Uploaded August 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Jason Birch (SOAS University of London, The Haṭha Yoga Project)
Liberation and Immortality in early Haṭha and Rājayoga traditions
Medicine and Yoga in South and Inner Asia: Body Cultivation, Therapeutic Intervention and the Sowa Rigpa Industry.
University of Vienna
1st - 3rd August, 2017
Liberation and Immortality in early Haṭha and Rājayoga traditions
The aim of this paper will be to assess the various interpretations of liberation in all the early Haṭha and Rājayoga texts, with a view to answering the question of how their teachings on liberation compare with those of other Indian religions. My preliminary research suggests that the ultimate goal of Haṭha and Rājayoga is the attainment of liberation-in-life (jīvanmukti). However, their texts offer different conceptions of the liberated yogin. Some claim that Samādhi and liberation were essentially the same. Their teachings imply that the liberated yogin remains in Samādhi indefinitely in an ageless and deathless body. Other texts indicate that the liberated yogin can emerge from Samādhi and, according to several accounts, continue to live in the world with the power to act however he so wishes. In both cases, the yogin is promised immortality. This paper will conclude with some general observations on the history of liberation-in-life in Indian religions and how the teachings on liberation in Haṭha and Rājayoga traditions can be understood within this broader history.
Jason Birch (SOAS University of London, The Haṭha Yoga Project)
Liberation and Immortality in early Haṭha and Rājayoga traditions
Medicine and Yoga in South and Inner Asia: Body Cultivation, Therapeutic Intervention and the Sowa Rigpa Industry.
University of Vienna
1st - 3rd August, 2017
Liberation and Immortality in early Haṭha and Rājayoga traditions
The aim of this paper will be to assess the various interpretations of liberation in all the early Haṭha and Rājayoga texts, with a view to answering the question of how their teachings on liberation compare with those of other Indian religions. My preliminary research suggests that the ultimate goal of Haṭha and Rājayoga is the attainment of liberation-in-life (jīvanmukti). However, their texts offer different conceptions of the liberated yogin. Some claim that Samādhi and liberation were essentially the same. Their teachings imply that the liberated yogin remains in Samādhi indefinitely in an ageless and deathless body. Other texts indicate that the liberated yogin can emerge from Samādhi and, according to several accounts, continue to live in the world with the power to act however he so wishes. In both cases, the yogin is promised immortality. This paper will conclude with some general observations on the history of liberation-in-life in Indian religions and how the teachings on liberation in Haṭha and Rājayoga traditions can be understood within this broader history.
