This amazing work outlining yoga practices with only a little metaphysics but lots of occult psychology is by a fifteenth-century author, Svatmarama. One achieves “mental silence,” the goal of the yoga of the Yoga Sutra, by mastering the violent (hatha), strenuous practices of asana, breath control, and sequenced movements, learning to move the prana in occult paths. Unlike in mainstream tantra, action by God or one’s higher self is, if necessary for liberation in some sense (see below, verse 3.2), not the focus. One takes heaven by storm. Although, as with Abhinava and company, yoga may be thought of as a matter of preparation, getting oneself ready for grace, the road-building goes on at a furious pace in hatha yoga. God and the guru’s grace are mentioned in a verse or two, but bhakti is not prominent. Philosophically, the HYP is notable for its claim that mental and vital energy are inseparable and that control and redirection of prana is essential to achieving a quiet mind.
The HYP, whose title means light on hatha yoga, is a late tantric text that borrows from many philosophic predecessors.1 But it is first of all a yoga handbook, in this way much like the Yoga Sutra, a text that it often echoes. Its closest predecessors, however, are the Goraksha-paddhati and other works by Goraksha (c. 1150), who is traditionally viewed as the founder of Swatmarama’s lineage. Swatmarama in several places borrows verses from Goraksha, who himself uses, we may note, the tantric chakric psychology. And like a few other texts that also stand in the tradition of Goraksha, the HYP breaks with the YS not only in metaphysics but also, most importantly, in the practices it teaches, especially in emphasis and in matters of asserted efficiency. Even meditation is ineffective without the difficult practices of hatha yoga (2.76 and elsewhere)—pranayama, in particular, coupled with mastery of psychic locks, bandhas (see chapter 1) and the know-how and skill to perform difficult sequences involving asanas, breath, and locks (called mudra; see below). However, meditation is hardly ignored. The last chapter has a long excursion on nada yoga, the yoga of listening to inner sounds, where interesting references to the chakras are made, according to the classical commentator Brahmananda as well as to the Bihar School.
The HYP has been translated into English several times. I have consulted two translations, both of which I can recommend. First, an 1893 Sanskrit edition and English translation by Srinivasa Iyengar (with an introduction by Tookaram Tatya), re-edited by A. A. Ramanathan and S. V. Subrahmanya Sastri, in an Adyar Library publication (1972), but “thoroughly revised… so as to conform more closely to the text and yet be readable” (vi). The book includes an easy and helpful Sanskrit commentary by the nineteenth-century pundit Brahmananda, bits of which appear in occasional comments by the editors in English. In second place, I have consulted the Bihar School of Yoga’s translation and commentary by Swami Muktibodhananda (1993), a book that includes diagrams of asanas and sets of instructions.2 The transliteration here follows the edition by Pandit Iyengar as re-edited by Ramanathan and Shastri. (The verses in Sanskrit are metrically regular, melodious, and easy to memorize.)
Since practicewise so much explanation is called for and so much of the HYP concerns practice, I have chosen only three passages, all of which seem particularly accessible as well as salient to the projects of this book, the philosophical and psychological theses here encountered. Comments are interspersed.
The HYP has four chapters of different lengths, a total of just under four hundred verses. The first chapter is about asanas. The second is on breath control and preliminary cleansing practices. The third is on mudra—a word that in some contexts means sacred gestures (and seals of yoga-generated energy) but here means something else. For the HYP, a mudra is an attitude made manifest in a sequence of asanas along with bandha engagement (engagings and releasings of the psychic locks). The fourth, the most philosophic chapter, discusses samadhi, yogic trance, as well as nada yoga, the yoga of sound.
Among postures, siddhasana, Perfection Pose, is preferred apparently for its stimulating effect on occult energies and the central channel, sushumna. Several others are listed along with general benefits.3 The message of the first chapter is: master the asanas because they—and control of the body and breath in general—are presupposed by more vigorous practices, called mudra, which directly lead to samadhi. For example, the mudra called viparita-karani, which involves wholesale “reversal” of psychic energies, begins with Headstand, shirshasana.
