The Yoga Aphorisms of Narayana
INTRODUCTION The author of this small book is a Western Yogi who is well familiar
with the esoteric cultures and the sacred literature of the Far and Middle East,
of South East Asia and the West. The Author is neither a scholar nor a linguist
but a practicing Yogi. This being the case, this book is in no capacity one more
commentary on the famed Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali. The author describes his own
experiences in Samadhi. His Yoga Aphorisms are an original text and not just a
criticism or one more commentary. His Yoga aphorisms disagree with many of the
fundamental premises of the Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali. Narayana's Yoga Aphorisms
also disagree with some of the Brahma Sutras.
The author contends that two of the most sacred foundation texts of Indian
Antiquity, the Brahman Sutra and the Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali, may feature
major discrepancies. These problems become apparent when the sacred texts are
approached from a vista of strict nondualism. Many of the Brahma Sutras and the
Yoga Aphorisms are mired in dualism and in theism. In the view of the author, many
of the dualistic and theistic aspects of the sacred texts, which also include the
Upanishads were invalidated by later developments. This is by Advaita Vedanta, by
Hindu and Buddhist nondualism, in some of the work of Sri Sankaracarya, in the
Surangama Sutra, the Lankavatara Sutra, the Diamond and Heart Sutras and in the
major texts of the Madhyamikas.
The Oriental, Indian, Chinese and Tibetan Adepts see countless phenomena in their
Samadhis and trances.
These are Gods and Goddesses, and family type pantheons. There are castels of the
Gods, celestial palaces and gardens, and paradises. They see Dynasties of Gods,
Goddesses, junior Gods, child Gods and Goddesses, Emperors of Gods with their
Empresses, Princes, Princesses, uncles, nephews, nieces and aunts. They see Kings
and Queens of Gods, Angels, Demons, heavens and hells and et cetera and ad nauseam.
Much in the opposite, the author sees nothing whatsoever in his Samadhi. He cannot
locate the demons, spirits, Buddhalands, celestial realms, paradises, palaces and
empires. He does not see what he is supposed to see in accordance with the
descriptions of Eastern Adepts, as they are featured in the sacred texts of the
East. Nor can the author locate the celestial thrones, Father Gods, Angels,
spirits, paradises, hells and Shaitans that are described by the Islamic Adepts.
The author's Samadhi is like an empty space as fast as the COSMOS with nothing
holy, with nothing whatsoever therein. His Samadhi contains nothing. It is
austere, simple and pure and does not even contain a cosmos. Whether the author is
deficient, whether he lacks essential faculties that other Adepts may have is a
question hard to answer. The fact remains that he sees and experiences nothing in
Samadhi, not even the Tathagatas, the Buddha, the Bodhisattvas, Brahma, Vishnu,
Shiva, Isvara, the Rudras or the Avatars.
Yoga and Hinduism have stagnated since the Manu Code degenerated into a
suffocating caste system with closed borders. The Pariah's and the Sudra's, the
descendants of the ancient and sophisticated preArian, Dravidian and Tamil
cultures were declared slaves and outcasts. This deprived Indias spiritual culture
of the immense heritage of India's ancient cultures and religions.
In the view of the Author, Yoga may not have originated with the Aryans at all,
but with the Tamils and the Dravidians. The social, cultural and spiritual
stagnation, that was generated by the Manu Code became even more severe with the
tragic disenfranchisement of Indian women. This sad state of affairs deprived
Indian culture and society of the cultural and artistic genius of Indian women
Overall, the degeneration of the Manu Code had as devastating an impact on India's
cultural development, as the caste system that came with institutionalized
Confucianism in Imperial China.
To all these negatives we must add the devastating impact of the Mughal conquest,
the Hun invasions and the even more tragic and more destructive aegis of the
British Raj. All these disastrous historical events arrested the development of
many aspects of India's ancient spiritual cultures. Under the devastating assaults
from within and without, India went into a state of spiritual and cultural coma.
Under the assault from Confucianism, the devastating Mongol, Hun and Manchu
conquests, Southern Chan and general Buddhism collapsed, and Imperial China also
went into cultural shock. It may be a fair conclusion that two of world histories
most rigid caste systems weakened and suffocated both societies, rendering them
ready for conquests by barbarians. This book, searches for new directions in
dealing with man's eternal quest for the great realities. It sets Out in search of
a new interpretation of India's ancient scriptures in the light of absolute or
extreme nondualism. It sets out to contribute to the release of India's venerable
but deeply wounded spiritual cultures from Stasis.
The author neither speaks, reads, nor writes any of the languages of India.
