YOGAPRINCETON READINGS IN RELIGIONS Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Editor TITLES IN THE SERIES Religions of India in Practice edited by Donald §. Lopez, Jr. Buddhism in Practice edited by Donald §. Lopez, Jr. Religions of China in Practice edited by Donald 8. Lopez, Jr. Religions of Tibet in Practice edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Religions of Japan in Practice edited by George J. Tanabe, Jr. Religions of Asia in Practice: An Anthology edited by Donald 8. Lopes, Jt Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice edited by Richard Valantasis Tantra in Practice edited by David Gordon White Judaism in Practice: From the Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period edited by Lawrence Fine Religions of the United States in Practice, Volumes 1 and 2 edited by Colleen McDannell Religions of Asia in Practice: An Anthology edited by Donald $, Lopez, Jr. Religions of Korea in Practice edited by Robert E. Buswell, Jr. ‘The Historical Jesus in Context edited by Amy-Jill Levine, Dale C. Allison Jr., and John Dominic Crossan Medieval Christianity in Practice edited by Miri Rubin Islam in South Asia in Practice edited by Barbara D. Metcalf Yoga in Practice edited by David Gordon White I N YOGA PRACTICE Edited by David Gordon White PRINCETON READINGS IN RELIGIONS PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORDCopyright © 2012 by Princeton University Dress Published by Princeton University Press, 4l William Street, Princeton, New Jercey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Wooulstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW All Rights Reserved ISBN: 978-0-691-14085-8 ISBN (pbk): 978-0-691-14086-5 Library of Congress Control Nusaber: 2011934245 British Library Cacaloging-in-Publication Data is available “This book has been composed in Adobe Caslon Pro with Charlemagne Std Display Printed on acid-free paper oo press.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 135798642 CONTENTS Contents by Tradition Contents by Country Contributors Introduction - David Gordon White Note for Instructors - David Gordon White Foundational Yoga Texts 1. The Path to Liberation through Yogic Mindfulness in Barly Ayurveda . Dominik Wujastyk 2. A Prescription for Yoga and Power in the Mahabharata » James L. Fitzgerald 3, Yoga Practices in the Bhagavadgita . Angelika Malinar 4, Pataiijala Yoga in Practice - Gerald James Larson 5. Yoga in the Yoga Upanisads: Disciplines of the Mystical OM Sound + Jeffrey Clark Ruff 6. The Sevenfold Yoga of the Yogavasistha . Christopher Key Chapple 7, A Fourteenth-Century Persian Account of Breath Control and Meditation . Carl W. Ernst Yoga in Jain, Buddhist, and Hindu Tantric Traditions 8. A Digambara Jain Description of the Yogic Path to Deliverance . Paul Dundas 9, Saraha’s Queen Dohas « Roger R. Jackson 10. The Questions and Answers of Vajrasattva « Jacob P Dalton 11. The Six-Phased Yoga of the Abbreviated Wheel of Time Tantra (Laghutiilacakratantra) according to Vajrapani » Vesna, Wallace 12. Exoticism and Cosmic Transformation as Yoga: The Atmatattua of the Vaisnava Sahajiyas of Bengal . Glen Alesander Hayes 29 31 43 58 73 7 117 133 141 143 162 , 185 204 223The Original Goraksasataka James Mallinson ‘The Goraksasataka or “Hundred Verses of Goraksa” contains some of the earli- est teachings on Aatha yoga to be found in Sanskcit texts. It is the first text to describe complex methods of pranayama, breath control, and the first to teach the esoteric sarasvaticéilana, “the stimulation of Sarasvati,” a technique for arousing Kundalini, the coiled serpent goddess who lies dormant at the base of the spine in the unenlightened. Most of the varieties of yoga practiced around the wotld today derive from hatha yoga. The first texts to teach its tech- niques appeared soon after the beginning of the second millennium. ‘What unites these early texts and sets them apart from other works on yoga are the physical techniques known as bandas and mudras, which are used to control the breath and raise Kundalini. Much of hatha yoga’s development can be seen as a reaction against the exclusivity and complexity of Tantric cults and practices. The esoteric physiology of ‘Tantra is taken as the template for the human body, but the means of accessing and controlling the energies and substances within has become purely physical. The only external aid necessary is a guru qualified to teach Aafha yoga’s practices, There is no need for Tantra’s elaborate initiations, nor the secret mandalas and mantras passed down within occult ‘Tantric lineages, nor elaborate ritual paraphernalia, including the in- famous paricamakara or “five Ms”: madya (“wine”), mamsa (“meat”), matsya (“fish”), mudra (“hand gestures”), and maithuna (“sex”). As is made clear in the last verse of the Goraksasataka, alternatives for these can be found within the body of the yogi. “The techniques may differ, but the results of Aatha yoga are the same as those of ‘T'antric rituals and yoga: supernatural powers (siddhis) and liberation (muézi). In contrast to the usual conceptions of Tantric libera- tion, however, the latter can be achieved while alive, in a body immortalized by means of batha yoga. Mukti, liberation, is the goal of the yoga of the Goraksasataka. As is made clear in its first verse, its teachings are aimed at: ascetics, men who have re-FF 258 JAMES MALLINSON nounced worldly existence and devoted their lives to becoming liberated, Some other texts on Aa¢ha yoga, such as the Sivasamhita, teach that house- holders can benefit from its practice, and there are occasional hints in such works that women also used its techniques, hut the male renouncer is the usual intended audience of texts on Aatha yoga. ‘The Yoga of the Goraksasataka ‘The theory and method of the Geraksasataa’s path to liberation are relatively clear, unlike those found in many other works on Aarha yoga. For the yogi to be liberated, his mind must be controlled. The mind and the breath are con- nected, so to control his mind the yogi should control his breath. Three meth- ods