The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha Part 37

"By regulation of breath having controlled the air, and by restraint the senses,

"Let him next make the perfect asylum the dwelling-place of his mind."[455]

The continual flow of thought in this place, resting on the object to be contemplated, and avoiding all incongruous thoughts, is "contemplation" (_dhyana_); thus it is said, "A course of uniform thought there, is 'contemplation'" [iii. 2]. Others also have said--

"A continued succession of thoughts, intent on objects of that kind and desiring no other,

"This is 'contemplation,'--it is thus effected by the first six of the ancillary things."

We incidentally, in elucidating something else, discussed the remaining eighth ancillary thing, "meditation" (_samadhi_, see p.

243). By this practice of the ancillary means of _yoga_, pursued for a long time with uninterrupted earnestness, the "afflictions" which hinder meditation are abolished, and through "exercise" and "dispa.s.sion" the devotee attains to the perfections designated by the names Madhumati and the rest.

"But why do you needlessly frighten us with unknown and monstrous words from the dialects of Kar?a?a, Gau?a,[456] and La?a?"[457] We do not want to frighten you, but rather to gratify you by explaining the meaning of these strange words; therefore let the reader who is so needlessly alarmed listen to us with attention.

i. The _Madhumati_ perfection,--this is the perfection of meditation, called "the knowledge which holds to the truth," consisting in the illumination of unsullied purity by means of the contemplation of "goodness," composed of the manifestation of joy, with every trace of "pa.s.sion" or "darkness" abolished by "exercise," "dispa.s.sion," &c.

Thus it is said in the aphorisms, "In that case there is the knowledge which holds to the truth" [i. 48]. It holds "to the truth," _i.e._, to the real; it is never overshadowed by error. "In that case," _i.e._, when firmly established, there arises this knowledge to the second yogin. For the _yogins_ or devotees to the practice of _yoga_ are well known to be of four kinds, viz.,--

i. The _prathamakalpika_, in whom the light has just entered,[458]

but, as it has been said, "he has not won the light which consists in the power of knowing another's thoughts, &c.;" 2. The _madhubhumika_, who possesses the knowledge which holds to the truth; 3. The _prajnajyotis_, who has subdued the elements and the senses; 4. The _atikranta-bhavaniya_, who has attained the highest dispa.s.sion.

ii. The _Madhupratika_ perfections are swiftness like thought, &c.

These are declared to be "swiftness like thought, the being without organs, and the conquest of nature" [iii. 49]. "Swiftness like thought" is the attainment by the body of exceeding swiftness of motion, like thought; "the being without bodily organs"[459] is the attainment by the senses, irrespective of the body, of powers directed to objects in any desired place or time; "the conquest of nature" is the power of controlling all the manifestations of nature. These perfections appear to the full in the third kind of yogin, from the subjugation by him of the five senses and their essential conditions.[460] These perfections are severally sweet, each one by itself, as even a particle of honey is sweet, and therefore the second state is called _Madhupratika_ [_i.e._, that whose parts are sweet].

iii. The _Visoka_ perfection consists in the supremacy over all existences, &c. This is said in the aphorisms, "To him who possesses, to the exclusion of all other ideas, the discriminative knowledge of the quality of goodness and the soul, arises omniscience and the supremacy over all existences" [iii. 50]. The "supremacy over all existences" is the overcoming like a master all ent.i.ties, as these are but the developments of the quality of "goodness" in the mind [the other qualities of "pa.s.sion" and "darkness" being already abolished], and exist only in the form of energy and the objects to be energised upon.[461] The discriminative knowledge of them, as existing in the modes "subsided," "emerged," or "not to be named,"[462] is "omniscience." This is said in the aphorisms [i. 36], "Or a luminous immediate cognition, free from sorrow[463] [may produce steadiness of mind]."

