Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The India Within
Thumbing through an old book on the Tantric Tradition, I came across this bit of poetry from an ancient text:
When the mind goes to rest, the bonds of the body are destroyed,
And when the one flavor of the Innate pours forth,
There is neither outcast nor Brahmin.
Here is the sacred Yamuna and here the sacred Ganges,
Here are Pranaga and Benares, here are Sun and Moon.
Here I have visited in my wanderings shrines and such places of pilgrimage.
For I have not seen another shrine blissful like my own body.
(Saraha)
The passage is written in code language. The first stanza explains that when the mind is settled and clear, then the essence of self (which is the Self of all creation) comes forward. This experience is the same for all, high and low, outcast and aristocrat.
The speaker (obviously an experienced practitioner of authentic Kundalini yoga) is saying that he has no need to make pilgrimages to shrines or sacred cities and holy rivers. All are found within his own body, which itself becomes the place of pilgrimage, the source of endless bliss.
In code language, Yamuna and Ganges (sacred rivers in India) refer to the left and right nadis (channels) which ascend intertwined around the central spinal axis (the shushumna) to the crown chakra. Pranaga and Benares (now called Varenesi) are sacred cities visited by pilgrims for many centuries.
"Here" refers to the practitioner's own body, which itself contains all the bliss which the pilgrims seek.
For me, this piece is especially meaningful, since recently I have been lamenting that I have not been able to travel to India in this lifetime, nor am I likely to go in future. So I, like the poet/devotee and many others, will have to discover the "India within." Often the treasure one is seeking is not to be found in traveling here and there, to this or that temple or place of worship. It is, rather, enshrined within, hidden in one's own heart.
When the mind goes to rest, the bonds of the body are destroyed,
And when the one flavor of the Innate pours forth,
There is neither outcast nor Brahmin.
Here is the sacred Yamuna and here the sacred Ganges,
Here are Pranaga and Benares, here are Sun and Moon.
Here I have visited in my wanderings shrines and such places of pilgrimage.
For I have not seen another shrine blissful like my own body.
(Saraha)
The passage is written in code language. The first stanza explains that when the mind is settled and clear, then the essence of self (which is the Self of all creation) comes forward. This experience is the same for all, high and low, outcast and aristocrat.
The speaker (obviously an experienced practitioner of authentic Kundalini yoga) is saying that he has no need to make pilgrimages to shrines or sacred cities and holy rivers. All are found within his own body, which itself becomes the place of pilgrimage, the source of endless bliss.
In code language, Yamuna and Ganges (sacred rivers in India) refer to the left and right nadis (channels) which ascend intertwined around the central spinal axis (the shushumna) to the crown chakra. Pranaga and Benares (now called Varenesi) are sacred cities visited by pilgrims for many centuries.
"Here" refers to the practitioner's own body, which itself contains all the bliss which the pilgrims seek.
For me, this piece is especially meaningful, since recently I have been lamenting that I have not been able to travel to India in this lifetime, nor am I likely to go in future. So I, like the poet/devotee and many others, will have to discover the "India within." Often the treasure one is seeking is not to be found in traveling here and there, to this or that temple or place of worship. It is, rather, enshrined within, hidden in one's own heart.
