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| Home > Hatha Yoga and our Body > The Cosmic interpretation
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| | The Cosmic Interpretation
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"Man should know thyself and thou shall know the universe." (Temple of Delphi)
 The subtle physiology of Yoga has everything to do with the combined relationship that exists between the humans and cosmic spheres.
Just as in various yoga traditions, the boundary between the symbolic and the actual between the figurative and the literal is blurred, so is that between physiology and cosmology. Consequently in case of studies such as hatha-yoga, it is common for human attributes to be spoken of in cosmological terms and, correspondingly, for cosmic phenomena to be discussed using anthropomorphic language.
The Rig-Veda famously includes the story of the sacrifice of `primal man the cosmic Purusha which tells of the creation of the universe, with the agency of certain devas (`gods` or `shining ones`), from an ostensibly enormous human body:
From his mind the moon was born,
And from his eye the sun,
From his mouth Indra and the Fire,
From his breath the wind was born.
From his navel arose the atmosphere,
From his head the sky evolved,
From his feet the earth, and from his ear
The cardinal points of the compass:
So did the gods fashion forth these worlds.
Similarly, the human being is regarded as a microcosm and, he is the embodiment of all levels of existence as stairway to the transcendent reality.
In the Visvasura -Tantra, for example, it is stated that `what is here is elsewhere; what is not here is nowhere`, which expression has at least a double meaning, this being:
That the Tantra itself is the epitome of all knowledge.
That what is here in the human being includes the whole or existence.
According to yoga philosophy, the intrapsychic journey, and not the reading of texts alone, that will bring about the disclosure of the Self.
The `inner quest` or `journey` is often represented as a kind of pilgrimage, and the image of the human being as an entire landscape containing numerous holy sites appears in both Hindu and Buddhist Tantric traditions.
The Buddhist sage, Sarah, pronounces, for example, that here (within this body) is the Ganga and the Jamuna...here are Prayaga and Banaras here the sun and the moon. Here are the sacred places; here the pithas and upa-pithas have not seen a place of pilgrimage and an abode of bliss like my body.
While in the Shiva-Samhita we find the following elaborate description:
In this body is Mount Meru, surrounded by seven islands;
here, too, are rivers, seas, mountains, fields, and guardians of the
Fields.
Herein are sages, all the stars and planets,
Sacred pilgrimages, temples and presiding deities of the temples.
Agents of emanation and contraction, sun and moon;
here indeed are mist (Nabhas, i.e. akasha), air, Fire, water and earth.
All objects of the three worlds (Trilok) are in the body,
Performing their various functions around Meru.
The yogi alone knows all this, there is no doubt.
Mount Meru signifies the central axis or Sushumna-Nadi, corresponding to (but not identical to) the spinal cord. The Sapta- dwipa-`seven islands` or `seven lands-`that `surround` or are possessed by` Meru represent the seven `planes` associated with the chakras. The other astronomical and geographical referents, too, symbolise aspects of this `inner world` of subtle bodily forces and phenomena.
Description in yogic studies often happen to be transpersonal, and trans human, conception of the source of human identity.
This conception emerges from the mystical insights of yogis. One of the paradoxes of yoga meditation is that going `in wards` i.e. through peeling away the layers of one`s own inner make-upon, one moves towards an expanded and more widely encompassing sense of selfhood. The Self of every apparently individuated human being is equally the transcendent origin of the whole cosmos. As one comes closer to that innate Self, the distinction between one`s own body and the universe as a whole inevitably collapses.
And that is the journey through "Hatha Yoga."
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