Yoga is a term which is much misunderstood. To an unsympathetic critic it is not so much a system of philosophy as a school of magic and witch-craft. Some times it is equated with hypnotism or mesmerism. But yoga has nothing to do with these things. The simple meaning of Yoga is discipline; it is a process of self-culture. It is a method of educating man physically, mentally and spiritually. Man is not a machine nor a device but a being, a complex being indeed. He is a complex of body, mind and spirit. The concept of man as adumbrated by different systems differs not only in degree but also in kind. The naturalistic concept holds that man is in essence an animal always at variance with his surroundings and his fellowmen. Life is viewed as a struggle in which the strong survive. In this struggle man is aggressive, predatory and cruel. If there is any fellow feeling, it is limited to one’s kith and kin. The naturalistic concept then holds that there is no essential difference between man and the animal except for degree of complexity. Man is but one of innumerable animals tenaciously holding on to life. This concept sets man within the context of nature. He is a product of natural forces, the end result of a process of natural selection.
The humanistic concept believes that man differs from other animals not simply in complexity but also in kind. There is something unique in man which sets him apart from other animals and that something is reason; because of this rationality man is not an animal but a being. Man can think and act in terms of abstract concepts and principles. In him reason is the supreme principle by virtue of which passions are controlled, activities determined and conflicts resolved. Man has foresight which enables him to anticipate plans and to prepare for the future. He can set up rational goals and devise rational means of reaching them. The humanistic concept sets man within the context of man. That he can understand, control and direct nature is sufficient evidence that he is more than nature. This concept stresses the dignity and worth of man and man.
The theistic view of man maintains that man is not a mere being but a divine being. Man is divine and unique in that he is essentially a spirit. The spirit is as real as the body and mind. Man is primarily a spirit and only secondarily he owns a body and mind. The spiritual in man is more than the physical and mental because the body and mind can be purified through the power of the spirit. As a spiritual being man transcends nature and he is more than man as man, for he is an emanation from or a spark of the divine. Yoga holds this theistic concept of man; it sets him in the context of God or the Infinite. There is a relationship between man and God, between the finite and the infinite which is eternal and un-severable. (The finite has its being in the infinite which is eternal and un-severable.) The finite has its being in the infinite or the infinite permeates the finite, sustaining, inspiring, guiding and purifying it; from the infinite finite comes and to the infinite it returns. Hence the etymological meaning of yoga is to unite or weld together. Yoga implies union between God and soul, between the infinite and the finite. This union is immortality. Yoga pursues deliverance from the laws of space and time, from the law of causation, that is, to de-condition life, to conquer bliss and freedom, in a word, to attain immortality.
The fundamental data of yoga are God, soul and immortality. These are the categorical imperatives about which some definite concepts must be premised before an attempt at the explanation of immortality is made. God is a spirit which is an Absolute of all that is essential in man and nature. The philosophy of nature has recently come to occupy the forefront of the intellectual stages. Science has now found that it cannot pursue its legitimate investigations without raising some of the most profound philosophical problems, and the progress of science, particularly of physics, has seemed to throw light upon those problems. The foundations of the old-fashioned materialism have now been destroyed by the results of the research into the atom and the equally revolutionary views of space and time. With these results the concept of nature as a machine disappeared. It was once argued that nature is a machine and a machine self-explanatory, since every part is determined by its relation to the whole. The recent trend is towards postulating mind as the ultimate reality and conceiving nature as a complex thought. But the more definitely metaphysical researches have led to an account of the natural order assuming the existence of the spirit which transcends nature. This brief estimate of modern tendencies in the study of nature has not minimized the importance of the cosmological argument but, on the contrary, in its generalized form, it is being reinforced by scientific progress. The essence of the argument is simply this that nature or cosmos is not a self-explanatory system; in order to interpret we are compelled to postulate a Spirit which is not identical with nature. The urge of nature becomes manifest in the cosmic evolution which is a gradual unfoldment of the varied possibilities of the supreme Spirit.
The experience of human life is of a different and higher quality than that of the amoeba, and that there is no reason to suppose that the progress in the creation of values to have finished. It may be argued that the higher values are the result of the accident and give us no ground for supposing that the universe is interested in their production. Such a supposition will appear irrational and improbable. If we are determined to believe that all value is the accidental by product of an indifferent process, we must logically include science itself among the accidental by-products. In this case, it is difficult to see how science could claim to be true, and if science cannot claim to be true, then we know nothing about evolution and the whole position becomes self-contradictory. The most reasonable hypothesis then is that values are not accidental by-products but integral to the process of life.
