Texts / Śivasaṃhitā / Verse 3.55

Śivasaṃhitā 3.55

Tṛtīyaḥ paṭalaḥ — Sādhana

Sanskrit text

अत्यल्पं बहुधा भुक्त्वा योगी न व्यथते हि सः । अथाभ्यासवशाद्योगी भूचरीं सिद्धिमाप्नुयात्।

Transliteration

atyalpaṃ bahudhā bhuktvā yogī na vyathate hi saḥ | athābhyāsavaśādyogī bhūcarīṃ siddhimāpnuyāt|

Translation

When, by the practice of pranayama, the Yogi reaches the state of ghata (water-jar), then for him there is nothing in this circle of universe which he cannot accomplish.

Commentary

Alimentary freedom as sign of mastery: the yogin who has stabilized practice can eat in extreme quantities — very little or fractioned in many small portions — without experiencing the effects those same patterns would produce in an untrained body. Vyathate (to be disturbed, to be agitated) is the key term: disturbance disappears when the prānic system is sufficiently robust to metabolize any dietary pattern without losing balance.

Bhūcarīsiddhi (power of movement on the earth) is attained abhyāsavaśāt — «through the power of abhyāsa». Vaśa (power, dominion) is one of the densest terms in yogic Sanskrit: it implies not external force but force flowing from within the practice itself. Abhyāsa is not mechanical repetition but the accumulation of transformative potency emerging from sustained commitment to practice.

Ghaṭāvasthā — the vessel state — is the second of the four prāṇāyāma stages and the most technically complex. In it, prāṇa and apāna, nāda and bindu, jīva and Ātman begin to unify within the body-vessel. The text states that whoever reaches this state can accomplish anything within the circle (maṇḍala) of the universe. It is the promise of relative omnipotence: not that of God but of the yogin who has aligned with the fundamental creative force.