One becomes young even when old through performing mūlabanḍha always. Pressing the yoni by means of the heels and contracting the anus and drawing up the apāna—this is called mūlabanḍha. Uddiyāṇa banḍha is so called because it is (like) a great bird that flies up always without rest. One should bring the western part of the stomach above the navel. This Uddiyāṇa banḍha is a lion to the elephant of death, since it binds the water (or nectar) of the ākāś which arises in the head and flows down. The Jālanḍhara banḍha is the destroyer of all the pains of the throat. When this Jālanḍhara banḍha which is destroyer of the pains of the throat is performed, then nectar does not fall on agni nor does the vāyu move. When the tongue enters backwards into the hole of the skull, then there is the muḍrā of vision latent in the eyebrow called khecharī. He who knows the muḍrā, khecharī has not disease, death, sleep, hunger, thirst, or swoon. He who practises this muḍrā is not affected by illness or karma; nor is he bound by the limitations of time. Since chiṭṭa moves in the kha (ākāś) and since the tongue has entered (in the muḍrā) kha (viz., the hole in the mouth), therefore the muḍrā is called khecharī and worshipped by

the siḍḍhas. He whose hole (or passage) above the uvula is closed (with the tongue backwards) by means of khecharīmuḍrā never loses his virility, even when embraced by a lovely woman. Where is the fear of death, so long as the binḍu (virility) stays in the body. Binḍu does not go out of the body, so long as the khecharīmuḍrā is practised. (Even) when binḍu comes down to the sphere of the perineum, it goes up, being prevented and forced up by violent effort through yonimuḍrā. This binḍu is twofold, white and red. The white one is called śukla and the red one is said to contain much rajas. The rajas which stays in yoni is like the colour of a coral. The binḍu stays in the seat of the genital organs. The union of these two is very rare. Binḍu is Śiva and rajas is śakṭi. Binḍu is the moon and rajas is the sun. Through the union of these two is attained the highest body; when rajas is roused up by agitating the śakṭi through vāyu which unites with the sun, thence is produced the divine form. Śukla being united with the moon and rajas with the sun, he is a knower of yoga who knows the proper mixture of these two. The cleansing of the accumulated refuse, the unification of the sun and the moon and the complete drying of the rasas (essences), this is called mahāmuḍrā. Placing the chin on the breast, pressing the anus by means of the left heel, and seizing (the toe of) the extended right leg by the two hands, one should fill his belly (with air) and should slowly exhale. This is called mahāmuḍrā, the destroyer of the sins of men.