I. Moksa is the ideal of
life. Supernormal experiences, like the yogaja- pratyaksa, arsa,
and avadhi, manahparyaya are only incidental. Kevala is symptomatic
of the realization of the consummate end of life. Moksa is to be realized
through self-discipline in the affective, the cognitive and cognitive
sense. Samyak- crater is as important as Samyag-darsana and jana. The way
to self-realization is primarily ethical. “if deliverance is to be
chained, the lower matter is to besubdued but the higher spirit. When the
soul is free from the weight which keeps it down , it rises to the top of
the universe where the liberated dwell. The radical conversion of the
inner man is way to freedom.”
The Jainas were that
physic and mental discipline are necessary conditions of moral discipline.
Knowledge and faith are preliminary steps on the path of self-
realization. Ordinary sources of knowledge ar not adequate to comprehend
the nature of truth. Reason fails here. Kant showed that categories of
understanding are fraught with antinomies. One has to transecen reason and
seek the truth in the supernormal forms of experience. Inplicit faith in
the truth to be sought in is necessary. It is the starit pint of
self-realization. Samkara’s prescription of the four qualifications of a
student of philosophy, as stated in the commentary on the first sutra of
the vednata Sutra, is very pertinent in the case of those who seek
the truth. There are different processes which lead us from faith to the
realization of the final end. Meditation (dhyana) is an important
factor in this process. One cannot gas the truth unless one mediates on
it; and one cannot realize it unless one grasps it meditation on the
nature of the self is the highest form af Dhyana. One reaches the stage of
meditation these if whe one is free from passions and is self- controlled,
self-controls is in turn, possible through the practice of physical and
mental discipline. Thus the ancient Indian philosophers developed a
science of self-realization called yoga. They have bee ingeneral agreement
regarding the principles and practice of Yoga, the Yoga presceibed by
panatela regard moral and physical discipline to the indispensable
preliminaries to the spiritual progress. The Jainas are in agreement with
the fundamental principles and practice of this system. Among the Jaina
authors Haribhadra gives a comparavtie sudey of Yoga in his works the
janarnava of subhacandra and the Yoga sastra of hemachandra are
valuable contributions to the study of Yoga as a science of spiritual
progress.
II. In ancient India,
yoga was a science of self- realization. The word occurs in reveda
meaning ‘bringing about conection’. In the atharva-veda is stated
that supernatural powers are attained by the ascetic practices.2 Later it
was used I the sense of yoking a horse. The senses have been compared to
the unbridled horses and Yoga is the means of controlling the horses.3
in the Jaina literature, Harbhadra defines Yoga as that which leads one to
emancipation’, and the terms dhyana and samadhi were more in
vogue than yoga. It is only in the yoga-sutra of pjatanli
that we find the proper location of Dhyana in the whole pores called
yoga.5 However, panatela probably did not start the Yoga school, but he
must have ‘cooected the different forms of practices and gleaned the
diverse ideas which were and could be associated white Yoga’. 6 yoga a
we see now is to be considered as fully developed science of self-
realization.
The yogatattva
upanisad mentions four types of Yoga: 1)Hathayoga is one in which the
primary aim is to control bodily activities. 2)Mantra- yoga aims at
healing the diseased by means of mantra or incantations of certain
esoteric hymns. It is base of the influence of suggestion as psychologiva
factor. 3)Layayaoga is based o the physiological analysis of human
organism. The aim is to effect concentration of an image through the
Mantras and to be absorbed and lost in them . 4) the last is Rajayoga. It
is prtanjala Yoga. Its aim is higher; and it consists in achieving
spritula beatitude, though bodily control is a part of Patanjali’s yoga.
According to S dasagupta. The Yoga practices grew in accordance with the
doctrines of the saiva and skta schools and assumed a peculiar form as the
Manrayoga. They grew in another direction as Hathayoga throygh constant
practices of nervous exercises and produced mystical feats.7 The
influence of these practices in the development of Tantra was also great.
Jaigisaya in his Dharamastra mentions different parts of the body
like heart , tip of the nose, plate, forehead and the centre of the brain
as centres of menory where concentration made. 8
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