घेरण्ड संहिता (महर्षि घेरण्ड - सप्ताङ्ग हठयोग सटीक)

-इच्छोः अधिरोहिणी इव ॥ प्रणम्य श्री-गुरुम् नाथम् स्वात्मारामेण योगिना । केवलम् राज-यो रामः कृपाकरः ॥ हठ-विद्याम् हि मत्स्येन्द्र-गोरक्ष-आद्याः विजानते । स्वात्मारामः अथवा योगी -योगम् आरोढुम् इच्छोः अधिरोहिणी इव ॥ प्रणम्य श्री-गुरुम् नाथम् स्वात्मारामेण योगिना । र् धत्ते स्वात्मारामः कृपाकरः ॥ हठ-विद्याम् हि मत्स्येन्द्र-गोरक्ष-आद्याः विजानते । स्वात्मारामः जते प्रोन्नत-राज-योगम् आरोढुम् इच्छोः अधिरोहिणी इव ॥ प्रणम्य श्री-गुरुम् नाथम् स्वात्मारामे The Gheranda Samhita The Original Sanskrit and An English Translation James Mallinson द्याम् हि मत्स्येन्द्र-गोरक्ष-आद्याः विजानते । स्वात्मारामः अथवा योगी जानीते तत् प्रसादतः ॥ च्छोः अधिरोहिणी इव ॥ प्रणम्य श्री-गुरुम् नाथम् स्वात्मारामेण योगिना । केवलम् राज-योगाय ः कृपाकरः ॥ हठ-विद्याम् हि मत्स्येन्द्र-गोरक्ष-आद्याः विजानते । स्वात्मारामः अथवा योगी जान -योगम् आरोढुम् इच्छोः अधिरोहिणी इव ॥ प्रणम्य श्री-गुरुम् नाथम् स्वात्मारामेण योगिना । धत्ते स्वात्मारामः कृपाकरः ॥ हठ-विद्याम् हि मत्स्येन्द्र-गोरक्ष-आद्याः विजानते । स्वात्मारामः जते प्रोन्नत-राज-योगम् आरोढुम् इच्छोः अधिरोहिणी इव ॥ प्रणम्य श्री-गुरुम् नाथम् स्वात्मारामे म् । हठ-प्रदीपिकाम् धत्ते स्वात्मारामः कृपाकरः ॥ हठ-विद्याम् हि मत्स्येन्द्र-गोरक्ष-आद्याः विजा -योग-विद्या । विभाजते प्रोन्नत-राज-योगम् आरोढुम् इच्छोः अधिरोहिणी इव ॥ प्रणम्य श्री-गुरु

The Gheranda Samhita

Our Books Bhagavad Gita Gheranda Samhita Hatha Yoga Pradipika Shiva Samhita

The Gheranda Samhita The Original Sanskrit and An English Translation James Mallinson YogaVidya.com

An important message to our readers: The asanas in this book should not be attempted without the supervision of an experienced teacher or prior experience. Many of the other practices should not be attempted at all. The ideas expressed in this book should not be used to diagnose, prescribe, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, illness, or individual health problem. Consult your health care practitioner for individual health care. YogaVidya.com LLC shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages resulting from the use of this book. YogaVidya.com, PO Box 569, Woodstock NY 12498-0569 USA Copyright ©2004 James Mallinson. All rights reserved YogaVidya.com and Read the Originals are trademarks of YogaVidya.com LLC Printed on acid-free paper First edition Manufactured in the United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mallinson, James. The Gheranda Samhita: the original Sanskrit / and an English translation [by] James Mallinson. Woodstock, NY : YogaVidya.com, 2004. xvi, [128] p. : ill. ; cm. Includes Sanskrit and English. ISBN 0-9716466-2-7 (hardcover) ISBN 0-9716466-3-5 (paperback)

1. Hatha Yoga. 2. Kundalini. I. Title. II. Mallinson, James, 1970-, tr. RA781.7.G43 2004 613.7'046—dc21 2004112200 Loretta made this whole deal possible.

