Synthesis of Yoga in the Upanishads

Part Three

General Remarks

There is profuse richness in the records of yoga that we find in the Vedic Samhitas and Upanishads, and also in the Brahmanas and Aranyakas to some extent. The exposition that is presented is somewhat detailed, and it is likely to appear much too repetitive. But considering the immense richness of the original material, what has been presented, may appear to some, too scanty and too selective. Our object is to present sufficient material that might bring out not only the richness of the yogic experiences that we find in "humanity's earliest records of yoga but also to show the patterns and systems of yogic methods which had come to be developed.

There have been many philosophical treatises that aim at commenting and explaining the contents of the Vedas and Upanishads. The related philosophical treatises present :controversies that reflect rival philosophical systems. In our presentation, we have avoided philosophical interpretations, since our aim is to present significant passages that relate to yogic methods and yogic realizations, leaving the task of philosophical discussions to researchers who may be interested in such discussions.

In brief, our aim is to show that the methods of yoga are psychological in character and that they relate to detailed cultivation of the psychological powers of cognition,

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conation and affection to such higher degrees of subtlety and complexity that our ordinary limits of consciousness are radically exceeded and revolutionized and new faculties are brought out from the womb of our ordinary functioning of consciousness. As a result, all that lies behind the phenomena which are ordinarily experienced by us comes within the realm of experiences which, in turn, by means of constant repetition, modification, and enlargement and subtlisation are stabilized in those states of realizations where objective knowledge of the noumenal reality or realities is possessed indubitably. In such an exposition, repetitions of the affirmations of yogic experiences and realizations are indispensable, and it is a part of the demonstration that yogic experiences are not matters of sporadic or accidental occurrence, but, as in any other science, so in the science of yoga, the same experiences can be produced by the employment of the same methods, and therefore, by repetition and by verification, limitations of the experiences and the limitations of the methods can be constantly tested, modified and brought to higher and higher levels of sublation and greater and greater integrality and synthesis.

Conclusions

From (tie data that are presented in regard to the Vedas and the Upanishads, the following conclusions can be arrived it;

1. A great store of psychological knowledge was possessed by the Rishis of the Vedas and Upanishads. This knowledge included the knowledge of the unconscious, subconscious, superficial conscious and its faculties of sense-perception, and of various states of mind indicated

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by words such as medhā, mati, dhī, buddhi and others, as also of the powers of will (samkalpa, kratu, etc.), as also of feelings of various intensities. This psychological knowledge was expanded by the cultivation of inner or subliminal states of consciousness, resulting in the knowledge which is evident in the descriptions of Vayu and Maruts etc. and of the workings of Indra and other gods such as Agni. It can also be seen that this vast store of psychological knowledge included not only awareness but mastery over superconscious states of consciousness which can, illustratively, be seen copiously in references to śruti and drsti (supernormal audition and sight), as also to Ilā, Saraswati, Saramā and Dakśinā (revelation, inspiration, intuition and discrimination). The knowledge of the superconscious states also included that of universal consciousness, transcendental consciousness, and comprehensive consciousness. This vast fund of psychological knowledge was strikingly classified, and two broad divisions were made: (i) that which pertains to states of duality and division (avidyā, Ignorance); and (ii) that which pertains to the realm of unity, universality and oneness (vidyā, Knowledge). In fact, the cornerstone of the yogic processes described in the Vedas and the Upanishads is underlined by the capital importance of the distinction that was drawn between Ignorance and Knowledge. Yoga has aimed at the development of all possible processes by which Ignorance can decisively be transcended and Knowledge is attained and possessed permanently so as to lead to stabilization in the state of

Immortality and enjoyment of Immortality (amrtam aśnute}.

2 This vast fund of psychological knowledge was

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cultivated by hundreds and thousands of seekers, and they succeeded in developing a language and terms with fixed meanings, which were shared commonly. This knowledge was so subtlised that it was often expressed in symbolic language, and this symbolism was shared by numerous initiates and practitioners of yoga. This symbolic language was also used in assemblies of seekers of yogic knowledge, and many could benefit from the exchange of the funds of yogic knowledge that seekers were developing through dialogues in which the symbolic language was commonly used.

