Philodophy Of Gorakhnath

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Dedicated

To
Truth-Seekers of the World

Philosophy of Gorakhnath

WITH

Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha

BY

Akshaya Kumar Banerjea

Ex- Principal, Maharana Pratap Degree College, Oorakhpur.

with
A Prefatory Note

BY
Mahamahopadhyaya Gopinath Kaviraj, M.A. D.Litt.

and
Foreword

BY
C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar

Published by

MAHANT DIG VIJAI NATH TRUST

OORAKHNATH TEMPLE
GORAKHPUR.

Publisher >

Baba Avedya Nath

Secretary, Mahant Dig Vijai Nath Trust,

Gorakhnath Temple, Gorakhpur (India).

Other publications of the Trust :

1. Yogiraj Gombhirnath (Hindi)

2. Natha-Yoga (Hindi)

3. Yogiraj Gombhirnath (English)

4. Yogiraj Gombhirnath (English abridged)

5. Natha-Yoga (English)

6. Experiences of a Truth-seeker (English)

7. Yoga-Rahasya (Hindi)

8. Adar&-Yogi (Hindi)

Printed at:

The Navchetan Prets Private Limited,
(Lessees ofArjun Press)
Nay a Bazar, Delhl-6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTIONA Yogi and a Philosopher. Pages 122

Both a Yogi and a Philosopher are seekers of the Absolute
Truth. But they differ in their modes of approach.
A philosopher advances in the path of rational logic and wants
to intellectually understand the Truth, whereas a Yogi advances
in the path of moral and psychical self-discipline and aspires
for spiritually realising the Truth. The conclusion of
philosophical speculation cannot rise above the status of an
intellectual theory ( Vdda), whereas yogic spiritual discipline is
expected to lead to direct supra-intellectual experience of the
Truth. No theory can satisfy all truth-seekers and the history
of the philosophical quest of the Absolute Truth is found to be
a history of continuous intellectual warfare among different
schools of philosophers. The Absolute is variously conceived
by various thinkers and they refute each other's views. The
Absolute Truth, which is the Soul of the universe and the Soul
of every individual being, unveils its true character to the
innermost illumined consciousness of a perfect Yogi in the
deepest supra-intellectual transcendent state of Samadhi.
This transcendent experience is distinct from normal or
abnormal subjective experience as well as from phenomenal
objective experience, but is not on that account a negation of
experience. The exact nature of this experience cannot be
intellectually conceived or defined; but it gives perfect
satisfaction to the truth-seeking consciousness. When a Yogi
returns from the illumined state of Samadhi to the normal plane
of phenomenal experience, the deep impression of his Samadhi-
experience exercises a wonderful enlightening influence upon his
normal mind and intellect and behaviour. The enlightened
Yogis become free from ail kinds of dogmatism and bigotry and
narrow outlook. They look upon all men and all affairs of the
world from a spiritual point of view and live in the world as
embodiments of the highest wisdom and universal love and
compassion. All the highest moral and spiritual ideals of the
human society originate from the enlightened Yogis. When
any Yogi, out of love for humanity, assumes the role of a
public teacher, he often finds it suitable to impart lessons to

(ii)

truth-seekers in the form of a philosophical system, which he
regards as an effective mode of intellectual discipline.

CHAPTER I. Gorakhnath A Mahayogi. Pages 23-25.

Gorakhnath was an enlightened Mahayogi, and not a philoso-
pher in the commonly accepted meaning of the term. He did
not attach any primary importance to metaphysical speculations
and controversies as a means to the realisation of the Ultimate
Truth. But he considered them valuable as modes of intellec-
tual discipline and helpful in the path of search for Truth. He
adopted philosophical reflection as a part of the comprehensive
yogic self-discipline, which alone could lead to the perfect
illumination of consciousness and the transcendent experience
of the Absolute Truth. Gorakhnath and his Sampradaya have
a vast literature, but books dealing purely with metaphysical
problems are very few. All standard works are chiefly on
various processes of yoga. Books on yoga incidentally discuss
scientific and metaphysical topics. The ultimate basis of his
philosophy was his and other enlightened yogis' supramental
and supra-intellectual experience in the highest samddhi state.
He, though mainly an illustrious teacher of yoga, preached
along with it a system of philosophy which has a special place
among the philosophical systems of India

CHAPTER II. Literary Sources of his Philosophical Views. Pages 26-28.

Sanskrit works of Gorakhnath and his Guru Matsyendranath,
Upanishads dealing specially with yoga, other authoritative
treatises on yoga, and numerous old treatises in Bengali, Hindi,
Rajasthani, Napalese, Tibetan, and other regional languages,
based on the lives and teachings of Gorakhnath, Matsyendra-
nath and other Mahayogis of the Nath-yogi sect, give informa-
tions about his views on the Absolute Truth and other
philosophical topics. Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati is an
important philosophical work of Gorakhnath. The present
thesis is mainly based on this book.

CHAPTER III. Contents of Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati. Pages 29-32.

The topics are discussed under six heads, called Upadesa
(lessons). The first lesson discusses Pinddtpatti (i.e. the origin of
the bodies, cosmic as well as individual) of the Absolute Spirit.
The second lesson is on Pinda-Vicara, i.e. deeper contemplation
on the constitution of the bodies. Nine Cakras, sixteen Adharas,

(iii)

three Lakshyas and five Vyomas are explained from yogic view-
point. The third is on Pinda-Sambitti, i.e. true insight into the
spiritual nature of the bodies. It shows the essential identity of
individual bodies with Cosmic Body. The fourth is on Pinda-
dhdra, i.e. Container and Sustainer of the bodies. It shows how
all bodies are contained in and sustained by one Supreme
Spiritual Power (Saktl) of the Absolute Spirit. The fifth deals
with Samarasa-Karana, which is the supreme ideal of the life of
a yogi. The sixth describes the character of an Avadhuta, i.e. a
perfectly enlightened yogi.

CHAPTER IV. -Conception of the Ultimate Reality. Pages 33-37,

The basis of Gorakhnath's conception of the Ultimate Reality
is direct transcendent experience in the highest state of Samadhi.
Relation between direct experience and conception, Concep-
tion is an affair of the intellect, necessitated for rational
interpretation and understanding of the contents of direct
experience. Being in the domain of theory, conception cannot
reach the certitude of the direct experience of the Absolute
Truth. An enlightened Mahay ogi does not require any concep-
tion for being sure .of the validity of his transcendent experience.
But he cannot but take the help of intellectual conception
to explain his experience to others. Gorakhnath asserts that
from the view-point of transcendent experience, in which the
Absolute Truth reveals Itself in Its perfect self-shining nature
and 'the individual consciousness is wholly identified with It,
there is no question of the origination of the cosmic order with
the plurality of individual existences, since they are all unified
in Its transcendent nature. Still for the satisfaction of the
rational demand of the people of the normal planes of
phenomenal experience, this world-process must have to be
accounted for from the nature of the Absolute Reality, and
accordingly an adequate intellectual conception of the Absolute
has to be formed. The transcendent experience of an enlightened
Mahayogi and the intellectual demand of a common man must
be linked together. Gorakhnath conceives the Ultimate Reality
accordingly as Para-Sambit with Nijd-Sakti^ Absolute Cons-
ciousness or Absolute Spirit eternally possessed of infinite
unique Power for self-expression in the form of a boundless
phenomenal cosmic order evolving countless orders of finite and
transitory existences in time and space and also harmonising
them into one whole.

Unique Power as Sakti. The same Absolute Reality viewed as
the transcendent self-shining self-perfect differenceless and
changeless Spirit is Siva, and as revealing and enjoying Himself
freely and eternally in an ever-changing diversified phenomenal
cosmic order is Sakti. There is really no difference between Siva
and Sakti. In the ultimate samddhi-Qxperiencc in which the
cosmic plurality is merged in absolute unity He is realised in
His transcendent aspect as Siva 9 (His !0&//-aspect being hidden
in Him), and in the enlightened phenomenal experience in
which the cosmic plurality appears as an objective reality He is
realised in His self- manifesting dynamic aspect as Sakti. The
two aspects are in eternal union. Hence Siva and Sakti are
popularly conceived as eternally wedded to and in loving
embrace with each other. Siva is conceived as Saktimdn.
Accordingly Siva is regarded as the Father and Sakti as the
Mother of the universe, though there is no difference between
the Father and the Mother and there is no question of gender
in the nature of the Spirit. The Divine Sakti, as conceived by
Gorakhnath and Siddha-yogis, is neither the non-spiritual non-
self-conscious Prakriti of Sankhya, nor the illusion-producing
inexplicable Maya of Adwaita-Vedanta, nor the Sakti distinct
from but possessed and governed by the Supreme Spirit, as
conceived by many dualistic bhakti schools. She is Sat Cid->
Ananda-mayee Mahdsakti, i.e. self-manifesting self-diversifying
all-harmonising all-unifying ever-active Dynamic Sat Cid~
Ananda. The cosmic system is conceived, not as Cid-Vivarta,
but as Cid-Vilasa. The Sakti is conceived, not as dvarana-
vikshepdtmikd, but as Prakdsa-Vimarsdtmikd. Gorakhnath and
his school teach the truth-seekers to appreciate the world as
CM- Vilasa, as Saundarya-lahari, as Ananda-lahari, and not to
renounce it out of disgust or to think of it as an evil. Renuncia-
tion has to be practised for the pucpose of the realisation of the
Ideal of Absolute Sivahood in his Divine World.

CHAPTER Vm Gradual Unfoldment of Sakti. Pages 7587

Gorakhnath and his school are upholders of Sat-Kdrya-VQda.
They accordingly hold that before creation the whole world
of effects exists in an absolutely unmanifested and undifferen-
tiated state in the nature of the Unique Power of Siva and
that destruction or dissolution consists in the merging of all
the diversities in the absolute unity of the same Power (Sakti).
Creation or origination of the cosmic system is thus regarded

(vii)

as the gradual unfoldment of Siva's inherent Sakti, which is
essentially non-different from Siva. The temporal process of
creation and dissolution, of evolution and involution, has no
absolute beginning or end in time. The Ultimate Cause and
Ground and Support of this temporally eternal process of
creation and continuity and dissolution, constituting the cosmic
order, must be some supra-temporal self-existent Reality
having the Power for such self-expression in a temporal
order, and this is the Absolute Spirit or Siva with His Sakti.
The unique causal relation between the supra-temporal change-
less transcendent Spirit or Siva and the temporal ever-changing
phenomenal world-order is conceived by Gorakhnath and
the Siddha-yogi Sampradaya as Cid- Vilasa or iva-$akti- Vildsa,
which means perfectly free and delightful sportive self-mani-
festation of the Transcendent Spirit in the phenomenal plane.
This is of the nature of a free play and self-enjoyment of one
self-fulfilled perfect Spirit in the forms of countless orders of
imperfect phenomenal existences evolved from His own Sakti.
Gorakhnath's Siva-akti-Vilasa-Vdda or Cid-Vildsa-Vada is
distinguished from Arambha-Vdda, Parindma-Vdda as well as
Vivarta-Vdda. Vedanta's Maya is given a more exalted
position by Yogis, who conceive Maya as Mahd-Mdyd or Yoga-
Mdyd or real Cit-Sakti of Brahma or Siva, the real Mother
of the real cosmic order, and as such an Object of adoration
to all individuals. The self-unfoldment of Divine Sakti is
perfectly free and delightful. Sakti's self-unfoldment is
described as through five stages, Nijd, Pard, Apard, Sukshmd,
Kundalini. Gorakhnath attempts to give an idea of each of
these stages. Kundalinl- Sakti unfolds Herself as the glorious
Mother of the unlimited spatio-temporal cosmic order and all
kinds of individuals and classes within it. She is also present
as the sleeping spiritual Power in every individual body.

CHAPTER IX-Self-Manifestation of

Siva As Cosmic Furusha. Pages 88 99

The gradual self-unfoldment of Sakti within the spiritual
transcendent nature of the Absolute Spirit, Siva, gives birth
to the Supreme Spiritual Body of Siva, called Parapinda
The birth of Parapinda means the self-manifestation of the
Absolute Spirit as the Supreme Individual Parama Purusha
with the full consciousness of all His eternal infinite glorious
powers and attributes. The Supra-personal Spirit becomes

(vffi)

a perfectly self-conscious Personality, Brahma becomes ISwara.,
Reference to the difference of Gorakhnath's view from
Patanjali's view of ISwara. The significance of the term Pinda.
Pinda means an organised whole, a unity of diversities.
Gorakhnath attaches special importance to the term, in order
to show that all our conceptions of concrete realities in all
the planes of our knowledge and thought involve the idea of
unity of diversities. Accordingly even in the highest plane of
Spiritual Reality he rejects Pure Non-Dualism of the extreme
Adwaita-Vadis as well as Pure Dualism of extreme Dwaita-
Vddis and Pure- Pluralism of Vahu-Paddrtha- Vddis. In the
lowest physical plane also he rejects the doctrine of the
plurality of unrelated material units or paramanu* integrated
and disintegrated by external causes. The whole universe is
conceived by him as one organism consisting of countless
orders of organisms, one Samasti-Pinda consisting of in-
numerable Vyasti-Pindas. This universe is the self-embodiment
of the Absolute Spirit, Siva, by virtue of the Gradual self-
unfoldment of His Sakti.

Gorakhnath describes the Para-Pinda of Siva as consis-
ting of five forms of spiritual consciousness, all shining at the
same time without overshadowing each other in His all-
comprehensive Divine consciousness; viz. Aparamparam,
Paramapadam, Sunyam, Niranjanam, Paramatma. These are
explained in terms of psychological concepts. This Para-Pinda is
also called Anddi-Pinda as well as Adi- Pinda, implying that this
Divine Individuality is without any origination and without
any Higher Source of existence and that this is the Supreme
Source of all other Pindas or individual existences. Anadi-
Pinda is described as having the characters of Paramdnanda t
Prabodha, Cid-udaya, Prakasa, Sohambhdva. Thus the Absolute
Spirit, by virtue of the unfoldment of His immanent Sakti in
the transcendental plane, reveals Himself as a magnificently
glorified self-conscious self-active omnipotent omniscient
playful Divine Personality embodied with an ideal universe.
This Adi-Pinda is the eternal link and meeting-ground between
the transcendent and the phenomenal planes of existence,
between the Transcendent Spirit and His phenomenal cosmic
self-manifestation.f

CHAPTER X Evolution Of The Cosmic Body Of Siva. Pages 100114

Having described the nature of Para-Pinda or Adya-Pinda in

the supra-physical plane, Gorakhnath exposes the evolution of
the physical world-system from this Adya-Pinda. Siva as
Adya-Pinda, the Cosmic Purusha, evolves from within Himself,
through the further self-unfoldment of His Sakti, a Physical
Cosmic Body, extending in space and changing in time, and
makes it an integral part of His all-comprehending and all-
enjoying Self-Consciousness. The universe, which was ideally
real in the nature of Adya-Pinda, becomes physically and
objectively real as the Cosmic Body of Siva, and this Body is
called Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda. Siva with His infinite and eternal
Maha-Sakti is seen by a Mahayogi as immanent in and reveal-
ing Himself through all the diversities of this physical order.
A Mahayogi looks upon and loves this world as the sacred
Divine Body.

From Adya-Pinda evolves Mahd-Akasa, from Mdhd-
Akdsd evolves Mahd-Vdyu, from Mahd-Vayu evolves Mahd
Tejas, from Mahd-Tejas evolves Mahd-Salila, from Mahd"
Salila Mahd-Prithm. These five Tattwas (Basic Elements) are
gradual stages of self-unfoldment of the Divine Sakti in more
and more complex physical forms and they are all organised
by the same Sakti into an unlimited and ever-continuous
physical embodiment of Siva. The distinctive characteristics
of each of these physical Tattwas (generally called Mahd-
Bhutas) are described in details. General reflections are made
with reference to the different schools of Indian philosophy
on the relation of the basic physical elements of the universe
of our experience to the Ultimate Reality or the Absolute
Spirit. Ace. To Gorakhnath and the Siddha-Yogis, this
Physical Cosmic Body is the grossest and most complicated
and diversified form of free self-manifestation of the Absolute
Spirit through the gradual self-unfoldment of His infinite and
eternal Spiritual Power, and hence it is essentially a spiritual
entity. In relation to this Cosmic Order the Supreme Spirit
reveals Himself principally in the forms of eight Divine
Personalities, Which are called Ashta-Murti of Mahd-Sdkdra-
Pinda Sivaviz. Siva, Bhairava> Srikantha, SaddSiva, Iswara,
Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma.

CHAPTER XI Evolution of A System of

Worlds In The Cosmic Body. Pages 115128

In the Cosmic Body of Siva various orders of phenomenal
existences are gradually evolved, and these are conceived as

(x)

distinct interrelated worlds or Lokas. First, there is the
world of material bodies and physical forces, governed by
what are known as natural laws. This is Ja$a-Jagat. Secondly,
there is the world of Life and Vital Forces, governed by
biological laws. This is Prdna-Jagat. Life and vital forces
are embodied with and manifested through material bodies,
but life transcends matter and exerts regulative influence upon
its phenomena. Thirdly, there is the world of Mind, Mano-
Jagat. All phenomena of empirical consciousness are expres-
sions of mind. Mental phenomena are manifested through living
physical bodies, but Mind transcends Matter and Life and uses
them as its instruments Mind and Body are found to act and
react upon each other, but Mind does not occupy any special
part of the physical body nor does it die with the death of the
physical body. Mind has a higher order of reality than
Matter and Life, being a higher self-expression of the
Supreme Spirit. Fourthly, there is the world of Reason or
Intelligence, Buddhi. Buddhi is higher than Mind, and it is
manifested in the acts of discriminating between valid and
invalid knowledge, correct and incorrect thought, and in the
urge for the attainment of truth. Buddhi exercises a regula-
tive and enlightening influence upon Mind. Cosmic Buddhi
with Cosmic Manas and Cosmic Prdna is all-pervading.
Fifthly, there is a still higher world, the world of Moral
Consciousness, the world of Dharma. Dharma is revealed in
the form of some Ideal of goodness or righteousness or moral
perfection, having the inherent claim to regulate and elevate
all natural phenomena of matter and life and mind and
reason towards the Ideal. Dharma governs the course of
evolution in this Cosmic Body of Siva. Though Dharma is all-
pervading and underlies jail spheres of phenomenal existences,
it is specially manifested in the Moral Consciousness of man.
Sixthly, there is the world of Rasa, Aesthetic Order. This
is specially revealed to the Aesthetic Consciousness of man, to
which the whole universe is a universe of Beauty. Seventhly,
there is the world of Bliss, Ananda. Ananda is the real and
eternal nature of the Supreme Spirit and it underlies all self-
manifestations of the Spirit. To different orders of pheno-
menal consciousnesses different orders of existences are
revealed. The infinite richness of fifaha-Sakara-Pinda is
unfathomable. Every world has ddhyatmika, adhidaivika and
adhibhoutika aspects*

(xi)

CHAPTER XII The Evolution of Individual Bodies in

The Cosmic Body. Pages 129138

Recapitulation of the foregoing discourses, indicating the way
of philosophical thinking of Siddha-Yogis. The conceptions of
the eight Divine Cosmic Personalities further explained. With
the evolution of the eight Divine Personalities and their
respective planes of consciousnesses and existences, the cons-
titution of Maha-Sakdra-Pinda (Cosmic Body) of Siva-Sakti
is complete, so far as the Universal Cosmic Principles are
concerned. The plane of Brahma is the lowest and grossest
of all and is most closely related to the gross world of our
sensuous experience. Gorakhnath traces the evolution of the
individual existences and consciousnesses of this world from
the Conscious Will (Avalokana) of Brahma. This Conscious
Will is manifested in the form of Prakriti-Pinda, from which
all individual bodies ( Vyasti-Pindas) are evolved. Every
individual body is a particularised manifestation of Prakritl-
Pinda and ultimately of the Cosmic Body of Siva. Gorakhnath
is particularly interested in the study of the constitution of
the individual human body. In the human body all the exter-
nal and internal organs of an individual body are fully evolved,
and also life and mind and reason and moral consciousness
and aesthetic consciousness are fully manifested in individual-
ised forms. The human body is realised as an epitome of the
entire Cosmic Body of Siva. It is in and through the human
body that the Divine Sakti, Who in the process of cosmic
self-manifestation comes down from the highest transcendent
spiritual plane of absolute unity and bliss step by *ep to the
lowest phenomenal material plane of endless diversities and
imperfections, ascends again by means of self-conscious proces-
ses of Yoga and Jnana and Bhakti to the transcendent spiri-
tual plane and becomes perfectly and blissfully united with
the Supreme Spirit, Siva. Man with his developed individuality
can experience Siva as his own true Soul as well as the true
Soul of the universe.

CHAPTER XIII The Constitution of Individual Body. Pages 139-168

From the standpoint of yogtc discipline, Gorakhnath conceives
the human body as consisting of (1) the gross material body
called Bhiita-Pmda(2)(hQ mental body described as Antafi-karana-
Pancaka, (3) Kula-pancaka, (4) Vyaktipancaka % (5) Pratyaksha*

(xll)

karana-pancaka, (6) Nddi-samsthdna, and (7) Daa-Vdyu. The
Bhuta-pinda is constituted of the five gross physical elements,
purposefully organised by the Creative Will of Brahma with
life-power and mind-power immanent in the organism and
regulating ideologically the functions of its various organs.
The conceptions of wholes and parts and their relations are
discussed from the view-point of yogic Sat-kdrya-vada.
Gradual evolution of parts within parts from the Cosmic
Whole leads to the organisation of the amazingly diverse parts
of individual bodies of various orders and kinds. The indi-
vidual minds are individualised self-manifestations of the
Cosmic Mind in relation to and apparent dependence upon
individual living bodies. The individual lives also are indivi-
dualised self-manifestations of the Cosmic Life. Every indi-
vidual human mind is manifested in five forms according to
functions, viz. Manas, BuddM, Ahankdra, Chitta and Caitanya.
The functions of each are explained. Kula is here
interpreted by Gorakhnath as the forces which exercise their
directive influence from behind the scene upon the psycho-
physical phenomena and give special inclinations and aptitudes
to them It is conceived as of five forms, viz. Sattwa, Rajas,
Tamas, Kdla and Jeeva. These are explained. Vyakti pancaka
refer to the five forms of self-expression of the individual
mind and they are classified as Icchd, Kriyd, Mdyd, Prakriti
and Vdk. The various subdivisions of each are described,
The forms of Vdk, viz. Pard, Pasyanti, Madhyamd, Vaikharl
and Mdtrikd, are discussed. By pratyaksha-Karana Gorakh-
nath indicates the efficient and material causes which practically
contribute to the maintenance and development and also
renewal of \he indvidual body. He enumerates then as, Kama,
Karma, Candra, Surya and Agni. Their characteristics and
influences are discussed. The knowledge of Nddi-Samsthdna
or the nervous system is of great importance to yogis. Of
countless Nddis, ten are specially mentioned. Of these, three
are highly important, viz. Ida, Pingald and Sushunmd.
Sushumnd is the most important from yogic view-point.
Vdyu-Samsthdna also Is of special importance from yogic
view-point. Vdyu or Prdna-Sakti is essentially one, but it is
conceived as tenfold, ace. to different functions it performs in
different parts of the living organism. Of the tenfold Vayu,
Prdna and Apdna are of special importance for yogic disci-
pline. In this connection the nature and inner significance
of breath are discussed and Ajapa-Gdyatri is explained.

(xfii)
CHAPTER XIV The Esoteric Aspects Of The Body. Pages 169194

For the purpose of attaining true enlightenment about the
inner nature of the sacred human body, Gorakhnath regards
it essential to acquire insight into nine cakras, sixteen adharas t
three lakshyas, five vyomans. The nine cakras are conceived
as different stations in the central Sushumna-Nadi, which is
called Brahma-Mdrga. These are centres of psycho-vital forces
and indicate different planes of esoteric experience in the path
of yogic discipline. They are like wheels and whirls in the
path of spiritual progress, and they act sometimes as hurdles
and often as revolutionary steps in the path.

Cakras are enumerated by Gorakhnath somewhere as nine and
somewhere as seven (including the highest, Sahasrara). The
special features of these Cakras are described at some length.
The underlying conception is that, Kundalini'Sakti, the
Supreme Divine Power, lies sleeping like a coiled serpent in
the lowest Mulddhara Cakra of every human body, becomes
awakened with the awakenment of the spiritual consciousness
of every individual, rises step by step through yogic discipline to
higher and higher Cakras (higher and higher planes of spiritual
illumination), blesses individual consciousness with various
kinds of occult experiences and miraculous powers in the
particular Cakras, and finally ascends to the highest Cakra,
the plane of the perfect blissful union of Sakti with Siva or
Brahma, in which the individual consciousness becomes
absolutely united with Universal Consciousness, the Absolute
Sat-Cid-ananda.

After describing the Cakras 9 Gorakhnath describes what he
calls Adharas and for the students of Yoga he enumerates
them as sixteen. By Adharas he refers to the principal seats
of the vital and psychical functions, which have to be brought
under control and then transcended by means of appropriate
methods of yogic discipline. Having given lessons on the
sixteen Adharas, Gorakhnath imparts instruction on the three
kinds of Lakshyas % internal and external and non-located.
Lakshya means an object upon which a yogi should fix his
attention temporarily for practising concentration of psycho-
vital energy with the ultimate view of elevating it to the
highest spiritual plane. Lastly, Gorakhnath gives lessons on
Vyoma or Akdia or Sunya, which, though really one, he

(riv)

enumerates as five for the sake of the practice of concen-
tration.

CHAPTER XV The Cosmos In The Individual Body. Pages 195-205

In the view of enlightened yogis there is no pure and simple
matter, as conceived by scientists, anywhere in the universe.
Even Akdsa, which is the ultimate form of matter and which
appears as pure contentless space or void, evolves from and
is ensouled by the Supreme Spirit with infinite Power imma-
nent in His nature. Through the Power's gradual self-unfold-
ment the other Mahabhutas with specific characteristics
emerge from it and they are all ensouled by the Spirit. In the
course of this evolution, individual material bodies with
apparently distinctive existences and characteristics emerge in
the Cosmic Body of the Spirit, and life and mind and intellect
are found to be gradually evolved in individual forms in
relation to individual physical bodies, in which the character
of the Spirit is more and more brilliantly reflected. Every indi-
vidual body with life, mind, etc. is thus a self-manifestation
and self-embodiment of the Supreme Spirit, Siva. All causal
activities of all material things and all processes of evolution
and emergence of apparently newer and newer and higher and
higher orders of realities in the universe are governed by the
free Creative Will-Power inherent in the essential nature of
the Absolute Spirit. The Spirit is revealed as the material
cosmic system.

As a yogi draws upward in a systematic way his psycho-vital
energy to higher and higher adharas and cakras and concen-
trates his consciousness upon deeper truths unveiled therein,
the individual body is gradually realised as liberated from the
grossness and impurity and spatio-temporal limitations and
imperfections of its normal material nature and hence as a
true spiritual entity. When the consciousness is adequately
refined and illumined, the whole is experienced in every part,
the entire cosmic system is experienced in every individual
body, Maha-Sdkara-Pinda is realised in Vyasti-Pinda. This
realisation of the Cosmic Body in the individual body is called
by Oorakhnath the true knowledge of the body (Pinda-
Sambitti). For training the intellect of truth-seekers Gorakh-
nath describes the location of all the worlds in the Cosmic
Order within distinctive parts of the individual body.

(XV)

CHAPTER XVI Individual Souls. Pages 206223

The individual soul and the individual body are both pheno-
menal self-manifestations of the transcendent Supreme Spirit.
The soul is evidently a spiritual manifestation, and the body is
a physical manifestation. The body appears as a finite chang-
ing composite material entity, while the soul appears as a
simple self-luminous entity without any spatio-temporal charac-
teristics and limitations and changes. The soul does not
occupy any special portion of the body, but gives unity to the
whole body and is realisable in every part of it. The soul is
the master of the body, and all the operations of all the
organs of the body revolve round the soul as their dynamic
centre. The soul is distinguished not only from the physical
body, but also from life, mind, ego, intellect, moral and
aesthetic consciousness, and even spiritual consciousness. It is
self-luminous witness to them, the innermost dynamic centre of
all their operations, and it realises and enjoys itself in and
through them. The individual soul is ultimately one with Siva,
the Supreme Spirit, Who in His phenomenal cosmic play
freely enjoys Himself as the plurality of individual souls in
relation to the various orders of individual bodies.

The souls are not really touched by the joys and sorrows and
bondages and limitations and changes of the respective indivi-
dual bodies. So long as Avidyd or Ignorance prevails over
the phenomenal consciousness, these are falsely attributed
to the souls. Discussion on the conception of Vldyd and
Avidyd from the view point of Siddha- Yogis, Vidya and
Avidyd are two-fold aspects of the phenomenal manifestation
of the Swatantrd Nijd Sakti (Free Unique Power) of Siva
(Absolute Spirit). Gorakhnath and the yogi school more
often use the terms Prakdsa and Vimarsa in place of Vidya
and Avidyd. The significance of these terms is discussed. In
this universe of phenomenal self-manifestations of the Absolute
Spirit, His Prakdsa-Sakti and Vimarsa-Sakti are apparently
conditioned and limited by each other, and the Soul as mani-
fested in each individual body appears to be conditioned and
limited by the nature and limitations of the body. It is the
Supreme Spirit Who reveals Himself as individual souls. The
Absolute, .while manifesting and experiencing Himself freely
and playfully under limitations of all kinds of forms, remains
eternally in His own true Self as the One Transcendent Spirit.

The problems of Evil, Sorrow, Sin, Warfare, etc. are dis-
cussed and solved from this view-point.

CHAPTER XVII~-The Supreme Ideal Of Life. Pages 224250

From the earliest age of Hindu spiritual culture, Moksha or
Mukti is generally accepted as the Supreme Ideal (Parama
Purushartha) of human life. It is commonly understood in the
rather negative sense of perfect and absolute deliverance from
the present earthly state of existence subject to sorrows and
bondages and imperfections. Many schools of philosophers
and spiritual aspirants lay special emphasis upon Sorrow
which is the most universal and the most undesirable fact of
human experience and conceive absolute cessation of sorrow
as the ultimate Ideal of all human endeavours. The signi-
ficance of Sorrow is discussed. All Hindu saints and sages
proclaim the possibility of the absolute conquest of Sorrow,
not by means x>f external contrivances and changes of physical
conditions, but by means of internal self-discipline
and self-enlightenment. Perfect self-enlightenment really
consists in the elevation of empirical consciousness to the
transcendent spiritual plane, and the experience of this plane
can not be exactly and adequately described in terms of
intellectual concepts. Attempts at such description lead to
different religio-philosophical views about Moksha. The trans-
cendent experience is often described negatively as absolute
cessation of Sorrow and positively as the attainment of
Ananda or perfect Bliss. Discussion of Mahayogj Buddha's
conception of Nirvana, and his doctrine of the suppression of
all desires and universal sympathy as the means to it. Discus-
sion on the conception of Atma, on which all Hindu schools
of philosophy lay special stress. The realisation of Atma or
the true Self is conceived as the real nature of transcendent
experience and the essential nature of Moksha. Discussion on
Jlvanmukti and Videha-inukti. The nature of Atma after
absolute disembodiment is a puzzling problem, on which even
the greatest saint-philosophers are found to differ. Views of
Buddha, Kapila, Patanjali, Gautama, Kanada, are briefly
mentioned. Discussion of the Upanishadic and Vedantic view
of the realisation of the identity of the individual Atma with
the Absolute Spirit, Brahma, as the Ultimate Ideal. Gorakh-
nath agrees with this view, though he denies the illusoriness of
tlie Cosmic Order and of the individual AtmS, Reference to

(xvii)

the Bhakti schools. Ace. to Gorakhnatb, the perfect realisa-
tion of Sivahood or Brahmahood by the individual soul through
yoga is the Supreme Ideal. Gorakhnath's grand conception of
Samarasa-karana and his conception of the true character of
a Natha or Avadhuta are explained. A Ndtha not only realises
the identity of himself and all existences with Siva or Brahma
and experiences the whole universe within himself, but also
becomes a complete master of all physical forces in the
universe.

CHAPTER XVm The Evolution of Hindu Spiritual

Culture. (I) Pages 251280

Vedas the basis of Hindu spiritual thought. Some fundamental
Vedic Truths, that this world-order is essentially a spiritual
and moral and aesthetic system, that all phenomena
of all planes of existences are governed by Universal and
Inviolable Moral and Aesthetic and Spiritual Principles, that
the Cosmic System is not only an ddhibhoutic , but also an
ddhidaivic and ddhydtmic system, that in the scheme of the
universe man as a self-conscious intellectual and moral and
spiritual being endowed with a highly developed physical body
occupies a unique position. The Vedas unveiled the inner
secrets of the order of the universe and human nature and
showed the way to the solution of the most fundamental pro-
blems which are puzzling to the greatest intellectualists of all
ages. The principal modes of discipline taught by Vedas for
elevating man to higher planes, of existence and consciousness
till the highest spiritual plane is reached, the cultivation of the
spirit of Yajha in practical life, the cultivation of devotional
sentiments and spirit of worship to the Supreme Spirit as
revealed in this wonderful Cosmic System, the cultivation of
Renunciation and Tattwa-Jndna and Yoga. The wide-spread
influence of Vedas upon the practical life of the Aryans.
Controversies on the true interpretation of Vedic Texts,
interpretation from the view-point of Karma> from the view-
point of Jndna and Yoga, from the view-point of Updsana or
Devotion. In the period of progressive expansion and con-
solidation of the Aryan society people were naturally more
interested in a philosophy of action than in a philosophy of
renunciation or emotional devotion, and hence the interpreta-
tion from the view-point of Karma prevailed in the society.
The view-point of Jfi&na and Yoga and Vairdgya also steadily

(xviii)

developed and found expression in the Upanishads and the
Agamas* Kapila, the founder of Sdnkhya-darfana, was the
independent rationalist philosopher, who constructed a com-
plete philosophical system for the explanation of the world-
order and added great strength to the view-point of Jndna and
Yoga. A brief account of the Sdnkhya-darsana of Kapila and
its contribution to the development of Hindu spiritual thought.
The development and spread of the view-point of Updsand and
Bhakti through a good many sects and sub-sects, along with
the development and spread of Pravritti-Marga and Nivritti-
Mdrga.

CHAPTER XIX The Evolution of Hindu Spiritual

Culture. (II) Pages 281320

With the progress of Hindu spiritual culture, a psychological,
social, moral and spiritual necessity was more and more keenly
felt for rational synthesis and harmony of Karma Jndna Yoga
and Bhakti, and various attempts were made by eminent
thought-leaders. The most successful attempt was made by
Lord Sri Krishna in His wonderfully eventful life and specially
in the Bhagavat-Glta. Sri Krishna was the truest representative
of the Spirit of the Vedic Revelation, and was adored as a
veritable Incarnation of the Supreme Spirit in human form.
His Gfta was hailed as Brahma-Vidyd> Yoga-Sdstra, Bhakti-
Sastra, as well as Karma Sdstra, and as the most profound
interpretation of the essential teachings of the Vedas. It gave
the most enlightened conception of Yajna, Yoga, Jndna, Karma,
Tydga, Sannydsa, Updsand, and Moksha, and taught the Art
of the thorough spiritualisation of the entire life of a man.
Sri Krishna laid far greater emphasis upon the inner spirit
than upon the outer forms of religious practices and opened
the door of Yoga and Jndna and Bhakti and God-realisation
to men and women of all grades of the society and of all sorts
of occupations in practical life. In His philosophical view
also He sought to assimilate all the important schools of
thought. He conveyed to humanity another great message of
hope and strength, viz. Incarnation of God on earth at
critical times as a mark of His love and mercy for man.

The credit for propagating the teachings of the Vedas and the
message of Lord Sri Krishna in the most popular and liberal
forms to all sections of people and building up the structure of
ooe universal Hinduism goes pre-eminently to Krishna Dwai-

(xix)

pftyana Vyflsa and his disciples. He compiled and rearranged
all the available Vedic Texts with their varied interpretations,
preached the Upanishads as constituting the essence of the
Vedas, composed the great national Epic, Mahabhdrata,
founded the school of Veddnta-Dar&ana, and initiated the
composition and propagation of the Purdnas. These together
with the other great national Epic, Valmtki's Rdmayana,
exercised a powerful influence upon the development and
popularisation of Hindu spiritual culture and the permanent
unification of this vast sub-continent.

More than a thousand years after Sri Krishna and Vy3sa,
Lord Buddha and Lord Mahavira, both of whom were
Mahdyogis and followed practically the Nivritti-Mdrga of the
Vedas, initiated two powerful ethico-spiritual movements,
which led to the creation of Buddhism and Jainism within
the fold of Hinduism. They really preached the ancient Yoga-
Mdrga with special emphasis on renunciation, universal
sympathy and compassion and purity of ethical conduct, and
particularly on the principle of Ahimsd. Their special con-
tributions to Hindu spiritual culture and the causes of their
conflict with the orthodox Hindu community are briefly
discussed.

A few centuries later, KumSrila, Sankara and Gorakhnath
appeared as very powerful exponents of Vedic Karma- Mdrga,
Jndna- Mdrga and Yoga- Mdrga respectively, and their contri-
butions to the restoration and consolidation of the moral,
spiritual and cultural unity of the vast country on the basis of
the Vedic outlook on life and the world are most remarkable.
The special features of their contributions are briefly expound-
ed. While Kumarila strongly defended Vedic Hinduism
against the attacks of Buddhism and Jainism, Sankara and
Gorakhnath contributed greatly to their assimilation with
Hinduism.

In the Middle Ages, while the different interrelated currents of
Vedic spiritual culture continued to flow on, the Bhakti-cult
or Updsana-Mdrga got a great impetus from the life and
teachings of a good number of Bhakta-saints with high
spiritual attainments and magnetic personal influences born in
different provinces. A good many Updsaka Sampraddyas,
Saiva, Sdkta, Vaishna\a > Rdmdyata, etc., worshipping the same
Supreme Spirit in different Divine Names, in different visible

(XX)

and tangible Forms and in different methods, developed at
this age throughout the country. Image-worship and Pilgri-
mage became very popular. Islam came and made a permanent
place .for itself in India at this period.

Hinduism, as it took shape and form in the middle age, con-
tinues without much substantial change in the present age,
though it had to meet the challenge of the invasion of the
materialistic culture and civilisation of the West and had to
adjust itself with new situations. The**contributions of the
modern saints, and particularly of Ramkrishna and Viveka-
nanda, are most remarkable. These are briefly referred to.

APPENDIX IGoraksha-Vacana-Sangraha. Pages 321332

APPENDIX II Glossary of Philosophical Terms. 333343

FOREWORD

BY

Sri C. P. Ramaswaml Aiyar

Dealing with the long chronicle of Indian Philosophy and thought,
one cannot but realise that our country has been fortunate, from time to
time, in having given birth to Sages and Yogis who have interpreted and
re-interpreted the primeval message contained in the Vedas, the Puranas
and the Prasthanatraya, and added to by successive Seers according to
the needs and circumstances of the times.

This volume contains the essence of the writings and teachings of
Mahayogi Gorakhnath. It is well pointed out that while the ultimate
object of search is the same for a Yogi and a philosopher, their modes
of approach are different, the latter's being intellectual and the former's
intuitive and spiritual. The task of a Yogi does not require any subtle
intellectual speculation or the framing of hypotheses and theories. The
quest of the Yogi is direct spiritual experience of truth on a high plane,
of consciousness. The highest state of Samadhi attained by the Yogi is
neither purely subjective nor objective. It transcends both categories and
it is really an integrated experience beyond formal description. Such a
transcendent state of consciousness is alone called Samadhi. This book
analyses in detail the nature of Samadhi Experience. The term
"Experience" is perhaps inaccurate, because in this state of Samadhi,
there is no relation between subject and object, the experiencer and the
experienced. It is the fulfilment of life as described in the Yogasutras.
The Yogi who comes back from Samadhi may not have attained Kaivalya
or Moksha, but he is illuminated by his experience. If he assumes the
role of a teacher or preacher, he gives expression ta his experience in
such forms as may be easily intelligible to the people at large. Gorakhnath
was a MahS-Yogi. He did not indulge in controversial metaphysics.
As pointed out in this book, the Sampradaya associated with the name of
Gorakhnath is embodied in a great body of literature in Sanskrit and
other languages. It is further stated that the Metaphysical doctrine
which Gorakhnath preached and the discipline of his Yoga rested upon
his experience which lay beyond the domain of mind and intellect.

Chapter II of the book deals with the sources of the Sage's
philosophical views and this volume is mainly based upon the Siddha

Siddhftnta Paddhati. This book is written partly in the form of Sutras or
aphorisms and partly in the form of discourses and seeks to
explain the philosophy and yoga-discipline of the Siddha
Sampradaya. In the introductory verse, the name of Siva is
invoked as the greatest of Yogis and Gorakhnath (also called by
the names of Srinath and Nityanath) discusses various philoso-
phical topics under several heads called UpadeSas or lessons. His
theory is that the Supreme Spirit, though essentially above time and
space, manifests itself as a diversified Universe in the form of countless
orders of individual bodies and also as the Indwelling Soul. The various
Yogic centres in the physical form and other aspects of the Yoga
Philosophy are elucidated and it is shown how the human body can be
spiritualised and obtain Kaya Siddhi./ The discussion then proceeds to
identify the individual body with the cosmic body and thereafter, the
function of Sakti or the Supreme Spiritual Power is explained and
expounded. The Unification of the individual body with the cosmic body
and the process by which it is achieved is then dealt with and finally, the
conduct, behaviour and outlook of the Avadhuta Yogi are recounted. The
conception of Ultimate Reality is perfected by Super-conscious experience
and a whole chapter is devoted to what is termed Para-Sambit. A most
suggestive account is given in this book of the manifestation of the
power of the Supreme Spirit and the development of the cosmic system.

Chapter XI deals with the evolution of world systems, including in
this expression, not only the world of animal bodies and manifestations,
but the world of mind, the world of reason or Buddhi and the world of
Dharma or moral order, which is described as a special manifestation in
the moral consciousness. It is then explained how the Absolute Spirit
seems to hide its essential character behind phenomenon. Through the
VimarSa Sakti of the Supreme Spirit, various forms of knowledge, wisdom,
desire, actions and feelings emerge. In fact, the problems of the existence
of evil can be solved only by a complete realisation of the Vedic maxim
'tatwamasi'.

An outline of Lord Buddha's teachings as well as of the Sankhya
system forms an important part of the book. Discussion then turns on the
philosophy of action as compared and contrasted with the philosophy of
renunciation (namely, Pravrttimarga, Nivrttmarga and Bhakti marga).
Discussions on the Sankbya Darsana of Kapila, the doctrine of cycles and
the explanation of the various Gunas form the subject of a complete chain
of arguments. The significance of the Bhagavat Gita, from the point of
view above stated, is followed by a general disquisition on the works of
Vyasa, Valmiki and the Puranakartas. The Siva-Sakti-Vada and the

(xxiii)

Brahma-Sakti-Vada end up with the assertion that the Supreme Spirit may
be conceived and represented in the form of a Divine Couple associated
by union. In other words, Brahman is one in two and two in one, the
dynamic aspect of the Absolute Spirit being represented by Sakti. The
description of the Aspects of Narayana and Lakshmi, Krishna and Radha,
Ram and Sita and the process of worship of various names and forms
of Siva and Sakti end up with a full discussion of the objectives and
rationale of image worship.

The last Chapter of the book deals with Modern Hinduism and the
impact on Modern India of Western culture and ideas. It is emphasised
that a comprehensive synthesis of Karma, Jfiana, Yoga and Bhakti are
essential, as well as the implementation of the harmony of religious faiths
and the recognition of the spiritual efficacy of all modes of discipline
following upon the discovery of the underlying unity of all forms of true
faith.

This volume is the result of profound research and contains a
closely-reasoned and logically-constructed analysis of Bhakti Yoga which
is not irreconcilable and can be coordinated with the Yoga of wisdom or
Jfifina.

C.P. Ramaswami Alyar
29.10.1961

A PREFATORY NOTE

BY

Mahamahopadhyaya Gopinath Kaviraj, M. A., D., Litt.

An attempt has been made in the following pages to present a syste-
matic and consistent account of the philosophical background of the
spiritual culture associated with the names of Yogi Goraksha NSth and
other adepts of the Natha Brotherhood. The account is mainly based on
an original Sanskrit Text of the school attributed to Goraksha Nath or
Nitya Nath. It is difficult to say how far this account reflects the actual
teachings of Goraksha Nath, but it is believed that it faithfully records
some of the traditional views of the school. I congratulate the author on
the great ability with which he has accomplished his self-imposed task, a
task which is difficult not only for the great depth of Yogic wisdom
implied in the teachings, but also for the great paucity of necessary
materials.

The writer has said almost everything worth knowing for a beginner
in regard to the philosophical outlook of Ndthism. The Ultimate Reality
Brahman and Para-Samvit; the inter-relation of Siva and Sakti; the
gradual unfoldment of the Supreme akti and the origin of the universe
consisting of an infinite series of world-systems; the appearance of the
individual souls and their relation to the Cosmic Purusha; the Supreme
ideal of human life; the relation between macrocosm and microcosm; the
Universe Body of the Transcendent; these are some of the topics on
which the learned author has tried to throw light. As Nathism represents
a particular aspect of Hindu spiritual life, the writer has done well in
dealing at some length with the ideal of Hindu spirituality in general.

The Supreme Ideal of Yoga-Sddhana as conceived in this school
seems to differ essentially from the conceptions of Patanjali, of the earlier
and some later Buddhistic systems and even to a great extent of Sankara's
Vedanta. Nevertheless we must observe that the Natha ideal is analogous
to what we find in the Agamic systems of non-dualistic thought in
ancient and medieval India.

This Ideal is described in one word as Sdmarasya, which implies
obliteration of traces of all kinds of existing differences, not by a process
of transcendence as in Sankhya, or of sublation as in Vedantic MayavSda,
t>ut by a positive process of what may be described as mutual interpenetrq-

XXVI

tion. This ideal underlies the principle of unification between Purusha and
Prakriti, or between Siva and Sakti./ The attainment of this ideal is the
Supreme Unity of Parama Siva, where Siva and Sakti are one undivided
and indivisible Whole. It is called Mahd Sakti in the language of the
Saktas and represents the Absolute of the Sakta Agamas. It stands for
the Samatd of the Avadhuta Yogins, which is really a unification from the
logical point of view of Tattwa and Tattwdtlta, i.e. the One and the
Beyond.

A cursory glance at the ancient spiritual literature of India would
reveal the fact that in almost all the systems associated with Agamic
culture we find a strong insistence on the ideal of Sdmarasya in some form
or other. By way of illustration I may refer to the Tdntric Buddhism of
the Kdlachakra school, in which the union of Prajnd and Updya, techni-
cally known as Vajrayoga, is strongly emphasized.

Thus the Hevajra Tantra says:

The Vajrayoga which is the ideal of Kdlachakra Buddhism represents
in fact the state of Supreme Oneness.

The Vira Saivas of the Jangam School also recognise this ideal in
their own way. A brilliant exposition in the form of Sdmarasya Bhakti
representing the self-luminous Unity of Delight realised after a course of
continued sddhana is to be found in Mayideva's Anubhava- Sutra and in
Prabhudeva's works.

The Swacchanda-Tantra which is one of the earliest Agamas available
to us furnishes a detailed account of the several stages in the process of the
unification which ends in Supreme Sdmarasya. In this process seven
grades are mentioned and described.

Swatantrananda Natha, the author of Mdtrikd Cakra Viveka, was a
brilliant exponent of the Siddha School. He explains this doctrine in his
own inimitable manner. He says,

u
Here in this context the Sdmarasya referred to is between Git

XXV11

i. e. between Consciousness and Unconsciousness, which neutralise
each other and appear as One. He illustrates this with an interesting
example of a pictorial representation, which in reality is one, but which
appears to one onlooker as representing an elephant and to another as
representing a bull according to the view-point taken.

In the yogic sddhana of certain Tdntric schools, especially those
affiliated to the Ardhakdli line, we are told that the two twelve-syllabled
Mantras constituting the complete Pddukd-MantTa of Sri Gurudeva repre-
sent Unmani and Samam aspects of the Absolute respectively. The
former suggests the upward motion in the direction of the Supreme
Purusha (f) with the Supreme Prakriti (s). The latter suggests that the
Supreme Prakriti fa) which descends from the glance (t^tir) of Para-Brahma
or Unmani Siva floods with Delight the Supreme Purusha (f ) in the course
of its descent. These symbolize in the undivided Absolute Consciousness
(fa?U both the upward and downward movements of the Divine. Behind
Unmand and Samand there is only one single Essence, for Purusha and
Prakriti are ultimately one and the same Brahman, one symbolized by the
triangle with its vertex upwards and the other by the triangle with its ver-
tex downwards. The familiar diagram of Shatkona as an interlaced figure
signifies this union which is represented (they say) by the twelve-petalled
lotus above the pericarp of the Sahasradala Lotus. In fact the conception
of Guru-Pddukd in its highest expression is the conception of Sdmarasya
par excellence.

It is said,

This indicates that the Divine Guru or Para Siva has three Pfidukds,
two being lower and one higher. The two lower Pddukds symbolise Self-
luminous Siva on one hand and His Self-reflecting Sakti on the other.
The higher Pddukd is the integration in the form of Sdmarasya of the two
in the Supreme Unity.

It may be noted in passing that even the realisation of Christian
Trinity is only a partial manifestation of the truth of Sdmarasya. The
great Spanish saint Teressa through Divine Grace once realised this and
tried to express it in her own language, in course of which she said that at
first an illumination shining like a most dazzling cloud of Light appeared
her followed by the emergence of the three Persons of Trinity. She

xxviii

felt that the three Persons were all of one Substance, Power and
Knowledge and were one God. This vision was not the result of the func-
tion of the bodily eye nor even of the eye of the soul. It was an intellec-
tual vision of an intimate kind. Henry Suso, the disciple of the great
German mystic Meister Eckhart referred to the union of the soul and God.
She spoke of God as saying, "I will kiss them (the suffering saints)
affectionately and embrace them so lovingly that I shall be they and they
shall be I and the two shall be united in one for ever". Elsewhere it is
said, "The essence of the soul is united with the essence of the Nothing
and the powers of the one with the activities of the Nothing". (The
Little Book of the Truth, edited by J. M. Clark, Page 196). This is
exactly like the union (Samyoga) of Linga or Paramdtmd with Atma of
the Vlra Saiva School.

From what has been said above it is abundantly clear that in some
form or- other Sdmarasya is the ideal, not only of the Agamic Culture, but
also of many other spiritual sadhanas.

It now remains to be seen how the Natha Yogins conceived this
highest consummation of Oneness. It is said that the true process of
Sdmarasya begins only when the Sadguru's grace has succeeded in effecting
Mental Quiet (ftrM^rrfo). The real sddhana cannot commence until the
mind is rendered quiet and free from disturbances incident on a sense of
identity with the body. The mind being at rest, the Divine Bliss and an
experience of Pure Infinite Glory dawn on the soul which is awakened from
its age-long slumber. The sense of duality disappears in the serene Light
of Undifferentiated Unity. This Light, unbounded and one, brings
out the powers of Consciousness. The Universal Consciousness being once
awakened produces in the yogin a perfect knowledge of his own Body,
which results in the illumination and stabilization of the Body concerned

In other words this Body becomes immortal and immune from the
ravaging effects of Time. The Yogi is now an adept (fog). This Luminous
Form which is the essence of Caitanya has to be made, as a further step,
one with the Universal Uncreated Light of Paramapada already revealed.
This is done through a continuous process of investigation into the real
nature of Atmd. It is to be remembered that Sdmarasya should not be a
momentary attainment, but a permanent possession, in the sense that no
reversal (*gH&) may ever occur. Before this state (fw-qn) is made permanent
after Sdmarasya is once attained, some successive moments in the Supreme
Experience are noted :

(I) The Transcendental Reality is revealed as the Universe. In other

xxix

words, the difference between what is Formless and what has Form
disappears for ever and it is co-eternal with the vision of the Universe in
Atma.

(II) In the transitional stage there is a tendency in the Powers to
move out. This has to be restrained and the Powers kept as contained
within the Atma.

(III) The Atm& is realised as a continuum of unbroken Prakafa with
Supreme Dynamism.

(IV) As a result of all this there is a unique Vision of Being which
is unborn. This is the Supreme Integral Vision which marks the stage of
Nirutthdna. It is a Vision of Eternity when infinite varieties are seen as an
expression of the One and when the One reveals Itself in every point of the
Infinite.

It seems true that the Natha-Yogin's view of ffag ftfe and Patanjali's
idea of w*^ are not exactly the same, though it is true that in each the
control of the elements is the result. The ideal of fa^f) was behind both
and dominated the Tantric Buddhist also. In 'Nathism' the fact that
ft*!3 fefe results from a vision of Paramapada and is an antecedent of the
unification of the two indicates that, though Patanjali's 3^^ aims at
physical purification to its utmost extent, it can never be equated to the
natural purity of Purusha and continues to remain an inalienable property
otPrakriti.

In this light it may be presumed that the criticism of Goraksha Nflth'i
ideal of fo^s %fs by Prabhudeva, as found in legends current in some South
India Saiva schools, has to be explained as the outcome of sheer
sectarianism.*

The Natha ideal is first to realise Jivanmukti through ffas ftfo which
secures an Immaculate Body of Light free from the influence of Time, i.e.
a deathless undecaying spiritual body and then to realise Para-Mukti or th
Highest Perfection through the process of mutual integration (s*Rtfi <^).
The Bengali Natha work, entitled *IWMI, a comparatively late work of the

* For Deha-Siddhi the reader is referred to the following :-

(1) The Doctrinal Culture and Tradition of the Siddhas, by V. V. Raman
Sastri, in the Cultural Heritage of India, Vol. II. Pages 303319.

(2) M. M. Gopinath Kaviraj's Series of articles in Bengali on the Process oj
effecting physical immortality, published in the Bengali Weekly Paper
Himadri. ^

(3) M. M. Gopinath Kaviraj's article in Sanskrit on the subject, in the
Saraswati SushamS Journal' of the Varanasi Sanskrit University, 1961,
Pages 63-87.

XXX

Natha School of Bengal and published by Shri Prafulla Chandra Chakra-
varty in his book on 'Natha Dharma and Sahitya\ also points out that the
complete course of Ntha spiritual culture did not end with the attainment
of Siddha-Deha through drinking of nectar after the completion of the
process technically known as transcendence of the Moon ; it was
only a state of Jlvanmukti as free from death. It is only a prelude
to the realisation of the highest ideal of Perfection through the culture
of Omkara.

I have nothing more to add to this brief foreword. I have only to
thank the revered author for the honour he has shown me in asking me to
write a few lines by way of an introductory note to his work. I h#ve tried
even on my sickbed to comply with his request as briefly as possible. The
learned author has laboured hard and long in a more or less untrodden
field and as a result of his labours has presented us with a brilliant work on
an important medieval school of philosophical thought. He is a pioneer
worker in this field. I hope, however, that young scholars interested in the
subject will follow him and try to utilise all the resources accessible to us
in the different libraries of the country.

Gopinath Kaviraj.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

BY
Dr. Sampurnanand, Rajpal of Rajasthan

I welcome the publication of this book to which I have been
invited to write a foreword. It is not for me to assess the worth of
the labour and scholarship which the author has brought to bear upon his
work. ^ What is of more interest to me is that such a book has been
brought out at all. The need has been felt for long by students of the
religious and spiritual history of India.

It stands to reason that Goraksha, Gorakhnath as he is popularly
known, had a most powerful personality which profoundly impressed
those who came in contact with him. He probably travelled wide; in any
case, his fame travelled wider. There are a number of places spread all
over northern India associated with him and his disciples. There are
legends, some of them of very doubtful historical authenticity, which
have now become part of the traditional folk-lore of the people. Evidence
of the place which Goraksha occupied in popular estimation comes from
another and rather unexpected quarter. The followers of some of the
Saints who followed him centuries later apparently felt that the reputa-
tation of their Master would not be placed at a sound footing unless he
was shown to have been a greater man than Goraksha. Stories were,
therefore, invented of disputations between Goraksha and the founder
of their own school. The discussions were generally verbal, but they
were not unoften accompanied by an overt or veiled display of occult
power. Goraksha was, of course, invariably worsted in all such contests.
There are many references to such contests in works attributed to Kabir
and Nanak. Of course these great men had no hand in the authorship of
these compositions, which are obviously the work of their followers,
remarkable more for their devotion than coramonsense. The contempt-
uous disregard of time which they display is breath-taking. The philoso-
phical content of such compositions is elementary and their reference to
Yogic experience not at all profound. But while they do not enhance the
reputation of men like Kabir and Nanak, who, by the way, do not stand
in need of such spurious support, they certainly indicate the esteem in
which Goraksha's memory was held by the people several centuries after
his disappearance; no one could easily be accepted as a great saint unless
he was proved to be superior to Goraksha.

The story of the Nath School, of which Goraksha was such a

XXX11

distinguished representative, is an important chapter in the history of
India's spiritual development. The Tantriks were followed in course
of time by the Sadhs (*TN), the Siddhas (f*re) and the Naths faro)
and the succession was taken up later by the Sant-mat (^ *ra). In
a sense, none of these schools brought any absolutely new message.
What they preached and practised were simply variations and derivatives of
lessons which have been handed down from the most ancient times.
There were apparently two schools of religion and spirituality in Vedic
times which may roughly be called the orthodox and heterodox. The
orthodox school, further, functioned in two forms which may be called
the exoteric and the esoteric. Karma Kanda, the performance o Vedic
sacrifices, was the concern of the former, while the latter concerned itself
with Yoga and philosophy. There was no conflict between the two ; they
complemented and supplemented each other. Those who belonged to
the unorthodox school were called Vratyas. They spurned ritual, did not
follow many of the conventions of the Vedic society and were given to
esoteric disciplines. All medieval and present-day Hindu religious and
philosophical thought and spiritual discipline stemmed from these ancient
schools.

The Veda declares "Ekam Sat, Vipra bahudhd vadanti", The
Absolute Reality is One, the wise call It by many names ; and "Sarvam
khulu idam Brahma", all this is verily Brahma. It is difficult for philo-
sophy to go beyond Absolute Monism. The only possible alternative is
Absolute Negation, and this pas posited by Buddhism. Almost all promi-
nent schools of Hindu thought are variants of the theme of Monism. As
for spiritual discipline, the ancient word is Yoga, and all the various
forms of spiritual practice adopted at different times are really forms of
Yoga. Even Bhakti which prides itself on being something utterly unique
and different and claims to offer a straighter road to the ultimate goal of
human existence is, in reality, to the extent that it is a genuine spiritual
discipline, only Yoga with a new name.

The various schools to which I have referred, the Tantra, Sddha,
Siddha, Nath and Santmat, disown all connection with one another or
with anything that historically preceded them. Such a position is untenable
or, is the product of ignorance and blind prejudice. Each new school
has not received a new commission directly from God in one of His
manifestations : each, in fact, learnt much from its predecessors and
passed on the torch to its successors. The core of truth, which each
cherishes, is sanatana, old as time itself. What is new is the expression
of it which varies with place and time and circumstances, created by
political and other external factors.

XXX111

The founders of the Ndth Samparadaya did not propound a new
system of philosophy. In this they were at one with the Sadhs and the
Siddhas who had preceded them and the Santmat which may be considered
to have succeeded them. The Tantriks had a philosophical doctrine
worked out in great detail ; the others seem to me, from the study of
their available literature, to have covered the whole gamut from the
Absolute Monism of Shankaracharya to the Vishishtadvaita of Rarnanuja
with Shuddhadvaita of Vallabha, somewhere in between, according to
personal taste and inclination. But while they did not bother themselves
much about a clear exposition of philosophical theory and engage in hair-
splitting discussion about subjects which really transcend reason, they
paid the greatest attention to spiritual discipline, the practice of Yoga.
Success in Yoga demands an unblemished character, continence and denial
of all pleasures of flesh, withdrawal from the distractions of the world,
and no one can deny that the fathers of the Nath school practised these
virtues to an extraordinary degree. They were recognised as great adepts
in Yoga and credited with the development of those so-called occult
powers which the practice of Yoga unfolds. They were objects of universal
reverence coupled with awe. A school of this kind could command
respect, but it could not become popular. Its doctrines and disciplines
would naturally be confined to an elite ; the people at large could not be
expected to live that life of austerity and self-denial which the practice of
Yoga demands.

It would not be inopportune to say a few words here about Yoga.
The Naths are generally reputed to be exponents of Hatha-Yoga, about
which a good deal of misconception prevails. We hear to-day about
different kinds of Yoga : Raja-Yoga, Hath-Yoga, Jndna-Yoga, Laya-Yoga,
Bhakti-Yoga and Karma-Yoga. These are all modern terms. They were
not known to ancient Yogis and, if some of them occur at all in old
literature, their use is purely incidental and not indicative of a separate
and exclusive technique. The standard text-book on Yoga, Patanjali's
Yoga -Sutra, makes no mention of them. Certain aspects of the practice
of Yoga have been needlessly apotheosized and elevated to the false
dignity of separate sciences, without paying heed to their inter-relations.
The object of the practice of Yoga as defined by Patanjali is f^ if% ftd*n
(Cittavritti-nirodha) which automatically result in ^^ SW*IR*^ (Swarupe
avasthanam) of the z$i (Drasta). The Ego having realised itself becomes
established in its own true nature, when the cessation of that ceaseless flux
of stages of consciousness is brought about, which relates the T to the
*not-F. Any technique, any spiritual discipline, which aims at any other
objective, is not Yoga, whatever else it may be. Goraksha or any of the
other Naths did not posit any other objectives ; the whole aim of what

XXXIV

they practised was Moksha, release from nescience, realisation by the
Self of its true nature. This, they knew could come only by passing
through the three highest stages of Yogic practice: Dhdrand, Dhydna and
Samadhi. These are purely mental stages and after all it is the mind
that has to be controlled. But they realised the absolute correctness of
the procedure laid down by Patanjali. A healthy body is necessary, so is
the control of the psychic and nervous currents and the emotions. Fid-
gettiness and hankering after the pleasures of the flesh are not conducive
to concentration and mental peace. All these things classed by Patanjali
under Asana and Prdndydma are generally associated with the modern
term of Hatha-Yoga. As so understood, Hatha-Yoga is a necessary stage
in Yoga, which leads directly to the higher stages of purely mental prac-
tice. It was not that he believed that the practice of bodily contortions or
the control of bodily functions was the final goal of Yoga, nor was he
under the delusion that such control of the body would, in and by itself,
produce Samadhi and self-realisation. What he did, and quite rightly,
was to emphasise the irrevocable necessity of going through the lower
stages, which are apt to be neglected and ignored because they seem so
difficult and, by a process of wishful thinking, so unnecessary.

I hope this book will succeed in stimulating attention in Goraksha
and his school, which represents a notable chapter in our country's spiri-
tual history. The works attributed to Goraksha are available in Sanskrit
and Hindi. The Hindi contains some words of foreign origin here and
there, indicating that the influence of the arrival of Muslims in India had
already reached the part of the country in which he mostly lived. It
would be interesting to study if any Sufi influence is traceable in his
writings. Again, some of the technical terms he uses have been taken
over by Kabir and the nirguna saints who came after him and are also to
be found in the works of the Sddhs. It would be useful to find out when
they first began to come into use and what the corresponding terms are
in Sanskrit and Pali Yogic literature. There are so many other fields of
possible research, to which a study of Nath literature would open the
doors. I hope that such work will be earnestly taken up.

Mount Abu,

June 19, 1962. SAMPURNANAND.

INTRODUCTION

A YOGI AND A PHILOSOPHER
BOTH HAVE THE SAME END IN VIEW THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH

A Yogi and a Philosopher have the same ultimate end in view. They
are inspired by the same inherent urge of the innermost consciousness of
man. Both of them are seekers of the Absolute Truth. Both of them refuse
to remain content with the knowledge of the finite transitory relative
truths of the world of normal human experience. They feel within
themselves a deep yearning for the discovery of the infinite eternal Absolute
Reality behind and beyond them. They devote themselves to the quest of
the ultimate root of all existence, the ultimate Cause and Ground of this
world-order, the ultimate solution of all the problems of human knowledge
and experience. The human consciousness is ordinarily imprisoned in the
closed domain of space, time and relativity. It is as it were condemned to
live and move under spatial and temporal limitations, to think and know in
terms of relativity, causalty and reciprocity. It is given opportunities to
develop and expand and enrich itself within the compound of this prison;
but it is not permitted to go beyond the walls of this prison. It seems that
human knowledge and experience must necessarily be finite and relative,
and the world of space, time and relativity must be all in all to the human
mind.

The Yogi as well as the Philosopher revolts against this bondage of
the human mind. Both of them aspire to break through the walls of this
prison. They want to transcend the limitations, under which the ordinary
human consciousness is placed by nature. For the satisfaction of the inner-
most craving of their souls, they attempt to penetrate into the innermost
meaning of this cosmic order. However bewilderingly complex the constitu-
tion of the world of our normal experience may appear to be, it cannot be
a meaningless and purposeless process, going on by chance or accident. The
wonderful order and harmony perceptible in all the departments of this
complicated system of the Universe point to some dynamic Centre or Soul
of this system, some obviously inscrutable Governing Principle or Power
regulating its intricate operations, some Supreme Ideal which is being
realised in and through this continuous phenomenal process. A Yogi and a
Philosopher are both inspired by some such faith, and both of them devote
their energy to the discovery of that Centre or Soul of the Universe, that
Governing Principle or Power, that Supreme Ideal, which may furnish a
rational explanation of this world-order and give a meaning to it.

THEY DIFFER IN THEIR MODES OF APPROACH

While the ultimate object of search is the same for a Yogi and a
Philosopher, their modes of approach appear to be widely different. A
Philosopher's approach is intellectual, and a Yogi's approach may be said
to be spiritual. A Philosopher advances in the path of rational logic, a
Yogi advances in the path of moral and psychical self-discipline. A
Philosopher aims at a logically unassailable conception of the Absolute
Truth, a Yogi aims at a direct spiritual experience of the Absolute Truth.
A Philosopher's interest in the pursuit of the Truth is chiefly theoretical, he
being chiefly concerned with the satisfaction of the demand of his intellect;
a Yogi's interest is thoroughly practical, in as much as he is predominantly
concerned with the satisfaction of the fundamental demand of his soul. A
Philosopher does not cease to be a philosopher, even if his practical life is
not in tune with his conception of the Truth, but a Yogi ceases to be a
Yogi, if his entire life is not disciplined in strict accordance with his idea of
the Truth. The knowledge which a Philosopher attains and can possibly
attain by the most careful applications of the principles and rules of Logic
is indirect or mediate knowledge (Paroksha Jndna); while the knowledge
which a Yogi seeks and expects to attain through the purification and
refinement and illumination of his entire consciousness is direct or immedi-
ate knowledge (Aparoksha Jndna). An earnest Philosopher makes serious
attempts to purify and refine and enlighten his reason and to liberate
it from all kinds of logical fallacies and imperfections, so that it may form
the most valid and most comprehensive conception of the Absolute Truth.
An earnest Yogi undergoes a systematic course of self-discipline for the
purification of his body and senses and mind, for the suppression of his
desires and passions and worldly tendencies, for the liberation of his
thought from the bondage of all preconceived ideas and notions, for the
concentration of his attention upon the unknown but yearned-for object of
his search and for the elevation of his entire consciousness to higher spiri-
tual planes, so that the self-luminous Absolute Truth may perfectly illumine
this consciousness and directly reveal Itself to it. A Philosopher is an
aspirant for understanding the Absolute Truth by making it an object of his
refined logical conception, while a Yogi is an aspirant for realising the
Truth by elevating his consciousness to the highest spiritual plane, in which
the subject-object-relativity also vanishes and the consciousness becomes
practically one with the Absolute Truth.

A PHILOSOPHER'S METHOD

In his quest of the Absolute Truth, a Philosopher has to rely chiefly
on speculation (Yukti). He has to form theories and hypotheses and to put
them to logical tests. He has to keep one eye upon the facts of normal

human experience, which are all finite and relative, ancThe has to be careful
that the conjectural opinion he forms about the Absolute Reality may not
be inconsistent with the established facts of this world of finitude and
relativity and ,may on the other hand offer the most adequate rational
explanation for all these facts. His consciousness habitually dwells in the
plane of the finite, the temporal and the relative, and his intellect and ima-
gination, led by some inner urge, jump or fly from the finite to the infinite,
from the temporal to the eternal, from the relative to the absolute. The
Infinite Eternal Absolute, i.e., what he conceives to be the Ultimate Reality
above and beyond the limitations of space, time and relativity, remains to
his normal consciousness an unwarranted conjecture or undue assumption,
until and unless it is logically demonstrated that the essential demand of the
human intellect for a rational explanation of this world-order is not
possible without the assumption of such an Absolute Reality and that the
Reality as conceived by him is alone capable of supplying the most
adequate rational explanation of the system of facts constituting this world.
Thus a Philosopher has to take his stand on the phenomenal relative world
of normal human experience, and the Absolute Truth he arrives at by the
exercise of his imaginative insight and logical intellect is a theory, the
validity of which is measured by its necessity and adequacy for the rational
explanation of this world. The conclusion of philosophy, however well-
reasoned, cannot rise above the status of a theory (Vdda).

Another serious difficulty which arises in the path of the philosophi-
cal quest of the Absolute Truth is, that for the purpose of the intellectual
comprehension or apprehension of the Absolute, a Philosopher has to think
of It and ^define It in terms of the concepts of his under standing, of which
the legitimate scope of application is the relative phenomenal objective
world. The logical principles and methods which he has to rely upon for
the establishment of the validity of his conception about the Absolute
Reality are also primarily meant for the proof of the relative truth of our
empirical and discursive understanding. When these principles and catego-
ries are applied to the Absolute Truth, the Absolute is unconsciously
brought down within the realm of the relative.

Existent and non-existent, conscious and unconscious, active and
inactive, changeless and changing, unity and plurality, substance and
attribute, cause and effect, simple and complex, dynamic and static,
personal and impersonal all such concepts are applied by our intellect in
the field of our normal relative knowledge, and their generally accepted
meanings have reference to the relative phenomena of this objective world.
A Philosopher, while attempting to determine the nature of the Absolute
Reality and to form an intellectual conception of it, cannot help making use

of the same concepts. Confusion arises as a matter of course. He has not
unoften to radically change the meanings of these fundamental concepts of
our normal understanding. In spite of all his earnest efforts he cannot
liberate his intellect from the bondage of the elementary concepts of his
rational understanding, which are by their very nature concerned with the
world of relativity. A Philosopher has sometimes to manufacture new terms
and concepts, the exact significance of which becomes incomprehensible to
the normal understanding of a common man. He thinks of 'transcendent
existence' above and behind 'phenomenal existence,' 'transcendent activity'
as distinguished from 'phenomenal activity', 'transcendent consciousness'
above 'phenomenal consciousness', and so on. Sometimes he thinks of the
Absolute Reality as neither existent nor non-existent or as above both exis-
tence and non-existence. Sometimes he thinks of It as neither conscious
nor unconscious or as having an order of consciousness which is above
consciousness and unconsciousness of our normal experience.

Sometimes Inexplicableness or Inscrutableness is used as a category of
understanding. In this way, Philosophers find themselves compelled to
introduce many conceptions which are inconceivable to the common logical
intellect. When they try to expound and establish these metaphysical
conceptions, they have necessarily to argue on the basis of generally
accepted logical principles. They cannot defy the Principles of Identity,
Contradiction and Excluded-Middle, which are fundamental principles of
logical thought. They cannot disregard the Principles of Causation and
Sufficient Ground, which rnle over their intellect in its search for Truth in
this world. But all these principles of our common empirical thought and
understanding cannot help them to convincingly prove the validity of their
supra-logical supra-intellectual metaphysical conceptions about the Absolute
Truth. It seems that they try to prove by means of logic what is above the
sphere of logic.

A WAR OF THEORIES

The history of the philosophical quest of the Absolute Truth in the
human race shows that there have been thousands and thousands of theories
or intellectual conceptions about the nature of the Ultimate Reality, and
there has not been a single one which could satisfy the intellect of all. The
philosophical literature has been developing from the earliest times, and it
is still progressing. No philosophical view has been found to be logically
unassailable. The history of philosophy has become a history of a continu-
ous warfare on the intellectual plane among the greatest and wisest rational
truth-seekers of the world. A sincere and earnest Philosopher, even to
satisfy himself that his conception truly represents the character of the
Absolute Reality, has not only to be convinced that his theory is free from.

all possible logical fallacies and is capable of offering an adequate rational
explanation for the world-order, but has also to be convinced that no other
rival theory is or can possibly be so free from defects and can furnish such
a satisfactory explanation. He therefore feels impelled to put to test not only
his own conception, but also the conceptions arrived at by other philoso-
phers. This leads him to seek and find defects in the arguments and conclu-
sions of all other truth-seekers who differ from him and thereby to
demonstrate the exclusive validity of the conception which he himself
adopts. As Philosophers differ from one another in their modes of approach
and the conclusions they intellectually arrive at, every system of philosophy
becomes an object of attack from all sides, from the exponents of all other
systems of philosophy. This intellectual warfare amongst the Philosophers,
age after age, has been tremendously enriching the philosophical literature.
But no philosopher can have the inner assurance and satisfaction that he
has found out the Truth, that he has been blessed with the true knowledge
of the Absolute Reality. Every Philosopher is afraid, unless he becomes
dogmatic and arrogant, that the idea which he cherishes about the Supreme
Object of his life-long search may not be the correct one and that it may be
proved to be false by other philosophers. In fact, it is the fate of every
philosophical theory that it is supported with logical arguments by philoso-
phers of one school and refuted with counter- arguments by philosophers of
many other schools.

The Absolute Truth has been conceived by illustrious philosophers in
amazingly various ways, such as, Pure Void (Sunya), or Non-Being or Non-
Existence (Asat), Pure Being or Existence (Sat). Pure Transcendent
Consciousness (Cit-matra), Pure Unconscious Matter (Acit Prakriti), Pure
Primordial Energy or Power (Maha-sakti)] Pure Consciousness with Power
(Saktimatcaitanya), Creative Will, Absolute Idea, Absolute Spirit, Supreme
Personality (Parama Purusha) with infinite Power and Wisdom, Morally and
Aesthetically Perfect Personality (possessing not only infinite power and
wisdom and bliss, but also the most lovable and adorable excellences),
Satya-Siva-Sundara PurushottamaPremdnandaghana Parameswara, and so
on and so forth. The world of phenomenal diversities is conceived by some
as an illusory appearance, by others as self-manifestation of the Ultimate
Reality, by others again as created by the Ultimate Reality, by others again
as the Sole Reality having no noumenal Reality behind it, and so on. The
finite spirits are conceived by some as uncreated and eternal and by others
as created and destructible, by some as atomic in nature, and by others as
all-pervading, by some as different from the Ultimate Reality and by some
as essentially non-different from the Ultimate Reality, by some as essenti-
ally pure and free and incorruptible and by others as subject to degradation
and development, by some as essentially different from and independent of

the physical bodies and by others as evolved out of them, and so on. The
Ultimate Ideal of human life is also variously conceived by various philoso-
phers. There seems to be no end of differences among the views of philoso-
phers, (Nasau munlr yasya mat am na bhinnam). Each view is splendidly
supported by its exponents with strong and elaborate logical arguments,
which carry conviction to certain classes of truth -seekers.

Every strongly supported view has given birth to a patricular school
of philosophy. But it seems that every strong logical argument has its weak
points. Critics discover these weak points in the arguments of a philosophical
school and lay special emphasis upon them to repudiate the whole system
propounded by it. Thus every system of philosophy is ably supported by its
advocates and most cruelly refuted by its opponents. If a particular view is
found to be satisfactory to one class of truth- seekers, it is proved to be
unacceptable by many classes of truth-seekers. Every apparently well-
reasoned theory about the Ultimate Truth is thus reduced merely into
a particular view-point from which the Truth is sought to be approached,
and no theory can evidently reach It. The intellectual path adopted by a
Philosopher fails to lead him to the realisation of the Absolute Truth, for
which he feels within himself a persistent demand.

THE PATH OF YOGA

A good many philosophers, having realised the inherent weakness of
the method of logical reasoning and intellectual theorising as a means to the
perfect satisfaction of the innermost demand of the soul for the attainment
of the Absolute Truth, have turned towards the method of spiritual self-
discipline. One great Western philosopher has said that "Learned ignorance
is the end of philosophy and the beginning of religion". Religion here does
not of course mean blind submission to any particular dogma or creed or
performance of certain prescribed rites and ceremonies; but it means syste-
matic discipline of the body, the senses, the mind, the intellect and the
heart, under expert guidance, for the purification and refinement of the
entire being of a man and the elevation of the empirical consciousness to
higher and higher spiritual planes, so as ultimately to make it fit for being
perfectly illumined by the light of the Absolute Truth. This is the path of
Yoga. The most illustrious philosopher of ancient Greece, who was pro-
claimed by the Oracle of Delphi as the wisest man of the age, gravely said
that his wisdom perhaps lay in the fact that "I know that I know nothing".
This great Guru of many great philosophers frankly confessed that with all
his philosophical reflections he could not reach the Ultimate Truth which
his heart craved for.

The terra Philosophy itself is very significant in this connection; it

carries the sense of its own inherent limitation with it. It means love of
wisdom, and not the perfect attainment of wisdom. It implies sincere and
earnest pursuit of Truth, and not the direct realisation of Truth. A Philoso-
pher, so long as he relies solely upon logical reasoning and intellectual
argumentation, may continually advance towards the Truth with all the
earnestness of his heart, but will never reach it. In his very attempt to
make the Absolute Truth an object of his logical conception and intellectual
comprehension, the Absolute Truth eludes his grasp. He always searches
and misses. His Eternal Beloved never unveils Himself to his logical
intellect. He has to transcend his logical intellect in order to be united with
the Transcendent Truth. His consciousness has to rise above the domain of
Space, Time and Relativity in order to be in the closest embrace of the
Infinite Eternal Absolute Truth. This is the path of True Religion. This is
the path of Yoga.

After a good deal of deep thinking, the Upanishadic Rivhi also came
to the conclusion that Atmd is not attainable by means of philosophical
dissertation (pravacana) or intellectual acumen (medha) or extensive study
(vahu sruta); It is attainable only by him to whom It reveals itself (Yameva
esha brinute tena labhyah). A truth-seeker has however to make his con-
sciousness fit for the self-relevation of Alma. It does not reveal itself to the
consciousness of a person, howsoever intellectually gifted he may be, unless
he is free from all vices and evil propensities, unless his mind is pure and
steady and calm and tranquil, unless his entire consciousness is with intense
longing directed towards the Divine Light. So long as the sense of Ego
predominates in the consciousness of a person, so long as he thinks that by
dint of his own intellectual power he will unveil the true nature of Ittna,
the veil will remain in the form of his egoistic vanity. For the attainment
of fitness for the self-revelation of Atmd, the consciousness must be freed
from the sense of Ego as well as all egoistic desires and attachments and
inclinations of the mind. It is upon moral and spiritual self-preparation of
the truth-seeker that fitness for Truth-realisation depends. This means the
systematic practice of Yoga. This is the conclusion at which the Upanishadic
Rishi arrived.

It is to be noted that by the term Atmd the Rishi meant the True Self
of all existences the True Self of every individual as well as of tbe
Universe -i.e., the Absolute Truth. The Upanishadic Rishi uses the term
Brahma also in the same sense. Though the term Atmd primarily means the
True Self of an individual and the term Brahma means the Supreme, the
Greatest, the Infinite and Eternal, i.e., the True Self of the Universe,
the essential identity of the True Self of the Individual and the True Self of
the Universe was revealed to the illumined consciousness of the Rishii hence

8

Atmd and Brahma are often used synonymously in the Upanishads, meaning
the Absolute Truth. The Seers of the Upanishads have sometimes described
all the Vedas and Veddngas, and as a matter of fact all intellectual know-
ledge, as Avidyd (Ignorance) or Apard Vidyd (Lower knowledge). Para
Vidyd (True knowledge) is that by which the Absolute Truth is directly
realised (Yayd tad aksharam adhigamyate) . This Para-Vidyd is Yoga-Vidyd
the spiritual approach to the Absolute Truth,

The Vedanta-Darsan, which is the most widely accepted philosophi-
cal system of India, and in fact almost all the principal philosophical
systems of India, frankly confessed that the method of logical argumenta-
tion was incapable of independently leading a truth-seeker to the final
Truth (Tarka-apratisthdndt). They all practically admitted that there could
be no such logical argument as could not be refuted by counter-arguments.
They therefore had to accept the spiritual experiences of enlightened seers
(Agama or Iptavacana or Srutis) as much more reliable evidence with
regard to the nature of the Ultimate Truth. Many great sages spoke of the
Ultimate Truth as beyond the range of thought and speech (Avdng-manasa-
gocaram), and they warned the truth-seekers against the application of
logical categories for the ascertainment of the character of transcendental
realities (Acintydh khalu ye bhdvd na tan tarkena yojayet). They advised the
earnest seekers of Truth to have faith in the spiritual experiences of enligh-
tened saints and to practically follow their instructions for the personal
realisation of the Same.

Philosophers, while expounding their particular views about the
Ultimate Truth, often cite as evidence the spiritual experiences of
universally adored saints and make them the bases of their logical argumen-
tation. But, in doing so, they have necessarily to rely upon the verbal
expressions given by the saints of their inner spiritual experiences, which are
according to their own confessions beyond the scope of verbal expressions
and logical argumentations. Naturally, the advocates of different systems of
philosophy put different interpretations to these verbal expressions and try
to strengthen their own views with their help. The Vedantic System
of Philosophy has been divided into a number of separate philosophical
sub-systems, holding separate views with regard to the nature of the
Ultimate Reality and strongly refuting each other's conceptions and
arguments, though they are all based upon the sayings of the Upanishads
and the Bhagavat-Gitd, which all of them believe to be the verbal embodi-
ments of the Truth of the supra-intellectual spiritual plane. Each of them
tries to establish logically that its own interpretation of the sayings is the
only correct one and that the interpretations given by other schools are
wrong. Similarly, the Buddhist philosophers became divided into different

schools, though they all claimed to expound rationally the spiritual
experiences of Lord Buddha, as expressed in his words. This has been the
fate of all earnest attempts at the philosophical interpretations of the spiri-
tual experiences of enlightened saints. Logical argumentations almost
invariably lead to differences of views.

The path of Yoga does not require any such intellectual speculation.
It does not necessitate the framing of hypotheses and theories and their
testing by logical argumentations. A truth-seeker in this path is not
involved in academic controversies with the advocates of divergent philoso-
phical views. He is not interested in the logical establishment of any
particular theory or dogma, and hence he does not feel impelled to refute
the rival theories or dogmas upheld by other schools of thinkers. His aim is
not to acquire an objective knowledge of the Absolute Truth and to form a
logically valid intellectual conception of the supra-logical supra-intellectual
Reality. He aims at the direct spiritual experience of the Truth on a supra-
logical supra-intellectual plane of consciousness. He advances in his path
with an indomitable faith in the possibility of such experience. He does not
create confusion in his mind by an attempt at an intellectual ascertainment
of the nature of such experience, which is expected to be attained in the
supra-intellectual plane, or of the possibility of any such transcendent
experience.

