Monday, April 6, 2009

Pathanjali (contd)

Pathanjali begins his Sutras with a simple statement:

1. “Athha Yogaanusaasanam” –

that is, “Then begins the instructions on Yoga”.

This word ‘then’ has some relevance in old Indian texts. A student who approaches any definite system of thought has to have certain qualifications. I am not speaking here of the Sambavi Mudra. It calls for no such thing. But Pathanjali’s system is different. It is a complete course on Yoga and its philosophy. You need to have the basics right before you venture further into it.

Hence the student of Yoga is thought of as having studied different systems of thought and engaged in their practice before they come to the teaching of Yoga. He is here because all the other systems have failed to lead him further towards the truth. The desire to learn is there, the commitment is there, the basic knowledge is there. He is ready to be instructed. When such a student appears yoga is taught.
After thus inviting the student to his system Pathanjali defines Yoga in the very next aphorism.

2.Yoga chittavritti nirodha

Yoga is the inhibition of the waves of Chitta (or mind)

Pathanjali does not mince words, he does not beat around the bush. He defines his terms from the very outset. To him the root of Yoga (‘Yuj’ = to yoke etc) does not matter. He defines Yoga as the inhibition of the waves of mind. Other definitions the student learned in the past might stay wherever they are. This is a system where words have a definite meaning and purpose.

If such integrity was shown by many of the other thinkers in the world they would not have much to write about.

With the very second aphorism Pathanjali has actually said it all. He has defined what Yoga is and what its purpose is and has subtly outlined the practice as well.

Pathanjalis usage of Chitta instead of the more common manas has intrigued many thinkers over the years. He uses the word throughout in his treatise. Chitta actually is not mind. It can be taken as the reflected ( or individual) consciousness that we carry within ourselves.

The Samkhyas and the Yogis of India see chitta as containing 3 components. Manas, Budhi and Ahamkara.

These three, the Manas (psyche), Budhi (intellect) and the Ahamkara ( Ego) and their functions are easily understood. Let me illustrate it for you.

Consider you are at the sea shore and a great wave rises and is coming towards you.
The first one to notice it would be the mind. It is the receiver of impressions. It co ordinates the impression that are received through our five senses. It would tell you:

There is something shapeless and big moving over there.

The intellect (It discriminates impressions based on the already existing information) would immediately say:

It’s a giant wave and it’s moving towards the shore and it looks ominous.

The ego (It makes every such impression as its own individual information) would shout.

It’s moving towards the place where I am standing and is going to hit me.

After moving to a safe distance the ego would then proceed to say:

My, I had a hair-breadth escape. Now I know what such a wave can do. There may be others who haven’t experienced this. Hence I may consider this experience as mine own.

(This illustration is not entirely my own, I have adapted it to suit my purpose as it’s humorous and graphically illustrative)

The chitta is the integrator of these three elements.

All actions of the chitta are classified as Vrittis of the chitta. The popular analogy of the vritti is that of the waves created by any disturbances on the face of water. Every wave thus created does not merely modify the face of the water itself. It also modifies the shore and even the bottom of the water body. We have seen how the mind receives impressions from the outside world and how the intellect classifies them and how it is converted into individualized knowledge by the ego. Every such bit of information creates a pathway inside the mind. By repeated action this indentation becomes more and more strengthened. Characteristics are formed this way.

Every such mental incident reinforces your separateness and your bondage. As long as you continue in this state there is threat and danger and insecurity.

Its only through stilling this ever emerging vritti’s that you can perceive your real self.

3. Thadaa Dhrushtu swarupEvasthhaanam.

Then (when the waves have become inhibited) the seer (the one who sees) becomes established in his own real self.

To me the word Dhrushtu ( the one who sees) is significant. The mind according to the Indian thought is not sentient. It has no independent existence and is Jada (inert). It appears to be alive because of its nearness to consciousness. I know this is a bit difficult for the modern student to digest. We normally associate mind with consciousness. In the western thought it is considered as a part of consciousness and those who have received western education elsewhere takes it to be so.


Now according to the Samkhyans, Purusha alone is sentient. Even the Prakriti from which all else evolves is inert and Jada. As long as we treat mind as conscious there is no conquering it. The moment we take it for what it is, an inert substance on which we have full control, things begin to change and our effort at controlling mind becomes infinitely easier.

(To be continued)

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Pathanjali ( Contd)

Let us now return to Pathanjali and his system.

