Haṭha Pradīpikā 4.0*1-4.0*14: Prelude to Samādhi

For Brahmānanda, Samādhi is the fruit of the means taught in the first three chapters. He initially interprets “overcoming death” as the ability to leave the body voluntarily. At the same time, he distinguishes Jīvanmukti, liberation while the body remains, from Videhamukti after the end of karma that has already become active. Insight, stilling of the mind, and exhaustion of conditioning belong together for him.

Just as salt loses its own form in water and wholly assumes the character of water, the mind held in the self, according to Brahmānanda, assumes the form of the self. The image describes the end of the perceptible separation of consciousness from the object of absorption.

The four results are carefully distinguished. Jñāna is direct experience of the self, Mukti is disembodied liberation, Sthiti is liberation while still alive, and Siddhi is the unfolding of extraordinary abilities such as Aṇimā. The statement that all four arise “through the guru” identifies instruction as the sustaining prerequisite of the entire path.

Brahmānanda includes both worldly and heavenly pleasures among the objects of the senses. Sahaja, the “natural state,” is for him the fourth state of consciousness, Turīya, which transcends waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. The commentary explicitly traces its attainment as well to the grace of the guru.

Brahmānanda outlines a sequence of progressive stilling. Āsana first ends coarse bodily activity; Pratyāhāra, Dhāraṇā, Dhyāna, and object-oriented Samādhi increasingly calm the movements of the mind. Only long practice and the highest non-attachment bring even the activity of discriminative knowledge to an end. He calls this final state, which is no longer produced intentionally, Sahaja, Turīya, and Jīvanmukti.

When Prāṇa rests in Suṣumṇā and the mind dissolves into Brahman, which is unlimited by time, place, or object, all karmic bonds are, according to Brahmānanda, released at the root. His far-reaching statement explicitly includes karma that has already become active. It expresses the goal of liberation in the commentary's teaching.

Brahmānanda regards Amarolī, Vajrolī, and Sahajolī as successful only when the mind flows without interruption toward its object of meditation and Prāṇa has entered Suṣumṇā. The commentary thus subordinates these body-oriented Mudrās to an already advanced state of concentration, while not simply explaining them away as mere symbols.

For Brahmānanda, breath, senses, and mind are “alive” as long as Prāṇa moves through Iḍā and Piṅgalā, the senses grasp their objects, and the mind assumes their forms. Their “death” means the end of each of these activities. In an extended defense, he declares yoga a necessary prerequisite for direct knowledge and liberation; even sages who appear to have been liberated without yoga must have practised it in earlier lives.

Noteworthy is his explicit statement that yoga is open to Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, Śūdras, and women. This considerably widens the circle of practitioners, while remaining formulated within Brahmānanda's historical, hierarchical social order.

Rasa here means mercury. In premodern alchemy, mind and mercury are both regarded as naturally mobile; their “binding” accordingly promises extraordinary efficacy. Brahmānanda uses this analogy to explain the stabilization of the mind through an alchemical model familiar in his time, not to assert a chemical identity.