ImportMaster at 18:06, 11 February 2021

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[[File:Bronze figure of Kashmiri in Meditation by Malvina Hoffman Wellcome M0005215.jpg|thumb|The ''Gheranda Samhita'' is a yoga manual, that teaches 32 asanas and 25 mudras among other things. Above a mudra called ''[[Guptāsana]]'' in verse 2.20 of the text.<ref>{{cite book |author=James Mallinson |author-link=James Mallinson (author) |title=The Gheranda Samhita: The Original Sanskrit and an English Translation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=73DzK3kTIgEC |year=2004 |publisher=Yoga Vidya |isbn=978-0-9716466-3-6 |pages=70–72}}</ref>]]
{{Hindu scriptures}}
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|quote =
<poem>
There are no fetters like those of illusion (maya),
no strength like that which comes from discipline (yoga),
there is no friend higher than knowledge (jnana),
and no greater enemy than egoism (ahankara).
</poem>
|source = —''Gheranda Samhita, 1.4''<br>Translator: Srisa Chandra Vasu<ref>{{cite book|author=Rai Bahadur Srisa Chandra Vasu |title=The Gheranda Samhita| year=1996 | publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal | isbn=978-8121507349 | pages=2–3}}</ref>
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'''''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 ''[[Hatha Yoga Pradipika]]'' and the ''[[Shiva Samhita]]''), and one of the most encyclopedic treatises in yoga.<ref name="Mallinson2004ix">{{cite book |author=James Mallinson |author-link=James Mallinson (author)|title=The Gheranda Samhita: The Original Sanskrit and an English Translation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=73DzK3kTIgEC |year=2004 |publisher=Yoga Vidya |isbn=978-0-9716466-3-6|pages=ix–x}}</ref><ref name=heimann>B. Heimann (1937), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25201520 Review: The Ǧheraṇda Saṁhitā. A Treatise on Haṭha Yoga by Śrīś Chandra Vasu], The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Cambridge University Press, No. 2 (Apr., 1937), pp. 355-357</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Georg Feuerstein |author-link=Georg Feuerstein |title=The Path of Yoga: An Essential Guide to Its Principles and Practices |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Knp7nmz8qgMC |year=2011|publisher=Shambhala Publications |isbn=978-0-8348-2292-4|pages=13–14}}</ref> Fourteen manuscripts of the text are known, which were discovered in a region stretching from [[Bengal]] to [[Rajasthan]]. The first [[critical edition]] was published in 1933 by Adyar Library, and the second critical edition was published in 1978 by Digambarji and Ghote.<ref name=mallinsonxiv>{{cite book|author=James Mallinson |author-link=James Mallinson (author) |title=The Gheranda Samhita: The Original Sanskrit and an English Translation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=73DzK3kTIgEC |year=2004 |publisher=Yoga Vidya |isbn=978-0-9716466-3-6 |pages=xiv–xvi}}</ref> Some of the Sanskrit manuscripts contain ungrammatical and incoherent verses, and some cite older Sanskrit texts.<ref name=mallinsonxiv/>

It is likely a late 17th-century text, probably from northeast India, structured as a teaching manual based on a dialogue between Gheranda and Chanda.<ref>{{cite book |author=James Mallinson |author-link=James Mallinson (author) |title=The Gheranda Samhita: The Original Sanskrit and an English Translation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=73DzK3kTIgEC |year=2004 |publisher=Yoga Vidya |isbn=978-0-9716466-3-6 |pages=x–xiii}}</ref><ref name="Burley2000p8"/><ref>{{cite book |author=Georg Feuerstein |author-link=Georg Feuerstein |title=The Path of Yoga: An Essential Guide to Its Principles and Practices|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Knp7nmz8qgMC |year=2011 |publisher=Shambhala Publications |isbn=978-0-8348-2292-4|pages=55, 59–60}}</ref> The text is organized into seven chapters and contains 351 [[shlokas]] (verses).<ref name="Burley2000p8">{{cite book |author=Mikel Burley |title=Haṭha-Yoga: Its Context, Theory, and Practice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ezxQHzjwUosC |year=2000 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1706-7 |pages=8–9}}</ref>

==Book==

The ''Gheranda Samhita'' calls itself a book on ''ghatastha yoga'', which literally means "vessel yoga", wherein the body and mind are depicted as vessels that carry and serve the soul (atman, purusha).<ref name="Burley2000p8"/><ref name="Mallinson2004ix"/> It is generally considered a [[Hatha yoga]] text.<ref name="Mallinson2004ix"/><ref>{{cite book |author=Roshen Dalal |title=Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC |year=2010 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-341421-6 |page=157}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Guy L. Beck |title=Sonic Theology: Hinduism and Sacred Sound |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cY1Xw1ZlIeQC&pg=PA102 |year=1993 |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-87249-855-6 |pages=102–103}}, Quote: "The Gheranda Samhita, Siva Samhita and Hatha Yoga Pradipika are three of the most important Hatha Yoga texts and are intimately connected with the practice of Nada Yoga as propounded by Gorakhshanath and his school."</ref> The text teaches a seven limbed yoga, in contrast to the eight-limbed yoga in Patanjali's ''[[Yogasutras]]'', the six-limbed yoga of the ''Goraksha Samhita'', and the four-limbed yoga in the ''[[Hatha Yoga Pradipika]]''.<ref name="Mallinson2004ix"/> It declares its goal to be the perfection of an individual's body, mind and soul through a seven step lifelong continuous self-development. The means of this goal include self purification, thirty two [[asana]]s it details for building body strength, twenty five mudras to perfect body steadiness, five means to [[pratyahara]], lessons on proper nutrition and lifestyle, ten types of breathing exercises, three stages of meditation and six types of [[samadhi]].<ref name="Mallinson2004x">{{cite book|author=James Mallinson|author-link=James Mallinson (author) |title=The Gheranda Samhita: The Original Sanskrit and an English Translation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=73DzK3kTIgEC |year=2004|publisher=Yoga Vidya|isbn=978-0-9716466-3-6|pages=x–xi}}</ref>