.3. The Rishis of the Vedic Samhitas belonged to different generations, and both in space and time they were greatly spread out. And yet, the yogic knowledge developed in a more ancient time was revisited and reconfirmed in subsequent periods. Thus, the yogic knowledge was not limited to subjective experiences of a few mystics, but it was being subjected to processes of exchange and tests, and affirmations of the objectivity of knowledge were sought to be established again and again by pursuit of the confirmed methods of yoga or by developing new methods of yoga. Again, the Rishis of the Upanishads were far removed by more than a thousand years from the Rishis of the Vedas, and yet, the knowledge contained in the Vedas came to be confirmed afresh by the Rishis of the Upanishads. The Vedic knowledge came to be subtilised further by the Rishis of the Upanishads by the pursuit of the old and new methods of yoga. Confirmations and repeated affirmations that we find in the Vedas and Upanishads constitute an extremely sound basis for the development of yoga-shastra, science of yoga, distinct from the development of religions, the

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distinguishing features of which have been rituals, ceremonies and dogmatic beliefs and prescribed modes of conduct and worship.

4. For the development of any science or shastra, one single experience or experiment is not enough. There should be multiplicity of experiments, multiplicity of repetitions, multiplicity of variations, not only with respect of time and space but also in respect of constituents and modes. It was the varied and repeated experimentation stretched over long periods of time that provided a sound ground for some kind of systemization of the science of Yoga as also for the development of that science. The richness of the data that we find in the Vedas and Upanishads as also repeated confirmations of the same or variety of yogic experiences and realizations provide us the required justifiable basis for a systematic evaluation for determining the veracity, objectivity and certainty of knowledge which the Vedas and the Upanishads affirm with repeated insistence and assurance. For any inquirer who wants to verify once again the sustainability of these affirmations is encouraged to inquire, and he is free to verify by means of the methods of yoga which are also provided. Moreover, any seeker who wishes to examine if the results of the past need to be or can be exceeded, he is encouraged to do so, and he is free also to develop new methods for expansion of the realm of the yogic knowledge. In fact, the history of Indian yoga is a history of a tradition of fresh enquiry and enrichment by confirmation, modification, by subtlisation, and even by revolutionary departures from the past. We find not only the development of specializations in regard to methods and results but also the development of new systems of

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synthesis. It is by development of this kind that we can see that yoga is not a system of creed or dogma or a system of practices tied up by any creed and dogma, and that it is an ever-developing field of inquiry, rigorous quest and cumulative body of knowledge. In the course of the history of the development of yoga, it has been discovered that each of the major religions is based upon yogic experience, and even in recent times the yogic quest undertaken by Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, as also by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, has verified the yogic truths of religions like Buddhism and Jainism as also Christianity and Islam and others, and they have been discovered and reconfirmed in their veracity and in their place in the ever-enlarging domain of yogic knowledge. This has opened up a new possibility of heightened understanding of the richness of the treasure of yogic knowledge and also fresh avenues for a synthesis of religions and even a greater synthesis of vaster realms of varieties of yogic experiences and realisations.

5. Both the Vedas and the Upanishads have discovered a Supreme Object of Knowledge, and all the yogins, sages and rishis, whose experiences and realizations have been recorded in the Vedas and the Upanishads have repeatedly confirmed the nature and the status of the knowledge of that Supreme Object. That Object has been described as the One, which can be expressed in various ways. This One is; it is affirmed, wonderful (adbhutam) and It cannot be known by mere intellectual thought or contemplation but can be known only by transcending the limits of mental knowledge and by the development of psychological powers of intuition, revelation,

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inspiration and supra-intellectual discrimination, — by development of supra-intellectual vision and experiences of direct rays of light and their synthesis (raśmīn samūha). That object of knowledge has been described as indescribable and ineffable, since words do not reach It, and yet it cannot be said that one cannot know It and cannot be expressed in any manner whatsoever. It is described variously, both as neti neti (not this, not this) but also as iti iti (this, and this), and as the one, spaceless and timeless, and immobile and yet as the Other that is also mobile, and as the All (sarvam) and Many (bahu). That reality is One but triple, — Truth, Knowledge and Infinity; it is One, which is triple, — Sat, Chit, Ananda (existence, consciousness, delight). It is One which has four heads and three feet, it is One that is also septule, Bhur (matter) Bhuvah (life), Swar (mind and light in the mind), Mahas (or vijanana or supermind), Janah (creative bliss), Tapas (concentrated force of action), and Satyam (existent). It is He, the Bull, and it is She as the cow; it is He, the supreme existence, (Parabrahman, Purushottama and Parameshwara), and it is She, (Aditi, Para Prakrit! and Parameshwari), it is He (Indra), and it is She (Maya of Indra). It is He with his companion, who sits on the same tree, and eats the fruit and is bewildered but who becomes free from bewilderment when he sees the One who eats not. It is the Transcendental Being (parātpard), and yet All (sarvam khalu idam Brahma), and it is He who sits in the deepest cave of the human heart, having the size not bigger than the thumb (angusta mātra). It is Unmanifest (avyakta) and it is Manifest (yyakta) and even beyond both the Manifest and the Unmanifest. It is He who is Mobile (ksara) and yet

