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little finger. Energy is normally being discharged from the fingertips, and it has been suggested that the energy flowing along the lung meridians to the thumb while performing jnana or chin mudra is transferred to the large intestine meridian. The body's vital energy is therefore conserved.
Chin mudra is said to have an influence on abdominal breathing, and here we can see a pranic connection between the lungs and abdomen through their respective meridians.
Note: The word jnana means 'wisdom' or 'knowledge', and thus jnana mudra is the gesture of intuitive knowledge. Chin, on the other hand, is derived from the word chit or chitta, which means 'consciousness'. Chin mudra, therefore, is the psychic gesture of consciousness.
Symbolically, the middle, ring and small fingers represent the three qualities of nature. The middle finger symbolizes sattwa (purity, wisdom, true understanding), the ring finger rajas (action, passion, movement) and the little finger tamas (inertia, lethargy, darkness). These three states or gunas have to be transcended (from tamas to rajas to sattwa) in order to pass from darkness into light and from ignorance to knowledge. The bent index finger represents the individual manifestation of consciousness (jivatma). The thumb signifies the all-pervading consciousness or reality (paramatma). The index finger and the thumb touching each other shows that, though they seem separate, the individual being is in fact one with the Supreme.
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