should be used simultaneously to master the breath: eating a controlled diet, assuming a particular posture, and stimulating Kundalini. ‘The ingredients of a controlled diet are not identified in the text; the yogi’s food is simply required to be such that it “is unctuous and sweet, leaves a quar- ter [of the stomach] empty and is eaten in order to please Siva.” “Posture” is dsana. Only two dsanas are recommended in the Goraksasataka: padmasana, the lotus posture, and vajrdsana, the diamond posture. The Go- raksasataka’s vajrasana is known in other texts as siddhasana. Both padmasana and vajrisana are relatively simple seated postures. Hatha yoga later became associated with the practice of more complex dsanas, but they are absent from its early texts. They first appear in the thirteenth-century Vasisthasambita, whose yoga is not Aatha yoga but rather an attempt to accommodate Tantric Kundalini yoga within an orthodox Vedic soteriology. The Vasisthasambita’s verses on dsana were used in the fifteenth-century Hathapradipika (or Hatha- yogapradipika), the first work in which complex danas are included among the techniques of Aatha yoga, Kundalini can be made to move either by sarasvaricalana, stimulating Sara- svati, or by pranarodha, restraining the breath, Sarasvati is the goddess of | speech; her home in the body is the tongue. The yogi is to move his tongue by wrapping it ina cloth and pulling it from side to side. The tongue is connected to the Sugumna ndgi, the central and most important of the 72,000 nadis or channels in the body, Pulling the tongue lifts the base of the Susumni at the bottom of the spine, which is where Kundalini sleeps, thereby stirring the dormant Kundalini into action and allowing her, assisted by the associated rush of prdna, the vital breath, to enter the Susumna, ‘This esoteric technique was misunderstood by most later commentators and anthologists because the text does not state explicitly where the cloth is to. THE ORIGINAL GORAKS$ASATAKA 259 be applied, Kundalini resides at the base of the spine, and stimulating her is said in the text to free the yogi from various diseases that might afflict the abdominal region, so the practice has been misunderstood as being performed in the lower part of the upper body. A variant of the Goraksatataka's verse de scribing the cloth is found, without any instructions as to what should be done with it, in the context of Sakticalana, “stimulating the goddess,” in two other carly works on Aatha yoga—the Yogabija and Hatbapradipika. The Hindi translation of the Gorakhpur edition of the Yogadija supplies nabhi, the navel, as the location at which the cloth is to be applied. Brahmananda, who wrote a commentary on the Hathapradipika in 1843 CE, understands the verse to be describing the danda, a bulb in the region of the navel from which all the body's nadis are said to arise (to make sense of the verse he adds that the anda appears as if wrapped in a cloth). The Yogakundalyupanisad, a late Yoga Upanisad, includes most of the Goraksagateka in its first chapter, Upanigadbrahmayogin, who wrote commentaries on a corpus of 108 Upa~ nigads, makes no attempt to explain sarasvaticalana in his commentary on the Yogakundalyupanisad. In his translation of the Yogatundalyupanisad, T. R. Srinivasa Ayyangar, who translated all the Yoga Upanisads for the Adyar Li- brary, ingeniously turns the practice into a variant of sambhavimudra, a medi~ tation technique in which the fingers are used to block the orifices of the head. ‘The dimensions of the cloth are taken to refer to the distance that the breath is “elongated” to surround the Sugumna. In the description of sakticalang found in the Gherandasambita, which probably dates to the carly part of the eighteenth century, the cloth is said to be wrapped around the nabhi, the navel. Saéticdlana is not mentioned in most modern manuals of ‘yoga, such as B.K.S, Iyengar’s otherwise encyclopedic Light on Yoga. In his translation of the Hathapradipika, the present-day guru Satyananda Sarasvati says that nawli, churning of the stomach, is to be used to stimulate the goddess. There are two later Sanskrit texts which incorporate the Gorabsasataka’s verses on saravvati- calana and understand them correctly: the Brhatkhecariprakasa, a commentary on the Khecarividya probably written in the first half of the eighteenth cen- tury, and the Harharatnavali, which was compiled in the seventeenth century. ‘The latter borrows from the Goraksasataka wholesale but substitutes jibvam, “the tongue,” for the original’s sannadim, “her channel,” as the location of where to wrap the cloth. Here lies the crux of the passage’s misinterpretation elsewhere: as mentioned above, the location of Sarasvati’s nadi or “channel” is not made clear in the text of the Goraksasataka. In some texts—the Sanskrit Armrtasiddhi, Brabmajnana, and Hathatattvakaumudi, and the Hindi Gorakh- bapi—Sarasvati is said to be a synonym of either Kundalini or ‘Susumna. Both identifications make sense because of the different possible referents ofbe ie 260 JAMES MALLINSON Sarasvati. Kundalini and Sarasvati are both manifestations of Sakti, the femi- nine principle of the universe; Sarasvati is also the name of the now mythical river said to meet the Ganges and Yamuna in a triple confluence at Allahabad which is paralleled in the body by the conflueuce of the Ida, Pingala, and Susumna wa¢is, Both analogues only serve to obscure, however, the location of Sarasvati in the body. In other texts—the Sanskrit Matsyendrasambita, Sari gadbarapaddbati, and Siddhasiddbantapaddbati, and the Hindi Prag Samhali— Sarasvati is neither Kundalini nor Susumna but a separate ndgi, all or one end of which is located in the tongue. In the Khecarividya, the tongue is frequently called Vagist, “Goddess of Speech,” a synonym of Sarasvatt It is this identifi- cation of the Sarasvati nadi that makes sense of the compound sarasvaticdlana, Calana, “stimulation” or “causing to move,” is part of the practice of kAeca~ rimudra, an important hathayogic technique in which the tongue is loosened and