29. The mount Meru and Himálaya, and some sacred spots and holy places, are mentioned as the seats of divine inspiration; but a full description of them, will tend to the violation of holy meditation or yoga. (Because all these places are full of false yogis, who practice many fulsome arts for their gain).
30. Therefore hear me now relate unto you, something regarding the practice of restraining the breath, which is attended with its consequence of consummation; and is related with the narrative of Sikhidhwaja, and is the subject of the present discourse. (Here Vasishtha treats of the efficacy of the regulation of breath towards the attaining of consummation for satisfaction of Ráma, in disregard of false and artificial practices).
31. It is by driving away all desires from the heart, beside the only object in view, and by contracting all the orifices of the body; as also by keeping the stature, the head and neck erect, that one should attend the practices enjoined by the yoga sástra (namely: fixing the sight on the top of the nose and concentrating it between the eye-brows and the like).
32. Moreover it is by the habit of taking pure food and sitting on clean seats, that one should ponder into the deep sense and sayings of the sástras, and continue in the course of good manners and right conduct in the society of the virtues, by refraining from worldliness and all earthly connections.
33. It is also by refraining from anger and avarice, and abstaining from improper food and enjoyments, that one must be accustomed to constrain his breathings in the course of a long time.
34. The wise man that knows the truth, and has his command over his triple breathings of inspiration, expiration and retention (púraka, rechaka and kumbhaka), has all his actions under his control, as a master has all his servants under his complete subjection. (because breath is life, and the life has command over all the bodily actions, as well as mental operations of a person).
35. Know Ráma, that all the well being of a man being under the command of his vital breath; it is equally possible for every one, both to gain his sovereignty on earth, as also to secure his liberation for the future by means of his breath. (So says the proverb, "as long as there is breath, there every hope with it" [Sanskrit: yábat shusah tábat áshah] So in Hindi:—jan hai to Jehan hai i.e. the life is all in all &c. So it is said in regard to the kumbhaka or retentive breath, "repress your breath and you repress all," because every action is done by the repression of the breath).
36. The breath circulates through the inner lung of the breast, which encircles the entrails (antra) of the whole inner frame; it supplies all the arteries with life, and is joined to by all the intestines in the body as if they to that common channel.
37. There is the curved artery resembling the disc at the top of lute, and the eddy of waters in the sea; it likens the curved half of the letter Om, and is situated as a cypher or circlet in the base or lower most gland. (It is called the kundaliní or kula kundaliní nárhí in the original).