Soma is part of a vast cosmic symbolism in Vedic thought. For every Agni or form of the cosmic fire there is a corresponding Soma or nectar. In the human being we have access to special powers of Agni or higher perception and Soma or states of samadhi. The ultimate Soma is Ananda or the bliss of pure consciousness.
The brain itself is capable of secreting powerful chemicals that can bring about extraordinary changes in body and mind. While drugs can be used to stimulate or substitute for these, there is much in the brain’s own chemical functioning that can be improved through cultivating a higher awareness. The brain’s secretions can be influenced by special foods, herbs, impressions, breathing exercises, mantras, meditation, and the whole range of Yoga and Ayurveda practices, working through nature rather than outside of it. Cultivating the ecology of the brain is central to health and well-being for the twenty-first century and its continuing high tech developments.
What if the brain could be made to secrete a fluid that could renew, rejuvenate, and revitalize body and mind, much like the fabled elixir of immortality – promoting a higher evolution of human awareness into a unitary consciousness of Self and universe?
Ancient Vedic thought records the existence of such a substance called Soma, which is a power of bliss and deeper perception. Soma is also called rasa or the essence and Amrita or the immortal nectar. While botanical or herbal Somas did exist and are mentioned in Vedic texts, it is clear from a deep examination of the Vedic teachings, that the highest Soma with the body is an internal secretion of the brain and nervous system, brought about through Yoga practices of pranayama, mantra and meditation. It connects to yet higher Somas beyond the body and ultimately beyond the mind.
Classical Yoga and Tantric Yoga similarly speak of the amrita or nectar that arises from Yoga practice and samadhi, the yogic state of unitary awareness, which creates a flow of bliss and well-being, moving through the nadis or channels of the subtle body and nervous system, filling them with a sense of ecstasy and well-being.
In yogic thought, the thousand-petal lotus of the head – the chakra at a higher level that corresponds to the brain – is also called Soma.
Soma refers to the Moon as the light of beauty and happiness, but also to the Moon as symbolic of the light of cool, calm self-awareness. The brain is referred to symbolically as the Moon owing to the extensive fluids that it contains. Yet the physical brain is but the outer manifestation of a higher power of contemplation.
Soma and Tarpak Kapha
Today with the massive psychological malaise in our society and the limbic dysfunction in the brain, we need a new approach to changing brain chemistry. Certainly the many available designer drugs, and antidepressants in particular, can alter our moods. But they can possess significant side effects and breed dependency and addiction. Can we instead of drugs enable the brain itself to secrete the necessary chemicals that promote well-being, awaken our inner creativity and higher perception, and help us overcome our current life challenges? Certainly this should be a subject of important research and examination.
Ayurvedic medicine notes that there is a substance called Tarpak Kapha, a form of Kapha dosha or the biological water humor, which is responsible for the lubrication of the nervous system and the brain. Soma or the power of well-being and contentment is the highest secretion of Tarpak Kapha. Tarpak Kapha is related to Ojas, the Kapha essence of primary vitality that is the essence of all the seven tissues, particularly the reproductive fluid, and is the ultimate resort of strength from both nutrition and our congenital vitality.A yogic neuroscience would aim at understanding and developing the Soma of the brain and the head chakra or thousand-petal lotus. There are many tools and teachings about this in Vedic, Yogic and Tantric thought.There is no written record of the inventor of yoga.Male yoga practitioners are known as yogis, and female yoga practitioners are called yoginis. Both practiced and taught yoga long before any written account of yoga came into existence.Over the next five millennia, yogis passed the discipline down to their students, and many different schools of yoga developed as the practice expanded its global reach and popularity.
The “Yoga Sutra,” a 2,000-year-old treatise on yogic philosophy by the Indian sage Patanjali, is a guidebook on how to master the mind, control the emotions, and grow spiritually. The Yoga Sutra is the earliest written record of yoga and one of the oldest texts in existence and provides the framework for all modern yoga.Yoga is well known for its postures and poses, but they were not a key part of original yoga traditions in India. Fitness was not a primary goal. Practitioners and followers of yogic tradition focused instead on other practices, such as expanding spiritual energy using breathing methods and mental focus.
