C L Kaloo
YOGA, basically means “Union”. It is the Sanskrit Ancestor of the English word “Yoke”. Hence , it comes to mean a method of Spiritual Union. A Yoga is a method by which an individual may become united with the God Head, the reality which underlines this apparent Ephemeral Universe. To achieve such Union is to reach the State of Perfect Yoga.
According to Patanjali / The author of the Sutras – Aphorisms, the mind (Chitta) is made up of three Components, “Manas”, “Buddhi”, and “Ahamkara”. Manas is the recoding faculty which receives impressions gathered by the senses from the outside world . Buddhi is the discriminative faculty which classifies these impressions and reacts to them. Ahamkara is the ego-sense which claim these impressions for its own and stores them up as individual knowledge . Thus, Manas reports, Buddhi decides and Ahamkara boasts of knowledge. God is by definition , Omnipresent being underlying Reality. If the Reality exists at all, it must be everywhere; it must be present in every Sentient being, every inanimate object. God within the Creature is known in the Sanskrit Language as the “Atman” or “Purusha”, the real self. According to the Upanishads and the Bhagavat – Gita, the One Atman is present within all creatures and according to Sankhya Philosophy followed by Patanjali, believed that each individual creature and object has its separate, but identical , “Purusha”. However, for Spiritual aspirants, this Philosophical Point has no Practical importance.
The mind seems to be intelligent and conscious. Yoga Philosophy teachs that it is not. It has only a borrowed intelligence. The “Atman” is intelligence itself, is pure consciousness. The mind merely reflects that consciousness and so appears to be conscious . Knowledge or Perception is a Thought – Wave ( Vritti) in the mind . All Knowledge is therefore Objective. Even what Western Psychologists call introspection or Self Knowledge is objective Knowledge according to Patanjali, since the mind is not the Seer, but only an instrument of knowledge, an object of Perception like the outside world. The “Atman”, the real Seer , remains unknown. Every Perception arouses the ego sense, boasting of knowing things. This Ego-Sense is caused by the Identification of the “Atman” with the mind , senses etc. The real-self , the ‘Atman”, remains for ever outside the Power of thought waves; It is eternally pure, enlightened and free – the only true, unchanging happiness. It follows, therefore, that man can never know his real self as long as the thought waves and ego sense are being identified . In order to become enlightened , we must bring the thought waves under control so that this false identification may cease. The action of the Thought Waves is compared to the image of a lake. If the surface of the Lanke is lashed into waves, the Water becomes muddy and the bottom cannot be seen. The Lake represents the mind and the bottom of the lake – The “Atman”. Thus when the Lake of the mind becomes clear and still, a man knows himself as he really is, always was and always will be. He knows that he is the “Atman”. His “Personality”, his mistaken belief in himself as a separate Unique individual disappears Patanjali in a Yoga – Sutra ( Aphorism) describes it as under :-
“Tada Drustova Savrupay awasthanam.”
Means : Then man abides in his real nature.
In this context, the Lord says in Adhaya 2nd – Shaloka 64 in Bhagwat Gita (2: 64 B.G.)
“Rage – devesa Vikumlaistu- Visayam Indriyan’s Caran,
Atma – Vasyair Vidheyatma – Prasadam Adhiyacchati”.
Means : A man of self control, roaming among material objects with subjugated senses, and devoid of attraction and repulsion, attains an unshakable inner calmness. The Lord makes it clear in this verse that a man of Self Control who finds his senses under the full control of the soul’s discrimination abandons attraction and aversion – the root cause of entanglement in material objects – using his unprejudiced, untangled senses to perform duties, rightfully and joyously. Just as a rich man who succumbs to flattering and temptations loses his money and health, so any man, inherently rich in his soul, when tempted by some inclinations, loses his wealth of peace and his health of spirit. The ordinary unguarded individual who wanders into the territories of temptation falls captive to sense – attraction or aversion , and fails to reach the kingdom of happiness. Thus , the Pathway of life that every incarnate soul must travel to the ultimate goal, leads through the territory of sensations and sense traps. Only the man of self control knows how to behave in the material surroundings through which he must perforce roam and work. Such a self control man puts on an armour of wisdom and non – attachment while he performs his duties in this material world. In other words, he follows the advice of the Lord, in essence, ” Live the world but do not live in it”. By this the Lord meant in the Holy Gita that man should live and fulfill his duties in this world since God puts him here but he should not live in attachment to its wishes and ways”.
Thus, concludingly, it is established that the sense – entangled often find their reason jumping from one sense pleasure to another, seeking the permanent happiness that is promised but never granted by the deceitful senses. The wise man enjoying the pure unchanging Bliss of soul in constant meditation, finds that his reason no longer tempts him to fly from one material object to another, he is guided and guarded solely by a stable discrimination. This is called ” Renewal of the mind,” as one English Saint Paul puts it.
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