The Raja Yoga Teachings
on the Path to Self-Knowledge
The Theosophical Movement
The four books of Patanjali’s Yoga Aphorisms, as
interpreted by William Quan Judge [1],
present a clear picture of metaphysical tenets and principles as a basis for
psychological disciplinary practices outlined throughout them. Their
metaphysics provide a comprehensive foundation upon which their ethical and
moral practices are built, and these in their turn must become part and parcel of
the inner and outer life of the student.
Study and practice should go hand in hand, for the study of the tenets,
with the necessary meditation on their actual meaning, provides a chart by
which the student can guide his mental, emotional and physical natures towards
a safe anchorage in “Concentration”. When the practical application of the
philosophical tenets is seen to be necessary and is undertaken by the student,
then the whole book becomes a “living treatise” on how to disentangle the mind
from the several allurements of the senses and of the desire nature, which
cause its “modifications”.
The mind gets modified or transformed, as it were, into the subject or
object that comes up before it, and this makes concentration difficult for most
of us. Book I carefully enumerates these modifications of the mind, which the
student can verify by the direct process of observation or perception, the
analytical process of inference, which involves weighing and measuring, and by
careful checking of his findings with the testimony of others. These three,
Perception, Inference and Testimony, give rise to what Patanjali calls “Correct
Cognition”, that is, an accurate appraisal of all objects taken up by the mind
for meditation. This form of meditation, which requires an object for the mind
to focus itself upon, is called by Patanjali “meditation with its seed”.
That kind of meditation in which there is “distinct cognition” of the
subject to be pondered upon involves the mental processes of Argumentation,
Deliberation, Beatitude and Egoism. These four constitute degrees which the
mind in meditation reaches. Egoism or the fourth degree, Mr. Judge explains,
leads to that state of Egoic perception where “a distinct recognition of the
object or subject with which the meditation began is lost, and
self-consciousness alone results; but this self-consciousness does not include
the consciousness of the Absolute or Supreme Soul”. From this point the
meditation may proceed to an abstract stage, and to quicken this process the symbolic
and mystical meaning of the Supreme Spirit manifesting as Ishwara (the spirit
in the body) and named OM, is to be meditated upon.
When meditation has reached the “Non-Argumentative” condition, a state
in which the object selected for meditation has disappeared from the plane of
contemplation, and when “Wisdom has been reached, through the acquirement of
the non-deliberative mental state”, there is spiritual clearness, or the
perception of “that Knowledge which is absolutely free from Error”. This Knowledge
differs from the knowledge resulting from testimony and inference, because, in
the pursuit of the former, the mind is “engaged with the general field of
knowledge itself”. The train of self-reproductive thought that results from
this puts a stop to all other trains of thought.
The two main trains of thought are, first, that which depends on
suggestion made either by the words of another or by impression upon the bodily
or psychic senses or the mind; and secondly, that which may be referred to as “self-reproductive”,
which depends altogether upon itself and “reproduces from itself the same
thought as before” Self-reproductive thought acts as an obstacle to all other
trains of thought, for it repels or expels from the mind any other kind of
thought. Even this train of thought, with but one object, may be stopped, and
then there results “meditation without a seed”, with consequent progressive
thought upon a higher plane.
Book II continues with the practical aspect of the disciplinary
instructions, and indicates that Ignorance is the source of all other forms of
mental afflictions which assail the disciple from within. “Egoism, Desire,
Aversion, and a tenacious wish for existence upon the earth” naturally arise
from ignorance and produce “results in both physical and mental actions or
works”, and these “have their fruitage either in the visible state or that
which is unseen”.
Egoism is the confounding of the soul with the mind or with the organs
of sense. Pleasure and pain have their seat in Desire and Aversion,
respectively. “The tenacious wish for existence upon earth” is inherent in all
sentient beings, and this wish, having its roots in the tendency of the spirit
to manifest itself on the material plane throughout a Manvantara, continues
through all incarnations, reproducing itself in each life.
The “afflictions” mentioned above may be evaded by producing “an
antagonistic mental state”, and when they modify the mind by pressing
themselves upon the attention, they are to be got rid of by meditation.
Vice, with its fruit of demerit in the form of suffering, can be
transformed into its corresponding virtue with its fruit of merit in the form
of happiness. This transformation, although a necessary step on the Path of
Spiritual Cultivation, is not the ultimate goal or objective, for “to that man
who has attained the perfection of spiritual cultivation, all mundane things
are alike vexatious, since the modifications of the mind due to the natural
qualities are adverse to the attainment of the highest condition”. Lack of
discrimination follows from the fact that “the soul is conjoined in the body
with the organ of thought, and thus with the whole of nature”; this produces
misconceptions of duties and responsibilities.
The Universe, both visible and invisible, exists for the sake of the
soul’s experience and emancipation, and when discriminative knowledge of the
soul and its environment is attained, the ignorance that holds the soul in a
state of bondage to matter is dispelled. With the attainment of perfect discriminative
knowledge, the stage called the “Isolation of the soul” is reached.
