By
SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA
A DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY PUBLICATION
First Edition: 1984
Second Edition: 1991
(3,000 copies)
World Wide Web (WWW) Edition : 1999
Website: http://www.divinelifesociety.org/
This WWW reprint is for free distribution
© The Divine Life Trust Society
ISBN 81-7052-085-3
Published By
THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
P.O. Shivanandanagar—249 192
Distt. Tehri-Garhwal, Uttaranchal,
Himalayas, India.
CONTENTS
Of the many Yoga paths leading to God or the Supreme Reality, four
are more commonly known. These are Karma Yoga or the Path of Selfless
Service, Bhakti Yoga or the Path of Devotion, Raja Yoga or the Path
of Mind Control and Jnana Yoga or the Path of Intellectual Analysis.
Even among these, Raja Yoga is popularly known as just “Yoga”;
and similarly, Jnana Yoga is known as just “Vedanta”.
Of the four paths, again, Raja Yoga is the one which is the most scientifically
organised. It is also known as Ashtanga Yoga or the Yoga of Eight Steps,
each step or rung leading in logical progression to the next one. Raja
Yoga is the ladder connecting our phenomenal existence with the Great
Noumenon and we have to ascend this ladder step by step with great care
and circumspection. No step can be ignored or bypassed except at one’s
own peril. Progress is assured provided the rules of the game are adhered
to. And violation of the rules is bound to cause its own peril. Such
is Raja Yoga propounded by that ancient sage Patanjali in the form of
Sutras or terse aphorisms collectively known as Yoga Darshana.
Yoga Darshana is a difficult text, difficult to understand straightaway
even by those with a good knowledge of Sanskrit. So Maharshi Vyasa wrote
a commentary on Yoga Darshana, and subsequently, one Vachaspati Mishra
wrote a more elaborate Gloss explaining the full meaning of Sage Vyasa’s
Commentary. All these Sanskrit texts will still be Greek and Latin to
the modern man unfamiliar with that ancient language.
So we brought out in 1982 a series of discourses given in English by
Swami Krishnanandaji on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras under the title,
Yoga as a Universal Science. It was very well received by the
public thirsting for a knowledge of the deeper implications of the great
science of Yoga. We have great pleasure now to bring out this companion
volume on the same subject of Ashtanga Yoga by Swami Chidanandaji. The
present volume contains the edited version of a series of lectures given
by Sri Swamiji to the Third Batch of trainees who underwent the Three
Months’ Course run by the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy of the Divine
Life Society. In the hands of Swami Chidanandaji, the Yoga Darshana
comes to new life as a vibrant, living guide to spiritual practice.
And Swamiji has delved deep into all the most essential aspects of Yoga
Sadhana, and in doing so, has beautifully maintained logical sequence.
And the whole volume reflects his earnest desire and longing that spiritual
seekers should put to use this marvellous science of Yoga for furthering
their spiritual advancement.
An earlier publication of ours, Path to Blessedness by Swami
Chidanandaji, also deals with Raja Yoga, but it is more elementary in
scope. It contains the essence of the discourses given by Sri Swamiji
nearly thirty-five years ago. The reader who goes through both these
volumes cannot fail to notice that the present work is the outcome,
not only of the academic knowledge of the author on the subject, but
more so of his own intense practice of the teachings of Patanjali.
We acknowledge with thanks the painstaking work put in by Kumari Srilata
Bellare who transcribed Swami Chidanandaji’s lectures from the
tapes and by Sri N. Ananthanarayanan, who edited the manuscript into
its present shape. May God’s blessings be ever with them.
—THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY.
1
In the context of the ancient Vedic culture of India, the knowledge
that takes one forward and liberates one from the limited experience
of body consciousness or the name and form consciousness, the ultimate
knowledge that bestows upon one cosmic consciousness, is known as the
higher knowledge or the greater knowledge, Para Vidya. This higher knowledge
is clearly differentiated from the lower or the lesser knowledge, which
pertains only to things that are within the confines of time, space
and causation, that are limited by time, space and causation. This latter
knowledge of things that are limited within time and space is therefore
finite and temporary. It is non-eternal. It is the lesser knowledge,
and at best it can help you to have a comfortable life of physical conveniences,
sense satisfaction, and temporary, partial desire-fulfilment. It has
not the power—limited, finite things have not the power—to
liberate you from fear and sorrow, to liberate you from all the limitations
and imperfections that pertain to this limited life bound by birth and
death, hunger and thirst, joy and sorrow, and the ever-changing experiences
of sense contacts. Those who seek a knowledge that is beyond this relative
knowledge are, therefore, the aspirants for Para Vidya or the higher
knowledge which ultimately bestows upon you freedom from bondage, fear
and sorrow. This higher knowledge bestows upon you ultimately the experience
of your real identity, your true Self which is beyond the apparent,
limited self. It ultimately confers upon you spiritual illumination
and perfection, the peace that passeth understanding, freedom from all
limitations and absolute bliss.
Practice—The Keynote of the Science of Yoga
Para Vidya is not only for knowing, but also for doing. It is not simply
for acquiring information, but more importantly, for putting that information
to use by translating it into action, into practice. Because, Para Vidya
or the science of Yoga is a practical science that is to be applied
in living your life. This vital fact, this important point, in relation
to the knowledge of Yoga should not be lost sight of. There should be
in you the desire and the determination to start applying the instructions
contained in the science of Yoga to your own life and conduct—to
your mental actions and verbal actions, as well as to your outer physical
actions. That is the very essence of this study that it is acquired
with the specific intention and objective of simultaneously translating
it into action, of simultaneously applying it to your daily life. Thus,
every part of Yoga, right from the very start, is knowledge imparted
for conversion into Abhyasa, because it is Abhyasa only that will ultimately
bring to you the fruit of your knowledge in the form of rare experience
that nothing else in this world can give. Therefore, always remember
this term, this word, this concept, of Abhyasa, because Yoga is a practical
science of Self-realisation and Abhyasa is the very essence of this
science. You learn in order to live, to do.
The Afflictions that Beset the Human Being
The philosophy of Yoga puts forward, in non-technical or non-metaphysical
terms, the thesis that you are essentially an all-perfect entity totally
free from any imperfection and not subject to any undesirable, imperfect,
negative experience whatsoever. What are the undesirable, imperfect,
negative experiences within the range of human knowledge? They are all
those things which you are commonly engaged in trying to avoid by so
many devious methods. Every day, from the time of your birth, you keep
trying to avoid the discomfort and pain that is brought about by hunger.
You do not want to remain on an empty stomach even for an hour or two
beyond your usual time of breakfast or lunch. If the lunch is missed,
you are very, very perturbed, very much disturbed, very much distressed.
You become very morose and irritable also. Your whole mood changes.
You become a different person. You are no longer a pleasant person.
All the days of your life you are engaged in trying to avoid the unpleasant
experience of not getting your food. If you do not get your morning
breakfast or morning tea, or if you are deprived of your lunch, or if
you have to miss your supper, you become a different person. You do
not like that experience. So, you try to avoid that circumstance by
somehow or the other trying to get something to eat. Have you ever thought
about this? This is such a daily and common experience, and such a routine
experience, that no one pays any attention to it from the philosophical
angle, from the analytical metaphysical angle.
What is it that happens to you if you have to miss your meal just once?
You whole interior changes. You become a different person. You are no
longer a pleasant person. You are inclined to give a sharp answer. You
are displeased. Your peace is lost. You do not feel happy and you manifest
your unhappiness in the form of a sharp answer or an irritated reply
or aggravating conduct. This is an affliction that constantly keeps
plaguing the human individual. When he wakes up in the morning, he has
this affliction of the desire for taking food. One may call it hunger.
Many naturopaths have a different opinion on whether this desire for
food is really hunger or not. They have their own opinion. But normally,
when you wake up in the morning, the desire that arises for taking something
is regarded as the sign of hanger. So, this experience that bothers
you, which if it is not satisfied distresses you, changes your personality
for the time being, and makes you a different person to your own wife
and to your brothers and sisters and even to your mother, is an affliction.
The same is the case with thirst, sleep, fatigue and other emotions
also. Various sentiments and emotions bother you, disturb you, throw
you out of gear and make you restless. They have the power to agitate
you, to make you feel distressed. Unfulfilled desire, anger, a little
failure on the part of someone to show respect to you, unkindness from
someone, some sharp word from someone, or the failure on the part of
someone to recognise your presence—all these immediately put you
in a turmoil. Thus, physically, you are subject to the afflictions of
hunger, thirst and fatigue and heat and cold. And mentally, emotionally
and sentimentally, you are always subject to the affliction of varying
states of mind. In this way, you are constantly falling a prey to varying
states of mind, not all of which are pleasant. Some are pleasant, many
are distressing. Yoga philosophy says that this is an unnatural condition,
that this is not your natural condition. You are not a creature subject
to such afflictions. You are not a being who has any one of these distressing
experiences and symptoms. You are above them, you are beyond them, you
are really free from them. They do not really form a part of your actual,
true nature. This is very fine for Yoga philosophy to say! But this
is not your experience. Your experience contradicts the possible validity
or truth of this fine philosophy. Your experience is directly the contrary
of what Yoga philosophy says about you. Every day you are in a state
of distress only. Every day you suffer. The afflictions of hunger, thirst
and discomfort, heat and cold, pain and pleasure are your daily experience.
