CHAPTER X

ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES OF YOGA
Yoga is the mystic science, the accepted basis of all religious forms. It transforms the human body so that the Divine can effectuate the purpose of creative evolution. The presence of the divine in man is coincident with a continuous process of transformation and purification, of elimination of the courser elements with a view to the supreme identification.
The purification of the human body depends upon physiological knowledge concerning that being. This science of the human body has nothing in common with the anatomical description of the human body as laid down by the medical science of the west, Analogy may be drawn but there is no localisation or correspondence. The Chakras and Nadis connot be identified with parts of the nervous system, but they belong to a quite different plane composed of subtile matter belonging to the subtile body.
The word yoga is derived from the sanskrit root yog which conveys the idea of union. It is in fact the scienee of the union of the human being with the divine dwelling within him. It is the sum of
1 Puraka—the process of closing the right nostril and drawing up air through the left.
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physical, psychical and .mental processes which brings about deep transformation of the human being, the awakening in him of the new man which is unattainable by a man in his normal state. It awakens new modes of consciousness, of the new perceptive faculties of new powers, the use of which quite transforms the delicate complex of which we are made.
To accomplish this, the sage Patangal in his Yoga system lays-down processes and methods consist of eight different stages :—some of them are physical while others are mental; The following are the eight stages of Sadhana :—
(1) Yama—i. e. complete self-discipline. (2) Niyama—Purity in mind and body.
(3) Asana—different sitting postures so as to keep the body and mind free from any external disturbance. They are eighty four in number.
(4) Pranayama—that is to say the control of breath.
(5) Pratyahar—complete control over the five _organs of sense.
(6) Dharana—It is the mental process by which the mind is made to concentrate itself upon an object so as to accustom itself to remain calm and to take absolutely the “form” which the will of the yogi wishes to impose upon it.
(7) Dhyana—is the mental process by which | the mind is made to fix upon one object and is technically known as Dhyana.
(8) Samadhi—That is to say the unity of the mind with the object of contemplation is absorption and when the consciousness has
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become one with the object contemplated a state of trance or Samadhi is reached when the mind can identify itself with the divine presence in every human being.
It may be stated here that the Tantrics declare that by an upright and pure life, by a deep and intense appeal and devotion to the Divinity auto- matically awakens the Divine Sakti in him as can be accomplished by elaborate process of purification and other methods as laid down above, and thereby acquires ‘‘Siddhis” such as clarivoyance, lightness mastery over the physiological instincts e. g., sleep, thirst hunger etc, and it becomes possible for him to obtain nourishment not from the corporeal elements of food stuffs but from subtile element.
“The essential principles of yoga according to Hindu doctrine is the existence of the Supreme Being, Brahma, the unknown, the unknowable the unborn, the unthinkable. His activity mani- fests itself in two aspects the Purusha, the essence of all things, the eternal omnipresent, the creator and the Prakriti, the mother, the primordial undifferentiated substance that which supports or pears up aH. manifestations. In the Prakriti, the three forces are in action. The Swatta or the ascendant force which tends towards more perfect virtue, which awakens consciousness and perfects creation.
Second Raja which is an expansive dynamic force and implies activity, desire and which modi- fies the excess of both the Sattwa and the Tama tendencies, and third Zama which implies darkness, inertia, idleness and veils consciousness. The object of the yoga is the liberation of these three forces.
To practice Yoga, the regularization of breath _plays and important part in it, in as much as by its action, the circulation of the vital fluid is modified.
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By such regularization and modification of prana or vital fluid the psychic is acted upon which in its turn modifies the mind.
The Yoga are of several kinds :—
(a) Raja Yoga—which works upon the mind » and thereby modifies the current of prana, Init mental concentration plays an important part.
(b) Bhakti Yoga—or the Yoga of devotion or love for the Divine. The devotees in the presence of their Deity as it were in the presence of the Divine. |
-(c) Karma Yoga—In this Yoga duty is accom- pliished without affection, without selfishnes and without self interest.
(d) Jnan Yoga—Intellectual realisation of the divine leading to its intuitive realisations.