More and more people are becoming interested in Yoga as time passes. But most of them think of Hatha Yoga when they talk about Yoga. It has its benefits but is not the whole of Yoga.

Then what is Yoga?

Some of you are aware that the word yoga means to join or to yoke. But what does it aim at bringing together? Certain people say it unites the universal soul ( Brahma) with the individual soul( Jiva). But I think it aims at solving the mystery of duality and eliminating fear.

The ancient texts say:

Dwitiyaat toh bhayam Bhavati

The presence of duality causes fear

This is so true a statement if you give it some thought. Every one is afraid to their very core. It is no use saying that we are not. The totally dumb might think so. But the moment some thing goes wrong in their lives they are the loudest to scream and go into tantrums. I have seen people breaking under real stress. I have seen groups of people reduced to a shaking mass of fright. I am living with some of them. They stick together because they are afraid to stand alone.

They think together, they plan together and they call each other up and try to enlist the help of everyone because they are turned into ninnies with uncontrollable cowardice. You might think that this is an example of solidarity, their togetherness. But it is not out of love that they stand together, it’s out of sheer fear. Every single moment of their lives this fear gnaws at their heart and leaves them shaking.

You see, standing close to the cowards are not going to grant you any freedom. Yoga doesn’t aim at establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat in the world; it aims at establishing the dictatorship of your consciousness over everything else. If you want to make it happen you need to eliminate fear. Because you can’t conquer that which you fear. But one can’t eliminate something without understanding it and knowing what it is.

So what is this fear, where does it originate?

From the outside, from the ‘other’, from that which is considered by you as alien.
Think of something that you fear most in your life, be it a man or woman or a thing or event. Don’t pretend that you don’t fear anything. It might wash among your friends but not before your mind. Why do you fear this man, woman or thing or event? Because you perceive them as different from you. You believe that you would not understand their actions and their motives and their tendencies. They are alien; they are not a part of you.

Do you fear your limbs, your eyes or your nose? You do not! Why? Because you know they are part of yourself and you don’t have anything to fear from them. You see, it is the other that frightens you. The moment you see duality (or something other than yourselves) the fear originates.

But what about mind? Don’t we fear our mind? Should we fear it as it is ours? Is it not the most fearful thing in the world, our minds?

It truly is. None is capable of facing it alone as those who have tried to do so would tell you.

But why is it so? This thing is yours, it has to protect you, and then why does it not?

Because it is not your own.

It is the alien that you have within you.

It is the true originator of all differences in the world. The mind can only operate within the sphere of duality. It revels in it. The duality is its very own element. Hence it encompasses the whole of the dual universe. Your physical body is defined, delineated and secure, but the mind extrudes into the rest of the universe creating innumerable divisions and the illusion of separateness. It has no boundaries. It makes you perceive the other.

So the fear is caused by your mind and its preferences. It can only exist in fear.
Once you have grasped it the course of action to get rid of your fears becomes clear. You need to control this thing that you call your own but have never been.
All the practices of yoga are about controlling the mind.

We will examine the Yoga Sutras one by one as we go along.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Being liberated and being entangled

This again is one of the posts I wrote in the other blog. I present it for what it is worth.

LIBERATION

Strange as it may seem, there are certain very ordinary events in life which leaves their trace on our psyche irrespective of their relative unimportance at the time of their happening. These imprints may not be evident at the time of their occurrence; they may not raise any ripple in the mind at all. But then in the course of other events these insignificant incidents assume a sudden importance and stands out in clear perspective before the inner eye.

There is this incident in my life which seemed quite absurd when it happened. I was visiting an interesting mystic on the suggestion of my cousin. He (the cousin) had stayed with the mystic for over three years. I don’t know who it was that suggested that the wife and I go visit him and ask his blessings. Well I had never visited any god men up to that point. I was totally against going too I believe, though I have this inner belief that I may have caused it in some way.

Any way we went and he had a strange glow in his eyes (some mystics have this, it’s a result of long hours of meditation, I believe. Some who practice Trataka (gazing at an object without blinking your eye for hours on end) also seem to posses this peculiarity of the eye. All the same it was impressive; you have heard of piercing eyes, these eyes went beyond it. They seemed to enter into your very being and to see everything inside.

When we were there, there was one other couple in the long room that he was sitting in. The place did not especially show any opulence and everything looked frugal. The man in the couple seemed completely under the spell of the mystic. He was obviously being controlled and was acting as if in a trance. He looked very stupid too, I am sorry to say. Anyway they belonged to the upper classes of the society and their children seemed very affectionate towards the mystic. This seemed to be in answer to my doubt that the mystic had a sort of 'low level' following. This also intrigued me. He could obviously read thoughts, even the thoughts of those who were coming to visit him unannounced!

