The verse and its meaning · Yoga in Practice · Yoga in Practice — Mudra and Bandha

Stirring Morning and Evening

Hatha Yoga Pradipika 3.112

अवस्थिता चैव फणावती सा प्रातश्च सायं प्रहरार्धमात्रम्। प्रपूर्य सूर्यात्परिधानयुक्त्या प्रगृह्य नित्यं परिचालनीया ॥

Meaning · English

Once she stands hooded like a serpent, she is to be moved every day, morning and evening, for about half a prahara. The breath is drawn in through the sun side and the method called paridhana is used. She is held firmly and set in motion without fail.

The verse gives a schedule and a method for working with the kundalini, the coiled energy the tradition places at the base of the body. It opens with her condition: she is awake and risen like a cobra with its hood spread. The word for this is phanavati, 'the hooded one'. From that point she is to be moved daily, morning and evening. The time is half a prahara. A prahara is one eighth of a day, about three hours, so half of one is roughly an hour and a half. The breath is filled through the sun. The tradition reads 'sun' as the pingala nadi, the channel on the right, and the commentary takes this as the right nostril. Paridhana means a wrapping or encircling, and the text names it as the method. This card does not go into its mechanics, which are learnt in person. The text then says to grasp her firmly and to keep moving her, without missing a day. The teaching explains itself by the tradition's own logic. Stirring is how the sleeping energy is kept awake and made to rise, and regularity is what the text asks of the practitioner. The reader is asked for steadiness over a long daily span, not a single attempt.

The body part is not fully described here. The verse names a breath, a method, a grasp and a movement, and the next verses supply the posture and the place. What can be said honestly is what the breath does. Filling the lungs through one nostril and holding the breath raises pressure inside the trunk. The diaphragm lowers, the belly wall and the pelvic floor hold, and the deep muscles of the abdomen work to keep the breath in. The mind has one narrow task, which is to follow a precise sequence without hurrying. Doing this twice a day for a long stretch trains steady attention and tolerance of effort. The tradition's account is different and is the tradition's own. It says the right-side breath carries the sun's heat, that the kundalini is aroused by this heat and by the movement, and that she then stands up inside the central channel, the sushumna. None of that is anatomy. It is how the Pradipika describes what the practitioner is doing. Long holds with the breath filled can be harmful if done literally or without guidance, which is why the text assumes a teacher.

The Pradipika places this stirring inside its larger claim for the practice. Once the kundalini is moved and rises, the central channel opens. The mind is said to become steady, and the practitioner is said to reach liberation. The text also treats regular daily practice as the condition for any of this. In its account, the benefit is gradual and depends on the rhythm of morning and evening, not on one effort. It does not list smaller effects for this verse. The claims are the tradition's, and this reading makes none of its own.

A grandmother winds the wall clock every morning and every evening, and it keeps time because she never skips it. That is the part of this verse modern understanding recognises most easily. A fixed daily schedule is how any skill, physical or mental, is built, and a long session with a repeated breath pattern does train attention. Breath holding and abdominal bracing are real physical events. The breath changes pressure in the chest and belly, and holding it raises heart rate and blood pressure for a time, which is a reason for care. The kundalini, the nadis, the sun and moon channels and the idea of an energy rising through the spine have no counterpart in anatomy and cannot be measured. They remain the tradition's account. Today's medicine offers no evidence that such a practice opens a central channel or leads to liberation. An hour and a half of effortful breath work twice daily is also far beyond what a general teacher would suggest today.

This is a teacher's practice, not a page's. Do not try it from this description. The text assumes a guide who sees the breath and the posture, and a page cannot correct either. Holding the breath after a full inhale can raise blood pressure and cause dizziness. People with high blood pressure, heart or lung conditions, a hernia, a recent abdominal operation, eye pressure problems or pregnancy should leave it out. Anyone with a neck or back problem should also leave it out. Never force the breath or stay in the practice for the full hour and a half if it is uncomfortable. Stop at any pain, dizziness or tightness in the chest.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Seven Names, One Kundalini · Hatha Yoga Pradipika 3.104
• Next: Signs of Success · Hatha Yoga Pradipika 3.121
• All of Yoga in Practice · Ask Krishna about it

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