References: The Science of Yoga[YS], I K Taimni
Patanjali’s Metaphysical Schematic[PMS], Ian Whicher
Cognitive Samadhi in the Yoga Sutras[CS], Ian Whicher
An Introduction to Yoga, Dr. Annie Besant
A View on Meditation by unknown author [VM]
This compilation consists of two parts, the first is on meditation and the second a brief technical study on yoga.
1. One eternal infinite unrecognizable real Existence.
2. From THAT the manifested God, unfolding from unity to duality, from duality to trinity.
3. From the manifested trinity, many spiritual intelligences guiding the cosmic order.
4. Man a reflection of the manifested God and therefore a trinity fundamentally, his inner and real self, being eternal, one the Self of the universe.
5. His evolution by repeated incarnations, into which he is drawn by desire, and from which he is set free by knowledge and sacrifice becoming divine in potency as he had been in latency.
Explanation of the two diagrams above:
The first diagram is presented to show the relationship of man to the manifested God, Solar Logos or universe. Man is a reflection of that manifested God and during his early stage of manifestation is drawn by desire but later freed by knowledge and sacrifice. This is true over innumerable period of incarnations and the washing out of karmic debts in the process. Like the Solar Logos, man is a trinity containing within himself the seed and the reflection of the Purusa, learning while imprisoned in the world of matter or prakrti, and possessing a mind which he uses for learning and emancipation from the world of matter and eventually reaching freedom and attainment of a perfect human being.
The second diagram shows the training needed to reach human perfection. There is that external training in the beginning to develop high ethical and moral qualities and values, discipline and the control of the lower vehicles. Next, the internal training designed to help the ceasing of the modification of the mind so as to reflect in the mind the full purity, splendour, and beauty of the Purusa.
PART – I MEDITATION
WHAT IS MEDITATION
Meditation is a state of mind beyond thought
It is state of being. A state which is relaxed yet keenly attentive
It is a path to God, to the ultimate Truth.
It is the state of expanded awareness of the Oneness of all life, of the reality of the inner worlds, for there are worlds within worlds.
Meditation is not a mere intellectual exercise; it is the transcending of and going beyond the intellect.
PURPOSE OF MEDITATION
To become aware and fully conscious of one’s own true spiritual Self and its unity with the Universal Life.
To realize the purpose of life and see through the veil of illusion which is all around us. This state has been called: Illumination, Samadhi, Nirvana, Cosmic consciousness. When you reach this state, you become free from all sorrows, and it is forever, for time does not exist there.
You will know the difference when you experience it. But even before that, you can judge it by its fruit. If a foolish man goes through any other experience, he remains a foolish man. But when a foolish man experiences this highest state of illumination, he comes back a sage. You will never know anything about meditation unless you experience it yourself. The higher states of mind cannot be described in words. You must sit and meditate, and see for yourself.
PREPARATION FOR MEDITATION (VM, p.3-4)
1. Posture: Sit in an easy and comfortable position so that your body does not keep attracting your attention, keeping the spine straight. If you can sit on the floor in a cross-legged position such as the lotus pose (padmasana) or the ‘perfect’ posture (siddhasana), do so, because there are some advantages, but not if you feel pain in the knees or ankles, as this would defeat your purpose, which is to be able to forget your body. Make it a rule to sit every day at the same time and in the same place in order to make the power of habit work for you instead of against you.
2. Relaxation and Breathing: At the start of each session take a few deep breaths; with every slow exhalation, visualize all the tension leaving the body. Mentally command each part of the body to relax. Then let your breathing settle down to a normal gentle rhythm a little slower and deeper than usual.
3. Mental relaxation [Becoming quiet]: Relax inwardly. Imagine yourself sinking or floating weightless, and sink or float into a totally different world, a world where you can let go of all excitement, rush, anxiety and troubles. Let this be your own secret hiding place inside your self, an imaginary scene of whose existence only you know, and where you can feel safe.
PREREQUISITES FOR TRAINING
A total discipline of one’s whole being, even though meditation is done through the mind, the physical body must not be neglected. If the body suffers, concentration is difficult. To be healthy, it should be well kept, like a good horse. It is our friend. It should be kept clean, well nourished with pure food, and given plenty of exercise.
One’s conscience, mind and emotion must be at peace. If one is psychologically disturbed, concentration will be impossible. Because of this, one must cultivate the virtues of non-violence, [not harming any living creature], truthfulness, non-possessiveness, contentment, purity, discipline, and study, surrendering the fruits of one’s action to the Lord. These and other virtues constitute the basis of spiritual life. In yoga, this is called yama and niyama. Without these no higher steps on the spiritual path are possible.
IRREGULAR MEDITATION IS FRUITLESS
A man may meditate irregularly for years, taking up and dropping the practice from time to time, and at the end he will find himself where he was at the beginning; he is like a soldier marking time, moving his feet but not advancing. Five minutes of meditation every day brings about more definite results than an hour on one day followed by a day without meditation, an hour for two or three days successively and then an interval of idleness, and so on.
The reason for the failure of irregular meditation to produce results is plain. Suppose a good thought has shaken and loosened some undesirable matter in the mental body: Its repetition, continuing the process would presently shake that matter quite out of the mental body and would draw into the vacant space thus made, matter from the exterior of a desirable kind. The still-continued repetition would firmly weld this newly introduced matter into its place. But if after the first loosening, the thought is not repeated, the loosened matter settles back into its old place and re-tightened its connecting links with its surroundings; and after some day, the thought is at least repeated it merely repeats its former loosening action and so on and on, the seesaw process continues.
STUDENT DIFFICULTY
The difficulty of the student who sits in meditation increases rather than diminishes. The attempt to steady his mind and to fix it on one topic seems to be the signal to a crowd of thoughts to throng into his mind and make it their playground or their battlefield. Arjuna cried out to his Guru, Krishna, five thousands years ago the difficulty of controlling the mind:
“Manas is very restless. O Krishna, it is impetuous, strong, and difficult to bend; I deem it as hard to curb as the wind.” And still the answer, the only answer, comes to the uneasy pupil from the teacher: Without doubt, O mighty armed, Manas is hard to curb and restless; but it may be curbed by constant practice and dispassion.” Yoga is hard to attain by a self that is uncontrolled; but by the self-controlled it is attainable by properly directed energy.
SOME HELPFUL HINTS IN MEDITATION
In Krishnamurti’s language, while we remain in the field of worldliness (the domain of the impure, personal mind or the lower mind), there is no freedom. We can improve ourselves a bit and say “I have moved from the center of the field nearer to the boundary”, but there is still a boundary. Freedom lies only outside this field of activity. Therefore, the Yoga teaching does not advise anything other than stillness of mind.
A teaching attributed to the Buddha has suggested the following to still the mind:
Focus and center your attention to the breath; watch breath in and out
Be aware of impurities of your vehicles of consciousness
Dwell on ‘loving kindness’
Meditate on the cause and condition of manifestation
Meditate on the one beyond manifestation
Meditation is just the opposite of going to sleep. Sleep, mind-wandering, day-dreaming, and disorder are all absent in meditation.
In a new adaptation of Annie Besant’s classic work, Thought Power, John Algeo and Shirley Nicholson wrote:*
1. The first step in learning to concentrate is to sit quietly. Concentrate on the breath as it goes in and out of the nostrils. Do not control your breath but just be aware of it.
2. Experiment with various objects of concentration. What you concentrate on is less important than the act of concentration, so discover what is most effective for you.
3. If you discover that your attention has wandered off, retrace the steps to find your way back to the point of concentration. Or it may be helpful to follow a consecutive line of thought with clear stages and steps. The important thing is to work at sustaining a one-pointed focus. For that, it may be best to just break off any wandering thought and bring the mind gently back to the chosen object.
*From Peace Ideas, No. 40, page 2.
In The Voice of the Silence, it is said, “that which is uncreated abides in thee”; it is hidden deep within us. “If thou wouldst reach it and blend the two, thou must divest thyself of thy dark garments of illusion.” We must discover it, without it becoming another ambitious activity, by realizing that the mind shackled to desire and subject to contradiction, is the source of misery.
To free ourselves from the effects of the past requires insight, understanding, courage and detachment. C. Jinarajadasa suggested that we should meditate on the subject and then let silence do its work, for mysteries are best contemplated in silence. We can recreate ourselves and our environment by re-doing in a new way. This involves conquest of old thoughts, ideas and habits, a joyous creative activity. By chiseling away our personality we become true artists of life.
Radha Burnier wrote: “Mental activity, supposedly in the name of God, is no more beneficial than any other activity. A god projected by this mind may even inspire such cruel activities as slaughtering men in war or sacrificing animals in temples. God cannot be thought about; what is thought about is not God. She said, ‘Only when there is a heart that is not enclosed within a boundary, only if there is love in the spiritual sense, one may begin to know God, in the profound silence within’. There is no word to indicate, no thought to convey what it is; and therefore Patanjali advises only internal silence, not any activity of the mind. ‘In that silence there may be a difference movement, but not the movement of thought’ is what Krishnamurti says.”
DIFFICULTIES IN MEDITATION AND OTHER EXPERIENCES (VM, p. 5-13)
1. “I cannot meditate, all kinds of other thoughts keep coming into my mind when I try to concentrate on only one thing.” “Do not be discouraged so quickly, Results do not come so easily. For years, your thoughts have been left loose and undisciplined; it is their natural tendency to wander. That does not matter so much in the beginning, as long as you are aware that they are wandering. It is bad only if you notice this wandering too late, after your thoughts have taken you a long way out. Do not worry if your thought wanders away for a moment, but simply bring it back to the subject immediately, and keep repeating this, always remaining anchored to the chosen subject of your meditation,” replied the Master.
2. “My thoughts are too slow and dull, and I keep falling asleep.” The Master replied: “Yes, now you have experienced the two main obstacles to meditation: the restlessness of the mind and sleepiness. You must find a balance between too much activity and too little. You should aim at achieving a state of calm and serenity, being at the same time very much awake and acutely aware of everything that goes on with you. It comes only with practice. You cannot counteract the restlessness of the mind by retiring to a secluded place and minimizing your worldly activities. Also, by meditating in the early hours of the morning, between 3am and 6am, when all nature is quiet and peaceful. On the other hand, sleepiness can be counteracted by taking a shower or a quick bath in cold water or by doing a few physical exercise before you start your practice.”
3. “I felt a shiver along the spine, and also a tingling in my finger tips. Unfortunately, I had to stop because some time later my body started trembling and there was a pressure in my head.” The Master replied. “The physical sensation of pleasant tingling in the body is simply a sign that you are more relaxed than usual and can therefore feel more clearly the subtle movements in your body, such as the heartbeat or the nerve-currents. But this is still far from real meditation. As for the trembling and the pressure in your head, those are danger signals. You did well to stop in time. Remember this: every time you feel any unpleasant sensation, any pain or pressure, or excessive heat, stop immediately.”
4. “I can get into a very peaceful state during my meditation. But when the meditation is over, I am back in the physical world with all its desires and emotions and disturbances, and nothing seems to have changed in me.” The Master replied: “True, that is how it seems. But nothing is achieved in one day. You have to meditate regularly for a longer period of time before you notice significant changes in your life. Regular meditation at a specified time each day is very important, when it becomes a habit, it is easier to keep up the practice even during the periods of crisis.. for there will be many ups and downs yet.”
5. “One should concentrate on making the whole of one’s life a meditation.” “All teachers of the spiritual life have said that ultimately meditation should not be confined to set periods, but should become constant throughout the day. It is true that this can be achieved fully only at a very advanced stage, but one should begin training oneself from the very start. Begin by observing the state peacefulness in which you find yourself immediately after the meditation. Do not jump at once and turn to your other activities. Make the transition gradual and try to remain in that watchful, self-observing state for progressively longer periods after your formal meditation is over. Remain with and simply observe you outer actions.”
6. “Set yourself an ideal, the highest of which you can conceive, and live constantly in the presence of that Ideal.” “For example, you can imagine your Master, your Guru, or even God, as being beside you all the time, observing everything you do. And your effort should be to do everything in His Name. Learn to do everything with attention, love and care, whether it be washing dishes, writing a thesis, or pasting a stamp on an envelope. Live fully in the present.” “The goal is to be constantly in meditation even during your other daily activities.”
7. “Do not try to repeat experience you had in your last meditation. Do not pursue the memory of what was; for what was is the death of what is. Think of the present and make fresh start every time. Experience life as it is; do not dwell in the world of memories.”
8. “I cannot concentrate no matter how much I try.” The Master replied: “Do not force yourself”. The mind must not be subjugated through violence; you only create mental tension. Learn to relax mentally as well as physically. You can do this by turning your mind to higher, more beautiful and harmonious thoughts. Create a pleasant, calming picture in your mind; transport yourself into a happier world, even though imaginary; this is a tool which will enable you to go within and calm your mind.
9. “Let” is the magic word. “Do not try, do not strive to achieve something, do not expect anything; simply relax and let it happen. As long as there is effort, there is tension. Let the tension go, release the effort, and you will automatically float into loftier regions. Similarly with your many desire; do not fight them, do not oppose them; simply let them dissolve and disappear by not concentrating on them, by finding higher values in life. When you find higher, more beautiful things, the lower, distracting desires will naturally fall away.”
10. “I will be able to do much more once I have achieved some of your clairvoyant and psychic power!” The Master replied: “You are mistaken here. Once your inner vision is awakened, you will have a correspondingly greater amount of distraction. If you cannot cope with the physical world, how will you manage with the psychic one? The physical distractions can be diminished appreciably by closing your eyes and ears. But the psychic eyes cannot be closed so easily. If you cannot concentrate now, it will be even worse if you are bombarded by visions coming at you from a dimension you cannot control. Do not, therefore, aspire to develop psychic powers before you are ready for them.” “First you must learn to control yourself, and then you can control the powers. If you have the powers and no control over yourself, it is like playing with a snake, or like causing a crack in a dam which holds millions of gallons of water and not knowing how to mend the crack, which may get wider every day, the power rushing out and finally drowning you.”
11. “But I want to become all-powerful one day. Isn’t that the goal?” The Master replied: “It may be so once you are mature enough. But as long as you still want the powers for yourself, you are on the path toward isolation. You must first develop more love, an attitude of selflessness, and constantly render unselfish service. And you should become more aware of other people, not only your family and not even your co-disciples, but the whole world. Meditation should not be an escape from the world.”
12. A disciple asked: “Why have we withdrawn ourselves into the solitude of this retreat? Would it not be easier to be aware of other people if we lived among them?” The Master replied: “There are many lessons to be learned, and there is a time for every one of them. Withdrawal is necessary for a time, because when we resolve once and for all to tread the spiritual Path and start training ourselves systematically, we are in a very delicate stage of growth and we need isolation and protection from outside influences. At this stage, a close contact with those who are not on the Path can bring disharmony and negative vibrations. Once we have grown stronger and have laid our foundations, we can walk in the world again: to test our strength and to offer light, guidance and comfort to those tortured souls who are still entangled in the web of their own desires and ignorant actions.”
13. “Can one meditate without a teacher?” The Master replied: “Yes, the preliminary exercises can easily be done by anyone. There are many books which give all the basic instruction. The lack of a guru or spiritual teacher should not be an excuse for not meditating. A teacher is not necessary in the beginning. It is only later; at a much more advance stage, that a guide is necessary.”
14. There are higher techniques and exercises into which one should not dabble without a qualified Master. But there is no need for disappointment. The ancient saying that the Master appears when the disciple is ready is always valid, and there are no exceptions. It is equally true that if a student is not yet pure and mature enough, he will not find his real Guru, no matter how much time he spends hunting after teachers and instructors. A disciplined life coupled with noble aspirations cannot fail to give results.
15. If one has not yet met one’s guru, it is not the Guru’s fault, and it is not destiny or one’s bad luck; it is simply a sign that one has not yet reached the necessary maturity. We speak here of the maturity of the soul, not of the body, of course. One should therefore analyze oneself, develop one’s moral nature, and endeavor to lead a life of purity. A disciplined life coupled with noble aspirations cannot fail to give results. “You yourself have found your Teacher and have come here not by chance but because of your own efforts in the past. Nothing in life ever happens quite by chance; everything in nature is guided by law.”
16. The disciple in tears told his Master: “During my meditation, I often get an indescribable feeling of being left alone in this universe, alone and forgotten even by God himself. And then I cannot stop crying for His Grace.” The Master replied: “That is very good, my son. Do not withhold those tears. There is great merit in crying for Grace from above. Each tear will dissolve something of that which stands between you and union with the divine.”
17. The disciple told excitedly his Master: “I saw colors and lights.” The Master replied: “What you have experienced now is both good and bad. It is good because it shows you have made a great step forward, and this will, hopefully, encourage you to practice further. But it will be bad if these visions draw your attention away from the inner realities. They are just beautiful temptation. The psychic world is still part of the illusion, and it is full of dangers. One veil has been removed, but final Truth is still heavily veiled. Explore this world if you wish, get acquainted with it, but do it cautiously and quickly. Do not linger there; go further, deeper, transcend this world just as you have transcended the purely physical one. It is better to see nothing and hear nothing of these lower psychic planes, so that the consciousness, wholly turned inwards, may reach communion with the Divine.
