Chapter XXXII. Yoga and Dharmashastra

Volume V: Part II pp. 1385–1467

Chapter XXXII. Yoga and Dharmashastra

Sāṅkhya and Yoga often go together in the Upaniṣads as well as in the Mahābhārata, the Bhagavadgītā and the Purāṇas and their relationship to one another is the same in all these. In Śv. Up. VI. 13, Vanaparva 2. 15, Śāntiparva ¹ 228. 28, 289. 1, 306. 65, 308. 25, 326. 100, 336. 69, Anuśāsana 14. 323, Bhagavad- gītā V. 4–5, Padma purāṇa ( Pātālakhaṇḍa, 85. 11 ff), the two are mentioned together.

Though Sāṅkhya greatly influenced all works dealing with the evolution of the world in its various aspects, it did not enjoy that great esteem among all sorts of people in India that the Yoga system enjoyed and still enjoyṣ The word yoga is derived from the root ‘yuj’ to join or to unite ( of rudhādi class). The germs of yoga can be traced back to the Ṛgveda. Ṛgveda V. 81. 1 (a verse in praise of Savitṛ) reads ‘wise men, priests and sacrificers concentrate their minds and join their prayers to the Savitṛ, who knows all (prayers)’. Another Vedic ² verse also speaks of concentrating the minḍ The word ‘yoga’ occurs frequently in the Ṛgveda in several shades of meaning. Sāyaṇa in many passages takes ‘yoga’ to mean ‘acquiring what is not already possessed’ (as in Ṛg. I. 5. 3). In Ṛg. I. 18. 7 God Sadasaspati (Agni) is said to pervade the prayers (or thoughts) of sacrificerṣ In Ṛg. I. 34. 9 it means ‘yoking’ ( kadā yogo vājino rāsabhasya yena yajñam nāsatyo- payāthaḥ’. The word ‘yoga’ is often used with the word kṣema (separately as in Ṛg. VII. 54. 3, VII. 86. 8) or as a compound (as in Rg. X. 166. 5 'Yogakṣemam va ādāyaḥam bhūyāsam-uttamah'). There is a great distance or gap between the meaning of the word yoga in the Ṛgveda (even in the verses about concentrating the mind) and its meaning in some of the Upaniṣads and in classical Sanskrit. In Rg. X. 136. 2-3 there is mention ³ of munis, sons of Vātaraśana, who wore dirty and tawny garments and who say in verse 3 ‘we being in ecstasy owing to our way of life as munis resort to winds; on our bodies only’. This shows that even in those ancient times, some people practised tapas, did not care what clothes they wore and thought they (i. e. their souls) would be merged in the wind (that is, the souls are formless and could not be seen). In Rg. VIII. 17. 14 Indra is said to be a friend of munis and muni is also a friend of every god in Rg. X. 136. 4. But as to yatis the position was rather different. The word yati occurs several times in the Ṛgveda but in most cases that word has no certain connection with the meaning of ‘ascetic’. In Rg. VIII. 3. 9 ‘by which (says brahmā priest) wealth was given to Bhrgu from the yatis and by which you helped (or protected) Praskanva’; here Indra seems to be opposed to yatiṣ In Rg. VIII. 6. 18 the poet says ‘O valiant Indra ! listen to my prayer alone from among the yatis and Bhrgus that praised thee’. Here Sāyaṇa explains ‘yatayah’ as ‘Angiraṣaḥ’. In any case ‘yatis’ are here shown to be devotees of Indra. But in other Samhitās it is said that Indra threw ‘yatis’ to the wolves or hyenaṣ ⁴ Later on, however, the meaning of yati seems to have changeḍ In these saṃhitā passages ‘yatis’ appear to be persons hostile or alien to the Vedic rites, but what they did to deserve slaughter by Indra is not clear. In Atharvaveda II. 5, 3 Indra is said to have killed Vṛtra as he did in the case of yatiṣ Some of the Upaniṣads, however, show that ‘yati’ was a person who had given up worldly affairs, practised yoga and endeavoured after the knowledge of Ātman and realized Brahma; vide Muṇḍaka Up. III. 1. 5 (yam paśyanti yatayaḥ kṣīṇadoṣāḥ) and III. 2. 6 (sannyāsayogāḍyatayaḥ śuddhasattvāḥ). Some like Hauer in ‘Die Anfänge der Yoga-praxis’, 1922 pp. 11 ff) hold that the Vrātyas of Atharvaveda XV were ecstatics of the kṣatriya class and forerunners of Yoginṣ

The word ‘yoga’ occurs in some of the Upaniṣads in the same sense in which it is employed in the Yogasūtra. In Katha Up. II. 12, it is said²²⁷⁴ ‘the wise man reflecting on God by means of yoga, by concentrating the mind on the inner spirit becomes free from joy and grief’ (adhyātmayogādhigamena). The same Upaniṣad says that the state described in VI. 11 is regarded as Yoga because therein the organs (and the mind and buddhi) are firmly held under control. In Katha Up. VI. 18 it is said that Naciketas has understood the vidyā and the whole procedure of Yoga propounded by Yama attained (the realization of) brahma. The word ‘Yoga’ occurs in the Tai. Up. II. 4 (in speaking about vijñānamaya ātman, the exact sense being doubtful), and in the Śv. Up. II. 11 and VI. 13. Praśna (5. 5-6) speaks of the three mātrās (a, u, m) of Oṃ In Śv. Up. 1. 3 occurs the word ‘dhyānayoga’. The Śv. Up. (II. 8-13) refers to āsana and sets out the first signs of the successful practice of Yoga. The Chāṇ Up. VIII. 15 appears to refer to pratyāhāra (though the technical word is not used) in ‘ātmani sarvendri- yāṇi pratiṣṭhāpya’ (having brought all organs of sense to rest in the ātman).’ The Bṛ. Up. (I. 5. 23) appears to refer to prāṇāyāma in ‘he should observe the one vow, viz. inhalation and exhala- tion (tasmād-ekameva vratam caret prāṇyāc-caiva apānyācca). The Vedāntasūtra (II. 1. 3 'etena yogah pratyuktah) states that Yoga is refuted by the reasoning adopted for the refutation of the Sāṅkhya systeṃ The position of Śaṅkarācārya as to both Sāṅkhya and Yoga has been stated above (pp. 1352 and 1361 ṇ 2208 and 2221). He points out in the pūrvapakṣa that Vedā ⁶ prescribes Yoga as a means of achieving correct knowledge and refers to Bṛ. Up. II. 4. 5. He further points out that in the Śv. Up. Yoga is expounded in great detail after first mentioning the proper posture (for the practice of Yoga) in the words 'having held the body straight but raised high in three places viz. chest, neck and head' (Śv. Up. II, 8). From the words of Śaṅkarācārya that in Yogaśāstra also Yoga is held to be a means of the realisation of right knowledge, it follows that he had a yogaśāstra before him in which occurred the words 'atha...yogah,' but as he does not employ the word Yogaśūtra he probably does not refer to a sūtra work. If a conjecture may be hazarded, it is possible that the Yogaśāstra meant by Śaṅkara is a work like the Yogaśāstra ascribed to Yājñavalkya in Yāj. Smṛti III. 110 (Yogaśāstram ca mat-proktam &c.). Śaṅkarācārya admits on V. S. II. 1. 3 that a part of the yoga is acceptable to him but other parts conflict with the Veda. Mundaka Up. (II 2. 6) enjoins samādhi in the words 'om-iti dhyāyatha ātmānam' as Śaṅkarācārya states on V. S. II. 3. 39 (samādhyabhāvāc-ca). In the Upaniṣads 'Muni' and 'Yati' have come to denote ⁷ the same meaning, e g. Bṛ. Up. IV. 4. 22 states 'one becomes muni by realizing this very self,' while the Muṇḍaka (III. 1. 5)⁸ states ‘this self is to be attained by Truth, by tapas, by right knowledge and by sexual purity at all times: that self resides inside the body (like a light), is pure, whom spotless ascetics realize.’ The Kathopaniṣad (III. 13) provides that the wise man should restrain speech in mind (speech and mind, as the text stands), he should keep within the self which is knowledge, he should keep down knowledge within the self that is: the great, and he, (the great) within the self which is quiet. The Upaniṣads thus not only employ the word ‘Yoga’ but provide some of the stages of yoga and its technique for realizing the Supreme Spirit. About twenty Yoga Upaniṣads are published at Adyar, edited by A. Mahadev Sastri (1920), but as their chronology is most uncertain and as most of them appear to the present writer to be later than the Mahābhārata, Manu and probably the Yogaśūtra, they are passed over here and are referred to in this work sparingly.⁹

Pāṇini provides for the formation of the words yama and niyama (two aṅgas) of Yoga and the word ‘Yogin’ appears to have been derived by him from the root ‘yuj’ with the affix ‘ghinuṇ’ (i. e. in) in the sense of tācchīlya (being habituated to) according to Pāṇ. III. 2. 142 (which is a very long sūtra).¹⁰ The Āpastambadharmasūtra (I. 8. 23. 3-6) quotes a verse 'The total destruction of dosas (taints) is due to Yoga in this life; a wise man after having expelled all dosas that cause harm to all beings reaches peace (mokṣa)' and then it sets out fifteen dosas such as anger, ecstatic joy, greed, hypocrisy, the destruction of which is due to Yoga and enumerates the qualities that are opposites of the dosas. This shows that long before the 4th or 5th century B. C. Yoga as a discipline of the mind had been well developeḍ

The V. S. II. 1. 3 indicates that the Sūtrakāra had before him a body of Yoga doctrines, some of which were the same as those of the Sāṅkhya and he also knew Samādhi (V. S. II. 3. 39). Again, the V. S. mentions (in IV. 2. 21) Yogins and distinguishes Sāṅkhya and Yoga as smārta (and not śrauta). Śaṅkarācārya on V. S. I. 3. 33 quotes the extant Yogasūtra II. 44 (svādhyāyād-iṣṭa-devatā-samprayogaḥ) and on ¹¹ V. S. II. 4. 12 he appears to be willing to admit that the Yoga-sūtra preceded V. S. and quotes Yogasūtra I. 6 in the 2nd interpretation of that sūtra.

The important question is whether the author of the V. S. refers to the extant Yogasūtra. The present author holds for various reasons that the V. S. does not refer to the present Yoga-sūtra, but to the Yoga doctrines that had been developed even before the Katha Muṇḍaka, Śvetāśvatara and other Upaniṣadṣ

In the Śāntiparva it is stated that the propounder ¹² of Sāṅkhya was paramarṣi (highest sage) Kapila, Hiraṇyagarbha was the ancient knower of Yoga, no one else (knew it); Apāntaratamas was Vedācārya whom some called the sage Prācīnagarbha. In the previous chapter it is stated that Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Vedāraṇyaka and Pañcarātra are one and are aṅgas of each other. In Śānti 326. 65 Hiraṇyagarbha is again connected with Yogāśāstra. Vide p. 1371 above. In the Anuśāsanaparva ¹³ Sanatkumāra appears to be connected with Yoga as the founder, just as Kapila was the founder of Sāṅkhya. In the Ahirbudhnya saṃhitā (XII. 32-33) it is stated that Hiraṇyagarbha first propounded two Yogasamhitās, one was called ‘Nirodhayoga’ and the other was called ‘Karmayoga’, the first of which was again divided twelve-folḍ The Bhāmatī ¹⁴ on V.S. II. 1. 3 states that that sūtra does not totally negative the authoritativeness of the Yogāśāstra of Hiraṇyagarbha and Patañjali. The Viṣṇupurāṇa ¹⁵ appears to quote two verses from Hiraṇyagarbha (vide note below). Vācaspati in his commentary on Yogasūtra I. 1 states that Yogi-Yājñavalkya mentions that Hiraṇyagarbha was the propounder of Yoga. Vācaspati regards the Yogasūtra of Patañjali as later than Yoga-Yājñavalkya-smṛti. Therefore, it is almost certain that the V. S. refutes the doctrines of that Yoga system that was known to the Śāntiparva.

In Śalyaparva (chap. 50) a story is told about bhikṣu Jaigīṣavya who was a great Yogin and of ‘Asita Devala’, a householder staying on the holy Sarasvata-tīrtha.

In the Śāntiparva (cr. eḍ chap. 222 = Ch. eḍ chap. 229) there is a long dialogue between Jaigīṣavya and Asita about Yoga, one verse (14) ¹⁶ from which may be citeḍ here ‘Yogins do not talk much by way of censure and praise of others and their minds are never affected by the praise and censure of them indulged in by otherṣ’ In that chap. Jaigiṣavya is described as one who was never angry nor joyful. In the Varāhapurāṇa (4. 14) it is stated that Kapila and Yogirāt Jaigiṣavya came to king Aśvaśiras that had taken the avabhritha bath after Aśvamedha and assumed the forms of Viṣṇu and Garuḍa respectively. It may be noted that on Y. S. II. 55 the bhāsya quotes several views, but prefers that of Jaigiṣavya. On Y. S. III. 18, ¹⁷ the bhāsya mentions the dialogue between Āvatya and Jaigiṣavya, where the latter’s opinion is stated to be that from the point of view of kaivalya, the happiness of sense contentment is also misery, though as compared to pleasures of sense contentment is supposed to be and may be called happinesṣ

In the Buddhacarita (XII) when Gautama (the future Buddha) approached a philosopher Arāḍa, the latter described to Gautama his idea of the path to mokṣa and mentioned Jaigiṣavya, Janaka and Vrddha-Parāśara as persons that had become liberated by following that path.¹⁸

From these references it follows that Jaigiṣavya was a great teacher of Yoga long before the Christian era and probably had composed a work on Yoga not now available.

There are numerous English translations of the Yogasūtra (wholly or partly) and of the Bhāṣya and Vācaspati’s Commentary, such as that by Dr. Rajendralal Mitra with text of Y. S., bhāsya and coṃ Rājamārtaṇḍa and an appendix (p. 218- 227) noting 150 msṣ on Yoga (B. I. eḍ 1883); Swami Vivekananda’s ‘Rājayoga’ (Vol. I. of collected works, eḍ of 1946) pp. 200-304, which translates and explains all the sūtras; Dr. Ganganath Jha’s translation (Bombay 1907); translation by Rama Prasad (pub. by Panini office, Allahabad 1910); translation by Prof. J. H. Woods (in the Harvard Oriental Series, 1914) who read with the present author in Bombay for some months in 1909; Geraldine Coster in ‘Yoga and Western Psychology’ (London, 1934) translates and explains many of Patañjali’s sūtras (pp. 100–131); ‘Aphorisms of Yoga’ done into English by Shree Purohita Swami and Intro. by W. B. Yeats (Faber & Faber, London, 1937) with figures of Śiddhāsana, Baddhapadmāsana, Paścimottānāsana, Bhujaṅgāsana, Viparītakarana and Matsyendrāsana; ‘Bhāratīya Mānasa-śāstra’ or ‘Pātañjala-yoga-darśana’ (Sanskrit text, with a table of contents, errata, Introduction of 232 pages, and meaning and explanation pp. 787 in Marathi) in all 1051 pages, edited by Krishnāji Keshav Kolhatkar and published by K. B. Dhavale, Bombay, 1951—a very exhaustive and useful work, though rather diffuse and marred by a few uncritical statementṣ

The number of works and papers on Yoga in general written by Indian and Western authors is very large. The present author has not read many of theṃ He may mention the following among those that he read or consulted: ‘Rājayoga’ (complete works of Vivekananda, eḍ of 1946, Mayavati, vol. I, pp.119–313); ‘Yoga technique in the Great Epic’ by W. Hopkins in JAOS vol. 22 for 1901 pp. 333–379; ‘Yoga as a philosophy and religion’ by Prof. S. N. Das Gupta (London, 1924), and ‘Yoga philosophy (Uni. of Calcutta, 1930); Dr. J. W. Häuer’s ‘Die Anfange der Yogapraxis im Alten Indien’ (Stuttgart, 1922) and ‘Der Yoga Als Heilweg each den Indischen quellen Dargestellt, Stuttgart, 1932; this is a careful and systematic study of Yoga; this work (pp. 101–127) gives the transliterated text of the Yoga-sūtra with translation in German not in serial order but by subjects (such as yogāṅgas, kriyāyoga, Īsvarapraṇidhāna); Dr. Radhakrishnan’s ‘Indian Philosophy’ vol. II. pp. 336–373 (London, 1931); ‘The mysterious Kundalini’ by Dr. J. G. Rele (Taraporevala and sons, Bombay, 1927); ‘Yoga, the science of health’ by Felix Guyot (in French), translated by J. Carling, London, 1937 (3rd eḍ), expounding the practical principles of Hatha-yoga; ‘Yoga, a scientific ¹⁹ evaluation’ by Dr. K. T. Behanaṇ pub. by Macmillan & Co., New York, 1937 (the author studied at Kaivalya-dhāma for a year); ‘Tibetan Yoga and secret doctrine’ by W. Y. Evans-Wentz (Oxford Uni. Press, 1935) and ‘Tibetan Book of the Dead’ by the same author (Oxford, 1927); ‘A search in secret India’ by Paul Brunton (London, 1947); Paul Tuxen’s ‘the religions of India’ (Copenhagen, 1949); ‘Tibetan Yoga’ by Bernard Bromage (2nd eḍ of 1939) pp. 108–111; ‘Yoga the method of re-integration’ by Allain Danielou (London, 1949); the author states that the exposition is based on yoga works and also on the teachings of living exponents; it is a useful book with six illustrations and 352 Sanskrit texts; ‘The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation’ eḍ by W. G. Evans-Wentz (Oxford Uni. Press, 1954); pp. XXIX–LXIV contain C. G. Jung’s Psychological commentary and pp. 63–69 on astrology; ‘Source-book of Indian Philosophy’ by Dr. Radhakrishnan and C. A. Moore; gives translation of the whole yogaśūtra with extracts from the bhāṣya; Mercea Eliade’s ‘Yoga, immortality and freedom’ translated from French into English by Willard R. Trask (London, 1958); ‘Hathayoga, an advanced method of physical education and concentration’ by Prof. S. S. Goswami (L. N. Fowler, London, 1959); this is a very valuable book; it deals scientifically with yoga in all its aspects, but parti-cularly with āsanas of which 108 photographs are given; ‘Concentration’ by Mouni Sadhu (London, 1959); ‘The Lotus and the Robot’ by A. Koestler (London, 1960).

