1. Preface

This text was produced by optical character recognition of the 1907 printed edition and has not been proof-read. Occasional misreadings remain, chiefly in the transliterated Sanskrit terms. The Sanskrit original is published separately as Yoga Bhashya.

° THE U YOGA-DARSANA. THE SUTRAS OF PATANJALI WITH THE BHASYA OF VYASA TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH WITH NOTES From Vachaspati Misrds Tattvavaisdradi, Vijndna Bhiksu’s Yogavartika and Bhoja’s Rajamartanda BY GANGANATHA JHA, Professor of Sanskrit, Muir Central College, Allahabad. PUBLISHED FOR THE BOMBAY THEOSOPHICAL PUBLICATION FUND BY RAJARAM TUKARAM TATYA. 1907. Price 14 Rupees. (All rights reserved ).

} Go DTandl. 3298.65 Vv ; : HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY . FROM THE LISRARY OF JAMES HAUGHTON WOODS 1935 , BOMBAY : . PRINTED AT THE “ TATTVA-VIVECHAKA PRESS.’’ 4

PREFACE. “OCW Re

The translation now placed before the public was prepared so long ago as 1895; and the vicissitnides through which the manuscript has passed has made it absolutely impossible for it to undergo any revision, So what is presented here is the work of a mere neophyte in the mysteries of Sanskrit Philosophieal translation;.and the translator would therefore, at the very outset, offer his apologies to the reader, for his providing for him what he himself considers a rather poor fare. It may however be added, as an extennuating circumstance, that the printing-of the old ‘ copy’ was allowed to be continued in view of the undertaking given to the late Mr. Tukaram Tatya—an undertaking from which the translator could not free himself.

The chief. fault of the present translation lies in the fact that it is not readable by itself. This has been due to the extremely obscure character of the original, a character which is inseparable from all works dealing with subjects, the whole truth with regard to which cannot be given out to the *public.’? Imperfect as itis, it is expected that it may help, to a slight extent, future workers in the same field. —

By way of atoning for this deficiency of the translation, itis proposed to give here a readable resume of the teachings of the Yogasufras,

‘Yoga’ has been defined as the ‘nirodha’ of the ‘ vritti’ of the ‘ chitta’ brought about by ‘ Practice’ and * Freedom from Attachment’; and the only explanation that will make this intelligible to the ordinary reader is that yoga cousists in the controlling of the mind ;—though it must be admitted that the definition in this form becomes philosophically inaccurate;

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as the ‘chitta’ of the original is something different from ‘mind', and ‘nirodha ’, by which is meant ‘withdrawal’ or ‘inhibition’ different from ‘control.’ But all the accurate, renderings of the definition that have been attempted in English have only helped to make the original less intelligible. This ‘ control of the mind’ becomes yoga only when the ‘mind * is so far ‘controlled’ that it abides in its own pure form of consciousness.

The fanctions or operations of the Chitta (Mind) are fivefold —Right Cognition, Wrong Cognition, Supposition, Sleep, and Remembrance. Right Cognition is of three minds—Perceptional, Inferential and Verbal. Wrong Cognition is mistaken conviction brought about by some defect either in the cognitive agency or in the cognised object. | Supposition (or Imposition ) is distinguished from Wrong Cognition by the fact that while the latter is rectified by subsequent Right Cognition, the former is such that it persists all through worldly existence, just as tenaciously as any ordinary cognition; to this class belong all those popular errors of regarding Intelligence as a quality of the Soul,andsoon. Remembrance is cognition brought about by impressions left by previous cognitions. By ‘Sleep’ is meant the cognition of pleasure that we have during sound sleep.

