Self-mutilation or sexual arousal … Understanding the Khecari Mudra may provide the key to understanding Hatha Yoga.
The Khecari Mudra is exalted as the best of all mudras capable of bringing bliss, enlightenment and untold health benefits to its practitioners. But if you research this mudra with the intention of giving it a go, what you find is a bizarre technique involving rolling your tongue to the back of your palate and, to further enhance the experience, a process of slicing the membrane that connects the tongue to the lower part of the mouth.
This technique does not seem to corroborate Abhinavagupta’s description of Khecari Mudra though: “Experiencing the Trident as a single staff, rising through the spaces, O Beloved, he adopts the Khecari Mudra.” The trident refers to the three channels of breath in the subtle body and by uniting them into the single central channel practitioners are able to experience the movement of Kundalini energy. Abhinavagupta therefore appears to be describing a mudra (i.e. a gesture or seal) that spontaneously occurs when practicing a specific breathing exercise designed for raising kundalini. My interpretation of this passage was always that Abhinava was referring to sexual arousal.
So where did the bizarre self-mutilating procedure come from?
Well, it comes from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, where it is described in explicit detail. This is the same text that provides us with the variety of asanas that even today form the basis of many modern yoga classes the world over. Consequently, if the Pradipika provides literal descriptions of many beneficial yoga asanas, it is surely safe to assume that it also provides literal descriptions of beneficial yoga mudras – including the Khecari Mudra.
The mistake here is believing that the Hatha Yoga Pradipika is a direct descendent and heir to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. In actual fact, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika is a Tantric text. This is evident in the opening sentence, which reads: “I salute the primeval Lord Shiva.” Shiva is of course the primary Tantric deity. The tantric credentials of the text are made increasingly evident by it’s focus on Kundalini and energy manipulation.
This is important, because within Tantric texts there is a tradition of layering truths behind symbology and coded language. This can often be seen when a Tantric text threatens a host of calamities to anyone who reveals their secret techniques before immediately revealing the secret technique within the body of the text. In such cases, it can be assumed that the secret is actually hidden within what is revealed. And that is the case with the Khecari Mudra.
At the beginning of the chapter on Mudras the Hatha Yoga Pradipika reads: “This should be kept secret like a casket of precious gems. It should not be spoken of to anybody.” The Khecari Mudra itself is highlighted as the best of all mudras, and so it is reasonable to assume that the great secret is hidden within the description of this particular technique. If in doubt, the fact that the description of Khecari Mudra involves self-mutilation should provide a further indication – within Tantra the body is the physical manifestation of our inner divinity, it is divinity itself and, as such, should never be mutilated. Indeed, it is possible that the description of the Khecari Mudra is included in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika as a warning to any spiritual seeker who is prepared to undertake extreme measures towards liberation without the guidance of a guru – if you take things too literally and without the proper guidance you could end up mutilating yourself!
However, Abhinavagupta’s reference to it highlights the genuine importance of the Khecari Mudra. So, what can we learn about it from the Hatha Yoga Padipika?
The key to understanding the code of the Pradipika are the phrases: “Then, turning back the tongue, it should be made to enter the junction of the three … when the tongue is turned back and enters the cavity leading to the skull, and the eyes are fixed between the eyebrows, this is Khecari Mudra.”
The “junction of the three” is the place in the subtle body where the three channels of breath emanate, this is a point beneath the genitals where Kundalini-Shakti rests, and the cavity of the skull is where Shiva resides in the body. The imagery then is of Kundalini being moved upwards through the central channel of the subtle body towards the Shiva in the head. It represents a form of internal alchemy and often refers to semen retention (the text appears to be targeted towards a male audience!).
Sexual fluids are the physical manifestation of sexual energy, which is often associated with Kundalini, and by moving it upwards, through the body, practitioners are able to unite Shakti (as Kundalini) and Shiva, and therefore experience liberating bliss. Once this is understood, the coded language contained in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika becomes clear. Here the “tongue” is code for semen – the tongue is a bodily organ associated with fluid; it can also experience different flavours, just as the movement of Kundalini can awaken the different chakras. Consequently, “turning back” the tongue means that semen should be retained and moved – using breathing exercises – along the central channel of the spine, through the chakras to the cavity of the skull.
But what about the section on self-mutilation? The Hatha Yoga Pradipika reads: “Taking a smooth, clean knife, very sharp like the leaf of the milk hedge plant, cut to a hair's breadth … By cutting, shaking and stretching, the tongue should be gradually elongated, till it touches the middle of the eyebrows.”
If we now understand “tongue” to be sexual energy produced by the retention of semen, then we can see the benefit of “elongating” the tongue until it reaches the middle of the eyebrows – or third eye. But the cutting with a “smooth, clean knife” seems particularly explicit. In fact, this would appear to refer to the practitioner’s own mind and intentions, which should be focused on experiencing non-dualism and liberation rather than self-gratification. Cutting to a “hair’s breadth” would therefore be understood in modern parlance as “edging”. That is, masturbating to the point of ejaculation before stopping. There is a history of edging dating back to pre-Tantric sects and certainly pre-dating the Pradipika, therefore, it is not surprising to find it here. The process of “cutting, shaking and stretching” can now be understood as masturbation without ejaculation.
The Hatha Yoga Pradipika recommends cutting to a “hair’s breadth” every seven days, although the Khecari Mudra itself should be practiced daily. In other words, sexual arousal and the movement of sexual energy should be practiced each day with edging taking place once every seven days. This should continue for at least six months until the mudra can be maintained for a fixed period of almost half an hour; put another way, the practitioner should be able to maintain arousal without ejaculation for 30 minutes.
The secret meaning of this practice is perhaps elucidated towards the end of the section, when the benefits of this Mudra are listed. One of the benefits is that “seminal fluid is not emitted even when embraced by a young and passionate woman.” For an ignorant and uninitiated spiritual seeker, this would appear as a worldly benefit of the practice (prolonged sexual intercourse), however, for the initiated there is a hidden meaning here. This sentence indicates that mastery of the Khecari Mudra is a preliminary requirement before Tantric practitioners can progress to sexual yoga, which is referred to in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika as Raja (or royal) yoga. Indeed, Hatha Yoga is presented throughout the text as a preparatory method for Raja Yoga, and the Khecari Mudra would seem to be an essential part of that preparation.
Comments