iv. The _Sa?skaraseshata_ state is also called _asa?prajnata_, _i.e._, "that meditation in which distinct recognition of an object is lost;"

it is that meditation "without a seed" [_i.e._, without any object]

which is able to stop the "afflictions" that produce fruits to be afterwards experienced in the shape of rank, length of life, and enjoyment; and this meditation belongs to him who, in the cessation of all modifications of the internal organ, has reached the highest "dispa.s.sion." "The other kind of meditation [_i.e._, that in which distinct recognition of an object is lost] is preceded by that exercise of thought which produces the entire cessation of modifications; it has nothing left but the latent impressions" [of thought after the departure of all objects] [_i.e._, _sa?skarasesha_, i. 18]. Thus this foremost of men, being utterly pa.s.sionless towards everything, finds that the seeds of the "afflictions," like burned rice-grains, are bereft of the power to germinate, and they are abolished together with the internal organ. When these are destroyed, there ensues, through the full maturity of his unclouded "discriminative knowledge," an absorption of all causes and effects into the primal _prak?iti_; and the soul, which is the power of pure intelligence, abiding in its own real nature, and escaped from all connection with the phenomenal understanding (_buddhi_), or with existence, reaches "absolute isolation" (_kaivalya_). Final liberation is described by Patanjali as two perfections: "Absolute isolation is the repressive absorption[464] of the 'qualities' which have consummated the ends of the soul, _i.e._, enjoyment and liberation, or the abiding of the power of intelligence in its own nature" [iv.

33]. Nor should any one object, "Why, however, should not the individual be born again even though this should have been attained?"

for that is settled by the well-known principle that "with the cessation of the cause the effect ceases," and therefore this objection is utterly irrelevant, as admitting neither inquiry nor decision; for otherwise, if the effect could arise even in the absence of the cause, we should have blind men finding jewels, and such like absurdities; and the popular proverb for the impossible would become a possibility. And so, too, says the Sruti, "A blind man found a jewel; one without fingers seized it; one without a neck put it on; and a dumb man praised it."[465]

Thus we see that, like the authoritative treatises on medicine, the Yoga-sastra consists of four divisions; as those on medicine treat of disease, its cause, health, and medicine, so the Yoga-sastra also treats of phenomenal existence, its cause, liberation, and its cause.

This existence of ours, full of pain, is what is to be escaped from; the connection of nature and the soul is the cause of our having to experience this existence; the absolute abolition of this connection is the escape; and right insight is the cause thereof.[466] The same fourfold division is to be similarly traced as the case may be in other Sastras also. Thus all has been made clear.

The system of Sa?kara, which comes next in succession, and which is the crest-gem of all systems, has been explained by us elsewhere; it is therefore left untouched here.[467]

E. B. C.

NOTE ON THE YOGA.

There is an interesting description of the Yogins on the Mountain Raivataka in Magha (iv. 55):--

"There the votaries of meditation, well skilled in benevolence (_maitri_) and those other purifiers of the mind,--having successfully abolished the 'afflictions' and obtained the 'meditation possessed of a seed,' and having reached that knowledge which recognises the essential difference between the quality Goodness and the Soul,--desire yet further to repress even this ultimate meditation."

It is curious to notice that _maitri_, which plays such a prominent part in Buddhism, is counted in the Yoga as only a preliminary condition from which the votary is to take, as it were, his first start towards his final goal. It is called a _parikarman_ (= _prasadhaka_) in Vyasa's Comm. i. 33 (cf. iii. 22), whence the term is borrowed by Magha. Bhoja expressly says that this purifying process is an external one, and not an intimate portion of yoga itself; just as in arithmetic the operations of addition, &c., are valuable, not in themselves, but as aids in effecting the more important calculations which arise subsequently. The Yoga seems directly to allude to Buddhism in this marked depreciation of its cardinal virtue.

NOTE ON P. 237, LAST LINE.

For the word _vyakopa_ in the original here (see also p. 242, l. 3 _infra_), cf. Kusumanjali, p. 6, l. 7.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 363: On this see Dr. Hall's Pref. to Sa?khya Pr. Bhash., p.

20; S. Sara, p. 11.]

[Footnote 364: _I.e._, he revealed the Veda, and also originated the meanings of words, as well as instructed the first fathers of mankind in the arts of life.]

[Footnote 365: I read _ye_ for _te_ with Dr. Hall's MS. _Tapya_ means rather "susceptible of suffering."]

[Footnote 366: This is really Vyasa's comm. on Sut., iv. 21.]

[Footnote 367: Cf. _Bhasha-parichchheda_, 15, _a_.]

[Footnote 368: Satapatha Br., xiv. 7, 2, 28.]

[Footnote 369: I read in the second clause _tadbhave'pi_, understanding by _tad_ the different conditions which _atha_ is supposed to a.s.sume as being necessarily present.]

