76. योगमार्गविशारदः Yoga-mārga-viśāradaḥ

One who was pre-eminently accomplished in the path of Yoga

His Holiness was a master of Sage Patañjalī’s aṣṭāṅga-yoga, consisting of yama (set of restraints given under nāma 105), niyama (set of observances given under nāma 44), āsana (posture), prāṇāyāma (regulation of breath given under nāma 52), pratyāhāra (restraint of senses discussed under nāma 81), dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi (concentration, meditation and its culmination given under nāmas 1, 15, 27, 40, 59 and 67).

In His dreams and visions, His Holiness was taught the various facets of yoga directly by none other than Lord Śiva and Goddess Śāradā (vide nāmas 10, 52 and 91). He was not merely knowledgeable in all aspects of yoga such as haṭha-yoga, kuṇḍalinī-yoga, nāda-anusandhāna, amanaska-yoga and samādhi-yoga culminating in nirvikalpa-samādhi, but had scaled the peak of perfection in the practice of each of them, attaining jīvanmukti when He was just 18 years old. It is no wonder that He is described as One who was viśārada, pre-eminently accomplished, in yoga-mārga, the path of yoga.

❧

[Under nāma 10 was described, briefly, how Lord Śiva appeared in a series of seven dreams of His Holiness, starting from the night of His saṁnyāsa, and taught Him haṭha-yoga. Prāṇāyāma as demonstrated by the Lord during the first two of the dreams was described under nāma 52. The following is based on His Holiness’s account of the rest of the dreams in the series, in which the Lord mainly covered the third limb of yoga, āsana.]

During the dream on the second night (23^rd May, 1931) and the ones on the succeeding five nights, the Lord demonstrated numerous yogāsanas and kriyās such as nauli. There was no repetition. He performed the āsanas very swiftly but with unmatchable grace and with each step unmistakably clear. No human adept could have performed even a quarter of the number of āsanas in the same time. He did not name any āsana. Also, He did not direct His Holiness to do any āsana before passing on to the next. However, whenever He performed one, His Holiness automatically understood whether this was just for His information or for His practice later. Such was the impact of and imprint created by the Lord’s teaching that even decades later His Holiness was in a position to vividly recall the Lord’s demonstration of any āsana that He wished to see.

On the seventh night, that is, on the night of 28^th May, towards the close of His teaching in His Holiness’s dream, the Lord threw light on the khecarī-mudrā. Sitting in the padmāsana, He stretched out His tongue. In moments, the membrane connecting it with the lower part of the mouth began to give way gradually as if it were being cut with a knife. Simultaneously, the tongue became thinner and longer. Soon, it resembled that of a dog. The Lord turned it upwards. It reached up to the head. His Holiness automatically understood that the normal procedure involved cutting the fraenum, little by little, over a long period and elongating the tongue by shaking and pulling it. Having transformed His tongue into a thin long one, Śiva directed His gaze to between the brows. He then turned His tongue backwards and inserted it into the cavity at the back of the throat that leads to the nose. Thereafter, the Lord remained motionless and with no perceptible signs of breathing. At that time, His Holiness’s breathing too stopped. He felt something cool and very pleasant to taste descend into the back of His mouth. It greatly invigorated Him. The understanding dawned that this fluid obviates hunger, thirst, weakness and dullness. As the Lord lowered His tongue, His Holiness’s experience ended. The next moment, Śiva’s tongue became normal.

Finally, Śiva taught His Holiness nāda-anusandhāna (contemplation on the internal sound). With His fingers, He closed His nose, mouth and ears. Then He concentrated on the ocean-like sound heard in the right ear. His Holiness comprehended that the Lord was doing so, because without any effort, His Holiness’s attention locked on to such a sound in His own right ear. His Holiness also got the feeling that with practice one can focus on this sound even without closing the ears. Soon, His Holiness heard different sounds in succession. Finally, all sounds ceased and He was overwhelmed with bliss. The next moment, His Holiness’s experience ended. The Lord took His hands away from His face.

In the course of the seven dreams, the Lord had demonstrated hundreds of āsanas. These included all those described in the authoritative works such as Haṭhayoga-pradīpikā and numerous others not referred to in any text. His Holiness did not think even an expert with a highly supple body would be able to do more than a few of the many āsanas of the latter kind.

❧

After the dreams, while His Holiness was able to perform the simple āsanas such as śīrṣāsana in the first attempt, the tougher ones such as gheraṇḍāsana and mukhottānāsana needed effort and practice.