It is as a matter of course impossible to demonstrate in any lower
plane of existence and consciousness what is or is not possible in the higher
and higher planes of existence and consciousness. What may be quite
natural in a higher plane of existence and consciousness would appear
unnatural or supernatural or logically untenable in a lower plane. A child
cannot form any idea of the aesthetic and emotional experiences which are
most natural to young men and women, though the objects stimulating
such experiences may be present before the eyes of the child. A person,
whose artistic faculty is not sufficiently developed, fails to appreciate and
enjoy the beauty of a sweet song or a nice poem or a fine picture, though
these may be the spontaneous expressions of the inner sentiments of a
musician or a poet or a painter. Similarly, the nature of the direct inner
experiences of an enlightened Yogi cannot be an object of intellectual
conception to any person, whose consciousness has not been sufficiently
refined and has not ascended to the higher spiritual plane through the
systematic practice of Yoga. Even an enlightened Yogi himself fails to give
an accurate linguistic expression to his deeper spiritual experiences. He can
guide a Truth-seeker in the path of advancement towards his truthful and
blissful experiences, but he cannot give him a correct idea of his own
experience of Truth by means of language or prove to him the possibility of
such Truth-realisation by means of logical reasoning.

to

The Yogi's method of search for the Absolute Truth is based on the
idea that though the Absolute Truth may not be an object of intellec-
tual comprehension and logical reasoning, It unveils Itself to the human
consciousness, when this consciousness is adequately purified and refined
and concentrated and thus becomes perfectly free from the impediments in
the way of the self-revelation of the Truth to it. A Yogi, therefore, instead
of making futile attempts to form a perfect logical conception of the nature
of the Absolute in the lower empirical planes of his consciousness, directs
his attention and energy to the progressive purification, refinement and
concentration of his empirical consciousness and its elevation to higher and
higher spiritual planes, until the supreme transcendent plane is reached, in
which the veil between the Ultimate Truth and the consciousness vanishes
altogether and the consciousness is absolutely united with the Truth.

In the normal nature of a man, his empirical consciousness is related
to and conditioned by his physical body, his senses and nervous system and
brain, his mind and intellect and heart and his individual ego. All these
together constitute the embodiment of his self-conscious soul. The soul
appears to be imprisoned in this complex psycho-physical embodiment.
A man's perceptions and inferences, imaginations and reasonings, feelings
and sentiments, desires and aspirations, thoughts and ideas, are all condi-
tioned and determined by the characters and limitations of this embodi-
ment. Hence they are all confined within the world of finitude and rela-
tivity. A man, however, feels within his innermost consciousness, a per-
sistent urge for transcending all limitations and bondages of this psycho-
physical organism and attaining and enjoying the Absolute Truth, the
Absolute Beauty, the Absolute Goodness, the Absolute Bliss of which,
under his normal conditions, he cannot even form any positive conception.
It is this inner urge of his soul which does not allow him to get permanent
satisfaction from any achievement, however glorious, in this world of
finite transient relative phenomena, and always prompts him to seek for
more and more. Tatah kirn, tatah him what after this, what after this? It
is this inherent spiritual urge of his innermost consciousness which assures
him (though not in an argumentative way) of the possibility of the
apparently natural limitations of his psycho-physical embodiment being
transcended by him by means of some appropriate form of self-discipline,
and of the Absolute Truth-Beauty-Goodness-Bliss, which his soul craves
for, being directly realised.

With the ultimate object of the attainment of this supreme spiritual
experience, a Yogi devotes himself to the practice of such courses of self-
discipline as may free his consciousness from the limitations which the
psycho-physical embodiment imposes upon it. He holds before himself as
the practical object of his pursuit an ideal state of his own consciousness,

11

perfectly free from all impurities and distractions and doubts and perplexi-
ties, perfectly free from all desires and attachments and passions and pro-
pensities, perfectly free from all argumentative thought and preconceived
notions, perfectly free from the sense of individual ego and the sense of
distinction between the subject and the object, the internal and the external,
the self and the not-self. It is in such a perfectly pure and refined, calm
and tranquil, desireless and thoughtless, egoless and subject-object-less,
transcendent state of the consciousness that the Absolute Truth-Beauty-
Goodness-Bliss is expected to unconditionally reveal Itself, not as an
object of the consciousness, but as the true Soul or Essence of the
consciousness. The consciousness is in that state perfectly illumined by
this Soul, and no difference exists between the consciousness and the
Absolute Soul of all existences and experiences. In that transcendent
experience no time or space exists, no relativity or causality exists, no
distinction between Truth and Beauty and Goodness and Bliss exists. It is
one absolute integrated experience, which cannot be described in terms of
the analytical and synthetical categories of our normal intellectual
understanding. The experience carries its certitude within itself, and it
does not require any extraneous proof. Logical reasoning can neither deny
its possibility, nor furnish any proof of its validity. But a Yogi, who is
blessed with this experience, is free from all doubts. His yearning for the
Absolute is perfectly satisfied. An earnest aspirant for Truth-realisation
advances in the path of Yoga under the guidance of such a Truth-realiser
with, faith and perseverance.

In the Yoga-Sastras, this transcendent state of the consciousness is
called Samadhi. The whole course of self-discipline in the path of Yoga is
directed towards the attainment of this Samadhi, in which alone the direct
and perfect experience of the Absolute Reality is possible. Samadhi is a
thoroughly practicable ideal. Every step of progress in the direction of
the realisation of this ideal can be practically tested and verified. Hence
Yoga is regarded as the most practical path to the realisation of the ulti-
mate Ideal of human life. As Bhisma says in the Mahabharat Direct ex-
perience is the basis of Yoga (Pratyaksha-hetavo yogdh). Samadhi is not a
static condition of the consciousness. There are higher and higher stages
of Samadhi, and in each higher stage there is a deeper realisation of Truth.

THE NATURE OF SAMADHI-EXPERIENCE

The experience which is attained in the highest state of Samadhi
cannot be regarded either as purely subjective experience or as objective
experience or as negation of experience. It is not of the nature of
subjective experience like that in the dream-state of consciousness or in the
state of reverie or imagination or illusion or hallucination, in which the

12

experiencing subject projects itself as the objects of experience under the
influence of some internal or external stimulation. Such experiences are
not accepted as forms of valid knowledge. They occur only in the impure
and restless states of the empirical consciousness. In them, there is no
correspondence between the objects pf experience and the actual realities.
In the Samadhi state, the consciousness is pure and calm and tranquil, free
from the influences of all external and internal stimuli. In it there is no
room for imagination or error or self-projection. In it there is no function-
ing of the mind or the intellect. The sense of the ego as the experiencing
subject disappears, and hence this also does not condition the experience
and make it an affair of a particular egoistic mind. In the deepest Samadhi,
what is experienced does not appear as an object of experience, as distinct
from and related to the experiencing subject. The individual consciousness
ascends in that state to the transcendent universal plane, and the Reality as
experienced in this plane cannot be merely a subjective reality real to a
particular individual and unreal to others. Every individual consciousness
that rises to this plane should be blessed with the same transcendent
experience. Hence the Reality as revealed in the highest state of Samadhi
must be recognised as the Absolute Reality.

It is also clear that Samadhi- experience is not of the nature of objective
experience like that of the normal waking- state of the consciousness,
in which the experience is conditioned by the natural limitation of the
psycho-physical embodiment, and in which the objects of experience are as
a matter of course finite relative phenomenal realities. In the state of
Samadhi, the consciousness, though not unrelated to the psycho -physical
organism, transcends its i imitations, rises above the plane of finite egohood
and the relativity of subject and object and becomes perfectly pure and
tranquil and refined and illumined. The Reality revealed in the experience
of this transcendent consciousness does not appear as a phenomenal object,
distinct from the experiencing subject, but as one with it.

It may be questioned whether there is any real experience at all in
this Samadhi-state of the consciousness. From the standpoint of the plane
of our normal objective and subjective experiences, the question is not
irrelevant. How can ' there be any real experience in the state in which
there is no distinction and mutual relation between the subject and the
object, the experiencer and the experienced? Can it be called any real
experience, if only pure consciousness exists and nothing is present before
it as its object? No only that. It may also be questioned if conscious-
ness can at all exist as consciousness, when there is neither any subjective
experience nor any objective experience in it. How can consciousness exist
without any functions or phenomena of consciousness? May not what is
Called Somftftf-state be really the suicide of the consciousness? Or, may it

13

not be a state analogous to the state of deep sleep (sushupati) or swoon
(moorchha), in which there is no real experience, in which the consciousness
is in a state of absolute ignorance, in which it is ignorant of the psycho-
physical embodiment, ignorant of the objective world, and even ignorant
of its own existence ? May not the Samadhi state be a state of absolute
ignorance or an absolutely unconscious state?

Such doubts may naturally arise in the fickle minds and speculative
intellects of those who had never got the beatific experience of the Samadhi
state. The enlightened Yogi, whose consciousness has risen to the highest
spiritual plane and had an actual taste of this state, is free from all such
doubts. To him this state of Samadhi is not a vacant state, but a state of
fulness, not a state of darkness, but a state of perfect illumination, which is
never experienced by the mind in the normal conditions. In this state, the
consciousness does not commit suicide, it is not reduced into a state of
unconsciousness or absolute ignorance; but it elevates itself into a state of
absolute knowledge (purnagnana or kevalagMna), in which the knower and
the knowable become perfectly united with each other, in which no
difference remains between the Reality and the Consciousness and nothing
more remains to be known, in which the entire universe of the apparent
plurality of existences unveils its essential spiritual unity to the consciousness
as well as its identity with the consciousness itself. The all-unifying truth-
revealing transcendent experience of the highest spiritual plane of the
consciousness, though indescribable and even inconceivable in terms of the
normal objective and subjective experiences, is to the Yogi the most real
experience.

Normally, we live and move and have our being in a world of
plurality a world of differences and inter-relations. Differences among
the various kinds of realities appear to be fundamental, and at the same
time mutual relations among them also appear as inherent in their very
nature. Spirit and matter are, so far as our normal experience goes,
essentially different from each other; neither can be proved to be the cause
or the effect of the other. But the inter-relation between them is so rooted
in their nature, that we cannot even form any definite conception of the
one except in relation to the other. In the world of living beings, matter
constitutes the embodiment of the spirit and the spirit is the soul of the
material body. We conceive matter as unconscious and inanimate and inert
and it cannot by itself be conscious and living and moving; it is the
conscious spirit which, entering into every particle of matter, converts it into
a living and moving and self-organising conscious body, and it is this body
which becomes the medium and instrument of all self-expressions of the spirit.
What we experience as inorganic material things are also what they are as
objects of experiences of the conscious spirit; apart from relation to the

14

conscious subject, i.e. the spirit, they seem to have no characters they are
as good as nothing. The spirit also appears to be contentless and
characterless, except in relation to the material body and material objects.
Thus, in our normal experience, spirit and matter are essentially distinct
as well as essentially related.

Again, in this world of plurality of our normal experience, spirits
appear to be innumerable and essentially distinct from one another;
different spirits are embodied in and conditioned by different psycho-
physical organisms, having different kinds of experiences and different
kinds of hopes and aspirations. But inter-communications and inter-
dependences among them are also quite obvious. Similarly, the elementary
material things which constitute the objective material world appear to be
essentially different from one another; but they are all inter-related.

It is the plurality of inter-related phenomenal realities which constitute
the contents of our normal experience and knowledge. Our empirical
consciousness cannot transcend this plurality. But, there is always a feeling
in the depth of our consciouness that this knowledge is not perfect. It
mysteriously feels within itself that there must be some underlying Unity,
holding together the plurality, harmonising and unifying all the phenomenal
diversities, and that that Unity must be the real Truth of the plurality.

It is the inherent demand of the consciousness for the discovery of
One Absolute Reality as the Ultimate Truth of the inter-related plurality of
existences, that is at the root of all sciences and philosophy. Every science
makes serious efforts through the methods of keen and careful observation
and experiment as well as logical reasoning and theorising to discover some
principle of Unity behind the plurality of phenomena within the scope of
its investigation. The ambition of every philosophical system is to
discover some Unity as the Truth of all existences. Since their methods of
approach are inherently incapable of giving any sure knowledge of this
Unity, they invariably fail to reach their goal. Whatever theories they may
form, they can never grasp the Unity of Spirit and Matter, the unity of the
conscious subject and the Objective Universe, the Unity of the knower and
the knowable. The knowledge which is attainable through the scientific and
philosophical methods is phenomenal and objective knowledge; while the
Unity that underlies and unifies all kinds of phenomena of the past, the
present and the future and is the Infinite and Eternal Ground of all cannot
be a phenomenal reality and cannot therefore be an object of scientific or
philosophical knowledge. The Reality, which is the Supreme Ground of
the relations among all conscious subjects and all objects of consciousness,
cannot itself appear as a particular object of the empirical consciousness of
a particular knowing subject. Thus the Ultimate Unity of all existences,

15

for which there is an inherent demand of the consciousness, remains beyond
the reach of all scientific and philosophical knowledge.

The Samadhi experience of an enlightened Yogi at the highest spiritual
plane of the consciousness is the direct knowledge of this Unity of all
existences. It is distinct from all scientific and philosophical knowledge. It
is distinct from knowledge of sense-perception and inference and logical
reasoning. In it the consciousness transcends the difference between Spirit
and Matter, the difference between the Subject and the Object, between the
Internal and the External, between the One and the Many. In it the
consciousness becomes perfectly one with the Truth of all existences. The
inherent demand of the consciousness for the Absolute Truth is in this
experience perfectly satisfied. It is transcendent experience.

A Yogi who is blessed with this spiritual experience in the state of
Samadhi has not merely the intellectual satisfaction of having discovered
the Ultimate Truth, but also attains the perfect satisfation of the fulfilment
of life. He becomes free from all sorts of bondage and sorrow, from all
kinds of weakness and infirmity, from all senses of imperfections and
limitations. Having in the transcendent plane of his consciousness
experienced the perfect character of his innermost Self and its identity with
the Infinite Eternal Self of the Universe, he becomes free from all fears, all
cares and anxieties, all attractions for and attachments to, as well as all
disgusts against and repugnance to the 'finite and transitory things of the
world. What he feels is so described by the illustrious commentator of the
Yoga Sutras: ~

Jnatam jnatavyam, praptam prapaniyam, kshindh ksheiavya klesah,
karma-bandhanani sithilani.

What is worth knowing has been known, what is worth getting has
been got, all the Klesas (imperfections) which are fit to be destroyed have
been destroyed, all the bondages of Karma (actions virtues and vices)
have become infructuous. The Yoga-Sutras enumerate five kinds of
Klesas i.e. fundamental imperfections and sources of sorrows and bondages,
viz., Avidya (ignorance or false knowledge), Asmita (egohood I-am-ness)
Raga (attachment), Dvesha (aversion) and Abhinivesa (lust of life and the
consequent fear of death). It is these which determine all our worldly
activities, virtuous as well as vicious; and it is these which place us under
subjection to the Law of Karma and compel us to reap the pleasurable and
painful fruits of our actions in repeated births and in various forms of
living existence. All these Klesas, to which our consciousness is subject in
the normal planes, and by which all our actions as well as enjoyments and
sufferings in the worldly life are determined, are destroyed, when the

16

consciousness is illumined by the Transcendent Experience. An enlightened
Yogi thus attains perfect freedom from all bondages of individual life.
This is called Mukti or Moksha. In his enlightened experience, he virtually
ceases to be a finite individual and the world also ceases to exist as a
reality external to him. The lamp of his life as a finite changing mortal
individual is extinguished. This is therefore spoken of as Nirvana. The
individual then attains the character of the Absolute the one without a
second. He is therefore said to attain Kaivalya.

ENLIGHTENING INFLUENCE OF SAMADHI-EXPERIENCE UPON
NORMAL LIFE

The individual psycho-physical life of a Yogi does not however end
with the experience of Kaivalya or Nirvana or Moksha. The conscious-
ness again comes down from the transcendent plane to the normal plane,
from the state of Samadhi to the state of Vyutthdna (the normal waking
state), from the perfectly illumined state to the state of conditioned
knowledge. The enlightened Yogi again becomes conscious of himself as
an embodied being, conscious of the objective world of plurality as
external to himself. His knowledge of the world as well as of himself is
again conditioned by his senses, mind, intellect and ego. He again
apparently becomes one of innumerable finite individuals of the world.

Though outwardly he appears to become the same individual as he
had been before the attainment of the Transcendent Experience of the
Samadhi-siate, yet inwardly this is not the case. The Truth-experience
which illumines his consciouness in the supramental supra-intellectual
supra-egoistic transcendent state exercises a great enlightening influence
upon his normal mind and intellect and ego. His entire outlook on him-
self, his fellow-beings and the world of inter-related diversities undergoes
a radical transformation as the result of that experience. Before he Was
blessed with that experience, the Spiritual Unity of all existences had been
veiled from his empirical consciousness. He used to see the plurality as
plurality, but he had not the eyes to see the Unity that shone in and
through them. The Absolute One, that manifests Itself in the diverse
forms of relative plurality, that sustains their existence, regulates their
movements, links them with one another and constitutes them into a
magnificent cosmic order, had been concealed from his view, though he
had felt a deep craving within his consciousness for having a glimpse of
that Absolute One. Now, that Absolute One has revealed Itself to his
consciousness; the veil has been removed; the consciousness has been illu-
mined. This illumination is transmitted to the intellect, the ego and the mind
and even to the senses. They do not now experience merely what they
used to experience before the illumination descended upon them, but

17

also the Absolute One along with and as the real essence of the objects
of their normal experience. The ego now feels the Absolute One as its
True Self and feels itself as an individualised self-expression of the
Absolute One. The intellect now no longer theorises, but finds in the
Absolute One the ultimate rational explanation of all the problems that
may appear before it. All the thoughts, feelings and volitions of the
illumined mind now revolve round the Absolute One as the centre. All
the diverse kinds of objects of sense-perception are experiences as diversi-
fied appearances or manifestations of the One.

In the transcendent experience of the Samadhi-state, the objective
world of plurality and the experiencing ego are both completely merged in
one Absolute Consciousness (or Super-consciousness), which is the
Absolute Truth or Reality of both; while in the enlightened experience of
the Yogi in the normal plane of his empirical consciousness the ego and
the objective world of plurality are both present, both appear as
pervaded by the One, as having their being in the One, as the two-fold
manifestations of the One. The One being the Truth of both, the Yogi
sees himself in all and all in himself. He looks upon all the diversities
from the standpoint of Unity; he sees the Infinite in the finite, the Eternal
in the temporal, the Changeless in all changes, and the spirit in all material
things. He thinks and feels all as essentially non-different from himself,
and hence he loves all and hates and fears none.

In the Samddhi-experience, a Yogi transcends time and space. The
beginningless and endless flow of time is in this ultimate Truth-experience
merged in one changeless Eternity. The boundless space is also merged
in one differenceless Infinity. In the enlightened normal experience, the
Yogi sees the timeless Eternity manifested in the flow of time, the
extensionless Infinity pervading all parts of space. In the SawaJ/H-state, his
senses, mind and intellect are all functionless; they do not condition and
diversify the experiences of the consciousness. He then does not
perceive any external objects; he does not feel any pleasure or pain, any
hunger or thirst, any affection or compassion, any duty or obligation; he
has no process of thinking, no conception or judgment or reasoning; at
that stage, he has no behaviour at all. His consciousness then shines in
its unconditioned undifferentiated unveiled fulness, in which the Reality
and the consciousness are one. When the Yogi comes down to the normal
plane with the memory or illumination of his transcendent experience,
his senses, mind and intellect perform their normal functions, but with
some new enlightenment. His senses appear to perceive some super-
sensuous Reality behind the ordinary objects of perception; his mind,
even in course of its normal operations, seems to dwell in some supra-
mental plane, and an attitude of unconcern and disinterestedness towards

18

all affairs of the world prevails in his mind under all circumstances. He
remains under all conditions free from cares and anxieties, desires and
attachments, confusions and perplexities. All his intellectual thinking also
appears to have as its centre the Truth of the super-intellectual experience.

An enlightened Yogi in his normal life lives and moves in the domain
of the senses, the mind and the intellect, but has his inner being in the
peaceful and blissful realm of the super-sensuous super-mental super-
intellectual Reality. As the result of systematic discipline, his body,
senses, mental functions and intellectual reflections are of course much
more refined and tranquillized than those of ordinary men whose lives
are almost wholly governed by worldly interests and worldly forces. Not
only that. By means of appropriate Yogic practices, he often acquires
such extraordinary powers and visions even with regard to the relative
realities of the world as appear miraculous and superhuman to others.
He acquires the powers of seeing and hearing things beyond the range
of normal occular and auditory perceptions and of seeing without eyes and
hearing without ears. He acquires the powers of knowing the events of
the past and the future just as those of the present. He acquires the
powers of entering into the minds of others and reading their thoughts
and feelings and often exercising control over them. He may acquire
the power of making his gross material body lighter than air and rising
high up in the air and moving to distant places by the aerial path.
He can often make his body invisible to the people present before him
and can make his way through thick walls. He can acquire the power
of assuming many bodies at the same time, making himself visible to
people of different places and performing different actions with the
different bodies. He may acquire the power of exerting control over the
forces of nature and of transforming one natural thing into another. He
may acquire the power of creating new things by the mere exercise of
his will and of changing the natural characters of things; and so on, and
so forth. According to the Yoga-Sastras, an enlightened Yogi may
develop in himself even the power of creating a new world. Truly
enlightened Yogis seldom make any display of their Yogic powers, which
appear miraculous or superhuman to ordinary people. But, some Yogi
teachers give occasional expressions of their minor occult powers, perhaps
in order to demonstrate to the self-diffident people of the world what
great powers lie hidden and dormant in them and to inspire them with
the faith that they also can become masters of the forces of nature, if
they undergo a systematic course of self-discipline under expert guidance
in the path of Yoga and thereby become masters of themselves,

Although in the plane of transcendent spiritual experience no
difference exists between one Yogi and another, nevertheless when enligh-

19

tened Yogis come down to the normal planes of practical life, their
behaviours are often found to be different. These differences are
generally due to the natural differences of their psycho-physical embodi-
ments, their habits and modes of training in the pre-enlightenment
period, as well as their environmental conditions. Different Yogis are
found to have temperamental differences. Some Yogis are found to
cut off all connections with the affairs of the external world and to
pass their time in solitude in a constantly meditative mood and in
continuous enjoyment of the bliss of &*//*&//- experience. They seldom
allow their consciousness to come down to the lower planes. Other
enlightened Yogis are moved by love and compassion for the people of the
world, whom they see suffering various kinds of sorrows on account of
their ignorance of the Eternal Truth and their hankering for and attach-
ment to the petty transitory things of this earth. They come in close
contact with these people and adopt various means to give them True
Light and emancipate them from sorrows and bondages. Inwardly, they
also dwell in the plane of the Infinite and Eternal; but outwardly love and
compassion make them active. It is these Yogis who become Gums or
spiritual guides in the society. It is through them that spiritual light
comes down to the people of the world and awakens in their consciousness
the yearning for the Infinite Eternal Absolute Reality, which otherwise
remains dormant in it.

The enlightened Yogis, who look upon all human beings and all the
affairs of the world from the spiritual point of view and move among the
the people on account of their deep-seated love and compassion for them,
have in all ages been the true teachers of humanity and the true leaders of
culture and civilization. It is from their lives and teachings that the people
living and moving normally in the physical, vital, sensuous, mental and
intellectual planes, get glimpses of the Supreme Truth underlying and
pervading and transcending the world of ordinary experience and some
ideas about the Highest Ideal of their lives. It is these saints who present
before their fellow-beings the noblest ideals of their intellectual pursuits
and social activities, the highest standards of values, the deepest meanings
of life and its aspirations, the innermost significance of the wonderful
order and harmony in all the departments of this most complicated cosmic
process. They are the permanent sources of inspiration to men and
women of all grades of the society.

The ideas of Universal Brotherhood, Universal Love and Sympathy,
Equality of all men, Sacredness of the lives of all creatures, Inherent
Right to Liberty and Justice of all people, Respect for Truth for Truth's
sake, Selfless and Disinterested Service to all fellow-beings, Unity of
mankind and Unity of the world-order, all such lofty ideas, which have

20

been pushing mankind to higher and higher types of civilization, have
been obtained from enlightened Yogis, who have been instilling these
ideas into the minds and hearts of the people from time immemorial.
All the noblest and most dynamic ideas, which have been progressively
refining the human civilization, have been based upon the spiritual
experiences of enlightened Saints, who have been preaching them in all
parts of this earth for hundreds of years. It is from them that the
people learn that the cultivation of their social virtues and their sense of
duty and obligation should not be confined within certain territorial
boundaries or within certain racial or communal or national limits. We
learn from them that our morality does not become truly human morality,
until and unless it transcends the narrow domestic and communal and
racial and national limits and recognises the entire mankind as one grand
and beautiful family, and that our religion does not become truly spiritual
religion, until and unless it rises above all sectarian and communal exclu-
siveness and bigotry and dogmatism and fanaticism and inspires us to
feel in our heart of hearts the unity of all men and all creatures. It is
these saints who have taught the human society to value self-control as
superior to self-gratification, self-sacrifice as superior to self-aggrandise-
ment, self-conquest as superior to the conquest of other people, spiritual
self-fulfilment as superior to materalistic advancement, all-embracing love
as superior to all- vanquishing brute-force, renunciation of all earthly goods
for the sake of the eternal good of the soul as superior to ambition for and
attainment of even the greatest possible power and prosperity and pleasure
in this physical world. The examples they set up through their own
character and conduct and the precepts they preach by words of mouth
elevate the sense of dignity of man to a higher spiritual level, awaken in
man the consciousness of his inner spiritual possibilities and of the true
seat of his glory as the crown of the creation, and practically lead him in
the path of his perfect self-realisation. These Yogis are the true makers
of civilization.

When a Yogi, out of deep sympathy and compassion for the ignorant
and distressed people of the world, feels prompted to assume the role of a
public teacher and preacher, he is required to give expression to his inner
experiences in such intellectual and emotional forms as may be easily
intelligible and appealing to those people of the lower planes. Knowing
fully well that the truth of the higher planes of spiritual experience cannot
be adequately expressed in the language and concepts of the lower planes,
he takes the help of various kinds of figures of speech, poetic imageries,
suggestive parables, imperfect analogies, mystic formulas, inspiring
exhortations, etc., in order to awaken the deeper consciousness of the
people and to raise their thoughts: and imaginations forcefully to the higher

21

planes. The instructions of an enlightened Yogi, coming out of his heart
with the force of his inner experience, carry conviction to the hearts of the
listeners and often bring about a radical change in their outlook and mode
of thought. Sometimes a Yogi does not require any word of mouth or
movement of limbs for the purpose of exercising his spiritual influence
upon the minds and hearts of people; his presence is enough. His very
presence as a living embodiment of Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Love and
Bliss, exerts a mysterious influence upon the consciousness of those who
come to learn from him, and even upon the cultural atmosphere of the
society in which he lives.

But usually the enlightened Yogis, who compassionately undertake
the work of bringing down spiritual light to the people of the
Society suffering from ignorance and earthly desires and attachments,
adopt the usual means of imparting true knowledge to them. Though
inwardly dwelling in the supra-mental supra-intellecual spiritual plane, they
practically adjust their modes of teaching and preaching to the mental and
intellectual and even the social and physical needs of the people whom
they want to serve. While in their teaching life, they primarily concern
themselves with inspiring the people with spiritual ideas and ideals on the
basis of their deeper experiences, they often attempt to bridge over the
chasm between the practical experiences and intellectual conceptions of the
ordinary people and their own spiritual realisations in the higher planes of
consciousness, by means of suitable logical arguments and philosophical
speculations which may appeal to the intellects and imaginations of those
people. Thus the Yogis convert themselves into Philosophers to suit the
purpose of their teaching.

Very few among the truly enlightened Yogi teachers built up any
regular system of philosophy. They usually give suggestive hints with
regard to the Ultimate Truth, which they have realised in the plane of
transcendent consciousness and which they instruct the truth-seekers to
realise themselves by means of proper self-discipline, and they teach them
the path in which they should proceed. Systems of philosophy are
generally built up by their disciples and admirers who dwell in the
intellectual plane, on the basis of the inspiring formulas and aphorisms
uttered by those adorable teachers. Even those enlightened Yogis who
happen to present a system of philosophy to the intellectualist truth-seekers
do not lay undue emphasis upon the concepts in terms of which they
describe the Ultimate Truth and the logical arguments leading to these
concepts. To them all such intellectual concepts are necessarily imperfect
expressions of the Ultimate Truth realised in the supra-intellectual plane
of the consciousness and no logical arguments can possibly lead to that
Supreme Truth. Nevertheless they recognise the value of philosophy as*a

22

mode of search for the Truth and as a mode of discipline of the mind and
the intellect. The mind and the intellect are greatly purified and refined
and emancipated from irrational ideas and superstitious beliefs and earth-
bound dispositions through a regular course of philosophical discipline.
The systematic study of philosophy under the guidance of enlightened
teachers can very well raise a sincere and earnest Truth-seeker from the
physical, vital, sensuous and mental planes to the plane of refined intellect
and lead him very near to the realisation of the Ultimate Truth. The
enlightened Yogi-teachers therefore encourage their intellectualist disciples
and truth-seekers to take to the systematic study of philosophy with an
unbiassed mind as a very suitable method of self-discipline and self-
enlightenment. They accordingly sometimes present before them a system
of philosophy for the proper regulation of their reasoning faculty and their
mode of approach to Truth. These Yogi-philosophers seldom entangle
themselves in polemical controvesies with the advocates of other systems
of philosophy. To these enlightened teachers every well-reasoned system
of philosophy is a particular mode of intellectual approach to the same
supra-intellectual Truth and a particular form of effective discipline of the
intellect. When the intellect is properly disciplined and refined, it becomes
much easier to transcend the domain of the intellect.

CHAPTER I

GORAKHNATH A MAHAYOGI

Gorakhnath was a Mahayogi. He was not essentially a philosopher
in the commonly accepted meaning of the term. He did not seek for the
Absolute Truth in the path of speculation and logical argumentation.
He was not much interested in logically proving or disproving the
existence of any Ultimate Noumenal Reality beyond or behind or
immanent in the phenomenal world of our normal experience or intellec-
tually ascertaining the nature of any such Reality. He never entangled
himself seriously in controversial metaphysical discussions. He never
made a display of his intellectual capacities as the upholder of any parti-
cular metaphysical theory in opposition to other rival theories. He knew
that in the intellectual plane differences of views were inevitable, specially
with regard to the Supreme Truth, which was beyond the realm of the
normal intellect. He did not attach any primary importance to philoso-
phical speculations and controversies as a means to the realisation of the
Ultimate Truth. But he considered them valuable as modes of intellectual
discipline and helpful in the path of search for Truth, provided that they
were carried on with sincerity and earnestness and humility, and without
any bigotry or arrogance or prejudice or blind partiality to particular
schools of thought.

Unbiassed pursuit of Truth in the path of philosophical reflection
was according to him a very effective way to the progressive refinement of
the intellect and its elevation to the higher and higher planes, leading
gradually to the emancipation of the consciousness from the bondage of
all intellectual theories and sentimental attachments. Philosophical
reflection (Tattva-Vicdrd) was therefore regarded as a valuable part of
yogic self-discipline. Its principal aim should be to make the individual
phenomenal consciousness free from all kinds of bias and prejudice, all
forms of narrowness and bigotry, all sorts of pre-conceived notions and
emotional clingings, and to raise it to the pure supra-mental supra-
intellectual spiritual plane, in which it may be blessed with the direct
experience of the Absolute Truth by becoming perfectly united with it. It
was with this object in view that Yogi Guru Gorakhnath taught what
might be called a system of philosophy for the guidance of the truth-
seekers in the path of intellectual self- discipline.

The Sampraddya associated with the name of Gorakhnath has a

24

vast literature, in Sanskrit as well as in many of the provincial dialects of
India. The authorship of a good many Sanskrit treatises is attributed to
Gorakhnath himself. Numerous instructive and inspiring short poems in
the oldest forms of some of the regional popular languages, such as
Hindi and Rajasthani and Bengali, are directly connected with his name.
Which of the books ascribed to him, or bearing his holy name, were really
written by the Mahayogi himself is however a matter of controversy. The
region in which he was born and the regional language in which he usually
spoke are as yet unascertained. Here we are to assume that the old sacred
literature which passes in his name and which has long been recognised
as authoritative or reliable by his long line of followers was either
produced by him or based on his teachings and hence faithfully represents
his views. We should attach greater value to the Sanskrit works, which
are regarded as more authoritative by all sections of his sampraddya as
well as by other earnest scholars.

Now, what is particularly noteworthy in connection with the subject-
matter of our present discourse is that, though there are so many well-
written Sanskrit works which are highly valued by the sampraddya and
which are believed to embody the teachings of the Great Master, there is
scarcely a single book available, which is exclusively or even ^principally
devoted to metaphysical discussion. All the standard works are chiefly
concerned with the exposition of the principles and practices of Yoga.
Yoga is a method of systematic discipline of all the external and internal
organs of the physical body, of all the senses and vital forces and nerves
and muscles, of all the psychical functions and natural propensities and
subtle desires and passions and of all the intellectual ideas and judgments
and reasonings, with a view to the establishment of perfect control over
and harmony among all of them and the refinement and spiritualisation
of the entire psycho-physiological organism and with the ultimate object
of the realisation of Absolute Truth in the most tranquil and integral and
illumined state of consciousness. Hence the exposition of Yoga neces-
sarily presupposes a profound knowledge of the structure and operations
of the various parts of the organism and a clear conception of the
Supreme Ideal towards which the whole course of discipline is to be
directed. The Art of Yoga must have a scientific and philosophic back-
ground. Hence books on Yoga incidentally discuss relevant scientific and
metaphysical topics.

The metaphysical doctrine, which Gorakhnath preached along with
his instructions on yogic discipline, was not purely the result of any
logical reasoning, nor did he attempt to put his doctrine in exact logical
forms. The ultimate basis of his philosophy was his supra-mental and

25

supra-intellectual experience in the samadhi-st&te of his consciousness. It
was an intellectual expression of his transcendent experience, with due
regard for the valid experiences of the normal life, and an attempt to link
them together. He presented it as an enlightening way of thinking and
meditation to the seekers of truth and peace and freedom from bondage
and sorrow. He generally adopted the terminology and modes of
linguistic expression which were current among the Siddha- Mahay ogis for
hundreds of years and which were commonly found in the old Saiva and
Sakta Agamas and Tantras. He never dogmatically declared that all
truth-seekers must adopt the same terminology in their methods of think-
ing or even the same way of thinking for the refinement of their thoughts.
He would teach the people that Truth was the same, in whatever forms
of language It might be expressed and in whatever paths the intellect
might approach It. The mind must seek for the Truth with sincerity and
earnestness and must not be led away by undue attachment to particular
forms of language or particular methods of thinking.

It should be remembered that the Ultimate Truth reveals Itself in a
plane of consciousness higher than those in which these speeches and
thoughts move, and that the methods of philosophical thinking and the
expressions of thoughts in appropriate linguistic forms are only means to
the purification and enlightenment and concentration of the empirical
consciousness and its elevation to the higher planes. Gorakhnath himself
freely made use of the terminology and nomenclature current among
other schools of philosophical thinking and religious discipline as well and
pointed out that their inner significance and purpose were the same. He
would often make use of poetic imageries, similes, metaphors and figures
of speech and analogical arguments for giving expression to his inner
thoughts and experiences, which really belonged to higher planes. Never-
theless, Gorakhnath preached a system of philosophy which has a special
place among the philosophical systems of India and a special distinctive
character and value of its own.

CHAPTER II

LITERARY SOURCES OF GORAKHNATH'S
PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS

It has already been noted that the authorship of a good many
books in Sanskrit as well as in several old regional dialects is traditionally
attributed to Mahay ogi Gorakhnath and that it is very difficult at the
present age to ascertain definitely which of them were really written by
the Mah5yogi himself. We may however mention here the names of
several Sanskrit treatises which are traditionally believed to have been
composed by Gorakhnath Goraksha Samhita, Goraksha Sataka, Siddha
Siddhdnta Paddhati, Yoga Siddhdnta Paddhati, Viveka Mdrtanda, Yoga
Mdrtanda, Yoga Chintdmani, Jndndmrita, Amanaska, Atmabodha, Goraksha
Sahasra Ndma, Yoga-bija, Amaraugha Prabodha, Goraksha Pistika,
Goraksha Gitd, etc. etc. Many other books were current in his name.
Gorakhnath's Guru Matsyendra Nath is said to have been the author of
a good many treatises, such as, Matsyendra Samhitd y Kaula Jhdna Nirnaya,
Kuldnanda Tantra, Jndna Kdrikd, Akula Vira-Tantra, etc. There is a
number of later Upanishads, the names of whose authors are not available
but which elaborately deal with the yogic concepts and yogic methods as
taught by Matsyendranath, Gorakhnath and other Siddha Yogi teachers.
For examples, Ndda-Bindu Upanishad, Dhydna-Bindu Upanishad, Tejo-
Bindu Upanishad, Yoga-Tattwa Upanishad, Yoga-Chuddmani Upanishad,
Yoga-Sikhd Upanishad, Yoga-Kundall Upanishad, Mandala-Brdhmana
Upanishad^ Sdndilya Upanishad, Jdbdla Upanishad y etc. There is one
Upanishad, which is known as Goraksha Upanishad. Ndtha Sutra, Siva
Gitd, Avadhuta Gitd, Siva Samhitd, Suta Samhita, Dattdtreya Samhita,
Sdvara Tantra, Gheranda Samhita, Hatha-Yoga Pradipika, and many such
Sanskrit treatises are definitely connected with the Yogi Sampraddya of
Gorakhnath, and they are authoritative guide-books for spiritual aspirants
in the path of Yoga. Most of these books give valuable informations about
the philosophical concepts and principles, on which the yogic methods of
discipline are based, but very few of them attach primary importance to
philosophical discussions on controversial topics.

Many old poetical works have been discovered in Bengali, Hindi,
Raiasthani and other regional languages of India, as well as of the
bordering countries, like Nepal and Tibet, which were based on the lives
and teachings of Matsyendranath, Gorakhnath and other illustrious saints
of the Nath-Yogi sect. The authorship of some of them is ascribed to

27

those great founders of the sect. Matsyendranath is regarded as the earliest
poet in the Bengali language. Many great Ndth-Acharyas or Siddha-
Achdryas were writers of Bengali poems. The earliest poems in Hindi and
Rajasthani were those, which are believed to have been composed by
Gorakhnath. There were many poets among their followers also, who
preached their ideas through literature. All these literary works are
valuable sources of information about the Great Master's philosophical
ideas.

Among these books, Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati occupies a special
position. This Sanskrit treatise gives a systematic exposition in a rather
abridged form of the metaphysical ideas and the way of thinking of the
Siddha-Yogi Sampraddya as well as of the Supreme Ideal which the Yogis
seek to realise in their life through the practice of Yoga. This book is
cited as an authority in many other books of the Sampraddya. No other
book of this Sampraddya has as yet been discovered, which presents to us
such a clear account of the philosophy and religion of this great school.
The book itself proclaims Gorakhnath as its author, though some modern
scholars gravely doubt the genuineness of this declaration.

Like many other standard works of this Sampraddya, Siddha
Siddhanta Paddhati had been in manuscript form for so many centuries and
had been available for study only to the initiated members and specially
inquisitive scholars of this Sampraddya. It was for the first time published
in printed form from Hardwar by Yogindra Purnanath with a Sanskrit
commentary by Pundit DravyeSa Jha Sastri and a Hindi commentary by
Yogi Bhishmanath, in the year 1996 Vikram Sambat (1940 A. D.). Quite
recently, Dr. (Mrs.) Kalyani Mullik, M. A., Ph. D., of the Calcutta
University, has published another edition of this book with an English
summary of her own.

There is a poetical work, named Siddha Siddhanta Sangraha, which
is a summary in "'erse of Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati. This book was
published in printed form in 1925 by Mahamahopadhyaya Gopinath
Kaviraj. The date of the composition of this book also could not be
ascertained. One verse in the book indicates that it was written by some
person, named Balbhadra, at the bidding of Krishnaraja, in the sacred
city of Kashi. It is certainly an old book and it ably summarises the
contents of the original, often reproducing the language of the original. It
was available to the general readers before the publication of the original
work.

Goraksha Siddhanta Sangraha is another important Sanskrit treatise
in prose, which briefly expounds the philosophical and religious views of

28

Gorakhnath. This book makes profuse quotations from the sayings of
old Mahayogis like Matsyendranath, Gorakhnath, Jalandharnath,
Bhartrihari and others as well as from a good many older texts on Yoga.
But Siddha Siddhdnta Paddhati appears to be the main basis of this treatise.
This book also was first edited and published with a short Prefatory Note
by Mahamahopadhyaya Gopinath Kaviraj in 1925. The name of the
author of this book is not definitely known, but he must have been a
highly learned yogi-teacher of Gorakhnath's school a few centuries back.
Another edition of the book was published from Hardwar.

The present discourse on the philosophy of Gorakhnath will be
mainly based upon Siddha Siddhdnta Paddhati, in as much as it is among
all the works of the school discovered so far, the most systematic and
comprehensive presentation of his philosophical doctrines and it claims to
be and is generally accepted as a genuine work of the Master himself.
Help will of course be taken from other authoritative works. The specific
characteristic of this book is that it is purely a constructive work and does
not enter into any logical disputation with other systems of philosophy and
religion. It is written partly in the form of aphorisms (Sutras) and
partly in the form of verses (Slokas). It presents in a methodical way
the Siddha Sampraddya's conception of the Ultimate Spiritual Ground of
the Universe, the process of the evolution of the diversities of the world
from One Absolute Dynamic Spirit, the true nature of the individual souls
and their psycho-physical embodiments as well as their essential relation to
the cosmic order, the highest ideal to be realised by the individual souls
for their perfect self-fulfilment, the systematic course of discipline of the
body and the senses and the vital forces and the mind and the intellect
for the realisation of this Supreme Ideal, and other relevant problems. It
emphasises that the systematic course of self-discipline for the attainment
of perfect self-illumination and self-fulfilment must be learnt from a
competent Guru or Natha or Avadhuta, who has himself realised the
supreme ideal and attained direct experience of the Absolute Truth in the
transcendent Samddhi-state of his consciousness. Without the enlightened
guidance of such a Guru, real progress in the path of spirituality can
scarcely be expected.

CHAPTER III

CONTENTS OF SIDDHA SIDDHANTA
PADDHATI

The book introduces itself to the truth-seekers thus :

Adindtham namaskritya saktiyuktam jagadgurum
Vakshye Gorakshandthoham Siddha-Siddhdnta-Paddhatim.

Having bowed down to Adinatha (Siva, the Supreme Spirit), Who is
eternally possessed of Supreme Power and is the eternal Guru (Source of
True Knowledge) of the world (i.e. all conscious beings of all times and all
places), I, Gorakshanatha, will expound Siddha Siddhdnta Paddhati (i.e. the
way of thinking of the Siddha-sampraddya or the long time of enlightened
Yogis). (S.S.P.I.I.).

This introduction (if its authenticity be not questioned) shows that
Gorakhnath himself was the author of the book. There are other state-
ments also within the book, which corroborate this introductory
declaration. Goraksha Siddhdnta Sangraha, while making quotations from
this authoritative work, refers to the author sometimes as ri-Natha and
sometimes (at least once) as Nitya-Ndtha. In his discussions, this compiler
of the philosophical and religious doctrines of Gorakshanath (i.e. the
writer of this Sangraha) leaves no doubt that by Sri-Ndtha and Nitya-
Ndtha he meant Goraksha-Natha, whom he believed to be the Incarnation
of ISwara, Adi-Ndtha, Mahd-Yogiswara Siva, the eternal Master of all Yogis.
There was however another great yogi of the name of Nityanatha who also
was a celebrated author of many important works on Yoga and
Medicine.

In Hatha Yoga Pradlpikd the name of one Nitya-Natha is mentioned
as one of the great Mahdsiddha Yogis who having conquered death moved
freely in the world. The name of Nitya-Natha is also found in other old
Sanskrit treatises, particularly in treatises on the science of medicine. He is
regarded as the author of the famous book, named Rasa Ratndkara, which
bears the name of Pdrvati-putra (son of Parvati), Nitya-Ndtha Siddha. He
was a great chemist. His name is mentioned with respect by Bagbhat in his
Rasa Ratna Samuccaya. Nitya-Natha is also reputed to be the author of a
book, named Indra-jdla Tattwa (science of magic). He is sometimes referred
to as Nityananda, Nitya-pada and Dhyani-Natha. That Nitya-Natha was a

30

celebrated Siddha-Yogi and a great scientist and philosopher and author is
beyond doubt. But there is no strong ground for attributing to him the
authorship of Siddha Siddhdnta Paddhati. The time of Nitya-Natha also it
is difficult to surmise. We may assume that Gorakhnath was the author of
this most authoritative philosophical work of Gorakhnath's sampraddya or
that it truly represents his views.

In Siddha Siddhdnta Paddhati, the great Acharya discusses various
important topics under six principal heads, called Upadefa (lessons). The
first lesson is on Pindotpatti (i.e. origin of the body, cosmic as well as
individual). In this lesson, he explains briefly the nature of the Absolute
Reality and exhibits how and through what gradual stages the diversified
cosmic system with the various orders of material organisms in it evolves
out of the dynamic spiritual character of One Supreme Reality. He shows
how the Supreme Spirit, though essentially above time and space and
relativity and eternally differenceless and changeless in His transcendent
nature, manifests Himself by virtue of His unique Power as a diversified
universe (Samasti-pinda or Brahmdnda) in time and space with countless
orders of individual bodies (Vyasti-pinda) and as the Indwelling Soul in
each of them. This is one of the fundamental metaphysical conceptions of
the Siddha Yogi Sampraddya.

The second lesson is on Pinda-Vicdra (i.e. contemplation on the cons-
titution of the body). In this lesson, the Acharya gives instruction about
some of the special conceptions of the school with regard to the inner
constitution of the individual body, such as Cakra, Adhdra, Lakshya and
Vyoma or Akdsa. Nine Cakras, sixteen Adhdras, three Lakshyas, and five
Vyomas are enumerated, their locations within the particular parts of the
body are indicated and the methods of contemplation upon them are
suggested. Such contemplations arc of practical importance from the
standpoint of self-discipline in this path and the elevation of the mind to
the higher and higher planes and the progressive dematerialisation and
spiritualisation of the physical body (Kdya-siddhi). Gorakhnath attached
special value to the knowledge of these Cakras, etc., and contemplation on
them in conformity with the instruction of the Guru. This is evident from his
other treatises also, such as Goraksha Sataka, Goraksha Samhitd, Viveka-
Mdrtanda, etc.

The third lesson is on Pinda Sambitti (i.e. true insight into the body).
In this lesson, the Acharya points out clearly the identity of the individual
body with the Cosmic Body, the identity of the Microcosm with the
Macrocosm. He shows in a detailed way that whatever exists in the vast
world outside exists also within this individual body. The realisation of the
identity of this apparently finite and mortal body with the beginningless

31

and endless universe is a unique and magnificent ideal placed before the
spiritual aspirants by Gorakhnath and his school. The yogi has to realise,
not only the unity of the individual soul with the Cosmic Soul, but also the
unity of the individual body with the Cosmic Body. The Yogi attains
perfect freedom and bliss in the universe by becoming one with the
universe.

The fourth lesson is on Pindddhdra (i.e. Container and Sustainer of
the body). In this lesson, the Acharya reveals that all the bodies are
ultimately contained in and sustained and held together by one Sakti, or
Supreme Spiritual Power, Who is in Her essential character identical with
and non-different from Siva, the Non-dual Supreme Spirit. All the bodies
are the self-manifestations of one self-evolving Divine Sakti One Supreme
Spiritual Power ; they are contained in and sustained by the same Power
(Sakti) ; the same Power is immanent in and pervades them and regulates
all their relations and changes ; they have really no existence apart from the
existence of that Sakti. This Sakti, again, is non-different from Siva the
Power is identical with the Spirit. The same self-conscious self-enjoying
non-dual Spirit, when conceived as existing in and by Himself in His
transcendent character, is called Siva, and when conceived as actively trans-
forming Himself into a Cosmic Body and creating and developing and
regulating and destroying innumerable finite bodies in time and space and
revealing Himself in various forms and various ways, is called Sakti. The
Absolute Reality in Its transcendent aspect is Siva and in Its dynamic
aspect is Sakti. When a Siddha-Yogi ascends to the plane of Samadhi, to
him there is no difference between Siva and Sakti, and he enjoys the bliss
of the perfect union of Siva and Sakti.

The fifth lesson is devoted to the discussion on the Supreme Ideal of
Samarasa Karana (perfect unification) of the individual body with the
Cosmic Body, of the bodies with the Supreme Power, and of the Power
with the Absolute Spirit, as well as on the way of the realisation of this
Ideal. When this Ideal of Samarasa is truly realised, the difference between
Matter and Spirit vanishes, the difference between the Finite and the Infinite
disappears, the difference between Jeeva and Siva passes away, the
difference between the Self and the World ceases to exist. The Yogi then
sees the world within himself and himself in all the existences of the world.
He sees Siva in himself and all and sees himself and the whole world as
unified in Siva. In his experience, his own body is spiritualised and the
whole universe is spiritualised. To his illumined consciousness, the Absolute
Spirit, Siva, alone exists in all these names and forms, and nothing but
Him really exists. He sees and enjoys the most beautiful and blissful Unity
in all apparent diversities.

32

The sixth lesson gives a fine description of the character and conduct
of an Avadhuta Yogi, i.e. a Yogi who has perfectly realised the Ideal of
Samarasa Karana as explained in the fifth lesson and attained perfect
freedom from all ignorance and ego-consciousness, all bondage and narrow-
ness of outlook, all desires and attachments, all cares and fears and
sorrows, ail sense of difference and plurality. An Avadhuta Yogi is one who
has not only been blessed with the direct experience of the Absolute Truth
in the state of Samddhi, but who has also been able to bring down the light
of that transcendent experience to the intellectual and mental and vital
planes of his consciousness and whose normal life is always illumined by
that Divine Light. His state of Samddhi seems to continue undisturbed and
unclouded even in the midst of his outer activities in relation to various
sorts of people under various kinds of circumstances. It is such an
Avadhuta Yogi, who is called a Ndtha in the true sense of the term. He is a
perfect master of himself, a perfect master of the circumstances in which he
may dwell in his outer life. It is such a Ndtha who is truly worthy of being
Sad-Guru, because he is capable of destroying the darkness of ignorance
which prevails in the minds of ordinary people and of awakening the
spiritual wisdom and the spiritual power which normally lie asleep in the
human consciousness.

Now, it is the experience of a perfect Ndtha or Avadhuta-Yogi, which
is the real basis of the philosophy of the Yogi-Sampraddya. Gorakhnath,
himself a Ndtha or Avadhuta-Yogi, proceeds with his philosophical discour-
ses on the basis of his own spiritual experiences as well as those of the
other Avadhuta Yogis, who preceded him in this path. His philosophy
practically consists in the explanation of the facts of the lower planes of
normal human experience in the light of the Truth realised by himself and
the other Siddha-Mahdyogis in the perfectly illumined state of their con-
sciousness as well as the relative occult truths experienced in the super-
normal states of consciousness intermediate between the normal sensuous
plane and the perfectly illumined state.

CHAPTER IV

CONCEPTION OF THE ULTIMATE REALITY

It has been observed that MaMyogi Gorakhnath's conception of the
Ultimate Reality is not merely the result of any process of logical reasoning
from data supplied by normal sense-experience of ordinary people. It is not
to him a theory or hypothesis conceived for the purpose of offering
rational causal explanation of the world of common experience, as it is the
case with purely intellectualist philosophers. The basis of his intellectual
conception about the Ultimate Reality is super-sensuous super-mental
super-intellectual direct experience in the state of Samadhi, i.e., in the
perfectly illumined and perfectly universalised and unconditioned state of
the consciousness. Conception, however, is an affair of the intellect. In the
field of direct experience, whether sensuous or super-sensuous, mental or
super-mental, there is no room for conception. Conception comes in, when
the necessity is felt for the rational interpretation and intellectual under-
standing of such experience. It is the function of the intellect (buddhi) to
operate upon the direct experiences and to interpret them in terms of
conceptions in order to constitute a system of valid knowledge out
of them.

The necessity for such interpretation is inherent in the nature of
sensuous experience, since the isolated sense-perceptions cannot by them-
selves constitute any real knowledge to the full satisfaction of the rational
human mind. It is through the formation of conceptions that our knowledge
of the phenomenal world of sensuous and mental experiences develops and
expands, and with the development and expansion of knowledge the
necessity for the formation of deeper and deeper, higher and higher, more
and more comprehensive conceptions increases. Finally, the necessity is
felt for the formation of an all-comprehending all-integrating all-illumining
conception, which may fully satisfy the rational mind by furnishing an
adequate explanation for the entire world of sensuous and mental expe-
riences and may link together all experiences into one integral knowledge.
Such a conception is regarded as the conception of the Absolute Ultimate
Reality. Nevertheless, the conception is and will be in the domain of the
intellect, in the domain of theory, and it can never amount to nor
can it have the certitude of the direct experience of the Absolute
Truth.

A Mahayogi who attains the direct transcendental experience of the

34

Reality in the Samadhi state does not for his own satisfaction feel any
necessity for the formation of any intellectual conception, since to him this
experience is the most perfectly integrated knowledge of all possible
existences in the universe and beyond it and this experience carries its
certainty within itself. He enjoys the bliss of this experience, for herein he
feels the fulfilment of his knowledge, the fulfilment of his life, the fulfilment
of his mind and heart and intellect. Herein he becomes perfectly united
with the Absolute Truth. But, when a Mahayogi becomes a teacher and
comes in contact with the truth-seeking people, living and moving in the
sensuous and mental planes of experience and knowledge, he is required to
give glimpses of his transcendental experience in terms of intellectual
concepts and to demonstrate (as far as practicable) by means of logical
reasoning that the Truth realised in that experience can furnish the most
adequate rational explanation for all the phenomena of the sensuous and
mental planes of human experience.

He has to show for the satisfaction of the intellectual demand of
these people that the diversified objective world of phenomenal realities of
the lower planes of human experience derives its existence from, is sustained
and regulated and harmonised by and is again dissolved in the Absolute
Reality, the true nature of which is revealed to the human consciousness
in its perfectly purified and concentrated and illumined transcendent state.
He has somehow to rationally account for the diversified self-expressions
of the Absolute Reality in the form of the spatio-temporal cosmic order
and again the unification of all these diversities in Its undifferentiated
supra-temporal and supra-spatial spiritual nature. He has to explain how
the plurality of material realities can originate from the one Supreme
Spiritual Reality, how the Reality above time and space can manifest Itself
in a temporal and spatial order, how the One can become many and
remain One all the same. Many such questions arise in the minds of the
intellectualist people, and the Mahayogi Teacher has to offer answers to
them for removing their doubts and bringing them to the path of Truth,
though to his own enlightened consciousness all such questions and answers
are of little value.

Mahayogi Acharya Gorakhnath begins his discourse on the
philosophical conception of the Ultimate Reality with an important
statement :

Ndsti satya-vicdre smin nutpattis cdnda-pindayoh
Tathdpi loka-vrittyanham vakshye sat-sampraddyatah.

(S. S. P. I. 2).

[From the standpoint of the Absolute Truth, there is really no origina-

35

tion of the cosmic order and the plurality of individual existences within it;
nevertheless I shall explain (the origination, etc., of this world-system from
the nature of the Ultimate Reality) in accordance with the way of thinking
of the enlightened Yogi-Sampradaya with a view to the satisfaction of the
normal rational demands of people in general.]

The view-point of the Absolute Truth is the view-point of transcen-
dent experience in Samadhi, in which the Truth reveals itself in its perfect
self-shining nature and in which the individual consciousness is fully
identified with the Truth. This plane of experience is above time and space,
above change and plurality, above causality and relativity. The world of
space and time, the world of finite and changing and causally related
existences, is in this plane of experience merged in one infinite eternal
changeless differenceless self-luminous Existence. From the view-point of
this plane of experience, there is no real origination of the diversified and
changing world-order in space and time, and hence no real destruction or
dissolution of it. What appears as such a world-order to individual con-
sciousness in the lower planes of its experience reveals itself in the highest
plane of its experience as nothing but the infinite eternal self-shining
Supreme Spirit, in which its own individuality also is merged.
Hence the question of its origination or destruction does not arise
at all.

Origination means a temporal process of the coming into existence
of something which did not previously exist as such. It also implies the
pre-existence of a reality from which it comes into being and a temporal
process of causation and change in that reality. Nothing can be originated
without some cause and without some sort of temporal change or modifi-
cation in the cause. Now, can we conceive of any time when the phenome-
nal world-order, whether in a gross or a subtle form, whether in a
manifested or an unmanifested state, did not exist ? Time implies a change,
a process, a succession, and every kind of change or process or succession
must be within the phenomenal world-order. The changes or processes may
be of the forms of gross transformations or subtle modifications, may be
outwardly manifested or may remain outwardly unmanifested, but they are
all included in the cosmic order. Thus the cosmic order cannot be
conceived as having any temporal beginning or origination. Again, if there
be any Reality behind or beyond this world-order, that Reality must be
above time, free from all possible temporal changes or modifications, and
cannot therefore be the cause of the production of this world-order in the
phenomenal sense.

Thus, on the one hand, in the plane of transcendent experience, in
which all temporal relations cease to exist and all plurality are unified in

36

the nature of one infinite eternal Spiritual Reality, the question of the
origination of the world-order as an entity separate from that Supreme
Spirit does not arise at all ; on the other hand, in the plane of normal
phenomenal experience, this spatio-temporal order cannot be thought of as
having had any absolute beginning in time or as produced by any causal
process of modification or transformation of some Reality existing above
time and space, and hence its origination at any point of time is unthink-
able. Nevertheless, it is quite obvious that our normal intellect can neither
deny or ignore the objective existence of this world-order, consisting of the
plurality of phenomena in time and space perceived by our normal senses
and minds, nor can it think of this spatio-temporal phenomenal world as a
self-existent, self-revealing, self-evolving, self-regulating and self-harmonis-
ing Absolute Reality. The intellect demands an explanation in terms of the
a priori categories of our rational understanding for this objective world of
our sensuous and mental perception, in relation to the Absolute Reality
Which unveils Its true nature in the transcendent experience and
Which comprehends and unifies this world in Its transcendent
non-duality.

The world of our normal experience is obviously of a derivative
contingent relative conditional and composite nature, and our reason
demands that it must have the ground and source and support of its
existence and continuity and harmonious operations in some self-existent
self-conditioned self-revealing dynamic and transcendent Absolute Reality,
which is necessarily beyond the scope of our senses and mind, beyond the
scope of the phenomenal conditioned and relative knowledge of our finite
understanding. This Absolute Reality unveils Itself to our consciousness in
its super-sensuous super-mental super-intellectual transcendent state, in
which the subject- object relation vanishes and the consciousness realises
itself as perfectly identified with the Absolute Reality. The Absolute Reality
is thus experienced as the Absolute Consciousness, in which all time and
space and all existences in time and space are merged in perfect unity, and
the One Infinite Eternal Undifferentiated Changeless Self-Effulgent Con-
sciousness shines as the Ultimate Reality. As this Absolute Consciousness
is above the plane of the normal intellect, the intellect cannot form any true
conception of It and cannot describe Its nature except in negative terms ;
but still it tries to conceive It in relation to and as the ground of this
world-order.

Gorakhnath, in pursuance of the earlier Siddha-Yogis, designates
this Absolute Consciousness as Pard-Sambit. This Para-Sambiit is the
Absolute Reality. This Para-Sambit is also spoken of by Yogis as the
Perfect Union of Siva-Sakti. From the view-point of the Para-Sambit,
there is no world-order having any separate existence, and hence the

37

question of Its origination does not arise. Nevertheless, as in the intellectual
plane the phenomenal existence of the world-order is undeniable and as
this world-order cannot be conceived as self-existent, its origin must be
traced to the Absolute Consciousness, and the character of this Ultimate
Reality also has to be relatively so conceived from the intellectual view-
point that the evolution of this world of harmoniously related finite and
transitory phenomenal realities may be adequately explained. Thus,
Gorakhnath, in his philosophical system, makes the attempt to link
together the transcendent experience of an enlightened Mohayogi and the
intellectual demand of a common man, with the practical purpose of
refining and elevating the consciousness of the truth-seeking people and
disciplining their thoughts in the proper direction.

Gorakhnath thus describes the pure character of the Ultimate Reality
of transcendent experience :

Yadd ndsti sway am hart a karanam na kuldkulam
Avyaktam ca param brahnm andmd vidyate tadd.

(S. S. P. I. 4).

[When there is no active doer (creator), no causality (or process of
causation), no distinction between power and reality (i.e., the dynamic and
the static aspects of the Spirit), when the Supreme Spirit is wholly without
any self-manifestation (in finite and changing phenomenal forms), He then
exists purely as the Nameless One.]

He adds :

Andmeti sway am anadisiddham ekam eva anddinidhanam
Siddha-siddhdnta-prasiddham.

Tasya icchd-mdtra-dharmd dharminl nijd saktih prasiddhd.

(S. S. P. I. 5).

[That nameless (and formless and manifestationless) Supreme Spirit is
eternally self-existent, absolutely one (i.e. differenceless), without any birth
or death (or modification). This is the well-known conception (about
Reality) of the Siddhas (enlightened seers). His unique Power, which is
eternally inherent in His nature and one with Him and which is of the
character of Pure Will (i.e. without any manifestation or any object
of will or process of willing in the transcendent plane) is also
well-known.]

Thus, according to the Siddha- Mahay og is, the Ultimate Reality,
though revealing Itself in the Samddhi state as pure changeless infinite
eternal Consciousness, is not a static, but a dynamic Spirit with will. The
Transcendent Spirit is eternally endowed with Sakti. Siva with akti non-
different from Hiiji is the Reality.

CHAPTER V

SAT-CID-ANANDA BRAHMA

The Ultimate Reality as realised in the transcendent state, of
consciousness is described in this way by Mahayogis:

Na brahmd vtihnu-rudrau na surapati-surah naiva prithwi na cdpah
Naivdgnirndpi vdyur na ca gaganatalam no disc naiva kdlah
No vedd naiva yajnd nz. ca rabi-sasinau no bidhir naiva kalpah
Swa-jyotih satyam ekom jayali tava padam sacciddnanda-murte.

(Quoted from Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati in
Goraksha-Siddhdnta-Sangraha)

No distinctive existence of Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra and Indra
and other Deities is there; nor is there any existence of earth
or water or fire or air or sky; time and the directions (which imply
space) do not exist; the vedas and the yajnas, the sun and the moon, the
laws and the cyclic order are all absent; Your true Self alone shines as
the sole self-luminous Absolute Reality, O You, who reveal Yourself as
pure and perfect Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.

This is the Ultimate Reality according to the Siddha-Yogi Sampra-
ddya. But the elightened Mahayogis were conscious that this conception,
based as it was on transcendent experience, did not fully represent the
entire nature of the Absolute Reality and could not satisfy the rational
demand of the empirical intellect. It may be noted that this conception
of the Ultimate Reality appears to be in perfect agreement with the view
of Adwaita-Veddnta, which also is based upon the transcendent experience
of Mahayogis as verbally expressed in the texts of the Upanishads. It is
the conception of Nirguna Brahma, above time, space, relativity and
causality, untouched by all kinds of differences external and internal, and
devoid of any power or will or action. The Ultimate Reality is according
to this view one timeless and spaceless, infinite and eternal, changeless,
differenceless and processless, transcendent non-dual self-luminous
Consciousness. It is described as pure Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.

Now, this conception of the Absolute cannot give perfect satisfaction
to the rational intellect. First, it appears to be purely a negative and
abstract idea, not giving any positive knowledge about the nature of the
Absolute Reality. It merely informs us that the Absolute Reality is
Something altogether of a different and distinct character from whatever

39

we know and can possibly know, but fails to give us any intelligible
positive idea as to what Its character truly is. Pure Existence-Conscious-
ness-Bliss also does not appear to be an intelligible positive Reality.
Secondly, the perfect nature of the Absolute Spirit must also have a
dynamic element, which can furnish an adequate ground for the appear-
ance or evolution of the cosmic system. This dynamic aspect of the
Absolute Reality finds no mention in the above description.

(a) Conception of Pure Existence:

It is contended by intellectualists that Pure Existence without
Something existent cannot be rationally conceived as a real entity. It i$
as good as non-existence. It is meaningless to say that Existence exists.
Existence is meaningful, when it is affirmed or denied of something.
Something may exist or may not exist; affirmation of existence means the
reality of a thing, and denial of existence means its unreality. The category
of existence may be variously qualified. Something that exists may have
self-existence or derivative existence, unconditional or conditional existence,
eternal or temporary existence, infinite or finite existence, changeless or
changeable existence, real existence or illusory existence, But in every case
existence, in order to have an intelligible meaning, must be predicated of
some subject or entity. Without some subject of which it is affirmed,
existence is merely an abstract idea without any content and has there-
fore no real difference from non-existence. If, however, Pure Existence
implies a Reality having eternal infinite changeless differenceless absolute
self-existence, then of course the term acquires a distinctive meaning, rich
in contents.

It is, in truth, in this sense that the Mahdyogis and the Rishis of
the Upanishads use this term, and it certainly conveys some positive
idea about the Absolute Reality. Pure Existence as the characteristic of
the Ultimate Reality means Perfect Existence, It does not indicate merely
the negation of non existence, but also the negation of all forms of
imperfect existence. This negation of imperfect existence, again, does not
imply that there are numerous kinds of realities having different forms of
imperfect existences, separate from the Ultimate Reality, and that the
Ultimate Reality is distinguished from them by Its attribute of perfect
existence; for in that case Perfect Existence would be limited and relative
existence and therefore not perfect in the true sense. The Absolute
Reality is characterised by Perfect Existence, in as much as It is the sole
non-dual Reality and nothing exists in any form either within or beside
Itself. Negation of imperfect existence implies that all kinds of temporal
and spatial, derivative and conditional, mental and material existences,
which are or may be objects of internal or external experience in the lower

40

planes of consciousness, are absolutely merged in and unified with the
Perfect Existence, and there is no plurality or duality therein. A
Mahay ogi experiences this Perfect Existence by elevating his empirical
consciousness to the super- empirical plane, the plane above duality and
plurality, above time and space, above all empirical imperfect conditional
existences.

Those who hold that existence necessarily means empirical existence
of the normal planes of experience or that 'practical efficiency' is the
sole criterion of existence, this Perfect Existence may appear to be as good
as non-existence, the transcendent experience may seem to be negation of
experience and annihilation of existence. They speak of what is above
phenomenal experience as Asat (non-existent) or Sunya (Void), and the
phenomenal reality as the only Sat (Existent) and phenomental experience
as the one source of real knowledge. To them all real existences have
origination and destruction. They cannot explain wherefrom they are
originated and wherein they are lost. They ignore that empirical existences
having origination and destruction necessarily imply some self-existent
Reality, for the satisfaction of the reason's demand for a causal explana-
tion of these existences.

In the Yoga-Sdstras the transcendent experience in the state of
nirvikalpa or asamprajnata samadhi is found to be described in terms
of sunya (void or vacancy or negation of everything) as well as puma
(fullness or perfection or unification of all). It is a state of

Antah-sunyo vahih-sunyah sunya-kumbha ivamvare
Antah-purno vahih-purnah purna-kumbha ivarnave.

void within and void without, like an empty vessel in the sky; fulness
within and fulness without, like a vessel full of water immersed in the
ocean.

Since in that experience there is nothing which is experienced as its
object, there is no subject-object relation and no process of experience,
there is no consciousness of any inside and outside or any before and after,
it may quite appropriately be spoken of as a state of absolute Void,
(sunya), absolute negation of existence and consciousness in the empirical
sense. On the other hand, as it is the state of the perfect fulfilment of all
earnest and systematic endeavours for liberation from all limitations
and realisation of the Absolute Truth, as it gives the sense of complete
satisfaction to the human consciousness seeking for Truth and Freedom
and thus results in perfect calmness and tranquility and bliss, as after the
attainment of this blessed state nothing else appears to remain to be
known and enjoyed, it is rightly described as the state of absolute fulness

41

and perfection, the state of the realisation of Perfect Existence, in which
all orders of phenomenal existences are not simply negated, but realised as
resolved into Absolute Unity. What appears to be Sunya or Asat
(negation of all existences) from the empirical view-point is really the
Puma-Sat (Perfect Existence), in which the ultimate character of all orders
of existences is unveiled as One Self-luminous Differeneeless Non-dual
Spiritual Existence. This Perfect Existence is immanent in all empirical
realities, which are only partial imperfect conditioned self-manifestations of
It in the spatio-temporal order.

Gorakhnath and his school do not seem to be fanatically infatuated
with any of such categories of intellectual understanding, as Sat or Asat,
Puma or Sunya, Duality or Non-duality (Dwaita or Adwaita), etc., with
regard to the Absolute Truth, since in their view the Absolute Truth is
beyond the scope of such categories and directly realisable in absolute
transcendent experience. Hence they refer to this Ultimate Reality as
Sat in some contexts and Asat in others, Puma in some and Sunya in
others, Adwaita in some and Dwaita in others, and often as above and
beyond Sat and Asat, Sunya and Asunya, Dwaita and Adwaita. Hatha-Yoga-
Pradipikd, a standard work of this school, written by Swatmarama
Yogindra, writes,

fiunya-asunya-vilakshanaw sphurati tat tattwam param sambhavam.

That Ultimate Truth realised in the highest Samadhi through the practice
of Sambhavi-Mudra shines as distinct from Sunya and Asunya. In the very
next sentence it speaks of the bliss of the dissolution of the mind in &unya 9
which is of the character of Consciousness-Bliss, "Bhavet citta-layanandah
Sunye cit-sukha-rupini." Sunya and Brahma are often used synonymously.

(b) Conception of Pure Consciousness:

Similar difficulties arise, when we try to form an intellectual concep-
tion of Pure Consciousness (Cit or Cetana). In the domain of our pheno-
menal knowledge we distinguish between conscious and unconscious beings,
and consciousness appears to us as an attribute of the conscious beings, and
not as a being or substance or reality by itself. Secondly, conscious beings
also are not always found to be conscious, as in the state of deep sleep
or swoon; in such cases though the psycho-physical organism exists and
the mind may be supposed to be existent, there is no indication of the
presence of any consciousness. Thirdly, there are many mental opera-
tions which seem to take place in the subconscious and the unconscious
levels of the mind, and these are evident from our memories and dreams
and other phenomena. Fourthly, we get no evidence of the existence of

42

consciousness, except in relation to and as a quality of a living psycho-
physical organism, and hence we cannot conceive of any unembodied Pure
Consciousness existing by Itself. Fifthly, even in a psycho-physical
organism consciousness does not appear to be a permanent inalienable
changeless feature; but it seems to originate from and continue to exist
under certain favourable conditions. It thus appears to be a temporal
process, having origination, continuity, development, degradation and
destruction, and not a permanent reality. Sixthly, consciousness in our
normal experience invariably involves a subject-object relation. Even a
subject having the capacity for consciousness remains unconscious, unless
there is present before it an object of which it becomes conscious and
unless there is a mental process establishing a relation between the subject
and the object. The subject does not become conscious even of itself
without relating itself to and distinguishing itself from its objects.

On account of all these conditions on which our normal conscious-
ness depends, it becomes almost impossible for us to form an idea of Pure
Consciousness as a self-existent and self-shining Reality-in-itself, transcend-
ing any subject-object relation or any temporal process, independent of
any psycho-physical organism and without any origination and modifica-
tion and destruction, a timeless spaceless eternal infinite non-dual
Absolute Reality. Standing on the plane of normal human experience,
an ordinary intellectualist thinker may very well ask, even if there
be any such Absolute Reality beyond space and time and plurality
and relativity, how can It be conceived as conscious, when there is no
object of which It can be conscious and when It cannot even possibly make
Itself an object of Its consciousness? In the absence of any other objective
reality within or without Itself, Its self-shining or self-luminous character
appears to be meaningless. It may have pure existence, but how can It be
conceived as having a conscious or self-conscious existence?

Enlightened Yogis and philosophers point out that though it may be
difficult to form a clear conception of Pure Transcendent Consciousness
as a self-existent reality in the normal plane of experience, a deeper
analysis of and reflection upon our phenomenal experience reveals the
presence of this self-existent and self-shining, infinite and eternal, Pure
Consciousness as the background of all our experience and knowledge.

First, when a distinction is known between conscious and uncons-
cious beings, does it not imply that phenomenal consciousness and
unconscionsness are both objects of the same Consciousness, that the
affirmation and the negation of empirical consciousness are witnessed and
asserted by one self-illumining subject lying behind both? Would there be
any knowledge of the diverse kinds of conscious and unconscious beings, if

43

there had not been One Consciousness witnessing them and distinguishing
them from one another and at the same time distinguishing Itself from
them? There must be one self-luminous Consciousness underlying and
illumining consciousness as well as unconsciousness.

Secondly, what is the proof of the existence of the objective world,
which is a magnificent organisation of countless diversities of finite and
transitory phenomenal realities? Can there be any valid conception of
such an objective world except with reference to One Universal Subiect-
Consciousness, to Which it appears as such an object, by Which it is
organised and illumined and experienced as a composite objective reality,
Which without Itself undergoing any change and losing Its unity along
with the various changes within this world links together all the temporal
and spatial changes and harmonises and unifies them into one vast complex
and continuous Cosmic System? In truth, we can think of this beginningless
and endless, ever-changing and ever-complicated, ever-diversified and ever-
unified system of the universe, only as existing to and by and for One
Infinite Eternal Self-luminous and All-illumining Universal Consciousness.
Otherwise what we call the world-order or the cosmic system would be
altogether meaningless. Our individual empirical consciousnesses gain only
partial and imperfect experiences of this world-order, in so far as they
are illuminated by that Universal Consciousness, and they partially and
imperfectly participate in Its infinite experience under the limiting psycho-
physical conditions. Our individual experiences must be harmonised by
some Universal Consciousness, otherwise they would have no objective
validity. If and when the individual consciousness can get rid of these
limiting conditions in Nirbikalpa Samddhi, it may be perfectly illumined
by that Infinite Eternal Consciousness and may then be blessed with a
perfect experience of the Cosmic System. In that experience, however,
the Cosmic system will be merged in and unified with that Absolute
Consciousness.

Thirdly, with regard to the unconscious states of the mind in deep
sleep (Sushupti) and swoon (murccha) and the mental functions in the
unconscious and subconscious levels, it may be asked, who is witness to
these unconscious states and the unconscious or subconscious operations
of the mind? Do they not imply the presence of a consciousness of these
unconscious states, distinct from the mental act of awareness? It is quite
evident that if what is called the mind had been self-illumined, i.e., if
self-consciousness had been its essential characteristic, it could not have any
unconscious state. The mind, as it is experienced, passes through various
states, such as waking, dream, sleep and swoon; in every state it passes
through various modifications and changes, which are as a matter of course

44

temporal processes; in the waking state it passes through various sensations
and perceptions, thoughts and imaginations, feelings and emotions, passions
and propensions, desires and wills; in the unconscious or subconscious
state also it passes through various modifications and changes, the effects
of which are experienced in the conscious state; in the mind numerous
phenomena occur, of which it is not at all conscious at the time of
occurrence, but which it becomes conscious of or recollects afterwards.
The very existence of the mind appears to consist in its continuity in the
midst of various modifications and changes.

Every act or process of the mind is a mental modification.
Now, what is it that witnesses all these various states and changes
and modifications of the mind, links them together, relates
them with one another and maintains and reveals the unity and
continuity of the mind in and through them? As the mind, which is
sometimes conscious and sometimes unconscious and undergoes all
these changes in time, cannot rationally be conceived as a conscious
reality by its own essential nature, there must be some self-existent
changeless Consciousness illumining and unifying all the states and pro-
cesses of the mind in all the levels of its phenomenal existence and preser-
ving and exhibiting its unity and continuity. Its conditions of awareness
and unawareness, waking and dream and sleep, are equally revealed to
and by that Consciousness. Without assuming the existence of such an
underlying Witness-Consciousness (Sakshi-Caitanya), the phenomena of the
conscious and sub-conscious and unconscious mind and what is called the
empirical consciousness (Vrini-Caitanyd) cannot be rationally accounted
for. The Witness-Consciousness is a self-illumined reality and is witness
to all the conscious and unconscious states of the empirical mind, witness
to all processes of knowledge and feeling and will as well as the negation of
all such processes and operations of the mind and intellect. It may be regar-
ded as a Changeless Mind behind as well as immanent in the changing mind,
a Super-empirical Mind illumining and unifying all the states and pro-
cesses of the empirical mind. It is the Soul of the psycho-physical organism.

Fourthly, after awaking from deep sleep every person has a
mental awareness of this sort, 'I slept soundly and in perfect peace,
I did not know anything, I was unconscious'. This awareness is
of the nature of remembrance. Now, how can there be such a remem-
brance, if there had been absolutely no experience in that state of deep
sleep? It is reasonable to assume that the state of deep sleep is not a
state of absolute negation of all experience, all consciousness. Though
the empirical mind is then unconscious and ignorant and senseless and
inactive, there must be some sort of non-mental or supermental experience

and consciousness of that unconsciousness and ignorance and senseless-
ness and inactivity of the mind; otherwise this remembrance would not
have been possible. This is an evidence of the presence of one ever-
awake ever-vigilant self-shining Witness-Consciousness, which is witness
to all the changing states of the mind, witness to our knowledge as well
as ignorance, awareness as well as unawareness, all the functions of the
waking and dreaming mind as well as the inactive senseless peaceful
unconscious condition of the mind in deep sleep, and also the subtle
operations and modifications of the mind in the subconscious and uncons-
cious levels.

In the apparently unconscious state the mind remains unified with
that Witne^s-Consciusness, without losing its Sanskdras (impressions of
previous experiences). It is this Consciousness which is the real ground of
the unity of our mental life and is the true Soul of our phenomenal
existence. All the mental states and processes are like waves and ripples
on the surface of the sea of Consciousness. Consciousness is immanent in
them as their real substance and also transcends them as their disinterested
witness. Consciousness is truly the changeless self-luminous substance,
appearing in all the diverse forms of states and functions of the mind
(including those of the intellect, the ego and the heart) and at the same
time distinguishing itself from them as their knower or seer. When the
empirical mind remains in an apparently functionless and unconscious and
unmanifested state or when it functions in a subtle way below the levels
of empirical consciousness, even then it exists as merged in and undifferen-
tiated from the Witness-Consciousness and it is present to that Conscious-
ness with all its dormant impressions (sanskara) and individual charac-
teristics, and it is from that state of unification with this Consciousness
that it reappears to the levels of differentiated and conscious functions.
The self-luminous permanent Consciousness is the unerring witness to
empirical consciousness as well as empirical unconsciousness.

Fifthly, this Witness-Consciousness, underlying and witnessing all
the conscious and semi-conscious and sub-conscious and unconscious states
and processes of the empirical mind and illumining and unifying all its
temporal changes and modifications, cannot reasonably be regarded as
itself a temporal process, undergoing successive changes; for in that case
our reason would demand the presence of another self-luminous and
illuminating changeless Consciousness to illuminate and witness and unify
these changes. Time itself has its existence only with reference to the
changeless Witness-Consciousness. The past, the present and the future,
the before and the after, the moments appearing to be related by way
of succession, must be equally present to the Consciousness, an4

46

must be linked with and distinguished from each other, in order that
there may be idea of time. This implies that there must be a Conscious-
ness, which without itself undergoing changes along with the succession
of moments would witness this succession, which is the essence of time.
The. knower of time must transcend time. The Consciousness which
witnesses all temporal processes and changes and sees them together as
arranged in time cannot itself be regarded as one of the temporal
processes. It must be conceived to be a supra-temporal experiencer of
time, a changeless seer of changes. It must be regarded as a transcendent
iliuminer, and not an empirical process. Its knowledge or experience is
not of the nature of mental modification, but of the nature of illumination
from above or behind. It throws light on all temporal phenomena, without
itself being subject to any temporal change.

Similarly, this Consciousness is the seer and knower, i.e. iliuminer ,
of all the plurality in space and unifier of them into one harmonious
system; but It is not itself a relative reality in space; It is not one of the
plurality constituting the objective world-system; It does not occupy any
portion of space either within the individual psycho-physical organism or
outside. It is iliuminer of the body and not a dweller within it: It
is iliuminer of space and not a occupier of it. It has neither any
temporal nor any spatial limitation. Time and space have their
continuous and boundless existence only for and to this all-immanent and
all-transcendent and all-illumining Witness-Consciousness. It is this
Witness-Consciousness that perfectly reveals Its true character to the
empirical consciousness of a Yogi in the state of Samddhi, when this
empirical consciousness becomes absolutely pure and calm and tranquil
and liberated from the limiting conditions of the psycho-physical organism
and the sense of ego.

Now, it is evident that Pure 'Consciousness and Pure Existence are
the same. Pure Consciousness alone appears to be the sole-existent self-
luminous infinite eternal absolute Reality. It is above and beyond and
behind time, space, causality and relativity. It is necessarily implied in all
derivative contingent conditional non-self-luminous phenomenal realities
in the spatio-temporal cosmic order. They are what they are as revealed
by and to this Consciousness. They may rationally be regarded as deriving
their phenomenal existence from this self-existent Reality. They are
manifested by the self-shining light of this self-luminous Reality. Space
and time, co-existence and succession, causality and relativity, are real
only so far as they are illuminated and revealed by this differenceless and
changeless and limitationless self-shining Consciousness. All differences,
ajl relations, all unities, are revealed by It. They are as it were the diver-

47

sified forms in which this One Infinite Eternal Absolute Consciousness
unfolds and manifests Itself to Itself in a spatial and temporal order.
Nothing can be rationally conceived as having any existence and character
without reference to this underlying Reality.

But it is quite obvious that in our normal experience we are
conscious only of our empirical consciousness. Empirical consciousness is
dependent upon mental modification. It involves a distinction of the self
from its objects. It is of the nature of a temporal process. It is condi-
tioned by time, space and relativity. Hence in the state of deep sleep, in
which the mind is apparently inactive and there is no duality or plurality,
no distinction between the knowing subject and the knowable objects and
between one object and another, we seem to be devoid of empirical
consciousness, though the vital functions go on continuously as in the
waking state and the psycho-physical organism gets refreshed. Now, the
highest state of samddhi is called nirvikalpa, i.e. devoid] of any form of
difference and change. Can there be any empirical consciousness in that
state? The Yoga-Sastras speak of this state as asamprajnata, i.e. without
any empirical knowledge or consciousness. It is a supra-mental state and
in it there can obviously be no such knowledge or experience as arises from
mental modification. If there had been in that state any such knowledge
or experience, it would be relative and conditioned knowledge and in that
case the realisation of the Absolute Truth would have been impossible.
Hence it must be admitted that in the highest state of Samddhi the
empirical consciousness with all its conditions and limitations is absent or
is transcended. But on that account it must not be regarded as empirically
an unconscious state. It is a state of the perfect unification of the
empirical consciousness and its perfect identification with and illumination
by the Absolute Existence- Consciousness. Hence it is a state of the per-
fect fulfilment of empirical consciousness and empirical individuality.