If a little attention is not paid to you when you ask something, your
mind is thrown into a state of distress, agitation and turmoil; and
it brings about physical changes also. Your blood pressure goes up,
your face is flushed, you feel hot and uncomfortable all over, and you
want to blurt out something. You want to express your feeling of displeasure
and distress and give vent to it so that you can relieve yourself of
this inner buildup. You are altogether in an upset condition if someone
somehow fails to pay due attention to what you try to bring to his notice,
if your request is not regarded, if your presence is not recognised,
or if something which you put forward is not properly attended to. So,
your experience is an ever-fluctuating, ever-changing experience of
constant contraries and constant opposites swinging between hope and
despair, joy and sorrow, elation and depression—not only depression,
but also a great deal of agitation caused by unfulfilled desires and
cravings for things, agitation caused by irritability, annoyance, anger,
fear, worry, anxiety and jealousy.
The Real Status of Man
Yoga philosophy says, “No. You are really free from all these
things. You have no afflictions. You have no hunger, no thirst, no sleep,
no fatigue. You have no pain, no pleasure. You have no distress, no
agitation, no worry, no anxiety. You are a being full of perfection,
complete in yourself, lacking nothing, full of joy, full of peace, full
of bliss”. Then, if that is the fact, how come that your entire
life, your entire experience from morning till night, contradicts this
fact? What is the explanation? What is the reason for this? Why is this
complication there? Whence has this problem arisen?
Yoga philosophy offers the analogy of a perfectly clear crystal which
is transparent and pure, but becomes filled as it were with some colour
if some coloured object is brought forth near it. The object thus brought
forth may be a green-coloured ball or a little red-coloured flower or
a blue-coloured cork and the whole crystal becomes green or red or blue.
This proximity of something having some characteristic brings about
a seeming transference of that characteristic from that something into
the pure, transparent, clear crystal. So, it is the proximity to something
that is the cause for the apparent change in the otherwise attributeless
crystal ball. Now, Yoga philosophy says that you are also in a similar
state of proximity to something, you have become involved with something,
and therefore, states and conditions that exist in that factor seem
as though they have come and taken possession of you.
In the ease of the crystal, if you want it to become clear once again,
what is the method to bring it about? You have to bring about once again
a separation between the crystal and its proximate object. You have
to bring about a cessation of the proximity that is there between the
crystal and the object by separating the two. If the proximate object
is taken away and the crystal is once again isolated from that object
which has been superimposing all its qualities upon it, then, once again
the crystal is pure, clear and transparent. Once again it stands in
its own nature; it regains its own nature. It is no more modified and
qualified by the something else which is not part of its essential being.
This is the analogy that you have to consider and keep in mind.
Prakriti and Its Play of Superimposition
Now, what is it that has thus become involved in a state of proximity
with you that is seemingly transferring its imperfect nature upon you,
upon your perfectly pristine native condition, which is sorrowless,
painless, without any limitation, without any blemish? Yoga philosophy
tells you that it is phenomenal nature. Nature, in all its variations,
acts as the factor which limits you into a certain range of experience
which is its own area, which is its own territory; and, by its
proximity and by its close association with you, it transfers its varying
experience into you as it were, and this cosmic nature with its different
variations is termed Prakriti. And in your own physical personality,
in your own individual personality, this Prakriti comprises all those
factors other than your essential pristine identity, other than your
eternal unchanging nature. Your eternal, unchanging nature is an identity
independent of this cosmic nature, called Prakriti, and therefore, perfectly
free from all the limitations that are part of Prakriti. But your present
experience does not seem to reflect that essential identity of pristine
awareness, where you are totally independent of any changeful experience
whatsoever, where you are ever in a state of unchanging experience of
fullness, peace and joy. On the other hand, your present experience
seems to be the very contradiction of your pristine experience. Why?
It is precisely because of your being associated with Prakriti in all
its variegated modes, because of your being involved with it in a state
of identification, taking upon yourself and your consciousness factors
that do not really pertain to your eternal pristine native state. These
factors are foreign to you, but you have taken them upon yourself. Or,
they have become somehow like creepers twining into a tree due to close
association. This association and this close proximity is the root cause
of your being deprived of that experience of fullness and perfection,
of peace and joy, which is your native state, and of your being caught
in the trammels of a complicated pattern of experience which is the
very contradiction of your pristine state. This is the problem. Your
experience is not, therefore, your normal and natural experience. It
is an unnatural, abnormal experience; and the cause, the main source
or cause, the reason for this experience, is your having got into this
bad company, having got into this embroilment or entanglement in Prakriti;
and your true native state, your true identity in the state of Purusha,
of Self, of Real Being, is lost. And as long as this involvement in
the ever-changing Prakriti—which is full of contradictory experience,
full of complication, full of fluctuation—is going to continue,
your problem also is going to continue. As long as this state of association
and entanglement with phenomenal nature is going to continue, your problem
also is going to continue. The only way of putting an end to this problem,
of brining about a cessation of this hotchpotch of ever-changing experience—pleasant,
unpleasant and neutral—is once again to regain your isolation,
to go back to your normal and native pristine position, where you are
not associated with any other factor, where you are not entangled or
embroiled in any other factor, where you are independent. In that independent
state, you are by yourself in a state of grand isolation, untouched
by anything, beyond anything. In that pristine state, you are yourself
as you are, as you eternally are, independent of any other factor, grandly
isolated, free from any other association. If you regain that state
which is your normal state, native state—now you are in an abnormal
state—then all problems vanish. There is no more weeping and wailing,
there is no more swinging between contrary experiences. You regain your
pristine, ever-stable, unchanging state of fullness, of perfection.
So, when this association with Prakriti or cosmic nature has precipitated
this unfortunate state of affairs, to put an end to it, there is only
one way and that is the right royal way—stop this association,
terminate this association with the imperfect Prakriti, and be yourself.
Establish yourself in your pristine isolated position. This is the philosophical
thesis which is at the basis of the science of Yoga.
The Spiritual Reality of Man and the Psychological
Situation in which He is Caught Up
How to bring about this separation so that you once again regain your
independent status where you are not caught up in the factor called
Prakriti? How to bring about this breaking of your unfortunate association
with Prakriti? That is what the science of Yoga is concerned about.
How to give back to you your independence, how to give back to you once
again that pristine state in which you are always there—that is
the subject-matter of the science of Yoga. The imperfect-experience
condition which is distressing, going up and down, has arisen due to
your association with Prakriti or Nature that is ever unsteady. This
association has to be broken if you are to regain your independent status
of everlasting joy. So, the problem and the solution are provided for
you by the philosophy of Yoga and the working out of the solution is
gradually elaborated in a systematic manner in the practice of Yoga.
But, this practice has to recognise the present reality. The present
reality is that you are a very-much harassed being subject to a great
deal of distress, of limitations. Whatever the truth of your identity
may be, you have lost the awareness of your identity. Now you are not
in that state of identity. So, we have to start from where you are.
We cannot start from the other end, whatever you might be. That
seems to have no relevance at all, because that experience is lost.
It is no longer there. You may be told theoretically about it; you may
believe it. But now you find yourself in a totally different position,
and so we have to start from the position in which you are, where you
are completely involved in thought, in mind, in the mental process,
in sentiments, emotions—in short, involved in all the variations
of all the physical as well as the psychological factors which make
up Prakriti. Prakriti is made up of many things—the five elements,
the Prana, the senses, and the mind in its different modes, each mode
having its own variations. One single mode of the mind has got so many
variations—Vasanas, Samskaras, imaginations, anger, passion, greed,
hatred, envy, jealousy, worry, selfishness, attachment. The intellect
has its own variations—clear perception, unclear perception and
wrong perception. So, it is a complicated maze in which your consciousness
is caught at present. And, in any practice that has to bring about the
liberation of your Self, you must take count of the actual present position
and start from there, and hence the need to get a clear idea of the
psychology of Yoga. The practice of Yoga rests upon the present situation
of the individual being and the present situation of the individual
being is the psychological situation. The spiritual reality of the individual
being is totally hidden and overcome by his psychological situation,
like the sun or the moon overcome by an eclipse or a big piece of cloud.
The practice of Yoga is thus based upon the realistic recognition of
the present psychological position of the individual. As such, a clear
knowledge of the present psychological situation of the individual is
very essential. Herein comes the necessity of knowing about the psychology
of Yoga. Based upon the psychology of Yoga, they have formulated a certain
set of practices which form the practice of Yoga.
So, you are the Purusha, totally free from all sorts of negative experiences
and afflictions. You are self-sufficient, independent, complete, of
the nature of absolute peace and joy. But, that stage which the philosophy
of Yoga clearly declares to be your authentic and genuine identity seems
to be a far cry from where you now find yourself. You are very much
dependent, not independent, very much full of experiences which you
are always trying to get rid of somehow or the other, which you are
always trying to replace by a more satisfying condition. So, it is not
a very flattering position to find yourself in. Yoga science tries to
explain to you why you are in this condition. Is there a way out of
this condition? If so, what is it? Based upon the knowledge supplied
by the science of Yoga as to why your present condition has been brought
about, the way out of it also has been formulated. And if you seriously
start applying this knowledge of the way out in the form of Abhyasa
or personal practice, gradually it gives you back your state of independence
or fullness—independence from all limitations, from all afflictions.
