Significance of Indian Yoga - An Overview - An Overview 5

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The next great synthesis after the Gita is that of the Tantra.⁷⁹ The literature concerned with the Tantra Shastra or Agamas appears to have been written and completed very largely during the Gupta period, although the traditions, practices and even texts are considered to have existed from very early times. A number of Agamas, such as those of Jainism and Buddhism and others are not in harmony with the Vedas, yet most of the Agamas are in consonance with the Vedas. Of these latter, there are three categories, those in which the object of worship and realisation is Vishnu (known also as Pancharatra or Bhagavata), those in which the object of worship and realisation is Shiva, and those in which the object of worship and realisation is Shakti. In the Shaiva Agamas we find monism, qualified monism and dualism, in the Pancharatra Agama we find qualified monism, and in the Shakta Agama there is only monism. In all the Agamas there are four aspects, the aspect of jnana, the aspect of Yoga, the aspect of Charya, and the aspect of Kriya. Jnana refers to the metaphysical position of the concerned agama; Yoga refers to the practices of self-discipline and psychological development; charya refers to the conduct of the teacher and the example of self-realisation and self-mastery that he provides, and kriya refers to the practices regarding the installation of the image of the deity, worship and ceremonies and congregations of devotees. All the four

aspects are important and complementary to each other. Three important features of the Tantric Yoga are that (a) they emphasise the role that the life-energy can play not only in the discovery and realisation of the higher and the highest objects of worship but also in arriving at control and mastery over the life-forces and activity in the physical world; (b) they emphasise the collective aspect of realisation; and (c) the knowledge and practice of Tantra is made available to all individuals and sections of society. Thus, the concern of Tantra for human life, both individual and collective, is unique and its contribution to the understanding of life is highly significant.

Since the field of Tantra is concentrated very largely on life activities, and since life activities represent a large multiplicity of forces and tendencies, Tantra tends to be multi-sided and even synthetic in character. It is evident that a number of specialised Yogas had already developed by the time we come to the Purano-Tantric age in our history. Prominent among them were HathaYoga, Raja Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. Hatha Yoga had fixed its aim at the conquest of the life and the body, and it sought to rectify the limits of physical and vital functioning and establish a new equilibrium by which the physical would be able to sustain the inrush of an increasing vital force of prana. This new equilibrium would, according to Hatha Yoga, open a power to the universalisation of the individual vitality. Hatha Yoga also aimed at awakening by the processes of asana and pranayama, of the coiled-up serpent energy of dynamism in the vital sheath, pranamaya kosha, and opening to the yogin, fields of consciousness, ranges of experience, abnormal faculties and striking results of control and mastery over the physical body. The secret of

the Hatha Yoga lies in its idea that the soul in the physical body can, by fixed scientific processes, develop power, light, purity, freedom and an ascending scale of spiritual experiences if it dwells more and more constantly in the subtle (sukshma), and the developed causal vehicle (karana sharira). Hatha Yoga also recognises the possibility of the action of prana through nadis or nerve channels of the physical system and it has developed the knowledge of its action in the six chakras⁸⁰or ganglionic centres of the nervous system. The Hatha Yogin attains a complete mastery of the body and the life of a free and effective use of them, and he can turn them for obtaining more important psychical and spiritual effects. Here the Hatha Yoga can come into line with he practices of Raja Yoga, and a point can be reached at which a transition can be made from Hatha Yoga to Raja Yoga.

Raja Yoga aims at the liberation and perfection not of the bodily being but of the mental being; although it admits the utility of asana and pranayama, but not as liberally as in the Hatha Yoga. It fixes its eyes on the chitta, that stuff of mental consciousness in which the activities of the emotional and sensational life and of thought and consciousness arise. The primary movement of Raja Yoga is a careful self-discipline consisting of yama and niyama. By the practice of truth, by renunciation of all forms of egoistic seeking, by abstention from injury to others, by purity, by constant meditation and inclination to the divine Purusha (Ishwara pranidhana), a pure, glad, clear state of mind and heart is established. Next, by simplified device of asana and pranayama, Raja Yoga aims at the control of the body and the vital functions and at the awakening of that internal dynamism, full of a latent super-normal faculty of the coiled and sleeping serpent of

internal Energy, which is called Kundalini in the Yogic terminology. Thereafter, Raja Yoga proceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind through the stages of pratyahara, dharana and dhyana. Achievement of dhyana in which the mind becomes concentrated leads to the state of samadhi which gives an entry into higher states of consciousness. Mental action is liberated from the confusions of the outer-consciousness, and it passes thence to the higher supramental planes in which the individual soul, Purusha, enters into its spiritual existence, distinct and independent of Prakriti, Nature. The ancient system of Raja Yoga aimed not only at the entire control of various states and activities proper to subjective consciousness but included also the control by the subjective consciousness of its outer-activities and environment; it aimed at both swarajya and samrajya.

The path of Knowledge, Jnana Yoga, aims at the realisation of the unique and supreme Self. It proceeds by the method of intellectual reflection, vichara, to right discrimination, viveka. It insists on the rejection of our normal identification with body, life and mind, which are seen as creations of maya, phenomenal consciousness. On its positive side, it is able to arrive at our right identification with the unique Self which is not mutable or perishable. From this point the path, as ordinarily followed, leads to the rejection of the phenomenal worlds from the consciousness as an illusion and the final immergence of the individual soul in the Supreme. A wider pursuit of the path of Knowledge may also lead to an active conquest of the cosmic existence for the divine, no less than to a transcendent.