In the following Sloka Gorakhnath gives a beautiful and sublime des-
cription of Pard-Sambit (Pure consciousness), emphasising that It is the
Reality of all realities, the Truth of all existences, the Illuminer and Unifier
of all phenomenal experiences and the Builder of the Cosmic System.

Sattwe Sattwe Sakala-racand rdjate Sambid ekd
Tattwe tattwe parama-mahimd Sambit evd-vabhdti
Bhdve bhdve bahula-tarald lampatd Sambid ekd
Bhdse bhdse bhajana-caturd brimhitd Sambid eva.

S. S. P. IV. 28.

In all orders of substances it is One Sambit that reigns as the unifier
of their parts and attributes; in all orders of realities (the basic elements

48

of substances) it is all-glorious Sarnbit alone that reveals itself; in all
orders of phenomenal existences it is this One Sambit that manifests itself
in finite changing and diversified objective forms; in all kinds of mental
experiences it is this One Sambit that appears in manifold subjective forms
and skilfully assumes various limiting characteristics.

(c) Conception of Pure Bliss:

Thus One Differenceless Changeless Self-existent Self-luminous
Consciousness or Spirit (Sambit or cit) is conceived by the Siddha-Yogis
as the Ultimate Reality and the Sole Source and Soul and Sustainer of all
orders of finite temporal relative phenomenal realities (conscious and
unconscious, living and non-living, organic and inorganic, gross and
subtle) constituting the cosmic system. Besides Perfect Existence and
Perfect Consciousness, another idea is attached to the Absolute Reality,
and this is the idea of Perfect Bliss (Ananda). It is equally, if not more,
difficult to form an adequate conception of Perfect Bliss as the Absolute
Reality in the normal plane of our phenomenal experience. In our normal
life we have experiences of pleasure or happiness, which is an agreeable
state of the phenomenal body or vital organs or senses or mind, which is
necessarily imperfect and limited and temporary and relative, and which is
always conditional upon contacts with objects of enjoyment and other
external and internal circumstances. Of unconditioned unlimited perma-
nent absolute self-enjoyment we have no experience in our actual life, and
we cannot even think of it. We are constitutionally incapable of thinking
of any pleasure or happiness apart from relation to the objects (whether
real or ideal, actual or imaginary, external or internal) which may produce
or stimulate it. Pleasure or happiness does not appear to belong
inherently to the nature of the empirical consciousness. It is occasionally
produced and has generally to be attained through efforts. Sorrow rather
seems to be a more permanent characteristic in our psycho -physical life,
though sorrows also are produced from external and internal conditions.
How can we conceive of Perfect Bliss, and that as an essential character
of Pure Consciousness and Ultimate Reality ?

Perfect Bliss may however be conceived as the highest Ideal of our
conscious life. By nature we seek for more and more happiness. In our
normal life we aspire for more and more intense, more and more durable,
more and more intoxicating, more and more qualitatively superior happi-
ness. Ordinarily the happiness we enjoy is found to be alloyed with and
to be preceded and followed by pain or sorrow. Even at the time of
enjoyment our happiness is often marred by desires for greater happiness
and other kinds of happiness and fears of losing what we have gained. Not
to speak x>f the positive distresses and calamities which overwhelm most of

4$

us so often, no worldly man is at any time fortunate enough to enjoy un-
mixed happiness. Pure happiness, in which there is neither any alloy of
actual sorrow nor any fear of possible sorrow nor any pain of want or
craving for more nor any sense of imperfection or limitation, seems always
to be an ideal, and never an actual fact in the normal planes of human
experience. It is at every stage of human life something yearned for and
hoped for, and never practically attained. The highest ideal of human life
is generally conceived in terms of perfect happiness or bliss (Ananda).

Perfect happiness accordingly implies the consciousness of the perfect
fulfilment of human life, in which there should be no sense of imperfection
in any respect, no sense of bondage or limitation, no want, no desire, no
fear, no sense of dependence upon other forces or conditions for the enjoy-
ment of fulness within. So long as there is any sense of imperfection in the
empirical consciousness of man whether imperfection of knowledge or
imperfection of power or imperfection of goodness or beauty or imperfec-
tion of life (implying the possibility of death), this ideal of perfect happi-
ness or bliss cannot be realised. Nevertheless, the human consciousness
can never abandon this ideal as altogether impracticable to be realised.
The idea of the possibility of the realisation of this supreme perfection is
inherentjn the essential nature of our consciousness. The Mahayogis,
having reached the highest stage of their spiritual self -discipline, self-
concentration and self-illumination, discovered that this supreme Happiness
or Bliss (Ananda), this ideal perfection of existence and life, knowledge
and power, goodness and beauty, eternally pertains to the essential
character of the Pure Transcendent Consciousness, which is the Source
and the True Self of the empirical consciousnesses as well as of the world
of their subjective and objective experiences, and that every empirical
consciousness is endowed with the inherent potentiality and capacity to
realise this perfection and hence this Ananda, by being identified with and
illumined by the Transcendent Consciousness. What is the Supreme Ideal
of our practical life is the Essential Character of our Soul, i.e. the Supreme
Spirit. Hence Self-realisation means the attainment of perfect Bliss.

But to our logical intellect the question remains, how can there be
any positive Ananda in the nature of Transcendent Consciousness, in which
there can be no distinction and therefore no relation between the enjoyer
and the enjoyable, no process of enjoyment, no feeling or emotion or senti-
ment, no psychological process whatsoever? We may no doubt speak of
Ananda in the sense of the complete absence of all actual and possible
sorrows, absence of all feeling of bondage and limitation and imperfection.
But in that negative sense Ananda may be said to pertain to the nature of
inanimate things as well, and every conscious being may be said to be in

50

the enjoyment of Ananda in the unconscious state, in the state of deep
sleep or swoon. This certainly cannot be and ought not to be the supreme
ideal of our conscious life. Ananda can be thought of as the ideal of our
conscious life, if it means not merely the absence of the consciousness of
all sorrow, all imperfection and limitation, but also the presence of the
consciousness of blissfulness, the presence of the feeling of perfection,
infinity, immortality and sweetness within the self, the presence of positive
and unrestricted self-enjoyment. But such positive and really meaningful
Ananda does not seem to be compatible with the character of differenceless
modificationless subject- object -less Transcendent Consciousness.

Mahdyogins however assert with certainty on the strength of their
supersensuous supermental superintellectual experience that Ananda in the
highest positive sense pertains to the character of Transcendent
Consciousness, and that this is definitely realised \vhen the empirical
consciousness shakes off all its impurities and ficklenesses and relativities,
rises above the spatio-temporal limitations imposed by the psycho-physical
organism and becomes inwardly identified with Transcendent Conscious-
ness. Ananda is the fulfilment of the empirical consciousness and is the
nature of Transcendent Consciousness, Which is the true Self of the
empirical consciousness. The realisation of absolute Ananda means the
perfect Self-realisation of the empirical consciousness.

Perfect Existence, Perfect Consciousness and Perfect Bliss, which are
in essence one, are the supreme Ideals immanent in the nature of all spatio-
temporal existences, all conditioned individual consciousnesses, all
imperfect living beings subject to joys and sorrows. These are all moved
by an inherent urge for the realisation of those Ideals. In truth, the whole
process of evolution in the cosmic system is governed from within by these
Ideals. The reason is that these Ideals constitute the essential and ultimate
nature of the true Self of all phenomonal existences, all phenomenal lives
and consciousnesses, in this evolutionary cosmic order. It is the character
of all to seek for self-realisation.

Our normal experience as well as our logical thought based upon it
is confined to the phenomenal world. Here we have experience only of
imperfect existence, imperfect life, imperfect consciousness, imperfect
happiness. All these are subject to the conditions and limitations of time,
space, relativity and causality. Here all existences are of a derivative
conditional changing and destructible nature. Here life is found to be
necessarily associated with a finite and mortal material body; and struggle
for the preservation and development of the material body amidst
favourable and hostile conditions and struggle for the adjustment of the

51

empirical self with the environments appear to be the inalienable
character of life. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for us to
conceive of life without a material body, gross or subtle, or with an
unborn undecayable infinite and eternal body, or free from any kind of
effort for self-preservation i.e. struggle against death. This means that
life which we experience and think of is always imperfect life, life shadowed
by death. All progress of life is towards perfection. Perfect life may be
the ultimate Ideal, the urge of which is at the root of all struggles in actual
life. But when we try to conceive of Perfect Life, i.e. Life which is
infinite eternal absolute, which has no fear of decay or death and no scope
or necessity for further development, in which there is no distinction
between soul and body and there is perfect self-illumination and self-
enjoyment, and in which therefore there is no struggle or effort or activity
whatsoever, we find no indication of real life in this Ideal Perfect Life.
Thus our conception of Perfect Life appears to involve an obvious self-
contradiction.

Similar is the case with our conceptions of Perfect Consciousness
and Perfect Joy or Bliss. Consciousness which we experience and which we
can actually conceive seems to necessarily involve a distinction between
subject and object and a process of knowing or feeling or willing. But this
is the imperfect manifestation of Consciousness under psycho-physical
conditions. Again, we never experience and therefore can never think of
consciousness except as associated with and dependent upon some psycho-
physical embodiment. Under these conditions our empirical consciousness
appears to be always restless. Our consciousness inwardly seeks for
getting rid of the limitations imposed by the psycho-physical embodiment
apparently different from itself. It aspires after transcending all relations
of externality, assimilating all objects within itself and thus liberating itself
from the subject -object distinction and the necessity of any process (i.e.
effort) for bridging over the distinction. The ultimate Ideal which urges
every individual consciousness from within for self-development, self-
expansion, self-refinement and self- fulfilment, is Perfect Consciousness,
Which transcends all spatio-temporal and subject-object relations, and
Which is the true Soul of every individual phenomenal consciousness. But
in the lower planes Perfect Consciousness without subject-object relation
and process appears to involve obvious self-contradiction.

Similarly the idea of Perfect Ananda, in which there is no distinction
and relation between the enjoyer and any object of enjoyment and no
psychological process, appears to be self-contradictory; but this is the
ultimate Ideal of our joy-seeking life and we can never rest fully satisfied
till this Ideal is realised,

52

Thus, we are unable to form a logically consistent conception of
Perfect Existence, Perfect Life, Perfect Consciousness and Perfect Bliss on
the basis of our imperfect experiences in the psycho-physical planes of our
phenomenal existence, struggling life, empirical consciousness and sorrow-
ridden pleasure; but still we cannot altogether deny the ideal-reality of such
Perfect Existence Life Consciousness Bliss and the possibility of Its
being experienced, in as much as This is at the root of our phenomenal
evolutionary conscious living existence and seems to irresistibly urge us
on towards self-transcendence at every stage till perfection is reached.

Philosophical speculation of the intellectualist truth-seekers cannot
reach any certainty ,with regard to the positive reality of this infinite
eternal differenceless relationless supra-mental supra-intellectual Absolute
Existence-Life-Consciousness-Bliss. They generally grope in the dark and
arrive at various mutually-conflicting conclusions. Some become agnostic,
holding that the Absolute must exist, but can never be known or even
conceived. They even refuse to apply the concepts of life, consciousness
and bliss to the Absolute Reality, since these are all borrowed from our
phenomenal experience and necessarily imply relativity and limitation and
change. Some even refuse to app)y the category of existence to the
Absolute, since the concepts of existence and non-existence also are
mutually related and they also are borrowed from phenomenal experience.
Hence the Absolute is negatively conceived by many acute thinkers as
indefinable in terms of existence and non-existence, as above all intellectual
conceptions, as beyond tbe possibility of all positive experience and mental
imagination; but this absolutely indefinable and inconceivable Absolute is
nevertheless presupposed necessarily as the background of all phenomenal
existence, all empirical life and consciousness, all duality and plurality and
relativity and causality, all our experience and thought. Living and moving
and having our actual being in the phenomenal world-order, within which
all our experiences and thoughts are as a matter of course confined, we can
never say or know or even think what the character of the Absolute
Reality is.

(d) Above logical conception :

Enlightened Mahdyogis are not much interested in the question as to
whether Absolute Sat-Cid-Ananda Perfect Existence-Consciousness-
Bliss is a logically self-consistent intellectual conception or not. They do
not entangle themselves in any tarka or logical argumentation with other
schools of philosophers with regard to the precise definition of the nature
of the Absolute Reality. They readily admit that the Absolute Reality is
beyond the scope of formal and empirical logic beyond the range of our
speech and thought. (Yato Vfao nibartante aprapya manasd saha). They

53

are fully aware that whenever people will try to form an intellectual idea
about the nature of the Absolute Reality on the basis of their normal
experience and logical reasoning and with the help of common language,
they are sure to miss the Reality, arrive at mutually conflicting opinions
and quarrel with one another. (Anye bhedaratd vivdda-vikald Sat-
tatwato vancitdh}. They know that what is above space and time, above
duality and relativity, above subject-object relation, cannot be a direct
object of thought to any thinking subject and cannot therefore be truly
described in terms of any qualifying attributes or distinguishing charac-
teristics or any of the common concepts of the understanding.

While admitting the futility of our empirical thought and speech and
logical understanding as means to the true knowledge of the Absolute
Reality, the enlightened Mahdyogis do not accept the agnostic view, the
view of despair. They take their stand on illumined experience, the
direct experience of the transcendent plane. They speak with authority
about the Absolute Reality on the strength of supersensous supermental
superintellectual super-empirical spiritual experience attained in the highest
state of Samddhi, in which the character of the empirical consciousness is
completely transformed, in which the empirical mind and intellect are
perfectly purified and refined and unified and liberated from all the
limitations of the psycho-physical organism, in which the whole being of
the conscious subject transcends the empirical plane and becomes perfectly
free from all spatio-temporal conditions, all subject-object relations, all
duality and plurality and relativity. It is in this transcendent plane that
the Absolute Reality is directly experienced, not as object of experience,
but as perfectly self -luminous Experience Itself. The true Soul of all
experience is unveiled in this Absolute Experience.

As the result of the all-round discipline and purification and refine-
ment of the body, the senses, the vital forces, the mind and the intellect,
and the continued practice of deep concentration and meditation, as well
as the subtle operation of the Immanent Spiritual Ideal, the empirical
consciousness gets rid of all limitations and rises to the plane of Absolute
Experience and realises the Absolute Truth. But so long as the psycho-
physical organism continues, the forces of the lower planes which are
suppressed during the period of the practice of Samddhi, but are not
totally destroyed or radically assimilated, bring the empirical consciousness
down again and again to the mental and intellectual and sensuous planes,
the planes of time, space, causality, and relativity. From Nirutthdna-
da&a the consciousness comes down to Byutthdna-dasd. In these lower
planes, however, the light of the. SamSdhi-Experiece is clouded, but not
Jost. The empirical consciousness, while descending to the plane of

54

relativity, carries with it some sweet and blissful memory of the Absolute
Experience and the spiritual enlightenment attained therein. As a
consequence the enlightened Yogi's outlook on the world of objective
experiences is thoroughly transformed. He looks upon everything, within
and without, from the standpoint of the Truth of the Absolute Experience.
He cannot of course give any accurate description of the Absolute
Experience or the Absolute Truth realised in that transcendent plane, nor
can he form any perfect mental or intellectual conception of that
Experience or Truth. But still he is absolutely certain that that Experience
is the all-comprehending all-uniting all-explaining perfect Experience and
that the Truth realised therein is the Absolute Truth.

Enlightened Mahayogis, while authoritatively asserting the Absolute
Truth on the strength of their Experience (Anubhava), never try to
dogmatise the Truth in terms of the categories of mental understanding or
intellectual reflection. As it has been noted, they do not often attach
much importance even to the most fundamental categories, such as
existence and unity. The Absolute Truth is spoken of by Mahayogis some-
times as Sat, sometimes as Asat, sometimes as Sunya, sometimes as neither
Sat nor Asat. Sometimes they decry those who quarrel about unity and
duality as ignorant.

Adwaitam kecld icchanti dwelt am icchanti c a pare
Param tattwam na bindanti dwaitd-dwaita-bilakshnam

(Avadhuta Gita)

Some uphold adwaha (non-duality) and others uphold dwaita
(duality); they do not realise the Ultimate Truth, Which is distinct from
and transcends both dwaita and adwaita.

In the book Amanaska Gorakhnath says,

Bhava-bhdva-vinirmuktam nasotpatti-vivarjitam
Sarva-samkalpanatltam para-brahma taducyate.

Gorakhnath says that the Absolute Truth Which is realised in the
highest spiritual experience is above the concepts of bhava (existence) and
abhava (negation of existence), absolutely devoid of origination and
destruction, and beyond the reach of all speculations and imaginations,
and That is called Para-Brahma. In the fourth verse of the first lesson of
Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati (already quoted) the great Yogdcharya has
described Para-Brahma as without any name, without any form, without
any ego, without any causality or activity, without any self-manifestation
or any internal or external difference. Gorakhnath along with other
enlightened saints asserts th^t Para-Brahma or the Absolute Spirit,

55

though empirically indescribable, unknowable and even unthinkable, is
perfectly realisable in the state of Samadhi, in which the empirical
consciousness rises above all relativity and becomes one with Brahma.
Pakshapdta-binirmuktam Brahma sampadyate tadd, -the enlightened Yogi
then becomes perfectly identified with Brahma and free from all paksha-
pdta (partisanship, meaning adherence to any particular intellectual view).
He then ceases to be an exponent of any particular philosophical view-
point in opposition to other rival view-points based on the experiences of
the lower planes. Thus the philosophy of Gorakhnath and the Siddha-
Yogi-Sampraddya came to be known as Dwaitd-dwaita-vilakshana-vdda and
Pakshapata-binirmukta- vdda .

For the guidance of truth-seekers however the adoption of intellec-
tual concepts is inevitable. Sat, Cit and Ananda, being the most funda-
mental concepts for indicating the nature of the Reality sought for
by all truth-seekers, are adopted by the Mahayogis, while imparting
lessons to them. Though Sat, Cit and Ananda are not experienced
as distinct characteristics of the Absolute Reality (Pa fa- Brahma) in the
Absolute Experience; it is in these terms that the superempirical undifferen-
tiated self-existent self-luminous self- fulfil led nature of the Absolute
Reality can be most approximately indicated in the mental and intellectual
planes. In the intellectual plane the concepts of Sat, Cit and Ananda
appear to be distinct from each other, indicating different aspects or
qualifications of Reality; in our normal experience we find things which
exist without Caitanya or dnanda and conscious beings without dnanda;
but perfect existence involves perfect consciousness and bliss, and in the
transcendent Experience there is really no distinction between Sat, Cit and
Ananda. The Yogi-Guru has beautifully addressed the Absolute Reality
as Sat -Cit- Ananda- Murti, i.e. One Who reveals Himself as Sat, Cit and
Ananda. He cautions the truth-seekers against misconceiving that
Existence, Consciousness and Bliss are revealed in the transcendent state
as separate and distinct glorious characteristics of the Supreme Spirit.
The perfect Character of the Supreme Spirit, as transcendentally realised
in the highest Samddhi-experience, is interpreted as Perfect Existence,
Perfect Consciousness and Perfect Bliss, though there is no distinction
among them in the nature of the Absolute Spirit. Sat -Cit- Ananda is
regarded as the highest form of self-manifestation of the Formless and
Manifestationless One, as Brahma, Siva, Paramdtmd, Parameswara, etc. are
the holiest names of the Nameless One.

CHAPTER VI

PARA-SAMBIT WITH UNIQUE POWER

Thus the Absolute Reality is described by Gorakhnath and all
Siddha-Yogi philosophers as the Absolute Union of Perfect Existence,
Perfect Consciousness and Perfect Bliss (which also implies Perfect Purity,
Perfect Beauty, Perfect Goodness and Perfect Love) above time, space,
duality and relativity. This Reality is unveiled to the super-conscious
transcendent Experience of a perfectly enlightened Mahayogi in the highest
state of Samadhi, in which there is no subject-object relation and the
experiencing consciousness becomes absolutely united with the Reality.
This Absolute Experience identified with Absolute Reality is Para-Sambit.
To this Experience the phenomenal world-order of time, space, duality,
plurality and relativity does not exist at all and hence the question of any
causal and rational explanation for this world-system does not arise. But
to our normal experience this cosmic system with all its diversities and
complexities and changes and relations and all the phenomenal individualities
and limitations within it does surely exist.

Gorakhnath and the Siddhz-Yogis do not, like some metaphysical
schools, discard the phenomenal cosmic system as false or illusory, or as
having only subjective reality. Illusion or error necessarily pre-supposes
the existence of imperfect and finite observing and knowing consciousnesses
liable to malobservation and erroneous thinking. There is obviously no
such imperfect consciousness outside the cosmic system, which may
possibly be deluded by the false or illusory appearance of this world of
plurality. Nor can we conceive of the existence of any such imperfect
experiencing consciousness, either within or outside the Absolute Reality,
to which this Absolute Reality may falsely or illusorily appear as a system
of phenomenal realities in time and space or which may super-impose such
a phenomenal cosmic order upon the Absolute Reality. All imperfect
conscipusnesses, capable of valid phenomenal knowledge as well as liable
to error and illusion, are within this cosmic system, of which they are
integral parts and apart from which they have no existence. It is therefore
most unreasonable to think that the entire phenomenal cosmic order owes
its origin to the imperfection and ignorance of the individual conscious-
nesses to which it appears as a system of objective realities. In fact, the
cosmic system essentially consists of the plurality of phenomenal
consciousnesses and the diverse orders of objective realities related to them.
The phenomenal existence of the whole system, including phenomenal

57

subjects as well as phenomenal objects, has to be recognised as such from
the standpoint of our normal experience. A rational explanation for this
cosmic system, which is real so far as our normal experience is concerned,
must be obtained from the nature of the Absolute Reality.

Gorakhnath and the Siddha-Yogi school maintain that the Self-
Existent Self- Shining Self- Perfect Infinite and Eternal Consciousness, which
is the Absolute Reality above time-space-relativity, reveals Itself as a
spatio-temporal cosmic system, wherein It originates and develops and
sustains and destroys diverse orders of derivative and finite phenomenal
existences with various kinds of forms and attributes, and a plurality of
imperfect and changing phenomenal consciousnesses embodied in various
kinds of physical and vital organisms and playing their parts in this cosmic
system. While manifesting Itself in this phenomenal pluralistic cosmic
system, the Absolute Reality never loses Its transcendent unity and perfec-
tion. It shines as the changeless self-luminous Soul of the whole system
and of all individual realities within it. This process of self-manifestation
of the Absolute Reality in the spatio-temporal order is without beginning
and without end in time; but Its eternally transcendent non-dual character
is in no way affected by this phenomenal self-manifestation.

But how is this possible? Gorakhnath and the enlightened Yogis
reply that this is the Unique Power (Nijd-Sakti) of the Absolute Reality,
the Supreme Consciousness or Spirit, Brahma. According to them, this
Unique Power must be conceived as pertaining to the essential character
of Perfect Sat-Cid-Ananda-Brahma, since this is evident from the presence
of the cosmic system to our normal phenomenal experience. Power (Sakti)
is a reality which can be known only from its action (kriyd) or product
(kdrya). Even within the domain of our normal experience, the power of
a thing remains non-differentiated from and therefore hidden in the
essential nature of the thing until and unless it exhibits itself in the forms
of actions or effects. Apparently the same thing may have a variety of
powers which are manifested in the forms of different kinds of actions or
effects under different conditions and in relation to different other things.
But all these powers remain unknown and unknowable (at least to our
common understanding) till their manifestations are observed. Their
existence in the nature of the thing, even when unmanifested, must how-
ever be assumed, though by mere abstract analysis of the essential nature
of the thing we may not discover them. Now, if we speak of the power
of a thing, it ought to include all the possibilities of its actions and
self-expressions under all possible conditions. This can obviously never be
fully known. The power of a thing gradually reveals itself to us in course
of the development of our experience about it. It is however clear that the

58

power of a thing (including all possibilities) is essentially identical with the
nature of the thing and has also differentiated self-manifestations. We
cannot create any new power in a thing; we can however help the expres-
sions of the power already existing in the nature of a thing, through the
creation of suitable sets of circumstances.

Powers arc indeed the most amazing and bewildering mysteries in the
nature of things. Diverse kinds of material things, diverse orders of
living organisms, diverge grades of minds and intellects, all are reposi-
tories of wonderful powers, the presence of which could not even be
dreamt of before they revealed themselves under special sets of circum-
stances. Modern sciences are engaged in the discovery of powers, which
have been hidden in and identified with the nature of things since their
creation. Different branches of physical and chemical sciences, sciences
of heat, light, electricity and magnetism, biological sciences, medical
sciences, psychological sciences and so on, all are expanding the sphere
of human knowledge and influence by progressively discovering and mak-
ing use of the wonderful powers, which had been previously unknown and
undreamt of, though present in the nature of things not unfamiliar to
ordinary people. A good many great thinkers of the past and the present,
of the east and the west, came to the conclusion, and not without reason,
that a thing is nothing but a seat or centre of powers, and the entire
world is constituted of powers (condensed into material forms), which are
ultimately diversified manifestations of One Supreme Power or Energy.

Gorakhnath and the Yogi school hold the view that all the harmonis-
ed diversities of phenomenal existences constituting the cosmic system are
the self-manifestations in time and space of the Unique Power of the
Supreme Spirit, Brahma, Whose essential character is Perfect Sat-Cid-
Ananda. Apart from the phenomenal self-manifestations, the Power is
absolutely identical with the Supreme Spirit, but the truth that the power
is inherent in the transcendent nature of the Supreme Spirit is evident
from the spatio-temporal cosmic system in which It is manifested. The
Power, according to them, is the eternal dynamic aspect of the Supreme
Spirit, Brahma. The Absolute Reality, i.e, the Supreme Spirit,
has, in their philosophic view, an eternal transcendent aspect and an eternal
dynamic aspect. In the transcendent aspect the Absolute Reality is
eternally pure changeless Sat-Cid-nanda, and in the dynamic aspect It is
eternally manifesting Itself in the ever-changing ever-old and ever-new
spatio-temporal cosmic system. Or it may be said that by virtue of the
dynamic aspect, i.e. the Unique Power, the super-temporal super-spatial
super -personal Absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss freely and eternally
comes down to the spatio-temporal plane and manifests and enjoys Itself

59

as the Personal Creator and Governor and Destroyer erf diverse kinds of
phenomenal existences and phenomenal consciousnesses and endows Itself
with one continuous cosmic body and innumerable individual bodies.

Thus according to the Yogi-sampraddya the Absolute Reality is
eternally both a changeless differenceless transcendent super-personal
Sat'Cid-Ananda and an ever- self-evolving ever-self-differentiating ever-self-
phenomenalising ever-self-embodying active personal Sat-Cid-Ananda. In
the highest state of samadhi the consciousness of the Yogi is perfectly
illumined by and unified with the transcendent Sat-Cid-Ananda, and the
dynamic aspect of Sat-Cid-Ananda with the cosmic system evolved out of
it does not appear to exist in this subject -object less experience. But
when from tnat timeless spaceless egoless relationless transcendent plane of
experience, the consciousness of the Yogi, illumined by that experience,
descends to the plane of the ego and the mind and the senses and time
and space and relativity, the cosmic system with its diversities and changes
reappears before it; but the entire system with all orders of existences in
it is revealed as pervaded and illuminated by Sat-Cid-Ananda; all objects
of phenomenal experience, though apparently diversified, appear to the
enlightened consciousness of the Yogi as self-expressions of one self-
existent self-enjoying Perfect Consciousness. He sees one Existence in ail
existences, one Consciousness in all consciousnesses, the play of the Ananda
amidst all joys and sorrows of the world.

Thus in the Vyutthana (reawakened) state of the empirical conscious-
ness after Samadhi-expcrience, the Power-aspect of the Supreme Spirit
becomes revealed to the Yogi with all its glories and beauties and
splendours. He finds expressions of the absolute Goodness of the Supreme
Spirit in all the apparent evils of the world, expressions of Its transcendent
Beauty in all the apparent deformities and horrors. Like other men he
has sensuous perception of diverse kinds of worldly phenomena and his
normal heart often responds to them in different ways, but at the same
time he perceives with his enlightened insight one Sat-Cid-Ananda
immanent in and revealed through all of them and hence remains calm
and tranquil under all apparently catastrophic changes of our circum-
stances. He sees with his inner eyes the Infinite in the finite, the Eternal
in the temporal, the Absolute in the relative, the Perfect in the imperfect,
the Blissful in the sorrowful, the Supreme Spirit in all material realities.
Through the most intensive practice of Yoga, his empirical consciousness
may be so refined and illumined that he may at the same time enjoy
transcendent experience of Samadhi and the diversified experience of the
normal plane. The Yogi philosophers do not speak of the varieties of
sensuous and mental experiences as altogether false or illusory and the

60

whole spatio-temporal order as metaphysically non-existent; but regard
these as the evidences of the dynamic aspect of the Absolute, the Unique
Power (Nija-Sakti) of the Supreme Spirit.

(a) Conception of Pure Will:

With regard to the ultimate character of this Unique Power of the
Supreme Spirit, Gorakhnath says, as it has been already mentioned, that
this power is of the nature of Pure Will (Icchd-mdtra-dharmd) and that
this Will is eternally and essentially inherent in the nature of the Supreme
Spirit, Brahma. It is through the operation of this inscrutable and omni-
potent Will immanent in Its nature that transcendent Sat-Cid-Ananda,
while eternally existing and shining by Itself above time and space and
relativity, eternally manifests Itself in time and space as a phenomenal
order of existences and consciousnesses with various kinds of charac-
teristics.

Now, what is meant by Pure Will, and how can Will be consistent
with the nature of Perfect Sat-Cid-Ananda? Ordinarily by will or icchd we
mean desire, which is associated with the feelings of want and imperfec-
tion and dissatisfaction and sorrow. It implies a craving and effort for
certain things or certain changes for the removal of felt wants and
imperfections and sorrows and for the attainment of a sense of temporary
satisfaction. How can Perfect Sat-Cid- Ananda be conceived to have any
such desire? Desires and efforts can pertain only to the nature of
imperfect consciousnesses in this world of limitations and changes. How
can there possibly be any desire or effort in the transcendent nature of the
Supreme Spirit? What can possibly be the motive force impelling the
timeless and spaceless Supreme Spirit to manifest Itself in a plurality of
imperfect existences and imperfect consciousnesses in a world of time and
space? How can there be any place for motive or intention in the trans-
cendent character of Perfect Existence, Perfect Consciousness and Perfect
Bliss? This appears to be obviously absurd.

The Yogi philosophers do not certainly attribute any want or desire
or motive or intention in the empirical sense to the Supreme Spirit. They
do not use the term icchd or will in this sense. Icchd-mdtra or Pure Will
means the immanent urge for self-expression, which is inherent in the
perfect transcendent nature of the Supreme Spirit. Will in this sense is
associated with perfection and not with imperfection, with consciousness
of fulness and not with consciousness of want. Desires originate from
sorrow, while Pure Will is inherent in Ananda. Perfect Existence has an
immanent urge for self-expression in diverse orders of existences; Perfect
Consciousness has an immanent urge for self-expression in diverse orders

61

of consciousnesses; Perfect Ananda seeks self-expression in diverse kinds of
joys. This is the dynamic character of Perfect Existence-Consciousness-
Bliss. Self-expressions must inevitably be through the j processes of
evolution and involution, expansion and contraction, diversification and
unification (vikdsa and sankoca). What is eternally unified in transcendent
perfection is temporally manifested through diverse orders of empirical
realities.

Mahayogi Gorakhnath has given a very interesting account of the
gradual manifestation of the Unique Power of the Supreme Spirit and the
origination and development of the cosmic system and the diverse orders
of material bodies and conscious beings within it. This will be discussed
later on. But what he has specially emphasised in all his dissertations is
that the entire spatio-temporal order and all kinds of empirical realities
within it should be looked upon as the self-expressions of the Divine
Power, Which is essentially identical with the Divine Spirit. He has paid
equal homage to the transcendent and the dynamic aspects of the Absolute
Reality. He has drawn pointed attention to the truth that the dynamic
nature (Sakti) of the Supreme Spirit (Brahma or Siva) is immanent in Its
transcendent nature, and the transcendent nature also is immanent in the
dynamic nature and all its spatio-temporal self-expressions. He has shown
that as the Divine Sakti is non-different from the Divine Spirit, and as all
the products or self-manifestations of Sakti are essentially non-different
from Sakti, an enlightened person should learn to see and appreciate the
Divinity of the world and all existences in it, he should see God in all
and all in God. In the samddhi-experience all the changing diversities of
the world-order are merged in the changeless transcendent Unity of the
Absolute Spirit, and in the enlightened waking experience the Unity of the
Absolute Spirit is perceived as unfolded in various names and forms in the
cosmic system.

The Siddha-Yogi teachers, while forming a philosophical conception
of the Absolute Reality, do not base their conclusion purely on transcen-
dent experience in the highest state of Samadhi, but also take due note of
the phenomenal experiences in the normal planes of practical life. Thus
they try to present before the truth-seekers a most comprehensive concep-
tion (as far as practicable) of the Absolute Reality. The Absolute Reality
is conceived as the Supreme Spirit (Adwaya Sat-C id Ananda) realised in
transcendent experience as well as the Spiritual Source of all relative
realities of phenomenal experience, Pure Spirit as well as Spirit revealed
through Power. To the Yogi The Absolute Spirit is thus Nirguna as well
as Saguna, Niskriya (actionless) as well as Sakriya (active), Impersonal w
well as Personal, Transcendent as well as Immanent,

CHAPTER VII

SIVA AND SAKTT IN ETERNAL UNION

Since time immemorial in all the sacred literature of the Yogi
Sampradaya the Supreme Spirit, the Ultimate Spiritual Reality behind
all phenomenal existences, - the Changeless Differenceless Nameless Form-
less Self-luminous Non-dual One, has been designated as Siva, and the
Self-modifying Self-differentiating Self-multiplying Dynamic Source of all
spatio-temporal relative phenomenal existences has been designated as
Sakti. The world of diversities and changes is the self-manifestation of
Sakti, and in our worldly experiences the true transcendent character of
Siva remains veiled from our view and we see only the multiform self-
expressions (vildsa) of Sakti. Even the true nature of Sakti is not
revealed to us, since we do not actually experience all the forces and
phenomena of the world as the self-expressions of One Self-unfolding
Sakti. We neither perceive One Self-existent Self-shining Reality behind
all derivative relative realities, nor do we perceive One Self-revealing Free
Ultimate Power behind all changing phenomena and secondary forces. We
live and move and have our being apparently in a world of plurality and
changes, but we do not know how and wherefrom this world has come
into being and how and by what power it is sustained and regulated and
systematised and towards what goal it is ceaselessly moving on. But our
rational consciousness is impelled by an inner urge to discover Unity
behind all plurality, One Supreme Reality behind all realities of our
experience, One Supreme Power originating, controlling and harmonising
all forces and phenomena, and One Supreme Law behind all the laws of
nature. All scientific and philosophical efforts are governed by this urge and
aspiration immanent in the human consciousness.

The universally adored enlightened Yogis claim to have discovered
some methods of spiritual self-discipline for the perfect satisfaction of this
urge and aspiration. Through the most earnest practice of these processes
of self-discipline they ultimately attain to a state of perfectly illumined
consciousness, in which that One Reality behind all relative realities is
directly experienced and the true character of the Ultimate Power behind
all phenomena and forces is also fully unveiled. In the foregoing dis-
courses we have sought to give a general idea of the nature of that
Ultimate Experience, the nature of the Reality experienced therein and the
nature of the Power pertaining to that Reality. The Siddha-Ybgl
Sampradaya, to which Gorakhnath belonged and whose religious and

63

philosophical terminology and nomenclature he usually adopted in his
teachings, referred to that Supreme Transcendent Reality as Siva and that
Supreme all-originating all-embracing Power as Sakti. Siva with Sakti
eternally and essentially immanent in His nature, or Sakti in eternal
union with Siva, is, according to this Sampradaya, the Absolute Reality.

In Siddha-Siddhdnta-Paddhati Yogi-Guru Gorakhnath has variously
described this eternal and essential union between Siva and Sakti, the
Supreme Transcendent Spirit and the Supreme All-originating Power. He
says

Sivasya abhyantare Saktih Sakter abhyantare Sivah
Antaram naivajdnlyat candra-candrikayor iva.

Sakti is immanent in Siva, and Siva is immanent in Sakiii see no
difference between the two, as between the moon and the moon-light.
Here in the illustration the Mahay ogi conceives the moon as the serene
light in the most concentrated form shining by itself and within itself, and
the moon-light as the self-expression of the moon in the form of rays
radiated in all directions round about the centre. Evidently in accordance
with this conception of the moon there is no essential difference between
the moon and the moon-light, just as between a flame of light and the
light diffused from it (between dipa-Sikha and dipdloka). The moon-light
has no existence apart from and independently of the moon, and the
moon also, though (figuratively speaking) self-existing and self-shining has
no self-manifestation except through the moon-light inherent in its nature.

In the same way, says Gorakhnath, Siva is the eternal and infinite
(above the plane of time and space) Soul and Seat of Sakti; He is, so to
say, Sakti in the most concentrated self-centred self-conscious self-enjoying
transcendent form without any self-expression or self-unfoldment in the
shape of actions or phenomena; Sakti again is the infinite and eternal
dynamic Power inherent in and pervading the transcendent nature of Siva
and She is the self-manifestation of Siva in the form of the continuous
evolution and involution of the cosmic system. Siva may be described as
the Spirit or Soul of Sakti, and Sakti as the Body of Siva, there being
essentially no difference between the Soul and the Body, since the Body
is nothing but the self-expression of the Soul. Siva may be spoken of as
Sakti in the transcendent plane, and Sakti as Siva in the phenomenal plane.
Apart from and independently of Siva, Sakti has no existence, and if
Sakti is negated, Siva has no self-expression, no manifold self-manifesta-
tion) and even no self-conscious personality. It is by virtue of His Sakti,
that Siva becomes conscious of Himself as omnipotent omniscient and
perfectly blisssul Personal God, and as the Creator and Governor and

64

Enjoyer of the cosmic order. In His transcendent nature His Sakti is
hidden (avyaktd) in Him, and in the cosmic self-unfoldment of His Sakti,
He is Indweller (antaryami) in His Sakti and in all Her diversified
phenomenal self-manifestations and wonderful plays. In His cosmic self-
expression Siva appears to keep Himself concealed behind the sportive
operations of His Sakti and to enjoy them as the Innermost Soul of a whole
order, and in His supra-cosmic transcendent nature Sakti remains concealed
in Him, (Antarllnct-Vimarsah).

Gorakhnath says in clear terms,

Sivopi Sakti-rahitah saktah kartum na kincana

Swa-saktyd sahitah Sopi Sarvasya Abhdsako bhavet

(S.S.P.IV.13)

Siva, bereft of His Power, is not able to do a single thing; but with
His own Power He becomes the absolute revealer (creator and illuminer)
of all orders of existences.

It is said that Siva, the Supreme Spirit, does not even experience
Himself as the Supreme Spirit without being reflected on His Sakti, Which
serves as the spiritual mirror to His nature.

He continues,

Ala eva parama-kdranam pararntswarah pardtparah Sivah,
Swa-swarupatayd sarvatomukhah sarvdkdratayd sphuritum saknoti,
Jiyatah Saktimdn.

By Himself Supreme above the Supreme (transcendent above the
highest phenomenal realities and above time and space and action), Siva,
by virtue of the infinite Power inherent in His nature, becomes the
Supreme Cause of all phenomenal existences and the Supreme ISwara
(Personal God), and with His essential self-luminous self-perfect character
not in the least affected, becomes many-faced (paying attention to all
directions) and manifests Himself in the forms of all kinds of phenomenal
existences.

The unique capacity of Siva (the Supreme Spirit) to remain eternally
absorbed in the enjoyment of His changeless differenceless self-luminous
transcendent existence and just the same to reveal and enjoy Himself as
the Personal God creating and governing and destroying countless orders
of conscious and unconscious phenomenal existences and pervading them
all as their Indwelling Self, is, according to the Siddha-Yogis, the sure
evidence of the Infinite Power inherent in His nature. Iti atah saktimdn,

65

thus He must be possessed of Power, asserts Siddha-Yogi Gorakhnath
in an argumentative way. Further he makes the clear statement,

Ata eva ekdkdrah ananta-saktimdn nijdnandatayd avasthitah api
ndndkdratwena bilasan swa-pratisthdm swayam eva bhajaii iti byavahdrah,

Alupta-saktimdn nltyam sarvdktiratayd sphuran, punah swenaiva rupena
eka eva avasishyate.

(S.S.P.1V. 12)

Hence, Siva, though essentially dwelling in His own perfectly blissful
ditferenceless and changeless nature with His infinite Power immanent in
Him, playfully (without any effort and out of the fulness of His nature)
manifests and enjoys Himself in manifold forms (ndndkdratwena bilasan),
and thus practically appears in the dual aspects of the enjoyer and the
enjoyable, the creator and the created, the supporter and the supported,
the soul and the body, the self and its expressions, etc. He never
abandons His Sakti and His Sakti is never alienated from Him (alupta-
saktimdn nityam). Thus though by virtue of His Sakti He eternally (in
time) manifests Himself in all kinds of forms, (sarvdkdratayd sphuran), He
in His own Self eternally (timelcssiy) exists as one without a second (eka
eva avasishyate) y as the changeless differenceless non-dual Reality as
Nirguna Brahma.

Gorakhnath, as a philosopher, takes a most comprehensive view of
the Absolute Reality and attaches almost equal value to the transcendent
experience of Samddhi and the enlightened phenomenal experience of the
normal waking state. He equilibrates (samarasa-karana) the two planes
of experience. He brings down the Light of the transcendent experience
to the plane of the phenomenal experience, and raises up the contents of
the phenomenal experience to the supra-phenomenal plane for the fullest
conception of the Absolute Reality. In the transcendent experience of
Nirbikalpa Samadhi there is no room for difference and change, no room
for duality and relativity, no definite indication of any Power or the
Dynamic Nature of the Supreme Spirit; in this experience time and space
are concentrated in the supra- temporal supra-spatial absolute self-luminous
unity of the Supreme Spirit, all duality and relativity are merged in non-
dual Unity, the entire cosmic system is assimilated in one subject-object-
less self-existent blissful supra-personal Consciousness. This might appear
to be the experience of Siva Without Sakti, Nirguna Brahma Kevala
Siva, the Absolute Non-dual Spirit. There is no doubt that this is the
Ultimate Truth, since this experience is the ultimate fulfilment of the
truth-seeker's life-long search for Truth. It is in this Experience that the
search for Truth reaches its goal.

66

But the world of phenomenal experiences, which is transcended and
unified in this Experience, can not be disregarded as absolutely false;
because in that case there would be no real individuality of the truth-
seeker and the truth-seer, no real spiritual urge and spiritual discipline
for the realisation of the Truth, no attainment of the transcendent
experience, no ascertainment of the character of the Absolute Reality.
The denial of the phenomenal world or the phenomenal experience would
be a self-contradictory proposition. All affirmations and denials belong
to the domain of phenomenal experience. The denial of duality and
relativity would itself imply the existence of duality and relativity. The
transcendent experience of the Mahay ogi being the final fulfilment of
phenomenal experience, the absolute falsity of the latter would render the
former meaningless.

On the other hand, this world of duality and relativity revealed to
phenomenal experience cannot be conceived either as self-existent and
self-revealing or as having some other independent source of existence
and revelation; for in that case the intensive search for the Ultimate
Truth of this world would not end in the discovery of Siva, the change-
less differenceless self-existent self-luminous non-dual Spirit, and the
phenomenal consciousness would not have its ultimate self-fulfilment in
the super-phenomenal subject-object-less Transcendent Experience. Siva,
therefore, must be the Ultimate Truth of this phenomenal world, and
He must have in his nature the Ground and Source of this world, the
Dynamic Urge and Power for manifesting Himself phenomenally in a
spatio-temporal order of ever-changing relative diversities and enjoying
the infinity of His transcendent nature in infinite forms of phenomenal
existences.

Accordingly the Siddha-Yogis proclaim that !iva, the Supreme
Spirit, has eternally a non-dual (adwaita) nature and a dual (dwaita) nature,
a transcendent nature and a phenomenal nature, a self-absorbed nature
and a self-active nature, a self-concentrated nature and a self-diversifying
nature, an inwardly self-enjoying nature and an outwardly self-enjoying
nature, a nameless formless changeless differenceless absolute nature and
also a nature of perfectly free self-manifestation in innumerable names
and forms and wonderful varieties of changes and differences constituting
the cosmic system. Siva is eternally above and beyond the world,
untouched by the worldly activities and changes and diversities, and
He also eternally manifests Himself as the world of ceaseless changes
and endless diversities, as the omnipotent and omniscient Lord of
this world, and as the innermost Soul of all the beings that are
appearing in and disappearing from this world. He is transcendent of as
well as immanent in the cosmos.

67

An enlightened Maha-Yogi sees and recognises and makes self-
offering to Siva in both these aspects, in both His transcendent and
dynamic aspects, in His non-manifested and manifested aspects, and does
not disown or disregard either of these eternal characteristics of the
Divine Spirit. It is the dynamic aspect of the nature of Siva, that is
conceived and described as His Sakti, His eternal infinite unique Power
of revealing and enjoying Himself in infinitely diverse ways, in a pheno-
menal world of plurality and changes. This Sakti is not conceived as any
distinct attribute or quality or any special feature of the character of Siva.
Siva's Sakti is no other than Siva Himself. To the Yogis Siva is Sakti
and Sakti is Siva. In His transcendent nature Siva appears as if without
Sakti, since Sakti has no outer expression in that state. But in reality
Sakti is not then altogether absent. The dynamic aspect of Siva is
then perfectly identified with and indistinguishable from His trans-
cendent aspect. In His phenomenal self-expression the dynamic aspect
is more predominant; Siva then reveals Himself as Sakti. He then appears
as the Cosmic Player, the Cosmic Dancer. This dynamic self-manifes-
tation in changeable diversified forms in the temporal plane does not
however create any duality or plurality or transformation in His supra-
temporal transcendent nature. Sakti exists in the nature of Siva not as
a second reality, but as one with Him. The manifold self-expressions of
Sakti in the spatio-temporal order are also essentially non-different from
Sakti and hence from Siva. Thus, according to the Siddha-Yogis, Siva,
though always with Sakti and eternally manifesting Himself through His
Sakti-aspect in the plurality of changing phenomenal forms, is eternally
the One without a second, the non-dual change-less self- shining self-
enjoying Brahma, the absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. Though
eternally playing various games and eternally dancing in various rhythms,
Siva is eternally in the state of perfect Samddhi. He is thus worshipped
as Maha-yogiswareswara, the eternal Guru and Ideal of all Mahayogis.

Gorakhnath, in pursuance of the long line of enlightened Siddha-
Yogis, explains the spiritual identity of Siva and Sakti and describes
Sakti as revealing the unity of the transcendent and phenomenal aspects
of Siva. He says,

Saiva Saktir yadd sahajena swasmin unmllinydm nirutthdna-dasdydm
vartate, tadd Sivah sa eva bhavati. Ata eva kula-akula-swarupd sdmarasya-
nija-bhumikd nigadyate.

(S.S.P. IV. 1,2)

That same Sakti (Which is the Ground and Cause and Sustainer of
the multitude of phenomenal forms), when existing in Her essential self-
illumined transcendent character in Siva, remains as absolutely Identical

68

with Siva. Hence She is described as equally of the nature of Kula and
Akula, as of phenomenal as well as transcendent nature,- and as reveal-
ing the perfect harmony and unity of both these aspects in the state of
spiritual illumination.

Kula and Akula represent the two aspects of Reality. Akula implies
Eternal Being, and Kula implies Eternal Becoming. Akula means the
noumenal essence of Reality, and Kula means the phenomenal self-expres-
sion of Reality. Akula refers to the Infinite Eternal Absolute Self-existent
One, and Kula refers to the self-manifestation of the One in the forms of
finite temporal relative derivative existences. Akula points to Changeless
Differenceless Transcendent Existence-Consciousness-Bliss (Sat-Cid-
Ananda), and Kula the self-revelation of this Transcendent Existence in
various orders of phenomenal existences, the self-revelation of this In-
finite Self-luminous Consciousness in diverse orders of finite conditioned
phenomenal consciousnesses, the self-revelation of this perfect non-empi-
rical limitless Ananda in numerous forms of limited empirical enjoyments.
Kula exhibits Akula under various kinds of limitations and makes these
limitations also materials for the self-enjoyment of Akula. In the pheno-
menal self- manifestations of Transcendent S at -C id- Ananda, all existences
are limited by births and deaths and transformations, all consciousnesses
are limited by ignorance and error and processes and subject-object-
relations and psycho-physical conditions, all joys are limited by sorrows
and wants and necessary objects and conditions for enjoyment. In the
Kula-aspect Akula freely and delightfully manifests and realises and enjoys
Himself in the phenomenal planes in and through various forms of self-
imposed limitations, while in His ^/:///a-aspect He eternally exists and
shines in His blissful undifferentiated transcendent Self, above and un-
touched by all these phenomenal self-manifestations. This is the Unique
Power (Nijd-Sakti) of Siva. His Sakti, pervading His whole nature,
eternally links together His transcendent and dynamic characters and is
therefore called Kula-Akula-Swarupa.

It has been noted that in the sfate of Nirutthana or Samadhi, Sakti
is revealed as Siva, and in the state of Vyutthana or reawakenment from
Sam&dhi, Siva appears as Sakti, and that there is really no difference
between the two aspects of the Absolute Reality. The empirical conscious-
ness of the Yogi, when it transcends the conditioned phenomenal plane of
experience and ascends to the transcendent plane, becomes transformed, as
it were, into differenceless changeless effortless Transcendent Consciousness
and wholly identified with the Akuta-aspect of the Absolute Reality. When
it descends back to the phenomenal plane with the illumination obtained
in the higher plane, it experiences Akula as embodied in Kula, Siva as mani-

69

fested through Sakti, the Transcendent Existence-Consciousness-Bliss as
assuming various forms of phenomenal existences, consciousnesses and
imperfections and playing various parts in the ever-changing cosmic
system. In the highest plane it experiences pure Adwaita^ Unity with-
out difference and change, and in the lower planes it experiences
Dwaita-Adwaita, Unity with differences and changes, the Absolute playing
freely and delightfully in the world of relativity. In the transcendent "plane
it becomes Absolute Experience without any distinction between the experi-
encer and the experienced Truth, and in the phenomenal planes it becomes
the experiencer and the Reality appears to it as an objective Truth embodi-
ed in varieties of forms. In the super-empirical plane its sense of indivi-
duality is merged in the all-embracing all unifying all -transcending Pure
Experience, and in the empirical planes its sense of individualistic ego is at
the centre of all its experiences. An enlightened Maha-Yogi, expert in the
practice of Samadhi, easily passes from one plane of experience to the
other by the concentration of his attention. He therefore feels an inner
harmony and unity of both the planes of experiences. He feels the
presence of the Dynamic Ground and Source of phenomenal experiences
in the nature of the Reality of transcendent experience and feels the
presence of the Reality of transcendent experience in the midst of
his phenomenal experiences. Thus he feels the presence of Sakti in the
transcendent non-dual nature of Siva, and the presence of Sat-Cid-
Ananda Siva in all the evolutions of Sakti, he feels the presence of
Kula in Akitla and Akula in Kula. Kula and Akula are in the closest and
most delightful embrace with each other in the spiritual experience of a
Mahd-Yogi He sees the infinite in the finite and the finite in the infinite,
Spirit in Matter and Matter in Spirit.

Akuhtm kulam ddhatte kulam cakulam icchati
jula-hudbuda-bat nydytit ekdkdrah Parah Sivah

(S.S.P.IV. 11)

Akula embraces Kula, and Kula yearns for Akula. The relation is
analogous to that between water and water-bubbles. In reality Para-Siva
(Supreme Spirit) is absolutely One.

The idea is that it is the inherent nature of Akula (non-dual Spirit)
to manifest and enjoy Himself in the form of Kula (the system of pheno-
menal dualities), and that it is the inherent nature of all dualities to seek for
union with the Non-dual Spirit, since they are in truth one and the same.
To illustrate the relation between the Adwaita and the Dwaita, Gorakh-
nath takes the example of water and bubbles. Water remains in its
essential character as water and at the same time appears in the forms of
bubbles. Outwardly the bubbles appear to be different things, born froni

70

water, dancing on the surface of water, playing distinct parts and hold-
ing distinct relations with one another, and again being destroyed or
losing their identity in the mass of water. Water becomes bubbles and
bubbles become water. We witness these phenomena. We can not deny
them as false. But still when we deeply look into the phenomena, we are
convinced that even in the forms of bubbles water does not become any-
thing other than water. In the changing multiplicity of bubbles water
remains the same water all along, it does not really undergo any change
and does not really become many. Similar is the case with the relation
between Akula and Kula, between the Transcendent One Siva and the
varieties of His phenomenal self-manifestations in the spatio-temporal
order through the operation of His Dynamic Power, Sakti. The varieties
appear to come into particularised existence from the Universal Existence
of Siva, play particular parts in this phenomenal cosmic system, hold
different relations with one another and the whole system, and in the end
lose their differentiated existences in the undifferentiated existence of
Akula Siva. But even in these spatio-temporal self-manifestations Siva
does not become some reality or realities other than Himself, does not
substantially transform Himself into someting distinct from Himself, does
not lose His Universal Existence in the particularised existences; His
akhanda-satta remains eternally the same in and through the appearance
and disappearance of all forms of khanda-satta. Hence amidst all cosmic
manifestations a Mahd-Yogi experiences Ekakarah-Parah-Sivah, the One
undifferentiated self-shining Supreme Spirit. He sees Akula in Kula,
Adwaita in Dwaitct, the Changeless Infinite in all changing finites, the
perfect Sat-Cid-Ananda in all phenomena of nature. There is perfect
samarasya of the Transcendent and the Dynamic in his experience.

Thus the essential identity of Siva and Sakti is an important truth
in the philosophy of the Siddha-Yogi school. Sakti is no other than Siva
Himself, viewed as mainfesting and enjoying Himself in the spatio-
temporal cosmic system. The Supreme Spirit, Siva, is Himself the Efficient-
cum-Material Cause of the universe, and in this aspect He is called Sakti.
This Sakti, i.e. Siva in this aspect is eternally devoted to the service of
Siva in His transcendent aspect. Thus Siva and Sakti. i.e. the Supreme
Spirit as the transcendentally infinite and eternal self-existent self-
luminous self-enjoying Soul and the same Spirit as the phenomenally
infinite and eternal self-active self-evolving self-multiplying Power,
are as it were eternally wedded to each other, eternally in loving embrace
with each other, eternally in inseparable union with each other. Siva
eternally illumines and spiritualises Sakti and all Her evolutions in the
phenomenal system, and Sakti eternally reveals the infinite existence and
consciousness and beauty and goodness of Siva in an infinite variety of

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phenomenal names and forms and contributes to the eternal enjoyment
of Siva. Transcendent Siva is the Soul of the cosmic system and of all
the diverse orders of existences within it; Dynamic Siva, i.e. Sakti, consti-
tutes the body of the system and all individual bodies within it.

Siva is looked upon as the Father, and Sakti as the Mother of the
universe, though there is essentially no distinction between the Father
and the Mother, and there is no question of gender in the sensuous
sense in that plane. Siva as the transcendent efficient Cause of all
phenomenal realities is conceived as the Father, and Sakti as the dynamic
material Cause actively assuming diverse forms and sustaining and nursing
them and again assimilating them within Herself is conceived as the Mother.
Siva shines and reigns as the Soul in all, and Sakti builds up the body
and the life and the mind and the intellect for Him and contributes to
His self-expression and self-enjoyment through their various functions in
various stages of their developments. In this phenomenal order of self-
manifestation, Sakti has a diversifying tendency (prasarana) as well as a
unifying tendency (Sankocana). She diversifies the One and unifies the
many. She creates many existences out of One Existence, and again
unveils the essential Unity of all existences through a process of illumina-
tion. She materialises the Spirit and again spiritualises matter. She
furnishes the Spirit with various kinds of physical and vital and mental
bodies and fields of self-expression and self-enjoyment, and reveals the
essential spiritual character of all these bodies and the entire cosmic play-
field. She finitises the Infinite and again exhibits the One Changeless
Infinite in all changing finites. This two-fold play of Sakti is ceaselessly
going on.

It is evident that the Siddha-Yogi school does not conceive of the
Ultimate Cause of the phenomenal cosmic system as one non-spiritual non-
conscious Primordial Matter or Energy, called Prakriti, eternally associat-
ed with an infinite number of inactive self-luminous spiritual souls, called
Purusha, and spontaneously modifying itself according to a process of evolu-
tion into this world of diverse orders of existences, as the Sankhya school
of Kapila does. Nor does it conceive of this Ultimate Dynamic Source
of phenomenal existences as of the nature of some inscrutable Cosmic
Ignorance or some inexplicable neither-real-nor- unreal Principle or Power
(called Maya) somehow veiling the essential transcendent Sat-Cid-Inanda
character of the Absolute Spirit (Brahma) and creating (with Brahma as
the changeless differenceless self-luminous Substratum) an illusory world
of bewildering diversities, as the orthodox Adwaita school of Sankara
does. Nor does it support the view of those advocates of Dwatia-vdda,
who hold that the Material Cause of the world of plurality is of the nature

72

of a non-spiritual Reality or a Power or Energy, which is eternally and
existentially different from the Supreme Spirit, but is eternally associated
with, related to and dependent upon the Supreme Spirit, and which trans-
forms itself into and sustains the world of phenomenal diversities under
the supervision and direction and governance of the Supreme Spirit. Nor
does it agree that this Power is merely an attribute or quality of the
Supreme Spirit and is related to the Spirit just as an abstract quality to a
substance.

According to the Siddha-Yogis, the Source of this world is not a mater-
ial substance, but a Spiritual Reality, not an Acit-Sakti, but a Cit-Sakti, not
of the nature of Avidyd or Maya (an illusion-producing inexplicable Ignoran-
ce), but of the nature of Vidya or Sambit (knowledge or Consciousness), not
essentially dvarana-vikshepdtmikd (of the character of a Power for veiling
the Truth and falsely superimposing illusory diversities upon It), but
prakdsa-vimarsatmikd (of the character of a Divine Power for revealing
the Supreme Spirit and bringing out in a variety of forms the infinite
glories and beauties of His transcendent nature). Gorakhnath describes
the Power thus, "Pctrdpara-Vimarsa-rupinT Sambit ndnd-sakti-mpena
nikhila-pindddhdratwena vartate Iti siddhdntah?' One Dynamic Conscious-
ness-Power, whose character is to unfold in various higher and lower
(collective and individual) forms the nature of the Absolute Spirit, manifests
Herself in the forms of diverse kinds of forces and countless species of
pindas (bodies) and holds them together in Herself by the living unity of
Her all-pervading spiritual existence. She is conceived as self manifesting
self-diversifying all-harmonising all-unifying ever-active Dynamic Sat-Cid-
Ananda. The Supreme Power, the Divine Mother and Nurse of the
universe, is Sat-Cid-Ananda-mayee i.e. of the nature of perfect Existencc-
Consciousness-BHss.

The view of the Siddha-Yogi school with regard to the Dynamic
Source of the cosmic system is found to be generally akin to that of the
Tdntrik school. According to both the schools, the Power (Sakti) from
Which this phenomenal world of our normal experience is originated and
by Which it is sustained and regulated and in Which it is ultimately
merged and unified, is the Divine Power, the self-conscious and self-active
Power of the Supreme Spirit (Cit-Sakti), the Power Whose essential nature
is self-unfolding self-multiplying self-delighting Perfect Existence- Con-
sciousness-Bliss (Atma-bildsim Sat-C id- Ananda- Swarupinl Sivam-Sakti) and
Which is inwardly in eternal union with and non-different from Siva, the
Supreme Spirit, the Transcendent Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. Both the
schools maintain that this sublime and beautiful cosmic order (in which
we as finite conscious beings play our allotted parts and obtain scope for

73

self-enlightenment and elevation to $Ji$ super-empirical plane of Absolute
Experience) is the product, not of a Power of Darkness, but of a Power
of Light, not of a Power of Evil, but of a Power of Supreme Goodness,
not of a Power that veils and distorts the Face of Truth, but of a Power
that reveals in a spatio-temporal order the infinite Goodness and Richness
and Bliss inherent in the nature of Truth, not of a Power antagonistic to
the Transcendent Supreme Spirit, but of a Power delightfully devoted to the
loving service of the Spirit and participating in His infinite joy. The
enlightened persons of both the schools see the Transcendent Spirit revealed
in the Power, see in the cosmic play of Sakti the play of Cit, see in all the
waves of the world the reflections of Brahma.

The cosmic system with all its apparently bewildering complexities
and catastrophes is often described by them as Cid-Vilasa, i.e. the luxuries
as it were of the Spirit, the delightful self-expressions of the transcendent
perfection of the Spirit. Matter also is looked upon as a form of self-
expression of the Spirit. They see the play of the Spirit in all material
phenomena. To them matter, life, mind, intellect, all these appear as
forms in which the Supreme Spirit is playing various delightful games
through the medium of His unique Sakti, His Power of diversified self-
manifestation, Which is non-different from Himself. Thus they look upon
the whole world as Spiritual, they look upon their own bodies also as
spiritual, they enjoy all phenomena of mundane experiences as the joyful
play of Siva- Sakti.

It is generally known that from time immemorial the Siddha-Yogis
have been upholders of the Path of Renunciation (Nibritti-Marga) and the
Ideal of Perfect Self-Illumination in Sa?nddhi,~ihQ Ideal of Kaivalya or
Moksha or Nirvana, the Ideal of Absolute Sivahood. The enlightened
teachers of this Sampraddya have always scrupulously practised and
preached abstinence, calmness and tranquillity, mastery over the body, the
senses, the vital forces and the mind, freedom from all worldly desires
and passions and attachments, unconcernedness with all outer affairs of
the world and deeper and deeper concentration into the innermost spiritual
self-shining nature of the Soul. But nevertheless they did not entertain or
preach any pessimistic view about the cosmic order or phenomenal
existence. They never taught the spiritual aspirants or seekers for libera-
tion from worldly sorrows and bondages to cultivate the feeling that all
(mundane existence) is sorrow, all is evil, all is ugly and repulsive in this
phenomenal world, that this world had its origin in some sort of Ignorance
or Illusion or some sort of Deceptive Power veiling and distorting the
nature of Truth, that the existing order of things is devilish or the whole
plan of the world is satanic, or that the world is the chance-product of

74

some Wind Material Energy and man in his conscious life has always and
inevitably to struggle against the forces of the world, which are by nature
hostile to the aspirations of the human consciousness. Many religio-
philosophical schools, advocating the Ideal of Moksha or Nirvdna or
Perfect Liberation and the Path of Renunciation and Deep Meditation,
deliberately teach their followers to cultivate such views and feelings about
the world and the worldly life. Such views and feelings, whatever may be
their practical .values in the path of spiritual self-discipline, appear to be
repugnant to the spiritual philosophy of the Siddha-Yogi school, to which
Gorakhnath belonged.

According to this school, this world originated not from Ignorance,
but from Fullness of Knowledge which is characteristic of iva-Sakti, not
from any Deceptive Power veiling transcendent nature of the Supreme
Spirit, but from the Nija-Sakti of the Supreme Spirit, through Which the
Spirit reveals His transcendent Sat-Cid-Ananda character in various forms
of phenomenal existences, consciousnesses, activities, beauties and enjoy-
ments under various kinds of freely self-imposed spatio-temporal limita-
tions. The enlightened saints of this school teach the truth-seekers to see
in this world-order not the sorrows and evils and repulsive scenes created
by any hostile Satanic Force, but the delightful plays of One Supremely
Loving Motherly Power, Who is eternally full of affection and mercy for
Her children, Who is leading Her children (Her own self-expressions) in
this cosmic system through various stages and various circumstances
towards perfect illumination and realisation of Siva in themselves. They
teach us to appreciate and enjoy the world as Cid-Vilasa, as saundarya-
lahari, as ananda-lahari, as the Spirit in various playful garbs, as the
waves of the Ocean of Beauty and Bliss.

CHAPTER VIII

GRADUAL UNFOLDMENT OF SAKTI

The first chapter of Gorakhnath's Siddha-Siddhdnta-Paddhati is
devoted to the exposition of the gradual self-unfoldment of Sakti,
immanent in the transcendent nature of Siva, the Supreme Spirit, leading
step by step to the manifestation of the magnificent Cosmic Body of Siva
and the diverse orders of individual bodies within it.

From our foregoing discussions it must have been evident that
Gorakhnath and his school are supporters of what is generally called
Satkdrya-vdda. They maintain that the world of effects exists before its
actual production in an unmanifested (avyakta) state in its Material
Cause (Upadana-Kdrana), and they hold that the Spiritual Power of Siva
or the Supreme Spirit in His dynamic aspect is the Material Cause (as
well as the Efficient Cause) of this cosmic system, which appears to our
phenomenal experience as a vast material world. From the view-point of
Sat-Kdrya-Vdda they assert that all the diverse orders of realities of this
material world exist, before their manifestation in the effect-forms, as
undifferentiated from one another and hence altogether unified in the
nature of their ultimate Material Cause, viz. the Divine Power, Which also
being then -actionless exists as perfectly identified with the Supreme Spirit,
Siva. Siva-Sakti has then no outer self-manifestation. Siva does not in
that state even experience Himself as the Owner of Sakti or as a Dynamic
Personality. Siva, with Sakti absolutely immanent in and identified with
Him, exists as differenceless and changeless Pard-Sambit or Pure Sat-Cid-
Ananda. From the metaphysical stand-point this is conceived as the
eternal transcendent nature of the Ultimate Reality, the Supreme Spirit,
and from the phenomenal empirical or temporal stand-point this is con-
ceived as the pre-creational (Sristeh prdk) state or the state of Mahd-
Pralaya (absolute dissolution) of the cosmic order. Creation and Dis-
solution have reference to the phenomenal world of diversities; 'before'
and 'after* have reference to time and change. Before creation and after
dissolution of the phenomenal world, only the Ultimate Reality, i.e. the
Supreme Spirit, exists in His own self, in His transcendent nature. Nothing
else exists. There is no evidence of even space and time. But the facts
of creation and dissolution indicate that the vija (seed) of this world must
exist in the nature of that Non-dual Spirit even before creation and after
dissolution and that this vija must exist in the form of the Power of the
Spirit, the Power Which has no self-expression in that state and is
therefore absolutely identical with the Spirit.

76

Now, when we look at the relation between the Cause and the
series of effects from the phenomenal or temporal view-point, we find that
what remains folded in the cause becomes unfolded in the effects, what is
potentially existent in the cause becomes actually existent in the effects
through the causal operations, what is involved in the cause is gradually
evolved in time in the forms of the effects. From this point of view the
process of causation or evolution or becoming apparently shows some
progress or advance from unity to plurality, from simplicity to complexity,
from homogeneity to heterogeneity, from potentiality to actuality, from an
unmanifested state to more and more manifested states; and the process
of dissolution or destruction again shows a regress or backward movement
from plurality to unity, from complexity to simplicity, from heterogeneity
to homogeneity, from actuality to potentiality, from the gross manifested
states to some subtle unmanifested state. The pre-creational state of being
and the state of being after total destruction or dissolution appear to be
exactly similar or the same. Temporally the state of being before the
beginning of the actual cosmic process and after the end of the actual
cosmic process must be*conceived as a state of being which is as good as
non-being, an absolutely unmanifested state of being (avyakta), a state of
absolute void (sunya). From the view-point of the temporal process there
is nothing improper in the statement that the cosmic system starts from
Sunya and ends in Sunya, or that it starts from Avyakta and ends in
Avyakta, or even that it starts from Nothing and ends in Nothing.

But it must be remembered that this temporal process cannot have
any absolute beginning or absolute end, since Time cannot have any
beginning in time or end in time. The state of Dissolution preceding the
beginning of the current creative process must itself have been preceded
by a state of Creation, and the state of Dissolution which will follow the
present state of Creation will again be followed by another order of Crea-
tion, and so on. From the phenomenal view-point there is a continuous cycle
of Dissolution followed by Creation and Creation followed by Dissolution
without any absolute starting point or absolute termination. Every Dis-
solution, though apparently a state of Void, contains in undifferentiated
unity the seed or the material cause of the future Creation, and every
Creation also contains in its nature the ground of its destruction and goes
ahead inevitably in course of time towards Dissolution. This Sristi-sthiti-
pralaya-cakra is temporally an eternal order, and this is the Cosmic
System. Gorakhnath and Siddha-Yogis also accept this view from the
phenomenal standpoint.

From the metaphysical view-point the Cause is not to be conceived
as temporally antecedent to the effects or as being transformed into the

77

effects through any process of change. The Ultimate Cause of the world
of plurality and change must be conceived as above time and space and
as having no spatio-temporal relation with the cosmic system which is Its
effect. It cannot be thought of as passing through any spatio-temporal
process in order to produce this effect. All spatio-temporal processes and
relations are within this cosmic system, which originates from the Ultimate
Cause. The origination of the cosmic system from the differenceless
changeless self-existent self-luminous Supreme Spirit (with infinite Power
immanent in His nature) cannot be compared to 'the origination
of the tree from the seed or to the originsation of milk-products
from milk or to the origination of cloth from thread or to the
origination of earthen vessels from earth or to any other case of real
origination within the world of our experience. In all such cases the
cause and the effect belong to the same plane of experience, they are
equally subject to spatio-temporal conditions, they are similarly governed
by forces and laws of nature, and some changes take place in the cause
for the production of the effect. No such case can possibly bear compari-
son with the causal relation, in which the Cause belongs to the supra-
temporal supra-spatial supra-phenomenal spiritual plane and the Effect
consists of all existences in the temporal spatial phenomenal plane, in
which the Cause is One Infinite Eternal Unconditioned Non-dual Spirit
and the Effect comprises all possible differences and diversities and
changes and conditions, in which the Cause is absolutely free, perfectly self-
fulfilled, infinitely good and beautiful and blissful in His transcendent nature,
and the Effect consists of various kinds of creatures suffering from bondages
and sorrows, natural and moral evils, deformities and imperfections, etc.
The Cause is unique and the Effect also is unique. The beginningless
and endless cycle of Creations and Continuities and Dissolutions is
within the phenomenal Cosmic Order and as such is related to the all-
transcending Supreme Spirit as His effect. The Supreme Spirit must be
conceived as the Absolute Cause of this beginningless and endless order,
without any change or modification or Transformation in His transcen-
dent nature and without any effort on His part. What can be nature of
this unique causal relation?

It has already been noticed that Siddha-Yogi philosophers conceive
of this unique causal relation as Cid-vilasa or Siva-Sakti-vilasa, which means
perfectly free and delightful sportive self- manifestation of the Transcen-
dent Spirit in the phenomenal plane. This view implies that in the nature
of the Spirit there is immanent some unique Power or Sakti, by virtue of
which the Spirit (Caitanya) without any change or modification in His
transcendent spiritual character and without any desire or effort, manifests
and enjoys the infinite glory of His nature in the phenomenal plane, in

78

the plane of time and space and relativity, in the plane of succession and
co-existence and varieties of relations and limitations, in the forms of
numerous conscious and unconscious, living and non-living, mental and
material, finite and changing phenomenal realities. This is what is called the
free unfoldment of His Sakti. It is not unfoldment in the same plane, like
the unfoldment of a bud into a flower or a fruit or that of a seed into a
plant or that of an embryo into an animal-body. In the super-temporal
super-spatial super-relative transcendent plane of pure Existence-Conscious-
ness-Bliss there is no question of folding and unfolding, no question of
contraction and expansion, no question of involution and evolution. All
these conceptions pertain to the phenomenal plane.

According to the view of the enlightened Maha-Yogis, the Truth that
is absolutely realised in Itself above time, space and relativity in the trans-
cendent plane, is always in the process of realisation under conditions of
time, space and relativity in the phenomenal plane. It is a sort of
progressive realisation of the perfect One as imperfect many, of the un-
conditioned absolute One as the conditioned relative many, of the change-
less noumenal One as the changing phenomenal many, of the spiritual One
as psycho-physical many. This is of the nature of the free play and self-
enjoyment of one self- fulfilled Spirit in many names and forms under a
variety of self-imposed conditions and limitations in time and space. It
is the delightful self-expression of a Reality of a higher plane in the forms
of many realities in a lower plane and enjoyment in innumerable instal-
ments as it were of the infinite riches of Its nature enjoyed as one un-
differentiated whole in the higher plane. This is described as Cid-Vilasa
and self-unfoldment of the Power of the Absolute Spirit.

The Vedantists of Sankara's school describe this self-manifestation of
the transcendent Absolute Spirit in the phenomenal plane as Cid-Vivarta
and hence they are called Vivarta-Vadi. Vivarta is distinguished from
Parindma, since the latter implies a kind of transformation of a Cause
(partly or wholly) into effects of the same order of reality as the Cause,
while the former means the appearance of a Cause in the forms of effects
of a lower order of reality without involving any change or modification
in the Cause. Vivarta-Vadis hold that as the Supreme Spirit is above all
changes and modifications, He cannot be regarded as a real cause of a
real world-order, but only an illusory cause of an illusory world-order. He
falsely appears as the world of plurality. For the illustration of such
illusory causal relation, i.e. the false appearance of a cause in the form
of an effect which it neither becomes nor actually produces, they often cite
the examples of a rope appearing as a snake, an oyster appearing as a
piece of silver, the appearance of mirage in the desert, and so on. These

79

are generally examples of invalid or defective perception, the perception
of some object as something which it is not (adhydsa), under certain
conditions, on account of the imperfections in the powers of the senses
and the mind of the perceiver. When the true knowledge of the object
is attained by the perceiver through more careful observation under better
conditions, the illusion disappears and it becomes evident that the thing
as wrongly perceived was never produced at all. These are regarded as
cases of Vivarta, and on the analogy of such examples all cases of Vivarta
are regarded as cases of illusion (adhydsa) by the aforesaid Vivarta-Vadis.
Accordingly they come to the conclusion that the phenomenal world of
plurality and change is nothing but an illusory appearance of the Supreme
Spirit to the people suffering from positive Ignorance (avidya) or erroneous
knowledge, and that when the true knowledge of the Supreme Spirit is
attained by them it becomes evident that the world was never created
and never really exists as such. The orthodox Vedantists of Sankara's
school take great pains to prove the illusory character of the phenomenal
world, and in order to make this illusory appearance logically compatible
with the non-dual character of the Supreme Spirit they have conceived the
idea of one mysterious M dyd, which they do not regard as the real unique
Power of the Supreme Spirit, but which they conceive as a neither-real-
nor-unreal positive entity somehow mysteriously existing with Him and
revealing Him eternally in illusory names and forms in an illusory world.

The Yogis agree with the Vedantists in holding that the Supreme
Spirit is the One Changeless Non-dual Reality and that this beginningless
and endless phenomenal cosmic order is neither a product of His wishful
creation \Arambha-\ada) nor a product of His self- modification or self-
transformation (Parindnu-Vdda). The Vivarta-Vdda of the Vedantists is
not unacceptable to the Yogis, if Vivarta means the self-manifestation of
a Reality of a higher order in the forms of realities of a lower order,
i.e. the self-manifestation of One Transcendent Spirit in the forms of a
plurality of phenomenal existences. But the enlightened Yogis find no
reason why such self-manifestation should be regarded as illusory appear-
ance, nor do they see any necessity for recognising such an inexplicable
extraneous entity or power, called Maya, essentially unrelated to the
Supreme Spirit, for explaining this self-manifestation of the Supreme Spirit
in the forms of phenomenal realities. What the Vedantists conceive as
Maya is given a much more exalted position by the Yogis, who regard this
Maya as the Cit-Sakti (the unique and incrutable, eternal and infinite
Power of the Spirit for free self-expression in infinite ways), immanent in the
essential nature of the Supreme Spirit, Who by virtue of this Power freely
and delightfully manifests the transcendent glory of His nature in the forms
of manifold phenomenal realities. This Maya is adored by them as

80

Mahdmdyd or Yogamdyd. They do not accept the analogy of rope-snake,
oyster- silver, mirage, etc. for explaining this wonderful world-order, since
such analogy would irrationally pre-suppose the existence of imperfect
observers before the appearance of this phenomenal system. Mdyd, if
conceived as the Mother of the Cosmic order, must be regarded as the
real Power of Brahma.

Yogi-Guru Gorakhnath, in his Siddha-Siddhdnta-Paddhati, gives an
interesting account of the gradual self-unfoldment of the Divine Sakti
Mahdmdyd or Yogamdyd, towards the creation of the phenomenal cosmic
system. The exposition starts from the conception of the Absolute One,
the Transcendent Sat-Cit-Ananda,m Whom the Power is absolutely un-
manifested and undifferentiated from the essential nature of the Spirit.
The Power is then of the nature of Pure Will (Icchd-mdtra-Dharmd)a
Will which wills nothing and as such is altogether indistinguishable from
the Wilier (Dharminl). The Will is immanent in the Non-dual Spirit, but
it has no manner of manifestation, not even a subtle impulse to manifest
itself in duality or plurality. The presence of the Absolute Will-Power in
the transcendent nature of the Absolute Spirit indicates His absolute freedom
of self-manifestation and self-enjoyment in all planes of existences. There
is no second Power to limit His freedom or to offer any resistance to His
Will-Power, and there is again no necessity or determining force for His
self-manifestation in any particular form at any particular time. By
recognising the presence of the absolute Will-Power in the transcendent
nature of the Absolute Spirit, the Yogi school gives recognition to the
perfect-freedom of the Spirit to reveal and enjoy His infinite and eternal
Existence-Consciousness-Bliss in the forms of various orders of existences
and consciousnesses in diverse planes at all times. The unfoldment of His
Sakti is perfectly free and is therefore appropriately described as the
expression of His infinite joy (dnanda-vildsa),

In his exposition of the gradual self-unfoldment of the Divine Sakti,
Gorakhnath first describes five stages of Her progressive self-manifestation
and characterises each of the stages in terms of five attributes (guna). The
Nijd-Sakti, i.e. the Divine Power in Her original form, in which She is
of the nature of Pure Will and is wholly indistinguishable from the trans-
cendent character of the Supreme Spirit, is mentioned as the first stage
and is described as possessing these five attributes, viz., Nityatd, Niranjan-
natd, Nishpar.datd, Nirdbhdsatd, and Nirutthdnatd. (I. 10). Nytatd means
eternity, which implies that this Sakti is eternally and inalienably present
in the nature of the Spirit. Niranjanatd means stainlessness, which implies
that She is absolutely pure and participates in the perfect self-luminosity of
the Spirit. Nishpandatd means vibrationlessness, which implies that there

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is as yet no internal change nor even any positive urge for change in tier
nature. She is perfectly calm and tranquil and enjoying sound sleep as it
were within the bosom of Siva. Nirdbhdsatd means unreflectingness,
which implies that as the existence of Sakti is not yet distinguishable
from that of Siva, the character of Siva is not reflected upon Her. Lastly,
Nirutthdnatd means unawakenedness of Her own character as distinct
from the transcendent character of Siva. At this stage Siva is Sakti and
Sakti is Siva. This is pure Pard-Sambit.

At the second stage there arises within the self-radiant Divine Will
(Nijd-Sakti) a very subtle impulse or tendency (unmukhatwa) to activate
Herself, to unfold Her dynamic character. The apparently sleeping Will
becomes as it were characterised by an inner awakening about Her infinite
phenomenal possibilities together with an inner urge for their gradual
realisation in the phenomenal plane. The Power Which was wholly
unmanifested in and identified with the transcendent spiritual nature of
Siva is now slightly manifested as a distinct aspect within His nature.
Siva appears to be dimly conscious of Himself as the Possessor of this
infinite Sakti and to experience Her as His own dynamic nature. Some
sort of distinction without difference arises between Siva as the changeless
differenceless self-existent self-luminous self-enjoying Supreme Spirit and
His Infinite Power of self-manifestation. The Power seems to become an
Object of delightful experience to Him within Himself. Sakti then exists
no longer perfectly as Siva, but in and for Siva At this stage Sakti is
spoken of as Pard-Sakti. Says Gorakhnath,

Tasya unmukhatwa-mdtrena Pard-Sakti rutthitd. (I. I. 6).

This Pard-Sakti is the first slightly unfolded form of the eternal
Nijd-Sakti of the Absolute Spirit, Brahma or Siva. She is the Supreme
Mother of all Powers, all orders of existences, all orders of individualised
consciousnesses, the whole phenomenal universe. There is as yet no actual
movement or action in Her. From Nimtihdna-dasd this is the first
utthdna-dasd of Sakti. Gorakhnath describes this Pard-Sakti also in terms
of five attributes ( Pancu Gundh), viz., Astita, Aprameyaw, Abhinnatd,
Anantatd, Avyaktatd. (I. I. 11). The first attribute predicable of Pard-
Sakti is spoken of as Astita, which means the quality of existing. The
intention obviously is that prior to the self-unfoldment of Sakti as Para-
Sakti, even existence as an attribute could not be predicated of Her, in as
much as Nijd-Sakti was absolutely identified with Pure Existence-Cons-
ciousness-Bliss and could not be said to have the quality of existence of
Her own. Pure Existence conceived as the character of the Supreme Spirit
should not also be confused with the quality of existing, there being no

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subject-predicate or substance-quality relation in His essential transcendent
character.

The second quality by which Para-Sakti is characterised Is Aprameyatd,
which means immeasurableness. Being free from all kinds of determinations
or limitations, being the Supreme Mother or Originator of all kinds of de-
terminations and limitations, spatial, temporal, etc., Her nature is evidently
incapable of being measured, i.e. spatially or temporally, quantitatively or
qualitatively, or in any other way determined or limited.

The third attribute is Abhinnata, which means undifferentiatedness.
There is nothing, whether outside or within Herself, from which She can
be differentiated as a separate entity, nor is She differentiated from the
Supreme Spirit, in and for Whom She exists.

The fourth attribute is Anantata, which means infinitude or inex-
haustibleness. Pard-Sakti, though as yet undifferentiated from the trans-
cendent nature of Siva, contains within Herself infinite contents, which are
inexhaustible in temporal, spatial and phenomenal manifestations. She
may continue to manifest Herself in infinite ways through eternity, but Her
possibilities will never be exhausted; there will continue to be ever-new
creation from within Herself. The richness which is immanent in the
transcendent dynamic nature of the Supreme Spirit can never be exhausted
through manifestation in the phenomenal plane, in the plane of time, space
and relativity.

The fifth attribute is Avyaktatd, which means unmanifestedness. This
implies that all the inexhaustible richness of Her nature, though present
eternally, is up to this stage wholly unmanifested.

