Many thanks to Allen Thrasher, Johannes Schneider, Patrick Olivelle, Michael Sloubern, Jason Birch, Nivedita Rout, Gérard Huet. The understanding of chāyāpuruṣa is clearer than before and I sincerely appreciate your help. 

Best wishes. 

Mrinal Kaul 


On 2013-10-14, at 8:19 PM, Allen Thrasher wrote:

I seem to have sent this off last night without a subject, so I rebroadcast it below.  I may also add that I somehow got the impression that the chayapurusa practices the book or books described might be copied from or influenced by Western occultism.
 
Allen
 
PREVIOUS MESSAGE:
Oct 13 at 8:12 PM
I have a vague memory of seeing books, maybe both in Hindi and English, on the chayapurusa, from the popular publishers in Dariba Kalan in Delhi, that seemed to be about some form of hypnotism or creating by visualization a being that would act for one's purposes.  Unfortunately I didn't purchase any such.  The only book with the word in the title that I find on WorldCat is Rajesa Diksita, "Devī, devatā, Hanumāna, chāyāpuruṣa, evaṃ Yakṣiṇī-Bhairava siddhi ke prayoga," Dillī : Dehātī Pustaka Bhaṇḍāra, [1974].  WorldCat seems to have a new format which I haven't had time to decipher and I am not clear whether there is actually a copy of this book in any library or not.  The fact that the chayapurusa is something in or over which one may obtain siddhi makes me think that it is not just a form of divination.
 
Allen
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