principles of yoga and philosophy

Man naturally thinks in extremes or else he reconciles by a patch work and compromise. It is the character of human intellect that it finds it an easy task to distinguish and separate but is clumsy in combining. It feels at ease in pursuing a single idea to its logical consequences and in viewing things from a single standpoint. But to harmonize different ideas in action and to view the facts from different standpoints is contrary to its native impulse, therefore it does that badly, with ill grace and without mastery. The human mind is strong and swift in analysis but it is slow and supple in synthesis. It divides, opposes and places between the oppositions it creates, becomes an eager partisan of one side or another. But to think wisely and impartially and with a certain totality is irksome and disgusting to the normal human mind. This character of human mentality shows itself in the opposition of materialism and idealism in philosophy. Scientific materialism and idealistic monism confront each other as two independent modes of thought. Haeckel and Shri Shankaracharya may be cited as two great representatives of these modes of thought. To the former matter alone is real, spirit is a temporary result of the motions of matter. To the latter phenomenon is a passing shadow on the luminous calm of a single universal spirit. The idealist can give us no satisfactory explanation of the existence of the shadow; he admits that it is inexplicable, a thing that is and yet is not. The materialist also can give us no satisfactory explanation of the existence, he simply tries to trace the stages of its developments and the methods of its workings and covers over the want of an explanation by the abundant minuteness of his observations. But the soul of man, looking within as well as without, is satisfied neither with Haeckel nor with Shri Shankaracharya. It sees the universal existence of phenomena; it sees the universal existence of the intelligence. It seeks a term which will admit both, cover both, identify both; it demands not an elimination of either but a reconciliation. This term of reconciliation is Mahat, cosmic mind or intelligence. The subject matter of yoga is this Mahat and it studies the cosmic mind with its implications, effects and relationship with the human mind and the outside world.

A large number of people, both in the East and the West are genuinely interested in the subject of Yoga. This is natural because a man who has begun to question life and its deeper problems desires something more definite and vital for his spiritual needs than a mere promise of heavenly joys. Those who have lost faith in orthodox religion and yet feel that their life is not a meaningless phenomenon, naturally turn to the philosophy of yoga for the solution of problems connected with higher life.

The philosophy of yoga deals with some of the great problems of life and the universe and so it is but natural to be associated with a spiritual atmosphere. If the doctrines of yoga are studied in the light of both ancient and modern thought, it is much easier for student to understand and appreciate them. The discoveries made in the field of science are especially helpful in enabling the student to understand certain facts of yogic life, for there is certain correspondence between the laws of higher life and the life on the physical plane.

Some teachers of yoga have attempted to meet the difficulty by taking out of the philosophy and technique of yoga, those particular practices which are easy to understand and practise. Many of these practices like Asana and Pranayama are more of a physical nature and when divorced from the higher and essential teachings of Yoga, they are reduced to a mere system of physical culture. This over simplification of the problem of yogic life has greatly minimised the importance of yoga and produced a wrong impression about the real purpose and technique of yoga.

What is needed for the average student of yoga is a clear intelligible presentation of its philosophy and technique which gives a correct and balanced idea of all its aspects in terms of modern thought. The general philosophy and the broader aspects of its technique can be understood by a student who is familiar with the main trends of philosophical thought, and is prepared to bring to his study an open and eager mind. It is only when he enters the path of practical yoga and brings about a new orientation in his thought that he can hope to gain real insight into the problems of yoga and their solution.

The science of yoga is comprehensive in its nature and profound in its doctrines so much so that it cannot be fitted into the frame work of any particular philosophy, ancient and modern. It stands in its own right as a science based upon the laws of the higher life and does not recognise the support of any science or philosophical system to uphold its claims. Its truths are based on the experiences and experiments of an unbroken line of saints and sages who have realised and borne witness to them throughout ages. Although an attempt has been made to explain the teachings of yoga on a rational basis so that the student may be able to grasp them easily, the facts of higher life gained through the practice of yoga, appeal more to the intuition than to the intellect.

The acceptance of authority of the Scriptures by the different systems of Indian thought is an admission that intuitive insight is greater than intellectual understanding in the abstruse problems of philosophy. Buddha emphasises the importance of Bodhi or enlightenment. This Bodhi amounts to realising in life the basic unity of existence. Sri Shankara regards Anubhava or integral experience as the highest kind of apprehension. Buddhaghosh makes Pragna or intuitive knowledge superior to Vignana or logical understanding. Different names are given to this intuitive knowledge which is not due to senses or inference such as Pratibha, Arsagnana, siddhadarshana and Yogipratyaksha. While the dominant feature of Indian thought is its insistence on creative intuition, the Western systems are generally characterised by a greater adherence to critical intelligence.

