Devanagari
सम्पीड्य पायुं पार्ष्णिभ्यां वायुमुत्सारयञ्छनै: ।
नाभ्यां कोष्ठेष्ववस्थाप्य हृदुर:कण्ठशीर्षणि ॥ १४ ॥
Verse text
sampīḍya pāyuṁ pārṣṇibhyāṁ
vāyum utsārayaṣ chanaiḥ
nābhyāṁ koṣṭheṣv avasthāpya
hṛd-uraḥ-kaṇṭha-śīrṣaṇi
Synonyms
sampīḍya
—
by blocking
;
pāyum
—
the door of the anus
;
pārṣṇibhyām
—
by the calves
;
vāyum
—
the air which goes up
;
utsārayan
—
pushing upward
;
śanaiḥ
—
gradually
;
nābhyām
—
by the navel
;
koṣṭheṣu
—
in the heart and in the throat
;
avasthāpya
—
fixing
;
hṛt
—
in the heart
;
uraḥ
—
upward
;
kaṇṭha
—
throat
;
śīrṣaṇi
—
between the two eyebrows .
Translation
When Mahārāja Pṛthu practiced a particular yogic sitting posture, he blocked the door of his anus with his ankles, pressed his right and left calves and gradually raised his life air upward, passing it on to the circle of his navel, up to his heart and throat, and finally pushed it upward to the central position between his two eyebrows.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Pressing the anus with both ankles, he gradually led the air from the mūlādhara-cakra to the svādhiṣṭhāna-cakra, maṇipūraka-cakra, anāhata-cakra, viśuddhi-cakra and ājṣā-cakra.
The method of leaving the body appeared spontaneously. The āsana for leaving the body is described:
saṁpīḍya sīraṇīṁ sūkṣmāṁ gulphenaiva tu madhyataḥ
savye dakṣiṇa-gulphena muktāsanam itīritam
Pressing the fine passageway near the anus with the left ankle, with the right ankle pressing the left, is called muktāsana.
Leading the air from the mūlādhāra-cakra upwards to the svādhiṣṭhāna-cakra one should fix it at the navel in the maṇipūraka-cakra, then at the anāhata-cakra (koṣṭheṣu) in the heart, and above that, at the viśuddhi-cakra below the throat. The throat is situated above the viśuddhi-cakra. Then one should fix the air between the brows (śīrṣaṇi) at the ājṣā-cakra. The sentence is continued in the next verse. Instead of vāyum the word asūn which means prāṇa is also seen.
Purport
The sitting posture described herein is called
muktāsana.
In the
yoga
process, after following the strict regulative principles controlling sleeping, eating and mating, one is allowed to practice the different sitting postures. The ultimate aim of
yoga
is to enable one to give up this body according to his own free will. One who has attained the ultimate summit of
yoga
practice can live in the body as long as he likes or, as long as he is not completely perfect, leave the body to go anywhere within or outside the universe. Some
yogīs
leave their bodies to go to the higher planetary systems and enjoy the material facilities therein. However, intelligent
yogīs
do not wish to waste their time within this material world at all; they do not care for the material facilities in higher planetary systems, but are interested in going directly to the spiritual sky, back home, back to Godhead.
From the description in this verse, it appears that Mahārāja Pṛthu had no desire to promote himself to the higher planetary systems. He wanted to return home immediately, back to Godhead. Although Mahārāja Pṛthu stopped all practice of mystic
yoga
after realizing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he took advantage of his previous practice and immediately placed himself on the
brahma-bhūta
platform in order to accelerate his return to Godhead. The aim of this particular system of
āsana,
known as the sitting posture for liberation, or
muktāsana,
is to attain success in
kuṇḍalinī-cakra
and gradually raise the life from the
mūlādhāra-cakra
to the
svādhiṣṭhāna-cakra,
then to the
maṇipūra-cakra,
the
anāhata-cakra,
the
viśuddha-cakra,
and finally to the
ājṣā-cakra.
When the
yogī
reaches the
ājṣā-cakra,
between the two eyebrows, he is able to penetrate the
brahma-randhra,
or the hole in his skull, and go to any planet he desires, up to the spiritual kingdom of Vaikuṇṭha, or Kṛṣṇaloka. The conclusion is that one has to come to the
brahma-bhūta
stage for going back to Godhead. However, those who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or who are practicing
bhakti-yoga
(
śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam
), can return to Godhead without even practicing the
muktāsana
process. The purpose of
muktāsana
practice is to come to the
brahma-bhūta
stage, for without being on the
brahma-bhūta
stage, one cannot be promoted to the spiritual sky. As stated in
Bhagavad-gītā
(14.26)
:
māṁ ca yo ’vyabhicāreṇa
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa guṇān samatītyaitān
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
The
bhakti-yogī,
practicing
bhakti-yoga,
is always situated on the
brahma-bhūta
stage (
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
). If a devotee is able to continue on the
brahma-bhūta
platform, he enters the spiritual sky automatically after death and returns to Godhead. Consequently a devotee need not feel sorry for not having practiced the
kuṇḍalinī-cakra,
or not penetrating the six
cakras
one after another. As far as Mahārāja Pṛthu was concerned, he had already practiced this process, and since he did not want to wait for the time when his death would occur naturally, he took advantage of the
ṣaṭ-cakra
penetration process and thus gave up the body according to his own free will and immediately entered the spiritual sky.