Śivasaṃhitā 5.51

Janasaṅgavivarjita—“free from human contact,” from jana (people), saṅga (contact, attachment), and vivarjita (stripped of)—describes the isolation condition that facilitates practice of the subtlest techniques. It is not hostility toward others but understanding that the field of consciousness in practice is extremely sensitive to external perturbations. The practitioner creates the sacred space of solitude so that consciousness can fold back into itself.

Padmāsana—“lotus posture”—is the par excellence stabilizing base for deep meditative practice. The posture’s architecture—legs crossed with feet on opposite thighs, spine erect—creates a closed prāṇic circuit that retains energy rather than dissipating it into the ground. The vijñānanāḍī—the consciousness nāḍīs, possibly the carotid arteries or the iḍā and piṅgalā nāḍīs—are pressed to concentrate prāṇa flow toward the central channel.

The technique of pressing the vijñānanāḍī with the fingers while holding the breath echoes śaṇmukhi mudrā of verse 35, but with a specific anatomical variation. These technique variations are characteristic of classical yogic texts: the Śivasaṃhitā prescribes not a single path but a set of complementary approaches toward the same state. The experience of the Self’s light (ātmajyoti) is the verification criterion that the technique is being executed correctly.