The couple departed after some time and the mystic began to talk to us and I must say that I was impressed by the manner he began to drive me to the wall by strange but seemingly innocuous references to my past life. He would not say something directly but would construct an image with words which alluded to some thing that happened. The mystic seemed clairvoyant. He was smoking a long cigarette at that time. I thought it strange for we have certain conceptions about such characters.

He suddenly asked me. Why did you stop it? What’s the harm in continuing it? I was confused. I asked. Stop what? He indicated the cigarette. Now, I had quit smoking some four years back and was still regretting it every minute of the day. I was a moderately heavy smoker. It was hard to stop it and I was struggling hard to keep at it. Hence his question intrigued me. But I did not say anything about it. It was a hard won victory for me and I had secretly prided in my force of will which made it possible.

Then he began to ask about this and that and it always seemed that he knew more about me than myself. Was it a trick or something, I was beginning to wonder. Then he suddenly told me. Don’t become a sanyasin, she would be heart broken. I was stunned. It was true that I had practiced meditation and mantra yoga for a long time in my life. But I had been slowly becoming absorbed in other things after my marriage.

At the time I was speaking of I didn't have the faintest inclination towards that way of life. The request (or was it a command) seemed utterly absurd to me then. I was more into the tradition of tantriks than the sanyasins. My belief then was that one could achieve liberation while going on with ones ordinary life. That is the true tantrik tradition. We soon left. I laughed all the way back.

To her too it did not seem real. Anyway I had absolutely no intention of becoming a sanyasin at all. Years passed, I forgot my meeting with the mystic and was enjoying my life.

Then one day while meditating some inner change occurred. I was suddenly illumined. I saw everything clearly as if I was always aware of it, I realized the futility of human life and was filled with immense love for everything that there is in the universe. I had suddenly forgotten that I had a wife and parents and I was this person and had these things in life. I felt suddenly liberated, I was no more bound, I was no more a prisoner of my senses, and I knew what evil and good really was. I saw everything as child’s play. No ties existed for me; I had no relatives, no name, nothing.
I saw myself as the core of everything, I had nothing to do further, and my body was a mere appendage which had no importance. I had finally given up everything. I had really become a sanyasin. At that time I was doing the Jnana meditation, its final destination, if I could call it that, is the realization of the one reality behind everything. Such realization would not bring any 'sidhis' as they are called in the world. In fact the jnana looks down on all such things as spurious. Hence you must not assume I had become like a god with great 'powers' as they are called. I had gone beyond that.

Even before this state was reached I had observed in my meditative states that all the gods were paying me their respects. They all came unasked for and would leave after bowing to me. I should say here that this intrigued me no end. I thought that they were making fun of me.

All the time I was having these experiences I was leading a normal life otherwise. I had the same pettiness, irritations, joys and hatreds. I did not find any change in me other than in the inward meditative states. But once this stunning revelation happened I was another being altogether. I knew that I had become liberated and even that did not seem to be of any importance. From that moment I just did not exist as a human individual, I had the body yet; I knew that it would last for some time still. Other than that I had become one with existence.

I stood up and decided to leave then and there. The loose dressI was wearing at that time fell off from my body as I rose and I was standing wearing only what was underneath. It did not seem to matter, I started out. I was leaving everything behind. I could visualize my wife and my mother sleeping inside the house. That also did not matter. I felt compassionate towards them but no more connected. As I was leaving a single thought surfaced.
She will be heart broken.

I stood for some time listening to it. What did it mean? My mind was completely without thoughts then. I struggled hard to capture this thought. It seemed distant, meaningless, and unimportant. What makes me listen to it, I wondered. Was there something yet for me to do in this life?

Then I remembered her that I took for my wife. But I could not recall any special feeling for her, she was like my child, even my mother appeared like a child to me, playing in the shadows, not seeing anything beyond. Why this thought. I had to struggle hard to recall my past life. It appeared like a figment of imagination, nothingness. What do I have to do with it?

Then the thought came again. She will be heart broken. I realized it to be true. I do not know why, but she has always doted on me. I am the world for her and she is a simple and childlike soul. If I left her she might go crazy with grief. But should that detain me? These are mere fancies of a life non-existent. But the thought had stopped me. I sat down and began to meditate on her. Her life of simple faith in me became immediately revealed to me. I could see what would happen to her if I left. My mother might take it in her stride, but not this one. She was still young; it would destroy her life for ever.