For Sri Ram Balak Das Ji Yogiraj

Contents Introduction ix Purification 1 Asanas 16 Mudras 60 Pratyahara 86 Pranayama 89 Dhyana 113 Samadhi 119 Contributors 127 vii

Introduction THE BOOK you are about to read, a manual of Yoga taught by Gheranda to Chanda, is the most encyclopedic of all the root texts of Hatha Yoga. At the beginning of the book, Chanda asks Gheranda to tell him about the Yoga of the body, which is the cause of knowledge of the Ultimate Reality. Gheranda assents and the book is thus called the Gheranda Samhita, or “The Collection [of Verses] of Gheranda.” It sets itself apart from other books on Hatha Yoga in two notable ways. Firstly, it calls its Yoga “ghata Yoga” or “ghatastha Yoga” and not Hatha Yoga. The usual meaning of ghata is “pot,” but here it refers to the body, or rather the person, since the techniques taught by Gheranda work on both the body and the mind. Secondly, it is unique in teaching a sevenfold path to perfection of the person. A few Hatha Yoga texts replicate Patanjali’s classical description of Yoga as ashtanga, or “eight limbed,” but there are numerous other classifications. For example, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika’s four chapters correspond to the four stages of its Yoga, while the Goraksha Samhita, echoing several earlier Tantric texts, describes its Yoga as six limbed. ix

x INTRODUCTION The seven chapters correspond to the seven means of perfecting the person. Each chapter teaches a group of techniques that, when mastered, will lead to one of the seven means listed in verse 1.9. The first chapter describes six types of cleansing techniques by which puri- fication, the first means to perfecting the person, can be achieved. The second chapter describes thirty-two asanas by which strength, the second means, is attained. In the third chapter Gheranda teaches twenty-five mudras, which lead to steadiness, the third means. The fourth chapter describes five techniques for pratyahara, which brings about calmness, the fourth means. The fifth chapter starts with instructions on where the yogi should live, what he or she should eat, and at what time of year yogic practice should be started. It then lists ten kinds of pranayama, the practice of which leads to lightness, the fifth means. The sixth chapter describes three types of dhyana, using which the yogi can achieve realization of the self, the sixth means. Finally, in the seventh chapter, Gheranda teaches six types of samadhi, which lead to abstraction, the ultimate means of perfecting the person.¹ Like the other root texts of Hatha Yoga, the Gheranda Samhita does not concern itself with yama and niyama, the restraints and observances that make up the first two limbs of classical Yoga. It is unique in devoting an entire chapter ¹In verse 7.6, it is said that Raja Yoga is of six types. Many commentators equate Raja Yoga with the classical Yoga of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, but in texts on Hatha Yoga it means samadhi, rather than a separate type of Yoga.

INTRODUCTION xi to bodily purification and in the number of purificatory practices it describes. The chapters on asanas and mudras are similarly unparalleled in the number of practices taught. The difference between asanas and mudras is not made clear by Gheranda—several of the mudras seem to be no more than asanas. We are told in the first chapter that asanas lead to strength and mudras to steadiness. In other texts, however, the purpose of mudras is said to be the awakening of Kundalini. In five of the twenty-five mudras listed this aim is made explicit, but awakening of the Goddess is also given as one of the fruits of pranayama in verse 5.57. A further unique aspect of this book lies in its position- ing of the chapter on pratyahara before that on pranayama. In the classical system, the last six limbs are successively more subtle, moving from the physical realm to the mental. Pranayama is, of course, a more physical practice than pra- tyahara, but here the Bhramari pranayama is said to lead to samadhi; indeed, it is one of the six varieties of Raja Yoga or samadhi given in the final chapter. This may account for the position of the chapter on pranayama. Most of the rest of the chapter is similar to other texts, apart from the teaching of the Ajapa Gayatri, the mantra constantly but involuntarily repeated by all living beings. The sounds of the in- and out- breaths are said to be sa and ham, whose implicit combina- tion is the Vedantic dictum so'ham, “I am that.” The chapter on dhyana teaches three successively more subtle visualizations, starting with a gross dhyana of the yogi’s guru on a beautiful island, followed by a luminous dhyana, visualization of a light between the eyebrows, and a