Despite some interesting advice about yoga practice in general, there is less in chapter 1 concerning Yoga philosophy and psychology than in later chapters. We shall skip directly to chapter 2 and verses in praise of pranayama and breath retention (kumbhaka) in particular.
Proper breath control along with use of the psychic locks, bandha, can by themselves secure the goal of mental silence, which is the goal of raja yoga (the yoga of the YS), we are told repeatedly (e.g., in 2.75 echoing 1.67). In chapter 3, we are introduced to mudra, which are complicated practices sometimes called kriya, actions, along with their occult underpinnings in kundalini, the mystic serpent power. Finally, in chapter 4 we have a remarkable passage on the results of the yoga of sound (nada), of listening to internal sounds to the exclusion of all other available objects. Here the occult psychology is in high relief.
The text opens with a mangala verse of “auspiciousness.” Thus it signals itself not as a scripture reporting a dialogue of Shiva and Shakti but rather as a textbook within a Shaivite tantric tradition that does indeed hold Shiva to be the source of yoga instruction in dialogue with Parvati (Devi). There are 67 verses in chapter 1, 78 in chapter 2, 130 in chapter 3, and 114 in chapter 4. Ellipses are filled in following the commentary of Brahmananda.
2.39. brahmâdayo ’pi tri-daśāḥ pavanâbhyāsa-tat-parāḥ
abhūvann antaka-bhayāt tasmāt pavanam abhyāset.
Even the thirty gods, Brahma and the rest, practice yoga with wind (breath energy), intent on it. They do so out of fear of its end. Therefore, one should practice with wind (the “purifier,” pavana, i.e., breath energy, prana).
2.40. yāvad baddho marud dehe yāvac cittaṃ nirākulam
yāvad dṛṣṭir bhruvo madhye kāla-bhayam kutaḥ.
How can there be fear of time (death) so long as the wind is tied to the body (by yogic breath control), the thought and emotion (chitta) empty and steady, the gaze (drishti) set (on the chakra) between the eyebrows?
2.41. vidhivat saṃyāmair nāḍī-cakre viśodhite
suṣumnā-vadanaṃ bhittvā sukhād viśati mārutaḥ.
Through proper regulation (awareness becoming identified with) breath energy (prana), the (subtle) canals, nadis, and chakras become cleansed. Easily then the mouth of the central channel opens, the sushumna opens, and the wind (the breath energy) enters in.
2.42. mārute madhya-saṃcāre manaḥ-sthairyaṃ prajāyate
yo manaḥ-susthirībhāvaḥ saivâvasthāmanônmanī
When the wind (maruta = prana) is moving through the central channel, mental steadiness is born. That state of consciousness is known as manonmani, “(eager) intentional absence of mind,” which is a state of extraordinary steadiness of the manas, the thought-mind.
2.43. tat-siddhaye vidhāna-jñāś citrān kurvanti kumbhakān
vicitra-kumbhakâbhyāsād vicitrāṃ siddhim āpnuyāt.
To accomplish this, those who know the rules (of proper practice) perform various kinds of breath retention, kumbhaka. (As a side benefit) various kinds of siddhi are obtained from practice of the various kinds of kumbhaka.
atha kumbhaka-bhedāḥ
2.44. sūrya-bhedanam ujjāyī-sītkārī sïtalï tathā
bhastrikā bhrāmarī mūrcchā plāviny aṣṭa-kumbhakāḥ.
Here are the varieties of breath retention: surya-bhedana (“splitting the sun-channel”: inhalation through the right nostril, the “sun,” pingala, and exhalation through the left, the “moon” and “earth,” ida), ujjayi (“victorious”: deep breathing with contraction of the epiglottis), sitkari (“hissing”: breathing through the mouth and teeth making the sound “seet,” which expresses pleasure), shitali (“cooling”: breathing through the rolled tongue), bhastrika (“bellowslike”: rapid breathing), bhramari (“humming”: exhaling with sound like a bee), murchchha (“swoon”: holding the breath almost to the point of fainting), and plavini (“floating”: swallowing air into the stomach) are the eight kumbhakas.
2.45. pūrakânte tu kartavyo bandho jālaṃdharâbhidhaḥ
kumbhakânte recakâdau kartavyas tu uḍḍīyānakaḥ.
