Steve Watson

The Unlikely Ideologies of Yoga

Retention of bindu

In its earliest formulations, hatHa was used to raise and conserve the physical essence of life, identified in men as bindu (semen), which is otherwise constantly dripping downward from a store in the head and being expended. (The female equivalent, mentioned only occasionally in our sources, is rajas, menstrual fluid.) The preservation and sublimation of semen was associated with tapas (asceticism) from at least the time of the epics, and some of the techniques of early HatHa Yoga are likely to have developed as part of ascetic practice. The techniques of early HatHa Yoga work in two ways: mechanically, in practices such as viparItakaraNI, “the reverser,” in which by standing on one’s head one uses gravity to keep bindu in the head; or by making the breath enter the central channel of the body, which runs from the base of the spine to the top of the head, thereby forcing bindu upward.
(Mallinson, J., Hatha Yoga, p. 1)

Activation of kuNDaliNI

In later formulations of HatHa Yoga, the kaula system of the visualization of the serpent goddess KuNDaliNI rising as kuNDaliNI energy through a system of cakras, usually six or seven, is overlaid onto the bindu-oriented system. The same techniques, together with some specifically kuNDaliNI-oriented ones, are said to effect kuNDaliNI’s rise up the central channel (which is called the suXumnA in these traditions) to a store of amrⁱta (the nectar of immortality) situated in the head, with which kuNDaliNI then floods the body, rejuvenating it and rendering it immortal.
(Mallinson, J., Hatha Yoga, p. 1)

In a novel variation on the theme of consciousness-raising-as-internal ascent, HatHa yoga also represents the yogic body as a sealed hydraulic system within which vital fluids may be channeled upward as they are refined into nectar through the heat of asceticism. Here, the semen of the practitioner, lying inert in the coiled body of the serpentine kundalinI in the lower abdomen, becomes heated through the bellows effect of prAnAyAma, the repeated inflation and deflation of the peripheral breath channels. The awakened kundalinI suddenly straightens and enters into the susumnA, the medial channel that runs the length of the spinal column up to the cranial vault. Propelled by the yogi’s heated breaths, the hissing kundalinI serpent shoots upward, piercing each of the cakras as she rises. With the penetration of each succeeding cakra, vast amounts of heat are released, such that the semen contained in the kundalinI’s body becomes gradually transmuted
(White, DG., (2011) “Yoga, Brief History of an Idea” (Chapter 1 of Yoga in Practice) p. 16)

Achievement of kEvalya

What is clear is that all these states of consciousness are conditioned or affected by the traits (vAsana) and impressions (sa~skAra), which, in turn, are created and modified by the character of the ongoing experience. This is the cycle that maintains ignorance and hence sa~sAra.
…
Patanjali’s main concern is to set out the elements of the way to escape from this cycle. His initial focus is the vrⁱttis [states of consciousness], since these are what dominate people’s awareness and all of them are conditioned by ignorance and the other klexas [afflictions]. Hence, he states in 1.2 that ‘Yoga is the stilling or cessation (nirodha) of the vrⁱttis.’ The way to make the vrⁱttis still is to cultivate concentration of mind (d^hyAna) (YS 2.11). The state of d^hyAna is thus the state of yoga. Once this is achieved, he tells us in 1.3, the seer abides in its own nature (svarUpa).
All is not quite so simple, however, since, according to 2.11, the vrⁱttis are merely vehicles for expressing just the coarse aspect of the klexas. So, although the seer might experience itself in the state of d^hyAna such an experience is only temporary (See Katha Upanishad 6.11. ‘Yoga arises and passes away.’) The conjunction between puruXa and prakrⁱti still remains. For this to be broken the subtle aspects of the klexas have also to be eradicated. On this matter, the text makes two statements. 2.10 informs us that the subtle aspects of the klexas are to be removed through the process of involution (pratiprasava), which, as 4.34 states, is the return of the guNas to the unmanifest state. This means that the klexas persist in subtle form right until the moment that puruXa separates from prakrⁱti (kEvalya). It is the experience of d^harma-meg^ha-samAd^hi (4.29-30) that brings this about.
(Connolly, P., (2014) A Student’s Guide to the History and Philosophy of Yoga, Equinox:Sheffield, pp. 142f.)