18. At another time, the disciple heard the first sound. At first it was only faint, but as he concentrated on it, it grew gradually stronger and more easily discernible. The Master replied: “That is only the first sound you will hear. It is only the first step. There is a progressive series of subtler and subtler sounds. So, once you have learnt to recognize easily this first sound, then go beyond it and search within for a still higher and more refined vibration. But do it always with humility for each sound is just another manifestation of God.”
Years later, the disciple saw the light. Everything was Pure Bliss, pure Consciousness. He had gained infinite knowledge and he saw through the veil. There was no need to tell the Master, for he knew. The Master told him: “Now you have seen the Light of inner Reality. Many steps still lie ahead of you. But before you go on, you must pause and go back to the world to share what you now have….You have a duty to perform. The whole of humanity is in a state of inner darkness; some men are aware of this and are actually seeking that which you have now found, yet all men need the Light, and so should be helped. Many, many are seeking union with the Divine. Go and help them. I have not taught you for your personal sake, but for the sake of all humanity.
PART II - YOGA
Introduction
Although an attempt has been made to explain the teachings of Yoga on a rational basis so that the student may be able to grasp them easily nothing is sought to be proved in the ordinary sense. The facts of higher Yoga can neither be proved nor demonstrated. Their appeal is to the intuition and not to the intellect. The seeker after Truth should concern oneself especially with facts and the truth underlying the various Sutras and should not allow oneself to get involved in controversies about the meanings of words. This pastime he can leave to the mere scholar.
A careful study of the Yoga-Sutras and the kind of preparation and effort which is needed for attaining the objective of Yogic endeavor might give to the student the impression that it is extremely difficult undertaking beyond the capacity of ordinary aspirant. This impression is certain to dishearten him and if he does not think deeply over the problems of life and clarify his ideas about them, it might lead him to abandon the idea of embarking on this Divine adventure or to postpone it to a future life.
There can be no doubt that the serious pursuit of the Yogic ideal is a difficult task and cannot be undertaken as a mere hobby or to find an escape from the stress and strain of ordinary life. It can be undertaken only on understanding fully the nature of human life and the misery and suffering which are inherent in it and the further realization that the only way to end this misery and suffering permanently is to find the Truth which is enshrined within ourselves by the only method which is available by Yogic discipline.
YOGA
Yoga is a practical spiritual discipline for mastering the modifications of the mind (YS1.2) and abiding as the changeless identity of the Self (Purusa). It is also called union with the divine. In yoga, immortality is realized through consistent practice and self-discipline, and is not something to be demonstrated through inference, analysis, and reasoning. Classical yoga emphasizes the necessity of personal experimentation and practical meditational techniques for the cultivation of Samadhi (YS1.17-8) in which insight (prajna), disclosed within the deeper levels of the mind, progressively leads to a clearer understanding and realization of one’s intrinsic identity as Purusa. For yoga, as well as other soteriological (theological doctrine of salvation by Christ) traditions of India, the ultimate concern of a human being is not understood to be separate from humanity itself. The highest goal to which a human being can and ought to aspire does not lie in some separate realm or “outer” extrinsic world, but is rather “within” oneself, as one’s core intrinsic being.
AIM AND PROCESSES OF YOGA
The whole aim and process of Yoga (SY, p.72) consists in withdrawing the consciousness from without to within for the ultimate mystery of life is hidden in the very heart or center of our being and can be found there and nowhere else. In the case of the Yogi the tendency of the lower mind to run outwards and to keep itself busy with the objects of the outer world must therefore be replaced gradually by a tendency to return automatically to its “centered” condition without effort. The pursuit of Yogic ideals requires in fact more concentration of purpose than that of any worldly aim can, because in the first place the difficulties are greater and in the second place, the sphere of work is inside and the objective is to a great extent unknown and intangible.
The aspirant for Yoga cannot frown upon the wicked because that would tend to arouse hatred and have undesirable repercussions on his own mind. He cannot show sympathy towards them because that would be encouraging vice. The only course left open to him is to adopt an attitude of indifference.
According to the Yogic philosophy it is possible to rise completely above the illusion and miseries of life and to gain infinite knowledge, bliss and power through Enlightenment here and now while we are still living in the physical body. And if we did not attain enlightenment while we are still alive we will have to come back again and again into this world until we have accomplished this appointed task. So it is not a question of choosing the path of Yoga or rejecting it. It is a question of choosing it now or in some future life. It is a question of gaining Enlightenment as soon as possible and avoiding the suffering in the future or postponing the effort and going through further suffering which is unnecessary and avoidable.
COMPARISON OF YOGA SUTRA AND SAMKHYA PHILOSOPHIES
Samkhya relies primarily on the exercise of discernment (viveka) of spirit (Purusa), pure consciousness from matter (praktri), nature, psycho-physical being and its source on the basis of prefabricated categories of differentiation, stressing on theoretical/intellectual analysis in order to bring out the nature of final emancipation. This emancipation is often understood as an isolation (kaivalya) of Purusa from prakrti, Purusa conceived as the uninvolved (madhyasthya), inactive (akartrbhava) witness (saksin) of the evolution of prakrti. However, Samkhya’s overt conceptual means of discrimination (vijnana) is not sufficient enough for the aspiring yogin. The ontological categorization of what represents the non-self (prakrti) must become the object of direct experience and perception. Without praxis and its experiential and perceptual dimension, philosophy would have no meaning in Yoga. According to Samkhya and Yoga, our inner world of thought, feeling, imagination, etc., parallels the structure of the cosmos itself.
Patanjali makes no attempt, as does Isvara Krsna, to speculate upon a metaphysical explanation of the nature of reality. Patanjali’s overriding concern is to show how to bring about the realization, freedom and glory of an immortal state of consciousness and being as authentic identity or Self [Purusa], a state that can be described in terms of freedom from suffering [duhkha]. This “showing how” culminates in ‘clear seeing’ which in turn reveals our true identity as Purusa. Patanjali begins the discipline of Yoga by addressing his listeners where they ‘are’ from a yogic perspective, that is, as human beings desirous of freedom, yet who are subject to the mistaken identity, ensconced with the subject-object duality of empirical existence [prakrti], and who conceive of themselves and the world from the limited perspective of ego-consciousness [asmita]. The Yogasutra provides one with a provisional ‘map’ consisting of contemplative directives that enable the yogin to pass through different levels of experience [bhoga] culminating in emancipation [apavarga] whereupon one transcends the binding influence or effects of prakrti altogether.
For yoga, the highest goal to which a human being can and ought to aspire does not lie in some separate realm or ‘outer’, extrinsic world, but is rather ‘within’ oneself, as one’s core intrinsic being. Yoga tries to express this concern in a truly human way beginning with the psycho-physical nature and experience of our human-ness with its weaknesses, vulnerabilities and virtues, and describes the human condition by incorporating our multi-leveled understandings and concepts of self-identity [cittavritti]. Through a process of transformation of the mind, or metanoia, termed nirodha, Yoga expands, purifies, and illuminates our understanding of self and world. By grasping the nature of our personal experiences: how we think, feel, act, understand, and why we have assumed ourselves to be finite, temporal beings when according to Yoga our nature is infinite and unchanging, we can more easily discern how Yoga philosophy applies to our own perception and to our day to day existence.
Patanjali’s philosophy however is not based upon mere theoretical or speculative knowledge. It elicits a practical, pragmatic, experiential/perceptual [not merely inferential/theoretical] approach that deemed essential to deal effectively with our total human situation and provide real freedom, not just a theory of liberation or a metaphysical explanation of life. To this end, Patanjali outlined among other practices, an eight-limbed [astangayoga] path of Yoga [YS11.29] dealing with the physical, moral, psychological, and spiritual dimensions of the yogin. Yoga is not content with knowledge [jnana] perceived as a state that abstracts away from the world removing us from our human embodiment and activity in the world. Rather, Yoga emphasizes knowledge in the integrity of being and action and as serving the integration of the ‘person’ as a ‘whole’. Yoga is not a ‘system’ of belief or of metaphysics. It is always a way, a method of getting something, usually salvation. Yoga derives its real strength and value through an integration of theory and practice, implying a philosophy of life – incorporating both Purusa and Prakrti ground in the direct experience of life.
AWARENESS OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS
In classical Samkhya (PMS, p.54) pure contentless consciousness in its immanence accompanies every intellect, unlike the cosmic atman of the Upanishad of the Vedanta Philosophy, and thus it is stressed that:
“…the awareness of consciousness is an achievement of the intellect and is a negative discernment of what the intellect is not. The Samkhya arguments for a plurality of pure consciousness… appear to be directed at epistemological concern rather than ontological matter. Because contentless consciousness can never be a content and cannot be characterized as are materiality or the tripartite process, it is hardly likely that the Samkhya teachers were thinking of the plurality of consciousness as a set of knowable entities to be counted. They were thinking, rather, of the plurality of intellects through which the disclosure of contentless consciousness occurs.”
VEDANTA PHILOSOPY
In the book of Dr. Annie Besant, An Introduction to Yoga, p. 65, she mentioned that the Vedantic view of the Self is one, omnipresent, all permeating, the one reality. Nothing exists except the Self – that is the starting point in Vedanta. All permeating, all-controlling, all inspiring, the Self is everywhere present. As the ether permeates all matter, so does the One Self permeate, restrain, support, vivify all. As we try to grasp this idea of the one universal Self, who is existence, consciousness, bliss, Sat-Chit-Ananda, we find that we are carried into a loftier region of philosophy than that occupied by the Samkhya. The Self is one. The Self is everywhere conscious, the Self is everywhere existent, the Self is everywhere blissful. There is not division between these qualities of the Self. Everywhere, all-embracing, these qualities are found at every point, in every place. There is no spot on which you can put your finger and say: ‘The Self is not here.’ Where the Self is – and He is everywhere – there is existence, there is consciousness, and there is bliss. The Self, being consciousness, imagines limitation, division. From that imagination of limitation arises form, diversity, manyness. From that thought of the Self, from that thought of limitation, all diversity of the many is born. Matter is the limitation imposed upon the Self by His own will to limit Himself. ‘I am one; I will to be many’; is the thought of the one; and in that thought the manifold universe comes into existence. The universe appears by the Self-limitation in thought of the Self. The moment the Self ceases to think it, the universe is not, it vanishes as a dream. That is the fundamental idea of the Vedanta.
For the purpose of our study, we may consider the Self (Vedanta Philosophy) as the Solar Logos, or the Higher Beings that rule the Solar System or the Universe. The Purusas mentioned here are just the sparks of the divine flame, the Monads, the Higher Self in Man. Those sparks of the divine flame or Monads gaining experiences and learning to emancipate themselves from imprisonment in the world of matter. They are here to become perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect. The not-self are the vehicles of the spark of the divine flame, the reincarnating egos, and its lower vehicles including the personalities or the lower selves.
According to the Samkhya, Purusa is the Spectator and never the actor. According to Vedanta the Self is the only Actor, all else is Maya; there is no one else who acts but the Self. According to Upanishad, the Self willed to see, and there were eyes; the Self willed to hear, and there were ears; the Self willed to think, and there was mind. The eyes, the ears, the mind exist because the Self has willed them into existence. The Self appropriates matter, in order that He may manifest His powers through it. In Samkhya the propinquity of the Purusa brings out in matter or Prakrti all these characteristics, the Prakrti acts and not the Purusa; in the Vedanta, Self alone exists and Self alone acts; He imagines limitation and matter appears; He appropriates that matter in order that He may manifest his own capacity. The Samkhya is the view of the universe of the scientist; the Vedanta is the view of the universe of the metaphysician.
According to Ian Whicher, Jnana yoga is seeking union with the divine by intellect; Mysticism is seeking union by emotion. Spirituality is the realization of the one; Psychism is the manifestation of intelligence through material means.
THE ONENESS OF THE SELF
The Self in you is the same as the Self Universal, like the drop of water in the vast ocean. Whatever powers are manifested throughout the world, those powers exist in germ, in latency in you. He, the Supreme, does not evolve. In Him there are no additions or subtractions. His portions, the Jivatmas, are as Himself, and they only unfold their powers in matter as conditions around them draw those powers forth. If you realize the unity of the Self amid the diversities of the Not-Self, then Yoga will not seem an impossible thing to you. The laws of the evolution of form and of the unfolding of consciousness in the universe and man are the same. It is through these laws that the yogi brings out his hidden powers.
ASPECTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Dr. Annie Besant mentioned that there are three aspects of consciousness. First, it is to be aware of things. Becoming aware of them, it then desires them. By desiring them, it tries to attain them. So we have the three aspects of consciousness – intelligence, desire, and activity. On the physical plane, activity predominates, although desire and thought are present. On the emotional plane, desire predominates and thought and activity are subject to desire. On the mental plane, intelligence is the dominant aspect, desire and activity are subject to it.
THEORY OF EVOLUTION
Patanjali subscribes to the Samkhyan theory of evolution (PMS, p.15), called Satkaryavada, according to which an effect [karya] is pre-existent [sat] in its cause [karana]; and also prakrti-parinama-vada which signifies that the effect is a real transformation [parinama] of prakrti; not merely an appearance or illusory change as is thought in the idealist schools of Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism. The satkarya doctrine maintains that whatever comes into manifestation is not a completely new reality or production there by rejecting the notion of creation ex nihilo [created from nothing]. Yoga holds that what is non-existent can never be produced; what is existent can never perish. The cause must be of the same fundamental substance as the effects. The effects are thus already latent in the material causes and manifest as transformations resulting from, as Patanjali states, the outflow or implementation of their material causes [prakrtyapura]. The disappearance of a previous transformation and the rise of a subsequent one take place as a result of the integrating pervasion of the constituent parts of the material cause.
Patanjali’s philosophy of the change and development of prakrti as applied to empirical consciousness [citta] disallows intrinsic stability or permanency to the phenomena of the mind and the empirical senses of self. Only Purusa is able to enjoy the status of immutability [aparinamitva], meaning that its authentic, immortal identity is never really lost throughout all the changes and identifications which take place in the mind and the perceived world. Yoga reminds us that even though our psycho-physical being is an apparent composite of the forces of prakrti and is merely a temporary modification, it is also associated with an eternal, transcendent yet immanent and essentially unaffected aspect, the Purusa or Spiritual Self.
In the Bhagavad Gita where Krisna instructs Arjuna as follows:
“Of the nonexistent there is no coming to be. Of the existent there is no ceasing to be. Also, the final truth of these is known by the seers of Truth. Yet, know as indestructible that by which all this is pervaded. Nothing is able to accomplish the destruction of that which is imperishable.”
PATHWAYS OF MANIFESTATION
The pathways of manifestation are determined by impression [Samskaras] already in motion. From implementation of prakrti comes transformation into other births. According to Yoga, an efficient cause does not set the material cause into action nor, as in Nyaya-Vaisesika, does it make the effect a different existence from the cause [anyathakarana]. It is not that the cause produces something new as it is held by the Vaisesikas. In Samkhya and Yoga the efficient cause removes the barriers or obstacles [varana] to the manifestation of the effect latent in its material cause. The analogy of the farmer in YS IV.3 refers to the practice of irrigation, as Vyasa explains (PMS, p.42):
“The farmer, in order to irrigate a terraced field by flooding it with water from another higher field, does not take the water in his hands, but makes a breach in its retaining barrier, after which the water pours into the lower field of itself. Similarly, virtue breaches non-virtue, the retaining barrier of the prakrtis. When it is breached the prakrtis flow out into the respective effects or differentiations.”
THREE KINDS OF TRANSFORMATION [Parinama]
According to Patanjali, the transformation and development [parinama] of prakrti, denoting serial change is of three basic types:
1. Dharma-parinama, the change or development in the form of a substance
2. Laksana-parinama or the change of characteristic implicit in the fact that time [kala] consists of past, present, and future
3. Avastha-parinama, the state or stage of development or the qualitative change or condition due to the effects of time, that is aging, as when an earthen vessel breaks and turns to dust
Patanjali seeks to apply these insights to the mind [citta], the locus of empirical consciousness and personality and its transmutation through the practice of yoga. These three types of change are universally applicable to the phenomena of consciousness as well as to material objects, the elements and the senses.
