Hatha Yoga and Shaktism

[Guest guest]

(Contributed by Om Prem)

 

Shaktas believe the world is Real and not an illusion. They view

worldly phenomena as a veil. They see Devi as both Immanent, dwelling

in the world and in time and space, and Transcendent, the Supreme

Divinity beyond the world of the senses.

 

Some Shaktas believe the senses and emotions are not traps to

misdirect us, but rather tools that enable us to function in this

world of individual objects subject to natural laws. Others say that

the senses can also be refined and directed internally to facilitate

the realization of both the Immanent and the Transcendent Devi. The

task is to use the senses to make one's way through the events of the

world but also simultaneously to see the events of the world as a

veil that can obscure Devi and one's true Reality and finally to view

the events of the world as somehow leading one to Devi.

 

As one interacts with the world one must be mindful that the world,

and how one approaches it, can obscure Devi if the ego and emotions

prevail to induce a self-centered concept of reality. Therefore, one

must be ever mindful of trying to focus on quantum reality, the

deepest level of reality, rather than the surface reality. One must

determine whether one's approach to the world is obscuring Devi or

enabling Her grace to flow toward oneself. One's thoughts, words and

deeds must constantly reflect vairagya, dispassion -- the intention

to not use the world for personal gain and pleasure but to interact

with the world as one would conduct oneself before with Devi Herself.

 

For this to occur, one must practice viveka, a constant recognition

of the Divine in oneself and in one's surroundings and a constant

refusal to sink to the level of the mundane. One point of view about

how the events of the world somehow lead us to Devi is that those

events of, including our bodies, are metaphors or codes that if read

correctly guide us to Devi. For example, the physical human body has

its shape and functions because of the arrangement of the other four

koshas of the jiva. The endocine glands correspond to the seven major

chakras as do seven major nerve plexi. The double helix of DNA

corresponds to the double helix of Ida and Pingala. The breath is

Prana.

 

The senses can be used to make one's way through the external world,

or they can be sharpened and turned inward to taste the silence, see

the silence, hear the silence, smell the silence and feel the silence

of the quiet mind and so facilitate the sadhak's journey to Devi. The

chakra/nadi system, prana, the discipline and quietening of the mind -

- all enable one to attain Self-realization and the physical clues

indicate this process.

 

In nature, the dance of the Northern Lights, the view from the top of

a mountain or the beauty of the deer and the flower can all jolt one

out of a self-centered existence, expand one's mental horizons and

encourage the intuitive realization of something greater than the

mundane. If we take the events of the world at face value without

going beyond the surface appearance or going beyond their immediate

sensual impact, we wallow in ignorance. It is this avidya or

ignorance that is the root cause of our remaining subject to karma

and living a life of short periods of relative happiness followed by

long periods of unhappiness and emptiness.

 

In order to see Devi in the world and in ourselves, we must first

purify our mind, intellect, emotions, body and ego. In Raja Yoga,

this purification process is known as the eight limbs of Yoga and

involves continuous effort or abhyasa. These limbs are not sequential

but are interdependent.

 

YAMA

 

The first of the limbs, Yama, purifes the mind, intellect, emotions

and ego by regulating one's interactions with others:

 

1. The first and most important of the Yamas is Ahimsa, non-violence

towards others and towards oneself. Depression is serious epidemic in

the world today and it arises from himsa or violence toward oneself.

2. The second Yama is Satya or truthfulness. All the Yamas must

reflect Ahimsa. So one cannot tell or act on what they think is the

truth if it causes harm to another.

3. The next Yama is Asteya or non-stealing. To steal is to focus

exclusively on the material and to estrange oneself from the

Transcendental.

4. Brahmacharya, the next Yama, is continence, especially sexual

continence, as way to quiet and discipline the mind.

5. Aparigraha is non-acquisitiveness or greedlessness also a way to

quiet and discipline the mind, senses and emotions.

 

NIYAMA

 

The second limb is Niyama. These are practices directed toward

oneself:

 

1. Sauca or physical cleanliness includes vegetarian diet and the

kriyas, specialized yogic cleansing techniques.

2. The next Niyama, Samtosha, means contentment under all

circumstances. Here one is sure of one's Divine nature and is not

tempted to be identify oneself with fleeting events or emotions.

3. Tapas or austerities, another Niyama, do not mean abusing the body

but rather curbing the demands of the senses and the emotions for

ephemeral sensation but redirecting them to the search for Devi.