“Isolation of the soul” means, not a permanent withdrawal of the soul
from its instruments, but the unbroken retention of consciousness while in the
body, at the moment of quitting it, and when passing into higher spheres, and
likewise when returning to the material plane. The mind, freed from the
modifications resulting from sensory and psychical perceptions, becomes an
instrument for the unfoldment of the soul’s powers. But before perfect
discriminative knowledge, continuously maintained, becomes ours, it is possible
to achieve, with the help of practices which are conducive to concentration, an
illumination more or less brilliant which is effective for removing impurities.
Such practices include, among other things, harmlessness, veracity, abstinence
from theft in mind and act, continence, elimination of covetousness,
purification of mind and body, contentment, austerity, properly uttered
invocations, persevering devotion to the Supreme Soul, and restraint. Postures
and regulation of the breath are also mentioned, but Mr. Judge explains that
these exercises are not absolutely essential to the successful pursuit of the
practice of concentration and attainment of its ultimate fruits. At the present
day, few are acquainted with the rules and prescriptions for physical exercises
performed with a view to producing physiological, followed by psychical,
effects, and therefore such exercises had best be left alone.
Other practices conducive to concentration are attention, contemplation,
and meditation, and these are dealt with in Book III.
Perfect concentration, or Sanyama, is explained as the use or operation
of the practices of Dharana or attention, Dhyana or contemplation, and Samadhi
or meditation, in respect to a single object. These three practices are to be
used by the student for overcoming all modifications of the mind, or the
tendency towards mental diffuseness. They facilitate the attainment of that
state of meditation in which that which is to be pondered upon is well known,
without doubt or error, and it is a distinct cognition which excludes every
other modification of the mind than the object that is to be pondered upon.
Attention, contemplation and meditation are anterior to the state called “meditation
without a seed”.
There are two trains of self-reproductive thought, “the first of which
results from the mind being modified and shifted by the object or subject
contemplated; the second, when it is passing from that modification and is
becoming engaged only with the truth itself”. That state of meditation in which
there is a uniform flow of mind, and in which the mind is concerned in both the
trains of self-reproductive thought, is called Nirodha. Ekagrata is a state of one-pointedness
in which the mind is intent on a single object, having transcended all thoughts
about its condition, qualities and relations.
Sanyama or perfect concentration may be performed with regard to any
particular object or subject, and by this means the ascetic acquires [true] knowledge
concerning it as also the powers resulting from such [true] knowledge. By
concentrating the mind upon the true nature of the soul “as being entirely
distinct from any experiences, and disconnected from all material things, and
dissociated from the understanding, a knowledge of the true nature of the soul
itself arises in the ascetic”. Such a one becomes endowed with power over
space, time, mind and matter.
One who has attained to perfect discriminative knowledge and power is a
Jivanmukta, the possessor of “knowledge that saves from rebirth”. Such a one
may, however, return to earth by his own free choice, in order to help and
teach others. Such Adepts, Mahatmas, Masters, are not in any way subject to the
body, for the soul is perfectly free at every moment. When the mind has become
one with the soul, which is the real knower and experiencer, “Isolation takes
place and the soul is emancipated”.
In Book IV we are told that each life leaves in the Ego mental deposits which
it holds in a latent state, and each of these becomes manifest in other births
whenever a suitable bodily constitution and environment are provided. These
deposits are produced by the force of desire, and though they are always added
to by new experiences and new desires, they may be removed by eliminating the
causes producing them.
The mind is merely an instrument that the soul uses for acquiring
experience and attaining emancipation. When the false notion that the mind is
the knower and experiencer is removed, then the permanency of the soul is seen
and Self-knowledge results. “Then the mind becomes deflected towards
discrimination and bowed down before Isolation”. If the ascetic who has arrived
at this stage bends his concentration towards the prevention of all other
thoughts, and is not desirous of attaining the powers resulting just at his
wish, a further state of meditation, called “cloud of virtue”, is reached. It
is so called because it will bring about the “spiritual rain” needed to reach
complete emancipation, which is the chief end of the soul. Until this end is
attained, the desire for results acts as a hindrance.
This complete emancipation of the soul is called in the Aphorisms
Isolation. When this stage is reached, the objects, senses, feelings, etc.,
that had hitherto hindered the soul are no longer mistaken by it for realities,
and it abides in its own nature, united with understanding, and unaffected by
such “pairs of opposites” as cold and heat, pleasure and pain, good and evil,
etc. The next step that the emancipated soul takes is to help other souls, who
are still struggling on the way, to achieve their end.
This concludes this résumé of the instructions given in the Aphorisms,
instructions which provide the means for the transition of the mind from
Kama-Manas to Buddhi-Manas. This transition is to be achieved by the
metaphysical principles and ethical and moral precepts which form the basis of
the disciplinary practices and methods outlined throughout the four books of
the Aphorisms. Spiritual knowledge arises spontaneously in the disciple who
studies such treatises with the intention of undertaking the necessary
discipline to bring about the desired result - Isolation or Emancipation of the
Soul.
NOTE:
[1] “The Yoga
Aphorisms of Patanjali - an interpretation by William Q. Judge”, Theosophy Co.,
Los Angeles and Mumbai, 74 pp. The book is available in PDF in our associated
websites.
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Reproduced from the monthly magazine “The Theosophical
Movement”, April 2005, pp. 199-204. Original title: “Patanjali’s Yoga Aphorisms
- Reflections”. The subtitle and the bibliographical footnote were added for
the present online version of the article.
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