xii INTRODUCTION subtle dhyana, visualization of Kundalini. In the final chapter Gheranda teaches six very different ways to samadhi. Three mudras, Shambhavi, Khechari, and Yoni, lead to three types of samadhi: dhyana, bliss through rasa (“taste” or “sensation”), and laya (resorption into the Ultimate Reality by means of Kundalini’s rise up the Sushumna, or central channel). Bhramari pranayama, as noted above, leads to samadhi through nada, the inner sound. The Murccha, or “trance” pranayama also leads to samadhi. Finally, we are told that samadhi can arise through bhakti, “devotion,” and this is another feature that sets this book apart from all other texts on Hatha Yoga. Nothing is known about Gheranda and Chanda. The name Gheranda is not found anywhere else in Sanskrit lit- erature. Like many other works on Hatha Yoga, the work is framed as a dialogue, suggesting that it has been overheard and then written down. Thus the identity of the author (or whoever overheard Gheranda) is not revealed. Chanda’s full name, Chandakapali, means “fierce skullbearer.” The epithet kapali, “skullbearer,” immediately brings to mind the sect of the Kapalikas, skull-bearing followers of Shiva infamous for antinomian practices. Kapali and Kapalika are both mentioned as past masters of Hatha Yoga in the list given in verses 1.4-8 of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. (In fact, some manuscripts of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika prefix the name Kapali with Chanda, rather than Khanda, the more common reading.) However, as we shall see below, the practices taught in this book are tame compared to some of those taught in other works on Hatha Yoga, and Gheranda

INTRODUCTION xiii appears to have been a follower of Vishnu, so we cannot claim Kapalika origins for the text. Perhaps Chanda’s epithet is simply a way of establishing a connection between the text and the lineage of the Mahasiddhas mentioned in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. There are also no records of the place and date of com- position of the text, but there are indications that it is a relatively late work on Hatha Yoga from northeast India. The majority of its manuscripts are found in the north and east of India, and, of those which are dated, the oldest was copied in Bengal in 1802 C.E. As far as I am aware, it was never cited by medieval commentators in their works on Hatha Yoga. Doctrinal discontinuities also set it apart from the rest of the Hatha Yogic corpus. Tantric influences have been toned down considerably. See, for example, the descrip- tion of Vajrolimudra in verse 3.39: in all other manuals of Hatha Yoga this name is given to a technique in which the yogi or yogini resorbs commingled sexual fluids through the urethra; here it is a simple physical posture. The author attributes the teachings of Hatha Yoga to Shiva, but verses 5.77 and 7.18 suggest that he was a devotee of Vishnu. Fur- thermore, several verses indicate that the text was compiled by a vedantin, in particular verse 7.4: “I am Brahman and nothing else. I am Brahman alone and do not suffer. My form is truth, consciousness, and bliss. I am eternally free. I abide in my own nature.”² ²Despite the author’s sectarian affiliation, he has no particular doctrinal axe to grind and often tells the aspiring yogi to fill in the details of his visualizations and practices in the manner instructed by his guru.