Yoga or Meditation is of two kinds—unconscious or abstracy and conscious or concrete. In Conscious Meditation, also called Salambana or Sabija, the object meditated upon is dis- — tinctly or directly apprehended ; that is to say, in this meditation the inhibition of the mind enables the agent to directly apprehend the object on which he is meditating—for instance, some form of personal divinity. In Unconcious Meditation, also called Niralambana or Nirézja, on the other hand, there is a complete inhibition of all the functions of the mind, wherein the agent loses all consciousness of things

PREFACE. iii outside himself; he is literally self-conscious, not indeed conscious of his self as apart from other selves, but of the Self and that alone as One, Absolute, Eternal, Unchanging, The effect of the former is visible or perceptible, consisting of the experiencing of desirable pleasures, and finally actually perceiving the Divinity; this last perception puts a stop to all kinds of pain, and thereby gradually leads to final Release. Unconcious Meditation also leads to final release; but immediately and directly; and it does not stand in need of any intervening processes.

This raises an interesting question: when the man has reached the stage of conscious meditation, what becomes of his past Karma —If he obtains final Release all at once, is all his Karma wiped off at one stroke? If not, how can he obtain perfect Release? The answer to this lies in the fact that Karma is divided into three classes—(1) the Prdérabdha or commenced, those whose machinry has been set in motion towards their fruition in the present life; (2) the Sanchita or Accamulated—those that are lying latent, like seeds stocked up in the granary, for fruition in fature lives ; and (3) Kriyaména or Jeing done,—those that are being done in the present life. Now there is nothing that can stop the machinery that has been set going; the tree that has sprouted must grow, to some extent at least,—the effects of the Prdrabdha karma must be experienced. With regard

, to the sanchita however the case is different: the seeds may be deprived of their germinating power under the infinence of extreme heat or cold; in the same manner the accumulated karma can be rendered ineffective by the force of wisdom. Lastly over the friyamdna the agent has full control. Hence when the man reaches the stage of concious Meditation, he accelerates the fruition of his

• Prarabdha’ Karma, renders ineffective the ‘ sanchita,’ and being entirely free from personal desires, does not aequire any

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dharma or adharma, and thus has no kriyamdna; and the Prérabdha Karma being only limited, as soon as that has. become exhausted, Release is attained. This is what happens in Conscious Meditation. Unconcious Meditation, on the other hand, is so powerful in its action that it tends to exhaust the Prarabdha also, not indeed, by wiping it off, but by making it ineffective by depriving it of such auxilliaries and aids daring present life without which it cannot being about its effects. In fact this.is what is meant by Karma being destroyed or 6urnt. Asa matter of fact, in bringing about its results the Prarabdha stands in need of the aid of such auxilliaries as Ignorance, Egotism, Attachment and Long. ing after life, on the part of the agent; hence when the agent has by practice of meditation become free from these “ Obstacles’ or ‘Troubles’,—he makes his Prarabdha entirely ineffective; and so attains Final Release immediately. In Conscious Meditation, there is some personal motive present, however pure, it may be; and so long as this is so, Egotism is there; and hence Prarabdha remaining effective, the Release is obtained, it is trne,—but only after Praérabdha has become exhausted by actual experiencing of its results... a

• Of Conscions Meditation there are four kinds—which have been regarded as the four stages in the advancement towards meditation. All the four are not necessary for all men. Ifthe aspirant has succeeded in reaching the higher stage he need | not revert to the lower; and this for the simple reason that “the ends of the latter will have been served by the former’ {Yoga-Bhashya). Then again, all these four stages are to’ be practised with reference to one and the same ‘object of meditation’; as if one wavers from one to the other object the process will lose much of its force. With regard to the same object however the aspirant must proceed from the grosser or more easily perceptible aspects of it to the subtler

PREFACE. v or imperceptible aspects; and thus by the time he has passed through the four stages, the object is present before him in all its aspects. . These four kinds are—(1) the ‘Argumentative,’ whereby the aspirant is enabled to apprehend all the past, present and fature aspects of the ordinary perceptible kind, of the object of his devotion-such f. i. as the elements and the sense-organs; (2) the Deliberative—whereby he is enabled to apprehend the ordinarily imperceptible aspects of that object; as for instance, Nature, Intelligence, Self-consciousness and the Rudimentary Elements. (3) the Joyous—whereby contemplating the object of devotion the aspirant feels a peculiar blissful sensation; and (4) the Selfconscious—whereby the aspirant comes to look upon himself as one with the object of devotion,

