Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

YOGA 131
these are muktapadmasana 1 (“the loosened lotus seat”),
the ordinary position for worship, and baddhapadmāsana.
2 Patañjali, on the subject of āsana, merely points
out what are good conditions, leaving each one to settle
the details for himself according to his own requirements.
There are certain other āsanas, which are peculiar
to the Tantras, such as mundāsana, citāsana, and
śavāsana, in which skulls, the funeral pyre, and a corpse
respectively form the seat of the sādhaka. These, though
they may have other ritual objects, form part of the
discipline for the conquest of fear and the attainment of
indifference, which is the quality of a yogī. And so the
Tantras prescribe as the scene of such rites the solitary
mountain-top, the lonely empty house and river-side, and
the cremation-ground. The interior cremation-ground is
there where the kāmik body and its passions are consumed
in the iire of knowledge.
STHIRATĀ: MUDRĀS
Sthiratā, or fortitude, is acquired by the practice of
the mudras. The mudrās dealt with in works of haṭ hayoga
are positions of the body. They are gymnastic,
health-giving, and destructive of disease and of death, 3
such as the jāladhara 4 and other mudrās. They also
preserve from injury by fire, water, or air. Bodily action
1 The right foot is placed on the left thigh, the left foot on the right thigh
and the hands are crossed and placed similarly on the thighs; the chin is
placed on the breast, and the gaze fixed on the tip of the nose (see also Śiva-
Saṃ
hitā, chap. i, verse 52).
2 The same except that the hands are passed behind the back and the
right hand holds the right toe, and the left hand the left toe. By this,
increased pressure is placed on the mūlādhāra and the nerves are braced
with the tightening of the body.
3 Gheraṇḍa-Saṃ
hitā, Third Upadeśa.
4 Ibid, verse 12.