While recognizing the changelessness of pure spirit or awareness [Purusa], yoga, unlike Samkhya explicitly allows for fluctuation between potentiality or pure power [sakti] and actuality [adhivyakti] within the mind. Patanjali distinguishes between three forms or states of an object:
1. Subsided [santa] or past aspect,
2. Arisen [udita] or present aspect, and
3. Undetermined [avyapadesya] or future aspect.
All three are related to the same substance or dharma-holder which is permanently present in, yet cannot be contained by its forms or modifications, that is, it assumes many changes but is not wholly defined or consumed by these changes. Vyasa explicitly contrasts this view with the Buddhist doctrine of anatman, no-self or inessentiality, according to which there is a multiplicity of changing forms but no underlying being or substance. In contrast to the Yogacara school of Buddhism, classical yoga does not attempt to reduce ‘being’ to ‘being experienced’. Yet classical Yoga tends to ascribe a more constitutive role to awareness or experience than the Samkhya and to interpret it as an efficient factor of manifestation and actualization.
The commentator [Vyasa] (PMS, p.38) says that mahat undergoes six undiversified modifications in the shape of Tanmatra and ego. Samkhya says that from mahat arises ego, and from ego come the Tanmatras. Some say that this is a point of difference between Samkhya and Yoga philosophies. There is, however, no real difference. In the commentaries on Sutra I.45 the author of the Bhasya has said that the ego is the cause of the Tanmatras and the cause of the ego is the mahat principle. Therefore it is not quite right to say that the six Avisesas have arisen straight out of mahat. The commentator also does not mean it. From Mahan Atma [the Great Self] or mahat to ego, from ego to the five Tanmatras and from Tanmatras to the five Bhutas, this the the correct order of succession.
ISVARA [God]
Isvara (SY, p.56) is a particular Purusa who is untouched by the affliction of life, actions and the results and impressions produced by these actions. The offices of the Dhikari Purusas of different grades like Buddhas, Manus, etc. for, as it were, a ladder the lower end of which rests on the rock of Kaivalya and its other end is lost in the unimaginable glory and splendour of Divine Consciousness. The office of Isvara is one of the highest if not the highest rung of this ladder. He is the Supreme Ruler of a Solar System or Brahmanda. It is in His Consciousness that the Solar System lives, moves and has its being. The different planes of the Solar System are His bodies and the powers working the machinery of the Solar system are His powers. In short, He is the Reality whom we generally refer to as God.
In I-26, it was pointed out that Isvara is the true Teacher of all and the source of the Inner Light by the help of which the Yogi treads the path of Liberation. This light appears when the mind becomes sufficiently purified by the practice of Yoga as indicated in II-28.
According to several scholars (PMS, p.59), the theistic stance of Yoga is clearly acknowledged by Patanjali. The Lord [Isvara] is not a creator [i.e. anthropomorphic deity] like the Judeo-Christian God. Neither Patanjali nor Vyasa mention Isvara’s role [as material cause] in the creation, preservation, and destruction of the world, implying thus an absence of a creator God in Yoga. Isvara is also not the kind of universal Absolute taught in the Upanisad and envisaged by many thinkers within the tradition of Vedanta. Nor is Isvara intended as a type of enlightened super-being such as the transcended bodhisattva of Mahayana Buddhism. Isvara is defined by Patanjali as a Self {Purusa} sui generis and whose distinctiveness from the ordinary Purusa is explained largely in negative terms. Isvara is a distinct Self [Purusa] untouched by the afflictions, actions or their fruition or their latent residue in the mind. The distinctness or specialness of Isvara consists in that at no time can Isvara become embroiled in the domain of prakrti, whereas all other purusas at one time will either have been entrenched in the illusion of being a misidentified entity within prakrti and thus enslaved to prakrtic existence. Isvara does not abandon. He is perfect condition of transcendence as pure consciousness and infinite existence. The Lord’s freedom is eternal. This view has led to theological difficulties since Patanjali also regards Isvara as being of positive relevance for humankind in that Isvara is:
1. that Being in whom ‘the seed of omniscience is unsurpassed’
2. the first teacher [guru] of all former yogins because not limited by time
3. whose expression is Pranava [Om]
4. following from the recitation of Pranava and realization of its meaning, one realizes the inner consciousness [pratyakcetana] and obstacles no longer arise.
The above statements [YS1.25-9] are meant to be understood in conjunction with the concept of Isvara-pranidhana or devotion/dedication to Isvara.
Isvara [God] does not become subject to spiritual ignorance [avidya] and bondage. This is comparable to the role played by an actor/actress who while identifying with the part nevertheless remains aware that he or she is not identical with the character of his or her role. According to Vacaspati Misra, Isvara’s power of knowledge and action continues to bestow favor to the mind of the devoted yogin all for the purpose of liberation. Isvara therefore ‘acts’ non-samsarically, in the spirit of what the Bhagavad Gita calls ego-transcending or transaction [naiskarmya] action – acting without attachment to the fruits of action – whereby no binding karmic fruition [vipaka] could ever accrue, nor could any afflictions ever arise. Vyasa declares that Isvara appropriated such an untainted vehicle of sattva in order to confer favor to living beings.
PURUSA
Purusa is conceived as the uninvolved (madhyasthya), inactive (akartrbhava) witness (saksin) of the evolution of prakrti. Purusa is spirit of pure consciousness, the seer (drastr), prakrti the seeable (drsya). Purusa (PMS. P.30) is the power of the seer; mind (Buddhi) [awareness] is the power of seeing. The taking on of a single nature, as it were, by these two, is called the affliction of “I-am-ness”. When there comes about a failure to distinguish between the experiencer and what is experienced which are utterly distinct and have nothing to do with each other, that is the condition for experience. But when the true nature of the two is recognized, that is aloneness.
As in classical Samkhya, Patanjali’s yoga regards Purusa as the witness [saksin] of prakrti, that is, the three gunas. More specifically, Purusa is affirmed as being the seer [drastr] of all mental content or psychomental experiences, and the knower of all the mental processes or modifications [vrtti] of the mind [citta]. Purusa is authentic Selfhood, a being absolutely unmixed with or distinct from even the finest, most subtle aspect of prakrti. It is the Purusa which the yogin seeks to realize and thereby liberate identity from any entanglement or concealment within matter.
The masculine word meaning the seer or Self, i.e. pure consciousness, is used interchangeably with the feminine words: sakti [power, energy, force], citi [consciousness], citisakti [power of consciousness] and drsi [sight, seeing]. The Purusa is described as being absolutely unmixed with or distinct from even the finest, most subtle aspect of prakrti, the sattva of consciousness or mind.
The Purusa-principle in Samkhya and Yoga is not a supreme creator and does not reappear in the cosmos as a personal world-soul. Our empirical sense of self misidentifies with the prakrtic, ‘created’ world thereby veiling Purusa, resulting in a failure to distinguish between the experiencer and what is experienced. Thus what is seen as real cosmogony in the Upanishad is described in the yogasutra as a process taking place under the influence of spiritual ignorance [avidya]. This does not mean to imply that the cosmogony of Yoga is itself an illusory process. Prakrti does, in full reality, transform itself into the created essences headed by mahat/buddhi. The seeming aspect of this ‘flowing forth’ [prasava] or creation [sarga] is Purusa’s seeming bondage within prakrti. The cosmos itself is experienced as if pervaded by consciousness. Patanjali describes prakrti in terms of how it is experienced by one who is ensconced in the condition of ignorance.
According to Dasgupta*, Purusa is the constant seer of the mind [1] when it has an object, as in ordinary forms of phenomenal knowledge, or [2] when it has no object as in the state of nirodha or cessation. Purusa is unchanging. It is the light which remains unchanged amidst all the changing modifications of the mind. Its knowing is manifested in our consciousness as the ever persistent notion of the self, which is always a constant factor in all the phenomena of consciousness. Thus Purusa always appears in our consciousness as the knowing agent.
*Dasgupta asserts that it was Patanjali who collected the different forms of yoga practices, gleaned the diverse ideas which were or could be associated with yoga and grafted them all on the “Samkhya metaphysic.
Due to its ‘Otherness’, Purusa, the principle of consciousness, is not to be confused with the transactions of human awareness [intellect, memory, etc.] as it transcends all object [worldly] orientation. Purusa is said to be uncharacterizable, conscious and un-productive. As witness, and possessing freedom and the quality of clear vision or ‘seeing’, Purusa can be conceived as being indifferent and inactive. Purusa is contentless consciousness and could not be fully at home within the world of evolved matter, its ideal state is conceived of as being separate and apart from its apparent entanglement by the bonds of prakrti. Purusa has no particular locus but is ubiquitous, pervading everywhere.
The purposefulness of Purusa is evidently a cause. Vacaspati’s comments are worth noting. He said that:
“…it cannot be supposed that it is the purpose of Purusa that sets all in motion. It is only the Lord [Isvara]* who does this with this purpose in view. For the purpose of Purusa is described as setting all in motion in the sense that it is the final end. While this purpose of the Purusa is yet to be realized, it is correct that the unmanifest prakrti should be the cause of stability of things. In the case of the Lord, we must understand that his functional activity is limited to the removal of obstacles with a view to securing a basis for the manifestation of forms.”
PRAKRITI
In Patanjali’s yoga (PMS, p.12), as in classical Samkhya, prakrti refers to both the primordial ground (mulaprakrti) of the innumerable manifest forms and those forms themselves. Also termed pradhana (or avyakta), which denotes the transcendent matrix of prakrti as apart from the consciousness-principle (Purusa). It is the primordial, undifferentiated continuum that contains in potential the entire cosmos in all its levels and categories of being. Prakrti is to be remembered that while being a multi-dimentional principle of existence is yet in essence of “one piece”. The main task of the yogin lies in the gradual overcoming of the power of the emerging [vyutthana] ego-consciousness lending itself to an intrinsic identity of selfhood and the simultaneous cultivation of the sattvification process in nirodha which counteracts the powerful tendency of human consciousness to become attached, shaped and defined by the objects of experience.
Prakrti is frequently defined in Samkhya as the state of balance or equilibrium of the three gunas (tri-guna-samyavastha). When this state of balance is disturbed or disrupted by the presence of pure consciousness (purusa), the process of the creation of the ordinary world occurs. The perfectly balanced substrata of prakrti (matter) was an unevolved and unmanifest state wherein the three gunas, the basic strands or qualities of prakrti were thought to revolve in palpitating balanced movement within unmanifest prakrti while yet being completely separated from the light of Purusa.
Patanjali appears to conceive of the gunas as three types of psycho-physical force, matter or energy whose existence can be deduced from the behaviour patterns of prakrti. Vyasa provides us with a lucid commentary on the tripartite process where he describes the gunas in the following manner (PMS, p.22):
Sattva tends towards luminosity; rajas towards action; tamas towards fixity. Though distinct, these gunas mutually affect each other. They change, they have properties of conjunction and disjunction, they assume forms created by their mutual cooperation. Distinct from each other, they are identifiable even when their power are conjoined. They deploy their respective powers, whether of similar or dissimilar kind. When one is predominant, the presence of the others is inferred as existing within the predominant one from the very fact of its operation as a guna. They are effective as engaged in carrying out the purpose of Purusa.
We can say that the gunas underlie all physical, material, cosmological, psychological, and moral qualities. We are informed that:
(1) The gunas are to be distinguished according to their qualities,
(2) They are nevertheless interdependent,
(3) In (3) Their combination generates cosmic existence and everything in the phenomenal universe must be regarded as a synergization of these three factors.
Constituting the realm of the seeable (drsya), the gunas exist for the purpose of Purusa i.e. [1] experience [bhoga] and [2] emancipation [apavarga] which suggests that from a yogic perspective the gunic processes do not ultimately result in delusive forms of self-identity, worldly identification, conflict, destruction, and dissatisfaction (duhkha), Rather, they function as a vehicle for liberating self-identity from the bondage of worldly existence.
Patanjali portrays these three types of fundamental prakrtic forces as being in continual conflict with each other. The dissatisfaction and suffering are due to change and anxieties and the latent impression, and from the conflict of modification of the gunas, for the discerning one, all is sorrow alone. As a result of this inherent tension between them, and due to their dynamic, energetic nature associated with transformation [parinama], they are said to form the different ontological levels [parvan] of prakrtic reality. Form the perspective of the discerning yogin [vivekin] human identity contained within the phenomenal world of the three gunas amounts to nothing more than sorrow and dissatisfaction [duhkha]. The declared goal of classical yoga is to overcome all suffering [duhkha], by bringing about an inverse movement or counter-flow [pratiprasava] understood as a return to the origin, a kind of re-absorption into the transcendent purity of being itself.
Ontogolically [a branch of philosophy that deals on being] conceived, prasava signifies the ‘flowing forth’ of the primary constituents or qualities of prakrti into the multiple forms of the universe in all its dimensions, that is, all the evolutionary process or creation [sarga, prasarga]. Pratiprasava on the other hand denotes the process of dissolution into the source or withdrawal from manifestation of those forms relative to the personal, microcosmic level of the yogin who is about to attain freedom [apavarga]. In other words, what is ended in yoga is the yogin’s misidentification with prakrti, a mistaken identity of self that contrary to our true identity as Purusa – can be nothing more than a product of the three gunas under the influence of spiritual ignorance or karmic bondage.
FOUR HIERARCHICAL LEVELS OF EXISTENCE OF THE THREE GUNAS
Within prakrti’s domain, Patanjali recognizes four hierarchic yet interrelated levels of existence whose characteristics and qualities are determined by the relative pre-dominence of any of the three gunas. The levels are (PMS, p.26):
1. The unmanifest (alinga) Pradhana, the formless
2. The Designator (linga-matra) {Buddhi}
3. The unparticularized (avisesa)
4. The particularized (visesa)
The correlations of Patanjali’s four-level model with the more familiar Samkhyan series of principles of existence (tattvas) follow:
4. Particularized (The five gross elements, or bhutas)
Space
Air
Fire
Water
Earth
3. Unparticularized – Avisesa (Tanmatras) (The five Sense Organs and “I-am-ness” Asmita-Matra)
Hearing Sound Ears
Touching Touch Skin
Seeing Form-precept Eye
Tasting Taste Tongue
Smelling Smell Nose
“I-am-ness” (asmita-matra)
Five action organs
Mouth
Hands
Feet
Organs of evacuation
Organ of generation
Mind organ (manas)
The five sense organs and the five action organs plus the mind organ make up the eleven particularization of the unparticularized “I-am-ness” or “Ahamkara” [self-awareness]; and to include the five gross elements make up the sixteen-fold transformation of the gunas into the particularized (visesa).
2. The Designator (Buddhi)
From out of the ‘unmanifest’ emerges the designator, or linga-matra, as the first cosmic principle or level of manifest existence. This is the level of cosmic manifestation prior to the emergence of specific objects. Vyasa identifies it as the great principle [mahat-tattva] whose nature is mere being [sattva-matra]. Mahat is the most sattvic, finest, and purest production of prakrti. It is the first manifestation of gunas in which no other form or shape yet emerges. Because it is the most subtle and sattvic modification, it is fit to serve as a medium between Purusa and the phenomenon of prakrti. As the designator or mahat is also the buddhi, the faculty of discernment that serves as a vehicle of purusa’s reflected consciousness. In Samkhya a ‘spark’ of the universal mahat is also the individual or personal aspect of buddhi, the faculty of intelligence and discernment in a sentient entity, and the highest power in the process of sensation.
1. Alinga [Unmanifest] Pradhana, Formless
The sattva, raja, and tamas, or the three primary constituents of prakrti, or gunas, mulaprakrti; is without any mark. Vacaspati Misra defines Alinga as the equilibrium [samyavastha] of the three primary constituents of prakrti. Being the transcendent core of prakrti, which is pure potentiality, it is without any mark or sign. Only a small part of prakrti is at any time undergoing manifestation and actualization. The rest remains in unmanifest existence.
Like Purusa, the transcendent core of prakrti-pradhana, avyakta or what Patanjali calls alinga is also indestructible. Yet it has the capacity to undergo modification and it does so in the process of actualization or manifestation during which it gives birth to the multidimensional universe.
SUMMARY OF THE DIFFERENT ONTOLOGICAL LEVELS COMPRISING PRAKRTI
On the left hand side is the general scheme outlined in the system of classical Samkhya and on the right hand side are the alternative explanatory titles given in the Yogasutras (II.19) and as explained by Vyasa (YBII.19) (PMS, p.48):
Classical Samkhya Classical Yoga
1 prakrti (Avyakta) Alinga, the unmanifest
Mahat (buddhi) linga-matra, the designator:sattva matra
or mahat/buddhi
3- 8 ahamkara(I-maker) six avisesa-s, the unparticularized
Five tanmatras (subtle asmita-mitra and five tanmatras
Senses)
9-24 manas and: five cog- visesas, the particularized:
native senses, five the final sixteen products as in Samkhya
conative senses (ten
Indriyas, five bhutas (gross elements)
CITTA (Mind)
Citta (SY, p.8) is the instrument or medium through which the Jivatma materializes his individual world, lives and evolves in the world until he has become perfected and united with the Paramatma. Citta corresponds to “mind” of modern psychology but it has a more comprehensive import and field for functioning. While Citta may be considered as a universal medium through which consciousness functions on all the planes of the manifested Universe, the “mind” of modern psychology is confined to the expression of only thought, volition and feeling. It is fundamentally of the nature of consciousness which is immaterial but affected by matter. It may be called the product of consciousness and matter or purusa and prakrti, the presence of both are necessary for functioning.
