DIGITAL & PRINT-ON-DEMAND ISSUE 20 SPRING 2015 NĀMARŪPACategories of Indian Thought NĀMARŪPA ISSUE 20 SPRING 2015 Categories of Indian Thought JASON BIRCH 4 THE YOGATĀRĀVALĪ Publishers & Founding Editors And the Hidden History of Yoga Robert Moses & Eddie Stern DR. ROBERT E. SVOBODA 14 EXCERPT FROM AGHORA II: KUNDALINI Advisors Dr. Robert E. Svoboda 20 KUNDALINI: Meenakshi Moses INTERVIEW WITH DR. SVOBODA Jocelyne Stern Conducted by Rick Archer of Editors Buddha at The Gas Pump Meenakshi Moses & Eddie Stern ROXANNE GUPTA PH.D. 42 BEHIND THE OCHRE ROBE Design & Production The extraordinary life and death of Robert Moses Agehananda Bharati Assistance from ROBERT SCHNEIDER 50 ENCOUNTER WITH THE INFINITE Bobbie Jo Allen, Steve Cahn, & BENJAMIN PHELAN The story of the mathematical genius Melanie Parker Srinivasan Ramanujan Website www.namarupa.org by Roberto Maiocchi & Robert Moses NAOMI WORTH 60 DREAMING IN EARLY ADVAITA VEDĀNTA A main component of Śańkaracarya’s NĀMARŪPA is funded by sales view of Reality & donations. Contributors have JAIDEV DASGUPTA 70 IN SEARCH OF IMMORTALITY kindly offered their work free An Introduction into Indic Worldviews of remuneration. Editorial and About the book by the author production assistance is voluntary. ROBERT & SATYA MOSES 74 DEVOTION AT LORD JAGANNATH RATH YATRA Back page photograph Photo essay of the annual Chariot Festival Hanumanji near Lord Jagannath Temple, of Lord Jagannath in Puri, Odisha, July 2104 Puri, Odisha by Robert Moses. SATYA MOSES COVER Surya Bhagavan NĀMARŪPA Categories of Indian Thought, established in 2003, honors the many systems of knowledge, prac- अ आ इ ई उ ऊ tical and theoretical, that have origi- a ā i ī u ū nated in India. Passed down through ए ऐ ओ औ the ages, these systems have left tracks, e ai o au paths already traveled that can guide ऋ ॠ ऌ ॡ अं अः us back to the Self – the source of all ŗ ř ļ ĺ ał aģ names NĀMA and forms RŪPA. The publishers have created this journal क ख ग घ ङ out of a love for the knowledge that it ka kha ga gha ńa reflects, and desire that its content be clear and inspirational, without any NĀMARŪPA uses च छ ज झ ञ particular agenda or sectarian bias. diacritical marks, ca cha ja jha ña NĀMARŪPA is published in both as per the chart, for ट ठ ड ढ ण print-on-demand and digital versions. the transliteration of ţa ţha ďa ďha ņa NĀMARŪPA YATRA guides annual all Sałskŗta words. त थ द ध न pilgrimages to sacred places in India. Many of the articles ta tha da dha na NĀMARŪPA BANDHĀVA has re- do contain these cently been established to adopt a vil- marks, but it is not a प फ ब भ म lage in the Uttarkashi region of the universal occurrence pa pha ba bha ma Himalayas devastated by recent floods. in the magazine. In य र ल व www.namarupa.org those cases where ya ra la va NĀMARŪPA Inc, is the publishing authors have elected wing of The Broome Street Temple, not to use diacritics, श ष स ह a 501c3 non-profit organization. Sałskŗta words śa ša sa ha Lord Jagannath prasad being delivered. www.broomestreettemple.org remain in their � � � Puri July 2014 ©Robert Moses romanized form. kša tra ña 2 Issue 20 Spring 2015 3 THE YOGATĀRĀVALĪ AND THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF YOGA1 JASON BIRCH Kŗšņamācārya performing the three locks in Padmāsana. hose who have attended an The name Yogatārāvalī can be no mental activity, no breathing and TAšţāńgayoga class in the tradition of understood as: ‘A String of Stars on Yoga.’ no positional consciousness. That is to Pattabhi Jois are probably familiar with Each verse of this short text is likened to a say, Rājayoga is something beyond the at least one verse of the Yogatārāvalī, shining star, which illuminates the topic common experience of “I” and “mine”. whether they know the name of the of yoga. Its first verse acknowledges the The Yogatārāvalī puts it this way: text or not. Pattabhi Jois would chant importance of the teacher, who transmits the first verse of theYogatārāvalī at to the student the liberating knowledge ahaµmamatvādi vihāya sarvaµ the beginning of a morning class, and that extinguishes the suffering of worldly śrīrājayoge sthiramānasānām | Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois and Sri R. Sharath Jois chanting the first verse of the Yogatārāvalī many of his students continue to do this life. na drašţŗtā nāsti ca dŗśyabhāvaģ before class at the Puck Building, New York ©Jesse Gordon before their yoga practice: In the Yogatārāvalī, the means to sā jŗmbhate kevalasaµvid eva ||16|| liberation is the practice of Haţha yoga practices such as concentration a system of yoga called Rājayoga, which vande gurūņāµ caraņāravinde and Rājayoga. Its Haţhayoga consists "Having left behind everything and meditation become redundant. it says is ‘the king (rāja) of all yogas.’ sandarśitasvātmasukhāvabodhe | of physical techniques; in particular, beginning with the states of ‘I’ It omits the first seven auxiliaries niģśreyase jāńgalikāyamāne the three locks (mūla, uďďīyana3 and and ‘mine’, those whose minds na dŗšţilakšyāņi na cittabandho of ašţāńgayoga. In fact, the author saµsārahālāhalamohaśāntyai ||1|| jālandhara). These locks are applied are steady in the sacred [state of] na deśakālau na ca vāyurodhaģ | considers these auxiliaries and the during breath retentions (kumbhaka) Rājayoga are neither observers nor na dhāraņādhyānapariśramo vā techniques of Haţhayoga to be not just "I pay homage to the gurus’ lotus and, as a result of this practice, objects of observation. Only an samedhamāne sati rājayoge ||14|| ineffectual practices, but hindrances on feet, which have revealed the the Haţhayogin is able to immerse isolated awareness prevails." the path to attaining samādhi. knowledge of the bliss of one’s own the mind in an internal resonance "There are no gazing points, no fixing In effect, theAmanaska says that self. Unsurpassed, [these lotus-feet] (nādānusandhāna). The main difference between Haţha of the mind [on a meditation object], there is little point in trying to master act like toxicologists2 for curing the In contrast to this, Rājayoga is simply and Rājayoga is that the latter is beyond no time or place, no [deliberate] difficult postures, breathing exercises delusion that is the poison [known the practice of samādhi, a profound all techniques. In other words, once the stopping of the breath, nor the effort and meditation techniques when the as] transmigration." state of meditation in which there is Rājayogin has achieved samādhi, other of concentration (dhāraņā) and goal of these techniques, samādhi, meditation (dhyāna), when Rājayoga otherwise known as the no-mind state 1 I would like to thank Eddie Stern for encouraging me to write this article and for his valuable comments on it. Thanks also is flourishing." (amanaska), can be achieved easily by to Jacqueline Hargreaves, James Mallinson, Mark Singleton and Elizabeth De Michelis for their many helpful comments on Śāmbhavī Mudrā. early drafts of this article. The illustration of Śāmbhavī Mudrā and figures 1 and 2 are by Jacqueline Hargreaves. Figures 1 and It is likely that Haţha and Rājayoga The yogin who is practising this 2 contain images by Febrian Anugrah. began as separate traditions. Much of Mudrā is described as gazing outwards name and other technical vocabulary 2 The term jāńgalika is usually spelt jāńgulika in Sanskrit texts and it is often translated as ‘snake doctor.’ For example, in Sures the Yogatārāvalī’s teachings on Rājayoga (bahirdŗšţi) with eyes half open, half common to both texts suggest that the Chandra Banerji’s “A Companion to Sanskrit Literature” (1989, p. 427), jāńgulika is defined as a “snake doctor; dealer in anti- appear to derive from those of the closed, while directing the mind inwards Amanaska influenced the author of dotes of poison.” Also, Monier-Williams dictionary defines jāńgulika as a “snake charmer.” However, in the Yogatārāvalī’s first earliest extant Rājayoga text called the to an internal focal point (antarlakšya). the Yogatārāvalī.4 For this reason, the verse, jāńgalika is being used metaphorically to describe gurus who can cure a poison called Hālāhala. Rather than a snake Amanaska, which can be dated to the TheYogatārāvalī teaches this technique Yogatārāvalī was probably composed poison, Hālāhala probably refers to either the mythological poison produced at the churning of the ocean and swallowed by twelfth century. The Amanaska teaches and calls it Amanaskamudrā. This sometime after the twelfth century. Śiva (thereby causing the blueness of his neck) or some plant-based poison. Therefore, it appears that the guru is being likened to a doctor who specializes in the general treatment of poisons (i.e., a toxicologist) rather than a snake doctor or charmer. This 4 Other similarities between the Yogatārāvalī's and the Amanaska’s Rājayoga include descriptions of samādhi as devoid of wak- is somewhat supported by a Sanskrit commentary on the Yogatārāvalī called the Yogabhāvaprakāśikā, which glosses jāńgalika ing, sleep, life and death; the mention of the eyes becoming still, the breath stopping and the mind being free from both inten- as a višavaidya (i.e., ‘a poison specialist’ or ‘toxicologist’), and so does the Amarakośa (1.8.510). tional (sańkalpa) and discursive (vikalpa) thought in the no-mind state; the use of the simile of a 'lamp in a windless place' in 3 There are two different spellings of this bandha in the Yogatārāvalī: uďďīyana and uďyāņa. The difference is due to the metre of regard to the yogin in the no-mind state; the reference to detachment (udāsīnatā); and the use of the compounds sahajāmanaska the verses. In manuscripts of the Haţhapradīpikā and Dattātreyayogaśāstra, this bandha is usually spelt uďďīyāna or uďďiyāna. and yoganidrā as synonyms for samādhi. 4 Issue 20 Spring 2015 5 practising Mantra or Layayoga.