with the tongue, place the chin on the chest, and slowly draw in as much air as possible, gently filling up the stomach. Then exhale as much as possible, without pausing.

This is called Padmasana. It gets rid of all diseases and is not available to all and sundry but can be had by the wise.

– Padmasana

When it is performed, prana immediately flows evenly. When it is practiced repeatedly, the practitioner’s prana is sure to become correct.

Sitting in Padmasana, the yogi should inhale while regulating prana and apana. He becomes liberated. Truly, I speak the truth.

Join both feet together and extend them. Hold them firmly with both hands and place the head on the knees.

This foremost asana is said to kindle the digestive fire. It removes physical exhaustion and is called Paschimottanasana.

– Paschimottanasana

The breath of the wise yogi who practices this excellent asana every day is sure to travel by the rearward path.

Those who practice it attain every perfection, so the yogi who wants to attain perfections should practice it assiduously.

It is to be carefully guarded and not given to all and sundry. By means of it, mastery of the wind, which destroys a host of sorrows, quickly arises.

Put the soles of both feet directly between the thighs and the calves and sit up straight. This is called Svastikasana.

– Svastikasana

The wise yogi should practice pranayama using this asana. Disease does not enter his body and he attains mastery of the wind.

This is also called Sukhasana, the easy asana. It destroys all suffering. Svastikasana is the best for making one healthy and is to be kept secret by yogis.”

Thus ends the third chapter in the glorious Shiva Samhita, a treatise on Yoga in the form of a dialogue between the Lord and Parvati.

1 The linga is the penis and the symbol of Shiva.

² The syllables from ka to ṭha are ka, kha, ga, gha, ṅa, ca, cha, ja, jha, ña, ṭa, and ṭha.

³ Kumbhaka is the holding of the breath.

⁴ A siddhi is a magical power achieved through the perfection of a yoga practice.

⁵ One ghatika is twenty-four minutes.

⁶ “Unite” is a translation of ghaṭate, hence the name ghata.

⁷ A yama is three hours.

⁸ The length of a danda is unclear, but the sense suggests that eight dandas equal one yama. Vātūla, which has been translated as “made of air,” can also mean “crazy” in the sense of one whose winds are deranged.

⁹ Parichaya means “heaping up,” “accumulation.”