Reading section 31

"Fire bears above, water below; air moves across;

"Earth in the half-hollow; ether moves everywhere.

"They bear along in order,--air, fire, water, earth, ether;

"This is to be known in its due order in the two conducting arteries.

"The _palas_[446] of earth are fifty, of water forty,

"Of fire thirty, of air twenty, of ether ten.

"This is the amount of time taken for the bearing; but the reason that the two arteries are so disturbed

"Is that earth has five properties,[447] water four,

"Fire has three, air two, and ether one.

"There are ten _palas_ for each property; hence earth has fifty _palas_,

"And each, from water downwards, loses successively. Now the five properties of earth

"Are odour, savour, colour, tangibility, and audibleness; and these decrease one by one.

"The two elements, earth and water, produce their fruit by the influence of 'quiet,'

"But fire, air, and ether by the influence of 'brightness,' 'restlessness,' and 'immensity.'[448]

"The characteristic signs of earth, water, fire, air, and ether are now declared;--

"Of the first steadfastness of mind; through the coldness of the second arises desire;

"From the third anger and grief; from the fourth fickleness of mind;

"From the fifth the absence of any object, or mental impressions of latent merit.

"Let the devotee place his thumbs in his ears, and a middle finger in each nostril,

"And the little finger and the one next to it in the corners of his mouth, and the two remaining fingers in the corners of his eyes,

"Then there will arise in due order the knowledge of the earth and the other elements within him,

"The first four by yellow, white, dark red, and dark blue spots,[449]--the ether has no symbol."

When the element air is thus comprehended and its restraint is accomplished, the evil influence of works which concealed discriminating knowledge is destroyed [ii. 52]; hence it has been said--

"There is no austerity superior to regulation of the breath."[450]

And again--

"As the dross of metals, when they are melted, is consumed,

"So the serpents of the senses are consumed by regulation of the breath."[451]

Now in this way, having his mind purified by the "forbearances" and the other things subservient to concentration, the devotee is to attain "self-mastery" (_samyama_)[452] and "restraint" (_pratyáhára_). "Restraint" is the accommodation of the senses, as the eye, &c., to the nature of the mind,[453] which is intent on the soul's unaltered nature, while they abandon all concernment with their own several objects, which might excite desire or anger or stupid indifference. This is expressed by the etymology of the word; the senses are drawn to it (_á_ + _hri_), away from them (_pratípa_).

"But is it not the mind which is then intent upon the soul and not the senses, since these are only adapted for external objects, and therefore have no power for this supposed action? How, therefore, could they be accommodated to the nature of the mind?" What you say is quite true; and therefore the author of the aphorisms, having an eye to their want of power for this, introduced the words "as it were," to express "resemblance." "Restraint is, as it were, the accommodation of the senses to the nature of the mind in the absence of concernment with each one's own object" [ii. 54]. Their absence of concernment with their several objects for the sake of being accommodated to the nature of the mind is this "resemblance" which we mean. Since, when the mind is restrained, the eye, &c., are restrained, no fresh effort is to be expected from them, and they follow the mind as bees follow their king. This has been declared in the Vishnu-purána [vi. 7, 43, 44]--

"Let the devotee, restraining his organs of sense, which ever tend to pursue external objects,

"Himself intent on restraint, make them conformable to the mind;

"By this is effected the entire subjugation of the unsteady senses;

"If they are not controlled, the _yogin_ will not accomplish his _yoga_."[454]

"Attention" (_dháraná_) is the fixing the mind, by withdrawing it from all other objects, on some place, whether connected with the internal self, as the circle of the navel, the lotus of the heart, the top of the _sushumná_ artery, &c., or something external, as Prajápati, Vásava, Hiranyagarbha, &c. This is declared by the aphorism, "'Attention' is the fixing the mind on a place" [iii. 1]; and so, too, say the followers of the Puránas--

"By regulation of breath having controlled the air, and by restraint the senses,

"Let him next make the perfect asylum the dwelling-place of his mind."[455]

The continual flow of thought in this place, resting on the object to be contemplated, and avoiding all incongruous thoughts, is "contemplation" (_dhyána_); thus it is said, "A course of uniform thought there, is 'contemplation'" [iii. 2]. Others also have said--

"A continued succession of thoughts, intent on objects of that kind and desiring no other,

"This is 'contemplation,'--it is thus effected by the first six of the ancillary things."

