The Yoga Upaniṣads

योग उपनिषद्

Also written: yoga upanishads · yoga kundalini upanishad · nadabindu · hamsa upanishad · advaya taraka

Within the 108 Upaniṣads of the Muktikā list, twenty are classed as Yoga Upaniṣads. They are the bridge between the Upaniṣadic enquiry into the Self and the practical anatomy of the haṭha and tantra traditions — where the principal Upaniṣads ask what the Self is, these describe the instrument through which it is approached.

The twenty Yoga Upaniṣads
Upaniṣad	Principal subject
Advaya Tāraka	The tāraka and amanaska stages; inner light and the crossing beyond mind
Amṛtabindu	The mind as the cause of bondage and liberation; the two forms of mind
Amṛtanāda	The six-limbed yoga; withdrawal of the senses; the syllable Om
Kṣurikā	'The razor' — cutting the knots of the subtle channels by concentration
Tejobindu	Fifteen-limbed yoga; the nature of the witness
Trisikhibrāhmaṇa	Body, prāṇa, karma and jñāna yoga integrated
Darśana	The nāḍīs, the cakras and the eight limbs, taught by Dattātreya
Dhyānabindu	Meditation on the bindu; the seat of the heart; the syllable
Nādabindu	Nāda — the inner sound and its stages, from thunder to the fine note of the flute
Pāśupatabrahma	The haṁsa breath and the identity of the individual and the supreme
Brahmavidyā	The three mātrās of Om and the liberation of the knot of the heart
Maṇḍalabrāhmaṇa	The inner and outer targets of gaze; the five spaces; the fourfold body
Mahāvākya	The great sentences applied as meditation
Yogakuṇḍalinī	Kuṇḍalinī, the three bandhas, khecarī mudrā, and the raising of the śakti
Yogacūḍāmaṇi	The six cakras, sixteen ādhāras, the nāḍīs and the haṁsa mantra
Yogatattva	The four yogas — mantra, laya, haṭha, rāja — and their relation
Yogaśikhā	The union of prāṇa and apāna; the fire at the base; the highest yoga
Varāha	The nāḍīs, the kośas, and jīvanmukti
Śāṇḍilya	The eight limbs treated at length, with the ten yamas and ten niyamas
Haṁsa	The haṁsa — the breath as so'ham — and the ten inner sounds

The haṁsa — the breath that says itself

Several of these texts turn on one observation: the breath is already reciting a mantra. The inhalation carries the sound sa, the exhalation the sound ha — haṁsa. Reversed and read continuously it is so'ham, 'I am That'. It is called ajapā-japa, the recitation that is not recited, and the tradition counts it as occurring 21,600 times in a day.

The Yoga Upaniṣads

The haṁsa — the breath that says itself

The sources of knowledge in Sanātana Dharma

Śruti — that which was heard

Smṛti — that which was remembered

Nigama and Āgama — the two revealed streams

The four Vedas

Ṛgveda