religion & Yoga

[Guest guest]

PSYCHOLOGICAL PRESUPPOSITIONS

 

It is necessary, at the outset, to clear certain misconceptions in regard

to Yoga, prevalent especially among some sections in the West. Yoga is not

magic or a feat of any kind, physical or mental. Yoga is based on a sound

philosophy and deep psychology. It is an educational process by which the

human mind is trained to become more and more natural and weaned from the

unnatural conditions of life. Yoga has particular concern with psychology,

and, as a study of the 'self', it transcends both general and abnormal

psychology, and leads one to the supernormal level of life. In Yoga we

study ourselves, while in our colleges we are told to study objects. Not

the study of things but a study of the very structure of the student is

required by the system of Yoga, for the known is not totally independent of

the knower.

 

How do we know things at all? There is a mysterious process by which we

come to know the world, and life is an activity of such Knowledge. A study

of the mind is a study of its relations to things. The instruction, 'Know

Thyself', implies that when we know ourselves, we know all things connected

with ourselves, i.e., we know the universe. In this study we have to

proceed always from the lower to the higher, without making haste or

working up the emotions.

 

The first thing we are aware of in experience is the world. There are

certain processes which take place in the mind, by which we come to know

the existence of the world. There are sensations, perceptions and

cognitions, which fall under what is known as 'direct perception' or

'direct knowledge' (Pratyaksha) through which the world is known, valued

and judged for purpose of establishing relations. These relations

constitute our social life.A stimulation of the senses takes place by a

vibration that proceeds from the object outside. This happens in two ways:

(1) by the very presence of the object and (2) by the light rays, sound,

etc., that emanate from the object, which affect the retina of the eyes,

the drums of the ears, or the other senses. We have five senses of

knowledge and through them we receive all the information concerning the

world. If the five senses are not to act, we cannot know if there is a

world at all. We, thus, live in a sense-world. When sensory stimulation is

produced by vibrations received from outside, we become active. Sensory

activity stimulates the mind through the nervous system which connects the

senses with the mind by means of the Prana or vital energy. We may compare

these nerve-channels to electric wires, through which the power of the

Prana flows. The Pranas are not the nerves, even as electricity is not the

wires. The Prana is an internal vibration which links the senses with the

mind. Sensations, therefore, make the mind active and the mind begins to

feel that there is something outside. This may be called indeterminate

perception, where the mind has a featureless awareness of the object. When

the perception becomes clearer, it becomes determinate. This mental

perception is usually called cognition.

 

Beyond the mind there is another faculty, called the intellect. It judges

whether a thing is good or bad, necessary or unnecessary, of this kind or

that, etc. It decides upon the value of an object, whether this judgment is

positive or negative, moral, aesthetic or religious. One assesses one's

situation in relation to the object. Some psychologists hold that the mind

is an instrument in the hands of the intellect. Manas is the Sanskrit word

for mind, which is regarded as the THE YOGA SYSTEM 2 Karana or instrument,

while Buddhi is the Sanskrit term for intellect, which is the Karta or

doer. The intellect judges what is cognized by the mind, and makes a

decision as to the nature of the action that has to be taken in respect of

the object in the given circumstances. The intellect is associated with

another principle within, called Ahamkara or ego. 'Aham' means 'I', and

'kara' is that which manifests, reveals or affirms. There is something in

us, which affirms 'I am'. This affirmation is ego. No logic is necessary to

prove the ego, for we do not prove our own existence. This is an

affirmation which requires no evidence, for all logic proceeds from it. The

ego is inseparable from individual intellection, like fire from its heat.

The intellect and ego exist inextricably, and human intellection is the

function of the human ego. The functions of the ego are manifold, and these

form the subject of psychology. There are certain ways in which the

psychological instruments begin to function in relation to objects. The

ego, intellect and mind perform the functions of arrogation, understanding

and thinking of objects. There is also a fourth element, called Chitta,

which is not easily translatable into English. The term 'subconscious' is

usually considered as its equivalent. That which is at the base of the

conscious mind and which retains memory etc., is Chitta or the subconscious

mind. But the Chitta in Yoga psychology includes also what is known as the

unconscious in psychoanalysis. All this functional apparatus, taken

together, is the psyche or Antahkarana, the internal instrument. The

internal organ functions in various forms, and Yoga is interested in a

thorough study of these functions, because the methods of Yoga are intended

to take a serious step in regard to all these psychic functions, finally.

Now, how does the internal organ function? The psyche produces five

reactions in respect of the world outside, some of them being positive and

others negative. These are the themes of general psychology.

 

There are five modes into which the Antahkarana casts itself in performing

its functions of normal life. These modes are called Pramana, Viparyaya,

Vikalpa, Nidra and Smriti.

 

Pramana or right knowledge is awareness of things as they are. This is the

main subject of the studies in logic. Perception, inference and verbal

testimony are the three primary ways of right knowledge. Some add

comparison, presumption and non-apprehension to the usual avenues of such

knowledge. How do we know that there is an object in front of us? We

acquire this knowledge through direct sensory contact. This is perception.

