what is yoga?

Yoga advances three doctrines which evince the possibility of individual development. The first of these doctrines is universality of consciousness; the second is the doctrine of reincarnation and the third is the doctrine of the septenary constitution of man. Man is a conscious being but there are grades: the unconscious, the conscious, the sub-conscious and the super-conscious. In spite of this gradation consciousness is one and universal. Steady the flame in a gas jet. What is it that makes the atoms of carbon and the atoms of oxygen rush together with so fierce a love as to burst into a flame? It is consciousness. The consciousness of the individual is not the sum total of the consciousness of all the atoms composing his body. The individual has a consciousness of his own. There is a process to expand the individual consciousness so as to embrace the universal consciousness. That process is known as Yoga.

Yoga advances the theory of incarnation because this single life of man is wholly inadequate ot its full development. Yoga teaches that man has not only one life but many lives and that each life is an advance upon the preceding one. Death is only a larger sleep, a sleep needed to give rest to the psychic being. Reincarnation is only the ethical aspect of the theory of evolution. There is a steady and upward climb of life from the inorganic to the organic, from the organic to the sentient, from the sentient to the rational, from the rational to the spiritual. The spiritual fellowship of mankind is the last word of evolution. Jalaluddin Rumi sings of reincarnation in eloquent terms.

I died as a mineral and became a plant,

I died as a plant and rose to the animal,

I died as an animal and became a man.

Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?

Yet once more I shall die as man to soul

With angels blest, but even from angel-hood

I must pass on. All except God must perish

When I have sacrificed my angel soul

I shall become what no mind can ever conceive

Oh! Let me not exist for non-existence

Proclaims in organ tones

To Him we shall return.

The third is the septenary constitution of man. Man is a conscious being and consciousness is the sine qua non of man. There is a sequence of psychological phases of consciousness and the same succession of phases is observed in all evolutionary cycles. In every case consciousness has been found to work through functions which follow each other in definite sequence. There is a sevenfold sequence of phases of consciousness. In the physical consciousness the self becomes the material being, Annamaya Purusha. In the vital consciousness the self becomes the vital being, Pranamaya Purusha. In the mental consciousness the self becomes the mental being, Manomaya Purusha. In the intellectual consciousness the self becomes the rational being, Vijnanamaya Purusha. In the beatific consciousness the self becomes the blissful being, Anandmaya Purusha. In the consciousness of self-awareness the self becomes all conscious being, Chaitanya Purusha. In the consciousness of pure existence the self becomes the divine being.