Chāyā Puruṣa
Chāyā Puruṣa means “the shadow-person”. It is a practice of studying one’s own shadow, used both to read one’s condition and as a spiritual practice. It is taught in the Umā Saṃhitā of the Śiva Purāṇa. There, Śiva teaches Pārvatī that the shadow is not only a physical thing. It reflects a person’s karma and spiritual state. It can show whether dharma, pāpa (wrongdoing), bondage or enmity is present in one’s life, and it can even foretell death.
When this study of the shadow is joined with the Navātmaka Mantra and meditation on Śiva, it becomes a path to liberation from even the gravest pāpa.
The Setting of the Teaching
The Chāyā Puruṣa chapter (Chapter 28 of the Umā Saṃhitā) is part of a longer dialogue. Pārvatī asks Śiva about the chāyā (shadow) as a spiritual sign. She mentions that Śiva had touched on it briefly while teaching about yoga, and asks him to explain it fully for the benefit of yogīs.
How to Examine the Shadow
Śiva teaches:
- Sit with the sun or the moon behind you, so that your shadow falls in front of you.
- Wear white clothes and garlands, and put on fragrances and anulepana (fragrant ointments).
- Have dhūpa (incense) burning nearby.
- Chant the Navātmaka Mahāmantra, Śiva’s nine-syllable mantra, 108 times.
- Look carefully at your shadow. Then look up at the sky and see whether your shadow appears there as a white, shining form.
- If you can see Śiva in this way, through your own shadow, you will attain mokṣa (liberation). You will be freed even from brahmahatyā (killing a brāhmaṇa, the gravest of pāpas), without any doubt.
The Colours of the Shadow
Śiva explains what each colour of the shadow means:
| Colour of the shadow | What it shows |
|---|---|
| White | Dharma: the person is living rightly |
| Black | Pāpa: wrongdoing is present |
| Red | Bandha: bondage and entanglement |
| Green | Vidveṣa: enmity and hostility in the person’s life |
Missing Limbs in the Shadow
The shape of the shadow, and especially which limbs seem to be missing, gives more information:
| What is missing | What it shows |
|---|---|
| No hands in the shadow | Loss of relatives (bandhu-nāśa) |
| No mouth in the shadow | Danger of hunger |
| No back in the shadow | Loss of one’s spouse |
| No calves in the shadow | Loss of wealth |
| No feet in the shadow | Exile from one’s land, or loss of property |
The worst sign of all is a shadow without a head, or no shadow at all. This shows death within one month. The person’s power of speech (vāk-rūpā śakti) will also be lost within six months.
The Spiritual Fruits
Śiva stresses that the Chāyā Puruṣa practice does not only foretell things; it also transforms the one who practises it:
“The wise person who examines the shadow carefully, fixes the mind on the ātman, and then chants the Navātmaka Mantra of my heart, for one year, will achieve nothing less than the eight siddhis: aṇimā and the rest, including the power of movement through space (khecaratva).”
One year of devoted practice of this shadow-meditation with mantra-japa (repetition of the mantra) brings:
- Aṇimā, the power to become extremely small
- the other seven classical siddhis (yogic powers)
- ākāśa-gamana, the power to move through space
The Bindumālinī Vidyā
At the end of the Chāyā Puruṣa chapter, Śiva teaches a related and even more hidden practice. He calls it the Bindumālinī Vidyā, also known as the Khecarī Vidyā. He describes it like this:
- It is a form that is present in all living beings, yet it cannot be seen.
- It is unmoving and eternal; it is manifest and unmanifest at the same time, with colour and without colour.
- Only jñānīs (those who truly know) can reach it: “to the wise it is like an āmalaka fruit in the palm of the hand”.
- Its symbol is a coiled serpent-form, which is drawn in a way not described in other texts.
- It is the greatest vidyā (sacred knowledge) in all the worlds, praised forever by the Vedas, “the mother of all vidyās”, and the highest guhya-vidyā (secret knowledge).
- A yogī who sees it at all times becomes kṛtārtha, one who has fulfilled life’s purpose.
- The merit of seeing it equals bathing in all the tīrthas (holy places), giving every kind of dāna (gift) and performing every yajña.
Śiva concludes:
“Therefore, the intelligent person must practise yoga and this jñāna together. Through abhyāsa (continuous practice) alone siddhi comes. Through abhyāsa yoga flourishes. Through abhyāsa samyak-darśana (correct vision) arises. Through abhyāsa mokṣa is attained. Therefore the wise person should engage in abhyāsa at all times.”
Link with Kāla-jñāna
The Chāyā Puruṣa chapter follows the Kāla-jñāna chapter (Chapter 25), which teaches the signs of approaching death. Both belong to a group of teachings on reading the body and its surroundings as signs of one’s spiritual state and of coming death. Kāla-jñāna mainly foretells death and so inspires vairāgya (detachment). Chāyā Puruṣa adds the power to transform: the same shadow that warns of danger can, through mantra and meditation, become the way to liberation.
Sources
- Śiva Purāṇa, Umā Saṃhitā (Book 5), Chapter 28