I knew that even that would not touch me. I was beyond all that. I had become spotless, purged of everything that was worldly. If I had to remain in it I may have to force my consciousness to accept this world back. It seemed so useless to do so. I was beyond death and sorrow, should I receive them back? I began to meditate on the world, and on relationships and on Maya. They were all distant, inaccessible. I decided to try to bring them back.

They came dead slowly and unwillingly. As I went on trying I managed to bring back some feeling for her. I latched on to it and began to think, there is still my body, it has to run its course, and that course is within the world, why not spend it with her, even if I can’t bring back the old feelings for her. She has terribly strong feelings for me and I knew that she would never let go of them. I decided to give it a try. It was a long battle but I remained and attracted the world back into me. It came.

Now years after the Maya has come back with a vengeance. I no longer rule her but she has supreme authority over me. It is strange how she does it. She is the great enchantress; she has got me back in her mesh and is wreaking real havoc. Well perhaps in reality nothing matters.

POORNAMADA POORNAMIDAM.

Both are whole. Both are real, this world of delusion and that one of reality. Both exists in relation to each other. They are mutually inclusive rather than exclusive, for the one generates the other. To those who know they are the same. To others both may become the cause of sorrow.

Is there anything to be taught at all

This is an old post I did on my other blog. I think it may have some relevance here

Ramana and Yati

-Somewhere in his books Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati recalls his experience of meeting Sri Ramana Maharshi for the first and last time of his life. Yati had received his initiation into the order of sanyasins and was still troubled by his lack of insight into the real and the unreal. To any one, whether he has received initiation or not, this is a hard task.

Yati’s belonged to the school of Jnana Yogi’s. They seek the real by stripping the delusions away one by one till they reach the indivisible one. Only the very strong could do that, though the teaching could be condensed into a posture of silence. Many things could hinder one from realizing it. Mere intellect or hard work at meditation would not make it happen. There has to be some inward change, it could be likened to a purification of sorts, though in reality there is nothing to be purified about. What is needed is a change in perception; this could happen in a single moment or after years of struggle or not at all.

Yati was suffering in soul. He hit upon the hardest course he could pick on to bring on the necessary change in him. He went on a journey on foot through the vast Indian sub continent. He slept where ever he could at nights and ate whatever the people gave him when asked. There were occasions he went completely hungry on for days, merely subsisting on water.

Many including the great Vivekananda had performed this “rite’ in their time. It was on this journey he visited Ramana Maharshi at his Ashram. Ramana had left home at sixteen in search of truth and had become enlightened after spending years in meditation at Arunachala, a holy mountain in the south India. He rarely spoke and as Yati found out had the habit of not looking at others most of the time.

The tradition of Guru is very strong in India, the seekers of truth believe that if the Guru or a real liberated individual sets his eyes on the aspirant that would egg him on his way towards the truth. Yati waited for days, he saw others being considered by the great Guru but when he was near the Guru would be immersed in a blissful state a would not even glance at him. This grieved him. He was physically not well at that time; his journey was taking its toll on his frame. More than that he was not at peace with himself, it seemed that the truth was eluding him.

The utter neglect of Ramana cut him to the quick. At last he decided to depart. He went to say good bye to the great guru. The guru was still immersed in inner bliss and seemed as if not aware of Yati at all. Yati rose to go after prostrating before the guru and then for a fleeting second Ramana’s eyes rested on his eyes. Yati felt a shock coursing through his entire being. He was stunned and stood rooted to the spot. Then Ramana looked away and that was that, there were no advices, no instructions, no other communications.

To me Ramana looks like a perfect example of a Jnana Guru. He taught only one thing. “Seek what you are”. He knew it would lead people towards truth and liberation. Narayana Guru also taught in similar manner. “There is nothing in Vedanta to learn. What the waves are to sea- so are we to reality” But alas, the simpler the truth is, the harder it is to digest. Some might even think that these great souls are putting others on. They were telling the honest truth, there is no seeking, no quest, no complexity. What you seek has already been obtained. The only need is for a change in perspective. Some are so entrenched in their perishable lives that they would not dare look at the truth squarely even if it’s held aloft for them to see.

On the Third eye

Temporarily breaking from what I was discussing, I have decided to post this today. It might be of some help.

