Śivasaṃhitā 3.45

One of the chapter’s most interesting declarations: restrictions are not eternal but propaedeutic. They are the scaffolding necessary during construction, but once the structure — the purified yogin’s body — holds itself up, the scaffolding can be removed. Sthirībhūte (having become stable, firmly established) marks the threshold: not comfort with practice but actual organic stability.

Abhyāse sthirībhūte — when abhyāsa (practice) has been firmly established — designates a verifiable physiological state, not a subjective sensation of progress. The objective indicators are the absence of accumulation of kapha (phlegm), vāta (wind), and pitta (bile): the three-doṣa system in spontaneous equilibrium. Niyamagraha (observing rules, adhering to precepts) is no longer necessary when the system self-regulates.

This teaching resonates deeply with the distinction between sādhana (practice with effort) and sahaja (the natural, the spontaneous). The great non-dual masters — from Abhinavagupta to the Tamil Nadu siddhas — pointed out that authentic yoga is that which ceases to be practice and becomes the natural state of being. The Śivasaṃhitā traces that boundary here.