Abstract
Vasiṣṭhasaṃhitā (Yogakāṇḍa) is an early yoga text, written approximately in the 13th century. It consists of eight chapters and has more than five hundred verses in which various haṭhayogic techniques are described.
It is a rather conservative, smārta-oriented work, without explicit tantric elements. Vasiṣṭhasaṃhitā is a very important source of evidence for our understanding of early haṭhayoga.
So far, however, it has been overlooked what its main topic actually is: about 40 percent of the text deal with death. The greater part of the fifth chapter describes various ways of breathing leading to the recognition of the moment of death, the sixth chapter offers means for overcoming death, the seventh chapter deals again with the prediction of the moment of death based on observing the breath, and the final eighth chapter describes various signs of death.
In my presentation, I have first analysed the seventh chapter of the Vasiṣṭhasaṃhitā. In this analysis I concentrated on its connections between breath, astronomy and death.
I disputed the editor's claim that this chapter deals only with astrology and astronomy and thus has "the least connection with the subject matter of yoga". I did argue for the opposite view, namely, that the teaching of this chapter is extremely relevant for yoga practice.
Then I have discussed the contents of the seventh chapter in a wider context of Indian religious literature. I have identified possible sources and parallel passages in other Sanskrit texts.
I have demonstrated that prognostication by breath has been an important subject in Indian religious practice since early times.