I like a practical approach to things and it doesn’t go away when I am talking about meditation. All the help you can get on the front should be welcome considering the nature of the quest. Take the case of music which is intended to get you to the alpha and theta levels, why not go for it, provided it does what it boasts about? But all the same, in my experience, (as being one one who has some experience on the alpha and theta states) most of the claims are just words and the programs would hardly get you where you want to.

But that should not discourage you. Listening to binaural beats now and then is not such a bad thing. It at least calms and strengthens the mind. Of this I am very certain. They quieten the mind and curb the tendency of the mind to wander. Don’t play the music too loud though. Silent sound and beach sounds are very refreshing in my experience.

Honestly they are much better than the kind of music that you hear around normally.

In the same manner I am interested in videos on meditation too. But there are not many good ones on the net on it. When I did a search on the sites like the google video, metacafe and you tube the only promising ones I found were those by the people I told you about in the last post. I learn that there are some 11 or so videos by them about meditation. I have seen some of them and I must say that I am impressed.

http://www.voobys.com/search/search_video.php?q=meditation#

They are the most reliable videos that I saw on the internet on the subject. They don’t advice you to do the impossible and nicely explain about the experiences during the process. Basically these are helpful bits of information for the seekers. My only concern is that they are aiming a little low in them.

Hence I am not in total agreement with some of the things that they say, but that could be because my emphasis is on the subtler aspects of meditation rather than what is described by them . To me the entheric, astral and even mental and bhudhic bodies are off no importance. Following their development is rather useless if you are aiming at real knowledge. Unless you can raise your consciousness to the level of self you are still running around in circles in the sphere of duality.

Naturally that is not the effect I am aiming at. Health and meditation ( that is, the truer aspects of meditation) has little in common if any at all. Repairing our etheric body and controlling our astral body is a little inferior in the scale for me. These may naturally come or not. Better not concentrate on it.

But their video on the third eye was not bad, though it’s doubtful whether such information is really necessary to those who are trying to meditate. The talk about the placement of the third eye for example. That should have been avoided at all costs.

As they say the position of third eye roughly corresponds to the place of the pineal gland in the head. But it is neither necessary nor advisable to meditate on that spot. It might bring in a lot of harm rather than any good.

Pineal gland is not the third eye as some believe. It’s a remnant of our animal past. If stimulated it might give us a kind of sixth sense and some amount of clairvoyance. But, with it might also come in possession and outside influences.

This was known to everybody who has ever thought on the subject. So the advice has always been to place the mind strictly at the point in between the eyebrows and not at the pineal gland. Those who are following my post on Sambavi Mudra would be well advised never to think or meditate on the pineal gland. There could be any number of people who encourages doing so. They are totally in error in this regard.

I have never been a great proponent of Hatha Yoga and the reason is this. Both the recognized texts on the subject “The Hatha Yoga Pradipika” and “The Gheeranda Samhitha” provides some methods to get at truth even without the acrobatics that is contained in them otherwise. What they say on the Nada Yoga and Sambavi Mudra etc are worthy of note. Both are simple and effective practices to follow. Even Atmarama ( Of Pradipika) and Gheranda ( of Gheeranda Samhita) has not advised any place other than the middle of the brows to place the mind. Both of them swears on the effectiveness of the sambavi Mudra in exclusion to everything else.

“Sathyam, sathyam punah sathyam
Sathyamuktham Maheswara!
Sambavim yo vijAniyath
Sa cha brahmam na chAnyatha”
( Gheranda Samhita , Advice 3- 15)

Its the truth, the truth, and truth again
And you spoke the truth Oh Lord
The man who knows the Sambavi
He becomes the truth itself, there is no other way.

But there are enough ditches in them for people to fall in. They talk of all sorts of practices like the Khechari Mudra for example. It involves cutting away at the web below your tongue which connects it to the mouth and making it longer to so that it can go up to the third eye in the roof of the mouth. You could waste years in trying to make it happen. May be they were only listing certain practices which were in vogue at the time.

Anyway be like a swan which is supposed to have the ability to distill milk from water, throw away the unnecessary and accept the best, even from me.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

On Pathanjali and Yoga

Some believe that the ancient Indians knew very little about human mind. A careful study of the Mandukya Upanishad might lay such notions to rest. The analysis it provides on the inner workings of the mind is not easily understood without detailed commentaries. The Upanishad itself is difficult; Gudapada’s carika on it is almost insurmountable. So we may leave them to the very tough minded.

