# The True Source of Power **1) A good part of the third chapter of the Yoga Sutra is devoted to both worldly and divine forms of power.  Master Patanjali is sure to identify the true source of all these powers.  Name this source, then list and briefly describe all of its different parts, along with the Sanskrit name for each of the parts.** Master Patanjali says that “The powers are to be found in love and the rest.”  He is referring here to the some of the highest karmic seeds that we can collect: the four infinite thoughts that were introduced in the first chapter.  These are kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Infinite kindness (maitri  mEÇI in the Sanskrit) is the desire to bring all living beings happiness.  Infinite compassion (karuna kéa) is the desire that every other being be free of all forms of pain.  Infinite joy (mudita muidt) is the decision to bring all living beings to the highest forms of happiness: to the freedom from all negative thoughts (nirvana) and to the state of an enlightened angel who can help all beings.  Infinite equanimity (upeksha %pe) is the decision to help everybody  this way—not just our friends or family. The karma of thinking these thoughts is the source of all worldly and enlightened power because of two factors.  We are wishing for the highest of all things, and we are wishing them upon an infinite number of living beings.  The karma can thus create an enlightened paradise which never ends. **2) Name three of the powers of the War-Elephant; explain what a War-Elephant is doing in the Yoga Sutra; and give the Sanskrit for War-Elephant, along with related English words.** The expression “War-Elephant” here refers to an enlightened being: someone of extraordinary power.  This is a reference to the elephants which were used in battle by the kings of India—their most powerful weapon, something that could simply crush and entire battalion of enemy footsoldiers, in the way a tank could do the same to a man on foot nowadays. Three of the powers of an enlightened being here would be ultimate compassion; a knowledge of all things; and the ability to show ourselves anywhere in the universe, any time, to help others. The Sanskrit word for War-Elephant here is hastin.  This word is composed of two parts, hasta and in.  The in  means to possess, and hasta means a hand.  Together they mean someone who has a hand, or someone who is skilled with their hands, and this refers to the dexterity of the trunk of an elephant, the trunk which they reach forward like an arm. The ancient Indo-European root for hasta is ghes.  This root is found as ger in the word surgery.  A variation is the Sanskrit root √ghir  "& , which means to hold.  Related English words are grab and grasp. **3) Master Patanjali says that “If you turn the combined effort upon the sun, you will understand the earth.”  Explain briefly what the word “sun” here refers to, giving the relevant Sanskrit word; its ancient Indo-European root; and some related English words.** The word “sun” here refers to the channel of the sun: the inner channel which runs down the side of our spine, to our right of it.  The Sanskrit word for “sun” here is surya sUyR, which comes from an old Indo-European root √sahwel.  English words from this same root are sun, solar, and helium. **4) Remind us what the “combined effort” is, and what it would mean to “turn this effort upon the sun.”** The “combined effort” here is the combination of the last three limbs of the yogic path: meditative focus, fixation, and then “perfect” meditation—which refers to understanding the emptiness of the object of meditation. Turning this effort upon the channel of the sun would refer to understanding it perfectly: understanding how it is actually a projection of the karmic seeds within our own minds.  This in itself would cause a change in the flow of thought-winds within this very channel, preparing us for the direct perception of emptiness and the transformation of the body into light. If by the way we were also maintaining a regular practice of yoga asanas, this outside work would facilitate the task of improving the kinds of thought-winds running through the channel of the sun. **5) Describe the location and physical appearance of the channel of the sun; relate this to its most common Sanskrit name in later classical yoga texts; and give a related English word.** The channel of the sun runs down close to the spine, to our right of it, stretching from the side of our nostril under the skull up to the tip of the head, and then curving back down until it reaches the tip of the sexual organ. The color of the channel of the sun is said to be an opaque or “flat,” dark red color, since a preponderance of the “red element” passes through it.  This element has a gross physical counterpart, the menstrual blood. The Sanskrit name used most often in the later classical yoga texts for the channel of the sun is pingala ip<gl, which literally means a rusty, reddish color.  A related English word is pink. **6) Why do the Tibetans refer to the channels of the sun and the moon as tri-shing, or “ivy”?** At a number of points, the channels of the sun and moon twist like shoots of ivy around the central channel: between the eyebrows; at the tip of the head; at the tip of the spine at the lower neck; at the spine behind the heart; at the spine behind the navel; at the lower spine, and perineum, and the sexual organ.  