4. Svadhyaya or self-study is accomplished, in this case, by reading

scriptures and listening to or reading the works of Realized Saints

and generally keeping company with the spiritually inclined.

5. Iswaraprenidhanana or self-surrender, surrendering to God/Goddess

and worshipping a personal deity, the aspect of God/Goddess that is

reflects one's current karmic state.

 

ASANA AND PRANAYAMA

 

The third and fourth of the limbs are Asana and Pranayama, Hatha

Yoga.

 

According to Swami Vishnu Devananda, "Hatha yoga is the practical way

to control the mind through control of the prana. The purpose of Yoga

is to prevent either [brain] hemisphere from dominating the other, to

create the sattvic state. Patanjali's Yoga Sutras defines `asana' as

a posture that is "sukha" or "pleasant and comfortable. (II 46) He

adds, "One then relaxes all effort in the posture and absorbs one's

mind in the Infinite. From this perfection of posture comes cessation

of disturbances from the pair of opposites." (II 47-48).

 

Hatha Yoga is a part of Raja Yoga and, as many have said, "There can

be no Raja Yoga without Hatha Yoga and there can be no Hatha Yoga

without Raja Yoga. Swami Narayan Tirth goes further and

says, "Mantra, Hatha, Laya and Raja Yogas are not separate from one

another. They are merely the divisions of categories of a single

yoga. Through practicing these four in their respective order and

attaining competency is called Mahayoga. Knowledge will not be

attained by depending on only one of the four, and only by attending

wholly to all four will natural yoga, that is the union of the

individual soul with the supreme Self, be perfected."

 

DHARANA, DHYANA AND SAMADHI

 

The last three limbs of Raja Yoga are Dharana (concentration), Dhyana

(meditation) and Samadhi (one-pointed union with the Divine).

 

It is here that Mahayoga leads to Self-realization. Both Devi and

Hatha Yoga point to the way to overcome the cycle of short periods of

relative happiness followed by long periods of unhappiness and

emptiness. They both enable one to eventually live in the world as a

Transcendental Being or Jivan Mukta and even to exhaust karma and

move beyond the world and body to the final two stages of

consciousness, Pararthabhavani and Turiya and from there to

Mahasamadhi. "Hatha Yoga" literally means "the union of Ha and Tha".

 

The three most significant nadis or astral tubes are Sushumna, Ida

and Pingala. Sushumna runs from the Muladhara Chakra to the Sahasrara

Chakra. On either side of the Sushumna and intertwined around it lie

the Ida and Pingala nadis. Ida is the female deity of devotion.

Pingala is associated with Surya. Normally, the Ha prana flows

through Pingala, the nadi on the right side and associated with the

right nostril while Tha flows through Ida, the nadi on the left

associated with the left nostril. Ha is considered to be hot and is

referred to as the sun breath or Prana. Tha is seen as cool and is

referred to as the moon breath or Apana. Ha is rajasic, tends to move

upward and to speed up the functions of the mind and body. Tha is

tamasic and moves downward and tends to slow down the functions of

the mind and body.

 

Normally, one nostril is dominant, that is, it is easier to breath

through one nostril. But, after approximately two hours it is easier

to breath through the other nostril. This cycle of alternating

dominance is referred as the infradian rhythm and continues night and

day, year after year unless interrupted by karmic influences leading

to physical or mental disease.

 

Through Hatha Yoga practices, and in conjunction with the other

practices of Raja Yoga, the breath can equalized in the nostrils,

indicating a sattvic state, with the Ha prana encouraged to change

direction and flow downwards while the Tha prana changes direction

and flows upward. The two pranas now move toward each other and unite

at the Muladhara Chakra and form a prana with a new function that is

given the name Kundalini. This Kundalini moves up through the seven

major chakras bringing increasing Self-realization provided the

Sushumna has been purified of all mala or obstructions and

defilements by Mahayoga. Shaktism has two important deities that

specifically represent this process: Chinnamasta and Ardhanarishwari.

 

ARDHANARISHWARI

 

Ardhanarishwari -- the Deity manifesting as a human figure, female on

one side and male on the other, represents the Ida and Pingala nadis

and the Tha and Ha that flow through them. It is not possible to

define Ardhanarishwari as male or female, so often the definition is

often given as `neuter', `neutral' or `androgynous'.

