The Study and Practice of Yoga
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THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF YOGA AN EXPOSITION OF THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI VOLUME II – SADHANA PADA, VIBHUTI PADA AND KAIVALYA PADA SWAMI KRISHNANANDA The Divine Life Society Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India Website: www.swami-krishnananda.org ABOUT THIS EDITION Though this eBook edition is designed primarily for digital readers and computers, it works well for print too. Page size dimensions are 5.5" x 8.5", or half a regular size sheet, and can be printed for personal, non-commercial use: two pages to one side of a sheet by adjusting your printer settings. 2 CONTENTS THE SADHANA PADA Chapter 52: Yoga Practice: A Series of Positive Steps ................ 7 Chapter 53: A Very Important Sadhana ........................................ 21 Chapter 54: Practice Without Remission of Effort ................... 31 Chapter 55: The Cause of Bondage.................................................. 43 Chapter 56: Lack of Knowledge is the Source of Suffering .... 55 Chapter 57: The Four Manifestations of Ignorance ................. 67 Chapter 58: Pursuit of Pleasure is Invocation of Pain ............. 80 Chapter 59: The Self-Preservation Instinct ................................. 94 Chapter 60: Tracing the Ultimate Cause of Any Experience ........................................................................... 106 Chapter 61: How the Law of Karma Operates ......................... 118 Chapter 62: The Perception of Pleasure and Pain ................. 131 Chapter 63: The Cause of Unhappiness ...................................... 141 Chapter 64: Disentanglement is Freedom ................................. 154 Chapter 65: Karma, Prakriti and the Gunas .............................. 166 Chapter 66: Understanding the Nature of Objects ................. 176 Chapter 67: Consciousness is Being ............................................ 188 Chapter 68: The Cause of Experience ......................................... 200 Chapter 69: Understanding World-Consciousness ............... 211 Chapter 70: The Seven Stages of Perfection ............................. 223 Chapter 71: The Eight Limbs or Stages of Yoga ...................... 236 Chapter 72: The Preparatory Disciplines .................................. 246 Chapter 73: Negative Check and Positive Approach ............. 259 Chapter 74: The Principles of Yama and Niyama ................... 272 Chapter 75: Self-Control, Study and Devotion to God .......... 284 Chapter 76: Asana is Fixity of Position ....................................... 296 Chapter 77: The Importance of Asana and Pranayama ....... 308 Chapter 78: Kumbhaka and Concentration of Mind ............. 322 Chapter 79: The Inclination of The Mind for Concentration ..................................................................... 335 Chapter 80: Pratyahara: The Return of Energy ...................... 349 3 Chapter 81: The Application of Pratyahara .............................. 362 THE VIBHUTI PADA Chapter 82: The Effect of Dharana or Concentration of Mind ................................................................................... 373 Chapter 83: Choosing an Object for Concentration ............... 388 Chapter 84: The Need for Caution When Stirring Inner Potencies .............................................................................. 401 Chapter 85: The Interrelatedness of All Things ...................... 410 Chapter 86: The Hurdle of the Ego in Yoga Practice ............. 421 Chapter 87: Absorbing Space and Time into Consciousness .................................................................... 434 Chapter 88: Samyama: The Union of Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi ................................................................................. 448 Chapter 89: The Levels of Concentration .................................. 460 Chapter 90: Generating the Mood for Yoga .............................. 472 Chapter 91: The Integrating Force ............................................... 484 Chapter 92: The Working of Nature’s Law ............................... 496 Chapter 93: Removing the Ego with the Process of Samyama .............................................................................. 509 Chapter 94: Understanding the Structure of Things ............. 519 Chapter 95: Liberation is the Only Aim of Yoga ...................... 530 Chapter 96: Powers that Accrue in the Practice of Samyama .............................................................................. 542 Chapter 97: Sublimation of Object-Consciousness ................ 556 Chapter 98: The Transformation from Human to Divine ... 568 THE KAIVALYA PADA Chapter 99: The Entry of the Eternal into the Individual ... 