घेरण्ड संहिता (महर्षि घेरण्ड - सप्ताङ्ग हठयोग सटीक)

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.