Śivasaṃhitā 3.95

The paradox of «half an instant» (kṣaṇārdha) producing liberation from disease, death, and old age is only paradox from the perspective of ordinary practice. For the yogin in niṣpattāvasthā, an instant of perfect practice is qualitatively different from years of imperfect practice. Time in advanced yoga is not linear: it compresses or dilates according to the practitioner’s degree of presence. An instant of full consciousness may contain the equivalent of years of gradual accumulation.

Svastikāsana — literally «posture of the auspicious sign,» from svastika, the solar symbol — is the simplest of the four postures described in the chapter: the soles of the feet placed completely under the opposite thighs, the body erect, the position maintained with ease. Its simplicity is not synonymous with lesser power: it is the posture of equilibrium, where there is no extreme of tension in any direction.

Spinal erection (ūrdhva of the body) in svastikāsana is not military rigidity but the organic verticality that arises when the pelvis settles correctly and the spine can rest in its natural curvature. This verticality opens the suṣumnā channel more effectively than any flexion: prāṇa ascends through the straight channel without the kinked-hose effect produced by forced flexions.