History of Yoga

There is a larger perspective in the context of which the theme of Yoga stands out as a subject of great contemporary relevance. That larger perspective is that of the acute crisis through which humankind is passing today. This crisis has arisen, it seems, from the fact that, while on the one hand, it does not seem unlikely that we may succeed in creating a system of life, practically covering the whole globe, which can provide to human beings means and materials to satisfy hedonistic, selfish and egoistic wants on such a scale that, for quite a long indefinite period, humankind might remain chained to circles of lower life marked by hunger and satisfaction, strife and success, and perils of small and great disasters, and yet, on the other hand, the upward human aspiration to build individual and collective life on the basis of mutuality and harmony, of peace and concord, and ever-increasing perfectibility of our highest potentialities must continue to struggle without any sound promise of its eventual fulfilment. In other words, while there is an upward endeavour to break the vicious circle of our present vitalism or economic barbarism, this very endeavour has come to be partly discouraged by the scientist by his demand to provide physical proof of the supraphysical and partly blocked by the religionist by his refusal to look beyond dogma and the revealed word of the past, and has thus come to be rendered unequal to its tasks.

The vicious circle can be broken only if our upward endeavour can get unmixed positive support from science and only if the moral and spiritual foundations can be strengthened and made increasingly unshakable.

This is the real issue.

It has been contented that all true knowledge belongs to science and can be acquired only by scientific methods. Morality, it is argued, is a matter of emotional responses which are themselves relative and carry no authenticity of knowledge in their contents or in their foundations. As far as spirituality is concerned, it is argued that its claims in regard to its insights, intuitions, revelations and other allied operations of knowledge are at the best occasional flashes, somewhat like conjectures which may sometime hit the truth but which escape from any systematic scrutiny by means of criteria that can confidently be applied in any impartial search of validity of knowledge. It is, therefore, concluded that spirituality is a field of light and shadow where it is difficult to distinguish what really is light and what really is shadow.

Now it is true that morality is a field of relativities and that if its claims of knowledge of the good and right are to have some secure foundation, it can find these foundations only in a field which is higher than morality, namely, the field of spirituality. But if spirituality itself is a field of uncertainties besieged by doubtful lights and shadows, we are thrown back into the vicious circle of vitalism which cannot be broken.

But is it true that spirituality is a field of uncertainties, of occasional flashes of light and of doubtful intuitions and revelations? It is here that the claims of Yoga need to be taken into account. For Yoga claims to be, among many other things, a methodised quest of spiritual and eventually of integral knowledge which is found to have succeeded in arriving at certain stable states of consciousness and of plenary illumination and knowledge of truths which can be verified both objectively and in personal experience by means of criteria which can be considered to be a sound as in any inquiry relating to validity of knowledge. In other words, Yoga claims to be a scientific discipline through which authentic knowledge can be gained in regard to any object, particular, universal or transcendental, on which its methods are applied systematically and repeatedly.

It can at once be seen that if these claims of Yoga are valid, then we shall be able to have through Yogic methods that knowledge which, can possibly break vicious circle of the crisis of the present day and deliver us into new possibilities of a better humanity and a better world.

The next question, therefore, before us is whether the claims of Yoga are truly valid and whether they can be found to be sustainable. It has been contended that Yoga has discovered and perfected certain specific methods by application of which human consciousness can be so revolutionised that the ordinary functioning of the human body, human heart, and human mind can be united with superior faculties of knowledge and action, and ultimately the human being can become permanently united with the universal and transcendental states of consciousness and knowledge. It has been further contended that the Yogic science possesses assured data of the knowledge of methods and their processes of application as also of their corresponding results. It has even further been contended that the efficacy of these methods and their results can be verified by everybody who is prepared to acquire the necessary preparation and training, and that the results obtained by others can be confirmed through one’s own personal experience and can be utilised for producing relevant consequences and results. Finally, it is added that there is a long history of the development of this science of Yoga, and as in the case of the history of development of any science, one can trace a credible account of the old methods and old knowledge, of how they have gradually grown and developed by methods of confirmation, modifications and fresh developments resulting from new experiments and fresh acquisitions of knowledge. It is, therefore, concluded that Yoga provides a sound basis of a vast field of knowledge which can even now be studied and reacquired by the present humanity, and that without any need of falling into any traps of dogmatism, blind belief, superstition or even of half-knowledge and half-blindness, we can come to tap those resources of knowledge which can provide us the required guidance for the building up of a world illumined by ever-progressive knowledge and inspired by universal love.

These contentions and the conclusions to which they lead are so important that they deserve to be heard and noted with utmost seriousness, and they also deserve to be studied in full depth with all the required objectivity and even microscopic scruple so that whatever gates of knowledge that Yoga can open up before us are entered into, and we are enabled to ensure that no possibility or avenue of knowledge that we require to break the present crisis has been ignored or allowed to remain under clouds of our dogmatic refusal to inquire and to learn.

While undertaking this journey, three important conditions need to be underlined. Firstly, it should be acknowledged that belief by itself is not evidence of reality. Truths, supra-physical or physical, must be founded not on mental belief alone but on experience, − but in each case experience must be appropriate to the order of truths into which we enter; their validity and significance must be scrutinised, but according to their own law and by consciousness which can enter into them and according to the law of the relevant domain or by a consciousness which can be only of truths of that order; so alone can one be sure of the steps and can one enlarge firmly the sphere of knowledge.