We incidentally, in elucidating something else, discussed the remaining eighth ancillary thing, "meditation" (_samádhi_, see p. 243). By this practice of the ancillary means of _yoga_, pursued for a long time with uninterrupted earnestness, the "afflictions" which hinder meditation are abolished, and through "exercise" and "dispassion" the devotee attains to the perfections designated by the names Madhumatí and the rest.

"But why do you needlessly frighten us with unknown and monstrous words from the dialects of Karnáta, Gauda,[456] and Láta?"[457] We do not want to frighten you, but rather to gratify you by explaining the meaning of these strange words; therefore let the reader who is so needlessly alarmed listen to us with attention.

i. The _Madhumatí_ perfection,--this is the perfection of meditation, called "the knowledge which holds to the truth," consisting in the illumination of unsullied purity by means of the contemplation of "goodness," composed of the manifestation of joy, with every trace of "passion" or "darkness" abolished by "exercise," "dispassion," &c. Thus it is said in the aphorisms, "In that case there is the knowledge which holds to the truth" [i. 48]. It holds "to the truth," _i.e._, to the real; it is never overshadowed by error. "In that case," _i.e._, when firmly established, there arises this knowledge to the second yogin. For the _yogins_ or devotees to the practice of _yoga_ are well known to be of four kinds, viz.,--

i. The _práthamakalpika_, in whom the light has just entered,[458] but, as it has been said, "he has not won the light which consists in the power of knowing another's thoughts, &c.;" 2. The _madhubhúmika_, who possesses the knowledge which holds to the truth; 3. The _prajñájyotis_, who has subdued the elements and the senses; 4. The _atikránta-bhávaníya_, who has attained the highest dispassion.

ii. The _Madhupratíká_ perfections are swiftness like thought, &c. These are declared to be "swiftness like thought, the being without organs, and the conquest of nature" [iii. 49]. "Swiftness like thought" is the attainment by the body of exceeding swiftness of motion, like thought; "the being without bodily organs"[459] is the attainment by the senses, irrespective of the body, of powers directed to objects in any desired place or time; "the conquest of nature" is the power of controlling all the manifestations of nature. These perfections appear to the full in the third kind of yogin, from the subjugation by him of the five senses and their essential conditions.[460] These perfections are severally sweet, each one by itself, as even a particle of honey is sweet, and therefore the second state is called _Madhupratíká_ [_i.e._, that whose parts are sweet].

iii. The _Visoká_ perfection consists in the supremacy over all existences, &c. This is said in the aphorisms, "To him who possesses, to the exclusion of all other ideas, the discriminative knowledge of the quality of goodness and the soul, arises omniscience and the supremacy over all existences" [iii. 50]. The "supremacy over all existences" is the overcoming like a master all entities, as these are but the developments of the quality of "goodness" in the mind [the other qualities of "passion" and "darkness" being already abolished], and exist only in the form of energy and the objects to be energised upon.[461] The discriminative knowledge of them, as existing in the modes "subsided," "emerged," or "not to be named,"[462] is "omniscience." This is said in the aphorisms [i. 36], "Or a luminous immediate cognition, free from sorrow[463] [may produce steadiness of mind]."

