Śivasaṃhitā 3.118

The verse closes the instruction on svastikāsana by linking the posture to the control of māruta, another name for the vital wind or prāṇa. The term vidhinā (by this method, through this rule) anchors the practice in the procedure just described. Again sudhīḥ, the practitioner of refined mind, appears as the condition for success. The verb sādhayet expresses disciplined effort toward perfection.

Māruta is a Vedic name for wind, related to the Maruts, storm deities in the Ṛgveda. In the haṭhayogic context, māruta is equivalent to vāyu and prāṇa, the vital breath that animates the body. Sādhayet is the optative of sādh (to perfect, achieve, realize), the same verb that yields sādhana (spiritual practice) and siddhi (perfection), creating a coherent semantic network throughout the text.

The recurrence of sudhīḥ in this verse and in verse 114 is not accidental: the Śivasaṃhitā insists that yogic practice requires a specific mental quality. Āsana without the proper mental orientation would be mechanical and ineffective. This integration of body and discriminative intelligence anticipates the modern understanding that posture is as much a practice of attention as it is a somatic practice.