Pituitary

The pituitary is a pea sized gland tucked into a bony saddle at the base of the skull, directly beneath the brain, and it is often called the master gland because its hormones direct nearly every other gland in the endocrine system. It is not one organ but two fused into a single structure with two separate origins. The anterior lobe develops from tissue that folds up from the roof of the mouth and manufactures growth hormone along with the trophic hormones that in turn instruct the adrenal, thyroid and reproductive glands what to do. The posterior lobe develops instead as a direct downward extension of the brain itself and simply releases hormones the hypothalamus above it has already made. That double origin, oral tissue fused to brain tissue, is why one small gland can sit at the top of the whole hormonal chain of command while itself taking orders from the brain immediately above it.

Hatha yoga's subtle body places a different kind of authority at the same spot. In Swami Satyananda Saraswati's synthesis in Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha, the pituitary correspondence sits with Ajna, the Third Eye chakra at the brow, the center the tradition reads as intuition, insight and a form of inner vision beyond the ordinary senses. The gland's role directing the body's other glands and the tradition's reading of the brow as a seat of inner perception are two separate claims about the same small structure, offered here side by side.