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Immobile (aksara), and yet the Transcendent (uttama). It is the Essence of all that is spread out (Brahman) and it is He who wills and originates all that is spread out (Purusha), and He is the Ruler of all that is spread out and it is for his habitation that all that is spread out (Isa). It is Nameless and yet it has thousand names and numberless names (Nirguna that is also Saguna and Anantaguna).

That supreme reality is simple-complex, not seizable by the intellect which has erected logic of the Finite and logic of the relation of finite things, and yet seizable by the intellect {buddhigrāhyam}, which is capable of seizing the concepts and experiences of the Infinite, which is describable as That which is Perfect, as This which is Perfect, as That from where the Perfect is manifested, and That which remains Perfect, even when Perfect is subtracted (pūrnamadah pūrnamidam, pūrnāt pūrnamudacyate, pūrnasya pūrnam ādāya pūrnameva viśīsyate).

These are the major data of the knowledge of the Supreme Object as repeatedly seen, experienced and realized as imperishable and ultimate, and there is nothing beyond It. If we do not comprehend That Reality, how can it be helped? Is it understandable when Plato says in 'The Republic’ that the highest reality, the Good far exceeds essence both in power and dignity'? In what way this highest reality can be known and known justifiably as indescribable and yet describable in many ways, is provided by the Vedas and the Upanishads. That there are difficulties in understanding That Reality for the mind that is accustomed to finite things and to multiplicity that veils Unity and Oneness, has led to a

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number of philosophical speculations and even opposing systems of philosophy, but it is not in our scope to deal with this difficulty at the present stage, where our aim is to expound the data of yogic experiences and not to enter into the realm of philosophical debate.

6. The Vedas and the Upanishads provide descriptions of the cosmic yoga that is constantly being practised by the cosmic life that can be seen pulsating in this vast universe. The Upanishadic metaphor of that pulsation is the galloping horse that rises from the inconscient ocean and whose limbs symbolize movements in the vast Movement (jagatyām jagat) and an organized constitution of the elements of the material world, intermediate worlds, mental world and still the higher worlds of the superconsciousness to which are all directed by constant gallops of the cosmic horse. Indeed, the whole universe is a vast pulsation, it is a constant process of splitting and fusion, even at atomic levels of existence, and constant inhalation and exhalation that we can visibly see in al] living organisms, and a constant drive of search for direction, and knowingly or unknowingly, but visibly in all operations of consciousness, — instinctive, mental and intuitive awareness. This vast pulsation is a constant exchange by self-giving that becomes at higher and higher levels of pulsations eager and passionate and irresistible surrender of all that one is and that one has (yat kinca sarvam) with adoration (namo bharantd) and joy and delight. The Super-conscient Ocean is the brother of the self-giving pulsation which oozes with delight to receive from the Lord of the ocean of immortal delight.

Yoga is a constant vibration of the universe; it is the

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constant yajna, a constant sacrifice of the universal pulsation and life-force (aśwamedha) in order that the whole universe receives the rivers of honey and imperishable nectar of immortality from above. None can live by oneself; none can perform the sacrifice by oneself. There is, according to the Vedic concept of rta, the governing law of unity and harmony (Varuna and Mitra) which maintains an underlying unity which is sustained by mutuality of each and the other, each and all, and all and each.