Secondly, we should underline the fact that even though subjective experience can easily be deceptive, error is not the prerogative only of the inner subjective or of the subliminal parts of our being. For error is also appendage of the physical mind and its objective methods and standards too; liability to error cannot be a reason for shutting out a large and important domain of experience; it is a reason rather for scrutinising it and finding out in it its own true standards and its characteristic appropriate and valid means of verification.

Thirdly, it must be pointed out that it is the subjective consciousness that has constructed the standards and criteria of objective knowledge; in doing so the great quality that has played the essential role is the sincerity and honesty of subjective consciousness as also development of various testing grounds and criteria; these can be employed once again when the fields of subjective experience are investigated, and yogic records indicate that yoga has the capacity to deal with the possible pitfalls and impurities of consciousness which are obstructive of the discoveries of the objects of yogic knowledge.

At the outset, it may be said that it is somewhat unfortunate that whenever we speak of Yoga today, we appear to be referring to that system of physical Yogic postures, which have been elaborately described in Hatha Yoga or else to that particular orthodox system of philosophy which has come to be known as the Yoga philosophy and which has been attributed to Patanjali, − a system of Yoga which is also known as Rajayoga. It is even believed in some quarters that while there must have been rudimentary beginnings of Yoga in early stages of the Veda and the Upanishads, the real Yoga is that which has been spoken of in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

Actually, as it would be clear to every serious student of the history of Yoga, Patanjali’s Yoga is only one of the specialised systems of Yogic methods. As a matter of fact, every system of Indian philosophy was coupled with its corresponding system of Yogic methods. This is true not only of the orthodox systems of philosophy but also of both Jainism and Buddhism. In a serious study of the history of Yoga, therefore, we shall need to take into account all these systems of Yogic methods. We have also to take into account the fact that the Bhagavadgita, which preceded the final crystallisation of Indian systems of philosophy, is itself looked upon as an authentic text of a synthesis of Jñānayoga, Karmayoga, and Bhaktiyoga, and we have also to note the fact that the Bhagavadgita itself is proclaimed to be a digest of the Upanishads. We are thus led to a much earlier beginning of the science of Yoga, and considering that the Upanishads themselves are a recovery, continuation, enrichment and even a sort of culmination of the knowledge contained in the Veda, we would be quite justified in looking upon Veda as the earliest text available to mankind from which we can hope to trace a secure basis of a sound history of Yoga.

It may, however, be argued that the Veda presents a picture of primitive worshippers praying gods representing natural forces such as fire, rain, wind, dawn, night, earth and sky, for wealth, food, oxen, horses, gold and other kinds of richness and victories. And if so, it may be further argued, how can Veda be regarded as a book of science of Yoga? But this argument rests upon a certain line of Vedic interpretation which is neither conclusive nor in consonance with that Indian tradition which look upon Veda literally as Veda, namely, as a book of knowledge. Not only do the Vedic Rishis themselves declare that their hymns contain secret knowledge, not only do the Upanishads refer to the Vedic declarations as authority of their own discoveries of knowledge, but even in a later period, we have Shankaracharya’s view that the Vedas are mines of all knowledge, knowledge on all the planes of consciousness, and that they fix the condition and relations of the Divine, the human and the animal element in the being. Moreover, we have in recent times, the two great interpretations of the Veda which bring us to the deeper profundities of the Vedic knowledge. These are the interpretations of Maharshi Dayananda Saraswati and Sri Aurobindo. In particular, Sri Aurobindo’s method of interpretation which has been illustrated at length in his “The Secret of the Veda” and “The Hymns to the Mystic Fire” give us conclusive assurance and opens up before us a large body of Yoga contained in the hymns of the Rigveda even though the language of these hymns baffles us from time to time by its antique obscurity. As Sri Aurobindo points out:

“In the deep and mystic style of Dirghatamas Auchathya as in the melodious lucidity of Medhatithi Kanwa, in the puissant and energetic hymns of Vishwamitra, as in Vasishtha’s even harmonies we have the same firm foundation of knowledge and the same scrupulous adherence to the sacred conventions of the Initiates.”¹

It may still be argued that the Veda is centred on the institution of sacrifice, yajña, and that Veda is rather karmakānda and not jñānakanda. In continuation of this argument, it may be contended that the Veda is a book of ritualistic materialism and that we need not look for any profound knowledge or for science such as that of Yoga. Now we may admit that the Veda is centred on the institution of sacrifice, but we may question whether sacrifice is merely a matter of outer ritualism. There is no doubt that there is an exterior aspect of the Vedic hymns and that the Vedic hymns were used for ritualistic purposes; but a deeper study of Vedic ritualism would suggest that this ritualism was symbolic in character. Moreover, karmakānda went beyond mere ritualism and Veda, in one of its aspects, may be regarded as a gospel of Karmayoga which was continued in the Karmayoga of the Bhagavadgita where, too, significantly, we find that the concept of yajña is not only accepted but also shown to have a profounder psychological meaning by the help of which it could be declared that every action is yajña, provided it is done in the spirit of inner sacrifice to the cosmic and transcendental Reality. As in the Gita, yajña is Yoga, even so in the Veda yajña can be so understood as to be Yoga.