lengthened so that it can be turned backwards and inserted above the soft palate in order that the yogi might taste the amta, the nectar of immortality dripping from the moon in the head. Kdecarimudré is not taught in the Goraksasataka but is described in some other early Sanskrit works on Aatha yoga, including the Dartatreyayogasastra, the Vivekamartanda, and the Khecari- vidya. In the latter, cdlana is a means of loosening the tongue (by wrapping it in a cloth and pulling on it) in order that AAecarimudra may be performed. Many of the traditional practitioners of bafha yoga whom I have met in India have demonstrated this technique to me. Theos Bernard also reports, in his account of a traditional training in hatha yoga (Hatha Yoga, London: Rider, 1950), that he was told to practice it. Calana as a preliminary to the practice of Abecarimudra is not in itself said to stimulate Kundalini, but Ahecarimudra is. Ballala says in the Brbatkbecariprakasa that Kundalini is to be awakened “by means of dsana, breath-retention, moving the tongue, mudra ete.” In this way, a quintessentially hathayogic technique consisting of the crude manipulation of the body, leads to the awakening of Kundalini and thence to liberation. While sarasvatica/ana was an important component of satha yoga at its incep- tion, it appears—if one takes Sanskrit texts on Aatha yoga as one’s yardstick— to have fairly quickly fallen into obscurity, understood by only a handful of later practitioners or scholars, Within vernacular texts and the oral tradition, however, the idea of a connection between the tongue and Kundalini, or at least the region in which she is said to lic sleeping, has survived. Thus, various medieval and later Hindi works—for example, the Gorakh Bani, Pattc Matra, and Mahédeu Ji Ki Sabdi—mention a link between the tongue and the penis (the yogi must restrain both), as does the eighteenth-century, Sogpradipaka, in which a single channel, identified with the Sugumn4, is said to join the tongue and the penis. The Jogpradipaka passage associates the lengthening of the THE ORIGINAL GORAKSASATAKA 261 tongue with /aghuta, “lightness” (“faccidness”?), of the penis, the overcoming of sexual urges, and the awakening of Kundalini. In 1996, at the Yoga Centre of Benares Hindu University, | met Dr. K. M. Tripathi, who demonstrated a technique in which the tip of the tongue is pressed against the front teeth and held there while the mouth is repeatedly opened wide and closed again. It is to be done at least a thousand times a day, he said, and the technique tugs on the merudanda, the spinal column, causing Kundalini to rise. Dr. Tripathi told me that he had to give up this technique when he was married: householder practices that pull on the lower end of the merudapda are incompatible with the yogi’s practice of tugging at the top. The second method for stimulating Kundalini taught in the Goraksasataka is restraining the breath. Some later texts, which do not teach sarasvaticalana— such as the Sioasambita and Yuktabhavadeva—say that Kundalini should be stimulated by manipulating apdna, the lower breath. Holding the breath is called Aumbhaka in the Goraksasataka. Kumbhaka, which means “pot,” can be unassisted, Le., spontaneous and unstructured, or it can be assisted and take one of four forms. The former is superior. The latter is described in the Gorak- sasataka in verses that are also found in the Hafhapradipika and which are the earliest descriptions of complex breath control (prapayama) to be found in any Sanskrit text. The four varieties of Aumbbaka are Surya, Ujjayi, Sitali, and Bhastri, Each involves inhaling and exhaling in a different way. Surya is per- formed by inhaling through the right nostril and exhaling through the left. For Ujjayi the yogi is to make a rasping noise in the lower part of the throat as he inhales. In Sitali he is to inhale through his rolled tongue. For Bhastri he is to pump the breath in and out as if working a pair of bellows. These Aum- bhakas have various physical effects, ranging from the elimination of diseases to the awakening of Kundalini. To achieve mastery of the breath and assist the stimulation of Kundalini, there are three further practices that the yogi should undertake: the thtee dandhas ot locks. These archetypal hathayogic practices are mila bandba, in which the perineum is contracted; udgiyana bandha, in which the stomach is drawn up toward the abdomen; and jdlandhara bandha, in which the chin is held down on the chest. ‘The Gorakjasatakds yoga is summarized in its description of the best way to samédbi, the ultimate stage of all yogas.’Ihe yogi is to sit in a correct posture, stimulate Sarasvati, and control his breath with the four Aumbhakas in con- junction with the three Zandhas. Samadbi will ensue. In a subsequent passage which is likely to be a later addition to the core of the text, Kundalini’s ascent up the Sugumna is described. Heated by the inner fire and stimulated by the breath, she enters the Susumna and climbs in staccato steps as she pierces the knots of Brahma, Visnu, and Rudra. Finally she reaches the azéra of the moon,262 JAMES MALIINSON which she melts into an ambrosial fluid. As a result of her drinking this, the yogi’s mind becomes inured to external pleasures and hence controlled. Kundalini then unites with Siva before disappearing, ‘The Text The Goraksasataka has not been critically edited, published, or translated be- fore. The translation below is of the text as found in a single manuscript, MS R 7874 in the collection of the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library (Madras), a xerox copy of which was kindly provided to me by Christian Bouy. ‘There are catalogue references to four more manuscripts, which may also be of this Goraksasataka, but | have been unable to consult any of them. There are nearly one hundsed catalogue references to manuscripts of another text called the Goraksasataka, This, however, is quite different from the work translated here, and much better known: several recensions of it have been published and translated. This