To sum up: your true identity is a state of absolute independence and
freedom from any negative or painful or undesirable experience. You
are a perfect being, free from all afflictions, independent. But, your
present state does not seem to be anywhere near that pristine state
and this is due to your association with another cosmical factor called
phenomenal nature which Yoga philosophy calls Prakriti. Your proximity
to, and association with, Prakriti has brought about this vitiation
of your own Self-experience and replaced it by a very unsatisfactory,
contradictory and mixed-up experience. And therefore, this association
has to be terminated. Once again separating yourself from Prakriti,
you have to establish yourself in your original independent status.
And the practical aspect of the science of Yoga tries to give you a
certain systematic method by which this can be achieved.
2
The philosophy of Yoga and the psychology behind its practice—the
two are bound up together in such a way that any consideration of the
one inevitably has to simultaneously take into account the other, because
the practice of Yoga is laid upon the basis of a psycho-philosophical
background. The philosophy of Yoga and the psychology of Yoga are present
not only as a background to this science of Yoga, but also as the basis
for the practice of the Yogic processes. It is upon this basis that
the different practices have been formulated and presented and this
point should be borne in mind always, not only when we make a study
of Yoga, but also when we actually practise the different Angas of Yoga.
Only then will the practice become more meaningful to us and only then
can the practice itself be done in a right way and in a rational way.
If this Yoga practice is to be effective, you must know why you are
engaging in this practice, what this practice is supposed to achieve
for you, what you are expected to gain out of this practice, and what
the effect of this practice is supposed to be upon your own nature,
upon your own spiritual state. Otherwise, there would be no terms of
reference by which you can ascertain whether the practice is actually
proceeding in the right direction or not, whether it is bearing fruits
step by step or not. Upon what hypothesis, upon what thesis will you
judge whether your Yoga practice is progressive or stagnant, whether
it is fruitful or sterile? How can you make out? It is only when you
have a certain frame of reference with which you can tally your practice
from time to time that you will be in a position to engage in your practice
meaningfully, in an effective and satisfactory manner. And that is why
it is necessary to bear in mind the psycho-philosophical basis of these
Yoga practices even while you are engaged in them.
Warding off Painful Experiences—The Main Motivation
Behind All Human Activity
In the last chapter we saw a broad outline of the philosophy behind
Patanjali’s Yoga Darshana. An analysis of the present condition
of the individual shows that he is subject to many afflictions and painful
experiences, many limitations and imperfections, upon the physical level
and upon the psychological level—hunger and thirst, pleasure and
pain, elation and depression, what they call Harsha-Soka, Sukha-Duhkha.
So, bodily and mentally, the pattern of experience of the common individual
does not seem to be very, very satisfactory, very desirable even, not
at all beautiful. Most human beings are constantly engaged in an endless
struggle of warding off painful experiences, of keeping at bay experiences
that are distressing, that cause great discomfort and inconvenience.
If you analyse human activity, you find that it is inextricably interconnected
and interwoven with human experiences; and most of the activities are
a reaction called up or thrown forth to counter these experiences, to
try to change them, to try to overcome them, to try to nullify them,
to try to eliminate them. So, we cannot say that human activity is in
a large measure anything creative, anything gainful. It is all negative.
Nothing comes out of it, except that you try to escape from bad experiences
and manage to get rid of something here and something there which you
do not want. It is not that you have brought forth something wonderful.
So, it is neither constructive nor creative, neither gainful nor really
meaningful. But, it is seen to be petty, Alpa. The Upanishad calls it
Alpa. Constantly, a vast aggregate of the human race on this earth is
engaged in a never-ending process of trying to ward off painful experiences,
try to get rid of suffering and pain, that which it does not want. Duhkham
Ma Bhuyat: Let no sorrow befall. That is the motivation. That is
the idea behind most human activity. “I do not wish sorrow; I do
not wish pain; I do not wish discomfort; I do not wish to have inconvenience
and suffering.” So, it is not a gainful process. It is not a creative
or a constructive process. Life goes on like this in this struggle.
When you consider this aspect of human activity and endeavour, you
find that it is not so much an original activity, due to human will
or human initiative, but something forced upon the human individual.
Willy-nilly he is compelled to engage in these activities, not out of
his own volition, but due to the force of circumstances or outer conditions.
In the light of this situation, the ancient seers tried to find out
what was the cause of this. They asked themselves: “Why has this
situation arisen? How has this situation come about?”. And as a
result of their intuitive discoveries, they came out with this knowledge
that these experiences stem from an unfortunate involvement of a being
who really is not subject to these experiences, who is in a pristine
state, who is in his own independent native state, who is always in
a state of perfect bliss, freedom and joy. So, this is an unnatural
condition, an abnormal condition, resulting from an involvement in a
factor which Yoga Shastras call the phenomenal nature or Prakriti. And,
due to involvement in this Prakriti, the Purusha, who is a perfect being,
independent, free from all afflictions, weeps and wails. So they said:
“We shall try to formulate a method by which there may be brought
about once again the isolation of the Purusha from this involvement,
by which there may be brought about once again a separation of these
two factors—Purusha and Prakriti—the coming together of which
has resulted in all sorts of suffering”.
The Nature of Purusha’s Involvement in Prakriti—The
Interplay of the Three Gunas
What is the form of this involvement of the Purusha in Prakriti? In
what way is Purusha involved in Prakriti? What is Prakriti? In what
way is it present? Advaita Vedanta uses the term Maya also with reference
to this phenomenal nature and the Gita gives a certain extent of information,
a certain hint that this Prakriti is made out of three Gunas—they
call it qualities for want of a better term—or three states of
being, namely, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. This divine cosmic illusory
power called Prakriti comprises three Gunas. And Prakriti herself is
present in the form of the gross physical body, the vital power that
manifests as the living breath, the senses that are situated in the
physical body with their natural urges towards their respective sense-objects,
and the inner man, the inner being, in the form of thinking and feeling,
in the form of remembering and recollecting, in the form of reasoning
and willing. It is due to your involvement in this Prakriti that you
are experiencing this present state of a mixture of joy and sorrow,
a constantly fluctuating mixed state, like a person tasting in the mouth
an equal mixture of sand and sugar. One moment you feel the sweetness;
another moment the teeth grind upon the sand particles and you feel
very bad about it. When it is said that the Purusha is involved in Prakriti
in its variegated modes as the gross physical body, the senses, the
inner Prana, mind, intellect, memory and ego, all these go to make up
the sum-totality of your individual human personality. All these represent
the Prakriti in its various aspects. And the involvement of the Purusha
in these aspects of Prakriti necessarily affects their manifestation
or expression. It affects the way in which your mind expresses itself,
your feelings express themselves, your thoughts express themselves.
It affects the way in which your senses manifest their nature and your
body displays its dynamics in its various movements in the form of restlessness,
in the form of wanting to be active, in the form of hunger, in the form
of various desires to eat, drink and rest, to sleep and to move about.
These manifestations constantly keep you in a state of restlessness
and agitation, and also drag you out of your innermost centre and forcibly
bring you out into contact with the external universe of names and forms,
of temporary things. And Prakriti being a composition of the three Gunas,
the manifestations and movements of these various aspects of Prakriti—inner
and outer, psychological and physical—also tend to fall under one
or the other of these Guna categories. All this came in for the study
of the ancient seers. They observed the human individual, observed his
nature, in just the same way as a modern scientist would observe an
ants’ colony in a glass case, day after day, keeping the ants some
food and observing them by day and by night, how they go after food,
what their activities are, what their nature is, what code of conduct
they have got, what their laws of behaviour are and so on. In a like
manner, the ancient seers, the great scientists of the inner man, observed
the human individual, his nature, his behaviour and his experience.
And they studied the various manifestations of the different modes of
Prakriti in the human individual within the area of framework of his
nature. They made a study of how Sattva manifested in man, how Rajas
manifested and how Tamas manifested.
An urge to activity, a constant restlessness, a tendency to movement,
was the effect of the Rajas in Prakriti. Everything ugly, negative,
anti-social and destructive was the result of the manifestation of the
Tamas in Prakriti. Everything beautiful, sublime, elevating, refined
and subtle was seen to be the effect of the manifestation of the Sattva
in Prakriti. When we say “Prakriti”, you should not have in
your mind the picture of some goddess or some lady creating a lot of
trouble. It is not like that. Prakriti is only a word to indicate a
cosmic principle which is in the form of a force. It is not so much
a power as a force. Power is exercised or wielded, whereas force just
manifests itself, carries everything before it. Prakriti is therefore
a cosmic force, a cosmic principle which is in the form of a force,
manifesting upon different levels. When this force manifests upon one
level, it is said to be Tamasic. When this force manifests upon another
level, it is said to be Rajasic. And when this force manifests upon
yet another level, a third level, it is said to be Sattvic. And, on
all these three levels, it keeps on manifesting. How this goes on has
been hinted at in the famous Bhagavad Gita which is both a Brahma Vidya
and a Yoga Shastra. They have hinted at a cyclic manifestation of this
Prakriti wherein sometimes Sattva predominates overriding Rajas and
Tamas, sometimes Rajas predominates overriding Sattva and Tamas, and
sometimes Tamas predominates overriding Sattva and Rajas.
