Śivasaṃhitā 4.49

The epistemological principle of this verse is fundamental: siddho jānāti netaraḥ, ‘only the perfected one knows it, no other’. Knowledge of the māhātmya — magnificence, greatness — is not theoretical but experiential and can only be known from within the practice itself. This epistemological structure is characteristic of tantric texts: the text teaches, but knowledge is only realized in practice.

Māhātmya — ‘greatness of soul, magnificence’ — is the genitive of mahātman (great soul, from mahā- great + ātman, soul/being). This same term is used in the purāṇic māhātmyas to describe the sacred value of pilgrimage sites: applying it here to the mudrā-bandha-vedha triad equates bodily sādhana with sacred geography. The navel (nābhi) as a center of purification has resonances with the notion of nābhimaṇḍala, the umbilical circle as the center of the prāṇamaya body.

The purification of the navel that the text mentions is not metaphorical: in subtle anatomy, the maṇipūracakra — the ‘jewel city’ located in the navel region — is the center of digestive fire and the distribution of prāṇa to the ten secondary vāyus. When this center is purified through the practice of Uḍḍīyāna and the triad, the complete system of energetic circulation is regulated, like a wheel whose axle has been straightened.