Subsequent to hearing His Holiness’s account of the seven dreams, the disciple to whom He had recounted them asked Him, “How many of the āsanas demonstrated by Śiva but not mentioned in books did Your Holiness master?” He said, “Six. I will show you one of them and you can see how tough it is.” The disciple watched thoroughly spellbound as, step by step, His Holiness assumed an extremely complex, inverted pose. Such was the tight knot into which He tied Himself that it appeared that His body was made of highly elastic rubber and comprised no bones. Having held the final pose for about a minute, He gradually unwound Himself.

He then told the disciple, “The first two times that I tried to do this, I failed. The third time I succeeded only partially. On my next attempt, I somehow managed to adopt the final position but became stuck in it. I found that I was just unable to release the knot that bound my hands and legs. I called to mind Bhagavān’s performance of this āsana. In imitation of what He had done, I emptied my lungs and used my middle fingers to release myself a little. The rest was manageable. From the fifth try onwards, I had no difficulty.”

About the number of āsanas He used to perform every day His Holiness said, “The number of āsanas varied. Within a few years after saṁnyāsa, I began to devote half an hour exclusively for āsanas and kriyās and half an hour for prāṇāyāma. I performed some āsanas, such as śīrṣāsana, sarvāṅgāsana, matsyāsana, paścimottānāsana and ardha-matsyendrāsana, and the kriyā, nauli, on all days. Apart from these, to the extent that I could accommodate within the available time, I did other āsanas from my repertoire. I ended with five minutes of śavāsana. I required a week to complete one cycle of all the āsanas that I practised.”

❧

Among the kriyās, His Holiness described His practice of neti which was quite useful in clearing the phlegm blocking the nostrils. He then demonstrated nauli. He stood with His legs separated and His palms pressed against His thighs. Having fully expelled air from the lungs, He deeply pulled in His abdomen. He then controlled His muscles to make the abdominal region resemble a cavity with a vertical tube in the middle. He then made the tube swing from side to side and execute a churning motion. Finally, He restored His abdomen to its normal form and said, “This used to be my favourite kriyā.”

❧

His Holiness clarified, “I have not done any āsana or kriyā that Śiva had not shown me in the dreams. However, I practised the āsanas and kriyās only after learning, as it were, a number of them from Kāśī-svāmin and the bairāgīs. Further, I did come to know the names of āsanas from Kaśī-svāmin and the bairāgīs and, later, from books.”

On the reason for postponing doing āsanas and kriyās till having seemingly learnt many of them from humans, His Holiness said, “I felt that this is what God wanted me to do. Because of this, there was no scope for the Maṭha staff and others to wonder how I was abruptly able to practise haṭha-yoga without having been taught. As for nāda-anusandhāna, I did it once a week along with my āhnika. I believe, I only did as God intended me to when I started doing prāṇāyāma with the bandhas after the first dream and nāda-anusandhāna after the seventh dream.”

❧

His Holiness’s first two explicit experiences of the ascent of the kuṇḍalinī caused Him to attain savikalpa-samādhi (described under nāma 91). On the second of these instances, as He emerged from savikalpa-samādhi, He felt Himself descending rapidly with the kuṇḍalinī. When He gained mild awareness of the body. He noticed that His tongue was folded backwards and felt the descent of a few cool drops of a uniquely tasty fluid into the back of His throat.

His Holiness had no difficulty in identifying the fluid that He felt descending into the back of the throat to be nectar from the sahasrāra, because the taste He had experienced during the dream of Śiva when the Lord had demonstrated the khecarī-mudrā had become imprinted in His mind. The taste of the fluid that He noticed on becoming mildly aware of the body was the same as that taste. The invigorating effect too tallied with what He had experienced in the dream. The invigorating effect of the nectar lasted for two days.

❧

His Holiness had His first experience of nirvikalpa-samādhi on 10^th December, 1935 (as described under nāma 1). The next morning, He felt impelled to perform nāda-anusandhāna. So, as usual, He closed His ears, nose and mouth with His fingers to commence His contemplation on the sound heard in the right ear. The ocean-like sound that He heard abruptly grew in intensity. Then, in quick succession, He heard a variety of sounds. These included those of a drum, a flute and a vīṇā. Each sound lasted for only a few moments before being replaced by the next. He had heard the same sounds, in the same sequence, when the Lord had demonstrated nāda-anusandhāna in the dream.

When the last of the sounds ended, there was just silence. His mind became extremely tranquil and suffused with bliss. The sense of “I” rapidly faded away completely and nirvikalpa-samādhi ensued. Only non-dual, objectless consciousness remained. About an hour passed before the mind descended from samādhi.

❧