YS 217 | The Gorakṣaśataka: Hundred Verses of Gorakhnāth
May 6 - June 13, 2025 (6 weeks)
ENROLLMENT OPTIONSCourse Description
The Gorakṣaśataka is a Sanskrit text in a hundred verses that was written around 1200 CE, probably somewhere in the Deccan region of India. As its name indicates, its teachings are attributed to the famous yogi Goraḳsa. It was written by an unnamed yogi who says he has experienced its rewards himself. Those rewards are liberation and siddhi, which are achieved through the conquest of the mind.
The text’s yogic method is, compared to other texts on physical yoga, unusually clear and systematic. The mind is to be conquered through conquering the breath, and the breath is to be conquered through diet, posture and making Kuṇḍalinī move. The latter is achieved through various esoteric methods, including new complex methods of breath control and manipulation of the tongue. Kuṇḍalinī then rises through the central channel, pierces three knots and goes to dissolution in the embrace of Śiva in the head. This is the first textual teaching of the raising of Kuṇḍalinī.
The text has not been published. Dr. Mallinson has been working on it since he was given a copy of a manuscript of it c. 1997 by the late Dr. Christian Bouy. He has acquired only three more manuscripts of it in the intervening years, and one of them only came his way a few weeks ago and has helped clear up several problems. In this course we shall read through his working edition and translation of the text, which Dr. Mallinson shall then finalize for publication by the end of the year.
Course Structure
- Each Weekly Module includes: 1 live class, readings, and a quiz.
- Live Class Sessions (90 min)
- Tuesdays @ 10:00-11:30am Pacific Time
- All live sessions will take place via Zoom and will be recorded for later viewing.
Students Will Receive:
- 6 Live class sessions (90 min each)
- 5 YS Credits
- 9 Hours of CE credit with YA
- Course Syllabus (PDF)
- Sanskrit-English translation of the text (PDF)
- 6 Multiple-choice quizzes
- Yogic Studies Certificate (PDF)
- Access to the private Community Forum
Dr. James Mallinson
Boden Professor of Sanskrit and Professorial Fellow, University of Oxford
Dr. Mallinson is the Boden Professor of Sanskrit and Professorial Fellow, University of Oxford. His research focuses on the history and current traditional practice of yoga and his primary methods are philology, ethnography and art history. Dr. Mallinson led the Haṭha Yoga Project (2015–2021), a six-person research project on the history of physical yoga funded by the European Research Council. The project’s core outputs are ten critical editions of Sanskrit texts on physical yoga and four monographs on its history and current practice. Together with Professor Jürgen Hanneder (University of Marburg), Dr Mallinson is now leading the Light on Hatha Yoga Project (2021–2024) which will produce a critical edition of the Haṭhapradīpikā.
Among Dr. Mallinson’s publications are The Khecarīvidyā of Ādinātha, a Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of an Early Text on Haṭhayoga (Routledge, 2007), a revision of his doctoral thesis, which was supervised by Professor Alexis Sanderson at the University of Oxford, where Dr. Mallinson also read Sanskrit as an undergraduate, Roots of Yoga (Penguin Classics, 2017, co-authored with Mark Singleton) and The Amṛtasiddhi and Amṛtasiddhimūla: The Earliest Texts of the Haṭhayoga Tradition (École française d’Extreme-orient, Pondicherry, 2021).
Dr. Mallinson has spent more than ten years living in India with traditional ascetics and practitioners of yoga, and at the 2013 Kumbh Mela was awarded the title of Mahant by the Rāmānandī Saṃpradāya.
This course is eligible for 9 hours of Continued Education (CE) credits with Yoga Alliance
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