mūrdha-jyotiṣi siddha-darśanam

“[By saṁyama] on the light at the top of the head, seeing like an accomplished one.”

Traditional commentators identify the “light at the top of the head” with the brahma-randhra, “the aperture of Brahman,” located in the skull at the crown, an opening where, it is said, the spirit escapes at death.

Focusing on the radiant light of this aperture, says Patañjali, one comes to have the vision (darśanam) of an accomplished being (a siddha).

Sūtra III.33 is the fourth of the group of sūtras in which Patañjali directs our attention to a location in the body. Commentators variously relate this location to the ājnā cakra or sahasrāra cakra, but since the Hatha Yoga system of cakras developed hundreds of years after this text was set down in writing, it is likely that a 1:1 correlation does not exist. Mūrdha refers to the head, skull, or the top of anything.  Jyotis is light, especially the light of the stars (see I.36, where Patañjali offers meditation on “that which holds the light,” jyotiṣmati, as one of the “or’s,” ways to overcome the obstacles).  Patañjali here names “the light at the top of the head” as the deśa, or location, for saṁyama, or meditation (III.4).

What is the light? Why is it at the top of the head? Saints are painted with halos, and this sūtra does reference the siddhas, perfected or accomplished beings, but I have not been attracted to the idea of sainthood or perfection, and the notion of a light in my head was off-putting. Then when I read of the brahma-randhra, an aperture, a crevice–in the skull!–I could immediately relate. We are born with a soft spot at the top of the head, the fontanel, and the four major sutures of the skull only gradually harden through childhood. The baby’s skull is malleable, moveable, which allows for growth and the passage through the birth canal. As the mother shapes her body around the baby after birth, so the baby shapes her way to be born, and learns her embodiment by being body to body. The skull hardens and becomes a strong container for the cerebro-spinal fluid, which connects down the spine to the tail and provides an ongoing inner rhythm.

The top of the head, in āsana practice, is significant. In sukhāsana (sitting with simple crossed legs), I locate the top of the head as I come into alignment and awareness. I balance the head over the tailbone, and feel a settling and an inner organization unfold. The practice of headstand provides a powerful stimulus to the point at the top of the head, and to our vestibular system. The tail now balances over the head, and the arms and legs must actively root down and reach up. Headstand demands such active engagement with gravity. Upside-down, like in the womb, but not held by embryonic fluid. Can we float in the air, as we would in water? What containment, what structure, is demanded for that?

Chinese medicine offers an amazing perspective on the aperture, this hole in the skull, as well. In this system, the brain is classified as an “extraordinary organ,” meaning it is yang because considered hollow, but with a function that is yin, more passive. If the brain organ is hollow and the aperture of head allows for filling (the radiance of the stars entering here), then there must be an emptying too. My own experience of sitting is a sensation of emptying, a flow perhaps through cerebral-spinal fluid down.  I experience grounding and a presence of body, body-mind. It is like combing out the hair, downward strokes smooth the nervous system. The top of the skull as permeable fits with this. There is a movement in, down, up, out. Āsana practice takes the head-tail to different orientations to gravity. Perhaps it sensitizes us to radiance, to gravitational pulls, as well.

Traditionally, commentators have read sūtra III.33 to mean that the practitioner will have visions of perfected or accomplished beings. I have followed Rohit Mehta’s lead in interpreting the aphorism, instead, to mean we will begin to see like an accomplished being, in other words, we will see with clarity. Yoga is a process of un-doing, of releasing patterns, concepts, conclusions from our consciousness. Thus Patañjali describes the powers as obstacles to the ultimate destination (III.38). Yoga is a process of emptying.

That said, a power of clarity of sight, an experience of radiance–this is needed, now. I am writing on the winter solstice, a month and a half since the general election in the United States has ushered in a dark period.

Daniel Hunter, activist and author of “10 Ways to Be Prepared and Grounded Now that Trump Has Won,” confirms the grim outlook of what the next administration will bring. Hunter writes, “Trump has signaled the kind of president he will be: revengeful, uncontrolled and unburdened by past norms and current laws.” The ex-president’s first term, the plans of Project 25, make clear an authoritarian and kleptocratic intent. It is easy for those of us opposed to this agenda to go in to overdrive on responses and reactions.

Hunter takes a pause before he moves to recommending strategy; he connects the personal and private to the community and the communal:

Trump is arriving at a time of great social distrust. Across the board, society has reduced trust in traditional institutions. Yes, there’s more distrust of the media, medical professionals, experts and politicians. But it extends beyond that. There’s reduced trust in most community institutions and membership groups. Whether from Covid or political polarization, a lot of us have experienced reduced trust in friends and family. Even our trust in predictable weather is diminished. … Distrust fuels the flame of autocracy because it makes it much easier to divide.

So what are the strategies? How do we prepare for this coming administration? What do we do?

First, Hunter writes–and I love this–practice trusting yourself. Trust “your own eyes and guts,” build protection from crazy-making that can throw you off or confound you. Also, become trustworthy, look within and know yourself, including your emotions. If you are afraid or grieving, how do you hold those difficult states?

Second, find others you trust.

In extreme cases [of totalitarianism], like Chile in the 1970s and ’80s, the dictatorship aimed to keep people in such tiny nodes of trust that everyone was an island unto themselves. At social gatherings and parties, people would commonly not introduce each other by name out of fear of being too involved. Fear breeds distance. … We have to consciously break that distance. In Chile they organized under the guise of affinity groups. This was, as its name suggests, people who shared some connections and trust. Finding just a few people who you trust to regularly act with and touch base with is central.  –Daniel Hunter, “10 Ways to Be Prepared and Grounded Now that Trump Has Won”

Since the election, many of my friends and family are aghast, the wind knocked out of them. A number, who have been politically engaged, are exhausted. Others have asked me for suggestions on actions they might take. Hunter urges  us to engage in a way that personally fits and to consider as well how effective the approach is. Where are the levers of change? Hunter has real-world experience to help with that analysis.

We are living in transformative times. The old ways are passing, slowly and with violent resistance. This present catastrophe is an ending of the status quo. What comes next? Where are we in the dying/birthing process? Is this dark the birth canal? Feel the rhythm of contraction and expansion, soften, spiral, find your way toward the next world.* Feel the radiance.

*Thanks to adrienne marie brown for this image.

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“Siddhas are those who have perfected themselves in the field of enlightenment. Mūrdhajyoti represents the ājñā cakra of the yoga texts. A yogi can develop a balanced head and a poised heart.” –B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, commentary on III.33

“The perfected being refers not just to a physical body but to a state of consciousness….Our perceptions, normally, are diffused and therefore vague. A clear perception is that where one is able to have a total view of things. In the light of this radiance, spoken of in this sūtra, one’s perception becomes so clear that one is able to see the totality of things.” –Rohit Mehta, Yoga, the Art of Integration, p. 340

Questions:
• Where in your life do you experience radiance?
• What is the balance point on the skull in your practice of headstand? Has it shifted over the years?
• How does experience of one part of the body help locate the rest? (For instance,  the head to the tailbone, tailbone to head.) Does focus on one cakra teach you of other cakras?
• How are you preparing and grounding at this political moment?