Chapter Three: The Madhura Disposition in India's Inner (Esoteric) Religious Disciplines

—where they meet. The second interpretation is a particular yogic procedure in which a male and female yogi unite, after which one of them drinks the combined fluid of semen and generative blood through the Vajroli seal. The third interpretation is bringing prāṇa and apāna into equilibrium through breath control and thereby mastering the iḍā and piṅgalā channels. In the Nath tradition, iḍā, piṅgalā, and suṣumṇā are also described as the lunar, solar, and fiery channels.

The Nath tradition gives the union of sun and moon another and profoundly mysterious meaning: the sun is mastered so that the nectar dripping from the moon can make the body ever new. Sun signifies destruction and moon creation. By mastering both, the yogi attains immortality within the body itself.¹

Yogic practice holds that the body's root substance is Soma or nectar, stored in the moon situated in the sahasrāra. A channel called śaṅkhinī runs from the sahasrāra to the root of the tongue. This is the yogis' “crooked channel,” through which Soma-essence or the great essence is drunk. The Gorakṣa-vijaya describes śaṅkhinī as a serpent with a mouth at each end. Its mouth, through which the moon continually drips nectar, is called the “tenth gate.”

Yogis believe that the nectar or Soma dripping from the moon falls into the sun and is burned to ashes in the fire of time. For this reason human life must end in death. If the nectar could be kept from falling into the sun and being burned, a person could conquer time and become immortal. If the tenth gate is closed and carefully guarded, immortal perfection can be attained. If the gate remains open, the sun or time will consume the great essence.² Through this same tenth gate, yogis drink the nectar and attain immortality.

How, then, is the great essence to be kept from destruction? Yoga has many procedures, among which the Khechari seal is exceptionally powerful. The tongue is turned back and made to reach the “royal tooth,” or the entrance of śaṅkhinī. Fixing the gaze at the centre, the yogi drinks the Soma-essence. The yoga treatises greatly praise Khechari and say that, once it is perfected, the bindu does not become unsteady even when the yogi is embraced by a beautiful woman.