June 2023 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami--Abhyasa and Iswarapranidhana

[Srivatsa Ramaswami]

June 2023 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami--Abhyasa and Iswarapranidhana

I am teaching a 20 hr on line program on the Yoga Sutras starting from June 2, 2023. It is hosted by Atmayogashala in Chennai

Here is the link

https://atmayogashala.practicenow.us/students/subscriptions?service=workshop&plan_id=4764

For this month I am reproducing two topics I posted on the facebook. Hope you may find them useful

Abhyasa

D: Guruji. I understand that the term “yoga” is usually translated as “Union” as the word is derived from the sanskrit root Jujir, yoge. But in Patanjala yoga it is not union but what?

G: Yes Yoga means union. It comes from the root yujir. Or yuj (yunj) to unite. There is ayurvedic manrea “yunjate mana yunjate dhiyaH”-- the mind should unite with the intellect.In Hatayoga yoga means the union of prana and apana. In Bhaktiyoga it is generally the union of jivatma with paramatma. Kundalini yoga would lead to the union of Sakti with Siva. But in Patanjala yoga the word “yoga” is a derivative of the root yuja, as seen in dhatupata –yuja samadhou. Yoga means samadhi. Vyasa in his bhashya to the sutras says yogaH samadhi, clearly indicating that the word yoga here is not union. Sankara in his vivarana says yoga has two different meanings(yogo yuktiH samadhana) of which Patanjali has taken the meaning of samadhi or samadhana or absolute peace of mind..

D: But Patanjali’s  explanation of yoga is “citta vritti nirodha” It is usually translated as stopping the fluctuation of the mind or citta. Does it lead to kaivalya?

G: The meaning of vritti as fluctuation is very limited. Vritti means activity. Vritti jivane says dhatupata. Patanjali himself groups the millions of cittavrittis one has into five categories. Pramana is the activity of understanding the truth.It is one of the activities of the mind. Then more often the mind makes a mistake in understanding the truth which activity is called viparyaya. Then when the mind is engaged in imaginations including dreaming it is vikalpa. When the citta is completely dominated by the activity of tamo guna, it is called nidra or sleep. Remembering something that is in the back of the mind is smriti. You could see that all these are called cittavrittis and vritti is activity and not mere fluctuation.

D: So citavritti nirodha is a complete stoppage of the mind’s activity. Then how will the yogi live when the brain ceases to act?

G: Samkhyas the sibling philosophy calls the life sustaining function of the brain (the activities of prana) as samanya karana vritti or the routine activity of the brain. Citta vritti  as you could see refers to the five different  activities of the mind, citta. 

D: Can we get a glimpse of that state

G: Just think of a state of mind when it is not engaged in any activity, a state sans finding the truth, committing mistakes in understanding the truth, imaginations or deep sleep or recalling stored  information in the brain. Ordinarily it is difficult to even imagine this state. The puranas refer to sages and yogis in a state of citta vritti nirodha when they are completely oblivious to the outside world but also their own physical body. It is almost impossible to bring them to a waking state. You can easily wake up a sleeping person but virtually impossible to disturb a yogi in nirodha samadhi

D: How does one achieve that state? Patanjali says abhyasa and vairagya or practice and dispassion. What abhyasa. Yogabhyasa?

G: Abhyasa is a sanskrit word that generally means practice. This word is used in almost all Indian languages. The word abhyasa here is used in the samadhi chapter which does not talk about asana or pranayama. Here it refers to samadhi abhyasa. Abhyasa is repeated appropriate attempts to reach the goal, here kaivalya through citta vritti nirodha. You must remember that Yoga is not a stand alone philosophy, it coexisted with sibling philosophies like samkhya and vedaanta. There are several cross references among these darsanas. Samkha karika refers to tatvabhyasa or contemplating on the factors of prakriti and the purusha. Samkhyas refer to 24 prakritic principles and the distinctly different purusha. It mentions that by tatva abhyasa one may realize that the prakritic person with which each creature erroneously identities as the self and may realize that the human body made of 24 tatvas as the five bhutas, the five tanmatras, the eleven indriyas, the ahamkara and then buddhi all permeated by the three gunas from the mulprakrit, the 24th tatwa. (pancha vimsati tatvajnaH) is not the true self. So here abhyasa would be samadhi abhyasa on the 24 tavas of prakriti. Patanjali groups the 24 tatvas into visesha (gross) avisesha (subtle) lingmatra (buddhi) and alinga (mulaprakriti). With this application of samadhi on these parakritic tatvas the yogi gets a direct perception of the constituents of the body and having known that all of them are non self as they are devoid of consciousness, the yogi develops a dispassion or vairagya towards the empirical person. Here abhyasa and vairagya are paired and the term abhyasa vairagya is dvnda samasa. However much one may study and contemplate and come to the conclusion that the body mind complex is not the real self, the direct realization through sampragnata samadhi gives a direct yougika pratyaksha. Further Patanjali later on gives an alternative to this approach by talking about eka tatva abhyasa in contrast to panch vimsati tava abhyasa while describing iswarapranidhana. 

D: But Guruji we modern yogabhyasis do not have the samadhi capability. What then is the  way?

G: Patanjali then commanded two preliminary abhyasas, viz., kriya yoga and then ashtanga yoga. The beginner must do abhyasa of kriya yoga to stabilize the body and mind and then resort to the abhyasa of ashtanga yoga. If a yogi is interested in Kaivalya, with conviction will practice or do abhyasa of the preliminary yoga subsystems and attain the samadhi capability. Basically it would require an intense desire for freedom from the three types of dukha due to repeated births and deaths. And then by the relentless abhyasa of the appropriate aspects of yoga  acquires the samadhi capability. Then the abhyasa on th 24 prkritic tavas and the resultant  vairagya towards all the 24 tatvas to reach kaivalya facilitated by citt vritti nirodh.

These and more in my 10 day 20 hr online program on yoga sutra hosted by Atmayogashala in Chennai from June 2, 2023. Housefully, enough participants will register to make it viable.

Iswarapranidhana

In sutra works, use of the same term more than once is looked down upon, unless the particular term is used to indicate some other meaning or a shade different. Patanjali in his yogasutras used the term "Iswarapranidhana" at three different places. In the first chapter it is to represent the profound bhakti and going into samadhi on Iswara with His identity the pranava mantra OM. In the context of kriya yoga given to entry level yogabhyasis, iswarapranidhana is to represent iswara pujana which would be ritualistic worship of the Lord. And thirdly in Ashtanga yoga it is a part of niyama. It is to indicate the yoga activity of the yogabhyasis without hankering after any prakritic benefits from the outside universe but only to achieve the goal of samadhi, as an example of (yougika) karma yoga. It could be seen that Patanjali deviates from the non-iswara approach of the samkhyas and enunciates an alternative method to kaivalya even for those bhakti oriented yogis. Some people have faith in the Lord and some have difficulty in believing in God . Both are children of God. Patanjali caters to the welfare of both believers and others in his yoga work for the benefit of the whole humanity.