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354
Speculations in the Medical Schools
[CH.
within the citrini nādi is also called brahma-nādi; for there is no further duct or nādi within the citriņił. The suşumņā thus in all probability stands for our spinal cord. The suşumņā, however, is said to take a turn and get connected with the sankhini in the inside region of the forehead, whence it becomes connected with the aperture of the sankhini (šarkhini-nālam ālambya) and passes to the cerebral region. All the nādīs are connected with the suşumņā. Kundalini is a name for supreme bodily energy, and, because the channel of the suşumņā, the brahma-nādi, is the passage through which this energy flows from the lower part of the trunk to the regions of the nerve-plexus of the brain, suşumņā is sometimes called kundalini; but kundalini itself cannot be called a nerve, and it is distinctly wrong to call it the vagus nerve, as Mr Rele does. The idā nāļi on the left side of the suşumņā outside the spine goes upwards to the nasal region, and pingalā follows a corresponding course on the right side. Other accounts of these nādis hold that the idā proceeds from the right testicle and the pingalā from the left testicle and passes on to the left and the right of the susumņā in a bent form (dhanur-ākāre). The three, however, meet at the root of the penis, which is thus regarded as the junction of the three rivers, as it were (triveņi), viz. of suşumnā (compared to the river Gangā), idā (compared to Yāmuna) and pingalā (compared to Sarasvati). The two nādīs, idā and piñgalā, are also described as being like the moon and the sun respectively, and suşumņā as fire3. In addition to these nādis the Yogi-yājñavalkya mentions the name of another nāļi, called alambusā, making the number of the important nādīs fourteen, including suşumņā and counting suşumņā as one nādi (i.e. including vajrā and citriņi), though the total number of nādīs is regarded as being seventy-two thousand. Śrīkaņāda in his Nādī-vijñāna counts the number of nādīs as thirty-five millions. But, while the Tantra school, as represented in the works Şat-cakra-nirūpana, jñāna-samkalini, Yogi-yājñavalkya, etc., regards the nādis as originating from the nerve-plexus very serious mistake in his Pratyaksa-śārīraka when he thinks that the nādīs are to be regarded as being without apertures (nirandhra). They are certainly not so regarded in the Ayur-veda or in the Sat-cakra-nirūpana and its commentaries. In Yoga and Tantra literature the term nādi generally supersedes the term sirā of the medical literature.
Sabda-brahma-rūpāyāḥ kundalinyāḥ parama-siva-sannidhi-gamana-patha rupa-citriņi-nädy-antargata-śūnya-bhāga iti. Pūrņānanda's commentary on Șatcakra-nirūpaņa, St. 2.
* Susumnāyai kundalinyai. Hatha-yoga-pradipikā, iv. 64. 3 Şat-cakra-nirūpana, St. I and Yogi-yājñavalkya-samhitā, p. 18.