581 Chapter 100: The Exhaustion of All Karmas ............................ 592 Chapter 101: The Wheel of Karma ............................................... 603 Chapter 102: Avoiding Karma That Has Not Yet Germinated .......................................................................... 614 Chapter 103: Putting an End to Rebirth ..................................... 624 4 Chapter 104: The Double Activity in Mental Cognition ....... 637 Chapter 105: Absorption Into Universal Subjectivity .......... 648 Chapter 106: The Dual Pull of Purusha and Objects ............. 660 Chapter 107: The Bestowal of a Divine Gift .............................. 672 Chapter 108: Infinity Coming Back to Itself ............................. 684 Chapter 109: The Condition Prior to Final Absorption ....... 696 Chapter 110: Recapitulation and Conclusion .......................... 708 Samadhi Pada .................................................................... 708 Sadhana Pada .................................................................... 710 Vibhuti Pada ...................................................................... 711 Kaivalya Pada .................................................................... 713 Conclusion .......................................................................... 715 5 6 THE SADHANA PADA Chapter 52 YOGA PRACTICE: A SERIES OF POSITIVE STEPS The great adventure of yoga is not easy for those whose minds are distracted with various occupations. The difficulty with the human mind is that it cannot be wholly interested in anything. While on the one hand there is a pressure of the mind towards taking interest in things, there is, simultaneously, a peculiar cussedness of the mind on account of which it cannot take interest in anything for all times. It has a peculiar twofold rajas, or inability to rest in itself, working behind it, inside it and outside it—from all sides—as a disturbing factor. There is no harm in taking interest in anything; but the interest should be only in one thing, not in many things. Anything in this world can be taken as a medium for the liberation of the soul. An object of sense can cause bondage; it also can cause liberation under certain conditions. When an object becomes merely one among the many—just one individual in a group—and the interest in the object may shift to another object after a period of time, then that object becomes a source of bondage, because it is not true that any single individual object can manifest the wholeness of truth in itself. Such an apprehension that any peculiar individual feature can reveal the whole of truth is regarded as the lowest type of understanding. Yat tu kṛtsnavad ekasmin 7 kārye saktam ahaitukam, atattvārthavad alpaṁ ca tat tāmasam udāhṛtam (B.G. XVIII.22), says the Bhagavadgita. The lowest type of knowledge is where a person clings to an object as if it is everything and there is nothing outside it— it is all reality. But, this feeling that a peculiar object is all reality is not sincere. It is an insincere feeling which can subject itself to modifications under other circumstances. “My child, thou art everything,” says a mother to her only child. But she has a false affection because she does not really believe that it is everything, though there is an expression of that kind when emotions prevail. If that child is everything, she cannot have interest in anything else in this world. But, is it true? She has hundreds of interests other than her baby, though she falsely makes an exclamation that it is everything—her soul, her heart, her alter ego, and what not. Likewise, under limited conditions we temporarily exclaim our feelings of brotherliness and friendliness with things of the world, but these feelings are projected by conditions. When the conditions are lifted, the feelings also get lifted. Such a state of mind is unfit for yoga. But when the very same object that has been wrongly regarded as a thing of attachment becomes an object of possession exclusively, it can also liberate the soul. One of the principles of yoga is that any object in this world has two characteristics: enjoyment and bondage on one side, and experience and liberation on the other side. This philosophy of the twofold character of an object is vastly emphasised in the Tantra Shastra, where nothing in this world is to be regarded as evil, unnecessary, useless or meaningless—everything has a meaning of its own. And, 8 the seed of this philosophy is recognised in a sutra of Patanjali himself: bhogāpavargārtham dṛśyam (II.18). The drisya, or the object, is for two purposes: for our enjoyment and bondage, and, under different conditions, also for our freedom. Thus, a thing in this world is neither good nor bad. We cannot make any remark about any object in this world wholly, unlimitedly or unconditionally; all remarks about things are conditional. Things are useful,