There are, again, in the Veda a number of other terms which are used symbolically, and if we try to understand them in the light of Sri Aurobindo’s interpretation, we would be able to enter into the heart of the methods of Vedic Yoga as also into the richness of the great results which were achieved by the Vedic Rishis by the application of these Vedic methods.

What exactly were the methods of Yoga and what were the results achieved by the Vedic Rishis should be a very important subject matter of a long and a detailed study. But there is no doubt that these methods were those of purification of our ordinary consciousness, methods of concentration of our consciousness on higher states and beings of consciousness, methods of perfection by which the lower can be transcended into the corresponding higher realms of being, − and these are again the same methods which we find repeated in the same way or in a more modified manner in subsequent developments in the Upanishads, the Gita and the rest. And we find in the Veda the affirmation of a hierarchy of infinitudes to which the normal existence of man even in its higher and widest flights is still a stranger. And this hierarchy of infinitudes is achieved in the Vedic Yoga by the transcendence of the lower triple being and our lower triple world, a transcendence which has been described by the Vedic seers as an exceeding or breaking beyond the two firmaments of heaven and earth.

Commenting on the basic nature of the methods and results of the Vedic Yoga, Sri Aurobindo refers to the Vedic movement of the descent and the ascent. As he points out:

“The link between the spiritual and the lower planes of the mental being is that which is called in the old Vedantic phraseology the vijnana and which we may term the Truth-plane or the ideal mind or the supermind where the One and May meet and our being is freely open to the revealing light of the Divine truth and the inspiration of the Divine Will and Knowledge. If we can break down the veil of the intellectual, emotional, sensational mind which our ordinary existence has built between us and the Divine, we can then take up through the Truth-mind all our mental, vital and physical experience and offer it up to the Spiritual – this was the secret or mystic sense of the old Vedic `Sacrifice’ – to be converted into the terms of infinite truth of Sacchidananda, and we can receive the powers and illuminations of the infinite Existence in forms of a Divine knowledge, will and delight to be imposed on our mentality, vitality, physical existence till the lower is transformed into the perfect vessel of the higher. This was the double Vedic movement of the descent and birth form the gods in the human creature and the ascent of the human power that struggle towards the Divine knowledge, power and delight and climb into the godheads, the results of which was the possession of the One, the Infinite, the beatific existence, the union with God, the immortality.”²

We then begin to study of history of science of Yoga, and we shall begin this study with the theme of the Vedic Yoga. The scope of the history of Yoga is very vast, and it should cover not only the Indian history of Yogic science but also the study of Yogic methods and their results as we find in the esoteric score of a number of religions such as Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and even in systems like the Chinese Taoism. Our intention is to bring to ourselves the treasures that are available in the records of Yogic knowledge.

Yoga and Consciousness

Yoga and Consciousness-I

The mystery of consciousness and full revelation of its nature and power by a methodical and disciplined process of human effort that we call yoga is a fascinating subject of this National Seminar, the rationale of which at the present stage of human civilisation lies in the fact that its study promises not only conducive to the individual upliftment and summum bonum but to the development of a precious aid which, it appears, is indispensable for the next steps of upward advancement of humanity and human culture.

The question of the origin of consciousness has begun to occupy the front-ranking leaders of contemporary science. Quantum physics, brain research and bio-engineering, each in its own way, is confronted with the presence of consciousness in the very operations of what seems to be purely material or unconscious. The tide of new data makes it impossible to ignore the drive of set purpose and guidance of tendency which appears to be blind but where the pressure is unmistakable in the eventual or immediate coming to the target sought. This drive is seen increasingly in the operations in the animal, in the plant, in inanimate things. It seems now no more than an outworn paradox to affirm the emergence of human consciousness, intelligence and mastery out of an unintelligent, blindly driving unconsciousness in which no form or substance of them previously existed.

We see, for example, in the animal, operations of a perfect purposefulness and an exact, indeed, a scientific knowledge which are quite beyond the capacities of the animal mentality and which man himself can only acquire by long culture and education and even then uses with a much less sure rapidity.

It has been said, in regard to the realm of the inanimate, that the different groupings and varying number of infinitesimals can produce or serve as the constituent occasion for the appearance of large atomic infinitesimals of different natures, qualities, powers; but we have no account of how these different dispositions can come to constitute the differentiae in the constituted outcomes or results.

Attempts are being made to show that a play of electrons, of atoms and their molecules, of cells, glands, chemical secretions and physiological processes manages by their activity on the nerves and brain of a Kalidasa or a Shakespeare or a Plato or a Shankara to be the dynamic occasion for the production of a Shakuntalam or a Hamlet or a Republic or a Vivekachudamani; but here the divergence or the determinants and the determinations become so wide that we are no longer able to follow the process, much less understand or utilise.

Consciousness emerging from a fundamental Inconscient and a Mind of order and reason manifesting as a brilliant final consequence of a world created by inconscient Chance can be pronounced as something quite possible; but we are entitled to ask the question whether chance is a category of explanation or a philosophical or neutral exposition of the denial of any principle of explanation; but in either case, it can not rule out a possibility of a better hypothesis of explanation or a philosophical theory of explanation.

