The thinking principal is a
comprehensive expression equal to the Sanskrit word Antakaran.,
which is divided into four parts‑(I Manas or mind, the principal which
cognizes generally; (ii) Chit or individualizing, the idea which fixes
itself upon a point and makes the object its own by making it an individual;
(iii) Ahamkar or egoism, the persuasion which connects the individual
with the self; and (iv) Buddhi or reasons, the light that determines
one way or another.7 Knowledge or perception is a kind of
transformation Parin.am of the thinking principal into
anything which is the subject of external or internal presentation, through
one or other of these four. All knowledge is of the kind of the transformation
of the thinking principal. Even the will, which is the very first essential of
Yoga, is a kind of such transformation. Yoga is a complete
suppression of the tendency of the thinking principal to transform itself into
objects, thoughts etc. It is possible that there should be degrees among these
transformations and the higher ones may assist to check the lower ones, but
Yoga is acquired only when there is complete cessation of the one or the
other. It should distinctly be borne in mind that the thinking principal in
this philosophy is not the soul who is the source of all consciousness and
knowledge. The suppression of the transformations of the thinking principal
does not therefore mean that the yogi‑ the practitioner of the Yoga‑is
enjoined to become all, which is certainly impossible. The thinking principal
has three-property passivity, activity and grossness. When the action of the
last two is checked the mind stands steady like the jet of a lamp in a place
protected from the least breeze. When all the transformation of the thinking
principal are suppressed there remains only the never changing eternal
soul‑the Purush‑in the perfect Sata passivity. Otherwise when
the thinking principal transforms itself into objective and subjective
phenomena the Purush is for the time obscured by it or which is the
same thing assimilated into it. It is only when the state of Yoga is
reached that the consciousness becomes quite pure and ready to receive all
knowledge and all impressions from any source whatever. If this state is to be
acquired by suppressing the transformations of the thinking principal, let us
see what these transformations are.
7. In Yoga philosophy
the thinking principal is modified in five ways. First when there comes to it
the right knowledge, second when there comes to it false knowledge, third when
it is simply put into complex imagination or fancy, fourth when we are
sleeping and fifth when we are exercising the faculty of memory.10
Let us examine each condition. The theory as to how the external world is
cognized is a complicated one, but in order to explain it in the simplest way
it will do to say [the following]. When organs of sense are put in contact
with external objects they are put in to a state of vibration and cause a
similar vibration on he mind‑substance. This charge in the mind‑substance is
called direct cognition. It is only one kind of right knowledge. The mind is
also transformed when it infers or draws conclusions and also when it receives
knowledge from words of authority‑trust worthy authority. These three kinds of
knowledge are collectively known as right knowledge. When the mind cognizes in
any of the three ways there is a corresponding motion or change produced in
it. That is one way in which mind becomes subject to transformation. The
second way in which it is modified is false knowledge. This is when a false
conception is entertained of a thing whose real form does not correspond to
that conception, for instance, when a mother of pearl is mistaken for silver
or a post mistaken for a man. The third way in which the mind is modified is
by having fancied notions, i.e. notions called into being by mere words having
nothing to answer to them in reality. The fourth way in which the mind is
transformed is sleep and the fifth way is the exercise of memory, i.e. by
recollection impressions of past experience. It may be remarked that of these
five kinds of transformations of the mind, right knowledge, false knowledge
and fancy belong to the waking state. When any of these becomes perceptible in
sleep it is dream. Sleep itself has no cognition. Memory may be (may depend
on?) any of them.
8. Now the suppression of
these transformations is the Yoga, which leads to the realization of
the Self. What are the means of suppressing them? The author of the Yoga
Sutras says that complete suppression of the transformation of the mind
is secured only by sustained application and non‑attachment.11
Application is of course steady sustained effort to reach that state and
non‑attachment is the consciousness of having mastered every desire for any
object. And further rules are given for the purpose of rising to that high
state of self‑knowledge.