Primarily, he depends on his personal experiences and attainments in the practice
of Yoga and Samadhi. He owes cultural debts to the many excellent translations of
Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and Persian texts. He uses these texts as overall
frameworks, to formulate his Yoga Aphorisms. His literary sources are:
* 'The Brahma Sutra. ' The Philosophy of Spiritual Life by Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan. (Ruskin House, George Allen & Unwin, London England.) 1960 Edition.
* 'The Brahma Sutra Bhasya' with a commentary by Sankaracarya, translated by Swamy
Gambhirananda. (Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta, India.) 1965 Edition. * 'Raja Ygga.L
with the Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali and a commentary by Swami Vivekananda. (New
York, Brentanos, 1920.)
* 'The Science of Yoga. ' a Commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by I.K.
Taimni. (A Quest Book, published by the Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton
Ill. USA.) The 1967 Edition.
* 'The Yoga System of PatAnjAji' by James Haughton Woods. ( Harvard Oriental
Series, Volume 17.) 1914 Edition.
* 'The Complete Commentary by Sankara on the Yoga Sutras. ' by Trevor Legget.
(Kegan Paul International, London & New York.)
Although the author approaches the sacred writings of the East with awe and
respect, he is audacious enough to challenge many of the veritable giants of
Indian spirituality. These are personages of the rank of Vyasa, Kapila,
Sankaracarya, Ramanuja, Sri Aurobindu and Sarvepalli Radhakrishmnan. The Nei
author searches for a solution for fundamental religious and Bpiritual problems.
These are posed by the blatant divergences between what he sees and experiences in
his Samadhi, versus what the Yogi and the Adepts of the East Bee and experience in
their Samadhi. Much worse, what the scholars, linguists and theologians interpret
poses even greater problems.
To state it clearly: 'The author sees hears, smells, tastes and touches nothing in
his Samadhi. The Adepts of the East see many things in their Samadhi. The
scholars, the commentators and the theologians describe zillions of phenomena that
in the opinion of the author do not exist.' What also aroused the author's
curiosity are the fundamental differences between his Samadhi and that of the
Samadhi or Fana, of the Persian, Arabic, Egyptian and Andalusian Sufis. This is as
much the case with the descriptions of ecstatic experiences and visions in Ibn al
Arabi's Meccan Revelations (1) as it is the case with the Mira'j of the early
Persian Sufi Abu Yazid. (2) It may emerge that Samadhi is far from a universal or
universally uniform experience. It may turn out that men of different cultures may
experience different Samadhis.
(1) The Sufi Path of Knowledge. Ibn al Arabi's Futuhat al Makkiyya. (William C.
Chittick, State University of New York Press, 1989 Edition.)
(2) 'Hindu and Muslim Mysticism, (R. C. Zaehner, University of London, The Athlone
Press, 1960 Edition, Appendix B.)
The issue at hand begs few conclusions: It may be the case that the author is an
incompetent Yogi and that his visionary and escatic experiences are either faulted
or misunderstood by him. It may also be teh case that the author lacks faculties
that only Eastern Adepts have. These faculties would enable Eastern Adepts to see
and hear the millions of Gods, Goddesses, Tathagatas, Buddhas, BodhiBattvas,
ArhatB, Demons, Angels, Spirits, celestial palaces, celestial thrones, villas,
gardens, ions, tents, paradises, heavens, hells, purgatories, after worlds and
nether worlds.
NMI
The dismal divergences may also be explained by fundamental differences between
the structure of the Western and the Eastern Psyche and their attached systems of
esoteric and collective symbolism. This issue was raised in the Collected Works of
Carl Gustav Jung, 'Rymbn1R_Qf Trans:tormation Volume 5, in Jung's 'The Archet Res
and the Collective Unconscious Volume 9.1, and in 'Aign. ' Volume 9.2, The
Bollingen Press, Princeton.) 1964 Edition.) C.G.Jung raised these issues in his
widely quoted introductions to the EvansWentz Series of Translations Of Scriptures
of the Tibetan Kargyupta Sect. (Oxford University Press) Jung elaborated on such
issues in his introduction to the 'I Chine. ~ Translated by Richard Wilhelm,
published by The Bollingen Press, Princeton 1967 Edition. He comments on these
issues in his introduction to the Richard Wilhelm translation of 'The Secret of
the Golden Flower Arkana Books, Penguin.)
It may turn out that the famous or even notorious symbols and archetypes of the
collective unconscious are not at all as collectively universal as they are
SUPPOSE to be. Could there exist formations of different kinds of symbols and
archetypes in the collective psyche of the various races and cultures of Humanity?