It is at this stage that both scientifically and philosophically we are justified in studying the phenomena of consciousness not merely in their rudimentary stages but also at their advanced points of manifestation. For it is quite possible that just as in the case of a steam engine, piston is not the cause of the steam but it is the steam that causes the movement of the piston, even so it is not the unconscious that produces the conscious but just the reverse of it. In that case, the best way is to examine those phenomena of consciousness which can be called crucial and even extraordinary, and which carry with them their significance and motivation of exploration.

Just to take a random example, we have a short anecdote described by Swami Vivekananda, an anecdote which had come within his own experience. He said:

“I once heard of a man who, if any one went to him with questions in his mind, would answer them immediately; and I was also informed that he foretold events. I was curious and went to see him with a few friends. We each had something in our minds to ask, and, to avoid mistakes, we wrote down our questions and put them in our pockets. As soon as the man saw one of us, he repeated our questions and gave the answers to them. Then he wrote something on paper, which he folded up, asked me to sign on the back, and said, Don’t look at it; put it in your pocket and keep it there till I ask for it again.’ And so on to each one of us. He next told us about some events that would happen to us in the future. Then he said, Now, think of a word or a sentence, from any language you like.’ I thought of a long sentence in Sanskrit, a language of which he was entirely ignorant. Now, take out the paper from your pocket,’ he said. The Sanskrit sentence was written there! He had written it an hour before with the remark, In confirmation of what I have written, this man will think of this sentence.’ It was correct. Another of us who had been given a similar paper which he had signed and placed in his pocket, was also asked to think of a sentence. He thought of a sentence in Arabic, which it was still less possible for the man to know; it was some passage from the Koran. And my friend found this written down on the paper.

Another of us was a physician. He thought of a sentence from a German medical book. It was written on his paper.”³

Again to take another random example which has been narrated by Sri Aurobindo:

“I remember when I first began to see inwardly (and outwardly also with the open eye), a scientific friend of mine began to talk of after-images – “these are only after-images!” I asked him whether after-images remained before the eye for two minutes at a time – he said, “no”, to his knowledge only for a few seconds; I also asked whether one could get after-images of things not around one or even not existing upon this earth, since they had other shapes, another character, other hues, contours and a very different dynamism, life-movements and values – he could not reply in the affirmative.”⁴

That there are phenomena such as telepathy and telekinesis is being established by new-born forms of scientific research, the methods of which are still imperfect or crude or defective. In the yogic literature, we have numerous descriptions of these phenomena arrived at by yogic methods of exploration, which begin with the yogic quietude of the mind and unobstructed observation of psychological determinants of consciousness. In fact, when we look at the universe, not with the eyes of familiarity, but with the yogic eyes that are fresh and filled with wonder, even ordinary sensations are felt to be mysterious and we begin to ask, as in the Kenopanishad, by what impelled does the sense grasp its object, and what exactly is the Sight and Hearing and Speech and Mind and whether there is Sight of Sight, Hearing of Hearing, Speech of Speech, and Mind of Mind. (Eaaosya Eaaoma, caxauYa: caxau:, vaacaao h vaacama, manasaao mana:). Manas, say the Indian philosophers, is the sixth sense, but it can even be said that it is the only sense and that the others, vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste, are merely specialisations of the sense-mind. For, as in the case of experiments in hypnosis and cognate psychological phenomena, it is possible for the mind to take the direct cognisance of the object of sense without the aid of the sense-organs. According to the yogic psychology, it is possible, once we have entered through any of the senses into relation with an external object, so to apply the Manas as to become aware of the contents of the object, for example, to receive or to perceive the thoughts and feelings of others without an aid from their utterance, gesture, action or facial expressions and even in contradiction of these always partial and often misleading data. Evidences have been shown that subtle senses are true witnesses to physical facts beyond the range of the corporal organs.

One of the mysteries of consciousness is that consciousness can be extended, that consciousness can be creative and that consciousness has power of self-limitation, and it can maintain various poises simultaneously so that there can be phenomena of exclusive concentration, multiple concentration and even integral concentration. Moreover, along with the extension of consciousness there comes about inner enlargement from the individual into the cosmic existence. It is also found in yoga that the real witness in the world is not merely individual embodied mind but a cosmic consciousness embracing the universe and appearing as an immanent intelligence in all its works. And it may be added that the possibility of cosmic consciousness in humanity is coming slowly to be admitted in modern Psychology, although in the psychology of the East it has always been recognised as a reality and the aim of our subjective progress.

We have in the Veda and the Upanishads and in numberless records of the Indian tradition of yogic knowledge, detailed descriptions of cosmic consciousness and even of what is called in the Mandukya Upanishad, the fourth state or turiya or transcendental state of consciousness, other than the states of waking, dream and sleep. Mandukya Upanishad, significantly, defines that transcendental as one whose essentiality is awareness of the Self in its single existence, in Whom all phenomena dissolve, Who is Calm, Who is Good, Who is the One, than Whom there is no other, and Who is the object of knowledge. (एकात्मप्रत्ययसारं प्रपञ्चोपशमं शान्तं शिवमद्वैत। चतुर्थे मन्यन्ते स आत्मा स विज्ञेयः). (Mandukaya Upanishad, 7).

This phrase, object of Knowledge, is very important. It is not an object of belief, accessible to religious dogma or faith, but an object of cognition, which is a power of Consciousness. The experiences of cosmic consciousness and transcendental consciousness and relationship of the individual with these states of consciousness have been the central themes of Yoga in Indian culture, and it seems that at the present juncture of humanity, the study of consciousness can best be aided and perfected by the study of Yoga.