Svabhava—The Individual’s Pre-acquired
Pattern of Samskaras and Vasanas
Quite apart from this aspect of the movement of the three Gunas of
Prakriti, there is another even more important aspect of the presence
of these three Gunas of Prakriti in human nature, and that more important
aspect is also to be grasped only upon the basis of philosophy. Philosophy
behind and beyond Yoga has expounded the presence of recurring embodiments
for the Purusha as long as the Purusha has not succeeded in dissociating
himself from Prakriti and regaining his splendid isolation, his pristine
independent condition. As long as that is not achieved, there is ever-recurring
embodiment for the Purusha, and in each new embodiment the Purusha comes
with a pre-acquired background condition. What is this pre-acquired
background condition? When you have completed one page in an accounts
book and you have to start upon a fresh page, you bring forward to the
beginning of the fresh page the last entry that is at the end of the
previous page. That will be the basis of commencement of fresh entries
upon the new page. Thus, the fresh page is not a blank page. It already
commences with a starting background condition. It is already there.
Whether it is a credit or a debit or whatever it is, it is there. In
a similar manner, at the time of each embodiment, you come into this
world with a certain pre-acquired pattern of Samskaras and Vasanas,
of impressions and innate tendencies, latent tendencies, which already
have set the pattern of your nature in this fresh embodiment. So, this
condition in which you start your life, commence your career, human
career, with a certain set pattern, with an intermixture of Rajas, Tamas
and Sattva in a certain ratio, is the state of Prakriti in you, is your
inborn Prakriti, your built-in Prakriti state. And this is an even more
important aspect of the presence of Prakriti in you than the cyclic
manifestation of the three Gunas in Prakriti continuing in a sort of
an ever-recurring movement within you. This condition in which you come
into the world with a certain set pattern of the Prakriti with its three
Gunas is indeed a very vital factor, because this decides the exact
form in which the cyclic manifestation of the three Gunas will take
place in you.
Will Prakriti keep on manifesting in you as the truthfulness of Harischandra
or Yudhishthira or George Washington who, as the story goes, cut down
an apple tree in the garden and confessed it to his father? Or, will
the three Gunas manifest in you as a compromising attitude—an attitude
where if it is not too inconvenient, you will stick to truth, but if
it is likely to bring suffering to you, you will not mind uttering a
falsehood? Or, will Rajas and Tamas manifest in you as a downright lying
habit, so much as to say that you are born with a tendency to speak
only false, never to utter truth? What decides the nature of manifestation
of the three Gunas of Prakriti in you? The deciding factor is the background
nature which you have already acquired and brought along with you when
you have come into this present embodiment, into this fresh page of
your account book. It is your background nature that decides the exact
form, the exact Rupa-Rekha, the exact blueprint, of the dynamics of
the recurring manifestation of the three Gunas in you—the precise
form in which Prakriti will manifest in your particular character, in
your particular individuality. And this background nature brought forward
from previous births will differ from person to person. In a family
there may be seven children, say, two daughters and five sons. In each
one, the cyclical manifestation of the three Gunas will be there, the
ever-changing pattern of their manifestation will be there. But the
exact form in which this changing pattern will express itself in actuality
may be completely different in each one of the children, though they
are born of the same parents, brought up in the same home and environment,
fed with the same food. It will be completely different, because of
this other aspect of each one’s involvement in Prakriti, namely,
the ratio in which the three Gunas of Prakriti happen to be present
in the background nature, in the foundation, in the pre-acquired built-in
born nature. We call this foundation nature by the name “Svabhava”.
Svabhava will never change. The foundation will never change. One can
go on altering the building, the superstructure, demolishing and remodelling
and all that, but the foundation is unalterably there, and upon that
foundation only all the remodelling will have to be done. So, the foundational
aspect of your involvement in Prakriti is a very important factor.
The Animal in Man—The Problem of the Unregenerate
Human Individual
The ancient Rishis, having known both these aspects of Purusha’s
involvement in Prakriti, namely, the presence of Prakriti in man and
the manifestation of Prakriti in his nature, went on studying the two
aspects. For the purpose of this study, they went deep within themselves,
directed the attention of their concentrated mind upon each subject,
and performed a certain very, very unique spiritual exercise upon that
subject to know all the ins and outs about that subject. That spiritual
exercise was called Samyama. As you proceed in Raja Yoga, you will come
across this Samyama, which is an inner spiritual process made up of
concentration and meditation and an intense superconscious state of
cognition, of perception. A simultaneous practice of all these three
put together, namely, concentration, meditation and Samadhi, directed
upon a particular subject, is Samyama. Through such Samyama upon human
nature, upon human behaviour, upon the inner man, the Yogis of old discovered
various truths. Through such Samyama, through intuitive experiences,
through a direct vision of man and things, they studied and learnt about
the manifestations of the different aspects of Prakriti in different
subjects. In man they discovered that the manifestations of Prakriti
were sublime in some cases, neutral in some, and very degenerate and
very ugly in others. Upon the very lowest end of the scale, they found
that the involvement of Purusha in Prakriti resulted in Tamasic manifestations
like cruelty, violence, a tendency to cause suffering, to injure, to
hurt, to destroy, a dire propensity of inhuman nature. And they said
that this was also a part of human nature. In common terminology, we
say, “He is a very devil, he has got the devil in him, he is a
devilish person”. So, there is a devil in man. But, in metaphysical
terminology, they call it the animal in man, because this propensity
to attack, injure, hurt, destroy, cause pain and suffering, this violence
is the law of the jungle. It is a common feature of the animal state
of existence. So, within the human being, the involvement of Purusha
with Prakriti, upon the lowest gross level, resulted in the unfortunate
expression of animal propensities.
Also, an animal leads, through the whole of its life, a gross body-bound
existence; its life is confined to the satisfaction of hunger, thirst,
sex and sleep. That is animal life. Sex is there, because the law of
biological evolution requires that the species should not become extinct.
Therefore, for the continuity of the species, reproduction is indispensable,
and for the process of reproduction, sex activity becomes an inevitable
part of the biological, physical animal. It is because of sex that over
millions of years different species have continued to exist. They are
still there, and in spite of so much in nature that tries to destroy
them, they continue to be there, thanks to this in-built sex mechanism,
this reproductive process in the biological, evolutionary scheme of
things for life on earth ordained by some mysterious superconscious
being. So, these characteristics of sex, hunger, thirst and sleep form
the root nature of life on earth. The whole life is nothing but a constant
effort to satisfy hunger, thirst, sex and sleep and this is present
in the animal man. So far, it is all right. Its presence is no dire
calamity or disaster. But, if it becomes the more dominant part of your
life-style, then it becomes a dangerous predicament, because you have
reached a level where the biological evolution has brought you to the
peak point, where quite another aspect of evolution is supposed to commence.
From the peak point of the biological evolution, ethical and spiritual
evolution is about to start, and as long as you allow the brute nature
in you to become the dominant factor in your life-style, this will never
commence, this will never be launched—this other evolution at the
commencement of which you have arrived, from where you have to ascend
higher and higher ultimately to become God. You are, after all, the
Purusha, divine, eternal, all-perfect. But, as long as your whole nature
is only a manifestation of violence, destruction, sex satisfaction,
cunningness and devious dishonesty, the necessary process of ascent
will never start. That will never start. So, it becomes a great calamity.
So, what happens? The human personality becomes the unfortunate playground
for the qualities of violence, carnal passion, untruth, falsehood, deception,
dishonesty, acquisition and an ever-expanding process of sense satisfaction.
No satiation. The more you have, the more you want, and in more ways
you want to satisfy your senses, in more ways you want to give satisfaction
to the animal in you. You want to go on satisfying the senses of sight,
taste, sound, touch and smell. There is no end to this ever-progressive,
ever-expanding sensuality, to this unsatisfied desire to grab and accumulate
and acquire by hook or by crook, to this type of dishonest life-style.
So, this is the problem of the unregenerate human individual and the
science of Yoga sets about tackling this basic problem of the unregenerate
human individual personality dominated by the animal level of his nature.
And the first liberation of man from Prakriti has to be from this direct
manifestation of Tamo-Guna, the grossest state of Prakriti’s threefold
nature. And so, Patanjali commences the Yoga discipline by saying that
the first and foremost task is to come to grips with the animal in you,
to get involved in a tussle with the animal in you and try to overcome
it. Refuse to give in to the urge for violence, for injury, for hurting
others, the urge for causing destruction either by thought, word or
deed, by any movement of your personality. Refuse. Make a strong determination
that from you nothing but humanity will manifest, never the animal.