A distinction is made between whatis called the human self,—which forms the twenty-fifth ‘ principle’ in the constitution of the Universe, whereof Nature, Intelligence, Self-consciousness, the eleven organs, the five radimentary eldments and the five gross elements are the other twenty-four « principles ’"—and the Supreme Self, on the ground that the latter is far more subtle than the former; as the human self is directly perceived in the aforesaid fourth stage of Conscious “Meditation, while that of the Supreme Self we can have no direct knowledge; the only conception that we can have of it is what we may form out of our ideas of such qualities (if ‘qualities’ they can be called) as Absolute Unchangeability, Indivisibility and the like. The contemplation of. the self (human) is possible during the aforesaid egoistic meditation; this is what is spoken of in Sankhya and Yoga works as ‘ Sattvapurushanyatakhyati’ (the discernment of the- ‘dietinetion between the self and the other principles).. The meditation of the supreme Se/f however is spoken of only in sutra I, 23.

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' It is not very easy to find what part this ‘supreme self,’ or: *God’ plays in the cosmogony of Yoga. He is nowhere spoken of as the ‘creator’; nor even as the consciousness pere meating through allexistence, He is spoken of only as an object of devotion, devotion to whom leads to highest results. In this respect the ‘god’ of the Yogin appears to hold the same position as the ‘devata’ of the Mimamsaka, who posits the ‘ devata’ only as one to whom the prescribed sacrifices can be offered ; He has no other function at all. Later writers on Yoga were conscious of this; hence when dealing with the sutra defining God simply as ‘that self which is ever untouched by the five kinds of troubles, Ignorance and the rest, as also by virtue, vice and their modifications’ they proceeded to supplement this by additional accounts of the Godhead obtainable from other sources, chiefly Vedantic. For instance, Vijnana Bhiksha gives the following description :—‘His powers and omniscience are equalled or excelled. by none; He is the Lord or Spiritual Chief and Father of all the gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Radra; is the imparter of spiritual vision to the gods, in his character of the Inner Guide: (Conscience ? ) and aise though the Vedas. Pranava—‘Om’ is His name; Devotion to Him consists in contemplation of Him, beginning with the reciting of the Pranava, and ending in the direct perception of His Effulgence. (Yogasarasangraha. pp. 27-28.)

The ‘Conscious’ Yogin also has been classed under four heads, in accordance it would seem, with the abovementioned four stages of Conscious Meditation: viz:: (1) The Prathamakalpika, one who is at the first stage, who is still practising the Argumentative form of meditation, wherein he looks upon all ordinary things of the world as true under ordinary conditions, and so forth, (2) the Madhubhumika—one occupying the honeyed or sweet stage— is one who has come to realise that the characters that he is

PREFACE. vit generally accastomed to attribute to things are not real, bat merely imposed upon them by usage; he looks upon the very essence of things, as free from all such impositions; for this reason he is called ‘ Ritamhbaraprajna’ (of trath-supporting knowledge); and this stage is called ‘Madhumati’ (Honeyed) because it makes the aspirant feel extremely happy. (3) the

• Prajnajyoti’—of bright Intelligence—who has won complete control over all subtle entities from Nature downwards; it is into this stage that the aforesaid ‘Joyous’ meditation enters. (4) the At:krdntabhavaniya—one who has passed beyond all that has to be experienced—is one who has reached the aforesaid ‘self-conscious’ meditation, The highest stage of this has been called ‘Dkarmamegha—Samadhi’ ‘Cloud of Virtue’—which is thus described :—All desire for occult powers having been renounced, there immediately follows the discernment of the Self from Nature; and thus all Ignorance and consequent evils having disappeared, there appears in the mind of the aspirant a feeling of satiety, a sense of ‘enough’, with regard to all external things, gross and subtile alike ; this is the step that leads to the highest unconscions meditation and hence has been called ‘ Dharmamegha ’—that which showers dharma i.e., such virtue as omniscience and the like; when arrived at this stage the aspirant becomes a Jivanmakta, a Living Adept. . ” Abstract or Unconscious Meditation is of two kinds—the Updéyapratyaya and the Bhavapratyaya. The Up4yapratyaya Meditation is that which is accomplished by practice, during present life, of the various means prescribed in the ‘Shastras. Such means are faith, energetic concentration of the mind, constant contemplation, meditation and discernment born of Conscious Meditation. These five lead to _Unconscious Meditation, through Absolute Dispassion; and when all this is employed with great energy there then comes

