February 26, 2026
sā cokttā kuṇḍalīnāmnā kuṇḍalākāravāhinī
prāṇināṁ paramā śakttiḥ sarvaśakttijavapradā (42)
VASIṢṬHA continued:
All achievements are dependent upon four factors: time, place, action and means. Among these action or effort holds the key because, surely, all endeavours towards the achievement are based on action or effort.
Some perverse practices also prevail and they are said to make achievements possible. Especially in the hands of immature practicants they are conducive to great harm. To this category belong the magic pill or unguent or wand, as also the use of gems, drugs, self-mortification and magic formulae. The belief that the mere dwelling in holy places like Śrīśaila or Meru enables one to attain spiritual perfection is also defective.
Hence, in the context of the story of Śikhidhvaja I shall describe the technique of prāṇāyāma or the exercise of the life-force and the achievements it brings about. Kindly listen.
In preparation, one should abandon all habits and tendencies that are unrelated to what one wishes to achieve. One should learn to close the apertures in the body and also learn the practice of the different postures. The diet should be pure. One should contemplate the meaning of holy scriptures. Right conduct and the company of holy ones are essential. Having renounced everything, one should sit comfortably. If then one practises prāṇāyāma for some time without allowing anger, greed, etc., to rise within oneself, the life-force comes under one’s perfect control.
Right from sovereignty over the earth to total liberation – everything is dependent upon the movement of the life-force. Hence all such achievements are possible through the practice of prāṇāyāma.
Deep within the body, there is a nāḍī known as the āntraveṣṭikā. It rests in the vitals and it is the source of a hundred other nāḍīs. It exists in all beings – gods, demons and humans, animals and birds, worms and fish. It is coiled at its source. It is in contact with all the avenues in the body, from the waist right up to the crown of the head.
Within this nāḍī dwells the supreme power. It is known as kuṇḍalinī, because it is coiled in appearance. It is the supreme power in all beings and it is the prime mover of all power. When the prāṇa or life-force which is in the heart reaches the abode of the kuṇḍalinī – there arises within oneself an awareness of the elements of nature. It is when the kuṇḍalinī unfolds and begins to move that there is awareness within oneself.
All the other nāḍīs (radiating flow of energy) are tied to the kuṇḍalinī, as it were. Hence the kuṇḍalinī is the very seed of consciousness and understanding or knowledge.