{"id":1040,"date":"2025-03-20T12:27:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T12:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matsyendranatha.com\/?p=1040"},"modified":"2025-03-20T12:27:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T12:27:28","slug":"connections-of-rasayana-and-yoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matsyendranatha.com\/?p=1040","title":{"rendered":"Connections of rasayana and yoga"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I would like to give a few examples and analogies to continue the theme of the usage of officinal substances in pre-colonial Tamil Siddharas, some Theravada branches and others. The Pata\u00f1jali’s Yoga-s\u016btras<\/em> (concretely in the S\u0101dhana p\u0101da<\/em>) use the concepts of the four fundamentals (\u091a\u0924\u0941\u0930\u094d\u0935\u094d\u092f\u0942\u0939 caturvy\u016bha<\/em>) for getting rid of suffering. They are very similar to what we find in \u0100yurveda<\/em>, namely: \u0939\u0947\u092f heya<\/em> \u2013 existence of suffering; \u0939\u0947\u092f \u0939\u0947\u0924\u0941 heya hetu<\/em> \u2013 a cause of suffering ; \u0939\u093e\u0928 h\u0101na<\/em> \u2013 stopping of suffering; \u0939\u093e\u0928\u094b\u092a\u093e\u092f h\u0101nop\u0101ya<\/em> \u2013 methods of getting rid of suffering. In the context of \u0100yurveda<\/em>, up\u0101ya<\/em> involves the use of dietary regulation, herbs, etc. Also, it identifies the causes of disease, approach to preventively remove the disease possibility, etc. In the context of yoga<\/em>, up\u0101yas<\/em> are the a\u1e45gas<\/em> of the a\u1e63\u1e6d\u0101\u1e45gayoga<\/em> (the eight-part yoga). What is interesting is that there are many in India who believe that Pata\u00f1jali<\/em> is the author of the Yoga-s\u016btras<\/em> and he is also associated with one of the works on \u0100yurveda<\/em>. Though of course many western scholars disagree with this. In the N\u0101thas<\/em>, Pata\u00f1jali<\/em> may be associated with one of the Nine N\u0101thas<\/em>, specifically Acal Achambhen\u0101th<\/em>, a manifestation of Ananta<\/em> \u015ae\u1e63a<\/em>.

However, if we go back to the similarity of getting rid of suffering, in the form of disease (in \u0100yurveda<\/em>) and getting rid of \u2018duhkkha<\/em>\u2019 suffering (in yoga<\/em>), through yogic s\u0101dhana<\/em> and path, one level can be a lead-in to the other or even sometimes be a complementary. External ras\u0101yana<\/em> can gradually shift the focus to the inner alchemy, which is essentially yoga<\/em>. We see a similar approach in the N\u0101th<\/em>–yoga<\/em>, for example, at a gross level, the practitioner uses neti<\/em>, s\u016btra-neti<\/em>, jala-neti<\/em> practices and etc. Then, when the body is sufficiently purified, the practitioner can gradually shift to the inner alchemy, which is essentially yoga<\/em>. After that, n\u0101\u1e0d\u012b-\u015buddhi<\/em> is practised instead, mantras<\/em> are used instead of external \u2018healing substances\u2019. In short, the practice goes to a more subtle level. In Tantrism, I have even come across a context of mantras<\/em> called \u2018mantrau\u1e63adhi<\/em>\u2019 (mantras<\/em> as substitutes for plants). The meaning is that mantras<\/em> are able to relieve suffering (disease) like plants. In the case of mantra-yoga<\/em>, just as the synthesis of different plants yields a healing potion or alchemical substance, so too combinations of mantras<\/em> yield the elimination of a particular problem. For example, the combination of syllables, tantric b\u012bjas<\/em> can form mantras<\/em> with different capabilities (siddhis<\/em>). Of course, the implication is that all this works only with an infallible understanding of such methods, which is possible with learning from a guru<\/em> who has realised the relevant siddhis<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would like to give a few examples and analogies to continue the theme of the usage of officinal substances in pre-colonial Tamil Siddharas, some Theravada branches and others. The Pata\u00f1jali’s Yoga-s\u016btras (concretely in the S\u0101dhana p\u0101da) use the concepts … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[370],"tags":[372,374,140,373,305,371,31],"class_list":["post-1040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thamil-siddharas","tag-ayurveda","tag-duhkkha","tag-mantra","tag-mantrauadhi","tag-nathas","tag-rasayana","tag-yoga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matsyendranatha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matsyendranatha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matsyendranatha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matsyendranatha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matsyendranatha.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/matsyendranatha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1041,"href":"https:\/\/matsyendranatha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions\/1041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matsyendranatha.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matsyendranatha.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matsyendranatha.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}