''Vajroli mudra'' (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

: वज्रोली मुद्रा ''vajrolī mudrā''), the Vajroli Seal, is a practice in

Hatha yoga Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha ...

which requires the yogin to preserve his

semen Semen, also known as seminal fluid, is an organic bodily fluid created to contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads (sexual glands) and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize the female ovum. Semen i ...

, either by learning not to release it, or if released by drawing it up through his

urethra The urethra (from Greek οὐρήθρα – ''ourḗthrā'') is a tube that connects the urinary bladder to the urinary meatus for the removal of urine from the body of both females and males. In human females and other primates, the urethra con ...

from the

vagina In mammals, the vagina is the elastic, muscular part of the female genital tract. In humans, it extends from the vestibule to the cervix. The outer vaginal opening is normally partly covered by a thin layer of mucosal tissue called the hymen ...

of "a woman devoted to the practice of yoga". The

mudra A mudra (; sa, मुद्रा, , "seal", "mark", or "gesture"; ,) is a symbolic or ritual gesture or pose in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. While some mudras involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and fingers. As wel ...

was described as "obscene" by the translator Rai Bahadur Srisa Chandra Vasu, and as "obscure and repugnant" by another translator, Hans-Ulrich Rieker. The mudra is rarely practised in modern times. It was covered in the 1900s by the American sexologist

Ida C. Craddock Ida C. Craddock (August 1, 1857 – October 16, 1902) was a 19th-century American advocate of free speech and women's rights. She wrote extensively on sexuality, leading to her conviction and imprisonment for obscenity. Facing further legal proce ...

, the resulting legal proceedings against her leading to her imprisonment and suicide. The explorer

Theos Bernard Theos Casimir Hamati Bernard (1908–1947) was an explorer and author, known for his work on yoga and religious studies, particularly in Tibetan Buddhism. He was the nephew of Pierre Bernard (yogi), Pierre Arnold Bernard, "Oom the Omnipotent", a ...

learnt and illustrated the posture associated with the mudra. The pioneer of modern yoga,

Krishnamacharya Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (18 November 1888 – 28 February 1989) was an Indian yoga teacher, ayurvedic healer and scholar. He is seen as one of the most important gurus of modern yoga, and is often called "the father of modern yoga" for h ...

, gives impractical instructions for the mudra, demonstrating in Norman Sjoman's opinion that he had never tried the practice.

Context

is a branch of

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

that developed around the 11th century. Like earlier forms such as Patanjali's yoga, its ultimate goal was liberation,

moksha ''Moksha'' (; sa, मोक्ष, '), also called ''vimoksha'', ''vimukti'' and ''mukti'', is a term in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism for various forms of emancipation, enlightenment, liberation, and release. In its soteriology, ...

, and its methods included

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...

. It added a set of physical methods contributing to liberation including purification techniques ( satkarmas), non-seated postures (

asana An asana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose,Verse 46, chapter II, "Patanjali Yoga sutras" by Swami Prabhavananda, published by the Sri Ramakrishna Math p. 111 and later extended in hatha yoga ...

s), elaborate breath-control (

pranayama Pranayama is the yogic practice of focusing on breath. In Sanskrit, '' prana'' means "vital life force", and ''yama'' means to gain control. In yoga, breath is associated with ''prana'', thus, pranayama is a means to elevate the '' prana'' ''sha ...

), and physical techniques to manipulate vital energy, the mudras. Mudras are gestures of the body, used in hatha yoga to assist in the spiritual journey towards liberation. Mudras such as Khechari Mudra and

Mula Bandha A bandha ( sa, बंध) is a kriyā in Hatha Yoga, being a kind of internal mudra described as a "body lock," to lock the vital energy into the body. ''Bandha'' literally means bond, fetter, or "catching hold of".Iyengar, 1976: pp.435–437 Mah ...

are used to seal in the vital energy, which can take various forms such as

prana In yoga, Indian medicine and Indian martial arts, prana ( sa2, प्राण, ; the Sanskrit word for breath, " life force", or "vital principle") permeates reality on all levels including inanimate objects. In Hindu literature, prāṇa is ...