What we normally call the mind [citta](CS, p.18) or ordinary consciousness is the “Samyoga” or conjunction between the “seer” and the “seeable” that is between pure consciousness and the complex of the body and personality. Patanjali explains that the mind has two basic characteristics to which it conforms:
(1) dispersiveness [sarvarthata] or the tendency of attention to be drawn into all-objectivity.
(2) one-pointedness [ekagrata]. The mind can become concentrated through the dwindling of its dispersive predispositions leading to attachment [raga] and aversion [dvesa]. And finally, the subsequent cultivation of one-pointedness wherein states of Samadhi are predominant.
The modifications (vrttis) of the mind are five-fold and are painful or not painful:
Right knowledge
Based on direct cognition
Inference
Testimony
Wrong knowledge
Wrong knowledge is a false conception of a thing whose real form does not correspond to such a mistaken conception.
Fancy
An image conjured up by words without any substance behind it is fancy.
Sleep
That modification of the mind which is based on the absence of any content in it is sleep.
Memory
Memory is not allowing an object which has been experienced to escape.
Their suppression is brought about by persistent practice and non-attachment.
The mind become clarified (SY, p.85) by cultivating attitudes of friendliness, compassion, gladness and indifference respectively towards happiness, misery, virtue and vice. Patanjali (SY, p. 78) has enumerated nine conditions of the mind and body which cause Viksepa and thus serve as obstacles in the path of the Yogi:
Disease
Languor
Doubt
Carelessness
Laziness
Worldly-mindedness
Delusion
Non-achievement of a state
Instability
QUALITIES OF THE MIND
Dr. Annie Besant said that the mind in the wide sense of the term has three great properties or qualities: cognition, desire or will, activity. Yoga is not immediately concerned with all the three, but only with one, cognition, the Samkhya subject. But you cannot separate cognition completely from the others because consciousness is a unit, and although we are only concerned with that part of consciousness which we specifically call cognition, we cannot get cognition all by itself.
In the Vedantic book, Antakarana is a word always used to denote in relation to cognition, not in relation to activity and desire. Manas [activity], Buddhi [cognition], Ahamkara [desire/existence] are the three different sides of a triangle, which triangle is called Citta [Mind].
STAGES OF MIND
The mind has five stages, Patanjali tells us, and Vyasa comments that “these stages of mind are on every plane”. The first stage is the Kshipta stage, it is the butterfly mind, the early stage of humanity, or the mind of the child, darting constantly from one object to another. It corresponds to activity on the physical plane. The next stage is the confused stage, Mudha, equivalent to the stage of the youth, swayed by emotions, bewildered by them; he begins to feel he is ignorant – a state beyond the fickleness of the child.. Then the stage of preoccupation or infatuation, Viksepa, the state of the man possessed by an idea, love, ambition, or what not. He is no longer a confused youth, but a man with a clear aim and an idea possesses him. The fourth stage is Ekagrata. He is a mature man, ready for the true life. When the man has gone through life dominated by one idea, then he is approaching Yoga; he is getting rid of the grip of the world, and is beyond its allurements. He is fit for Yoga and begins the training which makes his progress rapid. This stage corresponds to the activity on the higher mental plane. The fifth stage is Nirodha or Self-controlled. The man possesses not only one idea but rising above all ideas, chooses as he will takes or does not take according to the illumined Will, and can effectively practice Yoga.
Viksepa
The distracted condition of the mind in which it is constantly flung about in all directions, away from the center is called Viksepa. Since this condition of the mind is the opposite of that needed for the practice of Yoga, we have to understand clearly the nature of Viksepa and the means to avoid it. There are two general characteristics of the large majority of people. The first is the lack of purpose. They drift through life being carried along on its currents in a helpless manner. Even when they decide to pursue any particular objective they are easily thrown off the track by any obstacles that may come in their path. The second characteristic of the ordinary mind is that it is constantly and completely turned outwards. It is used to taking interest only in the objects of the outer world. This centrifugal tendency of the mind does not matter in the case of ordinary people because his interest and field of work is in the external world and the question of drawing the mind within does not arise. This condition of the mind in which it is turned outwards and is subject to distractions is also called Viksepa. The mind of the ordinary man whose consciousness is turned outward is called Paranga Cetana [Dispersiveness](Centrifugal). The mind of the Yogi whose consciousness is turned inward is called Pratyak Cetana [Ekagrata](Centripetal).
Nirodha (Cessation)
Memory [smrti] (CS, p.42) is a vrtti, and its association with ignorance misidentification [in the form of superimposition of karmic residues onto the form of the object is to be transcended in the process of cessation (nirodha). This does not result in the yogin suffering a loss of memory of words and their meaning in practical life. Rather, it means the yogin no longer carries the former confused memory into Samadhi, does not rely on words as object of support for the mind. To repeat the earlier claim, dissolution or cessation (nirodha) is of the deluding power of misidentification [samyoga], not of the power of identification itself which enables one to attend, empathize, known and unite with objects, and persons. Yoga (CS, p.78) discards all ignorance and attachment, not knowledge [vrtti] and relational existence in total.
If bondage and suffering are due to an enslavement to the vyutthana [mode or centrifugal tendency] of consciousness of Purusa misidentified within prakrti (CS, p.10), freedom can take place through a counter-process of the nirodha [mode or centripetalization of consciousness], an interiorization and centering of the consciousness which transcends and heals the fractured consciousness of self thereby correcting our mistaken identity. The process of nirodha can be broadly conceived as a de-identification with and final dispassion towards the “seeable” [drsya] starting from grosser forms of manifestation [i.e. physical objects up to and including unmanifest prakrti]. Through cessation [nirodha] brought about by practice and dispassion, including the unchanging of attention from its confinement to ego-consciousness, the power of identification or vrtti-generating complex no longer functions under the influence of ignorance [avidya].
In the process of nirodha there takes place an interiorization of attention, a necessary inward movement or ‘flow’ of consciousness in the mind allowing for a retracing of consciousness and identity from a distorted, unsteady state of dispersion and emergence [vyustthana] to a finer concentrated state whereby experience, no longer frustrated due to epistemic distortion, is allowed to complete itself through a full merging or unification with the object of experience. This process involves as well a retrieval in consciousness of the formerly obscured and misappropriated source principles or subjective evolutes [e.i. manas, ahamkara, buddhi] through which experience takes place. Only such a merging or “oneness” with the object will enable the yogin to transcend the mechanism of ignorance through which misidentification and dissatisfaction are perpetuated.
IMPEDIMENTS
Vritti
In yoga (CS, p.28) through the process of Nirodha, the identification with the modification [vrtti] of the effect is understood, mastered and transcended, thereby disclosing the form [vrtti] of its cause. The identification with vrtti may take the form of a pratyaya referring to the significance or content of a vrtti including fixed, egoic notions of self and identity which are cemented or crystallized in the mind. Because a cause is always subtler, less tangible and located deeper within the mind-processes, closer to the light of Purusa, the next step in the practice of Samadhi is invariably subtler. Vrtti and pratyaya do not strictly refer to the same thing, vrtti indicating an underlying mental process and pratyaya meaning the product/content [i.e. cognition, idea, intention] or significance of a vrtti which by means of this mental process arrives at consciousness.
Even though the mind has the capacity for knowledge of all things, to realize all matters, it fails to do so because of the intervention and misidentification with mental content or objects of perception [i.e. the vrtti-generating complex]; only when their interruption is finally prevented through the clarity attained in Samadhi does the full realization [saksatkara] of the objects of contemplation occur. In yoga, unmediated perception is possible and such clarity allows for insight into the true nature of any object.
In perception only vrtti is generated. One must also develop a detachment or dispassion towards that vrtti of perception. Insight into the true nature and form [svarupa] of an object in Samadhi only leads to the powers [siddhis] (CS, p.22). C. Pensa points out that the powers in Yoga are presumed to be “a sign of correct Yoga procedure” but are not the true aim of Yoga.
According to Yogasutra [YSIII,37] certain supernormal powers called pratibha understood as vividness or intuitive illumination in regard to hearing, touching or sensing, sight, taste and smell are to be looked upon as “impediments to Samadhi but perfections in the state of extroversion (turning interest on outside environment) or emergence [vyutthana]”. These powers which can be understood as a natural by-product of the yogin’s meditative practice are accomplishments only from the point of view of the egoic consciousness. Indulging in them only serves to inflate the ego and prevents spiritual growth precisely because the deployment of them presupposes that we invest our attention in the sensorial world and the desire for power or control over it [reinforcing the subject-object duality within prakrti which Yoga seeks to bring an end to].
Vyasa thus boldly advocates (CS, p24) that even though great powers can be accessed through Yoga, the true yogin does not venture to transgress the natural laws of prakrti. Patanjali was not opposed to the right use of siddhis which could serve to bring about a more insightful understanding of oneself and the cosmos or else he would not have dedicated the entire third chapter of his work to these manifestations of power [vibhutis]. Vyasa maintains that the realization of the purity of Purusa and the culminating stage of liberated ‘aloneness’ [kaivalya] can take place whether one has acquired siddhis or not.
When the modifications [vrtti] of the mind have diminished or subsided through practice [abhayasa] and dispassion [vairagya], the barriers between the mind and object dissolve and both coincide. This process is elucidated by Patanjali in YS I, 41 as follows: “The steadied mind of diminished modifications, like a precious [flawless] jewel assuming the color of the grasper, the grasping and the grasped, has unification.” This sutra describes the basic processes and mechanism of any form of cognitive Samadhi. The term samapatti (CS, p.25) [unification] has been translated as:
“Balanced state, engrossment, transformation, thought transformation, illumination, complete identity, consummation, Zusammenfallen, coincidence, intentional identity, identification-in-samadhi, unity.”
This process of “unification” is elaborated upon by way of an example. Vyasa writes:
“The analogy is given of a precious jewel. As a crystal, according to the things set near it, becomes tinged with their colors and appears to take on their respective forms, so the mind is colored by the object of contemplation, and through uniting with the object appears in the form of the object.”
Pratyaya
As the mind is capable of holding a large variety of objects simultaneously a word has to be used to denote all these objects taken together irrespective of their nature. Pratyaya (SY, p.279) is a technical word for this total content of the mind. In view of what has been said about Dharana, it will be seen that this Pratyaya with which the mind remains in continuous contact in Dhyana is fixed and yet a variable thing. It is fixed in the sense that the area within which the mind moves is defined and remains the same. It is variable because within that limited area or sphere there is movement. The mind has to remain united with the Pratyaya within the limits defined in Dharana. The mind of any person remains united with the Pratyaya while he is in waking consciousness. But not only is the Pratyaya changing all the time but the mental territory is also changing because the mind is flitting from one subject to another.
Illusion
Illusion is an erroneous perception of Reality; an erroneous concept or belief, a delusion. It is a condition of being deceived by such perception. The whole problem of human suffering and misery are explained in the human affliction (Klesas) and the solution to this affliction is the conquest of this great illusion. Vairagya and Viveka are means to conquer illusion. The idea of ensuring a happy life by means of virtue, apart from the impracticability of living a perfectly virtuous life continuously while still bound by illusion is based on a delusion about the very nature of what the ordinary man calls happiness. Not until the aspirant has realized to some extent the illusion underlying the so-called ‘happiness’ which he pursues in the world can he really give up this futile pursuit and devote himself whole-heartedly in the task of transcending the Great illusion and finding that Reality in which alone can one find true Enlightenment and Peace.
Klesas [Affliction]
One must bear in mind that an affliction [klesa] that arises out of spiritual ignorance and permeates the entire realm of our seeing or prakrtic consciousness, individual and cosmic. As such, it along with its root cause [ignorance] must be discarded for the Purusa or pure seer to shine in its true light. When one falsely identifies or misidentifies with the principles of matter or any of prakrti’s modifications, those tattvas and mental processes [vrttis] are experienced as pervaded by an “I-am consciousness [i.e. buddhi, I am ahamkara] that is wholly identified within prakrti thereby masking or excluding Purusa. Purusa does not do anything in this process. Asmita is an afflicted state of consciousness and identity that permeates and sustain our notions or sense of authentic identity as a bound ‘entity’ under the sway of prakrtic existence.
Klesas exist in various states (CS, p.8). They can be:
(1) dormant (prasupta), that is, it exists in the form of latent impressions (samskara) in the potential condition as a seed [bija] awakening when they confront their objects and generating various afflicted forms of psychomental activity;
(2) attenuated (tanu), that is temporarily prevented from taking effect by way of cultivation of their opposite (pratipaksa-bhavana), or other yogic techniques;
(3) interrupted (vicchinna), which is the case when one kind of klesa (e.g. attachment or raga), in the form of desire temporarily blocks the operation of another [e.g. anger as associated with aversion (dvesa);
(4) aroused (udara), meaning fully active in that what possesses the mind in regard to an object is called aroused.
According to Patanjali, it is the purpose of Kriya-yoga to achieve the attenuation of these afflictions and bring about the cultivation of Samadhi. Vyasa also declares that whatever is given form or influenced by spiritual ignorance, “that the afflictions inhere in. They are felt at the time of deluded apprehension, thought or ideas; when ignorance dwindles, it dwindles accordingly.”
One must bear in mind that asmita is an affliction [klesa] that arises out of spiritual ignorance and permeates the entire realm of our seeing or prakrtic consciousness, individual and cosmic. As such, it along with its root cause [ignorance] must be discarded for the Purusa or pure seer to shine in its true light. When one falsely identifies or misidentifies with the principles of matter or any of prakrti’s modifications, those tattvas and mental processes [vrttis] are experienced as pervaded by an “I-am consciousness [i.e. buddhi, I am ahamkara] that is wholly identified within prakrti thereby masking or excluding Purusa. Purusa does not do anything in this process. Asmita is an afflicted state of consciousness and identity, that permeates and sustains our notions or sense of authentic identity as a bound ‘entity’ under the sway of prakrtic existence.
Karma
The law of Karma is the expression of the most perfect justice that we can conceive of. Since Karma is a natural law and natural law work with mathematical precision we can to a certain extent predict the Karmic results of our actions and thoughts by imagining their consequences. The karmic result or ‘fruit’ as it is generally called, of an action is related to the action as a photographic copy related to its negative, though the compounding of several effects in one experience may make it difficult to trace the effects to their respective causes.
The orthodox religious conceptions of hell and heaven in which are provided rewards and punishments without any regard for the natural relationship of causes and effects are sometimes absurd in the extreme though they do in a general way relate virtue to pleasure and vice to pain. The philosophy of Yoga differs fundamentally from most of the orthodox religions of the world which offer nothing better than an uncertain and nebulous happiness in the life after death. They say in effect ‘lead a good life to ensure happiness after death, put your faith in God and hope for the best’. According to Yogic philosophy death no more solves your spiritual problem than night solves your economic problem. If you are poor you do not expect on going to bed that your economic problem will be automatically solved next day. You will have to get up next day and begin where you left off the previous night. If you are poor economically you do not expect to get rich overnight and if you are poor spiritually, bound by illusions and limitations of all kinds, you cannot expect to become Enlightened in your next life, or if you do not believe in reincarnation, in the vague and unending life which is supposed to follow death.
Sutras 12, 13, and 14 give in a very concise and lucid manner the essential features of the twin laws of Karma and Reincarnation, the well known doctrines formulating the Universal Moral Law and cycle of births and deaths underlying human life. The three sutras are:
No. 12. The reservoir of Karmas which are rooted in Klesas brings all kinds of experiences in the present and future lives.
No. 13. As long as the root is there it must ripen and result in lives of different class, length and experiences.
No. 14. They have joy or sorrow for their fruit according as their cause is virtue or vice.
Karmas are neither white nor black (neither good nor bad) in the case of Yogis, they are of three kinds in the case of others. Black and white obviously describe the two kinds. The third kind of karma are those of mixed character.
AID IN PRACTICE
Abhyasa
Abhyasa is the effort for being firmly established in the state of Citta-Vrtti-Nirodha. All effort isdirected towards the attainment of that transcendent state in which all Citta-Vrttis have been suppressed and the light of Reality shines uninterruptedly in its fullest splendour. It becomes firmly grounded on being continued for a long time without interruption and with reverent devotion. In order that the practice of Yoga may bear fruit and may enable the Sadhaka to be firmly established on the path there are three conditions which must be fulfilled:
1. These practices must be continued for a long time,
2. There should be no interruptions.
3. The path must be trodden with devotion and in a spirit of reverence.
In a few rare cases where the progress is extremely rapid there is always the momentum of the past, due generally to a number of successive lives devoted to the practice of Yoga. So, no one can predict when the final goal will be reached and he who enters the path seriously must make up his mind to continue not only for a long time but through many lives until the goal is reached.
