Śivasaṃhitā 4.65

The technical instruction of this verse has two key words defining the specific character of Mūlabandha: balāt (‘forcibly, by force’) and kramāt (‘gradually, step by step’). It is neither a soft nor an explosive practice but a sustained and progressive one. The initial force contracts the pelvic floor; the graduality conducts the ascending energy without causing dispersal or energetic violence.

Apānamākṛṣya — ‘having drawn the apāna’ — uses the gerund of ā-kṛṣ- (to draw toward oneself, from the root kṛṣ-, to drag, to pull), the same root as kṛṣi (agriculture, the act of plowing and drawing the earth). The apāna does not ascend by itself but is ‘pulled’ upward by the muscular contraction of the pelvic floor combined with the practitioner’s intention. Sucārayet — ‘let him conduct it well’ — implies care in the journey, not abruptness.

The final clause about practice amid pleasures (bhogayukto’pi mānavaḥ) connects directly to the antinomian doctrine of Vajrolī: Mūlabandha also requires no prior renunciation of sensory life. This cohesive principle — that none of the ten mudrās requires abandoning ordinary life — is the characteristic soteriological position of the Śivasaṃhitā and its clearest distinction from Patañjali’s ashtanga yoga, which prescribes abstention (yama) as the first step.