9. But in the meantime I
will draw your attention to the fact that some scholars like Monier Williams
and others have thought that this system of Yoga is nothing but a mere
contrivance of getting rid of all thought and that it is a strange compound of
mental and bodily exercises, consisting in unnatural restraint, forced and
painful postures, twisting and contortions of the limbs, suppression of the
breath and utter absence of mind. In the opinion of such scholars it is not
possible that a man should actually know any thing transcending his sensual
perception unless it is told to him by some supposed authority. In their
opinion the power of intuition cannot be developed to such an extent as to
become actual knowledge without any possibility of error and we shall always
be doomed to depend upon hearsay and opinions. To them extra‑ordinary powers
of the soul are mere dreams. The author of the 'Modern Science and Modern
Thought' says: "Almost the entire world of the supernatural fades away of
itself with an extension of our knowledge of the laws of nature, as surely as
the mists melt from the valley before the rays of the morning sun. We have
seen how throughout the wide domains of space, time and matter, law uniform,
universal and inexorable reigns supreme, and there is absolutely no room for
the interference of any outside personal agency to suspend its agency (Hindus
have never said so). The last remnant of supernaturalism therefore, apart from
Christian Miracles which we shall presently consider, has sunk into that
doubtful and shady borderland of ghosts, spiritualism and mesmerism, where
vision and fact and partly real partly imaginary effects of abnormal nervous
conditions are mixed up in a nebulous haze with a large dose of imposture and
credulity." These are the words of a famous English writer. Let us hear then
what the neighbor of the John Bull says in regard to the claim of the modern
scientist. Dr. Heinrich Hensoldt of Germany says: "Apart from the material
progress or mere outward development which the Hindoos had already attained in
times which we are apt to call pre‑historic as evinced by the splendor of
their buildings and the luxuries and refinements of their civilization in
general, it would seem as if this greatest and most subtle of Aryan races had
developed an inner life even more strange and wonderful. Let those who are
imbued with the prevalent modern conceit that we Westerners have reached the
highest pinnacle of intellectual culture, go to India. Let them go to the land
of mystery, which was ancient, when the Great Alexander crossed the Indus with
his warriors, ancient, when Abraham roamed the plains of Chaldea with his
cattle, ancient when the first pyramid was built, and if after a careful study
of Hindoo life, religion and philosophy, the inquirer is still of opinion that
the palm of intellectual advancement belongs to the Western world‑let him lose
no time in having his own cranium examined by a competent physician." These
are the words of Dr. Hensoldt.
10. Without caring much what
the foreigners have to say in reference to the religions and philosophies of
India we will come to our own subject. We have said before that Yoga is
the suppression of the manifestations of the mind. The source of the positive
power therefore lies in the soul. In the very wording of the definition of
Yoga is involved the supposition of the existence of a power which can
control and suppress the manifestations of the mind. This power is the power
of the soul‑otherwise familiar to us as freedom of the will. So long as the
soul is subject to the mind it is tossed this way or that in obedience to the
mental changes. Instead of the soul being tossed by the mental changes, the
mind should vibrate in obedience to the soul‑vibrations. When once the soul
becomes the master of the mind, it can produce any manifestations it likes.
The ancient Chaldeons and the modern monks of India, Japan and China teach the
same doctrine. It was by the aid of this Yoga science that the ancients
made many discoveries in chemistry and medicine.
11. We will now come to our
point. The suppression of all mental modification produces the state called
Yoga or Samadhi. This Samadhi is of two kinds Svikalp
and nirvikalpa. The first is that in which the mind is at rest only for
the time, the other is that in which through supreme universal non‑attachment
it is centered in (passivity) Satva and realizes Satva
everywhere for all time. The mind being as it were annihilated Purush‑the
soul‑alone shines in native bliss.12 This is called Kaivalya.
This is the end view. This is the summum onum, the end and aim of philosophy.
Between this end and the first stage of mental suppression there are several
stage. The author of the Yoga aphorisms mentions eight stage; they are
Yam, Niyam, Aasan, Pran.am, Pratyahar, Dharn.a, Dhyan,
Smaddhi This leads us to the practical part of Yoga.
12. (a)The first stage is
Yam. What a student of Yoga is required to do in the first stage is
forbearance or control over mind, body and speech and it consists in
abstaining from killing, falsehood, theft, incontinence and greediness.14
(i) The first of these is killing‑Hinsa in Sanskrit. It is
difficult to give the full meaning of this word Hinsa. It means wishing
evil to any being by word, act or thought and abstinence of this kind of
killing is the first requirement of a student of Yoga. It obviously
implies abstinence from animal food in as much as it is never procurable
without direct or indirect Hinsa of some kind. Not with standing the
sanction given by the Vedas to the system of sacrificing animals to
gods, the Hindu scriptures are very strong on this point when they treat of
the practical part of the Yoga philosophy. Manu, the great law‑ maker
of the Hindus, says:
Anuyanta vishsita nihanta
kryavikryee
Sanskatee chopharta cha
khadkshchaitee ghatak
[One who indirectly gives
permission to kill animals, one who separates the several parts of an animal
after it is killed, one who actually kills the animal, one who sells meat, one
who cooks meat, one who serves meat at the table and one who eats it are all
considered killers of the animal.]
