Śivasaṃhitā 3.51

The image of the yogin in padmāsana rising from the ground is one of the most recurrent in haṭhayogic literature, and also one of the most controversial. The Śivasaṃhitā treats it not as metaphor but as description of a physically verifiable phenomenon in the third stage of prāṇāyāma. Bhuvamutsṛjya — having abandoned, released the ground — suggests that the relationship with gravity is actually altered, not merely perceived differently.

The metaphor of fire and cotton — vahni and tūla — is one of the Śaiva literature’s favorite images for karma destruction through practice. Fire does not struggle with cotton: it transforms it instantaneously. So prāṇāyāma destroys karma not through gradual penitence but through direct energetic transmutation. Pāpa (what causes falling, the negative) disappears as completely as burned cotton.

The eight aiśvaryas — powers, dominions — obtained by the mighty yogin (mahāyogīndra) correspond to the eight classical siddhis: aṇimā (miniaturization), mahimā (greatness), laghimā (lightness), garimā (heaviness), prāpti (unlimited reach), prākāmya (irresistible will), īśitā (lordship) and vaśitā (dominion). The yogin who has crossed the ocean of virtue and vice moves between the three worlds without the friction that karma imposes.