Deceiving Kala and Obtaining Shiva

Devi said

Through yoga one can attain the state of wind, which arises from space. Lord, if you are pleased, please tell me all about this.

Shankara replied

For yogis' welfare I have already told how wind became the emblem for those who wish to overcome Kala. Having understood the day by it, a yogi stays absorbed in breath-control, and within half a month, beautiful one, he overcomes Kala when he arrives. The heart is like a lamp's flame and the wind follows the flame. The great wind goes everywhere and pervades everything, inside and out. Knowledge, discernment and enterprise are all driven by the wind, and by conquering the wind one can conquer the whole universe. A yogi who wants to slay old age and death must stay absorbed in concentration. In yoga concentration must come first, then meditation. As a smith fills the bellows' mouth with wind and finishes his work, so a yogi should practise. The divinity is lord of a thousand, with a thousand eyes, hands and feet, whose joints envelop everything and who stands ten finger-lengths above it. One should hold the breath and recite the gayatri first, with Aum, followed three times by the vyahritis; this is called pranayama. Moon, sun and planets arise and dissolve again, but those devoted to yoga and meditation do not return. A brahmana may torment himself by austerities for a hundred years drinking water from a kusha tip, yet he can gain the same fruit from a single act of concentration. A brahmana who rises in the morning and practises pranayama swiftly destroys all his sins and goes to Brahma's world. One who single-mindedly practises pranayama in a solitary spot conquers age and death and can travel through the sky with the wind. He gains siddhi, lustre, beauty, intelligence, valour, the speed of wind, happiness and a praised supreme bliss. So I have described the siddhi a yogi can gain through wind.

Goddess, I will now describe what can be gained through fire. He must sit comfortably, or lie down, where no human speech reaches. With the energy coming out of his head he lights the middle of his body. With unwavering attention the yogi lights it with the fire from between his eyebrows, becoming like one who can see without hesitation where no lamp shines. He should press his eyes lightly with his fingertips. When he sees a star he should meditate on it single-mindedly for a muhurta or half. Then, meditating in darkness, he will see the lord of light, white, red, yellow, black and rainbow-hued. An energy like the rising sun will come from his forehead, between the brows. Once he realises this he can take any form he likes and play in it. By constant yoga he gains powers: pacifying and calming causes, entering others' bodies, anima and the other powers, seeing with the mind, hearing from far, discernment, invisibility, many forms and travel through the sky. He has the learning that comes from study and becomes expert in many texts. Even the learned can be deluded, subject to earlier karma; though they look, they do not see, and like the deaf, they do not hear. Foolish and confused by sin they act like blind men in the world. "I know the great Purusha, sun-coloured, beyond darkness; he is the one to be known, and there is no other path to tread." So I have described the excellent use of energy, by which a yogi conquers Kala and becomes immortal. I will tell of something else by which one does not die. Goddess, listen with single-minded attention. The fourth state can be gained by living beings, yogis and meditators. Controlling his mind, the yogi should sit comfortably in the chosen place, body upright and hands clasped like a cup. Shaping his mouth like a beak, he should slowly drink in air. Soon a water that gives life will seep from his palate, and he should draw in that cool, nectar-like water with the breath. A yogi who drinks it daily never comes under death's sway. He becomes very energetic and takes a divine form, without hunger or thirst, with an elephant's strength, a horse's speed, Garuda's eyesight and hearing from far away. He has a mass of dark curly hair and the complexion of gandharvas and vidyadharas. Such a man lives a hundred divine years with intelligence like Brihaspati's, can travel through the sky and go happily where he wishes.

I will tell you another method which even the gods try to keep secret. Listen, fair-faced one. The yogi must practise curling the tongue and raising it to the palate, and soon it gradually lengthens. When it touches the palate a cool nectar flows, and a yogi who constantly drinks it moves toward immortality. The tip of the tongue is stretched to the palate and the hands clasped like a bright lotus. Drops of nectar are drawn and fall one by one, delighting even the gods. This is the substance by which one crosses samsara and all sins committed and transcends Kala. When the limbs are drenched with it he does not die or feel hunger and thirst. Daughter of the mountain, when the earth holds these four kinds of yogis, it has the steady strength to give happiness to the whole universe, to say nothing of the earth. All that embodied beings constantly picture in dreams yet suffer for, the yogi has the power to create as heaven on earth, and that is only a little of what these four kinds can do. So the earth, with its mantras, austerities, vows, rules, herbs and yoga, is desired by men of good policy, humility and knowledge of dharma. The original divinity of beings does not move from where these four kinds of yogis are. Shankara said he would now describe, by the rules, the shadowy being called Shiva.