latter Goraksasataka was originally known as the Viveka- martanda, and for simplicity’s sake that is what ] shall call it here. It seems likely that the Vivekaméartanda became known as the Gorakjatataka through confusion with the text translated here. The earliest recension of the Viveka- martayda—which is found in a manuscript written in 1477 CE and predates that text's being called the Goraksasataka by nearly two hundred years—has 173 verses; the Goraksasataka has approximately 100, a more suitable number for a Saéaka or “century,” (There is one late manuscript of the Vivekamartanda- as-Goraksasataka that consists of one hundred verses, but it is almost certainly a précis composed to make sense of the name.) ‘The oldest catalogued manuscript of the Goraksasatahka was written in 1795 CE. Barring the mention of Goraksa in its opening verse, which is likely to be a later addition to the text’s central core, there is no internal evidence in the Goraksasataka that can be used to date its composition. The only method of doing so at our disposal is to identify borrowings from it in works which can be dated. Unlike many other texts on Aatha yoga, the Goraksasataka presents a coherent unit (at least in its central core: vy. 7-64), and is unlikely to include verses borrowed from elsewhere. It is from this central core that all of the bor- rowings from it found in other texts are taken (apart from those in the rela tively late Yogakundalyupanisad). The Hathapradipika, the best known Sanslcrit work on Aafba yoga, was compiled in the fifteenth century and includes twenty-eight verses from the Goraksasataka. The Yogadija, another early work. on Aatha yoga and the likely source of five verses in the Hathapradipitd, bor- rows nine verses from the Goraksasataka. The Sarngadharapaddbati, an ency- THE ORIGINAL GORAKS4847AKA 263 clopedic compendium of verses on a wide range of subjects including an ex- tensive final section on Aazba yoga, was compiled in 1363 CE, but does not contain any verses from the Goraksasataka. We may therefore tentatively con- clude that the central core of the Goraksasataka was composed (or at least be- came well known) in about 1400 CE. As the Vivekamartanda gained in popu- larity under the name Goraksasataka, the original Goraksasataka fell into obscurity, whence the relative pancity of its manuscripts. In the eighteenth century, verses from the Goruksasataka were used to compile the encyclopedic Hathatattvakaumudi, Uhese verses are said to be granthantare, “in another book”: the Goratsasataka is not named, perhaps to avoid confusion with the Vivekamartanda, which by then was already widely known as the Goraksasataka and which is frequently cited in the Hathatattuakaumudi. It is likely that the text was not originally a complete setaka. In addition to the central core con- sisting of verses 7-64, the introductory material at verses 2-6 may also be original, as may verses 65~74, which teach the sequence in which the tech- niques presented earlier in the text are to be used in order to attain samadhi, and which describe the obstacles that may impede the practitioner, Verses 75-88 are somewhat tautological in the light of what precedes them, and the non-dual Vedantic philosophy espoused in verses 88-100 is similarly incon- gruous, suggesting that these passages were added to the text to make it a Sataka, It is also highly unlikely that the text was originally associated with or at- tributed to Gorakga, let alone composed by him. The earliest datable refer ences to Gorakga are found in two texts written in the early part of the thir- teenth century. ‘They are from opposite ends of the subcontinent and refer to hhinn as a master of yoga, suggesting that his reputation was already well estab lished. As we have seen above, the Goraiyasataka was probably composed around 1400 CE, long after Goraksu’s time. During the fifteenth ot sixteenth centuries, Gorakga was credited with having founded an order of yogis. (This order is nowadays widely referred to as that of the “Naths” or “Nath Siddhas,” but there is no evidence for the use of the name “Nath” to denote an order of yogis until the eighteenth century, Prior to that time the word natha/nath, when used in Sanskrit and Hindi works in the context of hatha yoga and yogis, always refers to the supreme deity.) It is in the fifteenth century, when the yogi order that was to become the Naths was seeking to become established and to distinguish itself from the other orders of yogis also beginning to coalesce at that time, that Sanskrit and Hindi works were first attributed to Goraksa, Some verses in the Hathapradipika are attributed to him, but these do not in- clude any of the twenty-eight verses taken from the Goraksasataka. The only mention of Gorakga within the GoraAsasataka is at the beginning of the text.264 JAMES MALLINSON Whether or not this is a later addition to the central core of the text, Goraksa cannot have composed the Goraksasataka for reasons other than chronology: the text’s author distinguishes himself and his guru from Gorakga. In the sec ond verse he says that he is describing Goraksa's method of yoga, which he has experienced thanks to his guru's teaching, His guru's teaching may or may not have been a ditect oral transmission from that of Goraksa, but the text itself is clearly not comprised of the words of Gorakga, Verses from the Goraksasataka have been used to compile a variety of later works including, as mentioned above, the Yogadija, Hathapradipikd, Hatha- vatnavali, Hathatatfuakaumudi, and the Yogakundalyupanisad. The first eighty verses of the last text’s first chapter are all taken from the Goraksasataka. Verses from the Goraksasataka arc found in later recensions of the Vivekamartanda, having perhaps first been incorporated as glosses. Through careful examina~ tion of these shared verses, combined with textual criticism and observation of the interplay between text and practice, subtle developments in the practice and terminology of yoga become apparent, The confusion over the positioning of the cloth used to