Alexander Skelton

Churning of the Ocean of Milk tells the story of the search for the elixir ofimmortality, amrita, by both the gods in order to restore their waningstrength. The myth relates that long ago, Indra, king of the gods andall of the three worlds, had grown rude and arrogant. As a result ofthis insolence, when the great rishi Duravas, a portion of Shiva,placed a garland as an offering before Indra, who rode upon an

elephant, Indra placed the offering on the trunk of the elephant, whogrew irritated at its smell, throwing it off and stomping on the

garland in front of the insulted Duravas, who called down a curse onIndra for his arrogance. Due to Duravas’ curse, Indra and all hisdomain of the three worlds, including the other Gods, were weakenedand sent into ruin and this allowed the demons the opportunity toexert their strength against the weakened gods. The Gods turned to

Brahma, who advised them to seek Vishnu, the tamer of demons. Brahmaled the gods along the edge of the Ocean of Milk to Vishnu’s seat,

where they prayed for his aid.Vishnu promised to restore their strength by ordering them to preparethe amrita, a sacred substance that bestows immortality and vigor,telling them “Do now as I command: cast into the Milky Sea potent

herbs, then take Mount Mandara for churning-stick, the serpent Vasukifor rope, and churn the Ocean for the dew of life [amrta]”

As the Gods and demons joined together in churning the Ocean of Milk, various things began to rise out of as a result, first the wish-giving

cow, Surabhi, rose out, delighting gods and demons alike, then Varuni,with rolling eyes, the divinity of wine, followed by the Parijata, the fragrant tree of Paradise, then the graceful troops of apsaras. These were followed by the moon, which was grasped by Shiva and placed upon his brow, and then a draught of deadly poison, also taken by Shiva whodrank of it, lest it should destroy the world, a selfless act that is said to have turned the God blue when the poison became stuck in his throat. Then appeared Dhanwantari holding in his hand the vessel of amrita, the dew of life, lighting up the eyes of both the Gods and demons with desire.1

1 Sri K Pattabhi Jois | Ashtanga Yoga New York | Ashtanga Yoga New York Offers Daily Classes in Traditional Yoga as Taught by the Late Sri K. PattabhiJois, and as Continued through the Living Legacy of His Family, Sharath, Saraswati and Manju Jois.” Accessed May 9, 2015. http://ayny.org/sri-k-pattabhi-jois/.

1

This paper will explore the intersection between

contemporary eastern (Hindu) traditions and their interaction

with subtle body models. In exploring Pattabhi Jois’s system of

ashtanga yoga and determining the lineage through which subtle

body models find their textual authority from ancient to modern

representations/understandings may provide a useful scholarly

framework from which to navigate different essential concepts of

this Hindu tradition. The concept of spiritual heat (known as

tapas) and its relationship with the nectar of immortality

(deemed amṛta), display itself through the understanding and

manipulation of both the gross and subtle body. This overview

will provide an interpretive framework of what Pattabhi Jois is

doing in terms of subtle body and techniques, but will focus more

on the techniques and historical sources from which Ashtanga

draws from. While a narrow understanding of tantra will play its

part in this paper it will not be heavily focused on so much as

to show how Modern ashtanga yoga has been informed by tantric

ideology. Smith informs us that Pattabhi Jois’s philosophies

come out of medieval hatha yoga, and the focal point here will be

2

on the capability of ascetic ardor and spiritual energy to

transform an individual and their life an immortal. Playing up

against these notions is a deep undercurrent of yoga’s alchemical

properties. However without the self, there would be no object

for transformation and yoga thus practiced in this way makes

itself out to be a self-transformative process. In some ways

yoga has the physical property of installing longevity to the

gross body, but this is described in relation to transformations

happening in the subtle body. Longevity installed in this way is

focused on modifying a body such that one could achieve

enlightenment/liberation in this lifetime As such is the case a

very minor exploration of how subtle body is understood will

occur to provide the widest scope of this as I can, all to

describe in detail the process of “Detoxification” and “spiritual

and bodily transformation” taking place in the generation of

tapas. Hopefully this will also shed light on the mantle of “The

Guru” in a way that shows them to be skirting the thin line

between innovation and tradition.