The twist at the heart is a triple twist.  The locations of these twists are also the locations of the chakras, which we’ll talk more about in a later class. **7) Explain how the channel of the sun relates to the word hatha, and to the idea of hatha yoga.** The Sanskrit word hatha hQ comes from two parts, ha and tha.  The word ha here refers to the sun (note the h in the old Indo-European root we had before).  Tha refers to a disk or planet shape, but more specifically to the moon.  The “sun” here is the channel of the sun, and the “moon” the channel of the moon.  When we talk about hatha yoga, we are referring to practices which join (the basic meaning of the word yoga) the channels of the sun and the moon, in the sense of drying up or squeezing out the prana which runs in them, bringing this energy into the central channel—which then triggers the body of light and the ability to serve all living beings at the same moment. **8) What are the emotions (not the view of the world; we’ll get to that later) which run upon the winds in the channel of the sun?** Tied to the winds that flow in the sun channel travel our “hot” negative thoughts: anger, hatred, jealousy; all based on disliking objects, events, and people because we fail to understand how we ourselves have produced them. **9) At a certain point in the body, the channels of the sun and moon join the central channel, like pieces of plumbing.  This connecting point is compared to a famed place at Allahabad, India, and to a significant recent event.  Explain why, then give the location of this juncture in the body, also reviewing the Sanskrit name for the point and related English words.** The place in the body where the three principal channels meet is compared to the Triveni, a place at Allahabad, India, where the three sacred rivers of the Yamuna, Ganges, and Sarasvati are said to flow together.  The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (III.51) says that the Yamuna River relates to the channel of the sun; the Ganges relates to the channel of the moon; and the Sarasvati, which is traditionally said to run underground, relates to the central channel. The goddess of the Yamuna River is by tradition said to be the daughter of the God of the Sun, Surya, and the twin sister of Yama, the Lord of Death.  Bathing in the place where the three rivers convene is said to be a sacred act; to “bathe” in the event of the side channels collapsing into the central channel creates an Angel’s body of light. A major earthquake which occurred in Gujarat, India, on January 26, 2001, is thought to have raised the “missing” Sarasvati River.  This could correctly be interpreted as a shifting of the central channel in every person who is interested in this event, because the same seeds create both the channels and the world around us.  This is reflected in names of yoga practices, such as Uddiyana and Jalandhara Bandhas, where the name of a sacred place in the outer world is connected to a location within the body. The juncture of these three major pipes in the body is usually placed just below the navel chakra.  It is through this point that the inner wind or prana moves out of the side channels and into the central channel.  Here too is where the side channels will eventually melt down into the central. The Sanskrit word triveni iÇvei has two parts, tri and veni.  Tri  means three, and is found in the Engish words three and tricycle.  Veni means a braid of hair, from the more basic meaning of a coming or flowing together.  Ultimate it derives from the Sanskrit root √gam gm!  meaning to go, by way of an old Indo-European root √gwa.  From the gwa root comes wa and then ve, which appears in the English convention and venue (a place where people come together, as the three rivers flow together). **10) What does it mean to “understand the earth”?** Another name for the channel of the sun is “the channel of what is held.”  Our misunderstanding of the objects around us (as opposed to our misunderstanding of the subject states of mind that hold to these objects) runs through this channel.  If we can still the winds of this channel, then we gain an understanding of the external world: the earth. **11) List three different areas of the onion skin from which we might bring about changes in the channel of the sun.** On a purely physical level, we can facilitate a healthy flow of prana out of the channel of the sun by doing yoga asanas which stretch this channel out: something for example like the Western Stretch (Paschimotta) exercise, or seated forward bend. In fact, this particular asana is praised in the classic yoga text Light on the Yoga of the Sun and Moon (Hatha Yoga Pradipika) as releasing the prana in the channels that run along the spine.  A gentle seated spinal twist (matsyendra asana) to the left would have an especially beneficial effect on the channel of the sun, which again runs down the right. Gentle pranayama, in the form of exhaling and inhaling through alternate nostrils, would also clear this channel. Finally, we could simply work from the inside, by doing the practice of giving and taking, again using alternate nostrils.