Then at the end of the inhalation the lock should be done called jalamdhara (throat lock). But uddiyana lock (stomach lock) should be done at the end of retention when beginning the exhalation.
2.46. adhastāt kuñcanena āśu kaṇṭha-saṃkocane kṛte
madhye paścima-tānena syāt prāṇo brahma-nāḍi-gaḥ.
The throat contraction in place (jalamdhara-bandha, throat lock), then through quick contraction from below (mula-bandha, root lock), (and at the same time) by stretching the belly back (and engaging uddiyana-bandha, stomach lock), the prana is forced into the channel of Brahman (sushumna, the central channel).
2.47. apānam ūrdhvam utthāpya prāṇaṃ kaṇṭhād adho nayet
yogī jarā-vimuktaḥ san ṣodaśâbda-vayā bhavet.
Making the apana (downward breath) come up (reversing its normal flow through engaging root and stomach locks), one can lead the prana down from the throat (with the throat lock engaged). (Thus) the yogin becoming free from old age comes to look like someone sixteen years of age.
atha sūrya-bhedanam
2.48. āsane sukha-de yogī baddhvā caivâsanaṃ tataḥ
dakṣa-nāḍyā samākṛṣya bahiḥ-sthaṃ pavanaṃ śanaiḥ.
Now surya-bhedana (is described in the next three verses):
Taking a comfortable seat and making it an asana, the yogin, drawing in through the right nostril (pingala) air outside the body, slowly—
2.49. ā keśād ā nakhâgrāc ca nirodhâvadhi kumbhayet
tataḥ śanaiḥ savya-nāḍyā recayet pavanam śanaiḥ.
—should retain it up to the limit of cessation (of breathing), up to the hair on the head and the nails of the fingers and toes (feeling pressure). Then slowly, through the left nostril (ida), one should empty the air, slowly.
2.50. kapāla-śodhanaṃ vāta-doṣa-ghnaṃ kṛmi-doṣa-hṛt
punaḥ punar idam kāryaṃ sūrya-bhedanam uttamam.
The surya-bhedana type of breath control is the best for clearing and cleansing the cranium, destroying disorders (dosha) of vata (vital air), dispelling disorders caused by worms. Again and again should it be practiced.
…
2.75. rāja-yoga-padaṃ câpi labhate nâtra saṃśayaḥ
kumbhakāt kuṇḍalī-bodhaḥ kuṇḍalī-bodhato bhavet
anargalā suṣumnā ca haṭha-siddhiś ca jāyate.
In addition (to the benefit of the power just described), from mastery of breath retention the state of raja yoga (a silent mind) is gained, no doubt about it. From mastery of breath retention, the serpent power (kundalini) is awakened. And there would be, from the awakening of the serpent power, unbolting of the central channel (sushumna), and perfection (siddhi) would be born, the goal of hatha yoga.
Even the gods and goddesses practice pranayama, “extension and control of the breath energy”! This extends and iconizes the thesis that prana and chitta, the YS’s “thought stuff,” are inextricably intertwined. There is no perfection in yoga without control or redirection of the life energy. The word used in verse 2.39 is pavana, which means purifier and is used to refer to air as the fourth of the five elements.4 The element aside, it’s as though divine individuality is maintained by perfect breathing. The gods and goddesses are conceived as occult energies, as in tantra generally but here without the emphasis on bhakti. Divine beings traverse subtle elements corresponding with the five gross elements, earth and the rest, and are thought to have connections with particular types of subtle energies that pass through our various chakras and subtle bodies.
It seems that surely the Immortals would not fear death, but how is their individuality sustained through time? Verse 2.40 answers that it is through particular yoga practices. No one is exempt from practice. Then verses 2.41 and 2.42 describe prana entering the central channel connecting all the major chakras and eliciting the “thousand-petaled” enlightment or self-realization visualized at the high end.
Verse 2.43 lays forth breath retention as the means to that end, underscoring the connection between prana and mental silence, chitta-vritti-nirodha, in the conception of the YS. Thought follows desire and emotion, and so no mental silence is possible without a yoga that addresses these factors. Implicitly, however, our text hints that breath-control practices are superior—in accordance, we may remark, with the order of limbs of the ashtanga yoga of the YS (yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi).
