Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis c19.117

c19.117

The final goal of the Kuṇḍalinī Yoga is the top of the head, the brahmasthāna, brahmarandhra, known as the hole-in-the-skull, the nirvāṇacakra (circle where release is achieved), mahāpatha (the great path of release). It is the place of final bliss (brahmānanda). It is situated above the end of the suṣumṇā. Because it is a lotus of 1,000 petals it is called sahasrāra. It has its head downwards, and its clustered filaments are tinged with the colour of the young sun. Each of the petals has upon it a letter of the alphabet, and they are recorded on the leaves and read from right to left, 50 × 20 = 1,000, one-thousand letters in all, each with its bindu; within this lotus is the full moon, resplendent as the clear sky, moist with nectar. And within this is a triangle, and in this the great void shines Śūnya (void) which is the subtle bindu, which is para bindu, which is Īśvara, having as its centre the abode of Brahma. Above the bindu, in the aperture is Saṃkinī, the goddess who creates, maintains and destroys. Within this lotus is the full moon, resplendent as the clear sky, moist with nectar. Here is experience of final union, *unmanī*, where the bond of attachment with the world is cut and the bliss of release is enjoyed. Here Śiva stands, free from all illusion, with Nirvāṇaśakti. In the triangle in the sahasrāra are three bindus; the ḥ (*haṃ*), the male, the other two in the form of *sa* which is *Prakṛti*. The two bindus make up the third as *visārga* (:) so that their union is *haṃsaḥ*. The divine form here is one-half of Śiva (*Śivārdha*) united with nāda which calls or draws out bindu. Below this level are the forms of creative union in cakras down to mūlādhāra. But here is the undivided origin of all dual forms. This high place is, viewing the Kuṇḍalinī as she moves upwards, the level of dissolution. Śakti here is nirvāṇaśakti. The fruit of ‘knowledge’ of sahasrāra is final bliss.