Many editions of the Yogaśūtra of Patañjali with the bhāṣya of Vyāsa and the commentary (called Tattvavaiśāradī) of Vācaspati have been printed in India. I shall mention only two or three editions of the text of the Sūtra and the two commentaries viz. the edition by the late Pandit Rājaram Shastri Bodas, printed in beautiful type at the Nirṇayasāgara Press in 1892 and the other, the Ānandāśrama edition of 1932 which contains the sūtra, bhāṣya, Vācaspati’s commentary and also the commentary called Rājamārtaṇḍa of king Bhoja. In the Kashi Sanskrit series the Yogaśūtra was printed (in 1930) with six commentaries viz. the Rājamārtaṇḍa of Bhojarāja, the Pradīpikā of Bhāva Gaṇeśa, vṛtti by Nāgoji-bhaṭṭa, the Maṇi-prabhā by Rāmānandayati, the Candrikā by Anantadeva and the Yoga-sudhākara by Sadāśivendra Sarasvatī.²⁰

The Yogaśūtra, as compared with the sūtras of some other darśanas, is a brief one. It is divided into four pādus, viz. Samādhi (concentration), Sādhana (means of attainment), Vibhūti (super-normal powers) and Kaivalya (aloofness, liberation). There are only 195 sūtras in all the pādas together (51+55+55+34).

Dr. Radhakrishnan in ‘Indian Philosophy’ (vol. II. of the eḍ of 1931 pp. 341-42) holds that the Yogasūtra is not later than 300 A. D. Prof. S. N. Das Gupta in ‘History of Indian Philosophy’ (vol. I. pp. 226-238) is in favour of the identity of the two Patañjalis and therefore holds that the author of the Yogasūtra flourished in the 2nd century B. C.²¹ The Sanskrit paper of Pandit R. Ramamūrtišarmā in J. of Veṅkaṭēšvara Institute of Tirupati (vol. II. pp. 289-294) and Mr. Govind Das’s brief note in I. A. vol. 44 (for 1915 p. 24) may also be read in this connectioṇ Jacobi and (following him) Keith hold that the Yogasūtra (I, 40), meaning at the most ‘the mastery of the Yogin extends from the minutest particle to the greatest magnitude imaginable’,²² refers to the atomic theory of the worlḍ This is a good sample of the way in which even great Western writers read in simple words later theories and try to give late dates to early workṣ The Upaniṣads speak of the self as more minute than what is aṇu and as greater than the great and the Mahābhārata also uses the same phraseology. There is no convincing reason to suppose that the Yogasūtra refers only to a theory of atoms propounded in the Vaiśeṣika system and is not paraphrasing the words of the Upaniṣad and the Mahābhārata.

We have also to consider the early tradition embodied in an introductory verse in Bhojadeva’s commentary (not later than 1055 A. D.) and mentioned by Cakrapāṇi (commentator of the Carakasamhitā²³ (about 1060 A. D.) that Patañjali (deemed to be an avatāra of Śeṣa) composed works on Grammar, Yoga and Medicine.

The present author cannot deal at length in this volume with the two questions of identity and of the dates of the two works, as he is mainly concerned with the influence of Yoga on Dharmaśāstra workṣ He thinks that hardly any cogent arguments have been advanced to positively disprove the identity of the authors of the Mahābhāṣya and of the Yogasūtra. Whether the revision of Caraka’s work was done by the same Patañjali is very doubtful. In the Śāntiparva the founder of Cikitsita (medicine) is said to have been Kṛṣṇātreya and not Caraka nor Patañjali. The Caraka-saṃhitā uses the expression ‘iti ha smāha bhagavān-Ātreyaḥ’ in the beginning of its chapterṣ Caraka (in I. 1. 23 ff) states that the sage Bharadvāja learnt Ayurveda from Indra. His pupil was Punarvasu Ātreya, who had six disciples viz. Agniveśa, Bheda, Jatūkarṇa, Parāśara, Harīta and Kṣārapāṇi. First, Agniveśa composed a treatise on Ayurveda and read it to Ātreya and then Bheda and others did so. In the chapter called ‘Tisraiṣaṇīya’ in Caraka-saṃhitā (I. 11. 75) Kṛṣṇātreya’s view is specially mentioneḍ Therefore, it appears that Kṛṣṇātreya²⁴ is different from Ātreya who is reverently mentioned at the beginning of Caraka’s chapterṣ Even the Buddhacarita of Aśvaghoṣa mentions Ātreya as the first propounder of medical science.

It is possible to argue that the tradition that Patañjali dealt with Yoga and Grammar is older than the Vākyapadīya of Bhartṛhari. That work states in its first section²⁵ (called Brahmakāṇḍa) that the taints that affect the body, speech and intellect are purified ( respectively ) by the sciences of medicine, grammar and metaphysicṣ Then in the eulogy of the Mahābhāṣya it remarks ‘ alabhagādhe gāmbhīryād-uttāna iva sauṣṭhavat’, on which the commentator explains that in the verse from the Brahmakāṇḍa the author of the Mahābhāṣya is praised and in the other verse there is praise of the bhāṣya itself. From this it appears to follow that according to the commentator the Vākyapadīya attributes the three śāstras on medicine, grammar and metaphysics ( i. e. Yoga ) to Patañjali himself.

Even if it be held that the authors of the Yogasūtra and of the Mahābhāṣya are different persons, there are hardly any reasons for definitely assigning the author of the Yogasūtra to a date later than the 2nd or 3rd century A. D. The date of the Yogabhāṣya of Vyāsa is of considerable importance in arriving at the probable date of the Yogasūtra. But the question of the date of the Yogabhāṣya is also debatable. The Vyāsa who composed the Yogabhāṣya would have to be held as different from Vedavyāsa, the reputed author of the Mahābhārata.

The author of the Yogasūtra is, according to the tradition embodied in such comparatively early commentaries as that of Vācaspatimiśra, said to be Patañjali. Important questions arise as to his age and his identity with Patañjali, the author of the famous Mahābhāṣya on Pāṇini’s grammar and the Vārtikas thereoṇ The grammarian Patañjali is generally held to have flourished about 150 B. C. Therefore, the question of identity becomes important for the date of the Yogasūtra. Some scholars like Prof. B. Liebich, Dr. Haüer (p. 98 of the work of 1932 ) and Prof. Das Gupta favour the identity of the two, but several others such as Jacobi, Keith, Woods, Renou are against it. Prof. Renou ( in I. H. Q. vol. XVI, pp. 586-591 ) examines the question from the grammatical point of view, points out that certain words like Pratyāhāra, Upasarga, Pratyaya are used in the Yogasūtra in senses entirely different from the senses of these words in the Mahābhāṣya. But as the subjects of the two works are entirely different, the same words may have acquired different senseṣ Similarly, Prof. Renou relies on breaches of grammatical rules ( in the Yogasūtra I. 34 ), while he says that Patañjali in the Mahābhāṣya is very strict in following Pāṇini’s rules though Pāṇini himself is rarely not strict in observing his own rules as in ‘tat-prayojako hetuśca’ (I. 4. 55 ) which is against his own sūtra ‘tṛjakābhyāṁ kartari’ (II. 2. 15); but Patañjali also employs such an expressions as 'aviravikanyāyā'²⁶ (which should be avyavikanyāyena) for which Patañjali is criticized in the long Pūrvapakṣa on Vyākaraṇa contained in the Tantravārtika and which is not explained away in the reply to the Pūrvapakṣa. It cannot be supposed that the Yogasūtra for the first time settled the technical terms of Yoga. Yoga terms had been evolving from Upaniṣad times and Patañjali only used them in the sense which they had acquired in the course of centurieṣ Prof. Renou arrives at the conclusion that the Yogasūtra is later by several centuries than the Mahābhāṣya. Jacobi in his paper on 'the dates of the philosophical sūtras of the Brāhmaṇas' (in JAOS, vol. 31 pp. 1–29) holds (p. 29) that the Yogasūtra must be later that the 5th century A. D. and, following Garbe, thinks that it is not improbable that the Vyāsabhāṣya was composed in the 7th century A. D. The views of Jacobi are strongly criticized by Jwala Prasad in J. R. A. S. for 1930 pp. 365–375. The present author disagrees with Jacobi and Prof. Renou.

The date of the Yogabhāṣya will have considerable bearing on the date of the Yogasūtra. The Yogabhāṣya presupposes much literary activity on Yoga. It mentions by name on Y. S. II. 55 and on III. 18 Jaigīṣavya who is a prominent figure in the Mahābhārata as shown above (pp. 1367 and 1374). Vide also the story of Asita Devala with whom Jaigīṣavya stayed for many years as a bhikṣu and adept in Yoga (Śalyaparva, chap. 50). It has to be remembered that several interpretations of the same Yogasūtra are noted in the bhāṣya (as on II. 55). The Yogabhāṣya quotes several Kārikās and verses dealing with the matters treated of in the Y. S. as on Y. S. I. 28, 48, II. 5, 28 (on nine causes that lead to Vivekakhyāti), II. 32, III. 6, III. 15 (on seven Cittadharmas of the apariṇata type). Besides these, several quotations in prose are cited in the bhāṣya, many of which are attributed to Pañcaśikha by Vācaspati (vide pp. 1373–74 above), and some (as on II. 22, 30, 52) to āgamins (those who know the tradition or Veda). Therefore, it follows that some centuries intervene between the Yogasūtra and its bhāṣya.

The Bhāṣya on Y. S. II. 42 quotes a verse with the words 'tathā coktam' (it has also been said), which is identical with a verse from the Śāntiparva.²⁷ It is most unlikely that an author will rely on his own work for supporting a proposition propounded in another work of his owṇ Besides, the Yogabhāṣya quotes on Y. S. I. 28 a verse, which is Viṣṇupurāṇa²⁸ VI, 6. 2. The Viṣṇupurāṇa is one of the earliest among extant Purāṇas (vide above pp. 907-909) and cannot be assigned to a date later than the 3rd century A. D. Therefore, the Yogabhāṣya which quotes the Mahābhārata and the Viṣṇupurāṇa may be assigned to about 4th century A. D. As argued above, the Y. S. would therefore have to be assigned to a date not later than the 2nd or 3rd century A. D. Though the present writer holds that the Yoga that is said to be refuted in V. S. II. 1. 3 is not that of the Yoga- sūtra but the Yoga found in the Śāntiparva, yet he is not prepared to place the present Yogasūtra earlier than the 2nd century B. C. Mr. K. K. Kolhatkar in his very exhaustive and learned Introduction (in Marathi) asserts (on p. 126) that the Yogasūtra is later by 3000 years than the Brahmasūtra and that the Bhagavadgītā was composed about 5000 years before the present day (p. 224). But he adduces no evidence for such an ancient date for that work. He probably relies on the traditions that Vyāsa, the reputed author of the Mahābhārata (including the Gītā), flourished towards the end of the Dvāpara age and that Kaliyuga started in 3179 B. C. Modern critical scholarship does not accept these traditional datingṣ

Not only do some of the Upaniṣads contain references to Yoga technique and practices, but the Mahābhārata also dilates upon matters that pertain to the domain of Yoga. A few examples may be referred to here (the cr. eḍ of the Mahābhārata is relied upon). In the Śāntiparva, chap. 232 (241 of Ch. eḍ) it is stated ²⁹ that kāma (desires), krodha (anger), lobha (covetousness), bhaya (fear) and svapna (sleep) are the five dosas (disturbances), in the path of Yoga and then it prescribes means for mastering theṃ An important and striking assertion in that chapter is that even a person of the lowest varṇa (class) or a woman who is intent on dharma may reach the highest goal by following this path ³⁰ ( of Yoga ). The same chapter lays down ( in verse 25 ) the proper places for the residence of a yogin and for the practice of Yoga, viz. untenanted mountains and caves, temples, vacant houses, in order that ekagratā (one-pointedness of mind) may be achieved and that the yogin should treat in the same way a person who commends him or who speaks ill of him and should not contemplate the befalling of good or evil on any one. Chapter 289 of the Śāntiparva refers to Dhāraṇā (verse 37) and states that a yogin that has attained ³¹ spiritual power may transfer himself to thousands of other bodies and move about in those bodies on the earth and that this path (of Yoga) is regarded as difficult of access even to wise brāhmaṇas and no one can tread it with ease and that one can stand easily on the sharp edges of razors, but to abide in Dhāraṇā of Yoga is difficult for those whose souls are not purifieḍ Śāntiparva 304. 1 states that there is no knowledge equal to Sānkhya and no spiritual power equal to Yoga; it further says that Yoga is eightfold (verse 7) and in verse 9 mentions Dhāraṇā and Prāṇāyāma. The Āśvamedhikaparva 19. 17 (Ch. eḍ) appears to refer to pratyāhāra.³²

There is also striking similarity between the Bhagavadgītā and the Yogaśūtra.³³ For example, the definition of Yoga in the Yogaśūtra as the 'mastery over (or elimination of) the functions (or fluctuations) of the mind' has a close parallel in the Gītā. The Gītā insists on the yogin (VI. 10); 'aparigraha' is one of the five yamas (Y. S. II. 30). Similarly, the seat and posture (āsana) in which a yogin is to practise must be stable (this refers to the seat) and comfortable (says Yogaśūtra); the Gītā says the same thing in greater detail. In VIII. 12 the Gītā speaks of Yogadhāraṇā. The Gītā says (in VI. 35) that the mind is certainly restless and difficult to control, but it can be controlled by practice and passionlessness and the Y. S. (I. 12) speaks of the same two meanṣ The Gītā (in V. 4-5) emphasizes that it is the ignorant that regard Sāṁkhya and Yoga as different, that he who applies himself or stands committed to one of these secures the fruit held out by both and that he who sees both ways as identical sees truly. Here Sāṁkhya means (sannyāsa) 'renunciation' and Yoga means 'Karma-yoga'.

The Yogaśūtra of Patañjali nowhere expressly sets out its scheme of the evolution of the worlḍ But it contains enough material to enable us to hold that it presupposes and accepts some of the Sāṁkhya doctrines such as the theory of Pradhāna, the three guṇas and their characteristics, the real nature of the individual self and kaivalya (the state of the soul in final liberation). This may be established by a few references to Y. S. III. 48 describes the results that ensue to the yogin from subjugation or mastery of the organs (indriyas), one of which is 'pradhānajaya ³⁴ (subjugation of Pradhāna, the primary cause of the world according to the Sāṅkhya). The Y. S. nowhere describes what Pradhāna is and what its evolutes are. Therefore, it follows that it takes over from the Sāṅkhya all that is said about Pradhāna. About the individual soul the Y. S. states ‘the seer (Puruṣa) exists ³⁵ as merely pure capacity of awareness (or as the mere power of seeing) and although pure (changeless or undefiled or free from any taints) appears as if he sees all experiences (that really pertain to Buddhi)’. The characteristics of the three guṇas (sattva, rajas and tamas) are clearly and succinctly ³⁶ stated in Y. S. as in S. Kārikā 13, when it says ‘the seen (phenomenal universe) is characterized by light (sattva), activity (rajas) and inertia or dullness (tamas), it is the essence of the elements and organs and it exists for the purpose of giving experience and liberation (to the soul)’. The guṇas are frequently referred to in Y. S. I. 16, IV. 13, 32, 34 and sattvaguṇa in Y. S. II. 41, III. 35, 49 and 55. The Y. S. postulates three pramāṇas (in I. 7), but does not define them; the S. Kārikā (4-6) mentions the same three pramāṇas and briefly defines theṃ They both agree about the plurality of souls It may further be noted that Vyāsabhāṣya on Y. S. is full of Sāṅkhya doctrines and quotes, according to Vācaspati, Pāñcaśikha twelve times and Ṣaṣṭitantra once (vide above p. 1374 and ṇ 2250 ).

In spite of the fact that the Yogaūtra accepts some of the fundamental doctrines of the Sāṅkhya, there are certain points of difference between the two. The standard Sāṅkhya finds no place for God (Īśvara) i. e. it is frankly atheistic ( if theism means belief in God who is the creator of the universe and regulator of rewards and punishments), while Yoga finds a place for God in Y. S. I. 23-29, though not a basic one, but only secondary, probably as a concession to popular feelings and belief. The Y. S. nowhere expressly says that Īśvara is the creator of the world and all that it says about Him is that in him omniscience is at its highest, that He was the teacher of primal sages and that by repetition of the mystic syllable ‘om’ and reflection on it the yogin attains correct knowledge of the real nature of the self. In the next place, though the summum bonum in both systems is called kaivalya (S. Kārikā 64, 68 and Y. S. III, 50, 55, IV, 34), yet the Sāṅkhya does not set out any elaborate discipline for attaining it except correct knowledge, that is, it is metaphysical and rational, while the Y. S. gives an elaborate treatment on mind discipline, insists on effort rather than mere jñāna, attaches great importance to prāṇāyāma and meditation (dhyāna) and is psychological.

The Sāṅkhya postulated that an intellectual understanding of the nature of puruṣa and of prakṛti (or guṇas) and of the difference between the two was sufficient for the emancipation of the individual self from the liability to rebirth, while yoga, on the other hand, was not content with this philosophic easy-going mental frame and emphasized systematic training of the will and emotionṣ In both Sāṅkhya and Yoga each individual soul is eternal and his destiny is to become free from the influence of Prakṛti and its evolutes and to remain for ever the same (viz. pure intelligence). Herein they differ from the Advaita Vedānta, according to which the final destiny of the self is to become absorbed in and one with brahma.