Pard-Sakti has within Herself infinite wisdom, infinite beauty, infinite
goodness, infinite splendour, infinite power, infinite life, infinite love,
infinite happiness, She has within Herself all the supreme ideals of
conscious existence perfectly realised, but all these remain unmanifested,
undifferentiated, unified in Her supra-temporal supra-spatial supra-phe-
nomenal nature. The dynamic aspect of the essential nature of the
Supreme Spirit is at this stage at the junction, as it were, of the transcen-
dent and the phenomenal planes, the plane of absolute Existence-Cons-
ciousness-Bliss and the plane of His relative spatio-temporal self-expres-
sions. Siva, qualified by this infinitely rich and powerful Creative Will,
as yet unmanifested, but tending towards manifestation, seems to advance
one step in the direction of revealing and enjoying Himself as a self-cons-
cious self-determining Creative Personality.

The self-unfoldment of the immanent Divine Power as Pard-Sakti, as

83

expounded by Gorakhnath, may remind one of the Upanishadic conception,
"Tad aikshata, vahu sydm, prajdyeya" , That (Non-dual Brahman) witness-
ed, I will become many, I will become phenomenally born. The absolutely
indeterminate Being (Sat) the One without a second (Ekam eva adwiti-
yarn), willed to be born in the plane of time and space as determinate
many, to manifest Himself as a cosmic system and as Indwelling Spirit of
this system. It should be noted that to the Transcendent Spirit willing and
witnessing are the same, and this involves no change in His perfectly calm
and tranquil self-luminous nature. It may also remind one of the mantra
of Ndsadiya-Sukta y "Kdmas tad agre samavartatddhi" , Will to create first
came into existence, and this will was the first seed of mind, (manaso
ret ah prathamam yad dsit.

At the third stage some sort of vibration (spandana) or internal
agitation arises in the infinite spiritual bosom of this Par d- Sakti. The
Divine Will is then characterised by some internal push for external self-
manifestation, though not by any outward transformation. Sakti somewhat
activated by such spandana within Herself is designated as Apard-Sakti.
Tctsya spandana-mdtrena Apard-Sakti rutthitd. (I. I. 7).

The five attributes of Apard-Sakti are, Sphuratd, Sphutatd, Sphdratd,
Sphotatd and Sphurtitd. (I. I. 12). It is difficult to bring out the exact
significance of each of these attributes. Sphuratd seems to imply that
Sakti at this stage has not merely the quality of existence, but somewhat
agitated existence, existence agitated with an inner movement for self-
revelation. Sphutatd seems to imply that Sakti has now a more manifested
presence in and before the consciousness of Siva, a more explicit presence
in His self-experience. Sphdratd seems to mean that this Sakti has a
tendency for further self-unfoldment or self-expansion, that there is in Her
an incessant pull for progressive self-manifestation or self-externalisation.
Sphotatd seems to indicate that the realities which remain ideally present,
but actually unmanifested, in Her nature, are seeking for realisation in the
phenomenal plane. Sphurtitd seems to imply that there is an inner delight
and enthusiasm in Her nature for the gradual unfoldment of Her inner
glories in the phenomenal plane. Thus what is called Apard-Sakti is one
step forward towards the outward self-manifestation in the spatio-temporal
plane of the transcendent glories of the Divine nature. The dynamic
aspect of the character of the Supreme Spirit is somewhat more explicitly
manifested at this stage. Brahma or Siva as the sole Owner, Illuminer,
Seer, Enjoyer and Soul of the Creative Will appears at this stage somewhat
like an active Self-revealer through His dynamic nature, though He in
Himself transcends all forms of actions and dwells in the realm above
time, <pace and relativity.

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Here again we should keep in remembrance that the phenomenal
world of plurality and succession has not yet come into existence. There is
no earth or water or fire or air or ether ; no sun or moon or star ;
no day or night, no light or darkness, no heat or cold ; no knowing subject,
no knowable object or event. Siva or Brahma alone exists, without any
in and out, without even any ego-consciousness. He has, as it were, just been
awakened from the state of N irbikalpa-Samadhi and become conscious of
Himself as possessed of infinite power or energy and also of a sort of pulsa-
tion and thrill within Himself for some indefinable creative self-expression.
His consciousness is still inwardly immersed in the transcendent blissful
experience of the perfectly changeless and difTerenceless state, but along with
that His consciousness seems to have become somewhat dynamic and
agitated for outer self-expression.

Then comes the fourth stage, in which one pure I-ncss or Egohood
evolves within the dynamic consciousness of Siva or Brahma. His cons-
ciousness then takes the form of "I am conscious of myself", though there
is no differentiation between T as the concious subject and 'myself as the
object of consciousness. One pure I-ness pervades the entire subtly-agitated
dynamic consciousness. The Divine Sakti is at this stage called Sukshmcl-
Sakti. Gorakhnath says,

Tatah Ahamta-matrena Sukshma-Saktih utpannd. (I.I. 8)

At this stage of the self-unfoldment of Sakti in the direction of pheno-
menal self-manifestation, Siva appears to be revealed as the sole self-
conscious self-determining dynamic Personality. Before this stage Siva had
been an Impersonal or Superpersonal Spirit, He had been as it were so
immersed in Himself as not to be fully conscious of the infinite glory of His
self existent self-conscious omnipotent dynamic nature. Now He becomes a
Personal God. But even now He is the One without a second. Even now
there is no differentiation or relativity in His self-consciousness. He is
conscious of Himself as One Integral Personality, without any parts,
without any psychophysical embodiment, without any differ-
entiated self-expressions, without any distinction between in and out. The
Mahd-Yogi Philosopher in his usual manner describes the nature of this
Sukshma-Sakti in terms of five attributes : Viz, Niramsata, Nirantarata,
Niscalata, Niscayata, Nirbikalpata. (I.I. 13)

Niram&ata implies that this Divine I-consciousness does not involve
any duality or plurality or relativity within itself. Nirantarata implies that
there is no discontinuity or any temporal or spatial gap in this I-conscious-
ness. Niscalata implies that there is no fickleness or no expansion and
contraction or no increase and decrease of intensity in this consciousness,

85

Niscayata means perfect certitude or fulness of self-knowledge. It implies
that here there is no room for any doubt or error or any element of
uncertainty, which usually pertains to empirical and conceptual knowledge.
Nirbikalpata implies that this Divine Self-knowledge is not of the nature of
such know edge as involves any empirical process or any abstract concep-
tion or any speculation or theorisation ; there is not even any phenomenal
subject-object relation in it. This is pure omniscience ; the "Supreme Spirit
with His Sakti being all that really exists, His self-knowledge is truly all-
knowledge.

Thus though Siva has now the delightful self-experience as the
absolute Divine Personality, absence of any distinct duality or plurality,
absence of any temporal sequence or spatial co-existence, absence of any
empirical process of cognition or volition or emotion, absence of the sense
of any limitation or imperfection or unrealised ideal, absence of any doubt
or uncertainty or incompleteness with* regard to the eyperience, are the
characteristics of His perfectly calm and tranquil and all- comprehending
self-consciousness. He now perceives His non-duality, His omnipotence and
omniscience, His infinite and perfect existence, but there is no process
or effort or relativity in this act of perception. What is called the Vimarsa-
Sakti of the Spirit, the inherent Power of Self-reflection and Self-
experience of Siva, is revealed at this stage.

It is quite evident that this I-consciousness of Siva or Brahma or
the Supreme Spirit is altogether of a distinct character from the ego-
consciousness of individual persons of the phenomenal world. It is for this
reason that Gorakhnath has studiously mentioned the absence of the
characteristics of the ego-consciousness of finite individuals in the perfectly
illumined Self-consciousness of the Supreme Spirit. By virtue of this
perfectly illumined I-consciousness the Supreme Spirit experiences Himself
as the absolutely perfect Spiritual Personality. The self-consciousness of a
man of the world, however empirically enlightened, is under the influence
of Avidya and therefore involves duality and plurality, process and change,
limitation and imperfection, etc. The I-consciousness of the Supreme Spirit
is spoken of as the manifestation of His Suddha-Vidya (pure self-illumina-
tion), which is characteristic of His Sakti.

This I-consciousness of the Supreme Spirit is referred to in the
Upanishad in the conception of "Aham Brahma astni" (I am Brahma). A
Yogi can, through the intensive practice of spiritual knowledge and deep
meditation, get his empirical consciousness perfectly illumined and particip-
ate in this I-consciousness of the Supreme Spirit, when all the limitations
and dualities and relativities of his individual ego-consciousness vanish and
he experiences his oneness with the Supreme Spirit. This elevation

86

Yogi's consciousness to the enlightened spiritual plane is also a form of the
self-expression of the Divine Sakti, and this will be dealt with later on.
Here we are discussing the downward or outward progress of the Divine
Consciousness for diversified self-expression in the phenomenal plane, in the
plane of space and time, plurality and change. It is the perfect dynamic
Self-consciousness of the Supreme Spirit that freely and delightfully unfolds
Itself in this phenomenal cosmic order.

At the fifth stage within the self-conscious spiritual Personality of Siva
His Sakti unfolds Herself as a distinct Psychic Power,- a Power character-
ised by the processes of knowing, feeling and willing, though as yet no
objects of knowledge, feeling and will as externally related to the Power
have evolved. This Sakti is called KundalM- Sakti. "Tato vedana-slla Kunda-
lini'Sakti rudgata." (I.T.9). Gorakhnath in his usual way speaks of this
Kundalini-Sakti as characterised by five attributes, viz., Purnata, Pratibim-
bata, Prabalata, Proccalata, Pratyagmukhata. (I.I. 14).

Purnata means perfect character. It may also imply infinite possibi-
lities of self-manifestation, self-diversification, self-transformation. She is
the material cause of the amazingly complicated phenomenal universe. She
contains within Herself in a potential form (in a coilt d form as it were) the
entire spatio-temporal order. She is spoken of as the Seed (bija) of the
cosmic process, which is the phenomenal uncoiling of this Sakti. Pratibim-
batd implies that She operates as a sort of mirror, upon which the self-
luminous spiritual character of Siva is capable of being reflected in an
infinite variety of forms, material, vital, mental, intellectual. Prabalata
means omnipotence, infinite capability, unlimited power for creating
from within Herself various orders of existences and sustaining and regulat-
ing them harmoniously and again assimilating them within Herself.
Proccalata implies Her inherent self-transforming, self-expanding, self-
multiplying and also self-harmonising and self-unifying character. She
is quite free or self-determined in Her internal and external movements and
She is the controller of the movements of finite and temporal beings born
of Her and nourished in her lap. Pratyagmukhata implies that even while
unfolding Herself in the direction of phenomenal creation or self-diversifica-
tion and maintenance and destruction of diversities, Her face is always
directed towards the Supreme Spirit, Siva, Who is Her Soul and Lord, Her
Illuminer and Inspirer, the Sole Being of Her being and becoming, in
Whom, By Whom and for Whom, She eternally exists and moves and
to contribute to Whose infinite delight She plays Her part. As the playful
Sakti has Her face invariably towards Siva, the Supreme Spririt, all the
children of Sakti, all Her phenomenal self-manifestations, also have an
inherent yearning for ponscious union with Siva, all consciously or

87

unconsciously move towards blissful union with Him. His akti creates out
of Herself every individual body as a specialised seat for the self-expression
and self-enjoyment of iva, Siva is, truly speaking, the Soul in every
individual body as well as of the cosmic body.

CHAPTER IX

SELF-MANIFESTATION OF SIVA AS
COSMIC PURUSHA

Having thus expounded the gradual self-unfoldment of Sakti within
the spiritual transcendent nature of Siva, Gorakhnath concludes that in
this way the Supreme Spiritual Body of Siva is born, in which all the
qualities of all the live stages of Sakti's internal self-unfoldment are
harmoniously manifested and organised as it were in His Self-Conscious-
ness. This Supreme Spiritual Body of the Absolute Spirit is called by the
Siddha-Yogis Para-Pinda. "Evam ca Sakti-tattwe panca-panca-guna-yogdt
Parapindotpattih." (I.I. 15). Gorakhnath summarises his statement by
quoting an earlier authority. He says, "Uktam ca.Nijd-Pard-Apard-
Sukshmd-Kundalini dsu pancadhd, Sakti-tattwa-kramena-uttho jdtah Pindah
Parah Sivah." It has been said (by recognised enlightened Maha-Yogis)
that Siva was born (jata) as it were as Para-Pinda (Supreme Body)
through the progressive evolution of Sakti-Tattwa within His nature in the
five forms of Nva, Para, Apard, Sukshmd and Kundalini with their
characteristic attributes.

It is to be carefully remembered that though on account of the
natural limitations of our power of thinking as well as of our power of
giving verbal expression to our thoughts we have to describe the so-called
progressive self-unfoldment of the eternally inherent Sakti of the Absolute
Spirit in the language of temporal succession and development; the time-
factor in our empirical sense does not really exist there in the spiritual
plane and does not condition the self-unfoldment and self-awakening of
Sakti in the nature of Siva. Every stage of the self-unfoldment of Sakti
and Siva's vildsa (self-enjoyment) in it is eternal. Siva's birth as Para-
Pinda is also not a temporal phenomenon. What is described in our
exposition as a succeeding stage does not come into being by superseding
the preceding stages and destroying their characteristics. Our intellectual
conception of the gradualness of the self-unfoldment of Sakti in the
nature of Siva is not to be construed as anything more than a mere
mental analysis and reconstruction of the various phases of the super-
glorious character of the Divine Spiritual Power in the spatio-temporal
form of our empirical knowledge. Siva is in truth eternally endowed with
and glorified by all the phases of self-unfoldment of His Sakti, and all the
characteristic features of all the stages are wonderfully aidjusted and
assimilated in the all-comprehending all-assimilating all-enjoying spiritual

89

consciousness of Siva. The attributes of the different stages of &akti, as
described, may from our plane of experience often appear contradictory to
one another. But Siva's Consciousness is the meeting-ground of all
contradictory qualities (Sarva-virodhi-gundsraya). He enjoys nirbikalpa-
samddhi along with the active waking state.

The birth of Para-Pinda means the self-manifestation. of the Supreme
Spirit as the Supreme Individual (Parama-Purusha) with all His eternal and
infinite glorious powers and attributes and with full consciousness of all
these powers and attributes, while retaining the perfect calmness and
tranquillity of His self-luminous transcendent nature. In the language of
Yogacarya Patanjali's Yoga-Sutra, He is perfectly free from any touch of
Klesa, Karma, Vipdka, and Asaya, but all the same He is Purusha-Visesha.
Klesa, according to Patanjali, means Avidyd( Ignorance), Asmita (Egohood),
Rdga (Attachment), Dwesha (Aversion), Abhinivesa (Lust of life or Fear of
death). Karma means actions which are voluntary and born of desires
with a view to the attainment of certain desired consequences or the
realisation of some unrealised ideals. Vipdka means the fruits of such
actions, which have to be reaped (enjoyed or suffered) by the performers
in accordance with the Law of Karma. Asaya means the impressions
which remain deep-seated in the sub-conscious mind on account of such
klesa, karma and vipdka and originate new karma, new klesa and new
vipdka. These are the general characteristics associated with the conception
of phenomenal individuality.

But the Divine Individual is eternally free from the bondage of such
characteristics, but is still a Purusha-Visesha, a perfectly self-conscious
Personality. He has absolutely no imperfection in His nature, either in
respect of existence, or in respect of power, or in respect of knowledge
and wisdom, or in respect of moral and aesthetic excellence, or in respect
of spiritual illumination. He is perfectly active and perfectly inactive. He
perfectly enjoys the bliss of His transcendent nature within Himself, and
nevertheless there is in Him an urge for His manifesting and enjoying
Himself in diversities of names and forms in a spatio-temporal cosmic
order. He is absolutely calm and tranquil, but still He feels within
Himself a tremendous upheaval, as it were, for creative action, for self-
diversification. He is absolutely indifferent to the cosmic affairs and is in
eternal samddhi within Himself, and at the same time He is the Indwelling
Spirit in all these affairs, the Inspirer and Regulator of all processes, the
Soul of the whole phenomenal order. He sees the entire spatio-temporal
system within Himself and Himself in every part of it, and yet there is
absolutely no perturbation in the unity of His consciousness. He dwells in
the phenomenal and the transcendent planes at the same time.

90

It may be remarked in this connection that though Patanjali's Yoga-
Sutra is a highly admirable exposition of the main philosophical doctrines
as well as of the ideals and methods of self-discipline of the Yogi-
Samprddaya, His conception of Iswara (or Siva) does not appear to be
exactly the same as the conception of Siva or the Supreme Purusha of
Gorakhnath and the Siddha-Yogi school. Patanjali mostly adopted the
metaphysical view of the Sdnkhya school of Kapila, who was universally
adored as the Adi-Vidwdn (probably meaning the First Philosopher)
among the Siddha-Yogis. In the Bhagavat-Gitd Kapila is specially men-
tioned as a glorious self-manifestation (Vibhuti) of God in the community
ofSiddhas: "Siddhdndm Kapilo Munih". But Kapila had no place for
God or Eternal ISwara in his philosophy, as promulgated in the direct
line of his followers. According to his metaphysical reasoning, the
Ultimate Material Cause of the world-order is one non-spiritual self-
modifying Entity, called Muld-Prakritl, with which innumerable inactive
pure spirits (essentially of the nature of changeless self-luminous conscious-
ness), called purusha, are somehow eternally associated (by way of aviveka
or indiscrimination). Prakriti and Purushas are eternally of opposite
characters. All orders of phenomenal existences gradually evolve from
Prakriti, and purushas, though pure and changeless, are somehow associated
with them as their souls. All individual bodies, together with all senses,
minds, egos and intellects, are the products of the non-spiritual non-
conscious Prakriti, while the souls are mere witness-consciousnesses. But
the souls are somehow through Avidya falsely identified with psycho-
physical bodies and hence they become apparently subject to sufferings.
They are in course of time blessed with True Knowledge and released from
this false self-identification with the products of Prakriti and are restored
to their own essential spiritual character.

In Kapila's philosophy no self-existent self-conscious infinite and
eternal Absolute Spirit is provable by logical reasoning based on our
normal experience, (Isward-siddheh pramdndbhdvdt),nor is it necessary
to admit the existence of such Absolute Spirit to account for this cosmic
system. His philosophical system is very strongly argumentative. From
very ancient times many truth-seekers followed his path from the philoso-
phical view-point. Maharshi Patanjali also mainly adopted his meta-
physical view, while expounding the Yoga- system of discipline. He
however seems to have somewhat differed from him in recognising the
eternal self-existence of Iswara as the perfectly enlightened Pumsha-Visesha.
He recognised Him as the Supreme Ideal for all Yogis as well as the
Supreme Source of all spiritual illumination. According to him, perfect
omniscience is eternally and essentially present in Him, and He is the
eternal Guru (Giver of Divine Light) of all truth-seekers of all ages. He

91

proclaimed that deep meditation on ttwara was one of the most effective
means to the speedy attainment of Samddhi and experience of the Ultimate
Truth. But he did not admit Him as the Sole and Supreme Cause of the
cosmic order, as the One Who manifests and enjoys Himself as the
changing plurality of the world.

In agreement with all Siddha-Yogis Patanjali holds that Kwara or
Siva is eternally Mahd-Yogiswara, Mahd-Jfidnlswara, Mahd-Tydgiswara,
that all yogis, jndnis and tydgis of all ages look up to Him and contem-
plate on Him as the Supreme Personality in Whom the highest ideals of
yoga, Jntina and Tydga are eternally and absolutely realised and Who is
the perpetual fountain of inspiration, hope and strength in their path of
self-discipline, self-elevation and self-enlightenment. Patanjali maintains
that He is the Supreme Lord of Prakriti in the sense that He by virtue of
His perfect Self-knowledge eternally transcends Prakriti and Her cosmic
processes and that Prakriti can never bring Him under any sort of bond-
age. Patanjali further admits His mercy and compassion upon the souls
(purushas) under the bondage of Prokrili and the power of this
mercy and compassion in delivering them from apparent bondage and
sorrow through the bestowal of true spiritual enlightenment upon them.
But he does not seem to admit that this Divine Purusha-Visesha is Master
of Prakriti in the sense that He governs the course of Her evolution and
rules over all the affairs of the world, or in the sense that Prakriti
depends upon Him for Her existence and self-unfoldment.

To Patanjali as well as to Kapila, Prakriti is a self-existent and
self-evolving non-spiritual reality and does not depend for Her existence
and evolution upon Iswara. Gorakhnath and the true Siddha-Yogi school
fundamentally differ from this view. According to their conception,
Prakriti is one aspect of the inherent Sakti of the Supreme Purusha,
Siva or Iswara or Brahma, and has no existence apart from the existence
of the Purusha. Evolution of Prakriti is nothing but the self-unfoldment
of the Divine Power. The cosmic system is in their view the self-manifesta-
tion of Iswara. He is therefore the Absolute Master of Prakriti in every
sense. Prakriti is accordingly not a non-spiritual independent reality, but
essentially a spiritual reality, being an integral aspect of the nature of the
Supreme Spirit. The plurality of Purushas or individual souls also are
individualised spiritual self-manifestations of the One Non-dual Supreme
Spirit ; each of them is essentially Siva in a particular psycho-physical
embodiment. Thus the conception of ISwara as given in Yoga-Sutra
represents only a partial aspect of Siva or Iswara as conceived by
Gorakhnath and the Siddha-Yogi School. Again, according to Kapila and
Patanjali, every purusha orjeeva (individual spirit), in the state of Moksha

or Kaivalya, becomes perfectly dissociated from Prakritf, but retains its
individuality and exists eternally as pure Cit (pure transcendent Consci-
ousness), distinct from all other liberated purushas as well as from
Mwara (of Patanjali's system) ; while according to Gorakhnath and the
Siddha-yogi school every such liberated purusha realises its identity with
Uwara or Siva and thus attains Sivahood and experiences Prakriti or Sakti
as non-different from itself.

Gorakhnath and the Siddha-Yogi school have used the term Para-
Pinda to signify the Supreme Personality of the Absolute Spirit with His
gradually self-unfolding Sakti, the Mother of the phenomenal cosmic
system. The term Pinda means an organised whole, a living unity of many
parts, a one consisting of and unifying a plurality. In it the whole exists in
every part, the one pervades and enlivens and harmonises each of the
plurality of parts, though the constituent parts may have their distinctive
qualities or characteristics. Again, all the parts exist in and for the
whole, the fulfilment of their distinctive characteristics and the final
purposes of their existences also lie in the whole. The parts may be more
and more multiplied, they themselves may be organised wholes of still
smaller parts, they may undergo changes and transformations ; but all
their self-multiplications and self-divisions and self- transformations take
place within the whole and they all participate in the unity of the life of
the whole. The parts with all their changes contribute to the life-history
of the whole, and the life-power of the whole determines the course of
the changes of the parts. The parts are parts only in relation to the
whole, and the whole is whole only in relation to the parts. They are
interrelated. The primary point to be noted is that unity pervades the
diversities.

Gorakhnath seems to attach some special importance to the term
Pinda, and uses the term very often in various contexts. His intention
appears to be to emphasise the truth of the unity of diversities in all
planes of existence, from the highest spiritual plane to the lowest physi-
cal plane. He teaches the truth-seekers to carefully observe that all our
conceptions of concrete realities in all the planes of our knowledge and
thought involve the idea of unity of diversities. All diversities in every
sphere of our knowledge and thought involve unity underlying them,
unifying them as parts or organs of one whole ; and all unities also are
found through deeper analysis to be wholes consisting of parts, subtler
and subtler constituents. Accordingly even in the highest plane of
Spiritual Reality Gorakhnath rejects pure Non-dualism of the extreme
Vcdantists as well as pure Dualism of the Dwaita-Vddis and pure Plura-
lism of Vahu-PadartHa-Vadis. On the other hand in the lowest, physical

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plane also he rejects the doctrine of the plurality of unrelated material
units or paramdnus integrated and dis-integrated by external causes. The
Non-dual Spirit is to him embodied with His own Sakti, which is non-
different from Him. The Absolute Reality is therefore neither purely non-
dual nor purely dual nor plural. He applies this principle everywhere.
The idea appears to be confirmed by our experience of living organisms,
from those that are infinitely small (e.g. bacilli) to those that are majesti-
cally great. The whole universe is conceived as one organism, comprising
countless orders of organisms, one Samasti Pinda comprising innumer-
able orders of Vyasii-Pindas.

The Absolute Spirit conscious of Himself as one infinite and eternal
self-perfect Individual through the awakening of the Sakti immanent in
His nature has been called Para-Pinda (Supreme Organism). Gorakhnath
describes this Para-Pinda of Siva, the self-conscious spiritual individuality
of the Absolute Spirit, as consisting of five forms of spiritual conscious-
ness, all shining at the same time without overshadowing each other in
His all-comprehensive Divine Self-consciousness. These five forms are,

Aparamparatn Paramapadam Sunyam Niranjancm Paramdtmeti.
(S.S.P.I. 17). The Maha-Yogi has attempted to make the character of each
of them intelligible or at least conceivable to ordinary truth-seekers by
describing each in terms of psychological concepts, though he was himself
quite conscious of the inadequacy of such descriptions. Aparamparam, he
says, implies sphuratd-mdtratn. It gives us the idea of one changeless and
differenceless self-effulgent transcendent consciousness, in which there is no
trace of even any subtle distinction between the Spirit and His Sakti. This
refers to the pure consciousness of the Absolute Spirit in relation to His
Nija-Sakti, when She is completely hidden in His transcendent nature, i.e.
when the dynamic aspect of the Spirit is wholly unmanifested. In the
Personal Self-consciousness of Para- Pinda Siva this pure self-less
consciousness shines as the chief constituent factor.

Parama-Padam, he says, implies bhdvand-mdtram. This refers to the
subtle unfoldment of the dynamic aspect of the Spirit as Para-Sakti, when
in the Divine Consciousness there is subtle form of reflection upon Her.
The Spirit then becomes as it were Witness to His Sakti and by this mere
act of witnessing (which is truly speaking no act at all) inspires Her with
a creative urge. The Divine Consciousness in this form of a pure disinte-
rested Witness of His Creative Power, it may be noted, is often meditated
upon by the Yogis as the Supreme Ideal (Parama-Pada) to be realised by
them through their sddhand within their own consciousness.

Sunya, according to Gorakhnath, implies Swa-satt&m&tram, i.e. pure

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self-existence. The Divine Consciousness is here in the form of a pure
empty background or substratum of His self-vibrating Sakti rich with
infinite potentialities. This refers to the stage of the unfoldment of His
Sakti as Apara-Sakti, in which Sakti appears to be vibrating for pheno-
menal self-expression, and Siva appears to hide Himself behind the scene
altogether and become a Void as it were from the phenomenal view-point,
though illuminating and enthusing Sakti from within as Her Soul and
Lord. Many Yogis meditate on and worship Siva, the Absolute Spirit, as
Sunya, in order to be absolutely liberated from the sense of Me and
Mine. They seem to practise what may be called self-annihilation for the
purpose of the attainment of absolute liberation from all kinds of bondage
and sorrow.

Niranjana is explained by Gorakhnath as Swa-sdkshatkara-?natram,
i.e. the Absolute Spirit experiencing Himself as pure /, as the true Self,
distinguished from and transcending His own Sakti. He is in this form
of His consciousness conscious of Himself as the Seer (Sakshi) of His own
self-evolving Power. His self-consciousness involves a duality within His
non-dual nature, some sort of Dwaita-adwaita relationship, the con-
sciousness of a subtle distinction between Himself as the eternally change-
less witnessing Spirit and Himself as the eternally self-evolving Sakti. He
feels within Himself the pulsations of His dynamic nature and at the
same time feels Himself as absolutely unmoved and untouched and
unaffected by these pulsations. This refers to the unfoldment of His
dynamic character as Sukshmd-Sakti, in which the manifestation of the
I-ness in the transcendent nature of the Absolute Spirit is the important
feature. This form of consciousness represents the realisation of perfectly
pure I -consciousness transcending all kinds of limitations and impurities
and bondages. Many Yogis meditate on the Supreme Spirit as Niranjana
with a view to the realisation of this perfectly pure and free and blissful
/-consciousness within themselves.

The fifth form of the all-comprehensive consciousness of Siva is the
consciousness of Himself as Paramatma, meaning the Universal Soul, the
Soul and Lord of the Divine Mother of the universe, Kundalim-Sakti.
He feels Himself as possessed of infinite power, infinite wealth, infinite
goodness, infinite beauty, infinite wisdom, infinite love, etc., and
He feels within Himself an impulse of delight to play with all these
through His unique Sakti in an infinite variety of forms in a phenomenal
cosmic system of time and space and relativity. As Paramatma the Abso-
lute Spirit is conscious of Himself with His Sakti as the most perfect
Spiritual Personality, eternally enjoying the infinite richness of His self-
existent nature in His transcendent self-consciousness as well as in His
phenomenal self-manifestations,

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Gorakhnath describes the character of each of these forms of Divine
Consciousness according to his usual practice by means of enumerating
five gwww and then concludes "that the character of Siva as Para-Pinda is
a perfect harmony of all the twenty-live gunas of all of them. Within the
Self-consciousness of Para-Pinda all forms and all stages of consciousness
are most wonderfully harmonised and unified. He is the Supreme Divinity
comprising all Divinities. With the sclf-unfoldment of Hi^Sakti His self-
conscious Personality is glorified.

This Para-Pinda is also called by the Siddha-Yogis Anadi-Pinda as
well as Adi-Pinda, meaning that this Divine Individuality is without any
beginning or origination, without any Cause or Higher Source of existence,
and that this is the Adi or the Supreme Source of all other pindas or
individualised existences.

This Anadi-Pinda or the Uncreated and All-creating Divine Personali-
ty is further explained as- unfolding Himself into five glorious self-revela-
tions, viz., Paramdnanda, Prabodha, Cid-udaya, Prakdsa and Soham-bhava.
Paramananda implies that there is an upheaval of emotional delight in His
tranquil nature. This is characterised by Spanda (some sort of agitation
in the consciousness), Harsha (some thrilling sensation), Utsaha (some
sort of enthusiasm in the being), and at the same time Nishpanda (perfect
calmness) and Nitya-sukhatwam (unemotional enjoyment of eternal bliss
within). Thus a great wave of emotional ananda seems to activate His
nature without disturbing the inner current of tranquil self-enjoyment,
which is the essential character of His self-consciousness.

Prabodha implies that there is as it were a new phenomenal awaken-
ment in His transcendent self-conscious nature. He is as it were newly
awakened from a state of deep sleep, which is truly speaking a state of
Samadhi. The light of His self- illumined consciousness now falls upon
and illuminates all the aspects of His glorious nature seeking for phenome-
nal self-expression. This is explained as characterised by such attributes, as,
Udaya (the rising of the consciousness above the horizon of the perfectly
tranquil non-differentiated state), Ulldsa (some sort of upheaval in the
essentially tranquil nature for objective self-manifestation), Avabhasa
(experience of the spiritual contents of His own nature as objective reali-
ties), Vikdsa (experience of the self- evolution of His Sakti), and Prabhd
(shedding lustre upon all the aspects of His all-pervading existence.)

By Cid-udaya Gorakhnath means the self-manifestation of the
Transcendent Consciousness as the self-knowing and all-knowing, self-
reflecting and all-reflecting, self-determining and all -determining, Conscious
Subject. He characterises this aspect of the Divine Personality by such

$6

attributes, as, Sadbhava (the Spirit's clear knowledge of Himself as the
sole Reality), F/c0ra~(His reflection upon Himself as the Source and Centre
of all possible phenomenal realities), Kartritwa (His consciousness of Him-
self as the Source of all possible actions), Jndtritwa (His consciousness of
Himself as the Knower of objects), and Swatantratwa (His consciousness
of Himself as perfectly free or governed by his own Laws).

By Prakasa Gorakhnath emphasises that in spite of the appearance
of the various forms of upheavals in the self-conscious nature of the
Divine Personality on account of the urge of His dynamic character (Sakti),
He is inwardly untouched and unmoved by them, and His transcendent
consciousness always dwells in the supra-phenomenal plane amidst all
kinds of phenomenal self-manifestations. Prakasa is explained as charact-
erised by Nirbikdratwa (freedom from all kinds of changes), Nishkalatwa
(freedom from any sense of partition within Himself), Nirvikalpatwa (free-
dom from any sense of doubt or uncertainty in knowledge), Samata
(perfect harmony, calmness and unity in His consciousness), and Visranti
(perfect rest). Thus while on the one hand the dynamic aspect of the
Divine Personality is developing and becoming more and more conspicu-
ous, the transcendent aspect of His Consciousness is on the other hand
wholly undisturbed and unshadowed.

Lastly Gorakhnath mentions the unfoldment of So-hambhava (He-I-
am-ness) in the self-consciousness of the Anddi-Pinda. He explains it as
consisting hi the following attributes: Ahamtd, Akhand- aiswarya, Swdtmatd,
Viswdnubhava-sdmarthya and Sarvajnatwa. Ahamtd means all-compre-
hending Egohood. The whole cosmic order is ideally manifested in His
consciousness and becomes objectively an integral part of His Self. His
Ego is expanded as it were into all and the inherent richness of His nature
becomes objectified within His self-consciousness. Hence he feels within
Himself akhanda aiswarya, i.e. undivided and unlimited power and pros-
perity. The whole universe which is manifested to His consciousness
being His own self-expression, He feels absolute sovereignty (Iswaratwa)
over it. Then, Swdtmatd implies that he feels all His aiswarya as non-
different from Himself. His consciousness of the universe never over-
shadows the consciousness that He is Himself the universe. His Self-con-
sciousness (Swdtmdnubhava) appears to be evolved into Viswdnubhava, i.e.
the consciousness of the entire spatio-temporal order, without any distur-
bance to its essential unity of undivided self-luminous character. Thus
space and time, plurality and change, diversity and relativity, which are
inalienably associated with His phenomenal self-manifestation, arise within
His self-consciousness. His Self pervades them and also transcends them
and thus plays as one and manifold, changeless and changing, transcendent

97

and phenomenal, at the same time without any disharmony. In His Own
Self-Knowledge He becomes All-Knowing, Omniscient, Sarvajfta. He
knows all within Himself and Himself in all. In this way the Mahdyogi
traces the self-unfoldment of the Supreme Spirit (with His Sakti immanent
in Him) into a Universal Soul with an ideal Cosmic Body, which he
gives the glorious name of Adya-Pinda (S. S.P.I. 25-30).

Thus it is conceived that on account of the internal urge of the
Divine Sakti for phenomenal self-expression and self-enjoyment there
is some sort of awakening and activation and development (which is often
described as Tapas in the Vedas, e.g. ritam ca satyam cdbhiddhdt tapasah
adhyajdyata] in the transcendent nature of the Absolute Spirit (Brahma or
Siva or by whatever name the Transcendent Spirit may be designated), and
He reveals Himself as a magnificently glorified self-conscious self-active
omnipotent omniscient and playful Divine Personality embodied with an
ideal universe. This ideal universe is the phenomenal manifestation of the
eternal and infinite glories involved and unified in the transcendent nature
of the Spirit. His awakened self-consciousness means the consciousness of
Himself as possessed of all the glories and the cosmic body.

This conception of Adya-Pimla of the Siddha-Yogi school appears to
correspond to the conception of Hiranya-Garbha of the Veda. It is procla-
imed in the Rig-Veda, "Hiraryagarbhah samavartata agre, bhutasya jdtah
Patir eka dsit." It means that the Divine Personality with the entire cosmic
order in an ideal form in His womb manifested Himself first of all and He
became by nature the sole Lord of all existences (which would gradually
evolve out of His being in the spatio-temporal system). It is also said,
"Sa vai sarlrl prathamah, Sa vai Purusha uccyate." This means that He is
the First Embodied Being, and He is called the Person (i.e. the Divine
Personality). He is spoken of as Saguna- Brahma and often as Kdrya-
Brahma in the Vedanta philosophy.

Most of the schools of thought, which conceive the Ultimate Reality
as one differenceless changeless attributeless impersonal Transcendent
Spirit, appear to find themselves under the rational and spiritual necessity
to conceive of a perfectly self-conscious, perfectly self-illumined, gloriously
and excellently qualified, omniscient and omnipotent Divine Personality, as
the most appropriate and effective link and meeting-ground between the
transcendent and the phenomenal planes of existence and thought, between
the Absolute Spirit above time and space and relativity and His diversified
and changing phenomenal self- manifestation in the domain of time and
space and relativity. Between the One and the many, the Infinite and the
finite, the Changeless and the changing, the Eternal and the temporal, there

must be a self-conscious Personality, Who is One and at the same time
unifies many within His own existence, Who is conscious of Himself as
Infinite and Changeless and is also conscious of the possibility of infinite
varieties of finite and changing existences within and as part and parcel of
His all-pervading and all-comprehending existence, Who experiences Him-
self as manifested in all orders and forms of phenomenal existences and at
the same time continuously experiences Himself as the Soul and Lord of
them all and also as one absolutely disinterested transcendent Witness-
Consciousness. The Divine Personality dwells inwardly in the transcendent
plane and outwardly in the phenomenal plane and there is a \\onderful
harmony of the two planes in His self-conscious nature. The Yogis conceive
this Divine Person as eternal Mahd Yogiswara and as the perfect embodi-
ment of the Yogic Ideal which they all seek for realising. He is to them
Adi-Natha, Adi-Guru, Adi-Siddha. The phenomenal and the transcendent
planes of experience are eternally harmonised in the spiritual self-realisa-
tion of this perfectly enlightened Maha-Yogi. He experiences himself in all
existences of the universe, experiences the universe within himself, and also
transcends the universe as Pure Consciousness. He enjoys absolutely bliss-
ful changeless existence within and also enjoys the manifold self-expressions
of the Spirit in the cosmic order. This is Adya-Pinda or Cosmic Purusha of
the Siddha-yogi Sampradaya.

The process of creation of the cosmic system is, according to the
Siddha-Yogi school, the progressive descent of the Transcendent Divine
Consciousness into more and more manifested and differentiated self-
expressions of His Dynamic Nature. This may on the one hand be viewed
as the gradual self- veiling, self-limiting, self-conditioning, self-fini rising and
self-despiritualising of the eternal, infinite, absolute, impersonal, self-
luminous transcendent character of the Supreme Spirit ; and on the other
hand it may be viewed as the progressive self-expanding, self-diversifying,
self-magnifying, self-glorifying and self -delight ing of the Spirit through the
phenomenal self-unfolding of the Unique Power eternally innate in and
identified with His Transcendent Nature. It may be imagined as One Infinite
Light projecting out of itself shades of various characters, which, while
offering resistance to it, add to its brilliance and exhibit it in various
colours ; or as One Infinite Ocean creating big and small waves upon its
bosom, which while disturbing its calmness and tranquillity greatly magnify
its grandeur and magnificence. Infinite and Undifferentiated Self-perfect
Knowledge without any process and subject-object distinction in it divides
itself into numberless subjects in different planes of experience and thought
and numberless objects of various forms and characters appearing to them
in various relations, and thereby manifests and enjoys in all possible details
in the phenomenal order the Absolute Truth that shines undivided in its

99

transcendent state. Infinite Impersonal Bliss multiplies itself into diverse
kinds of enjoyers and enjoyables and realises itself through numerous orders
of finite enjoyments in different planes of experience in the beginningless
and endless time and space. Thus the Transcendent seems to take delight as
it were in manifesting Himself as the Phenomenal. This is the root of
creation, the cosmic self-expression of the Spirit.

The Divine Existence, the Divine Knowledge, the Divine Power, the
Divine Bliss, the Divine Beauty, the Divine Magnificence, the Divine Love
and Magnanimity, all these are perfectly unified in the transcendent
impersonal Divine Nature, and they are phenomenally manifested in diverse
forms and under different conditions and limitations in the cosmic system.
The Divine Spirit, as the Ground, Support, Soul, Lord, Witness and Illu-
miner of them all, assumes in relation to them various kinds of glorifying
epithets and enjoys Himself in them. The Spirit, Who is transcendentally
one differenceless attributeless self-luminous Being, is in His phenomenal
self-manifestation the Omnipotent Omniscient Magnificent Perfect Personal
God. The Sakti unfolded becomes His manifested Body, and the more is
the Power diversified, the more magnificent does the Divine Body appear to
be. As the one all-illumining Soul of the cosmic body, Siva pervades the
entire universe and enjoys Himself in it.

CHAPTER X

EVOLUTION OF THE COSMIC BODY OF SIVA

Having given a brilliant account of the nature of Adya-Pinda in the
ideal supra-physical plane, Mahayogi Gorakhnath proceeds to the exposi-
tion of the evolution of the physical world system from the nature of this
Adya-Pinda. Siva as Adya-Pinda, the Cosmic Purusha, evolves from within
Himself, through the further unfoldment of His Sakti, a physical cosmic
body, extending in space and changing in time, and makes it an integral
part and parcel of His all-comprehending and all-enjoying Self- Conscious-
ness. The universe, which was ideally real in the nature of Adya-Pinda,
becomes physically and objectively real as the Cosmic Body of Siva, and
this Body is designated by Gorakhnath as Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda. Siva Him-
self reveals and enjoys Himself as this Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda, this magni-
ficent world-organism, this splendid spatio-temporal order, this physical
universe full of apparently bewildering complications and catastrophic
changes. It is one of the forms of self-manifestation of the Mahd-Sakti
of Siva. Siva with His infinite and eternal Mahd-Sakti is immanent in
all the diversities of this physical order, is regulating and harmonising all
its phenomena, and is manifesting and enjoying the glories of His
transcendent nature in and through various kinds of limitations and
complications pertaining to this physical organism subject to temporal and
spatial conditions.

An enlightened Yogi sees the delightful self-expression of Mahd-
Sakti-Vildsi Siva in ail the variegated affairs of this physical universe. He
sees and loves this world as the Divioe Body, that can be actually
perceived with the physical senses, that offers opportunities for the appre-
ciation and enjoyment of the beauties and sublimities and excellences of
the Divine nature in particularised forms and for practical participation in
the Divine play through the loving performance of good works in His
world for His sake in a desireless sportive spirit. The Yogi feels that he
lives and moves and has his being in the Divine Body, that he is never
alienated from Him, that in the waking or dreaming or sleeping state he
never loses direct contact with Him. All phenomena of the world, all
orders of existences, all pleasant and unpleasant circumstances, appear to
be sacred to him,- because they pertain to the Divine Body, because they
all form parts of the playful self-expressions of Siva-Sakti. The conception
of the physical universe as the Cosmic Body of Siva is a most magnificent
idea of the philosophy of Siddha-Yogis.

101

Gorakhnath traces the evolution of this Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda thus:

Adydn Mahdkdso, Mahdkdsan Mahdvdyuh, Mahdvdyor Mahatejo,
Mahdtejaso MahdsaWdm MahdsaWdn MahdprithwL

(S.S.P.I. 31).

From Adya-Pinda evolves Mahd-Akdsa (Great Ether), from Mahd-
Akdta evolves Mahd-Vdyu (Great Air), from Mahd-Vdyu Mahd-Tejas
(Great Fire), from Mahd-Tejas Mahd-Salila (Great Water), from Mahd-
Salila Maha-Prithwi (Great Earth). The English equivalents given here in
pursuance of common practice are of course inaccurate.

It has been previously shown that the entire cosmic system is in a
subtle or ideal form revealed in the perfectly self-conscious nature of Siva
as Adya-Pinda or First Cosmic Personality. Now through a further
process of the self-unfoldment of His Sakti, this cosmic system is mani-
fested in grosser and grosser physical forms and endows Adya-Pinda with
a great physical embodiment infinite in space and ever- continuous in time.
In agreement with all the important systems of Indian philosophy
Gorakhnath and the Siddha- Yogis conceive this physical universe as
constituted of five Great Elements which are called Mahd-Bhutas (other-
wise called Mahd tattwas^, namely, Akasa, Vdyu, Tejas (Agni), Salila (or
Ap or Jala), and Prithwi (or Kthiti). The physical universe, including all
suns and stars and nebulae, all kinds of material things, all forms of
physical bodies of all species of living and conscious beings, is a most
wonderful organisation of these five Great Elements.

Akasa is the finest and subtlest of these physical elements and
evolves directly from the dynamic psycho-spiritual Cosmic Body of
Siva, called Adya-Pinda. Vdyu has a grosser and more complex
nature and it evolves from Akasa. Tejas is endowed with a still more
gross and complex character and it evolves from Vdyu. Salila is still
grosser and more complex than Tejas and is conceived as evolving out of
Tejas. Prithwi is the grossest and most complex and hence most physical
of all the 'great elements and is conceived as evolving out of Salila. Akasa
pervades Vdyu; Vdyu with Akasa pervades Tejas; Tejas along with Akasa
and Vdyu pervades Salila, and together with Akasa, Vdyu, and Tejas
Salila pervades Prithwi. Adya-Pinda inwardly pervades and enlivens and
harmonises and organises them all and constitutes out of them this
gross physical Nature (sthula pdrthiva jagat] with all apparently inorganic
material objects and organic physical bodies within it. This physical
world is called Pdncabhoutika-Jagat (the gross world constituted of five
original elements) or simply Pdrthiva-Jagat (the world made of Prithwi,
since Prithwi comprises all the physical elements). This is conceived by
Yogis as MahA-Sdk&ra-Pinda of Siva-Safcti,

102

In his usual manner Gorakhnath describes each of these five
Mahdbhutas or five physical Mahd-taftwas (as he also designates them) as
possessed of five attributes (guna).

Avakdsah acchldram asprifatwam nilavamatwam sabdatwam iti panca-
gunah dkdsah.

(S.S.P.T. 32)

Avakasa means vacuum or emptiness or penetrability. Though it
occupies all space, it has room for all grosser realities evolving and exist-
ing and freely moving within it and playing their parts without any
resistance in its bosom. It is a non-resisting reality. When all other
physical realities disappear from any portion of space, Akdsa remains
there, and when other visible or tangible things are perceived to occupy
any portion of space, there also Akdsa is present. The second attribute
is acchidra, which means gaplessness or perfect continuity. It is not
divisible into distinct parts, it cannot be cut into pieces. It is all-
pervading. Whatever contents may evolve within it, in whatever other
physical forms the Divine Energy may manifest Herself within its bosom,
it pervades all of them and its continuity is never broken. The third
attribute is asprisatwa, which means untouchability. It has no tangible
properties. Though it is the container of all other physical realities which
evolve from and within it, it is not touched by them, it is unaffected by
the changes which take place in them. Though permeating all things,
solid, liquid and gaseous, heat, light, electricity and magnetism, etc. it
remains behind them and is not physically touched by them. The fourth
attribute is described as mla-varnatwa, which literally means blue-coloured-
ness. We ordinarily speak of the blue sky (nila-dkdsa). But truly it
means colourlessness. Akdsa has really no visible property. Colours are
particularised appearances of light, and light evolves from Akdsa and can-
not show Akdsa in any particular colour. Akdsa always remains at the
background of, but never becomes an object of oculat perception.

The fifth attribute of Akdsa is mentioned as sabdatwa (the* quality of
sound). In all Indian systems of philosophy Sabda (sound) is regarded as
the essential quality (gtma) of Akdsa. This of course does not mean any
particularised form of sound, but the possibility of all sounds. It does
not imply that Akdsa is audible or has any auditory property. Indian
systems in general, and Yoga-Sdstras in particular, recognise four stages of
the evolution of Sound, viz., Para, Pasyanti, Madhyamd and Vaikhari.
Of these Vaikhari is the grossest form of sound, and this alone is audible
to the sense of hearing. Madhyamd, Pasyanti and Para are gradually
subtler and subtler forms of Sound. Subtler forms of Sound are not
perceptible to the normal sense of hearing until and unless they are

103

manifested in the grossest forms through particular physical processes.
Sound in the subtlest form, as one unproduced unbroken continuous
Mahd-Nada, the origin of all particularised sounds, pertains to the
essential nature of Akasa, and it has the potentiality of producing or
appearing as the grosser forms of sound in relation to the other grosser
elements. There will be occasions to discuss this topic in other contexts.

Pure Mahdkdsa, infinite in space, without any grosser physical
contents, without any sensible characteristics, without any waves or move-
ments, perfectly calm and tranquil, may be called the Etherial Body
(Vyoma-Pinda) of Stva-Sakti. This is the first self-manifestation of Siva-
Sakti in the spatio-temporal cosmic order. From this Body evolves Mahd-
Vdyu, which represents the second stage of Siva-Sakti's physical self-mani-
festation in this cosmic order. Mahd-Vdyu also is described in terms of
five attributes.

Sancdrah sancdlanam sparsanam soshanam dhumra-varnatwam itipanca-
guno Mahd-Vdyuh. (S.S.P.I. 33).

The first primary quality of Vdyu is sancdra or motion. This not only
implies passing from one portion of space to another, but all forms of
agitation and vibration and wave and upheaval. When motion appears on
the perfectly calm and tranquil bosom of Mahdkdsa, it indicates a new
development, the birth of a new physical element, and this element is
called Mahd-Vdyu. It has not only the quality of movement, but also the
quality of causing movement (sancdlana). It is endowed with the property
of acting as a force for causing movement in apparently inert bodies. All
movements, all waves and upheavals, all physical and chemical and elec-
trical and biological changes, all integrations and disintegrations of
matter, which we experience in nature, are explained in Yoga-Sdstras as
well as in other Indian systems as originating from the operation of this
great active element, Mahd-Vdyu, which evolves from and within
Mahdkasa.

It is quite obvious that the great Indian thinkers do not use the term
Vdyu in this context in the sense of ordinary air or wind, which is a com-
posite thing, a pdncabhoutika paddrtha in Indian terminology, and in
which Vdyu, the Mahdbhuta, of course plays its game and is one of the
primary constituents.

The third quality mentioned is Sparsa, which means that it is percepti-
ble to the sense of touch or that it stimulates the sense of touch. This
tactual property of Mahd-Vdyu does not of course imply that this original
element is by itself capable of being touched by our gross sense of touch.

104

Our special senses are endowed with the capacity of perceiving only
particular properties of particular gross material objects, which are the
specialised manifestations of the combination or organisation of all the
five original elements (bhutas or tattwas). No one of the original elements
is directly perceptible to them. But each of these original elements has
special reference to particular primary senses. Vdyu has special reference
to the sense of touch, and our tactual sensations are regarded as concerned
with the particularised manifestations of Vdyu in the composite bodies.
According to many schools, especially those which conceive the ultimate
physical elements in terms of rudimentary sensuous experiences, Sparsa-
guna is the most primary attribute of Vayu.

The fourth quality of Vdyu is Soshana, which rnaans absorption of
the particles or qualities of other grosser elements evolved from it, such
as Agni, Salila and Prithwl, into itself. Thus it absorbs the heat of
Agni, the coldness of Salila, the scent of Prithwl, etc., into its nature
without destroying or dissolving them, and becomes thereby endowed with
those qualities. Otherwise Vdyu by itself has neither any heat nor any
coldness nor any odour. The fifth quality is described as Dhumra-
varnatwa, which literally means smoke-coloured-ness. It is to be noted that
like Akdsa Vdyu also is not an object of ocular perception, it has no
visible colour. But perhaps in some special sense Mahayogi Gorakhnath
has mentioned mla-varnatwa and dhumra-varnatwa as gunas of Akdsa and
Vdyu respectively. He might have had in his mind the idea that what-
ever is sdkdra (possessed of form), i.e. whatever is of the nature of a
physical substance, must have some sort of colour, whether visible or
invisible to our gross sense of sight. Since Akdsa and Vdyu are the first
two primary constituents of the Mahd-sdkdra-pinda, i.e. the objective
physical universe, they ought to be conceived of as possessing certain
rupa or varna or colours, though not yet manifested in such gross physi-
cal forms as to be objects of gross ocular experience. Grosser visible
colours are supposed to evolve out of those subtle invisible colours.
On account of the imperfection of verbal expression, those invisi-
ble colours have to be described in terms conveying senses of gross
visible colours. It is to be remembered that these two subtle physical
elements, Akdsa and Vdyu, represent the first two stages of the self-
unfoldment of the Divine Energy in objective physical forms, in which
even light and heat and sound, as we normally experience them,- not to
speak of the suns and stars and planets and satellites and tfoe various
orders of material things and living organisms, have not as yet evolved.

Mahdkdsa, pervading the entire space, without any particularised con-
tents,without any motion or agitation or transformation, has been described
as the Etherial Cosmic Body of Siva. Yogis often concentrate their attention

105

upon this infinite tranquil Mahdkdfa-Rupa of Siva-Sakti and merge their
individuality in It. When Motion is evolved, Force is manifested, Changes
appear, in this Etherial Cosmic Body, !iva-!akti is revealed with an
infinite Aerial Body, Mahd-Vdyu-Rupa. Mahd-Vdyu (of course ensouled
with Siva-Sakti) is conceived as the source of all forces of nature. The
vital forces operating within our physical bodies are also conceived as
expressions of Mahd-Vdyu, and they are designated Prdna-Vdyu. Vdyu
is the principal dynamic element in the cosmic system. Vdyu appears to
be surcharged with life-power, which energises all other elements.

From Mahd-Vdyu evolves Mahd-Tejas in the Cosmic Body of Siva-
Sakti. Mahd-Tejas also is described as possessing five essential attributes,
viz., Dahakatwa, Pdcakatwa, Ushnatwa, Prakdsatwa, and Rakta-varnatwa.
Ddhakatwa means the quality of burning or combustion, which tends to
destroy the cohesion among the constituents of grosser material bodies
and to reduce them into their ingredient elements. Pdcakatwa means the
quality of assimilation or transformation of material things, so as to bring
out apparently new characteristics in them. It is through the operation
of Tejas or Agniln the living bodies that they digest their food and
convert the material objects they consume into live tissues and vital
forces. It is Tejas or Agm present in living plants that brings about trans-
formations in the colours, tastes, etc., of leaves and flowers and fruits
and so on. Tejas applied to clay vessels changes their colours. All such
facts are cited as illustrations of Pdcakatwa-guna of Agni. Ushnatwa
means heat and Prakdsatwa means light. These are the two fundamental
attributes of Tejas, just as Sancdra and Sancdlana (motion and causing
motion) are the fundamental attributes of Vdyu, from which Tejas
evolves.

Like Mahdkd&a and Mahd-Vdyu, Mahd-Tejas also is all-pervading.
Suns and stars and blazing fires are special manifestations of Mahd-Tejas,
and so also are the lightning sparks. Movements in them are the expres-
sions of Mahd-Vdyu Heat, light, burning, transforming, etc., which are
phenomenal expressions of Mahd-Tejas, are all evolved from motion or
vibration, which is the chief characteristic of Mahd-Vdyu. They are all
manifested in the bosom of Mahdkdsa. Sound, which in its subtlest form
of calm and tranquil Mahd-Ndda, is characteristic of Mahdkdsa, is also
manifested in grosser and grosser forms through the operations of Mahd-
Vdyu and Mahd-Tejas. Mahd-Tejas is further described as possessing
Rakta-Varna, which means red colour. This of course is not intended to
be literally understood on the basis of our normal sense-experience.
Mahd-Tejas by itself has no particular visible colour. All colours evolve
from it, and even the sense of vision evolves from it. But in Indian

106

systems of thought invisible realities also are often described as possessing
particular colours. Thus Sankhya-darsan describes Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas
as characterised by white, red and black colours respectively. Sruti says
that red colour pertains to Tejas, white pertains to Ap or Salila, and
black to Prithwl or Anna. Generally speaking, the five primary colours of
our common visual experience are conceived as pertaining to the nature of
the five ultimate physical realities, Panca Mahd-Bhutas, in subtle forms,
from which the gross forms are evolved. All-pervading Mahd-Tejas is the
Jyotir-maya or Tejomaya-Rupa (Fiery Body) of Siva-Sakti and is meditated
upon as such by Yogis.

From Mahd-Tejas evolves Mahd-Salila in the Cosmic Body of Siva.
The five gunds of Mahd-Salila are described as Pravdha, Apydyana, Drava,
Rasa, and Sweta-varnatwa. Pravdha means current or continuous flow.
Apydyana means fertilizing or fecundating quality. Drava means fluidity.
Rasa means palatableness, Sweta-varnatwj means white coloured-ness.
Mahd-Tejas appears to be conceived as cooling down partially into the form
of Mahd-Salila endowed with softer qualities in the process of evolution in
the cosmic physical embodiment of Siva-Sakti, so as to make it suitable for
the growth of various orders of finite individual living bodies (Vyasti-Pindas)
within it. Mahd-SaWa should not of course be confused with the gross
water of our common experience.Af ahd-Salila is thi cool soothing Drava-
Rupa (Fluid Body) of $iva-$akti.

Last of all in this process of the self- manifestation of Siva-Sakti as a
cosmic organism, evolves Mahd Prithwi out of Mahd-Salila. Mahd-Prithwi
is endowed with five gunas; viz, Sthulatd, Ndndkdratd, Kdthinya, Gandha
and Pita-varnatwa. Sthulatd means grossness. This is the grossest and most
condensed form of physical self-manifestation of Siva-Sakti, the other four
being comparatively subtler than this. Ndndkdratd means multiformity,
the quality of assuming various shapes and sizes. Kdthinya means solidity.
Gandha means odour, the quality of being an object of the sense of smell.
Pita-Varnatwa means yellow-coloured-ness. These are regarded as the
special characteristics of this grossest of the five ultimate constituents of the
physical universe, which is conceived as the Mahd Sdkdra-Pinda of Siva-
Sakti. This is the Sthula-Murti of Siva-Sakti.

Since all these Mahd-Bhutas (which are also called Mahd-Tattwas)
evolve from the dynamic nature of the super-physical Adya-Pinda of Siva-
Sakti and are organically united for constituting the Cosmic Physical Body
of Siva-Sakti, the qualities of each interpenetrate all in various ways and
make this phenomenal material universe a bewilderingly complex and
nevertheless a wonderfully harmonised system. Gorakhnath describes this

107

Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda as characterised by the above-mentioned twenty-five
gunas of the five constituent elements. Embodied with the Mahd Sdkdra-
Pinda, this phenomenal cosmic order, Siva with His unique Sakti comes
down to the gross sensible physical plane and reveals Himself as the
Supreme Omnipotent Omniscient Omnipresent Active Deity manifested in
various forms and freely and delightfully playing various cosmic games in
the spatio-temporal system. Siva-Sakti is everywhere in^ this world and
immanent in every part of it as well as in the whole.

There is a general agreement among all the systems of Indian philoso-
phical thought with regard to the conception of Akdsa, Vdyu, Tejas (or
Agni), Salila (or Jala or Ap), and Prithwl (or Bhumi or Kshiti), as the five
ultimate material elements (panca Mahd-Bhutas), of which the physical
universe is constituted. The basic reason for this conception is also the
same. It is a universally recognised fact that our sense-experience is the
sole evidence to us for the existence of the objective physical world in space
and time and the primary source of our knowledge of the nature of this
world. We are endowed with five special senses of knowledge (panca jndnen-
driya), viz., the sense of hearing, the sense of touch, the sense of sight, the
sense of taste, and the sense of rae\\(sravana-indriya, sparsa indriya,
darsana-indriya, rasana-indriya and ghrdna-indriya). These Indriyas (special
powers of perception) have special organs in the physical body, through
which they operate and form contact with particular classes of objects in
the external world. Sabda (sound), Sparsa (touch), Rupa (colour), Rasa
(taste), and Gandha (odour) are respectively the special objects of percep-
tion of these special senses. We are so constituted that we in our normal
life naturally perceive and conceive this world in terms of these sensible
properties of the objects of our experience, viz., Sabda, Sparsa, Rupa, Rasa
and Gandha. Hence it is concluded that this objective physical world must
ultimately be constituted of five subtle physical elements, which are
endowed with these five primary sensible properties as their essential
characteristics. Thus, Akdsa is conceived as essentially characterised by
Sabda-guna, Vdyu by Sparsa-guna, Tejas by Rupa-guna, Salila or Ap by
Rasa-guna, and Prithwl by Gandha-guna. Among these ultimate physical re-
alities constituting the sensible world, each succeeding one is regarded as
comparatively grosser and more complex in nature than the preceding one.
Thus Vdyu is conceived as endowed with Sabda-guna of Akdsa along with
its own Sparsa-guna. Sabda and Sparsa enter into Tejas and co-exist with
Rupa in its nature. Accordingly, Salila possesses $abda> Sparsa, Rupa and
Rasa, and Prithwi is characterised by all the five ultimate sensible properti-
es, Sabda, Sparsa, Rupa, Rasa t and Gandha. Some sort of evolution
among these ultimate constituents of physical nature is also generally
recognised. Sometimes the process is described as the process of Pancika-

108

rana, by which the character of each of the five partially enters into all of
them. Besides the generally recognised essential sensible qualities, Gorakh-
nath mentions, as it has been already shown, several other characteristics
of each of them. He seems to attach more primary importance to such
attributes, as vacuity of Akdfa, Motion of Vayu, Heat of Tejas, Fluidity of
Saltia and Solidity of Prithwi.

While there is a general agreement among the Indian philosophical
schools about the Panca-Mahabhutas being the ultimate material constitu-
ents (jada updddna) of the physical world, there are fundamental differences
among them with regard to the question of the origin of this wonderfully
harmonious cosmic system (with various orders of living and conscious
beings within it) out of them. There are materialist schools (e.g. Lokdyata
or Carvdka) which stubbornly maintain that they are the ultimate realities
out of which this cosmic system with all its law and order and all its living
and conscious and rational beings has gradually come into existence in
course of time through various processes of integration and disintegration
by nature (swabhdva) or by chance (Yadricchd or niyati) and into which all
the bodies, whether inanimate or animate, unconscious or conscious,
are dissolved in course of time. They hold that Caitanya (spirit or cons-
ciousness) is nothing but a quality or attribute of certain classes of organ-
ised material bodies constituted of the five, (according to some, four,
leaving out AkaSa as no physical reality), material elements and never
exists apart from and independently of these gross material bodies. It is
needless to say that they feel no rational or spiritual necessity for
admitting the existence of God or Supreme Spirit to explain this Cosmic
Order.

There are strongly argumentative schools (such as Nydya and Vaite-
shika) which like the former maintain that these Panca-Mahdbhutas are
nitya dravya (eternal substances) eternally existing by themselves in inert
atomic (paramdnu) forms, but unlike the former hold that these ultimate
material elements being essentially inert cannot by themselves move and
combine together and arrange and organise themselves in a planned manner
so as to produce such a wonderful cosmic system and that they being jada
can never originate Caitanya (consciousness) through any kind of organisa-
tion in themselves. Alma (Spirit) and Manas (instrument of empirical
consciousness) are also recognised by them as eternal substances. They
recognise the eternal existence of innumerable individual souls (jivdtmd) and
of one Supreme Spirit (Paramdtmd), Who is ttwara (God). They hold that
Iswara, by the exercise of His innate infinite wisdom and power, creates in
a planned manner this cosmic order out of the five kinds of material atoms,
which are however not created by Him. According to them, the Panca-

109

Mahdbhutas are the material cause and I&wara is the efficient cause of this
objective world, and ttwara is also the Supreme Ruler of all the phenomena
of this world. The world is not however any part or self-manifestation or
body of the Supreme Spirit, and the individual souls also are not spiritual
parts or self-manifestations of the Supreme Spirit. The Naiydyika philoso-
phers adduce many logical and moral and cosmological arguments to prove
the existence of Iswara as the Efficient Cause of the cosmic system and the
Moral Governor of all individual souls. It is through His Grace that indivi-
dual souls devoted to His worship can attain Mukti or Apavarga. In mukti
these souls are not only released from all bondage and sorrow, but also
from phenomenal consciousness, which cannot remain without the soul's
contact with Manas.

According to the Sankhya system, Panca- Mahdbhutas are evolved
from Panca-Tanmatras, which are the same Mahdbhutas in their pure and
subtle states (apancikrita sukshma mahdbhuta) and characterised by the
purest and simplest sensible qualities ; these Tanmdtras are evolved from
Aham-tattwa (One Ego-Principle), which is also the source of the empirical
mind (manas], the five senses of knowledge (mdnendriya) and the five senses
of action (karmendriya . Thus, according to this view, the ultimate consti-
tuents of the objective physical world (including our individual physical
bodies) and the primary instruments of our knowledge of and action upon
this objective world originate from or are the mutually related manifesta-
tions of one higher reality (tattwa), viz , Ego-Principle, which is conceived
as the meeting-ground or the ground of union of the subjective and the
objective aspects of our experience, of the instruments of knowledge and
action and all objects of knowledge and action. The Ego-Principle is there-
fore also called Bhutddi, the Source of the Bhutas and of the whole world
of physical realities. The Ego-Principle is however not an individual ego,
which is always manifested in relation to the individual mind and senses
and the objective realities. It is a principle, a reality, a tattwa, which is
manifested in the two-fold ways of the plurality of individual subjects with
the individual minds and senses on the one side and the diversified objective
physical world constituted of material elements on the other. This Ego-Prin-
ciple again is conceived as evolved from Mahat-tattwa, which is the first mani-
festation (vyaktu-rupa) of Muld-Prakriti or Avyakta* tattwa the Ultimate
Material Cause of the subjective-objective phenomenal world in space and
time. The Sankhya system does not however hold that the plurality of
individual souls or spirits are evolved from Prakrit i. It asserts that an
infinite number of souls or spirits (called Purusha), the essential character
of which is pure changeless transcendent consciousness, are eternally associ-
ated (sanjukta) with Prakriti and all its evolutes and only apparently or
illusorily participate in their qualities and functions and limitations. When

110

it is perfectly realised by any individual soul, through the refinement and
illumination of the mind and intelligence related to it, that it is essentially
pure and changeless and limitationless Caitanya and in no way really con-
nected with the affairs of Prakriti and the cosmic order, it becomes emanci-
pated from the apparent bondage of this phenomenal world and exists in
its transcendent character. Thus the Mahdbhutas, according to Sankhya, are
not ultimate realities, though they are the ultimate material constituents of
the objective world. This objective world is not conceived as created by or
evolved from any Supreme Spirit or Iswara, but as evolved from Muld-
Prakriti, from which all phenomenal knowledge and action and all instru-
ments of knowledge and action also are evolved, without any supervision
and control of any eternal Supreme Lord of this Prakriti.

The Up^nishadic thinkers, like the Siddha Yogi Sampraddya, trace the
origin of the Panca- Mahdbhutas from the Supreme Spirit, Brahma or
Atmd. The Rishi of the Brahmdnanda-Valli of Taittiriya Upanishad
proclaims,

Tasmdd vd etasmdd dtmana dkdsah sambhutah. dkdsdd vdyuh, vdyor
agnih, agner dpah, adbhyah prithivL

From that Supreme Spirit (Brahma, the changeless transcendent
Satyam Jndnam Anantam) Who is also Alma or the True Self of every
being, Akdsa is born. From Akdsa Vdyu is evolved, from Vdyu Agni, from
Agni Ap, and from Ap Prithivi.

This view is supported by other Rishis. All the Upanishads hold the
view that one changeless differenceless transcendent Supreme Spirit*
(Brahma, Atmd. Siva) with infinite power and intelligence inherent in His
nature is the Sole Cause (Material and Efficient as well as Final Cause) of
the entire Spatio-temporal Cosmic Order. Brahma is described as a-sabda
a-sparsa a-rupa a-rasa a-gandha (without sound, without touch, without
form, without taste, without scent) and at the same time Bhuta-Yoni (the
Origin of all the bhutas). He is a-prdna a-manah (without life and mind in
the empirical sense) and at the same time the Sole Source of all life and
mind, all vital and mental phenomena, in the Cosmic System, and the
Indwelling Spirit (Antarydmi Atmd) in them all. The Upanishads clearly
proclaim that from Brahma all these Bhutas are born, by Brahma all of
them are sustained and enlivened, towards Brahma they are all moving on,
and into Brahma again they enter and merge and lose their differences. This
is exactly the view of the Mahd-Yogis.

The Vedantic schools of philosophy base their speculations on the
authoritative texts of the Upanishads. But some of them are so much under

Ill

the influence of the idea of the fundamental difference between Spirit and
Matter, between Pure Changeless Transcendent Consciousness above all
spatio-temporal relations and the diverse orders of ever-changing physical
phenomena in the world of time and space, that they fail to logically
conceive how the latter can really originate from or be a real self-manifesta-
tion of the former. Hence they regard the world of Mahd-bhutas as having
only an illusory existence born of some inexplicable mysterious Power,
called Maya or Avidyd, and the Supreme Spirit, Brahma, as nothing but a
substratum (adhisthdna) of this illusion. Of the vedantist philosophers
Ramanuja and Srikantha and some others follow the Mahd-Yogis in inter-
preting the cosmic system or the phenomenal world of Mahdbhutas as a
self-manifestation and embodiment of the Supreme Spirit, by virtue of the
real Power (Sakti) inherent in the Spirit.

Origination of Matter from Spirit and dissolution of Matter in Spirit,
origination of spatio-temporal phenomenal realities from one infinite
eternal changeless Transcendent Consciousness and absolute, unification of
the former in the Latter, free playful self-manifestation of one non-dual
Cit in the complex relative multiplicity of Jada and merging of this multi-
plicity in the perfect blissful unity of Cit, do not present insurmountable
conceptual difficulties to the enlightened Mahdyogis, because through the
systematic discipline and refinement of their body and mind and intellect
and the practice of deep meditation they easily pass from one plane of
experience to another, from the'plane of phenomenal Matter to the plane
of Transcendent Spirit and back from the latter to the former, from the
plane of changing diversities to the plane of absolute unity and back from
the latter to the former, and the transition becomes quite natural to them.
They directly experience the Transcendent as well as Dynamic character of
the Non-dual Spirit. Matter also is experienced by them as ultimately a
spiritual entity.

In Swetdswatara Upanishad and also in other Upanishads there is
eloquent testimony to such spiritual experiences of enlightened Mahdyogis.
It is said in the Upanishad, Te dhydna-yogdnugatd apasyan devdtma-faktim
swagunair nigudhdm: They (the enlightened Mahdyogis) through the most
intensive practice of dhydna-yoga saw the Supreme Spirit's own Sakti,
Whose essential character is concealed by Her own self-manifestations.
They see this Sakti (Which is essentially non-different from the Supreme
Spirit) manifested in various phenomenal forms in various planes of
experience. Jhdna (knowledge), Vala (force) and Kriyd (action) are quite
natural self-expressions of this Pard-Sakti of the Supreme Spirit, Pardsya
Saktir Bibidhaiva sruyate swdbhdbikl jndna-vala-kriyd ca. All expressions of
intelligence, all expressions of power or force, all expressions of activity,

112

creation and destruction, evolution and involution, expansion and contrac-
tion, organisation and disorganisation, etc., are diverse forms of self-
manifestation of the Supreme Sakti of the Supreme Spirit (Who may be
designated as Brahma or Siva or by any other name) and they all together
constitute the Cosmic Body of the Supreme Spirit. He is in all of them,
and all are in Him, by Him and for Him. The Mahdyogis actually experi-
ence this great Truth. To them the whole universe is the embodiment and
free delightful self-manifestation of Siva-Sakti.

Having described the constitution and character of the Cosmic Body
(Mahd-Sakara-Pinda) of Siva, Mahayogi Gorakhnath emphatically says,
Sa eva Sivah, He (the Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda) is veritably Siva Himself.
(S.S.P.I.37). The Body is not to be conceived as separate from the Soul.
The Cosmic Body of Siva is not to be conceived as separate from Siva
Himself, Who is the Soul of this Cosmic Body. It is quite true that the Soul
transcends space and time and the Body is in space and time, that the Soul
is transcendent Spirit and the Body is phenomenal matter, that the Soul is
the absolutely changeless One and the Body is in a continuous process of
change and diversification ; but still it is evident that the Body has no
separate existence apart from the Soul, that the Body exists by and for the
Soul, that the Soul manifests Himself in and through the Body and all the
phenomena pertaining to the Body. The Soul transcends the Body and is
also immanent in the Body, in the whole Body as well as in every part of
the Body. When an intelligent person sees the Body, he sees the Soul also
manifested in it. When an enlightened Yogi sees the physical world, he also
sees Siva manifested through His Sakti in this world. To the spiritual
insight of a Yogi the physical world also is Siva, because it is the Body of
Siva and Siva manifests Himself in and through it. Being the self-expression
of the Supreme Spirit, this physical world is revealed to his enlightened eyes
as a spiritual entity. Siva with His Spatio-temporal Cosmic Body being
conceived as Siva Himself, the Oneness of Siva is never hidden from view.
The One comprehending the many is One all the same.

It is to be noted that in every stage of the self-unfoldment of His
Unique Power, His Own Dynamic Nature, the Absolute Spirit manifests
Himself in newer and newer forms with newer and newer attributes and
embodiments and newer and newer expressions of His glories. The physical
Cosmic Body is the grossest (sthulatama) form of His self-manifestation. In
this Body His infinite Wisdom and Power, His infinite Goodness and
Beauty, His infinite Purity and Bliss, His infinite Love and Compassion,
are manifested in an infinite variety of finite forms, and He in His serene
and tranquil self-consciousness enjoys them all.

Having expounded his doctrine of the evolution of the Cosmic System

113

from the dynamic nature of Siva, Mahayogi Gorakhnath says that in rela-
tion to this Cosmic Order the Supreme Spirit Siva manifests Himself
principally in the forms of eight Divine Personalities, eight Cosmic
Deities, Who are called Ashta-Mitrti of Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda Siva.

Sivdd Bhairavo, Bhairavdt Srikanthah, Srikanthdt Saddsivah,

Saddsivdt fswarah, Iswardd Rudrah, Rudrdd Vishnuh, Vishnor

Brahma,

hi Mahd-Sdkara-Pindasya Murtyaslitakani. (S.S.PJ. 37).

First Siva Himself, second Bhairava, third Srikantha, fourth Sadasiva, fifth
Iswara, sixth Rudra, seventh Vishnu, and eighth Brahma. These are spoken
of as Ashta-Muni (eight special Divine Self- manifestations) of Mahd-
Sdkara-Pinda Siva (Siva embodied in the Cosmic System).

Through these special Divine Self-revelations Siva appears to per-
form different cosmic functions, to perform and regulate and harmonise
the works of creation, preservation, destruction, etc., to maintain law and
order in this diversified and ever-changing cosmic system, to establish the
reign of justice in the world of living beings and to distribute equitably
happinesses and miseries among them, to confer blessings upon them and
set before them high and noble ideals of Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Love
and Absolute Transcendent Unity, and provide opportunities to them for
the realisation of these ideals, and so on and so forth. They are ail non-
different from Siva. The Same Divine Power operates in all of them. It
is in the light of the different kinds of self-manifestation of the one
Sakti of Siva in the cosmic system that different glorious names are given
to Siva and different glorious powers and qualities and functions are
associated with these names. In the Hindu scriptures the name of
Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra are most widely known and they are
associated with the cosmic functions of Creation, Preservation and
Destruction, which are equally important for the continuity and ever-
newness of this spatio-temporal order. Brahma is conceived as the God
of Creation. He is the Creator of diverse orders of individual bodies,
animate and inanimate, conscious and unconscious, rational and non-
rational, big and small, endowed with diverse kinds of qualities and
powers and tendencies, within the Cosmic Body of Siva. Vishnu is the
God of Preservation. He preserves harmonious relationships among all
these diverse orders of individual bodies and rules over their behaviours
and destinies in accordance with the universal principles of Dharma
immanent in this cosmic system. He is the Divine Administrator of this
system. Rudra is conceived as the God of Destruction. He destroys these

114

individual bodies in due course and resolves them into their constituent
elements. Creation is the process of diversification and destruction is
the process of unification. All these processes are continuous in the Cosmic
Body of Siva.

CHAPTER XI

EVOLUTION OF A SYSTEM OF WORLDS
IN THE COSMIC BODY

In this Cosmic System, in this magnificent Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda of
the Supreme Spirit, we experience various orders of phenomenal
existences, which may be described as different worlds (loka), though they
are all interrelated and harmoniously organised in this Cosmic Body. In
relation to each of these worlds there is a specialised Divine Self-
manifestation of Siva. First, there is the world of material bodies and
physical forces (including mechanical, chemical, thermal, electrical and
other forces), in which there is no distinct manifestation of life and mind
and spirit, which is governed by natural laws (not obviously indicating any
reign of morality and spirituality or any design and purpose in their
operations), in which the processes of creation and preservation and
destruction, in smaller and bigger scales, are going on in natural course
in all periods of time and all regions of space. This is called the Material
World (Jada-Jagat).

Secondly, there is the world of life and vital forces which is governed
by biological laws or laws of Prdna. This is the Prdna- Jagat . Life is
always found in our ordinary experience as related to material bodies,
e.g. plants, insects, birds, beasts, men, etc. It is difficult for us even to
conceive of life or Prdna apart from relation to such bodies. But that
life is distinct from matter as such admits of no doubt. The presence of
life gives distinctive characteristics to the material bodies which it
organises and enlivens. How life appears in the material world and
becomes so closely related to material bodies is a puzzling problem. Life
pervades the individual body which it animates and organises and whose
functions it regulates for the realisation of some ideal immanent in it.
The phenomena of living bodies are teleogically governed. The body
may be in the form of a small seed or it may grow into a big tree with
branches and leaves and flowers and fruits; the body may be of the
nature of some minute semen or it may develop into a full-grown multi-
limbed animal body or human body; the same life which makes it grow
and develop pervades the whole and every part of it at every stage of its
growth* and development. Though the material bodies are governed by
natural laws of matter, in the cases of living organisms the biological
laws or laws of life rule over these natural laws and prove themselves
more powerful than the latter. When in any living body the vital force

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becomes weaker than the natural forces, it faces death, which implies that
it is reduced into the state of a pure material body.

Living bodies have birth and growth and decay and death, but Life
has not. Life transcends the bodies, through which it may manifest itself
for any period of time. Life is embodied in matter, but is not material.
In the Cosmic Body the world of life is intrinsically superior to the world
of lifeless matter, because the Divine Sakti is more manifested in and
reflected upon Life than lifeless Matter. Prdna is superior to sarira.
Sarlra is a seat and an instrument of the manifestation of Prdna. Prdna
or Life seems to come down from a higher plane into material bodies
which it pulls up partially to its own plane. It is the power of Prdna in
the world of matter, that transforms the processes of constructive and
destructive metabolism in the living organisms, brings about in the
material bodies many such wonderful changes as would not be possible by
means of any mechanical powers. The power of Prdna over Matter is
visible in every department of nature. Prdna represents a higher plane of
existence than pure Matter.

Thirdly, there is the world of Mind (Mano-jagat). Empirical
consciousness pertains to the nature of Mind. Mind manifests itself in
various kinds of phenomena, such as, sensation, perception, instinct,
impulse, feeling (pleasure, pain, etc.), desire, emotion, volition, knowledge,
doubt, imagination, memory, dream, illusion, hallucination, thinking,
designing, etc. The states of waking, dream and sound sleep belong to
the mind. Love and hatred, mercy and cruelty, sympathy and selfishness,
courage and cowardice, jealousy and fear, lust, anger, avarice, ambition,
generosity, charity, forgiveness, etc. etc., all these are phenomena of the
world of Mind. The phenomena of Mind are normally experienced as
related to the more developed and more complex living physical bodies,
and particularly to the nervous system and the brain, which are the finest
parts evolved in a living body. As in our normal experience mental
phenomena are invariably found in relation to individual living bodies, it
is difficult for us to imagine even the existence of mind apart from
connection with the material body.

Ordinarily it is found that Mind and Body act and react upon each
other, and that each is conditioned by the other. But Mind does not
occupy any special part of the Body, because unlike a material body it
does not require to occupy any particular portion of space for its
existence and functioning. Nor does Mind die with the death of the
gross physical organism. Mind, though related to Life and Body,
transcends them. Mind is not mortal, in the sense in which a living
body is mortal. Mind uses the living physical organism to which it may

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be temporarily related as an instrument (karana) for its self-expression in
the physical world. But, as it is believed by all the important schools of
Indian philosophy and religion, the same Mind may cut off its connection
with one physical organism (when the latter is disorganised and is dis-
solved in its constituent elements), may remain in a disembodied state
(i.e. without any gross physical body), and may again take a new birth in
(i.e. form connection with) a new physical body, which it then adopts as
the new instrument for its self-expression. In this way the "same individual
mind may pass through numerous physical bodies one after another, till
it is finally merged in the Cosmic Mind of Siva or in the nature of the
Absolute Spirit.

It may be noted, by the way, that the super-ordinary Mind of a
Master-Yogi may create, by the exercise of its will-power, any number
of gross physical bodies at the same time, and may make use of them as
instruments of its self-expression in diverse forms. It must be remembered
that all the phenomena of the world of Mind, whether ordinary or extra-
ordinary, are evolved in the Cosmic Body, Mahd-Sdkdra-finda, of Siva-
Sakti, and that they are all essentially of the nature of Cid-Vildsa,
sportive self- manifestations of the Supreme Spirit. In this Cosmic System
Mind has a higher order of reality than Matter and Life and is therefore
capable of exercising a controlling influence over them.

Fourthly, we experience in this Cosmic Body of Siva-Sakti the
evolution of a world of Reason or Intelligence (Buddhi), which may be
called Higher Mind. It is principally manifested in the form of the
ascertainment of Truth (adhyavasdya or satya-niscaya). Buddhi discrimi-
nates between valid knowledge and invalid knowledge, correct thought
and incorrect thought, true perception and false perception or illusion,
right judgment and wrong judgment, etc., and seeks to regulate the
natural functions of the mind towards the attainment of the ideal of Truth.
The urge for the attainment of Truth in the human mind is due to the
influence of Buddhi upon it. Buddhi sits in judgment upon the normal
operations of the mind with its standard of Truth, condemns many of
them as erroneous and exercises its power and influence upon the mind to
rectify them and to search for Truth. It is on account of the regulative
and enlightening influence of Buddhi that discrimination between Truth
and untruth arises in the mind and the mind feels an urge to seek for
Truth and avoid untruth. Buddhi appears to have an inherent right to rule
over the phenomena of the mind in the cosmic process.

In our normal experience we find definite expressions of Buddhi in
relation *to highly developed minds embodied in superior orders of living
physical organisms, particularly human. Fn the lives of the lower

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animals, though there are various kinds of expressions of the mind, there
is very Jittle evidence of the regulating and enlightening operation of
Buddhi in them. Buddhi seems to be, relatively speaking, unmanifested
(avyakta) in the subhuman creatures, though there are different orders
mental and vital and physical developments in them. Empirical philoso-
phers generally speak of man as a rational animal and all other animals
as non-rational reason being evolved in the former (the highest of all
animals) and imevolved in all the rest. Indian philosophers in general
maintain that Buddhi is present in all creatures, in all living bodies, along
with the mind, but as its manifestation is conditioned by the suitability of
the physical organism and the development of the mind, it is not distinctly
manifested as individual reason in the lower species of creatures. It manifests
itself as individual reason with a distinct consciousness of ego or self in
the human psycho-physical organism. The Cosmic Buddhi with the
Cosmic Mind and the Cosmic Life is of course all-pervading, pervading
even all apparently inorganic matter. It is the Cosmic Body of Siva-
Sakti that is manifested in all these forms. Though in our common
experience Buddhi (Reason or Intelligence) is invariably found to be
associated with physical body and life and mind, it essentially transcends
them. Suddha-Buddhi (pure and enlightened Reason) can, according to
yogis, rise above the limitations of these physical, vital and mental embodi-
ments and be united with the Supreme Truth. The world of Buddhi
(Vijnana-Jagat) is higher than the ManoJagat.

