Recognize the hand
The thumb and index finger meet, while the other three fingers remain open. The DST/AIIMS teaching booklet and ICYER describe this shape as Chin mudra. This page shows the gentle point of contact clearly; it does not ask you to straighten the remaining fingers by force.
Why two names share a page
The Australian School of Meditation and Yoga distinguishes Chin with the palm upward and Jnana with the palm downward. Its explanation belongs to that school. Naming is not sufficiently uniform to make two nearly identical cards a useful census of different techniques. This comparison keeps both search names visible and tells you which usage is being described.
A gesture and an interpretation
ASMY explains the meeting fingers through a symbolic relationship between the individual and the Supreme. The image can be read as a teaching symbol without treating it as a measured electrical circuit or a promise of improved memory. For a simple way to sit, the natural-breath practice allows the hands to rest on the thighs without any mudra. Choose that option whenever a finger shape feels awkward.
Sources and scope
Main edition
Structured Yoga Module for Diabetes (2024)
Passage for this reading
- Structured Yoga Module for Diabetes (2024)
9.1(a), printed p. 49.
Puneet Misra, AIIMS New Delhi; edited with Rashmi Sharma, DST. Used here only to check the named hand arrangements, §9.1, printed p. 49. Its treatment claims are outside these pages’ scope.
- Basic Practice of Some Pranayamas
“Mudras for pranayama,” items 1–2, PDF pp. 2–3.
Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani, International Centre for Yoga Education and Research. Source page numbering refers to the PDF; hand descriptions compared independently.
- Chin and Jnana Mudra
School’s own Chin/Jnana comparison.
Australian School of Meditation and Yoga: the school’s own naming and symbolic interpretation.
What this edition covers
An original explanatory guide to this named hand form, with source comparisons and a schematic diagram.
Limits and differences
The prose above identifies material differences. Traditional explanations and promised attainments are attributed to their sources; they are not clinical evidence. Review date: September 11, 2026.