There is another matter for consideratioṇ In the yajña-valkya-smṛti, Yājñavalkya is put forward as saying that the soul shining like a lamp in the heart should be realized, that on such realization the soul is not born again and as adding that for the purpose of attaining to Yoga one should understand the Āraṇyaka³⁷ which ‘I received from the Sun and also the Yogasāstra propounded by me.' In the Kūrmapurāṇa it is said that Yājñavalkya composed Yogasāstra at the order of Hara and the Viṣṇupurāṇa (IV. 4 107) states that Hiranyanābha attained the knowledge of Yoga from the great Yogīśvara Yājñavalkya who was a pupil of Jaimini. In the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Up. (II. 4) Yājñavalkya tells his wife Maitreyī (who hankered after immortality and cared naught for worldly goods) that he would expound to her the path to immortality and the very first sentence calls upon her to cultivate 'nididhyāsa' (i. e. dhyāna) and the first part of his discourse ends with the memorable words (ātmā vā are draṣṭavyah śrotavyo mantavyo nididhyā- sitavyah, Br. Up. II. 4 5). What work is meant by the Yoga-śāstra composed by Yāj. is a debatable point. There are three works (other than the Yāj. smṛti) connected with the name of Yājñavalkya viz. ... Vṛddha-Yājñavalkya, Yoga-Yājñavalkya and Bṛhad-yogi-yājñavalkya (vide H. of Dh. vol I. p. 188–190). The last has been published by Kaivalyadhama, Lonavla (1951), the Yoga-Yāj. was published in T. S. S. (1938) based on a single mṣ, then in the JBBRAS (vol. 28 and 29) by Shri P. C. Diwanji and now available in book form (1954). This last is in the form of a dialogue between the great yogin Yājñavalkya and Gārgī (who is identified with Maitreyī by Shri Diwanji on pp. 27–28 of his eḍ of 1954 ) and sages and learned brāhmanaṣ Yājñavalkya narrates what he learnt from Brahmā. On Yāj. III. 110 the Dīpakalikā of Śūlapāṇi remarks that the Yogaśāstra referred to is called ‘Yogīyājñavalkya’. But this again leads to uncertainty as both the works viz. that published by Kaivalya- dharma and the one by Mr. Diwanji are so referred to as Yogī (or Yoga) Yājñavalkya in several digestṣ Mr. Diwanji³⁸ tries hard to establish that the work published by him ‘has a better claim to be adjudged the specific work on Yoga referred to in Yāj. III. 113.’ I think that the claim is not at all justifieḍ The work edited by Mr. Diwanji no doubt contains a good deal of Yoga knowledge; while the work published by Kaivalyadhama also contains a good deal of Yoga material, though not as much as the work edited by Mr. Diwanji containṣ It would be irrelevant to discuss here all the points made by Mr. Diwanji. The present author is convinced that the work sponsored by Mr. Diwanji is not the work referred to by Yājñavalkya (in his smṛti III. 110). It is a compilation of a later perioḍ Some striking matters alone may be pointed out to show that the Yoga-Yājñavalkya could not have been the work of the author of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and the Yogagāstra (as stated in Yāj. III. 110) in the Bṛ. Up. II. 4. 1 and IV. 5. 1 (yajña-valkyasya dve bhārye babhūvatur-Maitreȳ ca Kātyāyani ca) it is expressly stated that Yājñavalkya had two wives, (philosophy-minded) Maitreyī and Kātyāyanī (worldly-minded). Maitreyī desired such knowledge as would lead to immortality and she asks questions, in all of which she addresses Yājñavalkya as 'bhagavān' (in Bṛ. Up. II. 4. 3 and 13 and IV. 5. 4, 14) and never as mere Yājñavalkya. On the other hand, Gārgī in the Bṛ. Up. is called Vācaknavī (in III. 6. 1, III. 8.1 and 12), is not Yājñavalkya's wife but a pert and rationalistic woman inquirer like Āśvala, Ārtabhāga, Bhujyu Lāhyāyani, Uṣasta Cākrāyaṇa, Kahola (all present in the court of Janaka), who including Gārgī questioned the claim of Yājñavalkya to be regarded as 'brahmiṣṭha'. In Bṛ. Up. III. 6. 1 when Gārgī pursues her ratiocination too far (in matters depending upon āgama and being beyond reasoning) Yājñavalkya reprimands her and says that she would die (lit: her head would fall away) if she pursued the subject in a pure logistic way. All those inquirers address Yājñavalkya as mere Yājñavalkya without any honorific epithet like 'bhagavān' and Gārgī does the same (in Bṛ. Up. III. 6. 1, III. 8. 2-6). Acc. to Yāj. Smṛti III. 110 the Bṛ. Up., a Yoga-śāstra and the smṛti are the works of one man (whose two wives were Maitreyī and Kātyāyanī) and who had a philosophical skirmish with Gārgī Vācaknavī (according to the Bṛ. Up.). The present Yogayājñavalkya (eḍ by Mr. Diwanji) makes Gārgī wife of Yājñavalkya ³⁹ (vadhūḥ). One would like to know whether Yāj. had three wives, as Bṛ. Up. says he had only two. Mr. Diwanji (pp. 27-28 of the eḍ of 1954) tries to make light of this discrepancy and regards Maitreyī as another name of Gārgī. We are here concerned not with pure Yoga doctrines but with the question whether a work attributed to Yaj. which makes Gārgī the wife of the ancient Yājñavalkya (when the Upaniṣad makes her only a more or less insolent woman) can be regarded as the work of the same Yāj. who propounded brahma-vidyā in the Br. Up. and is supposed to have composed the Yāj. smṛti. This one circumstance alone is enough to brand the Yoga-Yājñavalkya (of Mr. Diwanji) as a fabrication sought to be passed off as an ancient work. If identity was really meant the verse could easily have been read as ‘Maitreyī-yākhyā mahābhāgā’ without any metrical fault. Therefore, it is not possible to hold that Yogayājñavalkya is the Yogaśāstra composed by Yājñavalkya before the Smṛti going under his name was composeḍ A few other decisive grounds may also be urgeḍ The work edited by Mr. Diwanji mentions Tantras (in V. 10) and Tāntrikas (in VIII. 4 and 25). The Yāj. smṛti nowhere mentions these two and is free from the peculiar Tāntrik words or technique. Therefore, the present Yogayājñavalkya edited by Mr. Diwanji was composed long after the Yāj. smṛti and probably in the 8th century or after when Tāntrik rites and works had become commoṇ One more important matter may be adverted to. The Yāj. smṛti and the Yoga-Yājñavalkya (eḍ by Mr. Diwanji) both enumerate ten yamas and ten niyamāṣ But the two diverge materially in the ten names as the note below will show.⁴⁰ The number of yamas and niyamas differs in different works, but if the Yāj. smṛti and Yoga-Yājñavalkya were the works of the same author, the differences in the ten names would not have occurred at all. Therefore, the author of the Yāj. smṛti is quite different from the author of the Y. Y. There is no evidence for holding that the latter flourished before the 8th or 9th century A. D.

A good deal has been said by Mr. Diwanji in his paper on 'Bṛhad-yogī-yājñavalkya and Yoga-Yājñavalkya' in ABORI, vol. XXXIV (1953) pp. 1-29, in his preface to Yoga-Yājñavalkya in JBBRAS, volumes XXXVIII and XXXIX pp. 103-106 and by Swami Kuvalayanand in his reply in ABORI, vol. XXXVII for 1957 pp. 279-289 and in the paper ‘the real Yogiyājñavalkya-smṛti' in the journal ‘Yogamimāṁsā' vol. VII. No. 2 (and also published separately as a pamphlet in July 1958 ). It would not be relevant in this work to discuss the points in dispute between Mr. Diwanji and Swami Kuvalayananḍ In the bhāṣya on the Svetāśvataropaniṣad attributed to Śaṅkarācārya⁴¹ (published by Ānaṇ Press ) on p. 28 four verses and a half are quoted from Yogi-Yājñavalkya, none of which is found either in Br. Y. Y. or Y. Y. Besides on Sv. Up. II. 9 (pp. 42-44) 29 verses on Yoga matters are quoted in the bhāṣya, but the name of the author or work whence the quotations are taken is not mentioneḍ Not one of the 29 verses wholly occurs in Mr. Diwanji's Y. Y. He is able to point out only five or six half verses as occurring in Y. Y. out of the 29 verses, while a whole verse quoted in the bhāṣya (viz. ‘prāṇāyāmair’ &c) occurs in Br. Y. Y. (8. 32 ). It may be further pointed out that Aparārka and the Smṛticandrikā quote in all about 100 verses from Yogi (or Yoga-) Yājñavalkya which are found in Br. Y. Y., but not in Y. Y. The Kṛtyakalpataru (on Mokṣakāṇḍa alone) quotes (on pp. 146, 149, 166, 171, 196–197 ) about 70 verses from Yogi-yājñavalkya which are found in chapters 2, 8, 9 and 11 of the Br. Y. Y. Mr. Diwanji has not been able to show that verses of the Y. Y. (eḍ by him ) are cited anywhere in the above three digestṣ Mr. Bhabatosh Bhattacarya in his paper on Yogi-Yājñavalkya-smṛti and its utilization in the medieval digests of Bengal and Mithila (in J. G. J. R. I. vol XV for 1958 pp. 135–140) points out that king Ballālasena of Bengal (1158–1179 A. D.) in his Dānasāgara contains a fairly large number of quotations from the Bṛhad-Yogi Yaj. (pub. by Kaivalya-dharma ). It appears that Viśvarūpa⁴² (first half of 9th century A.D.) quotes a half verse from the Br. Y. Y. and remarks that the work is composed by the author of the Yaj. smṛti himself. Therefore, the Br. Y.Y. is an early work and cannot be assigned to a date later than the 7th century A. D.; while Y. Y. is a much later compilation composed in the 8th or 9th century or even later. The present author is not, however, prepared to hold that Br. Y. Y. is the Yogasāstra of Yāj. mentioned in Yāj. smṛti III, 110, since the Yoga material contained in it is meagre as compared with the Smṛti material. The present author is glad to find that on pp. 7-8 of the Sanskrit Preface to the edition of the Bṛhad-Yogi-Yājñavalkya-smṛti the editors express grave doubts about the identity of the author of the Yāj. smṛti with the author of the work edited by theṃ

The Yogavāsiṣṭha is an extensive work in 32000 Ślokas (one śloka meaning 32 syllables) printed in two volumes with a commentary by Ānandabodha by the Nirṇ Presṣ It is really an eclectic work embodying⁴³ the tenets of the Gītā on anāsakti, the tenets of the Trīka system of Kashmir, of Advaita Vedānta &c. Its text appears to have been added to from time to time. Controversies have raged about its date and its contribution to Indian philosophy. The present writer holds on reading the contributions⁴⁴ that the extant Yogavāsiṣṭha is a late work and was composed some time between the 11th and 13th century A. D.

It is now necessary to furnish a brief outline of the main teachings of Y. S. Though the work is comparatively small, its rendering in English requires to be amplified in order that it may be understandable. Only the most important and instructive matters are set out here.

Yoga is defined (2nd sūtra) as the elimination of or mastery over the functions (activities) or fluctuations of the minḍ This is provisionally explained by Vyāsa (on l. l.) as Samādhi. The different stages, viz. (bhūmis) of the mind are five, being restless (kṣipta), infatuated (mugdha or mūḍha), distracted (vikṣipta), one-pointed (ekāgra) and controlled (niruddha).

In this connection (i. e. on the topic of bhūmis) the present author has to bring to the notice of readers a paper by Shri Kuvalayānanda contributed to the Yogamīmāmsā vol. VI. No. 4 on 'Traditional reading of Pātañjala-yogasūtra III. 11; is it accurate.' The traditional reading accepted by the bhāṣya of Vyāsa and all other commentators is ‘Sarvārthataikāgratayoḥ kṣayodayau cittasya samādhipariṇāmaḥ’. The Svami⁴⁵ argues that the correct reading should be ‘sarvārthataikārthayoḥ &c.’ He states that the bhūmis should be six, the sixth being ‘ekārtha’ and bases his arguments on the combined explanations of Yoga-sūtra I. 2–4, 18 and III. 9–12. All that the present writer can say is that his arguments deserve serious consideratioṇ The fact that even Vyāsa, the bhāṣyakāra of Yogasūtra, would have to be held not to have seen the difficulties in the traditional reading of Y. S. III. 11 would have to be given due weight before any final conclusion can be arrived at. That sūtra states the goal of Yoga viz. the soul that is seer abides in its own form then (i. e. when the functions of the mind have been mastered) while in ordinary life the soul appears to assume the forms of the fluctuations of the minḍ The Vṛttis⁴⁶ are five, some of which are afflicted by hindrances called kleśas and the others are not so hindered (those that are hindered are to be mastered or eliminated and the others are to be accepted). The five vṛttis are pramāṇa (means of valid knowledge), viparyaya (wrong conception), vikalpa (fancy), nidrā (sleep), ⁴⁷ smṛti (memory). Pramāṇas are three, pratyakṣa (perception), anumāna (inference), āgama (verbal testimony). The means for the suppression of the vṛttis are abhyāsa (practice) and vairāgya (passionlessness) (simultaneously carried on), the first being the effort to secure a calm flow of the mind free from vṛttis, continued for a long time uninterruptedly and earnestly and the latter (vairāgya) being the consciousness of mastery over (i. e. freedom from thirst for) seen objects (such as woman, food and drink, high position) and objects promised by Revelation (such as heaven, disembodied existence &c.). ⁴⁸ ‘Vairāgya is of two kinds apara (described in Y. S. I. 15 just above) and para (highest) described in Y. S. I. 16 and bhāṣya thereoṇ In the highest vairāgya the Yogin (who has reached discrimination between the self and the guṇas, sattva &c.) is free from thirst not only for objects of sense, but also free from the guṇas, attains a stage of undisturbed consciousness only and leads the yogin to reflect ‘I have attained what was to be attained, the kleśas (hindrances avidyā &c.) that have to be destroyed have been destroyed, the close-knit succession of births and deaths has been out off'. The Bhāsya remarks 'the highest limit of consciousness (knowledge) is Vairāgya and Kaivalya is inseparably connected with it.' Vācaspati states that this last is called 'Dharmamegha-samādhi' (mentioned in Y. S. IV. 29). Sūtras 17 and 18 of first pāda deal respectively with samprajñāta-samādhi (conscious concentration) or sālambanasamādhi and asamprajñāta-samādhi (concentration in which there is no consciousness of objects, gross or subtle). The first is of four kinds (or of four stages) viz. savitarka (deliberation over or realization of a gross object like Śalagrāma or the image of a god with four arms and the like), savicāra (where there is reflection over a subtle object such as the tan-mātrās), sānanda where the reflection is on the mind which is full of sattva (that is a samādhi of joy) and sāsmitarūpa (i. e. where there is only a sense of personality in which the knower himself is the object of perception). ⁴⁹ These four kinds lead on to the asamprajñāta-samādhi, which results when all vṛttis have disappeared, when there is persistent exercise of this state and the mind consists of subliminal impressions only. Sūtras 19-51 (to the end of the first pāda) deal with the different kinds of samādhi, the different ways of attainment, the position of Īśvara in the Yoga system, the nine obstacles (antarāya) that cause distraction of the mind of the person who practises Yoga and the companions of these obstacles, the means of preventing obstacles &c. such as practice of concentration on a single entity, the cultivation of friendliness, compassion, joy (towards holy men), indifference (towards unholy men) or by prāṇāyāma.

The Patañjalasūtra (in I. 19-23) divides yogins for asamprājñāta-samādhi into various categories (nine in all), which are passed over here. Patañjali says that asamprājñāta-samādhi in the case of yogins (who are not gods or not those whose bodies are resolved into primary matter) follows upon that practice which effects the cessation of all vṛttis and which comprises only subliminal consciousness and is preceded by faith, perfect repose or serenity, energy, mindfulness and discrimina-tory insight (into what is real) due to passionlessnesṣ It would be noticed that so far Patañjali asks the aspirant for Yoga to rely on his own efforts, practice &c. He does not mention God or his grace anywhere so far. From this it follows that any man or woman and even one who is an agnostic may pursue yogic practices and attain to asamprājñāta-samādhi and liberation without devotion to God or without God's grace. But Patañjali as a keen psychologist knew the help that faith affordṣ Therefore, he provides that, if you believe in God, He will help you in the practice of Yoga and from that point of view he assigns to Īśvara a role of a limited scope.

