Reading section 9

Among the Sectarian Upanishads will be found the Náráyanopanishad, which is of special significance in relation to the Sánkhya and Yoga doctrines (Ibid. p. 166).

[Sidenote: Sánkhya and Pátanjala Yogas.]

It is plain from the recurrence of the word Sánkhya in the later Upanishads of the Taittiríya and Atharva vedas and in the Nirukta and Bhagavad Gítá, that the Sánkhya Yoga was long known to the ancients, and the Pátanjala was a further development of it. (Ibid. p. 137).

[Sidenote: Yoga Yájnavalkya.]

Along with or prior to Pátanjali comes the Yoga Sástra of Yogi Yájnavalkya, the leading authority of the Sátapatha Bráhmana, who is also regarded as a main originator of the yoga doctrine in his later writings. (Ibid. p. 237). Yájnavalkya speaks of his obtaining the Yoga Sástra from the sun, ज्ञेयञ्चारण्यकमहं यदादित्यादबाप्तबान । योगशास्त्रञ्च मत् प्रोक्तं ज्ञेयं योगमभीप्सता ॥

“He who wishes to attain yoga must know the Áranyaka which I have received from the sun, and the Yoga sástra which I have taught.”

X. RISE OF THE HERETICAL YOGAS.

[Sidenote: The Buddhist and Jain Yogas.]

Beside the Orthodox yoga systems of the Upanishads, we have the Heterodox Yoga Sastras of the Buddhists and Jains completely concordant with those of Yájnavalkya in the Brihad áranyaka and Atharvan Upanishads, (Weber’s Id. p. 285).

[Sidenote: The concordance with the Vedantic.]

The points of coincidence of the vedánta yoga with those of Buddhism and Jainism, consist in as much as both of them inculcate the doctrine of the interminable metempsychosis of the human soul, as a consequence of bodily acts, previous to its state of final absorption or utter annihilation, according to the difference in their respective views. Or to explain it more clearly they say that, “The state of humanity in its present, past and future lives, is the necessary result of its own acts “Karma” in previous births.”

[Sidenote: The weal or woe of mankind.]

That misery or happiness in this life is the unavoidable sequence of conduct in former states of existence, and that our present actions will determine our states to come; that is, their weal or woe depending solely on the merit or demerit of acts. It is, therefore, one’s cessation from action by confining himself to holy meditation, that secures to him his final absorption in the supreme according to the one; and by his nescience of himself that ensures his utter extinction according to the other.

[Sidenote: The Puránic yoga.]

In the Puránic period we get ample accounts of _yoga_ and _yogis_. The Kurma purana gives a string of names of yoga teachers. The practice of _yoga_ is frequently alluded to in the Vana parva of Mahábhárata. The observances of yoga are detailed at considerable length and strenuously enjoined in the Udyoga parva of the said epic. Besides in modern times we have accounts of yogis in the Sakuntala of Kálidása (VII. 175) and in the Mádhava Málati of Bhava-bhúti (act V.). The Rámayana gives an account of a Súdra yogi, and the Bhágavatgítá treats also of yoga as necessary to be practiced (chap. VI. V. 13).

[Sidenote: The Tántrika yoga.]

The Tantras or cabalistic works of modern times are all and every one of them no other than yoga sastras, containing directions and formulas for the adoration of innumerable deities for the purpose of their votaries’ attainment of consummation “_Yoga Siddhi_” through them. It is the Tántrika yoga which is chiefly current in Bengal, though the old forms may be in use in other parts of the country. It is reckoned with the heretical systems, because the processes and practices of its yoga are mostly at variance with the spiritual yoga of old. It has invented many _múdras_ or masonic signs, monograms and mysterious symbols, which are wholly unintelligible to the yogis of the old school, and has the carnal rites of the _pancha-makára_ for immediate consummation which a spiritualist will feel ashamed to learn (See Wilson. H. Religion).

[Sidenote: The Hatha Yoga.]

This system, which as its name implies consists of the forced contortions of the body in order to subdue the hardy boors to quiescence, is rather a training of the body than a mental or spiritual discipline of a moral and intelligent being for the benefit of the rational soul. The votaries of this system are mostly of a vagrant and mendicant order, and subject to the slander of foreigners, though they command veneration over the ignorant multitude.

[Sidenote: The Sectarian yogas.]

The modern sectarians in upper Hindustan, namely the followers of Rámánuja, Gorakhnáth, Nának, Kabir and others, possess their respective modes of yoga, written in the dialects of Hindi, for their practice in the _maths_ or monasteries peculiar to their different orders.

[Sidenote: Yoga an indigene of India.]

_Lux-ab-oriens._ “Light from the east:” and India has given more light to the west than it has derived from that quarter. We see India in Greece in many things, but not Greece in India in any. And when we see a correspondence of the Asiatic with the European, we have more reason to suppose its introduction to the west by its travellers to the east, since the days of Alexander the Great, than the Indians’ importation of any thing from Europe, by crossing the seas which they had neither the means nor privilege to do by the laws of their country. Whatever, therefore, the Indian has is the indigenous growth of the land, or else they would be as refined as the productions of Europe are generally found to be.