Verse 2.44 names eight varieties of breath retention. Most of the rest of the chapter consists in description and elaboration of the eight, touting benefits for health and the acquisition of siddhis. The first of these, surya-bhedana, is taken up in 2.48. Verses 2.45 through 2.47 preview the mudras that are the subject of chapter 3. Introducing the locks, the psychic bandha, the passage tells us how to make the prana flow consciously into the central channel. Verse 2.47 appears to characterize the same exercise in different terminology, talking about the usually downward, eliminative “air” or “breath,” the apana (which is also mentioned at 1.48), made to flow up and the normally upward energy of breathing with the lungs and diaphram made to flow down. This action apparently occurs in the pranic body (figure 4A).5
The chapter continues with detailed description of the remaining types of breath retention along with benefits—until a final handful of verses, including 2.75, about the serpent power (kundalini). The divine energy asleep in the lower chakras is the central topic of the opening passage of chapter 3. The last verse of chapter 2, 2.78, lists slimness, freedom from illness, brightness of complexion, and clear eyes as among the signs of perfection in hatha yoga.
3.1. saśaila-vana-dhātrīṇāṃ yathâdhāro ’hi-nāyakaḥ
sarveṣām yoga-tantrāṇāṃ tathâdhāro hi kuṇḍalī.
As the chief of serpents (Ananta, the Infinite, on whose back Vishnu reclines) is the support of Mother Earth with her craggy mountains and forests, / so indeed is Kundali (kundalini, the serpent power) the support of the principles of yoga.
3.2. suptā guru-prasādena yadā jāgarti kuṇḍalī
tadā sarvāṇi padmāni bhidyante granthayo ’pi ca.
Asleep, Kundali awakens through the grace of the guru. Then the lotuses (the chakras of the occult body) are all pierced and all the psychic knots (granthi) cut.
3.3.prāṇasya śūnya-padavī tadā rāja-pathāyate
tadā cittaṃ nirālambaṃ tadā kālasya vañcanam.
Then the trail to the Void comes to be the royal road for prana. Then the thought and emotion (chitta) disconnect from their objects (i.e., become still). Then time (death) is cheated.
3.4. suṣumṇā śūnya-padavī brahma-randhraṃ mahā-pathaḥ
śmaśānaṃ śāmbhavī madhya-mārgaś cêty eka-vācakāḥ.
There is a single referent of the expressions, “Sushumna” (the Gracious), “trail to the void,” “cleft of Brahman” (at the back of the head), the “Great Path,” / “Cremation Ground,” “Shambhavi” (the Kind Mother), and the “Middle Way” (the central channel).
3.5. tasmāt sarva-prayatnena prabodhayitum īśvarīm
brahma-dvāra-mukhe suptāṃ mudrâbhāsaṃ samācaret.
Therefore, with all effort one should act to arouse this the Female Lord, / who is asleep at the mouth of the door to Brahman, through practice of mudra (i.e., kriya, actions, to be listed).
3.6. mahā-mudrā mahā-bandho mahā-vedhaś ca khecarī
uḍḍīyānaṃ mūla-bandhaś ca bandho jālaṃdharâbhidhaḥ.
3.7. karaṇī viparītâkhyā vajrolī śakti-cālanam
idam hi mudrā-daśakaṃ jarā-maraṇa-nāśanam.
For there is, destructive of agedness and wasting away, this group of ten mudras (attitudes or kriya): (1) the Great mudra (with one heel tucked in below the sexual organs, the other leg outstretched, retention of breath after an inhale, engagement of throat lock, and, to end the round, very slow exhalation), (2) the Great Lock (Root Lock, Stomach Lock, and Throat Lock engaged simultaneously), (3) the Great-Piercing Attitude (Lotus Pose combined with a lift of the buttocks and a beating of them, gently, against the ground along with Throat Lock), (4) khechari (tongue curled back to touch the palate, eyes rolled back with all attention directed to the third eye), (5) Stomach Lock, (6) Root Lock, (7) Throat Lock, (8) the Reversing Attitude (low shoulder stand with ujjayi breath), (9) vajroli (retention of sexual fluids and energy, saholi for women), and (10) Coursing the Shakti (in the central channel).
