Śivasaṃhitā 5.69

The Śivasaṃhitā’s physiology of food reflects the Āyurvedic understanding of digestion as a tripartite alchemical process. The four types of food (caturvidha āhāra)—what is chewed (carvita), sucked (cūṣita), licked (lehita), and drunk (pīta)—all produce the same tripartition of rasa (essence). The most subtle level (ādya bhāga, “first part”) nourishes the liṅga śarīra—the subtle body—which in yoga is the seat of karmic impressions and the vehicle of prāṇa.

This doctrine of the three levels of dietary rasa has parallels in the Āyurvedic theory of āhārarasa (food essence). The most subtle part of digested food becomes ojas—the physical equivalent of spiritual vitality—while the middle part nourishes the seven dhātu (bodily tissues) and the grossest part exits as mala (excretions). The yogin who controls his diet optimizes ojas production, which is precisely the energy source that haṭhayoga seeks to conserve and sublimate.

Integrating food theory in the chapter on chakras is not a thematic digression but systemic coherence: the chakra system does not function in a vacuum but within a body that eats, sleeps, and breathes. The prāṇa circulating through the nāḍī has its material basis in the dhātu that food nourishes. An inadequate diet—whether through excess, scarcity, or quality—directly disturbs the balance of prāṇa and, with it, the clarity of the chakras.