perform sarasvaticd/ana outlined above has resulted in considerable innovation in the techniques employed for the raising of Kundalini, exemplified by Swami Satyananda Saraswati’s recommendation for that purpose of nauli (abdominal churning), among whose many benefits listed in Sanskrit works the raising of Kundalini is never found. ‘The Goraksasataka is the first text to teach the prapdydma technique now widely known as siryabbedana, “the piercing of the sun.” In the Gorakjasataka it is called the sarya bheda, ie., the “solar variety” of Aumbhaka. The passage teaching it ends with the quarter-verse siryabhedam udabrtam, “[this] is known as the sarya variety (bheda) [of Aumbhaka].”’The same quarter verse is found in the Hathapradipika as stiryabhedanam uttamam, “the excellent piercing of the sun.” The subsequent popularity of the Hashapradipika made it such that its new name for the technique became definitive, A corollary technique—called candrabhedana, “the piercing of the moon,” in which the left or lunar channel is used for inhalation—is taught by some modern schools of yoga. A close reading of the corpus of Sanskrit texts on Aatha yoga may provide insights into some of the nuances of its practices, However, the confusion of the names of the siryé/siryabhedana kumbbaka and the misunderstanding of sarasvaticélana are indications that the primary purpose of such texts, particu- larly of anthologies such as the Hathapradipika, was not always the elucidation of the techniques of yoga. Rather, Sanskrit works on Aafha yoga served to en- dorse and lend authority to its practices and schools, perhaps under the aus- pices of a patron devoted to a yogi preceptor. Their terse teachings are not comprehensive enough to serve as foundations for practice and could never THE ORIGINAL GORAKSASATAKA : 265 replace oral instruction from a qualified guru. Nor are they likely to have been used as mnemonics by the aspiring yogi: no traditional yogi that I have met in India has ever used them in this way. Svatmarama, the compiler of the Hathapradipika, left other inaccuracies and contradictions in his work, for which he was castigated by later authors such as Srinivasa in his Hatheratnavali. ‘These remind us that our view of the practice of Aatha ‘yoga in its formative period is little better than that of the proverbial fiog’s view of the sky from the bottom of a well. There would have been a vast range of experimentation in the new field of bafha yoga during the first four centuries of its development, involving yogis, both male and female, of every stripe, the majority of whom would not have known Sanskrit. There are no historical reports of details of the practice of Aatha yoga until Islamic interpretations begin to appear in the fifteenth century and modern-day oral traditions, while they provide some clues, are an unreliable window onto antiquity. All we have to go on is half a dozen short Sanskrit works (and the Marathi Jadnesvari) written or compiled by scholars who in some cases may not have practiced the techniques they describe. As stated by Svatmarima at the beginning of the Hathapradipika, early hatha yoga was a befuddling “darkness of many doctrines.” Svatmarama val- iantly tried to create a lamp (pradipiaa) to lighten this darkness by synthesiz~ ing into one coherent whole the doctrines in the texts he had at his disposal, but their incompatibility made this an ultimately impossible task. By making the Haghapradipika a compilation, however, he has unwittingly left us with a means of identifying the texts that taught those early doctrines, a small num- ber of which do present coherent methods of yoga, One such text is the Goraksasataka. ‘There are many difficulties with the text of the Gorasasataka as found in the single manuscript (Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, MS R 7874) used for the present translation, At several places I have made conjec- tural emendations; at several others I have emended it using readings found in works which borrow from it, the Hathapradipika and Yogakundalyupanisad in particular. Some parts of the text have remained unclear to me despite my best efforts at emendation, These passages are marked with cruxes (+. .1); some- times I attempt a translation, but where I am completely stumped I leave an ellipsis (...)."The verse division of the manuscript is also problematic, It is un numbered but gives single daydas (vertical lines) to mark the end of half- verses and double dandas to mark the end of verses. There are 107 double dandas, but if each pair of half-verses is numbered without regard to the man- uscript’s punctuation we get a total of 101 verses, the usual number for a éataka.266 JAMES MALLINSON This does, however, result in several infelicitous verse divisions. 1 have thus decided to leave the translation unnumbered. Suggestions for Further Reading OF early (pro-Harhapradipika) texts on hatha yoga, only the following have been edited and translated into English: the Khecartvidya, ed. James Mallin- son (London; Routledge, 2007), and the Sivasambita (various editions, includ- ing James Mallinson [New York: YogaVidya.com, 2007]). The best edition and translation of the Hafhapradipika is that of Svami Digambarji and Dr. Pitam- bar Jha (Lonavla: Kaivalyadham 8,M.Y.M. Samiti, 1970). There is no English translation of any of the longer recensions of the Vivekamdrtanda, but it has been edited and translated into German by Fausta Nowotny (Das Goraksasataka [Kéln: Richard Schwartzbold, 1976]). Its hundred-verse précis has been edited and translated into English by Svami Kuvalayananda and $. A. Shukla (Goraksasatakam [Lonavla: Kaivalyadham S.M.Y.M. Samiti, 1958]). English translations of later works on Aafha yoga include the Yoga- Upanigads, tr, T. R. Srinivasa Ayyangar (Madras: Adyar Library, 1938); the Hatharatnavati, ed. M. L, Gharote, P. Devnath, and V. K. Jha (Lonavla Yoga Institute, 2002), the Hathatattvakaumudi, ed, M. L. Gharote, P. Devnath, and V.K. Jha (Lonavla Yoga Institute, 2007); and the Gherandasambita, ed. and tt. James Mallinson (New York: YogaVidya.com, 2004). On Sanskrit texts on Aatha yoga and in particular their relationship with the Yoga Upanisads, see Christian Bouy, Les Natha~Yogin et les Upanisads (Paris: Diffusion de Boccard, 1994). On ‘Tantric precedents of hatha yoga, see So- madeva Vasudeva, The Yoga of the Malintvijayottaratantra (Pondicherry: Insti- tut Frangais de Pondichéry, 2004). On early texts on Aafha yoga, see the introduction to the Khecartvidya (Mal- linson 2007). On yogic and alchemical traditions, see David Gordon White, The Alchemical Body (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). ‘The Hundred Verses of Goraksa So that renouncers whose essence is consciousness might attain perfection, I shall now duly proclaim the method of yoga which was made public by Gor aksa, the king of the siddhas, and which gives signs of success in but a few days, for I have personally experienced it thanks to my guru’s oral teaching. “The wise man does not fall into rebirth; through the science of sexual plea- THE ORIGINAL GORAKSASATAKA 267 sure people are mutually ruined, By talcing instruction, he who has been made to fall becomes perfect; he who does not take instruction does not. It is ac- cording to his actions that a man has a good or bad destiny: the builder of walls goes up, the builder of wells down. Therefore one must initially male an effort in order to be liberated from existence, and through devotion in body, speech and mind, obtain an excellent guru. One should always turn to a guru whose sight, mind and breath do not depend on form for support +. ..+ He is truly liberated whose mind is neither asleep nor awake, neither re~ members nor forgets, and neither stops nor starts. Ele is without doubt liber- ated whose breath goes neither in nor out, neither in the left nostril nor the right, and neither up nor down. The mind has two impulses: past impressions and the breath. On one of them being destroyed, both are destroyed. Of these two, it is the breath which you must first conquer (on being allowed to do so [by your guru]), in order that you might become a liberated man t...+. [The Conquest of the Breath] There is said to be a triad of methods best for bringing about the conquest of the breath: a controlled dict, posture and the third, stimulation of the goddess. Their characteristics shall now duly be de- scribed in turn. [Measured Diet] Food that is unctuous and sweet, leaves a quarter [of the stomach] empty and is caten in order to please Siva is called a measured diet, [Posture] Posture is said to have two varieties: padmdsana and wajrasana. [Padmasanal If one puts the soles of both feet on the thighs, that is padmdsana, the lotus posture, which duly destroys all sins. [Vajrdsana] If one puts the left heel under the bulb and the other one above it, and holds one’s neck, head and body straight, it is called vajrdsana, the thun- derbolt posture. [The Stimulation of the goddess] Now I shall briefly teach the stimulation of the goddess. The goddess is coiled. Making her moye in stages from her home to the place between the eyebrows is called the stimulation of the goddess. ‘There are two chief ways of accomplishing this: the stimulation of Sarasvati and the restraint of the breath. Through practice, Kundalini becomes straight. [The Stimulation of Sarasvati] Of the two [methods], I shall first teach you the stimulation of Sarasvati. Knowers of antiquity call Sarasvati Arundhati. By making her move Kundalini moves automatically. With the vital breath mov- ing in 1da [the left channel], the wise man should sit steadily in padmasana, spread out a cloth twelve fingers long and four fingers broad, wrap it around268 JAMES MALLINSON [Sarasvati’s] nag? and hold it firmly with the thumbs and index fingers of both hands. For two suAurtas (one hour and thirty-six minutes) he should fear- lessly move it left and right over and over again as much as he can. He should draw [the part of] the Sugumna which is at [the level of] Kundalini slightly upwards so that Kundalini can enter the Susumnna’s mouth. Prana leayes that place and automatically enters the Susumna, [The yogi] should stretch his stomach and, having contracted his throat, he should fill himself up with air through the solar [right] channel: the wind travels up from the chest. There- fore one should regularly stimulate Sarasvati, she who contains sound. By stimulating her, the yogi is freed from diseases such as inflammation of the spleen, dropsy, splenitis and other [ills] that affect the stomach, All of those diseases are sure to be destroyed by the stimulation of the goddess. [The Restraint of the Breath] Now I shall teach in brief the restraint of the breath, The vital breath (grana) is wind produced in the body, [Its] restraint (ayama) is known as kumbbaka, Kumbhaka is said to be of two kinds: assisted (sabita) and unassisted (Revala). (The yogi] should practice assisted Aumbhaka until unassisted Aumbhaka is mastered. Surya, Ujjayi, and Sitali [are the first three] and Bhastri [is] the fourth: when dumbhaka has these variations it is assisted Aumbhaka, I shall now duly teach in brief [their] characteristics. [Surya Aumbbaka] In a clean place clear of people and mosquitoes and so forth, as long as a bow and free from cold, fire and water, [and] on a scat that is clean—neither too high nor too low, agreeable and comfortable—{the yogi] should assume padmdsana, stimulate Sarasvati, gently draw in external air through the right channel, fill himself with as much air as is comfortable and then expel it through Ida [the left channel]. (Alternatively the wise man should expel the breath once the skull is purified.) This destroys the four dis- eases of the vafa humor and problems with worms. This [Awmbbakal, which is called the Surya or solar variety, should be practiced repeatedly. [Ujjayi dembhaka] ["The yogi] should close the mouth and gently draw in air through the two channels so that it comes into contact with [the region ex- tending] from the throat to the heart, making a sound. In the same way as before he should hold his breath and then expel it