3.8. ādi-nāthôditaṃ divyam aṣṭaiśvarya-pradāyakam
vallabhaṃ sarva-siddhānāṃ durlabhaṃ marutām api.
These were taught by the original teacher (Shiva, the founder of yoga). They belong to our higher nature. They bring the eight powers, the eight siddhis. / They are the practices preferred by all the siddhas (the perfected ones), though they are difficult even for the maruts (the highly flexible wind gods).
These verses provide an overview of practices said to be especially effective in arousing the serpent power.
The eight siddhis, which are commonly attributed to the Yoga Sutra but are not spelled out there explicitly, are, according to HYP commentator Brahmananda: animan, shrinking; mahiman, extension; gariman, immovability; laghiman, lightness; prapti, cognition at a distance; prakamya, irresistible will; ishita, mastery of the body and the manas (thought mind); and vashita, dominion over external elements. This list is closer to the list in the YS commentary by King Bhoja than it is to Vyasa’s in his comments on YS 3.45 (see that sutra as well as note 43 to appendix C).6 Brahmananda provides a little elaboration for each, although some of his examples are highly implausible.7
The serpent power is not the same as the jivatman, the individual soul that survives death. The jivatman becomes liberated through Kundalini’s awakening, splitting the psychic knots (granthi), and rising to the thousand-petaled lotus or chakra through the central channel, which in these verses is deified. The sushumna is the Royal Road, etc. It’s as though the spark soul can now roam freely throughout the system newly alive with shakti, the facilitating divine energy that now flows freely.
The chapter continues to the very end by elaborating and describing the benefits of each of the ten mudras. Although the HYP is not a good example of the theme we have been calling the tantric turn, one of the verses on the ninth mudra, vajroli, which involves sex, is remarkable. The tantric sex prescribed involves both partners trying to withhold fluids as well as, upon release of fluids, to siphon them back up into one’s own sexual organ, whether male or female (a kind of yogic competition!). After listing the practice’s benefits (including a perfect body), verse 3.103 says in effect that here enjoyment (bhoga) and making progress towards liberation (mukti-da) are compatible.
All these methods of yoga are said at the end of chapter 3, as at the end of chapter 2, to confer siddhis. The list of eight (see above) is indicated by mention of the first, anima, shrinking. Death too is overcome, the last verse says (3.130).
Chapter 4 begins with a round of salutations to Shiva, suggesting a fresh beginning if not interpolation. There is a lot of repetition of ideas previously introduced. Yogic trance, samadhi, is the main topic, which, although hardly described in terms of worldly action, is said to protect the yogin or yogini from harm from anything outside (conferring immunity from weapons, etc.). There is nevertheless much reference to the tantric psychology of chakras and so on, in particular in the midst of a long tract elaborating an additional yogic method, nada yoga, some verses of which are translated below. Two mudras are also discussed at length, one, khechari, which was also listed and discussed in the third chapter, along with shambhavi mudra, which is not on the earlier list of ten. The word shambhavi is derivative from shambhu, “kind, peaceful,” which is a common epithet for Shiva. The mudra is not as complex as any of the ten, involving simply fixing the vision or drishti, with eyes open or closed, at a spot just beyond the middle of the eyebrows, i.e., on the ajna chakra, says Brahmananda.
In chapter 4—as also in chapter 3 with respect to sushumna (3.4)—the HYP appears itself to acknowledge the legitimacy of a worry about objectivity. As might be expected given that it is a late text with respect to the whole of yoga literature (fourteenth century), it evinces awareness of a pluralism of conceptions concerning, in particular, samadhi as yogic goal. Verse 4.3–4 lists appellations of the yogic goal and supreme personal good (parama-purushartha) across a wide range of yogic and religious traditions. To my mind, this move helps to alleviate the historicist worry that occult teachings are particularly culture-bound. The problem of partial intersubjectivity is answered by the fact of the difficulty of the yogic prerequisites.
