udghāṭayet kapāṭaṃ tu yathā kuñcikayā haṭhāt |
kuṇḍalinyā tathā yogī mokṣadvāraṃ vibhedayet ||

Just as one might throw open the palace gates by forcibly turning the key,

So must a yogī break open the portals of mokṣa with the force / power of his (awakened) kuṇḍalinī.

Jim I think haṭhāt here is like Hindi "zor se", and kapāṭa is like kivāḍ (a baḍā, bhārī double darvāzā). It's just easier in Hindi:

जिस तरह कोई चाबी को ज़ोर से घुमाकर घर (या महल) के किवाड़ खोलता है

उसी तरह योगी अपनी कुण्डलिनी शक्ति के प्रभाव से मोक्ष के द्वार खोल पाता है

I trust you are on the very verge of what the verse describes... the kuṇḍalinī is key, so to speak.

Yours,

AV.

On Sat, May 15, 2021 at 2:50 AM Richard G. Salomon via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Or maybe the trick is to understand haṭhāt not as "force (open)," but rather in the sense of "necessarily, inevitably" (so MW). Thus the simile refers to the infallibility of the kuṇḍalinī yoga, rather than to its power.

Rich Salomon

On Fri, May 14, 2021 at 2:12 PM Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear Jim,

Perhaps try thinking of a heavy medieval lock opened by a very large metal key, requiring rather a lot of force to turn or slide, depending upon the type of lock being used. Maybe my imagination is too influenced by images of huge Tibetan locks and keys that served also as lethal weapons. Might not some old Indian locks be preserved in one or another of the palace museums?

best ever,

Matthew

Matthew Kapstein
Directeur d'études, émérite
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Chicago

From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces@list.indology.info> on behalf of James Mallinson <jm63@soas.ac.uk>
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2021 3:44 PM
To: Indology <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: [INDOLOGY] Help with a simile

Dear colleagues,

I wonder if anybody can help me understand a simile in a haṭhayoga text I’m editing, the Vivekamārtaṇḍa. Verse 34 reads:

udghāṭayet kapāṭaṃ tu yathā kuñcikayā haṭhāt |
kuṇḍalinyā tathā yogī mokṣadvāraṃ vibhedayet ||

My incomplete translation is as follows: “The yogi should use Kuṇḍalinī to break open the doorway to liberation in the same way that one might use a kuñcikā to force open a kapāṭa.” I had been translating kuñcikā as “key” and kapāṭa as “door”, but this isn’t altogether satisfactory. A key does not force a door to open. But I am unable to think of what this kuñcikā and kapāṭa might be. I am aware that a kapāṭa is usually a double door (I think of saloon doors in cowboy films) but what then is the kuñcikā? Of course it is quite possible that it is just a rather sloppy simile.

All the best,

Jim

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