through Ida. [This] dum- bhaka, which is called Ujjayi, (“the victorious”), should be performed when [the yogi is] walking or at rest. It destroys the fire that arises in the head; it completely removes phlegm from the throat; it increases the fire of the body and it rids the body of edema in the channels and imbalances in its constituent parts, THE ORIGINAL GORAKSASATAKA 269 [Sitali Aambbaka] The sage should draw in air through the tongue and then, after holding the breath as before, gently exhale it through his nostrils. Inflam_ mation of the spleen and other diseases are destroyed, as is fever caused by an excess of pitta, the bilious humor. This Aumbbaka called Sitali, “she who is cool,” destroys poisons. [Bhastei 4umbbaka] ‘Then the sage should assume padmasana and, holding his neck and stomach straight, close his mouth and forcefully exhale through his nostrils in such a way that his breath makes contact with his throat, producing a sound in his skull. He should then quickly draw in a small amount of ait as far as his heart lotus. Then he should exhale and inhale as before, repeating the process over and over again. The wise man should pump the air that is in his body in the same way that one might quickly pump a blacksmith’s bellows. When the body becomes tired, he should gently inhale by way of the sun until the abdomen becomes full of air. Holding the middle of the nose firmly, with- out using the index fingers, he should perform Aumbhaka as before and then exhale through Ida. This adamantine [2umbhaka] purges the throat of bile; it increases the fire of the body; it awakens Kundalini; it frees from sin, and is auspicious [and] pleasant. It destroys the bolt made of substances such as phlegm which is situated inside the opening of the Brahma nagi [and] it pierces the three knots that are born from the three genas. This Aumbbaka, called Bhastri (“the bellows”), is to be practiced above all others. [The Three Bandbas] Now I shall briefly teach the three Aandhas. Once the four varieties of kumbbaka have been learnt and are being practiced regularly, [the yogi] should achieve mastery of the breath. He must perform the three bandhas, which | shall now describe. The first is mila bandha, the second is uddiyéna bandba, and the third is jalandbara [bandba]. Their characteristics are as follows: [Mala bandha] [The yogi] forces the downward-moving apana breath to move upwards by means of contraction. Yogis call this mala bandha, “the root lock.” When apna has turned upwards and reached the orb of fire, then the flame, fanned by the wind, rises high, As a result, fire and apana teach prana, which is hot by nature. The overheated praga creates a blaze in the body, which heats the sleeping Kundalint and wakes her up. Like a snake struck by a stick, she hisses and straightens herself. As if entering a snake-hole, she enters the Brahma nédi. Therefore, yogis should maintain the regular practice of mula bandha. [Uddiyana bandha] Uddiyana is to be performed at the end of kumbhaka and the beginning of exhalation. It is the banda by means of which the breath flies270 JAMES MALLINSON up (uddiyate) into the Susumna, which is why yogis call it uddéyana. Sitting in wajrasana, [the yogi] should hold his feet firmly with his hands and press the bulb there in the region of his ankles. He should very gently pull back his stomach, heart and throat, so that his breath does not reach his belly. Once gastric imbalances have been overcome, [wddiyana] is to be carefully performed at regular intervals, [Jalandhara bandha] The éandba called jalandbara is to be performed after inhalation. It involves constricting the neck, and blocks the movement of the breath. Once the neck is constricted, by means of contraction and stretching the abdomen backwards [ie., by the mila and uddiyana bandbas], the breath quickly enters the Brahma nagi. [Samadhi] Now I shall teach the best way to samadhi, an enjoyable method which conquers death and always brings about the bliss of [absorption in] brabman. Correctly assuming a posture in exactly the same way as was taught earlier, [the yogi] should stimulate Sarasvati and control his breath. On the first day he should perform the four Aumbhakas, [holding] cach of them ten times. On the second day [he should increase] that by five. Adding five each day, on the third day he should do twenty, which is enough. Kumbsaka should always be performed in conjunction with the three Aandbas. [Obstacles to the Practice of Yoga] Sleeping by day because of staying awake and having too much sex at night; over-agitation due to constant restraint of urine and feces; [and] problems with imbalanced posture on account of wor- rying about one’s breath while exerting oneself: these cause disease to arise quickly, If the ascetic were to stop [his practice], saying “I have become ill from practicing yoga,” and then abandon his practice altogether, that is said to be the first obstacle. The second is doubt and the third is negligence. The fourth is sloth and the fifth is sleep. The sixth is stopping one's practice and the sev- enth is said to be delusion, Irregularity is the eighth and the ninth is known as that with no name. Not attaining the essence of yoga is said by the wise to be the tenth. By reflecting [on them] the wise man should renounce these ten obstacles. (The Ascent of Kundalini] Then the wise man who is established in the true reality should regularly practice [control of] the breath. The mind is absorbed into the Sugumna and the breath does not rush forth. As a result of his secee- tions being dried up, the yogi’s journey is begun. He should force the down- ward moving apdna breath to move upwatds by means of contraction. Yogis call this mala bandba. When the apana has become upward moving and goes together with fire to the place of pra, then—with fire, prana and apana hay- THE ORIGINAL GORAKSA8ATAKA 271 ing quickly come together—the coiled, sleeping Kundalini, heated by that fire and stimulated by the breath, makes her body enter the mouth of the Susumna, ‘Then, having pierced the knot of Brahma, which