Les dits de Lallâ

« Moi, Lallâ j’apaisai l’amour dans le feu de l’amour.
Avant la mort je mourus toute entière.
Libre de forme dans ma nature profonde,

combien de formes n’ai-je pas déployées ?
Le moi disparu, que ferais-je ?
Dans la perte, j’ai perdu la perte.
La perte perdue, je suis revenue à l’océan de l’existence.
Riant, jouant, j’ai obtenu la révélation de l’Essence ici-même.
De ce que je dis j’en ai fait moi-même l’épreuve. »

« Le miroir de mon esprit s’est illuminé,
La reconnaissance a jailli en mon être,
J’ai vu alors le Divin en sa nature essentielle.
Rien n’existe, ni moi, ni Toi, ni même, en vérité, l’universel déploiement. »

corps alchimique

« It kind of works, because in any alchemical tradition, they’re basically using distilling apparatus’, that are two-chambered. The lower one where you put all the stuff, and the upper one where it all condenses into some sort of a refined essence, and that’s basically the yogic body, too. You have the torso and the head. You put the stuff down at the bottom, it rises to the top, condenses in the head and that is the way he described the internal transformation of the yogic body. 

Because for Gorakhnath and the early hatha yoga tradition, the goal of practice was to raise to your semen, breath and energy from the lower abdomen up to the cranial vault where that semen becomes distilled, refined through the heating process and the pressure of raising them along the chakras…becomes distilled into the nectar of immortality. In much the same way that raw mercury, when it’s heated in an alchemical vessel, when it condenses, (if you do it correctly and enough times), in the upper vessel of the alchemical apparatus, it becomes a pure form of mercury that an alchemist, theoretically, can consume as the nectar of immortality.

So I noted this parallelism between the two traditions and that is the main, the big idea of The Alchemical Body is that that aspect of hatha yoga theory of the Nath yogis, who were the pioneers of that practice and theory, was in some way derived from that Alchemical tradition. »

extrait de A Conversation with David Gordon White,Posted in http://levitatingmonkey.com

Gōrakṣa

« Gōrakṣa literally means protector of herd. He has the distinction of founding the largest sect of yōgins in India. The followers of Gōrakṣa are popularly known as nāths,yōgis(jōgis),Gōrakhnāthis and Kānphaṭas. They are very familiar for their large ear-rings, usually of bone, that give them the name ‘Split ears’(Kānphaṭa). Gōrakṣanātha is considered to be the second guru of the Nāthayōga cult. He is described as Paramahamsa. The invention of the Haṭhayōgasystem is ascribed to him and he is also credited with the foundation of the Kānphaṭaorder of yōgis, known as Gōrakṣanāthis. Gōrakṣanātha is considered to be the first disciple of Matśyēndranātha. It is also said that Matśyēndranātha gave birth to Gōrakṣanātha. In the north Indian tradition Gōrakṣa was a fisherman by caste, while in the Bengal tradition he was a cowherd. TheTāntric text ‘Gōrakṣa-samhita’ is associated with his name, and‘Gōrakṣa-pantha’ in north India is regarded as an esoteric system connected with Tantra and yōga. Gōrakṣagīta, Gōrakṣa Paddhāti and Siddha Siddhānta Paddhāti are some of the literary compositions believed to have been written by Gōrakṣanātha. Possibly he belongs to 12th or 13thcentury. It is believed that Gōrakṣa Nātha was instrumental in the codification of the Nātha panth by bringing together 12 separate sects (Barah panthi) in various parts of the country. All that we knew about Gōrakṣanātha is distorted with enormous magical folklore and sectarian mythology across the sub-continent from Nepal to Rājasthan,from Punjab to Bengal, from Sindh to the Deccan into the interior south. He is credited with the authorship of a treatise long became extreme entitles haṭha-yōga and a surviving Gōrakṣaśataka. A commentary on Gōrakṣaśataka entitled Gōrakṣa Paddhatithe word haṭha by ha=sun andṭha=moon; the union of moon and sun for ming yōga.(haṭhau=sūrya-chandrau=prāṇāpanau). More interestingly,Gōrakṣanātha is also recognized by the Kāpālikas as one of their founders, and it is a theory worth considering that Gōrakṣanātha was the reformer of the Kāpālikas, who then became the nāthas. The Kāpālikas had their origins back in the 4thcentury, and still practiced low-level Śakta-tantra. Gōrakṣanāthawas taught by both Mīṉanātha and Jālandhara, and his disciples were Vairāginātha and other nāthas. It is difficult to be more precise as to Gōrakṣanātha’s dates than to say that he lived in the 10th century. His work on Haṭhayōga is called Gōrakṣa-sataka. From Nepāl comes the popular legend that Śiva after he had recited the Yōga doctrine to Pārvatī, standing on the sea shore, while Matśyēndra (in the form of a fish)was listening, gave something to a woman to eat, with a promise that she would obtain a son. The woman did not eat the substance, but cast it upon a dung-hill.T welve years later, Matśyēndra passed by the same spot and asked to see the child.He heard what the woman had done and asked her to search in the dung heap. She there discovered a boy of twelve years. That boy was named Gōrakhnāth.Matśyēndranāth became his spiritual master and he served as a dutiful disciple.