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abont. Unconscious Meditation. But even though the agent is not sufficiently energetic, if he is devoted to God, he obtains the same results. ‘ Devotion to God’ is a very potent factor in this, in as much as it puts an effective end to all evils that impede the progress of meditation. The; Bhavapratyaya meditation is that which is accomplished doring present }ife, but by force of practices carried on during preceding lives. This belougs to such persons as are either ‘ Videhas’—i. €., Bodiless Beings, such as Hiranyagarbha and the like, who carry on all their functions by means of the subtle body, and do not need the gross body—or ‘ Prakritilayas,’ or those who have attained to the position of the godhead after having worked up their way throngh the several ‘coverings’ or ‘ obstacles’ to their upward progress, in the shape of Nature and its modifications. As this passage upward cannot. be completed in only one life, it is not possible in the case of Conscious Meditation, which must come about as soon as ite details have been falfilled,—after which there is nothing to delay the accomplishment of the meditation; all this therefore being finished in a single life. It is for this reason that Conscious Meditation has not been divided into Up&yapratyaya and Bhavapratya: it is always Up&yapratyaya.

Though Unconcious Meditation is of the form of Inhibition, yet, while being practised, it develops in due course fresh powers and faculties at each step; and through these the Meditation develops itself in due time; as each faculty appears it reduces the force of opposing faculties tending to retard the required Inhibition of Mind, until true knowledge is finally attained. Thus it is that in the final stage of Unconcious Meditation all contending forces and faculties are laid at rest, and all evils having ceased, there remains no force in the opposing Praérabdha Karma of the aspirant, The mind thus having all its fonctions duly performed and inhibited, melts away along with all its products, into its source,

. PREFACA, ix This absolate sleep of the mind constitates the Isolation (Release) of the Self.

The reader who is interested in tracing unity among the diverse philosophical systems will be interested to find that wtiters on Yoga have tried to reconcile the view that Release is obtained by Meditation with the theory that it can be obtained by trae knowledge alone. Both views are correct ; both Yoga and Jnana lead to release, each in its own way and independently of the other. But one who would seek to obtain it by means of trae knowledge, would also have to practise that much of Concrete Meditation which leads to the discernment of the self from other things.

' This closes our study of the first section. The second section deals with the means —SAdhana—of Yoga. Aspirants to Yoga are divided into three classes—(1)

• Arorokehd ’—‘ one desirous of climbing’, (2) ‘ Yanjana’— one engaged in the practice, and (3) ‘ Yoga&radha ’—one who has attained Yoga; and for each of these distinct means or methods are laid dawn, We may recall here the description of the last given in the Bhagavadgita VI, 4 :—* One is said to be Yog&rtdha when he ceases to become attached to any action or to any objects of senge, and when he has given up all desire tor fraits of actions.”

_ Those who belong to this highest class have passed through all the preliminary steges during their previous lives, and at once attain the highestYoga; all that is needed for such people is constant Practice and Dispassien; they do not need the external diciplinary yoga. The ‘ Practice’ meant here is the ‘endeavonr to fix the mind in unflinching concentration’ ; and ‘ Dispassion ’ is the feeling of ‘enough’ that one has with regard to objects of enjoyment ; it is not mere absence of passion or attachment. It is of two kinds,