In Y. S. I. 23-28 Patañjali provides that Samādhi and liberation (the result of Samādhi) may also be secured by ⁵⁰ devotion to Īśvara (Īśvara-praṇidhāna) who is a special puruṣa, who is untouched by hindrances, by karma (good or evil) or by the results of actions or by hankerings, in whom the omnisci- ence, that is only a germ (in others), is infinite; He, being not limited by time, is the teacher of even the ancient teacherṣ The mystic syllable (Om) is expressive of (i. e. representative or symbol of) God and japa of that syllable and constant reflection upon the meaning of 'om' (i. e. on Īśvara) leads to one-pointed- ness (ekāgratā) of minḍ Devotion to Īśvara secures for the practitioner attainment of right knowledge of the nature of the soul and the absence of hindrances (antarāya) that distract the mind (I. 29). These hindrances are nine such as illness, langour, doubt &c. and they are also called Yogamala (taints or blemishes of Yoga), the enemies (pratipakṣa) of Yoga. These hindrances are accompanied by pain, mental distress, tremor of the limbs, irregular inhalation and exhalation (I. 31). These distractions and their accompaniments that are the foes of samādhi may be prevented or mastered in various ways such as practice of con- centration on one entity (Īśvara or the like), by the practice of such attitudes of mind as friendliness, compassion, cheerful- ness and indifference respectively towards the happy or the distressed, the good and the evil (I. 33) or by the expulsion and retention of breath (bhāṣya uses the word 'prāṇāyāma'). When the mind is concentrated then arise the four kinds of samprājñā- tasamādhi (called savitarka &c. in I. 17). The knowledge that is gained in the last kind of samprājñātasamādhi is of a higher order than what is obtained from scripture or inference and the subliminal impression made in this samādhi is hostile to all other impressions and when this last impression also is suppr- essed or removed, then results the seedless samādhi (i. e. asampr- ajñātasamādhi). In this last the mind itself ceases (from its task) and the yogin's soul 'abides in itself, shines forth in its own light and is called pure, isolated and liberateḍ⁵² Īśvara-praṇidhāna does not lead to union with Īśvara, but it enables the soul that is still bound to become what Īśvara always iṣ In the Yogaśūtra there is very little about bhakti for Goḍ

Pāda II. The first pāda ends on the note of samādhi and liberation i. e. describes the Yoga for him who has succeeded in concentratioṇ The 2nd pāda deals with the procedure for a person whose mind is not used to concentration but is restless, infatuated or distracted (vyutthita)⁵³ and who is desirous of learning the technique. This pāda is the most important of all the four pādas for modern students, either Indian or Western, and has exerted great great influence on Dharmaśāstra workṣ The fundamental idea of Yoga is that the individual self is real, eternal and pure, but it is immersed in the objective world and, though eternal, pursues transient objectṣ Patañjali is a master psychologist. The goal being set (viz how to secure the isolation of the soul from avidyā and the guṇas and its attainment of its own pure nature) Y. S. prescribes a rigorous discipline for the attainment of the goal. Patañjali differs from many modern Western psychologists (like Freud)⁵⁴ in two very fundamental matterṣ The first is that Patañjali puts all emphasis at his command on the freedom and liberation of the soul from bond- age, prescribes restraint of the activities of the mind as the

Prof. J. B. Watson propounded the theory of 'Behaviourism' (vide the work so called, London, 1925), which denies the existence of mind or mental traits, dispositions or tendencieṣ On this view the subject matter of psychology is not mind but the behaviour or activities of the human being and the concept of instincts on which most psychologists dwell at length becomes meaninglesṣ means and several preliminary steps of the training of ordinary emotions and will, while several modern psychologists condemn repression of the minḍ In the 2nd place Patañjali is a firm believer in the doctrine of karma and rebirth and (in II. 12–15) holds that even good actions that give rise to a future life of pleasure and happiness are a misery to the enlightened, while modern psychologists speak of several innate instincts and are not at all agreed on what these are, they do not tackle the problem of karma and rebirth and their relation to what they call instinctṣ If there is no pre-existence of the soul as Christians and many others believe, how do the human instincts arise? There is hardly any convincing or satisfactory explanation of thiṣ

The first sūtra (of pāda II) says that the activities or practices that are preliminaries to the attainment of Yoga are tapas⁵⁵ (austerity), svādhyāya and devotion to Īśvara; these, when resorted to, serve for the cultivation of samādhi and for minimising the kleśas, which are avidyā (nescience which is the field that produces the other four), asmitā (the feeling of personality), rāga (attachment to pleasures), dveṣa (aversion, that dwells angrily on pain and its causes) and abhiniveśa (will to live or clinging to life). Tapas is explained by Vyāsabhāṣya (on Y. S. II. 32) as bearing or enduring the pairs (of opposites) such as hunger and thirst, cold and heat, standing and sitting, stillness of a stump (i. e. not indicating what is passing in one's mind even by gestures), stillness of the body (not speaking at all), and also such observances as Kṛcchra, Cāndrāyaṇa and Sāntapana (vide H. of Dh. vol. IV. pp. 120 and 132, 134-137, 151 respectively for kṛcchra &c.).

The Vyāsabhāṣya explains 'svādhyāya' as the japa (inaudible repetition) of om and other holy texts or study of the śāstras treating of liberatioṇ⁵³ The Śat. Br. XI. 5. 7 contains a eulogy of svādhyāya and the words 'svādhyāyodhyetavyaḥ' (one should study the Veda) occur frequently thereiṇ Om is the most prominent among the symbols ( pratīkas ) under which the upāsanā of the supra-sensible brahma was to be carried out. Vide Chāṇ Up. I. 1. 1 ('om-ityetad-akṣaram-udgītham-upāsīta'), Tai. Up. I. 8 (om-iti brahma, om-itīdam sarvam), Muṇḍaka Up. II. 2. 4 (praṇavo dhanuḥ śaro hyātmā brahma tal-lakṣyam-ucyate, 'om is the bow, the soul is the arrow, brahma is the target &c;). Praśna Up. V. 5 (Yaḥ punar-etam trimātrenomity- etenaivākṣareṇa param puruṣam-abhidhyāyīta). The Y. S. borrows this importance of Om from the Upaniṣadṣ The five kleśas are defined in Y. S. II. 5-9. Avidyā (ignorance)²³²⁵ consists in regarding the non-eternal as eternal, the impure as pure, pain as pleasure, the non-self as the self. Asmitā (sense of personality) consists in the seer (the self) being held as if identical with the instruments of seeing (such as mind and sense organs). Abhiniveśa (clinging to life) means the craving ('May I not cease to live, may I live') which sweeps on by its own force and is established in this form even among the learneḍ Īśvarapraṇidhāna has been explained above (p. 1412 note 2319). The Y. S. (II. 11 and 12) says that the kleśas have subtle conditions (viz. avidyā and asmitā) and coarse effects in the form of vṛttis (the fluctuations of the mind, rāga, dveṣa and abhiniveśa); escape from the former is secured by resolving them by means of real knowledge while the coarse ones are controlled by contemplation (dhyāna). The accumulated deposits of Karma arise from the five kleśas, are fit to be experienced in the seen birth (that is in the present birth) and in an unseen (i. e. future) birth. So long as the root (viz. the kleśas) exists the accumulated karma leads to fruition in three forms viz. birth, life (long or short) and experience, which three result in giving joy or anguish according as the accumulation is due to meritorious or evil actṣ The Yogaśūtra says that the Yoga system has, just like the system of medicine, ^2325a four divisions or aspects, viz. saṁsāra (the round of births or transmigration), the cause of saṁsāra, the release from saṁsāra, the means of release (viz. samyak-darśana, insight into reality or discriminating discern-ment between the puruṣa and sattva, unassailed by false know-ledge); sūtras 16–27 of the 2nd pāda set out these four and explain some of the terms used in defining theṃ Sūtra 28 provides that when impurities are washed away by practising the aṅgas of Yoga, the knowledge shines forth (more and more) till discriminatory discernment becomes perfect. Then sūtra ⁵⁸ enumerates the eight aṅgas (aids, or auxiliaries) of Yoga, viz. yama (abstinence), niyama (observances), āsana (bodily posture), prāṇāyāma (control or regulation of breath), pratyāhāra (withdrawal or suppression of the organs of sense), dhāraṇā (fixed attention), dhyāna (meditation or contemplation), samādhi (concentration or absorption into the object of medita-tion). The Vaikhānasanasmārtasūtra enumerates the same eight angas of Yoga. The remaining sūtras of pāda two (from 30 to 55) deal with the enumeration and definitions of yamas and niyamas, their explanations and the treatment of āsana, prāṇāyāma and pratyāhāra. The Śāntiparva (304.7 = 316.7 of Ch. eḍ) speaks of Yoga as 'aṣṭagupitā' or 'aṣṭagupin'. Out of the eight aṅgas the first five are indirectly useful for samādhi, because they eradicate what are opposed to samādhi (such as hiṁsā, asatya &c.), and are therefore called bahiraṅga (external, indirect) sādhanas (means) of Yoga, while dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi are said to be antaraṅga to Yoga (Y. S. III. 7, 'traym-antaraṅgam pūrvebhyaḥ'. The last three are dealt with in the 3rd pāda. It is these sūtras in the 2nd pāda that are emphasized and elaborated in Dharmaśāstra workṣ Therefore some detailed treatment of these matters is needed here. In some works, such as the Gorakṣasaṁhitā the aṅgas of yoga are said to be only six (omitting yama and niyama or omitting some others). The Maitrāyaṇī Up. (VI. 18), the Dhyānabindu Up. the Atri-smṛti XL 6, Dakṣa VII. 34, Skandapurāṇa, Kāśīkhaṇḍa, 41. 59 and Buddhists say the same. Manu ⁵⁹ provides (IV. 204) 'a wise man should always practise yamas but not the niyamas always; one who only practises niyamas and does not practise yamas incurs sin (or falls into hell)'. This does not mean that niyamas are forbidden but it means only this that yamas are far more important than niyamaṣ The words 'yama' and 'niyama' both occur in the Śāntiparva (cr. eḍ 326. 15 and 339. 16 of Ch. eḍ). Some Smṛtis omit them from the aṅgas of yoga probably because they are prescribed for all persons in general by Manu, Yāj. and otherṣ Manu does not enumerate yamas and niyamas, but Yāj. (quoted on p. 1406, ṇ 2303 above) enumerates ten yamas and ten niyamaṣ The five yamas ⁶⁰ of the Y. S. are ahiṁsā (non-injury to all creatures and at all times), satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing i. e. not appropriating others' things in a way not sanctioned by the Śāstra), brahma-carya (i. e. control of the organ of generation while guarding the other organs of sense also), aparigraha (non-acceptance of anything from another beyond what is necessary for preserving the body). These five constitute for a yogin a great vrata when practised without reference to species, place, time and occasions (or exigencies). As provided by Manu, yamas have to be observed by all but there are exceptionṣ The observance of yamas would be called vrata, but the rigorous observance of yamas without allowing exceptions is called by the Y. S. mahāvrata which has to be observed by yogins without exception at all stageṣ The observance of yamas and niyamas is a first step for the soul's ultimate success in winning Liberation or Isolation (kaivalya), since, unless the soul is purged of all sexual and egoistic desires, it cannot live the divine or spiritual life that the higher stages of yoga require. What is meant may be briefly exemplified as follows: Smṛtis recognize some exceptions to all these in the case of ordinary people. For example, it is the kṣatriya's duty to fight and therefore it was provided by Manu (VII, 87, 89) that a kṣatriya should not run away from battle and that kṣatriyas fighting and dying in battle on both sides went to heaveṇ Vide Yāj. I. 324. So hiṁsā was allowed to a kṣatriya but if he wanted to follow the Yoga discipline he had to give up hiṁsā. Similarly, Smṛtis excused untruth on five occasions (vide Gautama 23. 29, Vasiṣṭha 16. 36, Ādiparva 82. 16, Śānti-parva 34. 25 and 165. 30, quoted in H. of Dh. vol. III, p. 353 and notes 536, 537). Manu in IV. 138 makes an exception for ordinary men viz. one should not speak what though true is painful to another (na brūyāt satyamapriyam). But one who enters on the discipline of Yoga must always speak the truth except when speaking the truth would result in the ruin of creatureṣ⁶² The mitākṣarā on Yaj. III. 312 remarks that telling a falsehood in the case of arranging a marriage though excused (by smṛtis) should be avoided and also the beating of a son or a pupil as punishment by one who observes a vrata. A householder who approaches his wife on certain specified days after her monthly illness and avoids the parvan days (vide H. of Dh. vol. III n 1425) is to be regarded as one observing brahmacarya, acc. to Yaj. I. 79 and Manu IV. 128, but if he takes to the path of Yoga, he would have to give up this latitude (vide note 2308, 2310 above) and avoid all contact whatever with all women including his own wife as the Liṅgapurāṇa empha- sizeṣ The Yuktidīpikā, one of the earliest commentaries on the Sāṅkhyakārikā, mentions (on p. 112) five yamas but puts ‘akalkatā’ (absence of crookedness) as the 5th instead of aparigraha. The Viṣṇupurāṇa (VI. 7. 36-37) enumerates five yamas and five niyamas as in Y. S. but substitutes ‘mind bent on the highest brahma’ (kurvīta brahmāṇi tathā parasmin pravanam manaḥ) for ‘Īśvarapraṇidhāna’. The five niyamas according to Y. S. II. 32 ⁶⁴ are śauca (cleanliness), saṁtoṣa (contentment), tapas (austerity), svādhyāya (study of Veda), īśvarapraṇidhāna (devotion to God, or surrendering all actions to him). Three of the five niyamas, viz. tapas, svādhyāya and Īśvarapraṇidhāna constitute kriyāyoga as already stated in Y. S. II. 1. It is most difficult to give an objective definition of duty, but duties can be defined on the subjective side. The object of emphasizing duties is to make men rise above lower desires and to make the higher self shine forth. These are based more or less on the Upanisads; vide e. g. Chāṇ Up. III. 17. 4 where tapas, ahimsā, truthfulness, dāna, (charity) and ārjava (straightforwardness) are put forward as virtues to be cultivated by a sacrificer, Br. Up. V. 2.3. where all men are asked to cultivate dama (self-restraint), dāna (charity), dayā (kindness). Therefore, the yamas prescribed by the Yogasūtra constitute what may be called extra-regarding duties and are mostly in the nature of prohibitions (such as 'don't injure anyone, don't tell a lie, don't rob a person, don't accept gifts'), while the niyamas are concerned with the individual himself (who has embarked on Yoga practice) and are of a positive character (viz. be clean, be contented, be austere, do study the Veda and be a devotee of Īśvara). The Amarakosa⁶⁵ defines 'yama' as actions that are obligatory (or to be always performed) and that depend upon the body as the means for being carried out, while niyamas are acts that are not obligatory (or not to be continuously engaged in) and that depend (for carrying them out) on means that are outside the body (such as water &c.). Śauca (cleanliness) is of two kinds, bāhya (of the body effected with water, loose earth, pañcagavya, pure food &c.) and ābhyantara (internal or mental). Vide H. of Dh. vol. II. pp. 651- 52 and vol. IV. pp. 310-311 for details of the śauca of both kindṣ A verse of Manu (V. 106) deserves to be noted⁶⁶ in this connection viz. 'of all kinds of śauca the highest is the one that relates to wealth (one must desire wealth without depriving another of his wealth by improper means); that man is śuci (pure) who is pure as to wealth and not he who is purified by loose earth and water.' Sūtras 33-34 of pāda II provide that when the practitioner of Yoga is assailed by the outbreak of the fever of perverse thoughts (such as 'I shall kill him who has harmed me', 'I shall tell a lie, I shall appropriate another's wealth, I shall commit adultery with another's wife'), he should revolve in his mind and cultivate the opposites of such thoughts and dwell on the consequences of such thoughts, viz. they cause endless suffering and lack of right knowledge. Yama and niyama constitute the preliminary ethical code which an aspirant for yoga must observe and some part of it must be followed by all men as Manu and Yāj. prescribe.

In sūtras 35 to 45 (of pāda II.) the results of the continuous practice of the several yamas and niyamas are set out viz. when the aspirant has become established in ahiṃsā, all beings (men and animals) give up enmity ⁶⁷ in his presence. When the aspirant for Yoga is well grounded in the practice of abstinence from falsehood his speech comes out to be effective unfailingly (that is, if he says to a person ‘be you a righteous man’ or ‘may you attain heaven’, the man becomes righteous or attains svarga). When he becomes rooted in abstinence from theft all jewels wait upon him from all quarters (that is, though he may not hanker after riches or means, the latter come to him of their own accord). When the Yogin is firmly fixed in brahmacarya, ²³³⁵ he secures energy (whereby he treads the path to such super-normal powers as aṇimā) and when he reaches perfection he is able to transfer knowledge about Yoga and its aṅgas to his discipleṣ In Y. S. I. 20 it is stated that asamprajñāta-samādhi follows when the yogin has faith, vīrya (energy) and other qualitieṣ The greatest emphasis is laid on chastity in thought, word and deed for the yogin or the seeker for brahma (vide Mundaka III. I. 5, ‘satyena labhyas-tapasā hyeṣa ātmā samyag-jñānena brahmacaryeṇa nityam’). The idea is that the yogin makes very rapid progress towards the final goal of samādhi and kaivalya if he is thoroughly chaste and that without it the practice of rājayoga is futile and dangerouṣ Those interested in the importance of ‘brahmacarya’ should read Mahātmā Gandhi’s ‘self-restraint versus self-indulgence’ (3rd eḍ 1928), particularly the Appendix I. pp. 137–158 which reproduce W. L. Hare’s article). When the yogin is firmly established in non- acceptance of gifts he has a desire to know his past, present and future lives (and receives illumination thereon ).

As a result of having to clean ²³³⁶ one's body the Yogin becomes disgusted with his own body and avoids contact with the bodies of otherṣ Other results of cleanliness (of the mind) that arise are the purity of sattvaguna (i. e. not being assailed by rajas and tamas), gentleness, one-pointedness (of the mind), mastery over the senses and fitness for the sight (realization) of the Self. From contentment results ²³³⁷ supreme happinesṣ Tapas gives rise ²³³⁸ to perfection in the body (i. e. acquisition of some occult powers like animā) and perfection as to the sense organs (such as being able to hear and to see what is distant) owing to the eradication of impurities (i. e. the kleśas and sin); (continuous) study of the Veda (and japa of om &c.) leads on to the union with (realization of ) the deity he chooseṣ From devotion to Īśvara results perfection in Samādhi.

Asana (bodily posture) ²³³⁹ is defined in Y. S. as one that is stable and easy (or comfortable). Asana means a seat which is covered with kuśa grass, deer-skin and a garment in that order (this would be bāhya āsana) as laid down in Gītā (VI. 11), while the word āsana (in Yoga) means bodily posture. It should be noticed that the Yogasūtra does not expressly prescribe any of the numerous āsanas mentioned and defined in the Hathayogapradīpikā and other works on Hathayoga and indicates that those āsanas are not necessary in the practice of the Pātañjala Yoga and that any posture which is easy, stable and comfortable would be enough for the yogiṇ The Y. S. here follows the Śv. Up. (II, 8 and 10) and not the works on Hathayoga, if any existed in its timeṣ In order to secure the posture described above the yogin should relax the usual physical movements of the body (prayatnaśaithilya) and bring the mind to reflect on the Infinite (brahma). As a result of perfect mastery over posture, he is not overwhelmed (or overcome) by the pairs of opposites (such as heat and cold, hunger and thirst).