By his perfection in yōgic practices, Gōrakṣanātha was supposed to have attained superhuman powers. He turned the water of a well into gold and then into crystal.He created a sword which can break even the toughest rocks. He exercised absolute control over the nature also. When he enterd a garden in Punjab along with his disciples, the entire garden became green and all the dried up lakes gets filled up with water. He can leave his physical body in a sleeping posture and travel into the nether world to interact with Vāsukī, the lord of snakes. An interesting aspect of his control over serpents is found in the legends which relate Gōrakṣanātha with serpent powers and functions .Gōrakṣanātha is having a unique magic bag, or wallet of wonderful potency,from which he used to draw various kinds of gifts such as barley grains, rice, apples, grapes, flowers, or sacred ashes (vibhūti) which beget male children to the devotees. With his ma gic sandals he can go to any place of his choice at the flick of the eye lid.He also has a magic carpet or mat which informs Gōrakṣanātha about the problems faced by his devotees. He is glorified as the reformer of the Nāthapanth from the Kaulācāra into an orthodox, organized and canonized pantheon. According to one legend popular in the Tamiḻ country, Gōrakṣanātha rescued his teacher Matśyēndranātha, who was engaged in a family life with Premala, Queen of Malayāla dēśa. Further, he found the opium (kañja) by performing a Yajna, which later became known as ‘Gōrakṣa Mūligai’(GōrakṣaMedicinal herb). About the attainment of his‘Siddhi’, there exist several stories, according to one legend he attained his siddhi at Paḻaṉi (Dindigul District) and according to another legend, he attained his Siddhi at Pōrūr in Tamiḻnādu.Then it is also believed that he attained his samādhi at Vadakku Poigai Nallūr near Vēḷḷāṅkaṉṉi, where a big temple is constructed on his samādhi shrine. Similarly, it is believed that, Gōrakṣasta yed at Kōrkādu village of Puduchērry, which still exists between the highway of Bāhūr and Villianūr. There he performed ‘Tapas’and attained ‘Siddhi’. Thus, the village is named after him as ‘Kōrakar(Gōrakhar)Kādu’and later come to the current corrupted form‘ Kōrkādu’. Even today, at Kōrkādu there exists a temple dedicated to him and every year Gurupūjā being conducted to him by his devotees in a grandmanner.

In the sculptural form this Nātha is depicted as seated on a tiger or tiger skin. In one of the panels on the prakārawall of the Śri sailam temple, Gōrakṣanātha is shown seated on a tiger along with the appendages like big kuṇdala, cross bands and medallion,rudrākṣa mālain his chest, rings in his arms and wrists, matted hair, etc.,his right hand is resting on his right leg knee in adaṇda-hasta mudrā and his left hand and left leg is resting on the back of the tiger. In opposite to Gōrakṣa, a Siddha is seated on a yōga-daṇdain a padmāsana with his both hands are resting on his respective thighs. He is also wearing the appendages like the Gōrakṣa as said above; under him a kamaṇḍala is placed. Their background resembles that they are meditating in the forest (…) »

( Siddha cult in Tamilnadu, its history and historical continuity, R. EZHILRAMAN, 2015, University of Pondichery)

