Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
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THE HUMAN BODY 47<br />
yoga. Jīva in turīya is merged in the great causal body<br />
(mahā-kāraṇ a). The fifth state arises from firmness in<br />
the fourth. He who is in this state becomes equal <strong>to</strong><br />
Śiva, or, more strictly tends <strong>to</strong> a close equality; for it is<br />
only beyond that, that “the spotless one attains the<br />
highest equality,” which is unity. Hence even in the<br />
fourth and fifth states there is an absence of full perfection<br />
which constitutes the Supreme. Bhāskararāyā,<br />
in his Commentary on the Lalitā, when pointing out<br />
that the Tāntrik theory adds the fourth and fifth states<br />
<strong>to</strong> the first three adopted by the followers of the<br />
Upaniṣads, says that the latter states are not separately<br />
enumerated by them owing <strong>to</strong> the absence in those two<br />
states of the full perfection of Jīva or of Śiva.<br />
NĀDI<br />
It is said 1 that there are 3½ crores of nāḍ is in the<br />
human body, of which some are gross and some are subtle.<br />
Nāḍ i means a nerve or artery in the ordinary sense;<br />
but all the nāḍ is of which the books on Yoga 2 speak are<br />
not of this physical character, but are subtle channels of<br />
energy. Of these nāḍ is, the principal are fourteen; and<br />
of these fourteen, iḍ a, pingalā and suṣumnā are the chief;<br />
and again, of these three, suṣumnā is the greatest, and<br />
<strong>to</strong> it all others are subordinate. Suṣumnā is in the<br />
hollow of the meru in the cerebro-spinal axis. 3 It<br />
1 Nāḍi-vijnāna (chap. i, verses 4 and 5).<br />
2 Ṣ at-cakra-nirūpaṇa (commentary on verse 1), quoting from Bhūta<br />
śuddhi-<strong>Tantra</strong>, speaks of 72000 nāḍis (see also Niruttara-<strong>Tantra</strong>, Prāṇa<strong>to</strong>ṣinī,<br />
p. 35), and the Śiva-saṃ<br />
hitā (2, 13) of three lacs and 50,000.<br />
3 It has been thought, on the authority of the <strong>Tantra</strong>-cūḍā-maṇi, that<br />
suṣumnā is outside meru; but this is not so, as the Author of the Ṣ at-cakranirūpaṇa<br />
points out (verse 2). Iḍa and Pingalā are outside the meru; the<br />
quoted passage in Nigama-tattva-sāra referring <strong>to</strong> suṣumnā, vajrā and citrīnī.