x _ PREFACE, the inferior kind having its origin in our knowledge of defects in the objects, and the higher consisting in our disregard for all such objects, not because of any. undesirable elements in them, but because of these being ‘not self’. ' As the means tending to the accomplishment of the aforesaid Exercise, the books lay down six methods called ‘ parikarma,’ These are—(1) Peace of mind, brought about by friendly feelings towards happy beings, sympathy.with the suffering, joyous regard for the :virtuous and sympathetic disregard for the vicious ;—(2) Functioning*towards objects—consisting of the sensing of superphysical objects. of sense;—(3) Joyous Resplendent funetion—tranquility of mind brought about by the recognition of Buddhi, and of the Self as distinct from it;— (4) Contemplation of dispassioped minds—of sach people as Narada and the like;—(5) Looking {upon ordinary cognitions as those of dream or sleep,—and (6) Contemplation of the object of worship in the form of some divinity. Stress has not been laid upon the order in which the last two, have to be practised. Practice and Dispassion are means to both Conscious and, Unconscious Meditation. ' For} the second-class yogin, the Yunjéna, has been prescribed what may be called ‘ Diciplinary Yoga.’ The highest form of this consists of—(1) Religious Austerity, the habituating of one’s body to the bearing of the ‘pairs of oppo- _ wites’,—{ 2) Study of works teaching Final Release, and silent repitition of the Pranava and such other Mantras ;—-and (3) Devotion to God—the offering of one’s actions to the Lord, and the renouncing of all desire for fruits of actions. a The direct purpose served by this Diciplinary Yogs is.the attenuation of the five sleskas, troubles or obstacles,—in-the shape of—(1) Ignorance—the regarding of the non-eternal

PREFACE. xi as.eternal, (2) Egotism—the identifying of the Self with the not-self ;—( 3 ) Affection—( 4) Aversion—and (5) Attachment to life—fear of death. These five have been called ‘ Viparyaya’ by the Sankhyas, under the names respectively of—Tamas, Mohs, Mahamoha,. Tamisra, and Andhatamisra. Among them, Ignorance is the source of the other foar. All these disturb the mind, and as such are impediments to Meditation, The attenuation of these lies in their being rendered incapable of putting obstacles in the way of right discernment of the Self from the Not-self.

The abovementioned Diciplinary Yoga purifies the mind, and thereby all chance for vice being removed, the cessation of viceis followed by the cessation of its effects in the form of Ignorance &c. All these—Ignorance and the rest—having been attenuat. ed by the force of Diciplinary Yoga, the course of Right Dis-

. cernment being no longer impeded, the Self comes to be rightly known ; there being no chance for the further operation of _Ignorance-and the other ‘troubles,’ the Agent arrives at the stage known as that of the ‘Jivanmukta.’ He continues, however, to live for a while, in order to afford opportunity for the working up of his préraédha Karma, on the exhaustion of which,—and on all the rest of his karma having been rendered inoperative by the absence of their necessary auxi- . Niaries, Ignorance &c. ,—there is no more need for the Self to be born again ; It therefore experiences no more pain—It is in the state of Absolate Bliss or Release. . When we understand the real source of ‘bondage,’ the

• process of ‘ Release’ becomes more intelligible. As a matter of fact all virtue and vice are the result of Ignorance, Ego~- tism, Affection, Aversion and Attachment to Life; and we know also that it is only virtue and vice that are the sources .of. the fruits of past actions, in the shape of birth, experiences during life and so forth ; these experiences giving rise to

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pleasure and pain, the Self becomes bound up in these, © When therefore, the root ofall this evil, Ignorance, is destroyed by the right Discernment of the Self form the Not-self, all evils attendant upon that root-evil, cease forthwith, Thus there being no cause left, the effects, virtue and vice, cannot appear; and as these evils are necessary auxilliaries to the fruition of that portion of the past karma which has not been set in motion, all these latter are rendered ineffective ; and those already set in motion having been exhausted, there is no farther occasion for the Self to undergo experiences,—whereupon it becomes ‘ free, ° ‘ released. ’

