Śivasaṃhitā 5.219

Practice has a ripening horizon (abhyāsa-pāka): like fruit ripening on a tree, yoga practice requires time and correct conditions before the breakthrough of understanding. Mitāhāra and smaraṇa are the two pillars of sustenance during that period: one cares for the body, the other orients the mind. When both ripen together, the Self-luminous emerges effortlessly.

Abhyāsa = practice, pāka = ripening (also cooking, as cooking food until ready), paryanta = until, to the limit, mitānna = moderate food (mita = appropriate measure, anna = food), smaraṇa = active evocation/remembrance, continuous contemplation. «Ripening» as metaphor for spiritual progress is common in the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha and siddha literature.

The ripening (pāka) metaphor is especially fertile because it implies the process cannot be arbitrarily accelerated: a green fruit does not ripen faster by being hit. The only thing possible is maintaining correct conditions—sun, water, nutritive soil—and waiting. Mitāhāra and smaraṇa are precisely those correct conditions for the fruit of liberation.