Abhyasa and Vairagya are jointly used for Citta-Vrtti-Nirodha
Viveka-Khyati
Viveka means discrimination between the real and the unreal and the general idea underlying this word is familiar to students of Yogic philosophy. Viveka is generally used for that state of the mind in which it is aware of the great problems of life and the illusions which are inherent in ordinary human life. Khyati is usually translated as knowledge or consciousness. So Viveka-khyati means knowledge of the discrimination between the Real and the unreal. When Viveka light dawns on the mind, all this changes. We become very much alive to the fundamental problems of life, begin to question life’s values and detach ourselves from the current of ordinary thoughts and desires, and above all, we want to find that Reality which is hidden behind the flux of phenomena.
The word ‘discrimination’ is used ordinarily for that process of spiritual discernment which enables us to detect the illusions of life and to discover the relative reality hidden behind them. But the word Viveka (Vikeka-jam-Jnanam) in the present context stands for “awareness of the Ultimate Reality”, a state of consciousness which transcends Omniscience itself cannot be called knowledge.
Vairagya
The consciousness of perfect mastery of desires in the case of one who has ceased to crave for objects seen or unseen is Vairagya. The word Vairagya is derived from the word Raga which has been defined as the attraction which arises due to pleasure derived from any object. Vairagya therefore means the absence of any attraction (or aversion) towards objects which give pleasure (or pain). Desire develops the mind; the will develops spirituality. The real weapon to be used in acquiring true Vairagya is the more penetrating light of Buddhi which expresses itself as Viveka (or discrimination between spirit and matter, real and the unreal, the true from the false, etc.)
Vairagya is detachment or dispassion towards each level of identification with the objects of experience “either seen or heard of” culminating in a superior form of dispassion towards the manifest and unmanifest existence of the gunas. Patanjali emphasizes that a necessary detachment or dispassionate attitude towards each successive experience in the practice of Samadhi must develop for the yogin. Simply perfecting a particular level of realization in Samadhi and remaining at that level of understanding is not conducive to furthering one’s spiritual growth. It is only when a complete detachment or dispassion [vairagya] develops towards the present experience that the next step can be taken involving a yet subtler object of contemplation and support. Dispassion(CS, p.8) towards all experiences in Samadhi liberates the yogin from further attachment to the results or fruit attained through practice [abhysa]. Practice keeps the process of yoga [nirodha] in a working condition and allows for subtler realization and perceptions to take place.
Through moral purification finer perception can arise, virtue thus acting as an efficient cause for removing non-virtue which in turn allows for greater concentration and meditative insight in Yoga (CS, p.77). What is involved here is not a suppression but a reconciliation of the past actions and a healing summation and transmutation of the human psyche. The moral and epistemological dimensions of Yoga are refined, and virtue whether of an ethical or cognitive nature is seen to converge in the sattva of the mind. By developing the capacity or power to contact or locate finer clearer and un-diverted reflections of Purusa within the mind, the yogin is purified of distorted perception, deluded self understanding and a host of other forms of non-virtue. An increasing light of sattva including liberating knowledge, dispassion and other virtues such as compassion [karuna] pervades the yogin’s consciousness augmenting and spiritualizing his identity.
As mentioned earlier under the heading Vrtti, according to YS III, 37(CS, p.23), certain supernormal powers called pratibha [understood as vividness or intuitive illumination in regard to hearing, touching or sensing, sight, taste and smell] are to be looked upon as “impediment to Samadhi but perfections in the state of extroversion (interest in environment of others) or emergence (vyutthana).” These powers which can be understood as a natural by-product of the yogin’s meditative practice are accomplishments only from the point of view of the egoic consciousness. Indulging in them only serves to inflate the ego, and prevents spiritual growth precisely because the deployment of them presupposes that we invest our attention in the sensorial world and the desire for power or control over it. The powers are made available or accessed by means of ascension through the tattvas [principles of existence] as enumerated in Samkhya. The enhanced abilities to observe the subtle elements [tanmatras] giving rise to the gross elements [bhutas] which is the import of YSIII, 36 follows the Samakhyan scheme – need not be a problem in Yoga. It is rather one’s attachment of these powers or selfish manipulation of them that inevitably creates difficulties and confusion for oneself and others. Any clinging to or misappropriation of power means that we reinforce the habit of assuming we are ego-personalities rather than Purusa. Clearly then the powers are detrimental if one had no higher goal or aspiration.
DIFFERENT WAYS OF YOGA
Raja Yoga (Kingly Yoga): The Raja Yoga seeks to control the changes in consciousness, and by this control to rule the material vehicles. This is the type of Yoga recommended and discussed in detail in this work.
Bhakti Yoga (Devotionally Inclined): Concentrate your thoughts on the image of your God, or of a saint or guru that you wish to follow. Or visualize yourself as His servant and a channel for His love, His Wisdom, and His Power.
Karma Yoga: If you are active person and your path is that of selfless action, you may concentrate on the thought: “Others, Lord others”. Or you may visualize yourself as radiating peace and happiness in all directions and repeat at the same time the formula: “Let all beings be happy, let all beings be peaceful, let all beings be blissful.” Try to separate yourself from your thoughts and just observe them. Simply be a witness of your own actions. It is not you who are projecting peace and happiness. You are simply the observer from above who watches the body sitting there in meditation and doing it.
Jnana Yoga (Path of knowledge and philosophy): You may concentrate on the question “Who am I? Or you can simply observe your breathing process. Do not control it; just observe it. You can add to it the repetition of the sacred word OM to every inhalation, counting at the same time the exhalations. Or meditate on the inner light. Feel that you have entered a temple where the light of the soul is burning and concentrate on the ancient saying: “Within you is the light of the world – the only light that can be shed upon the path.
Abstract Meditation: You may prefer a more abstract form of meditation and concentrate on an affirmation such as, “I am”, “I am That I am”, “I am Truth, Wisdom and Light”, “I am Brahman”, or simply concentrate on the word OM.
Laya Yoga (SY, p.89): Laya Yoga is a means for making the mind steady in its absorption in some superphysical sensuous cognition. Such cognition may be brought about in a variety of ways, for example, by concentrating the mind on certain vital centers in the body. A typical example of this method is the mind is concentrated on Nada or superphysical sounds which can be heard at certain points within the body. The same object can be gained by bringing it in contact with other superphysical sensations or states of consciousness. The Sadhaka should keep in his mind the purpose of these practices. He should not attach to them undue importance and significance and begin to imagine that it is making great progress on the path of Yoga. He is learning merely the ABC of Yogic science. Consciousness cannot remain suspended indefinitely in a void. It must emerge on one of the two sides of the Laya center. If the technique of Nirodha Parinama has not been mastered sufficiently it may spring back into the plane which it has just left and the seeds which had been dropped will then reappear. [SY, p. 35- 43].
Hatha Yoga [SY, p. 252]: This is based on the principle that changes in consciousness can be brought about by setting in motion currents of certain kinds of subtler forces [Prana, Kundalini] in the physical body. It is a system of physical culture to make the physical body fit for the influx and manipulation of the forces often with different purpose. The Hatha Yoga seeks to control the vibrations of matter, and by this control to evoke the desired changes in consciousness. The Hatha Yogi gains control over the bodily organs with which the waking consciousness no longer concerns itself, having relinquished them to its lower part, the ‘sub-consciousness’. This is often useful as regards the prevention of disease, but serves no higher purpose. When he begins to work on the brain centers connected with ordinary consciousness, and still more when he touches those connected with the super-consciousness, he enters a dangerous region, and is more likely to paralyze than to evolve.
Kriya Yoga [SY, p.127]: Austerity, self study, resignation to Isvara constitute practical or preliminary to yoga, or Kriya Yoga. It is preliminary because it has to be taken up in the initial stages of the practices of Yoga and it is practical because it puts to a practical test the aspiration and earnestness of a Sadhaka and develops in him the capacity to begin the practice of Yoga as distinguished from its mere theoretical study however deep this might be.
Or you can concentrate on the *Eternal Now, becoming aware that there is no other time but NOW; only the present moment really exists.
Do not try to embrace too much in one meditation; choose your approach one at a time, then stick with it.
You should spend between fifteen and thirty minutes in meditation. Later, when you become more proficient, you will automatically want to increase the time.
*I. I. Nelson in his book “The Ancient Wisdom in the Modern School” mentioned that Dr. Annie Besant offers a description of the wisdom of eternal life in five statements:
1. One eternal infinite unrecognizable real Existence.
2. From THAT the manifested God, unfolding from unity to duality, from duality to trinity.
3. From the manifested trinity, many spiritual intelligences guiding the cosmic order.
4. Man a reflection of the manifested God and therefore a trinity fundamentally, his inner and real self, being eternal, one the Self of the universe.
5. His evolution by repeated incarnations, into which he is drawn by desire, and from which he is set free by knowledge and sacrifice becoming divine in potency as he had been in latency.
Mantra Yoga (SY, p.63): Mantra Yoga is that branch of Yoga which seeks to bring about changes in matter and consciousness by the agency of ‘Sound’, the word ‘Sound’ being used not in its modern scientific sense but in the special sense. According to the Mantra Yoga doctrine, the primary manifestation of the Ultimate Reality takes place through the agency of subtle vibration called “Sabda” which means sound or word. The world is not only created but maintained by this Sabda which differentiates into innumerable forms of vibration which underlie the phenomenal world. Vibrations of striking the organs of sensation produce five kinds of sensations and the familiar world of light, sound, etc. is thus based on vibration. These vibrations or expressions of energy not only constitute the material of the manifested world (using the word material in its widest sense) but by their actions and interactions produce all the phenomena of the different planes.
A mantra (SY,p.69) is a sound combination and thus represents a physical vibration which is perceptible to the physical ear. But this physical vibration is its outermost expression and hidden behind the physical vibration and connected with it are subtler vibrations much in the same way as the dense physical body of man is his outermost expression and is connected with his subtler vehicles. These different aspects of “Vak” or “Speech” are called Vaikhari, Madhyama, Pasyanti, and Para. Vakhari is the audible sound which can lead through the intermediate stages to the subtlest forms of “sound” that the unfoldment of consciousness takes place and the hidden potentialities become active powers. This release of powers takes a definite course according to the specific nature of the Mantra just as a seed grows into a tree but into a particular kind of tree according to the nature of the seed.
In bringing about this one-pointed state of absorption (SY, p.227) the use of Mantras is very helpful. The Sadhaka may use the Mantra of his Ista-Devata or any of the well-known Mantras like Gayatri or Pranava. These Mantras harmonize the lower vehicles of consciousness, make them sensitive to the subtler vibrations and ultimately bring about a partial fusion of the lower and higher consciousness. So it will be seen that though Svadyaya begins with intellectual study it must be carried through the progressive stages of reflection, meditation, Tapas, etc. to the point where the Sadhaka is able to gain all knowledge or devotion from within by his own efforts. That is the significance of the prefix Sva in Svadyaya. He leaves all external aids such as books, discourses, etc. and dives into his own mind for everything he needs in his quest.
The first and most effective means which Patanjali (SY, p.67) prescribed for overcoming the distracted condition of the mind is the pranava and meditation of its meaning. He calls Pranava as the Vacaka of Isvara. A Vacaka is a name which has a mystic relationship with (Vacya) the Entity designated and has inherent in it the power of revealing the consciousness and releasing the power of the individual for whom it stands. Such Vacaka is Om. It is considered to be the most mystical, sacred and powerful Mantra by the Hindus because it the Vacaka of Isvara, the Greatest Power and the Supreme Consciousness as far as our Solar System is concerned.
According to the doctrine of the occult science the infinitely complex vibrations of innumerable variety are expressions of a single vibration produced by the Will of the Mighty Being who is the Presiding Deity of the particular manifested world whether this world by a Solar system, Universe or the Cosmos. This tremendous, primary, and integrated vibration from which are derived all the vibrations in manifestation is called “Sabda-Brahman”, i.e. the Ultimate Reality in its aspect of ‘Sound’ or word which is being used in the most comprehensive and rather mysterious sense as pointed out earlier. The other underlying integrated Consciousness is called “Brahman-Caitanya” i.e. the Reality in its aspect of Consciousness. These two expressions are complementary and mutually dependent since they are the dual expressions of the One Reality and appear or disappear simultaneously.
From this primary relationship of [1] vibration and [2] consciousness existing on the highest level of manifestation links the relation of these two on all the planes of manifestation down to the physical. So that we find that wherever there is manifestation of consciousness there is (prakritic)vibration associated with it whether we are able to trace it or not. Not only are vibration and consciousness so intimately and indissolubly connected but there is a specific relationship existing between each kind of vibration and the particular aspect of consciousness which it can give expression to so that each kind of vibration is matched, by a corresponding state of consciousness. This relation may be understood to a certain extent by considering its expression at the lowest level, namely, sensuous perception. Each particular vibration of sound produces perception of the corresponding note in consciousness. Each particular vibration of light with a definite wavelength produces its corresponding color perception in consciousness and so forth. Not only can consciousness be affected by vibration but consciousness by initiating particular vibrations can also influence matter and bring about changes in matter. According to I K Taimni (SY, p.123) when the vibration of sound is too rapid they appear as silence. When the vibration of light become too fine they appear as darkness.
QUALIFICATIONS OF A YOGI (SY, p. 48)
Faith
Faith is the firm conviction regarding the presence of the Truth we seek within us and the efficacy of Yogic technique in enabling us to reach the goal.
Energy or Will
The word Virya in Samskrta cannot be translated by any one word in English. It combines in itself the connotations of energy, determination, courage, all aspects of an indomitable will which ultimately overcomes all obstacles and forces its way to the desired goal
Memory (Smrti)
The word Smrti is not used here in its ordinary psychological sense of memory but in a special sense. It is the experience of the large majority of aspirants on the path that the lessons of experience are forgotten again and again and the same experiences have therefore to be repeated time after time thus involving tremendous waste of time and effort. The yogi has to acquire the capacity to note the lessons of experience and to retain them in his consciousness for future guidance.
Keen intelligence
Samadhi-prajna means the peculiar state of the mind or consciousness which is essential for the practice of Samadhi. In this state of the mind is turned inwards habitually, bent on the pursuit of the Reality hidden within it, absorbed in the deeper problems of life and oblivious of the external world even though taking part in its activities. Samadhi-prajna cannot obviously mean the state of consciousness during Samadhi because it precedes the state of Samadhi which is the objective of Yoga.
EIGHT-LIMBS [ASTANGA] YOGA
The Eight-limbs [Astanga] yoga is made up of the five external technique and the three internal technique. The external technique comprises the yama, niyama, asanas, pranayama, and pratyahara. The internal technique comprises the dharana, dhyana, and Samadhi. [refer to the diagram II per outline]
External Technique
These practices are of a preparatory nature and are meant to make the Sadhaka fit for the practice of Samadhi. This is to fit the aspirant physically, emotionally, morally for the practice of Higher Yoga.
A. Yama
Yama derived from the verb-root “yam” – to hold, to check. In Yoga discipline it includes the quality of Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Bramacarya, and aparigraha. On the path of higher Yoga (SY, p.208) morality of a high order is essential and it is a morality not of the conventional type, not even of ordinary religious type. It is a transcendent morality based on the higher laws of Nature and organized with a view to bring about the liberation of the individual from the bonds of illusion and ignorance. Its object is not to achieve limited happiness within the illusions of the lower life but to gain true and lasting happiness or Peace by transcending those illusions. This is a point which must be clearly understood because to many students of Yogic philosophy, Yogic morality appears to be unnecessarily harsh and forbidding.
Ahimsa (Harmlessness)
Ahimsa is the age-old and great moral laws of non-injury. The laws of negative ethics and compassion: “Thou shalt not kill,” etc.
Satya (Truth)
Truth, reality; derived from the word sat or ‘that which reality is.’ Sat is a participial form of the verb-root as – to be. According to Sutra I-48, the consciousness is Truth-and-Right bearing. This sutra gives an important attribute to the type of consciousness which emerges as a result of this change. Satyam, the truth; Rtam, the right; and Bhara, to bear or to hold. To understand this we should recall the well-known Eastern philosophy according to which the Universe, both seen and unseen, is a manifestation of a Divine Reality or Spirit which abides within it and is the ultimate cause and source of all that takes place in it in terms of time and space. That Reality is referred to as Sat and its existence in the Universe manifests in two fundamental ways. In the first place, it constitutes the truth or the very essence of all things. This is called Satyam. In the second place, it determines the ordered course of things both in their material and moral aspect. This is called Rtam. Satyam is thus the relative truth underlying manifestation constituting the realities of all things. Rtam is the cosmic order including all laws-natural, moral, or spiritual – in their totality which are eternal and inviolable in their nature. Satyam and Rtam will therefore be seen to be two aspects of Sat in manifestation, one static the other dynamic. They are inseperable and together constitute the very foundation of the manifested universe.
Asteya (non-stealing)
Asteya literally means abstaining from stealing, to take the word in a very comprehensive sense and not merely interpret it in terms of the penal code, but abstaining from misappropriation of all kinds. The would-be Yogi cannot allow himself to take anything which does not properly belong to him, not merely in the way of money or goods but even such intangible and yet highly prized things as credit for things he has not done or privileges which do not properly belong to him.