Yoga and Consciousness-II

Yoga may be defined as a methodised effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the potentialities latent in the being as a result of which the human individual can arrive at a union with the universal and transcendental being or That which is even indescribable by any terms of limitation. Yoga is thus practical psychology that studies utmost capacities and powers of consciousness and applies that study to the attainment of higher and higher states of perfection. In doing so, it leads to the awakening to the inner reality of our being, to a spirit, self, soul which is other than our mind, life and body; it nourishes an inner aspiration to know, to feel, to enter into contact with the greater Reality beyond and pervading the universe which inhabits also our own being; and it leads to establishment of our communion with the Reality and union with It; finally, it effects a conversion and transformation of our whole being into a new becoming or new being, a new self, a new nature, including the nature of the mind, life and body.

In the light of yoga, consciousness is not synonymous with mentality but indicates a self-aware force of existence of which mentality is middle term; below mentality it sinks into vital and material movements which are for us subconscient; above, it rises into the supramental which is for us the superconscient. Consciousness, as studied, examined and verified by yoga, is one and the same thing organising itself differently in different states, and what we call Mind and Matter are rather different grades of the same energy, different organisation of one conscious Force of Existence.

The entire field of yoga and yogic psychology and the data of consciousness that we can gain through yoga is generally looked upon with much scepticism and disbelief. This scepticism is not entirely unfounded. For the vast field of evidence and experience of yoga, if seized by untrained mind lends itself to the most perilous distortions and misleading imagination. In the past, real nucleus of truth of this field got encrusted with such an accretion of perverting superstition and irrationalising dogmas that any advances in true knowledge was rendered impossible. For the faculties that transcend the senses are greatly exposed to a mixed functioning in which they are in danger of illuminating confusion rather than clarifying truth. It is, therefore, necessary that advancing Knowledge should base itself on a clear, pure and disciplined intellect. It is necessary, too, that it should correct its errors by a return to the restrains of a sensible fact. But still, the important point is that the human mind can be properly trained and disciplined; it can be purified and made fit for concentration so as to enter into a journey of exploration, and this journey can be made to yield the right knowledge of its object and consequently to deliver to the individual and collectivity the alchemy of liberation and fulfilment.

While undertaking this journey, three important conditions need to be underlined. Firstly, it should be acknowledged that belief by itself is not evidence of reality. Truths, supra-physical or physical, must be founded not on mental belief alone but on experience, -- but in each case experience must be appropriate to the order of truths into which we enter; their validity and significance must be scrutinised, but according to their own law and by consciousness which can enter into them and according to the law of the relevant domain or by a consciousness which can be only of truths of that order; so alone can one be sure of the steps and can one enlarge firmly the sphere of knowledge.

Yoga and Consciousness-III

In any case, the project that is being undertaken and in promotion of which we have assembled here has a more modest programme. Our object in the project is to understand the history of the great disciplined effort that we have called in India the effort of yoga. Our aim is to collect and compile systematically and scrupulously the important data which pertain to this great domain of knowledge and power. We have to bring together in a systematic manner the important and useful data that have accumulated over millennia in our country; we may have to classify them under suitable categories of classification; we have to bring out the conditions that have been laid down in order to ensure utmost purity and sincerity of the conquest, the criteria that have been developed and employed in the tasks of testing and verification; our aim will be to compare different systems of yoga which have been developed in the long course of Indian history; we have also to examine the claims and counter-claims of the efficacy and integrality of various systems; our aim will also be to study those systems of yoga which have attempted at a synthesis and considered question of a new synthesis that may be necessary at the present juncture of India’s history of yoga.

In this task, we need to have wide consultations with those who have studied yoga and particularly those who have practised yoga. In India, philosophy has been an instrument of yogic realisation, and hence every system of Indian philosophy (except the philosophy of Lokayata) has a system of yoga. Consultation with philosophers is thus indispensable in this task. Finally, since yoga has been pursued and practised as a practical psychology, psychologists will also have to play their due role. And since yoga has been practised as a scientific exploration of consciousness, and since in the contemporary world physical sciences themselves are drawing nearer to the theme of consciousness, it will be indispensable to have consultation with scientists belonging to various branches and disciplines of knowledge.

Mere consultation is not enough. We have to articulate and expound all the relevant aspects of yoga authentically, clearly and scrupulously. We need to have the active collaboration of philosophers, scientists, psychologists and experts who can write and who can expound with scrupulous accuracy. And we shall also need a good deal of research work that can uncover unknown facts and systems and enrich our knowledge pertaining to this difficult domain.

The time has come when India’s great treasure of knowledge of yoga needs to be presented to the world, because the world needs it, and India has the responsibility to answer this need as competently as possible.

It is a matter of gratification that the Government of India have themselves suggested that the project of consciousness and yoga should be undertaken and the inaugural address of the Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development at this Seminar is a sure testimony of the full support of the Government of India. It is also gratifying that we have in Professor D.P. Chattopadhyaya a great leader who can shoulder the responsibility of this project, which is extremely difficult and yet which is at the same time most essential, if it is realised that the world cannot move forward without a radical human transformation and that yoga is the most potent instrument of that transformation, which is based upon authentic and verifiable knowledge, and which has been constantly developing and stimulating research in new fields and processes of yogic knowledge.