Fifthly, in this Cosmic Body of Siva we experience a world of
Dharma, which essentially means a Moral Order. Morality chiefly
consists in the distinction between good and evil, ri^ht and wrong, virtue
and vice, ideal and actual, ought and ought-not, superior and inferior,
higher and lower. It implies a judgment of intrinsic value upon the actual
phenomena by reference to some Ideal having inherent authority to rule
over the actual and judge their merits. It is on account of the evolution
of Dharma in this cosmic self-manifestation of Siva-Sakti that many
phenomena (whether physical or vital or mental), which appear in the
natural course and play their parts in this diversified universe, but do not
conform to the Ideal, are condemned as evil and wrong, while others
which conform to the Ideal are appreciated as good and right. Dharma
presents itself in the form of some Ideal of goodness or righteousness with
the inherent claim that the actual should be guided and controlled by it
or be checked and superseded by it.

It is Dharma which governs the process of natural evolution in the
world of our experience, and hence we find that higher and higher orders
of existences evolve from lower and lower orders in spite of forces of

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resistance, and a wonderful harmony is maintained by putting down the
forces of disharmony in all the stages. It is Dharma which proclaims
that forces of union and harmony* are superior to the forces of disunion
and disharmony, that forces of love and compassion are superior to the
forces of hatred and cruelty, that forces of peace and non-violence are
superior to the forces of war and violence, that forces of creation and
preservation are superior to the forces of destruction and disorganisation,
though all of them make their appearance on the cosmic stage in
natural course from the dynamic nature of the Absolute Spirit and play
the roles allotted to them. It is the power of Dharma in the Cosmic
System that makes the higher and superior forces victorious in it. It is
among the diverse orders of cosmic self- manifestations of iva-$akti that
Dharma, which also is a glorious self-expression of the same Siva-Sakti,
makes such distinctions of good and evil, right and wrong, ought and
ought-not, superior and inferior, higher and lower, and claims the right of
good and right to prevail over evil and wrong, the right of the superior
and higher to supersede the inferior and lower, the right of what ought
to exist to destroy and survive what ought not to exist in this cosmic
system. Thus Dharma, having evolved in the Mahd-Sakara>Pinda of
&iva-$akti, plays an exceptionally brilliant and sublime role in this
Divine Body. Dharma appears to convert, so to say, the spatio-temporal
psycho-physical Body of the Spirit into a Moral Body, a. Moral Order.
Dharma is the originator of all sorts of Moral Dualism in this world.

Dharma has its special manifestation in the Moral Consciousness
associated with the rational nature of Man and has its special application
to man's voluntary activities, external as well as internal, physical and
vital as well as mental and intellectual. Man as a rational being, as a
rational self-manifestation of Siva-Sakti, is endowed with a relative and
conditioned freedom in this Cosmic Order, freedom of will, freedom of
action, freedom of thought, freedom to control and regulate the
phenomena of his physical body and senses and life and mind and intellect
and also freedom to exercise a considerable amount of influence upon his
environments. He with his sense of ego (aham) feels that he is or can be

the master of himself, the master of his psycho-physical embodiment,

and even the master of the circumstances in which he may find himself.
Though he experiences various kinds of limitations imposed upon his
freedom and self-mastery and mastery over the external circumstances, he
feels within himself that he has the power and right and duty to remove
or rise above these limitations, if not wholly, at least to a great extent,
by dint of his own voluntary efforts. Man in his inner consciousness
feels that freedom is his birth-right and that he can immensely develop
this freedom through the wisely regulated exercise of the limited freedom

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which he actually possesses. Man is endowed with this relative and
dynamic freedom in the Mahd-Sakara-Pinda of Siva-Sakti, and this free-
dom and the concomitant moral consciousness and consciousness of duties
and responsibilities form a glorious aspect of the cosmic self-expression of
the Divinity.

It may be noted that perfect freedom pertains to the essential
character of the Spirit, and that in the cosmic self-expression of the
Spirit there are various grades of the manifestation of this freedom. In
the world of Matter this freedom appears to be practically unmanifested;
in the world of Life it is very slightly manifested, the consciousness of
freedom being absent there. In the world of non-rational (animal) Mind
there is greater manifestation of freedom than in the world of Life, but
here also there is no distinct consciousness of freedom and hence no moral
consciousness. It is in the world of Reason or Rational Mind that the
consciousness of freedom is distinctly manifested (though under limita-
tions). This consciousness of partial conditioned relative freedom is
associated with Moral Consciousness or the Consciousness of Dharma,
and the phenomenal expressions of this consciousness of relative freedom
are tbe special objects of Moral Judgment or Judgment of Dlwrma. Though
Dharma is all-pervading and underlies all the spheres of phenomenal
existences in this Cosmic System, the sphere of conscious relative freedom
constitutes the special sphere of Dharma in this system. Here moral
discrimination is prominently manifested.

The Moral Consciousness of man, which is alicnably associated with
the Consciousness of Limited Freedom, has an inherent faith in the reign
of Dharma in this objective universe in which he lives and moves and
finds ample scope for the exercise of this freedom. He believes that in
this cosmic system virtue is rewarded with happiness as well as
with favourable conditions for the progress and elevation of life and mind
and intellect, and vice is punished with misery as well as with unfavourable
and undesirable conditions. He believes that according to the Law of
Dharma in the cosmic system every individual enjoys and suffers the
sweet and bitter fruits of his own good and evil deeds, of the proper and
improper use of his partial freedom, in the physical and the mental
planes. His moral consciousness creates in him the confidence that every
individual is the builder of his own destiny, that the cosmic order returns
in due course to every individual just what he deserves on account of the
merits and demerits of his own actions. This is called the Law of Karma
by Indian philosophers. It implies the reign of Dharma in the cosmic
process, the Law of Moral Justice ruling over even the apparently
physical and non-moral -phenomena in this cosmic system, at least in

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so far as they affect the enjoyments and sufferings of the relatively free
living beings and present to them favourable or unfavourable conditions
for their self-expression and self-development. This faith in the reign of
Dharma in the cosmic process awakens in the human mind a sense of
moral dignity and a dynamic sense of duty and responsibility in
practical life.

Just as man's intellectual consciousness manifested in his valid
perception and inference and reasoning is the guarantee for the objective
reality of the natural order in the cosmic system, so his moral conscious-
ness stands as the guarantee for the objective reality of Dharma or the
moral order in this system. The Cosmic Body of &iva-$akti reveals itself
to the intellectual consciousness as a natural order and to the moral
consciousness as a moral order, as a world of Dharma.

If is this strong faith in the reign of Dharma in the cosmic order,
which is at the basis of the doctrine of Rebirth, birth after birlh and
assumption of newer and newer physical embodiments under newer and
newer circumstances according to moral deserts, which is accepted
practically by all schools of Indian philosophy. In every birth an indivi-
dual ego enjoys and suffers the sweet and bitter fruits of the good and
evil deeds of previous births and gets fresh opportunities for the fulfilment
of the demands of his moral consciousness. This continues till the
individual rises to a higher plane of consciousness and transcends the
domain of Dharma. A yogi with his refined Moral and Intellectual
Consciousness can recollect a number of his past births and can also
know the past births of other persons through the concentration of his
attention in that direction.

Sixthly, in this Cosmic Body of Siva-Sakti there is a world of Rasa
(Aesthetic Order). This is specially revealed to the refined Aesthetic
Consciousness of man. Rasa pervades the entire Cosmic Body. It
makes the whole universe a magnificently beautiful order. All forms and
all grades of realities in this infinitely diversified universe are elements of
Beauty, and they all participate in and contribute to the Beauty of the
entire cosmic system. The wonderfully interrelated and intermingled
worlds of Matter, Life, Mind and Reason are all impregnated with the
Beauty of the whole system, and they all play their allotted parts wonder-
fully for giving expression to the Beauty inherent in the nature of the
sportive delightful self- manifestation of Siva-Sakti in this Cosmic Organism.
All the moral distinctions appearing in the world of Dharma are merged
and beautified in the world of Rasa. All good and evil, all virtue and
vice, all right and wrong, that are evolved in the cosmic process and
particularly in the human nature, are appreciated and enjoyed as elements

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of Beauty by the refined Aesthetic Consciousness, which experiences the
Rasa manifested in and through all such moral dualisms of the world of
Dharma.

The refined Aesthetic Consciousness that habitually dwells in the
world of Rasa finds as much beauty in destruction as in creation, as much
beauty in the violent and furious forces of nature as in the benign and
beneficent forces, as much beauty in the distresses and agonies in the
world of living creatures as in their happinesses and prosperities. It
appreciates and enjoys the beauty and sublimity of the whole Cosmic
Body of the Supreme Spirit and experiences the whole reflected in every
part, in every particularised manifestation of the whole. A man whose
enlightened Aesthetic Consciousness prevails over his mental intellectual
and moral consciousness has the delightful experience that he really lives
and moves and has his being in a world of Rasa, in a world of all-
harmonising and all-sweetening Beauty, whatever may be the outer
appearances of the phenomena occurring around him. Accordingly he
feels a deep love and admiration for this Cosmic System, a love and
admiration for all that play their allotted parts in this beautiful order and
contribute to the infinite grandeur and magnificence and variety of this
beautiful self-expression of the Supreme Spirit.

To the Aesthetic Consciousness of man, the Rasa pervading the
Cosmic System manifests itself in a variety of phenomenal forms, which
excite different kinds of feelings and emotions and sentiments in the mind,
but are all the same appreciated and enjoyed as beautiful and delightful.
Philosophers reflecting upon Rasa-tattwa (the nature of Rasa) enumerate
various forms of its manifestation, such &$,Madhura (sweet or lovable,
exciting the feeling of joy), Karuna (pathetic or tragic, exciting the feeling
of compassion or sadness), Vira (heroic or courageous, exciting the feeling
of admiration), Rudra (majestic, exciting the feeling of awe), Bhishana
(furious or dreadful, exciting the feeling of fear), Hasya (comic or
amusing, exciting laughter or light pleasure), Adbhuta (strange, exciting
the feeling of surprise or astonishment), Santa (calm and serene, exciting
the feeling of calmness and tranquillity), Vlbhatsa (loathsome or odious,
exciting the feeling of disgust or repulsion), and soon. In fact the various
forms of manifestation of Rasa cannot be exhaustively enumerated, and
the various kinds of feelings excited by them cannot also be adequately
described. What is remarkable is that what appears as Vlbhatsa or
Bhlsana or Karuna in our normal experience, -whether in the physical
world or in the animal world or in the human world, and excites in our
minds the feeling of repulsion or dread or sadness, is also a form of
manifestation of Rasa or the Beauty immanent in this Cosmic Order and

123

is appreciated and enjoyed as such by refined and enlightened Aesthetic
Consciousness. We fail to appreciate and enjoy the beauty of many
phenomena of our ordinary experience, because our mind and senses are
not properly disciplined and illumined to see them in their true perspec-
tive, to view them in relation to the whole of which they are parts, to
recognise their true places and functions in this beautiful cosmic order.
Persons with well-developed Aesthetic Consciousness oftQn describe this
universe with aU the diverse kinds of beings and phenomena in it as a
Great Work of Art, in which everything is in its most appropriate place
and in which all parts (whatever may be their apparent divergences and
antagonisms when viewed in isolation from one another) contribute to and
participate in the sublime beauty of the whole. Sometimes they describe
this universe as one ever-continuous flow of the finest and richest Music
and enjoy all phenomena as the modes and modulations and rhythms of
the same eternal and infinite Music. Sometimes it is described as a great
Epic Poem or a great Drama. A Mahayogi enjoys the beauty and sublimity
of all forms of phenomenal self-expressions of Siva-akti and describes
them as Cid-Vildsa.

Seventhly, this Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda of Siva-Sakti is a world of
Ananda (Spiritual Bliss). This dnandamaya aspect of the cosmic order is
revealed to and enjoyed by the Illumined Spiritual Consciousness of man,
the consciousness of Mahdyogis, Mahdjndnis, Mahdbhaktas. All joys
and sorrows of our common experiences are to this consciousness
elements of Ananda and are enjoyed as such. Phenomenally speaking,
Ananda implies the perfect fulfilment of existence, fulfilment of life and
power, fulfilment of mind and reason, fulfilment of morality and religion,
fulfilment of goodness and beauty. The perfect fulfilment of all the
aspects of this cosmic self-expression of Siva-akti is unveiled to the
empirical consciousness, which is perfectly illumined by the Spiritual
Light of the ultimate character of Siva-Sakti, i.e. the transcendent and
dynamic, self-luminous and self-revealing, nature of the one non dual
Supreme Spirit.

Truly speaking, this Ananda is the real and eternal nature of the
Supreme Spirit, Siva in eternal and perfect union with His Sakti, and
all the grades and all the forms of self-manifestation of the Supreme
Spirit are the manifold expressions of His Ananda. Accordingly the
Mahd'Sdkdra-Pinda or the Cosmic Body of the Supreme Spirit is also a
variegated spatio-temporal expression of the Ananda of the Spirit. All
the constituent elements of the physical universe, called Mahabhutas or
Mahdtattwas by the Yogis, are self-embodiments of Ananda. All Matter
and Life and Mind and Reason, which are evolved in this Cosmic Body,

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are forms of self expression of this Ananda. All the dualities of the world
of mind and senses and the world of Dharma, all the varieties of aesthetic
enjoyments in the world of Rasa, all these evolve from and are pervaded
by the Ananda of the Supreme Spirit; Ananda is immanent in them all.
All the apparent imperfections and evils and vices and miseries, which we
ordinarily experience in this world, have got Ananda as the Reality behind
and within therji. In truth, there is no reality save and except Ananda in
this universe. Hence it is proclaimed in the Upanishad that all the
phenomenal realities of this universe are born from Ananda, they are all
sustained by Ananda, they all move towards the full realisation of Ananda 9
and they are all ultimately merged in Ananda. The universe is nothing
but Ananda in a variety of forms in time and space. The true knowledge
of this universe is the realisation of it as the diversified manifestation of
Ananda, which is the essential nature of the Supreme Spirit. Mahdyogis,
Mahajnanis and Mahabhaktas realise themselves as well as the universe as
Anandamaya.

It is pointed out by the yogi-philosophers that such classification
and gradation of different worlds or different orders of existences and
experiences in the Cosmic Body of Siva-Sakti can never be complete or
exhaustive or certain. From different view-points different principles of
classification and gradation may be adopted, and accordingly classification
and gradation would assume different forms. To different orders of
phenomenal consciousnesses, different worlds or orders of existences are
revealed, and these, consciousnesses also are evolved in this Cosmic Body.
Moreover, all such classifications and gradations are based on human
experience and speculation, and who can certify that human experience and
thought can reach all the aspects of the Cosmic System, all the modes
of cosmic self-expression of the Supreme Spirit, or that human experience
and thought must be recognised as the sole and sure ascertainer of the
true and entire nature of the Cosmic Order?

The human consciousness may, through the intensive practice of the
appropriate yogic methods of self-concentration and self- enlightenment, be
capable of rising above the limitations of phenomenal knowledge, trans-
cending the Cosmic Order, and becoming perfectly united with the
Supreme Spirit, Who is the Soul of the Cosmic Order, the Soul of all
phenomenal existences. But that does not necessarily mean that such
enlightened human consciousness can attain perfect and thorough know-
ledge of the entire phenomenal Cosmic Body of the Supreme Spirit, of
all the infinitely diversified spatio-temporal self-manifestations of Siva-
Sakti. The phenomenal experience and knowledge of even a perfectly
enlightened Mahayogi can not be expected to be all-comprehensive. What

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is called Sarbajftatd (omniscience) of a Mahdyogi does not mean the
phenomenal knowledge of all the details of this Cosmic System, but the
intuitive or spiritual knowledge of the Ultimate Truth of all existences.

The infinite richness of the various aspects of the Mahd-Sdkdra-
Pinda of iva-akti is unfathomable even to the highest order of human
intelligence, even to the most spiritually illumined empirical consciousness
of a Mahdyogi, Mahdjndni, Mahdbhakta. Hence the Scriptures speak of
innumerable Brahmdndas (worlds) of diiferc-V kinds in this Cosmic Body
of the Supreme Spirit. The human experience and knowledge are confined
only within one Brahmdnda, which also is too rich in contents to be fully
comprehended. Many scriptures have enumerated fourteen Lokas or
Bhuvctnas in this Brahmdnda. These are mentioned by Gorakhnath also.
We are dwellers of Bhuh. Above this Bhuh there are Bhuvah, Swah,
Mahah, Jana, Tapah, Sutra, which are gradually higher and higher worlds,
inhabited by higher and higher orders of beings, each being presided over
by Divine Personalities. There are lower worlds also, such as Atala,
Bitala, Suiala, Mahdtala, Taldtala, Rasdtala, Pdtdla, (S.S.P. III. 2-4).
Various orders of Swarga and Naraka also have been enumerated. AH
these point to the inconceivable greatness of the Cosmic Body of Siva-
Sakti. This Body is ever-new, ever-fresh, ever-young, through the pro-
cesses of creation and transformation and destruction, and has no begin-
ning or end either in time or in space and no limit to the varieties within
its unity.

In Siddha-Siddhdnta-Paddhatl Mahayogi Gorakhnath makes mention
of various worlds, various orders of existences and experiences, in the
Cosmic Body of Siva-Sakti, and, as it will be seen hereafter, he shows
how all these worlds can be experienced by a Yogi within the individual
body, which he describes as the epitome of the Cosmic Body. Besides
the seven lower worlds and the seven higher worlds named above, he also
specifies a number of still higher worlds, such as, Vishnu-loka, Rudra-
loka, Iswara-loka, Nilakantha-loka, Siva-loka, Bhairava-loka t Anddi-loka,
Kula-loka, Akula-loki, Para-Brahma-loka, Pardpara-loka t Sakti-loka. As
it has been remarked before, the Mahayogi never presumes that such
enumeration is or can be exhaustive. It is rather suggestive. It suggests
how the infinite greatness of the Cosmic Body of the Supreme Spirit
should be contemplated upon. The yoga-system which he preaches
teaches every spiritual aspirant not only to contemplate upon the infinite
expanse, infinite complexity, infinite grandeur, infinite beauty, infinite
goodness, infinite richness, perfect order and harmony, perfect inner unity
amidst the most bewildering outer diversities, of the cosmic self-expression
of the Supreme Spirit, but also to realise through the most intensive

126

contemplation and meditation the infinite greatness and sacredness of his
own individual body and its essential identity with the Cosmic Body.

Samarasa-karana of the Vyasti-pinda (individual body) with the
Samasti-pinda (Cosmic Body), the realisation of the same rasa or the
same spiritual infinity and beauty and bliss within the self and the
universe is the grand ideal preached by the Siddha-Yogi school. This
ideal of Samarasa-karana of the Yogi-school differs, as we shall see more
clearly later on, from the ideal of Brahmdtmajndna of the Adwaita-
Veddnta school, which preaches the illusoriness of the Cosmic System and
all individual existences and consciousnesses within it and the metaphysical
identity of Brahma (as free from the upadhi of this illusory cosmic order)
and the individual Atmd (as liberated from the upadhi of the false
individual body, individual consciousness and individual existence). The
Yogi-school preaches the spiritual ideal of Samarasa-karana of Brahma
(together with all His cosmic self-manifestations) and the individual Atmd
(with his individual consciousness perfectly illumined by Brahma-
consciousness and his individual psycho-physical organism reflecting the
glories of the Cosmic Body of Brahma). The Yogi teachers accordingly
present to us a glorious conception of the phenomenal universe, which is
a real manifestation of the infinite glory of the Unique Sakti of Brahma
or Siva, and want to awaken in us the consciousness that we are also real
participators in the glory of this Mahdsakti and that what are manifested
in the Cosmos are manifested in us as well.

The Siddha-Yogi school, in general agreement with most other
important Indian schools of philosophy and religion, maintains the view
that every world in this phenomenal Cosmic System has got three essentially
interrelated aspects; called ddhydtmika, ddhibhoutika and adhidaivika. The
ddhydtmika aspect implies a certain plane of phenomenal conscious-
ness and a certain order of phenomenal experiences, with an appropriate
system of instruments (indriya or karana) of knowledge and feeling and
action for the differentiated self-expressions of this consciousness and for
giving definite particularised forms to its experiences. The ddhibhoutika
aspect implies a certain order of objective realities revealed to this
consciousness through such instruments. These objective realities consti-
tute the embodiment of this consciousness, the external region in which it
finds scope for self-expression in manifold forms of knowledge and feeling
and desire and action, as well as the varieties of objects which appear and
disappear in this region and are perceived as real in this plane of
consciousness.

The ddhydtmika and the ddhibhoutika aspects may be regarded as
the subjective and the objective or as the psychical and the physical,

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manifestations of the realities of the same order, and neither has any
evidence of its existence except as related to the other. E.G., the
adhibhoutika jagat (objective world) in which we now actually live has the
proof of its existence and its special nature in our sensuous experiences;
this world so extensive in space and so continuous in time with all the
varieties of sounds and colours and tastes and smells and shapes and
sizes, with all the phenomena of heat, light, electricity, etc., with all
the history of its evolution and the emergence of various species of beings
within it, is a real world only in relation to our specially constituted
senses of perception and minds and intellects. This system of specially
constituted senses and minds and intellects is the adhyatmika or subjective
aspect of our world, and the evidence of the reality of these senses and
minds and intellects lies in their revelation of those objects. The eyes are
the proof of the existence of colours and the perception of colours is the
proof of the existence of the eyes. They are so interrelated that they are
legitimately supposed to have a common source of existence. That is
the case with all the rest. Every order of phenomenal existence has an
adhyatmika and an adhibhoutika aspect, each contributing to the revelation
of the realitiy of the other. It is held that in every world there is a
distinctive adhyatmika system for experiencing objective realities and a
distinctive adhibhoutika order of realities capable of being objects of
experience to that psychical system.

The ddhidaivika aspect of a world implies that every particular world v
in the Cosmic Body of Siva-Sakti is a well-designed well-ordered system,
governed by a Divine Spiritual Agency, i e. a glorious Spiritual Manifes-
tation of Siva-Sakti, a great Devata, Who governs and harmonises all the
affairs of this world and maintains its unity and continuity amidst all its
varieties and changes, Who is revealed as the Special Indwelling Spirit of
this particular world and Who stands as the guarantee for the corres-
pondence and correlativity of its adhyatmika and adhibhoutika aspects.
Each world has its own Adhisthdtn Devatd or Presiding Deity, Who keeps
up its organic unity and shines as its Life and Soul, and every such Deity is
a Special Spiritual Self-Revelation of Siva-Sakti. In each world the
Presiding or Central Deity again manifests himself as a number of Minor
Deities, who are often called Anga-Devatd (meaning that they are like
limbs or organs of the Central Deity), and who appear as active Spiritual
Agencies governing and harmonising particular departments of the
adhyatmika and adhibhoutika aspects of the world. Thus the Scriptures
speak of numerous Devatds with varieties of characters and powers and
functions in relation to the same world. They are all specialised Spiritual
Self-Revelations of Siva-Sakti in this infinite and eternal Cosmic Body,
and as such are non-different from Siva-Sakti. These Devatds have

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phenomenal realities of a higher order than ourselves and the objects of
our normal experience. All the various orders of worlds with their
adhyatmika, adhibhoutika and adhidaivika aspects are perfectly organised
and harmonised and unified by the spiritual immanence of the Supreme
Devatd t Paramdtmd, Para-Brahma, Siva, with His infinite Divine Sakti.
The entire Cosmic System, comprising all orders of worlds, is thus a
magnificent self-manifestation of the Absolute Spirit and is therefore rightly
conceived as essentially a spiritual system. This is Mahd-Sakara-P'mda
of the Absolute Spirit, according to Gorakhnath and the school of
enlightened yogis.

CHAPTER XII

THE EVOLUTION OF INDIVIDUAL BODIES
IN THE COSMIC BODY

Recapitulation: It has been observed that in 'the view of
Gorakhnath and the Siddha-Yogi Sampradaya the Ultimate Reality is
One, Who is above time and space, above duality and relativity, above
substantiality and causality, above quality and number, above all activity
and change, above all phenomenal existence and phenomenal conscious-
ness. He transcends all differences between spirit and matter, the knower
and the knowable, the conscious and the unconscious, the living and the
non-living, the doer and the deed, the cause and the effect, the creator
and the created, etc. He is absolutely differenceless and changeless and
attributeliess and actionless and formless and nameless. He is first
referred to as the Nameless One.

But the Ultimate Reality must be conceived as the Absolute Source
and Sustainer of all existences, all consciousnesses, all orders of
phenomena in this universe of our actual and possible experiences. Hence
for the purpose of our conception the Ultimate Reality is described as
pure and perfect and absolute Existence (Sat), pure and perfect and
absolute Consciousness (CiVj, and as such, also pure and perfect and
absolute Bliss (Inanda). Existence and Consciousness and Bliss are not
of course conceived in the abstract sense, but as the essential nature of
the Ultimate Reality, the all-transcending Nameless One, in Whom the
difference between the abstract and the concrete, the qualities and the
owner of the qualities, does not exist. The Ultimate Reality so
conceived is spoken of by the Siddha-Yogi school as Pard-Sambit. This
Para-Sambit is referred to in common discussions as Siva or Brahma or
Paranuitma or Adindtha or by any other generally accepted Divine Name,
conveying the idea of the Supreme Spirit. The Name Siva has special
sanctity in this school in as much as this school adopts the Siva-Cult for
the purpose of religious and spiritual discipline. Accordingly in this
Sampradaya Siva is the Ultimate Reality, the Absolute Truth. He is
Pard-Sambit, pure and perfect Sat-Cid-Ananda, the Absolute Source of all
orders of existences and consciousnesses and experiences in the universe.

Now, Siva or Brahma or Pard-Sambit is on the one hand self-
existent self-luminous self-perfect differenceless and changeless non-dual
transcendent Consciousness or Spirit above time and space and relativity,
and on the other the absolute Ground and Source and Sustainer of all

130

temporal and spatial and relative phenomenal realities, of the bewilder-
ingly diversified and changeful and wonderfully harmonious and organised
cosmic system and all orders of individual existences in it. This neces-
sarily implies that the Absolute Reality must have a transcendent as well
as a dynamic aspect, an aspect of changeless undifferentiated self-perfect
Consciousness and an aspect of self-modifying self-differentiating self-
revealing self-multiplying Creative Power. The Yogi-school accordingly
holds that the Absolute Reality is Siva with infinite Sakti immanent in
and non-different from Him, the Transcendent Spirit with Unique Power
for phenomenal self-manifestation. Without Sakti, Siva would have no
phenomenal self-expression and He would not be the Ground of this
Cosmic order, and without Siva Sakti would have no existence at all.
Sakti eternally exists in and by and for Siva, the self-existent and self-
luminous Spirit. Siva and Sakti have no separate existence. Sakti is
Siva in His dynamic aspect. On account of the immanent presence of
Sakti in the transcendent nature of Siva or the Supreme Spirit, Siva is
eternally Being and eternally Becoming, is eternally the changeless One
and is eternally manifesting and enjoying Himself as Many, is eternally
dwelling in His supra-phenomenal Self and eternally revealing Himself in
various relations in the phenomenal universe.

It is through the gradual self-unfoidment of His Sakti that Siva
reveals Himself in more and more manifested (vyakta) forms, in more
and more qualified (Saguna) characters, in more and more concrete
embodiments (Pinda-rupa), though in His transcendent nature He remains
eternally changeless. Initially His Sakti is identical with Him and is
called His Nijd-Sakti. This Sakti is of the character of Pure Will or Will
that wills nothing and is therefore undistinguishable from Pure Cons-
ciousness. This Sakti gradually unfolds Herself into Para-Sakti, Apard-
Sakti, Sukshmd-Sakti and Kwidalini- Sakti. These may be conceived as
the pre-cosmic stages of the self-unfoldment of the Divine Sakti. Through
these stages Siva is said to be equipped with a subtly qualified and
embodied state, which is named Para-Pinda. Thus Siva becomes Para-
Pinda. In relation to each of the stages Siva is said to acquire a new
Name with new qualifying attributes, such as, Aparamparam, Paramapadam,
Sunyam, Niranjanam, Paramatma. With all these names and qualities Siva
becomes known as Anddi-Pinda. In this way while His upadhis (epithets)
go on developing through the free and delightful play of His own Sakti,
Siva the Soul and Master of all these upadhis, always transcends them
and enjoys in Himself the bliss of His eternal perfection.

Through further self-revealing of the Divine Sakti, live more tattwas
(realities) with their special characteristics are evolved in the nature of

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Anddi-Pinda. These are named Paramdnanda, Prabodha, Cidudaya^
Prakdsa and Ahambhdva. They with their attributes further qualify the
nature of Siva, the Supreme Spirit, and constitute what is called Adya-
Pinda. Adya-Pinda is conceived as the Causal Body with reference to the
phenomenal spatio-temporal Cosmic Order, which has not as yet been
evolved, but the seed or the potentiality of which is manifested in an
ideal form in this Causal Body of Siva. Sakti is ever-active in the nature
of Siva, continues revealing and objectifying ever-new qualifications in His
nature and creating more and more complex bodies for Him. Siva shines
as the Indwelling Spirit in all of them, as their Soul and Lord, as their
llluminer and Unifier and Enjoyer. They all appear as His Vilasa-rupa.

Thus there is further self-unfolding activity of Sakti in the nature of
Adya-Pinda or the Causal Body of Siva, and the Spatio-temporal Cosmic
Body is gradually evolved, which is called Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda. This
Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda of Siva consists of Mahdkdsa, Mahdvdyu, Mahdtejas,
Mahsalila and Mahdprithwi, which with their specific characteristics are
in a gradual process evolved from the nature of Adya-Pinda. Various
worlds, various orders of existences and experiences, various grades of
phenomenal consciousnesses and phenomenal realities revealed to them,
various kinds of forces and their actions, various forms of relations and
complications, are evolved in this magnificent Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda, and
they are all most wonderfully and beautifully organised and harmonised
and unified in this Cosmic Body of Siva. Creations and Preservations
and Destructions are going on continuously within this Cosmic Body, and
through them this Cosmic Body is ever-new, ever-fresh, ever-living, ever-
beautiful. Siva Himself becomes this Cosmic Body through the self-
revealing activity of His Sakti. This universe is thus conceived by
Gorakhnath and the Siddha-Yogis as the magnificent and beautiful
Divine Body, as Siva or Brahma Himself present in this form of the
universe. All the varieties of the universe are to them variegated self-
manifestations of Siva and are thus essentially spiritual and enjoyable.

Then Gorakhnath says that Siva having manifested Himself as the
Mahd-Sdkdra-Pinda further reveals Himself in relation to it as Eight
Cosmic Divine Personalities, Who are called Ashta-Murti of this Mahd-
Sdkdra-Pinda. These Cosmic Deities are Siva (Himself), Bhairava,
Srikantha, Sadasiva, ISwara, Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma. These majestic
Gods are of course no other than Siva Himself, the Supreme Spirit, the
Indwelling Soul and Lord of the entire universe and all orders of worlds
within it. But they appear to be specially glorious self-revelations of the
Supreme Spirit in the forms of eight orders of Cosmic Consciousnesses
related to, immanent in and ruling over the Cosmic System and the seven
orders of worlds evolved within it.

Siva Himself is conceived as the First Muni, the Supreme Cosmic
Personality, Whose self-luminous consciousness is all-transcending and all-
comprehending, all-illumining and all-unifying, and Who reigns over and
determines the courses of all orders of worlds, all planes of existences
and experiences, in His Cosmic Body. From Him and within Him is
evolved Bhairava, the Second Murtf, the Second Cosmic Deity, Whose
consciousness is perfectly spiritual, Who dwells in the realm of perfect
spirituality and blissfulness, in Whose perception the whole Cosmic
System, the Cosmic Body of Siva, is full of Ananda and Caitanya, wherein
there is no imperfection and limitation, no bondage and sorrow, no veil
upon the Supreme Spirit. Bhairava is therefore often worshipped as the
perfect Ideal of yoga and jMna. The aim of a spiritual aspirant is to
attain the plane of consciousness which Bhairava represents. Gorakhnath
often refers to Bhairava as the Ideal of a yogi. The Third Cosmic Deity
is Srikantha, evolved from Bhairava. He seems to represent the perfec-
tion of Aesthetic Consciousness. He always dwells in the world of Beauty
or Rosa. To Him the Cosmic Body is rasamaya, a perfectly beautiful
order, every part of which is in sweet harmony with and contributes to
the beauty of the whole. He is the most perfect Musician, the most
perfect Poet, the most perfect Painter, the most perfect Artist in all
respects, and to Him the whole cosmic self-manifestation of the Supreme
Spirit is a perfect flow of Music, a perfect Poem, a perfect Picture, a
perfect Artistic Product, a perfect Dance. The all-pervading Beauty of
Siva's Cosmic Body is always unveiled to and enjoyed by His Conscious-
ness, and He reigns and shines in this world of Beauty. He is worshipped
and meditated upon by the yogis as the Supreme [deal of artistic sadhana,
for the realisation of the immanent Beauty of the Cosmic Order. He is
conceived as Rasetwara, the Lord of Beauty. With Him as the Ideal, a
yogi undergoes systematic courses of self-discipline for the perfect harmo-
sation and beautification of his entire self-conscious being and for putting
himself in perfect tune with the beautiful universe.

SadSsiva is mentioned by Gorakhnath as the Fourth Cosmic Deity.
He is evolved from Srikantha. He appears to represent the perfection of
Moral Consciousness. He is the Indwelling and all-regulating Spirit of
the world of Dharma. To Him the Cosmic System is a perfect Moral
Order, in which the Ideal of Goodness or perfect moral excellence is the
immanent regulative principle and in which this Ideal is being progres-
sively realised in and through all moral dualisms and apparent anta-
gonisms. To His consciousness all apparent evils and vices, all hatreds
and furies and catastrophies and agonies, etc., are so well designed and
regulated and harmonised that they all contribute to the realisation of
Perfect Goodness in the Cosmic System. He therefore looks upon all

133

such seeming aberrations in a sportive mood and is kind and compas-
sionate and forgiving to all. He is worshipped by all people living in the
domain of Dharma or moral dualisms for receiving inspiration and
strength for the cultivation of purity and goodness and moral excellences
and for getting ready forgiveness for occasional deviations from the
righteous path. He is meditated upon as the Ideal of perfect Goodness,
the Ideal of perfect Dharma.

ISwara is named as the Fifth Divine Muni in the Cosmic Body of
Siva. He is described as evolved from Sad5<;iva. In this context Iswara
seems to represent the fullness of Rational or Intellectual Consciousness.
He is the Indwelling Spirit and the Supreme Lord of the world of Buddhi
(Reason). To Him the Cosmic System is a magnificent Rational Order,
in which the Ideal of Truth is being progressively revealed and realised
in and through the diversities of phenomenal realities in time and space.
In His consciousness Truth is perfectly realised, and He is the Supreme
Ideal to those who seek for Truth in the world-order. He is the Source
of inspiration to all truth-seekers and the omniscient Guru of all at all
times. He awakens the urge for Truth in all minds and leads them from
ignorance and error to Truth. Through the worship of Iswara and by
His Grace the Buddhi of a truth-seeker is enlightened and he realises the
whole world-system as a rational order and perceives the revelation of
Truth in all mental, vital and material phenomena. It is by the Grace of
Iwara that all branches of human knowledge, all sciences and
philosophies, all languages and literatures, are developed in this human
society.

The Sixth Divine Personality in the Cosmic System is Rudra, Who
is described as evolved from Iswara. In this context Rudra may be viewed
as representing the Cosmic Mind. He is the Indweller and Ruler of the
world of Mind. He manifests Himself in all kinds of mental powers and
mental phenomena in the Cosmic Body of Siva, exercises control over
them and preserves harmony and unity among them. He is conceived as
all-powerful and all-knowing and as bestowing power and knowledge and
greatness and brilliance upon all minds that seek for them. But He does
not appear to be directly concerned with the Ideals of Truth and Good-
ness and Beauty and Spiritual Bliss, which are represented by ISwara,
Sadasiva, Srikantha and Bhairava. Rudra (conceived in this way) is
worshipped chiefly for the development of the mind-power, for the
gratification of desires and ambitions, for the expansion of the frontiers
of knowledge and for the favourableness of the mental atmosphere.

In this hierarchy of Cosmic Divine Self- Revelations of the Supreme
Spirit the Seventh Position is occupied by Vishnu, Who is described as

1J4

evolved from Rudra. Vishnu here appears to stand for the Cosmic Life
(Viswa-Prana). He is the all-pervading Life-Power in the universe. He is
the Soul and Lord of the world of Life. He manifests Himself in all
kinds of vital forces and vital phenomena in the Cosmic Body of Siva,
controls and regulates them and maintains harmony and unity among
them. According to this conception, Vishnu also is not directly con-
nected with the higher intellectual, moral, aesthetic and spiritual Ideals
immanent in this Cosmic Order. But He is the Indwelling Spirit ruling
over the world of Life, upon the harmonious development of which the
development of the world of Mind and the realisation of those Ideals in
the Cosmic System greatly depends. He is therefore to be worshipped for
the development and elevation of the life-power in the worshippers and for
peace and harmony and unity in the vital atmosphere.

It may be remarked by the way that to the followers of the Rudra-
Cult Rudra is the name for the Supreme Spirit (with His perfect
consciousness and infinite power), to the followers of the Vishnu-Cult or
the Narayana-Cult Vishnu or Nariiyana is the name for the same Supreme
Spirit, and similarly to the followers of the Krishna-cult or the Rama-cult
Krishna or Rama is the name for the same Supreme Spirit. The follow-
ers of different religious cults give different sacred names to the same
Ultimate Reality, the Nameless One, the perfect Sat-Cid-Ananda the
Spiritual Ground and Source of all existences. True Yogis and Jnanis and
Bhaktas never quarrel about these names. The significance of each name
is to be understood in the light of the conception attached to it by the
respective sects.

The Eighth Divine Murti in the Cosmic , Body of Siva, according to
Gorakhnath's conception, is Brahma, Who is described as evolved from
Vishnu. Brahma is conceived as Soul and Lord of the gross physical or
material world. He manifests Himself in and through all kinds of material
bodies, material forces, and material phenomena, and controls and
regulates and harmonises them and gives a unity to this material universe.
He is regarded as the Dynamic Source the actual Designer and Creator
of all the diverse forms of gross individual existences with gross material
bodies within the Cosmic Body of the Supreme Spirit. He may be said
to supply the plurality of material embodiments to Life and Mind and
Reason as well as to Moral Consciousness and Aesthetic Consciousness
and Spiritual Consciousness. It is through Him that Siva with His Sakti
comes down to and manifests Himself in the grossest and lowest material
and sensuous plane of existence and experience. Accordingly Brahma is
conceived as the Creator of the world of material diversities of our normal
sensuous experience. As physically embodied individual beings, we are

135

born from the existence and conscious will (avalokana) of Brahma in His
material world and are governed by His law, and hence we are bound to
pay our homage to Him and offer worship to Him.

Thus though Gorakhnath conceives in a general way the entire
universe, the entire Cosmic Body (Mahd-Sakara-Pinda) of Siva, - as
pdnca bhoutika, i.e. constituted of five maha-bhutas evolved from His Adi-
pinda, he indicates the development of various planes of Cosmic Realities
and Cosmic Consciousnesses in this spatio-temporal Cosmic Order. It is
to be noted that the course of development as traced by him does not
imply a process of ascent from lower planes to higher planes, but rather
a process of descent from the highest plane of Spiritual Consciousness
and Spiritual Existence to gradually lower and lower planes of Conscious-
ness and Existence, till the lowest sensuous plane of consciousness and
material plane of existence is reached. Since the LJitimate Reality is
eternally in the highest transcendent plane, His cosmic self-manifestation
must be in the direction of lower and lower phenomenal planes. The
infinite richness of His nature which is perfectly unified in the transcen-
dent plane is unfolded in more and more diversified forms in lower and
lower planes. But in all such planes the urge for return to the highest
plane of infinite bliss remains in the innermost nature of phenomenal
realities and acts as the immanent Ideal. Hence there is a downward pro-
cess as well as an upward process, a tendency towards variety as well as
a tendency towards unity, in the cosmic system.

Another important feature of this system of philosophy is remark-
able. In it the evolution of the Cosmic Body and the Cosmic Principles
(Tattwa) within it is followed by the evolution of the diverse orders of
individual phenomenal realities and individual phenomenal consciousnesses.
The Samasti-Pinda (the Collective Organism) as one whole is manifested
first from the supra-cosmic nature of Siva-Sakti with all the universal
Powers and Principles involved in it, and then the Vyasti-Pindas
(individual organisms) are gradually in due course evolved within it in
temporal succession and spatial co-existence to give the Samasti-Pinda
more and more diversified appearance. The absolute Unity of the
Supreme Spirit becomes through the gradual unfoldment of His infinite
Sakti more and more diversified and variegated Unity in His Cosmic Self-
expression.

With the evolution of the Eight Divine Personalities and their
respective planes of Consciousnesses and existences, the constitution of
the Maha-Sakara* Pinda or Saniasti-Plnda of iva-Sakti is complete, so far
as the Universal Cosmic Principles are concerned. The plane of Brahma
is the lowest and grossest of all and is most closely related to the gross

136

world (sthula~jagat) of our sensuous experience. Hence Gorakhnath
traces the evolution of the individual existences and consciousnesses of this
world from the Conscious Will (Avalokana) of Brahmi. This Conscious
Will is manifested in the form of what he calls Prakriti-Pinda, from which
all individual bodies (Vyasti-Pindas) are evolved. Thus says
Gorakhnath :

Tad Brahmanah sakasad avalokanena nara-nfiri-rupah Prakriti-Pindah
sampittpanna stacca panca-pancalmakam sariram. (S. S. P. I. 38)

He describes Prakrit i-Pinda as of the nature of a union between a
male and a female principle (nara-nari-rupa). It seems that according to
his view all individual living bodies are born of a union between a paternal
and a maternal principle and as such involve male and female elements in
their constitution. Every individual body is a particularised manifesta-
tion of Prakrit i-Pinda, in which both the principles are in union by the
will of Brahma, the Creator of individual bodies in this physical universe.
Innumerable species of individual bodies are evolved with various
characteristics, various kinds of physical features and qualities and
potentialities, from Prakriti-Pinda in the world of Brahma. They are all
ultimately individualised manifestations of the Cosmic Body of Siva and
as such essentially non-different from Him.

Yogi-Guru Gorakhnath is particularly interested in the constitution
of the individual human body. First, it is in the human body that all the
external and internal organs of an individual body (Vyasti-Pinda) are
evolved in the fully manifested forms. There are lower orders of
individual bodies, in which many of these organs are not perceptibly
manifested, but remain only in potential forms. It is often stated in the
scriptural texts that there are eighty-four lakhs of species of living bodies,
and the human body is the most developed, most complex, most organised
and most harmonised of all. In the human body the finest and subtlest
organs are clearly manifested and they are wonderfully adjusted to the
grossest organs. In it the physical organs, the vital organs, the psychical
organs, the intellectual organs, all these are proportionately developed
and they nicely cooperate with one another. In it Life and Mind and
Reason are prominently manifested in individualised forms and find
relatively free scope for their self- expressions. Moral consciousness,
aesthetic consciousness and spiritual consciousness also find ample facility
for being brilliantly manifested and developed in the human body.

Hence man as an individual has on account of his fine bodily
constitution an exceptional opportunity for dwelling in all the various
orders of worlds and participating in the various orders of existences and

137

experiences. An individual man with his individual phenomenal con-
sciousness can, through appropriate methods of self discipline and self-
refinement, acquire the power to pass easily from one world of existence
and experience to another Thus the individual human body occupies a
very important position in the evolutionary process of the cosmic system
in the process of the phenomenal self-manifestation of Siva-Sakti in the
spatio-temporal cosmic order. Gorakhnath accordingly, dilates in a
rather elaborate manner upon the psycho-physiological constitution of the
human body, which is evolved from the Prakriti-Pinda of Brahma, Who is
conceived as the immediate Divine Source of the world of individual
existences in the physical plane.

Secondly, Gorakhnath and the Siddha-Yogi school conceive the
individual human body as an epitome of the Cosmic Body of Siva-Sakti.
A Yogi can, through the intensive practice of contemplation and medita-
tion, realise the whole universe within himself and identify himself with the
whole universe. All worlds in the Cosmic System, all orders of existences,
all planes of experiences, are in some mysterious way represented within
the fully developed human body. Though apparently occupying a small
portion of space, though living for a short period of time on the gross
earthly plane, the human body is a fine mirror of the Mahd Sdkdra-Pinda
of Siva-Sakti. It reflects in an apparently miniature scale the entire Cosmic
Order with all its complications and diversifications and all its beauty and
grandeur. When a man's phenomenal consciousness, through its prog-
ressive self-refinement and higher self-discipline, becomes liberated from
the limitations and imperfections of the lower planes and enlightened about
the infinite richness of this apparently small bodily structure, he is blessed
with a highly glorified self-consciousness and feels himself free from all
bondages and sorrows. He then perceives all in himself and himself in all,
and to him there is nothing which restricts his freedom and becomes a
source of annoyance and misery for him. This possibility of the expe-
rience of the whole Cosmic Order within the human body infinitely
enhances the value and importance of this body, and hence Goiakhnath
particularly deals with the nature of the human body.

Thirdly, it is in and through the human organism that the Divine
Sakti, Who in the process of xosmic self-manifestation comes down from
the highest transcendent spiritual plane of absolute unity and bliss step by
step to the lowest phenomenal material plane of endless diversities and
imperfections, ascends again by means of the self-conscious processes of
Yoga and Jnand and Bhakti to the transcendent spiritual plane and
becomes perfectly and blissfully united with the Supreme Spirit, Siva. The
descending and self-diversifying manifestation of Sakti is illustrated in the

138

creative and regulative and destructive phenomana of the Cosmic Order,
while the ascending and self-unifying manifestation of Sakti is most
brilliantly illustrated in the spiritual urge in the phenomenal consciousness
of man and the systematic spiritual self-discipline and self-elevation and
self-enlightenment of the human individual. Man with his developed
individuality can experience Siva, the Supreme Spirit, as his own true Soul
as well as the true Soul of the universe. Hence the human body is
conceived as having a very important place and function in the cosmic
self-expression of Siva-Sakti.

CHAPTER XIII

THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIVIDUAL BODY

Gorakhnath takes a comprehensive view of the nature of human
individuality and analyses its constitution from the yogic'standpoint. He
conceives the human organism as consisting of (1) the material body
called Bhuta-pinda, (2) the mental body, described as Antahkarana-
pancaka or five- fold antahkarana, (3) Kula-pancaka or five-fold Kula,
(4) Vyakti-pancaka or five-fold Vyakti, (5) Pratyaksha-karana-pancaka
or five-fold perceptible determinant causes, (6) Nddl-samsthdna or
the system of the Nddis, (7) Dasa-Vdyu or ten Prdna-Vdyu or vital forces,
forming the vital body.

(1) The gross material body :

The Bhuta pinda (or Bhautika pinda), i.e. the material body, is consti-
tuted of the five gross material elements, purposefully organised by the
Creative Will of Brahma with the Life-power and the Mind-power imma-
nent in the organism. In different parts of the organism, however, different
elements appear in more conspicuous proportions. In bones (asthi), flesh
(mdmsa), skin (twak), tissues (Nddl) and hair (roma) i.e. in all the solid
parts,-- the element of Bhumi or Prithwi appears predominantly, and
Gorakhnath speaks of them as the five gunas (perhaps in the sense of
special manifestations) of Bhumi. In the liquid substances of the body,
such as, saliva (laid), urine (mutra), semen (sukra), blood (sonita) and
sweat (sweda), the element of Ap or Salila appears more conspicuously,
and they are called the five gunas of Ap. Hunger (ksudhd), thirst (trisnd),
sleep (nidrd), lustre (kdnti) and sloth (dlasya) are conceived by Gorakhnath
as physical phenomena, in which there are special manifestations of the
element of Tejas. According to him, these phenomena occur on account
of the varying functions and influences of Tejas or Agni in different parts
of the living body. Movement (dhdvand), fidgeting (bhramana), expansion
(prasdrana), contraction (dkuncana) and suppression (nirodhana) are bodily
phenomena, which are chiefly determined by the element of Vdyu and are
therefore called Gunas of Vdyu. The phenomena of physical attraction
(rdga), repulsion (dwesha), fear (bhaya), shame (lajjd) and callousness (moha)
are regarded as the special manifestations of the element of Ikdsa and are
accordingly described as the five Gunas of Akdsa. Thus the Mahayogi des-
cribes the gross physical body as constituted of the five gross bhutas and
as possessing twenty-five gunas mentioned above. (S.S.P.I. 39-43).

140

It is noticeable that in enumerating the special contributions of the
ultimate material elements (mahdbhutas) to the physical body, the Maha-
yogi has mentioned some phenomena which are obviously expressions of
our vital or psychical nature. But they are mostly due to our changing
physical conditions. Many of them can be properly regulated through the
appropriate treatment and discipline of the physical body. They are there-
fore traced to the ultimate ingredients of this body. It is undeniable that
the gross physical body (bhoutika-sarird) exercises a great influence upon
our life and mind, upon our temperaments and habits, upon our impulses
and dispositions. Hence Yogis attach great importance to the constitution
of this body and the regulation and control of the physical functions for
moral and spiritual upliftment.

(2) Antahkarana-pancaka or the menial body :

Gorakhnath then proceeds to the analysis of the nature of Mind or
the mental body of a human individual. In order to understand the philo-
sophy of Gorakhnath, it has at every stage to be remembered that the
whole is essentially prior to the parts, which are its self-manifestations.
The whole is really one and it manifests itself in the forms of
many, and in relation to these manifestations it is called the
whole. Ultimately Siva (the Supreme Spirit) with His Sakti immanent
in and identified with Him is One Reality, and through many stages of
self-unfoldment and self-diversification of His Sakti, He becomes the Cos-
mic Soul with the Cosmic Body, Which is one Whole with numerous self-
manifestations organically interrelated and united within It. Again, Siva
as the Cosmic Soul with the Cosmic Body is One Reality, and He mani-
fests Himself as a number of Cosmic Deities and inter-related worlds of
existences and experiences with Himself as their Soul and Centre and
Ruler and Unifier. Thus He seems to become one greater and more
magnificent Whole, revealing far more numerous diversities organised and
united within Himself. Again, as this greatly complicated Cosmic Person-
ality, He through further self-diversification of His Sakti manifests Himself
in the forms of innumerable kinds of individual bodies, individual cons-
ciousnesses and individual souls, variously conditioned by the limitations
of time and space and causality and relativity. But in all of them it is Siva
Who reveals and enjoys Himself, and in all of them Siva is the innermost
Soul and all-governing and ail-harmonising Lord. In relation to them
Siva appears to become a still more complicated and glorified Whole.
Further, each of the individual bodies imbued with the Divine Soul is one
whole, with all its possibilities inherent in it, and it becomes a more and
more complex whole through the manifestation of its parts and limbs and
organs and powers and qualities which had remained unmanifested in its
nature in the initial stages. The more they are manifested in diversified

141

forms, the more are they organised and unified in the nature of the indivi-
dual body and the more does the body become a complex whole. Thus at
every stage the whole originates the parts, and the parts contribute to the
richness of the whole; every living part again functions as a whole giving
birth to parts which enrich it. In this way evolution goes on, and the
Ultimate Reality becomes a greater and greater whole through the origi-
nation of parts within parts, all of which had been initially present in an
unmanifested state in that ultimate Cause and are in the manifested states
also essentially one with it. This is the Sat-karya-vada of Gorakhnath
and his school. The cause becomes the effects and is enriched by them.
The Whole becomes the parts and becomes a more and more complex
whole with them. Nothing absolutely new is added to the ultimate
Reality, the ultimate Cause.

In our actual experience we find that the individual mind is evolved
from and within the individual living body gradually, when the body is
adequately developed and equipped with diverse organs or instruments
through which the mental phenomena are manifested. With the very birth
of the physical (bhoutika) body in the form of the minutest germ, life is
associated with it and infuses into it the capacity for growth, which
implies progressive self-diversification and spontaneous organisation of the
diversities evolved. The vital forces appear to operate actively in the
physical body and determine its growth, long before the mind is mani-
fested in it. Of course, the vitality also'becomes more and more manifested
with the evolution of the vital organs in the body. The manifestation of
the mind is found to be definitely conditional upon the development of the
suitable organs, such as the sense-organs, the nervous system and the
brain, etc., in the body by the life-power innate in it. But according to
the yogic view this does not mean that before the development of the
organs the mind does not exist at all, that it is the product of the
organism and is newly created or produced after the development of the
instruments. The mind really exists in the unmanifested state even in the
nature of the living germ or protoplasm, but only its outer phenomenal
self-expression is dependent upon the development of the organs. Even in
the unmanifested state the mind exercises its determining influence upon
the courses of development of the physical organs, and it is for this reason
that the organs are so developed as to become suitable vehicles for the
self-expressions of the mind.

The Yogis see in the individual minds the individualised self-mani-
festations of the Cosmic Mind in relation to and apparent dependence upon
the individual living bodies. In the individual lives also they see the
individualised self-manifestations of the Cosmic Life in relation to and

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apparent dependence upon the individual physical bodies. It has been
noticed that the Cosmic Mind and the Cosmic Life are evolved
from and within the Mahd-Sdkdra-Murti or Cosmic Body of Siva-Sakti.
Hence every individual being is looked upon as an incarnation of Siva-
Sakti. One point is to be specially noted. In the cosmic process of
evolution, Mind is prior to Life, and Life is prior to the Material Body,
while in the process of the evolution of individual existences, the material
body appears first, and it is followed by the appearance of life and there-
after by the appearance of the mind. The higher and higher orders of
existences and experiences appear later and later. What is first in the
Cosmic Order is revealed last in the process of the evolution of individual
existences.

Now, the Mind gradually manifests itself in the individual living body.
Though there are various orders of manifestations of the mind in the
diverse species of animal bodies, we are here specially concerned with
the human body, in which the bodily organs (which are progressively
developed) are suited to the fullest manifestation of the mind. In coursj
of its gradual self-manifestation the mind naturally diversifies itself, makes
itself more and more complex in its phenomenal character and at the
same time organises all its manifestations so as to constitute a single
whole. Gorakhnath (consistently with the sanctity which he attaches all
along to the number five) classifies all phenomenal manifestations of the
mind under five names, viz., Manas, Buddhi, Ahamkdra, citta and caitanya,
and he calls them Antah-karana-pancaka (i e. fivefold internal instrument
or empirical mind). (S S.P.I 44). According to him Antahkarana or the
Mind is essentially one, but it appears in five different forms in accordan-
ce with its five distinct kinds of functions or phenomenal expressions.

In his usual manner Gorakhnath discribes each of these divisions of
the Mind as possessing live characteristics or as expressed in five kinds of
psychological phenomena. Manas or undisciplined empirical mind is
manifested in such phenomena as, (1) Samkatpa (desire and will), (2)
Vikalpa (doubt and hesitancy), (3) Murcchd (swoon or temporary sense-
lessness), (4) Jadatd (idiocy or confused thinking), and (5) Manana
(reflective thinking). Buddhi (intellect or reason or disciplined mind) is
described as manifested in such phenomena, as Viveka (discrimination of
truth from untruth, right from wrong, good from evil, valuable from value-
less, beauty from ugliness, etc.), -(2) Vairdgya (voluntary restraint of desires
and attachments, or turning away of the mind from what is conceived as
untrue, unreal, wrong, evil, ugly, useless, etc.), (3) Sdnti (cultivation of
calmness and tranquillity of the mind, or peacefulness of character), (4)
Santosha (cultivation of contentment), and (5) Kshamd (cultivation of the

143

spirit of forgiveness in relation to others). Buddhi is the higher mind
which regulates Manas or the lower mind

Ahamkara is expressed in such phenomena, as, (1) Abhimana (sense
of I-ness or ego), (2) Madiyam (sense of mine-ness, or the consciousness
of the body, senses, mental and intellectual functions, etc., as one's own),

(3) Mama-sukham (brooding over and planning for one's own happiness),

(4) Mama duhkham (brooding over and struggling against one's own
sorrow), and (5) Mama-idam (the sense of 'this-is-mine' i.e. the sense of
possession and monopoly). Ahamkara plays the most important role in
the constitution of an individual, in as much as it really gives him the
sense of individuality and the sense of unity and permanence amidst all
the varieties and changes in the physical body and the vital and mental
functions. It is Ahamkara which ascribes all the bodily and vital and
mental phenomena to one ego or *F and regards the 'I* or ego as their
owner and master as well as the owner and master of properties and
environments. Buddhi and Ahamkara are actually found to be involved in
comparatively higher stages of the development of individual minds.

The phenomena which are conceived as expressions of Crta are,
(1) Mati (disposition or instinctive and habitual tendencies), (2) Dhriti
(power of conservation of energy and experience), (3) Smriti (memory or
power of recollecting and reproducing past experiences), (4) Tydga (the
capacity for renunciation or sacrifice or forgetting), and (5) Swikara (the
capacity for assimilation or appropriation or making one's own what is
obtained from external sources). It appears that Citta is manifested
chiefly in the retention and revival of old sanskaras and in the sub-
conscious operations of the mind. The phenomena which are specially
attributed to Caitanya are, (1) Vimarsa (rational reflection), (2) Silana
(systematic self-discipline), (3) Dhairya (patience or self-control), (4) Cintana
(contemplation and meditation), (5) Nisprihatwj (cultivated desirelessness).

(S.S.P.I. 44-49).

In this way Gorakhnath enumerates twentyfive forms of manifesta-
tion of Mind in the individual body. The individual mind so character-
ised is called Antahkarana or the inner instrument for the self-expression
of the individual Soul or Spirit in this phenomenal world, the Bahihkarana
or the outer instrument being the physical body with the diverse sense-
organs, the nervous system, the vital mechanisms, etc. The physical body
is known as Sthula-sarlra (gross body) and Antahkarana with the psychical
and vital forces is designated as Sukshma-Sarira (subtle body) of the
Individual Soul, i.e. the individualised spiritual self- manifestation of the
Supreme Spirit, Siva. The individualisation of the Soul, according to the
Yogi-school, consists in its apparent self- identification with these

144

phenomenal embodiments. Essentially the Soul is no other than Siva
Himself.

In this connection it may be noted that some schools of Indian
philosophy (such as Sankhya and others) recognise three fundamental
divisions of Antahkarana. viz , Manas, Buddhi and Ahamkara, while
some other schools (such as Vedanta) recognise four divisions, viz,
Manas, Buddhi, Ahamkdra, and Citta. Gorakhnath adds one more, which
he calls Caitanya. In the enumeration of the phenomena under each
division he does not exactly follow the principle adopted by the other
schools. His point of view is morzyogic than purely psychological. Manas
seems to be chiefly concerned with the phenomena of the animal mind
and the lower orders of the human mind, which a yogi has to control and
transcend. Buddhi is concerned with the phenomena of the higher orders
of the human mind, including the phenomena of the elevated moral,
aesthetic and spiritual consciousness. Ahamkdra is concerned with the
egoistic consciousness, which also has to be progressively enlightened and
transcended. Citta principally refers to the subconscious mind which also
has to be brought under control and purified and ennobled. Caitanya
chiefly refers to the higher orders of human consciousness which have to
be further enlightened and concentrated for the direct experience of the
Supreme Spirit in itself.

(3) Kula-pancaka:

Having dealt with the evolution of the physical body \bhautikapinda)
and the mental body (antahkarana pancaka), Gorakhnath deals with what
he calls Kula-pancaka. Kula is one of the most technical and most
puzzling terms of the philosophy as well as sadhand of the Yogis and the
Tdntrikas. It is defined in a variety of ways and is used in different senses
in different contexts. We have elsewhere discussed the meanings of the
terms Kula and Akula. In the present context the term Kula appears to
convey a somewhat different idea. Gorakhnath explains Kula here as
manifested in five ways, viz, Sattwa, Rajas, Tamas, Kdla and Jeeva.
(S.S.P.I. 50). All of them exercise their directive influence upon the psycho-
physical phenomena from behind the scene and give special inclinations
and aptitudes to them.

The influence of Sattwa is manifested in such mental phenomena,
as, Dayd (kindness or compassion), Dharma (righteousness), Kriyd (pious
habits or willingness to perform good and noble deeds), Bhakti (reverence
or devotion), and Sraddhd (faith). It is the influence of Sattwa, which
inspires the human mind with higher moral and spiritual ideals, elevates it
to higher planes of consciousness, urges it to control the natural passions

145

and propensities and desires and ambitions, and directs its thoughts and
emotions and wishes towards the realisation of perfect truth and beauty
and goodness and freedom.

The influence of Rajas is manifested in such phenomena, as, Dana
(making of gifts or charities with an egotistic sense of one's own
superiority, and not with a spirit of humility and disinterested service),
Bhoga (hankering for more and more sensuous and mental enjoyment),
Sringara (love for decoration and ornamentation and artististic luxuries),
Vastu-grahana (love for the appropriation of more and more property),
and Swdrtha-sangrahana (acquisition and accumulation of things for selfish
purposes). It is the influence of Rajas in the nature of man, that makes
him active and energetic and enterprising and moves him in the direction
of self-aggrandisement, selfish interests, worldly ambitions, acquisition of
power and prosperity and pleasure, artistic enjoyments, etc. In men of
Asuri prakriti Rajas is predominant, while in men of Daivi-prokriti Sattwa
is predominant.

The influence of Tamas leads to propensities for, Vivada (useless
controversies), Kalaha (quarrelsomeness), Soka (lamentation or
melancholia), Vadha (killing) and Vancana (deception). What are called
evil or ignoble or wicked propensities are regarded as due to the influence
of Tamas in the human nature.

The influence of Kdla is manifested inKaland (calculation of
numbers and periods with regard to objects and events and perception of
the relations of coexistence and succession among them), Kalpana (the
appreciation of regular temporal orders in the production and transforma-
tion of natural phenomena), Bhranti (confusion of thoughts at particular
times), Pramada (periodical insanity), Anartha (facing accidental mis-
fortunes). Time exercises a considerable influence upon us. Courses of
evolution and development of bodies, fruition of actions, favourable and
unfavourable conditions of life, all these are greatly influenced by Kdla
(Time).

What is called Jeeva in this connection is conceived as manifested
in the changes of states (avasthd) of the empirical consciousness, and the
sustenance of the unity and identity of the individual existence and
consciousness amidst all these changes. These states arz,Jdgrat (the
waking state, in which the mind comes in direct contact with external
realities through the instrumentality of the sense-organs of perception and
action), Swapna (the state of dream, in which in spite of the absence of
direct contact between the mind and the objective realities through the
senses the mind has various experiences within itself due to its operations

146

in the subconscious level), Sushupti (the state of deep sleep in which the
mind exists in the unconscious level without any objective or subjective
experiences and is in complete rest and peace), Turiya (the fourth state,
the state of the perfect concentration of the mind upon the transcendent
character of the Spirit or Soul, the blissful state of the illumination of the
phenomenal consciousness by the self-luminous transcendent Spirit), and
lastly Turyatita (a state even beyond this fourth state, in which the state
of perfect concentration is elevated to the state of absolute union or
identification, in which the individual mind realises itself as absolutely one
with the Transcendent Spirit, Siva).

The possibility of the same individual mind passing through all these
widely different states without losing its individuality indicates, according
to Gorakhnath, a higher power and reality immanent in it and determining
and witnessing these changes of states, and this he gives the name of Jeeva.
Sattwa, Rajas, Tamas, Kala and Jeeva are regarded as invisible determin-
ing forces, which operating together in various ways give the direction to
the evolution of the character of an individual mind in an individual body
and make the nature of an individual so very complex and at the same
time harmonious. They seem to be immanent in the nature of every
individual even from his embryonic state and exert their influence during
all the stages of his development. They are given by Gorakhnath the
generic name of Kulapancaka. This Kula appears to evolve from the
Divine Sakti for determining the courses of the evolution of the individual
bodies and minds in this cosmic order and leading them stage by stage
towards their highest fulfilment according to the cosmic design. They all
play their allotted parts in the Cosmic Body of Siva-Sakti.

(S.S.P.I. 50-55)

(4) Vyakti-pancaka :

Thereafter Gorakhnath deals with what he calls Vyakti-pancaka,
which means five forms of self-expression (Vyakti) of the individual mind.
He classifies them as Iccha (volition), Kriya (action), Maya (which may to
some extent be expressed by the term pretension), Prakrit i (which may in
this context be translated as temperament), and Vak (speech). Each of
these is expressed in five forms. Iccha is expressed in the forms of Unmdda
(mad unbalanced uncontrolled impulses and excitements, such as are found
in children, in insane and intoxicated persons and in persons lost in reverie),
Vasana (deep-rooted desires, which may be due to instincts or past habits),
Vancha (desires for particular alluring or covetable objects, such as wealth
and power and pleasure), Cinta (voluntary thinking and planning about
4esirable objects and ways and means to attain them), and Cestd (mental

147

efforts or strong resolutions for the attainment of desirable objects or for
the accomplishment of any cherished purpose). These are the fivefold
manifestations of Iccha.

Iccha is followed by Kriya. According to Gorakhnath, Kriyd is
manifested in five forms, viz, Smarana (active remembrance of and con-
templation upon the desirable object to be attained or purpose to be
accomplished) , Udyoga (making necessary preparations for the active pur-
suit of a desired object or a chosen purpose), Kdrya (active pursuit of an
object or ideal), Niscaya (pursuit of an object or ideal with strong deter-
mination and tireless perseverance), and Swakuldcara (performance of
duties and virtuous deeds in conformity to the customs and rules and
expectations of the family and the society, even at the sacrifice of personal
desires and inclinations). In the constitution of the nature of every indi-
vidual, Dharma and Adharma, good and evil traits, dispositions towards
higher moral and spiritual ideals and those in the opposite direction, are
both evolved in the normal course according to the cosmic plan. With
the development of the individual consciousness a man is required to
voluntarily and deliberately and actively put down the forces of Adharma,
get rid of the evil propensities and dispositions and elevate his nature to
the higher planes of morality and spirituality.

Iccha and Kriya and the other forms of Vyakti are generally influen-
ced by the predominance of one or the other of the determinant causes in
the nature of an individnal, such as, Sattwa, Rajas, Tamas, Kdla and
Jeeva, at any particular period. Hence desires and actions of different
individuals are found to be directed towards different kinds of objects,
good or bad, and even in the case of the same individual they take
different directions at different times or at different stages of the develop-
ment of his life.

Gorakhnath regards Maya as a form of expression of the human
individuality. It appears to consist in giving undue importance to one's
own individual self and its interests and for that reason dealing falsely with
others. It is one of the bad traits of the human nature, which have to be
controlled and transcended by means of voluntary self-discipline and self-
enlightenment, which are higher forms of self-expression. Maya is des-
cribed as having five forms. First, Mada, which means intoxication with
a sense of pride or vanity and the desires and actions originating from it.
Second, Mdtsarya, which means an attitude of intolerance and envy and
malice towards the happiness and prosperity and even the good qualities
of others and the tendencies and actions originating from it. Third,
Dambha, which implies the self-conceited expression of one's own superi-

14S

ority in the presence of others, overvaluing one's own deeds and achieve-
ments and powers and under-valuing those of others. Fourth, Kritrimatwa,
which implies artificiality and duplicity in behaviour, an attempt to appear
as what one is not, so as to create false impressions upon the minds of
others. Fifth, Asatya, which implies having recourse to untruth or false-
hood in speech and action and gestures for one's own self-aggrandisement.
These are called by Gorakhnath the five forms of expression of Maya in
the active nature of man. They show the predominance of Rajas and
Tamas in the nature of a man. They play their parts in the growth of the
individuality of a man in the lower planes; but they are there to be con-
quered and transcended by aspirants for ascending to the higher planes of
human personality.

The fourth kind of Vyakti (expression of individuality) is called by
Gorakhnath Prakriti. Prakriti also is described as manifested in five
forms. First, Asa, which means hope for future prospects, which induces
an individual to make efforts for achieving them. Second, Trishna. which
implies thirst for more and more. Third, Spriha, which means desire for
the attainment and appropriation of particular enjoyable objects. Fourth,
Kdnkshd, which implies ambition for greatness. Fifth, Mithya, which in
this context implies dreaming of the achievement of things beyond one's
reach, false hopes and aspirations. These are indications of the tempera-
ment of an individual, from which they evolve. They may be directed
towards earthly things or towards higher ideals. They are self-expressions
of the individual mind and contribute to its development.

The fifth form of Vyakti is Vdk. Vdk or speech has, according to
Gorakhnath, five stages, viz, Para, Pasyanti, Madhyamd, Vaikhari and
Mdtrikd. At the stage of Para, Vdk or speech is wholly identified with
consciousness. It is present in the consciousness in the form of an urge or
will for self-expression, without any manifestation even in the form of a
subtle sound or even in the form of an idea. This Para Vdk is often
described in the scriptures as Sabda-Brahma. In it Sabda or sound, being
wholly unmanifested in any specialised form, is conceived as absolutely
unified with its ultimate origin, Brahma or the Supreme Consciousness,
the Soul of the individual as well as of the cosmic system. It is there in
the form of Sakti or power immanent in the Consciousness. All the
diverse forms of speech, nay, all the various kinds of sounds, have
their origin in Pard-Vdk, and they are all perfectly unified therein. This
Pard-Vdk is regarded as the ultimate self-shining form of Pranava (OM),
which is the Sound of all sounds, the true Essence of all sounds, the
Ground of Unity of all orders of sounds and speeches. In this Pard-Vdk
there is no differentiation of Vdk from Cit t which is its ultimate seat and
source.

149

At the stage of Pasyanti, Vak is manifested in the form of subtle
ideas, which the consciousness directly sees or perceives. Vak is at this
stage differentiated from the pure consciousness and becomes the object of
its inner perception, and the consciousness finds itself expressed and objecti-
fied in the flow of ideas. This is the ideal form of Vak, which though
differentiated from the consciousness exists in and for the consciousness
and has no manifestation in the gross physical organism. It is not mani-
fested in any articulate sound-form, Vak is here manifested in the mental
plane, but not in the physical or the vital plane. But the urge or the will
for self-expression in these grosser planes powerfully acts upon the physio-
logical embodiment.

At the stage of Madhyama, Vak is manifested in the form of some
upheaval in the physiological system, some organised vibrations in the
vital and physical instruments whose coordinated activity is necessary for
the vocal expression of the mental ideas, some spontaneously regulated
movements in the vocal organs for expressing the ideas and feelings in the
gross forms of uttered speech. Madhyamd-Vak stands midway between
the ideal form of speech and the articulate sound-form of speech, between
mental speech and vocal speech. At this stage certain subtle sounds are
produced within the physiological system in course of the internal effort to
give outer expression to inner speech. Vak is still within the body and has
no outer manifestation in the forms of words and sentences.

At the stage of Vaikhari, Vak comes out through the co-operative
efforts of the vocal organs in the form of articulate speech or uttered
words audible to the sense of hearing of others. It is through Vaikhari
Vak that an individual can communicate his mental ideas to other
individuals and enable others to know and share his thoughts and feelings
and desires. It is through a very complex physiological process that
Vaikhari Vak is produced, but due to the most wonderful organisation of
the vital and physical instruments in the human body and as a result of
learning and habit this process becomes almost spontaneous in well-develo-
ped individual bodies. In the absence of the proper development of the
organs of speech as well as in the absence of proper learning and habit, the
capacity for Vaikhari Vak can not be properly developed. In case of the
diseased condition of the organs or of the physiological system Vaikhari
Vak is adversely affected and sometimes wholly obstructed. Vaikhari Vak
is the most highly valuable and potent means of self-expression to the
human individual. In its absence there would be no culture, no civiliza-
tion, no society, no possibility of enlightenment, no possibility of self-
realisation, in the human species. It is through the medium of Vaikhari
Vak that all kinds of development and progress have been possible. All
human languages are the embodiments of Vaikhari Vak.

150

According to Gorakhnath, the fifth stage of Vak is Mdtrikd. Mdtrikd
refers to the ultimate phonetic constituents of Vaikhari Vak. All words
(pada) and sentences (vakya, consisting of words or padas related to one
another), in the forms of which Vaikhari Vak of all human beings of all
races and countries and epochs and climates may be expressed, are found
on analysis and reflection to be constituted of a certain number of
ultimate verbal sounds, which are represented by varna or akshara (letters).
These are the units of vocal speech. They cannot be further analysed or
divided. They are regarded by many schools of philosophers as nitya
(eternal) in the cosmic order, while words and sentences composed of them
are anitya (non-eternal) and as such are produced and destroyed. They
are the seeds (bija) of all languages, of all forms of articulate speech.
They are accordingly called Matrika. from which all kinds of words and
sentences of the apparently diverse forms of languages in the world are
evolved. Though they are the roots of all vocal speech, they usually
appear as uncognizably intermingled with words and sentences evolved
from them. Their essential characters and deeper significance are
discovered by enlightened persons after a good deal of reflection and
contemplation. Later on, when linguistic study is developed in the society,
students may begin with the study of letters and then proceed to the study
of the formation of words and sentences out of them.

It may be noted here that according to the Siddha-Yogi and the
Tantrika schools the root-letters (Mdtrikd-Varna) are not merely the ulti-
mate constituents of articulate speech (Vaikhari-Vak) or of words and
sentences. They have by dint of the deepest reflection and meditation
entered into the inner spirit of these letters and discovered that each letter
is a particularised sound-embodiment of Siva-Sakti and is associated
with and manifested from a particular centre within the living physical
body. Each letter is accordingly surcharged with a vital force and a
spiritual meaning. In order to exhibit distinctly the Siva-aspect and the
Sakti aspect in these root-letters, each letter is pronounced with a Vindu
(which sounds like m in utterance) attached to it. It is said.

Vinduh Sivdtmako Vljam Saktir Nddas tayor mithah
Samavdya iti khydtah sarvdgama-visdradaih.

Vindu denotes Siva and Vija denotes Sakti. Ndda evolves from the
mutual communion between them. This is well-known to those who are
versed in all the Agamas.

Thus the adepts in Yoga perceive the communion of Siva and Sakti in
every elementary sound (Ndda) and in every letter representing it. Siva is
the common unchanged Soul of all sounds and letters, and this is indicated

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by the Vindu attached to every letter. Sakti assumes the diversified forms
of souitds and letters ( Nada and Varna). All forms of articulate speech,
all forms of verbal expressions of mental ideas, all kinds of words and
sentences uttered apparently by human tongues (and 'recorded in various
written forms), are complex manifestations of original Nada and Varna.
Yogis therefore perceive the self-manifestations of 3iva-akti in all of
them.

The Yogis have traced the location of the root-letters and root-sounds
in particular vital centres of the body, which are called Cobra. Details
about this need not be discussed here. In the Mantra-Yoga practised by
the Yogis these root-letters and root-sounds are developed into Mantra,
having deep spiritual significance. Mantras are not mere symbols
conveying some spiritual concepts, but they are charged with great potency.
Repetition of the Mantras according to prescribed methods reveals the
powers inherent in them, and it leads to the development of various
psychical and spiritual capacities in the sddhakas as well as the attainment
of many occult experiences. An adept can work wonders and perform
miracles by activating the mysterious powers of the Vija-Mantras. Among
all Vija-Mantras, OM (Pranava) is universally regarded as having a unique
position. It is the perfect embodiment of Siva-Sakti. (S. S. P. I. 56-61).

(5) Pratyaksha-Karana-Pancaka:

Gorakhnath then mentions some other subsidiary efficient and mate-
rial causes which practically contribute to the maintenance and develop-
ment and also renewal of the Individual body and which also require to be
duly controlled and regulated for the realisation of the ultimate ideal of
human life. These he calls Pratyaksha-Karana-Pancaka. He enumerates
them as, Karma, Kama, Candra, Surya and Agni. The influence of these
upon the bodily life of an individual are quite perceptible (pratyaksha),
though they often operate in subtle ways.

Karma means action or deed. Right and wrong actions, performed
by an individual through his bodily [limbs and sense-organs and mental
thoughts and desires, exert direct beneficial and injurious influences upon
his life, and their psychological and moral effects greatly determine the
course of his future life and even future birth. Gorakhnath in his usual
manner enumerates fivefold characters of Karma, viz, Subha (good actions,
bringing beneficial consequences to [the doer) Asubha (bad actions,
bringing evil consequences to the doer), Yasah (actions which are approved
and praised by others and bring temporary or lasting fame to the doer),
Apakirti (actions* which are blamed and^condemned by others and which
therefore preate bad reputation or notoriety for the doer), and

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phala-sadhana (righteous and unrighteous deeds which produce moral
and religious merits (punya) and demerits (papa) for the doer and which
thereby invisibly become the'causes of happiness or misery and favourable
or unfavourable conditions in future life in the present body as well as in
bodies to which he may pass after the death of the present body.

Every action performed by an individual is believed to produce
three kinds of phala or effects. The first is called drista-phala, which
literally means visible effects, i.e. effects whose causal relation with the
action can be directly perceived and established by means of our senses.
These are the outer results of our actions. Taking nutritious food satisfies
our hunger and helps the nourishment of the body. When one man does
any injury to another out of any selfish motive, the injured man suffers
and the injurer gains. All such cases are cases of drista-phala. We
actually experience such effects of our actions in our worldly life. Some
actions bring to us pleasure and prosperity and others become sources of
pain and poverty, some actions make us objects of praise and honour and
others objects of condemnation and dishonour. Our actions affect the
interests of others, and others, actions affect our interests. All these are
instances of drista-phala. Secondly, our actions produce corresponding
samskara (impressions) in our mind, which become the causes of our
dispositions and tendencies and desires and attachments and aversions
and thus influence our future actions. It is by our actions that our habits
and characters are moulded. As we act, so we become. This is called
the psychological effect (samskara-phala) of our actions.

According to the yogi school, and in fact according to all the
important systems of Indian thought, the psychological effects of our
actions are very far-reaching. Many of our actions produce such deep-
rooted samskaras in the mind that they are not destroyed even by our
physical death. The psychical organism does not die with the physical
organism. The physical organism becomes disorganised in course of time
and its constituents arc dissolved in the Panca-Mahabhutas. But the
psychical organism retains its individuality even after this death and
carries with it the samskaras which are produced by the actions of the
life-time. The psychical organism, carrying the samskaras which become
part and parcel of its nature, may exist in a subtle embodiment (limga-
sarira} for a certain period, and may after that be associated with a new
physical organism (bhoutika pinda) for its further course of self-expression
and self-fulfilment. In this new body also the old samskaras produced by
the actions performed in the previous embodied life exercise great
influence in the forms of instinctive tendencies and propensities and
capacities for adjustments with the new circumstances. Thus our nature

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in the current embodied life has to a great extent been constituted by the
psychological effects of our deeds of the past embodied life or lives, and
the nature of our future embodied life also will be similarly moulded by
the samskdras which are being produced by our deeds in the present life.
It is to be noted that in the human life there is ample scope for the
exercise of freedom in all the fields of our active self-expression for the
destruction of the old evil Samskdras and the development of new good
samskdras through the voluntary performance of righteous actions and thus
for a considerable transformation of our psychological nature and advance-
ment towards higher and higher orders of life.

Thirdly, our saints and philosophers aver that every action, and
particularly every voluntary and deliberate action, produces some
adrista-phala in the forms of moral and religious merits and demerits
(punya and papa, dharma and adharma), which are rewarded and punished
in due course in accordance with the law of the cosmic order, the
rewards being in the forms of happinesses or greater opportunities in life
or higher levels of existence, and the punishments being in the forms of
sufferings or unfavourable conditions of life or lower levels of existence.
Virtuous deeds produce good adrista and vicious deeds bad adrista.
Adrista is also called apurva, and it greatly determines the future
destinies of individuals. Often this apurva or adrista-phala of actions is
designated as Karma in scriptures. Like the psychological effect, this
moral effect also is not generally exhausted in the same bodily life. It
becomes the cause of happinesses and miseries, favourable and unfavour-
able conditions, developed or degraded levels of existence, in the dis-
embodied life after death and in the future bodily life as well. Cultivation
of virtue and avoidance of vice is of prime importance for progressive
and enjoyable life. The constitution of our physical body also is greatly
influenced by these three kinds of effects of our actions. What is
generally known as the Law of Karma refers specially to the adrista-
phala of actions, which indicates the principle of moral justice in the
cosmic order.

Yogiguru Gorakhnath mentions Kama as the second Pratyaksha-
karana for the birth and growth of living individual organisms in the
cosmic system. Here the term Kama appears to be used by him in the
restricted sense of sexual instinct, which is universally present in the
nature of living beings and which plays an essential part in the multipli-
cation of living creatures in the world. It is one of the fundamental laws
of the cosmic play of Siva-Sakti that living creatures in general are born
through a process of sexual intercourse between a male and a female and
they are themselves divided into males and females. This is more

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prominently manifested in the cases of jarayuja animals (animals that are
first born in the wombs of mothers and all whose limbs and organs are
differentiated and manifested therein before coming out to the earth) and
andaja animals (those that come out from their mothers in the forms of
eggs and whose organs- are evolved out of the eggs thereafter). Men are
the highest among the jarayuja animals. The birth of other living bodies
also is somehow or other governed by the same rule of sexual inter-
course. Through sexual connection Vindu or Vija or Sukra (semen) is
excreted from the paternal body and infused into the womb of the
maternal body, where it is combined with Rajas or Sonita or Rakta
(blood) secreted from the latter. The combination of these two gives
birth to a new individual living body, with the dynamic potentiality to
develop gradually under favourable conditions the physical features and
other internal characteristics of the parents and the species. Thus by the
Divine plan Kama plays a very essential role in the evolution of various
orders of living beings in the Cosmic Body of Siva-Sakti. In the nature
of diverse orders of living beings (jeeva), Kama also is found to play its
part in diverse ways.

According to Gorakhnath, in the nature of the higher orders of
animals, and specially in the nature of the human species, five charac-
teristics of Kama appear prominently, viz, Rati, Priti, Knda, Kamana
and Aturatd. Rati means sexual attachment or infatuation between a
male and a female. Priti means pleasure or happiness which is enjoyed
by both in their mutual companionship and which develops their mutual
attachment and love. Knda means sports or games which gratify their
sexual passions. Kdmand means desire for more and more enjoyment,
more and more intimate companionship, more and more gratification of
lust. Aturatd means exhaustion or loss of strength and enthusiasm as
the result of excessive gratification of the lustful desires and hence a
temporary reaction against it. However, the importance of Kama in the
scheme of creation is undeniable and easily demonstrable. It is through
the operation of Kama that men are born. Kama is instrumental also in
the development of many of their physical and vital organs as well as
many of their mental attributes.