Bramacarya (Sexual Abstinence)
This appears to be the most forbidding and many earnest students who are deeply interested in Yogic philosophy fight shy of its practical application in their life because they are afraid they will have to give up the pleasures of sex-indulgence. The real Yogic life cannot be combined with the self-indulgence and waste of vital force which is involved in the pleasure of sex life and he has to choose between the two. He may not be required to give up sex life all at once but he has to give it up completely before he can start the serious practice of higher Yoga, as distinguished from a mere theoretical study or even Yogic practices of a preparatory nature.
Aparigraha (Non-covetousness)
Aparigraha (SY, p.216) is sometimes translated as absence of greediness but non-possessiveness perhaps gives the underlying idea better. There is a tremendous tendency in human life to accumulate worldly goods and such becomes a basic instinct in human life. Of course, as long as we live in the physical world we have to have a few things which are essential for the maintenance of the body, although essential and non-essential are relative terms and there seems to be no limit to the cutting down of even what are considered the necessities of life. When we have at our disposal all the means that can ensure all possible comforts and enjoyments for the rest of our life we are still not satisfied and continue to amass wealth and things. We seem not to know when to stop accumulating things. Let us consider a few of the factor which are involved: First, you have to spend time and energy in the accumulation of things which you do not really need. Then you have to spend time and energy in maintaining and guarding the things which you have accumulated, the worries and anxieties of life increasing proportionately with the increase in the accumulations. Then consider the fear of losing some of them every now and then and the regret of leaving them behind when you ultimately bid goodbye to this world. Now add up all these things and see what a colossal waste of time, energy and mental force all this involves. So the would-be Yogi cuts down his possessions and requirements to the minimum and eliminates from his life all these unnecessary accumulations and activities which fritter away his energies and are a source of constant disturbance to the mind. He remains satisfied with what comes to him in the natural course of the working of the law of Karma.
B. Niyama
“Restraint of the mind”; derived from the verb-root yam – to hold, and ni –down. Niyama is the controlling and directing of one’s thought and motives and actions as well as other voluntary rules and minor regulations of life adopted by the ascetic in order to silence the personal self and thus give way to the Universal Self within. These laws which are self-imposed prepare a man for greater service to the whole of humanity and they are known as the positive laws of ethics and compassion. This includes Purity, contentment, austerity, self study, and surrender of self to God constitute observances (SY, p.220).
Sauca (Purity)
According to the Yogic philosophy the whole of the Universe, seen or unseen, is a manifestation of the Divine life and pervaded by the Divine Consciousness. The Enlightened sage or saint who has had the Divine vision everything from an atom to the Isvara of the Brahmanda is a vehicle of the Divine Life and therefore pure and sacred. From this higher point of view nothing can be considered impure in the absolute sense. When we use the words pure and impure in relation to our life we obviously use them in a relative sense. The word purity is used in relation to our vehicles, not only the body which we can cognize with our physical senses but also the superphysical vehicles which serve as the instruments of emotion, thought and other spiritual faculties. A thing is pure in relation to a vehicle if it enables or helps the vehicle to serve efficiently as an instrument of the Divine Life expressing through it at the particular stage of evolution.
Samtosa (Contentment)
The second element of Niyama is Samtosa which is translated as Contentment. It is necessary for the aspirant to cultivate contentment of the highest order because without it there is no possibility of keeping the mind in a condition of equilibrium and stillness by a deliberate exercise of the will, meditation, and other means that may be available. It is based on perfect indifference to all those personal enjoyments, comforts and other consideration which sway mankind. Its object is the attainment of that Peace which takes one completely beyond the realm of illusion and misery.
Tapas (Austerity)
Tapas is related to Will. Austerity, self study, resignation to Isvara (SY, p.127) constitute preliminary to yoga, or Kriya Yoga which is often called preliminary or practical. It is preliminary because it has to be taken up in the initial stages of the practices of Yoga and it is practical because it puts to a practical test the aspiration and earnestness of the Sadhaka and develops in him the capacity to begin the practice of Yoga as distinguished from its mere theoretical study however deep this might be.
The word stands for a class of various practices the object of which is to purify and discipline the lower nature and to bring the vehicles of the Jivatma under the control of an iron will. The meaning of the word (SY, p.225) is probably derived from the process of subjecting alloyed gold to strong “heating” whereby all the dross is burnt off and pure gold is left behind.
Svadhyaya (Self Study)
Svadhyaya is related to intellect. The word Svadhyaya is sometimes used in a limited sense for the study of the sacred scriptures. But this is only a part of the work which has to be done. The student must make himself thoroughly familiar with all the essential literature bearing on the different aspects of Yoga just as he does in the study of any science. A broad and general intellectual background is necessary for achieving success in any sphere of scientific endeavor and since Yoga is a science par excellence it is true of this science also.
Isvara-Pranidhana (Self-Surrender to God) (SY, p.55)
Isvara-Pranidhana is related to emotion. This is usually translated as resignation to Isvara or God but in view of the fact that the advanced practice is to bring about Samadhi, it is obvious that the word is used in a far deeper sense than the superficial mental effort of the ordinary religious man to resign himself to the will of God. When such a man makes a mental assertion of this kind what he really means is that the will of God is supreme in the world over which He rules and he submits to that will gladly, although the experience which has evoked that assertion may not be a pleasant one. The practice of Isvara-pranidhana therefore begins with the mental assertion “Not my will but Thy Will be done”, but it does not end there. There is a steady effort to bring about a continuous recession of consciousness from the level of the personality which is the seat of “I” consciousness into the consciousness of the Supreme whose will is working out in the manifested world. The attainment of Samadhi is possible by following another path in which the aspirant does not bring about the deliberate suppression of the Citta-Vrtti by the force of his will. On this path he simply surrenders himself to the will of Isvara and merges all his desires with the Divine Will.
C. Asanas (Posture)
Posture (SY, p.253) should be steady and comfortable. The Yogi has to choose any one of the well-known Asanas suitable for the practice of meditation such as Padmasana or Siddhasana and then practice remaining in that posture until he can maintain it for long periods of time without the slightest inclination to make any movement. The Yogi is then able to maintain his body in the correct posture indefinitely and to forget it altogether.
Patanjali has given in this Sutra only one result of practicing Asana, a result with which the Sadhaka is directly concerned in the practice of Yoga. But there are also other important benefits of practicing Asana. These are:
Make the body perfectly healthy and resistant to fatigue and strain.
Acquire fitness for the practice of Pranayama as a result of proper regulation of Pranic currents in the body. In fact, those who become proficient in the practice of Asana find that the movement of the breath begins naturally to conform to the requirements of Pranayama and it becomes possible to take to the practice of Pranayama with the greatest ease.
Develop will-power. The physical body is directly and in some mysterious manner related to the Atma, the source of spiritual power. Gaining control over the physical body which mastery of Asana implies brings about an extraordinary influx of that spiritual force which expresses itself in outer life as will power.
D. Pranayama
Pranayama refers to certain exercises in breathing-control which tend to temporarily quiet the mind of the Yogin and thus bring about certain states of consciousness. The subject of Pranayama has been dealt with in II-49-53. Pranayama is a means to purify nadis. These Nadis are channels along which the currents of Prana or vitality flow in the Pranayama Kosa. If these channels are not quite clear and the current of Prana do not flow in them smoothly various kinds of nervous disturbances are produced. These manifest chiefly in a general feeling of physical and mental restlessness which causes Viksepa [outward bound consciousness]. This condition can be removed by practicing one of the well known breathing exercises for the purification of the Nadis (Nadi Suddhi). Since Kumbhaka [holding of breath] does not play any part in this exercise and no strain of any kind is involved they are quite harmless though highly beneficial for the nervous system. If they are practiced correctly for long periods of time and the Yogic regime of life is followed at the same time, the physical body becomes light and full of vitality and the mind calm and restful.
The reason why Pranayama (SY, p.258) plays such an important part in the technique of Yoga lies in the close relation existing between Prana and mind. Prana which exists on all the planes of manifestation is the connecting link between matter and energy on the one hand and consciousness and mind on the other. Consciousness expressing itself through the mind cannot come into touch with matter and function through it without the intermediate presence of Prana. Matter in association with energy cannot affect consciousness except through the agency of Prana. That is why prana is found on all the planes. It is necessary for the vitalization and functioning of all vehicles of consciousness, physical or superphysical. This capacity to act as intermediary depends upon its peculiar constitution. It combines in itself in some mysterious manner the essential qualities of both matter and consciousness and is thus able to serve as an instrument for their actions and reactions on each other.
The second result of Pranayama practice is that it prepares the mind for the practice of Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi – Antaranga Yoga [Samyama]. The capacity to form vivid and sharp mental images and to be able to see them clearly is necessary for practicing Dharana effectively. As long as our mental images are blurred and confused it is not easy to concentrate on them or manipulate them as all people who try to meditate know from practical experience. The mind does not seem to get a good hold on them and they tend to slip away easily. Pranayama by removing this difficulty facilitates concentration to a great extent. That is why Patanjali has made it an integral part of his Yogic technique.
But while abstaining strictly from the ill-advised practice of Pranayama proper there is no harm in trying to understand its rationale and the limit to which one can go with safety in the manipulation of breathing for the sake of promoting physical and mental health. The essential knowledge with regard to this aspect of the subject may be summarized as follows:
1. Deep breathing has nothing to do with Pranayama and may be practiced as an exercise for promoting health to any reasonable extent. Its beneficial effects depend chiefly upon the increased intake of oxygen and a somewhat greater influx of Prana into the body. As it does not affect the Pranic currents in the body its practice is not attended by any risks.
2. Breathing alternately through the two nostrils begins at once to affect the Pranic currents to a certain extent and tends to remove the congestion from the channels in which Prana flows normally. It has been pointed out already that there is a close relation between breathing and the flow of Pranic currents in the Pranamaya Kosa. When we breathe normally the Pranic currents follow their natural course. When we breathe alternately through the two nostrils their normal flow is disturbed in some way. The effect may be likened to the flow of water in a pipe. When the water is flowing in one direction placidly, silt and other things may be deposited at the bottom and are not disturbed to any marked extent by the water. But try to force the water in opposite directions alternately and you at once disturb the deposit and if the process is continued long enough the pipe gets cleaned ultimately. This is how breathing alternately through the two nostrils may be supposed to clean the Pranic channels or to purify the ‘Nadis’ as we say. This purification of the Nadis is a preparatory exercise and all those who intend to practice Pranayama have to go through along course extending over several months or years. It is similar to the preliminary exercise suggested by Patanjali in I-34 and produces the same condition in the nervous system, namely absence of irritation and tranquility. This exercise is not attended with any risk and can be adopted with caution by those who live a well-regulated and clean life and are not given to excesses of any kind. But since pranic currents are affected in the process, caution and moderation are necessary and it is advisable to work under the supervision of an expert.
3. Real Pranayama begins when the breath is stopped for some time between inhalation and exhalation. While breathing alternately through the two nostrils the breath may be stopped for some time, the period being increased gradually and cautiously. The retention of breath, called technically Kumbhaka, affects the flow of Pranic currents in a very marked and fundamental manner and enables the Yogi to gain increasing control over these currents so that they can be directed in any manner desired.
4. Pranayama has to be practiced with Puraka and Recaka (inspiration and expiration) for a long time, the period of Kumbhaka being slowly increased over long periods of time. Such a Kumbhaka which is accompanied by Puraka and Recaka is called Sahita Kumbhaka. But after prolonged practice it is possible to dispense with Puraka and Recaka and practice Kumbhaka alone. Such Pranayama called Kevala Kumbhaka, gives complete control over Prana and enables the Yogi to perform not only all kinds of physical feats but also to arouse and direct Kundalini towards different centers in the body. This science is strictly guarded secret and can be learnt only by a properly qualified Chela from the properly qualified Guru.
The important point to keep in mind is this. Not only is Kumbhaka the essential element of Pranayama but it is also the source of danger in the practice of Pranayama. The moment one starts retaining the breath, especially inside, in any abnormal manner the danger begins and one can never know what it will lead to unless there is a practical and competent teacher at hand to guide and correct the flow of these forces if necessary. If all the requisite conditions are present and Kumbhaka is practiced under the guidance of a competent teacher it unlocks the doors of unexpected experiences and powers. If it is taken up without the necessary preparation and guidance it is sure to lead to disaster and may be death as many rash and foolish people have found to their cost.
E. Pratyahara
Pratyahara(SY, p.268) is often used as a synonym for pralaya, the dissolution of the manifested universe, which is brought about by the withdrawal into higher spheres of the Universal Self. Pratyahara as the fifth stage of Yoga is the withdrawal of the consciousness inwards toward spiritual things. This is brought about by strong love and devotion to realities and Truth, thus silencing the wayward senses which tend to make one respond to external and deceptive concerns. In order to understand what Pratyahara means let us recall how mental perception of objects in the outer world takes place. We perceive an object when different kinds of vibrations which emanate from it strike our sense-organs and the mind is then joined to the sensation thus activated. For the sake of simplicity, let us confine ourselves to the simple representation of the mechanism of sense-perception as generally understood:
Bhutas Indriyas Tanmatras Citta Buddhi Atma
(Elements) (Sense-organ) (Sensations) (Mind) (Perception) (Spirit)
Prithvi(earth) nose smell (
Jala(water) tongue taste (
Tejas(light) eye sight ( mind -----------------------*
Vayu(air) skin touch (
Akasa(ether) ear hearing (
It is a matter of common experience that the corresponding vibrations may be striking against any particular sense-organ but if the mind is not joined to that sense-organ the vibrations remain unperceived. The clock in our room keeps ticking constantly but we rarely hear the ticking. Although the vibrations of sound are striking the ear constantly the conscious mind is not joined to the organ of hearing as far as those vibrations are concerned. Innumerable vibrations from all kinds of objects are constantly impinging upon our sense-organs but most of these remain unnoticed. Still, a few do manage to catch our attention and these in their totality constitute the content of our awareness of the external world. A few vibrations always manage to catch the attention and the mind is generally helpless against the inroads of these unwanted intruders. But for the practice of Raja Yoga, the outer world has to be shut out completely in order that the Yogi may have his mind alone to grapple with.
If we examine the contents of our mind at any time when we are not making any particular mental effort we shall find that the mental images which are present and changing constantly may be divided into the following:
1. Ever-changing impressions produced by the outer world through the vibrations impinging upon the sense-organs.
2. Memories of past experiences floating in the mind.
3. Mental images connected with anticipations of the future.
No. 2 and 3 are wholly mental, not depending upon any objective reality outside the mind while No. 1 is the direct result of contact with the outer world. The object of pratyahara is to eliminate No. 1 completely thus leaving No. 2 and 3 which are then mastered through Dharana and Dhyana. Pratyahara interposes a shutter between the sense-organs and the mind and isolates the latter completely from the external world. Pratyahara appears to be a control of the senses by the mind, the essential technique is really the withdrawal of the mind into itself. The successful practice of Pratyahara gives complete control over the Indriyas in the senses that we no longer remain their slaves but become their master, switching them off and on as we switch of and on the electric light in our room. This is absolutely necessary if the higher states of the Yogic path are to be trodden.
Internal Technique
This technique is called Antaranga or internal practices which culminate in Samadhi and all the mysteries of Yogic life are unraveled and the powers are acquired.
F. Dharana
The intense and steady mental concentration directed to some object of thought with the mind and heart absolutely freed at the time from the disturbances of senses attraction. Dharana is derived from the verb-root dhri – to direct one’s attention, to maintain, to resolve. It is confining of the mind in the limited area of concentration. The mind is interned within the limited mental territory and has to be brought back immediately if it strays out. The reason why a limited freedom of movement is possible when the mind is being concentrated upon a particular object will be seen if we remember that every object has innumerable aspects and the mind can consider these aspects only one by one. So that while it takes up one aspect after another it is moving and yet really fixed on the object of concentration. Or it may be that the object may involve a process of reasoning consisting of many steps connected logically with each other and forming an integrated whole. Here also there can be movement without really leaving the object of concentration. It is only when the mind gets out of touch with the object and an unconnected and irrelevant object enters it that Dharana may be considered to be broken.
G. Dhyana
Dhyana means meditation. The uninterrupted flow of mind (SY, p.278) towards the object chosen for meditation is contemplation. True Dhyana is a mind and heart bathed in pure knowledge and enlightenment, and free from the attractions of the lower and deceptive world. The portal of Dhyana is one whose golden gate once opened leads the Naljor toward the realm of Sat eternal and its ceaseless contemplation.
H. Samadhi
Samadhi (SY, p. 32) may be defined as a process of diving into the deeper layers of one’s consciousness which functions through different grades of the mind. Consciousness is dissociated from the body, the vehicles of consciousness. The body remains insensible. Consciousness is an aspect of the Ultimate Reality in manifestation and its expression depends upon the particular grade of the mind through which it is functioning, the courser the medium the more limited the expression. The different stages of Samadhi represent this progressive release of consciousness from the limitations in which it is involved and Kaivalya is that state in which it can again function in perfect freedom,.