(related to the breath) and bindu (related to the semen). The classical sources for the mudras in yoga are two medieval texts, the ''

Gheranda Samhita ''Gheranda Samhita'' (IAST: gheraṇḍasaṁhitā, घेरंडसंहिता, meaning “Gheranda's collection”) is a Sanskrit text of Yoga in Hinduism. It is one of the three classic texts of hatha yoga (the other two being the ''Ha ...

'' and the ''

Hatha Yoga Pradipika The ''Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā'' ( or Light on Hatha Yoga) is a classic fifteenth-century Sanskrit manual on haṭha yoga, written by Svātmārāma, who connects the teaching's lineage to Matsyendranath of the Nathas. It is among the most inf ...

''. However, many hatha yoga texts describe mudras. The ''Hatha Yoga Pradipika'' 3.5 states the importance of mudras in yoga practice: In the 20th and 21st centuries, the yoga teacher

Satyananda Saraswati Satyananda Saraswati (25 December 1923 – 5 December 2009), was a Sanyasi, yoga teacher and guru in both his native India and the West. He was a student of Sivananda Saraswati, the founder of the Divine Life Society, and founded the Bihar Sch ...

, founder of the

Bihar School of Yoga The Bihar School of Yoga is a modern school of yoga founded by Satyananda Saraswati in Munger, Bihar, India, in 1963. An Institute of Yogic Studies was created in 1994. History The Bihar School of Yoga was established in 1963 at Munger, in the ...

, continued to emphasize the importance of mudras in his instructional text ''Asana, Pranayama, Mudrā, Bandha''.

Mudra

Vajroli mudra, the Vajroli Seal, differs from other mudras in that it does not consist of sealing in a vital fluid physically, but involves its recovery. The mudra requires the yogin to preserve his

, either by learning not to release it, or if released by drawing it up through his

from the

of "a woman devoted to the practice of yoga". It is described in the ''

'' 3.82–89. The ''

Shiva Samhita ''Shiva Samhita'' (IAST: śivasaṃhitā, also ''Siva Samhita'', meaning "Shiva's Compendium") is a Sanskrit text on yoga, written by an unknown author. The text is addressed by the Hindu god Shiva to his consort Parvati. The text consists of fiv ...

'' 4.78–104 calls Vajroli mudra "the secret of all secrets" and claims that it enables "even a householder" (a married man, not a yogic renunciate) to be liberated. It calls for the man to draw up the ''rajas'', the woman's sexual fluid, from her vagina. It explains that the loss of ''bindu'', the vital force of the semen, causes death, while its retention causes life. The god

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...

says "I am ''bindu'', the goddess (

Shakti In Hinduism, especially Shaktism (a theological tradition of Hinduism), Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, IAST: Śakti; lit. "Energy, ability, strength, effort, power, capability") is the primordial cosmic energy, female in aspect, and rep ...

) is ''rajas''." The ''Shiva Samhita'' states in the same passage that ''Sahajoli'' and ''Amaroli'' are variations of the mudra. The yogin is instructed to practice by using his wind to hold back the urine while he is urinating, and then to release it little by little. After six months' practice he will in this way become able to hold back his ''bindu'', "even if he enjoys a hundred women". The practice has been proposed to serve to clean the bladder by drawing liquids towards the urethra as an auto- enema, similar to the intestinal

shatkarma The shatkarmas (Sanskrit: षटकर्म ''ṣaṭkarma'', literally ''six actions''), also known as shatkriyas,basti. It might have also developed from a 1st millennium Tantric

semen retention ''Coitus reservatus'' (''coitus'', "sexual intercourse, union" and ''reservatus'', "reserved, saved"), also known as sexual continence, is a form of sexual intercourse in which the man does not attempt to ejaculate within his partner, but instead ...

practice called ''asidharavrata''.

