Śivasaṃhitā 3.111

The verse presents the yogin as sthita — ‘established’, ‘firmly situated’ — in padmāsana, the condition from which he can undertake the regulation of prāṇa and apāna. The expression vidhānataḥ (‘in accordance with discipline’, ‘according to the rules’) indicates that this is not improvised practice but a codified procedure with its own precise norms.

Prāṇāpāna is a dual compound uniting the two fundamental vital currents: prāṇa (the ascending force, associated with inhalation and the chest) and apāna (the descending force, associated with exhalation and the perineum). Vidhāna derives from vi-dhā (‘to order’, ‘to arrange’, ‘to regulate’), implying conscious and methodical management of these two currents.

This hemistich functions as the opening of a more extended instruction that continues in the following verse. The lotus posture is not decorative here: the crossed legs compress the lower energetic channels, encouraging apāna — normally descending — to be redirected upward to unite with prāṇa in the process of advanced prāṇāyāma.