“He who interrupts the course of his spiritual exercises and prayer is like the man who allows a bird to escape from his hand; he can hardly catch it again.” – St. John of the Cross1
In our examination of the Hindu description of ultimate reality we have identified distinct nuances during the three early stages:
- The Vedas pass through polytheism to the recognition of a singular apex deity, a God of goodness, who has created a unity of thought and essence among all living beings.
- The Upanishads discover profound metaphysical tenets of (1) the eternal cosmic rhythm of Creation, Maintenance, and Dissolution, (2) Brahman – the universal spirit, (3) Âtman – our deepest inner self, (4) the Highest Good – Knowledge of the unity of Brahman and ātman, (5) Samsara (reincarnation) and moksha (liberation from rebirth), (6) Karma – actions and their unavoidable or Providnential consequences upon the actor, and (7) “Om” (or “Aum”) – the sacred sound which symbolizes God (the Absolute), and is the optimal focus for meditation.
- The Bhagavad Gita presents a highly lyrical yet pragmatic text describing: (1) metaphysical principles of Brahman, atman, monism, the gunas, and freedom (moksha), (2) the unitary, supreme, infinite deity, common to all religions, who takes on historical incarnations and is personally interested in humanity, (3) the innermost depth of one’s consciousness where the atman and divinity are directly experienced, and (4) three ethical disciplines – bhakti yoga (the path of devotion), karma yoga (the path of action), and jnana yoga (the path of knowledge) – that one blends based on personal attributes and aptitudes in order to fulfill one’s dharma or particular role in the cosmos.
Our next thinker, Patanjali, repackages Hindu metaphysics and reinvigorates the path of meditation (rajas yoga) in his highly practical text, the Yoga Sutra. The word yoga here refers to ‘yoking’ one’s consciousness to spiritual liberation.2 Patanjali’s dates remain uncertain with some authorities choosing an individual by that name who lived around 150 B.C.E., while others attribute the text to a later person who lived about 400 C.E. Regardless, the Yoga Sutra contains 195 aphorisms that offer both an analysis of how ignorance leads to human suffering, and a succinct description of the discipline by which one achieves spiritual freedom.
Let’s begin with Patanjali’s metaphysics. He professes a dualism: purusha is the spiritual element in reality and prakriti is the material or phenomenal aspects of the world.3 Inanimate matter and perhaps non-human life are pure purusha while humans are a mixture of purusha and prakriti. Human suffering and imprerfection originate from attachment of the spirit to the physical – the body, material goods, etc. Patanjali’s position is that liberation comes by achieving an enduring equilibrium between the two primal principles.4 At the most basic level the individual must learn to distinguish the “seer” – one’s unchanging self or atman (one’s purusha) from the “seen” – the realm of change and matter (prakriti). Deep knowledge of this difference (viveka khyatir) holds the key to undoing karma.6 It is also worth noting that God and the divine receive less emphasis by Patanjali.
(continued next post)
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1Huxley, Aldous, The Perennial Philosophy. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1945. Page 292.
2Most Westerners think of the practice of postures, hatha-yoga, as “yoga” but historically that form has been given less weight, while the ascetic component presented here has been emphasized. See also my earlier post SUFFERING – ASCETICISM – PART III – PATANJALI on this site dated 4/6/2020.
3Patanjali is not the originator of this dualism which in fact first appears in the Upanishads and is referenced in the Bhagavad Gita, but Patanjali clearly re-centers our understanding around this dyad.
4Miller, Barbara Stoler (translator), Yoga: Discipline of Freedom. Bantam Books, New York, 1998. ISBN 978-0-553-37428-5, page 5.
5 McGreal, Ian P. (editor) Great Thinkers of the Eastern World. HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, 1995. ISBN 0-06-270085-5, page 181.