Gorakshanatha (Ramalingeshvara temple) (source photo « Siddha Cult in Tamilnadu: Its History and Historical Continuity” by R. Ezhilraman)

Gorakshanatha (Shrisailam)

Matśyēndranātha

« Matśyēndranātha is believed to have lived in 9th-10 thcenturies C.E. According to legends, he is the first incarnāte teacher of the Nāthayōgi movement and the reputed founder of the Haṭhayōga system, along with his disciple Gōrakṣanātha. He composed an important Tāntric work Kaulajnanirnaya, and also found one of the Kaulaschools called Yōgini-Kaula. According to Skanda Purāna, Matśyēndranātha was born as Lokēśvarā on an inauspicious day, so his family threw him into the sea, where he was swallowed by a fish and overheard the secret conversation about yōga between Śiva and Pārvati, on the shore of an island. Pārvati had fallen asleep but Lokēśvarā heard everything.In this version of the legend,Śiva is pleased and, as Lokēśvarā comes out of the fish, he gives him the name Matśyēndranātha, Lord of the Fishes.

Later versions of the legend say that Pārvati became angry with Lokēśvarā and banished him to Kadali, the Kingdom of Women, to forget the secrets of yōga.‘The symbolism of the Matśyēndranātha legend involves the transmission or revelation of the yōga doctrine, and the increasing importance of haṭhayōga, associated with Gōrakṣanātha and the decline of earlier erotico-mystical practices symbolized by Kadali, the Kingdom of Women’. At Kadali,he was rescued by his disciple,Gōrakṣanātha, disguised first as a dancing girl and then as a bee. »

( Siddha cult in Tamilnadu, its history and historical continuity, R. EZHILRAMAN, 2015, University of Pondichery)

Siddha

« All the Siddhas are a group of mystics who revolt against caste and rituals and the established order of religion. They are no doubt bhaktas but their bhakti is of a different type. They are very critical of the practice of religion but always hold fast to the one Supreme God and pray for His Grace. Their revolt is only in the manner of their criticism and the challenge they throw to orthodoxy. They are generally against idol worship and they emphasize the worship of God in the heart. Except few, all the Siddhas have been Śaivas.

Based on their aims, Siddhas are classified under three broad groups viz.,(i)the Sanmārga Siddhas,(ii) theÑāna siddhas and (iii) the Kāyasiddhas. However, there is also another group forms the fourth one, who are ‘a few siddha-like’ poets who have been appended to the Siddha school by posterior generations, or who called themselves cittar or Siddhas without properly belonging to the esoteric group itself. »

( Siddha cult in Tamilnadu, its history and historical continuity, R. EZHILRAMAN, 2015, University of Pondichery)

Female Siddha. Pahari, Late Basholi or Mankot, circa 1760

Représentation sculpturale des Siddhas Nātha

« The sculptural representations of the Nātha Siddhas also seems to have begun from around 13thCentury C.E as indicated by such individual sculptures of the Nātha Siddhas in Āndhra Pradesh, which contained the names of the Nāthas engraved on the pedestal portions. However,the Nātha Siddha sculptures become very popular in the Vijayanagara Art. Beginning from the Vijayanagara rule, these Nātha-Siddhas of Nava Nātha tradition began to be portrayed in the low relief sculptures on the pillars of the maṇḍapas, lower portions of the Gōpuras, in both Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava temples. Although scholars have relegated these representations as simple decorative motifs, their prolific occurrence in the every nook and corner of the Vijayanagara Empire indicate a deliberate attempt on the part of the schools of sculptors to popularize the Nātha-Siddhas. Although there are many studies on the teachings and philosophy of the Nātha Siddhas, none of them have studied the significance of the Nātha sculptural representations. These and other tāntric sculptures portray the rituals and cults of the Nātha-Siddha tradition; which permeates in the practices of the Siddhas of 18thand20thcenturies, particularly in Tamiḻ region, which were glorified in the literary works and attracted the devotion of the popular masses. »

