Śivasaṃhitā 3.15

The verse prescribes an exact physical ritual: pradakṣiṇā (clockwise circumambulation, from pra-dakṣiṇa, «toward the right/south») performed three times, followed by touching the guru’s feet with the right hand. Each gesture carries specific symbolic weight and cannot be reduced to mere social protocol. The body itself becomes the instrument of discipleship.

Pradakṣiṇā is a cosmological act: by circling the guru clockwise, the disciple positions the teacher as the center of the universe, replicating the solar movement. The number three (traya) recalls the triad of body, speech, and mind — the three instruments of service referenced in the preceding verse. Spṛṣṭvā (having touched, from spṛś) indicates actual physical contact, not symbolic gesture: the guru’s feet are the point of grace transmission.

In Indian tradition, the feet (pāda) of teacher or deity are the privileged locus of divine grace, hence the expression pādapadma (lotus feet). Touching them is an act of ego-emptying that opens the channel of reception. Notably, this technically oriented yoga text pauses to codify devotional protocol with the same precision it will bring to describing āsanas — a reminder that posture and prostration belong to the same continuum.