The abdomen should be pulled back and up above the navel.This Uḍḍīyāna Bandha is the lion killing the elephant of death.

This verse provides the essential technical instruction of Uḍḍīyāna Bandha along with a powerful metaphor for its benefits.Paścimam tānam means “back stretch”—the abdomen retracts toward the spine and simultaneously rises upward, creating a deep cavity beneath the rib cage.

The technique is normally performed during bahir-kumbhaka (empty lung hold).After a complete exhalation, the diaphragm rises and the abdominal wall retracts, creating a vacuum.This action massages the internal organs, stimulates the solar plexus and creates a suction that propels prāṇa upward.

The metaphor mṛtyu-mātaṅga-kesarī is extraordinary: Uḍḍīyāna is the lion that kills the elephant of death.The lion, although smaller, can defeat the elephant through cunning and ferocity.Similarly, this relatively simple practice has the power to conquer death itself—understood as identification with perishability and spiritual ignorance.