[Footnote 370: These are, i., the discrimination of the eternal from the phenomenal; ii., the rejection of the fruit of actions here or hereafter; iii., the possession of the six qualities, tranquillity, &c.; and, iv., the desire for liberation.]

[Footnote 371: It may be _sukha-janaka_, but it is not itself _sukha_.]

[Footnote 372: Granting that _atha_ does not here mean "auspicious,"

why should not this be the implied meaning, as all allow that the particle _atha_ does produce an auspicious influence?]

[Footnote 373: _i.e._, a word's incapacity to convey a meaning without some other word to complete the construction.]

[Footnote 374: This is found with some variations in the Mahabhashya (p. 7, Kielhorn's ed.)]

[Footnote 375: The commentators hold that the word _v?iddhi?_ is placed at the beginning of the first sutra, while _gu?a?_ in the second is placed at the end (_ad e? gu?a?_), in order to ensure an auspicious opening, _v?iddhi_ meaning "increase," "prosperity," as well as "the second strengthening of a vowel."]

[Footnote 376: In the old Bengali poem Cha??i, we have an interesting list of these omens. The hero Chandraketu, starting on a journey, has the following good omens: On his right hand a cow, a deer, a Brahman, a full-blown lotus; on his left, a jackal and a jar full of water. He hears on his right hand the sound of fire and a cowherdess calling "milk" to buyers. He sees a cow with her calf, a woman calling "jaya,"

_durva_ gra.s.s, rice, garlands of flowers, diamonds, sapphires, pearls, corals; and on the left twelve women. He hears drums and cymbals, and men dancing and singing "Hari." It is, however, all spoiled by seeing a guana (_G.o.dhika_). The author adds, "This is a bad omen according to all sastras, and so is a tortoise, a rhinoceros, the tuberous root of the water-lily, and a hare." Elsewhere, a vulture, a kite, a lizard, and a woodman carrying wood are called bad omens.]

[Footnote 377: These are the names of two out of the four sacrifices lasting for one day, in which a thousand cows are given to the officiating Brahmans.]

[Footnote 378: He is here called _pha?ipati_, "lord of snakes,"--Patanjali, the author of the Mahabhashya, being represented as a snake in mythology.]

[Footnote 379: Cf. Sa?kara, Vedanta-Sut., iii. 3, 49.]

[Footnote 380: This is the Mima?sa rule for settling the relative value of the proofs that one thing is ancillary to another. 1.

_Sruti_, "a definite text," as "let him offer with curds," where curds are clearly an ancillary part of the sacrifice. 2. _Li?ga_, "a sign,"

or "the sense of the words," as leading to an inference, as in the text "he divides by the ladle;" here we infer that the thing to be divided must be a liquid like ghee, since a ladle could not divide solid things like the baked flour cakes. 3. _Vakya_, "the being mentioned in one sentence," _i.e._, the context, as in the text "'(I cut) thee for food,' thus saying, he cuts the branch;" here the words "(I cut) thee for food" are ancillary to the action of cutting; or in the text, "I offer the welcome (oblation) to Agni," the words "the welcome (oblation) to Agni," as they form one sentence with the words "I offer," are ancillary to the act of offering. 4. _Prakara?a_, "the subject-matter viewed as a whole, with an interdependence of its parts," as in the _darsa-pur?amasa_ sacrifice, where the _prayaja_ ceremonies, which have no special fruit mentioned, produce, as parts, a mystic influence (_apurva_) which helps forward that influence of the whole by which the worshippers obtain heaven. Here the _prakara?a_ proves them to be ancillary. 5. _Sthana_ (or _krama_), "relative position" or "order," as the recital of the hymn _Sundhadhvam_, &c., "Be ye purified for the divine work," in connection with the mention of the _sannayya_ vessels, where this position proves that the hymn is ancillary to the action of sprinkling those vessels. 6. _Samakhya_, "t.i.tle;" thus the Yajur-veda is called the special book for the _adhvaryu_ priests; hence in any rite mentioned in it they are _prima facie_ to be considered as the priests employed. The order in the aphorism represents the relative weight to be attached to each; the first, _sruti_, being the most important; the last, _samakhya_, the least. Cf. Jaimini's Sutras, iii. 3, 14; _Mima?saparibhasha_, pp. 8, 9.]

[Footnote 381: _I.e._, Yogi-Yajnavalkya, the author of the _Yajnavalkya-gita_. See Hall, _Bibl. Index_, p. 14; Aufrecht, _Bodl.