The Practice of Yoga
Divine Life
Society Publication: Kathopanishad – The Science Of The Inner
Life by Swami
Krishnananda
This Atman is not seen through
the eyes, nor is it perceived through any of the other senses, as it never
becomes an object of itself. It is known only when the center of personality is
dissolved through the absorption of the factors causing individuality, viz.,
the mind and the intellect, into the Atman. Equanimity of inner vision is the
same as spiritual knowledge, and it cannot be had as long as the mind and the
intellect function in their own fashion. The Atman cannot be sought in external
conditions, but it can be known and realized through a reverting from externals
to eternal being. It is this introversion that enables one to enter into the
very substance of being. This state of spiritual equilibrium is attained when
the five senses of knowledge rest together with the mind, and when the
intellect does not perform its functions of objective knowledge.
Yoga consists in the
withholding of all individual functions, beginning from the physical body and
ending in the intellect, and the directing of the whole energy to the
apperception of consciousness. It is, in other words, a steadying of the power
of consciousness and making it rest in itself, in the state of perfection and
motionlessness.
Yoga and Jnana differ from
each other in the sense that the former is the negative process of the
annihilation of personal consciousness, whereas the latter is the positive realization
and experience of infinite consciousness. In a general sense, Yoga may include
Jnana also, if Yoga is taken to mean the method of the
attainment of the Brahman. In the practice of Yoga, one should become very
vigilant, and not become proud or heedless. Yoga comes and goes. It does not
rest for long, unless great care is taken in the maintenance of that consciousness
of Oneness. Yoga is the separation from contact with pain. In this state, the
powers working through the external senses and the internal senses are made to
go back to their source, viz., the power of Self-consciousness, where they rest
in perfect peace. The noise of the senses ceases, and, as a consequence of
this, pain and sorrow also are negated.
Brahman should be conceived of
as existence, between the two logical conceptions of existence and
non-existence. Existence is the correlative of non-existence, and, hence, even
non-existence may appear to have as much validity as existence. But the
conception of non-existence, though logically deducible, is practically
impossible, as the conception of Brahman as non-existence involves the negation
of the consciousness of one's own existence, also. Therefore, Brahman should be
known as existence, though from the highest standpoint this, too, is a limited
conception. As far as the human being is concerned, the conception of existence
is not limited in the ordinary way, because, it is not possible to set
boundaries to existence. The idea of existence leads to the realization of the
transcendental Truth which includes and goes beyond the ideas of existence and
non-existence.
When all the desires that are
lodged in the heart are cast off, the mortal experiences the Immortal, and one
becomes Brahman, here itself. Moksha is the realization of that which exists
always and everywhere. Therefore, it can be realized at any place, provided the
obstructions to this realization are removed. These obstructions are desires
for objective experience. Removal of desires is the same as the destruction of
mind. The realization of the Self does not involve a movement towards any
external condition, but it is the extinction and transcendence of personality
in the Absolute. It is like a drop dissolving in the ocean, or rather, the
ocean itself becoming aware that it is ocean.
The Yogavasishtha makes
reference to two methods of overcoming and transcending the mind, which is the
stuff of individuality – Yoga and Jnana. Vasishtha defines Yoga as
Vrittinirodha or inhibition of psychological functions, and Jnana as
Samyagavekshana or right perception. Generally, Yoga is to be understood in the
sense of that Integral Method whereby the individual is attuned to the Supreme
Being. It is neither a creed nor a tradition, but the law governing the
universe, and made manifest in the conscious activity of the individual.
Yoga is the process of the
evolution of the finite to the Infinite, consciously and deliberately systematized,
and thus accelerated. In Yoga, the experiences of several future possible lives
are compressed into those of one life or the least possible number of lives.
Yoga is, therefore, nothing out-of-the-way or unconnected with the normal life
of man. Truly, it is the only normal life, and a life bereft of the
consciousness of Yoga, in some degree at least, may be said to be below the
normal. To be forced to be something and to act in certain ways, instinctively,
without the conscious and volitional activity of oneself, is not the glory of
man. Yoga is to know the real relation which man bears to the universe as a
whole, and to the Divine Being which is his Higher Self. Not to know this
relation is to grope blindly in darkness and to be merely confined to the
animal consciousness of subhuman beings. Yoga is not cutting oneself away from
the reality of life in the world, but it is the understanding and realization
of the real meaning of existence in order to live a life of the essential
freedom and bliss of one's deepest consciousness. In other words, it is to be a
friend and citizen of the whole universe, to feel oneself in all beings, to
absorb into oneself the whole constitution of the universe, to be the Soul of
the universe. This is the meaning of Yoga, understood in its general sense.
But Yoga has also a special
and particularized meaning, as mentioned by Vasishtha and is identical with the
technical Yoga system of Patanjali. In this system, the faculty which plays the
most important part is the will, not so much the understanding or the feeling.
By sheer dint of determination and decision based on faith in the holy
tradition and the instructions of the teacher, one fixes one's consciousness on
the ideal of one's attainment.
All Vrittis or psychoses are
resolutely banished from consciousness by resort to various methods, such as
thinking of the opposite of the obstructing psychosis, cultivation of virtuous
qualities, practice of the abandonment of objects and enjoyments both seen and
heard, complete restraint of the senses, fast, continence, positive love for
all beings, truth-speaking, non-covetousness, cleanliness of body and of
internal motive, contentment. with what one obtains independent of effort,
austerity, study of sacred scriptures, recitation of the Name of God, prayer,
self-surrender, steady posture of the body, harmonization of the vital energy,
etc. By these methods the Yogi withdraws his senses from their respective
objects, and concentrates his mind on the Supreme Being. Before the attainment
of actual concentration on God, one may pass through various lower stages of
concentration on grosser objects which are more easily comprehended and taken as
means of steadying the activities of the mind. Thus, with a negative method of
abstraction of the functions of individuality, one attains That which is at the
background of all individual functions.
Jnana is Samyagavekshana, or
right vision of things. It is to behold the world as it is really, not merely
as it appears to the individual functions of knowledge. It is to fix the
consciousness on the Universal Substance, of which all things are made. Jnana
is the knowledge that the Self is the All, and that All is the Self. This Self
is not the individual subject of knowledge, but the Self of the whole universe,
the Consciousness to which the whole universe can be reduced. Jnana is to
experience nothing objective, nothing external to one's consciousness, and to
have the direct realization of Eternity and Infinity. Jnana is the constant
awareness of the Immortal Brahman. This awareness has an empirical as well as
an absolute aspect. Empirically, it is called Brahmabhavana or Brahmabhyasa,
which consists in ceaselessly thinking of and feeling the presence of Brahman,
speaking of Brahman, discoursing with one another on Brahman, and totally
resting in the consciousness of Brahman, in all activities of life. In its
absolute aspect, it is to be merged in Brahman, to be in the state of perpetual
Samadhi or Kaivalya, to be perfectly free from the consciousness of a second to
oneself, to glory in the Absolute, and to be supremely blessed. This latter
stage follows the former logically, when all the impressions of past actions
are experienced and destroyed, when the body drops, and the individual enters
the Absolute, as a river enters the ocean. This 'entering the ocean' is, of
course, an analogy from the human standpoint, for, really, there was never a
river, never is, and never will be. There was, is and will be only the ocean,
and the ocean has to know that it is. Only the Absolute can be, and is, and
liberation is the consciousness of the Absolute. Yoga and Jnana aim at this
supreme beatitude.
Excerpts from:
The Practice of Yoga - Kathopanishad – The Science Of The Inner
Life by Swami
Krishnananda
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