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Raja-yoga refers to the practices codified in Patanjali's Yoga-sutra and is also
known as astanga-yoga and classical-yoga. The term raja (from the verb root raj
= 'to reign, to illuminate') means 'royal', the inference being that through raja-yoga
we can master or become king of ourselves. The compound raja-yoga seems to have
been used from around the 11th century or later in attempts to understand the proper
relation between the yoga of Patanjali and hatha-yoga (which emerged as a recognisable
path from Tantra towards the end of the first millennium C.E.). In this context
the term raja is used to position hatha-yoga as a preparation for what was considered
to be the higher meditative practices of classical-yoga. The popular medieval hatha-yoga
manual Hatha-yoga-pradipika seems to echo this positioning:
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All the methods of hatha are meant for gaining success in the
raja-yoga; for, the man, who is well established in the raja-yoga, overcomes death'
(IV. 102);
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as does the opening verse of the Gheranda-samhita:
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I bow to that Lord Primeval who taught in the beginning the science
of the training in hardiness [hatha-yoga] – a science that stands out as the first
rung on the ladder that leads to the supreme heights of raja-yoga.
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One of the reasons why the authors of these hatha-yoga manuals may have been inclined
to define the relationship between their school and raja-yoga is that the Yoga-sutra
of Patanjali is regarded as the classical exposition of Hindu yoga. Tradition identifies
Patanjali with the famous grammarian of the second century B.C.E., and also asserts
that he was an incarnation of the Lord of serpents, Adisesa or Ananta, who is often
represented as the couch on which Lord Visnu reclines. However modern scholars tend
to place the Yoga-sutra in the second century C.E., which means that either the
text we have now is a later version, or that the grammarian and the yogin are not
the same person. The Yoga-sutra has been the subject of many extensive commentaries,
the most notable being the Yoga-bhasya of Vyasa (c. 5th century C.E.) and the Tattva-vaisaradi
of Vacaspati-misra (c. 9th C.E.), and it remains the focal text for many schools
of yoga today.
Purusa and Prakrti
Patanjali's classical formulation of yoga is also one of the six darsanas (from
drs, 'to see') or orthodox philosophical schools of Hinduism, the other five being
Samkhya, Vedanta, Mimamsa, Vaisesika and Nyaya. The Yoga-darsana bears the implicit
influence of Buddhism, especially in its analysis of suffering and the means that
are recommended to alleviate it. However it is most closely associated with the
Samkhya-darsana, with which it shares many of its central doctrines (so much so
that some commentators discuss the two darsanas together under the heading of ‘Samkhya-Yoga’).
According to both Samkhya and Yoga, there are two basic and independent categories
of being: prakrti and purusa. Prakrti (from the verb root kr = 'to make, to do'
+ pra = 'forth') is the unconscious but fundamental activity that produces the manifest
universe. Purusa is pure consciousness, unchanging and unattached, yet individuated
insofar as purusas are thought to be infinite in number.
There is no intrinsic relation between prakrti and purusa, but prakrti is said to
exist for the sake of purusa, their conjunction (samyoga) enabling the purusa's
recognition of its own true nature as wholly independent of prakrti in all its aspects.
The unenlightened purusa fails to recognise itself as such because it identifies
with the contents of citta (from cit = 'to perceive, observe, know'), which for
Patanjali is the individuated awareness associated with buddhi (intelligence), ahamkara
(ego), and the indriyas which are the five senses (vision, hearing, touch, taste
and smell) or organs of knowledge (eyes, ears, skin, tongue and nose), and the five
organs of action (the voice, hands, feet, and the organs of excretion and reproduction).
In his commentary on the Yoga-sutra, Vacaspati-misra likens the relation between
purusa and prakrti to the reflection of the moon in water. Although the moon is
not actually present in the water, its reflection gives the impression of it being
so. Similarly, even though purusa is never actually entangled in prakrti, the impression
of it being so is given by its reflection in the citta that it falsely identifies
with. And just as the reflection of the moon illuminates the water, so does purusa
illuminate prakrti. However just as disturbances in the water distort the reflection
of the moon, so is purusa unable to recognise itself when citta is restless and
disturbed due the varying influence of the gunas.
The gunas are the three basic qualities (or constituents) of prakrti. They combine
in an infinite variety of ways to determine the characteristics of all things, including
mental states: sattva is pure, steady and buoyant; rajas is activity and passion;
while tamas is dullness, inertia and ignorance. When citta is predominantly rajasic
or tamasic, the individual purusa is unable to recognise itself and so remains identified
with the play of gunas. When citta is predominantly sattvic, the reflection of purusa
in prakrti is pure and steady, and this makes it possible for purusa to recognise
itself as the consciousness illuminating citta. Patanjali defines yoga in just this
way, as the cessation of the fluctuations of citta (citta-vrtti-nirodah, I.2), the
implication being that when citta is held steady it is possible for the individual
purusa to realise its true nature.
