Bhujangini Mudra – the Destroyer of Decay and Deat

In my experimenting with body I have found a proper position of the neck and the throat (pharynx). I wondered how I should call this – and to my mind there came a snake. And having looked into “primary sources” I found the name to have been given long before me ))).

This is the description Bhujangini-mudra from the Gheranda-Samhita:

3.92. Extending the neck a little forward, let him drink (draw in) the air through the aesophagus; this is called Bhujangini (serpent)-mudra, destroyer of decay and death

3.93. This serpent-mudra quickly destroys all stomach diseases, especially indigestion, dyspepsia and so on.

A number of authors give it a literal interpretation:  Try to drink the air by your throat and after swallowing direct it into your stomach. Do a series of swallows, as if you drink water, hold the air inside for a while and then push it out through belching. 

I think that mystic texts that I believe the Gheranda-Samhita to be referred to are rather metaphoric. In what way can you communicate the (body) experience, especially when you don’t know the names of anatomic structures – muscles, bones, nerves? Most probably you will do this by compаring it to something familiar and known to people around you. There are plenty of snakes in India, and everyone there – or the majority of – has seen the way they eat the prey. The snake eats its prey in one whole piece, extending the throat and dropping down the larynx (the “windpipe”) as if pulling itself over onto the prey.

Now you try to yawn. What happens here? The pharynx shall extend, while the root of the tongue and the larynx shall, on the contrary, low down; the head is lagged and the neck is stretched forward. The core point of bhujangini-mudra performance is the expansion of the pharynx forming the pre-yawning state. Keeping this state is the described mudra proper. The pharynx walls have a large number of perceiving “sensors” – the receptors of the glossopharyngeal and vagus nerves. When the pharynx is stretched, you gastrointestinal tract is activated and the secretion of gastric juice is intensified (due to the work of vagus nervus). Excessive stretching of the pharynx shall cause the diaphragm’ reflexive contraction and drop (almost to the level of tadagi-mudra)) and it may cause belching and pharyngeal (vomiting) reflex. Just like it was promised in Gheranda-Samhita – we now can handle the indigestion.

The pharynx is formed by crossed-striated muscles. That is, they are subject to conscious control. There are pharynx constrictors (detrusors) and pharynx erectors – the muscle fibers that are arranged horizontally and vertically. We make them contract through shortening when perform the hissing breath (see the article Some of Ujjayi Breathing Effects, or Relaxation that Comes after Victory by E. Akhromieieva). The inverse approach – contraction through lengthening – occurs when yawning or when doing the bhujangini-mudra. 

I consider the practices of yoga to be very pragmatic. That is, they are meant for specific tasks. One’s understanding of the mode of action enables a conscious approach to health-rehabilitating or advancing practices, with one’s clear comprehending of the target, the method and the expected result. Thus one should be “zealous” in practicing those mudras and asanas that shall make weak muscles work, that shall set the body into some unusual position and activate emotions in one’s “squeezed”, contracted muscles. In fact, you may tell whether this is the practice that you need by its complexity, uncustomary performance mode and bright emotional reaction.

If the work of some muscles prevails, the others will be respectively “switched off”. Or another variant that happens even more often: if due to some reason one muscle stops working, its function shall be performed by another muscle, this now been a burden. This shall entail muscular asymmetry. Let us, for instance, consider the professional deformation of a body. In case of vocal practice there is a danger that one shall remain with habitually wide pharynx that at the very minimum shall be revealed through snoring. “The truth” (the balance) is somewhere in the middle, in rhythmic alternate contraction of antagonist muscles, in the sequence of muscles’ shortening and lengthening. The pharynx position at inhalation is the wide and lowered one, while that of exhalation is narrow and raised up. In fact this comes as a part of a more global process – the process of etheric breathing. And this is a topic of a separate article.

P.S. Coming back to bhujangini-mudra: it has a separate aspect of application in vocal practice. This applicative aspect has been thoroughly worked through by phoniatrics (the sub-discipline that studies sound and singing). If you want to “sing the voice of Caruso” you should master at least two practices (this is the insufficient minimumJ)) – the tadagi-mudra and bhujangini-mudra. When they teach you to sing in a deep pretty voice the vocal teachers suggest that you “lean” on the diaphragm, widen up your pharynx and “pour out” the sound.