Yoga: Immortality and Freedom by Mircea Eliade

mahajnana (the secrets of Yoga) that allows you to override the decree of Yama, but the king refuses to do so. When the messengers of Yama come to the palace to take the soul of her husband, Mayana murmurs about. mantra, magically transforms into the goddess Kali and hi ere his sword and defeats the message-ros. Some of their leaders, Goda-yama, is presented to Siva for advice. Taking advantage of the absence of the Mayan, who came down to the river to get water, Goda-yama "pulls" the King's life and flies away, disguised as a bee. But Mayanamati, for whom nothing goes unnoticed thanks to her gift of clarividencja yogi, we per-continues to Hell. Goda-yama reaches and hits him with an iron staff. After several episodes, Goda-yama Mayana he escapes and chases him continuously changing shape: Go-da-yama is hidden in a pile of straw, it becomes a snake, in rat6n, her cat, a dove, it takes the form of an eagle, until he succeeded in recovering the soul of her husband. Beside the "motives" folk, are widespread (the magic persecution ") these legends explode. Shamanic clearly issues: the descent into hell, the rapture of the soul to the devil of death and its recovery by the shaman, etc..

Also other epic poems of the same sky insist on the initiation of Mayanamati. Seeing her, if only she was a child, Gorakhnath was thrilled to think that a j oven so beautiful and chaste could die, like other human beings, and Yoga initio, that the immortal around.

After the initiation ceremonies, Gorakhnath proclaimed: "Tor written contract, Death has undertaken not to extend his mantle Mayari" Gorakh-nath stated that she could not die either because of fire or water, or pierced by a gun, etc.. In fact, when later, the sati practice Mayanamati for her husband dead and ascended to the fire, the fire could not reach it. On another occasion, his own son, Gopi-candra, at the request of their wives, subjected to terrible tortures, without result. Note that all these tests have initiatory character, mainly of shamanic initiation: Mayanamati is thrown into the fire, but even her dress is touched by the smoke thrown into the river, enclosed in a bag, but the goddess Ganga receives its arms like a child; Mayana crosses a bridge made with hair and walks on the edge of a na-vaja for seven days and seven nights of cooking in a pot containing boiling oil; Mayana crosses all the rivers in a boat made with husk of wheat, etc.. (GopiCandre Pamcali, candra-gtta Govinda, Gopi-Candre-Gan, summarized by Dasgupta, P. 259). She herself declares her son: "Through the mystical knowledge, one becomes immortal, and the river of life retraces road to immortality (as opposed to its natural course toward death and decay) exactly like the waves of reflux. Through the grace of Gorakhnath I am deathless, I can stay in the empty 14 yuga yuga in water 13, into the fire 12 years. When the universe was tottering and finally disintegrates, when there was only water when the Sun and Moon are made forever and whole Creation is destroyed, I will continue to float, not ten-dre death "(candra-Gita Govinda, cited by Dasgupta, p. 260) Only the greatest gods-a Brahma, a Narayana-te-nest had so far with the courage to proclaim that his emphasis tructible indes durability through cosmic cycles. We calcu-late the thirst of immortality which flows from these epics and to understand the extraordinary echo obtained at all levels of Indian society.

Another disciple of Gorakhnath, Hadi-siddha-which we have already cited some achievements of fakirs (p. 298) - is also known as the conqueror of Death. Finding Yama or one of its servers, hitting eight hours straight. Hadi-siddha is precisely the one chosen

by Mayana as guru for your child. She knows that once the young Gopi-candra, she no longer has her son, and he laments that nobody in the world and call her "ma-dre," but the desire to turn his offspring is immortal stronger than maternal love, and tries to convince