Tom Billinge > Quotes

“The term krátu, which is also related to tapas, is used in the Vedas to mean many things: victorious force, heroic strength and ardour, courage, delight in battle, power, strength, majesty, and intelligence. It essentially translates to “energy of the ardent warrior” and is used with regard to Indra in particular, the god who forced his way to heaven through tapas.”
― Tom Billinge, WarYoga

“Sweat is rasa; while it cannot be transformed in the way that other bodily fluids can, it is the outward sign of transformation. Sweating is the first stage of creating the yogic body and allows the yogin to act like Prajāpati, purging the old body to create a new one. It is the result of tapas. The Vedic sacrificer also sweats to shed his old body in order to create a sacrificial body worthy of making the sacrifice. In Āyurveda, the kuṭī-praveśa treatment induces sweat in order to rejuvenate the body.”
― Tom Billinge, WarYoga

“Everyone else is conquered by the body, but the body is conquered by yogīs, so they are not subject to the fruits of their actions, such as pain, pleasure, and the like. “When the yogī has conquered the senses, mind, intellect, desire, anger, and so forth, he has conquered everything. Nothing can trouble him. After the gross and other elements have risen in series, the body composed of its seven constituents is slowly burned by the fire of yoga.”
― Tom Billinge, WarYoga

“…He is the darling of four-eyed vixens, slender-waisted with a compact, rock-hard body, as inflamed as a rutting bull elephant, as alluring as Love himself. The beau of lustful women, his body is a bolt of lightning amidst the storm clouds of his curling jet-black hair. As immaculate as the chaplain of the gods, he is an alchemical wizard and wonder-worker.”
― Tom Billinge, WarYoga

“Sacrifice is not merely doing sacred things on particular occasions. Sanctifying whatever is done, the WarYogin sacrifices all he is. He is no longer the devayājin who sacrifices to the gods as their inferior, but the ātmayājin: one who sacrifices by himself, within himself, to himself.”
― Tom Billinge, WarYoga

“Essentially, he mobilises the body in order to immobilise the mind. As the body becomes active, the mind stills. This is the premise of haṭha yoga, which translates literally to “violent yoga.” Haṭha yogins build the body over time to become a man-god, an ancient Indo-Āryan concept.”
― Tom Billinge, WarYoga

“In the R̥gVeda, the tapasvin and the yogin are assimilated – they are one and the same. Ascetic effort through the action of yoga generates the transformative and creative inner heat of tapas. The R̥gVeda also states that Indra “having glowed with Fervour, won heavenly light” (R̥gVeda 10.167.1): he forced his way to immortality through tapas.”
― Tom Billinge, WarYoga