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The body in early Hatha Yoga

by Ruth Westoby | 2024 | 112,229 words

This page relates ‘Vivekamartanda: impel Rajas by moving the Goddess� of study dealing with the body in Hatha Yoga Sanskrit texts.—This essay highlights how these texts describe physical practices for achieving liberation and bodily sovereignty with limited metaphysical understanding. Three bodily models are focused on: the ascetic model of ‘baking� in Yoga, conception and embryology, and Kundalini’s affective processes.

վ첹ٲṇḍ: impel Rajas by moving the Goddess

The վ첹ٲṇḍ is less clear on the locations of bindu and rajas than the ṛt. Like the ṛt the text recommends sexual continence (վ첹ٲṇḍ 38). Unlike the ṛt the վ첹ٲṇḍ includes a teaching on ṇḍī. ṇḍī is described as śپ (վ첹ٲṇḍ 32) and rajas is moved upwards by a process of stimulating the goddess (śپcāla) (վ첹ٲṇḍ 57) but these passages are not contiguous. That both rajas (վ첹ٲṇḍ 56) and ṇḍī are named śپ does not necessarily mean they are considered synonymous.

The description of bindu that precedes the description of rajas reflects the ṛt. In the long recension of the վ첹ٲṇḍ the body is founded on bindu (վ첹ٲṇḍ 68). Bindu that has been sealed by 𳦲ī above the uvula does not fall even if the yogi is embraced by a passionate woman (վ첹ٲṇḍ 51), an assertion that sites bindu in the head. Then the bindu that has moved and reached the fire moves upwards when checked by DzԾܻ and struck by the goddess (վ첹ٲṇḍ 53). This could be read as two different bindus sited in two different regions of the body. However, I think it more likely, in line with the account of ṛt 3.4 that bindu moves downwards due to sexual arousal and is then drawn back upwards. Therefore, bindu is not located in the lower body but only travels downwards and back up. The վ첹ٲṇḍ does not specify that this is as a result of sexual arousal. Only after the description of bindu falling and being moved back upwards is it distinguished as two kinds. These are white bindu and red rajas (վ첹ٲṇḍ 54). Rajas is described as liquid coral in the yoni and bindu is in the moon (վ첹ٲṇḍ 55), i.e. rajas is in the lower body and bindu in the head. Although bindu is identified with ś and rajas with śپ, and bindu with the moon and rajas with the sun and their joining is very difficult (վ첹ٲṇḍ 56ab), the text does not identify rajas with ṇḍī. Neither in the ṇḍī section (վ첹ٲṇḍ 31-35, 39) nor elsewhere is ṇḍī described as joining ś. Joining rajas and bindu attains the highest condition (parama pada) (վ첹ٲṇḍ 56cd). Rajas unites with bindu as a result of moving the goddess (śپcāla) by the breath (վ첹ٲṇḍ 57). This is also a technique for awakening ṇḍī taught for example in the Ҵǰṣaśٲ첹 where it involves tying a cloth around the tongue (Ҵǰṣaśٲ첹 16-28) as identified by Mallinson (2012). Redolent of ṅg drying up the oceans, 峾ܻ is purification of the channels, union of sun and moon and drying up of the bodily fluids (վ첹ٲṇḍ 58). The վ첹ٲṇḍ has the most explicit connection between rajas and ṇḍī because rajas is raised by śپcālana but they are not necessarily identical.

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