Śivasaṃhitā 2.16

The verse delivers a clear doctrinal verdict: among the three principal channels, Suṣumṇā alone is mukhyā — foremost, primary — and yogivallabhā, the beloved of yogins. The superlative is unambiguous, establishing a hierarchy within a hierarchy. Of the fourteen principal nāḍīs, three are chief; of those three, one alone commands the practitioner’s deepest attention and longing.

Mukhyā derives from mukha, meaning face, mouth, or front, and by extension «that which leads». Vallabhā comes from the root val, to be powerful or dear, and appears throughout devotional literature to denote the beloved. Its application here to an energetic channel is deliberate: the yogin’s relationship to Suṣumṇā is not merely technical but devotional, charged with aspiration.

The practical import of this declaration structures the entire Haṭha Yoga enterprise. As long as prāṇa moves through Iḍā and Piṅgalā, the mind oscillates between their respective qualities — lunar and solar, cool and hot, passive and active. Only when prāṇa is coaxed into Suṣumṇā does the mind enter laya, the absorption that dissolves duality and opens the path to liberation.