Patanjali's Yoga Sutras -Book 2 - Rama Prasad

Continuing a basic summary of the four books of  Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, by Rama Prasad, with some suggestive observations of an esoteric nature, from the introduction to his translation: Patanjalis Yoga Sutras with the Commentary of Vyasa and the Gloss of Vachaspati Misra (1912). See   Part 1

 The art of Yoga consists in bringing under control and purifying the three lower vehicles of man, namely, the body, the mind and the spiritual Self- the astro-physical, mental, and the causal bodies. The astro-physical body is to be purified and brought under control by what are called ascetic practices,- early rising, bathing, fasting, bearing hardships, etc., in short, all that go under the name of Tapas-or austerities. The mental body must be purified and strengthened by study, by acquiring knowledge. An ignorant person cannot be a Yogi. The causal or spiritual body is to be developed by entire devotion to God. Thus an atheist cannot be a true Yogi (In Raja Yoga, these three bodies are called Sthulopadi, Sukshmopadhi, and Karanopadhi in Sanskrit, ed.).

These three helps-austerities, study and resignation to the will of God facilitate trance and remove " afflictions." (Sanskrit: klesha, ed.) The "affliction" is the technical name of certain intellectual and emotional weaknesses to which all human beings are liable. They are five in number :-(l) The first is the Nescience or Wrong Notion of things objective-mistaking the non-eternal for the eternal, the impure for the pure, the painful for the pleasurable, or non-Self for the Self. (2) The second is the wrong notion about things subjective-identifying one's Self with the vehicles in which the Self function, taking the bodies for the soul. These two are intellectual defects, (3) The third is the emotional weakness. It is the desire natural of man, running after pleasant things. (4) The fourth also is emotional- hatred of things that give pain. Thus these two-love and hate are emotional defects. The fifth defect is neither intellectual nor emotional-it is instinctive- the instinct of self-preservation-the instinctive fear of death-the love of life. These are the five " afflictions of Yoga - Avidya, Asmita, Raga, Dvesa and Abhinivesa- Nescience, Egoism, love and hatred and instinctive dread of death.  These "afflictions" are destroyed by meditation and the methods already mentioned. 

These "afflictions" are the root of the body of transmigration, the root of re-incarnation, of birth, life and suffering. The pleasure and pain which a man suffers are the result of his past acts, the virtuous acts are the seed of pleasure, the vicious of pain. The word " affliction" is thus a purely technical term, for it includes the high heavenly pleasure also which is the result of virtuous actions. But in the philosophy of Yoga as well as that of Sankhya--all such pleasures are also considered as pains: because philosophically the world is painful, all its experiences, even those which people call pleasurable, are painful to the philosopher. This is stated in the memorable aphorism, II. 15, p. 100. 

All world-experience being thus painful, the philosopher seeks to find the root-cause of this experience and this is the conjunction of the knower and the knowable-the Self and the not-Self. Because man is tied with mind, and cannot extricate himself from the embraces of mind-matter that he suffers. When he masters the mind, and is not her slave, then there is no pain-there is no necessary experiencing of joy and sorrow. The non-ego to which the man is tied has the three well-known attributes or Gunas - Sattva, Rajas and Tamas- the Light, the Activity and the Inertia-is the source of all elements, and producer of all sensations and senses. 

The Yoga system of cosmogony is the same as that of the Sankhya, so far as the evolution of the world-elements out of the Primordial matter called Prakriti is concerned. It is summarised in II. 19. 

What is the nature of the Self ? This question naturally arises after one has learned the nature of the non-Self. The man is pure consciousness : I and the non-Self exists for him. If man is pure consciousness, how does he perceive the non-Self? He knows the non-ego by a sort of reflex action. The mind catches the reflection of the non-Self ; and the man becomes conscious of that reflection. The man is thus the seer of the pictures in the mind. The non-ego or the knowable thus exists for the sake of the Man. In the state of Mukti (liberation, ed.), there exists no knowable for that Man. Though to the Perfect Man there is no knowable, it does not mean that the knowable ceases to exist. It exists with regard to the other souls that have not reached perfection.