Proliferating in the 70s Ashtanga yoga presents itself as a

method of “modern postural yoga whose guru is Sri K Pattabhi

3

Jois, hailing from Mysore, India. There is a multiplicity of

various yogas, so what is ashtanga and how does Pattabhi Jois

innovate on the yogic process? As explained by Sri K Pattabhi

Jois, the process of control and purification of mind is called

yoga. To soundboard this idea against the author of the Sutras,

Maharishi Patanjali has expounded this in an precept or aphorism,

Yogah cittavrtti nirodhah. This phrase composes yoga as a process of

controlling “all the waves of the mind and fixing them on a

specified object. This is also called “Ashtanga Yoga” which has

eight fold factors: yama: restraints; niyama: observances; āsana:

posture; pranayama: breathing practice; pratyahara: sense control;

dharana: concentration; dhyana: meditation; samādhidhi:

contemplation.”2 It is important to note that all 8 limbs must

be used in correct balance in order to facilitate the spiritual

gains that this yoga is said to provide. In essence Pattabhi

Jois’s form of yoga is structured through the Sutras and is

primarily about spiritual advancement in conjunction with health

benefits allowing for more advancement towards moksha in this

lifetime. The many forms of modern yoga seem to be oriented

2 Samuel, Geoffrey, and Jay Johnston, eds. Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the West: Between Mind and Body. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York: Routledge, 2013, 140

4

towards the physical world playing through sequences of āsanas,

similar to our ashtanga yoga. However, the sutras inform readers

and practitioners towards a more mind-centric motif.

Without question the yoga sūtras is about the mind, and the

technique of yoga expounded by Patanjali is concerned with

cittavrttinirodha: the cessation of the misidentification with the

modifications of the mind the yoga sutras then is a collection of

these aphorisms that outline key concepts and a sequence of

development based on both theory and practice. However, while

the text mentions the body at various points, it does not have

much to say about the gestalt body, though at various points it

esoterically mentions pranayama and emphasizes the need for both

mental and physical self3-purification. What it does do, is

integrate the body into a the philosophical practice “since the

mind itself is understood to be a material evolute of prakrit,

and the process of controlling the mind produces supernatural

effects that are clearly physiological in nature.”4

3 The Yoga Sutra says: "Tasmin sati svasa prasvasayor gati vicchedah pranayamah." (II.49)4 Singleton, Mark, and Ellen Goldberg, eds. Gurus of Modern Yoga. 1 edition. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, 88

5

Though the sutras does not explicitly focus on postures,

anyone who has participated in ashtanga yoga knows full well that

postures are important in this form of yoga, whose sequence

(vinyasa5: flow sequence) must be accompanied by right breath.

In this form of yoga the concepts of health and an active body

are of incredible import which may be why a lot of attention

seems to be given to posture in relation to breathing practices.

In an interview Pattabhi Jois states: Vina vinyasa yogena

āsanadinnakarayet // One should not practice postures without breathing. āsanas

are therefore prerequisites for pranayama and Pattabhi Jois

mentions that “Little gain will ensue by āsanas practiced with

little knowledge of breath control.” Note that Jois thought

himself to be authentic in his promulgation of ashtanga practice

and when questioned about how he taught āsanas Jois has answered:

“I teach only Ashtanga Yoga, the original method given in

Patanjali's Yoga Sutra6 [where] first you perfect āsana, and then

you practice pranayama: you control the inhalation and the

exhalation, you regulate the breath, you retain and restrain the

5 Ibid ,1976 Furthermore another meaning of tantra is a loom or a warp and is connected to the meaning of tan as “to spread, be diffused (as light) over, shine, extend toward, or reach to.” Ibid, 220

6

breath. After āsana is perfected, then pranayama can be

perfected. That is the yoga method.” Jois also relies on a

portion of the yoga sūtras to define a process of developing

strength, “which in turn leads to knowledge via the control of

the mind and sense organs, in terms of tapas.”7

“In ashtanga yoga the body and sense organs are linked to and depend on the strength of the mind. It is for this reason that the method of concentrating the mind should be known. To learn how to achieve such concentration the body must first be purified and then mental strength developed. The method for purifying and strengthen the body is called āsana. When the body is purified, the breath also becomes purified and the diseases of the body are eliminated" -Jois 2002

Historically we know that Pattabhi Jois had a guru,

Krishnamacharya (a tantric) who in all likelihood was the one who

inspired the importance of breath and energetic locks (bandhus)

during practice. This emphasis on pranayama exercises is

identified in separation with other traditions whose application

is often quite forceful, locating this type of pranayama as

“subtle, gentle, and refined.”8

That being said, it is clear this practice did not emerge

out of emptiness, there was already fertile symbolic soil for

7 Ibid, 2178 Also associated with a yogi's extraordinary abilities.

7

this yogi to have drawn notions from, including medieval hatha

yoga. Medieval hatha yoga here stands as another source of

influence that classical representations of yoga have drawn from

(with or without direct reference). White’s account of medieval

hatha yoga reveals further links between hatha yoga and pattabhi

Jois’s yoga method as he notes “the preliminary stage of practice

of hatha yoga is a cleansing of (śodhana) of the body, flushing

out the body’s physical impurities to let the vital breaths

(pranas) freely circulate in the subtle body.

