Śivasaṃhitā 5.56

The verse introduces the anatomical precision that distinguishes the Śivasaṃhitā’s description of mūlādhāra from more abstract descriptions in other texts. The specific localization—two fingers (aṅgula) above the anus and two below the penis—corresponds approximately to the perineum, where active prāṇāyāma, especially mūlabandha (pelvic floor contraction), produces the sensation of heat and pressure that texts associate with mūlādhāra activation.

Yathāsyānila—“as the wind within oneself”—establishes the principle that practice of breath (nila = anila = wind/prāṇa) within the body (āsya = internal) determines the transformation of vigraha (body-form). This is the central affirmation of yogic physiology: the body is not a fixed object but a dynamic process moldable by prāṇāyāma practice. The same body can be obstacle or vehicle depending on how one works with prāṇa.

The description of kanda—the bulbous root, zone of convergence of the nāḍīs—as four fingers in width places this subtle anatomy in correspondence with the mūlādhāra cakra. The image of the bulbous root (kandamūla) evokes the root of the lotus plant growing in the mud of the pelvic floor and ascending toward light through the axis of suṣumnā nāḍī. Mūlādhāra is literally the soil in which the tree of yoga is rooted.