[Sidenote: Its European forms &c.]

Professor Monier Williams speaking of the yoga philosophy says; “The votaries of animal magnetism, clairvoyance and so called spiritualism, will find most of their theories represented or far outdone by corresponding notions existing in the _yoga_ system for more than two thousand years ago.” In speaking of the Vedanta he declares; “The philosophy of the Sufis, alleged to be developed out of the Koran, appears to be a kind of pantheism very similar to that of the Vedanta.” He has next shewn the correspondence of its doctrines with those of Plato. Again he says about the Sánkhya; “It may not be altogether unworthy of the attention of Darwinians” (Ind. Wisdom).

[Sidenote: The yoga &c. in Greece.]

The Dialectic Nyáya in the opinion of Sir William Jones expressed in his Discourse on Hindu philosophy, was taken up by the followers of Alexander and communicated by them to Aristotle: and that Pythagoras derived his doctrine of Metempsychosis from the Hindu _yoga_ in his travels through India. His philosophy was of a contemplative cast from the sensible to the immaterial Intelligibles.

[Sidenote: The Gnostic yoga.]

Weber says; “The most flourishing epoch of the Sánkhya-yoga, belongs most probably to the first centuries of our eras, the influence it exercised upon the development of gnosticism in Asia Minor being unmistakable; while further both through that channel and afterwards directly also, it had an important influence upon the growth of Sophi-philosophy” (See Lassen I. A. K. & Gildemeister, Scrip. Arab. de rebus indicis loci et opuscula.)

[Sidenote: Yoga among Moslems.]

It was at the beginning of the 11th century that Albiruni translated Pátanjali’s work (Yoga-Sútra) into Arabic, and it would appear the Sánkhya Sútras also; though the information we have of the contents of these works, do not harmonize with the sanskrit originals. (Reinaud Journal Asiatique and H. M. Elliot Mahomedan History of India. Weber’s Ind. Lit. p. 239).

[Sidenote: Buddhistic Yoga in Europe.]

The Gnostic doctrines derived especially from Buddhistic missions through Persia and Punjab, were spread over Europe, and embraced and cultivated particularly by Basilides, Valentinian, and Bardesanes as well as Manes.

[Sidenote: Manechian Doctrines.]

It is, however, a question as to the amount of influence to be ascribed to Indian philosophy generally, in shaping these gnostic doctrines of Manes in particular, was a most important one, as has been shown by Lassen III. 415. Beal. I. R. A. S. II. 424. Web. Ind. Lit. p. 309.

[Sidenote: Buddhist and Sánkhya yogas.]

It must be remembered that Buddhism and its yoga are but offshoots of Sánkhya yoga, and sprung from the same place the _Kapila Vástu_.

XII. DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF YOGA.

[Sidenote: Varieties of yoga.]

The Yoga system will be found, what Monier Williams says of Hinduism at large, “to present its spiritual and material aspects, its esoteric and exoteric, its subjective and objective, its pure and impure sides to the observer.” “It is,” he says, “at once vulgarly pantheistic, severely monotheistic, grossly polytheistic and coldly atheistic. It has a side for the practical and another for the devotional and another for the speculative.” Again says he; “Those, who rest in ceremonial observances, find it all satisfying; those, who deny the efficacy of works and make faith the one thing needful, need not wander from its pale; those, who delight in meditating on the nature of God and man, the relation of matter and spirit, the mystery of separate existence and the origin of evil, may here indulge their love of speculation.” (Introduction to Indian Wisdom p. xxvii.)

We shall treat of these _seriatim_, by way of notes to or interpretation of the above, as applying to the different modes of yoga practised by these several orders of sectarians.

[Sidenote: 1. Spiritual yoga. अध्यात्म योगः । ]

That the earliest form of _yoga_ was purely spiritual, is evident from the Upanishads, the Vedánta doctrines of Vyása and all works on the knowledge of the _soul_ (adhyátma Vidyá). “All the early Upanishads”, says Weber, “teach the doctrine of _atmá_-spirit, and the later ones deal with yoga meditation to attain complete union with _átmá_ or the Supreme Spirit.” Web. Ind. Lit. p. 156. “The _átmá_ soul or self and the supreme spirit (paramátmá) of which all other souls partake, is the spiritual object of meditation (yoga).” Max Müller’s A. S. Lit. p. 20. Yajnavalkya says; आत्माबारे द्रष्टब्य ओतब्य मन्तब्य निदिध्यासितब्यः ।

“The Divine Spirit is to be seen, heard, perceived and meditated upon &c.” If we see, hear, perceive and know Him, then this whole universe is known to us. A. S. Lit. p. 23. Again, “Whosoever looks for Brahmahood elsewhere than in the Divine Spirit, should be abandoned. Whosoever looks for _Kshatra_ power elsewhere than in the Divine Spirit, should be abandoned. This Brahmahood, this Kshatra power, this world, these gods, these beings, this universe, all is Divine Spirit.” Ibid. The meaning of the last passage is evidently that, the spirit of God pervades the whole, and not that these are God; for that would be pantheism and materialism; whereas the Sruti says that, “God is to be worshipped in spirit and not in any material object.” आत्मा आत्मन्येबोपासितव्यः ।

[Sidenote: 2. The Materialistic yoga. सांख्य बा प्राकृतिक योगः ।]

The materialistic side of the yoga, or what is called the _Prákritika_ yoga, was propounded at first in the _Sánkhya yoga_ system, and thence taken up in the Puránas and _Tantras_, which set up a primeval matter as the basis of the universe, and the _purusha_ or animal soul as evolved out of it, and subsisting in matter. Weber’s Ind. Lit. p. 235.