Gorakhnath mentions Candra. Surya and Agni (Moon, Sun and
Fire) as the other three Pratyaksha-Karana, exercising their influence upon
the evolution of life in this world. The physical effects of the Sun, the
Moon and Fire and their bearings on our life and the lives of all creatures
are evident to all thinking people. Without them life would have been
impossible on earth. Days and nights, fortnightly changes, changes of
seasons, changes of temperatures and climatic conditions, distribution of

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rain, changes in the atmospheric conditions, tides in the seas, fertility of
the soil, etc., upon which life greatly depends, are due to the apparent
movements of the Sun and the Moon round the Earth and Heat within
her bosom. In the Veda the Sun has often been described as the Soul
of all earthly existences, living as well as non-living (Surya dtmd jagatas
tasthushas ca). It is also said that 'rain comes from the Sun, food comes
from rain, and food sustains the life of all that are born (Aditydd jdyate
bristih brister annam tatah prajdh). The Sun raises vapour from the seas
and rivers to the skies, this vapour being condensed comes down in the
form of rain and is distributed upon the land-surfaces of the earth and
makes them fit for the growth of food-materials, upon which living
creatures depend for their sustenance and development. The Moon with
its cool and soothing jays contributes a good deal to the development of
life. In the Scriptures Candra is conceived as Soma full of life-giving
juice (rasa). In the Glta Bhagawan Srikrishna says, *I manifest myself as
Soma or Candra full of life-giving juice and thereby nourish all kinds of
plants (pushndmi coushadhih sarbdh somo bhutwd rasdtmakah). The
importance of Fire for the nourishment of life is quite obvious to all. The
Heat conserved in the bosom of the Earth plays a significant part in
keeping its surface fit for the habitation of living beings. Heat is a sign
of a living body; when it is deprived of heat, it is known to be dead and
its decomposition begins. The utility and necessity of Fire for the preserva-
tion and development of our physical existence cannot be overemphasised.
Thus, Cand r a, Surya and Agni, in their physical senses, are aptly regarded
as perceptible instrumental causes of life.

But to the Yogis Candra, Surya and Agni have some deeper
meanings, which are not obvious to ordinary people, They see Candra,
Surya and Agni within the living body and find that it is upon the
properly regulated and harmonious operations of these three elements or
forces in the body that the healthy preservation and development of life
depends. The living body is primarily built up by food (anna) and its
proper assimilation and transformation into the various forms of live
tissues and organs The physical body is accordingly called annamaya-
kosha (body made of food). Food, which is generally taken in from the
outside world, is first converted into rasa (a fluid substance), and this
rasa is gradually transformed into rakta (blood), meda (lumps of flesh),
mdrnsa (muscles), asthi (bones), majjd (nerve-substance) and sukra (semen).
These are called sapta-dhdtu (seven ingredients of the living body) in the
Ayurveda. Out of them all the organs are formed in accordance with the
nature of the species to which the individuals belong, by some Divine
plan. Heredity is found to play a leading part in the formation of the
structure of the body and even of the mind. All these formations are

156

ultimately dependent upon food and its assimilation and metabolic
transformation.

Now, according to yogic terminology, Candra (Moon) represents
that power within the living organism which makes food (anna) capable of
being so assimilated and metabolized as to build up the diverse parts and
tissues and organs of the body in accordance with the specific potentiality
of the organism or the ideal immanent in the essential character of the
organism. It thus supplies the materials for the building up of the body.
It is often referred to as Soma and as the source of all Rasa (which is the
essence of all food-materials). It is described as the source of all
nourishment, the source of delight and vivacity, and as constituting the
bhogya (materials capable of being consumed and absorbed into the
system) in every living body. Surya (Sun) and Agni (Fire) are conceived
as powers (within the living organism), which assimilate and metabolize
the food, which absorb the food-materials into the system and convert
them into the necessary ingredients and tissues and organs for fuller
growth of the organism. They also contribute to the development of vital
and mental strength and vigour and alertness and brilliance and even to
the development of intellectual and moral and spiritual powers by drawing
forth materials for these higher orders of phenomenal realities from the
digested and transformed physical food. Surya and Agni are accordingly
spoken of Bhoktd (consumer). Every living organism is conceived as
Bhoktri-Bhogyatmaka (consisting of the consumer and the consumable, the
eater and the eatable, the power to absorb aud objects to be absorbed).
It is the unification of these two aspects that constitutes the indivinual
living body. In this sense it is also spoken of as agni-somdtmaka (consist-
ing of agni and soma). Here agni represents both surya and agni. Some-
times the whole world is described as "Agni-Somatmakam Jagat", implying
that the whole phenomenal world is evolved through the union of the
duality of Bhoktd-Bhogya.

Candra, Surya and Agni are thus conceived as cosmic forces as well
as biological forces in individual living bodies. There is constant inter-
action between the biological forces and the cosmic forces. In truth, the
biological forces are the particularised manifestation of the cosmic forces.
The growth of individual life is entirely dependent upon the favourable
operations of the cosmic forces. The wonderful interactions among the
forces of heat and light and wind and water and earth, the gravitational,
the magnetic, the chemical, the electrical and the mechanical forces, and
all other forces that are playing their parts in the physical cosmic body
of iva-akti, exercise their influence upon the growth of individual life on
this earth and upon the biological phenomena occurring within the

157

individual body. The forces within the living body have to adjust them-
selves suitably with the external forces and to develop the body through
their cooperative functions. All these external and internal forces are,
according to the Yogi school, diversified self-manifestations of the Divine
Sakti. Yogis perceive the cosmic system mirrored and operative in every
bodily system. They see Kama and Karma also as the expressions of
cosmic life in individual life.

Gorakhnath describes Candra as having 17 kolas, Suryaas having 13
kalds, and Agni as having 1 1 kalds. Kalds appear to mean the diverse
kinds of forces (sakti) which enmanate from them and perform their
functions in distinctive ways for the preservation and development of the
individual living bodies as well as for the maintenance of harmony and
order and freshness and beauty and grandeur of the cosmic system. 16
kalds of Candra, 12 kalds of Surya and 10 kalds of Agni are said to be
actively operative in the individual bodies and the cosmic body, while
each of them has one essential kald, which keeps it in direct spiritual
touch with the Supreme Spirit, by virtue of which its innermost nature is
always illumined and blissful and in respect of which there is fundamental
unity of all the three. In truth, Candra, Surya and Agni are manifesta-
tions of the same Mahd-Sakti of Siva and hence they are essentially non-
different from one another. Ultimately, Bhoktd and Bhogya (the
consumers and the materials for their consumption) are one, and in their
ultimate nature all bhoktd-bhogya relations vanish. In the enlightened
view of the Yogis, Karma, Kama, Candra, Surya and Agni are all
ultimately playful self- manifestations of $iva-$akti y appearing in diverse
forms.

The 16 active kalds of Candra are named, Ullold, Kallolini,
Uccalantl, Unmddinl, Taramgini, Soshinl, Lampatd, Prabritti, Lahari, Lola,
Leiihdnd, Prasaranti, Pravdhd, Soumyd, Prasannatd and Plavanti. The
names (in Sanskrit) give some vague ideas about their distinctive
characters and functions. It would be futile to attempt to translate these
terms and to explain the distinctive functions of these kalds in the living
body or the world-order. No clear conception can be expected therefrom.
The 17th or the essential kald of Candra is called Nibritti, which has no
active phenomenal function in the building up of the living body, but
which is conceived to be the ultimate bhogya, the ultimate essence of all
food-materials and all objects of enjoyment, which being attained, there
should be cessation (nibritti) of all struggles for the preservation of life,
and life should attain immortality (amritatwa). This is therefore also
named Amnta-kald. The aim of a Yogi is to tranecend the domain of
all the other phenomenally active 16 kalds and to enjoy the bliss of the

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17th Amrita-kald, through the practice of the deepest concentration of
energy.

The 12 active Kalas of Surya are named, Tapim, Grdsikd, Ugrd,
Akuncam. Soshini, Prabodhani, Smard, Akarshini, Tustibardhini, Urmirekhd,
Kiranavati, and Prabhdvati. These powers of Surya perform distinctive
functions in the various transformations of the earthly phenomena as
well as in the various transformations of the food-materials within the
individual bodies. The 13th kald, which is called its Nija-kala and which
does not take any direct part either in the cosmic or in the bodily
operations, is Swaprakdsatd (self-luminosity). In respect of this Nijd-kald
or essential character, Surya appears as identified with the Supreme Spirit,
Who is the ultimate Bhoktd or Consumer and Enjoyer of all diversities,
which are nothing but His own delightful self-expressions.

The 10 active kalds of Agni are named, Dipikd, Rajikd, Jwdlini,
Visphulingini, Pracandd, Pdcika, Roudrl, Ddhikd, Rdgim, Sikhdvati. The
llth kald, which is its own transcendent kald, is named Jyoti (pure light),
which is in direct union with the Supreme Spirit, the Illuminer and Life-
giver and consumer of all. In Vedic texts Surya, Agni and Candra are
often glorified as Brahma.

Thus it appears that Candra, Surya and Agni have not only their
individual and cosmic aspects, but also their transcendent aspects. They
not only play their important parts in the building up of individual living
bodies and in the maintenance of the cosmic process, but also in reveal-
ing the transcendent self-luminous self-brilliant blissful character of iva-
Sakti. Yogis, concentrating their attention upon the essential characters
of Candra, Surya and Agni within themselves and in the cosmic system,
find out that they are ultimately non-different from one another and that
Siva is manifest in them in glorious forms.

(S.S.P.I. 62-67).

(6) Nddi Samsthdna or the Nervous System.

The Yogi school attaches great importance to the knowledge of the
nervous system for the understanding of the constitution of the individual
body, and particularly the human body. The nervous system wonderfully
organises all the parts of the body with one another and plays the most
effective role in demonstrating the oneness of the entire body. The
nerves (Ndtfi) are the finest and most sensitive substances evolved within
the individual living body in course of its growth. In the higher and
higher orders of living beings they are more and more diversified and more
and more organised. In the adult human body the nervous system is

159

most complex, most organised, most sensitive and active. The nerves are
said to be infinite in number, they pervade all parts of the body, they are
interconnected, and all together constitute one system.

The nerves are the chief instruments through which the active
propensities of the mind are carried to each and every limb and organ of the
body, the impressions produced upon the organs and limbs are carried to
the mind, the mind and the body as a whole respond to react upon the
diverse kinds of affections of the different parts of the body, and so on.
Different nerves are directly connected with different parts of the body,
and they extend even to the extremeties of the hair and the nails.
Different kinds of nerves perform different kinds of functions. Some are
afferent nerves and some are efferent nerves. Some contribute specially
to sensation and perception and knowledge, some specially to passions
and emotions and excitements, some specially to movements and exertions
and actions, some to respiration, some to metabolism, some to distribu-
tion of energy, and so on. But they all have a common centre, a
common source, a common purpose. They all play their parts for
maintaining the harmony and unity of the psycho-physiological organism
and adjusting it properly with its environments and the cosmic order.
The nerves appear to serve as the links between the mind and the physical
body.

The Yogi teachers, while recognising that the Nddis are countless,
mention that there are at least seventytwo thousand Nddis throughout the
body. They also assert that all of them have their common source in
what they call Mula-Kanda. Mula-Kanda is said to be the most vital part
of the body, located in some spot above the origin of the generating
organ and below the centre of the navel, within the spinal column. It is
from this vital centre that all the nddis are evolved, and they spread in all
directions over the whole body, in upward, downward, sideward, straight and
zigzag courses. The brain and the spinal column play the most important
role in the nervous system. The brain, which is called Sahasrdra-Cakra
(a wheel of a thousand spokes or a thousand-petalled Lotus), is the chief
instrument through which Reason and Moral Consciousness and
Enlightened Mind reveal themselves and exercise their influence upon the
whole organism. This is the supreme part of the nervous system. The
Spinal Cord standing in the middle of the body keeps up the balance of
the whole organism. Other nerves are joined to the Spinal Cord. The
Spinal Cord is often called Brahma-danda or Meru-danda.

In this wonderful network of Nddis issuing from the Mula-kanda
and interlinking all parts of the body, seventytwo are regarded by the

160

yogis as prominent and conspicuous. Of these seventytwo again, ten are
considered to be specially important, in as much as they are connected
with the important outer organs, through which the individual body
perceptibly interacts with the outer world. They also exercise consider-
able influence upon the other nerves. They are specially named by
Gorakhnath in Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati as, Sushumnd, Ida, Pingala,
Saraswati, fushd, Alambusha, Gandhan, Hasti-jihvika, Kuhu, and
Samkhim.

Of these again, Sushumna is the most important Nddi from the
yogic point of view. It is often called Brahma-Nddi. Arising from
Mulakanda, Sushumna passes from Muladhara through Brahma danda
(spinal cord) up to Brahma- randhra in the Sahasrara (cerebrum). Sushumna
as the central Nddi plays the most significant role in the development of
our intellectual and moral and spiritual life. It is the path in which our
vital and mental energy moves upward for the realisation of the supreme
ideal in the highest plane of experience. It is the fine path through which
Kundalinl Sakti, which normally lies asleep as it were in Mulddhara, rises
up when awakened for being consciously united with Siva in Sahasrara,
which is often called the capital-city of Siva. When all energy is con-
centrated in Sushumna and ascends through it to the highest plane in
Sahasrara, the individual consciousness is spiritually illumined by the
transcendent self-luminosity of Siva. But this is not the place for the
elaboration of this topic. Suffice it to say here, that Sushumna is the most
central and most important Nddi in the whole system.

Next in importance to Sushumna are Ida and Pingala. They also
issue out from the same common centre, and flowing by either side of
Sushumna they are said to be connected with the two nostrils and to be
united in a vital centre just between the two visual organs. They are
conceived as in the service of all the respiratory organs. As respiration
occupies a very important position in the preservation and harmonisation
and development of the individual life and as through the control and
regulation of the process of respiration most of the vital organs can be
brought under voluntary control and their operations regulated according
to will and purpose, the importance of Ida and Pingala cannot from the
yogic point of view be overestimated. The Yogis speak of Ida as Candra-
Nadi and Pingala as Surya-Na$, the former being connected with the
left nostril and latter with the right nostril. They are regarded as on the
two sides of Sushumna. Their pulsations are vitally interconnected with
movements of Prana-Vayu. Our vital energy is normally restless, and it
moves round and round through Ida and Pingala with every breath, and
through them passes on to other Nafis and vitalises the different organs.

161

With the restlessness of the vital energy our mental energy also moves on
restlessly. They are very closely related. A yogi through the systematic
practice of breath-control can bring the restless movements of the vital
and mental energy under his voluntary control and can even bring them
to a state of perfect rest. Control of breath and control of the movements
of I4d and Pingald play a very important part in this yogic discipline. I$&
and Pingald can be unified in Sushumna and thereby the whole energy
may be concentrated for truth-realisation.

Saraswati'Nddi is connected with the mouth, the organ of speech.
It thus connects the vocal instruments with the rest of the body and with
the brain and makes them duly responsive to will and thought and
sensations and emotions. Pushd and Alambushd are two Nddls, which are
conceived as connected with the two retinas and eye-balls, the organs of
sight. They in cooperation with the other minor ndtfis carry the ocular
sensations to the brain, the chief instrument of the mind. Similarly,
Gdndhdn and Hastijihvikd are the names of two nd<fis connected with the
two ears, and all auditory sensations are conveyed by them. Kuhu is a
n&4\ connected with the anus or the organ for excreting the waste and
refuse materials from the body. Samkhinl is the nddl which is specially
connected with the generating organ.

These ten are mentioned by Yogiguru Gorakhnath as the principal
nddls (mukhyd-nddi) connected with the principal organs of perception
and action and respiration. But, as it has been noted, according to him
and his yogi school the Nd$s are innumerable and they form a network
pervading all the parts of the physiological organism. They are inter-
linked and they are said to be always in a flowing condition (vahati).
They carry energy from every part of the body to every other part of the
body, and thus unify the whole system. They originate from one common
centre of energy and flow on in diverse courses to all the parts and
enliven and energize them and unite them with the centre. Some other
details about the Nddl-Mandal and Ndtfi-Cakra will have to be discussed
in the sequel from the specially yogic point of view.

it has been occasionally remarked that the viewpoint of the yogi
school is primarily practical and only secondarily theoretical. The
analysis of the constitution of the individual body is also made primarily
with the practical purpose of yogic discipline. It would be futile to
attempt any empirical verification of the details of the physiological
findings of the Yogis by the experimental methods generally adopted by
modern sciences. We need not compare the discoveries of the enlightened
yogi teachers with those of the modern scientists in all cases, particularly

162

because their view-points and methods and purposes are fundamentally
different. Now, the practical purpose of a Yogi is to become a perfect
master of his body and mind and therefore to bring the entire physiolo-
gical organism (including of course the nervous system) under the control
of his reason and will by dint of appropriate yogic discipline. He
analyses the bodily constitution with that end in view. The significance
of this analysis will be more clearly understood, when its application to
sddhand is elaborately discussed. That Gorakhnath himself was not very
serious aboui the naming and location of these nadis is evident from his
description of them in other treatises. In Viveka-Mdrtanda he says that
Gdndhdn is connected with the left eye and Hasti-jihvd with the right eye,
Pusha with the left ear and Yasaswini with the right ear, Alarnbushd is
connected with the mouth, Kuhu with the sexual organ and Samkhinl
with the anus. Here he does not mention Saraswati, but mentions Yasaswini
instead.

(7) Vdyu-Sansthdna

Having briefly dealt with the important functions of the Nadls in the
living body, Gorakhnath discusses the operations of Vdyu in the system.
It is Vdyu which principally activates and moves all the internal organs of
the body and helps the proper functioning of all its parts. Vdyu constantly
draws materials from the outer atmosphere for the continuous refreshment
of the bodily organs, it helps the assimilation of food and drink and their
distribution in all parts of the body, it maintains the circulation of blood
and helps the processes of secretion in the different organs, it keeps the
living organism internally and externally active at all times during the
periods of waking and dreaming and sleeping. It serves all the ntidis, it
serves Candra, Surya and Agni, in the due performance of their functions,
it moves throughout all parts of the body to keep them active and fresh. In
relation to the living body Vdyu is conceived as the vital energy and is
accordingly called Prdna-Sakti.

Though Vdyu or Prdna-Sakti is essentially one in the whole body, it
is conceived as tenfold and given ten distinct names in accordance with the
different functions (vritti) it performs in different parts of the living organ-
ism. One Vdyu operates as ten Vdyus. They are called, Prdna, Apdna,
Samdna, Uddna, Vydna, Ndga, Kurma, Krikara (Krikala), Devadatta and
Dhananjaya. Of these the first five are regarded as primary and the last
five as secondary. The first one, Prdna, is given the place of honour. Its
seat or centre is said to be in the Hridaya (heart, though this heart should
not be identified with the heart of modern physiology). It is specially con-
cerned with the process of respiration and as such with the main nadis,

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Ida and Pingald. It energises and activates all the organs connected with
and affected by the vital functions of breathing-in and breathing-out. It is
obvious to everybody, to every living creature, that the normal operations
of all the organs within the bodily system are dependent upon the regular
and unimpeded continuity of the breathing process. The complete stop-
page of the breathing process means death. It is not a gross exaggeration
to say that breath is life (of course, imperfect phenomenal life). Through
the successful control of the breathing process, Yogis acquire control over
the whole bodily organism. The breathing process appears, to be the main
channel through which there is continuous interaction between the vital
energy in the individual body and the inexhaustible storehouse of vital
energy in the cosmic system.

The second important Vdyu is named Apana. Its seat or centre of
activity is said to be located near about the anus (gudd). It energises and
activates all the organs of the lower parts of the main body. It helps the
organs in clearing out all the impurities and unnecessary materials which
may be produced and accumulated within and around them in various
forms. Its functions are closely connected with and complementary to
those of Prdna. Prdna constantly introduces into the body fresh air and
fresh energy and activates the organs to assimilate and metabolize food-
materials and transform them into living parts of the organism; and Apana
constantly works for moving out the used-up air and energy and driving
away the surplus and useless and injurious materials that are often pro-
duced and accumulated in course of the process of metabolism and the
operations of the different organs. Prdnn and Apana, in cooperation with
Candra and Surya and Agni (in the yogic sense) and also with Candra-Nadi
(Ida) and Surya-Nadi (Pingala), are regarded by the Yogi school as playing
very essential roles in the wonderful organisation of the bodily system. We
may in this connection recollect the beautiful words of Lord Sri Krishna in
the Gita,

Aham Vaiswdnaro bhtttwa prdnmdm deham dsritah
Prdndpdna-samdyuktah pacdmyannam caturvidham.

I (God Himself) having become Vaiswdnara-Agni (all-consuming fire within
the abdomen) manifest Myself within the bodies of creatures and being
united with Prdna and Apdna digest the four kinds of food-materials. The
purport of these Divine words is that even the most natural bodily function
of the digestion of food is, truly speaking, performed by God Himself; the
power of assimilation of food and drink, the power of respiration, the
power of excretion of unnecessary and harmful materials from the body,
the power of transformation of nutritious food into living tissues and

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diverse complicated organs. all these are really the manifestations of the
Divine Power, the self-expressions of Siva-Sakti. That is also the real
import of all these dissertations of Gorakhnath about the apparently most
complicated bodily system and the various kinds of powers manifested
in it.

Samdna-Vdyu is regarded as having its seat and centre in the region of
the navel and its chief function is considered to be to enkindle (deepana)
the fire (agni) in the stomach and the intestines and thereby to increase the
power of assimilation (pacana). Vydna-Vdyu is conceived as moving about
in all parts of the body, infusing fresh energy and agility into all the nerves
and organs and making equitable distribution of nourishment among them.
It greatly helps in keeping up the balance among different parts of this
complicated mechanism. Uddna-Vdyu is conceived as located in the region
of the throat (kantha). It activates the organs for easily swallowing food
and drink and also for vomiting out what is rejected by the system. It also
helps in the spontaneous movements of the organs of speech.

Among the other five Vdyus, Ndga is conceived as pervading the
entire body and as contributing to the stoutness and strength and balanced
movements of the body. Kurma-Vdyu is said to be the chief cause of
the involuntary shaking of the body or its particular parts on particular
occasions, and also of the spontaneous closing and opening of the eyelids,
and the movements of the eyeballs. It thus helps the spontaneous adjust-
ment of the delicate organs with unexpected circumstances. Krikala (or
Krikara) is said to serve two purposes. It pushes out unassimilated gasses
from the region of the stomach through the throat and the mouth and thus
helps the restoration of the normal condition within the body. It also
generates or intensifies hunger. Devadat ta gives relief to the body from
occasional abnormal conditions by means of certain spontaneous outbursts
expressed through the mouth and other channels. Lastly, Dhananjaya is
conceived as the Vdyu which pervades the whole organism and produces
within the organism a continuous sound or a series of sounds (ndda) as an
accompaniment of the operations and interactions of the various organs
and various forces constantly going on for its preservation and develop-
ment. It would not be an exaggeration to describe this living body as a
field of continuous warfare, continuous constructive and destructive and
reconstructive operations, continuous explosions and their wonderful
assimilations. Various kinds of sounds, various kinds of smells, various
kinds of tastes, various kinds of colours, various kinds of wav& and
upheavals, are being constantly produced within it. But all the operations
are so miraculously designed and regulated that one harmonious system i*
the product,

163

Yogiguru Gorakhnath has presented to us a highly instructive and
inspiring spiritual interpretation of the natural process of breathing of
every individual living being. It is generally known that every single
breath consists of three factors, viz. breathing-in (puraka), breathing-out
(recaka) and a little suspension of breath (kwnbhaka) in between the two.
In normal respiration the suspension is practically imperceptible, but still
in the transition between in-breathing and out-breathing there is a
momentary suspension. By the exercise of our will and effort, however,
we carr considerably lengthen the period of suspension, and we can also
lengthen the periods of in-breathing and out-breathing. In the normal
course of healthy human life every single process of breathing (comprising
the three factors) is completed in four seconds. Accordingly, throughout
the day and night we normally breathe in and breathe out twenty one
thousand and six hundred (21600) times. The calculation may not be
quite accurate in all cases, since the normal breathing may be disturbed by
various circumstances. Under certain conditions our respiration may be
quicker and under others slower. Under diseased conditions of the body
respiration may be variously affected. During waking hours and during
sleeping hours, during the periods of physical exertions and during the
periods of rest, at the times of mental excitement and at the times of peace
and tranquillity, respiration does not continue with the same uniform speed
and force. Nevertheless it is assumed that normally we breathe 21600
times during 24 hours.

Now, Gorakhnath teaches us that every time we breathe out, air
passes out from within with the sound Ham, and every time we breathe
in, air from outside passes into our body with the sound Sah. This we
can easily perceive, if we pay close attention to our breath. This means
that every creature, and particularly every man, is naturally and
unconsciously repeating the Mantra 'Ham-sah* 'Ham-sah* with every
breath day and night during waking as well as sleeping periods. This is a
Divine design. Gorakhnath enlightens us about the deeper spiritual signi-
ficance of this design. The sound Ham implies Aham, i.e. I or the indi-
vidual self, and the sound Sah implies 'He' or the Cosmic Self, Brahma,
Paramatma, Siva. Thus with every out-breathing the individual self (jeeva)
frees itself from the bodily limitations and goes forth to the Cosmos and
identifies itself with the Soul of the Cosmic Body (Siva); and with every in-
breathing He, the Soul of the Cosmos, Siva, enters into the body and
reveal! Himself as Aham or the individual soul. If in every breath recaka
is supposed to precede puraka, the mantra is Hamsah; and if in the
opposite way puraka is supposed to precede recaka, it becomes Soham,
Both pxegn the same, i.e. identity of jeeva with

166

Says Gorakhnath,

Ham-kdrena vahir ydti Sah-kdrtna viset punah
Hamsah So*ham imam want ram jeevojapati sarbadd.

Every jeeva goes out with Ham-sound and enters again with Sah-
sound; and thus every jeeva continually repeats this Mantra, Hamsah-
So 9 ham. This is called Ajapd-Gdyatri and the best form of Gdyatri-
mantra. One is not required to repeat this mantra orally or with any voli-
tion and effort.* Gdyatri means a sacred song, by the singing of which one
is delivered from all$bondage. By the wonderful Divine design this great
mantra pregnant with the highest spiritual truth is being constantly sung
by every jeeva with every breath day and night without any effort.
A sddhaka has only to pay deep attention to the inner meaning of his
natural breath, in order to realise the identity of the individual self
and the Cosmic Self and attain liberation.

Yogiguru proclaims in clear terms,

Shat-satdni diva-rat ran sohasrdn yeka-vinsatih
Etat samkhydnwitam mantramjeevo japati sarvadd.
Ajapd ndma gdyatri yogindm moksha-ddyini
Asydh samkalpa-mdtrena narah pdpaih vimucyate.

[Viveka-Mdrtandd].

All through the day and the night a jeeva repeats the mantra (signifying
the identity of the individual soul with the Cosmic Soul) 21600 times.
This Gdyatri named Ajapd is the giver of moksha (liberation from bondage)
to the Yogis (who concentrate their attention upon this natural japa). By
mere concentration of attention upon this Ajapd-Gdyatrl a man becomes
liberated from all kinds of sins.

He sings the glory of this Ajapd- Gdyatri in various ways and
instructs all spiritual aspirants to make the best use of this natural device
for their spiritual self-realisation. He says,

Kundalinydm samudbhutd gdyatri prdna-dhdrini

Prdna-vidyd mahdvidyd yas tdm vetti sa yogavit.

Anayd sadrisi vidyd ana yd sadrisojapah

Anayd sadrisam jndnam na bhutam na bhavishyati.

This natural Gdyatri-mantra has its origin in Kundalim ' Sakti and is the
sustainer of the vital system. The knowledge of this is called Prdnd-
vidyd (true insight into the vital system), and it is Mahdvidyd (great
wisdom). He who attains the knowledge of this Ajapd-Gdyatri is truly ths

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knower of Yoga, Wisdom equal to this* japa equal to this, knowledge
equal to. this, have never been and will never be.

This is a magnificent conception of our natural breathing process.
The highest enlightenment is associated with it. The cultivation of this
conception and constant remembrance of the essential identity of the
individual soul and the Soul of the universe with every breath occupies a
very important position in Gorakhnath's system of yogasddhand. It is
known as Ajapd-Yoga.

Another yogic conception also may be noted in this connection.
When calmness and tranquillity reigns in the body and the mind, when
there is no disorder or disequilibrium in any of the nerves or organs, the
breath naturally becomes very mild and gentle and slow, and quite
rhythmical and almost soundless. It then appears to cease to produce the
sound Ham while going out and the sound Sah while coming in. The
mantra Hamsah or So* ham is then resolved into a continuous waveless
monotonous sound OM, which is called Pianava. This sound OM
signifies the complete unification of Ahatn and Sah, of the individual self
and the Universal Self, of Jeeva and Siva, fn Kumbhaka (suspension of
breath) no sound remains except this non-produced OM. This pure
monosyllabic sound OM is conceived as the eternal sacred Name of the
Nameless One, the Absolute Spirit, Brahma or Siva. Patanjali In his
Yogasutra says, Tasya vdcakah pranavah, -Pranava, i.e. OM is the Name
for Him (Iswara). Sri Krishna in the Gitd describes OM as Ekdkshara
Brahma (i.e. Brahma revealed in one letter). According to Mdndukya
Upanishad, OM stands for All-Existence, the past and the present and
the future and what is above and beyond time, Om is Brahma, Atmd,
the whole universe and the Supreme Spirit transcending the universe. All
the authoritative Scriptures identify OM with Brahma.

Gorakhnath and the Siddha- Yogi school further describe this Pranava
as Anahata-Nada (Eternal Sound, not produced from any friction, not
produced from any collision or upheaval, not broken into pieces or a
number of distinct sounds, but one beginningless and endless natural
monotonous integral Sound), which is the original self-expression of the
Supreme Spirit in the form of Sound. This Pranava, OM, pervades the
Mahdkdsa and is immanent in the Pdnca-bhoutika universe. All particular
sounds are evolved from this OM and are again ultimately merged in it.
It is the essence of all the Vedas and Veddntas, which only expound and
interpret it in various forms of words and concepts. It is this OM, this
Andhata-Ndda, this Sabda-Brahma, this infinite eternal subtle Sound-Body
of the Supreme Spirit, which naturally shines within the heart of every

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jeeva. This MahJ-mantra OM underlies the Ajapd-Gdyatri, Ham-sah So 9 -
ham. In the perfectly calm and tranquil and concentrated state of the
physical and mental and vital energy, when there is perfect equilibrium of
in-breathing and out-breathing, when Prdna and Apdna are united in the
heart without any tension, when Candra-Nadl and Surya-Nddl (Ida and
Pingald) are in thorough union with Brahma-Nddi (Sush umnd), every person
can internally hear this Pranavo, this Anahata-Ndda, this Brahma-in-Sound-
form, within- himself, and can realise this as the essence of his being.
Mahayogis thus point out how the Ultimate Reality and the Ultimate Ideal
of our life presents Himself every moment in the constitution of our body
and is within our easy reach. We can realise Him in ourselves through
mere concentration of our attention.

CHAPTER XIV

THE ESOTERIC ASPECTS OF THE BODY

Having given a general description of the constitution of the Cosmic
Body and of the individual bodies as the phenomenal sfclf-manifestations of
Siva-Sakti (the Dynamic Supreme Spirit), Mahayogi Gorakhnath teaches
the truth-seekers to make a still deeper reflection (vicara) on the inner
structure of this bodily system in the light of the experience of the enlight-
ened Siddha-Yogis. He calls it Pinda-Vicara. Here he presents a doctrine
which is rather esoteric and meant for those who are or wish to be initiated
into the path of yogic discipline and which an ordinary intellectualist
student of philosophy or physiology or psychology would naturally find it
difficult to comprehend and appreciate. It is not based on ordinary
observation and experiment, but on yogic introspection and meditation.
But the spiritual influence of the yogi school upon the general culture of
the vast country was so wide-spread and so deeply inspiring that many of
these esoteric ideas are found to be familiar even to common religiously
minded people of all parts of Bharatavarsha.

Gorakhnath says that for the purpose of attaining true enlightenment
about the inner nature of this sacred body which is a wonderful self-
manifestation of Siva-Sakti, familiarity with these concepts and deep con-
templation in this line are essential. He says,

Nava-cakram kald-dhdram tri-lakshyam vyoma-pancakam
Samyag etat najdndti sa yogi ndma-dhdrakah.

(S.S.P.II.31)

If a yogi is not perfectly acquainted with the nine cakras, sixteen (kald)
ddhdras, three lakshyas, and five vyomas, he is only a bearer of the name of
a yogi (but not a yogi in a true sense).

A. Nine Cakras!

The nine cakias are conceived (or perceived by the yogis) as different
stations in the central Sushumnd-Nddi, which has been called the Brahma-
mdrga (the path for the realisation of the Supreme Spirit within the body
or for the realisation of the perfect Existence-Consciousness-Bliss in
one's own self). They are really different planes of esoteric experience
through which a sincere and earnest seeker of perfect self-realisation in the
path of yogic self-discipline passes in course of his systematic endeavour

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for ascending to the highest plane of spiritual experience and enjoying
therein the blissful absolute unity of Siva and Sakti and his own self.

As it has been mentioned in course of the discussion on the nervous
system, the Sushumna-Nadi is the finest and most brilliant and sensitive
nerve which passes through the spinal column and links the lowest centre
of vital and psychical energy (muladhara) with the highest (sahasrara).
Though it is evolved in and forms a part of the individual physical body, it
is conceived as the most efficient channel for the continuous flow of the
vital and psychical energy between the lowest and the highest planes. It
appears to be of the nature of an ever-flowing current (having in normal
life both an upward and a downward direction), which carries the energy
upward and downward. When viewed in a gross way, the Nadi seems to be
almost straight and the current practically smooth and even. But to
deeper insight it is revealed that there are certain divisions and turning
points in the current and at certain centres there are wheels or whirls which
are called by the yogis Cakras. These Cakras exercise considerable
influence upon the velocity as well as the direction of the flow of energy in
the inner life of an individual. Sometimes they create revolutions in the
vital propensities and mental dispositions of individuals.

They act sometimes as hurdles and sometimes as steps in the path
of spiritual progress. Spiritual aspirants have to be acquainted with them
and their specific characteristics in order to cross through the hurdles and
also to make the best use of them for ascending to higher and higher steps
of spiritual power and enlightenment. These Cakras also represent parti-
cular planes of spiritual experience. When a person's vital and mental
energy moves in the domain of a lower Cakra, he looks upon things from
a lower point of view, from a sensuous or materialstic point of view or
from the view point of his lustful or desireful mind. As his energy ascends
to the domains of higher and higher Cakras, his outlook becomes more
and more refined and enlightened, his interests become more and more
spiritualised, he learns to appreciate more and more deeply the spiritual
and divine character of his own self and of the cosmic system. Accord-
ing to the yogis, spiritual progress essentially consists in piercing through
all the lower Cakras (Cakra-bheda) and ascending to the highest Cakra for
being ultimately united with the transcendent character of Siva-Sakti.
When the Cakras are crossed, the Sushumnd-cunent becomes straightened,
and the yogi can easily rise from the normal state of empirical conscious-
ness to Samadhi, to the state of perfect spiritual illumination and libera-
tion from all bondage and limitation.

The spiritual urge is inherent in the nature of every individual living

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being, in as much as every individual is a self-manifestation of the Supreme
Spirit and he is immanently meant for passing through various planes of
conditioned and variegated mundane experiences to the ultimate blissful
supra-mundane experience of perfect unity with the Supreme Spirit. The
fulfilment of individual existence lies in the attainment of this ultimate
experience and deliverance from the sense of individuality and its limita-
tions. This ultimate ideal is immanent in the inner nature of all individuals
and imperceptibly determines the most intricate courses of their develop-
ment. In the lives of the lower (i.e. sub-human) orders of living beings,
this spiritual urge never rises to the surface of distinct empirical conscious-
ness, though it is present in their inner nature. Their psycho-physical
organism is unfit for their actually feeling this urge. But they also are
unknowingly inspired by it and the development of their nature is inwardly
determined by it.

The human life too passes through many stages of development,
man's psycho-physical embodiment too is developed in a gradual process.
In the lower stages of development there is no actual feeling of the imma-
nent spiritual urge. Even when a man rises to comparatively higher
stages of physical, vital and mental development, and even when his moral
and intellectual consciousness is considerably developed and refined, he
may not have a clear perception of the spiritual urge immanent in his inner
nature. In the normal course this spiritual urge rises upon the surface of
the empirical consciousness of a man through contact with spiritually
enlightened persons whose empirical consciousness had already been
awakened to and inspired by this spiritual urge. Before this spiritual
awakenment of the empirical consciousness the inherent spiritual urge
appears to remain in what may be regarded as a sleeping condition and to
exert its influence upon the course of development of the life of the indivi-
dual from below the threshold of the empirical consciousness. When this
awakenment comes, the individual consciously feels that he is essentially a
spiritual being and that the fulfilment of his life lies in the realisation of the
ultimate spiritual ideal. He then directs consciously and voluntarily and
enthusiastically all his vital and mental energy towards the blissful
experience of the identity of the individual soul with Siva, the Supreme
Spirit, as well as the eternal union of the Maha-Sakti manifested in this
cosmic order with the same spirit.

This awakenment of dynamic spiritual consciousness in the individual
mind is described by Gorakhnath and the yogi school as the awakenment
of the apparently sleeping Divine Power in man, the awakenment
(bodhana or jagarana) of Kundalini-Sakti. This Divine Power with infinite
potentiality is conceived to be existing in every individual, but in a sleeping

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or dormant state, as if in the form of a coiled serpent, closely embracing
the lowest or the most initial centre of physical, vital and psychical energy.
This Sakti is present as the immanent power even in the most subtle and
minute body which is first born in the mother's womb in the form of a
Vindu, and it is the primal energy from which all forms of energy are
evolved, all powers and capacities are developed, all tissues and organs and
limbs are produced, mind and intellect also are manifested. It is essenti-
ally a Conscious Power (Cinmayee Sakti), Pure Consciousness or Siva
being the Soul of this Sakti. But it does not reveal itself as such a Con-
scious Power till the time of the spiritual awakenment, referred to above.

This sleeping Divine Power is imagined as existing in the form of a
sleeping serpent coiling itself thrice round one Siva-linga and deeply embrac-
ing it in the lowest centre of psycho-vital energy. In some texts eight
coils also are mentioned. When this Divine Power is awakened in a man,
his spiritual yearning becomes intense; his vital and mental energy is easily
and almost spontaneously concentrated in the central Sushumna-Nadi and
strives to rise above in this spiritual path. The vital impulses and the
mental inclinations which in normal life are diverted towards outward and
downward directions come easily under the control of the spiritual urge
and the disciplined will, the power of determination is therefore immensely
increased, the internal and external obstacles in the path of spiritual pro-
gress are easily conquered, and there is steady and rapid ascent of the
psycho-vital energy in the Sushumna-Mdrga towards the Supreme Ideal.
This is often described as the sacred Ydtrd (journey) of awakened Kundalini-
Sakti for the most blissful union with Her eternal Beloved, Siva, in the
highest region of spiritual experience, Sahasrdra-Cakra. In course of this
gradual ascent of the psycho-vital energy along the path of Sushumna,
yogis meet with a number of subtle Cakras, at particular stages and
particular centres, in which they are required to perform particular forms
of meditation for particular yogic achievements, and which they have to
pierce through in order to reach the highest plane of transcendent spiritual
experience.

Yogiguru Gorakhnath mentions (in Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati) nine
such Cakras. Yoga-sdstras and Tantra-sastras are however not dogmatic
with regard to the number of Cakras. Cakras are enumerated generally as
six, and sometimes as seven or eight or nine. This perhaps indicates that
no undue importance need be attached to the exact number. Experiences
of yogis may sometimes differ on such minor points. Yogigurus, while
imparting lessons to their disciplies and guiding their methods of contempla-
tion and meditation, are often found to voluntarily omit certain steps and
lay stress upon others. However, older yogic literature often speaks of

173

nine Cakras. It is said, "Nava-cakramayam vapuh" (the body consists of
nine cakras). Gorakhnath also says, Pinde rtava cakrdni (there are nine
cakras in the body).

The first, according to Siddha-Siddhdnta-Paddhati, is Brahma Cakra
in Mulddhara. MuJddhdra is defined thus:

"Vindu-rupa-kundaUmsakteh, prathamd-virbhdva-sthdnam Muld-dhdrah,
Mulddhara is the seat of the first self-manifestation of Kundalini-Sakti
(the self-concealing Divine Power) in the form of Vindu. This Kundalini-
Sakti in the form of the Vindu may be called the material as well as
efficient cause of the individual body. When the body with its diversified
parts and its complex structure is formed, the Sakti is revealed as the
source of all psycho vital energy and has its primary seat in a dynamic
centre of the body located in an intermediate position between the region
of the rectum and the region of the generating organ. This is the point of
the lowest termination of the Spinal Cord and of the Sushumnd-Nddi.
Near about it is located what has been called the Mula-kanda, from
which all the nddls spread out in all directions. This is the primary seat
of the psycho- vital energy, from which the living body originates and by
which it is supported and sustained. Hence it is named Mulddhara.
Herein Kundalini- Sakti lies in a spiritually sleeping condition and herein
She is first awakened and pushes the psycho-vital energy (manha-prdna-
sakti) upward in the path of Sushumnd (Brahma-mdrga). In this
Mulddhara a yogi meets with the first Cakra which is called by Gorakh-
nath Brahma-Cakra (Adhdre Brahma-Cakram),

Gorakhnath describes this Brahma-Cakra in Mulddhara as conical in
shape with the apex downward and as having three coils with the Vindu at
the centre. It is to be remembered that neither the Vindu nor the Cakra is
physically visible even with a powerful microscope. It is open only to
yogic perception. From the view-point of gross sensible physical reality it
would appear only as a knotty centre, and the description would appear to
be figurative. But a yogi with his internal vision actually perceives it.
The Cakra with its conical and coiled shape is a phenomenal manifestation
of the Vindu. The three aspects of a phenomenal reality which remain
unified in the Vindu (it being of the size and shape of a mere point) become
manifested in the form of the three sides of a triangle. These three
aspects may be designated in general terms as Subject (vishayi), Object
(vishaya) and the Process relating them to each other (sambandha). This
triangularity of evolving and revolving phenomenal realities assumes
various forms, such as, jndtd (knower), jneya (knowable) and jndna (pro-
fess of knowing), kartd (doer), kdrya (deed) and karma (the process of

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doing), bhoktd (enjoyer), bhogya (enjoyable) and bhoga (the process 3
enjoyment), and so on. All evolutions occur in such a triangular way
and all phenomenal realities are accordingly relative and triangular in
nature. What is called a cone is a conglomeration of numerous triangles
with a common apex.

Brahma Cakra in the Mulddhara is conceived as of such a conical
shape, and it appears to be the dynamic source of all triangular develop-
ments in the psycho-physical organism. It has three coils, because Sakti,
of which it is a manifestation, is trigunamayce, i.e. a complex of three
gunas, viz, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas. But this Sakti also transcends the
three gunas, since in its essential nature it is identical with Siva, the
Supreme Spirit. The coils are therefore often described as three and a
half, the half pointing to its transcendent aspect. It is sometimes described
as having eight coils, which probably refer to eightfold evolutions (unified
here) of Prakriti, viz, five Mahabhutas and Manas, Buddhl, Ahankdra.
When there is spiritual awakenment, this Divine Power is perceived in this
Cakra to be shining very brilliantly like a blazing fire (pavakdkdra) or like
a steady flash of lightning (vidyut-vilasa-vapuh), self-luminous and all-
illumining. This is also described as the place of the mutual union of Siva
as Kdmeswara (the Lord of all desires) and Kcimeswaree (the Devee fulfilling
all desires). It is therefore spoken of as Kamarupa-pitha. When a
zadhaka's psycho-vital energy is concentrated in this Cakra and he medi-
tates on Siva-Sakti in this aspect, whatever desires arise in his mind are
fulfilled (sarva-kdma-prada). Hence in order to ascend to the higher
spiritual planes, a yogi has to be very cautious in this plane, so that no
worldly desires may arise in his mind and retard his progress.

The conception of Sakti'm this Cakra is beautifully expressed in this
Sloka:

Vidyud-vildsa-vapushah sriyam dvahanteem
Ydnteem swa-vdsa-bhavandt Siva-rdjadhdneem
Saushumna-mdrge kamaldni vikdsayanteem
Deveem bhajed hridi pardmrita-sikta-gdtrdm.

A yogi should worship at heart the self-shining Goddess (awakened
Kundalim-Sakti), Whose entire body is saturated with spiritual nectar and
displays the brilliant beauty of a steady flash of lightning, Who is on her
delightful journey from her own home (at Mulddhara) to the capital-city of
her eternal Beloved, Siva, (at Sahasrdra), and Who on her way through
Sushumnd unfolds upwards the lotuses at the different centres of this
spiritual path. (In normal worldly life the lotuses in the different cakras

175

are described as blooming downward; in spiritually awakened life these
lotuses bloom upward.)

An aspirant for abater and greater spiritual enlightenment in the
higher and higher planes has to cultivate a deeply devotional attitude
towards the Divine Sakti and to pray for Her mercy for conquering all the
temptations of worldly power and prosperity and enjoyment, which may
present themselves to him at this early stage of spiritual progress in the
yogic path. It is Sakti that offers these temptations, it is Sakti that fulfils
all the desires which ma> arise in the mind of the yogi, and it is Sakti
again that delivers him mercifully from all such temptations and desires if
lie has an earnest spiritual aspiration and a humble and worshipful attitude
of mind. If he is addicted to and infatuated with the powers and prosperi-
ties and enjoyments which may come to him (sometimes even without his
wishing and seeking for them), the path of his ascent to higher spiritual
planes is likely to be blocked for the time being, and even a downfall from
this position is possible. FL may however be rescued again, if he gets the
help and guidance of a merciful enlightened Guru and is again actuated by
the spirit of renunciation and earnest aspiration for Truth-realisation.

Thus, the Cakra at Mulddhara is the starting station of Kundalim in
her sacred journey to the abode of Siva in Sahasrdra and likewise the start-
ing station of the concentrated psycho-vital energy of SL yogi in its spiritual
ascent in the path of Sushumna towards the same goal.

The second Cakra mentioned by Gorakhnath, is called Swddhisthdna-
Cakra. It is located within the Sushumna-nadi at a centre close to the
origin of the generating organ. Within this Cakra there is, as the yogis
experience with their penetrating vision, a very fine and bright red-coloured
Siva-linga facing towards the back (pasclmdbhimukhd). Kundalim- Sakti in
Her upward journey, having first crossed through the Mulddhdra-Cakra,
ascends to the Swddhisthdna-Cakra and is united with her Beloved Siva,
the Supreme Spirit, in this special form. This special form of manifesta-
tion of the union of Sakti with Siva is so very beautiful and fascinating
that itiis revealed as the source of attraction to all phenomenal existences
of the universe. A yogi, practised in the art of concentration and deep
meditation, having renounced al! worldly desires and conquered all worldly
temptations and having thus crossed the hurdle of Mulddhdra-Cakra,
raises his psycho-vital energy to this plane of Swddhtsthdna-Cakra. When
his energy is concentrated upon and charmed by this fascinating expression
of the union of Siva and Sakti, he himself becomes thereby a most attrac-
tive personality and the whole world seems to be attracted towards him
tjagad-akarshanam bhavati).

176

Though he may not have any attraction for the honour and adora-
v tion and affection of the people of the world, the beauty and splendour of
his yogic attainments and the Divine Power manifested in and through him
naturally attract them towards him. This is also a great hindrance in the
way of higher spiritual progress. Moreover, besides his personality becom-
ing unusually attractive, his aesthetic ideas and artistic and creative
faculties also are often extraordinarily developed at this stage. A yogi
must not remain contented with these attainments. He must exert himself
to ascend to higher planes of spiritual experience. For this purpose he
should with a prayerful attitude deeply meditate upon Siva with His Sakti
united with Him, and pray to Siva-Sakti for revealing to his consciousness
higher and higher manifestations of Their holy union. He should never be
elated with joy and pride at the charming experiences he has already
gained. He should never cherish any sense of ego and never attribute the
credit for these experiences to his individual self. He should value them as
the merciful self-revelations of Siva-Sakti, but should never be intoxicated
with them. He should earnestly seek for and pray for higher orders of
experience. In this way he should cross the whirl of the Swadhisthdna-Cakra.

The third Cakra is called by Gorakhnath Nabhi-Cakra, because it is
experienced within the Sushumnd-Nddi at a centre in the region of the navel
It is generally known as Manipura-Cakra. The concentrated and upward-
driving psycho-vital energy of an earnest and prayerful yogi, having crossed
Mulddhdra-Cakra and Swddhisthdna-Cakra, arrives at this Manlpura-Cakra,
which is a dynamic centre of various kinds of Yogic Siddhis or miraculous
powers. This Cakra is described as having five fold whirls (pancd-varta)
and appearing in the form of a five-times-coiled serpent (sar pa-vat kundald-
kdrd). Within this Cakra, Kundalini-Sakli reveals Herself with the
brilliance of a crore of morning suns (bdldrka-koti-sadrisee) and enjoys a
special bliss of union with Siva. This is a higher plane of spiritual union
between Siva and Sakti than Mulddhdra and Swadliisthana.

The difference between the nature and the degree of the spiritual
enjoyment of one plane and those of another can not of course be under-
stood by any person living and moving and having his being in the normal
physical and sensuous plane of experience by means of any amount of
subtle intellectual reasoning or any stretch of imagination. Yogis who
attain experiences of those higher planes can not also make them intelli-
gible to the men of the lower planes by means of verbal descriptions.
Nevertheless, many yogi-teachers have, with the help of various kinds of
similes and metaphors and poetic imageries, made some attempts to give
vague and inadequate ideas about their inner experiences for the benefit of
earnest truth-seekers, who might in the light of these descriptions feel the

177

urge to advance in this path and subject themselves to the necessary
discipline under proper guidance with the purpose of being blessed with
similar experiences.

Kundalim-Sakti as revealed in Manipura-Cakra is also named by
Gorakhnath as Madhvamd-Sakti, indicating that this also is only an inter-
mediate stage of the self-revelation of the essential character of Siva-Saktl.
But even at this madhyamd-stagQ, Kundalinl-Sakti confer^ all kinds of
supernatural powers (sarva-siddhidd bhavati) upon the devoted yogi, whose
psycho-vital energy is concentrated upon Her in this plane. The yogi
then acquires the power of changing his physical body into any form at his
pleasure, of transforming one material thing into another, of making his
existing body lighter than air or heavier than a mountain or invisible to
others' eyes or capable of passing from one place to another on the aerial
path by the mere exercise of his will, and so on. But the acquisition of
such supernatural powers is not the ideal of yoga. It is only a passing
stage. A yogi must transcend this stage and ascend to higher planes.
Intoxication with such powers is a formidable hindrance in the way of
further progress to higher stages of enlightenment.

The fourth Cakra is Hridaya-Cakra, also called Andhata-Cakra. Like
the other Cakras, it is also located in the Sushumnd nadl within the spinal
column and it is experienced near about the region of the heart. Within
this Cakra there is, says Gorakhnath, a fine lustrous lotus with eight petals
facing downward (asta-dala- kamalam adhomukham). In the middle of this
lotus Sakti reveals Herself as shining in the form of an extraordinarily
brilliant and beautiful and steady light (jyoti-rupa) of the shape of a Siva-
Linga (Itngd kdra). Kundalinl-Sakti appearing in this self-luminous form,
almost identified with Siva and deeply enjoying the bliss of union with Him,
is named Hamsa-Kald. This Hamsa-Kald is also spoken of as Sree-Sakti.
When a yogi attains the ability to concentrate his refined and purified
psycho-vital energy in this Cakra, he becomes the master of all his senses
(sarven-driydni vasydnf bhavanti). His senses being perfectly under his
control, and his mind being free from all worldly desires, free from the
egoistic sense of his own superiority and also free from attachment even to
his supernatural powers and grandeurs, he becomes an embodiment of
calmness and tranquillity even in the normal state of his existence.

Through deep meditation on the pure self-luminous jyoti in this
Cakra, the yogi not only experiences the unity of Sakti and Siva, but also
experiences the identity of his own self with Siva-Sakti. Sakti in this
plane unveils to his individual empirical consciousness that kald (aspect)
of herself, by the light of which his aham (self) is so illumined that it is
experienced as non-different (abhinna) from Sa (He, iva). It is in this

178

Cakra that true spiritual enlightenment of a yogi really begins. But there
are still higher and higher stages of enlightenment, which a yogi has to
attain through deeper and deeper reflection and meditation.

It may be noted in this connection that Samddhi, which is the most
concentrated state of the empirical consciousness, a state in which ail
differences apparently vanish, may be attained in every plane of the cons-
ciousness, specially in each of the Cakras mentioned by the enlightened
yogi*. But the results of the Samadhi in the different planes, in the
different Cakras, are not the same. The samddhi-stzte of the conscious-
ness may superficially appear to be similar in every case; but the realisa-
tions depend upon the nature of the planes and the nature of the objects or
ideals upon which the mind is concentrated. Samadhi in every plane and
upon every object of meditation does not lead to spiritual illumination.
The psycho-vital energy has to be purified and refined and raised to higher
and higher planes for higher and higher orders of spiritual experience;
perfect illumination is attainable in the highest plane, -in the highest
Cakra.

The fifth Cakra is called Kantha-Cakra. It is also known as Visuddha-
Cakra. It is located in the Sushumna in the region of the throat (Kantha).
Here the Sushumna nddi shines most distinctly and brilliantly and beauti-
fully with the Candra-nddi (Ida) on its left and the Surya-nddi (PingaJa)
on its right. The Sushumna as so revealed in this Cakra is conceived as
the Anahata-Kala of the Kundalini-Sakti, Who here deeply enjoys the bliss
of union with Siva. The psycho vital energy of the Yogi, having passed
through the Hridaya Cakra and become fully refined and profoundly
concentrated, ascends to this Cakra and identifies itself with this Andhata-
Kald for the most profound and steady enjoyment of Siva-Sakti-union. The
yogi is at this stage blessed with a spiritual realisation which Gorakhnath
calls Andhata-Siddhi. He then transcends all the forces of the world. No
worldly forces (which are also manifestations of the same Divine Power,
but in lower planes) can strike him or bring him under their subjection.
Andhata-Siddhi may also mean that he perfectly realises the all-pervading
Andhata-Ndda (the eternal unbroken undifferentiated unuttered Sound- OM),
which is the first self-expression of Siva-Sakti in the form of Ndda or
Sound and which underlies all kinds of sound-waves in the phenomenal
universe. The yogi at this stage transcends the domain of the plurality of
produced sounds, becomes absorbed with the undisturbed experience of
the unity and sweetness of the Eternal Sound and realises the oneness of
this Sound with Siva-Sakti.

The sixth Cakra is described by Gorakhnath as located at the root

179

of the palate (talu-mula) and is called Talu-Cakra. In this Cakra there is
a continuous flow of ambrosia (amrita-dhdrd-pravdha) from the Sahasrdra-
Cakra. The yogi can become absorbed with the taste of this amrita
through the appropriate process of concentration of his psycho-vital energy
in this Cakra and can thereby become perfectly free from hunger and thirst
and attain even physical immortality. But Gorakhnath instructs the earnest
spiritual aspirant to concentrate the attention on Sunya or absolute void in
this Cakra, so that he may attain the state of Citta-laya (the dissolution of
the empirical consciousness). Citta-laya is a very important step to perfect
spiritual illumination and ascent to the plane of transcendent conscious-
ness. Gorakhnath says that in the tdlu-mula there is a ghantikd-linga, at
the root of which there is a very small hole, a perfect vacuum, which is
called Sankhim-vivara and also DaSama-dwdra (tenth door). It is within
this vacuum that the attention should be concentrated and Sunya should
be deeply meditated on. As the result of this meditation, Citta will lose
itself. Unlike the commonly known nine doors of the body open towards
objects of mundane experience, here lies the tenth door open towards the
realisation and enjoyment of spiritual truth and here the empirical consci-
ousness should die, as it were, to be perfectly illumined by Transcendent
Light.

The seventh Cakra is located at a nerve-centre between the two eye-
brows and is called by Gorakhnath Bhru Cakra. Here the Smhumnd takes
the form of a steadily burning lamp-light (deepa-sikhd-kdra) of the size of
a thumb (amgustha-mdtra). This is called Jhdna-netra,i\\Q eye of enlight-
enment. This is really an inner light which illumines the consciousness of
a yogi whose whole attention is concentrated upon it. Through deep
concentration the yogi becomes one with the light. When he comes down
from this plane to the normal plane of experience, he looks upon all
worldly objects and events with the illumined outlook. Besides, says
Gorakhnath, he attains Vdk~Siddhi\ whatever he speaks turns out to be
true. His whole being becomes full of Truth and his utterances also
spontaneously reflect Truth.

The eighth Cakra is called by Gorakhnath Nirvdna-Cakra, and it is
located in Brahma-randhra within a part of Sahasrdra. This is the finest
centre for the realisation of the Infinite and Eternal Spirit (Brahma) by the
individual consciousness. The individual consciousness is in this plane
merged in the Transcendent Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. Kundalini-Sakti
is here perfectly united with Siva, the Supreme Spirit. In this plane the
difference between light and darkness, between motion and rest, between
finite and infinite, between phenomena and noumenon, vanishes altogether.
Yogis often give it the poetic name of Jdlandhara-Pitha, because this is the

180

place of the perfect self revelation ( pitha) of the Supreme Holder of the
magnificent net-work of the phenomenal cosmic order (Jalandhara), the
Supreme Spirit from Whom this cosmic net (jdla ) originates, by Whom
this net is sustained and governed and harmonised, of Whom it is the
playful self manifestation and Who is its infinite and eternal self luminous
and all-illumining Soul. An individual remains jdla-baddha (bound in and
suffering from thisjala or net), so long as he does not realise Jalandhara
(the Supreme 'Net-holder) in himself and the cosmic system. When he
perfectly realises his oneness with Jalandhara, he feels full freedom in this
very world, he becomes free from all sense of bondage and limitation and
sorrow. He attains Moksha or Nirvana.

Above the Nirvana-Cakra in the Brahma-randhra, which is the seat of
the attainment of Moksha (liberation from all possible bondage and
sorrow), Gorakhnath mentions the existence of the ninth Cakra, which he
names Akasa-Cakra. This last Cakra is located at the highest point of
Sahasrara. It is described as of the nature of a fine self-luminous lotus with
sixteen petals, facing upward. At the centre of this lotus the trikutakara
(manifested in a threefold form, in the form of a self-luminous Experience
holding within itself the experiencer and the experienced and the process of
experience) Sat-Cid-^nanda-mayee Maha-Sakt! in perfect union with the
Supreme Spirit, Siva, has Her highest and most glorious self-manifestation
and self-realisation. This centre of experience is further described as Purna-
Giri-Pitha (i. e. the seat of the highest mountain of Absolute Experience).
Here the phenomenal consciousness is perfectly transformed into and fully
realises itself as all-absorbing all-unifying all-transcending Absolute Cons-
ciousness. The holy journey of Kundalim-Sakti from Muladhara-Cakra for
the most blissful re-union with Her most beloved Soul and Lord, Siva,
reaches here its most successful end.

Sakti had separated Herself, as it were, from Siva in course of Her
world- ward journey, had put on veils over veils and concealed Her Sat-
Cid-Ananda-mayee Swarupa-Prakriti in course of Her cosmic journey to
lower and lower planes of phenomenal existence and consciousness and
enjoyment, and with Her face outward and downward had seemed to see
Her Lord and Soul only as reflected upon Her diversified and ever-chang-
ing cosmic self-manifestations. Though never out of touch with Siva, She
seemed to have been bearing at heart a painful feeling of the want of direct
and perfect spiritual union with Him, which meant the want of self-
realisation on Her part. She appeared to have gone to a long distance from
Siva, i.e. Her own true Self, in the material plane. In course of Her
phenomenal self-manifestation, She created the human body as the most
suitable channel for Her return- journey to Her beloved Lord, i.e. Her own

181

true Spiritual Self. This return-journey is completed, when Saki reaches
what has been called Aktisa-Cakra in the human body, and She appears to
become one with Siva again. The yogi attains perfect self-fulfilment, when
he can firmly establish himself in this plane of existence and consciousness
and blissfulness. This is the plane of Pard-Sambit. Gorakhnath also calls
it Parama unya, because all objectivity and individuality vanish in this
Experience, and there remains only one infinite eternal differenceless
changeless Absolute Experience. Sunya does not mean abserrce of existence,
but perfect subject-object-less space- time less unconditioned Existence.*

*The above exposition of the Nine Cakras is like that of other topics in this
book chiefly based on Siddha-Siddh&nta-PadMiati. In Goraksha-Sataka, which also is
regarded as an authentic work of Yogiraj Gorakhnath, the Cakras are enumerated as
six. He says

Shat-cakram shotfasadharam tri-lakshyam vynma-pancakam

Swa-dehe ye na jananti katham sidhyanti yoginah.

Six Cakras, sixteen Adharas, three Lakshyas and five Vyomas, how can those
yogis, who do not know these in their own body, attain perfection? (G. S. 13)
He adds

Ekastanibhum nava-dwaram griham pancadhidaivatom

Swodeham ye na jananti katham sidhyanti yoginah. (G S. 14)

A house with one pillar, nine doors, and presided over by live Deities, how can yogis,
who do not know their own body as such a house, attain perfection?

Caturdalam tyad ddharah swadhisthanam ca shad-dalam

Ndbfiau dasa-dalam pad mam sur \a-samkhya-dalam hndi.

Kanthe sydt shodasa-dalam bhru-madhye dwidalam tathd

Sahasra-dalam-akhydtam brahma-randhre mohd-patne. (G. S. 15-16)
The first Cakra is Muladhara which has in it a lotus of four petals; the second is
Snadhisthana with a lotus of six petals; the third is in the navel with a lotus of ten
petals; the fourth is in the heart with a lotus of twelve petals; the fifth is in the region
of the throat with a lotus of sixteen petals; and the sixth is in between the two eyebrows
with a lotus of two petals. Above all these six Cakras there is in Brahmarandhra, the
supreme path, the highest Cokra which is a lotus of a thousand petals.

Here as well as in all other authoritative texts, Shat-Cakro mean six cakras in the
Sushumna t exclusive of Sahasrara. These six have to be transcended (Cakra-bheda),
and the ultimate ideal has to be realised through the deepest concentration of the psycho-
vital energy in the seventh and highest Cakra, viz. Sahasrara. Jin S. S. P. Gorakhnath
speaks of two Cahas in Sahasrara , viz. Nirvana-Cakra and Akdsd-Cakra. Moreover
he speaks of another Cakra, viz. Talu-Cakra, at the root of the palate. Thus the total
number becomes nine. Further, in S. S. P. he does not make special mention of the
lotuses with definite numbers of petals in the different cakras, except in the cases of
Hndaya-Cakra and Akasa-Cakra\ in the former he mentions the presence of a
downward-looking eight-petalled lotus and in the latter an upward-looking sixteen-
petalled lotus. In G. S. however he speaks of a twelve-petalled lotus in Hridaya-
Cakra, and Akdsa-cakra is not mentioned at all.

In Goraksha-Sataka as well as in many other books Gorakhnath instructs every
truth-seeker to contemplate his own body as a house (griha) in which &iva dwells as the
individual soul (jeeva). This house is said to stand on one pillar. The pillar obviously
refers to the spinal column (containing Sushumna with its Cakras and supporting the
whole bodily system) with Sahasrara as its roof. The nine doois of this house indicate
the two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, one mouth, one generating organ and one
excretive organ, which are linked with the centre of vitality by the nine principal Nadls
(excluding Sushumna) and which are the openings of this bodily house for contact with
the outer world, A tenth door (dasama dwdra) is mentioned at the root of the palate
(in talu-cakra), which is an opening to the higher spiritual region. The five presiding
Deities may mean according to the yogic view-point Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Iswara

(Continued on next page)

182
B. Sixteen Adhdras:

Having given lessons on the Nine-Cakras, Gorakhnath indicates the
locations of the Sixteen Adhdras, and gives some general hints as to how
they should be utilized in the practice of yoga. Adhdra literally means
'that which holds or contains.' Probably by the enumeration of the
Adharas Gorakhnath refers to the principal seats of the vital and psychic
functions, which have to be brought under voluntary control and then
transcended by means of appropriate methods of yogic discipline.

The first Adhdra he mentions is Pdddmgusthddhdra, i. e. the seat of
the vital functions in each of the big toes. Gorakhnath instructs the
aspirant for yoga to imagine this adhdra at the extremity of the toe as a
luminous (tejomaya) circle and fix his eyes steadily upon it. This practice
is of great help for the concentration of the eyesight and the steadiness of
attention. It is believed that there is a vital connection between the tissues
in the big toes and the optical nerves.

The second is Mulddhdra. This is the primary seat of Kundalini
Sakti and the starting point of Sushumnd-Nddi. It is at this ddhdra that
the psycho-vital energy should be first concentrated and then pushed up-
ward in the path of Sushumnd. Gorakhnath instructs that a practitioner in
yoga should deeply press the mulddhdra-sutra with the ankle of the left foot
and sit erect in a steady posture (dsana), so that the energy may not move
downward. Through this practice there is, says Gorakhnath, a kindling of

Foot-note: (Continued )

and SadtiSiv , who are special spiritual self-manifestations of Siva-Sab ti for governing
different planes of the Cosmic System as well as of the individual bodies. A yogi is to
realise these Cosmic Divine Personalities within his own body as the glorious self-mani-
festations of his own true Soul, i. e. Siva.

In yoga-literature this body is sometimes described as a seven-storied building,
each of the seven Cakras (including Sahasrfira) being imagined as representing a storey
or a plane of existence and experience under the supervision and governance of a
Divine Personality. From Muladhara to_Kantha the five storeys are governed by the
five Divinities mentioned above, while Ajna and Sahasrara are under Sri-Kantha and
Bhairava. Siva is the Soul of them all. A perfectly enlightened yogi, having realised
the identity of his individual soul with Siva, the Supreme Spirit and Universal Soul,
attains the power to move freely in all the storeys to ascend from Muiadhara to
Sahawara and to descend from Sahasrara to Muladhara and to enjoy the experiences
of any of the planes, as he pleases, and to identify himself occasionally with any of the
Deities. Through the mere concentration of his will, he can participate in the delight-
ful play of Siva-Sakti in all the planes of existence and experience in this very embo-
died state. He may at his sweet will take leave of this house and embrace death, which
is as good as immortality to him, and thereby absolutely merge his individuality in the
perfect Existence-Consciousness- Bliss of Siva. Or he may retain this physical body as
long as he likes, since his body is inwardly spiritualised and liberated from the bondage
of the ph>sical and the moral laws, to which the ordinary living bodies are subject.
He conquers nature by the power of his yogic discipline and by his self-identification
with iva.

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fire (agni-deepana) there, which pushes the energy upward in the spiritual
path.

The third is called Gudddhdra in the rectum. This is the passage
through which the Apdna-Vdyu clears out the impurities and the rejected
materials from the abdomen. A yogi is instructed to practise in a
methodical way the expansion and contraction (vikdsa-samkocana) of this
gudd-dhdra, and thereby to regulate and steady the function of Apdna.
This contributes to the union of Apdna with Prdna, which is very impor-
tant in the practice of yoga. It considerably helps the cure of all the
diseases of the abdomen, which are great obstacles in the way of the
successful practice of Yoga.

The fourth is called Medhrddhdra, located at the root of the
sex-organ. This is evidently a very important seat of vital functions. This
is the passage through which the most substantial elements of the physical
body, viz. Vindu or Virya, passes out at the time of sexual intercourse and
sometimes even involuntarily due to sexual excitement. Vindu or Vlrya is
and the most vital substance in the body. It is saturated with Prdna-Sakti
hence the source of vital strength. The development of mental powers also
greatly depends upon the preservation and assimilation of Vindu within the
body. Without preservation and assimilation of Vindu, no body can
attain success in the practice of yoga. But any kind of indulgence to lust-
ful propensities, any form of sexual excitement (even in dreams) dislocates
it from its proper place in the bodily system and tends to drive it out
through the channel of the sexual organ. Preservation of Vindu is spoken
of as Jife, and loss of it as death. 'Maranam vindu-pdtena jivanam vindu-
dhdrandt.' Hence not only yogis, but all decent men with moral and spiri-
tual aspirations and even men with earnest yearning for physical and
mental and intellectual development, attach the utmost importance to the
preservation and assimilation of Vindu.

It has already been noticed that Medhrddhdra is generally known as
Swddhisthdna. This means that it is regarded as the adhisthdna or the
dwelling place of Swa (i. e. the self). Swa here denotes Prdna or the vital
self. Prdnasakti is conserved here, and if it is not well-protected, it is lost
also through this channel. Ptdna-sakti principally lies in Vindu or Virya,
also called Ret as, and in Medhiddhdra strict guard has to be kept against
its waste. It is incumbent on every spiritual aspirant, not only to care-
fully refrain from gratifying the sexual appetites and lustful propensities,
but also to exercise the utmost control over the sexual organ and the nerves
connected with it. For the purpose of bringing the sexual organ under
control and suppressing all excitements of the sexual nerves, Gorakhnath

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instructs the sddhakas to learn the art of shrinking the sexual organ
(linga-sankocana), which is a kind of effective yogfc mudrd. Through the
successful practice of this mudrd the outward or downward passage of
Vindu is blocked and its inward or upward passage is opened. By this
process the waste of vital energy (vindu-ksharana) is stopped and the con-
servation of vital energy (vindu-stambhana) is accomplished. Gradually
the vital energy transcends the three knots (granthi}, which are called
Brahma-granthi, Vishnu granthi and Rudra granthi, and rises upward and
contributes to the strength and vigour and brilliance and beauty of the
whole system. Yogis speak of the presence of a bhramara-guhd (literally,
bee- cave) somewhere at the uppermost end of the spinal column and in the
lower region of Sahasrdra. Gorakhnath says that Vindu being successfully
drawn upward goes to this guhd and thereafter becomes perfectly assimila-
ted and makes the body invincible. Bhramara-guhd is regarded as the true
seat of virya (virya-sthana). Being dislocated from there, it comes down
and is accumulated in Meddhra. This dislocation has to be stopped.

The fifth ddhdra mentioned by Gorakhnath is Vddydna and it is
located in an intermediate position between linga-mula and ndbhi-mula.
Gorakhnath says that by means of appropriate practice this ddhdra also
can be brought under control. Its direct result is that the yogi can exer-
cise control over the intestines and the urinary organs and there is diminu-
tion of the quantity of faeces and urine as well as cure of the intestinal and
urinary ailments. The control of these is of great help in the purification
of the body and in raising the vital energy to higher planes.

The sixth is called Ndbhyddhdra, located at the root of Ndbhi (navel).
This is, as it has been already observed, the seat of Ndbhi-Cakra or
Manipura-Cakra. It is regarded as a very important centre of the vital
functions, Gorakhnath specially refers to the manifestation of subtle Ndda
(sound) in this Adhdra. Ndda (Sound) is conceived by yogis as ultimately
identical with Brahma, the Supreme Spirit of Whom it is a glorious self-
expression. As Yoga-Sikha- Upanished says,

Aksharam paramo nddah sabda-brahmeti kathyate.

Ndda in its ultimate essence is Akshara or Brahma, i.e. the Changeless
Transcendent Supreme Consciousness. It is called Sabda-Brahma. It is
manifested as Ndda in a very subtle form in Mulddhdra, but there it is non-
distinguishable from Sakti. Thereafter it appears as identified with Vindu
or Vlja, which is the undifferentiated essence of the psycho-physical body
as well as of sound, of form (rupa) as well as name (ndma). Yoga-Sikha-
Upanishad says,

185

Mulddhdra-gatd saktih swddhdrd vindu-rupini
Tasydm ufpadyate nddah sukshma-vijdd ivdnkurah.

In Mulddhdra Ndda is identified with Sakti, in Swddhisthdna it is identi-
fied with Vindu or Vija 9 and in Manipura or Ndbhi-ddhdra it is revealed as
the first subtle continuous Sound, which is perceptible to the refined sense
ofa>'0/. This is called Pranava, the sweet and undiversified and cease-
less sound of OM. In Andhata or Hridaya-ddhdra this Ndda becomes quite
distinct, but still monotonous and unbroken. Thereafter in. and through
the vocal organs Ndda becomes diversified into innumerable sounds. Here
Gorakhnath instructs a practitioner in yoga to withdraw his attention from
the diversities of sounds and concentrate it upon pure Ndda in Nabhi-
ddhdra. This concentration may be practised by a novice with the
prolonged utterance of OM with the mouth and the closing of ears. As a
result of continued practice, the mind is merged in Ndda. (This is called
Ndda-laya). In this way this important vital centre may be controlled and
spiritualised.

The seventh is Hridaya-ddhdra* This is also a very important centre
of vital functions. This is the seat of Andhata-Cakra, where, according to
Siddha-Siddhdnta-Paddhati, there is the eight-petalled lotus, and according
to the general view, there is the twelve-petalled lotus. It is the centre of
the union between Prdna and Apdna. It is here that the Andhata- Ndda can
be most distinctly perceived, if attention is withdrawn from all produced
sounds and concentrated in it. Gorakhnath instructs those who are under
training in yoga to practise the concentration of Prdna at this centre by
means of Kumbhaka (suppression of breath) and says that as the result of
this concentration the petals of the lotus are opened upwards. This
implies that the psycho-vital energy is not then dragged downward or
world -ward, but spontaneously moves upward in the spiritual path for self-
fulfilment in the higher planes. A yogi is thereafter blessed with an enlight-
tened spiritual outlook.

The eighth is called Kanthddhdra. This contains the Visuddha-Cakra,
and according to the general view a bright sixteen-petalled lotus. Here
Gorakhnath instructs a trainee to practise what is called Jdlandhara-Bandha,
in which Kantha (throat) has to be very cautiously contracted and the chin
has to be placed on the chest. Through the systematic practice of
Jdlandhara-Randha a yogi can bring under control the movement of Prdna-
Vdyu in Ida and Pingald and push the psycho-vital energy upward through
Sushumnd.

It may be noted here by the way that each of the yogic processes, of
which Gorakhnath has made only a passing mention in connection with

186

the different ddhdras in Siddha-Siddhdnta-Paddhati, has far-reaching impor-
tance for giving deeper and deeper knowledge of the bodily system and
bringing the entire bodily system under the voluntary control of the yogi.
The processes and their results are dealt with more elaborately in other
books by Gorakhnath and other teachers. But everywhere they have
emphasised that without the guidance of competent Gurus it is very diffi-
cult and often unsafe to venture to practise these yogic methods merely in
reliance upon the study of books. Gorakhnath has mentioned here
several processes of Bandha and their consequences, such as Mulabandha,
Uddydnabandha, and Jalandharabandha, in the simplest possible forms.
But they have very far-reaching consequences in the acquisition of mastery
over the psycho-physical organism and the attainment of spiritual perfec-
tion. This is not the place for discussing them, because we are here mainly
concerned with the enumeration of ddhdras. Gorakhnath has in a general
way made mention of some forms of Mudrd and Bandha and Dhydna in
connection with his emumeration of Nddls, Cakras and Adhdras within the
body, because it is by means of these methods that a truth-seeker can pene-
trate into the true nature of them and can be firmly convinced of their
existence in the organism. True knowledge leads to the establishment of
mastery over them.

The ninth is called GhantikddHdra, which is located at the root of the
soft palate. Within it there is a minute channel through! which nectar
(amrita-kald) flows gently from what is called Candra-maifdala in Sahas-
rdra. Normally it is not perceptible and it is wasted, because it passes down
to the lower regions through the channels of I<Ja-Pingla. Gorakhnath
instructs the trainee to turn the tip of the tongue inward and to put it
carefully in touch with this channel in this Ghantikddhdra, so that amrita
may not pass down untasted and undetected. This process enables the yogi
to enjoy the most delightful taste of the amrita, which cures him of many
of the bodily evils and attracts his attention inward for the enjoyment of
spiritual bliss. It demonstrates that the real source of joy is in the higher
regions and not in the lower regions, in the higher planes of Hfe and not
in the lower sensuous planes.

The tenth is called Tdlu-ddhdra, which is in a still deeper region of
the palate. It is inwardly connected with Ajnd-Cakra and Sahasrdra. Here
a yogi is instructed to practise what is called Khecari- Mudrd, which is
greatly efficacious for the attainment of SamdJHl, (though this Samddhi
does not mean the highest state of spiritual experience). The process is
apparently simple, though practically not so very easy. The tongue has to
be methodically softened and drawn out and lengthened, and then it has to
be turned and gently pushed inward. Then the tip of the tongue has to be

187

led into the small hole within the soft root of the palate and gently pushed
into the innermost aperture. If the practice is quite successful, the yogi
becomes free from all fickleness, all movement and all outer consciousness
and appears like a piece of wood (kdsthl bhavati). This is often called
Jada-Samddhi. His innermost consciousness, however, is full of joy and
intoxicated with the nectar which is absorbed by the tip of the tongue. All
yoga sdstras testify to the most wonderful and far-reaching consequences of
this Khecari-Mudrd. Tdlu-ddhdra has also been pointed out as the seat of
Tdlu-cakra t of Dasama-dwdra and Sankhini-vivara and Amrita-dhdra-
pravdha, as noted already.

The eleventh is called Jihvddhdra, which is at the root of the tongue.
A trainee is instructed to fix the tip of the tongue at this root. If this
practice is methodically undergone, a person may be relieved from various
kinds of diseases.

The twelfth in called Bhru-madhyddhdra, inside at the meeting place
of the two eye-brows. Here the trainee has to focus his vision and contem-
plate on the luminous disc of the moon emitting pure white and cool and
tranquil rays. By this practice his entire body is made cool and calm and
peaceful. The process is very helpful in steadying the attention and cooling
down all kinds of excitements in the body and the mind. Here an extra-
ordinarily bright and cool Joyti is experienced, which illumines the
consciousness. It is the seat of Ajnd-Cakra or Bhru-Cakra.

The thirteenth is called Ndsddhdra, which is in the nose. The nose is
an important centre of vital functions. The trainee is advised to focus his
vision on the tip of the nose and concentrate his attention upon this one
point. If this practice is continued for some time, the mind becomes free
from restlessness and fit for deep meditation.

The fourteenth is called Kapdtddhdra, which is at the root of the nose
(ndsa-mula). At this point also the trainee is instructed to practise focuss-
ing his vision and attention. Gorakhnath says that the systematic practice
of this mode of concentration of vision and attention for a period of six
months results in the actual seeing of a mass of serene and soothing light
(jyotih-punja) illumining the mental atmosphere. It is evidently very close
to Ajnd-Cakra or Bhru-Cakra.

The fifteenth is called Laldtddhdra, which is at the centre of the
forehead. The trainee has to fix his attention upon this ddhdra and deeply
contemplate on a mass of self-shining light ( jyotih-punja) therein. The
practice of contemplation of Joyti at this centre immensely develops the

188

vital and mental strength of the practitioner and adds to the brightness and
vigour of his bodily system (Tejaswi bhavati).

The sixteenth, the last and highest, a dhdra is Brahma-randhra,
which is the seat of Akdsa-Cakro. It is here that perfect spiritual self-
fulfilment is to be experienced. Gorakhnath suggests that a yogi, having
through the practice of higher and higher and deeper and deeper forms of
meditation raised his purified and refined psycho vital energy to this
highest plane of Akdsa-Cakra in Brahma-randhra should meditate on and
realise the lotus-feet of Sree-Guru (Sree-Guru-Carandmbuja-dvayam sadd
avalokayet). Thereby he should become perfect like Akdsa (Akdsavat
purno bhavati). By Sree-Guru he evidently implies the Holy Spiritual
Personality in whom the yogi has found the Union of Siva and
Sakii. the Supreme Spirit and His Power of self- manifestation in count-
less orders of phenomenal existences and phenomenal consciousnesses,
perfectly realised, and who has been the source of his inspiration and
wisdom and strength all along in the difficult path of his spiritual eleva-
tion and enlightenment. In the eyes of an earnest disciple Sree-Guru is
identical with Siva-Sakti, and meditation on Sree-Guru signifies the full
concentration of the psycho vital energy upon the union of the Supreme
Spirit and His Infinite Power in the most concrete personal form. The
depth of this meditation culminates in the highest spiritual Samddhi and
the illumination of the whole being, in which the yogi realises himself and
the whole universe as identical with Guru and Siva-Sakti. He becomes
infinite and eternal, diflferenceless and changeless, perfectly illumined and
spiritualised, perfectly calm and tranquil, like Akdsa. It has been found
that Gorakhnath has spoken of this Akdsa-Cakra as Puma giri-pitha (the
realm of the most perfect spiritual self-fulfilment) and has instructed the
yogi to be absorbed in the meditation of Parama-Sunya, i.e. the Absolute
Differenceless Changeless One, the unity of Siva and Sakti and Sddhaka.

C. Three Lakshyas:

By Lakshya Gorakhnath obviously means the objects upon which
attention should be temporarily fixed for the purpose of practising the
concentration of psycho-vital energy with the ultimate view of raising it to
the highest spiritual plane and realising the Supreme Spirit (with His unique
Power) everywhere within the individual body and the cosmic order.
Lakshya literally means that which specially deserves to be attended to.
The Lakshyas mentioned by Gorakhnath have no special importance for
giving any knowledge of the internal or external features of the individual
body or of the functions of any of the organs or centres of the psycho-
physical organism. But they have their practical value from the standpoint
of yogic discipline.

189

Though Gorakhnath speaks of Tri-lakshya or Lakshya-traya (lite-
rally meaning three lakshyas), he does not specifically mention only three
particular objects of concentrated attention. He mentions three kinds of
lakshyas, some inside the body, some outside the body, and some in a
general way without any special reference to the body. In accordance with
the locations of the chosen objects of meditation, the lakshyas are classified
into three, viz. Antar-lakshya, Vahir-lakshya and Madhya-lakshya.

(I) Antar-lakshya: Gorakhnath gives directions about several pro-
cesses of contemplation and meditation upon internal objects. He attaches
primary importance to the concentration of attention upon Kundalini-
Sakti in Sushumnd. Snshumnd-Nddi, as it has been already described, is the
finest and brightest nerve passing from Mulakanda (the source of all the
nadis) in Mulddhdra, the place of Kundalini, to Brahma-randhra in Sahas-
rdra, the place of Siva, and is the royal passage for Kundalini' s spiritual
journey upward to be united with Her beloved Soul and Lord, Siva, in
Siva-sthdna (Sahasrdra). A yogi, having by the power of his determination
withdrawn his attention from all other things, should concentrate it upon
this Mahd-Sakti Kundalini rising in the path of Sushumnd with Her subtle
self-luminous and all-illumining spiritual body. It is this Mahd-Sakti
Kundalini Who reveals Herself in the forms of Maheswari, Mahd-Kdll,
Mahd-Lakshmi and Mahd-Saraswati and in other effulgent forms to the
yogi in course of his deeper and deeper meditation and bestows various
kinds of spiritual and earthly blessings upon him, till She is absolutely
identified with Siva in Sahasrdra, i.e. in the state of perfect Samddhi and
perfect illumination, in which the yogi loses his consciousness of individua-
lity in the enjoyment of the bliss of the perfect union of Sakti with Siva.
The return-journey of Sakti to Siva ultimately means the return of the
individual soul to his own true Self, i.e. the infinite eternal absolute
Spirit. Gorakhnath says that Sakti so meditated upon becomes to the yogi
Sarva-siddhi-dd, i.e. the bestower of all kinds of perfection. Siva-Saktiis the
true essence or self not only of an individual's life and mind, but also of
what appears as his material body. The material body is as much a playful
self-revelation of the Supreme Spirit (with Sakti) as life and mind and has
no really separate non-spiritual existence. The body is perceived as a non-
spiritual reality, so long as the mind is concentrated upon its material
spatio-temporal character. When the mind is concentrated upon the Spirii
within it, not only the mind, but the body also is spiritualised, i.e. its
spiritual nature is unveiled.

