घेरण्ड संहिता (महर्षि घेरण्ड - सप्ताङ्ग हठयोग सटीक)

INTRODUCTION xiii
appears to have been a follower of Vishnu, so we cannot
claim Kapalika origins for the text. Perhaps Chanda’s
epithet is simply a way of establishing a connection between
the text and the lineage of the Mahasiddhas mentioned in
the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.
There are also no records of the place and date of com-
position of the text, but there are indications that it is a
relatively late work on Hatha Yoga from northeast India.
The majority of its manuscripts are found in the north and
east of India, and, of those which are dated, the oldest was
copied in Bengal in 1802 C.E. As far as I am aware, it was
never cited by medieval commentators in their works on
Hatha Yoga. Doctrinal discontinuities also set it apart from
the rest of the Hatha Yogic corpus. Tantric influences have
been toned down considerably. See, for example, the descrip-
tion of Vajrolimudra in verse 3.39: in all other manuals of
Hatha Yoga this name is given to a technique in which the
yogi or yogini resorbs commingled sexual fluids through
the urethra; here it is a simple physical posture. The author
attributes the teachings of Hatha Yoga to Shiva, but verses
5.77 and 7.18 suggest that he was a devotee of Vishnu. Fur-
thermore, several verses indicate that the text was compiled
by a vedantin, in particular verse 7.4: “I am Brahman and
nothing else. I am Brahman alone and do not suffer. My
form is truth, consciousness, and bliss. I am eternally free.
I abide in my own nature.”²
²Despite the author’s sectarian affiliation, he has no particular doctrinal axe to
grind and often tells the aspiring yogi to fill in the details of his visualizations
and practices in the manner instructed by his guru.