[Sidenote: Of Matter—Prakriti.]

Here, the _avyakta_—matter is reckoned as prior to the _purusha_ or animal soul; whereas in the Vedánta the _purusha_ or primeval soul is considered as prior to the _avyakta_-matter. The Sánkhya, therefore, recognizes the adoration of matter as its yoga, and its founder Kapila was a yogi of this kind. Later materialists meditate on the material principles and agencies as the causes of all, as in the Vidyanmoda Taranginí; प्रकृतिस्तेमहत्तत्वं सम्बर्द्धयतुसर्ब्बदा ।

[Sidenote: Of Spirit—Purusha.]

These agencies were first viewed as concentrated in a male form, as in the persons of Buddha, Jina and Siva, as described in the Kumára Sambhava आत्मानमात्मन्यबलोकदन्तः; and when in the female figure of _Prakriti_ or nature personified, otherwise called _Saktirupá_ or the personification of energy, as in the Devi máhátmya; या देबी सर्ब्बभूतेषु शक्तिरूपेण संस्थिता &c. They were afterwards viewed in the five elements _panchabhúta_, which formed the elemental worship of the ancients, either singly or conjointly as in the _pancha-bháutiká upásaná_, described in the _Sarva darsana sangraha_.

[Sidenote: Nature worship in eight forms.]

The materialistic or nature worship was at last diversified into eight forms called _ashta múrti_, consisting of earth, water, fire, air, sky, sun, moon, and the sacrificial priest, which were believed to be so many forms of God _Ísa_, and forming the objects of his meditation also. The eight forms are summed up in the lines; जलं सूर्य्योमहीबह्णिः बायुराकाशमेबच । दीक्षितोब्राह्मणः सोमः इत्यष्टौ तनवः स्मृताः । or as it is more commonly read in Bengal, क्षितिर्जलं तथा तेजो वायुराकाशमेव च । याज्ञिकार्कस्तथा चन्द्रो मूर्तिरष्टौहरस्यच । That they were forms of Ísa is thus expressed by Kálidása in the Raghu-vansa; अवेहि मां किङ्करमष्ट मूर्तेः । कुम्भोद्भबो नाम निकुम्भमित्रं; and that they were meditated upon by him as expressed by the same in his Kumára Sambhava;

तत्राग्निमाधाय समित् समिद्धं । स्वमेब मूर्त्यन्तरमष्ट मूर्तिः ॥

The prologue to the Sakuntalá will at once prove this great poet to have been a materialist of this kind; thus;

या सृष्टिः स्रष्टु राद्या बहति बिधि हुतं या हबिर्याचहोत्री । ये द्वेकालं बिधत्तः श्रुतिबिषयगुणा यास्थिताब्याप्यविश्वमं ॥ या माहुः प्रकृतिरिति यया प्रणिनः प्रणबन्तः । प्रसन्नस्तनुभिरबतु बस्ताभिरष्टाभिरीशः ॥

“Water the first work of the creator, and Fire which receives the oblations ordained by law &c. &c. May Ísa, the God of Nature, apparent in these forms, bless and sustain you.”

Besides all this the Sivites of the present day, are found to be votaries of this materialistic faith in their daily adoration of the eight forms of Siva in the following formula of their ritual;

१ सर्ब्बाय क्षिति मूर्त्तिये नमः । २ भबाय जल मूर्त्तिये नमः । ३ रुद्र ।य अग्नि मूर्त्तिये नमः । ४ उग्राय बायु मूर्त्तिये नमः । ५ भीमाय आकाश मूर्त्तिये नमः । ६ पशुपतये यजमान मूर्त्तिये नमः । ७ महादेबाय सोम मूर्त्तिये नमः । ८ ईशानाय सूर्य मूर्त्तिये नमः ॥

Both the Sánkhya and Saiva materialism are deprecated in orthodox works as atheistic and heretical, like the impious doctrines of the modern positivists and materialists of Europe, on account of their disbelief in the existence of a personal and spiritual God. Thus says, Kumárila; सांख्ययोग पाञ्चरात्न पाशुपत शाख्य निर्ग्रन्थपरिगृहीत धर्म्माधर्म्म निवन्धनानि (Max Müller’s A. S. Lit. p. 78.)

[Sidenote: 3. The Esoteric “_Jnána yoga_.”]