mahavrata
महाव्रत mahāvrataThe great vow: Patanjali's term for the yamas, binding in every circumstance regardless of birth, place, time or condition.
Where this term appears
- The Aghorīs Lineages
The defining observance was the Mahāvrata , the "Great Vow," and its charter was a myth about Shiva himself.
- Who is Bhairava? Deities
The tradition calls this the mahāvrata , the great vow, and it maps onto a real ascetic discipline that the historical record knows well.
- The Yamas and Niyamas Yoga
In the very next aphorism he calls them a mahavrata , a great vow, binding regardless of birth, place, time or circumstance.
- The two seats: how the tantric canon was actually organised Lineages
The Bhairava Tantras carry a Kāpālika background, and Sanderson describes their basic ascetic form as "that of the skull (kapālavrata/mahāvrata)" (1988, p.