Reception

Modern description

Vajroli mudra is not often described in modern accounts, still less actually practised. The earliest Westerner to write about it was the American yoga scholar and sexologist

. Opposing the predominant religious culture of her nation at the time, fundamentalist Protestant Christianity, Craddock was struck by the ''Shiva Samhita''s account of Vajroli mudra, with "the idea that sexual union could facilitate divine realization". She took the Hindu

tantra Tantra (; sa, तन्त्र, lit=loom, weave, warp) are the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that developed on the Indian subcontinent from the middle of the 1st millennium CE onwards. The term ''tantra'', in the Indian ...

concept that the male body was able to transform the sucked-up sexual fluids into an immortal "

diamond body A subtle body is a "quasi material" aspect of the human body, being neither solely physical nor solely spiritual, according to various esotericism, esoteric, occultism, occult, and mysticism, mystical teachings. This contrasts with the mind� ...

", and reworked it into a system involving delayed ejaculation to increase sexual pleasure within marriage. Further, she asserted that God was the third partner in such a marriage, "in what amounted to a sacred menage-a-trois." Craddock's emphasis on yoga and her new "mystico-erotic religion" enraged the authorities; she was tried in New York for obscenity and blasphemy, and imprisoned for three months. Facing federal charges on her release, in 1902 she killed herself. The yoga scholar Andrea Jain notes that Craddock's "sacralization of sexual intercourse" is far from radical by modern standards, but it was "antisocial heterodoxy" in the 1900s, leading indeed to her "martyrdom". The explorer and author

illustrates himself in a posture named Vajroli mudra in his 1943

participant observer Participant observation is one type of data collection method by practitioner-scholars typically used in qualitative research and ethnography. This type of methodology is employed in many disciplines, particularly anthropology (incl. cultural an ...

book '' Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience''. The posture, somewhat resembling

Navasana Navasana (Sanskrit: नावासन; IAST: nāvāsana), Naukasana, Boat Pose, or Paripurna Navasana ( sa, परिपूर्णनावासन; IAST: ''paripūrṇanāvāsana'' "Full Boat Pose") is a seated asana in modern yoga as exercis ...

, is seated, the legs raised to about 45 degrees and held out straight, the body leaning back and the back rounded so that the palms can be placed on the ground below the raised thighs, the arms held straight. Bernard states that he was instructed to learn this once he could do

lotus position Lotus position or Padmasana ( sa, पद्मासन, translit=padmāsana) is a cross-legged sitting meditation pose from ancient India, in which each foot is placed on the opposite thigh. It is an ancient asana in yoga, predating hatha ...

(Padmasana) so that he would be strong enough to use it "in the more advanced stages" of his hatha yoga training; there is no suggestion in the book that he followed the full practice. The yoga scholar Norman Sjoman criticises

, otherwise known as the father of modern yoga, for including "material on yogic practices from these academic sources in his text without knowing an actual tradition of teaching connected with the practice." Sjoman explains that Krishnamacharya recommended for Vajroli mudra "a

glass rod A glass stirring rod, glass rod, stirring rod or stir rod is a piece of laboratory equipment used to mix chemicals. They are usually made of solid glass, about the thickness and slightly longer than a drinking straw, with rounded ends. Structure ...

to be inserted into the

an inch at a time." In Sjoman's view, this showed "that he has most certainly not experimented with this himself in the manner he recommends." The magazine of

, noting the criticism of Vajroli mudra, defends the practice in a 1985 article. It states that the ''Shatkarma Sangraha'' describes seven Vajroli practices, starting with "the simple contraction of the uro-genital muscles and later the sucking up of liquids". It adds that only when the first six practices are completed can the last, "yogic intercourse", succeed. It notes also that sexual climax is the one moment in ordinary lives when "the mind becomes completely void of its own accord", but the moment is brief as the lowest

chakra Chakras (, ; sa , text=चक्र , translit=cakra , translit-std=IAST , lit=wheel, circle; pi, cakka) are various focal points used in a variety of ancient meditation practices, collectively denominated as Tantra, or the esoteric or ...

s (energy centres in the

subtle body A subtle body is a "quasi material" aspect of the human body, being neither solely physical nor solely spiritual, according to various esoteric, occult, and mystical teachings. This contrasts with the mind–body dualism that has dominated We ...