Gorakhnath points to several other centres within the head for the
practice of the concentration of attention upon the deeper spiritual
aspect of the body by a spiritual aspirant. A disciple under the
guidance of a competent Guru may choose any one of them, as may be

190

suited to his taste and capacity, and fix his attention thereon. Gorakhnath
mentions a centre which he calls Golldta-mandapa. It is just above the
forehead (laldta-urdhe) and in the front-part of Sahasrdra. Within it a
steady and br illiant light is burning. A yogi, having driven out all other
thoughts and desires from his mind and being seated in a suitable posture
(dsana), should imagine the presence of the light there and concentrate his
whole attention upon it He should try to forget all his environments and
even his own .body and to be wholly absorbed with the light. Light is
the most important symbol of the manifestation of the self-luminous
Spirit. As the result of continued practice, his consciousness will be illumi-
ned by the Divine Light. Long practice of concentration upon this serene
light greatly helps the spiritualisation of the whole being of the yogi.

Secondly, Gorakhnath speaks of Bhramara-guhd, which has been
already mentioned. It is above the spinal cord and in a rather back-part of
Sahasrdra. Yogis conceive of it as Vlryya-sthdna (the seat of Viryya or Vindu
or Vital Energy), and adopt such effective means that Viryya may not be dis-
lodged from this centre and cause excitements in the lower nerves and move
downward towards the sexual organ. They adopt suitable methods for draw-
ing even dislodged Viryya also upward and restoring it to its source, so that
the energy immanent in it may contribute to the well-being of the whole
system and be re- transformed into spiritual energy. For this purpose special
care must of course be taken for keeping the mind and the body free from
all forms of sensual excitements. Mastery over the sexual appetites and
conservation of Viryya is of utmost importance, according to yogis, for
advancement in the spiritual path and spiritualisation of the body and
mind. Gorakhnath accordingly draws special attention to Bhramara-guhd
for the practice of deep concentration upon it. Life-power is to be imagi-
ned as existing at this centre in the form of a red-coloured bee (drakta-
bhramard-kdra) and attention is to be fixed upon it. This life-power is to
be conceived as representing Siva-Sakti. In comparison with the pure
tranquil ecstatic joy felt in this form of meditation, all pleasures of sense-
gratification would appear to be insipid and trifling, and sheer waste of
physical and vital and psychical energy. Thus the mind would have con-
tempt for all kinds of sensuous enjoyments and the whole energy would be
devoted to the enjoyment of spiritual bliss within. Vindu-stambhana (per-
fect preservation and assimilation of the vital energy) and Brahmacaryya
(perfect self-control) become almost natural with a yogi who becomes an
adept in this practice. Through perfect conservation and spiritualisation of
Vindu or Viryya a yogi attains immortality and realises unity with Siva-
Sakti. Waste, of energy gives momentary pleasure, while conservation of
energy is the source of permanent joy and strength.

191

Thirdly, Gorakhnath instructs a yogi to practise concentration upon
what he calls Dhum-dhum-kdra Ndda within the head (siro-madhye). For
the practice of listening to this internal sound, he advises the ) ogi in the
initial stage to close firmly both the ears with the fore-fingers, so that no
external sound may distract the attention. He would then hear a continu-
ous sound like dhum-dhum within some centre of his brain. He should fix
his attention upon this internal sound and become absorbed with it. The
sound would gradually take the monotonous form of OM. 9 His mind will
then be filled with ecstatic joy and he would not like to attend to the
various kinds of sounds outside. When concentration will be sufficiently
deep, there will be realisation of the Spirit in the Ndda. It has already been
mentioned that Ndda is the pure self-revelation of Siva-Sakti in Sound-
form.

Fourthly, Gorakhnath advises a yogi to concentrate his attention
upon Nlla-Jyoti (blue self-luminous light) at the inner centre of the eyes.
Deep concentration of the whole consciousness upon this Jyoti would
gradually lead to the spiritual illumination of the consciousness and spiri-
tualisation of his being.

(2) Vahir-lakshya:

Gorakhnath then makes mention of several outer objects for the
practice of concentration of attention. A trainee may imagine the presence
of a red bright light in front of his eyes at a distance of only two fingers
(H inches) from the tip of his nose and fix his attention steadily on that
light. Or he may think of a white sheet of water at a distance of ten fingers
(7^ inches) from his nose and concentrate his attention thereon. Or he
may imagine the presence of a yellow metal at a distance of twelve fingers
(9 inches) from his nose and practise concentration on it. Or he may with
steady eyes look towards any part of the blue and tranquil sky and be
absorbed with the exclusive thought of this pure sky. Or looking upward
he may fix his attention upon some intermediate position between himself
and the sky and see there steadily a mass of brilliant rays. Or wherever
the eyes may fall and whatever objects may be there, big or small, animate
or inanimate, moving or motionless, the yogi may turn away his attention
from all those objects and see nothing but dkdsa or empty space or sunya
therein. Thus even with open eyes he may make his mind free from all
the diversities of the objective world and by the power of his abstraction
and concentration may see only one differenceless sky before his eyes.
Similarly, with open ears he may withdraw his attention from all particular
sounds and listen to one differenceless Ndda or perfect stillness in this
noisy world. Or he may extend his look to the furthest limit of his eye-

192

sight and see there a vast expanse of land of bright golden colour. There
are various such processes of concentration of perception and thought,
with attention directed outward. (Anekabidham vahirlakshyam). The sun,
the moon, any particular star or planet, any burning lamp or blazing fire,
any Divine image or the holy figure of an adorable person, any such
thing may be chosen for the practice of concentration. Fixing his atten-
tion upon any particular outer object, a yogi should try to see the
manifestation of the Supreme Spirit or Siva-Sakti in that form. The
ultimate purpose should be to see the Supreme Spirit manifested in all
forms.

(3) Madhyama-lakthya:

By Madhyama-lakshya Gorakhnath obviously means any object of
special attention, which is not to be conceived as either within the body 01
outside the body, upon which the mind is to be concentrated without any
direct reference to any particular location (sthdna-barjitam) The idea of a
particular object has to be formed in the mind and the whole attention has
to be concentrated upon it. The choice of the object entirely lies with the
sddhaka. He should choose it as he likes (yathestarn), as it may suit his
taste or disposition. The purpose should be the practice of concentra-
tion, -the development of the power of withdrawing attention from all
other objects and fixing it exclusively upon the one object of his choice,
so that he may gradually become the perfect master of his attention and
overcome all the internal and external forces which may draw his attention
even against his will to different directions and make his mind fickle and
unbalanced and restless.

The object chosen for the practice of concentration for the time being
may be real or imaginary, material or ideal, very small or very big,
dazzlingly bright or soothingly cool, of any colour or shape or size, of any
form or without any form. Gorakhnath says that this lakshya may be of
white or red or black colour, it may be of the form of a flame of fire or of
the form of a bright light or of the form of a flash of lightning or of the
form of the solar corona or of the form of the crescent moon or of any
form which the sddhaka may choose (yathesta, yathdbhimata, yathdruci).
Hence Madhyama- Lakshya also may be of various forms (aneka-bidham
madhyamam lakshyam). The fundamental point is that whatever object
may be chosen, the mind should be wholly occupied with it during the
period of practice. The sddhaka has to forget his body, forget his environ-
ments, forget even his ego, he has to keep under suppression all other
thoughts and desires and passions and emotions and memories, he has to
keep his body motionless in a definite posture and all his senses in a state
of perfect rest, and he has to keep his mind fully occupied with one thing

193

Or one idea, whatever it may be. By the strength of his determination he
has to be, as it were, fast asleep with regard to all other objects within and
outside himself and wide awake with regard to the one particular object
(real or imaginary) which he chooses for developing his power of concen-
tration. When by such means his power of concentration is considerably
developed, he can easily raise his concentrated mind to higher and higher
planes of spiritual experience and enjoy higher and higher orders of self-
expression of the union of Siva-Sakti. In course of the practice of concen-
tration the psychical and vital powers of a yogi are immensely developed in
many directions and they appear to be supernatural. But the yogi must
not be intoxicated with them, for then further progress would be obstruc-
ted. It is quite natural that the more the power of concentration is deve-
loped in the mind, the more refined and powerful it becomes. But a yogi
should never forget the ideal that he has to realise and enjoy the perfect
blissful union of Siva and His Sakti in his own being as well as in all orders
of phenomenal existences in the cosmic system.

D. Five Vyomas:

According to Gorakhnath and the yogi-sampradaya, the concentra-
tion of the mind upon Vyoma or Akasa or what may be called Sunya or
Void or empty space is a very effective method for the purification and
refinement of the individual empirical consciousness and its liberation from
unsteadiness and restlessness and the bondage of spatio-temporal limitations.
It makes the mind fit for ascending to the higher and higher planes of
spiritual experience, for being illumined by the Divine Light and for
realising the ultimate Truth of the individual organism and the cosmic
system, i.e. the eternal union of Siva and His Sakti. Vyoma or Akasa is
really one, pervading and underlying all diversities of physical existences,
all sounds and touches and visions and tastes and smells, all objects of
sensuous experiences and imaginations. Attention has to be withdrawn
from all the diversities, all the particulars and their names and forms and
specific features and limitations, and to be directed to and fixed upon the
all-pervading and all-underlying, infinite and undifferentiated space. It is
the Adhdra of all ddhdras. The individual consciousness which is fully
concentrated upon such Akasa or Vyoma is elevated and transformed into
pure and refined Universal Consciousness (vyoma-sadriso bhavati).

Though Vyoma is essentially one, for the sake of the convenience
and effectiveness of meditation it is conceived in five different ways and
designated by five different names, Akasa, Pardkdsa, Mahdkdsa, Tattwd-
kdsa, and Suryydkdsa. Akasa is conceived as one perfectly pure (atyanta*
nirmala) and formless (nirdkdra) empty space pervading and unifying the
outer and the inner worlds. Parakasa is conceived as one absolute

194

imdifferentiated darkness (atyanta-andhakdra-nibha) pervading the inner
and the outer worlds and obliterating all diversities. Mahdkdsa is to be
conceived as one infinite contentless fiery space like that in Pralaya or total
cosmic destruction (kdldnala-samkdsam). Suryydkdsa is to be conceived
as one infinite all-absorbing sun shining perfectly alone with the brilliance
of a crore of suns (suryya-koti-nibham). Tattwdkdsa, which is also known
as Ciddkasa or Atmdkdsa, is to be conceived as one infinite eternal differ-
enceless changeless self luminous Soul or Spirit or Witness-Consciousness.
In this meditation the meditator himself becomes one with the Object of
meditation; he himself becomes this Akdsa. The ultimate stage of each
meditation is Samddhi, in which the individual consciousness is wholly
absorbed in and identified with the object of meditation. But each Samddhi
does not lead to the spiritual goal. In every Samddhi the empirical con-
sciousness is not blessed with perfect spiritual illumination. The fruit of
meditation greatly depends upon the chosen object of meditation. When
the empirical consciousness attains samddhi in the Absolute Consciousness
or the Supreme Spirit, then only there is perfect illumination and absolute
bliss. All other forms of meditation are prescribed for making the mind
fit for this. If there is any upddhi (conditioned character) in the object of
meditation, the individual consciousness cannot attain the nirupddhika
(unconditioned) Transcendent state.

CHAPTER XV

THE COSMOS IN THF INDIVIDUAL BODY

In the foregoing discourses it has been found that Yogi-Guru
Gorakhnath regards a thorough knowledge of the Cakras, the Adharas, the
Lakshyas, the Vyomas, or Akasas, as well as of the Nadis and the Vayus,
as essential for all-round success in the path of yogic discipline and the
attainment of perfect freedom from all forms of apparent bondage and
limitation and sorrow and perfect mastery over all the phenomenal forces
governing the individual body and the cosmic system. He instructs the
truth-seekers in the path of yoga to discover these within their own bodies,
to concentrate their attention upon them and to practise particular forms
of discipline in relation to them, with the ultimate view of realising the
self-revelation of Siva and His Sakti in each and all of them. But it is
quite evident from the mode of his instruction that he does not conceive
them as merely physical or even vital parts of the physical body. They are
not to him purely physiological concepts based on what are ordinarily
recognised as scientific proofs. He is not here concerned with the science
of physiology, but with the science and philosophy of ) oga. The individual
body is not conceived by him as a purely material body (as physiological
sciences ordinarily conceive it), but as a spiritual entity revealed in a
material form, and as capable of being liberated from its material
limitations.

These materialistic sciences cannot rationally account for the appear-
ance of life and mind and reason in this material body, nor can they pro-
perly explain the nature of the relation of the material body with life and
mind and reason which are empirically found to evolve from it and then
to exercise a regulative and controlling influence upon its phenomena.
Assuming matter as some reality essentially distinct from and independent
of life and mind and spirit, these physical and physiological sciences can
discover no rational ground, consistently with their conception of matter,
for the production or emergence or evolution of life, mind, intellect, moral
consciousness, aesthetic consciousness, spiritual consciousness, etc. from
the nature of pure matter. On the basis of the manifold data supplied by
sensuous observation (however marvellously the powers of observation may
be magnified by the invention of fine scientific instruments), the sciences
try to trace the history of the growth of this cosmic order and they find
that the appearance of lifeless inorganic matter in this world precedes the
appearance of living beings and that mind, intellect, etc., appear in gradual
courses long afterwards. Hence they are led to infer that matter is an

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original substance and that life, mind, etc., are products of matter.
Matter is earlier in appearance in the world-process than life, mind, etc.;
therefore, they argue, matter must be the sole cause of them. But they
fail to explain how these higher orders of realities (or even phenomena)
can originate from lifeless inert insensate matter, unless there is in the inner
nature of matter some active conscious living Principle, which gradually
unfolds itself by transforming matter and realises itself as the higher orders
of realities.

In the view of the enlightened yogis there is no pure and simple
matter (as conceived by the scientists) anywhere in the universe. Even
Akasa, which is the ultimate form of matter and which appears as pure
void or as contentless space, has evolved from and exists as an embodiment
of Siva-Sakti (the Absolute Spirit with infinite Power immanent in His
nature). Akafa, being ensouled by Siva-Sakti, is not absolutely lifeless and
inert matter, but is charged with a creative urge and filled with immense
possibilities. Hence from Akasa evolves Vdyu, which also is ensouled by
Siva-Sakti and is similarly charged with a creative urge for further diversi-
fied self- manifestation of Siva-Sakti, and so the process of the evolution of
newer and newer tattwas (realities) continues. Every material element,
as known to the scientists, is a particular form of the product of the com-
bination of the five mahdbhutas and a particular form of the embodiment of
Siva-Sakti. Though there is no manifestation of life, mind, etc., in these
material elements or their compounds, Siva-Sakti, the Source of all life,
mind, etc., is present in every one of them as its Soul and inspires every one
of them with a creative urge from within for further evolution.

All causal activities of all material things and all processes of evolu-
tion and emergence of apparently newer and newer orders of things in the
universe are thus governed by the free Creative Will or the Will for
phenomenal self-manifestation and self-diversification and self-enjoyment,
in an infinite variety of forms, of the eternal and infinite Spiritual Power of
the Absolute Spirit, Who is essentially transcendent of time and space and
is also the indwelling Soul of all orders of self-expressions of His Power
in time and space. It is on account of the immanent presence of the
Supreme Spirit with His Supreme Power (Siva with His Sakti) in all matter
that life (which represents a higher order of the Spirit's phenomenal self-
manifestation than matter) is found in the process of spatio-temporal
evolution to emerge from matter and to vitalize matter as its body. It is
for the same reason that mind with empirical consciousness, which repre-
sents a still higher order of Siva-SaktVs phenomenal self-manifestation than
life or purely living matter, is found to emerge from life in living organisms,
Jn the s^me way and due to the same immanent presence of Siva-Sakti

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there is in phenomenal nature the gradual elevation of mind into intellect
or rational mind and there is the emergence of moral consciousness and
aesthetic consciousness in the rational mind. The process of evolution in
the spatio-temporal order reaches its final stage when the spiritual conscious-
ness is awakened in the individual bodies and minds and enlightened and
illumined by the transcendent self-luminosity of Siva-Sakti. The process
of the phenomenal self-manifestation of &iva-$akti\n cosmic and individual
forms ends with the appearance of the blissful spiritual consciousness in
individuals of the unity and spirituality of all orders of existences, and this
is accomplished in the lives of enlightened yogis.

Accordingly, to the enlightened spiritual experience of a yogi, the
diffejences between the living and the non-living, the conscious and the
unconscious, the rational and the non-rational, are not fundamental and
insurmountable. They are only different grades of phenomenal self-mani-
festation of the Supreme Spirit with His Supreme Power. The different
orders of existences are only different forms of phenomenal embodiments
of the same Spirit. The same Spirit appears in and plays through all these
varieties of forms by virtue of His infinite Spiritual Power. He is the Soul
of them all, the Mover of them all, the Knower of them all, the Enjoyer of
them all, and He transcends them all. The Soul and the embodiments are
also not essentially different realities. The bodies are not distinct from the
Soul. All His embodiments arc His own phenomenal self-manifestations.
He, as the Soul and Lord of these phenomenal bodies, is transcendent. All
forms of embodiments, in which He manifests and enjoys Himself in His
cosmic play, are apparently subject to limitations in quality and power,
relations in space and the modifications and transformations in time, while
He, the Soul of them, transcends all limitations and relations, all modifica-
tions and transformations. The enlightened yogi, with his illumined
spiritual consciousness, experiences in all orders of existences the One
Spirit as embodied in the plurality of forms, the One Transcendent as mani-
fested in a plurality of phenomena, the One Supreme Being above time and
space as assuming various phenomenal appearances in time and space. To
him time and space have reality only in relation to the phenomenal self-
manifestations of the Supreme Spirit, the Spirit Himself being timeless
and spaceless. He sees the Timeless in time, the Spaceless in space, the
Changeless in all changes, the Infinite in all finites.

Hence to a yogi the evolution of life from apparently lifeless matter,
the evolution of mind from life, the emergence of higher and higher types
of existences from apparently lower types, in this world of sensuous exper-
ience, are no miraculous or inexplicable phenomena. What reveals Itself
in Its ultimate character in our highest supersensuous and supermentaj

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plane of experience is immanent as the Soul or Indwelling Spirit in all
levels of phenomenal existences and raises them to higher and higher levels
for more and more adequate phenomenal self-expression through them.
The self-conscious self-luminous Spirit with His self-active Power is pheno-
menally more expressed in life than in matter, more expressed in animal-
mind than in plant-life, still more expressed in human mind and intellect,
and He has still higher self-expressions in man's moral and aesthetic and
religious conspiousness. In this phenomenal cosmic order, that level of
existence is regarded as relatively higher, in which the essential nature of
the Spirit is comparatively more unveiled. What is known by the name of
evolution in the present age follows the course of the urge (immanent in the
nature of all orders of existences) for more and more unveiling of the
Spirit in the world of His phenomenal self- manifestations. But both self-
veiling and self-unveiling are equally prominent aspects of His cosmic
play.

It is the aim of a truth-seeker in the path of yogic discipline to
regulate most methodically and efficiently the relative and limited freedom
of thought and will and action which has been developed in him in course
of the natural (or rather divine) process of evolution, so as to penetrate
through the veils of forms or embodiments in every level of the phenomenal
self-manifestations of the Supreme Spirit (with His Sakti) and thereby to
experience directly the delightful play of Siva-Sakti in all orders of pheno-
menal existences, material, vital, mental, intellectual, etc. The veils also
are not externally superimposed upon the Spirit by any foreign power. The
forms or embodiments which appear to conceal the essential nature of the
Soul within them are not produced from any foreign element (any Primor-
dial Matter or Prakriti or Maya, distinct from the Spirit) somehow
associated with the Spirit and conditioning His existence. Nor can they be
reasonably conceived as mere illusory appearances to finite human minds,
which are themselves their products and therefore presuppose them. Since
the Spirit is the sole Ultimate Reality, all forms or embodiments of the
Spirit in all levels of phenomenal existences, all kinds of veils within
which He appears to have concealed Himself in this cosmic system, must
be His own free self-manifestations, and hence they are also essentially
spiritual. Hence to an enlightened person matter, life, mind, etc., all
orders of phenomenal realities, are essentially spiritual realities. The
bodies are essentially no less spiritual than the Soul. The yogi aims at see-
ing the One Spirit in all kinds of bodies, and realising the essentially
spiritual nature of all phenomenal realities. This is regarded as the true
knowledge of the bodies, the phenomenal realities and the cosmic system.

The living human body with adequately developed external and

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internal organs and mental and intellectual faculties being from the empiri-
cal view-point the highest product of phenomenal evolution, a yogi first
tries to discover the Supreme Spirit (with His Divine Power) within his own
body. He undergoes a systematic course of moral and spiritual discipline
for the enlightenment of his empirical consciousness and the experience of
Siva-Sakti in his whole being. He tries to realise his psycho -physical body
as a spiritual body, to realise the distinctive functions of his diverse
physical and vital and psychical organs as particular forms of self-revelation
and self-enjoyment of Siva-Sakti in different planes of experience. The
physical and physiological and psychical concepts are gradually transformed
in his consciousness into spiritual concepts; the different centres of the
bodily organism are revealed as dynamic centres of diverse orders of spiri-
tual experience and spiritual enjoyment. Through special forms of medita-
tion in special centres he acquires newer acquaintance of more and more
marvellous powers and glories normally hidden and dormant in his body
and mind. Wonderful knowledge and insight, wonderful powers and
capacities, are developed in him as the result of the dynamisation and
spiritual unfolding of particular vital and psychic centres. The spiritual
character of the body is revealed.

A yogi teacher, accordingly, while giving lessons to the learners on
the constitution and the important physiological centres of the body, draws
special attention to their significance from the spiritual point of view and
takes special care to teach how the greatest spiritual benefits can be derived
from their discipline and control and concentrated attention upon their
spiritual aspects. The learners are instructed to be closely and practically
acquainted with the nature of Cakras, Adharas, Nadls, Vayus, etc., within
the body, not only as centres of physical and vital functions, but also as
pentres of psychical and spiritual experiences. They are described in the
yogic scriptures from the physiological, psychical as well as spiritual view-
points. Greater emphasis is laid upon the ways and means, by which they
can be brought under voluntary control and converted into efficient instru-
ments for the development of higher psychical powers, for the attainment
of supernormal knowledge and wisdom, for ascending to higher and higher
planes of spiritual consciousness and enjoyment of the blessings of more
and more enlightened spiritual experiences.

Just as expert scientists invent various kinds of fine instruments and
adopt various kinds of experimental methods for closer study of the inner
structure and constitution of material bodies, plant-bodies, animal-bodies,
human bodies, etc., and for deeper acquaintance with normally impercepti-
ble physical, chemical, electrical, biological and other phenomena of the
objective world, so the expert yogis of different ages adopted experiment-

200

ally various kinds of technical devices and invented various processes of
Asana, Pranayama, Mudra, Bandho, Bedha, Neti, Dhouti, etc., and also
various modes of Pratyahara, Dharand, Dhydna and Samadhi, for the most
intimate acquaintance with the subtle operations of the various factors
within their own bodies and the establishment of control over all of them.
The knowledge, which is acquired through the intensive application of
these methods of yoga, of the inner structure of the bodily organism and
of the deeper potentialities of its different parts as well as of the significance
of each vital centre in relation to the whole organism and particularly in
relation to the spiritual energy and the spiritual ideal immanent in it, can
not be expected to be attained by any other scientific method. The science
of yoga is a special science, based on special types of observation and
experiment. It enables a truth-seeker to penetrate into the innermost
secrets of the living human body and to attain perfect mastery over all the
parts of the body. It" demonstrates such capabilities of the organs of this
body, as are normally regarded as supernatural. It destroys the deep-
seated notion about the fundamental difference between spirit and matter
and shows how spirit is materialised and matter is spiritualised. It enables
a man to realise the infinite in the finite body.

As a yogi-scientist draws upward in a systematic way his psycho-
vital energy to higher and higher ddhdras and cakras and concentrates his
consciousness upon higher and higher spiritual truths revealed therein, the
individual body appears to his elevated and refined consciousness as being
gradually liberated from the grossness and impurity and spatio-temporal
limitations of its normal material nature and unveiling more and more
brilliantly its inner spiritual character. Just as the modern physical science,
having split up material atoms, has practically dematerialised matter and
proved it to be a form of Energy, so this old yogic science enabled a
spiritual aspirant to dematerialise his material body and to transform it so
to say into a spiritual body, a seat of infinite powers and spiritual
glories.

In our normal experience conditioned by spatio-temporal relations,
differences between parts and the whole, between distinct parts of the same
whole, between the small finite individual body and the infinitely vast
cosmic system and among the innumerable individual bodies within this
system, are quite natural and inevitable. The differences among matter,
life, mind and spirit also appear to be insurmountable. In our sensuous
experience and sense-ridden thought we can never transcend these differences.
But as our experience and thought ascend to higher and higher planes,
these differences gradually lose their importance and their essential identity
becomes more and more clearly unveiled. When the empirical conscious-

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ness is sufficiently refined and illumined, the whole is experienced in every
part, the entire cosmic system is experienced in every individual body, the
essential unity of all individual bodies is clearly revealed.

This experience is attained as the result of the systematic yogic discip-
line of the body, the senses, the mind and the intellect and the deepest
concentration of attention upon the Supreme Spirit (with His Sakti) Who
manifests Himself in the Cosmic Body and all forms of 'phenomenal
existences within it. Differences among matter, life, mind and spirit also
appear to be differences only in outer forms of phenomenal self- manifesta-
tion of the Supreme Spirit. The unity of the One Spirit pervades percepti-
bly all the diverse forms of derivative contingent impermanent phenomenal
existences. The One becomes visible in all. In and through all kinds of
limitations, the Infinite and Eternal is distinctly experienced by the Yogi
with his enlightened spiritual consciousness. His vision does not turn back
from the surface of things, as is the case with all normal experiences,
(including scientific observations and experiments), but enters into the spirit
of all things. The differences on the surfaces do not obstruct his vision of
the unity of the reality.

Gorakhnath says,

Pinda-madhye caracaram yojandti, sa yogi pinda-2 ambit tir bhavati.

The yogi who experiences the whole cosmic system (comprising all
animate and inanimate existences) within the individual body is the perfect
knower (truth-realiser) of the body (pinda). Thus the complete and perfect
knowledge of the individual body consists in rising above the spatial and
temporal limitations of this body and identifying it with the whole universe,
which is boundless in space and time and which comprises all the diversi-
ties in space and time. The complete truth of the individual body lies in
or is revealed in the whole universe, in the infinitely diversified and
organised Cosmic Body of Siva, and the real glory of the human body
(endowed with the most developed psycho- vital organism) lies in the possi-
bility of realising the presence of this whole universe in it. The pheno-
menally infinite and eternal Cosmic Order is realisable in this obviously
finite and transient body, the macrocosm is realisable in the microcosm.
When theyogic vision is attained, the indiyidml feels himself as Viswar ipa
or Virdt-Purusha (Cosmic Personality) and sees all the worlds and all
orders of phenomenal realities as comprehended within this all-pervading
existence and as illumined by his universal consciousness Just as a person
in the lower planes of experience feels all the internal and external pheno-
mena of his individual psycho-physical organism as the multiform expres-
sions of his own personal self, so a yogi in the higher and higher spiritual

202

planes of experience feels all the phenomena of the Cosmic system, those
which are apparently magnificent and beneficent as well as those which arc
apparently terrible and cataclysmic or loathsome, those which are apparent-
ly indicative of forces of creation and preservation and harmonious deve-
lopment as well as those which are apparently indicative of forces of
discord and disintegration and destruction, as the variegated expressions
of his own Cosmic Self. There is not only perfect adjustment of the
individual body with the Cosmic System, but perfect spiritual identification
of the one with the other.

As Yogeswara Sri Krishna proclaims in the Gita,
Atmdnam sarva-bhuteshu sarva-bhutdni cdtmani
Ikshate yoga-yuktdtmd sarvatra sama-darsanah.

A person who has attained true yogic experience sees himself in all beings
and all beings in himself and thus becomes a true seer of perfect unity in
all diversities.

In Siva-Samhita, which is an authoritative treatise on Yoga, Yogis-
wara Siva gives to Mother Parvati a brilliant discourse on the cosmic
character of the individual body. He describes that an enlightened yogi
can experience within his own body the presence of all the Lokas (all the
planes of phenomenal existences), all the suns and stars and planets and
satellites, all the Devas and Asuras and Yakshas and Rdkshasas, all Rishis
and Munis and Siddhas and Gandharvas, all men and beasts and birds and
reptiles, all seas and mountains and rivers and forests, i.e. whatever exist in
the Cosmic Body of the Cosmic Purusha.

Siddha-Siddhdnta-Paddhati, in its discourse on Pinda-Sambitti, des-
cribes the presence of the entire Brahmdnda in the Pinda in an elaborate
manner. Karma, Who is a special self-manifestation of &iva-$akli and is
conceived as lying beneath and supporting the Cosmic Body, is perceived
by the enlightened yogi as lying under his feet and supporting his body.
The seven lower worlds,- namely, Pdtdla, Taldtala, Mahdtala, Rasdtala,
Sutala, Bitala and Atala, are perceived as constituting the lower parts of
the body, from the toes of the feet up to the thighs. It is added that Rudra
is the Presiding Deity and Governing Power of the seven lower worlds
(Sapta- Pdtdla). ' He is a special sejf- manifestation of the Soul of the whole
Cosmic Body, i.e. Siva with His infinite Power. He is also known as
Kdldgni-Rudra. It is this Rudra that dwells within the individual body in
the form of Krodha (wrath or violent indignation).

The three worlds (Triloka) namely Bhuh, Bhuvah and Swah, are
located respectively in Guhya-sthdna, Linga-sthdna and Ndbhi-sthdna

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(regions of Muladhdra, Swadhisthana and Manipura). Indra, Who is
another glorious self-manifestation of Siva with Sakti, is conceived as ruling
over these three worlds, and this Indra is also conceived as dwelling in the
individual body and ruling over all the senses (indriyas).

Similarly, the four higher worlds, -namely, Mahah, Jana, Tapah and
Satya, are conceived as located in the higher and deeper regions of the
spinal cord within the individual body. As a man rises to higher and
higher stages of contemplation and enters more and more deeply into the
inner and inner essence of the body, he experiences these higher and higher
lokas (finer and finer, subtler and subtler worlds) within himself. Brahma
and other majestic and glorious Deities, Who are all adorable self-manifes-
tations of Siva with Sakti and Who dwell in and govern these worlds, are
also perceived as in-dwellers and rulers in the individual body.

Besides, Gorakhnath mentions Vishnuloka with Vishnu as its Deity, -
Rudra-loko with Rudra as its Deity, Iswara-loka with Iswara as its Deity,
Nilakantha-loka with Nilakantha as its Deity, Siva-loka with Siva as its
Deity, Bhairava-loka with Bhairava as its Deity, Anadi-loka with Anadi
as its Deity, Kula-loka with Kuleswara as its Deity, Akula-loka with Akule-
swara as the Deity, Para Brahma-loka with Para-Brahma as the Deity,
Parapara-loka with Parameswara as the Deity, Sakti loka with Para-Sakti
as the Deity. All these lokas are conceived as different planes of pheno-
menal existences within the Cosmic Body of the Supreme Spirit. These
higher lokas are above the regions of normal and even supernormal sense-
experiences, and some of them are even above the range of our ordinary
mental and intellectual conceptions. But when the individual phenomenal
consciousness is enlightened and the capacity for yogic experience is
adequately developed through appropriate concentrated meditation in
pursuance of the teachings of competent Gurus, the consciousness can
inwardly rise to those planes and vividly experience the truths pertaining
to them within the body.

The Deities are experienced as the Lords and Souls of these lokas
with special spiritual characteristics and recognised by the enlightened Yogis
as self-revelations of the Supreme Spirit, Siva, the Soul of the Cosmic Body,
enjoying Himself in the special ways in relation to these special realms of
His Cosmic Body. In one plane He appears as perfectly calm and tran
quil without any activity and without any joy or sorrow and without any
compassion or sternness; in another loka, He appears as ever-active with
waves of activities manifested all round Him; in another He appears as a
stern God dispensing justice with stern hands; in still another He appears
as an ever-joyful Deity radiating joys in all directions; in one plane He
may appear as a pure abstract Principle, and in another as a perfectly good

204

and beautiful and majestic Personality; in one plane He may appear as
pure Sunya and in another as perfectly Purna\ and so on. He reveals Him-
self in quite a variety of ways to the contemplative Yogi in different planes
of his yogic experience, and the enlightened Yogi accepts all His glorious
self-revelations as phenomenally real and enjoys Him in all these forms in
his contemplation and meditation. The Yogi actually experiences all these
lokas and all these Devatds within himself. He transcends the spatio-
temporal limitations of his normal self and sees and enjoys the whole
cosmos with all the apparently bewildering varieties in it within his own
body.

Gorakhnath further elaborates his experience of the all-pervading all-
comprehending character of every individual. Ultimately there is no essen-
tial difference between the individual and the cosmos. An enlightened
Yogi experiences all men and women and children of all classes and castes
and races and tribes within himself or as diversified manifestations of him-
self. He is therefore completely free from hatred and fear, competition
and rivalry, selfishness and hostility, casteism and communalism and
racialism and nationalism. In his practical behaviour he becomes an
embodiment of love and sympathy to all. He experiences that all the
seven divisions of the earth (sapta-dwipa), all the seven oceans (sapta-samu-
dra, viz. Kshdra-samudra, Kshira-samudra, Dadhi-samudra, Ghnta-samudra,
Madhu-samudra, Ikshu-samudra and Amrita-samudra), all the nine regions
(nava-khanda, viz., Bharata-khanda, etc.), all the eight great mountains
(Kula-parvata) and the numerous small hills (upaparvata), all the nine big
rivers and their tributaries and branches, are within his body, that they cons-
titute the different parts of his own body. Likewise, the twenty-seven Naksh-
atras (constellations of stars), the twelve Rdsis (signs of the zodiac), nine
Grahas (planets), the fifteen tithis (lunar days), the thirty-three crores of
Devatds, all Ddnavas, Yakshas, Pisdcas, Bhutas and Pretas, all Gandharvas,
Kinnaras, Kimpurushas and Apsaras, all trees, plants, creepers, grasses and
bushes, etc. etc. all these are experienced by an enlightened Yogi as within
himself, and not as external to him. Heaven and hell, bondage and
salvation, all these are enjoyed by him as conditions of his own
experience.

Evam sarva-deheshu Viswa-rupah ParameSwarah Paramdtmd akhanda-
swabhdvena ghate ghate Cit-swarupi tisthati.

Thus Parametiwara Paramdtmd, Who is essentially pure Spirit (Cit)
and Who manifests Himself as Cosmic Purusha (VMwarupa), resides in
every individual body with His whole nature (akhanda-swabhdvena). It is
this Viswarupa of Paramdtmd that Yogeswara Sri Krishna revealed to His

205

Bhakta Arjuna in His own body by giving him yogic vision (divya-cakshu).
Mahdyogi Gorakhnath says that this Viswarupa really exists in every indivi-
dual body (ghate ghate), and a perfectly enlightened Yogi can see this
Viswarupa not only in the body of an exceptionally Divine Purusha like
Sri Krishna, but also in his own body as well as in every other individual
body. The Cosmic Whole pervaded by One Spirit is manifested in every
individual form, and the difference between the Whole and the numberless
parts is non-essential. So long as the individual consciousness moves in the
material sensuous planes and cannot pierce through the vejls created in
them, the differences appear to be predominant, the Whole remains con-
cealed behind the parts or is conceived merely as an abstract Principle
underlying the concrete particulars. To spiritual insight the Whole is
vividly visible in every part, the Infinite in every finite manifestation.

CHAPTER XVI

INDIVIDUAL SOULS

It has been found from the foregoing discourses that in the spiritual
realisation and metaphysical reflection of Mahayogi Gorakhnath and other
enlightened saints of the Siddha-yogi school, it is the one non-dual trans-
cendent Absolute Spirit, Siva, Who, by virtue of the infinite Spiritual
Power of the nature of absolutely free Will immanent in and non-different
from His essential character, eternally reveals and enjoys Himself as an
infinitely diversified and wonderfully harmonised Cosmic Body and also as
the sole Indwelling Spirit and Absolute Lord of this phenomenal Cosmic
Body. It has also been found that the same Supreme Spirit, by virtue of
the same unique Power, has created within His Cosmic Body numerous
orders of worlds, i.e. numerous planes of phenomenal existences, and
has revealed Himself as numerous Deities or Divine Personalities function-
ing as their Indwelling Spirits and Governors and Harmonisers. It is the
same Siva, Who plays all these parts in all these forms as the World-Souls
and the World-Bodies, as the Spiritual Rulers and their Phenomenal
Regions, as the Deities and their domains of self-expressions. Thirdly, it
has further been found that it is the same Supreme Spirit again, Who by
virtue of the same unique Power reveals Himself as various orders of finite
and transitory, simple and complex, individual bodies, and dwells in them
and plays various roles in relation to them as their individual souls.

Thus, in the view of the enlightened Mahayogis, whatever exists or
may possibly exist in this spatio-temporal system or even above it is and
must necessarily be a self-manifestation of the Absolute Spirit, Siva, with
His unique Sakti, freely active and essentially non-different from Him. The
Mahayogis do not even admit any fundamental difference of matter from
spirit. Matter or body is no less a form of self-manifestation of the
Supreme Spirit than spirit or soul. The entire universe with all that is or
may be in it is spiritual in essence. A Mahayogi with his illumined con-
sciousnesss actually experiences it. Accordingly from the view-point of the
enlightened experience of Mahayogis, it is Siva Himself Who dwells in
every individual body as the individual soul, Jeevatma. All psycho-physi-
cal organisms are His particularised bodily self-manifestations, and He
plays the part of an individual soul with particular differentiating charac-
teristics in each of them. Siva is really the Soul of all creatures.

Though the soul and the body are both phenomenal self-manifesta-
tions of the transcendent Supreme Spirit and as such ultimately non-

207

different from each other; nevertheless there is from the empirical view-
point a good deal of difference between the two. The soul is evidently a
spkitual manifestation of the Supreme Spirit, while the body is a physical
manifestation. The body appears as a finite composite material entity,
occupying a portion of space and undergoing various changes and trans-
formations in time; the soul appears as a single simple self-luminous
spiritual entity without any spatial characteristics and without any temporal
modifications. The individual soul, though closely related to an individual
body, does not specially occupy any particular portion of the body, but its
presence can be realised in every part of the body; it is associated with the
whole body and with every part of the body, amidst all changes that the
body or particular parts of the body may pass through, without itself
undergoing any such change. It is the unity and identity of the self-
luminous soul that gives relative unity and continuity and identity to the
composite body, which passes through various changes and transformations,
integrations and disintegrations, organisations and disorganisations. From
the state of the minutest seed (vija) to the state of the fully developed and
amazingly complicated organism, it is the same soul that reigns and shines
in the body, exercises regulative influence upon all the functions of all ele-
ments of the body and maintains its harmony and unity and individual
identity.

The soul is the master of the body, and all the operations of all the
organs of the composite bodily organism revolve round the soul as their
dynamic centre and by way of service to the soul. All the bodily functions
appear to be immanently directed towards the fuller and fuller self-realisation
of the soul, which is the spiritual owner of the body. The fuller and fuller
self-realisation of the soul does not certainly imply any spatio-temporal
change or modification of the soul, but it only implies the gradual self-
emancipation of the soul from the veils and shades upon its essential spiri-
tual and divine nature and from the conditions and limitations imposed
upon its self experience by its phenomenal connection with the body and
its environments. As the soul has no real spatial characteristics, no size or
shape or magnitude, the Yogis consider it useless and beside the point to
discuss whether it is of atomic size (anu-parimana) or of the size of a thumb
(angustha-parimana) or of the size of the body (madhyama-parimana) or of
an all-pervading size (bibhu-parimdna). Being essentially sizeless and
shapeless and magnitudeless (though related to an individual body of any
size or shape or magnitude), the soul may be conceived in any suitable way
for the practice of meditation and contemplation or for the purpose of
practical behaviour.

The soul is not only distinguished from the gross physical body, in

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its simplest and most homogenious as well as most complex and heterb-
genious form. But it is also distinguished from life, mind, ego and intellect,
(Prdna, Manas, Ahamkara and Buddhi). They all constitute its embodi-
ments and instruments of self-expression and self-realisation in the pheno-
menal cosmic system. The soul is the centre and support and master of
them and is the unifier and harmoniser of all their functions. The soul
being of the nature of pure spirit (though apparently individualised in its
phenomenal manifestation), transcends them all and is also immanent in
and associated with them. All the phenomena of life, mind, ego and
intelligence take place for the sake of the soul, and the soul is the sleepless
and unfailing witness and illuminator and controller of them.

It may be remembered that Life, Mind, Ego and Intelligence have
their existence and functions in the Cosmic Order as a whole, in the
phenomenal Cosmic Body of Siva-Sakti. The entire Cosmic System is
pervaded by Life, Mind, Ego and Intelligence, and the enlightened yogis
and philosophers find expressions of them everywhere in the universe. In
the Cosmic System they are related to and are the instruments of pheno-
menal cosmic self-revelations of the Cosmic Soul, the Universal Spirit, Siva.
In relation to individual souls they have their particularised functions as
instruments of self-expression and self-realisation of the respective souls.
Though all of them are phenomenal self-manifestations of Siva-Sakti and
as such are spiritual in their essence, they are subordinate and subservient
to the soul, in which the character of the pure spirit is substantially retain-
ed (although under limiting conditions) and in which there is the inherent
possibility of the realisation and enjoyment of the perfectly and uncondi-
tionally self-illumined and blissful character of the Supreme Spirit, Siva.

Thus the individual soul, inspite of its phenomenally individualised
character, occupies a unique position and is essentially superior to and
master of, not only the gross physical body, but also life, mind, ego and
intelligence, which have their respective importance in this world-order.
The soul is moreover to be distinguished from Moral Consciousness, from
Aesthetic Consciousness and even from Spiritual Consciousness, though in
and through them the soul has its noblest and most glorious forms of
phenomenal self-expression. They also are forms of phenomenal conscious-
ness, however refined and elevated and illumined they may be, and hence
are subservient to the soul. It is in the state of perfect illumination of the
Spiritual Consciousness that the soul realises its absolutely blissful identity
with the Supreme Spirit, Siva.

Though the soul is essentially distinct from the physical body and
life and mind and intelligence and all forms of empirical consciousness, it
normally identifies itself with them and ascribes their characteristics and

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changing conditions to itself. It is essentially free from all kinds of physical,
vital, mental and intellectual limitations, free from origination and destruc-
tion, growth and decay, hunger and thirst, wants and sorrows, diseases and
infirmities, passions and proportions, desires and emotions attachments and
aversions, virtues and vices, ambitions and disappointments, errors and
delusions, cares and anxieties, etc. They are all revealed and experienced in
the individual bodies and lives and minds and intellects by the self-lumino-
sity of the individual souls related to them; but the souls are not really
affected by them, their essential nature is in no way contaminated by them.
But in this phenomenal cosmic play of Siva-Sakti, they are normally attri-
buted to the individual souls, which are therefore regarded as subject to
them. This is ordinarily spoken of as Avidya (Ignorance) by philosophers
of many schools.

According to the Yogi School, Avidya h not to be conceived as an
inscrutable or mysterious power, extraneous to the Absolute Spirit and
inexplicably putting a veil upon the pure transcendent character of the
Spirit, so as to make it illusorily appear as a plurality of finite and changing
individual souls related to illusory bodies and lives and minds and intellig-
ences in an illusory phenomenal cosmic system consisting of infinitely
diverse orders of illusory phenomenal existences and experiences. Thus it
does not accept the extreme Vedantist view of inexplicable Avidya or Maya
for explaining the nature of the phenomenal cosmic order and the
individual souls in it. Nor does it accept the Buddhist interpretation of
Avidya, assumed (unwarrantedly) as the first Principle in a cyclic chain of
causation to account for the world of normal human experience, an inter-
pretation which leads to the illusoriness of the objective world and the
permanent individual souls as well as to' the denial of the Supreme Spirit
as the Ground of this phenomenal order. The cosmic importance given to
Avidya by some of the Buddhist schools leads to the Sarva-vainasika
Siddhanta (all destroying conclusion) that this magnificent and harmonious
world-order with all its wonderful laws and regularities and adjustments is
a constantly changing illusory appearance without any real substratum or
ground or permanent cause behind it. This view is unacceptable to the
Sidddha-yogi school. The Sankhya view of Avidya as some unaccountable
cause of non-discrimination (aviveka) between two such independent
realities, as Spirit and Matter, Purusha and Prakriti, Pure Consciousness
and the non-Conscious, does not also satisfy it. But nevertheless it accepts
Avidya as a real phenomenon in this phenomenal world of cosmic and
individual self-expression of Siva-Sakti.

In the view of the Siddha-Yogi, Avidya is as much an essential
element as Vidya in the delightful phenomenal self-manifestation of the

210

absolutely free (Swatantra) Will-Power (Iccha-Sakti) inherent in and non-
different from the nature of the Absolute Spirit, Siva or Brahma. As it has
been already explained, the Absolute Reality, though by itself eternally
transcendent above time and space and causality and relativity and essenti-
ally of the nature of Absolute Existence, Absolute Consciousness and
Absolute Bliss, has in Itself the unique free Will-Power of manifesting
Itself in the forms of innumerable orders of phenomenal existences, innu-
merable orders of phenomenal consciousnesses and innumerable orders of
phenomenal joys (shadowed by sorrows), under the conditions and limita-
tions of time, space, causality and relativity. In the view of the Yogi
School, the very notion of Absolute Existence, Absolute Consciousness and
Absolute Bliss implies this Freedom and Power. The Absolute and Trans-
cendent does not imply negation of or opposition to or incompatiblcness
with the relative and phenomenal. On the contrary, it indicates the perfect
assimilation (Samarasa) and unification (Ekatwa) and identification
(Abhinnatwa) of all relative and phenomenal realities within Itself. It implies
Its absolute freedom to manifest from within Itself all kinds of phenomenal
and relative realities, to experience and enjoy them in all levels of pheno-
menal experience, to reveal Itself as immanent in and as the Indwelling
Spirit and Ruler of them all, and to merge all of them again in Its transcen-
dent non-dual nature.

Without this freedom and power to reveal Itself in the phenomenal
planes and without this freedom and power to link together and unify the
transcendent and the phenomenal planes of existence and experience, the
Absolute would not be really transcendent. The Infinite that excludes the
finites and even the possibility of the finites can not be reasonably conceived
as the real Infinite. The Eternal that excludes all temporal beings and
becomings or that means only beginningless and endless continuity in time,
is not the real Eternal in the metaphysical sense. The true Infinite and
Eternal, while transcending space and time, must have the freedom and
power to be revealed and manifested as all orders of spatial and temporal
realities and to be immanent in them. Hence the true and adequate concep-
tion of the Absolute Spirit should be that It is transcendent as well as
dynamic, eternally enjoying Itself above time and space and relativity as
well as eternally revealing and enjoying Itself in infinite orders of finite and
temporary phenomenal self-expressions.

Now, the phenomenal self-manifestation and self enjoyment of the
non-dual transcendent and dynamic Absolute Spirit in the plurality of
forms (ndndkdratayd vildsah) implies partial revelation and partial conceal-
ment (dpekshika prakdsa tathd dpekshika dvarana) of Its transcendent self-
yininous non-dual character. Without partial self-concealment and self*

in

imposed self-limitation there cannot possibly be any phenomenal self-
manifestation and self-dualisation and self- diversification of the Absolute
Spirit. It is only through various grades of self-concealment that there may
be various forms of self-revelation, self-realisation, self-experience and self-
enjoyment. The absolutely free Power (Swatantra Sakti), immanent in the
nature of the Absolute Spirit, for Its phenomenal self-expression and self-
enjoyment in infinitely diversified forms, must accordingly be conceived as
a Power of illumination (Prakasa) as well as as a Power of sriadowing or
darkening or obstruction of the light (Avarana-Sakti), a Power of revelation
as well as a Power of concealment, a Power of self-experience as the Unity
of subject and object above all limitations and conditions as well as a Power
of self-experience in the forms of diversities of subjects and objects in
various planes under various conditions and limitations. It has to be con-
ceived as a Power of expansion (Prasdra) of the Spirit to realise Itself as
innumerable souls or subjects of experience and innumerable bodies or
objects of experience, and it has also to be conceived as a Power of contrac-
tion (sankoca or Samhdra) of the Spirit to realise Itself as the Unity of
existences and consciousnesses.

Thus the Swatantra Nijd Sakti of Siva is conceived as having eternal-
ly two-fold aspects in Her phenomenal manifestation, and these two
aspects may be called Vidya, and Avidyd. The free Divine Sakti in Her
aspect of Prakasa or illumination or revelation of the transcendent blissful
nature of the Supreme Spirit in this phenomenal cosmic system is spoken
of and adored as Vidyd-Sakti, and in Her aspect of Avarana and
Vikshepa, i.e. concealment or overshadowing of the transcendent naturo
of the Supreme Spirit and manifestation of the Spirit in diversities of
phenomenal forms is spoken of and looked upon as Avidyd-Sakti. Vidya
and Avidyd are both real aspects of the nature of the Sakti immanent in
and non-different from the nature of the Absolute Spirit, the Ultimate
Reality. Without either of them the phenomenal self- manifestation and
self-experience of the Ultimate Reality would have been impossible, the
realisation and enjoyment by the Absolute Spirit of the infinite greatness
and goodness and beauty and magnificence unified in Its transcendent
nature would have been impossible.

Gorakhnath and the yogi school more often use the terms Prakasa
and Vimarsa in place of Vidya and Avidyd to indicate the two-fold aspects
of the inherent Sakti of Siva, the unique Power of the Absolute Spirit. The
term Vimarsa generally means reflection or detailed thinking. The Absolute
Spirit is as it were reflecting upon the infinite contents of His eternally
perfect transcendent nature. He is objectifying them to His own Cons-
ciousness. He may be said to be in the process of discovering Himself by

212

thinking about Himself in a detailed way. This is the phenomenal aspect
of His nature. In the transcendent aspect of His nature He is absolutely
One; herein there is no differentiation between His Consciousness and
His perfect Existence, there is no duality and relativity in His nature;
herein He is in the state of what has been described as Absolute Experi-
ence, in which there is no distinction even between Himself as the Know-
ing Subject and Himself as the Known or Knowable Object. In this
aspect the Absotute Spirit cannot even be said to be self-conscious, since
self-consciousness in the sense in which \ve understand it involves a
subject-object relation within itself. In Absolute Prakasi (ilSumi nation)
there can Jbe no such relativity of consciousness, and hence no self-
consciousness in the phenomenal sense.

The Vimarsa aspect of His Sakti makes the Absolute Spirit pheno-
menally self-conscious. The Vimarsa-Sakti is therefore interpreted
as His Power of Self-consciousness or Self- reflect ion or the Power
of His revelation of Himself to Himself. By virtue of this Power
the Absolute Spirit comes down as it were from the plane of transcendent
non-duality of Absolute Consciousness and divides Himself phenomenally
into the duality of Subject and Object, so as to reflect upon and to
become conscious of His own Self objectively. It is this objective self-
consciousness or self-reflection of the Absolute Spirit, which appears as
His Creation or phenomenal self-manifestation or realisation and enjoy-
ment of Himself in the forms of diverse orders of experiencing subjects
and experienceable objects. The whole universe, the universe of time,
space, causality and relativity, the universe of finite changing existences,
joy and sorrows, love and hatred, successes and failures, friendships and
hostilities, etc., is nothing but the Absolute Spirit objectively reflecting
upon and experiencing and enjoying His infinite spiritual nature in all
possible forms in all levels of experience. His objective self- reflection is
creation, sustenance and destruction of diverse orders of phenomenal
realities in the spatio-temporal system. His Vimarsa-Sakti thus appears
as His Power of self-diversification and is therefore called His Mdya-Sakti.

In the fourth lesson of Siddha-Siddhdnta-Paddhati, having discussed
the nature of the Prakdsa-Sakti and the Vimarsa Sakti of the Absolute
Spirit or Absolute Consciousness, Siva, Mahayogi Gorakhnath says in
conclusion:

"Kim uktam bhavati? P&rd-para-vimarsa-rupini Sambit ndnd-sakti-
rupena nikhila-pindd-dhdratwena vartate.' 9 What has been said so far? It is the
One Self-luminous Sambit (Absolute Consciousness) That reveals Itself as
Para-Vimarsa-Sakti and Apara-Vimarsa- Sakti (Power of Collective Self-
reflection and Power of Differentiated Self-reflection) and manifests Itseif

213

(in the phenomenal cosmic system) in the forms of various orders and
kinds of phenomenal Sakti (powers) and in and through them exists as the
sole Adhara (upholder) of ail the numberless Pindas (bodies, individual
as well as collective) in the universe.

It has been noticed that in the phenomenal self-manifestation of the
Absolute Spirit, Gorakhnath has mentioned the evolution of various
orders of Pindus (bodies), beginning from th: Para-pinda 'and ending
with the diverse kinds of VyaAi-pinda^ (individual bodiesj. He has shown
that in all these innumerable forms of Pindas, the Absolute Spirit, Siva,
is the One Soul, the One Upholder, Iliurnmer, Experiencer, Governor
and Self-realiser. By virtue of His Vunarsa-Sakii He manifests all these
infinite varieties of Pindas from within Himself, from the transcendent
unity of His Absolute Exislence-Consciousness-Bliss, and by virtue of
His Prakdsa-Sakti He exists in all of them as their illumining souls and
phenomenally experiences and enjoys the diversities of His own self-
expressions under various kinds of conditions and limitations and in
various planes of existence and consciousness and enjoyment Siva is as
much the Soul of Para-pinda, Anddi-pinda, Mahd-sakdra-pinda, as of the
bodies of individual gods and men and beasts and birds and insects, and
even of the material bodies which outwardly appear to be lifeless and
soulless. Every phenomenal reality is a manifestation of His Existence and
is ensouled by Him. In this universe of His phenomenal self-manifestation
and self-enjoyment, His Prakdsa-Sakti and Vimarsa-Sakti are apparently
conditioned and limited by each other. Accordingly, the Soul, as mani-
fested in each individual body, appears to be conditioned and limited by
the nature and limitations of the body. All kinds of limitations and
imperfections which are actually found in an individual soul are due to
the bodily organism, through which it realises and expresses itself. In-
wardly every soul transcends the bodily organism with all its instruments
of knowledge and action and enjoyment, in as much as it is essentially of
the nature of Prakdsa (illumination or pure consciousness).

At the close of the third lesson of Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati, after
the exposition of the essential identity of each individual body with the
Cosmic Body, Gorakhnath has asserted,

"Evam sarva-deheshu Viswarupah Parameswarah Paramatmd akhanda-
swabhdvena ghate ghate Cit-swarupl tisthati.'*

Thus Paramatmd (the Supreme Spirit), Who is Parameswara (the
Supreme Lord of all phenomenal existences) and Who reveals Himself as
Viswarupa (the Cosmic Purusha with the Cosmic Body) in all the individual

214

bodies, exists in His unparticularised nature as pure Spirit (Cit-swarupi) in
every finite individual body (ghate-ghate).

Thus in the view of the enlightened yogis, it is the Supreme Spirit
Himself, Who exists in His pure spiritual nature (suddha-caitanya) as indivi-
dual souls (jeevdtmd) in individual bodies. Accordingly in its essential
character no individual soul is ever particularised or fmitised or transformed
or polluted 'or suffers from any bondage or sorrow or desire or aversion or
fear. Every individual soul in its true nature participates in the pure
existence and pure consciousness and pure bliss of the Supreme Spirit.

But from the phenomenal view-point the individual souls are found
to be subject to Avidyd (ignorance or false knowledge or illusion) and con-
sequent Asmitd (particularised egohood or self-consciousness), Rdga (desire
and attachment), Dwesha (aversion and hostility), Abhinivesa (lust for the
present form of existence and fear of death or destruction). They also
appear to be under the bondage of Karma (actions, physical, mental and
intellectual, virtuous and vicious) and their consequences (pleasant and
unpleasant, elevating and degrading). They, it is believed, have to pass
through numerous births and deaths in numerous individual bodies and
also through the experiences of heavens and hells for reaping the fruits of
their various kinds of Karma. They have to struggle hard and to undergo
systematic courses of self-discipline for the elevation and refinement and
purification of their character and for the attainment of liberation from the
oppressive and sorrowful conditions of existence in the individual bodies.
How can all these be consistent with the view that the Supreme Spirit in
His pure and unparticularised (akhanda) nature exists as individual souls
in all individual bodies? How can the Supreme Spirit place Himself under
subjection to all those bondages and limitations and sufferings and under
the necessity of struggling for self-emancipation from all such undesirable
conditions ?

The reply to these questions from the view-point of the enlightened
Mahayogis has already been indicated. The Absolute Spirit, Siva, by
virtue of His infinite eternal free Will-Power in its Vimarsa- aspect, reflects
upon and experiences and enjoys Himself in His absolute perfection as well
as under all sorts of limitations, limitations of existence and consciousness,
limitations of knowledge and power, limitations of time and space, limita-
tions of qualities and relations, etc. He experiences and enjoys Himself
as the greatest of the great (mahato-mahiydn) and the minutest of the minute
(anor amydn) and in all conceivable intermediate forms. He experiences
and enjoys Himself as Paramdtmd Viswdtmd Lokdtmd, Jeevdtmd, as well
as in the forms of all orders of Pindas in all planes of existence. It is the
One Absolute Spirit Who is the true Soul in all of them, Who exists in all

215

in the innermost heart of all, in His akhanda-swarupa and takes delight
as it were in experiencing Himself under all sorts of conditions and limita-
tions. As Gorakhnath says,

Alupta-faktimdn nityam sarvdkdratay a sphuran
Punah swenaiva rupena eka evd vnsishyate.

Eternally possessed of infinite Power, the Absolute Spirit, while experi-
encing Himself in all kinds of forms, remains in His own self as the One
without a second.

Avidyd or the phenomenal Ignorance of the essential infinite eternal
self-luminous character of the Absolute Spirit is nothing but a form of
self-imposed limitation, which His own Vimarsa- Sakti creates for His self-
experience and self- enjoyment in the forms of the plurality of individual
souls. As the result of this Avidyd, particularised and conditioned ego-
hood is manifested, so that one individual soul may distinguish itself from
other individual souls and may have a particular career in association with
an individual psycho-physical embodiment. It is the One Absolute Spirit,
Who quite freely embraces (i.e. reveals within Himself) relative Ignorance
and Egohood by virtue of His immanent Vimafsa-Saktifor His phenomenal
self- experience and self- enjoyment as a plurality of finite individual souls
under various conditions and limitations. Rdga, Dwesha, AhhinivLsa, etc.,
actions and their consequences, births and deaths, joys and sorrows, all
these are concomitants of the sense of finite individuality. They all per-
tain to the phenomenal consciousnesses. The Soul behind the individual
phenomenal consciousnesses is the same Supreme Spirit, Who is the ulti-
mate Experiencer and Enjoyer of them all.

Take the case of a good wise happy man of the world, who, inspired
by some lofty idealism, freely and voluntarily practises severe austerities,
undergoes privations and hardships, abandons all domestic and social
happiness, subjects himself to all sorts of trials and tribulations and even
embraces torture and death. However outwardly terrible his sufferings
may appear to be, he inwardly enjoys them, since he has freely and volun-
tarily adopted this path for the sake of his ideal and his whole heart is
concentrated upon the cherished ideal. There is enjoyment in such freely
courted sufferings, and there is true glory in them. In the human history
those who suffered most for great ideas are universally adored. There is no
reasonable giound for holding that the apparent limitations and imper-
fections and miseries from which individual creatures suffer in this
phenomenal world are inconsistent with the essential Divinity of their Soul.
The Divine Self of all has freely and voluntarily put Himself in all possibl
fcinds of finite and imperfect individual bodies and enjoys the various

216

of part'al experiences of Himself through them. He enjoys the various
kinds of bondages and sorrows which He freely creates for experiencing
Himself in all planes of existence and under all limiting conditions, and
He likewise enjoys all kinds of struggle and self-discipline on the part of
individuals for liberation from them.

Or think of the case of a wealthy talented person, who composes
dramas and organises dramatic performances. All the characters and all
the incidents in them are the products of his mind. He allots different
parts to different players and exercises absolute control over them. He
himself takes any part he freely chooses. He enjoys equal delight in play-
ing the part of a slave or of a king, of a saint or of a sinner, of an oppres-
sor or of a miserable victim of oppression, of a man rolling in luxuries or
of a man suffering from want of food and shelter. He enjoys the most
horrible incidents as much as the n.ost amusing incidents. He takes
delight in creating all kinds of rasa (aesthetic beauties), not only those
which rouse the feelings of pleasure or laughter or admiration or love or
reverence, but also those which rouse the feelings of disgust or horror or
hatred. He shows himse'f freely a 'id joyfully in all these forms. They
are all matertals for his self-expression and self-enjoyment as well as for
giving joy to others. In the light of the variegated self-expression and
self-enjoyment of a great artist we may form some idea of the perfectly
free and delightful phenomenal self-manifestation and self-enjoyment of
Siva in the forms of various orders of finite and sorrowful individual
creatures.

From this point of view the yogi philosophers easily solve what is
called the Problem of Evil, which is a puzzling problem to all philosophical
schools, and particularly the the'stie schools. There is in the world of our
normal experience the apparent prevalence of natural and moral evils,
which we can not deny. There are natural catastrophes in the outer world,
which are soirees of sufferings to all sentient creatuies. Borrows and
agonies prevail in the world of sentient living beings. Vices of various kinds
are found in all strata of the human race. Philosophers are at a loss to
explain these evils consistently with the infinite power, the infinite wisdom
and infinite goodness of the Divire Creator. Various suggestions are offered
by great philosophers to account for the presence of such evils in the Divine
Creation, and every explanation is found by critics to be inadequate. Some
schools of thinkers find the necessity of admitting the existence of a Second
Power, such as Satan or Ahriman, as the sources of evil, for acquitting
God of the responsibility for the creation of evil. This is obviously incom-
patible with the absolute creatorship of God. If God or the Supreme Spirit
is accepted as the Ultimate Reality, as the One without a second, He.

217

must be regarded as the sole ultimate Cause of whatever may be experienced
in this phenomenal world, and no second independent source of any pheno-
menon in this universe can be reasonably assumed. Nor can God be
supposed to be compelled by any other cause, whether material or efficient
or final or formal, to originate or to keep room for evils in the universe of
His phenomenal self -manifestation.

The yogi philosophers not only accept the Supreme Spirit as the non
dual Ultimate Reality, but also regard the phenomenal universe with all
orders of phenomenal realities appearing and disappearing in it as His/rec
self-expression by virtue of His Vimarsa-Sakti. What we in our normal life
experience or consider as natural and moral evils are also modes of His free
self-revelations and as such are objects of His phenomenal enjoyment.
Natural evils, i.e. pains and miseries, exist only for the empirical conscious-
ness of sentient individual bodies, and moral evils exist only for the moral
consciousness of rational human beings. Pleasures and pains, happinesses
and miseries, are mutually related; they are modes of experience of the
individual bodies in the sentient and psychical planes of their existence;
desirse and efforts for getting rid of pains and miseries and attaining more
pleasures and happinesses are associated with them and contribute to their
development and elevation to higher planes; they play important parts in the
cosmic design; and the Supreme Spirit as the individual souls witnesses
them, regulates and harmonises and unifies them, and enjoys them. Pains
and miseries are no more evils and play no less significant roles than
pleasures and happinesses. As free self-expressions under self-imposed
limitations they are equally enjoyable to the self-luminous soul.

There are really no catastrophes and disasters in inanimate nature. In
the material world there are only various kinds of phenomenal changes,
modifications and transformations, there are various forms of manifestations
of physical and chemical and electrical and other forces leading to integra-
tions and disintegrations and reorganisations of the material constituents of
the cosmic system. The Vimarsa-Sakti of the Absolute Spirit is magnific-
ently manifested in all these. The Absolute Spirit, though immanent in all
of them as their Atma (true Self), seems to completely hide His essential
spiritual character behind those phenomena, but must be supposed to enjoy
them (or rather enjoy Himself in them), since they are His free self-expres-
sions. These changes in the apparently inanimate nature are instrumental in
preparing the ground for the evolution of life and mind and other higher
orders of phenomenal self-manifestations and self-enjoyments of the free
Divine Power. Some of these changes are interpreted as catastrophic and
disastrous and evil by sentient thinking beings in accordance with their
particular likes and dislikes and standards of values.

218

In the planes of living and conscious existences there are various
grades of self -revelation and self-concealment of the Spirit, and hence
various stages of development and limitation of life and consciousness. The
various forms of pains and miseries, wants and pangs, diseases and deaths,
cares and anxieties, disappointments and bereavements, etc., are only
indications of the limitations and imperfections of life and consciousness in
the individual bodies. The Supreme Spirit, in Whom life and consciousness
are in eternal perfection, and Whose essential nature is Ananda, takes delight
in enjoying Himself under all possible limitations and imperfections by the
exercise of His perfectly free Vimarsa-Sakti, and hence appears to embrace
voluntarily all kinds of sorrows and disabilities in His individual self-
expressions within His Cosmic Body. The necessary implication of all
experiences of sorrows and sufferings is that they are sought to be transcen-
ded, that life and consciousness attempt to get rid of these limitations and
imperfections and ascend to higher stages of development and perfection
free from such sorrows. Hence sorrows stimulate efforts in the individual
bodies for self-elevation to higher and higher planes of phenomenal
experience, until they reach the plane of Ananda. Sorrow is from this point
of view nothing but Ananda overshadowed by limitations created by the
Divine Power and is instrumental in the progressive phenomenal realisation
of Ananda in the individual bodies. The Supreme Spirit as the individual
souls in the individual bodies witnesses all these sorrows as well as the
efforts and processes of liberation from them.

Again, the distinctions of virtue and vice, right and wrong, good and
evil, justice and injustice, mercy and cruelty, partiality and impartiality,
duty and crime, piety and sin, etc., belong to the moral plane of phenome-
nal consciousness. But for the evolution of moral consciousness in
individual bodies, these notions would not arise, no such distinctions among
phenomena would be drawn, and there would be no problem of moral
evil to the philosophical thinkers. These virtues and vices, etc., are not of
the nature of actual facts of phenomenal experience, but are of the nature
of judgments upon facts by reference to some ideal or standard of value. It
is in the moral plane of phenomenal consciousness that such judgments
arise and certain kinds of phenomena are looked upon from the standpoint
of some ideals. In the natural order of the phenomenal self-manifestation
of the Supreme Spirit, just as various kinds of physical phenomena are
manifested, so various kinds of vital and psychical phenomena are
evolved.

The Vimarsa-Sakti of the Supreme Spirit with Her infinite freedom
and infinite possibilities manifests Herself in various forms of vital tenden-
ties, psychical dispositions, intellectual powers, etc., in various forms of

219

knowledge and wisdom, desires and actions, feelings and emotions, etc. The
same Divine Sakti manifests Herself in the evolution of Moral Conscious-
ness, Aesthetic Consciousness and Spiritual Consciousness in relation to
individual bodies. The Moral Consciousness, imbued with the Ideal of
Dharma within itself, looks upon all phenomena from the standpoint of
that Ideal and passes judgments of moral values upon them. Thus distinc-
tions of virtue and vice, right and wrong, etc., arise. Some kinds of
thoughts, feelings, dispositions, desires, actions, behaviours, etc., are
regarded as good and virtuous and worthy of being cultivated and
developed, and others are regarded as bad and vicious and fit to be
abandoned or suppressed.

But those which are judged to be bad and vicious and which have to
be abandoned or conquered or suppressed have their importance in the
scheme of the elevation of life and mind and intelligence to higher and
better and more enlightened planes. They also are modes of self-experience
and self-enjoyment of the Supreme Spirit under various orders of self-
imposed phenomenal conditions and limitations. He takes delight in freely
creating these conditions and limitations and in progressively transcending
or destroying them in the individual bodies for phenomenal self-experience
and self-enjoyment in the higher and more illumined planes and ultimately
raising the individual phenomenal consciousness to the transcendent plane.
Just as sorrows are only His self-imposed veils and limitations upon His
infinite bliss, so the vices are Hn self-imposed veils and limitations upon
His infinite goodness and purity. In His phenomenal cosmic self- manifesta-
tion He freely imposes shadows and limitations upon His transcendent good
and blissful nature and freely removes these shadows and transcends these
limitations in gradual stages and enjoys all these processes as their all-
illumining witness,

Just as the evolution of sensibility in the individual bodies is accom-
panied by the experiences of various kinds and degrees of pleasures and
pains and the evolution of moral consciousness in them is accompanied by
various forms of moral experiences of good and evil, dharma and adharma,
so the evolution of aesthetic consciousness is accompanied by various forms
of aesthetic experiences, experiences of beauty and ugliness, experiences
of diverse kinds of Rasa from the sweetest (madhura) to the most loathsome
(bibhatsa). These aesthetic experiences also are of the nature of judgments
upon facts and involve reference to some conception of ideal beauty. What
appears as relatively ugly or loathsome is, in the view of the enlightened
yogis, really nothing but beauty experienced under various forms of limita-
tions and distortions. Anything that may appear ugly in one set of condi-
tions or in one state of the rnental disposition may be appreciated and

220

enjoyed as beautiful in a different set of conditions or in a different state of
the mental disposition, There is nothing absolutely ugly or abominable in
the world-system, just as there is nothing which is absolutely evil or
absolutely sorrowful. All phenomenal experiences are relative, and all our
judgments of good and evil and beauty and ugliness are also relative. There
may be a standpoint, viewed from which all phenomenal realities may be
appreciated and enjoyed as good and beautiful and pleasant. Each of them
has its proper place and function in the world-order, in the cosmic system
as well as in the individual organisms. They are all free and delightful self-
manifestations in an infinite variety of conditioned and limited forms of
One Who is infinitely good and beautiful and blissful. In the domain of the
free play of the Vimarsa-Sakti of the Absolute Spirit, all possible forms of
phenomenal relative existences and experiences are represented in the most
suitable manners, from the apparently most permanent to the apparently
most momentary, from the apparently most beautiful to the apparently
most ugly, from the apparently grossest to the apparently most subtle and
fine, from the apparently best and most glorious to the apparently worst
and most inglorious, from the apparently most happy and pleasant to the
apparently most unhappy and unpleasant. We cannot, truly speaking,
conceive of any form of existence and experience, which is not evolved in
this spatio-temporal self-manifestation of the Infinite Power of the Supreme
Spirit. This is the amazing and bewildering glory of Maha Sakti
of Siva.

People living and moving and thinking in the plane of ignorance and
egoism and wants and sorrows and desires and aversions and fears are
often found to murmur that what is play to God is death to His creatures.
They often charge Him with cruelty and partiality and injustice in His
dealings with His creatures, in moulding their characters and powers and
propensities and environments and determining their fortunes and misfor-
tunes, happinesses and miseries, elevations and degradations. To them the
Law o? Karma h no satisfactory ultimate explanation for the bewildering
differences of the destinies of creatures, since desires and tendencies and
actions of all creatures in all their births or embodied existences are no less
governed by the Divine Will than their immediate or remote consequences.
God must be as much responsible for the various kinds of deeds of all His
creatures from the earliest stages of their individualised existence as for
what are regarded as the happy and miserable fruits of those deeds. Some-
times failing to discover any satisfactory explanation for the wide differences
experienced in the world of living beings consistently with their conception
of the infinite power and wisdom and goodness of the Supreme Creator,
many such people lose faith in God and the Divine Order of the world
and think of the world-system as a chance-product of some blind

221

Force or orces operating without any wisdom or design or law or
purpose.

In the enlightened view of Mahayogis the questions of cruelty,
partiality, injustice, etc., vanish, because the creatures of God are not other
than or separate from God Himself. God or the Supreme Spirit is the
Creator as well as the created. He reveals and experiences Himself in the
phenomenal world in the forms of diverse orders of creatures, apparently
happy as well as apparently miserable, relatively high as well as relatively
low. There are of course cases of cruelty, injustice, oppression., in the world
of His infinitely multiform self-manifestations. But as He is the individual
soul in every body, He is the perpetrator of cruelty and injustice and He is
the victim of cruelty and injustice, in every warfare He fights against
Himself and He is both the victor and the vanquished, everywhere He is the
master and the slave, the parents and the children, the teachers and the
pupils, He is the wise and the foolish, the strong and the weak, the fortu-
nate and the unfortunate and so on. By virtue of His infinite Vimarsa-Sakti
He puts Himself in an infinite variety of situations in an infinite number of
individual bodies, and as a plurality of individual souls He experiences and
enjoys Himself in all these situations.

According to the Siddha- Yogis all differences are phenomenally real;
but they lie in the bodily manifestations of the Spirit, and not in their
Soul or Atma. All physical and vital differences, all sensuous and psychical
differences, all intellectual and moral differences, all aesthetic and so-called
spiritual differences, pertain to the bodies, but the Soul is in all cases essen-
tially untouched by them. The Soul is their experiencer and illuminer
and enjoyer, but is not really affected and qualified and conditioned by
them. Smallness and greatness, sorrow and happiness, ignorance and
knowledge, vice and virtue, and even bondage and liberation, are experien-
ced in the bodies, and not in the Soul or Spirit, Which reveals them. All
spiritual exercises and advancements also essentially consist in the elevation
and refinement and purification of the bodies so as to raise them to higher
and higher planes of spiritual experience and to make them more and more
illumined and spiritualised. Bodies, it should be remembered, refer not only
to the physical organisms, but also to vital, mental, intellectual embodi-
ments of the Spirit and all forms of phenomenal consciousness in all
planes. The Soul is ever-pure blissful consciousness in all forms of pheno-
menal embodiments, experiencing and revealing their differences and
limitations and changes, but without being really affected and conditioned
by them. As phenomenally reflected upon the finite and changing bodies,
the Soul appears to be many and different in different bodies, but in truth
Jt is one and tbe sajne in all bodies. In experiencing the diverse conditions

222

and limitations and changes of the individual bodies, the Soul phenomen-
ally identifies Itself as a matter of course with these bodies and hence
appears to be individualised and diversely conditioned and qualified, but in
reality It never loses Its essential transcendent character. Though phenomen
ally associated with and immanent in the finite bodies and the empirical
consciousness, the Soul always inwardly transcends them. Hence though
phenomenally playing the role of a finite individual and participating in the
ups and downs of the individual bodily existence, the Soul is in Its essential
character only the impartial witness to and enjoyer of them all. What is
called Moksha is not essentially the liberation of the Soul from bondage
and sorrow, but the liberation of the individual empirical consciousness
from ignorance and impurity and limitations and bondages and sorrows,
and the realisation in it of the essential purity and goodness and infinity
and blissful character of the Soul, i.e. the identity of the Soul with the
Supreme Spirit.

It is sometimes contemplated that the Absolute Spirit, having by
virtue of His inherent Maha-Sakri manifested Himself as the infinitely
diversified phenomenal Cosmic Body, experiences and enjoys it and plays
with it principally from three stand-points, viz., Paramdtmd, Atmd and
Jeevdtmd. As the One Soul and Lord, Illuminer and Experiencer and
Enjoyer, of His free self- evolving eternal and infinite Maha-Sakti, He is
conceived as Paramatmd. As the Soul pervading the entire Cosmic Body and
as the Indwelling Spirit of all orders of existences in it, He is conceived as
Atmd. As the plurality of Individual Souls of the individual bodies, He is
conceived as Jeevdtmd. These distinctions of Paramatmd, Atmd and
Jeevdtmd lie only in the upddhis t ~on\y in consideration of His phenomenal
relation to His Prakdsa- Vimarsd-lmikd Sakti that is the dynamic source
and cause of all phenomenal existences and consciousnesses, secondly in con
sideration of His immanent presence as the Soul of all orders of phenomenal
self-manifestations of His Sakti, and thirdly in consideration of His playing
the part of the individual soul in every individual body. Such conceptual
distinctions, however, imply no real difference or change or modification in
the true nature of the Spirit. He always transcends the parts He plays,
transcends the situations which he creates for Himself, transcends the
relations in terms of which He is characterised and His nature is defined.
He experiences and illumines and enjoys all with His transcendent self-
luminous nature wholly unaffected. The spiritual enlightenment of the
empirical consciousness consists in the realisation of the oneness of Jeev-
dtmd, Atmd and Paramdtmd, in seeing the same Absolute Spirit, Siva, as
the souls of individual bodies and as the all-pervading changeless self-
luminous Soxil and Truth of all phenomenal existences as well as the a.11-

223

transcending Soul and Lord of the Supreme Power, Which freely unfolds
Herself into the phenomenal universe.

Gorakhnath says,

Atmeti Paramdtrneti Jeevdtmeti vicdraw
Traydndm aikya-sambhutir ddesa iti klrtitah.

In our phenomenal reflection we distinguish between Atmd, Paiamdtmd and
Jeevdtmd. The unity of the three is the truth, and the realisation of this
truth is called Adesd. In view of this, whenever Yogis greet one another,
they utter the words Adesd Adesd. By this form of salutation Yogis cons-
tantly remind one another of the identity of every individual soul with the
Cosmic Soul and the Transcendent Spirit,

CHAPTER XVII

THE SUPREME IDEAL OF LIFE

From the earliest age of Hindu spiritual culture, Moksha or
Mukti has ^been generally accepted as the supreme end of human life.
Moksha or Mukti literally means freedom or liberation or emancipation
or deliverance. As commonly understood, it is rather a negative term.
It implies some state of existence, from which freedom or liberation or
emancipation or deliverance is sought for, but gives no positive ideal of
what will actually be attained, when this freedom or liberation from the
present state of existence is achieved. It is in this apparently negative
sense that it is universally accepted as the most desirable end of human
life by almost all systems of religion and philosophy.

What is the state of existence from which deliverance is urgently
sought for by all human beings, nay, by all sensitive living beings?
Perhaps it is obvious to all that Sorrow is the most universal fact of
experience, not only to human beings, but also to all living beings having
sensibility, and that all such beings naturally seek for getting rid of the
sorrowful state of existence. Sorrow appears to be occasioned by various
causes, external as well as internal. From birth to death the causes of
sorrows are practically always present. Life seems to consist in conti-
nuous struggle with sorrows and their causes. Besides the causes of sorrows
present in all orders of animal life, in human life the mental and intellec-
tual and moral imperfections are additional sources of sorrows. Goaded
by the natural urge for getting rid of sorrows, a man has throughout his
life to struggle against all these causes of sorrows. Temporary successes
in these struggles lead to temporary cessations of sorrows and temporary
enjoyments of relief and pleasure. But causes of sorrows are never rooted
out and hence permanent happiness appears to be unattainable in this life.
Even physical death, which is itself attended with sorrow, cannot lead to
permanent relief from sorrow, since the Law of Moral Justice, the Law
of Karma, prevailing in the world-order assures continuity of life in a
subtle body in the other worlds and also rebirth in fresh gross bodies
for reaping the fruits of right and wrong actions and thus leads to the
continuity of sorrows and struggles in the new bodies.

Truly speaking, Sorrow is at the basis of all human culture and
civilization. It is the stimulating force behind all creative and destructive
activities and all progress and development in the human world. Sorrows
create desires and stimulate actions for getting rid of these sorrows.

225

The desires and actions, though giving temporary relief from particular
sorrows, cannot destroy them, but rather become sources of fresh sorrows,
which again originate fresh desires and fresh actions, and so on, perhaps
ad infinitum. The human mind never becomes free from sorrows, from
the sense of want and dissatisfaction and discontent, from the uneasy
sense of imperfection and limitation and bondage, and hence never free
from desires and struggles. In course of the struggle for attaining libera-
tion from Sorrow, which constantly appears in newer and newer forms and
creates newer and newer desires, the powers and qualities which are
dormant in human nature are awakened and activated, the inind and the
heart and the intellect become more and more developed and refined and
enlightened, the fields of knowledge and activities are gradually expanded,
men acquire greater and greater control over the forces of external nature
and over other animals, sciences and arts and technologies are progressively
developed, social and political and military and religious organisations are
evolved and acquire more and more powers and influences, the human life
becomes more and more complicated. The goading power of Sorrow is at
the root of all these developments.

Thus Sorrow plays a very important part in the scheme of the world
of living beings, and specially in the human world. From the beginning
to the end, the human history is a continuous fight against Sorrow. It is
this fight which has bestowed all glories upon man. But Sorrow has never
acknowledged defeat. In the most civilized state of human existence
Sorrow does not seem to be in any way less powerful than in any less
civilized state. With the increase of the sources of pleasure and happi-
ness, with the discoveries and inventions of finer and finer instruments of
pleasure and happiness, there seems to be a corresponding increase of the
sources of sorrows. All human efforts for the conquest of Sorrow by
means of the improvements of the external conditions of physical exis-
tence appear to have utterly failed. Should we then conclude that human
beings are born to suffer from sorrows and to struggle against them and
never to conquer them or to attain liberation from them? This would be
a pessimistic view of human life. This pessimism would itself be another
source of sorrow. The highest and the most illumined human minds have
not accepted this view.

All the greatest saints of India and all the major philosophical
systems are unanimous in proclaiming that Sorrow can be absolutely
conquered and that the absolute conquest of Sorrow is the ultimate ideal
of human life. They also add that Sorrow cannot be absolutely con-
quered by means of any kind of improvements of the physical conditions ,
or by means of developments of empirical knowledge and worldly powers.

226

or by means of acquisition of vast wealth and materials for earthly enjoy-
ments, or by means of various kinds of organisations and scientific and
technological achievements. In order to attain perfect freedom from all
actual and possible sorrows, in order to destroy the root of all sorrows,
man has to direct all his energy and wisdom inward, he has to concen-
trate all his attention upon the innermost essence of his being. This
inward turning of the human energy and wisdom and their concentration
upon the innermost essence of being is called Yoga, and this is the essence
of Religion. It is by the attainment of perfect success in this religious
self-discipline that man can root out the possibility of all sorrows. It is
not through any kind of outward endeavours, individual or collective, but
through inward concentration of energy, that man can rise above the
domain of Sorrow,

It is universally proclaimed by the most enlightened saints and
philosophers that the innermost essence of being, the ultimate essence of
the being of the individual as well as of the universe, is untouched by
Sorrow, is above the domain of sorrows and desires and struggles, is
perfectly calm and tranquil and blissful. Sorrow rules over the lives and
minds, to which the ultimate essence of being is veiled. When the mind
is illumined by the experience of the essential Truth of its own being and
of the being of the universe, there is no sorrow for it, no sense of limita-
tion and bondage, no desire and struggle. For the absolute conquest of
Sorrow, this illumination of the empirical mind, this experience of the
ultimate Truth of the self and the universe, is regarded as the essential
condition. This is evidently a positive Ideal of conscious life. According
to most of the religio-philosophical systems of India, the Supreme Ideal of
human life, which is negatively indicated as Mukti or perfect liberation
from all actual and possible sorrows, essentially consists in the realisation
or direct experience of the ultimate Truth of the being of the self and the
universe, Tattawa-sakshatkara.