And when we see muddy water in a river, we suppose that there must have

been rains uphill. This knowledge we gather by inference. The words of

others in whom we have faith, also, convey to us true knowledge, as, for

example, when we believe that there is an elephant in the nearby city, on

hearing of it from a reliable friend, though we might not have actually

seen it with our eyes. All these methods together form what goes by the

name of Pramana or direct proof of dependable knowledge.

 

Viparyaya is wrong perception, the mistaking of one thing for another, as,

when we see a long rope in twilight, we usually take it for a snake, or

apprehend that a straight stick immersed in water is bent. When we perceive

anything which does not correspond to fact, the mental mode is one of

erroneous understanding.

 

 

Vikalpa is doubt. When we are not certain whether, for example, a thing we

are seeing is a person or a pole, whether something is moving or not

moving, the perception not being clear, or when we are in any dubious state

of thinking, we are said to be in Vikalpa.

 

Nidra is sleep, which may be regarded as a negative condition, a withdrawal

of mind from all activity. Sleep is nevertheless a psychological condition,

because, though it is not positively connected with the objects of the

world, it represents a latency of the impressions aswell as possibilities

of objective thought. Nidra is the sleep of the Antahkarana.

 

Smriti is memory, the remembrance of past events, the retention in

consciousness of the impressions of experiences undergone previously.

 

All functions of the internal organ can be brought under one or other of

these processes, and subject of general psychology is an elaboration of

these human ways of thinking, understanding, willing or feeling. It does

not mean, however, that we entertain only five kinds of thoughts, but that

all the hundreds of thoughts of the mind can be boiled down to these five

groups of function. The system of Yoga makes a close study of this inner

structure of man and envisages it in its relation to the universe.

 

THE AIM OF OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS

As all thoughts can be reduced to five types of internal function, all

objects can be reduced to five Bhutas or elements. The five great elements

are called Pancha-Maha-bhutas, and they are (1) Ether (Akasa), (2) Air

(Vayu), (3) Fire (agni), (4) Water (Apas) and (5) Earth (Prithivi). The

subtlety of these elements is in the ascending order of this arrangement,

the succeeding one being grosser than the preceding. Also the preceding

element is the cause of the succeeding, so that Ether may be regarded as

containing all things in an unmanifested form. The elements constitute the

whole physical cosmos. These are the real objects of the senses, and all

the variety we see is made up of forms of these objects.

 

Our sensations are the five objects. We sense through the Indriyas or

sense-organs. With the sense of the ear we come in contact with Ether and

hear sound which is a reverberation produced by Ether. Touch is the

property of Air, felt by us with the tactile sense. With the sense of the

eyes we contact light which is the property of Fire. With the palate we

taste things, which is the property of Water. With the nose we smell

objects, and this is the property of Earth.

 

There is the vast universe, and we know it with our senses. We live in a

world of fivefold objects. The senses are incapable of knowing anything

more than these element. The internal organ, as informed and influenced by

the objects, deals with them in certain manners, and this is life. While

our psychological reactions constitute our personal life, the adjustment we

make with others is our social life. The Yoga is primarily concerned with

the personal life of man in relation to the universe, and not the social

life, for, in the social environment, one's real personality is rarely

revealed. Yoga is essentially a study of self by self, which initially

looks like an individual affair, a process of Self-investigation

(Atma-Vichara) and Self-realization (Atma-Sakshatkara).

 

But this is not the whole truth. The Self envisaged here is a consciousness

of gradual integration of reality, and it finally encompasses all

experience and the whole universe in its being. While the psychology of

Yoga comprises the functions of the internal organ, and its physics is of

the five great objects or Mahabhutas, the philosophy of Yoga transcends

both these stages of study. The Yoga metaphysics holds that the body is not

all, and even the five elements are not all. We do not see what is inside

the body and also what is within the universe of five elements. A different

set of senses would be necessary for knowing these larger secrets. Yoga

finally leads us to this point. When we go deep into the body we would

confront its roots; so also in the case of the objects outside. When we set

out on this adventure, we begin to converge slowly at a single centre, like

the two sides of a triangle that taper at one point. The so-called wide

base of the world on which we move does not disclose the truth of ourselves

or of objects. At this point of convergence of ourselves and of things, we

need not look at objects, and here no senses are necessary, for, in this

experience, there are neither selves nor things. There is only one Reality,

where the universal object and the universal subject become a unitary

existence. Neither is that an experience of a subject nor an object, where

is revealed a knowledge of the whole cosmos, at once, not through the

senses, mind or intellect,-for there are no objects,-and there is only

being that is consciousness. Yoga is, therefore, spiritual, superphysical

or supermaterial, because materiality is shed in its achievement, and

consciousness reigns supreme. This is the highest object of Yoga, where the

individual and the universe do not stand apart as two entities but come

together in a fraternal embrace. The purpose of the Yoga way of analysis is

an overcoming of the limitations of both subjectivity and objectivity and a

union of the deepest within us with the deepest in the cosmos.

 

Source :

THE YOGA SYSTEM

By

SRI SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Sri Swami Sivananda

Founder of

The Divine Life Society

 

 

Ashutosh Divecha

Tag Glass Pvt. Ltd.

C-20/5 MIDC

Nagpur 440 028

India

Voice : +91-7104-36163 / 34772

Fax : +91-712-583522

Cell : +91-98230-50160

Email : divecha

www.tagglass.com

http://law.indiainfo.com/divecha.html