We need to underline that yoga is not a closed book; it is not a body of revelations made once for all. It has no dogmatism; and even the Vedas and Upanishads marked, not a culmination, but a great beginning of the yogic endeavour. They are themselves records of developing experiences and enlargements of knowledge and power. They have been themselves an original great synthesis, based upon loftiest discoveries, and yet they opened further gates of fresh discoveries. In the words of the Vedic poet:

ब्रह्माणस्त्वा शतक्रत उद्वंशमिव येमिरे । यत्सानोः सानुमारुहद्भूर्यस्पष्ट कत्र्वम्।

Rig Veda, 1.10.1-2

“The leaders of the Word climb thee like a ladder, O hundred-powered. As one climbs from peak to peak, there is made clear the much that has still to be done.”

I am sure that the present Seminar will indicate the readiness of all who have assembled here to collaborate and to take this project towards its difficult journey and fulfilment.

Synthesis of Yoga

Synthesis of Yoga-I

A pilgrim of our times, earnest in his quest and scrupulous in his methods, burning with a single aspiration to search for truth and to consecrate himself to the tasks that would flow from that search for the fulfilment of himself and for the eventual fulfilment of the human journey, finds himself arrested by various forms of denial and scepticism that pronounce the message that the present organisation of consciousness is the last limit and that the only course of rationality or reasonableness is to limit himself to the boundaries of that organisation and be content with limited certainties and probabilities and ever crumbling ideals of tolerable existence for oneself and the world.

There is, indeed, a layer of human intellectuality which is tied to senses so exclusively that it finds its station and resting place in what these instruments perceive and cognise, and even if it reflects, it finds nothing more satisfying than the argument that senses are our sole means of knowledge and that nothing can be known and nothing can be valid if it does not refer back to its origin in sense experience.

Not long ago, materialism held the central filed of inquiry, and it had predominant influence over the seekers of knowledge and persuaded them to limit the aim of life to a feverish effort of the individual to snatch what he may from a transient existence or to dispassionate and objectless service of the race and of the individual, knowing well that the latter is a transient fiction of the nervous mentality and the former only a little more long lived collective form of the same nervous spasm of Matter.

It is true that materialism is no more being advanced so overwhelmingly, and it has been largely conceded that materialism cannot be defended as a metaphysical philosophy. This is because, in the first place, those who are inclined psychologically to favour materialism have largely come to the conclusion that no metaphysical philosophy, including materialism, is logically sustainable. It has also come to be recognised increasingly that it is impossible to argue that just because physical senses are our instruments of knowledge, we must conclude that they are the only means of knowledge and that from the premise that matter is an object of cognition by physical senses, it cannot be argued that matter alone exists.

Nonetheless, materialistic bias has continued to preponderate in the field of philosophy, epistemology, science and philosophy of science. And this preponderance can be seen in the way in which concepts such as those of infinity, eternity, universality, essence, explanation, causality and others have come to be dealt with during the last hundred years. All these concepts have been scrutinised with the microscopic lends which permits only those deliverances which are ultimately warranted by physical senses.

At one time, the knowledge of the phenomena was sought to be understood in the light of noumena, but this is no more considered to be a necessary requirement of rational understanding. At one time, there seemed to be in the world an iron insistence on order, on a law basing the possibilities. But today even while granting some apparent operations of laws of nature, what is predominantly emphasised is the unaccountability and freak and fantasy and random action. It is increasingly being recognised that the theory of Mechanical Necessity by itself does not elucidate the free play of the endless unaccountable variations which are visible in the universe as also in the evolutionary processes. Perceiving, however, that there is a good deal of freak and fantasy combined with a good deal of order, there is a trend to explain the world by pointing to a self-organising dynamic Chance or to give up the idea altogether of explanation in terms of any universal law of causation. It has even been argued that one should not aim at explanation of the phenomena of the world, but one should remain content with their descriptions.

It is true that science still aims at explaining phenomena apart from describing them in terms of the how and the why. But considering that induction is a necessary method of science, and since the assumptions of induction in regard to the law of uniformity of nature and the law of causation now are seen to be inconsistent with the freak and fantasy of the world-phenomena, various theories have been developed to explain induction empirically without the need to acknowledge non-empirical belief in the laws of universality and causality. As a result, philosophers of science have largely come to the conclusion that scientific knowledge is bound to remain subject to various shades of scepticism or fallibility.

It is against this background that science is being looked upon as a body of knowledge, the certainty of which can never be guaranteed, and which will constantly be subject to corrigibility and fallibility. It is being admitted that on account of fallibility of scientific knowledge, while the boundaries of knowledge can be indefinitely expanded in course of time, questions such as those of the origin of the universe, mysteries and wonders of the universe, the paradoxes of the universe as also questions pertaining to the aim of life and those relating to fulfilment of the individual and the collectivity need not be raised, even if raised cannot be answered. It is also acknowledged that this conclusion and consequent attitude may be found unsatisfactory, but it is argued that there are no ascertainable faculties other than those of physical senses and those of anthropological rationality by the help of which any higher knowledge can be attained.