Tell yourself: “Now I have awakened to the fact that there is the
animal in me. I am no more going to be a stage for the manifestation
of the animal in me. I have determined that the stage will be cleared
of the animal in me and only the human will manifest”. This is
the first Yogic determination, the first Yogic vow. You take a vow in
order to make a strong determination. You take a Pratijna. In this manner,
in Yoga, where philosophy and psychology form the basis of practice,
the commencement of practice is to counter man’s involvement in
Prakriti in its grossest aspect. This is the Abhyasa of Yama, the first
Anga of Yoga.
3
In the preceding chapters we saw how all our problems are due to the
involvement of the all-perfect, ever-free, blissful Spirit with the
imperfect, ever-changeful and dualistic phenomenal nature called Prakriti,
and how due to this involvement in Prakriti, many of the imperfections
that are inherent in Prakriti are superimposed upon the Purusha who
is, in reality, a being totally free from all afflictions. The Purusha
has no sorrow, no anxiety, no worry; he has no fear, no pain, no suffering.
His experience is always peace and bliss. He is beyond dualities. He
is perfect and self-sufficient, and therefore, always free from all
afflictions. But yet, due to his proximity to Prakriti and involvement
in Prakriti, many of the experiences that lie is Prakriti become superimposed
upon the Purusha. And the Purusha, as it were, seems to be suffering
also, undergoing all sorts of negative painful experiences—fear,
anxiety, worry, sorrow, hunger, thirst and so on. The aim and objective
of Yoga is to once again liberate the Purusha from this involvement
and give him a state of being established in his own Self-experience.
That is the state of liberation.
And then, we went on to see how the Yoga Shastra or the science of
Yoga, in a gradual way, in a graded method, tries to bring about a separation
of the Purusha from Prakriti, a freeing of the Purusha from its involvement
in Prakriti. In this connection, we dealt with Prakriti briefly and
saw how the phenomenal universe is composed of the three Gunas—Tamas,
Rajas and Sattva. The grossest and the outermost Guna is Tamas which
is inertia, grossness, darkness. Next is uncontrolled dynamism, the
desire nature of Rajas. That also is a bondage. Tamas holds you down;
Rajas binds you in another framework. But, Sattva is pure, of the nature
of light. It ascends, it has got an upward trend, it takes you up, elevates
you, uplifts you.
And we saw that Yoga starts with this clear knowledge that out of the
individual Prakriti, that which is most objectionable, that which is
the grossest, the ugliest, the most impure, that which is the very antithesis
of the Spirit, the very contradiction of the all-perfection and all-purity
of the Spirit, that has to be eliminated first. This gross aspect of
Prakriti in the form of the Tamo-Guna is present as the animalistic,
brute nature in man. This brute nature manifests in man in the form
of a tendency to injure, to give pain and suffering, to destroy. Tamas
also manifests in man as sensual tendencies, as carnal passion. And
in the wake of his pursuit after sensual experiences, the human individual
takes to deceit. By hook or by crook he must get his sense-objects.
So he becomes a worshipper of falsehood, a follower or votary of untruth.
In him, dishonesty, chicanery, treachery, deceitfulness, and also, Himsa,
Asatya, impurity and a carnal passion nature—all join together.
And then, he is endlessly greedy, wants to acquire more and more and
more, and in this process, throws to the wind all considerations of
ethics. “Does it belong to me? Have I a claim or right over it
that I wish to take?” This is his line of thinking. He does not
say, “It is something that belongs to someone else; it does not
belong to me. I have no claim over it, I have no right over it. I have
no moral justification in taking it”. No, he does not say that.
Dishonestly, without considerations of ethics, he reserves things, becomes
a dacoit, robs, steals. He takes what does not belong to him. He covets
things to which he has no right. Thus, the life of a brute man is full
of violence, brutality, cruelty, hardness, harshness, sensuality, grossness,
deceit, dishonesty, untruth, greed.
Eliminating the Brute in Man—The Role of Vows
So, Patanjali first starts by dealing with this aspect of Prakriti
prevalent in the individual nature and pervading individual activity
in life. Man must be liberated first from these things. This Tamas must
be eliminated from his nature and so the science of Yoga lays down that
one who aspires for liberation and the perfect supreme experience of
bliss must eliminate the brute in him, must eliminate that aspect of
his nature which is the result of the presence of Tamo-Guna. And therefore
Patanjali lays down the rule that aspiring Yogis, those who want to
acquire the higher abilities and attain illumination, must take up certain
vows. This is like the Christian Church laying down the three fundamental
vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to the man who wishes to take
to the path of renunciation and become a religious monk and enter a
monastery to take to a life of contemplation. This triple vow is a prerequisite,
is absolutely indispensable, if you want to enter into any monastic
order in the Christian set-up—poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Poverty means not wishing, not desiring to possess anything. It means,
in other words, an absence of greed, of cupidity, of covetousness. Chastity
is Brahmacharya, moral purity in all its implications, in thought, word
and action. And Brahmacharya implies abstinence, not from sex only,
but from every type of impure and sensual indulgence. And sensual indulgence
means indulgence by any of the five senses. Next, obedience. It means
obedience to the entire spiritual hierarchy. That is the one and only
way by which the rebellious ego, the self-asserting nature, the nature
that is the basis of arrogance, pride, assertiveness, dominance and
self-importance can be removed. Otherwise it is very difficult to remove
pride. It is only through continuous and constant obedience that this
sense of superiority and pride can go. Obedience, then, is the contrary
of self-expression. The ego always wants to express itself and if the
ego is denied expression, terrible things can happen to the psychic
being of man. The person can become psychotic; he can become off the
rails mentally. He can even have a sudden crack-down in his head; he
can start raving. In short, man can become an abnormal personality if
self-expression is denied to his ego. The Western psychologists are
very much aware of this and one of the basic concepts underlying the
science of psychology formulated and expounded by Sigmund Freud takes
account of this fact and pays great attention to the ego and self-expression.
Nevertheless, perfect obedience to the Guru or the spiritual director
and to the laws of the spiritual organisation are called for. For example,
in Buddhism, the one who takes the vow and enters into the monastic
order says, “Buddham Saranam Gachchami; Dammam Saranam Gachchami;
Sangham Saranam Gachchami”. It means: “I take refuge in the
Enlightened One, the Buddha; I take refuge in the Law that he has laid
down in his teachings; I take refuge in the Sangha, in the organisation”.
So, the new entrant says, “Now I am subservient to the organisation.
Whatever the rules and regulations of the organisation be, I must put
myself under them, I must obey them, I should not allow my ego to assert
itself”.
Obedience—A Means to Free Oneself from the
Tyranny of the Ego
There seems to be a strange inconsistency or sort of incompatibility
between this state of affairs prevailing in the spiritual and monastic
world and the rule of the Western psychological field. But then, there
is a difference. You will see that the seeming incompatibility is not
so much as it appears on the surface when you recognise that the taking
of the vow of obedience is on the part of the would-be monastic in a
spiritual set-up. He is not one hundred per cent in the act of a suppressing
of self-expression, precisely because he is taking the vow willingly
and voluntarily out of his own desire to do so, and he submits to it
with the full awareness of what it means to his freedom as an individual.
But he says that there is another dimension to his inner life—a
knowledge little known to Western psychology—and that his submission
and denial of the ego is the greatest good for him. His knowledge of
the inner spiritual aspect of man’s life has suddenly made him
realise that the so-called normal state of always expressing one’s
ego is a state of slavery. We are being tyrannised by our ego principle
all the time. We are being dominated by it. It is playing with us like
the cat playing with the mouse and we are really in a very pitiable
condition. We have not much say in the matter either. We are simply
impelled and propelled and pulled and pushed by this ego and its whims,
fancies and desires. So, the spiritual seeker, the student of Yoga,
tells himself: “I am always ridden by this thing called the ego
and therefore I wish to put a stop to this very undesirable state. Due
to my higher knowledge of the spiritual dimension of my life, I have
come to know that I am something other than this ego. I am something
more, I am something quite distinct. This ego is not I. This expression
of my ego is not really my self-expression. It is some other thing that
is ruling the roost, shoving me aside. Therefore, I must regain my real
place, role and status in my own sphere, within the sphere of my own
inner personality. At the moment I am nowhere, I am suppressed, I am
denied my rightful place; and someone else is occupying it and is playing
the game. I am tyrannised, dominated, enslaved. I will not allow this
to continue any more. I am going to assert myself. This ego has to be
chastised, it has to be shown its right place; and this would do the
greatest good for me”.
This is the commencement of the process of liberation. This vision,
this perceptive analysis of the matter, is unknown to the Western psychologist.
The Western psychologist does not know that there is a principle which
is distinct and different from the individual ego of the human personality,
and that that principle is the real identity of the person, and the
ego is only a temporary imposter. He does not know that the ego is masquerading
as someone, that it is in fact, a spurious identity, not the real identity.
But the student of Yoga knows. And out of this knowledge, the desire
arises in him: “No, no, I must now manifest my Self. I must give
expression to my Self. No more should this state of affairs continue
where some spurious factor is having a field day within my own personality.