The bondage of the Purusa (SY, p.251) in matter is maintained through the obscuring power of the Citta-Vrttis which prevent his seeing the fundamental truth of his existence and knowing himself as he truly is in his Divine nature. The Citta-Vrttis are caused and maintained by the “I” consciousness which gives rise to innumerable desires and keeps the mind in a state of constant agitation in order to satisfy those desires. If somehow this driving force which keeps the mind in a state of perpetual motion and change can be annihilated the mind will come automatically to a state of rest (Citta-Vrtti-Nirodha) which is nothing but Samadhi.
Samadhi does nothing more than reverse this involution of consciousness and this evolution or unfoldment of consciousness automatically reveals the subtler aspects of these objects. What the Yogi really does is to sink deeper and deeper into his own consciousness. This brings into action the more comprehensive faculties of the increasingly subtler planes which alone can reveal the subtler aspects of objects. What the intellect may strain to the utmost to understand without much success becomes self-evident in the light of these higher faculties.
Samyama
Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi the three taken together constitute Samyama. Samyama is a means of passing from the outer expression to the reality within whatever may be the nature of the relationship between the outer expression and the inner reality. The practical mastery of its technique opens the door not only to knowledge of all kinds but also to powers and superphysical accomplishments known as Siddhis. It is necessary to keep in mind two facts about Samyama:
First: It is a continuous process and the passage from one stage to another is not marked by any abrupt change in consciousness.
Second: The time taken in reaching the last state depends entirely upon the progress made by the Yogi. The beginner may have to spend hours and days in reaching the final stage while the Adept can pass into it almost instantaneously and effortlessly.
Finally: As Samadhi does not involve any movement in space but merely sinking towards the center of one’s own consciousness, time is not an essential factor in the process. The time taken by the Yogi is due entirely to the lack of mastery of the technique. Prajna is the higher consciousness which appears in the state of Samadhi. Prajna stands for all the states of consciousness in Samadhi beginning with the Vitarka stage and ending with the Asmita stage. Prajna, true wisdom which is the result of Self-realization; that intelligence and discrimination which clearly reflects the Higher Self; or as the Buddhists express it “Divine intuition”; derived from the root-verb pra – before; jna – to know; hence fore-knowledge. The key to Prajna makes of a man a god, creating him a Bodhisattva, a son of the Dhyanis.
The difference between the three phases of the same process which culminates in Samadhi (SY. P.284) may be represented in the following way. If A is the object chosen for Samyama and B,C,D, E etc are distraction, then the content of the mind at regular intervals of successive moments in the three phases may be represented by the following series of Pratyaya in the mind. The underlined letters represents the mental awareness referred to above
1. Ordinary thinking A B C D E F G H
2. Dharana AA B AA C AA A
3. AAAAA B AAAA
4. Dhyana AAAA A AAAAA
5. A A A A A A A A
6. A A A A A A A A
7. Samadhi A A A A A A A A
8. A A A A A A A A
It will be seen that the frequency of distractions goes on decreasing in Dharana and frequency and degree of mental self-awareness goes on decreasing in Dhyana. In Samadhi there is complete freedom both from distractions and self-awareness and the object alone remains in the field of consciousness.
Three Kinds of Knowledge (SY, p.108)
Sabda refers to knowledge which is based only on words and it not connected in any way with the object which is being considered. Much of our thinking is of this superficial nature based merely on words and not touching the object at all.
Jnana refers to the ordinary knowledge based on the perception of the sense organs and the reasoning of the mind.
Artha refers to the true knowledge about the object or its real meaning which the Yogi wants.
SADHANA PADA
This section deals with the first five Yoga techniques. The student may wish to read the book [SY] for a more detail exposition of the subject. This is meant to fit the aspirant physically, emotionally, mentally and morally for the practice of the Higher Yoga; namely yama, niyama, asanas, pranayama, and pratyahara.. The discussion on some important issues are already mentioned somewhere in this article. The synopsis of the philosophy of klesas mentioned earlier is summarized below to allow one to ponder over it and discard them by those who wish to tread the path.
Philosophy of klesas – Synopsis (SY, p.137)
Question dealt with Subject Number of Sutras in
Which the subject is
Dealt with in Section II
1. What are klesas Enumeration and 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
definitions.
2. How are they General methods of 10, 11
destroying them.
3. How should klesas They involve us in a
be destroyed never-ending cycle of 12, 13, 14, 15
births and deaths and
miseries of life
4. Can the results of Yes, those that are
miseries of life in the future 16
still be destroyed
5. What are the Union and identification
fundamental causes of the knower with the
of the miseries known 17
6. What is the Interaction of Bhutas
nature of the Indriyas and Gunas which
Known result in experience and 18, 19
liberation
7. What is the nature The Knower is pure 20, 21, 22
of the Knower consciousness
8. Why have the For the evolution of
Knower and the powers of Prakrti and
Known been brought for self-realization
Together of the Purusa 23
9. How are the Through a veil of
Knower and Known illusion caused by
to have been brought avidya
together 24
10. How can the By destroying the veil
Knower and Known of Avidya 25
11. How can the veil By Viveka which leads
of Avidya be to increasing awareness
destroyed? Of his own nature by the
Purusa in 7 stages 26, 27
12. How can Viveka By the practice of
be developed Yoga 28
SAMADHI PADA
Samadhi may be defined generally as a process of diving into the deeper layers of one’s consciousness which functions through different grades of the mind. Consciousness is an aspect of the Ultimate Reality in manifestation and its expression depends upon the particular grade of the mind through which it is functioning, the coarser the medium the more limited the expression. As the progressive involution of consciousness in matter for the purpose of its unfoldment imposes upon it increasing limitations, so the reverse process of evolution progressively releases consciousness from these limitations.
The different stages of Samadhi represent this progressive release of consciousness from the limitations in which it is involved and Kaivalya is that state in which it can again function in perfect freedom. Stages and types of Samadhi are:
The three stages of meditation
Leading up to Samadhi III-1, 2, 3, 4
Samprajnata and Asamprajnata
Samadhi I-17, 18
The essential process involved
In Sabija Samadhi I-41
The different phases of
Sabija Samadhi I-42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50
The technique of Nirbija Samadhi I-51, III-8, IV-26, 27, 28, 29
The three kinds of transformations
Involved in Samadhi III-9, 10, 11, 12
The student may wish to read the book mentioned [SY] for a more detail exposition of the subject.
Patanjali distinguishes between two kinds of Samadhi: the first is Samprajnata or cognitive Samadhi, covering all those ecstatic states connected with objects of cognition; the second is devoid of objects and thus transcending all mental content called Asamprajnata Samadhi. Samprajnata or Cognitive samadhi refers to the discipline used to attain the highest levels of yogic insight. It does not entail an escape from the phenomenal world, but a mastery over it. It is not getting lost in self-hypnotism, or having drug-induced experiences. Released from its rajastic and tamasic functioning, the mind in Samadhi is accompanied by acute ‘wakefulness’ overcoming the egoic limitations of consciousness. Patanjali claims obstructions can be removed through yogic discipline. In yogi-pratyaksa the final states of perception arise in Samprajnata cognition.
Samprajnata Samadhi
Samprajnata Samadhi (SY, p.34) means “Samadhi with Prajna”. The word ‘Prajna’ stands for the higher consciousness working through the mind in all its stages. It is derived from “Pra” which means high, and “Jna” which means to know. The distinctive characteristic of this higher consciousness which unfolds in Samadhi is that the mind is cut off completely from the physical world and the consciousness is centered in one or the other of the set of vehicles beginning with the lower mental body and ending with the Atmic vehicle. The consciousness is free from the burden and interference of the physical brain. There is a “seed” in Samprajnata Samadhi which is called “Pratyaya” in the field of consciousness and the consciousness is fully directed to it. The direction of consciousness is from the center outwards.
A general definition of Samprajnata is based on the derivations of the word form: (1) sam: meaning together, altogether, and as a preposition or prefix to verbs and verbal derivatives it can express “conjunction”, thoroughness, intensity, union, (2) pra: a preposition meaning before, forward, in front, forth; the preposition ‘pra’ joins with (3)jnata: to know, to form Samprajnata. Some of the meanings for Samprajnata distinguished, discerned, known accurately as in the Yogasutra. Samprajnata refers to the Samadhi of cognition wherein one has the consciousness of an object or mental content. In yoga, contemplation on each “effect” leads to the direct perception [saksatkara] of the form and nature of that “effect”. Samprajnata CS, p.3) arises from association with the forms of cognition having verbal association [vitarka], reflection [vicara], joy [ananda], and I-am-ness [asmita]. Vyasa commentary runs as follows:
“The mind’s experience of a gross object of support/contemplation in Samadhi is cogitation. It is reflection when the object of support is subtle. Joy means delight. I-am-ness is the perception of the essential, unified nature of self. Of these four forms of cognitive Samadhi, the first Samadhi with cogitation is associated with all four. The second one is with reflection is without the verbal association of the first. The third one is with association of joy and is without the subtle association of the second. The fourth “I-am-ness” only is without the association of joy. All these kinds of Samadhi are with supportive objects/content.”
As a rule and as Vacaspati implies (CS, p.5) only by starting from the grosser objects does the mind gradually harmonize or unite with the subtlest and settle there. Through yogic ecstasy [Samprajnata], our attention is led to four related though distinct kinds of insight and associations with self ultimately leading in the case of the discernment of Purusa [Purusa-khyati], to enstasy or realization of Purusa.
Asamprajnata Samadhi
Asamprajnata denotes the Purusa being left alone in its self-effulgent nature as the ever-free knower, having discarded its confused identity in the condition of samyoga with nothing more to experience or know for the sake of its liberation. It is also called as Enstasy. This reinforces and clarifies the traditional understanding in classical yoga that it is only in the Supra-cognitive Samadhi [Asamprajnata] that all the vrttis, including the sattvic ones are mastered and that any attachment to or soteriological (theological doctrine of salvation as effected by Christ) dependence on vrtti is finally overcome.
In Asamprajnata Samadhi (SY, p. 34) there is no “Pratyaya” and therefore there is nothing to draw the consciousness outwards and hold it there. During this time he is fully conscious and his will is directing this delicate mental operation in a very subtle manner. The mind is no doubt blank but it is the blankness of Samadhi and not the blankness of an ordinary kind such as is present in deep sleep or coma.
STAGES OF SAMADHI [SY,p.38]
A. SABIJA SAMADHI [SY,p.180] – Refer to Diagram II
When the total knowledge pertaining to the object is taken from the universal knowledge of the Monad, it is the perception of the reality of that particular object in Sabija Samadhi. In consequence of the mind being colored or not colored by it, an object is known or unknown [Yogasutra-IV-17, p.413]
Samprajnata –Vitarka Samadhi(Savitarka and Nirvitarka)[Lower Mental Body]
Asamprajnata –
Samprajnata – Vicara Samadhi (Savicara and Nirvicara)[HM,Causal Body]
Asamprajanta
Samprajnata – Ananda Samadhi [Buddhic Vehicle]
Asamprajnata
Samprajnata – Asmita Samadhi [Atmic Vehicle]
The fusion of Vitarka, Vicara, Ananda, the three into the one is the secret of Samadhi. The additional explanation of the three, the Vitarka, Vicara, Ananda, and the one, the Asmita Samadhi follows:
Four Forms of [Cognitive] Samadhi
Vyasa commented that the mind’s experience of a gross object of support/contemplation in Samadhi is cogitation. It is reflection when the object of support is subtle. Joy means delight. I-am-ness is the perception of the essential, unified nature of self. Of these four forms of cognitive Samadhi, the first Samadhi with cogitation is associated with all four:
1. VITARKA [COGITATION] SAMADHI
Cogitation (CS, p.36) refers to the spontaneous thought processes that occur in relation to a gross [sthula] object/form or content of contemplation. There is no doubt that vitarka is a special form of mental activity. The mind’s experience [abhoga] of a gross object of support/contemplation is cogitation. The word abhoga [expansion, fullness] means the experience of insight [prajna] in which the realization of making evident effecting with one’s eyes [saksatkara], the true form and nature of an object of support/contemplation has occurred. At the first level it is considered gross because the object is in its gross form thereby giving to the mind the like vrtti, the identifying and uniting with that modification of knowledge. As cogitation [vitarka] is refined, the next step comes into view and the formerly concealed nature of the object of support is gradually revealed.
This kind of Samadhi includes all the other subsequent forms, namely Vicara, Ananda, and Asmita. The reason for the initial position of Vitarka-samadhi in YS is given by Vacaspati Misra. He writes (CS, p.4):
“Just as an archer, when a beginner, pierces first only a gross and afterwards a subtle target, so the yogin, when a beginner, has direct experience merely of some gross object concentration made up of the five gross elements and afterwards a subtle object. So with regard to the object of the mind the experience becomes a subtle one. Meditation has for its sphere of action the causes of the gross phenomena, the subtle elements, the five tanmatras, the manifested and the unmanifested essence of matter [prakrti]”.
This is the least refined or most impure state of Samadhi. Samadhi are graded according to the grossness or subtlety, tangibility/concreteness and less tangibility or abstractness of the evolutes of prakrti. It is more difficult to concentrate on the inner principles within the mind [citta] than on the outer objects. It is recommended that one should start with gross forms and then reach more subtle stages as Vacaspati Misra recommended.
Vitarka [or cogitation] has been translated as: “deliberation, reasoning, supposition, rationale, philosophical curiosity, consciousness of sentient, cogitation, analysis of gross object, discursive thought.
Yoga states (CS, p.54) that the object shines forth alone, non-separate from the mind which is as if empty of its own form. The “nir” forms of ecstasy are indicative of a radically different knowledge from their “sa” forms. Both the “nir” types of Samadhi are forms of knowledge which can be called “indeterminate” as opposed to the “determinate” knowledge inherent in the “sa” forms. Indeterminate knowledge can be understood here as being knowledge whether of gross or subtle object in which the distinction between the consciousness of the subject [the grasper] and that of the object [the grasped] is not present. When it is gross object, the Samadhi is savitarka or nirvitarka; when it is a subtle object, it is savicara or nirvicara. Thus is cognitive Samadhi counted to be fourfold.
The first division of vitarka (CS, p.37) is known as “Sa-vitarka” when it is commingled with conceptualization of word, object and knowledge. Savitarka-samapatti is invariably accompanied by the names of the object of contemplation. Vyasa says: “For instance, we can see that the process of knowing takes place without distinguishing between the word ‘cow’, ‘the object cow’ and the idea [knowledge –cow] though they are all on different levels; for there are some characteristics distinguished as belong to words and others to objects signified, and still other to ideas [knowledge].” In Savitarka unification of the word, the object and the idea are commingled and confused causing the Samadhi to be mixed with the notions and ideations, the constituents of which are analyzed and consequently are several. Since these superimpositions of word, object and idea on one another causing the appearance of a conceptual or imagined unity in a manifold reality, only present what is effect is unreal all such superimpositions come under the category of vikalpa. Such super imposition does not aid the yogin to realize or fully master the reality of any of its constituents, just as water and milk mixed together cannot be classified separately either as one or the other.
The second division (CS, p.41) as Patanjali informs us that: “Supra-cogitative unification is when memory is completely purified, as if emptied of its own form and with the object alone shining forth. In nir-vitarka, all cogitation or association with ‘gross’ thought has ceased.” Vyasa commented: “When there is complete purification of the memory of verbal conventions in that insight attained in Samadhi which has become empty of conceptualization of ideas heard or inferred, then the object stands out in the form of its real nature alone.”
Based on the analysis in the preceding chapter, purification can be understood with an epistemological emphasis meaning here the dissolution [pralaya or pravilaya] of afflicted memory: memory which has been rooted in or filtered through a confusion or error [viparyaya] within consciousness. Memory [smrti] is a vrtti and its association with ignorance misidentification is to be transcended in the process of cessation [nirodha].
2. VICARA [REFLECTION] SAMADHI
This is without Vitarka, but includes Ananda and Asmita. This is translated by reflection in a sense specific to yoga. The word Vicara (CS, p.47) is derived from vi+car, expressing a progressive movement. In the context of YS, Vicara refers to the movement of the mind away from the gross objects to subtler objects of association. Having seen the defects and limitation of the involvement with gross objects and content, however clearly realized in vitarka, and which confine the yogin’s level of perception to ‘cogitation’ [savitarka], or without cogitation [nirvitarka], the yogin looks at the causes of those objects and accompanying self-identifications. The yogin moves from sixteen visesas# to the six avisesas [the five subtle elements (tanmatras) and the ego-sense (ahamkara) themselves. The yogin contemplates these subtler essences of the elements and of the senses and brings before consciousness all the subtle particularities and constitutive parts of the subtle object. The evidence suggests that vicara is a technical term for the practice of yogic one-pointedness of objects with subtle associations in order to know their nature and to master their nature entirely through dispassion.
