Secondary centre

Bindu visarga

Bindu visarga · बिन्दु विसर्ग

A point at the back of the head, high on the occiput, marked in practice by the tuft of hair Brahmin men traditionally keep there. Bindu means drop and visarga means falling: the place where the nectar of the hatha texts is said to originate.

drop nectar moon occiput
Location
Back of the head, at the occipital tuft
Petals
None; described as a point
Associated with
The moon and amrita, the nectar
Consumed by
The fire at the navel
Sources
Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Gheranda Samhita

The drop and its fall

The hatha texts describe a nectar, amrita, that collects at bindu and drips downward continuously. On the way it passes lalana at the soft palate and reaches the fire at the navel, which burns it. That consumption is the reason the texts give for ageing.

Whatever one makes of the physiology, the model organises a whole family of practices. Anything that inverts the body, closes the palate or holds the chin down is described as slowing the fall.

Why the tuft

The shikha, the tuft of hair left unshaved at the back of the head in Brahmin practice, marks this point. Texts on the subtle body treat the placement as deliberate rather than customary, a physical marker for a location that is otherwise hard to find by feel.

Bindu also appears in mantra theory as the dot above a Sanskrit letter that nasalises it. The same word, and not by accident: a point where sound condenses before it disperses.

In practice

Bindu is rarely a target of concentration on its own. It appears as the origin point in nectar practices and in nada work, where the inner sound is sometimes located here rather than in the chest. Practitioners are usually pointed to it by way of an inversion or a chin lock rather than by visualisation.

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