This has to stop now”. This idea is at the basis of submitting
the ego to a higher law or a higher factor, or a higher being or a higher
personality. And so, the danger of any abnormality arising out of suppression
or oppression or denial of self-expression, which has its validity within
its own limited sphere, that danger does not operate here, that danger
does not exist here, because this is a new set-up, a new framework altogether.
On the contrary, when you make up your mind to deny the ego and submit
it to the law or the Sangha or the organisation, or the rules of the
system, or the Guru, you do it voluntarily and willingly, and in this
act, the true You, your spiritual Self, is asserting itself, is expressing
what it wants. Thus, it is actually an act of self-expression, in the
sense that it is the desire of your spiritual self to bring about a
cessation of the unsatisfactory state of affairs and thereby a distinct
change. The anatomy of this entire process, the mechanics of such obedience,
such subservience, such surrender, is clear if you have the right perception
and right vision of what you are doing. Then, by submitting the ego,
you feel a sense of freedom, a sense of lightness. Up till now you were
under the crushing burden of your ego-dominance, and when it is told
to keep its place and behave itself and be silent, you begin to experience
a sense of liberation.
So, just as these vows of poverty, chastity and obedience are the fundamental
requirements of entering into a new life for monastic aspirants in Christianity—and
each religion and each organisation has its own vows—Patanjali
has laid down a set of five vows to be taken at the point of your entry
into the life of practical Yoga. And these five vows have a direct relevance
and connection to what we saw earlier as the grossest expression of
Prakriti or phenomenal nature in which man is involved and which is
the outcome of the Tamo-Guna in Prakriti. And the five vows of Patanjali
constitute the foundation of the various stages of Yoga.
Now, in the light of what has been explained about the background philosophy
and the nearer psychology—the philosophy is a remoter background
and the psychology behind it is the immediate background—you will
be able to understand why this first fundamental stage of Yoga has given
these five vows, which taken together, have the common name of Yama.
Ahimsa Seen against the Background of the World Spectacle
Today
The first of the Yamas is the vow to abstain from injuring any living
being, any creature. This is known as Ahimsa. The person who takes this
vow declares: “From me there shall come no injury, no pain, no
suffering or destruction to life in any form”. This means that
either through your thinking or through your words or through your actions
you will not injure anyone. You will not bring pain or suffering to
anyone—not only to fellow human beings, but to all forms of life.
This is a sublime expression of your higher nature. The tendency to
assert your lower nature, your ego, your false identity, leads to all
sorts of harshness, cruelty, hardness, insult, abuse, even to raising
your hand and coming to blows, fighting and quarrelling. All this comes
out of the expression of the false ‘I’, and hence the first
vow—the entry-point of Yoga. The spiritual aspirant says: “I
shall not cause any pain or suffering to anyone. I shall not cause any
unnecessary sorrow to any person, and therefore, my speech will be soft
and peace-giving. My actions will be such as will be conducive to the
good of others, to the benefit and happiness of others, and not the
contrary. And my mind also will always think well of others. It will
be thoughts full of goodwill, peace, affection, love, friendliness,
brotherhood, oneness, unity, sympathy, kindness”. Why? Only if
the thoughts are of this nature, it is possible to make your words and
actions also of the same nature. Otherwise it is not possible, because
the fountain-source of our actions are the thoughts, first and foremost.
As are the thoughts, so are the actions. If a different kind of thoughts
are allowed to gain entry into the mind, they will lead to a different
kind of words and a different kind of actions. Thoughts are the root,
the seed, the source of all activity. Actions are only the outer expression
of the thoughts dominating the mind and impelling the individual. Action
is thought translated outwardly. So, the necessity of Ahimsa thoughts,
compassion thoughts, forgiveness thoughts, kindness thoughts, sympathy
thoughts, friendliness thoughts, brotherly-unity thoughts and cosmic-love
thoughts. They are the most important part of Yoga. For, then alone
your speech also will be of the same quality, of the same nature. Then
you will understand, with a little reflection, that for the first time
you are engaged in the process of real self-expression, of true self-expression.
Far from effecting any suppression or denial of self-expression, you
are now commencing to give expression to your real self, to your true
identity, in which you are divine, in which you are the Atman, the Satchidananda
Atman, the Divine Spirit, a centre of love, a centre of all that is
auspicious and good, a centre of peace, a centre of sweetness and kindness.
Here commences the true process of your expressing yourself in the
fundamental sense of the term ‘Ahimsa’, in the real sense
of the term Ahimsa. The greatness of Ahimsa is so much that if it is
not there, a human being is a human being only in form. He may be a
vertical vertebral creature with two legs, a biped on vertical vertebrae,
but if he does not have Ahimsa in him, only in form and name is he a
human being, but actually he is a brute. He is a brute only if he ill-treats
his wife at home and shouts at his children and is harsh to his servants
and subordinates and rides roughshod over the feelings of others and
does not care a hoot whether he has hurt anyone or not. If he is a rude
person, harsh person, cruel person, hard-hearted person, he is really
an inhuman being, because harshness and cruelty dehumanise a human being
and leave him human only in his outer appearance, but not in his actual
nature. And here comes Yoga science to make you divine and godly, to
make you regain your status as the Supreme Purusha, the Divine Being.
Therefore, that which is the greatest obstacle to the Yoga process,
that which is something that does not leave you even as a human being
but dehumanises you and brutalises your nature, that should be got rid
of. Therefore, take this vow of Ahimsa and say, “Even at the point
of death, I will not hurt anyone, I will not injure anyone, I will not
give pain or suffering to anyone, I will not harm anyone, I will not
cause destruction or injury to anyone”. This is the vow. The first
part of Yoga is not merely a spiritual practice or Sadhana, but a vow
which you must take and adhere to like a hero, making yourself an embodiment
of kindness, compassion, universal love, softness, sweetness and forgiveness.
Diametrically opposed to this concept of Ahimsa is the world spectacle
today which fills one with great distress and great pity. In nations
all over the world, due to a completely warped concept of human life
and its ultimate goal, organised human society has come to accept the
concept and the phenomenon of systematically giving training in arms
to a large number of citizens, spending a great deal of money upon it,
training which totally brutalizes them and prepares them to kill, to
destroy. The armouries of nations are full of machines of incredible
cruelty and destruction that completely brutalize human nature, that
completely dehumanise human society. And all this is done in a carefully
organised way. Great scientific books, technical books, are written
upon this subject, and there are great institutions where people go
and study these books to get a full knowledge of it all. So, when we
know from the vision of Yoga that man is divine and the ultimate divine
destiny of the human being is to become a godly personality, radiating
joy and peace everywhere, when we know this and we see the sorry spectacle
of an arms race in the world, we feel, “Ah! What a great pity!”
We see how vast sections of human beings are deprived of their great
blessedness due to the mistaken view of human society and due to the
wrong approach to social relationship and social life within the global
community. We find how unfortunate they are. We do not know how it is
that they are deprived of this great heritage which is their birthright
from the vision of the science of Yoga. We look at this thing that is
happening and gasp how countless thousands and millions of people are
trained only to kill, destroy, harm and injure in diabolical ways, and
in more and more terrible ways—poison-gas warfare, bacterial germ
warfare and so on. If you go into the intricacies of war, you will not
get sleep. Your heart will be wrenched. It will be wrung in horror and
agony, and yet, this is what is going on upon a vast scale all over
the world, even in the land of Buddha, even in the land of Lord Krishna,
in the land of Patanjali and Yoga Shastra. And it is done upon the plea
that we have no other alternative, that though we do not want these
things, though we would very much like to give up these things and have
universal brotherhood, peace, unity, one world and all that, when our
neighbours are of a different nature, we have no other alternative left.
For our own safety, for our own self-defence, we have to be strong;
and these things are meant to be used not in offence, but in retaliation,
to protect ourselves, to defend ourselves. In this way, the human mentality
tries to rationalise the things that are totally wrong, unrighteous
and against the great moral order of this world. It tries to justify
these things. But they are very dehumanising, very brutalizing. Man
becomes a brute, goes back once again into a brutal state, even while
he is in human society as a human being. If he throws a bomb and ten
people are killed, he is given a medal. And sometimes, if he has got
a conscience still, he starts feeling very bad afterwards. He becomes,
may be, mentally shocked, deranged, and his whole personality undergoes
a change. When he comes back from the war, he cannot fit into normal
society. Some people turn into criminals, some into dacoits and highway
robbers, some commit suicide. All sorts of disease spread due to people
engaging in such activities as are totally against their divine nature.
So, Patanjali starts with the greatest danger that is present in the
way of higher evolution, in the way of spiritual unfoldment, namely,
violence; and to counter that danger, advocates the vow of Ahimsa.
Satyam or Truthfulness—Its Implications and Connotations
The second great vow for the Yoga student to take is the vow of truthfulness,
because God is truth, and anything that contradicts truth contradicts
God, denies God. Hence the vow of truthfulness. There are sayings in
Sanskrit which praise these two vows of Satyam and Ahimsa, of truth
and non-violence, as among the highest principles of Dharma or righteousness.
“Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah” is one saying. It means, “Non-injury
is the highest form of righteousness, the highest expression of righteousness”.
There is another saying: “Satyam Nasti Pararno Dharmah”.
