Read the arrangement, not just the name
Hatha Yoga Pradipika 3.19 to 25 describes a seated arrangement, a contraction at the base, and regulated retention. The Gheranda Samhita presents its own arrangement of the heels and connects the practice with Jalandhara. These descriptions should be read beside one another, not spliced into a new instruction.
Its place beside Mahamudra
Sivananda presents Mahamudra as preparation for Mahabandha and describes Mahavedha after it. The ordered relationship helps explain the vocabulary of this group. It does not mean a reader should progress through the three simply because the pages are linked in that order.
What a useful comparison asks
Look for the seat, the location of pressure, and the relation between the lock and the held breath. Those details make the passage more precise than the English label “great lock.” Read this way, Mahabandha sets no retention target and builds no combined-bandha routine. Claims about defeating aging and death are reported as the tradition’s language of attainment.
A passage with an acknowledged alternative
The familiar Sanskrit passage is 3.19 to 25; the critical edition’s corresponding reading is 3.19 to 24, with additional transmitted verses displayed at 3.21*1 to 2. One of those verses records an alternative involving the tongue instead of the throat lock (Sinh Sanskrit 3.22; critical edition 3.21*2). The text itself therefore preserves more than one account.
The map follows the opening list’s order. Its links are an order for reading, while the description and its variants remain attached to their own edition.
Where no edition is named, Hatha Yoga Pradipika verse numbers follow the Sanskrit numbering printed with Sinh’s 1914 edition.
Sources and scope
Main edition
Hatha Yoga Pradipika, chapter 3
Passage for this reading
- Haṭhapradīpikā Online: critical-edition comparison
Chapter 3, 3.19 to 24, including displayed additions where relevant. The map above explains material differences from Sinh’s Sanskrit 3.19 to 25. Comparison reviewed September 12, 2026.
- Hatha Yoga Pradipika, chapter 3
Sanskrit verses 3.19 to 25.
Svātmārāma; Sanskrit and Pancham Sinh’s 1914 translation. English paragraph numbering sometimes diverges from the Sanskrit verses.
- Gheranda Samhita, James Mallinson (2004)
3.14 to 16, printed pp. 66 to 67; SanskritDocuments 3.18 to 20.
YogaVidya.com publisher excerpt, introduction and chapter 3, printed pp. 60 to 71. The excerpt covers part of the book.
- Kundalini Yoga
“Mudras and Bandhas: 5. Maha Bandha”.
Swami Sivananda; Divine Life Society, tenth edition 1994, authorized web edition 1999. Traditional teaching, not clinical evidence.
What this edition covers
An original reference essay comparing the traditional descriptions. It is not a translation of the entire source chapter.
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.