Śiva taught as many āsanas as there are species of living beings: eighty-four lakhs (8,400,000).

This verse establishes a cosmology of āsana: there exists a posture for every life form. The number 84 lakhs (one lakh = 100,000) is symbolic in Indian tradition, representing the totality of forms consciousness can take in its journey through saṃsāra.

The implication is profound: each āsana connects the practitioner with a particular form of consciousness. Bhujaṅgāsana (the cobra), Śalabhāsana (the locust), Matsyāsana (the fish) — they are not mere physical imitations but ways of inhabiting other modes of being.

Svātmārāma will reduce this infinite number to 84 important āsanas, and from those will highlight only 15 as essential. This pedagogy — from the cosmic to the practical — is characteristic of the text.