Mudras: Hand Gestures and Their Place in Yoga

Mudras are positions of the hands or other parts of the body used in traditional yoga practice. Some accompany seated meditation; others belong to breathing, gaze or more advanced practices. This guide starts with the hand mudras used for seated meditation, then covers gaze, body and advanced mudras.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati, in Yoga and Kriya (Bihar School of Yoga), defines mudras as special positions of the body or of parts of it. He says they often involve bandhas and breathing, and turn awareness inward. This guide describes what that source says, and it does not present the traditional explanations as medical benefits. It sits beside our yoga poses.

A mudra is not always a hand gesture. The book also describes gaze, tongue and body practices as mudras. It says there are hundreds of hand mudras and teaches only a few.

Bandhas are different: the book describes them as physical locks. Some advanced practices combine them with mudras and breathing.

Jnana mudra (also written Gyan mudra) and Chin mudra use the same finger arrangement. The index finger folds to the root of the thumb, or touches its tip, and the other three fingers stay extended. The difference is the palm: Jnana places the palms down on the knees, and Chin turns them upwards. The book uses them as hand positions for sitting, for example in Lotus Pose and other seats such as Easy Pose. If you would like to try seated practice, ask about our meditation classes in Kolathur.

The source describes five more hand positions that go with seated meditation. They are listed here for information.

Nasagra mudra is the hand position used to guide the breath in alternate nostril breathing. It is not a meditation hand position. See Anulom Vilom for how it fits into the practice.

Keep it distinct from the gaze practice of looking at the nose tip. The names sound similar, but that practice is agochari mudra, listed with the gaze mudras below.

The remaining mudras in the book involve gaze, the tongue, the muscles of the pelvic floor, inverted or folded positions, or breath and awareness practices taught inside kriya yoga. They are described here for information, not as instructions.

Simple hand placement, such as resting your hands on your knees in Jnana or Chin mudra, is very different from practices that involve gaze, inversions, held breath or locks. The advanced ones belong with a qualified teacher, not a web page.

Maha bandha is a bandha, not a mudra, so it is not in the list above. It brings together three locks (uddiyana, jalandhara and moola). In the book it appears alongside the held-breath stages of Kapalbhati and alternate nostril breathing, and in kriya practice. It is advanced.

If you have a health condition, are pregnant or have a neck problem, check with your doctor before trying any inverted, breath-holding or lock-based practice. Our pranayama guide lists who should take care with breathing practice.