The theory of emergent evolution has recently been made prominent by the writings of some philosophers. The concept of emergence is intended to meet the difficulties which the older theories of evolution presented. It is believed on this theory to regard the process of evolution as something more than a mechanistic development. According to this new theory, evolution has the property of bringing into existence beings which could not have been foreseen by any one, who knew the previous course of development and which, in fact, are not mere resultants of prior conditions. Thus it may be said that life, mind and self consciousness emerge in the course of evolution. The theory of emergent evolution may be welcomed as a descriptive formula. This theory brings into bold relief nature’s leaping process. Nature creeps as well as leaps. The orderliness and growth in values, the transitions from matter to life, from life to mind, from mind to self consciousness and from self-consciousness to spiritual wisdom illustrate the incorporation of fresh ideas and values in the cosmic process. The orderliness and transition testifies to teleology which accounts for the growth of values. The admission of any teleological element in evolution, of any tendency towards the production of values, suggests the thought of a creative spirit.
The concept of the spirit or God as the all-inclusive reality satisfies the philosophic quest for unity. The rational mind seeks to reduce all experience to a systematic unity in terms of such relations as whole and part; the whole is defined as the universal that pervades the parts and gives them a meaning. Hence it is regarded as an identity that persists in and through difference. God as the all-self explains the nature of consciousness which is at once static and dynamic. Consciousness is ever a relation that subsists between a perceiving and thinking subject and an object that is perceived or thought of, and God as the super-subject not only is consciousness but has consciousness. The idea that God is the cause of all things does not imply that creation is an act having a beginning in time. God reveals himself in creation; the entire creative process is the self-expression of God. The logical idea of cause cannot be sundered from the ethical concept of purpose. The process of nature and the progress of man can be explained only as the self-actualization of the divine will.
The philosophic mind strives to reduce the whole of experience to a single unity; but it fails to satisfy the demands of the moral consciousness. One without a second may be the logical truth but it is indifferent to the deeper ethical values of human life. The definition of God has to be restated in the language of moral philosophy as the ruler and redeemer. To the logical intellect God is immanent in all beings as their inner ground; but ethics refers to its transcendental eminence and holiness. The idea of immanence guarantees the intimacy of union between God and soul, while the concept of transcendence justifies the absolute infinity and perfection of God and inspires reverence and humility. The central truth of yoga is the identity between the Absolute of metaphysics and God of the religion. It discards the distinction drawn between God and Godhead, for distinction is in a sense the denial of the reality of moral and religious consciousness.
The fact that moral ideas have evolved and that concepts of the good life have not always been the same, may seem to be a serious difficulty in presenting a moral argument. Reflection, however, will show that if we retain the conviction that we are under an obligation to pursue the good as we understand it, the evolution of moral ideas affords a ground for belief in a providential ordering of evolution. If we take it as a fact of experience that we are really under an obligation to obey the right as we see it, and to see the true meaning of right so far as we are able then we must believe that the development of human concepts of the good life is a directed development, the progressive revelation of a Good which in some way, transcends the process of evolution. Since the moral effort is both obligatory and rational we are obliged to postulate perfection beyond the present and visible order, some kingdom of God. Any moral virtue appears always to be directed towards and inspired by a good which can never be fully realized in time. It goes beyond any formulation of the aim in temporal terms. It has a touch of the super-natural. Thus if we think out the implication of moral conviction, we are compelled to make the three postulates – God, freedom and immortality. “In so far as I am a self conscious moral being, I have the sufficient ground for belief that I am a free agent with an unlimited destiny and under the providential government of God.”
The problem of God then seems to depend upon personality and creation. We may assume that personality is the highest form known to us of concrete and living being. In fact personality is definted as the highest and most complete way of being alive. If God is living he cannot be less than personal. Human personality is not the most perfect form of personal life, but we can enumerate certain qualities which appear to be characteristic. Personal life is the life of a self conscious being, who is capable of directing himself by principles of conduct. We predict personality when we feel justified in assuming moral responsibility. A person is one who is able to know and to will; his knowledge and will are by contact with the divine knowledge and will. In attributing personality to God we are by no means making Him one of ourselves; on the contrary, we are recognizing the existence of a Being who, while not entirely other than ourselves, surpasses us immeasurably.
The second of our main problems is of creation. The relation of God to the world has been represented by these three-identity, creation and emanation. Yoga weaves these three concepts into a beautiful synthesis. The concept of identity betrays the pantheistic tendency which holds that God and world are one. This only means that God is immanent in the world. He abides in the soul and in all becoming. The concept of creation indicates the theistic tendency which maintains that God, besides being immanent, is transcendent. The universe cannot exhaustively display the being of God who is beyond the greatest that we can conceive in point of power and the highest that we can conceive in point of value. The concept of emanations strikes a balance between these two tendencies by bringing into harmony the nearness of the one and the remoteness of the other. The pre-creational Absolute entering into the pro-creational series is that of emanation. The theory of emanation turns upon the concept of grades of being which proceed from the Supreme, falling in value and reality as they are further removed from their source. The theory of emanation signifies the generous self-giving and ecstasy of the Absolute which overflows.
