The lotus of the heart has eight petals and thirty-two filaments. The sun is in its midst: the moon is in the middle of the sun. Agni is in the middle of the moon: the prabhā (spiritual light) is in the middle of agni. Pītha (seat or centre) is in the midst of prabhā, being set in diverse gems. One should meditate upon the stainless Lord Vāsuḍeva as being (seated) upon the centre of Pītha, as having Śrīvaṭsa 1 (black mark) and Kausṭubha (garland of gems) on his chest and as adorned with gems and pearls resembling pure crystal in lustre and as resembling crores of moons in brightness. He should meditate upon Mahā-Vishṇu as above or in the following manner. (That is) he should meditate with inspiration (of breath) upon Mahā-Vishṇu as resembling the aṭasī flower and as staying in the seat of navel with four hands; then with restraint of breath, he should meditate in the heart upon Brahma, the Grandfather as being on the lotus with the gaura (pale-red) colour of gems and having four faces: then through expiration, he should meditate upon the three-eyed Śiva between the two eyebrows shining like the pure crystal, being stainless, destroying all sins, being in that which is like the lotus facing down with its flower (or face) below and the stalk above or like the flower of a plantain tree, being of the form of all Veḍas, containing one hundred petals and one hundred leaves and having the pericarp full-expanded. There he should meditate upon the sun, the moon and the agni, one above another. Passing above through the lotus which has the brightness of the sun, moon and agni, and taking its Hrīm bīja (letter), one leads his Āṭmā firmly. He is the knower of Veḍas

who knows the three seats, the three māṭrās, the three Brahmās, the three aksharas (letters) and the three māṭrās associated with the arḍhamāṭrā. He who knows that which is above binḍu, nāḍa and kalā as uninterrupted as the flow of oil and (resounding) as long as the sound of a bell—that man is a knower of the Veḍas. Just as a man would draw up (with his mouth) the water through the (pores of the) lotus-stalk, so the yogin treading the path of yoga should draw up the breath. Having made the lotus-sheath of the form of arḍhamāṭrā, one should draw up the breath through the stalk (of the nādis Sushumnā, Idā and Piṅgalā) and absorb it in the middle of the eyebrows. He should know that the middle of the eyebrows in the forehead which is also the root of the nose is the seat of nectar. That is the great place of Brahman.