The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha Part 35

"The wise man should mutter the several letters of the _mantra_, each united to Om,

"According to the number of the letters. This they call the 'vivifying' (_jivana_).

"Having written the letters of the _mantra_, let him smite each with sandal-water,

"Uttering at each the mystic 'seed' of air.[432] This is called the 'smiting' (_ta?ana_).

"Having written the letters of the _mantra_, let him strike them with oleander flowers,

"Each enumerated with a letter. This is called the 'awakening' (_bodhana_).

"Let the adept, according to the ritual prescribed in his own special _tantra_,

"Sprinkle the letters, according to their number, with leaves of the Ficus religiosa. This is the 'sprinkling'

(_abhisheka_).

"Having meditated on the _mantra_ in his mind, let him consume by the _jyotir-mantra_

"The threefold impurity of the _mantra_. This is the 'purification' (_vimali-kara?a_).

"The utterance of the _jyotir-mantra_, together with Om, and the _mantras_ of Vyoman and Agni,

"And the sprinkling of every letter with water from a bunch of kusa gra.s.s,

"With the mystical seed of water[433] duly muttered,--this is held to be the 'fattening' (_apyayana_).

"The satiating libation over the _mantra_ with _mantra_-hallowed water is the 'satisfying' (_tarpa?a_).

"The joining of the _mantra_ with Om and the 'seeds' of Maya[434] and Rama[435] is called its 'illumining'

(_dipana_).

"The non-publication of the _mantra_ which is being muttered--this is its 'concealing' (_gopana_).

"These ten consecrating ceremonies are kept close in all _tantras_;

"And the adept who practises them according to the tradition obtains his desire;

"And _ruddha_, _kilita_, _vichhinna_, _supta_, _sapta_, and the rest,

"All these faults in the _mantra_ rites are abolished by these excellent consecrations."

But enough of this venturing to make public the _tantra_ mysteries connected with _mantras_, which has suddenly led us astray like an unexpected Baccha.n.a.lian dance.[436]

The third form of practical _yoga_, "resignation to the Lord"

(_isvara-pra?idhana_), is the consigning all one's works, whether mentioned or not, without regard to fruit, to the Supreme Lord, the Supremely Venerable. As it has been said--

"Whatever I do, good or bad, voluntary or involuntary,

"That is all made over to thee; I act as impelled by thee."

This self-resignation is also sometimes defined as "the surrender of the fruits of one's actions," and is thus a peculiar kind of faith, since most men act only with a selfish regard to the fruit. Thus it is sung in the Bhagavad Gita [ii. 47]--

"Let thy sole concern be with action and never with the fruits;

"Be not attracted by the fruit of the action, nor be thou attached to inaction."

The harmfulness of aiming at the fruit of an action has been declared by the venerable Nilaka??ha-bharati--

"Even a penance accomplished by great effort, but vitiated by desire,

"Produces only disgust in the Great Lord, like milk which has been licked by a dog."

Now this prescribed practice of mortification, recitation, and resignation is itself called _yoga_, because it is a means for producing _yoga_, this being an instance of the function of words called "superimponent pure Indication," as in the well-known example, "b.u.t.ter is longevity." "Indication" is the establishing of another meaning of a word from the incompatibility of its princ.i.p.al meaning with the rest of the sentence, and from the connection of this new meaning with the former; it is twofold, as founded on notoriety or on a motive. This has been declared in the _Kavya-prakasa_ [ii. 9]--

"When, in consequence of the incompatibility of the princ.i.p.al meaning of a word, and yet in connection with it, another meaning is indicated through notoriety or a motive, this is 'Indication,' the superadded function of the word."

Now the word "this" [_i.e._, _tat_ in the neuter, which the neuter _yat_ in the extract would have naturally led us to expect instead of the feminine _sa_] would have signified some neuter word, like "implying," which is involved as a subordinate part of the verb "is indicated." But _sa_ is used in the feminine [by attraction to agree with _laksha?a_], "this is indication," _i.e._, the neuter "this" is put in the feminine through its dependence on the predicate. This has been explained by Kaiya?a, "Of those p.r.o.nouns which imply the ident.i.ty of the subject and the predicate, the former takes the gender of the former, the latter of the latter."[437] Now "expert (_kusala_) in business" is an example of Indication from notoriety; for the word _kusala_, which is significant in its parts by being a.n.a.lysed etymologically as _kusa?_ + _lati_, "one who gathers kusa gra.s.s for the sacrifice," is here employed to mean "expert" through the relation of a similarity in character, as both are persons of discernment; and this does not need a motive any more than Denotation does, since each is the using a word in its recognised conventional sense in accordance with the immemorial tradition of the elders. Hence it has been said--

"Some instances of 'indication' are known by notoriety from their immediate significance, just as is the case in 'denotation' [the primary power of a word]."

