"They bestow excellent rewards when done through desire of reward, and eternal liberation to those void of desire."
"A 'posture' is what is steady and pleasant" [ii. 46]; it is of ten kinds, as the padma, bhadra, víra, svastika, daṇḍaka, sopáśraya, paryaṅka, krauñchanishadana, ushṭranishadana, samasaṃsthána. Yájñavalkya has described each of them in the passage which commences—
"Let him hold fast his two great toes with his two hands, but in reverse order,
"Having placed the soles of his feet, O chief of Bráhmans, on his thighs;
"This will be the padma posture, held in honour by all."
The descriptions of the others must be sought in that work.—When this steadiness of posture has been attained, "regulation of the breath" is practised, and this consists in "a cutting short of the motion of inspiration and expiration" [ii. 49]. Inspiration is the drawing in of the external air; expiration is the expelling of the air within the body; and "regulation of the breath" is the cessation of activity in both movements. "But [it may be objected] this cannot be accepted as a general definition of 'regulation of breath,' since it fails to apply to the special kinds, as rechaka, púraka, and kumbhaka." We reply that there is here no fault in the definition, since the "cutting short of the motion of inspiration and expiration" is found in all these special kinds. Thus rechaka, which is the expulsion of the air within the body, is only that regulation of the breath, which has been mentioned before as "expiration;" and púraka, which is the [regulated] retention of the external air within the body, is the "inspiration;" and kumbhaka is the internal suspension of breathing, when the vital air, called práṇa, remains motionless like water in a jar (kumbha). Thus the "cutting short of the motion of inspiration and expiration" applies to all, and consequently the objector's doubt is needless.
Now this air, beginning from sunrise, remains two ghaṭikás and a half[440] in each artery[441] (náḍi), like the revolving buckets on a waterwheel.[442] Thus in the course of a day and night there are produced 21,600 inspirations and expirations. Hence it has been said by those who know the secret of transmitting the mantras, concerning the transmission of the ajapámantra[443]—
"Six hundred to Gaṇeśa, six thousand to the self-existent Brahman,
"Six thousand to Vishṇu, six thousand to Śiva,