The path of devotion, Bhakti Yoga, aims at the enjoyment of the supreme Love and Bliss. It utilises normally the

conception of the supreme Lord in His personality as the divine lover and enjoyer of the universe. Bhakti Yoga turns all the normal relations of human life and applies them no longer to transient worldly relations, but to the joy of the All-Loving, the All-Beautiful and the All-Blissful. The normal means used are those of worship and meditation, so as to increase the intensity of the divine relationship. This path, as ordinarily practised, leads the seeker ultimately away from the world-existence to an absorption in the transcendent and supra-cosmic. But a larger path of devotion may extend to the elevation of the whole range of human emotion, sensation and aesthetic perception to the divine level, its spiritualization and the justification of the cosmic labour towards the love and joy of humanity.

The path of works, Karma Yoga, aims at the discovery of the supreme Will and dedication of every human activity to that Will. It begins by the renunciation of all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of the worldly results. By this renunciation, the seeker becomes aware of the Lord of Prakriti as the ultimate doer of all activity. The individual then recognises himself as an instrument of the Supreme and as a conscious centre of divine action in the world. Here also, the object can be the release of the soul from its bondage to the reactions of phenomenal activities and a departure into the Supreme. But a larger path of action would lead to a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action.

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Tantra adopted all these yogas and improved upon them with its special knowledge of the occult worlds and applied

these means for opening up the inner centres, chakras, that window upon the supra-physical and still higher regions. Tantra developed also another sadhana which had its origin in the Veda. This is Mantra Yoga. A mantra is considered a sound-body of a Power charged with the intense vibrations of the spiritual personality or the creator or the seer of the mantra. When a mantra is uttered, under proper conditions, the flame of tapasya and realisation that is lying coiled up in the body of that utterance goes forth to evoke the response of the gods to whom it is addressed. The form of a mantra may be coherent word or may be single letters arranged in a certain order. Tantra has formulated some seed-letters, bijaksharas, which the seeker uses as mantra. These bijaksharas have been endowed with a perennial store of Power by the Tantric seers and it needs only the touch of the Guru to set them awake in the disciple.

As far as the central principle of the Tantric Yoga is concerned, we find that it expressly differentiates itself from the Vedic method of Yoga. All the Vedic methods rely on the force of Knowledge, knowledge that comes by discernment by the intellect or the knowledge of the heart expressed in love and faith or a knowledge in the Will working out through action. In all of them the Lord of the Yoga is the Purusha, the conscious Soul that knows, observes, attracts, and governs. But in Tantra it is rather Prakriti, the nature- Soul, the Energy, the Will-in-Power executed in the universe. Tantra learns and applies the intimate secrets of this Will-in-Power, its method, its tantra, and the tantric Yogin pursues the aims of discipline, mastery, perfection, liberation and beatitude. Instead of drawing back from Manifested Nature and its difficulties, he converts them, seizes them and conquers them. The Tantra emphasises one very important

aspect of the truth, namely the worship of the Energy, Shakti, as the effective force for all attainments. Tantra raises nature in man into manifest power of spirit and it concentrates on the whole nature of the human being for the purpose of the spiritual conversion. It utilises the instrumentation of the forceful Hatha Yogic process, particularly, in the opening up of the nervous centres or the chakras and the passage through them of the awakened Shakti on her way to her union with the Brahman. It also utilises the subtler strain of the Raja Yogic purification, meditation and concentration. It also utilises the leverage of Will force of Karma Yoga, the motive power of devotion, Bhakti Yoga, and the key of Knowledge, Jnana Yoga. But it enlarges their aims and methods in two directions by means of synthetic turn. First, it lays its hands firmly on many of the mainsprings of the human quality, desire, action and it subjects them to an intensive discipline with the self-mastery of its motives as a first aim and their elevation to a diviner spiritual level as its final utility. And secondly, it includes in its objects of Yoga not only liberation, mukti, but also a cosmic enjoyment, bhukt'i, of the power of the Spirit. Thus Tantra becomes a bolder and larger system. It is true that the Tantric system makes liberation the final, but not the only aim. It takes on its way a full perfection and enjoyment of the spiritual power, light and joy in the human existence, and even it has a glimpse of a supreme experience in which liberation and cosmic action and enjoyment are unified in a final overcoming of all opposition and dissonances.⁸¹

It is true that owing to certain of its developments Tantra fell into discredit with those who are not tantrics. This is particularly true in connection with the development of its Vamamarga, left hand path. This path was not content with

exceeding the duality of virtue and sin, but it seemed to make self-indulgence a method of unrestrained social immorality. But in its origin, its two-fold division into the right-hand and left-hand path, dakshina marga and vama marga, started from a certain profound perspective. In the ancient symbolic sense it was the distinction between the way of Knowledge and the way of Ananda. In the way of Knowledge, nature in man liberates itself by the right discrimination in power and practice of its own energies, elements and potentialities. In the way of Ananda, nature in man liberates itself by joyous existence in power and practice of its own energies, elements and potentialities. But the history of the Tantra shows that in both paths there was in the end an obscuration of principles, a deformation of symbols and a fall.