« Les représentations sculpturales des Siddhas Nātha semblent également avoir commencé vers le 13e siècle, comme l’indiquent les sculptures individuelles des Siddhas Nātha dans l’Āndhra Pradesh, qui contenaient les noms des Nāthas gravés sur leur piédestal. Cependant les sculptures de Nātha Siddha sont devenues très populaires dans l’art Vijayanagara. Les Nātha-Siddhas de la tradition Nava Nātha ont commencé à être représentés selon les règles Vijayanagara, dans les sculptures en bas relief, sur les piliers des maṇḍapas, sur les parties inférieures des Gōpuras, dans les temples shivaïtes et vishnouites. Bien que les érudits aient relégué ces représentations à de simples motifs décoratifs, leur présence prolifique dans tous les recoins de l’Empire Vijayanagara indique une tentative délibérée de la part des écoles de sculpteurs de rendre populaires les Nātha-Siddhas. Même s’il existe de nombreuses études sur les enseignements et la philosophie des Siddhas Nātha, aucune n’a étudié la signification des représentations sculpturales Nātha. Ces sculptures et les autres œuvres tāntriques dépeignent les rituels et les cultes de la tradition Nātha-Siddha, qui imprègnent encore les pratiques des Siddhas des 18e au 20e siècle, en particulier dans la région tamoule, et qui furent glorifiés dans les œuvres littéraires et attirèrent une grande dévotion populaire. »

(« Siddha cult in Tamilnadu, its history and historical continuity » by R. EZHILRAMAN, 2015, University of Pondichery)

Naganatha en rajalilasana,Temple Someshvara à Ulsur près de Bangalore, période post Vijayanagara. Probablement construit par les Gowdas au cours du XVIe-XVIIe siècle.

Siddhi Lakshmi Paubha, Nepal

A partir de l’éternité

« L’homme ne peut rien faire seul, sans l’aide de Dieu. Il croit savoir quelque chose, en tête brûlée. Or, tout lui est révélé à partir de l’éternité. Le mystère de Dieu est partout. Nous sommes entourés de mystères. Pour nous-mêmes, nous sommes un grand mystère. Nous ne savons pas ce que nous sommes. D’où sommes-nous venus? Où allons-nous? Quel est cet être qui réfléchit, se déplace et raconte ce qu’il sait? Il crée quelque chose, sans lui-même savoir comment. Quel est ce mystère qui est en lui? Comment se fait-il que les organes qui sont à l’intérieur de lui fonctionnent à son insu, et à la perfection? Mais lui bouleverse tout cela par ses pensées. »

Paix et joie dans le Saint Esprit, le starets Thaddée

Au centre de la vie

« -Comment se garder de l’ambition?

-L’action de la grâce, qui est un don, exerce ses effets tant que l’attention de l’homme est unie au Seigneur. L’homme s’efforce d’œuvrer entièrement pour le Seigneur. Il regarde partout le Seigneur, dans chaque créature… Tant que l’attention de l’homme est fixée sur le Seigneur et le Royaume céleste, il considère le monde comme appartenant à Dieu. Dès que notre attention se détourne du Seigneur, nous perdons notre paix intérieure. Le Seigneur réside secrètement en tout homme, que ce dernier Le respecte ou non. Mais Il est là, au centre de la vie. Il est le moteur de la vie, Il est Celui qui donne la vie. Tant que notre attention reste là; dans le cœur, on conserve cette paix intérieure et cette joie divine qui sont offertes à ceux qui débutent. Mais ensuite, dès que notre attention se détourne légèrement du Seigneur pour se fixer sur des centres d’intérêt terrestres, qu’il s’agisse d’objets inertes ou d’être vivants, nous perdons aussitôt notre paix intérieure car l’homme ne peut être de deux côtés à la fois. L’objet qui a attiré notre attention se glisse aussitôt à l’intérieur, il s’empare du trône du Seigneur, il s’empare de notre cœur. Il peut s’agir de la soif de gloire, d’honneurs, de richesse, de beauté. Dès qu’une chose d’origine terrestre s’élève sur ce trône, alors elle se met à vivre en nous. Les sentiments qui agissent en nous dépendent des centres d’intérêt auxquels nous accordons notre attention. »

Enseignements du starets Thaddee

Le contrôle du bindu

« L’Investigation sur le contrôle du bindu :

On enseigne qu’une graine unique est l’essence fondamentale du corps physique. Tout ce qui est vu dans le monde ici-bas, a pour origine cette graine. Source de l’essence des constituants corporels, cette graine est Sadasiva. En son centre se trouvent tous les dieux sous forme subtile. C’est le bindu, c’est la lune, c’est la graine, c’est l’ichor. C’est l’élément, le principe vital, c’est l’essence de toute chose.