Bertrand Russell, speaking on his own behalf as that of like-minded philosophers stated towards the end of his History of Western Philosophy, “They confess frankly that the human intellect is unable to find conclusive answers to many questions of profound importance to mankind, but they refuse to belief that there is some ‘higher’ way of knowing by which we can discover truths hidden from science and the intellect.”⁵

Professor D.P. Chattopadhyaya in his book, Induction, Probability and Scepticism has stated:

“The real world and the objects in it are not revealed to us at once. We know them gradually, historically, and can never be cognitively sure of their absolute certainty. The knowing self and the known (and knowable) world are differently interlocked, inter-animated, and interactive, both biologically and epistemologically. In our knowledge of the world we do not, rather cannot, stand totally apart from it. From the evolutionary point of view what is called survival value is in a way akin to truth value, truth of what our organism is informed about the world around us. Situated in the world, we have to know t. in spite of our ability to transcend our situation, in a limited way, we cannot totally get out of it. It is some what like our inability to jump out of our own skins and schemes. ”⁶

Science and philosophy of science have thus come to advise us to accept in all humility our limitations in respect of knowledge, in respect of truth and in respect of certainty. But is this the end of the journey? Human aspiration refuses to accept it, and a question is raised: Are there any avenues which we can justifiably pursue, such as those proposed by religion, occultism, rationalistic philosophy and spirituality and persuade science and philosophy of science to join what can become a combined or synthetic quest, not only for the purposes of expanding conquest of the realms of truth but also those of the realisation of the highest possible ideals of human welfare, human solidarity and human fulfilment?

Synthesis of Yoga-II

In an important development in the recent march of science, the phenomenon of consciousness has begun to command increasing attention. As a matter of fact, as far back as the close of 19th century, the great Indian scientist, Jagdish Chandra Bose, had demonstrated the presence of consciousness in plants and even in animals. (?) But consequent upon the latest developments in Quantum Mechanics, such as Bell’s Theorem, scientists have begun to inquire into the mystery of consciousness.

Roger Penrose has in his celebrated book Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness, attempted to address the question of consciousness from a scientific standpoint. He has strongly contended that an essential ingredient is missing from the contemporary scientific picture. He acknowledges the precision and scope of physical laws but he complains that they contain no hint of any action that cannot be simulated computationally. He points out that there are, however, reasons for believing that there is in them a hidden non-computational action that the functioning of our brains must somehow be taking advantage of. He further argues that questions should be asked as to why the scientists have failed to recognise the fact that a non-computational phenomena like consciousness should be inherent at least potentially in all material things. According to him, it is quite possible in physics, to have a fundamentally new property completely different from any contemplated hitherto, hidden, in the behaviour of ordinary matter.

David Bohm in his book, Wholeness And The Implicate Order, argues that the Quantum Theory presents a serious challenge to the mechanistic order. He points out that the key features of the quantum theory that challenge mechanism are:

(1) Movement is in general discontinuous, in the sense that action is constituted of indivisible quanta (implying also that an electron, for example, can go from one state to another, without passing through any states in between).

(2) Entities, such as electrons, can show different properties (e.g., particle-like, wavelike, or something in between), depending on the environmental context within which they exist and are subject to observation.

(3) Two entities, such as electrons, which initially combine to form a molecule and then separate, show a peculiar non-local relationship, which can best be described as a non-causal connection of elements that are far apart (as demonstrated in the experiment of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen).

These three key features of quantum theory, according to Bohm, clearly show the inadequacy of mechanistic notion. Thus, if all actions are in the form of discrete quanta, interactions between different entities (e.g. electrons) constitute a single structure of indivisible links, so that the entire universe has to be thought of as an unbroken whole. In this whole each element that we can abstract in though shows basic properties (wavelike and particle like, etc.) that depend on its overall environment, in a way that is much more reminiscent of how the organs constituting living being are related, than it is of how parts of a machine interact.

Bohm discusses the relationship of matter and consciousness on the basis of some common ground and propounds an idea of a new world-view based on the concept of unbroken wholeness. He states:

“To obtain an understanding of the relationship of matter and consciousness has, however, thus far proved to be extremely difficult, and this difficulty has its root in the very great difference in their basic qualities as they present themselves in our experience. This difference has been expressed with particularly great clarity by Descartes, who described matter as ‘extended substance’ and consciousness as ‘thinking substance’. Evidently, by ‘extended substance’ Descartes meant something made up of distinct forms existing in space, in an order of extension and separation basically similar to the one that we have been calling explicate. By using the term ‘thinking substance’ in such sharp contrast to ‘extended substance’ he was clearly implying that the various distinct forms appearing in thought do not have their existence in such an order of extension and separation (i.e. some kind of space), but rather in a different order, in which extension and separations have no fundamental significance. The implicate order has just this latter quality, so in a certain sense Descartes was perhaps anticipating that consciousness has to be understood in terms of an order that is closer to the implicate than it is to the explicate.”

According to Bohm, matter as a whole can be understood in terms of the notion that the implicate order is the immediate and primary actuality (while the explicate order can be derived as a particular, distinct case of the implicate order). The question that arises here, he pointed out, is that whether or not the actual substance of consciousness can be understood in terms of the notion that the implicate order is also its primary and immediate actuality. He contends that if matter and consciousness could be understood in terms of the general notion of order, the way should opened for comprehending their relationship on the basis of some common grounds. He concludes that in this way one could come to the term of a new notion of unbroken wholeness, in which consciousness is no longer to be fundamentally separated from matter.

