Dr. Robert Svoboda explains the meaning of the Sanskrit words “loma” and “viloma” in this short video.

Loma, sometimes written roma, means the hair on the body. The word becomes especially useful when it is employed with prefixes that indicate direction.

Anuloma means moving with the direction of the hair, while pratiloma or viloma means moving against it. In Ayurveda and surgery, the distinction can describe whether an action or incision follows the natural direction of the tissues or moves against it.

The same language can describe the movement of prana. It can also be used spiritually: a pāṭha, or recitation, may move loma in the normal direction of the mantra, or viloma in the opposite direction, with the mantra or its parts recited in reverse order.

Loma is a useful example of how language takes metaphors from physical realities—the direction of hair on the body—and uses them to represent other realities symbolically.