-CHAPTER XI
HUMAN BODY ACCORDING TO HINDU DOC- TRINE : ITS DIFFERENT ENVELOPES : ‘
Hindu doctrine specifies five different Koshas or envelopes of the human body. These are Karan sarira, Linga Sarira or subtile bodies consist of the | three different Koshas or envelopes viz. Vijnanmaya Kosha which directly reflects the Buddhi of the Karansarira. It isin contact with outside objects through the five tanmatras -or the principles of the five senses of man second Manamaya Kosha the actual mental body with its processes, its doubts and its wandering thoughts. The mind isa faculty of sensation and action of the indriyas. Its work is to discriminate between and examine the physical sensation of the five perceptive indriyas. It can be modified and rendered suppliant. Third the Pran- maya Kosha which includes the ten indriyas. They.
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are formed of frana or vital breath. It be- longs to the subtile manifestation and lastly the Sthula sarira, the material body consisting of the five elements or Bhutas as they are properly called viz. earth, water, fire, air and ether.
The three states that of Jagrata, Swapna and Susuptha which a man can attain according as the vital principle is centred in one or the other of the three envelopes. In the Jagrata or the waking state, the human being is fully conscious of his ego (Ahamkara), the sense of individuality. The mind believes that it alone is the Supreme Principle and that after its disappearance at death nothing remains. Above this state is the dream State. In this state, the jiba or the vital principle retires, into the subtile bodies. Normally this state is attained by human sleep. The Subtile bodies then experience freely the conditions of Subtile planes. The beings who inhabit them really live. The dead man dwells in the subtile plane waiting to resume a physical form. After death just as the material body returns to the bosom of nature and serves again to make the physical supports of life (e. g. vegetable bodies, animal and human) so the subtile bodies dissolve into the planes of matter corresponding to these to which they impart avery strong impreg- nation proceeding from the beings whose envelopes they were. When a human being is born again these subtile elements return to him according to the Karma law of affinity and sometimes bring contrary tendencies, contradictory urges and diverse personalities in the same human being. Thus this explains the law of rebirth after death and so on until liberation is attained. The third stage is the susuptha state, this state is attained when a man attains beatitude. This state is attained by identi- fication with the interior ego, the living immortal atma. Yoga is the way which leads to it. By reaching this stage the human being liberates himself
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from the bonds of the physical and the subtile bodies as his consciousness returns to the Being within himself.
Upon an analysis of the Linga Sarira, we notice the principle which places it in communication with the outside world are the five tanmatras, the essen- tial principle of the five human senses, the five indriyas ruling sensorial action and the mind. To this must be added the sense of the ego. This makes altogether seventeen elements in the subtile enve- lope in the linga sarira.
The mechanism of perception is composed in the following manner. The five objective senses (the five indriyas ) are acted upon by the five material elements (the Bhutas). The modification is trans- mitted to the mind which perceives, to Ahamkara which reacts and finally to Buddhi which deter- mines. But there are frequent interferences. Internal or external elements connected with the subtile planes, falsify, corrupt and divert the process — ‘of perception and intuition. This is what is known as the “play” of manifestation which tends some- times to become “dull” while at other times to “develop” according to the predominating influence of Gunas which ‘always exist in different measures in every human being.
Over and above this material perception there is continual interchange between the cosmic sphere and the human being. This interchange takes place through some open centres of the subtile bodies and the channels through which this internal diffusion takes place are the Nadis which connect the various openings. These Nadis are woven into the Linga Sarira like threads in a spider’s web,
There are in this subtile envelope certain centres of consciousness which work very slackly in the normal man, but they can be ‘awakened’by certain processes both physical and psychical so as to make
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them active. This awakening increases the activity
and brings about a very great transformation in the human being.
By this awakening and activity of these centres of force, the human being acquires powers over the subtile planes. He becomes master of his subtile bodies and acquires “gifts”. Such as clairvoyance, lightness, mastery over the physiological instincts, such as hunger, thirst, sleep etc. It becomes possible for him to get nourishment not by the absorption of corporeal element of food staffs but by direct absorption from the pranic subtile elements.