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Wellsprings
hindu-cosmosfeatured in 1 work

The Point / Vital Essence (Bindu)

The concentrated 'point' — vital essence to be conserved, and the seed-point from which a world expands.

Bindu means 'point' or 'drop,' and it carries two linked senses. In haṭha-yoga it is the vital essence the yogin strives to conserve rather than spend, since its preservation is held to sustain vitality and life itself — many of the seals and locks aim at exactly this. In tantric metaphysics it is the concentrated 'point' of energy from which the universe expands, the dimensionless seed of manifestation, paired with nāda (sound) in accounts of how the one becomes the many.

How it traveled

  1. Haṭhayoga-pradīpikā
    Kāśī (Varanasi) · 1450
    explains

Key passages(8)

Haṭhayoga-pradīpikā · Svātmārāma

Very high

Spanda-kārikā · Bhaṭṭa Kallaṭa

Very high

Haṭhayoga-pradīpikā · Svātmārāma

Very high

Vijñāna-bhairava · Anonymous (Bhairava Āgama / Tantra)

Very high

Gheraṇḍa-saṃhitā · (attributed to Gheraṇḍa)

High

Tantrasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Tantrasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Śiva-stotrāvalī · Utpaladeva

High