Medieval hatha yoga is concerned with magic and magical

power and with using the body to change the nature of reality on

all levels of experience. Samkhya philosophy holds that the body

is an evolute of natural elements that develop through creation

to increasing levels of complexity and impure amalgamation. This

process reflects the flawed and contingent nature of the

relationship between consciousness and things, as the

relationship is animated by misperception. Following a logic

that is manifest clearly in samkhya hatha yoga seeks to stop the

process of transformation that reflects flawed contingency. It

does this by means of exercise on both the most gross and most

8

subtle levels of materiality- that stop and reverse change and

delineation. Hatha yoga involves stopping – by purposefully

causing it to flow, mix , and transmute – the ejaculation of

sexual fluids, stopping the breath, and stopping the flow of

consciousness in the mind. As Eliade in 1958 pointed out :

“Yoga is profoundly antihuman in the sense that human consciousness reflects the prejudice of humanism as the essence ofbeing. Existential being is the problem. Pranayama involves breathing exercises designed to control the flow of breath to the point at which it can be stopped; in their numerical proliferation and endless permutation, āsanas delineate difference, working thebody against the flow of endless categorization of things. On another level āsanas are said to produce or perhaps just mirror, the requisite physiological strength and stamina to withstand the force of transcendent changelessness. Stopping the flow of semenstops reproduction, in the full mimetically materialist sense of the word, and captures the problem of conscious , perception and things.”9

Muktananda and others who have come before him likely

created the fecund spiritual bed from which modern ashtanga yoga

arose from. His teachings were constructed as a set of tantric

spiritual commodities, which became packaged and known as Siddha

Yoga. Practitioners here had the variability in their choices as

to how far they committed to siddha yoga, ranging from fully

initiated monastic member where Siddha yoga functioned as an all

9 Jois

9

encompassing worldview and system of practice to simply

incorporating it into one’s spiritual repertoire as one part of

an eclectic path towards God- or self-realization.10 This sort

of ideology is inherently complex and often eludes definition,

however evidences that tantric11 ideology working in conjunction

with Kasmir saivism might have acted as primers for ashtanga can

be found in the notion that “the way to liberation is not through

transcending the world but through embracing it.” One of the

leading specialists on tantra, Andre Padoux, describes tantra12

as an attempt to place kama, desire in every sense of the word,

in the service of liberation…not to sacrifice this world for

liberation’s sake but to reinstate it, in varying ways, within

the perspective of salvation.

Here again we find the historical symbolic commodity, which

Pattabhi Jois has capitalized on through his innovations, of

tantric philosophy showing that yoga was primarily a venue for

spiritual realization. This is not to say that Pattabhi Jois

relied on the construct of left handed tantra, for there were no

10 First two limbs of the sutras11 Jois12 Samuel, 137

10

real transgressive rituals playing a part in the practice. He

did not tell his students to eat meat, or to have sex while

chanting, but he is using the material world in the bodily forms

of āsanas (physical purpose) to help set the stage for spiritual

realization (spiritual purpose).

Pattabhi Jois’s ashtanga has purpose both physically (in

being to make one fit, flexible, and manage stress) and

spiritually (in the generation of tapas, or spiritual heat).

Teachers in Ashtanga yoga emphasize this "Heated effort"13 due to

Pattabhi Jois’s understanding that that there existed a

transformative power inherently linked to heat, whose development

was believed to lead one to the perfection of the body, sense

organs, and even attainment of the final goal of yoga as

purported by the samādhi. Pattabhi Jois draws on a number of

texts from the Hindu canon dealing explicitly or implicitly with

tapas. It is for this reason, this leaning on textual canon,

which allows for a validates traditional authority for his

emphasis on tapas.