The cognative experience resulting in a knowledge of the Real is produced in three ways, they are - sense experience, discursive reasoning and intuitive apprehension. Sense experience helps us to know the outer characters of the external world, by means of it we obtain an acquaintance with the sensible qualities of the objects. Its data of the subject matter of natural science which builds up a conceptual structure could describe them. Logical knowledge is obtained by the process of analysis and synthesis which yields conceptual explanation. This conceptual knowledge is indirect and symbolic in character. Bergson opines that logical knowledge takes us away from the individual and the actual into a world of abstractions, while intuitive knowledge gives us an insight into the nature of the real. For by intuitive knowledge we see things as they are, as unique individuals and not as members of a class or units in the crowd. Intuitive knowledge is non-sensuous, immediate and direct. In yoga it is termed Aparoksha which means knowledge that arises from an intimate fusion of mind with reality. It is knowledge by identity and not by senses or by symbols.

The illustration of intuitive insight given by yoga is knowledge of the self to become aware of our Self directly by a sort of identity with it. Self knowledge is the presupposition of every other kind of knowledge whether sensuous or logical. All experience be it cognitive, conative or affective is experience to the I and the I is implicit in all awareness. This I is not the body however intimate it may be. The I implicit in all knowledge is not something either sensed or inferred by logic, but something immediately lived and known by experience.

The Greek aphorism know thyself is akin to the Upanishad precept Atamanum Viddhi. By a process of abstraction we get behind the layers of body, mind and intellect and reach the universal Self. In the philosophy of Upanishad the Self or the Atman is everything; it is even identified with Brahman, the universal soul. In the sixth chapter of the Chhandogya Upanishad, there is a characteristic dialogue between Uddalaka and his son Swetaketu in which all the examples conclude with the famous sentence Tatwamasi, Thou art that; that is to say thy soul is one with the universal soul.

There are certain schools of philosophy which deny the existence of self, and there are a few for which the self is everything. Yoga maintains the reality of self but it is of opinion that the self is a notion which is relative in the sense that there is no self without the Supreme, without an Other which is not wholly Other, a beyond that is within. This relation of the Self and the Supreme varies with the evolutionary level of the individual. For the savage or the primitive man the self is his body, his senses, the whole physical support of his joys and appetites, while the other is all that is not his body. For the man who has learnt to think a little and who no longer identifies himself completely with his physical body, the self becomes a psychic being. His body does not belong to the self but enters the realm of the not self. Then comes a further stage, the one described by Descartes in his famous sentence, Cogito ergo sum; I think therefore I am. Here man has learnt to identify himself with his thinking principle; he has learnt to dominate his body and his emotions which are no more the essence of his self. Through his mental self he put himself in tune with all the thinkers and understands them, whether they belong to the present or the past.

There exists a still higher faculty in man; it rises within him in rare moments of deep self-recollection or a great wave of enthusiasm. This faculty is known as intuition with which I have already dealt. It is constantly present with some of the pioneers of humanity, the great sages, the mystics and the yogis. By impersonal love and by wonderful attunement of his vibrations, man enters into direct communion with the Supreme from within.

Thus there exists an ascent of the self and the Supreme in succession. Each time the I or the self becomes a deeper and more interior reality, the realm of the Supreme with which the self comes into contact, becomes larger and richer. In the light of this ascent one understands better this passage of Chhandogya Upanishad - "This self within the heart is smaller than a grain of rice, smaller than a corn of barley, smaller than a mustard seed ... this self within the heart is greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than the heaven, greater than all these worlds. Let us use another image and say that the self is smaller than atom, smaller than the kernel of the atom, smaller than an electron but never-the-less greater than this vast universe." What does all this mean? It means that at one end the self is individual and at the other end it is universal, and the universal is immanent in the individual. In the words of Christ the self is the Kingdom of Heaven which is present in the heart of one and all.

In the gospels many parables are devoted to the Kingdom of Heaven, and this Heaven is not only the paradise of devout people, it is also the divine self in man. It is in this sense that the parables find their significance. The Kingdom of Heaven is at the same time that which is the smallest and that which is the greatest, and the Christ uses in this connection an Image very similar to the Chhandogya Upanishad." The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field... which is indeed the least of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs and becometh a tree so that the birds of air come and lodge in the branches thereof."

Like the self the Kingdom of Heaven penetrates and vivifies all things, for it is "like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a pearl for the acquisition of which a merchant sold all that he had." The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered fish of every kind...which when it was full they drew to shore and gathered the good but cast the bad away."

