O mudrze khećari i pierwotnym obliczu hathajogi

At the beginning haṭha-yoga was an ascetic discipline which was not associated with any specific school of philosophy. The oldest forms of haṭha-yoga which appear in texts constituted practices which might be referred to collectively as mudrās, literally “seals” i.e. physical techniques by means of which the first haṭha-yogis controlled the life forces in the form of breath, kuṇḍalinī and semen. One of the more important mudras of this original canon was the khecarī-mudrā, which enabled the apprentice to calm his mind, to stop the life substance identified with the nectar of immortality (amṛta) in his body and/or to relish this nectar, which was supposed to ensure health and immortality and induce him into a state of profound mystical integration. The article presents the early yogic practice of khecarī-mudrā and on the basis of this example indicates the particular features and the purposes of the early haṭha-yoga which included, among other things and apart the attainment of supernatural powers (siddhi) and corporal immortality – liberation. The article also directs the attention of the reader to the misunderstandings, present in the social consciousness of the West, in reference to the nature of haṭha-yoga and its formative influences, among other things, the belief about its purely physical nature, and the act of putting hathayoga in opposition toward Patañjali’s yoga or ascribing to haṭha-yoga an exclusively auxiliary role in reference to raja-yoga, for the most recent publications of such researchers as James Mallinson, Jason Birch or Mark Singleton cast a completely new light on the history and the development of this branch of yoga.