For the aspirant of the lowest class, the man of the ordinary life, there are eight ‘means to yoga,’ These are—({ 1) Yama, Restaint, consisting in harmlessness, truthfulness, reapect for other’s property, continence, and freedom from avarice, (2) Néyama or obligation, consisting of religious austerities. stady, contentment, purity and adoration of god. These two have been regarded as purely extrinsic and as such chiefly purificatory in their character. (3) Asana, Postare ;—much undue importance has been attached to this factor of Yoga by later writers ; but Patanjali contents himself by the simple statement, that ‘ Posture’ (for yoga) is that which is most conducive to fixity and comfort.’ (4) Pranayama, Regulation of Breath—the effect of this is more or less physiological in character, ‘ physiology ’ pertaining also to the inner spiritual centres of energy. (5) Pratydhdra, Abstraction, consists in the withdrawal of the nrind and the sense-organs from their respective vbjects, These five have been regarded as ‘ external’ factors, exercising ® more or less exterior influence, dealing as they do with the controlling of the body, breathing and the senses- The next three have been called ‘internal,’ as exercising an inuer infloence, and hence of greater importance, bearing upon the mind directly. These are—(6) Dhd&rana, steadiness, fixing of the mind toa definite point in space

PREFACE, xiii occupied by the Divinity that forms the object of meditation,- such for instance as the lotus of the heart, the centre of the brain and so forth, (1) Dhyana, contemplation, consists in the continuous flow of the conception of the object of meditation; when we have formed this conception, if it continues to occupy our mind, without any break, we are said to be ‘contemplating.” (8) Samédhi, Meditation Proper. When the aforesaid contemplation becomes free from all notions of difference ( between the Agent himself, and the object of Meditation ), and the mind becomes completely merged into the form contemplated, we have what has been called ‘ SamAdhi.

The third section deals with the Occult Powers. Thongh these have been described in detail, yet Patanjali defiuitely asserts that these are to be regarded as ‘ Powers’ or FPerfections only so long as the man is in the ordinary worldly state; they are great ‘ obstacles’ in the way of the accomplishment of Pure Meditation :— Samddhdvupasargd vyutthine siddhayah,’ These have been described with a view chiefly to show to the-aspirant that even such sources of pleasure are not things to long for—they are as imperfect in their character as the ordinary pleasures of the world.

The fourth and the last section deals with Kaivalya or Mukti. This we have already explained above.

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Bibliographical Information pertaining to the Yogasutra.

1. Yogasatras by Patanjali—printed with commentaries at Calcutta, Bombay and Benares. 4

2. Bhashya of Vyasa—commentary on (1) printed in Benares, Bombay Sanskrit Series, and Calcutta.

3. Tattvavaisharadi by Vachaspati Mishra commentary on No. (2)—printed along with it in Bombay Sanskrit Series, and also in Calcutta and Benares.

-4. P&tanjalarahasya—commentary on No. (3 )—not printed. Mss. available.

6. Rajamartanda by Bhojadeva—-a brief commentary on No. (1)—translated by Dr. Rajendralal Mittra, and printed in the Bibliotheca Indica.

7. Yogavartika by Vijnanabhiksu—commentary on (1 ) and parts of (2), printed in the ‘Pandit.’ Benares.

%. Yogamaniprabha Commentary on (1), printed in Benares

8, Yogachandrika—commentary on ad )—printed in Benares.

~-9. Nagesha Bhatta’s commentary on (1)—printed in the ‘ Pandit ’

.10. Narayana Tirtha’s commentary on (1)—not printed; available in Mss. This is a work of exceptional merit and usefulness,

11, English Translation of (1), with English commentary by M. N. Divedi--printed by the Bombay Theosophical Publishing Fund.

12. English Translation of (1) and (2), here offered to the public, and also in course of preparation by Mrs. Annie Besant and Bhagavan Dasa, and yet another by Dr. Woods (for the Harvard Oriental Series ). ;

13. Hindi Translation of (1) and (2)--printed at Moradabad.

THE SUTRAS OF PATANJALI—WITH THE BHASHYA OF VYASA. WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE TATTWAVAIS/ARAD{ OF VACHASPATI MIS/RA. An English Translation—by GANGANATHA JHA, M.A, SECTION Tf. . Com. :—May the resplendant Lord of Serpents, the manyhooded One, protect os,—He administering Yoga, while himself equipped with it, having a body of pure white, delighting in aserpentine body, the fountain-head of all wisdom, whose troubles are at an end, holding, as he does, terrific poison,—One who having renounced his original body, is born in this world for the manifold benefits of haman-kind.