Would each one of these races and cultures generate within its psyche archetypes
and symbols that emanate from its typical cultural, natural and social
environment? i.e. To the Eskimos, Hell is an Ice Cave in which men freeze unto
eternity. To the Arabs, Hell is a very hot place, where men suffer unbearable thirst.
Could there exist localized constellations of archetypes and symbols of a local
Collective unconscious? These may be part of a greater constellation of
archetypes and symbols of a more universal collective unconscious?
Could we venture to understand such a universal constellation in terms of the
psychic power generating aggregate of all Humanity? Can the symbols and
archetypes of the collective unconscious of Humanity be made to work within an
objective framework? Is Magic possible, even in the 20th century? The answer may
be 'yes. ' This would only be the case with the selfrealized Yogi but never with
the theologian, the scholar, the philosopher or the wretched sectarian.When
Sankaracarya was poisoned by the dismal cook, this might not have been a case of
tough luck but a matter of incompetency. The deplorable incident demonstrated that
although Sankaracarya was a first rate philosopher, he was only a middle range
Magician. Furthermore, it might also be the case that the magic of the eastern
Adepts never worked or that their supernatural feats are greatly overstated.
One day, the Buddha was provoked by a Smith to eat roast pork. The Buddha
subsequently died of bowel congestion (dysentery). This depressing incident
testified to the fact that Gautama the Buddha, although being a first rate sage
was only a middle range magician. Tantrism and Mahayana Buddhism attribute all
kinds of supernatural feats to the Buddha. Did the Buddha ever perform them or
were these feats invented? The Buddha was an allBtere sage who did not need to
impress anyone with magic.
The conquest of Tibet by the Chinese barbarians demonstrated the blatant impotency
of Tibet's ecclesiastic magic and ritual. It can be accounted for by centuries of
stagnation plus the fact that not a single Yogi had appeared in Tibet since the
fourteenth century. Tibetan theocracy had for centuries suffocated living Buddhist
culture with one of the most oppressive caste systems known to history. The
resulting deadness made it very easy for the Chinese barbarians to rape the
defenceless Tibetan corpse.
Tibetan magic at that time was simply ceremonial, mummified and theological. As
such, it could not ever hope to match the redoubtable Siddhis (occult powers) of
the Yogis. The British historian Arnold Toynbee states that a mummified Tibetan
culture deserved conquest by the Chinese Barbarians. The failure of Tibet's
disastrously overrated magicians and demonologists to stop the hordes of Chairman
Mao can be explained by the fact that in ultimate reality, Tibetan demons do not
exist and that the dreaded magicians of Tibet are impotent
The failure of the Hindu Gods in protecting Sankaracarya, India's greatest saint
of that time against the poison of the Cook may indicate that these Gods and
Goddesses are either impotent or that they do not exist. Anyone who sees them may
just hallucinate. That the Diamond Body of the Buddha could be destroyed by a mere
pork shop is a devastating proposition. This all seems to indicate that the
Diamond Body of the Buddha does not exist or that it is greatly overrated a
phenomenon. The author does not seek controversy in any capacity but only
clarification of important fundamental issues. He contends that the Gods,
Goddesses, Demons, Angels, celestial thrones and mansions were imagined by men and
do not exist in reality. He contends that all Brahmanic sacrifices, all Buddhist
and Tantric incantations and evocations are useless. He feels that the magicians
of Tibet can raise their magic swords and sceptres for as long as they want and
that in spite of their impressive incantations and evocations nothing will happen.
These sceptres, swords, staffs, incantations, evocations and sacrifices are
useless. This is because the invoked Gods, Goddesses, spirit and demons do not
exit, except as fantasies in the human mind.
The author contends that the entire Hindu pantheon and the pantheons of the
countless Buddhas are figments of human imagination. They are at best opium for
the ignorant masses. The author presumes that there ought to exist in the East a
higher teaching that is the priceless possession of an elite small in number. This
teaching ought to be absolute and unconditional nondualism and nontheism.
The author neither desires nor fears to suffer the terrible fate of Astavakra.
Ages ago, at the court of King Janaka, the sage Astavakra became embroiled in a
contest about cows with the Yogi Yajnavalkya. Astavakra not only lost the argument
and the cows, but he ended up a heap of bones. TJ= AstavakrA SAmhita (Swami
Nityaswaryupananda. Advaita Ashrama, 5 New Delhi Entalli Road ' Calcutta, India.
1969 Edition.) Of course, the author being a Yogi, has nothing to fear from the
wretched theologians, the deepmummified magicians, the decrepit scribes, the naive
scholars and the pathetic miracle mongers.
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