A few words must be said about āsanaṣ The present author recommends to all those interested in āsanas a very useful and instructive handbook (in 188 pages) on 'āsanas' composed and published by Śrī Kuvalayānanda of the Kaivalyadhāma at Lonavla near Poona (third impression in 1949) with 81 plates (78 on different āsanas and 3 on nauli). The Dakṣasmṛti (VII, 5) mentions Padmāsana and Yāj. in III, 198 appears to allude to it. Dr. K. T. Behanan on 'Yoga, a scientific evaluation' inserts 16 figures (between pp. 186-187) of several āsanaṣ Though the Y. S. does not mention any āsana by name yet the Vyāsabhāṣya ⁷² names ten and indicates by the word 'adi' that it knew more. Vīrāsana ⁴³ is mentioned in Raghuvamśa 13. 52. Śankarācārya on V. S. IV. 1. 10 remarks that Padmak-āsana and other special āsanas are propounded in Yogāśāstra. The V. S. (IV. 1. 7–10) has in view, acc. to Śankarācārya, the description of āsana in the Gītā (VI. 11), the relaxation of bodily activities and stableness of posture indicated by such words as 'dhyāyatīva pṛthivī' (Chāṇ Up. VII. 6. 1). According to the H. P. (I. 17) āsana is the first aṅga of Haṭhayoga, that Śiva speaks of 84 āsanas, of which four āsanas called Siddha, Padma, Simha and Bhadra are the most essential (sārabhūta ) and it recommends Siddhāsana as the best (I. 34) and describes 15 āsanas in I. 19-55. The Dhyānabindu Upaniṣad states that there are innumerable āsanas but mentions the same four as the most prominent. Vide figures 16 (p. 55), 18 (p. 57), 62 (p. 97) in Śrī. Kuvalayānanda's work for Siddha, Padma and Simha āsanas respectively and figures 165 (p. 186), 106 (p. 187), and 108 (p. 188), for the āsanas called Siddha, Padma and Baddha-padma respectively in Prof. S. S. Goswami's work on Haṭhayoga and p. 28-30 for Siddhāsana, Padmāsana and Baddha-padmā-sana respectively in Alain Danielou's work (London, 1949). The Śivasamhita (III. 100) and Gheraṇḍasamhitā (II. 1) men-tion that there are 84 āsanas, while the Gorakṣaśataka ⁷⁴ states that there are as many āsanas as there are living species, that all of them are known to Śiva, that out of 84 lakhs of āsanas Śiva chose 84 and that out of these Siddhāsana and Padmāsana are the best and defines these two (I. 5–9).

The word Yoga is applied to many matters in an extended sense (i. e. the method or methods by which union with the Supreme Self may be promoted) in the Bhagavadgītā, which itself is described as Yogaśāstra and each chapter of which is also called Yoga. For example, we have in the Gītā ‘abhyāsayoga’ (8. 8, 12. 9), karmayoga (3. 3, and 7), jñānayoga (3. 3.), bhaktiyoga (14.26). A few other works also do the same. Some Western writers speak of several kinds of Yoga such as Mantrayoga, Jñānayoga, Bhaktiyoga, Karmayoga, Rāja yoga and Hathayoga (vide ‘Bengal Lancer’ by F. Yeats-Brown, London, 1930, p. 284), R. C. Oman’s ‘The Mystics, ascetics and saints of India’ p. 172 (ed, of 1905), Geraldine Coster’s ‘Yoga and Western psychology’ p. 10, Alain Danielou’s work pp. 83 ff. (for descriptions of Mantrayoga, Layayoga, Kundaliniyoga &c.). Some late Sanskrit works like the Yogatattvopaniṣad ⁷⁵ and Śivasamhitā (5. 9) speak of four Yogas viz. Mantrayoga, Hathayoga, Layayoga and Rāja yoga. All these have in view the system of Patañjali, but each emphasizes some particular aspect of yoga discipline. But there are really only two main systems of Yoga, viz. the one expounded in the Yogasūtra and its bhāṣya by Vyāsa and the other dealt with in such works as the Gorakṣaśataka, the Hathayogapradipikā of Svātmārāma-yogin⁷⁶ with the commentary called Jyotsnā by Brahmānanda. Briefly, the difference between the two is that the Yoga of Patañjali concentrates all effort on the discipline of the mind, while Hathayoga mainly concerns itself with the body, its health, its purity and freedom from diseaseṣ This is illustrated by the facts that Patañjali defines āsana as any posture that is ‘sthirasukha’, while works on Hathayoga describe many āsanas like Mayūrāsana, Kukkutāsana, Siddhāsana, which are deemed to remove diseases (I. 31) and which are said to be 84 (for the names of the 84 āsanas vide pp. 146-149 of Danielou’s work) and Hathayoga deals with such processes⁷⁷ as Dhauti (washing the stomach), Basti (yogic enema) and Nauli (shaking the abdomen) about which Patañjali is silent. Hathayoga, if practised with proper guidance and perseverance, will not only endow a man with a strong, healthy, pure and active body but also may develop inner strength and happinesṣ The technique of Hathayoga claims three kinds of results viz. (1) cure of diseases and disorders of the mind also; (2) attainment of supernatural powers called siddhis; (3) leading to Rājāyoga and Kaivalya. The Hathayogapradipikā itself states that Hathayoga is expounded only for leading on to Rājāyoga⁷⁸ i. e. Rājāyoga is the principal fruit of Hathayoga and not siddhis and Kaivalya is due to Rājāyoga. The Hathayogapradīpikā enumerates the names of the same eight aṅgas as Patañjali does, but its yamas are ten of which taking a light meal is the principal and ahimsā is the first among niyamaṣ Besides the eight aṅgas, it deals specially with Mahāmudrā, Khecarī, Jālandhara, Uḍḍiyāna and Mūlabandha, Vajrolī, Amarolī and Sahajoli ( I. 26–27 ). The Hathayogapradīpikā (I. 5-8) mentions that Hathayoga started from Ādinātha (i. e. Śiva) and then enumerates 35 great siddhas in all from Matsyendranātha, Gorakṣanātha onwardṣ The famous exposition of the Bhagavadgītā by Jñānadeva called Jñāneśvarī cites at the end the Guruparamparā as Ādinātha, Matsyendranātha, Gorakṣanātha, Gahinīnātha, Nivṛttinātha, Jñānadeva.

There are other differences between the works on Hathayoga and the Pātañjala Yoga. According to the Gorakṣaśataka and H. Y. P. the main aim of āsana and prāṇāyāma is to rouse the Kuṇḍalinī (the vital force in a person slumbering at the base of the spine coiled like a snake) and take it through the several cakras and the Suṣumnānāḍī to brahmadvāra, while the Y. S. hardly ever dilates upon chakras and nādīṣ⁷⁹ Several people after reading some modern works on Kuṇḍalinī are tempted to make efforts to rouse the Kuṇḍalinī. This is a dangerous experiment. Shri Purohit Swami in his ‘Aphorisms of Yoga’ states that the awakening of the Kundalini is a terrifying experience, that on the first day on which the Kundalini was awakened, the whole body was as it were on fire and he thought that he was dying and that he drank in three months gallons of milk and clarified butter and ate all the leaves on two nimba trees (pp. 57-58 of the translation). The germ of the doctrine of nāḍis in Tantras is found in a verse occurring in Kaṭhā Up. VI 16 and Chāṇ Up. VIII. 6. 6 ‘there are hundred and one nāḍis (arteries) of the heart; one of them penetrates the (crown of) head; moving upwards by it, one attains immortality; the others (of the nāḍis) serve for departing in various directionṣ’ The Praśna Up. (III. 6–7) states that each of 101 nāḍis has 72 sub-nāḍis, each of which again has 1000 more. Vide Muṇḍaka Up. II. 2. 6. In Chāṇ Up. VIII. 6. 1 it is stated that the nāḍis of the heart consist of a subtle substance, brown, white, blue, yellow or red in colour. This is probably the germ of the statement of a nāḍi being called pingalā. The Maitrā- yaṇī Up. VI. 21 speaks of the nāḍi going upwards as Suṣumnā.

The Viṣṇupurāṇa mentions Bhadrāsana ⁸⁰ which passage is quoted by Vācaspati. The Purāṇas, Vāyu (11. 13), Mārkaṇḍeya (36. 28), Kūrma (II. 11. 43), Liṅga (I. 8. 86), Garuḍa (I. 238.11) mention the same three āsanas, viz. Svastika, Padma and Ardhāsana. The Viṣṇudharmottara-purāṇa (III. 283. 6) pres- cribes for dhyāna the āsanas called Svastika, Sarvatobhadra, Kamala (Padma) and Paryaṅka. The Bhāgavata III. 28. 8 employs the same words as the Gītā VI, 11 about āsana (viz. ‘śucau deśe pratiṣṭhāpya).

Āsanas are of two kinds, one type being helpful for prāṇā- yāma, meditation and concentration, such as Padma, Siddha and Svastika (figure 20 p. 59 in Śrī Kuvalayānanda’s handbook on ‘Āsanas’). The other kind of āsanas are helpful in eradicat- ing diseases and for physical culture. But most of them require different physical movements and the final form assumed by these postures would make deep meditation difficult, if not impossible (vide Śīrṣāsana figures 24–27 between pp. 62–63 of Śrī Kuvalayānanda’s handbook on Āsanas), Sarvāṅgāsana (figures 33–36) of the same work, Halāsana (fig. 42–47 of the same), Viparītakaraṇī (figures 77–78 pp. 121–123), Mayūrāsana (figure 72 p. 109). The Tejovindu Upaniṣad I. 23 (Adyar eḍ)⁸¹ holds 'that alone is (proper) āsana which makes continuous meditation on brahma possible; other postures only lead to discomfort.' It should not be supposed that one who seeks higher yogic disciplines must devote some time to āsanas and then pass on to the next stage. The āsanas are primarily meant for physical culture and eradication of diseaseṣ If the individual yogin possesses a tolerably sound body he may proceed with prāṇāyāma and other aṅgaṣ Besides the postures, the practitioner of yoga is asked to gaze steadily at the tip of his nose (Gītā VI. 13).

Some regulations are prescribed about the food to be taken or avoided by a seeker after Yoga and about the places where he is to practise. The Śāntiparva⁸² of the Mahābhārata provides that the yogin should subsist on cooked small particles of grains, or oilcakes and should avoid oily substances and even when subsisting on yāvaka (i. e. kulmāṣa or cooked barley grains) for long, he would still be strong; he should drink water and milk mixed together and should resort to caveṣ The Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa (q. by Kṛtyakalpataru on Mokṣa pp. 167–177) states 'The yogin should begin meditation in unoccupied spots, in forests, caves and should avoid practising Yoga in noisy places, near fire and water, in old cowsheds, where four roads meet, near a heap of dried leaves, on a river bank, in a cemetery or in a place where creeping creatures exist, in a dangerous place, near a well, near a caitya (funeral ground) or an anthill'. The same purāṇa says that he should not practise when his stomach is windy, or he is hungry or tired or when disturbed in mind, nor when it is very cold or hot or windy. The Devala Dharmasūtra⁸³ prescribes that a yogin should practise meditation in a shrine, empty house, mountain cave, on the sands of a river, in caves, or in a forest, in a pure spot free from danger. H. Y. P. I. 61 and 64 prescribe what foods to avoid and what foods may be eateṇ The Gorakṣaśataka ⁸⁴ prescribes that the yogin should give up pungent, sour and salted food and should subsist on milk diet. The Gitā (VI, 16–17) says ‘one cannot succeed in Yoga who eats too much nor one who observes total fast and Yoga removes pain for him who takes proper food and exercise. The Chāṇ Up. (VII, 26. 2) where Sanatkumāra gives instruc-tion to Nārada about the Reality remarks ‘Purity of the mind follows on purity of food &c. (āhāraśuddhau sattva-śuddhiḥ’ &c.). Aparārka on Yaj. I. 154 quotes a long prose passage (on p. 221 ) from Hārita “one should be pure and should subsist on a limited quantity of food that would be enough or useful for his purpose as the ācāryas say ‘purity of mind ...food’.” \ It is clear that Hārita takes the words ‘āhāraśuddhau &c.’ literally, while Śaṅkarācārya in his bhāṣya on Chāṇ takes āhāra to mean ‘experience of objects of sense such as Śabda’.

Prāṇāyāma—It is this aṅga of Yoga that figures most in the works on Dharmaśāstra from the earliest timeṣ Literally the word means ‘restraint or pause of prāṇa’. Other synonymous words are ‘prāṇasamyama’ (note 2310) and ‘prāṇasanirodha’. The important point is : What does ‘Prāṇa’ mean here. The word is derived from the root ‘an’ (to breathe) with the prefix ‘pra’. The verb and its forms occur in the Ṛgveda as in I. 101.5, X. 121. 3, X. 125. 4. In various passages of the Ṛg. prāṇa means simply ‘breath’ (as in I. 66. 1, III. 53. 21, X. 69. 6 ). In Ṛg. X. 90. 13 (prāṇād-vāyur-ajāyata) it is stated that Vāyu (air, wind) arose from the prāṇa of the primeval puruṣa. The word ‘asu’ also is used in the Ṛgveda in the sense of ‘prāṇa’ in I. 113. 16 (udhirddhvam jivo asur-na āgat), I. 164. 4. We have both prāṇaṇa (breath) and jīvana (life) in Ṛg. I. 48. 10 (addressed to Usas). Perhaps apāna is suggested in Ṛg. X. 189. 2 (antaścarati rocanāsya prāṇād-apāṇati). All the five names of prāṇas appear in pairs as in the note ⁸⁵ below from Tai. S. In the Tai. S. I. 7. 9. 2 occur the three words 'prāṇa, apāna and vyāna'. The Atharvaveda (in VIII. 1. 1) mentions 'prāṇāḥ' and 'apānāḥ' in the plural and 'asu', 'prāṇa' and 'āyuḥ' in VIII. 1. 3. all probably meaning 'life'. In the Upaniṣads, prāṇa becomes the vital force or principle of all beings, the representative or symbol of brahma; vide Br. Up. I. 6. 3 (Prāṇo vā amṛtam, nāmarūpe satyam, tābhyām-ayam prāṇaśchannaḥ), Br. Up. I. 5. 23, which, after quoting a verse that the sun rises from Prāṇa and sets in Prāṇa, goes on to say (tasmādekam-eva vratam caret, prāṇyāc-caiva-apāṇyācca, nen-mā rāpmā mṛtyur-āpnavad-iti) 'therefore one must observe only one vow, he should inhale and exhale with the (fearful) thought that otherwise, the Evil one, Death, might seize me'. Here it appears that we have the germ of the theory of the importance of prāṇāyāma. In Chāṇ Up. V. 18–24 it is stated that the five āhutis are offered to prāṇa, vyāna, apāna, samāna and udāna (in the words 'Prāṇāya svāhā' &c.) at the time of a meal and that one who knows the true meaning of Agnihotra and offerings offers it in all worlds, in all beings and in all selveṣ Even now these āhutis are taken before meals by brāhmaṇas, only the order of the five differṣ Praśna II. 13 says: — 'All this that is established in the three worlds is under the dominance of Prāṇa.' In Chāṇ Up. IV. 3. 3 Prāṇa is again given five names on account of its working in the different parts of the human body viz. prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, samāna and udāna (all five being named in the Tai. S.). It follows that some distinction among. the operation of the five prāṇas must have been made at least a thousand years before the Christian era. In this work it is not necessary to enter upon an exhaustive discussion on prāṇa from the Upaniṣadṣ A controversy has gone on about the meaning of prāṇa and apāna. Caland, Keith, Dumont and a few others hold that ‘prāṇa’ means in the ancient Vedic literature ‘expiration’ and ‘apāna’ means ‘inspiration’, but that this meaning was revised in later dayṣ On the other hand almost all Sanskrit commentators and writers and G. W. Brown, Edgerton and others hold the opposite view.⁸⁶ The present author agrees with the latter view viz. that ‘prāṇa’ meant and means ‘inhalation or thoracic breath’, while ‘apāna’ means ‘abdominal breath.’ All scholars are agreed that these are certainly the meanings of the words prāṇa and apāna in all classical Sanskrit literature, the opposite view being confined to the ancient period even by those who hold that prāṇa and apāna meant respectively ‘expiration’ and ‘inspiration’. We should as far as possible so construe all Upaniṣad passages as to yield the same sense consistently. The Praśna Up. (certainly an early Upaniṣad, though not among the earliest ones) contains the following interesting and rather decisive passage “just as the king appoints his officers saying ‘(each of) you should govern such and such villages’, in the same way this prāṇa assigns to the other prāṇas separate spheres viz. apāna in the organs of excrement and generation, the prāṇa going in from the mouth and nose establishes himself (as king) in the eyes and ears, Samāna in the middle (of the spheres of Prāṇa and Apāna) i. e. in the navel, since it is he (Samāna) that carries the food offered (in the fire i. e. in the stomach) equally (to all bodily parts).”

Caland, Dumont and others who hold that the word ‘prāṇa’ in ancient Sanskrit literature means ‘expiration’, chiefly rely on Śaṅkarācārya’s explanation of Chāṇ⁸⁷ Up. I. 3. 3. (yadvai prāṇiti sa prāṇo yad-apāniti sospānaḥ &c.). They hold that ‘antarākarṣati vāyum’ in Śaṅkarabhāṣya (on Chāṇ Up. I. 3. 3) only mean ‘inhaling’; but that expression is capable of mean- ing ‘it draws the air into the inside of the body (i. e. in the abdomen) and what is more important, one has to note that the interpretation put on Śaṅkara's words here by Caland, Dumont and others is directly opposed to Śaṅkarācārya's own explana- tions in several other passages of the Upaniṣads, such as Br. Up. I. 5. 3, III. 4. 1, Chāṇ Up. III. 13. 1–6, Katha 5. 3; Praśna III. 4–5 (vide note 2353). The bhāṣya on Br. Up. I. 5. 3 ⁸⁸ remarks ‘Prāṇa is an activity of the heart which moves about in the mouth and nose and is so called because it is led forth; Apāna is a downward movement starting from the navel and is so called because it casts out urine and excreta’. On Praśna Up. III. 4 (quoted in ṇ 2353) the Śaṅkarabhāṣya says the same thing about Prāṇa and Apāna. Not only Śaṅkarācārya but a much earlier authority viz. the Dharmasūtra of Devala (mentioned by Śaṅkara, vide p. 1352 ṇ 2208 above) defines the working of Prāṇa and Apāna as done by Śaṅkarācārya in his bhāṣya on Br. Up. I. 5. 3.