But there is another text which is definitely accessible and comparatively easier to understand-The Yoga Sutras of Pathanjali. Of course it has not delved deep into the mysteries of the sub conscious and the unconscious which are in hot favor everywhere after Freud. But we normally deal with the conscious and resort to it to solve the riddles we face in life. No one apart from Jung has taken the stand that the solution to all our problems lays in the submerged segment of the mind, whatever its size compared to the conscious portion. All our attempts to understand the world is centered on its conscious portion, and that is all that is needed.

Its here Pathanjali and his Sutras stand apart. The Yoga Sutras provide us with an exhaustive analysis of our working mind; I might go as far to say that no work on the globe has done it in a similar manner. Perhaps it is the single most talked about treatise in the world now. The problem in understanding it lies with its structure. It is constructed in the proven Indian method of Aphorisms-Somewhat similar in intend to the method used by Spinoza in his Ethics. The similarity only goes as far as the intent. Spinoza’s geometrical style otherwise has no resemblance to the aphorisms.

Aphorisms was a technique employed to preserve the original texts on a subject in the most precise and condensed form so that they could be transmitted verbally without damaging the original content. This practice had to be adopted since writing materials were limited in the distant past. Aphorisms are just threads of thought or mere outlines of thought which are easier to memorize and reproduce later when required.

The system was practical; it preserved the texts intact and also let the commentators integrate their practical knowledge of the subject while it was taught. It has its pitfalls, for different Adhikari’s (that is authorities- Adhikari is not exactly authority in the western sense. The term is used to denote the level of awareness and the intellectual slant of the persons concerned. We may take this up later) interpreted it in the light of their knowledge and the advice they received from their teachers.
The interpreters had different orientations. Some followed the tradition of Vedanta, and have tried to present the Sutra’s in a fashion suitable to further their teachings. I must say this has done more damage to the teachings of Pathanjali than anything else. The Yoga sutra’s follow the philosophy of the Samkhya’s. It is quite useless to bring Vedanta and its conception of single reality into it, whatever the reasons are. The Samkhya’s were dualists. Their conception of the genesis is completely different from that of the Vedantin’s.

To them, the world is caused by the interaction of two primary forces, the Purusha and Prakriti. We may translate these as the Consciousness and Matter of today-Purusha being consciousness and Prakriti being matter. This analogy may not be exact but it simplifies matters to a great extant for us. But the problems for us do not end there. To the Samkyan’s the Purusha or the Consciousness is not single but innumerable. They were shrewd to realize that every conscious being has its own particular states of experiences which have nothing to do with others at the moment of their occurrence.

For example Mr. X may be in a state of joy at present but his friend Mr. Y might be feeling grieved for the same reason. Mr. Z on the other hand might be planning to murder both X and Y at the same time. As you can see every conscious being is undergoing different emotional, intellectual, psychical and bodily states which are often quite opposite or at variance with that of others at the time. We can’t possibly argue that it was Othello himself who put Iago (naturally himself according to the non dual theory) to cause Desdemona (again himself) to be murdered.
Hence the Samkya’s assumed that there are as many consciousnesses (Purusha’s) as there are conscious entities. This is logically unshakable and the Non Dual camp had to take recourse to the theory of MAYA to solve this hitch in their system. Undoubtedly the theory of MAYA of Sankaracharya is the shrewdest piece of argument that was ever proposed in the philosophical thought. If the world is a delusion and is the play of one being then Othello, Desdemona and Iago is the same being taking on different roles and playing with itself.

Mighty exposition, though none of the texts of the principal Upanishads on which Sankara based his arguments contained a germ of evidence for MAYA. The only Upanishad which spoke of it was the Swetashwatara and it does not have the same eminence as that of the other ten. Anyway, philosophy had reached its zenith with Sankara and it can only go down from there. The west has not fully realized what Sankara had done to philosophy. You might hide behind categories like Materialism (Vulgar, subjective or objective) or behind idealism of different hues. You may even take protection behind philosophic dualism. But as the matter stands, after Sankara there is no place to go. He had found and exposed every single system of philosophy and laid them to rest for all time to come.

But our concern here is not with Sankara but with Kapila and his system. The Yoga Sutra’s can be called the practical aspect of Samkhya philosophy; it only differs in minor respects. The most important of them being its stance in relation to god. The Yogi’s recognize a being with enough powers to be called so for a Kalpa. This is not the god of devotees. He is just a helpful being with powers to guide you.

(To be continued)