The whole of this mantra turns on one picture. उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनात्. Like a cucumber from its stem.

Nobody pulls a ripe fruit off. It has been growing the whole time, and at the end the stem simply lets go, and the fruit was not damaged in the letting go because the release came from ripeness and not from force. That is the opposite of how a man is usually told to leave what holds him: cut it, fight it, tear yourself away, and be a wound afterwards.

And then the last three words, which people leave out when they quote it. मा अमृतात्. Not from life. Free me from the binding, not from living. It is asking to be released toward something, not away from something, which is the whole position this training takes.

This is the mantra to carry when the body is in withdrawal, and it has been carried for that reason for a very long time.

वाचिक: Said out loud, at the length of one out-breath. The syllables light as you say them. उपांशु: The lips move, the breath carries it, nobody across the room can hear it. The mantra stays on the screen and stops moving. मानस: Nothing is said and nothing is shown. Only the breath and the count. अन्तर्यात्रा: One mālā that goes inwards by itself. The first third aloud, the second in a whisper, the last in the mind. The voice leaves the room without you deciding when.