The conjunction of purusa and prakrti therefore ends when purusa is able to discriminate
between itself and prakrti. For both Samkhya and Yoga this discrimination (viveka)
is synonymous with liberation or kaivalya, which can be translated as aloofness,
aloneness, or isolation, and refers to the irrevocable separation of the individual
purusa from prakrti. Where Samkhya and Yoga differ is in the means recommended to
achieve kaivalya. Samkhya favours a kind of jnana-yoga in which the required discrimination
(viveka) is developed though reason alone. Patanjali seems to be less confident
of the effectiveness of reason alone when confronting an unruly citta, so he gives
us a graduated system of spiritual disciplines that aims to restrain the movements
of citta through the cultivation of an unwavering concentration (samadhi). When
citta is held steady discrimination (viveka) arises naturally, and with it kaivalya
and an end to the suffering that accompanies the cycle of birth, death and rebirth
(samsara).
Klesas
According to Patanjali, then, all suffering is the result of the conjunction (samyoga)
of the seer (drasta or purusa) and the seen (drsya or prakrti) (II.17). Patanjali's
analysis of this suffering takes the form of a fivefold classification of the ways
in which purusa’s mistaken identification with the contents of the citta manifests.
These are referred to as the klesas (from the verb root klis = 'to suffer, torment
or distress') or afflictions.
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The first of the five klesas, as well as the source of the others, is ignorance
or avidya (from the verb root vid = 'to know' + a = 'not). Avidya is ignorance of
the true nature of purusa, and so is the root affliction that the liberating discrimination
discussed above aims to remove.
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Asmita is the sense of 'I-am-ness' that gives rise to the ego-self. It derives from
the false identification of purusa with citta; from the erroneous belief that the
seer is of the same order as the means of knowledge and the objects known. When
kaivalya is attained asmita is replaced by the self-knowledge of purusa.
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Raga is attachment to the pleasurable experiences that complement purusa's entanglement
in prakrti.
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Dvesa (from the verb root dvis = 'to abhor') is aversion to unpleasant experiences.
Both raga and dvesa are supported by the assumption that the manifestations of prakrti
provide the only standard of what is to be desired and avoided. This in turn implies
a failure, whether through ignorance or indifference, to acknowledge that a higher
good awaits those who are willing to turn away from the pleasures and aversions
of sense experiences in order to steady the citta.
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The fifth and final klesa is abhinivesa, which is an instinctive clinging to life
and a concomitant fear of death. Abhinivesa is a natural extension of the previous
three klesas and arguably their culmination. From the perspective of purusa, death
is merely the dissolution of elements of prakrti that it falsely identified with.
From the standpoint of asmita or the 'I-am-ness' that accompanies this identification,
though, life and death represent the beginning and end of the ego-self, and so abhinivesa
is entirely understandable. Clinging to life is also raga insofar as we resist being
separated from pleasant experiences and remain attached to the belief that life
is the most precious thing we have. The greater our attachment to living the more
intense our fear of death. For many death is the experience desired the least, and
therefore that which we are most averse to.
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Proceeding from the fundamental affliction of avidya, the klesas describe not only
the ways in which this ignorance of our true nature manifests, but also some of
the major motivating factors in our daily lives. For instance Utilitarian ethics,
which influences the shaping of public policy in many modern democracies, aims to
create the 'greatest good for the greatest number', and the 'good' is usually defined
as that which maximises pleasure or happiness and/or minimises suffering. If we
add to the mix the instinctual and moral drives to preserve life, then we can appreciate
the extent to which Patanjali's analysis of the causes of human suffering corresponds
to the elements that many of us believe are essential to a 'good life'.
Keeping this in mind, we can also appreciate how Patanjali's remedy for suffering
takes us against the tide of everyday life. This is quite deliberate, though, as
the ultimate aim of steadying citta is to disentangle purusa from its presumed involvement
in the manifestations of prakrti. The first and most subtle evolute of prakrti,
and therefore also the core of the citta, is buddhi (from the verb root budh = 'to
enlighten, to know') which is discriminative awareness or intelligence. By steadying
citta the usual movement of awareness towards the senses is reversed by first restricting
and then eliminating all modifications of buddhi.
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