On the strength of this theory of emanation, the yoga regards the gradation of worlds or planes as a whole, and sees them as a great connected complex movement. The higher exert their influence on the lower, the lower react to the higher and manifest in themselves something that corresponds to the superior power and its action. The material, vital, mental and spiritual – each plane, in spite of its connection with others, is yet a world in itself with its own movements and forces under its own laws and for its own manifestation. It is the contact of the higher and lower planes of consciousness that unravels the great secret of bringing into manifestation the hidden powers. If there is a yogi who is capable of coming consciously into contact with a plane yet un-manifested here, and if by rising into it in his consciousness harmonize it with the material plane then unrealized dream can become a reality. A new power will break forth and change the condition of the earth life.
The soul is conceived in manifold manners. It is the rational being (chit), is the self (atman), is the subject (pratyak). It is self-luminous, a psychic unit or monad. Soul is the seat of consciousness pure and simple. Since the soul is consciousness pure and simple, it is akin to God and is destined to attain that state of consciousness where to will is to create, to think is to see. Consciousness is a unit, though its manifestations are many according to the vehicles through which it functions. According to the vehicle which it is vitalizing, so will be the consciousness. If it is working in the physical body, it will be the I senses; if in the mental, it will be the I of the intellect. The endeavour of the yogi consists in elevating this consciousness to the highest heights of Being, Knowledge and Bliss. The soul comes into this world with a reminiscence of its former glory; not in entire forgetfulness does it sojourn here on this terrestrial earth. Earthly things tend to obscure and obliterate the reminiscence of its native glory. To bring that recollection to clearness and to purify the vision of the soul, by a definite discipline, is the aim and ideal of yoga.
The concept of the atman is defined differently by different schools. The materialist view that the self is an assemblage of atoms that are in a constant flux is wrong as matter is unconscious. The view of the vitalist that it is life or élan vital which maintains and multiplies itself in untenable. The empirical view that the self is a cluster of sensations is rejected on the ground that it denies the unity and continuity of personality. The rationalist view that” because I think therefore I am”, ignores the different levels of consciousness. The sociologist view that the self is an element of the social organism is erroneous. The adjectival theory which makes the self an attribute of the absolute ignores its uniqueness. The monistic view that the self is an illusory reflection of the Absolute regards it as a mere appearance without any moral or religious value. Yoga summarily rejects all these views. The self or atman is a tattva or ultimate reality like God. In Yoga the soul is embraced by God. It is not embraced in self- consciousness of the waking state or of a single incarnation. Without God indwelling the soul, the soul as such cannot be realized. To realize the soul as all inclusive and all informed by God, concentration is to be resorted to and supported by abstraction from the sense objects and enlivened by love of God.
In naturalism man is viewed as part of a huge machine completely determined in all respects. His actions are not entirely determined by external physical forces, but they are determined by motives and impulses which act as psychological forces. He has an illusory sense of freedom. His personality fades into insignificance in the face of the immense physical reality. Man has no real freedom and everything in nature is in principle knowable. In idealism the position of man is improved, because it is in him that both consciousness and the ideal are realized. But he is a mere medium for the manifestation of reason and has no ultimate reality. The sole reality is the all inclusive and timeless Absolute, of which all other things are parts or appearances. Thus the self, though not an illusion, is not finally real. In idealism, consciousness being basic, everything is knowable. We thus see that the individual as such is disregarded in both naturalism and idealism, there is no real freedom and no room left for mystery. In yoga there is real freedom of the individual and room left for mystery; the Divine Being presents a depth of mystery which cannot be completely grasped by human intelligence. This only means that reality is not an object of discursive intellect but an object of intuitive realization.
In Indian speculation self- knowledge of the self came to occupy the highest place in the hierarchy of man’s duties and obligations, on the ground that a correct knowledge of the Atman provides the only remedy for the evils and sufferings incidental to human life. The self provides a principle, the reality of which is re asserted in the very act of doubting or denying. Metaphysics should therefore proceed not from the world of objects but from the certainty of one’s own existence. The problem of self came to the forefront and become the philosophical question par excellence.