The section on nada yoga begins with verse 66 and runs for thirty-seven verses almost to the end of the chapter. Below are eight verses listing four advanced stages that presuppose pratyahara, withdrawal of the senses from their objects. Verse 68 says that not only the eyes but also the ears, the nose, and the mouth should be closed, meaning that the associated sensory organs should be withdrawn. Then one begins to hear sounds in the central channel that apparently have the power to split the psychic knots and usher in other, similarly puissant sounds as well as bliss and eventually enlightenment.
4.70. brahma-granther bhaved bhedo hy ānandaḥ śūnya-sambhavaḥ
vicitraḥ kvaṇako dehe ’nāhataḥ śrūyate dhvaniḥ.
For should the “knot of Brahma” (brahma granthi) be cut, ananda (bliss) arises out of nothing (out of the void, shunya). / Wondrous buzzing in the body is heard; the “unstruck” (anahata) sound is heard (in the anahata or heart chakra).
4.71. divya-dehaś ca tejasvī divya-gandhas tv arogavān
saṃpūrṇa-hṛdayaḥ śūnya ārambhe yogavān bhavet.
A divine body too is his, splendid (full of tejas, spiritual energy), with a supernatural scent, free of disease, / his heart full (of shakti), if the yoga practitioner enters into the beginning stage of “living in the void” (shunya).
4.72. dvitīyāyāṃ ghaṭīkṛtya vāyur bhavati madhya-gaḥ
dṛḍhâsano bhaved yogī jñānī deva-samas tadā.
In the second stage, the yogin becoming a vessel (ghata), the wind (prana) enters the central channel. / Then the yogin comes to be settled in his consciousness, a knower, equal then to a god.
4.73. viṣṇu-granthes tato bhedāt paramânanda-sūcakaḥ
atiśūnye vimardaś ca bherī-śabdas tadā bhavet.
And then upon the splitting of the knot of Vishnu (in the throat chakra), which is indicated by supernal bliss, / there is in the “over-void” (atishunya) the rumbling sound of a kettle drum.
4.74. tṛtīyāyāṃ tu vijñeyo vihāyo-mardala-dhvanih
maḥā-śūnyaṃ tadā yāti sarva-siddhi-samāśrayam.
But in the third stage, what is to be known is a drum’s sound in the space (of the ajna chakra). / The “Great Void” (maha-shunya) at that time arises. The yogin attains the full availability of every kind of siddhi.
4.75. cittânandaṃ tadā jitvā sahajânanda-saṃbhavaḥ
doṣa-duḥkha-jarā-vyādhi-kṣudhā-nidrā-vivarjitaḥ.
Then mastering the bliss of the chitta (thought and emotion), he knows (another) bliss that is spontaneously born. / From flaws and imperfections, pain and suffering, aging, hunger, and sleep he becomes free.
4.76. rudra-granthiṃ yadā bhittvā śarva-pītha-gato ’nilaḥ
niṣpattau vaiṇavaḥ śabdaḥ kvaṇad-vīṇā-kvāṇo bhavet.
When the knot of Rudra has been cut, the wind (prana) is absorbed into Shiva’s province (the ajna chakra). / That accomplished, a flutelike sound occurs, a ring resonating like a vina (a large guitar).
4.77. ekībhūtaṃ tadā cittaṃ rāja-yogâbhidhānakam
sṛṣṭi-saṃhāra-kartasau yogîśvara-samo bhavet.
Then the chitta comes to be single-pointed, (in a state) designated raja yoga (the royal yoga). / Such a yogin comes to be like the Lord (ishvara), capable of (creative) emanation and (destructive) retraction.
The passage continues with advice not to rest content even with this fourth stage of “living in the void” called raja yoga (which is usually taken to be a name for the yoga of the YS), albeit what has been achieved is extremely enjoyable (4.78–80). The section on nada yoga concludes with verse 102, and the book ends with verse 114.
The last thirteen verses again extol samadhi. The commentator Brahmananda is apparently so offended by the ending’s lack of bhakti that he launches a long (five-page) excursion on the compatibility of bhakti with the methods described, and, in the words of the editors Ramanathan and Subrahmanya Sastri, concludes that “bhakti, in its most transcendental aspect, is included in… samadhi.”8