13 Ibid, 139

11

Ashtanga Techniques for developing spiritually have also

drawn on sources of Kriya yoga which focused on the notions of

kumbhaka, rechaka, and puraka. While inner suspension of breath

(kumbhaka) is pranayama, the regulation of rechaka and puraka must

be adopted in the posture, he adds, which means postures can be

practiced only by regulating the exhaling and inhaling.

The term tapas is derived in part from the definition of

Kriya Yoga (the yoga of action) where in the second chapter of

the Yoga sutras it is described as essential to the achievement

or perfection of yoga alongside self study and the worship of

God. However tapas has been talked about as early as Vedic times

and is found throughout the Upaniṣads (which will be expounded

upon later). Keep in mind that thereafter this is denoted as a

means for perfection of the body and organs through the lessening

of impurities (necessary for the perfection of yoga). This

informs us towards to the heavily implicated alchemical or

transformative aspects of this Ashtanga yoga practice.

There is also evidence that Pattabhi Jois is drawing from

alchemical backgrounds to structure his yoga practice in

statements such as:

12

“Mind is very fickle, like mercury. Fickle mind, with no discrimination of purity and impurity, flows arbitrarily, conducts itself with no restraints. Because of its unrestrained conduct, the mind influencing the organs of the body not only causes them to become sick, but endangers itself. If the mind becomes one-pointed or fixed, it regulates the organs of the body and protects them from disease. Illusion is also a function of the mind, leading to many illnesses.”14

Having the problems of toxicity creates the counterpoint of

a solution; how to detoxify the vehicle. Jois is using tapas

point blank to induce wellness to the body. There have been

historical sources from which he could draw from including

medieval hatha yoga where "the practices of pranayama produce

sweat that , though "voided through the pores...has in fact been

forced out through the seventy two thousand nadis thereby purging

them of all impurity. it is after this process that the yogin is

instructed to rub the body with the perspiration produced to make

the body firm and light."15 While this practice may not seem to

have physical benefits Jois has linked the technique of rubbing

the sweat back into the skin to Haṭhayōgapradīpikā. White and

14 Eliade, Mircea, and David Gordon White. Yoga: Immortality and Freedom. Translated by Willard R. Trask. With a New introduction by David Gordon White edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009, 10615 Even in the upaniṣads, it is known that knowledge brings deliverance from death to immortality: “lead me from death to immortality!” “They who know that become immortal.” Yoga practice, as the Upaniṣads apply it pursues the same goal.#Ibid, 108

13

Smith present the idea of purifying various subtle channels of

the body as being drawn directly drawn from medieval hatha yoga.

In english translations as well as the books written by his more

accomplished students the heat of tapas is associated directly

with the elimination of toxins through the skin, the internal

purification of the gross and subtle aspects of the body, and the

transubstantiation of bodily fluids into the vital essence of

amṛta.16

White's sources about medieval hatha yoga and the internal

purification of the gross and subtle body also indicates the

presence of notions of purification in Pattabhi Jois's yoga

system in relation to āsanas, alchemy, yamas, niyamas, and

pranayama. The way in which I understand this, is that White is

seeing these sources as inspiring components of Ashtanga yoga. On

the surface here we find a problematic, yet common, claim among

yoga practitioners of other is that Pattabhi Jois’s method is

overwhelmingly concerned with the practice of āsanas. However

Jois should be understood instead as emphasizing the importance

16 “As a technique of the self that involved self-into-Self transcendence, yoga was a comprehensive and holistic form of athletic self-discipline rather than one that was derivatively and discriminately calculated.” (Samuel, 140)

14

of āsana and the yamas and niyamas17 along with pranayama for more

accomplished students, all of which act as a preliminary

cleansing of the body, in order to obtain correct access to the

higher limbs of yoga. This is done and validated through a

traditional Indian view that yoga and the concept of tapas has

been believed to eventually destroy all the barriers that limit

the incomprehension of the true self and the attainment of

samādhi.18

It is believed by these practitioners that this yoga makes

possible the ability to purify many internal pulses, cells,

veins, plasma, wind, liver, phlegm, circulation of blood, etc.

Jois sees this process of purification as “a psychological one-

involving both the gross physical body and the “subtle” or

energetic” body,” which as an inner instrument is purified

through tapas because it has a physiological form and location.