In the evolving world in which we live and act, there is crookedness and clash of forces and disorder. Even on the clash of forces and disorder, the law of unity imposes itself, and each clashing force and each element of disorder is obliged to contribute to the maintenance of all and each for eventual evolution and growth towards the ideal unity and harmony of Varuna and Mitra. This obligation of each to the other and to all, whether felt and seen consciously or unconsciously, requires each and all to pour into each other in an unconscious or conscious action of sacrifice. In that sense, the whole universe and all that moves in it is a sacrifice (aśwamedha). But when this sacrifice and the law of sacrifice is grasped and acted upon consciously, the tardiness of the movement is reduced, the energies are expanded more and more irresistibly and the evolutionary force moves rapidly towards a goal of the superconscient ocean of sweetness and delight which is the elixir of immortality. It is for each seeker to learn of this law of sacrifice, to energise the life-force, symbolized by aśwa, universalize oneself with that life-force which vibrates and pulsates universally, and to consciously apply the law of sacrifice. This

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is the essential secret of the Vedic system of yoga, and it is same search that we find implicitly in all the principal Upanishads and even explicitly as in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

7. Life-force that pulsates in the whole universe is inherently synthetic and all-integrating. Even at the level of instinct, triple force acts in a combination, and there is not only drive of action but also sure but blind knowledge of the object towards which the drive is directed for its satisfaction, and there is in its core intensity of feeling which achieves its fulfillment when the drive attains its object and the result of the drive is achieved. It is true that these three elements of action, knowledge and feeling get separated from each other as the evolution moves forward and witnessing Reason is generated. Reason stands distinguishable as colorless light that can separate itself from all that is instinctive and can even arrive at the control of instinctive life. But even reason is triangular in character, since it aims at truth, beauty and goodness; reason recognizes its discerning flow that struggles towards (i) knowledge and the highest that the cognitive faculty can attain, (ii) effective will and action and the highest that the dynamic push of our nature can attain, and (iii) that sense of beauty and delight which all sensations and feelings can at their highest attain. The most critical problem of the Reason is to recognize the conflicting demands of this triangularity and to attain whatever harmony it can provide to these three conflicting forces. In fact, it is in the experience of this conflict and in the experience of constant struggle to harmonize these three elements that reason is motivated to discover and possess that power

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of state of being in which this conflict can truly be resolved. That process is the sustained and systematic and methodical effort and constantly cumulative endeavour that constitutes the tapasya of yoga. This effort is normally synthetic, even though it may tend to be one. sided during the process of experimentation. But the yoga that we see in the Vedas and the Upanishads is synthetic, — it is the yoga in which all the energies of life-force, — cognitive, conative, and affective, — are sought to be developed and sacrificed at the altar of the Fire of tapasya which consumes all, and fed by all that is sacrificed, that Fire rises upward leading the seeker, the totality of the seeker, to its own home (sve dame), where all unity and harmony which are being sought insistently by instinct and by reason but never attained, are at last discovered and possessed, and not only enjoyed but permanently enjoyed.

8. What are the methods of this path of yoga, which we find repeatedly stated and underlined in the Vedas and the Upanishads? The path, we are told, is difficult like a razor's edge (kśurasya dhārā), and it is best to arise, awake, find out the great ones and learn of them. Katha Upanishad speaks on behalf of the Rishis of both the Vedas and the Upanishads and declares the severity of the difficulty of the path. In general, the methods of yoga worked out in the Vedas are reconfirmed in the Upanishads. And yet, as we move more and more towards the Upanishads, we find the crowning experiences of the Veda as the starting point for a high and profound synthesis of spiritual knowledge. The Vedic yoga synthesizes the psychological workings of man, which have been named symbolically and

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significantly as various cosmic gods, each having his specialized functioning and yet all working together with subtle links of unifying powers of the One, who is declared to be expressed variously by the Rishis. In brief, the unifying method is that of Tapas, power of concentration and meditation and contemplation and of progressive sacrifice of energies and increasing self surrender to the highest Object of knowledge. That object is described as at once simple and complex, at once One and Many, and at once the universal and the individual and the transcendental. The methods of the Vedic yoga were progressively synthesized by the unifying method of tapas applied to the pursuit of the highest flights and widest rangings of divine knowledge, power, joy, life and glory with the aid of the cosmic gods, who are invoked and invited behind the symbols of the material universe culminating into those superior planes which are hidden from the physical sense and the material mentality.