In the Yoga system (which is based on the Upaniṣads) prāṇa implies more than mere breath. It means vital energy, powers such as speech, eye, ear, manas in the body as well as in different forms in the universe. Its most perceptible manifestation in the human body is the movement of the lungṣ The Y. S. inculcates on the yogic student the doctrine that by scientific control (as laid down in it) of prāṇa in the body it is possible to obtain control over the deep-seated (and ordinarily imperceptible) forces in human consciousness as well as in the external worlḍ The word 'prāṇāyāma' does not occur in any of the principal Upaniṣads, ⁸⁹ But it occurs frequently in the Sūtraṣ For example, the Ap. Dh. S. provides that if a householder is still asleep when the sun rises he should fast and keep silent that day (till night) and observes that, according to some ācāryas, he should continue to perform prāṇāyāma till he feels exhausted (by way of penance). The Gaut. Dh. S. states that if animals other than dogs, snakes, frogs and cats pass between the teacher and the pupil when the latter has sat down before the former for study, he (pupil) should practise three prāṇāyāmas and should partake of some clarified butter (by way of prāyaścitta). Similarly, it provides that if a person smells the odour from the mouth of one that has drunk liquor, he should perform (as penance) three prāṇāyāmas and should partake of clarified butter and that if a Vedic student chances to see an impure person like a Caṇḍāla, he should, after performing one Prāṇāyāma, look at the suṇ Similarly, Bauḍ Dh. S. (IV. 1. 4-11, prose) provides prāṇāyāmas as expiation for several lapseṣ

The above examples show that in the times of the Sūtras (i. e. several centuries before the Christian era) the conception of prāṇāyāma had been so developed as to hold that it was a sort of penance and religious rite for removing the taint attaching to acts and omissions that were condemned by the then society. At this stage prāṇāyāma appears merely to have been a religious act independent of any theory about its being one of the eight angas of yoga.

To the five prāṇas mentioned in Vedic literature, the Purāṇas and other medieval works added five more prāṇas with different ⁹¹ nameṣ It is now proper to see how the Y. S. defines and explains prāṇāyāma. 'When the stability of posture has been assured (or secured) prāṇāyāma is the pause (lit. cutting off) in the movements of inhalation and exhalation'. The bhāṣya explains 'śvāsa' as 'drawing in of the air which is outside one's body' and 'praśvāsa' as the expelling of the air in the trunk (or chest)' and the absence of both these is prāṇāyāma. This shows that the chief element in prāṇāyāma is the absence of both inhalation and exhalation i. e. kumbhaka in the technical language of yoga workṣ The next sūtra states that prāṇāyāma (the pause in movement) is of three kinds, viz. external, internal and suppresseḍ The idea is that Kumbhaka (stopping or pause) may be done after one has taken in air from outside (first kind) or after one has expelled air from the trunk (2nd kind) or when one is in a normal condition (i. e. neither making an effort to fill his chest with air or emptying it of air) one may make a pause (3rd kind). Each of these may be regulated and considered from the point of the units of space, time (measurement by kālās or mātrās) and numberṣ Prāṇāyāma is called mṛdu (mild) when pause is kept up for 36 mātrās, then moderate one when kept up for 72 mātrās and keen (tīvra) when kept up for 108 mātrāṣ When practised for days, fortnights and months, it is called protracted and when performed with great skill it is called sūkṣma (subtle).

In connection with prāṇāyāma we must look to Y. S. I. 34 also. That sūtra lays down that for securing the undisturbed calm of the mind one remedy is the expulsion and retention of the breath. ⁹² It appears from that sūtra and its bhāṣya that vidhāraṇa (retention of breath. i. e. Kumbhaka) is prāṇāyāma.

Some explanation must be offered about deśa (space), kāla and sāṅkhyā in relation to prāṇāyāma. Ordinarily a healthy grown-up man breathes in and out in about four seconds i. e. about 15 times a minute (21600 times in one day and night). In order to measure the force of the recaka a piece of cotton or a thin thread is held at some distance from the nostrils and the distance up to which the air driven from the nostrils makes the cotton or thread move or cease to move is measured by means of finger-breadthṣ As regards time several units of time are mentioned because in those ancient days there was no scientific apparatuṣ The time taken for winking ( nimeṣa ) is equal ⁹³ to the time required for pronouncing a short vowel and this was called mātrā. The time taken for touching one's knees thrice with one's hand and snapping the thumb and forefinger was also called mātrā. Other units are passed over. The general rules are that both recaka and pūraka must be uniform and quiet, that the time given for pūraka should be half of that given to recaka. Three views about the duration of pūraka, kumbhaka and recaka are that they should be in the proportion of 1 : 4 : 2 or 1 : 2 : 2 or the same for all. The Purāṇas give different mātrās for prāṇāyāmas e. g. the Mārkaṇḍeya (36. 13, 14) says that the laghu (mṛdu of the bhāṣya) is of twelve mātrās, double of that is madhyama and the uttariya (tīvra in the bhāṣya) is for three times twelve mātrās, while the Garuḍapurāṇa (I. 226. 14–15) puts down the figures as 10, 20, 30 respectively and the Kūrmapurāṇa (II. 11. 32) agrees with the Mārkaṇḍeya. The Mitākṣarā on Yāj. III. 200–201 provides that prāṇāyāma is of three varieties (adhama of 15 mātrās, madhyama of 30 mātrās and uttama of 45 mātrās). The Liṅgapurāṇa (I. 8. 47–48) also puts forth 12, 24, 36 mātrās as the time of nīca udghāta, madhyama udghāta and mukhya and states that obvious results of these three are respectively perspiration, tremor and utthāna (prasāda-kampa-notthāna-janakaśca yathākramam). Compare Mārk. 36. 16 which states that those three are to be mastered respectively by the different lengths of prāṇāyāma (prathamena jayet svedam madhyamena ca vepathum | viṣādam hi tṛtīyena jayet-doṣān anukramāt || ).

It should be noticed that neither Patañjali nor the Vyāsa- bhāṣya employs the well-known words, pūraka, recaka and kumbhaka, but only śvāsa, praśvāsa and gativiccheda.⁹⁴ Besides, Patañjali and Vyāsa say nothing about the japa of Om, Gāyatrī or Vyāhṛtis in prāṇāyāma, as the smṛtis and later medieval works do. A third matter to be considered is that in some later works recaka, pūraka and kumbhaka are said to be three prāṇāyāmas and this latter is said to be of four kinds, three set out in Y. S. II. 50 and the fourth in II. 51.

The words ‘recaka’, ‘pūraka’ and ‘kumbhaka’ also must be, however, regarded as ancient enough. They are mentioned and defined by the Dharmasūtra of Devala⁹⁵ referred to by Śaṅkarācārya (vide note 2208 above). The Bṛhad-Yogi-Yāj. and Vācaspati also mention theṃ The Viṣṇupurāṇa in a poetic description of the Śarad season employs them by way of śleṣa ⁹⁶ (as below). Several modes of performing prāṇāyāma are prescribeḍ One of the simplest is to stop the right nostril with the thumb, to fill in air through the left nostril according to one's ability; then to throw out the air through the right nostril and eject air through the left. Do this at least thrice. Practise this at least twice every day, preferably in the morning after bath and in the evening or four times (before dawn, during midday, in the evening or at midnight). In the beginning kumbhaka need not be practised at all. After some practice with pūraka and recaka, kumbhaka may be begun after recaka. Kumbhaka after pūraka is to be practised with great caution and should be attempted under the direction of an expert.

The Manusmṛti contains⁹⁷ a great eulogy of prāṇāyāma in the following words 'even three prāṇāyāmas performed according to the rules prescribed and accompanied by the vyāhṛtis and praṇava (the syllable om) should be regarded as the highest tapas for a brāhmaṇa; just as in the case of metals (like gold and silver) impurities are burnt when they are melted in the blast of a furnace, so blemishes (like passion &c.) of the organs of sense (including the mind) are destroyed by the control of breath; one should extinguish the blemishes (passion, hatred &c.) by prāṇāyāmas, sin by dhāraṇā, contact with the objects of sense by pratyāhāra and such attributes as are ungodly (viz. anger, avarice, jealousy &c.) by meditation (on brahma). \ The Y. S. states that from the practice of prāṇāyāma results the dwindling of actions (or kleśas) that envelop enlightenment (which is the characteristic of sattva) and the mind of the yogin becomes fit for fixed attentioṇ⁹⁷ The Gorakṣaśataka⁹⁹ provides 'a yogin always eradicates diseases by āsana, sin by prāṇāyāma and mental disturbance by pratyāhāra'. The Smṛtis state that prāṇāyāmas have great efficacy in destroying sinṣ Manu XI. 248 (=Vasiṣṭha 26. 4, Bauḍ Dh. S. IV. 1. 31 and Śaṅkhasmṛti XII. 18-19) states 'sixteen prāṇāyāmas performed everyday for a month together with the vyāhṛtis and praṇava (om) purify even the murderer of a brāhmaṇa. Manu XI. 199 and 201 prescribe the performance of a single prāṇāyāma as a purification for light lapses or riding an ass or a camel and such incidents as being bitten by a dog, jackal, horse, camel, boar or maṇ Yaj. III. 305 prescribes the performance of a hundred prāṇāyāmas for the destruction of all sins, of upapātakas (lesser sins described in Yaj. III. 234–242) and of sins for which no specific prāyaścitta is provideḍ Manu II. 83 (=Vasiṣṭha X. 5 and Viṣṇudharmasūtra 55.83) states 'the one syllable (om) is (the representative of) the highest brahma and prāṇāyāmas are the highest tapas'. It may interest readers to note that the great Jaina monk, ācārya Hemacandra, condemns prāṇāyāmas by saying that they allow no rest to the mind, that there is physical effort in pūraka, kumbhaka and recaka and that prāṇāyāma is an obstacle to mukti.¹⁰⁰ In kumbhaka performed after pūraka the nerves, heart and lungs are under strain and permanent damage to these may result from careless or hasty practice of kumbhaka after pūraka. Those suffering from lung or cardiac affections should not enter upon the practice of prāṇāyāma on their own initiative but must first consult an expert. Swami Vivekananda said long ago that all students of Yoga¹⁰¹ ‘are expressly and earnestly reminded that with few exceptions Yoga can safely be learnt by direct contact with a teacher'. The fact, that the Yogasūtra con-taining 195 sūtras in all devotes only five sūtras (II. 49-53) to prāṇāyāma and that even these five are of a very general nature, indicates that Patañjali intended that the yogin should not practise prāṇāyāma by merely listening to or reading these sūtras but should approach an expert yogin for instruction and guidance.

It should be noticed that Patañjali does not require in his definition of prāṇāyāma the mental or inaudible repetition of any syllable like 'om' or any mantra like the Gāyatrī. But the Smṛtis prescribe the practice of prāṇāyāma every 'day in the Sandhyāvandana. Yāj. (I. 22) prescribes ¹⁰² that a man of the three higher varṇas must every day take a bath, perform mārjana (sprinkling water with kuśas) with the mantras (Ṛg. X. 9. 1-3 'āpo hi ṣṭhā &c.'), practise prāṇāyāma, worship of the sun and japa of Gāyatrī (Ṛg. III. 62. 10) and that prāṇāyāma comprises the japa three times of Gāyatrī preceded by the Vyāhṛtis, each being preceded by Om and followed by the Śiraṣ Prāṇāyāma as described by Yāj. is prescribed even in modern times for the morning and evening Sandhyā adorationṣ Prāṇā-yāma with mental repetition of 'Om' or a 'mantra' is called 'sagarbha' ¹⁰³ or 'sabīja,' while prāṇāyāma not so accompanied is called 'agarbha' or 'abija' and it is said that 'sagarbha' is the better of the two. Śāntiparva (304. 9. cr. eḍ =Ch. eḍ 316. 9-10) speaks of saguṇa and nirguṇa prāṇāyāma. The Yogabhāṣya (on Y. S. II. 52) quotes a passage ¹⁰⁴ 'there is no higher tapas than prāṇāyāma, therefrom arises purification of the taints and knowledge flashes forth.'

The H. Y. P. speaks of eight kinds of Prāṇāyāma (in II. 44). The two most important ones, viz Ujjāyī and Bhastrikā are described by Śrī Kuvalayānanda in chap. IV. pp. 67-68 and chap. VI. pp. 101-115 respectively in his handbook on Prāṇā- yāma, part one and the other six viz. Sūryabhedana, Sītkārī, Sītalī, Bhrāmarī, Mūrochā, Plāvinī iṇ pp. 6-25 of the handbook part 2. H. Y. P. (II. 48-70) describes all the eight at some length.

Dr. Rele in his work ‘Mysterious Kundalini' provides at the very beginning a diagram of the autonomic nervous system according to the Western anatomical science, showing the six cakras and identifying the positions of these six and the sahasrāracakra (lit. thousand-petalled i. e. having numberless petals). He propounded an original view that the Kuṇḍalinī is the right vagus nerve. His book is very interesting and he has explored a very large field of yogic practiceṣ He has very thoroughly utilized his deep knowledge of Western anatomy and physiology, but he himself admits in his preface (p. 2) that the explanations of the various Yogic practices and phenomena given by him are possible suggestions only. But it may be noted that Sir John Woodroffe, who made a deep study of Yoga and of Tantra works and who wrote a foreword to Dr. Rele's work, was not prepared to accept Dr. Rele's identification of Kuṇḍalinī with the right Vagus Nerve (p. ii) and holds that Kuṇḍalinī is not a nerve or any other physical substance or mental faculty but rather the Ground Substance of both (Fore- word p. iii). Similarly, Shri Kuvalayānanda (in his popular handbook on prāṇāyāma part 1, p. 57 ṇ 3), after referring to Dr. Rele's admission about his explanations being possible suggestions only, points out that Dr. Rele had not tried a single experi- ment in the laboratory nor had he taken much care to consult the practical experience of the students of Yoga and he states that to him the whole book of Dr. Rele seems to be of doubtful scientific value. He goes further and asserts that Swami Vivekananda's lectures on Rājāyoga suffer from the same draw-backs as the work of Dr. Rele doeṣ Śrī Kuvalayānand shows (on pp. 121-126) the value of prāṇāyāma for physical health and the proper functioning of the lungs, the organs of digestion, the liver, pancreas and kidneys and asserts that the spiritual value of Prāṇāyāma is very great.

Pratyāhāra (withdrawal of the sense organs from the objects of sense) is defined ¹⁰⁵ in Y. S. II. 54 as 'when the senses have no contact with (are withdrawn from) their objects (because the mind is restrained) and thereby resemble the state of the mind itself, there is pratyāhāra.' When the mind, being restrained by the yogin, does not come in contact with the objects of sense, viz. sound, touch, form, taste, smell, the organs of sense also become disconnected with them, the organs come to resemble the mind itself (hence the words ‘anukāra iva’ in the sūtra). From this (non-contact) results the complete mastery over the senseṣ The idea is that in restraining the mind from the objects of sense the organs also are withdrawn from contact with theṃ Since the mind is made ekāgra (one-pointed) the sense organs together with the mind do not cognise or apprehend the objectṣ Pratyāhāra is the checking of the outgoing activities of the mind and freeing it from being the slave of the senseṣ The Śāntiparva (cr. eḍ 188. 5-7 = Ch. eḍ 195. 6-7) speaks of it. The Viṣṇupurāṇa in V. 10. 14 (in describing Śarad, i. e. autumn, states 'Śarad removed the turbidness of waters as pratyāhāra withdraws the organs from their objects') refers to pratyāhāra ¹⁰⁶. as ‘Indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyaḥ pratyāhāra ivāharať.¹⁰⁷ Vācaspati quotes two verses from the Viṣṇupurāṇa which employ the very characteristic words of the Y. S. and probably borrow the idea and language from the Y. S. The Dharmasūtra of Devala¹⁰⁷ explains pratyāhāra as ‘establishing (or yoking) the mind to the soul by bringing it back (to the soul) when it has swerved from the path of Yoga, because of its subtlety, its restlessness, its thoughtlessness or its force’. The Kūrmapurāṇa¹⁰⁸ defines it as ‘the suppression or mastery over the organs of sense that are naturally attracted to objects of sense’. Vide Śāntiparva (cr. eḍ 232. 13) also.

It appears that when the Chāṇ Up. (in VIII. 15) enumerates the circumstances which enable a person to reach the worlds of brahman it has an idea of pratyāhāra in the word ‘ātmani sarvendriyāṇi sampratisthāpya’ (‘when he concentrates all his senses in the self’).

The third pāda of the Y. S. is called ‘Vibhūti-pāda’ (pāda that deals with the super-normal powers of the yogin). The word ‘vibhūti’ occurs in Praśna 5. 4 where it is stated that he who contemplates on Om of the dvimātra type is taken to the world of the moon where he enjoys ‘vibhūti’ and again returns to the earth. There the word probably means nothing more than prosperous life. The third pāda first deals with the last three of the eight angas of Yoga, the first five being called bahiraṅga (indirect helpers of samprajñāta-samādhi), while the last three are said to be antaraṅga of samprajñāta-samādhi (but even these three are bahiraṅga with reference to nirbīja Yoga, as the latter may occur even in the absence of the three ‘dhāraṇā’ &c. These three are called dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi and these three when practised on the same object are called samyama, which is a technical term in the Yoga systeṃ Vibhūtis are the results of samyama of various kindṣ Instead of employing the three words dhāraṇā and dhyāna and samādhi Patañjali employs expressly or impliedly the word ‘samyama’ in most of the sūtras from 16 to 52 of the 3rd pāda. Dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi are said to be the direct auxiliaries of Yoga and are three successive stages, the preceding one leading to the next. Dhāraṇā is the holding of the mind to a certain spot or point ¹⁰⁹ or object. The bhāṣya explains that the mind is to be held down to such spots (in one's body) as the navel, the heart-lotus, the head, the light (in the eye), the tip of the nose, the tip of the tongue and the like or on external objects (such as images of gods in various forms). In this stage attention has to be firmly held upon the chosen object for a period of time determined by the will of the yoga aspirant. In this stage there are three elements, the subject, the object and the act of concentratioṇ The next stage is dhyāna, which will be described immediately below. |The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa speaks of ten dhāraṇās on the different parts of the yogin's own body ¹¹⁰ and is in accordance with the plural 'dhāraṇāsu ca yogyatā manasaḥ' (in Y. S. II. 53) employed by Patañjali himself. The Āśvamedhikaparva also employs the plural 'dhāraṇāsu'. Vide the Śāntiparva (cr. eḍ 188. 8-12 = Ch. eḍ 195.8). The Yājñavalkyasmṛti ¹¹¹ in a succinct manner brings In the angas from āsana to dhāraṇā and dhyana as follows: (The yogin) occupying a seat neither too high nor too low, having placed his upturned heels on his thighs and having placed on the left (palm placed on the upturned right heel) his other (right) palm (turned upwards), having slightly raised his face and having braced up his body with his (raised) chest, having closed the eyes, being free from rajas and tamas, not allowing the upper and lower rows of teeth to touch, holding his tongue firmly in the palate, and allowing no shaking of the body, covering the mouth, holding back the organs of sense from their objects, should perform prāṇāyāma of the twofold or threefold type (of 24 or 36 mātrās), should contemplate on the Lord that occupies his heart like a lamp, and fix his mind on that Lord by way of Dhāraṇā. Devala states ²³⁸⁰ that dhāraṇā is the holding in check of the body, senses, mind, intellect and ātman (egoism).