Continuing, he sees this inner instrument as a junction of all

the sira19. Smith sees this physiological basis of purification 17 Singleton, Mark, and Ellen Goldberg, eds. Gurus of Modern Yoga. 1 edition. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, 7018 Used alchemically as a spiritual or bodily transformation, not as the bread and blood of Christ.19 Anonymus. The Rig Veda. Edited by Wendy Doniger. Edition Unstated Possible book Club edition. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England; New York, N.Y.: Penguin Classics, 2005, 25. Continuing “Desire came upon that one in the beginning;

15

through yoga as being drawn from Patanjali’s yoga sutra and

Svatmarama’s Haṭhayōgapradīpikā which operate in cohort to present a

phsyiospiritual topography of the aspects of the body upon which

the techniques of Ashtanga yoga operate.20 Alchemically

purification in this way seems to require fire and wind (tapas

and pranayama) with the body as the venue of purification and

cure of ailments.

“Just as the gold in a crucible purified by a goldsmith with the aid of fire and wind, which eliminates all the impurities thereof, turns into brilliant gold, similarly the elimination of diseases as impurities needs fire and wind.”

That may be why the wise have said: Pranayamabhyasayuktasya

sarvarogakshyobhavet | Avuktabhyasayuktasya sarvarogasamudbhava || One who

practices āsanas and pranayamas properly finds that all diseases come to naught,

whereas all kinds of ailments appear in the practicing improperly.”21

This resonates with the aims of the earlier yogic alchemical

practice in which one would find similar notions such as that of

that was the first seed of the mind...” might further imply the mind-centric ideology of this system 20 “It is in the magical aspect of hatha yoga , which involves both fitness and sex, that one can identify an analogous but quite different understanding of how the body is integral to the to moral self-development, and how the exercise of ‘moral’ self development is an end in itself that is both virtuous and transcends virtue: a subtle regimen that is not at all a technique of the self, but is - with apologies to Foucault- a use of the embodied self to transcend pleasure , among other things” (Samuel, 136).21 Ibid, 140

16

purpose. Earlier Indian alchemy’s purpose then is “to reduce the

influence of the heat of the lower half of the subtle body

(associated with mundane) and to increase "lunar nectar" by

raising the yogin's semen from his lower abdomen along the length

of the medial channel transforming into the divine nectar of

immortality.” This kind Bodily and spiritual transformation may

come across as a sort of non-christian version of

transubstantiation whereby historical alchemical notions play

their part in the bodily and spiritiual potentiation of a

practitioner. Again we brush up against ideology where

individuals are using the body to know the mind.The account of

Ashtanga yoga’s operation on the practitioner's body is also

outlined in the Lino Miele’s book Ashtanga yoga which presents

accounts both of the toxin-elimination qualities of vinyasa and

the role of heat in a parallel form of internal cleansing,

purification, and transformation...and according the the

Shastras, the regular and continued practice of these āsana

purify the blood….[which] absorbs the nutrients and after 32 days

1 drop of new blood is made. It then takes 32 drops of this new

blood to make one single drop of viria (vital life force) or

17

amṛtabindu [“drop of nectar”]. 22This is stored in crown and when

it is lost, it is said that life is lost. These notions of

asceticism, tapas, blood, semen, and breath situate Ashtanga as

very connected to similar historical treatment of Indian terms

and Indian phenomena.

Using the body to know the mind has been a recurrent

notion within tantrism there may be linkages found in the

sexual or erotic language revolving in this discourse. At the

core amṛta, tapas, and even the “churning” found in the myth at

the beginning of this paper are inherently erotic, but also

play strangely into anti erotic terms when put in conjunction

with yoga as an ascetic tradition. Drawing from the rig Veda

(10:129) the hymn of existence and nonexistence, first mention

of tapas deals specifically with “One being arising from

tapas...” where desire rose as the one in the beginning as the

power of tapas. This constructs tapas as having a subtext of

erotic energy in its creative potential. In associating with

these notions understand that Jois was not quite so much

22 Anderson, Sandra. “Interview with K Pattabhi Jois: Practice Makes Perfect.” Ashtanga Yoga Victoria, 1994. http://www.ashtanga-yoga-victoria.com/k-pattabhi-jois.html.

