Upanishads · Yogakuṇḍalinī 2.45
॥
Devanāgarī
नियोज्य नासिकारन्ध्रं दुग्धसिक्तेन तन्तुना । प्राणान्निरुध्य हृदये सुखमासनमात्मनः
Transliteration (IAST)
niyojya nāsikārandhraṃ dugdhasiktena tantunā | prāṇānnirudhya hṛdaye sukhamāsanamātmanaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
नियोज्य नासिका-रन्ध्रंniyojya nāsikā-randhraṃhaving stopped up the nostril
दुग्ध-सिक्तेन तन्तुनाdugdha-siktena tantunāwith a thread moistened in milk
प्राणान् निरुध्य हृदयेprāṇān nirudhya hṛdayehaving restrained the breaths in the heart
सुखम् आसनम् आत्मनःsukham āsanam ātmanaḥa comfortable seat for himself
Translation
"Having stopped up the nostril with a thread moistened in milk, having restrained the breaths in the heart, [having made] himself a comfortable seat…**
Version
5234251cc33a · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
A physical detail: a thread moistened in milk. Milk is taken here, it seems, so the thread would be soft and slippery and not scratch; and this again is a craftsman's precaution, discussed when reading the twenty-ninth line. Worth noting, though, is the phrase sukham asanam, "a comfortable seat," standing at the end of the line. Even here, amid probes and threads, the book does not forget to require comfort; and that it did so three times in the first chapter was discussed when reading its twenty-third line.
This consistency does it credit here too. Separately, a word must be said about hridaye, "in the heart." The breath is held "in the heart"; and this, for all the physical detail of the description, is an inexact expression: breath can be held in the lungs, but "in the heart" is a word about a sensation.
This whole charting, as has been noted more than once, is a charting of sensations, and so its words about the body must be read not as a physician's words, but as the words of a man describing where within himself he feels the response. The mixing of these two languages is the very reason such books now strike one as astonishingly precise, and now turn out impossible.