M. Charles Baudouin in ‘Suggestion and auto-suggestion’ tr. by Elder and Cedar Paul (eḍ of 1922, Allen and Unwin) says (on p. 150) ‘As one of the curiosities of history and further as a lesson in humility we must point out that the states just described under the names of collectedness, contention and auto-hypnosis are described with considerable psychological acumen (though not in modern psychological terminology) in the precepts by which for centuries past the Yogis of Hindustan have been accustomed to attain to self-mastery’ and the author refers to Pratyāhāra and Dhāraṇā in this connection and on p. 151 remarks that auto-hypnosis is encountered in Yoga but it is tinged with mysticism because the sacred word ‘om’ is repeated hundreds of timeṣ

Dhyāna (contemplation) is the one-pointedness (continuous flow) of the apprehension of the object contemplated upon, unaffected by any other idea or apprehensioṇ The Upaniṣads ¹¹⁴ insist upon dhyāna, e. g. Mundaka says 'contemplate upon the Self in the form of Om'; the Br. Up. has the famous passage 'the self should be seen, heard, understood and reflected upoṇ' The Chāṇ Up. ( VII. 6. 2 ) employs the word ' dhyāna ' in the sense of 'concentrating all thoughts on one object'. The Śv. Up. ( I. 3 ) mentions dhyānayoga and also Gītā 18. 52 does so ( dhyānayoga-paro nityam). The Śāntiparva ( cr. eḍ 188. 13 ff = Ch. eḍ 195. 13–18) speaks of dhyāna. The Kṛtyakalpataru ( on Mokṣa p. 181 ) quotes a long prose passage from Devala-dharmasūtra about dhyāna. The Viṣṇupurāṇa ¹¹⁵ closely agreeing with the Yogabhāṣya in phraseology describes dhyāna as the one-pointed succession of the apprehension of the Lord's form, unmixed with another idea, brought about by the practice of the first six angas of Yoga. Aparārka (pp. 1025–27) quotes a long prose passage from Viṣṇudharmasūtra (chap. 97), which asks the yogin to contemplate upon the all-pervading and all-powerful Lord who is free from guṇas (sattva, rajas, tamas), is beyond the twenty-four tattvas and who is imperceptible to the senses, and that, if he be unable to focuss his mind on formless God all at once, to gradually rise up from Pṛthvī and the other elements, mind, intellect, the soul, avyakta (unmanifested Spirit); if he be unable to do even this he should contemplate upon the person that is like a lamp in his own heart (lotus); if this is impossible, he should contemplate upon the form of Vasudeva having on his chest vanamālā, having four arms, holding the conch, the quoit, mace and lotus; and adds that he secures whatever he contemplates upon and that this is the secret of dhyāna. This shows that dhyāna is either saguṇa or nirguṇa as stated by the Padmapurāṇa IV. 84. 80–86 (nirguṇa) and IV. 84. 88–96 (saguṇa) or sākāra and nirākāra (Padmapurāṇa, II. 80. 70, 77–78). The Viṣṇupurāṇa (VI. 7. 78–90) contains a passage similar to the Viṣṇu Dh. S. Skanda (Kāśīkhaṇḍa, chap. 41. 19) speaks of dhyāna as saguṇa saguṇa as depending on different forms or as accompanied by repetition of mantras and nirguṇa as ‘not depending on any particular form or as not accompanied by mantras’. The Narasiṁhapurāṇa (17. 11–28 and 26. 17) describes at some length the form in which Nārāyaṇa or Viṣṇu is to be contemplated upon and these verses are quoted by the Kṛtya-kalpataru (Mokṣa, pp. 191–192). The Śaṅkha-smṛti states that one has realization (darśana) of the Lord of gods that abides in the heart (of every person) by means of dhyānayoga and dhyāna and jñāna (correct knowledge) and states that descrip- tion of others serves no purpose beyond adding to the bulk of the work. In this stage there is only the duality of subject and object, there is no awareness of effort to tie down the mind on an object (as in mere dhāraṇā).

Samādhi (concentration and absorption)—Dhyāna itself is Samādhi, when only the contemplated object shines forth and when dhyāna is as if emptied of its own form because there is no apprehension of dhyāna as distinct from dhyeya.¹¹⁶ When meditation is carried to a stage where the object contemplated upon alone appears and the meditator is not conscious of the idea of contemplation, because the object meditated upon entirely engulfs the meditator. The yogin becomes so much identified with the object meditated upon that he is not conscious that he is contemplating upon an object. This is what is meant by ‘svarūpāśūnyam-iva’ (in Y. S. III, 3). In Samādhi the subject and object, the individual and Paramātman are completely blended into one, so that the consciousness of the subject as separate from object disappearṣ The word ‘Samādhi’ does not occur in any of the ancient Upaniṣads, though it is known to the Maitrāyaṇi Up. (vide ṇ 2327 above). The word Samādhi occurs in the Bhagavadgītā (II. 53–54) and in Vanaparva (3. 11) and in Śāntiparva 195. 19–20, Ch. eḍ). The Viṣṇupurāṇa¹¹⁸ provides that it is called Samādhi when the mind grasps as a result of dhyāna the real nature of that (the Paramātman) in which there is absence of the separate apprehension (of the object to be meditated upon, the act of meditation and the meditator). The three (dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi) are direct aids in samprajñāta-samādhi but they are indirect aids in asamprajñāta-samādhi, as this last may follow without these. The Hathayoga-pradīpikā¹¹⁹ states ‘that is called Samādhi where there is equality and oneness of the individual self and the Highest Self and where all desires cease to exist’. Sabīja and nirbīja samādhis would be equal to savikalpa and nirvikalpa samādhi defined by the Vedāntasāra. There are several grades or stages in samādhi. There are four grades¹²⁰ of Samprajñāta samādhi, viz. savitarka, nirvitarka, savicāra, nirvicāra. Vide p. 1411 note 2318 above. The word gauḥ, the object cow denoted by it and the concept or idea (jñāna) 'this is a cow' are all really three separate matters, but they are apprehended as mixed up. When a yogin concentrates upon a gross object and his intellect is conscious of that object as permeated by all the three, then that samādhi is savitarka (Y. S. I 42). For the others vide note 2318 and below. In the asamprajñāta Samādhi, the ultimate reality dawns on the yogin, prakṛti does not affect him in any way, his soul which abides in itself and is not conscious of personality and even of joy is all cit or cittaśakti and nothing else. In this section about the influence of yoga on Dharmaśāstra it is not necessary to go deeply into the several stages of samādhi described in the yoga workṣ The Gorakṣaśataka⁸⁹ describes the final stage of samādhi as follows: 'A yogin in Samādhi does not apprehend smell, flavour, form, touch or sound nor does he apprehend him-self or others (as distinct); knowers of brahma hold it to be pure, immovable, eternal, not engaged in activities, free from the guṇas, expansive like the sky, as intelligence and bliss; the knower of yoga reaches non-duality in the highest stage as milk poured in milk, ghee into ghee or fire into fire.'

It would have been noted that in dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi the principal emphasis is mental. External conditions do help in the training but they are subsidiary. As noted above (pp. 1421-22) cleanliness, contentment, austerities (tapas), sexual purity, certain easy postures and living in detachment, chief physical or external conditionṣ While the yogin practises develop certain super-normal powers which he is advised to ignore, as they are hindrances in the attainment of his goal (Yogasūtra III. 36). Though this is the opinion of Patañjali, from the fact that with most yogins the siddhis are an important part of yoga doctrines and the fact that, out of 195 sūtras of the Yogasūtra, 35 (III. 16-59) are devoted¹²¹. to the description of siddhis, the present author is constrained to say that siddhis are an integral part of Yoga. The Vaikhānasa-smārtasūtra says that the yogin can vanish from people, can see distant objects and hear in spite of great distance.

It is unnecessary to dwell upon the results of all saṁyamas mentioned in Y. S. pāda three. A few are cited by way of sample. By saṁyama on the power of an elephant one secures the strength of an elephant (III. 24), by saṁyama on the sun there arises the knowledge of the seven worlds (III. 26) and by saṁyama on the moon, there arises knowledge of the arrange- ment of the stars (III. 27), by saṁyama on the navel cakra arises knowledge of the arrangement of the body (III. 29, viz. the three doṣas, vāta, pitta, kapha and the seven dhātus viz. skin, blood, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow and semen). By saṁyama on the coarse ¹²² forms, the essential attributes (svarūpa), the subtle form (tanmātrās), the inherence (anvaya) and the pur- posiveness of the five elements results the conquest (or mastery over) elements and from this results the appearance of the perfections called aṇimā and others, perfection of body and non- obstruction (of the actions of the yogin by the qualities of the elements i. e. the earth cannot prevent the yogin by its hardness from penetrating inside the earth's rocks nor can fire burn him &c.). In IV. 1 Patañjali states that supernormal powers (siddhis) arise in five ways viz. by birth in certain ¹²³ bodies (e. g. being born a bird which can fly high in the sky), by the use of certain drugs, by the japa of certain mantras, by tapas (which is one of the niyamas) and by samadhi, each succeeding one being superior to each preceding one. The siddhis have been enumerated and explained above on pp. 1112–13. The Devaladharmasūtra has a long note on siddhis, which is quoted in Kalpataru (Mokṣakāṇḍa pp. 216–217). The Yājñavalkya smṛti (III. 202–203) enumerates some characteristic signs of Yogasiddhi, viz. becoming invisible to others, remembrance of incidents in past lives, charming appearance, ability to see past and future happenings or objects that are distant, knowing what is being said at a great distance, entering another body after leaving one's own body, creation of things at one's will (without possessing the appropriate materials). A great deal has been said above on mantras under Tantra (pp. 1096–1107 and notes thereto). There are two theories about mantras; one is the vibration theory, viz. that the letters of the mantra are charged with certain powers by the original composer and user of it and when the mantra is repeated certain imperceptible vibrations are set up which help in securing the purpose for which the mantra is repeateḍ The other theory is that the mantra comes down from antiquity and from a great sage and its power of suggestion is great. But the real effective power of a mantra seems to the present author to depend far more on the knowledge, the responsiveness and the high spiritual level which the person who repeats it brings to bear on its use. No scientific tests have been employed and different works emphasize with exaggeration one of the two theories about mantraṣ All is speculatioṇ The present author believes that the 2nd theory has greater elements of trust-worthiness than the first, as it relies on human psychology, while the first degenerated so much that the famous mantra 'om maṇi padme hūṁ' (dedicated to Avalokiteśvara) written on some material and pasted on a wheel which was turned round and round hundreds of times was supposed to yield great resultṣ The 2nd theory led to the importance of guru and dīkṣā (initiation) and here also extravagant claims were made. This latter theory, however, required that the disciple should possess certain qualifications such as implicit faith in the guru, respect for matters spiritual, some knowledge of the tenets and the basic scriptures and readiness to devote time and energy to the study and practice of the teachings of the guru. Vide Śiva-saṃhitā (III. 10–19) for the relation between guru and disciple.

The fourth pāda deals with Kaivalya. The yogin who has gone through the whole discipline up to samādhi and has become thoroughly aware of the distinction between Puruṣa and the guṇas (sattva and others), becomes free from the influence of the three guṇas, because they merge in Pradhāna after having served the purpose of the soul, that is Kaivalya (isolation) or it (Kaivalya) may be stated to be the principle of consciousness that abides by itself (and does not become connected with even sattva-guṇa).¹²⁵ This has also been alluded to in Y. S. II. 25 that states that when avidyā (nescience) is removed by discrimination the self (who is the perceiver) does not come into contact with the guṇas, which state is Kaivalya.¹²⁶ Kaivalya is put forward in IV. 34 from two points of view. When a puruṣa ceases to be affected in any way by the guṇas (that constitute prakṛti) because he has become entirely passionless, prakṛti becomes aloof (kevala) so far as that puruṣa is concerneḍ When puruṣa has thorough knowledge and ceases to be affected by guṇas he remains as bare consciousness (citiśakti) and that is the 2nd point of view about kaivalya. In that state of kaivalya or mokṣa we cannot predicate any happiness or bliss about him but we can only say about him that he is in a state of bare consciousness (citiśakti). The Upaniṣads declare ¹²⁷ that in such a state the liberated soul has neither joy nor sorrow, that happiness or its opposite does not touch such an one, since he has risen above identifying the body with himself. The ideal of Yoga is to be jīvan-mukta (i. e. to reject Life and Personality, to die to this world though the body may persist for some time ).

The eight aṅgas of Yoga are described in more or less detail in several Purāṇaṣ Vide Agni, chap. 214-215 and 372-76, Bhāgavata III. 28, Kūrma II. 11, Narasiṁha 61 (verses 3–13 of which are quoted by Kalpataru, mokṣakāṇḍa pp. 194-195), Matsya chap. 52, Mārkaṇḍeya (chap. 36–40 of Veṅk. edition, 39–43 of Cal. eḍ) about 250 verses, many of which are quoted by Kṛtyakalpataru (on Mokṣa), Aparārka and others; Liṅga I. 8., Vāyu, chap. 10–15, Viṣṇu VI. 7 (which closely follows the Y. S. in thought and phraseology), Viṣṇudharmottara III. 280-284, Skanda ( Kāśīkhaṇḍa, chap. 41).

Geraldine Coster in ‘Yoga and Western Psychology’ (Oxford Uni. Press, 1934) observes ‘I am convinced that the ideas on which Yoga is based are universally true for mankind and that we have in the Yoga-sūtras a body of material which we could investigate and use with infinite advantage (p. 244)... My plea is then that Yoga as followed in the East is a practical method of mind development, quite as practical as analytical therapy and far more practical and closely related to real life than the average university course. I am convinced that the Yogaśūtras of Patañjali do really contain the information ¹²⁷ that some of the most advanced psychotherapists of the present day are ardently seeking’ (p. 245). The last chapter in Dr. Behanan's book on 'Yoga, a scientific evaluation' is interesting and important. He makes an appraisal of several aspects of Yoga by means of experiments which he carried out on himself after spending one year under the guidance of Swami Kuvalayānand of Lonavla and after he had three years of experience in Yogic breathing. It is not possible for reasons of space to give here a summary of his appraisal of several aspects of Yoga but reference may be made to a few of his findingṣ He finds that by yogic practices the mind is turned inward and detached from the external world (p. 232), it seems to him very probable that the prānāyāmic breathing induces a state of relaxation, thereby inducing the mind to take an inward course (p. 234), that taking normal breathing as a basis of comparison it was found that oxygen consumption increased 24. 5 per cent in Ujjāyī, 18. 5 per cent in bhastrikā and 12 per cent in Kapalabhati; that the nasal gaze in a meditative posture is an aid to checking the wandering propensities of the mind (p. 242), that Yogic practices lead to an emotional stability and that watching at close range for a year the daily lives of more than half a dozen practitioners of yoga Dr. Behanan concluded that they were the happiest personalities that he had known and that their serenity was contagious (p. 245).

Dr. P. A. Sorokin of the Harvard University, one of the greatest living sociologists, contributes a very valuable paper on 'Yoga and man's transfiguration' to the Bhāratīya Vidyā Bhavan's Journal for November 1958 (pp. 111-120), the very first sentence of which opens with the words 'The methods and techniques of the yoga, particularly those of the Rājayoga, contain in themselves nearly all the sound techniques of modern psycho-analysis, psychotherapy, psycho-drama, moral education, and education of character.'

That a person engaged in Yoga practices is succeeding in reaching higher and higher spiritual levels is shown by the appearance of certain traits in himself. The Sv. Up. states that the first favourable signs of the working of Yoga are: lightness or agility of body, health, freedom from desires, brightness of complexion, fineness of voice, pleasant bodily odour, passing only a small quantity of urine or excreta. Almost the same verse occurs in the Vāyu ¹²⁸ and the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇas and Mārkaṇḍeya further says ‘people come’ to like the yogin and sing praises of his qualities behind his back and all animals are not afraid of him; he is not affected by severe cold or heat and is not afraid of others; these show that siddhi in Yoga is approaching.’ The Vāyupurāṇa adds ‘if the practitioner of Yoga sees the earth or his body as if on fire and if he sees himself entering the elements (or all beings) he should understand that success in Yoga is near.’¹²⁹

The Mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇa (chap. 38 verse 26) and the Viṣṇupurāṇa II. 13 describe at some length yogicaryā (i. e. behaviour or conduct of a yogin). It is not possible to set out all that is said in these chapters but two striking verses are rendered here. The Mārkaṇḍeya¹³⁰ says ‘honour and disrespect cause pleasure and distress to man (in general), but these two have the reverse effect and serve to produce perfection in the yogin; these two are called poison and nectar respectively; disrespect is nectar for the yogin and honour is terrible poisoṇ’ The Viṣṇupurāṇa emphasizes that a yogin should so act that people will disrespect him and would not seek his company. The Manusmṛti (in VI. 38-85) enlarges upon the duties of sannyāsins, many of which are applicable to yoginṣ In VI. 65 Manu calls upon the sannyāsin to ponder by means of Yoga over the subtleness of the Highest Self and in VI. 73 Manu advises the ascetic to practise dhyānayoga. The Yājñavalkyasmṛti also (in III. 56-67) prescribes the duties of sannyāsins, one of which (in verse 64) is the same as Manu VI. 73.

