Śivasaṃhitā 4.29

This verse introduces a purely mental dimension into the practice of Mahāmudrā: adopting the correct posture is insufficient; one must direct citta (mind-consciousness) along cittapatha, ‘the path of the mind’. The result of this dual orientation—physical and mental—is vāyusādhana, mastery or perfection of the vital breath. Mind and prāṇa are revealed as interdependent aspects of a single reality.

Citta designates in Yoga the totality of mental substance: perception, memory, emotion, and consciousness. Cittapatha (‘path of the mind’) is an uncommon expression suggesting an inner pathway of concentration, perhaps meditation on the cakras or on suṣumnānāḍī. Vāyusādhana combines vāyu (breath, wind, prāṇa) with sādhana (practice, attainment), pointing to both the process and its result.

The mind-prāṇa correlation is an axial principle of Hatha Yoga: where the mind goes, prāṇa follows; where prāṇa stabilizes, the mind quiets. This verse states it with technical precision. The instruction echoes the doctrine of the Haṭhapradīpikā (IV.21–29) on the unity of mind and breath, and anticipates the prāṇāyāma practices with retention (kumbhaka) that follow in the text.