is born of the rajas guna, she quickly flashes like a streak of lightning in the mouth of the Susumna. She hurries up to the knot of Visnu and, after stopping at the heart, she owifily moves on, having pierced the knot of Visnu. [She then] goes to where the knot of Rudra is found, between the eyebrows, and, having pierced that, she goes to the orb of the moon, the cakra called andhata which has sixteen petals. Once there she automatically dries up the fluid produced from the moon, When the sun has been moved from its abode to the place of blood and bile by the force of prana, Kundalini, having gone to where the cara of the moon (which con- sists of the white fluid of phlegm) is found, consumes there the heated phlegm that has been discharged and is by nature cold. In the same way the white [fluid] in the shape of the moon is heated forcefully; agitated, Kundalini moves upwards and thus [the fluid] flows even more. As a result of tasting this, the mind is beyond the objects of the senses. Having enjoyed the best of what is inside him, the young man [becomes] intent on the self, Kundalini goes to ‘tthe place whose form is that of the cight constituents of nature. Having embraced it she moves on to Siva. After embracing him she disappears. In the same way, the red (rajas) from below and the white (swé/a) from above dissolve in Siva, Thereafter, the breath similarly joins with the twins prana and apdna. [Realization of the Truth] {With the gross element diminished and the speaker [becoming] greater, the breath|] increases and makes all the [bodily] winds flow like gold [heated] in a crucible. With the physical body [absorbed] into the spiritual one, the body becomes extremely pure. I shall now describe this to you clearly, Free of the condition of being insentient, undefiled, with’ Consciousness as its essence, that subtle body is the most important of all [bodies] and contains [the notion of | “L” Freedom from the condition of being insentient [and] the mistaken understanding of that which takes the appearance of time: notions such, as these—which have their own form, like that of the rope and the snake—sow doubt about the form of reality. The con- dition arises of considering their cause to be time. This elemental (universe] is as real as water in a mirage. Beheld by the temporal body, the earth and its other parts are indeed produced fiom the elements. Like the hare’s horn, it is teal neither in the meaning of its name nor in its own form. tA bad dream arises in the meantime whose proof is produced. Is that man [Le,, the dreamer] deluded, like the [wild] gaze ofa rutting elephant? It is incorrect [to say] that everything comes into being and it is incorrect [to say] that it disappears, just as it is out of error that a man or a woman thinks mother-of-pearl to be silver.- ae a 272 JAMES MALLINSON Knowledge from a dream cannot be called the body even if it might appear real.'Thus, after being mistaken, [the truth should be] established by means of careful investigation. In the same way, this body, through thorough introspec- tion, clearly reveals itself to be insentient because it is formed from the cle~ ments. Thus, in the same way, just as through lack of thought, the process of the practice of [controlling] the breath comes to an end f... 4, it is not a thing, ‘Thus are the seven levels, from arising in that which is produced by knowledge. One should attain perpetual happiness in conditions such as that called “being without fire.” ‘We drink the dripping liquid called dindw, the drop, not wine; we consume the rejection of the objects of the five senses, not meat; we do not embrace a be- loved but rather the Susumna magi, her body curved like Auta grass; if we must have intercourse, it takes place in a mind dissolved in the void, not in a vagina. ‘Thus ends The Hundred Verses of Goraksa. Nath Yogis, Akbar, and the “Balnath Tilla” William R. Pinch Tn early March 1581, the Mughal emperor Akbar visited a major Nath Yogi center, known as the “Balnath Tila.” He visited the site at least one other time in later years, and yogis from the “Tilla” are said to have visited the Mughal capital on occasion.’The “Tilla,” or “crag,” has been knowa by a vatiety of names over the centuries, including “T'lla Jogian,” “Gorakshanath Tilla,” and “Laks- man Tilla.”This chapter presents a selection of texts that describe this site and Aksbar’s visit to it, as well as different ways that Nath Yogis gravitated toward or interacted with the Mughal emperor and other sovereign powers in the region, ‘Two of the texts wete composed in Persian, one in Portuguese, one in Latin, and the rest in Hindi, The Persian, Latin, and Portuguese texts were commit- ted to writing in the sixteenth century, fairly soon after the events described occurred; the remainder, in Flindi, come from oral tradition passed down over generations, only to be published in written form in the twentieth century. ‘The contemporary accounts of Akbar’s visit to the Tilld were composed by two very different men: one was the emperor's close friend and prominent ‘ court intellectual, Abu’l Fazl; the other was a European visitor to the Mughal court and a member of the relatively young Society of Jesus (or “Jesuit” order), Antonio Monserrate. Abu'l Fazl, whose Persian account comes from his mas- sive culogistic biography of Akbar, assumed that the reader possessed a degree of familiarity with India and Mughal political and religious culture; he gener- ally wrote sympathetically about Indian religious practices and tended to cast things in a quasi-Sufi devotionalist light. Thus, as he puts it in a later passage from volume three of the A’in-i-Aebari (pp. 197-98), although yogic claims of superhuman power “may seem incredible in the eyes of those affected by the taint of narrow custom, those who acknowledge the wonderful power of God will find in it no cause of astonishment.” By contrast, Monserrate, who wrote in Latin for Europeans (primarily his Jesuit superiors and brothers), assumed very little knowledge about India on the part of his readers; consequently his