It means, “Higher than truth there is no other Dharma”.
How to practise these vows, adhere to these vows, in our daily life
is the next question. In what all ways can a person be cruel or violent?
You can be cruel or violent without raising your hand or hitting anyone.
You can be cruel through your speech. You can be cruel through your
expression in which you frighten a little child by getting angry at
it and widening your eyes; the child’s soul may tremble. You can
just terrify in that way someone lesser than you by your expression.
Likewise, in what way can you be truthful? Speaking falsehood is not
the only way of being untruthful. Concealing a thing is also a falsehood.
Trying to exaggerate a thing is also a falsehood. Trying to reveal something
partially and keeping something back is also a sort of dishonesty. And
there are ever so many other ways of being untruthful. You must reflect
over all possible ways in which one can contradict truth in one’s
dealings with others every day. It is a very intricate subject. Thinking
something inside and appearing to be something else outside—that
also is a contradiction of truth. But on occasion, being something inside
and appearing to be something else outside could be an act of kindness
also, could be an act of compassion also. In order to uphold Ahimsa,
temporarily you may have to have a slight deviation from truthfulness.
Supposing you see a loathsome beggar or a leper. You are revolted inside,
but for fear that you might hurt his feelings if you turn away in disgust,
you put on a calm appearance as though it is quite a normal thing; you
ask him what he wants and quickly dispose of him, quickly get rid of
him. Thus you avoid hurting his feelings by not manifesting your revulsion
in your exterior. You had something inside, but you appeared something
different outside. Strictly it is not an expression of truth, but it
becomes justifiable, because by this you have managed to uphold the
still higher Dharma of compassion, of Ahimsa. You have not hurt the
other person’s feelings. You have spared him. Therefore, the detailed
implications of these vows, and clarifications relating thereto, are
very subtle and intricate. You must reflect over various possibilities.
Gradually you will know the vows in greater and greater clarity and
detail.
Brahmacharya and How It Is to be Practised in Different
Levels of Life
After Ahimsa and Satyam comes the vow of Brahmacharya. On the practice
of Brahmacharya you will get valuable light if you read the book of
Mahatma Gandhi, “Self-restraint versus Self-indulgence”. Formerly
it used to be in two volumes. Now, the Navjivan Trust of Ahmedabad has
brought it out in a single volume. In that book Gandhiji says that Brahmacharya
is a broad term which means conducting yourself in such a manner as
will ultimately gain for you the vision of Brahman. According to him,
the concept of Brahmacharya is to be understood in a pervasive way.
Brahmacharya or chastity is a way of conducting yourself which gives
you, grants you ultimately, Brahma-Jnana or the experience of the Supreme
Reality. But, very specifically, Brahmacharya means control over your
sex urge. Very specifically, it means control over your carnal passion,
over your animal passion. But in a general way, it means self-control
or control over all the senses—control over the sense of sight,
control over the sense of hearing, control over the sense of touch,
over the sense of taste and over the sense of smell. Ultimately, it
means control over the wrong type of thoughts even.
Brahmacharya means different things in different levels of life. In
the bachelor stage and in the student stage, it means total abstinence
from sex. In the Sannyasin state also, it means a total abstinence from
sex. And in a married householder, in a family man’s condition,
it means moderation in sex activities, in sex life. Because, in the
family sphere of a householder’s life, sex has been given a legitimate
place and a legitimate role for the perpetuation of the species, and
therefore, with that specific purpose, man and woman are brought together
in the sacred relationship of man and wife. And therefore, in that sphere
of man’s life, Brahmacharya has the implication of moderation,
of controlled and regulated martial life. And in a Yogi, in a student,
in a youth, and in a Sannyasin, it means total abstinence. In a third
area, when the first two stages of student life and married householder’s
life are over, and one retires, Brahmacharya means total abstinence
in its physical expression and moderation in its expression upon its
sentimental and emotional levels. Because, in the third stage or Vanaprastha
stage, both man and wife live together. They live a retired life, taking
more and more interest in spiritual activities, going upon pilgrimages,
going into spiritual retreats, studying the scriptures, being partners
in worship and meditation, and generally living a life of spiritual
quest. There they live together, they give affection to each other,
and they serve each other. There they are still husband and wife, but
so far as the physical relationship which used to be there in the family
set-up in the second stage is concerned, that is completely stopped;
at the same time, there is emotional and sentimental interchange in
their relationship upon a higher level. That also is moderation. They
still do continue to remain man and wife, but yet, they remain more
as partners in a higher life, partners in an ethical and spiritual life,
in a life of Yoga. And so, in the different stages of life, the vow
of Brahmacharya has different but specific implications or connotations.
Aparigraha and Asteya—Non-covetousness and
Non-stealing
Brahmacharya, thus, is the third vow to be taken by the person who
wishes to enter into the path of Yoga and gradually ascend and attain
to a state of meditation, to a state of super-consciousness. There are
two more vows in the first Anga called Yama in Patanjali’s Yoga
Darshana. They are the vows of not coveting anything that does not belong
to you. In the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament, it is said, “Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife”. Here, “neighbour’s
wife” means all things that belong to the neighbour, because the
wife is the highest possession of the neighbour and all other possessions
like house, property, goat, sheep and cattle come after it. So, when
you say, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife”,
it means, “Thou shalt not covet anything belonging to thy neighbour”,
because, the wife represents the highest possession or belonging of
the neighbour, and all else come under it. To give another example.
There is a very picturesque expression in Sanskrit which says, “In
the footprint of an elephant, all footprints are already there”.
In the footprint of an elephant, the footprint of a horse or a buffalo,
a cow or a dog or a donkey, everything is there, because the elephant’s
footprint is so big that one may consider it to hold the footprints
of all other animals in the world. In a similar fashion, the highest
possession of a man, namely, the wife, may be taken to include all his
other possessions. So, you should not only not covet your neighbour’s
wife, but you should not covet anything belonging to your neighbours.
This vow of not desiring to possess anything that does not belong to
you is called Aparigraha. Aparigraha means also a life of simplicity,
not being too luxurious and too extravagant, because the more luxurious
and extravagant you are, the more things you want. Wants are multiplied.
Your desires become endless. Then you always begin casting eyes on things
that other people have and you do not have, and you want that and you
want this. Enmity comes, jealousy comes, the desire to possess comes;
you fall into a restless state. You lose your peace of mind. It makes
you a jealous creature, a very envious type of person. Therefore there
is this taking of the vow, “I will live my life upon a plain level
of utter simplicity. I will accept from the life around me just that
which is necessary to live a normal simple life. I will refuse to receive
from the life around me that which is not necessary for me, that which
is an unnecessary extravagance”. Like that is the vow of Aparigraha,
non-acceptance.
The last vow is Asteya. It is abstinence from theft. ‘Steya’
means theft. ‘Asteya’ means non-thieving, the vow of non-thieving,
non-theft.
So, Ahimsa, Satyam, Brahmacharya, Aparigraha and Asteya—these
are the five great vows which are meant to liberate the aspiring Yogi
from the bondage of the grossest aspect of phenomenal nature or Prakriti
as manifest through her Tamo-Guna. The Yogi has to take these five vows
and adhere to them—the vow of non-injury, the vow of truthfulness,
the vow of chastity or the vow of controlling the gross carnal nature,
the vow of non-acceptance and the vow of non-theft. By a strict adherence
to these vows, your life becomes raised to a higher level and grossness
recedes from you. You begin to live a refined life, because you bind
yourself down by these vows. And Patanjali, when he gave these vows,
gave them in the form of little, little aphorisms or very brief short
sayings, and to bring out the full meaning of those aphorisms, later
sages have commented upon Patanjali’s aphorisms or Sutras. They
have tried to explain the meaning behind the terse sayings. One of the
commentators says in his commentary that these vows have to be strictly
adhered to. There can be no exception. Patanjali also has a Sutra about
this, that these vows have no exceptions. If you take these vows, you
must adhere to them at all times, in all places, under all conditions,
in all circumstances. You cannot be given any French leave from any
of these vows. You cannot plead exception saying, “This vow is
all right here, but it is very difficult to adhere to it elsewhere”.
The Rishis say, “No. You cannot plead that”. There can be
no exception, no excuse for non-adherence. There can be no exception
of time, place, circumstance and all that. Thus is this first fundamental
step in the science of Yoga known as Yama which means the taking of
the five vows and strictly adhering to them under every time, place
and circumstance.
4
Man’s life on earth is marked by many painful, unpleasant and
undesirable experiences. It is characterised by birth, death, old age
and disease—Janma, Mrityu, Jara, Vyadhi. There is another classification.
Man suffers the Tapa-Traya or the threefold misery Adhi-Daivic, Adhi-Bhautic
and Adhyatmic. Firstly, man suffers due to painful experiences caused
by circumstances beyond his control in this world—floods, earthquakes,
famine, epidemics, tidal waves, drought, wars, pestilence. These miseries
are called Adhi-Daivic. Then man suffers due to painful experiences
brought about by other forms of life, tiny bacterial forms of life,
other insects, other big creatures, other Bhutas. “Bhutas”
means other forms of life and these difficulties are termed Adhi-Bhautic.