A synthetic method of yoga of the Veda, which is repeated in the Upanishads, is well described in the Taittiriya Upanishad where the process of the yoga of Bhrigu is described to have been guided and conducted by Varuna. Under successive instructions, Bhrigu concentrates himself successively in thought and by the askesis (tapas) of his brooding, on universal matter (anna), on universal life-force (prāna), on universal Mind (manas), on universal principle of Knowledge (yijnāna), and on universal Bliss (ānanda). The entire process ends in the realization of the Brahman, the eternal, who synthesizes matter, life, mind, supermind and bliss. And the highest achievement of yoga-siddhi is described as possession of the Self which is of Bliss. And

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this victory is described as the conquest of the whole world and its possession. The seeker is described as having achieved the light which is compared to the sun in its glory. At the end of the description, it is stated:

"This, verily, is Upanishad, the secret of the Veda."

In the Kena Upanishad, we have a more elaborate statement of the methods of yoga where the direction is given to think out: "That of it (Brahman) which is thou, that of It which is in the gods." The method is that of a synthesis of the development of faculties in their universality, symbolically described as the gods, and the discovery of the inner being, that which is deepest in the individual self. In this Upanishad also, the yoga-siddhi is described as follows:

"The name of That is That Delight'; as that Delight one should follow after It. He who so knows That, towards him verily all existences yearn."

That state of delight is the state of beatitude and immortality, a large enjoyment of the divine and infinite existence reposing, as described in the Veda, on a perfect union between the Soul and Nature, where the soul becomes King of itself (swarājya) and its environment (sāmrājya), conscious on all planes, master of them with Nature for its bride delivered from divisions and discords into an infinite and luminous harmony.78

The last two verses of the Kena Upanishad summarize in a few words the method and goal of the yoga of the Vedas and the Upanishads as follows:

"Of this knowledge, austerity and self-conquest and works are the foundations, the Vedas are all its limbs, truth

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is its dwelling place. He who knows this knowledge smites evil away from him and in that vaster world and infinite heaven finds his foundation, yea, he finds his foundation."79

Commenting on these brief words, Sri Aurobindo states:

".... This Upanishad or gospel of the inmost Truth of things has for its foundation, it is said, the practice of self- mastery, action and the subdual of the sense-life to the power of the Spirit. In other words, life and works are to be used as a means of arriving out of the state of subjection proper to the soul in the ignorance into a state of mastery which brings it nearer to the absolute self-mastery and all-mastery of the supreme Soul seated in the knowledge. The Vedas, that is to say, the utterances of the inspired seers and the truths they hold, are described as all the limbs of the Upanishads; in other words, all the convergent lines and aspects, all the necessary elements of this great practice, this profound psychological self-training and spiritual aspiration are set forth in these great Scriptures, channels of supreme knowledge and indicators of a supreme discipline. Truth is its home; and this Truth is not merely intellectual verity, — for that is not the sense of the word in the Vedic writings, — but man's ultimate human state of true being, true consciousness, right knowledge, right works, right joy of existence, all indeed that is contrary to the falsehood of egoism and ignorance. It is by these means, by using works and self-discipline for mastery of oneself and for the generation of spiritual energy, by fathoming in all its parts the knowledge and repeating the high example of the great Vedic seers and by living in the Truth that one becomes capable of the great ascent which the Upanishad opens to us.

"The goal of the ascent is the world of the true and vast

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existence of which the Veda speaks as the Truth that is the final goal and home of man. It is described here as the greater infinite heavenly world, (Swargaloka, Swarloka of the Veda), which is not the lesser Swarga of the Puranas or the lesser Brahmaloka, of the Mundaka Upanishad, its world of the sun's rays to which the soul arrives by works of virtue and piety, but falls from them by the exhaustion of their merit; it is the higher Swarga or Brahman-world of the Katha which is beyond the dual symbols of birth and death, the higher Brahman-worlds of the Mundaka which the soul enters by knowledge and renunciation. It is therefore a state not belonging to the Ignorance, but to Knowledge. It is, in fact, ' the infinite existence and beatitude of the soul in the being of the all-blissful existence; it is too the higher status, the light of the Mind beyond the mind, the joy and eternal mastery of the Life beyond the life, the riches of the Sense beyond the senses. And the soul finds in it not only its own largeness but finds too and possesses the infinity of the One and it has firm foundation in that immortal state because there a supreme Silence and eternal Peace are the secure foundation of eternal Knowledge and absolute Joy."80

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