18

revolving sex itself, but instead focusing on the

transformative nature of yoga which as we have seen, and will

see in a moment, may have been informed by hatha yoga’s sexual-

creative energies. Hatha yoga: “both when it directly involves

sex - as in the case of vajroli- and when it does not, is

structured around the way in which the material nature of the

body, both subtle and gross , is linked to inner alchemy and

the transubstantiation23 and flow of sexual fluid.24 Again we

find the capacity of ascetic ardor and spiritual energy to

transform:

“Through heroic efforts of mental concentration and physical exertion the yogin now initiates a controlled rising of his seed, the heat of his solarfires, and his breath along the medial channel… this heat, concentrated within the infinitesimal space of the medial channel, effects the gradual transformation of ‘raw’ semen into ‘cooked’ even even perfected nectar, amṛta; it is this nectar that gradually fills out the moon in the cranial vault such that at the conclusion of this process, the lunar orb, now brimming with nectar is possessed of its full complement of sixteen digits….this transformation of semen into nectar wholly transforms the body, rendering it immortal.”25

23Singleton, Smith, 14224 Conventionally identified as one kind of nadi, a tube or pathway from which three forms -dhamini, nadi, and sira- comprise the gross, subtle, and very subtle channels of the body, and which act as a message center (located in the heart and throughout the body) to provide a vital link in the functioning of the sense organs. Ibid, 14525 Ibid, 145

19

amṛtaa then is linked to sweating and body heat and therein lies

a stable link between physical ardor of the practice, the

"correct" relationship to canonical texts, and where Jois might

have symbolically or otherwise drawn from.

But where did the notion of tapas come from and is there any

reason it is associated with asceticism or yogic transformative

technique? Tapas is documented in the Rg-Veda, and its powers

are creative on both the cosmic and spiritual planes: through

tapas the ascetic becomes clairvoyant and even incarnates gods.

Prajapati is even said to have created the world by “heating”

himself to an extreme degree through asceticism - that is he

creates it by a sort of magical sweating.26 It is important to

know how tapas was assimilated by yogic technique as from Vedic

times onward, there was a unity in fundamental conceptions which

seem to have been brought about especially through assimilation

and homologization of extra-brahmanic and even extra-aryan

religious values. Again here we find a reciprocal influence

26 In one account of Ashtanga yoga’s operation on the body is outlined in a book on Ashtanga yoga, authorized by pattabhi jois, which presents accounts ofboth the toxin-eliminating qualities of vinyasa and the role of heat in a parallel form of internal cleansing , purification, and transformation. Singleton, Mark. "With Heat Even Iron Will Bend." Yoga in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives. London: Routledge, 2008. Print, 146

20

between eastern and western notions, developing into techniques

oriented toward generating tapas. The generative methods

including “fasting, vigil kept in the presence of fire, or by

holding breathe. This holding of the breath begins to pay a

ritual role from the period of the brahmanas: saying he who

chants the gayatri stotra shall not breathe…or in the Baudhayana

Dharma sutra according to which “magical heat is produced by

holding the breath.”27

In the Rig Veda we find further mention of the creative tone

and importance of tapas in the third and fourth stanza, “Darkness

was hidden by darkness in the beginning; with not distinguishing

sign, all this was water. The life force that was covered with

emptiness, that one arose through the power of heat.”28 The

mention of heat points us ideologically towards seeing that which

is generated by meditation is also a very tangible heat which

arises (heat on a personal and a cosmic level).

We know that yoga, like most spiritual systems is a process

not a product, and therefore did not emerge sui generis around

the 9th century, but instead was developed “as a dynamic response

27 Singleton, Smith, 149 28 Ibid, 157

21

to a long series of philosophical and spiritual questions dating

back to at least the eighth or ninth century BCE.” Samuel has

even commented here that there are also intriguing links to

comparable forms of practice…. [being] in most general terms, one

of the key issues in the structure of this series of questions

was the relationship between what might be called a sacrificial

mode of apprehending reality by ritual means and a mystical mode

of apprehending reality by means of integrated self-discipline.

The mystical mode, articulated first in the Upaniṣad involves

the internalization of the sacrifice; that is, the embodiment of

vedic ritual so as to use the self to experience the Self.” So

to it becomes inflected by hatha yoga's emphasis on bodily

energies as a process of purification which at first is physical

but then continues into the subtle body as a "purification of the

inner instrument." This where Jois may build upon the historical

relationship between magic, tapas, purification, and bodily

ritual. 29

But if we are talking about asceticism, it would be strange

to focus on the directly sexual aspects only as chastity is quite

29 Ibid, 156

22

central to the practice of ascetic renunciation. It is through

chastity which the the sannyasi generates “the inner heat of

tapas, the brilliance and power of tejas, as well as radiance ,

strength , and vitality. The principle of tapas is linked to the

power of fire both in the cosmic form of solar energy and in the

specific ritual technology of fire fire sacrifice.” Tapas then

through chastity involves the internalization of the sacrificial

fire and embodiment of cosmic radiance on whose platform it is

easily to place the parallels between asceticism and yoga. Even

in the yoga sutra there is a clear condition detailing the value

of chastity and the observance of tapas as self-discipline.30

Further entrenching this notion of sexual energy as interpreted

as vital, and chastity being a way to generate this vital energy.