The Śāntiparva provides¹³¹ that a man is said to be a yogin by those who know the procedure and ordinances of Yoga, when he curbs the senses by his mind and makes the mind itself firm by his intellect and he becomes unmoved (by objects of sense) as if he were a stone, is unshakable like a tree-trunk, strong and motionless like a mountaiṇ The wise call a man yukta (a yogin), when he neither hears, nor smells fragrance, nor tastes nor sees, nor touches and when his mind does not form (ever changing) ideas, when he does not cognise (external objects) as if he were a log of wood and when he can be said to have recovered the original real nature (of the Self). The Devaladharmasūtra provides that all beings come under bondage owing to ahankāra (egoism that one will do this or that) and mamatva (regarding transient things as owned by oneself) but he who is free from these becomes liberateḍ¹³²

Through centuries Sannyāsins and Yogins have been paid the highest honours in India. Special emphasis is laid on inviting a Yogin at a śrāddha and it is said by some authorities that a single yogin is equal to hundreds and thousands of brāhmaṇaṣ Vide H. of Dh. Vol. IV, pp. 388, 398–399 for original authoritieṣ In cases of doubt as to what the proper conduct or Dharma is in a set of circumstances, the matter was left to be decided by a pariṣad (an assembly) of ten learned brāhmaṇas or at least three, but even one may constitute a pariṣad, provided he is learned in Veda and knows Dharma (vide Manu XII. 108–113). But Yāj. I. 9 and others say that four persons knowing the Veda and Dharmaśāstra or three of the same type or even one who is the best among knowers of spiritual matters (ascetics) may constitute a pariṣad and what he declares would be the right course of conduct. Vide H. of Dh. Vol. II, 969 for texts on this point. The Bhagavad-gītā says 'the yogin (who is a real karmayogin surrendering the fruits of his actions to God) is superior to persons practising tapas (such as fasts or following Hathayoga) and superior even to those who have mastered philosophical knowledge (like that of Sāṅkhya) and he is superior to those who are performers of Vedic rites (leading to svarga); therefore, O Arjuna! be a yogin, that does acts (because it is his duty to do so and who does not hanker after the fruits of those actions).

Manu (XII. 83) states 'study of the Veda, tapas, true knowledge (about brahma), restraint of the sense organs, ahiṁsā, attending on one's guru-these are the highest means of niḥśreyasa (i. e. mokṣa). Then verse 85 proceeds 'of all these six means true knowledge of the Self is the highest, it is at the head of all vidyās (lores), since immortality (mokṣa) is obtained by means of it.

The highest value is attached to Yoga¹³³ as an integral part of Vedānta by the Yājñavalkyasmṛti when it states that realization of the Self by means of Yoga is the highest Dharma. Then the same Smṛti provides¹³⁴ 'study of the Veda, perform-ance of sacrifices, brahmacarya (sexual purity), tapas and dama (restraint of senses), faith, fasting and freedom from attach-ment to worldly objects; these are the causes of securing know-ledge of the Ātmaṇ' It should be noticed that some of these fall under yama, niyama and pratyāhāra. The Dākṣasmṛti avers 'even the country, where a yogin, who has profound know-ledge of yoga and who is given to dhyāna, becomes holy; what need is there to say about his relatives (i. e. they will certainly be pure).¹³⁵

The Yogaśūtras are difficult and do not give complete explanations of the several stages of Yogic practiceṣ They are in the nature of brief notes or hints that are calculated to rouse the curiosity of the hearer or reader and induce him to go to a competent teacher and learn Yoga practiceṣ A few examples may be citeḍ Y. S. II. 50 refers to three kinds of Prāṇāyāmas, and II. 51 mentions a fourth (bāhyābhyantaraviṣayākṣepī caturthaḥ). There is no further explanation of this 4th variety. In IV. 1 Patañjali lumps together siddhis arising from janma, oṣadhi, mantra, tapas and samādhi. There is a vast difference between a siddhi due to a drug and siddhis due to samādhi. Patañjali says that Om is the symbol of Īśvara and that repeti- tion thereof and reflection on its meaning is a means of attain- ing ekāgratā, but there is no explanation why Om is expressive of Īśvara nor is any reference made to the Upaniṣads &c. about the importance of Om or how japa is to be performeḍ This is probably due to the agelong tradition that spiritual knowledge should be kept secret, should not be taught to all and sundry, but only to a disciple possessing certain qualificationṣ Already on pp. 1071-72 notes 1733, 1734 it has been shown from a few Upaniṣad quotations how esoteric knowledge was imparted only by a guru to a disciple. In the dialogue of Yājñavalkya and Ārtabhāga (Bṛ. Up. III. 2. 13), when the latter asked, after saying ‘after a man’s death his speech enters fire, his breath enters into wind, his eye into the sun, his body into the earth’ ‘where does then the man remain?’ Yājñavalkya replied ‘take my hand, on this matter we two alone must come to some understanding, but not here in the midst of company.’ Then the two went aside and conferred with one another. That shows that the knowledge about what happens after death was not held to be a matter proper for being discussed in an assembly of people. The Chāndogya Up. (III. 11. 5) states ‘therefore a father may tell that doctrine of Brahma to his eldest son or to a worthy pupil but not to anyone else even if the latter gave him this earth girt by waters (seas) and full of wealth, for this doctrine is worth more than that’. The Bṛ. Up. VI. 3. 12 provides ‘one should not speak of it (brahma doctrine) to one who is not his son or pupil’; vide Śv. Up. VI. 22, Maitrāyaṇī Up. VI. 29 for similar wordṣ The Śāntiparva in a chapter dealing with spiritual knowledge provides that it should be imparted to one’s dear son and an obedient disciple, but not to one whose mind is not quiescent nor controlled, nor one who is jealous or crooked or a backbiter or a logic-chopper.¹³⁶ H. Y. P. states ‘a Yogin desirous of attaining siddhi should keep the knowledge of Hatha as highly secret; it becomes potent if kept secret, but becomes impotent if exposed to all; one should practise yoga alone in the way expounded by the guru’.¹³⁷ This applied in ancient times not only to esoteric knowledge but to other scholastic studieṣ The Nirukta (II, 3) says that it (Nirukta) should not be taught to one who does not know grammar, nor to one who does not approach (the guru) for knowledge or who is not aware of the importance of the śāstra, since an ignorant person always bears ill-will to knowledge; and the Nirukta quotes (II, 4) four verses (called Vidyāsūkta) on this matter.¹³⁸ In the Bhagavad- gītā Kṛṣṇa frequently emphasizes that the knowledge of Bhakti- yoga is a sovereign secret (IX, 2), in XVII, 63 the knowledge conveyed to Arjuna is stated to be more secret than all secrets and in XVIII. 64–65 Kṛṣṇa asks Arjuna to listen to the most secret words of his viz. ‘fix they mind on Me, be my devotee, offer sacrifice to me, prostrate thyself before me; thou shalt come to me; I promise to thee truly as thou art dear to me’. This last is repeated from IX. 34. At the end of chap. XV it is said ‘O blameless one! this most secret doctrine has been ex- pounded by me to you’.

Whether the path of Yoga is desirable or feasible in its entirety cannot be debated here. But there have been great men in India for thousands of years who have trodden the path of Yoga that led to the desired goal of freedom of the self from avidyā and the bondage of birth and death by means of Yoga. Even as early as the Śāntiparva (chap. 289, cr. eḍ verses 50 and 54) the path of yoga is said to be very difficult and that it is easy to stay on the sharp edges of razors, but that those whose souls are not purified would find it difficult and painful to continually practise Dhāraṇāṣ Kālidāsa so finely describes in the 8th canto of the Raghuvamśa (verses 16–24) how Yoga was practised by king Raghu. Kālidāsa refers (in VIII, 16) to apavarga as the goal of the ascetic Raghu as contrasted with mahodaya (abhyudaya or bhoga), both words occurring in Y. S. II. 18 (prakāśa .... bhogāpavargārtham dṛśyam); mentions dhāraṇā (in VIII, 18), praṇidhāna practice and consequent samādhisiddhīśvara-praṇidhānāt); mastery over the three guṇas that constitute prakṛti (Raghu VII, 21, Y. S. III, 48 mentions ‘pradhānajaya). Yogavidhi as a means of paramāt- madarśana (Raghu VIII, 22, Yaj. smṛti I. 8 quoted in note 2399). Rājayoga holds the supreme goal to be liberation from Nature (prakṛti) or Māyā of the Advaita) and its attitude towards the world of senses and our empirical life is that of shunning these. Mukti means absorption into brahma for the Vedantist or Kaivalya (isolation of the Individual self from the bonds of birth and death and from prakṛti according to pure Yoga). For the vast majority of men and women the path and final goal of Pātañjala Yoga or of the Advaita Vedānta are almost inaccessible and unattainable, as the Gītā itself states (XII. 5) “Those whose mind is set on the Unmanifested encounter greater difficulties (than those who worship a personal God), since the goal of the unmanifested is hard to reach by embodied beings’. The path of Karmayoga (performing good deeds and acts prescribed by Śāstra without hankering for rewards) and Bhaktiyoga (wherein there is deep devotion to God and self-surrender) appear to be more suitable and practical for ordinary human beingṣ The Gītā in chap. XIII. (verses 13-17) contains one of the best descriptions of God as transcendent and immanent and verse 18 adds that the devotee of God who under- stands this reaches Goḍ

Many readers familiar with Shri Aurobindo’s āśrama at Pondicherry and his voluminous writings might express surprise at the present author’s non-mention (in what precedes) of Shri Aurobindo (who is called Mahāyogi by his disciples and admirers) in this section on Yoga and its influence on Dharma- śāstra. But the reasons are obviouṣ In the first place, Shri Aurobindo says hardly anything about Dharmaśāstra in relation to Yoga. In the 2nd place, Shri Aurobindo admits that he had 'no touch from a guru', that he got an inner touch and practised Yoga, that he got some help from Mr. Lele of Gwalior, that when he came to Pondicherry he got from within a programme for his sādhanā, that he could not make much progress as to the help to be given to others and that when the Mother (Mira Richard) came to the āśrama in 1920 he found with her aid the method of helping otherṣ In the next place, he departs from the teachings of a galaxy of Sanskrit writers on Yoga, viz. that a yogin must shun women (vide p. 1421 and note 2330), while his biographer Mr. Diwakar states that the Aurobindo Ashram was founded on 24th November 1926, that the Mother was entirely in charge of it from that day and that Shri Aurobindo thence- forward cut off all contacts except through the Mother (p. 257). In this, he strikes an entirely new line and appears to ordinary men like the present author to have diverged far from the well trodden path of ancient Yoga and become like one described in the well-known words (‘Murārestrtiyah panthāḥ’). Shri Aurobindo is a mystic,¹³⁹ the experiences of mystics are peculiar and their own, ordinary words and modes of speech fail to communicate them to those that can have ever shared such experienceṣ Aurobindo became a recluse from November 1926 to his Mahāsamādhi on 5th December 1950 and gave darśana¹⁴⁰ only on four days in the year viz. 15th August (his birth date), 24th November (day of victory for him), 21st February (the birth date of the Mother) and 24th April the day of the Ashramā (vide Mr. Diwakar’s ‘life of Mahāyogī’ p. 265). For forty years Aurobindo lived in Pondicherry. His Ashram became a centre of the gospel of integrated Yoga and a home for those who sought real life and light, a place of pilgrimage for men and women attracted by his teachingṣ

On 15th August 1947 when India attained Independence (which happened to be the date of Aurobindo’s birth) he issued a long statement referring to the dreams of his youth, which he thought were arriving at fruition or were on their way to achievement. He stated ‘the first of these dreams was a revolutionary movement which would create a free and united India. Another dream was the resurgence and liberation of the peoples of Asia and her return to her great role in the progress of human civilizatioṇ The third dream was a world union forming the outer basis of a fairer, brighter and nobler life for all mankinḍ A catastrophe may intervene and interrupt or destroy what is being done; but even then the final result is sure. For unifica- tion is a necessity of Nature, an inevitable movement. Another dream, the spiritual gift of India to the world, has already begun; India's spirituality is entering Europe and America in an ever-increasing measure. The final dream was a step in evolution which would raise man to a higher and larger consciousness and begin the solution of the problems which have perplexed and vexed him since he began to think and to dream of individual perfection and a perfect society. Here too, if the evolution is to take place, since it must proceed through a growth of the spirit and the inner consciousness, the initiative can come from India and, although the scope must be universal, the central movement may be hers'.

These emotional and eloquent words are flattering to the pride of all Indian people, but it is possible that, bearing in mind that the whole of India was mostly under the heel of ruthless or exploiting conquerors for over seven hundred years from the 13th century A. D. (except for some parts and for brief periods as under the Vijayanagar Empire or under the Marathas for about 150 years and for about 50 years under Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Panjab) these proud assertions of Aurobindo are likely to bring derisive smiles on the faces of many non-Indian readerṣ It is for discerning Indian readers to judge whether any of the dreams of Shri Aurobindo (except the first about ¹⁴¹ Independence) are on the way to achievement or realization, whether during the last fourteen years after Independence India has progressed in the way of spirituality among men in general, whether there is any likelihood of there being a union of peoples and nations in the near future or whether the world is on the brink of a precipice.

Shri Aurobindo had set his heart on the unity of the human race by an inner oneness and purpose and not by an external association of interests; for 24 years he completely withdrew from the outer world and gave darśana only on four days in the year. What efforts he made for the inner oneness of the human race except by his writings is not clear and nor does it appear that in the community of men and women that gathered under his leadership and influence at Pondicherry any one occupied a pre-eminent position and energetically and fruitfully pursued the path marked by the Master and carries on the work that the master dreamt of and left unattempted and unfinisheḍ Passages quoted from his letters by Shri Diwakar (on p. 258) clarify what visions he had 'there will be first a race representing the supermind as man represents the mind', 'in what I am trying to do the spiritual realization is the first necessity, but it cannot be complete without an outer realisation also in life, in men in this world, spiritual consciousness within but also spiritual life without'. About his Sādhanā he says 'I began my Yoga in 1904. My Sādhanā was not founded upon books but upon personal experiences that crowded on me from withiṇ....It is a fact that I was hearing constantly the voice of Vivekananda speaking to me for a fortnight in the Jail' (p. 131 of Mr. Diwakar's book).

In a letter to his brother Barindra dated 7th April 1920 which is set out in full on pp. 309–314 in the work 'Śrī Aurobindo on himself and on the Mother' (1953), Aurobindo asserts 'the main defect in the old Yogas consisted in the fact that they knew mind and intelligence and the Ātman; they used to be satisfied with spiritual experience on the mental level; but the mind is capable of only partial knowledge and it can comprehend only parts and not the whole. The mind can know the infinite and the total reality only through Samadhi, Moksha or Nirvana and by no other meanṣ Of course, some people do attain this kind of Moksha which may be said to be a blind alley. But then what is the use of it? But what the Bhagwan intends to do with man is to enable him to realize God in life, in the individual as well as in the collective society (to manifest God in life). The old systems of Yoga could not bring about a synthesis or unity between spirituality and life; they disposed of the world calling it Māyā or the transitory play of the Lorḍ The result is vitality and vigour in life have been sapped and India has decayed'. In this passage Aurobindo tries to bring out the distinction between his integral Yoga and the Yoga of ancient and medieval Indianṣ There is hardly anything very new in his theory of Yoga. The Gītā also says the same in 'ajñānenāvṛtam' (Gītā V. 15), in 'utsideyur-ime lokā' (Gītā III. 24–25, II. 47, III. 8, 19, IX. 27, XVIII. 45–46, all of which emphasize that disinterested work is worship of God). Aurobindo should have brought into being an organised body of workers after his own heart. The Patañjala Yoga does not employ the word Māyā at all nor did it say that the world was a play of Goḍ It was the Vedānta-sūtra II. 1. 33 (lokavat-tu līlākaivalyam) that said so by way of repelling an objectioṇ In the Pātañjala yoga Īśvara has nothing to do with the creation of the world (vide above pp. 1402–3 ) but it speaks of avidyā by which the individual self is enmeshed (Y. S. II. 3–5 and 24) and not God or the Supreme Self. Besides one is tempted to echo the question of Aurobindo himself ‘What is the use of integral Yoga, mind, overmind and supermind?’ Can anybody point out even half a dozen men and disciples of Aurobindo who have devoted all their energies to the regeneration of the country and of the human race on his lines? The position of the Ashram itself is rather vague, anomalous and undefineḍ But it is unnecessary to say in this work anything further about it. ¹⁴³

The writings of Shri Aurobindo are numerous and voluminouṣ For a list of his writings along with a few other works, vide the Bibliography (pp. 267–269) given by Shri Diwakar at the end of his work ‘Mahāyogī’. The present author has read only the following works of Shri Aurobindo ‘Yoga and its objects’ (1938, a brief work in which ‘adhyātma Yoga’ is said to be higher than Hathayoga and Rājayoga); ‘The Mother’ (1937), ‘Essays on the Gītā (5th eḍ of 1949,), ‘The Synthesis of Yoga’ (1948) which attempts to show that all three paths, viz. of knowledge (Jñānayoga), of Devotion (Bhaktiyoga) and of Divine works (Karmayoga) can be integrated; ‘the problem of Rebirth’ (published by the Aurobindo Ashram in 1952 after his passing away); ‘Foundations of Indian culture’ (essays brought together in one volume, revised by Shri Aurobindo), New York, 1953; Aurobindo’s Magnum Opus is ‘Life Divine’ (originally in three volumes, now available in one of 1272 pages, published by the Aurobindo International University Centre, Pondicherry 1955). The present author has read only the first volume of this last work. Men of ordinary intelligence like the present writer find this philosophical work not easy to read, and are often at a loss to find out, in the flood of high sounding phrases used by Shri Aurobindo concerning the mind, overmind, supermind, his precise meaning. Only one sentence is cited here for sample (from p. 345 of the big one volume edition); ‘Overmind, intuition, even supermind not only must be principles inherent and involved in the Inconscience from which we arise in the evolution and inevitably destined to evolve, but are secretly present, occult actively with flashes of intuitive emergence in the cosmic activity of mind, life and matter.’ The present author regards the book ‘Foundations of Indian culture’ as the best of the works of Shri Aurobindo which he has reaḍ Prof. R. D. Ranade in his Lectures on ‘Bhagavadgītā as a philosophy of God Realization’ (Nagpur, 1959 pp. 163-176 ) submits to examination Aurobindo’s ‘Essays on the Gītā’ and disagrees with him on some pointṣ While these pages were passing through the press the present writer received a copy of ‘Integral Philosophy of Aurobindo’, a symposium edited by Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri and Dr. Frederic Spiegelberg (and published by Allen and Unwin, 1960), which contains 30 papers written by Indian and Western scholars on the Philosophy of Aurobindo, p. 32 defining the essence of integral Yoga and p. 44 distinguishes between ‘mind’ and ‘supermind’ (of Aurobindo’s philosophy).