[Advaita-l] vajrOli yOga & shankara bhagavatpAda

[V Subrahmanian]

In the Yogasutra there is no requirement that one 'learns' the siddhis from
someone else.  The siddhis come to the yogi of their own at various
times/stages of his yoga sAdhana.  It is also stated at the end of
enumerating the various siddhis in the yogasutra that siddhis are obstacles
to the yogi in gaining his ultimate purushartha and therefore one should
not crave for them.

That said, there is no need to bring in the vajroli in this connection.
When questioned by Saraswati at the time of sarvajna peeTha ArohaNa about
the 'defilement' caused if any by the mingling with the King's wives,
Shankara does not say that 'no sin has been caused'.  He only says that 'no
sinful action was performed with his sharIra and for what was done in
another sharIra does not affect this sharIra'.  In other words, he does not
seek any apology by invoking the vajroli or any such thing.

Chapter 19 (page 19 of the pdf)
The Goddess challenged him that it is not enough if a person is omniscient
but he should also be pure. Shankara cannot be said to be pure because of
his stay at the palace of the king Amaruka.

To this challenge, the Acharya answered that from his birth he had done no
sin with this body of his, and what was done with another body will not
affect this body. *Sharada’s voice became silent accepting the explanation*
and the Acharya ascended the Throne of Omniscience, to the ovation of the
people there. The heavenly conch Shells blew, kettledrums sounded like
roaring of the oceans, and flowers rained down in praise of Sri Shankara.

This is the end of the extract I am providing here.

Also, for the particular verse which Shankara replies to Saraswati before
ascending the sarvajna peetha, there is a commentary 'DinDimA' which says:

एवमुक्तः श्रीशंकर उवाच । नेति । अहमपि न संदिहेऽम्बायास्तवा संदेहो नास्तीति
किमु वक्तव्यमित्यतिशयेन संबोधयति । हेऽम्बेति । यत्तु त्वं चाङ्गना इत्यादि
तत्र शृणु - यत्कर्म देहान्तरसंश्रयाद्विहितं तेन कर्मणा अन्योऽयं देहो न
लिप्यते । * लोकशास्रप्रसिद्धं चैतत् *। उपजातिवृत्तम् ।।


a few of my thoughts:


The Vyakhyana uses the words - Loka Prasiddham, Shaastra-Prasiddham - to
justify the answer given by Bhagavatpada.

Obviously in the previous shlokas, Goddess questions the Parishuddhata, and
the vimalatvam of the Acharya based on His experience in the body of King
Amaruka. Nowhere does She allude it to as a Papam. The very question is
posed in relation to the body.

We already have verses like = लिप्यते न स पापेन पद्मपत्रमिवाम्भसा - to
indicate that the Jnani is untouched by Papa or Punya - the Acharya being a
Jnani - Papa/Punya do not arise. This is elaborated in the Digvijaya itself
- in the ninth Sarga - 9.89 to 9.100, Bhagavatpada Himself beautifully
answers the question related to Papa/Punya - and the very same answer He
gives in the 16th sarga is also touched upon (- anyavapuH, 9.100)
[In this verse Shankara says: 'This knowing the kAma kalA practicals
through this (king's) body will not be censurable since I will be following
only the ways of shiShTa-s by resorting to another's body.]

regards
subrahmanian.v


On Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 3:44 PM, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

> Vajroli Mudra is a very secret practice. It is learned through Guru only.
>
> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> Yes, these techniques should be learnt through guru/yOgi-s/siddha purusha
> only.  But none of the biographies would tell us from whom shankara got
> the siddhi-s like parakAya pravesha, vajrOli yOga etc.  His guru govinda
> bhagavatpAda hardly attracts any attention from the readers in all these
> biographies.
>
> Hari Hari Hari bol!!!
> bhaskar
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