A question is often asked: If the ultimate goal is the separation of man from the non-Self, the knowable, why was this conjunction between the two brought about? Why was man tied down to non-Self, to matter-mind ? The answer to this is: In order that Man may perfect his nature by acquiring all experiences and passing through them. Unless the Man learns all that the Matter-Mind has to teach, the conjunction is not broken. The effective cause of this conjunction lies in the Avidya-the Wrong Notion (or ignorance, ed.). When, therefore, the Ayidya or Nescience is removed, the  conjunction is removed and the Man shakes off the eternal burden. How is the Avidya to be removed? The Avidya being Wrong Notion, can be removed only by Right Notion call Viveka-Khyati or Discriminative knowledge. His discriminative knowledge has seven stages-four dealing with the phenomenal knowledge and three with the mental or subjective notions, as described in II. 27. It is on reaching this that the title of Adept or Kusala is given to the Yogi. 

The acquisition of this Adeptship is through the practice of eightfold Yoga. The famous phrase Ashtanga Yoga refers to this. The eight accessories of Yoga are enumerated in II. 29. Five of these are external, as with the last three. The eight Angas are so important that it can well bear repetition here. 

First, Practice Restraint, i.e., be moral. This restraint or Yama consists of five sub-divisions :-(a) do not kill or injure any being. Be kind to all. Ahimsa; (b) Speak and act truth; (c) Steal not, nor acquire illicit gains ; (d) Practise continence and celibacy; d) Be not avaricious. These are universal rules. 

Second, Niyama or Observance. This is also five-fold :(a) Be clean in body and mind, (b) Be contented, (c) Practise asceticism and austerity, (d) Study sacred books, (e) Be devoted to God. 

While practising Yama and Niyama, if obstacles arise, always try to think of the opposite quality. If he feels a strong desire to tell a falsehood, let him not fight the desire, by a frontal attack, by checking it. Let him substitute the opposite desire-the beauty of truthfulness. If he hates another, let him think of the good qualities of that man. If he is in danger of breaking the vow of celibacy, let him think of the glorious future of the Brahmachari. Pratipasa ga Bhavana-thinking of the contrary- is the key of success. It is the great strategy in this moral battle, and is embodied in II. 33. The moral qualities mentioned in Yama, must be absolutely observed-no sophistical diminution of their absolute nature is allowed to the Yogi. To him the moral laws are absolute. Thus the first rule of Ahimsa says " kill not." This is an absolute rule. There cannot be any exceptions or reservations. The enemies of the country, the renegades of religion, the blasphemers of sages and saints, the murderer, the criminal-kill none. To Yogi the vow of non-killing is absolute. He must not kill even in self-defence of himself or of his near and dear ones. Hence the rule says : "They (Yama) are the great vow universal, and not limited by caste, country, age and condition." (II. 31). So also with truth. One must not lie for the sake of one's country or State or Brahmana or cow, &c. Not only this: there are certain omissions which become as bad as actual commissions of these sins. He incurs sin if he causes another to do it or permits its being done. 

The third Anga of Yoga is Asana or posture. No particular posture is obligatory, but the posture must be such as is steady and easy; not painful or irksome. The various postures given in books of Hatha Yoga such as Gheranda Samhita or Siva Samhita are useful as physical exercises, for the otherwise sedentary Yogi. 

The fourth Anga of Yoga is the much abused Pranayama or the Regulation of breath. The Yoga has come to mean, in the thoughts of many, posturing and nose-closing. But the right regulation of breath as a mental and physical effect was pointed out long ago. The Western science has come to recognise its advantages and Books of Breathing are not as rare now as they were when we first wrote about it in 1882. 

The fifth anga of Yoga is Pratyahara or Abstraction. It is a state of catalepsy when the senses do not come into contact with their objects. It is the state of the inhibition of the senses. A pistol may be fired near the ear of the Yogi and he will not hear it. Ammonia may be held under his nostrils and he will not smell it, and so on. 

All the above five are Bahiranga or the external. The internal Yoga which has to deal with the mind and mind alone consists of the last three Angas-Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. 

Book 3