 

But the purpose of Ardhanarishwari is to defy definition, to show

that definition is futile, and lift the mind out of the left brain

penchant for order and pigeonholes and allow the right brain's

intuitive and holistic processes to take over and lead one to a new

understanding of how the body really works. One's consciousness is

led beyond gender, beyond androgyny into the workings of Ida, Pingala

and Sushumna.

 

This is summed up excellently by Jesus of Nazareth, in the Gnostic

Gospel of Thomas, Logion 22: "When you make the two one, and when you

make the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner and the above

as the below, and when you make the male and female into a single

one, so that the male will not be male and the female not be

female .... then you shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

 

Ardhanarishwari is Devi guiding us to Her and to ourselves.

 

CHINNAMASTA

 

Similarly, the dramatic imagery of Chinnamasta is an excellent, multi-

layered symbol of the basic philosophy of Yoga/Vedanta and Shaktism.

Chinnamasta is depicted as holding her own head that she has just cut

off. Blood is spurting in three streams from her neck.The central

stream in pouring in to Chinnamasta's mouth, while the other two

streams on the left and right of the main stream are flowing into the

mouths of Chinnamasta's two attendent dakinis or subshaktis who are

on Her left and right. This graphic metaphor shows us how to come to

Devi and our true Self.

 

The head is the center of the activities of the mind. Cutting off the

head of Chinnamasta stops the mental activities. Patanjali tells

us, "Yoga is restraining the activities of the mind." (Raja Yoga

Sutras I.2)

 

Furthermore, Chinnamasta is dancing the Tandava, the cosmic dance of

Shiva that leads to the destruction of the phenomenal world that is

the focus of our desires. The sense organs have their focus in the

head, so the chopped off head of Chinnamasta represents the stopping

of the outward orientation of the senses.

 

Also, the dance is performed on the body of Kama, desire, while in

coitus with his wife, Rati. This further reinforces the message to

rise above mundane desire in order to encounter Devi. The

headlessness of Chinnamasta represents conquest of the senses and the

kleshas (ignorance, egoism, attraction, repulsion, and attachment to

life) that are the obstacles to spiritual enlightenment.

 

Her headlessness also represents the conquest of space and time and

the triumph over the physical laws that operate therein. People are

so attached to a conventional concept of the universe and so attached

to looking outward in their interactions with that universe (the veil

of Maya) that an arresting image such as Chinnamasta is required to

get them to consider other possibilities of existence.

 

The head of Chinnamasta has been chopped off but still She lives and,

moreover, lives as a divine being. The question should arise, "How is

Her continued existence possible?" and "What is this depiction

telling me?"

 

The imagery draws our attention to the four other bodies or Koshas

that each of us has in addition to the physical body. It is these

four bodies (Pranamaya Kosha, Manomaya Kosha, Vijnanamaya Kosha,

Anandamaya Kosha) that are responsible for enabling us to reach

whatever level of spiritual attainment that we currently enjoy and

will enjoy. These four bodies also survive the death of the physical

body.

 

The Chinnamasta imagery reminds us of this. One of these four bodies

is the causal body (Anandamaya Kosha), the seat of the soul. So, now

we are explicity reminded that each of us has a soul. Furthermore,

taking Kundalini up through the major chakras and experiencing the

Divine, as represented by the central blood stream, shows that our

true identity is that soul, and that what we originally thought of

as 'our' soul is actually the same Soul, the same Divinity,

manifesting in everything.

 

The three blood streams from Chinnamasta represent Prana (Ha), Apana

(Tha) and Kundalini, the union of Ha and Tha, the prana that is

necessary for spiritual enlightenment. It is only Chinnamasta who is

drinking from the central stream of Kundalini. Her attendents are not

yet fully Self-realized but will be with the help and example of

Chinnamasta. The Chinnamasta imagery tells us that instead of looking

outward and entertaining ourselves with the vagaries of Maya, we

should be looking inward, purifying ourselves, enabling Kundalini to

form and rise so that we become living examples of that imagery.

 

Chinnamasta is the Shakti that takes her disciples away from

involvement with the senses and desire, and by Her Grace grants them

complete control of over the mind and the primary instincts and gives

them the will and vision to come to Her abode in the Sushumna. Then

we will see Devi in the world, Maya will be conquered, and we will

know our own Divinity. It is only be experiencing the Transcendent

Devi that one fully appreciates Devi immanent in the world. As

Patanjali says in the Raja Yoga Sutras, "At that time [when the

thought waves are stilled], the perceiver rests in his own true

nature." (I.3)

 

By Sankara Vishnu (Om Prem)