In an interview Jois talks about bindu [a vital and sexual

energy] and comments that “Yoga practice and the correct

breathing system is what orients the nervous system in relation

to blood circulation, one of the benefits being benefits to the

cardiac systems.” Fortifying this he often stated that one should

not waste their bindu, but instead to control it and contain it,

30 “The Churning of the Ocean of Milk.” Cannabis Culture. Accessed May 10, 2015. http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/churning-ocean-milk. :P

23

as when it is gone “you are a dead man...That's what the

scriptures say. By practicing every day, the blood becomes

purified, and the mind gradually comes under your control. This

is the yogic method.”31 To practice yoga in the right fashion

(ashtanga by jois’s standards) then is to see clearly, and to see

clearly in some ways allow practitioners to control their bindu.

Jois sees three types of disease, being bodily, mental, and

nervous system disease. This frames ashtanga yoga as again, not

just being focused on the body, but focusing on the mind such

that the mind becomes at ease and the body ceases to be diseased.

If the mind is the cause of bondage and liberation, and it is

what causes sickness then yoga is truly a medicine for the mind.

Throughout his teaching, Sri K Pattabhi Jois did not

reference himself as a Guru and instead framed himself as an

acarya. However if anything should be recognized from these

connections, innovations, and parallels it should be that

regardless he is operating as a Guru in the truest of senses.

The Guru is the representation of orthodoxy and tradition and in

that way operates as THE authority figure in this form of yoga.

31 Smith, 143

24

However this proliferation of Ashtanga yoga can be seen as not

simply tradition, but as tradition innovated. Jois is operating

like a Guru, in the sense that he is creating a new system in an

orthodox way by drawing on existent historical traditions. As a

guru though, he doesn’t specifically say how he has modified the

tradition, but instead presents himself as a loyal commentator.

In some ways what he has done is genius. He has pulled off a

major play by authenticating his new tradition through the use

of historically spiritual Indian terms in conjunction with

drawing from the authority of medieval hatha yoga, Indian

alchemy, and the sutras. Authority and Identity in this way have

been maneuvered to create a modern system out of tried and true

Indian philosophical and spiritual templates while keeping his

modifications hidden in the rear view mirror.

25

Bibliography

Eliade, Mircea, and David Gordon White. Yoga: Immortality and

Freedom. Translated by Willard R. Trask. With a New introduction

by David Gordon White edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton

University Press, 2009.

Miller, Barbara Stoler. Yoga: Discipline of Freedom : The Yoga Sutra

Attributed to Patanjali ; a Translation of the Text, with Commentary, Introduction, and

Glossary of Keywords. Berkeley, Calif.: U of California, 1996. Print.

Samuel, Geoffrey. The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the

Thirteenth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2008. Print.

Singleton, Mark, and Ellen Goldberg, eds. Gurus of Modern Yoga.

1 edition. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Singleton, Mark. "With Heat Even Iron Will Bend." Yoga in the

Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives. London: Routledge, 2008. Print.

Spess, David L. "History of the Chakra System Origin of the

Chakras Source of the Chakras The First Appearance of the Chakras

in the West 1667, 1696, and 1736." History of the Chakra System Origin of

the Chakras Source of the Chakras The First Appearance of the Chakras in the West

1667, 1696, and 1736. Print.

26

“Sri K Pattabhi Jois | Ashtanga Yoga New York | Ashtanga

Yoga New York Offers Daily Classes in Traditional Yoga as Taught

by the Late Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and as Continued through the

Living Legacy of His Family, Sharath, Saraswati and Manju Jois.”

Accessed May 9, 2015. http://ayny.org/sri-k-pattabhi-jois/.White,

David Gordon. The Alchemical Body:

Anonymus. The Rig Veda. Edited by Wendy Doniger. Edition Unstated

Possible book Club edition. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England;

New York, N.Y.: Penguin Classics, 2005.

27