The text reverentially invokes Hindu god [[Shiva]] as well as [[Vishnu]], with verses such as 5.77 and 7.4 suggesting that the writer was also inspired by [[Advaita Vedanta]] ideas such as "I am [[Brahman]] [Supreme Soul] alone, and nothing else; my form is truth, consciousness and bliss ([[satcitananda]]); I am eternally free".<ref>{{cite book|author=James Mallinson|author-link=James Mallinson (author)|title=The Gheranda Samhita: The Original Sanskrit and an English Translation|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=73DzK3kTIgEC |year= 2004 |publisher=Yoga Vidya |isbn=978-0-9716466-3-6|pages=xiii–xiv}}</ref>

==Structure==

''Gheranda Samhita'' is a step by step detailed [[User guide|manual]] of [[yoga]] taught by sage Gheranda to student Chanda.<ref>{{cite book |author=Steven J. Rosen |title=Food for the Soul: Vegetarianism and Yoga Traditions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lxyuWvCXONIC&pg=PA28| year=2011 |publisher =ABC-CLIO |isbn =978-0-313-39704-2|pages =28–29}}</ref> Unlike other hatha yoga texts, the ''Gheranda Samhita'' speaks of a sevenfold yoga:<ref>{{cite book |author=James Mallinson |author-link=James Mallinson (author) |title=The Gheranda Samhita: The Original Sanskrit and an English Translation |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=73DzK3kTIgEC |year= 2004|publisher= Yoga Vidya |isbn= 978-0-9716466-3-6|pages =ix-xvii, 1–2, 16–18, 60–61, 86–91, 113–116, 119–123}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Mark Stephens |title=Teaching Yoga: Essential Foundations and Techniques |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEuhYwEA_gMC |year=2011 |publisher=North Atlantic |isbn=978-1-58394-472-1|pages=17–20}}</ref>

* [[Shatkarma]] for body cleansing
* [[Asana]] for body strengthening
* [[Mudra]] for body steadying
* [[Pratyahara]] for mind calming
* [[Pranayama]] for inner lightness
* [[Dhyana in Hinduism|Dhyana]] for inner perception
* [[Samadhi|Samādhi]] for self liberation and bliss

The text itself follows this division in seven chapters, and has a focus upon the ''[[Shatkarma|ṣaṭkarma]]s'' (shatkarma), thus this text is sometimes said to describe ''ghatastha yoga''. For instance, the ''[[Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali]]'' describes an eightfold path ([[yamas|yama]] and [[niyama]] instead of shatkarma and mudra, and addition of [[dharana]]). The closing stanzas on samadhi teach different methods than those described by Patanjali.

The earliest translation of the text into English was by Srisa Chandra Vasu.<ref name=heimann/><ref>{{cite book|author1=Gheraṇḍa|author2=S.C. Vasu (Translator)|title=The Gheranda Sanhita: A Treatise on Hatha Yoga|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KLpHAQAAMAAJ |year=1895 |publisher= Bombay Theosophical}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Sources ===
* Bahadur, Rai and [[Srisa Chandra Vasu]]. 1914-15 The Gheranda Samhita, [http://brihaspati.net/downloads/Gheranda_Samhita_S_C_Vasu.pdf (source)]
* {{cite book |author1=Gerald James Larson |author1-link=Gerald James Larson |author2=Ram Shankar Bhattacharya |author3=Karl H. Potter |title=Yoga: India's Philosophy of Meditation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p6pURGdBBmIC |year=2008 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-3349-4}}
* {{cite book |author=James Mallinson |author-link=James Mallinson (author) |title=Haṭha Yoga in the Brill Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 3 | editor=Knut A. Jacobsen |display-editors=etal | year=2011 | publisher=Brill Academic |isbn=978-90-04-27128-9 | pages=770–781}}
* {{cite book |author=Richard Rosen |title=Original Yoga: Rediscovering Traditional Practices of Hatha Yoga |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZeOYkgOQTUC |year=2012 |publisher=Shambhala Publications |isbn=978-0-8348-2740-0}}

== External links ==
* Version, interpretation and translation into Spanish, Dr. Fernando Estévez Griego [http://www.yogaintegral.biz/GHERANDA.pdf (PDF)]
* Translation and commentary by Rai Bahadur Srisa Chandra Vasu, [[K. Pattabhi Jois]] school [https://web.archive.org/web/20140124005530/http://brihaspati.net/downloads/Gheranda_Samhita_S_C_Vasu.pdf web.archive.org (PDF)] [http://aylibrary.blogspot.be/2012/08/gheranda-samhita-online.html (summary)]

{{Hindudharma}}
{{Hatha yoga}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Hindu texts]]
[[Category:Hatha yoga texts]]

Gheranda Samhita - Revision history

ImportMaster at 18:06, 11 February 2021