xiv INTRODUCTION The early texts of Hatha Yoga showed no trace of Vedanta; their doctrinal framework was Tantric. As Hatha Yoga and its proponents, the Nathas, gained in popular- ity and patronage, the religious orthodox, amongst whom Vedanta had become the predominant ideology, had to sit up and take notice. As they had done with other heterodox movements that threatened their hegemony (e.g., renunci- ation and vegetarianism) they claimed Hatha Yoga as their own. This process culminated in the eighteenth century with the compilation of several new Upanishads and the rewriting of some older ones; these are now known collec- tively as the Yoga Upanishads. The unknown compiler(s) used verses from established works on Hatha Yoga to create the texts. The Vedantic and Vaishnava leanings in this book, combined with its use of verses from established works on Hatha Yoga, suggest that it probably resulted from a similar process. In the light of this, as well as the fact that errors in the manuscript of 1802 c.e. imply an established manuscript tradition, the absence of citations in seventeenth-century commentaries, and the location of most of its manuscripts in Bengal, we may hazard a guess that the Gheranda Samhita was composed in Bengal around 1700 c.e. The Sanskrit text presented here is based on the edition of Swami Digambarji and Dr. M. L. Gharote, first published at Lonavala, Maharashtra, in 1978, for which they collated fourteen manuscripts and five printed books, including the Adyar Library edition of 1933, which formed the foundation of their edition. The best known edition of the text is that of Chandra Vasu, which was first published in 1915. It was

INTRODUCTION xv based on two earlier Bengali editions which appear to have relied on a very small number of manuscripts. The Adyar Library edition is much more thorough and omits several spurious verses found in Vasu's edition. I consulted three manuscripts (two in the library in Jodhpur's Mehrangarh Fort and one in the Bodleian Library, Oxford) that were not collated for the Lonavala edition, but they were very similar to manuscripts that had been used so I decided that there was no point in editing the text myself. I have made emen- dations or adopted alternative readings in a few places, but in general the text is the same as the Lonavala edition.³ The Sanskrit is of the variety that medieval commentators on Tantric and Yogic works generously called "aisha," which literally means "coming from Shiva." In other words, it is often ungrammatical. Some verses have been borrowed from other works, in particular the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Goraksha Samhita. The section on the five dharanas (elemental visualizations) in verses 3.59-63 sheds light on the text's composition and development. It has clearly been taken directly from the Goraksha Samhita, verses 155-59, but is incoherent and ungrammatical in all the Gheranda Samhita manuscripts. In the Goraksha Samhita each element has a ³These critical editions are mentioned in the introduction and footnotes. The first work has been referred to as the Goraksha Samhita. Nowotny, Fausta. Das Gorakṣaśataka. Dokumente der Geistesgeschichte 3. Köln: K. A. Nowotny, 1976. Digambarji, Swami, and Dr. M. L. Gharote, eds. Gheraṇḍasaṃhitā. Lonāvalā: Kaival- yadhāma Śrīman Mādhav Yoga Mandir Samiti, 1978. Mallik, Kalyani. The Siddhasiddhāntapaddhati and Other Works of Nātha Yogīs. Poona: Oriental Book House, 1954.

xvi INTRODUCTION color, a shape, a location in the body, and a mantra, but these are confused and omitted in the Gheranda Samhita. In verse 3.62, for example, the wind element is said to be black, smoky, and white, while in the Goraksha Samhita it is just black. I have somewhat boldly decided to adopt the readings of the Goraksha Samhita for the entire passage. That all the Gheranda Samhita manuscripts present a similarly incoherent description of the dharanas is surpris- ing and points to two possible scenarios. Either they are descended from a single flawed manuscript or the compiler of the Gheranda Samhita was using a flawed manuscript of the Goraksha Samhita to write the text. The first hypothe- sis requires a lengthy and improbably irregular manuscript tradition predating the earliest extant manuscript, which, in the absence of external evidence for the text's existence prior to 1802 C.E., is unlikely. I am thus inclined to believe the second hypothesis. In translating, I have tried to be as literal as possible without sacrificing readability. I have sought not to add anything to what is found in the Sanskrit text—commen- tary and elucidation are for the practitioner's guru. Thus where the instructions for a practice are ambiguous, they have been left that way. The photographs of the asanas and mudras draw from the descriptions in the text. In a few instances those descriptions do not provide all the informa- tion necessary to be sure of the correct posture. For those cases I have relied on current practice and common sense to fill in the gaps.

