Yoga of Synthesis in Kashmir Shaivam

Author(s): S S Toshkhani
Publisher: S S Toshkhani

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"The breath is exhaled with the sound ha and inhaled with the sound sa. Therefore the empirical individual always repeats the mantra hamsah. Throughout the day and night, he repeats this mantra 21,600 times."lxxvi
Since this mantra is repeated automatically without any effort, it is known as ajapā gayatrī. Both the exhaled and inhaled breaths, prāna and apāna achieve an even rhythm and equilibrium by means of anusamadhāna or mental awareness of this automatic process and then kundalini or the coiled energy lying dormant in the mulādhāra chakra at the base of the spinal column is aroused. The awakened kundalini then pierces granthis and six chakras or plexuses to reach the sahasrara, the thousand-petal highest mystic centre in the brain where Shiva and Shakti unite and ambrosia flows down. By continuing to concentrate on the anahata nada, the yogi's ego gets dissolved in pure consciousness. It is not difficult to see that this process is much different from pranāyāma or the practice of breath control that forms an essential part of Patanjali's
Yoga.
Karana: The fourth constituent of anavopāya is karan or postures of the body or the mind. Seven types of karanas have been enumerated in the Shaiva texts. These are grāhya, grāhaka, chit or samvitti, vyāpti, tyāga, äkshepa and sannivesha. Abhinava says that one must acquire their knowledge only from the guru's mouth. According to Jayaratha, these seven varieties are "meant to subordinate and ultimately assimilate all objective phenomena to the consciousness of the essential Self". Ixxvii It would be better to turn to Jaidev Singh for explaining practices related to the karnas as not many details are available about them in the texts. Singh writes:
"The first four varieties come purely under anavopāya. Assimilating the entire world of objects first into the empirical self and all these into samvitti or chit, the highest consciousness, and finally establishing them in to the essential divine consciousness constitute the first four karanas. The first process consists of assimilating grähya or all objects of perception into grähaka or the sense organs; the next practice consists of assimilating all
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