Vicara-samadhi (CS, p.50) appears to be divided into Savicara and Nirvicara when it is on subtle objects and are the unification called with reflection [Savicara] and supra-reflection [Nirvicara]. In Savicara, Vyasa tells us the object of Samadhi is experienced with reference to space, time and causation even though the subtlest, minutest particles seemingly occupy not space, nevertheless a relationship in space [i.e. a location] is attributed to them, the detailed mechanism of which is an area of specialization within Vaisesika philosophy as well as modern physics. The same apply to time. Causation in the above refers to the fact of the subtle, atomic realities of the gross elements being products of the respective tanmatras. Vyasa said that the object of support is the subtle elements characterized by the qualities which are now manifest and it presents itself to insight in the Samadhi.
Vyasa continues (CS, p.51): “That unification on the subtle elements is called ‘supra-reflection’ or nirvicara [without subtle associations] when all of their characteristics are non-sequential, their self-nature comprising all the characteristics, and they are completely un-delimited in every mode by their subsided, arisen or un-determined qualities.” The qualities of an object may be: (a) dormant, subsided, (b) manifest, arisen, or (c) undetermined. When certain qualities have already made their appearance after some time they become dormant, submerged and are of the past. Some qualities manifest in the present, and some, undetermined at the moment, will arise in future. The insight gained is delimited. Vyasa says that “this is to be grasped as one single idea.”
In the Savicara and Nirvicara identifications the five subtle elements and the subtle senses of apprehension are the objects of support and contemplation. Vyasa states: “Of these two, the Savicara unification refers to subtle elements whose qualities are manifest and are delimited by the experience of space, time and causes as their characteristics. In Savicara the object of Samadhi is experienced with reference to space, time, and causation.
There ensues a transcendence (CS, p.57) of self as identified with subtle associations of the mind. The sense of self no longer acts as a vehicle which obstructs perception and misappropriates object in the mode of “reflection”” i.e. one ceases to misidentify with the ideas [mind content] and vrttis arising in Savicara. In Nirvicara the mind is released from the binding associations and identifications which formerly accompanied the experience of subtle objects. A deepening detachment or dispassionate knowledge and mastery have taken place.
3. ANANDA [JOY] SAMADHI
This is without Vitarka and Vicara but includes Asmita. In the YS (CS, p.62), ananda is initially the conditional and temporary property called sukha: pleasure, well-being or happiness inherent in the sattva-guna. In ananda accompanied Samadhi the yogin grasps or captures the delight of sattva and identifies/unites with this exalted sense of happiness. It is acknowledged in the Samkhya and Yoga traditions that pleasure belongs to the sattva of the mind and is with the realm of the “experienced” or “seeable”, it is object oriented. The locus of joy that was experienced and referenced through the grosser evolutes has its “fount” here. The yogin then concentrates on the pleasure of the sattva of ahamkara and enjoys a temporary blissful state. [Since tamasic ahamkara generates the elements, and sattvic ahamkara generates the mind-organ (manas), the sense organs, all with the aid of rajas (activity/motion), it can be understood that a gradual refinement of awareness would lead the yogin to the more subtle location of sattva as it present itself in ahamkara.]
Purusa, the pure, unchanging seer transcends the realm of the gunas and is by nature free from the binding influence of or attachment to sattva.
The field of Ananda-samadhi is grahana, the grasping or instrument of knowledge. Unlike the vitarka and vicara samadhis , it is not subdivided [into “sa” or “nir”by Patanjali or Vyasa (CS, p.65). H. Aranya is of the opinion that the sense of happiness in Ananda-samadhi arises from the feeling of relaxation in the five organs of action, the five sense organs and the three constituents of the inner senses: manas, ahamkara, and buddhi. This may well represent the affective nature of the experience, but Aranya’s view confuses the subtle scheme of understanding related to these ecstasies and therefore remains incomplete with regard to the ecstasy associated with joy.
4. ASMITA [I-AM-NESS] SAMADHI
This is without Vitarka, Vicara, and Ananda CS, p.70). Having awakened to and fully realized ahamkara in the ananda ecstasy, the yogin sees the flaws of the gunas present herein, including the limitation on self-identity, cultivates dispassion [vairagya] towards the state of identification and moves to the yet subtler ground of the ecstasy associated with asmita. The identification with asmita accompanies the yogin through the contemplation and unification which focuses in the mind-sattva, mahat/buddhi, the evolutes of intelligence. Since the previous identification with the less refined evolutes have been transcended, meaning that the yoginis no longer misidentified with those phenomena, and mahat [buddhi] is the first evolute of prakrti, there is no other object of contemplation or support but mahat itself. It is the “designator” [linga-matra], the first sign that prakrti gives of her presence.
Vyasa asserts: “I-am-ness is the perception of the essential nature of self. Since the inner face of citta [buddhi] is the most sattvic and purest constituent of the evolutes of prakrti, it most approximates and is analogous to Purusa. Pure consciousness reflects in buddhi as into a clear crystal. It is here and nowhere else that Purusa and Prakrti meet in samyoga taking on a single nature, as it were, which is defined as the affliction of “I-am-ness”. It is in the reflected consciousness in the mind that ignorance and mis-identification “being” are terminated, a process with which Purusa is said to have no direct involvement.
The stage of Samadhi associated with asmita means the realization of mahat/buddhi/linga-matra in which the guna of sattva is predominant. In the previous ecstasy called ananda, sattva is dominant, although at this stage of Samadhi the experience of sattva is still somewhat penetrated by residual rajas and tamas.
In Asmita Samadhi the rajas and tamas have been completely subdued, but not expelled and only the purity and clarity of sattva shines. In this experience the sattvic inward face of buddhi is turned away from its outward facing evolute, ahamkara or ego.
In a rare description of Asmita-samadhi, Vyasa states (CS, p.74): “The mind that has reached the unification called asmita becomes serene and infinite like a great [still] ocean. Because Purusa is an undisturbed, infinite existence, like an ocean, the inward face of the mind [buddhi] receiving Purusa’s reflection and as experienced in asmita-samadhi appears like an infinite, calm ocean, without rufflement, i.e. distracting or disturbing mental waves or activity.
Essence of Cognitive Samadhi
The essence of cognitive Samadhi (CS, p.18) is:
(1) The centering of our diversified, fractured being leading at its most profound or advanced level to an organic and spiritual reunification of our individuated sense of self with the universal matrix [mahat] of manifest prakrti.
(2) As a method and when practiced together with concentration and meditation, Samadhi refers to one of the disciplines used to attain the highest levels of yogic interiorization or constraint [samyama].
(3) In regards to content, cognitive Samadhi refers to the ecstatic states of consciousness of the yogin who is yet dependent on objects [prakrti], and to the types of knowledge and levels of self understanding unfolded through its practice.
Cognitive Samadhi (CS, p.14) obstructs the recurring manifestation of the afflictions in the form of rajas and tamas while simultaneously aiding in the direct experience of pure sattva of the mind as being distinct from the Purusa. Samadhi uncovers fully the light of sattva through which our misconceived identity and distorted cognition or error [viparyaya] dissolves and clear knowledge [jnana] or insight [prajna] is revealed. All barriers to the realization of Purusa are removed. Vyasa writes (CS, p.56):
“When the mind-sattva [buddhi], whose nature is luminosity, is free from the effects of rajas and tamas, and has a steady flow without any veiling contamination of impurity, the lucidity has occurred, there is clarity in the inner being of the yogin which is a progressively clearer and more brilliant light of knowledge of the object as it really is.”
The yogin’s identity is freed from the binding effects of rajas and tamas thus bringing about a sattvification of consciousness. The yogin becomes cognitively, morally and affectively purified, spiritually developed and uplifted as person, ushering the yogin into a different order of life from that of an egoic or selfish mentality rooted in samyoga – dissatisfaction and ignorance. Sabija Samadhi is a technical name for cognitive Samadhi. In Samadhi transcendence implies a knowledge of mastery [vasikara], a dispassion [viaragya] towards, not denial of relative existence thereby dispensing with the empirical limitations or parkrtic barriers to the realization of Purusa. Even though liberating knowledge is taught in the revealed texts [sruti] or by a guru, it is impossible to experience it directly without entering into Samadhi oneself just as one cannot experience the sweetness of sugar through mere description of its sweetness alone.
The final stages of cognitive Samadhi may be divided into three levels (CS, p.31):
1. The realization, mastery of and unification with buddhi – the principle of intelligence – also referred to as mahat, and where there is not yet the realization of Purusa.
2. The realization of the reflection of Purusa in the buddhi in asmita – the principal constituent, the agent or grasper [grahitr].
3. The realization that the reflection is not itself Purusa. Purusa is the ever-free principle of pure consciousness, the reflection of which is seen in asmita-samadhi
B. NIRBIJA SAMADHI
Nirbija Samadhi
Nirbija Samadhi is the last stage of Asamprajnata Samadhi. It differs from the previous Asamprajnata Samadhi in that there is no deeper level of Citta into which consciousness can withdraw. Any further withdrawal now must be into the consciousness of the Purusa himself. Nirbija Samadhi is called not only because there is no seed in the field of consciousness but also because in this kind of Samadhi no new Samskara is created. Not only no fresh samskaras can be produced but the old samskaras of Sabija Samadhi are gradually dissipated by Para-Vairagya and partial contact with the Purusa (YS-IV-29).
C. DHARMA – MEGA SAMADHI
The combined practice of Viveka Khyati and Para-Vairagya when continued for a long time reaches by a process of mutual reinforcement, a tremendous degree of intensity and culminates ultimately in Dharma-Megha-Samadhi, the highest kind of Samadhi which burns up the ‘seeds’ of Samskaras and unlocks the gates of the World of Reality in which the Purusa lives eternally. Dharma is interpreted as virtue or merit and Dharma-Megha is taken to mean a cloud which showers virtues or merit. The significance of the phrase Dharma-Megha will become clear if we assign to the word Dharma the meaning it has, namely that of property, characteristic or function. Megha is a technical term used in Yogic literature for the cloudy or misty condition through which consciousness passes in the critical state of Asamprajnata Samadhi when there is nothing in the field of consciousness.
VIBHUTI PADA
This Section deals with the three remaining practices, namely Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. Samadhi transformation is the gradual setting of the distractions and simultaneous rising of one-pointedness [Ekagrata].
Ekagrata [One-Pointedness]
Adhyatma refers to all disclosure of the clarity of the inner being, awakening to one’s spiritual identity as a reflection in the sattva. In cognitive Samadhi is appears to be limited to the identification with mind-sattva and does not literally apply to Purusa. This stage of Samadhi correlates well with Vyasa’s description of Samadhi in the one-pointed of the mind which fully illuminates an object as it is, diminishes the afflictions, loosens the bonds of karma, and brings the state of the cessation or misidentification in citta-vrtti into view. Through yogic technique and one-pointedness of mind the practitioner then learns to undo any misidentification with objects including thought construct/ideas [pratyaya] and mental processes [vrttis].
Let us consider a few conclusions which may be drawn from the general study of the objects [Visaya] upon which Samyama is performed and the results which accrue from this practice:
If two things are related as cause and effect then by performing Samyama on the effect it is possible to have knowledge of the underlying cause or vice versa as for example in III-16.
If certain phenomena leave an impression on any medium it is possible to come into touch with the phenomena by reviving the impression through Samyama as for example in III-18.
If a particular object is the expression of an archetype then by performing Samyama on the object it is possible to have direct knowledge of the archetype as for example in III-30.
If a particular center in the body is an organ of a higher vehicle, faculty, etc. then by performing Samyama on the center direct contact is established with the vehicle, faculty, etc. as for example in III-33 or III-35.
If a thing exists in several degrees of subtlety, one derived from the other in a series, then by performing Samyama on the outermost or least subtle form it is possible to gain knowledge of all the forms, step by step, as for example in III-45.
A careful consideration of the facts mentioned above will show that Samyama is really a means of passing from the outer expression to the reality within whatever may be the nature of the relationship between the outer expression and the inner reality.
KAIVALYA PADA
Kaivalya passes through many stages and culminates ultimately in that tremendous high and glorious stage in which the Purusa becomes the presiding Deity of a Solar System.
SYNOPSIS
Sutra 1: This enumerates the different methods of acquiring Siddhis. Of the five methods given only the last based upon Samadhi is used by advanced Yogis in their work because it is based upon direct knowledge of the higher laws of Nature and is therefore under complete control of the will. The student must have noticed that all the Siddhis described in the previous Section are the result of performing Samyama. They are the product of evolutionary growth and thus give mastery over the whole range of natural phenomena.
Sutra 2 -3 The two Sutras hint at the two fundamental laws of Nature which govern the flux of phenomena constituting the world of the Relative. An understanding of these two laws is necessary if we are to form a correct estimate of the functions and limitations of Siddhis. The student should not run away with the impression that it is possible for the Yogi to do anything he likes because he can bring about many results which appear miraculous to our limited vision. The Yogic is also bound by the laws of Nature and as long as his consciousness functions in the realm of Nature, it is subject to the laws which govern these realms. He has to work out his liberation from the realm of Prakrti but he can do so only by obeying and utilizing the laws which operate in her realm.
Sutras 4-6 The Yogi brings from his past lives, like every one else an enormous number of tendencies and potentialities in the form of Karmas [cause] and Vasanas [effect]. These exist in his subtler vehicles in a very definite form and have to be worked out or destroyed before Kaivalya can be attained. These Sutras refer to these individual vehicles which are of two types – those which are the product of evolutionary growth during successive lives and those which the Yogic can create by the power of his will. Before one can understand the methods adopted for the destruction of karmas and vasanas he should have some knowledge of the mental mechanisms through which these tendencies function.
Sutras 7 -11 These deal with the modus operandi by which the impressions of our thoughts, desire and actions are produced and then worked out during the course of successive lives in our evolutionary growth. The problem for the Yogi is to stop adding to these accumulated impressions by learning the technique of Niskama Karma and desirelessness and to work out those potentialities which have already been acquired in the quickest and most efficient manner. The destruction of the subtler or dormant Vasanas [effects] depends ultimately upon the destruction of Avidya which is the cause of attachment to life.
Sutras 12-22 After dealing with the vehicles of the mind (Citta) and the forces (Vasanas)[SY, p.395] which bring about incessant transformations (Vrttis) in these vehicles Patanjali discusses the theory of mental perception using the word “mental” in its most comprehensive sense. According to him two entirely different kinds of elements are involved in mental perception. On the one hand, there must be the impact of the object upon the mind through their characteristic properties and, on the other, the eternal Purusa must illuminates the mind with the light of his consciousness. Unless both these conditions are simultaneously present there can be no mental perception because the mind itself is inert and incapable of perceiving. It is the Purusa who is the real perceiver though he always remains in the background and the illumination of the mind with the light of his consciousness makes it appear as if it is the mind which perceives. This fact can be realized only when the mind is entirely transcended and the consciousness of the Purusa is centered in his own Svarupa in full awareness of Reality.
Sutra 23 This throws a flood of light on the nature of Citta and shows definitely that the word Citta is used by Patanjali in the most comprehensive senses for the medium of perception at all levels of consciousness and not merely as a medium of intellectual perception as commonly supposed. Wherever there is perception in the Relative realm of Prakrti there must be a medium through which that perception takes place and that medium is Citta. So that even when consciousness is functioning on the highest planes of manifestation, far beyond the realm of the intellect, there is a medium at work called Citta.
Sutras 24-25 The two Sutras point out the nature of the limitations from which life suffers even on the highest planes of manifestation. The Purusa is not only the ultimate source of all perception as pointed out, but he is also the motive power or reason of this play of Vasanas [effects] which keep the mind in incessant activity. It is for him that all this long-evolutionary process is taking place although he is always hidden in the background. It follows from this that even in the exalted conditions of consciousness which the Yogi might reach in the higher stages of Yoga he is dependent upon something distinct and separate though within him. He cannot be truly Self-sufficient and Self-illuminated until he is fully Self-realized and has become one with the Reality within himself. It is the realization of this fact of his falling short of his ultimate objective which weans the Yogi from the exalted illumination and bliss of the highest plane and makes him dive still deeper within himself for the Reality which is the consciousness of the Purusa.
Sutras 26-29 These Sutras give some indication of the struggle in the last stages before full self-realization is attained. This struggle culminates ultimately in Dharma-Megha-Samadhi open the door to the Reality within him.
Sutras 30-34 These Sutras merely indicate some of the consequences of attaining Kaivalya and give a hint about the nature of the exalted condition of consciousness and freedom from limitations in which a fully Self-realized Purusa lives. No one of course who has not attained Kaivalya can really understand what this condition is actually like.
The reader may wish to study the Science of Yoga by I.K Taimni and other reference books of this article for a more detail and comprehensive exposition of the subject.
No comments:
Post a Comment