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The Gheranda

Samhita and

the Shiva Samhita

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Gheranda Samhita (GS) means Gheranda’s compendium and Shiva Samhita (SS) is Shiva’s compendium.

These two texts are two of the classic texts of Hatha Yoga (the other one being the Hatha Yoga Pradipika).

Lets start with the GS which is a late 17th century text and a manual of yogic practice taught by Gheranda to a student called Chanda Kapali.

It has seven chapters, each one taking the practitioner deeper into the experience of yoga. The GS follows this sevenfold division of chapters by

creating a seven-limbed yoga, a saptanga yoga.

PHILOSOPHY

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THESE SEVEN LIMBS ARE:

Shatkarma - the actions for purification.Asana - for clarity and strength.Mudra - energy seals to focus mind and body energy flow and create appropriate attitudes for practice.Pratyahara - to withdraw the mind from external engagement with the sense fields so you can go inward.Pranayama - working with breath and breath retention to understand and expand life energy flow. This creates lightness and energetic clarity.Dhyana - these are the steps beyond dualistic mind process through Guru yoga and practices of Raja yoga.Samadhi - rests identity as a lived experience, beyond dualistic perceptual patterns, as the totality, Brahman.

If you read the articles on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras you can see the similarities and distinctions. You can find the cross over with the Hatha Yoga Pradipika in the use of mudras and working with Raja yoga. This is a classic Hatha yoga text that starts from the physical experience and works with purification of body first, follows with energetic clarity and concludes with deep interiorisation to know the divine.

The Shiva Samhita was written by an unknown author somewhere between the early 15th century and the 18th century, probably somewhere around Varanasi, the home city of Shiva.

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The book is set around the great god Shiva or MahaDev addressing his beloved consort Parvati and guiding her in the sublime art and science of Hatha yoga. As one of the major surviving classical treatises on Hatha yoga, the Shiva Samhita is pretty important, in my view for all practitioners of modern yoga to at least read.

Shiva Samhita talks about the complex yogic physiology of nadis or energy lines and names the 84 classical asanas, only four of which are described in detail. This fab old text also describes the five prana-vayus and describes the means to regulate these including mudras and pranayama.

These prana-vayus as movements of life energy are used by all modern practitioners. They are centering and assimilating, grounding and eliminating, lifting and inspiring, expanding and spreading, praising and vocalising. We use these when we chant, when we stand or sit, when we work with lift in our practice and whenever we work in expansion. The key energy for the yogi is centering, drawing and holding life-energy in centre.

The Shiva Samhita has a rich Buddhist influence running through it as one would expect from any medieval northern Indian text. Remember the Buddhist Ashok empire ruled the whole of India from 269-232 BC and under Ashoka’s influence Buddhism spread through and influenced the whole subcontinent.

Rich in yogic philosophy, this is a manual of some of the Shaivist tantric practices and meditation. This tantric yogic view is aimed at common householders too and like the ancient Rishis who were householders supports the view that one does not have to be a celibate monastic or ascetic to achieve liberation

The first chapter mentions various methods of liberation and philosophical standpoints that help to achieve this.

The second chapter describes the energy body including the lines of flow, the nadis, the internal fire, and the working of the soul or jiva.

The third chapter describes the prana-vayus, mentioned previously, in the body. It also mentions the importance of the Guru as a key to success, almost all ancient Indian systems and the Guru as the pivotal point and crucial element of successful practice. This chapter also has the four stages of yoga, the five elemental visualisations and four primary meditation asanas described in detail.

“Shiva Samhita

talks about

the complex

yogic physiology

of nadis or

energy lines

and names the

84 classical

asanas, only

four of which

are described

in detail.”

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WRI

TTEN

BY CHRISTOPHER GLADWELL

CHRISTOPHER TEACHESCONTEMPORARY YOGA-TANTRAUNDER THE NAME OF ENGAGED YOGA.CHRISTOPHERGLADWELL.COM

The fourth chapter deals with eleven energy seals or mudras that result in siddhis, given we practice effectively.

The fifth chapter describes the obstacles to freedom, the four types of yogic aspirants, the technique of shadow gazing, Nada yoga as the yoga that goes beyond sound, the esoteric anatomy of Kundalini and the seven chakras. This chapter also details the king of Yogas, and a specific mantra that facilitates the process of liberation.

This is fab stuff to study, and all i want from this article is that you go away and feel inspired to read this pretty amazing yogic literature. I recommend the translations of both these texts by James Mallinson, as they are both good and accessible.

A good reading list for the practitioner of yoga includes the Hatha Yoga Pradipika (the light on Hatha Yoga), the Gheranda Samhita, the Shiva Samhita and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

As you read, which parts of the text speak to you?

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