The three approaches to the problem of Atman are the psychological, epistemological and transcendental. The psychological approach is best exemplified in the Mandukya Upanishad, where an analysis of the states of consciousness is fully brought out. The self, according to the Upanishad, experiences four states, namely, those of wakefulness, dream, deep sleep and pure consciousness. The first state is that of wakefulness, when the self is conscious only of the external objects and enjoys gross things. The second state is that of dreaming, when the self is conscious of internal objects and enjoys the subtle things. The third state is that of deep sleep when the self desires no desires and dreams no dreams but being centered in itself feeds on bliss. The fourth state of the self is that of pure consciousness, when there is no knowledge of internal objects or of external ones, when the self is beyond thought and beyond any possibility of any indication, when it is serene, simple and self poised. By an analysis of the different states of neither consciousness, the Upanishad points out that the bodily consciousness must not be mistaken for the self, nor the consciousness in dreams nor that in deep sleep. The self is of the nature of the pure consciousness. I am I. That which sees itself by itself, that which recognizes itself as identical with itself in the light of the supreme knowledge- that must be regarded as the self. The self is realized in that theoretic, ecstatic and self poised state. Hence the self is known in every act of cognition, being its ground; it is the basic light of all empirical knowledge since it is the mass of consciousness pure and simple.
That I know as the ultimate presupposition of all knowledge has been a recognized tenet of epistemology. It may be said that it is only in so far as I know a and I know b, that I can ever know the difference between a and b. My knowledge of any other relation implies that I know is the pre- condition of the terms between which the relation obtains. It in only against the background of I know that any relation has its meaning. The conclusion to which such consideration point is that the background of all relations falls beyond the relations: as such it cannot be conditioned by anything different from itself. To put it briefly, the pre-condition of all relations cannot itself be a term of the relation conditioned by it. The self cannot be coordinated with the objects between which exists a relation.
The epistemological analysis which remains at the relational level can never rid itself of the objectivist attitude leading to the confusion of the self with the not-self, of the subject with the object. The analysis therefore must be carried further into the transcendental level, and then the Atman will be realized as the supra-rational experience which is yet the support of all distinguishable entities. It is urged on one hand that the Atman is the ultimate transcendent principle, and on the other, it is repeatedly said that it lies beyond the region of thought and speech. The important step that is taken in resolving this paradox is represented by the statement that God or Brahman which is the foundation of the world, is no other than the Atman or the self which is pres-supposed by all knowledge and experience. Hence yoga or union is possible because of this identity between God and Soul.
This union is the nature of immortality. The ideas of immortality and of a future life are not identical. The first is, raised above the vicissitudes of time, while the second means another temporal existence for the individual following on death. The belief in future life is almost universal and the primitive man thinks of his life in the beyond as an extension and reproduction of the present. The belief in immortality becomes a part of the philosophy of religion, when it is directly connected with belief in God. The concepts of immortality fall into two classes – inherent immortality and conditional immortality. According to the former, the human self is naturally immortal; according to the latter, the self attains immortality on the fulfillment of certain conditions. Yoga brings about a happy synthesis of these two concepts by maintaining that the natural immortality of the self can be proved on metaphysical grounds, while the conditional immortality depends upon the action and choice of the self. Those who definitely pursue the lower values, the things that perish, share the mortality of that which occupied their attention and their thought. Those who choose the higher values, the things that are eternal receive the gift of immortality.
There are again the concepts of impersonal immortality, incorporeal immortality and personally immortality. As rivers which flow into the sea disappear in the mighty waters and lose their name and form, even so does the wise souls become absorbed in the transcendent person and lose its name and form. As when honey is prepared by the collection of various juices, the juices cannot discriminate which tree they came, even so when the souls are merged in the Real they cannot discriminate from which bodies they came. This is clearly a doctrine of impersonal immortality. There is an important passage in the Mundaka Upanishad which tells us that the soul of a man who has realized himself becomes mingled after death with the whole universe. Such a soul becomes a great diffusive power, “whose voice is on the rolling air and who stands in the rising sun and who may be seen in star or flower or wherever the eye may be cast.” This is an instance of incorporeal immortality. Personal immortality consists in attaining to an absolute likeness to God. Here personality survives even in union. Not loss in oneness but possession of oneness is the secret of yoga. Hence the goal is not to lose oneself in the Divine Consciousness, but to let the Divine consciousness – penetrate into body, life and mind and transform them.
The self is a conscious being and consciousness has a formal and material side. There are some who argue that the matter of an individual is immortalized but the form is left behind. This only means that immortality is the conservation of values, and persons in whom values emerge are to be discarded. In the West there are some philosophers who are eager to save the ‘what’ of an individual, and actuated by this impulse they have sacrificed the persons on the altar of the Absolute. Immortality for them is only the conservation of values in the Absolute. But Yoga does not remain satisfied only with the conservation of values. It requires persons to effect transformation of the psychic as well as the physical world. Hence the person and the values are to be saved and immortalized. What is this person? It is neither the empirical soul, nor the exalted ego nor even the material or social me. It is the transcendent self which is continuous with the Absolute. By immortality in yoga means the immortality of the self with values. Its urge is not merely the ‘that’ or the ‘what’ but both the ‘that’ and the ‘what’.