Khecari Mudra and the Reach for Nectar

Khecari mudra, described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika among other hatha manuals, is the practice most directly tied to Lalana. The technique trains the tongue, sometimes after a gradual lengthening practice, to curl back and up behind the soft palate, reaching toward the nasal cavity, a position the texts describe as letting the practitioner taste and retain the nectar said to collect at Lalana rather than let it fall further and be lost. The Pradipika treats the mudra as an advanced technique bound up with claims of stopped aging and prolonged life, framing physical technique and subtle-body effect as inseparable.

Because khecari mudra as fully described in the classical texts involves gradual, guided preparation of the tongue's ligament, hatha yoga lineages generally treat it as a practice transmitted under a teacher's direct supervision rather than one to be attempted from a text description alone, and the atlas records the practice's existence and purpose here without offering it as instruction.