iv. The _Samskáraseshatá_ state is also called _asamprajñáta_, _i.e._, "that meditation in which distinct recognition of an object is lost;" it is that meditation "without a seed" [_i.e._, without any object] which is able to stop the "afflictions" that produce fruits to be afterwards experienced in the shape of rank, length of life, and enjoyment; and this meditation belongs to him who, in the cessation of all modifications of the internal organ, has reached the highest "dispassion." "The other kind of meditation [_i.e._, that in which distinct recognition of an object is lost] is preceded by that exercise of thought which produces the entire cessation of modifications; it has nothing left but the latent impressions" [of thought after the departure of all objects] [_i.e._, _samskárasesha_, i. 18]. Thus this foremost of men, being utterly passionless towards everything, finds that the seeds of the "afflictions," like burned rice-grains, are bereft of the power to germinate, and they are abolished together with the internal organ. When these are destroyed, there ensues, through the full maturity of his unclouded "discriminative knowledge," an absorption of all causes and effects into the primal _prakriti_; and the soul, which is the power of pure intelligence, abiding in its own real nature, and escaped from all connection with the phenomenal understanding (_buddhi_), or with existence, reaches "absolute isolation" (_kaivalya_). Final liberation is described by Patañjali as two perfections: "Absolute isolation is the repressive absorption[464] of the 'qualities' which have consummated the ends of the soul, _i.e._, enjoyment and liberation, or the abiding of the power of intelligence in its own nature" [iv. 33]. Nor should any one object, "Why, however, should not the individual be born again even though this should have been attained?" for that is settled by the well-known principle that "with the cessation of the cause the effect ceases," and therefore this objection is utterly irrelevant, as admitting neither inquiry nor decision; for otherwise, if the effect could arise even in the absence of the cause, we should have blind men finding jewels, and such like absurdities; and the popular proverb for the impossible would become a possibility. And so, too, says the Sruti, "A blind man found a jewel; one without fingers seized it; one without a neck put it on; and a dumb man praised it."[465]

Thus we see that, like the authoritative treatises on medicine, the Yoga-sástra consists of four divisions; as those on medicine treat of disease, its cause, health, and medicine, so the Yoga-sástra also treats of phenomenal existence, its cause, liberation, and its cause. This existence of ours, full of pain, is what is to be escaped from; the connection of nature and the soul is the cause of our having to experience this existence; the absolute abolition of this connection is the escape; and right insight is the cause thereof.[466] The same fourfold division is to be similarly traced as the case may be in other Sástras also. Thus all has been made clear.

The system of Sankara, which comes next in succession, and which is the crest-gem of all systems, has been explained by us elsewhere; it is therefore left untouched here.[467]

E. B. C.

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NOTE ON THE YOGA.

There is an interesting description of the Yogins on the Mountain Raivataka in Mágha (iv. 55):--

"There the votaries of meditation, well skilled in benevolence (_maitrí_) and those other purifiers of the mind,--having successfully abolished the 'afflictions' and obtained the 'meditation possessed of a seed,' and having reached that knowledge which recognises the essential difference between the quality Goodness and the Soul,--desire yet further to repress even this ultimate meditation."

It is curious to notice that _maitrí_, which plays such a prominent part in Buddhism, is counted in the Yoga as only a preliminary condition from which the votary is to take, as it were, his first start towards his final goal. It is called a _parikarman_ (= _prasádhaka_) in Vyása's Comm. i. 33 (cf. iii. 22), whence the term is borrowed by Mágha. Bhoja expressly says that this purifying process is an external one, and not an intimate portion of yoga itself; just as in arithmetic the operations of addition, &c., are valuable, not in themselves, but as aids in effecting the more important calculations which arise subsequently. The Yoga seems directly to allude to Buddhism in this marked depreciation of its cardinal virtue.

* * * * *

NOTE ON P. 237, LAST LINE.

For the word _vyákopa_ in the original here (see also p. 242, l. 3 _infra_), cf. Kusumáñjali, p. 6, l. 7.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 363: On this see Dr. Hall's Pref. to Sánkhya Pr. Bhásh., p. 20; S. Sára, p. 11.]

[Footnote 364: _I.e._, he revealed the Veda, and also originated the meanings of words, as well as instructed the first fathers of mankind in the arts of life.]