Man is indeed an eternal fisher: constantly he casts in the ocean of life the net of his desires, of his thoughts and of his deeds. Most of his activities are vain and the net he draws ashore is almost empty or filled with useless booty. However from time to time he fishes a feeling of devotion, a thought of understanding, an act of sacrifice, a sentiment of love and at each such time he comes a little nearer to the Kingdom of Heaven, to the Divine self within. This Kingdom, this deeper self can only be approached by dint of simplicity and purity, that is why in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven man must become as a little child and lose all the complications of his inner life. To become as a little child means to pass through a new birth, a birth into the spiritual. Man is born into the world of matter and of necessity but he is to be reborn in the world of spirit and of affinity. This rebirth denotes the spiritual life which is nothing else than the living understanding of the unity that binds us all to our fellow beings and to the rest of the world. This unity may be intellectually perceived as a universal law, a supreme synthesis of ever greater laws. This road is being trodden by the man of science. But this unity has to be felt and realised in the depth of the being. It is this sense of unity, it is this intuitive grasp of unity that characterises the Yogi. Man will have accomplished his mission on earth when he has found his real self, when the great lesson of universal unity has been thoroughly - apprehended.

It is generally accepted that the tradition of Yoga is very old and that it was well established during the Indus valley civilization, about more than 5000 years ago. The world - wide interest in this tradition during the last three or four decades has decisively initiated a process in which yoga is being studied more as a science than as an art.

The vast storehouse of scientific knowledge and the scientific experiment reinforced by a rigorous inductive method is being brought about to bear upon the theory and practice of yoga. In this slow and steady process the interpretation of yogic insights and experiences in modern scientific terms is expected to play the important role of a catalyst.

There has been a renaissance of yoga during the recent past. This rebirth has taken three major directions. The first is the establishment of an nexus between yoga and vedanta. The second is the spread of yoga with its attendant benefits in India and West. The third is the application of yoga as preventive and curative therapy for diseases of body and mind.

Experimental evidence and controlled clinical tests in India and abroad reveal the efficience of yogic techniques in stabilising blood pressure, in controlling cardiac impulse, in rejuveanting the endocrine metabolism and in improving concentration, meditation and efficiency of work.

The latest research into meditation, bio-feed back and chemistry with the discovery of such chemicals as enkephalins has revealed that we hold the key to healing within ourselves. We do not have to rely solely on external forms of therapy. Scientists are now searching for new methods to turn on the switches to increase the endocrine secretions at will. In order to balance the metabolism and nervous system: research indicates that yoga possesses the techniques required to do this. What we need today in a re-examination of science in terms of its fundamental, metaphysical assumptions. Today science is limited and biased in its outlook. It is true that modern science has generated new technology, has placed man on moon, has devised new organisms and so on. But in terms of human consciousness it does not tell us much. To recognise that consciousness is causal even though it is not physically measured, is an important factor in the science of yoga. Yoga affirms that consciousness is not a product of matter but it is causal and fundamental.

Yoga system lays emphasis on the ethical preparation as the fundamental requisite for the sadhak or aspirant who wishes to tread the path of yoga. Yama and Niyama or the moral ten commandments are to be observed by the aspirant who hopes to gain enlightenment in his pilgrims progress. Yoga philosophy warns against seeking siddhis or psychic powers, without a firm moral foundation. Saint Paul also spoke at length on the same matter, using different terminology. He plainly recognises that man has a spiritual body, separable from the physical body and that there are diversities of gifts such as clairvoyance, prophecy, healing, mediumship etc, he emphasises that without a solid moral foundation in one's character, such abilities are as sounding brass of a tinkling cymbal.

Robert Mullers speaks about the four cries of humanity the cry for physical life, the cry for mental fulfilment, the cry for morality and the cry for spirituality. The last cry has not yet been recognised sufficiently. We need an education for global spirituality beginning with the individual and ending with humanity. Spirituality is concerned with the process where by consciousness grows and develops to incorporate and absorb increasingly higher levels of being and this concerns all spheres of life - science, arts, politics, psychology, healing business and education. A holistic global vision should permeate that is at once transcendent and immanent.

Spirituality is yoga and yoga is an experience of the powerful presence of the spirit or Atman. Spirituality or yoga is not static but it is a dynamic process of transformation and growth; it is an integral part of human development towards maturity in both the individual collective spheres.

The principles of yoga philosophy are as follows:

There is the recognition of universal life informed by the cosmic intelligence. There is an unbroken continuity of life represented by various orders of beings of which the individual is only a unit. There is an unbroken line of communication through all these orders so that at whatever stage the individual may be, he will always find the possibility of communicating with the individuals, whether they be incarnate or disincarnate, who represent a further stage than that which he himself has attained. Thus in principle it becomes necessary to believe in masters, initiates and higher beings in an unbroken line up to the Logos itself.