Dhāraṇā 58: The Mouth-Center and Mental Ha (Verse 81)¶
1. Exercise Title & Verse¶
Dhāraṇā 58: The Mouth-Center and Mental Ha (Verse 81)
2. Sanskrit (IAST)¶
madhyajihve sphāritāsye madhye nikṣipya cetanām | hoccāraṃ manasā kurvaṃs tataḥ śānte pralīyate || 81 ||
3. English (Literal)¶
Placing awareness in the center, in the middle of the tongue in the widened mouth, and mentally doing the uccāra of ha, one then dissolves into peace.
4. Main Commentary (Bhāṣya)¶
Padārtha. Madhya-jihve means with the tongue in the middle, not hanging slack to one side and not engaged in elaborate muscular acrobatics. Sphāritāsye means the mouth is opened or widened. Lakshmanjoo sharpens this practically: the opening is to be created inwardly, not by theatrically stretching the lips. Madhye nikṣipya cetanām means placing or casting awareness into the center there. The verse is not interested in the tongue as anatomy alone, but in the central oral space disclosed by the posture. Hoccāraṃ manasā kurvan is the crux. Singh, Dyczkowski, and Wallis all publicly support a mental ha-uccāra. Lakshmanjoo instead operationalizes it through an internal oral so'ham, explicitly saying the practice is in the mouth rather than at the nostrils. Tataḥ śānte pralīyate means one dissolves into peace, tranquillity, or the Tranquil One.
Anvaya. The sentence runs as follows: with the mouth widened and the tongue centered, one places awareness in the middle there and mentally performs the uccāra of ha; by that, one dissolves into peace.
Tatparya. Verse 81 makes a real turn after Verse 80. The previous dhāraṇā used open-eyed sight and the arresting flash of visible form to cut off story. This verse withdraws the gate inward to the mouth-cavity. The point is not gross tongue-technique for its own sake. The point is that sound, breath, and awareness are gathered into a single small chamber until discursiveness gives way. What this verse newly clarifies is that the center can be entered through an inner oral resonance just as surely as through sight. The public philological support is strongest for a mental ha; Lakshmanjoo's oral teaching makes the practice more explicitly mantric and breath-linked through so'ham in the mouth. The safest synthesis is not to flatten one into the other, but to preserve the common core: the mouth is opened inwardly, awareness is centralized in the tongue-mouth center, and the sound-current is made subtle enough that peace absorbs the mind instead of exciting it outward.
Sādhana. Sit upright. Let the jaw loosen and the mouth open enough that the inner cavity feels spacious, but do not force the lips into a strained gape. Place the tongue in the middle, lightly centered and, if natural, slightly lifted back. Then gather awareness into the middle of the tongue and the oral chamber around it. Let the breath remain quiet. Mentally intone the minimal sound-current there. If you follow the stricter public translation, this is the subtle ha; if you follow Lakshmanjoo's practice-hinge, it may be the internal oral current of so'ham. In either case, do not chant aloud, do not move the lips, and do not shift the attention back to the nostrils. The work is to keep awareness in the mouth-center until sound becomes so subtle that it dissolves into peace.
5. Jaideva Singh — The Logical¶
The syntax is tightly ordered. Madhyajihve and sphāritāsye establish the bodily setup first: the tongue is centered and the mouth opened. Nikṣipya is an absolutive, so awareness is first cast into the middle there. Hoccāraṃ manasā kurvan then gives the operative act: a mental uccāra, not a gross audible pronunciation. Singh's note explains why he hears a vowel-less ha: once the tongue is inverted against the palate, the palatal element of haṃsa cannot be articulated in the ordinary way, so only the ha remains for mental repetition. He also gives the doctrinal consequence precisely. The mental ha develops prāṇa-śakti or the madhya-daśā, and therefore the practice is classified as āṇavopāya.
6. Swami Lakshmanjoo — The Lineage¶
Do not make this a nostril-mantra and do not make it crude khecarī display. The mouth must be opened inwardly, not outwardly. The tongue is centered. Awareness is centered there too. Then the sound-current is worked in the mouth itself. Lakshmanjoo's correction is exact: so'ham here is not to be followed at the nostrils like the earlier breath practices. It is oral and internal. The practical hinge is location. If the attention leaves the mouth-center, the dhāraṇā has already been missed. He also keeps the classification exact: this is simple āṇavopāya, though it carries the practitioner toward the śāmbhava state.
7. Mark Dyczkowski & Christopher Wallis — Context & Philology¶
Direct official support exists, but it is translational rather than discursive. Wallis' official concordance titles Verse 81 Mental uccāra of 'ha' and renders the practice as mouth open, tongue in the middle, awareness cast into the center, and mental HA. Dyczkowski's official PDF gives the same basic structure: the tongue turned up into the center of the cavity, attention fixed there, and the letter H uttered mentally. That agreement matters because it confirms that the public philological baseline is a minimal inner ha-practice. The official sources located for this pass do not give fuller verse-specific prose commentary on the tension between that baseline and Lakshmanjoo's oral so'ham explanation. The honest conclusion is therefore narrow: the verse is publicly supported as a centered mouth-cavity ha-uccāra practice, while the fuller oral-mantric mechanics are primarily carried by Lakshmanjoo's lineage exposition.
8. Daniel Odier — The Somatic Grounding¶
Odier keeps the useful bodily facts close: mouth open, mind in the tongue at the center of the oral cavity, HA, and peace. The somatic value here is simplicity. Feel the mouth not as a place for speech but as a resonant chamber. Let the tongue float in the middle. Let the sound become so subtle that it is more like an inner exhalative trace than a spoken syllable. Then the cavity quiets and gathers you inward.
9. Paul Reps — The "Sudden Hit"¶
With mouth slightly open, keep mind in the middle of tongue. Or, as breath comes silently in, feel the sound HH.
10. Upāya Type¶
Āṇavopāya. Singh states this directly. Lakshmanjoo also calls it simple āṇavopāya, even while saying it carries the practitioner toward the śāmbhava state.
11. Resonance Check (Adhikāra)¶
This verse suits a practitioner with enough subtle bodily sensitivity to keep attention in a very small internal space without turning the method into strain, chanting, or mechanical posture-display.
12. The "What Else?" — The Pitfall¶
The trap is to turn the practice into either tongue-gymnastics or audible mantra recitation. Then the center of the mouth is lost, the sound becomes gross, and peace is replaced by effort.
13. Verse-Specific Glossary¶
uccāra: here a subtle inner sound-emergence or mantric articulation, not ordinary speech.madhya: the center. In this verse it is the living center of the mouth-tongue cavity where awareness is placed.khecarī mudrā: in this verse, the tongue-centered inner oral seal that makes the mouth-cavity a contemplative space; not mere display of posture.śānte: peace, tranquility, the Tranquil One. Here it is the still field into which the sound-current dissolves.