Mircea Eliade YOGA IMMORTALITY AND ... - Brihaspati.net

are" warm " to such an extent that can be inferred without hurting oped spoons, with
swords crossed, swallowing coals, etc.. However, a number of yogis, fakirs boast of
prowess seme-j before. The analogy between yogis and shamans is even more evident in
the case of "hot magic". initiatic One of the spe-cific evidence of shamanism consists
precisely in the capacity to withstand extreme cold. This is so among the Manchu
practiced in winter in nine holes ice-shaman candidate dipped into one of the holes and
swim out to the second, and so on until the ninth hole (Eliade, Le Chamanisme, p. 114).
Among the Eskimo shamans of the peninsula of Labrador there is a test initiatic similar: a
candidate) ■ he stayed for five days and nights in the cold sea, and having pro-proved
that neither had been wet, immediately gained the title of angakkok (ibid., p. 68, n. 2).
However, some evidence consists precisely in indotibetanas initiatic calculate the degree
of preparation of a disciple according to their ability to dry, with the naked body and gave
me-snow, a quantity of rags soaked in overnight investments nal. This "psychic heat" in
Tibetan is called gtum-mo (pronunciaci6n: tumor). "The rags are put in ice water to
freeze and there are hardened them out. Each of the disciples is wound around each body
and must thaw and dry on your scalp. When the cloth is dry, wet it again and the candidate
must roll it again. The operation continues until dawn. Anyone who has clothes
drying is much proclama-mately won the contest .., "21
The gtum-mo is an exercise tantric yogi-well known in the Indian ascetic tradition. We
have already alluded to the extremely intense heat caused by the awakening of the
kundalini (see 237). The texts detailing the "psychic heat" is obtained either by
Alexandra David-Neel, magiciens Mystiques et du Thibet, p. 228 et seq.
retention of respiration and by the transmutation of energy sexual22 and this experience
will always acompafiada by fen6menos-lights (important detail, which we shall return).
The ttcnica of "internal heat production" is not an innovation of Tantrism. The
Majjhimanikaya (1, 244, etc..) Speaks of "heat" which is given by the retention of
respiration, and other Buddhist texts (the Dhammapada, 387, for example) claim that the
Buddha is "on fire". The Buddha is "on fire" because they practiced tapas, asceticism, and
we have seen (p. Ill) that covers this occurred since the Vedic period in India, but the
ideology and practice of "sweating magical" and the creation of the procedure are known
since autotermia Indo-European era, but still belong to an archaic cultural stage, being
recorded in both cosmologies "primitive" as in a number of shamans.
Everything leads us to believe that the experience of "inner heat" was known to mystics
and magicians of ancient times. Large number of tribes "primitive" imagined as
"scorching" magico-religious power and express it in terms that mean "hot," "Burn,"
"very hot", etc.. That's why magicians and bru-jos primitive colored drink water and eat
salty or strong-tasting plants: in this way want to increase their "heat" inside. At. modem
India, the Mohammedans believe that a man in communication with God takes "burning".
The miracles performed is called "boiling." For extensi6n, any persons or actions that
involve any magic-religious power of this or that spe-cies, are considered "hot" (Eliade,
Le Chamanisme, p. 412 et seq.).
As expected, sacred power experienced as extreme heat, is not obtained only through
shamanic techniques or mystical. We have already mentioned (p. 112) certain terms of
the Indo-European vocabulary of combat (fury, / erg, etc..) Expressing exactly this
"extreme heat" and that "anger" which characterize the incorporation of a sacred power
As the shaman, the young hero is "overheated" during his initiatory combat. This "anger"