Les quatre béatitudes dont la dernière est la béatitude de la cessation, sont toutes nées du bindu, dit-on, comme le clair de lune est né de la lune. Le bindu met sur la voie, mène aux cieux, confère la libération et apporte le plaisir. Il suscite les actes bons et mauvais. Toujours puissant, ilprocure toutes choses.

Le bindu est maîtrisé par le souffle. Il n’est pas d’autre méthode de maîtrise du bindu. Le bindu va à l’état que le souffle atteint. Figé, il élimine les maladies. Lié, il fait voyager dans l’espace (khecara). Dissous et immobile, il procure tous les pouvoirs surnaturels et confère la libération .

Sache que le bindu est de deux types: masculin et féminin. On dit que la graine est le bindu masculin (pauruseya), et que le rajas (c’est à dire le fluide sexuel féminin) est le bindu féminin (strisamudbhava). Par l’union externe des deux, les êtres humains sont engendrés. Lorsque l’union est à l’intérieur, on est déclaré être un yogi.

Le bindu réside en Kamarupa, dans la cavité d’un palais à étages (kutagara) (dans la tête). En raison du contact, avec délice, il va à Purnagiri par le canal central .Le rajas réside dans le terrain sacré, dans la yoni. Il est rouge comme la fleur de java et entoure la réalité de la déesse. Sache que le bindu est lunaire et le rajas solaire. Leur union doit s’accomplir dans le palais à étages si difficile d’accès. Cette union est la réalité (tattva), l’enseignement (dharma) ultime. Elle est considérée comme le meilleur yoga. Elle est la voie qui mène à la libération. Elle est le secret ultime.

Celui qui, par bêtise, délaisse le yoga du bindu et aspire à autre chose, est un imbécile, surveillant des arbres stériles. Le bindu est le bouddha, le bindu est Siva, le bindu est le seigneur des créatures Visnu. Le bindu est le dieu universel, le bindu est le miroir des trois mondes.

Le bindu est maîtrisé de la même façon que le souffle est maîtrisé. Tel l’état du bindu, tel l’état de l’esprit, quel qu’il soit. Lorsque le souffle est agité, alors le bindu est agité. L’esprit de celui dont le bindu est agité, est également agité.

Le dieu, seigneur de tous les éléments, a pour nature la réalité, mais reste pourtant immaculé, et il réside dans tous les êtres sous la forme du bindu .Tant que le souffle est en mouvement dans le corps, le bindu est en mouvement. Tant que le bindu est en mouvement dans le corps, l’esprit est agité. Tant que l’esprit est en mouvement, que le bindu est en mouvement, que le souffle est en mouvement, les êtres humains naissent et meurent. C’est la vérité !

Le nada est vraiment le bindu, et c’est aussi vraiment ce qu’est l’esprit, affirme-t-on. Dans la pratique, les trois, nada, bindu, esprit, ne font qu’un. Bien que les trois soient présents dans le corps sous une forme unique, c’est seulement lorsque le souffle est maîtrisé que tous atteignent assurément la perfection. Lorsque le souffle s’arrête au moyen de contact avec le milieu de la Déesse du Centre, alors le bindu et l’esprit s’arrêtent avec le souffle.

Tous ces éléments résident dans le corps. Il sont en mouvement quand le souffle est en mouvement, ils s’arrêtent quand le souffle s’arrête. La mort résulte de la chute du bindu, la vie de sa rétention. Lorsque le nectar d’immortalité lunaire descend, c’est la mort pour tous les êtres incarnés. Celui dont le bindu fait un avec l’indivis, est un adepte dans un corps de diamant.

Ainsi s’achève l’investigation sur le contrôle du bindu. »

Amrtasiddhi, 7

( Les racines du yoga, Mallinson et Singleton)