VICTORY OVER DEATH

William R. Pinch, Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires (Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society) (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge U. Press, 2006) ("Today 'samdhi' is understood to refer to the deep meditation that is required in order to achieve union of the self, atma, with ultimate being, or adhyatma. In the premodern context . . ., however, samadhi refers to the yogi's achievement of immortality through discipline--his (and sometimes her) conquest of death." Id. at 14. "From the perspective the yogi, the key objective was victory over death. With a little work this objective can be massaged into a serviceable, and . . . even universal, definition of religion. All living creatures face the problem of death; all sentient creatures reflect, at some point, on the approach of death. Religion is to find a way through death, to cheat its temporal finality and to thereby conquer it. . . . For the yogi, the conquest of death (and by extension, the limitations of time and space) is an end in itself; it is the product of esoteric knowledge and practices, available to the select few. It is a way of self-transformation, elevation, of becoming a god."" Id. at 15. "Yogini" defined: "a ravenous, bloodthirsty female consort of Bhairava, able to confer supernormal powers to those human sexual partners skilled enough to couple with her." Id. at xi.).