Vajroli Mudra

Yogic practice attributed to Nathpanthi
ascetics, as part of their effort to attain
physical immortality through the practice of hatha yoga. The dominant
metaphor used in describing the
process of gaining immortality in this
manner is the union of sun and moon,
in which the sun stands for the
processes of change and destruction,
and the moon for stability and immortality. In some cases this union was
described in very abstract terms, as a
process in the subtle body, at other
times in the most concrete possible
fashion, for which the best example is
vajroli mudra. This is urethral suction
or the “fountain-pen technique,” in
which a man, having ejaculated into
his female partner, draws his semen,
now refined through contact with the
woman’s uterine blood, back into his
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Vaitarani
body, along with a certain amount of
his partner’s blood. Despite some commentators’ discomfort and denials
(characteristic of most references to
sexual activity as part of Hindu spiritual practice), vajroli mudra is consistently named as one of the Nathpanthi
practices. For further information see
George W. Briggs, Gorakhnath and the
Kanphata Yogis, 1982.