Lastly, man suffers afflictions created by his own interior due to unbridled
passion, due to jealousy, anger, hatred, envy, ill-will, inner restlessness,
due to too much of desire, unfulfilled desire, frustration, disappointment.
Hunger and thirst also trouble him every day. In this way, from within
he is tormented. These are called Adhyatmic miseries. And man is constantly
trying to ward off these threefold painful experiences.
Now, the philosophy behind Yoga says that all these miseries are avoidable,
that all these things are unnecessary and do not form your real condition,
your real native state. It affirms that your native state is all-perfect,
that it is a pristine state of peace and joy, absolutely untouched by
any of these experiences which form the sum-totality of the mixed experiences
of this earth plane, of this terrestrial life. Yoga philosophy declares
that you are really a being completely transcending these miserable
experiences, untouched by them and unaffected by them. And they have
no power to affect you or to alter your pristine state of peace, joy,
perfection and fullness. That is what the Yoga philosophy says and then
it explains further why you seem to be constantly a partaker of these
miserable earthly experiences which contradict your true state of joy,
peace, contentment and fullness. It is because you have somehow come
into a state of proximity, contact and involvement with the factor known
as Prakriti or phenomenal nature. And if you want to regain your pristine
state transcending these imperfections, you have to bring about once
again a liberation of yourself, a separation of yourself from phenomenal
nature. Thus, the objective of Yoga is to separate and isolate the Purusha
from Prakriti.
All Yoga a Preparation for Meditation
Prakriti is the sum-totality of phenomenal nature. Purusha is the all-perfect
spiritual being. Purusha’s involvement with Prakriti has to be
resolved once again and the Purusha has to be made independent of Prakriti,
enabling him to regain his pristine, isolated state of glorious self-experience.
Yoga tries to do just that. And the ultimate process to bring about
this separation is the process of deep, intense inward dwelling upon
the Purusha, the process of meditating upon the Purusha, by gathering
your entire interior, unifying it and fixing it upon the Purusha in
a state of intense one-pointed meditation to the exclusion of all other
thoughts, to the exclusion of all other ideas. This is the ultimate
supreme process of Yoga; this is the objective of Yoga and whatever
there is in Yoga. All other training and all other processes of Yoga
are nothing but a very scientific practical preparation to ultimately
prepare and condition your mind to be able to dwell in this intense,
one-pointed way upon the Purusha. Then, what you meditate upon with
absolute concentration, that you become. Tadat-maya, they say. This
has been proved to be the experience of the previous meditators. We
become that which we meditate upon intensely. So they say. If you meditate
upon the all-perfect Purusha, who is independent and free from all afflictions,
who is independent from Prakriti, you will become that Purusha Himself.
That is what Raja Yoga wants you to do. But, the practical sage and
master Patanjali knew that if you wanted to go to the roof of the house,
you could not take a running jump. By trying that, you would only break
your legs. You have to climb a ladder or a stairway. In the same way,
if you want to reach the state of absolute mergence with Purusha in
your meditation upon the Purusha, if you want to completely enter into
that state of Purushahood, you have to go step by step. So, Patanjali
formulated and expounded a graded series of practices aimed at ultimately
taking you to meditation, at ultimately leading you to superconsciousness,
where you can realise your supreme Purushahood, independent of Prakriti,
and in a splendid state of spiritual isolation. And these graded steps
form the Angas of Yoga, the various limbs of Yoga, commencing from the
first until the seventh, which leads on to the eighth and the last,
namely, Samadhi.
Why did Patanjali formulate these various steps? Upon what basis did
he formulate these steps? That will be studied in the chapters to follow.
It has already been seen how Prakriti is made up of the three Gunas—Tamas,
Rajas and Sattva—and how the grossest of these is Tamas. It would
be proper to deal with this grossest quality Tamas first, because we
are living in the gross world of physical matter.
Our Present State—A Total Involvement in Tamas
Our consciousness is involved in Prakriti in the three levels of Sattva,
Rajas and Tamas. And, upon the grossest level, it is totally involved
in the body. We know ourselves only as physical beings, with all the
hunger and thirst and the other physical symptoms of our involvement
in gross Prakriti. Sleep, carnal passion, and gross animalistic propensities,
like the propensity to be violent, cruel and harsh, the propensity to
fight, quarrel and cause injury to others, to bring pain and suffering
to others, to destroy—all this is part of human nature. Whenever
the lid is off, restraint is given up and we see that man is a brute.
If two people start quarrelling and they have a difference of opinion
and tempers rise, they immediately start hitting each other. One man
lifts a stone, the other lifts a stick and they come to blows. There
is a police case. Immediately the affair is taken to the police for
breach of peace. This happens almost every day in educated human society,
in the urban society of educated people holding university degrees.
They come to fisticuffs, they come to blows, they abuse each other and
they are taken to the police station. So, they generate a rich income
for the police department, for lawyers and law courts; and the government
gets revenue through judicial stamps and all that. This sort of quarrel
and fighting also erupts upon a mass scale. If tempers are aroused,
communities clash; there are riots, there is killing, there is pillaging,
there is burning, looting. This happens every now and then. So, in spite
of man having supposedly advanced and progressed and become cultured
and civilised, these things have never stopped. People running amuck,
people becoming wild, people behaving like animals in the jungle—these
things have never stopped. Take the newspapers of any country, of any
nation. What is the pattern of behaviour that human society projects,
especially in cities? See? This is the thing. It is a very, very sorry
commentary upon civilisation, upon culture, progress, education and
advancement. We see that human society is forced and compelled to the
necessity of keeping ready a highly sophisticated section of people
in order to keep this violent element in man suppressed. And that is
the police force in each country. There is no country, no government,
without a police force, heavily armed and ready to use violence upon
its own population. Every city, every town has got its own police force
that is called out immediately when people get out of hand; and so many
times during the year they get out of hand. The police have to rush
to the trouble spots in order to put down violence by legalised authorised
violence; and upon the international scene also, this is the same thing
prevailing. Great nations, though they are human, arm themselves to
their teeth more than any other jungle animal created by God is armed.
The jungle animals have got claws and hands, have got two weapons, of
defence and of offence. But civilised man has got two hundred. How many
kinds of guns, machine-guns, rifles, revolvers, grenades, bombs and
artillery! O God!! How many devices, what a variety of ways in which
man has fashioned weapons of assault and destruction and complete taking
of life! It has no end. Every day, highly-paid scientists are working
in the laboratories to devise newer and newer ways of killing brother
human beings, of destroying, of injuring. How can we reconcile this
cult, this civilisation, this education with progress and advancement?
We do not know. But Patanjali knew that the grossest aspect of Prakriti’s
manifestation in human nature was in the form of these crude propensities—propensities
that we normally attribute only to the animals in the jungle. But these
propensities are present in the human individual a hundred times more
than in the wild animal. As long as there is some sort of a restraint
or opposition to the violent propensity in man by way of environment
or circumstance or the social atmosphere, or due to other curatives,
or due to fear of punishment or retaliation, the propensity lies inside.
But, suddenly, if a man is aroused in temper, he goes out of control
and he commits murder, does anything, shoots, kills and loots. So we
find that this violent nature is an ever-present part of the human make-up.
And Patanjali said that as long as this was allowed to prevail, realising
your perfect spiritual nature would be a far, far cry.
How the Five Vows Free Man from Tamasic Bondage
So, start in the bottom-most part, the basic part, where your involvement
in Prakriti is an involvement in the grossest aspect of Prakriti, namely,
the brute aspect. It is for this purpose that Patanjali has laid down
the five vows, the five Mahavratas, the five Pratijnas. And the taking
of the five vows constitutes the first Anga of Yoga, called Yama, where
your first liberation is worked out, which is a liberation from the
grossest aspect of Prakriti. You liberate yourself from the propensity
to cruelty, injury and destruction by sticking to the vow of Ahimsa.
You liberate yourself from the gross carnal instinct, the brute passion,
lust, by adhering to the vow of Brahmacharya. You liberate yourself
from the human tendency to conceal things by untruth and dishonesty,
by sticking to Satyam or truth. Even if one of these things is practised,
the other virtues will automatically gather around you. If you know
that a certain line of conduct is wrong and if you have found yourself
indulging in a wrong line of conduct and realise that you have to pay
the consequences, that some punishment or some chastisement may come
upon you, then you want to conceal your wrong doing. You tell yourself
that should someone question you and you have to say something in answer,
you will tell a lie to hide your wrong action. But, if you bind yourself
to truth, to the vow that whatever happens a false word will not issue
forth from your tongue, if you resolve and determine that no matter
what may come, you will stick to truth and say only that which is the
truth, then, automatically you will be compelled or obliged to give
up all lines of conduct which you know are not right, because should
you indulge in such wrong conduct and should someone question you, you
cannot conceal it, you will have to confess and reveal it, because of
your having taken the vow of truthfulness. “If I do something which
is very bad and wrong, ignoble and unworthy, I have to say it. I dare
not say it. Therefore I cannot afford to engage in any act which I do
not wish to confess or admit.” That will be your line of argument.
The