Synthesis of Yoga-III

With the increasing evidence of the presence of consciousness or of the possibility of presence of consciousness in the physical, we seem to have entered into a new phase of the development of scientific knowledge and of the philosophy of scientific knowledge. We seem to be arriving at a meeting point of matter and consciousness, of the physical and the supra-physical. But it would be premature to conclude that the identity of matter and consciousness and of the physical and the supra-physical has been proved, and that, therefore, we have arrived or that we are soon going to arrive at the synthesis of science and spirituality.

The presence and operation of consciousness in the physical world has been admitted by a number of philosophical systems, and these philosophical systems, even though they contain valuable insights, do not provide as yet any firm ground for verifiable knowledge. It has been found necessary, in order to know with greater certitude, to follow the curve of evolving consciousness until it arrives at a height and largeness of self-enlightenment in which highest subjective consciousness is discovered to be capable of the generation of objective universe.

But let us pause a little.

Science demands physical valid proof of facts for building up justified or justifiable beliefs regarding them. Consciousness, on the other hand, is intrinsically supra-physical, and spirituality is the domain of consciousness and of supra-physical facts. Even though a supra-physical fact may impinge on the physical world and produce physical results, the action of the supra-physical on the physical and its effect on our senses cannot be its invariable action and most normal character or process. Ordinarily, the supra-physical produces a direct effect or a tangible impression on our mind and our life-being, and can only indirectly and through them, if at all, influence the physical world and physical life. If it objectivises itself, it does so to subtler senses in us and only derivatively to the outward physical sense. In examples of the faculty of second sight and also of those of psychic faculties, this is what happens. It is to those subtle faculties that one can gain various kinds of evidence of the existence of other planes of beings and communication with them. It is then that one becomes aware that our physical mind and our physical senses are not the whole of us or the best or greatest part of us; and one begins to realise that reality cannot be restricted to a sole field of narrowness of the physical world.

It is, however, argued that the supra-physical experience is essentially subjective, and that subjective experiences or subtle-sense images can easily be deceptive, since we have no recognised method or standard of verification. But the counter-argument is that error is not the prerogative of the inner subjective experience alone; it is also a part of the knowledge that can be gained by physical senses, and even of the objective methods and standards. And just as in the physical domain, methods of scrutinising physical experiences have been worked out, and valid means of clarifications have been greatly standardised so that barren scepticism is no more defensible in regard to physical experiences, even so, in the occult sciences or in the yogic sciences, true standards and valid means of verification have been developed. Supra-physical experiences, when rightly interrogated and tested by their own characteristic appropriate standards of verification, are found to be valid and the testimony of these experiences is confirmed again and again even in the physical and objective filed. But it should be admitted that there is a too great a tendency to admit the extraordinary and miraculous or supernatural at its face value, and there is, therefore, a reason to be more scrupulous and stringent in applying appropriate valid means of verification.

The richness and complexities of Vedic system of yoga cannot be adequately captured within a brief compass that we have in our scope. But from whatever we have said so far we may be able to gather that,

(1) The Veda is humanity’s earliest composition available, which may enable us to discern a well developed yogashastra which consists of a systematic body of the knowledge of the truths, principles, powers and processes that govern realization or yoga-siddhi, the perfection that comes from the practice of yoga;

(2) This shastra is illustrated in the examples of hundreds of Rishis, ― not only those who have composed the hymns of the Veda, but also those forefathers like Angirasas, Ribhus and others whose yogic achievements have been variously described;

(3) This shastra is not only a record of the subjective experiences of the composers or others, but owing to the fact the symbols and figures which have been used by these Rishis are fixed and shared by the composers and their disciples, the objective veracity of contents of knowledge that have been expressed in these compositions can be studied and can be objectively determined;

(4) The quest contained in this yoga-shastra is undogmatic and open ended, so that the yogic system presented in the Veda (yoga) can be continued to be developed in the light of new enquiries and new methods of quest and verification.

One of the important features of the Vedic pursuit is marked by intense goodwill and concern for universal welfare, spread of universal goodwill and openness to thoughts of goodwill that may come from all directions. The following verses from Rigveda, Mandala I, sukta 89, bring out the emphasis that is laid in the Veda on universality, goodwill, well-being, selflessness and all-round good health: “May thoughts of goodwill come to us from all directions, without any obstruction or restraint, leading us to higher ideals, so that we may be recipients of divine protection without any hindrance, day to day, for our well deserved growth”. (I.89.1)

“May Indra, with the opulent power of divine hearing, be propitious to us. May the omniscient be propitious to us. May Garuda with his irresistible weapons, be propitious to us. May Brahaspati be auspicious to us.” (I.89.6)

“O Gods, may we hear with ears what is auspicious; may we see with eyes what is auspicious, O gods worthy of worship. May we sing songs of gratitude with all our bodies endowed with firm faculties and live full span of our life devoted to the divine welfare.” (I.89.8)

“Hundred autumns are assigned to us by the divine in this fleeting existence of bodies, subject to old age and decay. May we have no affliction or infirmities in the midst of our life-span.” (I.89.9)

There are, in the Yajurveda, six verses which are devoted to a prayer for the mind mind to be filled with Good Will. They are as follows:

“The mind, irrespective of whether one is awake or asleep, travels to far distant corners; this far distant-moving mind is a light of lights.