Chapter Three: The Madhura Disposition in India's Inner (Esoteric) Religious Disciplines
The Gorakṣa-paddhati and Haṭha-yoga-pradīpikā praise the Khechari seal extravagantly.1 The nectar, Soma-essence, or great essence dripping from the moon is also called “immortal Varuni.” Among Nath yogis, turning the tongue back and raising it upward through Khechari is called “eating meat,” while drinking Soma is called “drinking Varuni.”2
It has been said above that the sun is generative blood and the moon semen. Sun means Shakti and moon Shiva. The moon must be protected from the sun's fire; in other words, a man must protect himself from a woman's touch.
Sun and moon as woman and man
Followers of the Nath tradition portray woman as a tigress. By day she is an enchantress; by night, a tigress. Every Nath Siddha was a strict celibate, and they remained constantly vigilant not to fall into the tigress's claws. Gorakh said that a woman's mere breath dries out and destroys the body.3
Footnotes
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See Gorakṣa-paddhati, Bombay edition, pp. 37–38, and Haṭha-yoga-pradīpikā, Fourth Instruction, verses 44–46. ↩
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Gomāṃsaṃ bhakṣayen nityaṃ pibed amara-vāruṇīm / kulīnaṃ tam ahaṃ manye cetare kula-ghātakāḥ / go-śabdenoditā jihvā tat-praveśo hi tāluni / go-māṃsa-bhakṣaṇaṃ tat tu mahā-pātaka-nāśanam / jihvā-praveśa-sambhūtā vahninotpāditaḥ khalu / candrāt sravati yaḥ sāraḥ sā syād amara-vāruṇī //—“One should always eat cow-flesh and drink immortal Varuni. I regard such a person as truly noble; all others destroy their lineage. The word go denotes the tongue, and its entry into the palate is the eating of cow-flesh, which destroys great sins. The essence produced by the tongue's entry, not generated by fire, flows from the moon: that is immortal Varuni.” Gorakṣa-paddhati 37–39; compare Haṭha-yoga-pradīpikā 3.47–49. ↩
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One verse says: “By day an enchantress, by night a tigress, at every moment she sucks blood; the whole world has gone mad and raises a tigress in every home.” Kabir likewise says: “At the fall of a woman's shadow even the serpent goes blind; what fate, Kabir asks, awaits those who live forever in women's company? Do not gaze upon a woman or run after the sight; poison rises merely from seeing—what more if she comes near? With kohl upon her eyes, her hair bound thick, and henna on her hands, the tigress has devoured the land.” Compare Gorakh's warning: “Guruji, do not perform an act through which the nectar, the great essence, is depleted.” ↩