) are involved. Withholding the semen allows the energy to awaken kundalini, the energy supposedly coiled at the base of the spine, instead. Colin Hall and Sarah Garden, writing in ''

Yoga International The Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy is an international non-profit organization, which promotes yoga and holistic health through yoga retreats, residential programs, health products and services, media publications including ''Yo ...

'', note that, as with "yogic practices" like Khechari mudra,

Mula bandha A bandha ( sa, बंध) is a kriyā in Hatha Yoga, being a kind of internal mudra described as a "body lock," to lock the vital energy into the body. ''Bandha'' literally means bond, fetter, or "catching hold of".Iyengar, 1976: pp.435–437 Mah ...

, and the various

shatkarma The shatkarmas (Sanskrit: षटकर्म ''ṣaṭkarma'', literally ''six actions''), also known as shatkriyas,Dhauti Dhauti is one of the Shatkarmas (or Shatkriyas), which form the yogic system of body cleansing techniques. It is intended mainly to the cleaning of the digestive tract in its full length but it affects also the respiratory tract, external ears and ...

(cleaning the gastro-intestinal tract by swallowing and pulling out lengths of cloth), Vajroli mudra is "rarely practiced by anyone at all." They state that the question is not whether these practices are right or wrong, but whether they are appropriate in a modern context. The practice is associated with

bramacharya ''Brahmacharya'' (; sa, wikt:ब्रह्मचर्य, ब्रह्मचर्य ) is a concept within Indian religions that literally means to stay in conduct within one's own Ātman (Hinduism), Self. In Yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism ...

, dispassion towards sexual desire.

Modern omission

The lack of discussion of Vajroli mudra is related to the more general historic denigration of

hatha yoga Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha ...

as unscientific and dangerous. The translator Rai Bahadur Srisa Chandra Vasu translated texts such as the ''

'' and the ''

'', starting in 1884, giving "stern warnings against the inherent perils of engaging in these practices". Vasu intentionally omitted Vajroli mudra from his translations, describing it as "an obscene practice indulged in by low class Tantrists". The yoga scholar Mark Singleton noted in 2010 that "the practice of vajroli has continued to be censored in modern editions of hatha yoga texts", giving as example

Vishnudevananda Vishnudevananda Saraswati (31 December 1927 – 9 November 1993) was an Indian yoga guru known for his teaching of asanas, a disciple of Sivananda Saraswati, and founder of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams. He establ ...

's omission of it from his ''

'' with the explanation that "it falls outside the bounds of wholesome practice", "

sattvic Sattva (Sanskrit: सत्त्व, meaning ''honesty'') is one of the three guṇas or "modes of existence" (tendencies, qualities, attributes), a philosophical and psychological concept understood by the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy.James ...

sadhana", along with sahajoli and amaroli. Similarly, Singleton notes, the leader of

Arya Maitreya Mandala Arya Maitreya Mandala is a tantric and Buddhist order founded 1933 by Lama Anagarika Govinda. History Lama Anagarika Govinda founded the Arya Maitreya Mandala order on 14 October 1933 and made fourteen Indian scholars members. The order's acti ...

in Europe, called these three practices "obscure and repugnant" and omitted them from his 1957 translation of the ''Hatha Yoga Pradipika''.

References

Sources

* * * * * * {{Hatha yoga Mudras