तृतीयोपदेशः Chapter Three Mudras महामुद्रा नभोमुद्रा उड्डीयानं जलन्धरम् । मूलबन्धो महाबन्धो महावेधश्च खेचरी ॥ 1 विपरीतकरी योनिर्वज्रोली शक्तिचालनी । ताडागी माण्डुकीमुद्रा शाम्भवी पञ्चधारणा ॥ 2 अश्विनी पाशिनी काकी मातङ्गी च भुजंगिनी । पञ्चविंशतिमुद्राश्च सिद्धिदा इह योगिनाम् ॥ 3 Mahamudra, Nabhomudra, Uddiyana, Jalandhara, Mulabandha, Mahabandha, Mahavedha, and Khechari; Viparitakarani, Yoni, Vajroli, Shaktichalani, Tadagi, Mandukimudra, Shambhavi, the five dharanas, Ashvini, Pashini, Kaki, Matangi, and Bhujangini: these twenty-five mudras grant success in this world to yogis. पायुमूलं वामगुल्फे संपीड्य दृढयत्नतः । याम्यपादं प्रसार्याथ करोपात्तपदाङ्गुलिः ॥ 4 कण्ठसंकोचनं कृत्वा भ्रुवोर्मध्ये निरीक्षयेत् । पूरकैर्वायुं संपूर्य महामुद्रा निगद्यते ॥ 5 60

MUDRAS 61 Firmly press the anus onto the left ankle, extend the right foot, hold the toes with the hands, contract the throat, and look between the eyebrows. Inhaling repeatedly, fill yourself completely with air. This is called Mahamudra. वलितं पलितं चैव जरामृत्युं निवारयेत् । क्षयकासगुदावर्तप्लीहाजीर्णज्वरं तथा । नाशयेत्सर्वरोगांश्च महामुद्राप्रसाधनात् ॥ 6 It can cure wrinkles and gray hair, old age and death, consumptive cough, constipation, disorders of the spleen, decrepitude, and fever. By mastering Mahamudra, the yogi can get rid of all diseases. यत्र यत्र स्थितो योगी सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा । ऊर्ध्वजिह्वः स्थिरो भूत्वा धारयेत्पवनं सदा । नभोमुद्रा भवेदेषा योगिनां रोगनाशिनी ॥ 7 Wherever the yogi may be, he should always, in every- thing he does, be sure to keep the tongue turned upwards and constantly hold the breath. This is Nabhomudra, the destroyer of diseases for yogis. उदरे पश्चिमं तानं नाभेरूर्ध्वं तु कारयेत् । उड्डीनं कुरुते यस्मादविश्रान्तं महाखगः । उड्डीयानं त्वसौ बन्धो मृत्युमातंगकेसरी ॥ 8

62 मुद्रा Draw the abdomen backwards above the navel so that the great bird flies unceasingly upwards. This is Uddiyana- bandha, a lion against the elephant of death. समग्राद्बन्धनाद्ध्येतदुड्डीयानं विशिष्यते । उड्डीयाने समभ्यस्ते मुक्तिः स्वाभाविकी भवेत् ॥ ९ This Uddiyana sets itself apart from all bandhas: when Uddiyana is practiced, liberation arises spontaneously. कण्ठसंकोचनं कृत्वा चिबुकं हृदये न्यसेत् । जालन्धरे कृते बन्धे षोडशाधारबन्धनम् । जालन्धरमहामुद्रा मृत्योश्च क्षयकारिणी ॥ १० Contract the throat and put the chin on the chest. When Jalandharabandha is performed, the sixteen adharas are restrained.¹ The great Jalandhara mudra brings about death's downfall. सिद्धो जालन्धरो बन्धो योगिनां सिद्धिदायकः । षण्मासमभ्यसेद्यो हि स सिद्धो नात्र संशयः ॥ ११ A perfected Jalandharabandha bestows success upon yogis. He who practices it for six months is an adept. In this there is no doubt. ¹A bandha (lock) is a type of mudra. The sixteen adharas (literally “supports” or “substrates”) are at various locations within the body. They are listed in the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, verses 2.10–25.

MUDRAS 63 महामुद्रा – Mahamudra

64 मुद्रा उड्डीयानबन्ध - Uddiyanabandha