Therefore indication based on notoriety has no regard to any motive.

Although a word, when it is employed, first establishes its princ.i.p.al meaning, and then by that meaning a second meaning is subsequently indicated, and so indication belongs properly to the princ.i.p.al meaning and not to the word; still, since it is superadded to the word which originally established the primary meaning, it is called [improperly by metonymy] a function of the word. It was with a view to this that the author of the Kavya-prakasa used the expression, "This is 'Indication,' the superadded function of the word." But the indication based on a motive is of six kinds: 1. inclusive indication,[438] as "the lances enter" [where we really mean "men _with_ the lances"]; 2.

indicative indication, as "the benches shout" [where the spectators are meant _without_ the benches]; 3. qualified[439] superimponent indication, as "the man of the Panjab is an ox" [here the object is not swallowed up in the simile]; 4. qualified introsusceptive indication, as "that ox" [here the man is swallowed up in the simile]; 5. pure superimponent indication, as "_ghi_ is life;" 6. pure introsusceptive indication, as "verily this is life." This has been all explained in the Kavya-prakasa [ii. 10-12]. But enough of this churning of the depths of rhetorical discussions.

This _yoga_ has been declared to have eight things ancillary to it (_a?ga_); these are the forbearances, religious observances, postures, suppression of the breath, restraint, attention, contemplation, and meditation [ii. 29]. Patanjali says, "Forbearance consists in not wishing to kill, veracity, not stealing, continence, not coveting"

[ii. 30]. "Religious observances are purifications, contentment, mortification, recitation of texts, and resignation to the Lord" [ii.

32]; and these are described in the Vish?u Pura?a [vi. 7, 36-38]--

"The sage who brings his mind into a fit state for attaining Brahman, practises, void of all desire,

"Continence, abstinence from injury, truth, non-stealing, and non-coveting;

"Self-controlled, he should practise recitation of texts, purification, contentment, and austerity,

"And then he should make his mind intent on the Supreme Brahman.

"These are respectively called the five 'forbearances' and the five 'religious observances;'

"They bestow excellent rewards when done through desire of reward, and eternal liberation to those void of desire."

"A 'posture' is what is steady and pleasant" [ii. 46]; it is of ten kinds, as the _padma_, _bhadra_, _vira_, _svastika_, _da??aka_, _sopasraya_, _parya?ka_, _kraunchanishadana_, _ush?ranishadana_, _samasa?sthana_. Yajnavalkya has described each of them in the pa.s.sage which commences--

"Let him hold fast his two great toes with his two hands, but in reverse order,

"Having placed the soles of his feet, O chief of Brahmans, on his thighs;

"This will be the _padma_ posture, held in honour by all."

The descriptions of the others must be sought in that work.--When this steadiness of posture has been attained, "regulation of the breath" is practised, and this consists in "a cutting short of the motion of inspiration and expiration" [ii. 49]. Inspiration is the drawing in of the external air; expiration is the expelling of the air within the body; and "regulation of the breath" is the cessation of activity in both movements. "But [it may be objected] this cannot be accepted as a general definition of 'regulation of breath,' since it fails to apply to the special kinds, as _rechaka_, _puraka_, and _k.u.mbhaka_." We reply that there is here no fault in the definition, since the "cutting short of the motion of inspiration and expiration" is found in all these special kinds. Thus _rechaka_, which is the expulsion of the air within the body, is only that regulation of the breath, which has been mentioned before as "expiration;" and _puraka_, which is the [regulated] retention of the external air within the body, is the "inspiration;" and _k.u.mbhaka_ is the internal suspension of breathing, when the vital air, called _pra?a_, remains motionless like water in a jar (_k.u.mbha_). Thus the "cutting short of the motion of inspiration and expiration" applies to all, and consequently the objector's doubt is needless.