What is the exact nature of the ultimate essence of the self and the
universe and what is the state of being that is attained through the
realisation of this ultimate essence, through what is called Tattwa-
Sakshatkdra, cannot however be precisely defined in terms of the cate-
gories of phenomenal understanding, because it is above the range of
empirical thought and speech. Such definition is possible only in cases of
the contingent and relative objects of the empirical mind. The Absolute
Reality is indefinable and the ultimate realisation also is indefinable. As
the Absolute Reality, i.e. the ultimate essence of the self and the universe,
is above the subject-object relation and thus above the range of the
empirical mind, so in the ultimate Truth-realisation the subject-object

227

difference is wholly merged in the unity of one Absolute Experience, the
empirical mind is either transcended or merged in the unity of the Spirit,
and It is not known as an object of phenomenal understanding. Thus
our phenomenal understanding can neither intellectually conceive nor
verbally define either the Absolute Reality or the Absolute Truth-
realisation.

But the enlightened Gurus, having descended from the plane of
Absolute Experience to the normal plane of the phenomenal conscious-
ness, from the plane of the indefinable Absolute Unity to the normal plane
of relativity and contingency, find it necessary to give the truth-seekers and
spiritual aspirants some positive idea, however vague, of the Ultimate
Truth and the Ultimate Ideal of human life. So long as they explain their
supra-phenomenal experience in negative terms, no appreciable difference
arises in their teachings. But when they try to give to their disciples some
positive ideas in terms of relative phenomenal understanding of the
Absolute Truth and the Absolute Ideal, they are found to use expressions
which convey different meanings to the truth-seekers living and moving
and thinking habitually in the domain of empirical consciousness, in the
domain of relativity and contingency. The effect upon the minds of the
ordinary truth- seekers is the impression that the great saints and sages, the
illustrious Gurus, all of whom are generally believed to have realised the
Absolute Truth and the Ultimate Ideal of life, differ from one another in
their knowledge or conception of the Truth and the Ideal. The followers
of different Gurus are divided into different philosophical schools and
different religious sects, and often fight with one another with their logical
weapons for the substantiation of the teachings of their respective Gurus
and the refutation of those of others. The disputes are never settled,
because they are not soluble on the intellectual plane, the plane of
phenomenal understanding.

The term Moksha or Mukti is a very convenient term and is almost
universally accepted by all classes of religious teachers and philosophical
thinkers in India to signify the ultimate Ideal of human life. As it has
already been pointed out, this term has primarily a negative meaning, but
all the same it holds before the normal human intellect a highly glorious
view of the Supreme Ideal in terms of the actual facts of our general
experience. When the significance of the term is deeply reflected upon
and comprehended, it appears that though it is seemingly negative, the
ideal is full of rich positive contents and its realisation would mean the
perfect satisfaction of all the fundamental demands of self-conscious
human life.

It has been mentioned that Moksha has primarily been interpreted

228

by most teachers as the attainment of perfect freedom from all possible
sorrows. This itself is revealed, on deeper reflection, as a supreme positive
Ideal, when it is realised that absolute sorrowlessness means to a self-
conscious mind perfect AnancLi, perfect self enjoyment, a perfectly blissful
state of being, perfect fullness of existence. No ^elf-conscious person in
his normal state aspires after reducing himself into insensate lifeless
matter or to annihilate himself in order to get rid of all actual and
possible sorrows. Tt is assumed by all that life and mind are superior to
lifeless and mindless matter, that life is preferable to death, though life
and mind may be full of sorrows throughout the normal state of existence.
Absolute sorrowlessness as the Ideal of life and mind must refer to the
perfect fulfilment of life and mind, and not the annihilation of life and
mind. A living and conscious being must develop and refine and elevate
the life and mind to the state of absolute sorrowlessness, and must not go
down to the state of stocks and stones to be released from sorrows nor
commit suicide for this purpose. The state of the perfect fulfilment of
life and mind may be incognisably unlike the present normal imperfect
empirical state. In that supreme state life and mind may transcend their
normal phenomenal conditions. But the full realisation of their possibili-
ties in the normal phenomenal states is attained in that supreme state of
sorrowlessness. This is the state of Ananda, which every person inwardly
aspires after, though the aspiration may not always appear on the surface
of the empirical consciousness. This is certainly not a negative ideal, but
the most inspiring positive ideal of life.

Now, why is it that we fail to realise the state of perfect and
uninterrupted Ananda or self-fulfilment in the normal plane of our
conscious life? The general answer to this question is, as Lord Buddha
said, that this is because we have desires and these desires are never
satisfied. All sources of sorrows are sought to be accounted for in
terms of desires, which appear to be insatiable in our actual life. But
when we deeply reflect upon the nature of sorrows and desires, it becomes
difficult to decide definitely which are the causes of which. In conscious
life desires are found to be necessary accompaniments of sorrows. When
sorrows are felt, the urge to remove the sorrows arises. Thus desires are
ordinarily experienced as arising out of sorrows in our practical life. How
can we definitely assert that desires are the real causes of sorrows on the
basis of our normal experience? Do our desires create our hunger and
thirst, our diseases and physical pains, our old age and infirmities, our
adverse climatic conditions, the cruelties of the natural forces and the
ferocious animals, our bereavements and pangs of death, etc.? Our desires
for food and drink, health and comfort, clothing and shelter, wealth and
security, etc., follow the sorrows naturally produced from those pauses,

229

Desires are followed by actions for fighting against those causes. How
can those causes of sorrows be regarded as the effects of desires? There
may of course be many artificial desires or ambitions and their non-
fulfilments, which may be causes of further sorrows, and these generally
evolve in the conscious minds in their comparatively more developed
stages. How on the basis of our normal experience can we conclude
that Desire is the root of all sorrows? Desire may be said to be the first
step in the struggles against sorrows, but not its invariable antecedent or
cause.

It may be argued that if we accept ungrudgingly these sorrows
which arise in natural course in our normal conscious life, if we do not
desire tc get rid of and to struggle against them, that is to say, if we can
become practically dead to these sorrows, the sorrows will lose their
stings and will not remain sorrows in our consciousness. Even if this
were possible, it would not prove that Desire is the cause of Sorrow. It
would rather mean abject self-surrender to Sorrow and helpless content-
ment under the reign of Sorrow. To live a totally desireless and action-
less life in the domain of Sorrow by becoming wholly indifferent to
Sorrow would not certainly be a life of Ananda or perfect self-fulfilment.
It would amount to the reduction of life into lifelessness, and the degrada-
tion of consciousness to the unconscious plane. Mere liberation from the
distinction between the desirable and the undesirable without the realisa-
tion of a perfectly desirable and blissful state of consciousness is no
inspiring ideal of human life.

To the ordinary people of conimonsense suffering from various
kinds of sorrows in their practical life, Mahayogi Buddha preached that
all existence is sorrow and that in order to get rid of sorrows and all
possibilities of sorrows one must get rid of existence and all possibilities
of future existences. By existence he meant phenomenal existence,
existence under spatio-temporal conditions, existence in which everything is
of impermanent and momentary nature and in which there is no stability
and no security. It is only with such existence that all self-conscious
minds are acquainted within themselves as well as outside themselves in
this world of their experience. Accordingly he taught that desires for
and attachments to such unstable impermanent momentary objects of the
world and hankerings for the permancace of this li f e and the permanence
of the objects of enjoyment herein make life sorrowful. If the conscious-
ness of the unstable impermanent momentary nature of all objects of
experience within and without becomes deeply rooted in the mind and all
desires and attachments are driven out from it, there would be no feeling
of sorrow, or at least the mind would not be perturbed by any changes
in the physical and physiological conditions, since change is their nature.

230

In the absence of desires and attachments the mind illumined by the
light of the consciousness of the momentary character of all existences
would transcend the distinctions of desirable and undesirable, pleasant
and unpleasant, good and evil, virtue and vice, and hence would
transcend all sorrows. The Law of Karma would have no influence upon
such an illumined mind, and hence it would have no rebirth. It would
be free from the sense of the permanent ego, the sense of individuality.
This illumkied and perfectly sorrowless and calm and tranquil state of the
mind is what Buddha designates as Nirvana, which is synonymous with
Moksha or Mukti.

But what will then happen to this illumined mind free from the
sense of ego or individuality? Will it exist or cease to exist? That it will
continue to have phenomenal existence so long as the bodily life continues
does not admit of doubt. But what after that? As in Lord Buddha's
terminology existence means impermanent ever-changing sorrowful
phenomenal existence, the illumined mind must be verbally said to pass
into the state of non-existence. But from Buddha's teachings it becomes
evident that by this non-existence (maha-parinirvdna) he did not imply
absolute negation of existence, but he pointed to the indefinable
transcendent existence, which is perfectly calm and tranquil, absolutely
above the limitations of time and space, absolutely peaceful and blissful.
It is liberation from phenomenal existence and the attainment of
transcendent existence, which Buddha taught as the supreme ideal of
human life.

But what is it that attains this state of infinite eternal peaceful and
tranquil transcendent existence? Can the phenomenal mind be reasonably
conceived as transcending the phenomenal plane of existence and
ascending to the transcendent plane? The phenomenal mind, according
to Buddhist philosophy, is not one permanent identical reality, but a
temporary continuity of momentary units. How can it transcend time?
How can it possibly exist by being free from its essential transient nature?
If that which sustains its continuity is destroyed, it must as a matter of
course cease to exist, and there would be no entity to attain Nirvana and
enjoy its peace and tranquillity. Lord Buddha generally kept silent on
this problem, because he wanted to avoid the puzzling questions of
metaphysics and to guide the seekers of liberation from sorrow in the
practical path of physical and mental self-discipline and of the cultivation
of desirelessness and non- attachment and selflessness together with
universal sympathy. He could not openly and clearly give to the truth-
seekers any positive idea of Nirvana or Moksha, because, it seems, he was
determined to observe absolute silence about the Atma or Soul behind the

231

phenomenal mind. He often used the term Atmd in the sense of phenome-
nal mind or the ego or the empirical self-consciousness and hence spoke of
its nature as subject to change and sorrow and destruction.

All great Hindu saints and philosophers attached the utmost
importance to the idea of the Atmd or Soul existing permanently behind
the phenomenal mind (i.e. behind Mana, Buddhi and Ahamkdra) as the
changeless indestructible self-luminous centre of the being and. becoming
of every individual creature. According to all of them, Atmd in its
essential character is untouched by all kinds of sorrows, unaffected by all
kinds of vicissitudes to which the individual mana and buddhi and
ahamkdra and prdna and sarira are subject. Pure consciousness is its
essential nature. Though related to particular psycho-physical organisms,
its essential nature is free from the phenomenal conditions and limitations
and bondages of these organisms. It is the self-luminous centre of the
organism; all the physical and vital and mental organs perform their
functions and undergo changes and modifications round about it; it
witnesses all their operations and variations and furnishes the bond of
union among them; it illumines all their activities and modifications; but
it is in its essential nature transcendent of all of them.

This Atmd is the true self of man. It is the self-luminous changeless
self underlying his phenomenal ego-self. It alone has consciousness by its
essential nature, while the consciousness of the phenomenal ego or self is
derivative. The phenomenal self or ego is illumined by the self-luminous
Atmd', it becomes conscious by the innate, consciousness of the Atmd and
experiences and knows itself and its objects by means of this reflected
consciousness. Atmd is accordingly the real seer or knower or experiencer
of the ego and the mind and all objects of phenomenal experience or know-
ledge, though it itself undergoes no modification or change in this seeing or
knowing or experiencing. It is pure witness to all phenomena, all
changes and modifications. It is witness to the knowledge as well as the
ignorance of the phenomenal mind or ego. It is witness to all processes of
knowledge and feeling and volition and active endeavours and passive
sufferings of the mind or ego; it reveals them all to the phenomenal con-
sciousness; but it is not in any way disturbed or agitated or moved or
modified by these processes.

In all phenomenal circumstances, Atmd, i.e. the innermost self, is in
its essential nature perfectly calm and tranquil, perfectly self-conscious and
self-enjoying, perfectly in the supra-mental supra-temporal supra-spatial
supra-phenomenal transcendent state of existence. Though appearing to
be individual in relation to an individual psycho-physical organism, Atmd
is in itself free from the sense of individuality, as it does not participate in

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the conditions and limitations, the enjoyments and sufferings, the imper-
fections and hankerings, the achievements and failures, of any such
organism. Though apparently individual, every Anna is really universal
and limitless. Though revealing itself in and through a particular complex
phenomenal embodiment, in its essential nature it is transcendent. AH
sorrows and imperfections and bondages and all longings and aspirations
for liberation from them pertain to phenomenal ego, while Atmd which
lies behind it and is the ground of its existence and consciousness is
essentially untouched by all these. This is the conception of Atmd
according to most of the greatest philosophers and religious teachers of
India. Accordingly they hold that the attainment of the perfectly sorrow-
less state of existence really means the realisation by the phenomenal ego
of the essential character of the Atmd, which is its supra-phenomenal
ground and of which it is a phenomenal self- manifestation. Thus Self-
realisation is conceived to be the supreme Ideal of human life, the Self
evidently meaning the true transcendent Self or Atmd, Atmd is the supra-
phenomenal ground and dynamic centre and the ultimate goal of the
phenomenal self.

All the principal Hindu religio-philosophical systems are based on
this glorious and inspiring conception of Atmd or the true Self of every
living being. They proclaim to every man and woman and child, You
are not this physical body subject to birth and growth and disease and
decay and death, you are not the vital system which is disorganised and
devitalised in course of time, you are not the mind subject to pleasure and
pain and various kinds of desires and emotions and imaginations and
dreams and hallucinations and thoughts and cares and anxieties, you are
not the intellect subject to doubts and errors and imperfections, nor are you
the organised unity or totality of all or some of them; you are in your
essential nature above them all; though you are apparently associated with
them and you apparently participate in their phenomenal activities and
struggles and sufferings and enjoyments as the dynamic centre of them all,
you in the essential character of your true Self transcend them all and are
untouched by their limitations and changes, developments and degrada-
tions, joys and sorrows.

They make the bold assertion that the true Self of an individual has
no limitation or imperfection, no birth or growth or decay or death, no
degradation or development, no want or desire or struggle or sorrow. The
phenomena of the body and the senses and the vital organs and the mind
and the intellect, the imperfections and limitations pertaining to them and
the joys and sorrows experienced in relation to them, are falsely attributed
to the essential Self due to the Ignorance of the transcendent character of

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this Self. When a person gets rid of this deeply rooted Ignorance and
attains true knowledge of the Self or Itrfid, he becomes perfectly free
from all sorrows and all possibilities of sorrows. The knowledge has of
course to be attained by the phenomenal self or ego through the purifica-
tion and refinement and enlightenment of the phenomenal instruments of
knowledge and through the deepest concentration of the purified and refin-
ed mind and intellect upon the transcendent character of the true Self or
Atma; the phenomenal self or ego has to be perfectly absorbed with and
merged in the concentrated thought of the true Self. When in this way
the phenomenal ego becomes fully identified with the transcendent Self,
when the phenomenal consciousness is fully illumined by the self luminous
transcendent Self, there is perfect Self-knowledge or Self-realisation and
there is perfect liberation or freedom from all sorrows and bondages and
imperfections. The phenomenal ego, having perfectly purified and refined
itself and having consciously identified itself with the At ma or transcendent
Self, realises that it is essentially and eternally untouched by Sorrow.

Know thy Self, be thy Self, realise the essentially transcendent sorrow-
less character of the true Self in thy empirical consciousness and thereby be
free from all impurities and weaknesses and wants and imperfections this
is the Ideal placed before man by all the Hindu religio-philosophical
systems since the time of the revelation of the Vedas. So long as the Soul
is embodied in a phenomenal psycho-physical organism, you should of
course be physically and mentally active, but you should act with the
enlightened consciousness of the infinite and eternal transcendent character
of your true Self and hence without any desire and attachment, without
any care and anxiety, without any affection or aversion, and without any
sense of difference between man and man and even between man and other
creatures. This is spoken of as the state of Jivanmukti (Mukti or Moksha
as realised in the living embodied condition).

Such an enlightened and liberated man, though outwardly living and
moving and acting in the phenomenal world under psycho-physical condi-
tions and limitations, is inwardly free from all bondages and limitations,
all wants and sorrows, all good and evil, all virtues and vices. Though in
the world, he is in his inner consciousness always above the world.
Though apparently living a finite and changeful life, he is inwardly
conscious that his Soul transcends all finitude and change and that he is
essentially one with all. Amidst all apparent vicissitudes of mundane ex-
istence, he is inwardly always in the enjoyment of fulness and bliss. His
actions are normally actuated by universal love and compassion and they
contribute to the happiness and moral and spiritual welfare of the distres-
sed people of the world, but inwardly he is conscious that he neither acts

234

nor is acted upon, that he is neither the cause of any good nor the cause
of any evil, that he neither removes the sufferings of the people nor inflicts
sufferings upon them. He has no sense of ego, no sense of me and mine.
Moreover, even while outwardly acting, he sees the same sorrowless and
free transcendent Soul or Spirit in everybody and feels the essential identity
of himself with everybody in respect of the Soul or Spirit. The life of a
Jivanmukta is a life of inaction in action, a life of the enjoyment of infi-
nity and changelessness amidst finite and changing environments, a life of
unperturbed tranquillity and blissfulness in the world of sorrows and trou-
bles, a life of universal love and sympathy and fellow-feeling in this world
of struggle for existence and pleasure and consequent mutual rivalry and
hatred. This is a great Ideal of iife.

But what happens to the Soul, when it is perfectly released from its
apparent association with the phenomenal psycho-physical organism? In
physical death ordinarily the gross physical body (sthula-dtha) only perishes,
but the Soul remains associated with the subtle psychical body (sukshma-
deha), which does not die with the death of the physical body; that is to
say, the individual ego -consciousness with subtle desires (vdsana or trlshnd)
and impressions of all past phenomenal experiences (sanskaras) as well as
merits and dements arising from past virtuous and vicious deeds remains
attached to the Soul, and this becomes the cause of the assumption of
fresh physical bodies and fresh courses of actions and struggles and enjoy-
ments and sufferings in the physical world. But when physical death
occurs after the attainment of perfect experience in the deepest Samadhi of
the infinite and eternal transcendent character of the Soul and the perfect
spiritual illumination of the phenomenal consciousness through that ex-
perience, the individual ego-consciousness with all its concomitants also
dies out and the Soul is absolutely emancipated from its apparent associa-
tion with all its phenomenal embodiments and hence from all possible
sorrows and limitations. Then there remains no cause for fresh birth
either on this earth or in any other world (loka) and for fresh subjection
to transitory and conditioned joys and sorrows.

So far there is little difference of views among the greatest teachers
of religion and philosophy in India. But how does the Soul exist after its
absolute dissociation from all phenomenal embodiments? This is obvio-
usly not so much a matter of direct spiritual experience as of metaphysical
speculation. On this question the greatest teachers appear to differ in
accordance with their philosophical view-points. Though the Soul is
generally recognised as the self-luminojiis centre and ground of all our
individual phenomenal consciousnesses a'rid experiences, the Soul absolutely
disembodied and dissociated from the phenomenal psychical organism

235

can not be said to have any consciousness or experience in the sense
in which we can possibly understand it. The phenomenal consciousness
obviously ceases to exist as such, when the Soul absolutely cuts off its con-
nection with it. Even if the phenomenal consciousness could possibly exist
without the transcendent Soul, it would not be possible for it to make the
dissociated Soul an object of its experience or knowledge. Hence the pro-
blem of the nature of the Soul after absolute disembodiment appears to be
insoluble.

It has been found that Lord Buddha, perhaps with a view to keeping
his universal moral and religious teachings free from and unprejudiced by
all metaphysical speculations, refused to commit himself to any definite
doctrine in regard to the nature of the perfectly enlightened Soul in the
state of absolute liberation from the empirical bodily existence. He refused
to describe it either as existent or as non-existent, either as conscious or as
unconscious, since all such terms have their phenomenal implications and
are used in the field of our phenomenal experience. The enlightened Jaina
saints preached that the disembodied Soul, liberated from the bondage of
the body and subjection to Karma and Vasand, ascends to higher and higher
planes of transcendent spiritual existence for the ultimate realisation of
absolute Kaivalaya (absoluteness). They seem to have given to the spiri-
tual aspirants an Ideal of infinite progress in the inward direction of spiri-
tual illumination and self-enjoyment, in the realm of perfect freedom.

Mahd-Siddha Kapila, the founder of the Sdnkhya system of philoso-
phy, proclaimed that the individual Soul or Spirit (Purusha)^ when it is
perfectly liberated and dissociated from the psycho-physical embodiment
evolved from Prakriti and thus when its beginningless connection with
Prakriti is entirely cut off, apparently becomes what it essentially and eter-
nally is; i.e., it apparently returns to its esssential transcendent state as pure
changeless infinite self-luminous noumenal consciousness, absolutely free
from joys and sorrows and from all knowledge and emotion and will and
effort. According to his metaphysical view, the Souls or Spirits (Purushas)
are many and innumerable even in their essential character, though each of
them, being above space and time, is transcendentally infinite and eternal.
Hence in the perfectly liberated and disembodied state also, the Souls
remain many and separate from one another, though without any sense of
individuality and relativity. Each exists in the Absolute State (Kaivalya).
The whole cosmic order becomes as good as non-existent to the liberated
Souls, though it continues as a real world to all non-liberated Souls.

YogScarya Patanjali, the author of the Yoga-Sutras (but not of course
the founder of the Toga system), subscribed to the metaphysical view of
Kapila, and accordingly the conception he preached about the disembodied

236

ranscendent nature of the liberated Soul is essentially the same as that
which Kapila preached. After the attainment of perfect intuition by the
pure and refined and concentrated phenomenal consciousness as to the true
supra-phenomenal character of the Soul, the Soul, i.e. the true Seer
(drastd), behind the phenomenal consciousness, is established in its essen-
tial transcendent character, and when it is entirely liberated from its con-
nection with the phenomenal psycho-physical embodiment and its source,
viz. Prakriti, it exists eternally in that infinite self-luminous transcendent
state. This is the Supreme Ideal, for the realisation of which the system-
atic practice of Yoga culminating in Samprajnata and Asamprajnata Sama-
dhi is urgently necessary.

The Nydya system of Gautama and the Vaiseshika system of Kanada
expound a different metaphysical view. According to them, the material
world originates from innumerable material atoms (paramanus) which are
eternal and without magnitude and of four different kinds. Ether, space
and time are also eternally real entities. There are also countless minds of
atomic nature, countless souls (each of infinite character) and one Supreme
Spirit (Paramatma) or Iswara (Personal God) having inherent controlling
power over all of them. Iswara has created this cosmic system with all
kinds of individual bodies in space and time intelligently and voluntarily
and quite freely out of the material atoms and associated the souls and
minds appropriately with the individual organised bodies in accordance
with His plan and design. According to these darsanas, though the Souls
are the real seats of consciousness and knowledge and will and effort,
which are their qualities (gunas), they can not have any actual empirical
consciousness and knowledge and will and effort without being connected
with minds and senses. When this empirical consciousness is thoroughly
purified and refined through appropriate processes of devotion and con-
templation and meditation and rises by Divine Grace to the plane of
spiritual illumination, the connection of the individual Soul with the indi-
vidual mind and the senses is cut off and the Soul is liberated from the
sorrowful bondage of the psychophysical embodiment. It has then no
knowledge, no will, no effort, and even no consciousness. This is its
infinite and transcendent character, and it exists eternally in that supra-
spatial supra-temporal non-conscious transcendent state absolutely free
from all sorrows as well as joys and all limitations.

The Upanishads and the Vedanta-Darsan made the most inspiring
declaration of the essential identity of the individual Soul (free from the
illusory bondage of the psycho-physical embodiment) with Brahma, the
Absolute Spirit, the Transcendent Soul and Ground and Substratum of
the phenomenal universe. It may be noted that Brahma or the Absolute

237

Spirit, as conceived in the Upanishads and the Vcdanta Darsan, had no
place in the religio-philosophical systems of Buddha and Jina; and in*the
Sankhya system Brahma was nothing but a common name for the plurality
of individual Souls (Purusha) free from association with Prakriti and hence
from the sense of individuality and limitation. Iswnra, Whom Patanjali
advises the aspirants for Samadhi to devotedly worship and to deeply con-
template upon, is not the Brahma of the Upanishads and the Vedanta, but a
particular individual Soul (Pu r usha visesha) eternally self-illuminated and
free from all kinds of bondage and eternally the Supreme Ideal and Ins-
pirer of all Yogis. The individual Souls that attain perfect liberation as the
result of the most intensive practice of Yoga or Samadhi become perfectly
of like character with Him, but do not become identical with Him.

Iswara of the Naiyayika school is the Creator or Designer and Arti-
ficer or the Efficient Cause of the Cosmic Order, but not its Material Cause,
not its Substratum and Ground; He is the Supreme Lord of the pheno-
menal universe, but not its noumenal Soul; He rules over all the individual
souls, dispenses justice to them, bestows blessings and mercy upon them,
gives them by the exercise of His merciful discretion perfect enlightenment
and thereby complete liberation from bondage and sorrow; but He is not
the Soul of these souls, these souls are not His own spiritual self-manifes-
tations or spiritual parts; these souls, even when absolutely liberated, do
not become merged in or identified with Him.

The conception of Brahma or the Absolute Spirit, the infinite and
eternal and perfect Sat C id Ananda above individuality and personality and
causality and relativity, as the sole self-existent Reality, as the One-with-
out a-second, the conception of the phenomenal universe of endless
diversities and complications and changes and discords and harmonies as
an appearance or expression of this Brahma in time and space without
involving any real modification or transformation in the essential trans-
cendent character of Brahma, and the conception of the individual souls
as essentially one and identical with Brahma, these are grand and beauti-
ful conceptions preached by the Upanishads and the Vedanta. According
to this view, an individual soul, when perfectly enlightened and liberated
from the illusory bondage of the phenomenal psycho-physical embodiment
and the phenomenal world, realises its essential identity with Brahma, the
Absolute Spirit, and becomes one with Him,

The true Self of every person being, according to this view, God or
the Absolute Spirit, Who is the true Self of the entire universe and of all
creatures born and brought up and decaying and dying within it, Self-
realisation (Atma-sakshatkara) truly means God-realisation (Iswara-saksha-
or Brahma-sakshatkara), i.e, the realisation of the identity of one's

238

own Self with the Self of the universe and the Self of every man, every
beast and bird and insect, every plant and creeper, and everything that
appears to have temporary existence and then to pass out of existence. It
implies the realisation of the essential unity and spirituality and Divinity
of all existences. To a man of such realisation, the plurality is illusory, all
differences are illusory, all births and deaths and joys and sorrows are illu-
sory, and even time and space and causality and relativity are illusory.
Illusions o>Ve their apparent existence to Ignorance and imperfect know-
ledge of the Real Truth. As the whole cosmic system consists of such illu-
sions, it is conceived as a product of Ignorance (Maya). Self-realisation,
which is the same as Brahma-realisation, is the realisation or direct experi-
ence of the Absolute Truth or Reality, the Spiritual Substratum of this
illusory cosmic system.

To a man of such ultimate Truth-realisation, the Cosmic Illusion
vanishes, and Atmd or Brahma or the Absolute Spirit alone exists as the
sole non-dual Reality. This is the real nature of Mukti or Moksha, from
the Vedantic view-point. It is evident that the realisation is to be attained
through Yoga and Jnana in the embodied state of Atma\ when after that
realisation the psycho-physical embodiment perishes in due course, the
individuality of Aimd absolutely vanishes and Absolute Atmd or Brahma
shines unveiled in His non-dual existence. The inner self-enjoyment of an
individual in the consciousness of the non-dual blissful character of the
Self during the post-realisation period of embodied phenomenal existence
is called Jivanmukti, in which the enlightened individual inwardly feels him-
self and the world as non-different from Brahma or the Absolute Spirit,
while outwardly dwelling in the phenomenal world as a phenomenal indi-
vidual without any desire or attachment or fickleness or sadness or fear or
aversion or anxiety. When his physical body perishes, his mental body
also perishes along with it, his illusory phenomenal existence comes to an
end, and he exists as one with Brahman. This is called Videha-mukti.

There are a good many religio-phtlosophical schools in India, which
are partly dualistic and partly non dualistic. They recognise the authority
of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Geeta and the Brahma-Sutras, which are
regarded as the three-fold expressions of the Vedanta, but they do not
accept the extreme non dualistic interpretations of them as offered by
Acaryya Sankara and his famous school. They agree that Brahma or the
Absolute Spirit is the sole Ultimate Reality, but they deny that Brahma
is merely a changeless attributeless difYerenceless spiritual Substratum
of an illusory cosmic order born of some Inexplicable Ignor-
ance or Maya. They maintain that the phenomenal cosmic system is a real
creation or self-manifestation of a Real (though inscrutable) Power (Sakti)

239

inherent in and forming part-and-parcel of the eternal nature of Brahma.
As the Power has no existence apart from and independent of the Owner
of the Power, Brahma, this cosmic order also, which is a magnificent
production or self-expression of the Power in time and space, can not be
said to have any independent separate existence outside of Brahma, Who
is above time and space and on that account the all- pervading and all-
indwelling and changeless Soul of this phenomenal universe.

Logically, the Power is conceived by some schools as different from,
though dependent upon, Brahma, and by others as non-different from
Brahma, (since it has no separate existence), and by others still as both-
different-and-non-different from Brahma; the cosmic system also is corres-
pondingly conceived and described in relation to Brahma by different
schools in different logical terms. That Brahma is the Sole Ultimate
Spiritual Reality and is the sole Ground and Cause and Lord and Soul of
the universe is practically admitted by all.

Again, they deny that the individual souls are only illusorily indivi-
dual and plural, but really one and absolutely identical with Brahma.
They hold that the individual souls are, not only phenomenally, but also
transcendentally individual and innumerable, that they are of atomic
constitution and exist eternally as such even after liberation, that they are
eternal spiritual parts (amsa) or sparks (jyoti-kana) of Brahma, that
though having distinct real existence they exist eternally in and for Brahma.
Accordingly, the enlightened and perfect Self-realisation of an individual
soul, in which Moksha or Mukti consists, does not mean the realisation
of its absolute oneness or identity with Brahma, but the realisation of its
essentially pure blissful and transcendent spiritual character (free from all
worldly bondage and sorrow, free from all desires and attachments and
struggles and restlessnesses) in Brahma. In Mukti the soul does not lose
its individuality and is not merged in Brahma, but is emancipated from the
imperfections of its phenomenal individuality and enjoys the most
loving communion with Brahma.

The religio-philosophical schools referred to above are chiefly ex-
ponents of the cult of Devotion (Bhakti) and they strongly advocate the
Personality or Super-Personality of the Absolute Spirit, Brahma. They
conceive Him as the Supreme Person above all temporal and spatial
limitations, eternally possessing infinite knowledge and wisdom, infinite
majesty and prosperity, infinite strength and prowess, infinite beauty and
sweetness, infinite love and mercy, infinite detachment and calmness,
infinite goodness and moral and spiritual excellence, infinite activity and
tranquillity and self-enjoyment. He is eternally perfect in and by Himself
and He eternally manifests Himself in a playful manner in the creation

240

and regulation and destruction of countless orders of phenomenal exis-
tences and puts Himself in various sorts of relations with them. The devo-
tees give Him various holy Personal Names and feel various love-inspiring
relationships with Him. They cultivate with deeper concentration some
intimate spiritual relationship with Him and become completely absorbed
in His thought in Samddhi. Brahma in His infinite mercy and love bes-
tows spiritual illumination upon the consciousness of the earnest devotee
and releases his soul from the bondage of the limitations and imperfections
of the psycho-physical embodiment and thus from all possible sorrows of
the phenomenal worldly life.

The enlightened devotees of these schools believe that after being
released from the embodied state in the gross phenomenal world, the
liberated individual soul enters into the blissful spiritual realm of Brahma
with its illumined individual consciousness in tact and enjoys perfectly its
eternal spiritual relationship with Brahma. They often enumerate different
forms of Mukti enjoyed by different emancipated and disembodied souls in
the transcendent spiritual realm in accordance with their sddhand in the
embodied state; such as, Sarsti (i.e. blissfully dwelling in the kingdom of
Brahma), Sdlokya (enjoying the proximity of Brahma), Sarupya (enjoying
the likeness of Brahma), Sdyujya (becoming consciously united with
Brahma), and fifthly Ekatwa (attainment of perfect identity with Brahma).
Some classes of earnest love-intoxicated devotees spurn the idea of every
form of Mukti and cherish the hope that their illumined souls should
eternally be in the loving and selfless service of the Lord, Brahma, in the
transcendent blissful spiritual plane. It is also believed that in the trans-
cendent spiritual realm the emancipated loving souls may be blissfully
devoted to Brahma in the manner of a loving wife to her husband, or of an
affectionate mother to her child, or of an intimate friend to his or her
friend, or of a deeply devoted servant to his beloved master, and so on,
just as in this phenomenal world, but without its limitations and imper-
fections.

The conception of these various forms of Mukti is not, however,
inconsistent with the fundamental principles of non-dualistic Vedanta. Nor
is Vedanta averse to the conception of Personal Brahma. Mdyd may quite
easily be conceived as the eternal Power (Sakti) of Brahma. Brahma con-
ceived as with Mdyd or eternal infinite Sakti, is Personal Brahma or Iswara;
but Mdyd or Sakti being, as generally agreed to, essentially non-different
from Brahma, Brahma is not essentially conditioned by the related existence
of May a or Sakti and may therefore be quite reasonably thought of as
Impersonal in His ultimate transcendent character. When it is contempla-
ted that there is nothing which really exists as different or separate from

Brahma, whether independent of or dependent upon Him, He is conceived
as One without a second and as such Impersonal, when again He is contem-
plated as the Supreme Self-shining Spirit endowed with Supreme Power
(Maya), He is conceived as Personal.

Evidently He is eternally both, because in time Power or Maya
(though essentially non-different from the Supreme Spirit) eternally reveals
itself in some form or other (outwardly manifested or unmainfested) as
somehow distinct from and belonging to the Spirit. The non-dualistic
interpretation of Vedanta attaches far greater importance to the aspect of
essential non- difference and applies the category of Reality or Real- Exis-
tence solely to the Supreme Spirit in His transcendent character without
any kind of difference, and logically regards His Personal Character as
endowed with Power (Sakti or Maya) distinct from His essential spiritual
character as purely phenomenal or apparent or illusory. The Bhakti
schools on the other hand regard this Personal Character as the essential
spiritual nature of the Supreme Spirit, and His Impersonal transcendent
character as truly speaking a logical abstraction.

For practical religious self-discipline the Personal character of Brahma
with Supreme Power and infinite glorious attributes is admitted by all. In
relation to Personal Brahma the individual souls must be regarded as His
eternal spiritual parts or self-manifestations, though, conceived in abstrac-
tion from the individuality of the souls and the all-comprehending Person-
ality of Brahma, the souls in their strictly spiritual character may be regar-
ded as identical with Brahma. The souls, having attained Mukti from the
gross psycho-physical embodiment through spiritual illumination, may
enjoy various forms and stages of Mukti in the higher spiritual planes; but
they are, according to Vedanta, all within the realm of Maya or the Supreme
Power of Brahma and hence do not imply absolute liberation (atyantika
mukti) from the bondage of the world of Maya or the phenomenal self-
manifestation of Brahma. They of course enjoy higher lives in the higher
worlds of Maya. Absolute liberation lies in absolute self-identification
with Brahma.

Vedanta as well as a good many other systems admit two forms of
Mukti, viz. Immediate Mukti (Sadyo-Mukti) 9 i.e. absolute liberation or
union with the Absolute Spirit (Brahma) immediately after the dissolution
of the physical body, and secondly Mukti in gradual stages (called Krama-
mukti), i.e. ascent to higher and higher worlds or higher and higher planes
of existence and experience in more and more refined and illumined supra-
physical bodies, till the absolute liberation or union with the Absolute
Spirit is realised. Sadyo-mukti is attained by those individual souls, whose
empirical consciousness in the present physical body is perfectly illumined and

242

purified and hence liberated from the veil of Root-Ignorance and the sense
of ego or individuality as distinct from Brahma. But other individual souls,
whose empirical consciousness does not attain in this body this glorious
state of perfect spiritual illumination and freedom from the sense of indivi-
duality and direct experience of identity with Brahma, but is considerably
refined and purified and freed from all earthly desires and attachments and
the gross sense of ego, gradually rise to higher and higher spiritual planes
of existence and experience in subtler and subtler non-material embodi-
ments and' after a long course of spiritual progress become ultimately
merged in the Absolute Spirit.

The Cosmic Order, born of Maya or the Infinite Inscrutable Power of
the Absolute Spirit (in whatever way the Dynamic Source of this Order
may be conceived), is generally conceived as divided into fourteen Lokas or
worlds, i.e. fourteen planes of existence and experience. Seven are sub-
human, and it would be irrelevant to enumerate them in details in the
present context. One is our human world, which is called Bhuh, in which
we live and move and make all our endeavours, economic, social, moral,
spiritual, etc. There are six worlds or planes of existence and experience
above this Bhuh-lokai viz, Bhuvah, Swah, Mahah, Jana, Tapah, Satya, in
order of superiority. Bhuh, Bhuvah and Swah, are considered as a group of
three (Tri-lokee or Trai-lokyd) closely related to one another. All departed
souls with their subtle psycho-vital bodies pass on to Bhuvah-loka and are
subjected to various pleasurable and painful experiences according to their
good and evil deeds in the different regions of this loka. After a period
determined by their Karma, many of them may be born again in this Bhuh-
loka with gross physical bodies. Those that have performed highly
meritorious acts and deserve higher orders of happiness for very long
periods on that account ascend to Swah-loka and enjoy the rewards of
their actions. After reaping the sweet fruits of their virtuous deeds, they
also have to be born here. Those that can transcend this Swah-loka by
dint of their superior spiritual merits enter into the realm of Mukti
and progressively enjoy the spiritually gainful experiences of the
higher lokas till they attain absolute Mukti. They have not to be
born again.

Mahayogi Gorakhnath agrees with the other Indian religio-philoso-
phical systems in holding that Moksha or Mukti is the ultimate goal of
human life and that Moksha or Mukti lies in the realisation of the essential
transcendent character of the Self or Soul. As it has been found in the
preceding chapters, he agrees with the Upanishads and the Vedanta in
holding that Siva or Brahma is the true Self or Soul in every individual
body, though not accepting the interpretation that the Jeevahood or Self-

243

hood of Siva or Brahma is merely an illusion born of some mysterious
inexplicable Ignorance or Maya. He maintains that the Absolute Spirit,
Siva or Brahma or by whatever other name He may be designated, by
virtue of His innate Power (Nija Saktl), really manifests Himself as the
phenomenal Cosmic System with innumerable individual bodies of various
orders within it and also as the Cosmic Soul and Lord as well as an infinite
number of individual souls related to the individual bodies. He with his
yogtc illumined insight saw that Siva or Brahma, having playfully manifes-
ted Himself as individual souls and identified Himself with limited and
conditioned and ever-changing individual psycho-physical embodiments,
passes through and enjoys various kinds of experiences under various kinds
of limitations and bondages in this infinitely complex and heterogenious
cosmic system, which is also His playful self-manifestation. In all kinds of
phenomena in all the worlds (or planes of existence and experience) within
this cosmic system, Mahay ogi Gorakhnath saw Siva-Sakti-Vilasa (playful
and free self-manifestation of the Absolute Spirit with His own infinite
Spiritual Power).

Now, in this cosmic play of Siva-Sakti, every individual soul or finite
spirit, being in its essential character a spiritual self-manifestation of Siva
Himself, has in its inner nature a potentiality and an urge to realise its
oneness with Siva, and with that ultimate end in view to get rid of all
actual limitations and bondages and imperfections of phenomenally
embodied existence. Sorrow has a very great spiritual value as a moving
force, impelling the finite spirit to struggle against all kinds of limitations
and bondages and to advance progressively towards the ultimate realisa-
tion of its essential Sivahood. Every individual soul, having passed through
various kinds of conditioned and sorrow-ridden experiences in various
bodies, has ultimately to regain the perfect and blissful Siva-consciousness
and to realise absolute oneness with Siva or Brahma. This is a wonderful
design in the heart of this cosmic system. Siva seems to play the
game of losing Himself, then seeking Himself and finally finding
Himself out.

Thus the perfect realisation of Slvahood or Brahmahood by the indivi-
dual soul through the adequate purification and refinement and concentra-
tion and illumination of the empirical consciousness (with which it is relat-
ed, by which it is conditioned, and through which it expresses and progres-
sively realises itself in the state of its individual existence) is, according to
Gorakhnath and his school, the Supreme Ideal of human life. This realisa-
tion is Yoga in the true sense of the term. Gorakhnath uses the term Yoga
in the sense of both the end and the means. He defines Yoga as:-
"Samyogo yoga ityahuh kshetrajna paramatmanoh" , i.e. by the term Yoga

244

the enlightened Yogis mean the union of the soul of the body and the Soul
of the whole cosmic system, the union of Jeeva and Siva, of Aham and
Brahma. This is Yoga as the end. The systematic discipline of the physical
body, the senses, the vital forces, the mental functions, the intellectual
judgments, etc., for the purification and refinement and enlightenment of
the phenomenal consciousness and its final elevation to the plane of trans-
cendent Siva-Consciousness, is Yoga as the means.

The system of discipline taught by Gorakhnath is essentially the same
Eightfold Path (astdngika-yogamdrga) as expounded by Patanjali in his
Yoga-Sutras and by other ancient yogi-teachers; but he and his sampraddya
considerably elaborated the system by the addition of various forms of
Asana, Prdndydma, Mudrd, Bandha, Vedha, Dhdrand, Dhyana, Ajapd,
Ndddnusandhdna, Kundalini Sakti-Jdgarana, etc., Yama and Niyama, the
universal moral principles meant for all human beings (whether systemati-
cally practising Yoga or not), were also amplified by them. This is not the
place for explaining the processes of Yoga-Sddhand. What is important in
the present context is to note that according to both Patanjali's school and
Gorakhnath school, Samddhi is the fulfilment of Yoga, and on that account
the term Yoga is often used in the sense of Samddhi. Samddhi is accordingly
presented by all yoga-schools as the Ideal of all human endeavours for
self-fulfilment and liberation from all bondages and sorrows. In the inter-
pretation of Samddhi, Patanjali appears to lay greater emphasis upon the
perfect suppression of all mental functions (citta-vritti-nirodha), though it is
pointed out that the transcendent character of the Soul is certainly revealed
in that state. Gorakhnath appears to lay greater emphasis upon the perfect
mastery over all the mental functions and the cosmic forces and the perfect
illumination of the phenomenal consciousness in the state of Samddhi. The
individual consciousness is then elevated to Universal Consciousness, the
veiled jeeva- consciousness is elevated to illumined Siva- consciousness,
the mind transcends itself and realises itself as Supermind ( Unmani).

The enlightened Yogi- teachers of all the Indian religio-philosophical
schools (including Buddhism and Jainism) have described various forms
and stages of Samddhi. The suppression (complete or partial) of the
vagaries of the mind, at least for the time being, is the common factor in
all forms of Samddhi. But mere suppression of the mental functions, even if
complete, does not necessarily lead to the spiritual illumination of the
phenomenal consciousness and the realisation of the transcendent character
of the Self. For the purpose of spiritual illumination and Truth-realisation,
Samddhi, together with the contributory yogic processes, has to be methodi-
cally practised under the expert guidance of an enlightened Guru, who can

the disciple from the possible dangers a^d misunderstandings

245

wrong estimates of successes. The necessity of placing oneself under the
guidance of a competent Guru for perfect success in the attainment of the
spiritual goal is stressed by every religious teacher of every school.
Gorakhnath says,

Durlabho vishaya-tyago durlabham tattwa-darsanam
Durlabhd sahajdvasthd Sad-Guroh karundm bind.

It is extremely difficult for an ordinary spiritual aspirant to* attain true
success in the renunciation of all objects of sensuous and mental desires
and enjoyments (which are really sources of sorrows and bondages), in the
realisation of the Absolute Truth, and in the establishment of himself in
the state of absolute freedom and peace, without the merciful help of an
enlightened Guru.

Samadhi, in the sense of the temporary suppression of the mental
functions, may be attained even in the lower planes of phenomenal cons-
ciousness. But the perfect Divine Light illumines this consciousness and
liberates it from all possible sorrows and bondages and limitations and
unveils to it the true transcendent Divine character of the Soul, when this
consciousness fully purifies and refines itself and elevates itself to the
highest spiritual plane and attains Samadhi or perfect self- absorption in that
plane. Even in that plane there may be different stages of Samadhi and con-
comitantly different stages of Truth-realisation or Self-realisation. It is only
in the highest stage of Samadhi that there is a complete transfiguration of
the phenomenal consciousness into what has been called Siva- consciousness
or Brahma-consciousness. But according to Gorakhnath and his school, the
supreme Ideal of human life is not fully realised, even if the Siva* conscious-
ness is attained and enjoyed in the deepest state of Samadhi. So long as the
bodily existence continues, this Siva-consciousness has to be brought down
to all the lower planes, the mental and vital and even the material planes,
of the empirical consciousness.

Let me quote here a few stanzas from Gorakhnath's Viveka-Mdrtanda
to indicate his view as to the true nature of Samadhi.

Yat samatwam dwayoratrajeevdtma-paramdtmanoh,
Samasta-nasta-samkalpah samddhih sobhidhiyate.
Ambu-saindhavayo raikyam yathd bhavati yogatah,
Tathdtma-manaso raikyam samadhir abhidhiyate.
Yadd samliyate jeevo mdnasam ca vilfyate,
Tadd samarasatwam hi samadhir abhidhiyate.

In the first stanza he says, Samadhi is the name of that state of phenome-
nal ponscipusness, in which there is the perfect realisatipn of the absolute

246

unity of the two, viz. the individual soul and the Universal Soul, and in
which there is the perfect dissolution of all the mental processes (cognitive,
emotional and volitional). In the second stanza he says, Just as a perfect
union of salt and water is achieved through the process of yoga (amalgama-
tion or unification), so when the mind or the phenomenal consciousness is
absolutely unified or identified with the Soul through the process of the
deepest concentration (Yoga), this is called the state of Samddhi. In the
third stanza* he says, When the individuality of the individual soul is
absolutely merged in the self-luminous transcendent unity of the Absolute
Spirit (Siva or Brahma), and the phenomenal consciousness also is wholly
dissolved in the Eternal Infinite Transcendent Consciousness, then perfect
Samarasatwa (the essential unity of all existences) is realised, and this is
called SamddhL

In Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati Gorakhnath defines Samddhi thus :
"Sarva-tattwdndm samdvasthd nirudyamatwam andydsa-sthitimattwam iti
Samddhi-lakshanam." The realisation of the spiritual unity of all orders of
existences, the perfectly effortless state of consciousness, and living a life of
perfect ease and equanimity and tranquillity and self-fulfilment, this is the
nature of SamddhL

Gorakhnath's Samarasa-karana is a grand Ideal and he seems to
assign to it a position superior even to that of Samddhi. Samddhi is
of course a condition precedent to the realisation of Samarasa. Samarasa-
karana does not consist in merely rising above all kinds of differences of
normal phenomenal consciousness and experiencing the absolute unity of
transcendent consciousness (involving the perfect identity of the individual
soul and the Cosmic Soul and the perfect dissolution of all diversities
in transcendent Unity) in the deepest and most concentrated state of
meditation, as in Samddhi. Samarasa-karana implies the enjoyment, with
equal relish and joy and with perfect equanimity and tranquillity, in the
normal waking state of phenomenal consciousness, of all orders and forms
of phenomenal self-manifestations of the Absolute Spirit. It implies a
permanent illumined spiritual state of the individual phenomenal conscious-
ness, in which the consciousness does not withdraw itself from the experi-
ences of the diversities of the phenomenal world (as in deep meditation),
nor does it ever forget that all these diversities are variegated phenomenal
self-revelations of Siva or Brahma or the Absolute Spirit and as such are
spiritual in essence and non-different from the Spirit, nor does it ever lose
sight of the essential identity of the individual souls with the Absolute
Spirit and the essential unity of all diversities.

An enlightened Yogi, who attains the stage of Samarasa, sees and
enjoys the differences and at the same time sees and enjoys the internal

247

unity of the differences ; he consciously deals with the plurality of finite
material things, and at the same time sees the One Infinite Eternal Spirit in
them ; he experiences the particular objects of various kinds in the pheno-
menal world, and at the same time experiences himself and Siva or Brahma
as manifested in all of them ; he outwardly participates in the joys and
sorrows of the people, and at the same time inwardly enjoys supreme bliss
amidst all these particular and transitory enjoyments and sufferings. While
living and moving amidst diversities and changes, he always inwardly
dwells in the realm of blissful changeless spiritual Unity. He sees and
enjoys himself in all and all in himself. Gorakhnath calls it Sahaja-
Samddhi and also Jdgrat-Samddhi, i.e. Samddhi in the normal waking state.
This is the true character of a Natha or Avadhuta. Every Yogi
aspires for attaining this perfectly enlightened state in his
embodied life.

In Goraksha-Siddhdnta-Samgraha Moksha or Mukti is defined as
"Ndtha-swarupena avasthiti", i.e. the perfect realisation of Nathahood, which
ultimately means the same thing as the realisation of Sivahood or the
attainment of Siva-consciousness. This is also described as the attainment
of the state of Avadhuta.

The character of Natha is indicated in this way :

Nirgunam vdma-bhdge ca savya-bhdge adbhutd nijd
Madhya-bhdge swayam pumas tasmai Ndthdya te namah.
Muktdh stuvanti pdddgre nakhdgre jeeva-jdtayah
Muktdmukta-gater muktah sarvatra ramate sthirah.
Vdma-bhdge sthitah Sambhuh savye Vishnuh tathaiva ca
Madhye Ndthah paramjyotih tadjyotir mat-tamo-haram.

In His left part (i.e. in His transcendent consciousness) lies Nirguna (i.e. the
infinite eternal changeless differenceless attributelesss transcendent aspect
of the Absolute Spirit), and in His right part (i.e. in His refined and
enlightened phenomenal consciousness) lies the unique and inscrutable
Supreme Power innate in the nature of the Absolute Spirit (i.e. the infinite
eternal self-revealing self-phenomenalising self-diversifying and all-harmon-
ising and all-enjoying playful dynamic aspect of the Absolute Spirit). In the
middle (i.e. combining both the aspects of the Absolute Spirit in His all-
comprehending consciousness) shines Ndtha Himself in His complete
perfection. I (a spiritual aspirant) bow down to this Ndtha (and aspire for
realising His character in myself).

All orders of living beings (which are in the domain of ignorance and
bondage and sorrow and are struggling to get rid of them) are offering

548

their hearts* prayers (consciously or unconsciously) at the nails of Nathans
feet (i.e. to them also the attainment of the perfectly free and enlightened,
all-seeing and all-enjoying, supramental consciousness is the highest object
of aspiration and the ultimate end of evolution). Those who have emancip-
ated themselves from the sorrows and bondages of this sensuous world and
ascended to higher worlds of freedom and joy, are also dwelling with a
prayerful attitude at the feet of Ndtha (i.e. they also make spiritual efforts
in those higher planes of existence and experience to attain perfect self-
fulfilment by rising to the supreme plane of Ndtha consciousness). Ndtha
dwells in a plane of consciousness which is above the planes of the baddha
(non-liberated) as well as of the mukta. He enjoys Himself with perfect
tranquillity and illumined outlook in all the planes and regions of pheno-
menal experience.

In the third stanza it is said : On His left side is Sambhu (the
Supreme Spirit in His all-transcending self-absorbed aspect), and on His
right side is Vishnu (the Supreme Spirit in His all-immanent all-pervading
aspect). In the middle (uniting the two aspects in His all-comprehending
illumined consciousness) Ndtha shines as the perfect Divine Light (enjoying
Himself equally as Sambhu and Vishnu). May that Divine Light destroy the
darkness of my ignorance.

In Siddha-Siddhdnta-Paddhati a Siddha-Yogi (i.e. a perfectly enlighten-
ed Yogi) is characterised in this way :

Prasaram bhdsate Saktih samkocam bhdsate Sivah
Tayor yogasya kartd yah sa bhavet Siddha-yogirdt .
Viswdtitam yathd viswam ekam eva virdjate
Samyogena sadd yas tu Siddha-Yogi bhavet tu sah.
Paripurna-prasanndtmd sarvdsarva-padoditah
Visuddho nirbhardnandah sa bhavet Siddha-yogirat.

The first stanza means : Sakti (Power) is manifested in the expansion
of the phenomenal cosmic order, and Siva (the Supreme Spirit) is manifes-
ted in the contraction (harmonisation and unification and ultimate absorp-
tion) of this diversified phenomenal system. He who realises the identity of
Siva and Sakti (i.e. sees Siva in every expression of Sakti and sees Sakti
as immanent in and non-different from Siva) in his perfectly illumined
consciousness, is a perfect Yogi. Here the direct experience of the unity of
Siva and Sakti is spoken of as the Supreme Ideal of life.

The second stanza means : The Supra-cosmic Spirit and the Cosmic
Order, the timeless and spaceless Unity of Absolute Experience (Nirvi-
kalpa Samddhi) and the spatio-temporal system of changing diversities of

normal relative experiences, are essentially one and the same. (They do
not contradict each other.) He who by virtue of the perfection of his yogic
self-discipline (samyak-yoga) realises this oneness in the supra-mental supra-
logical all-comprehensive consciousness is true Siddha-Yogi. Such a Siddha-
Yogi always sees that Time is ceaselessly moving on the breast of the
Timeless, Plurality is dancing on the bosom of Unity, Matter is playing in
the heart of Spirit, Maha-Kali is eternally marching onward and playing
various parts of creation and preservation and destruction an^ revealing
various kinds of Rasa on the eternally unmoved and calm and tranquil and
self-enjoying breast of the Supreme Spirit, Maha-Kala, Siva. He sees that
the Absolute Spirit is eternally motionless as well as variously moving,
eternally transcendent as well as self-revealing in infinite phenomenal
modes and forms.

The third stanza means: He whose consciousness is always in a
perfectly peaceful and tranquil state, who identifies himself with all and
at the same time transcends all, who is absolutely pure and who always
dwells in the realm of unconditioned joy and self-fulfilment, is a true
Siddha-Yogi. He sees all in himself and himself in all, he participates in
the joys and sorrows of all, he feels deep compassion and sympathy and
love for all; but all the same he always dwells above all, he always
inwardly lives in a state of perfect peace and tranquillity and unity and
undisturbed self-enjoyment. Though in his bodily life living in a world
which is generally regarded as a world of sorrows and struggles, he by
virtue of his perfectly pure and refined and illumined consciousness
remains untouched by all kinds of sorrows and struggles and disturbances
and always feels freedom and serenity and fullness within himself.

Thus a perfectly enlightened siddha-yogi lives in the embodied state
amidst all kinds of mundane circumstances with undimmed and undis-
turbed Siva-consciousness, and enjoys in this world of bondages and
sorrows and struggles perfect freedom from bondages and sorrows and
struggles. To him this world is, empirically speaking, transformed into a
perfectly beautiful and blissful spiritual world. This is the state of Jeevan-
mukti. In the disembodied state he becomes perfectly identified with Siva,
because every individual soul is nothing but an individualised self-
expression of Siva.

According to Gorakhnath and his school, the perfectly successful
practice of Yoga is attended with various other glorious attainments.
First, a perfect Yogi or Natha becomes a complete Master of his physical
body as well as of the physical forces of the world of normal experience.
He acquires the power to transform his gross physical body, whenever he
pleases, into an invisible atom or into an enormously big colossus, to

250

make it lighter than air or heavier than a mountain without changing its
size or form, to make it impregnable to deadly weapons and to deadly
forces of nature, to create as "many physical bodies as he likes at the
same time and to perform different kinds of actions or enjoy different
kinds of pleasures through them, to exercise hypnotic influence upon the
minds of others and even to enter into the bodies of others, to convert
one physical thing into another physical thing by mere wish, to perceive
objects beyond the scope of senses, and even to immensely elongate the
span of this physical life and to conquer death.

To Gorakhnath and the Siddha-Yogi school, the difference between
Spirit and Matter is only relative and apparent, in as much as Matter is
nothing but self-manifestation, self-embodiment and self-objectification of
Spirit. The physical body, the subtle body, the life, the mind, the
intellect, the forces and the phenomena of the world, all these are free
playful expressions of Spirit. According to the Yogis, man has within
himself the power and possibility not only to experience Spirit in all of
them, but also practically to convert the physical body into a vital or
mental body or to produce from one mental body one or numerous
physical bodies or to spiritualise the physical body or to transform one
material thing into another, and to perform many other deeds which may
appear miraculous to the people in general. All these can be done
through the development or unfoldment of the spiritual power which is
present in man, but which in normal life remains dormant or inactive.
This power can be adequately developed through the systematic and
intensive practice of Yoga. The rational Will in man can be so
strengthened as to appear all-powerful in this phenomenal world. The
aim of Yoga is not merely to perfectly enlighten the cognitive aspect of
the phenomenal consciousness, but also likewise to perfectly realise all the
potentialities of the volitional and dynamic aspect of the consciousness,
not merely to attain perfect experience of the Absolute Spirit, but also to
participate in the Supreme Power of the Absolute Spirit.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE EVOLUTION OF HINDU SPIRITUAL
CULTURE (I)

1. VEDAS THE BASIS OF HINDU SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

For several thousands of years the Vedas have been universally
accepted as the starting point and the solid foundation of the spiritual
culture of Bharatvarsha. The time when the Vedic Mantras and the lofty
and sublime spiritual ideas embodied in them were first revealed to the
Aryan Seers (Rishis) could never be even approximately ascertained. It
was a matter of controversy among the most eminent intellectualists of
the country even three thousand years ago. The modern truth-seekers of
the West and the East, having started their speculations from different
kinds of data, have arrived at hypotheses, which often differ from one
another, not merely by centuries, but by millenniums. Some recent
archaeological discoveries in several parts of India have led many thinkers
to suppose that they indicate the existence of a pre-Vedic civilisation and
culture in ancient India. But the grounds on which they base their
theory that the Indus-Valley civilisation was prior to the revelation of the
Vedas are regarded by other equally eminent scholars as altogether
inadequate. There arc however no substantial differences of views with
regard to the conclusion that the Vedic Texts are the earliest available
literary records of the highly spiritual and intellectual achievements of the
Aryan race as well as of the entire human race and that all the ethical and
spiritual thought-currents and life-currents of the Indian people have for
so many thousands of years continually flown down from them and have
been inspired and regulated and controlled by them. The Hindus in
general regard the Vedas as the self-revealed linguistic embodiments of
the eternal supra-mental and supra-intellectual Truth and Law (Satyam
and Ritam) underlying the phenomenal universe, and they bow down to
them as the supreme authority with regard to all moral and spiritual
problems of human life, all the fundamental supra-mundane interests and
ideals immanent in the human nature as well as all the ultimate questions
of the human intellect.

It is obvious to any impartial scholar that more than three thousand
years back the most influential saints and sages and thought-leaders of
India, whose sacred memories are cherished with the deepest respect by all
classes of people even to the present day, accepted the Vedas as infallible

252

guides in the domain of super-sensuous moral and spiritual truths, which
were considered beyond the range of normal human experience and even
ordinary logical reasoning, but which were felt to be essential for the
proper discipline and refinement of man's higher intellectual and
emotional and practical life and its elevation to still higher and higher
planes of existence and experience. They with their highly developed
intelligence were led to believe that the loftiest and sublimest ideas and
ideals and sentiments, which were expressed in the Vedic Mantras, could
not possibly be the products of mere reflection and speculation and
imagination even of the greatest intellectual geniuses and poets and must
therefore have been revealed to the innermost consciousness of the pure-
minded and pure-hearted Rishis from some unerring super-intellectual
spiritual Source.

Those ancient thinkers also could not fix any time for the first
revelation of the Vedic Truths to the human society. They got them
through a long line of preceptors and disciples. The Rishis, with whose
holy names particular Vedic Mantras are remembered as associated, were
never regarded as their composers, but they were revered as the specially
selected recipients of special aspects of the self-revealing Eternal Truths
in the most concentrated and illumined states of their consciousness.
They were the mediums, through whom the Truths came down from the
super-intellectual spiritual plane to the planes of the human intellect and
emotion and verbal expression. The linguistic forms, in which those
super-intellectual Eternal Truths came out spontaneously from the mouths
of those exceptionally inspired holy personalities, were so charming and
so dynamic and forceful and were regarded by truth-seekers as so sacred
and glorious, that they were remembered and reproduced with the utmost
care and accuracy with their rhythms and accents and musical notes. They
continued to pass on from generation to generation for centuries and
millenniums.

II. SOME FUNDAMENTAL VEDIC TRUTHS

Some of the most fundamental Truths, revealed through the Vedas
and accepted as well as verified by the most enlightened saints and sages
of all times, may be briefly mentioned here.

First, the Vedas revealed that this magnificent world-order, of which
neither the absolute temporal beginning nor the absolute temporal end we
can rationally conceive, is not merely a physical and mechanical system,
but essentially a spiritual and moral and aesthetic system. They unveiled
the truth that this apparently material and pluralistic universe of our
jiormal sensuous experience is essentially the spatio-temporal phenomenal

253

self- manifestation of One Self-existent Self-luminous Self-revealing Infinite
Eternal Transcendent Spirit. It is proclaimed that all the diverse orders of
finite and changing realities of the phenomenal cosmic system are ultimately
born of as well as sustained and governed and pervaded by the Spirit, that
their courses of origination and destruction, evolution and involution,
integration and disintegration, are all wonderfully regulated by the Supreme
Law of phenomenal self-expression of the Spirit, that what appear to our
sensuous knowledge as lifeless material objects are also particular embodi-
ments of the Spirit and as such full of inner life and light.

The empirical consciousness of man is normally deluded by the outer
physical properties of objective realities appearing to our outer senses; the
Vedic Mantras teach this consciousness to see in them the shining presence
of the Spirit. They open the inner eyes of men to see the Spirit in Earth
and Water and Fire and Air and Ether, in Suns and Moons and Stars and
Planets, in Mountains and Seas and Rivers and Forests, in all physical and
mental and vital and social and political forces. They proclaim that the
same infinite and eternal self-shining Spirit is the Indwelling Soul of all
and that He is spoken of in different Divine Names (Devata) in relation
to different kinds of phenomenal embodiments and different kinds of
powers and actions and striking features manifested through them. The
One Spirit reveals Himself as a plurality of Spirits with a variety of
phenomenal embodiments. Thus the Vedas give a magnificent spiritual
conception of the universe, which is a basic conception of Hindu culture.

Secondly, it was revealed through the Vedas that all the phenomena
of all the amazingly diverse orders and planes of existences in this spati-
ally and temporally boundless Cosmic System are governed and regulated
by Universal and Inviolable Laws or Principles, and that these Laws are
not merely natural or physical or mechanical or biological Laws, but also
Mental and Moral and Aesthetic and Spiritual Laws. Though this world
outwardly appears to our normal understanding to be a scene of dreadful
catastrophes and cataclysms and accidents, a scene of violent disruptions
and upheavals and unforeseeable occurrences in nature, a scene of constant
hostilities and struggles among the multifarious forces in all the spheres of
our experience and a scene of unbearable sufferings and agonies in all
species of living creatures ; nevertheless, behind all these outer appearances
there are in this Cosmic Order eternal Principles of Harmony and Unifi-
cation, Co-operation and Service and Sacrifice, Justice and Benevolence
and Mercy, the Principle of the Triumph of order over disorder, virtue
over vice, good over evil, love over hatred, beauty over ugliness, joy over
sorrow, and the Principle of the gradual evolution and progressive reali-
sation of the Ultimate Truth, the Highest Good, the Supreme Beauty, the
Perfect Bliss ajid the Absolute Fulfilment

254

Virtue which contributes to this realisation is in this Moral and
Spiritual Government of the world invariably rewarded with happiness and
favourable conditions of life, which supply impetus to the elevation of life
to higher and higher planes. Vice is punished with sorrow, which stimu-
lates desires and struggles for transcending the lower levels of existence.
What appear as anti-moral anti-spiritual anti-evolutionary forces in the
world are only meant for adding to the glories and splendours and
beauties of % the moral and spiritual and evolutionary forces which reign
supreme in the system. The Vedas present to man a highly noble and
dignified, lovable and attractive, magnificent and adorable picture of the
Cosmic Order as a whole, without ignoring the presence of the apparently
terrible and repulsive aspects of the phenomena in nature and the animal
and human worlds, which, they assert, are subordinate and auxiliary
features of this Great System and magnify its grandeur as the phenomenal
self-manifestation of the Infinite and Eternal Absolute Spirit.

The Vedas taught the Hindus to cultivate an adhi-daivic and
adhyatmic (implying moral and spiritual) outlook on this world-order,
instead of a merely adhi-bhoutic (or materialistic) outlook, in as much as
all the affairs of this apparently material world ore governed by Moral and
Spiritual Powers in accordance with eternal Moral and Spiritual Principles,
and ultimately by One Supreme Spirit. Man lives and moves and has his
being in a magnificent moral and spiritual world, and as a self-conscious
and self-determining participator in its ethico- spiritual scheme, man has to
adjust himself with and fulfil his mission of life in this great world through
free and voluntary self-discipline, and progressive development of his
intellectual knowledge, moral character and spiritual enlightenment. This
is a grand message of the Vedas for the Humanity and this has been the
outlook of the Hindus for so many millenniums.

Thirdly, the Vedas emphasised that in the scheme of the universe
man occupies a unique position, because he is endowed with a highly
developed physical body in which the spirit can with comparative freedom
and ease play its part and realise itself and the phenomenal consciousness
is capable of being intellectually, morally, aesthetically and spiritually
refined and enlightened and perfected. His intellectual power enables him
to pierce through the veils of the outer appearances of this phenomenal
self-manifestation of the Spirit and to be in direct communion with the
Spirit, Who is the Ultimate Truth of all phenomena. The Vedas present
before the human intellect the lofty ideal that the fulfilment of its capacity
of knowledge lies, not merely in the discovery of the natural forces and
laws which harmonise and organise the world into a natural order, but
chiefly in the comprehension and appreciation of the moral and spiritual

255

forces and laws which govern all classes of phenomena and develop the
world as a moral and aesthetic and spiritual order, and ultimately in the
illumined experience of the Infinite Eternal Absolute Self-shining and Self-
enjoying Spirit, Who freely and joyfully manifests Himself in the diverse
forms of existences in this Cosmic System.

Again, by virtue of his moral consciousness, man develops within
himself a sense of freedom and responsibility, duty and obligation, dharma
and adharma, and a moral attitude towards his own actions and the affairs
round about him. This moral consciousness greatly raises the intrinsic
dignity of man in the scheme of the world and it distinguishes him from
other creatures perhaps more prominently than his intellectual conscious-
ness.

The concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, piety and impi^y,
dharma and adharma, intrinsic values of right actions and thoughts, intrinsic
merits of dharma and demerits of adharma, rewards for virtue and punish-
ments for vice, deserts for happiness and misery arising from righteous and
unrighteous deeds, etc., all these concepts, which are universally accepted
as the glories of human nature, have their origin in the inherent moral con-
sciousness of man. Just as his intellectual consciousness assures him of the
objective reality of the world of his actual and possible experience and
knowledge and the validity of the laws and principles he discovers
therein by the exercise of his thought, so his moral consciousness assures
him that he has real freedom for self-development in this world, that here
he is not merely a creature of the natural circumstances, but a real builder
of his own destinies, that here he has a real right and power and duty to
exercise effective control over and to make the best use of the natural
environments and forces and materials, amidst which he may live, and
thereby to realise the ideals, by which he is prompted or inspired from
within.

The moral consciousness, which adds such great dignity to human
nature and assigns to man such a unique position in the world, creates also
many complications and puzzles to his intellect and life. Even the most
highly developed intellect is perplexed to rationally conceive how there can
be scope for real freedom and responsibility of man and for his building
up his own destinies in a world, which is governed by inviolable and
universal natural laws or by some Omnipotent Omniscient Divine Power.
Moreover constant conflicts between the inner demands and commands of
the Moral Consciousness on the one hand and the natural desires and
propensities of the psycho -physical organism as well as the natural ambi-
tions for happiness and prosperity (kama and artha) on the other, do
also cretea difficulties and perplexities which often baffle solution in

256

practical life. Again, what is it that the Moral Consciousness ultimately
demands ? What is the ultimate Ideal which the Moral Consciousness
aspires after and prompts man to achieve by dint of his free well-regulated
efforts in this life ? What is the essential nature of the Highest Good, the
Absolute Right, the Perfect Moral Excellence ? What is the ultimate and
supreme character of Dharma ? All such questions are puzzling even to
the highly developed human intellect.

X

III. VEDAS UNVEILED THE INNER SECRETS OF

THE ORDER OF THE UNIVERSE.

Long ages past the Vedas supplied the key to the solution of these
problems by unveiling the inner secrets of the order of the universe to the
illumined consciousness of the Rishis or the Mahdyogis. They saw with
their inner eyes that this spatio-temporal phenomenal universe is the free
self-manifestation, in various stages and grades, in various levels of exis-
tences, under various temporal and spatial limitations, of One Eternal
Infinite Self-existent Self-shining Perfect Spiritual Super-Personality, in
Whose transcendent nature Absolute Knowledge, Absolute Goodness,
Absolute Beauty and Absolute Happiness, are eternally realised, together
with the Absolute Freedom and Power of Diversified Self-expression. He
is not only the Absolute Source and Sustainer of all orders of existences,
but also the Supreme Ideal immanently operative in and regulating all
processes of evolution and involution, creation and destruction, in all
grades of His phenomenal self-expressions. The Absolute Cause is also
the Supreme Ideal of Goodness and Beauty, Wisdom and Knowledge,
Happiness and Prosperity, Power and Freedom, Peace and Tranquillity,
which man's intellectual and moral and aesthetic and sensuous and
spiritual consciousness seeks for realising by dint of voluntary efforts.

All orders of existences have come down from the Supreme Spirit,
live and move in the Supreme Spirit, are inspired by the Ideal of realising
the Supreme Spirit in themselves, are going ahead step by step towards
perfect union with the Supreme Spirit through the processes of evolution
and involution, and are ultimately merged in the unity of the Supreme
Spirit. The world-order, being the free self-expression of the Supreme
Moral and Spiritual Super-Personality, offers ample scope within itself for
free self-expression and self-development to the individual spirits (jeevas),
which are finite spiritual self-manifestations of the same Supreme Spirit.
The innumerable spirits or souls, apparently conditioned by various orders
of material and vital and psychical embodiments and playing various roles
in this cosmic system under those conditions and limitations, essentially
participate in the transcendent spiritual character of the Supreme Spirit
and as such inwardly transcend their phenomenal embodiments and are

25?

impelled by a mysterious inner urge to practically get rid of all bondages
by appropriate means and realise their True Self.

In inorganic material bodies the individual spirits or souls appear to
be completely veiled, but they are not really non-existent therein, and it is
the spiritual urge inherent in the souls of the material bodies that impre-
ceptibly operate in and govern the course of evolution in physical nature.
It is the imperceptible propulsion of the spiritual character of .the souls of
the material bodies that leads to the evolution of life within material bodies.
In plant bodies the spirits or souls are only rudimentarily manifested. In
them the biological factors, the organising functions of the vital forces,
sensibility to impressions, the control and harmonisation of the operations
of all parts of a massive body from a common centre and for some com-
mon purpose, etc. all these are manifestations in them of the spirits or
souls seeking to transcend the limitations and to realise their inner spiritual
characteristics. It is on account of the presence of the spirits or souls
actuated by the urge for realising their higher spiritual characteristics with-
in living bodies, that there is in the warld-order the evolution of higher and
higher orders of living beings endowed with different grades of minds and
empirical consciousnesses and also different grades of freedom of move-
ments and actions.

In the wonderful moral and spiritual scheme of this cosmic self-
manifestation of the Absolute Spirit, the evolution of the human species is
a phenomenon of great importance, in as much as in the human life the
individual spirit or soul is embodied with the most suitable physical, vital
and mental instruments, efficiently organised with one another and capable
of infinite developments, for the progressive realisation of the highest
Ideals eternally realised and unified in the transcendent character of the
Absolute Spirit. The human embodiment of an individual spirit also
passes through various stages of development, and in each higher stage the
physical body with its nervous system and brain and other inner instru-
ments is more efficiently organised and refined, its vital powers are more
effectively strengthened and regulated, its mental capacities are more
developed and expanded and liberated and coordinated, and they are
gradually elevated to higher and higher planes; powers for freely thinking,
freely speaking, freely moving and acting, freely cultivating various kinds
of emotions and sentiments and thoughts and giving free expressions to
them, are gradually developed in the human mind. At each higher stage
of development the individual ego (which is the phenomenal self-expres-
sion of the individual spirit) becomes more self-conscious, more self-
assertive, more self-determining, more self-reliant, more self-expansive,
more consciously and voluntarily and rightfully exercising its controlling

authority over the body and the senses and the vital forces and the mental
functions, and more ambitious to realise its inner possibilities and to elevate
itself to still higher planes. The intellectual consciousness, the moral
consciousness, the aesthetic consciousness, the spiritual consciousness,
all these are more and more prominently and powerfully manifested at the
higher and higher grades of development of the human embodiment of the
individual spirit.

At the highly refined and enlightened stages of development of the
intellectual, moral, aesthetic and spiritual nature of man, the laws of
necessity are revealed to be subordinate to the higher laws of freedom, the
laws of physical nature are revealed to be subordinate to the superior
moral and spiritual laws, all the diversities of nature are experienced as a
harmonious and beautiful and sublime system of free and joyful selfexpres-
sions of one Infinite and Eternal Spirit. All the diverse orders of laws
regulating and systematising the lower orders of phenomenal self-
manifestations of the Spirit, though appearing to be inexorable in their
respective planes, have provisions for the individual spirits' transcending
them and ascending to higher planes of self-expression and self-realisation.
The phenomenal universe itself is not a wholly closed system, but has
openings for the individual spirits' rising above it and realising perfect iden-
tity with the Absolute Spirit, through the development and elevation and
refinement of their intellectual and moral and aesthetic and spiritual
consciousness within this universe and within their phenomenal
embodiments.

The individual spirits are no other than the Absolute Spirit Himself,
manifesting and enjoying Himself as a plurality of finite spirits or souls
within finite and changing phenomenal embodiments and playfully seek-
ing for the realisation of His own perfectly blissful transcendent
character in and through them. The Absolute Spirit seems to have freely
and voluntarily sacrificed Himself, i. e. His Transcendent Unity and
Perfection in a great Cosmic Sacrifice, and became many imperfect
spirits within this Cosmic Order, in order as it were to enjoy Himself in
infinite ways and forms. These Vedic revelations supplied the key to the
solution of all the puzzling problems of the normal planes of our
intellectual and moral and^aesthetic consciousness.

IV THE PRINCIPAL MODES OF DISCIPLINE TAUGHT BY VEDAS
(a) The cultivation of the spirit of Yajna in practical life.

In accordance with this glorious conception of man and the universe,
the Vedas placed before man certain principles and ways of life for the

259

proper discipline and development of his freedom and the final fulfilment
of the inherent demand of his soul. One of them is the ideal of
progressive self-elevation and self-expansion and self-fulfilment in the path
of Karma or Prabritti (action), sublimated by the spirit of Yajna
(sacrifice) and gradually refined and promoted to higher and higher planes.
The spirit of Yajna implies the sacrifice of the lower sensuous desires and
hankerings of individuals for the sake of the fulfilment of the higher and
nobler moral and spiritual aspirations, the sacrifice of smaller and transitory
interests of the physical life for the sake of thejj wider and more abiding
well-being of the inner life, the sacrifice of individual pleasures and
possessions for contributing to the happiness and permanent welfare of the
whole society, the sacrifice of the enjoyments of the lower planes of life for
the fulfilment of the innermost urge of the soul.

The Vedas laid down the principle that Sacrifice (Yajna and Tyaga)
is in the moral scheme of the universe the only sure and effective means for
becoming worthy of the higher achievements of life. It is only through
the sacrifice for common good of what one has got in one's possession that
one deserves to possess more and to ascend to. higher and higher planes of
existence and self-fulfilment. It is only through perfect self-sacrifice i. e.
by giving away all one's possessions for universal good, that one can rise
to the most enlightened state of perfect self-realisation. The way of human
life ought to be the way of free and voluntary self-sacrifice in progressive
stages, with higher and higher ends in view. Our domestic and social life
and its obligations always demand the voluntary sacrifice of our petty
individual interests for common welfare, and we as individuals reap the true
benefits of such sacrifices in the progressive ennoblement and elevation of
our moral and spiritual character. According to the Vedas, all the earthly
materials that we may possess, including all our physical and intellectual
capacities and all our social and political and economic powers and
privileges, ought to be regarded as materials Divinely given to us for the
performance of sacrifices (Yajnas) and should be humbly and appropria-
tely utilized for such sacrificial deeds contributing to general welfare, with
a view to our inward self-elevation and self-realisation and eternal bliss.
The true purpose of the unique status of man in the world-scheme is best
served through free and voluntary acts of sacrifices, to which he ought to
devote himself. Yajna as the principle of active life is a highly noble
practical message of the Vedas.

The celebrated interpreters of the Vedas formulated various types of
sacrificial works, domestic, social, religious, political, etc., in accordance
with various grades of physical, intellectual and moral calibre and various
kinds of domestic, social, political and environmental conditions of the

260

people, for the elevation of their practical life to higher and higher planes
and the advancement of their moral deserts for superior kinds of happi-
ness and more favourable conditions of life. The Vedas instructed all
people to perform all such sacrifices and all the duties of life with an
attitude of devotion and worship to the Gods and with purity and humility
of hearts, so that the entire practical life may be spiritualised and refined
and elevated to higher and higher spiritual planes. The Vedas placed
before man the inspiring ideal that the whole human life from birth to
death, with all the variety of its natural demands and interests and duties
and obligations and all the variety of circumstances which it may have to
face, should be lived as a religious life, and all its affairs should be freely
and voluntarily conducted with the moral and spiritual end in view, so that
it may be in perfect tune with the moral and spiritual scheme of the
universe. Through a series of sacrifices the human life should steadily and
freely advance towards eternal life, eternal happiness, eternal goodness and
eternal beauty.

(b) Aspiration for attaining higher worlds through Yajna.

The Vedas placed before man the idea of a hierarchy of lokas
(worlds) or planes of existence and experience, both above and below
this Bhuh-loka, the plane of normal human existence and experience.
Above Bhuh-loka, there are Bhuvah, Swah, Mahah, Jana, Tapah and Satya,
and below this Bhuh-loka seven planes of Pdtala are spoken of. Men, the
dwellers of Bhuh-loka, through the voluntary and well-planned performan-
ce of higher and higher forms of sacrifices and through the development
and purification and refinement of their moral and intellectual and emotio-
nal life on this earth, can acquire the desert to ascend to the higher and
higher lokas, which are more and more free from the limitations and
bondages and wants and sorrows of this material world and this sense-
ridden plane of existence and experience. All the higher worlds are
sometimes designated by the general name of Swarga (Heavens). Abuse
of the powers and privileges and opportunities of human life on Earth
results in the degradation of the human soul to the lower and lower
worlds.

The Vedas exhort all morally and intellectually awakened human
beings on Earth to free themselves from all sensuous desires and passions
and all earthly ambitions for power and prosperity and to live a life of all-
round sacrifice and altruistic service, with a view to acquire deserts for
ascent to the Heavens or the Higher Worlds (Swarga-kdmo yajeta) and
thereby for attainment of a higher and fuller and happier immortal life.
They keep before their eyes also a terrible picture of the lower worlds, to
which they should be degraded, if they abuse their freedom and opportu-

261

nities by the transgression of the moral laws in practical life and thereby
make themselves liable to dire punishment in lower forms of existence and
experience. This is the moral scheme of the Cosmic System.

The Vedas further assert that if a man's practical life is governed by
earthly desires and propensities, he must undergo repeated births and
deaths in this human world, and the favourable and unfavourable
conditions as well as the enjoyments and sufferings of each succeeding life
are principally determined by the moral effects of the righteous and
unrighteous deeds of the previous lives. It is an inviolable moral law of
the world-order that an individual reaps what he sows, that he enjoys
and suffers what he earns as the result of his own past deeds, while in this
human life he is endowed with a relative freedom to further develop or de-
grade himself through the voluntary performance of fresh good or bad
actions.

The physical death, it is authoritatively proclaimed, is no cessation of
existence for an individual; while the gross material organism is disorga-
nised and ceases to exist as an individual body, neither the individual soul
nor its subtle psycho-vital embodiment ceases to exist or loses its
individuality along with the physical body. The individual soul, equipped
with its subtle psycho-vital embodiment, with its moral deserts and
psychical tendencies and with its spiritual yearnings and achievements,
passes on to or adopts and develops and organises a new suitable physical
body, for reaping the pleasant and unpleasant fruits of the virtuous and
vicious deeds, for fulfilling the unfulfilled desires and aspirations and for
getting and utilising further opportunities towards the satisfaction of the
deeper urge of the inner consciousness for self-elevation and self-perfection.
Thus an individual soul may pass through innumerable physical births
and deaths; till it is finally released from the bondage of Karma and attains
a perfect moral and spiritual life in the realm of Bliss.

(c) Cultivation of devotional sentiments and spirit of worship.

Again, the Vedas opened before man another path for the fulfilment
of his self-conscious, moral and spiritual life. This is the path of the
cultivation of the sentiments of wonder and admiration, reverence and
devotion, love and self-offering, towards the plurality of magnificent and
beautiful, awe-striking and bountiful, loving and merciful, delightful and
playful, Divine Powers (Devatds) manifesting themselves in and regulating
and harmonising the various orders of phenomena in Nature. Ultimately
all these religious sentiments have to be directed towards the One
Infinite Eternal Absolute Spirit, the Supreme Devata of all Devatas,
Who is the Non-dual Source of all orders of existences and powers and

262

phenomena, Who reveals Himself by virtue of His inscrutable Power in
and through all Names and Forms and embodies Himself in this
phenomenal Cosmic System.

The Vedic Hymns teach man to appreciate deeply and widely the
beauty and sublimity and the inner significance of the manifold self-
manifestations of the Spirit in the infinitely diverse planes of phenomenal
existences and consciousnesses, to bow down to them with humility and
a worshipful attitude and to develop a relation of loving kinship and
familiarity with them. The development of this 'spirit of cordial apprecia-
tion of the free and delightful Divine plays in the phenomena of Nature
liberates man progressively from the superficial sensuous and materialistic
outlook on the world and unites him with the Absolute Spirit. Just as
Self-sacrifice in practical life is one pathway to spiritual self-realisation,
so Self-surrender through love and devotion to the Supreme Spirit is
another pathway, according to the Vedic teachings, to spiritual self-
realisation.

The devotional approach to the Supreme Spirit through the cultiva-
tion of religious emotions towards Him and His Superordinary Spiritual
Self-Revelations (Bibhutis) in the Cosmic Order has during all these
thousands of years exercised a great influence upon the minds and hearts
of all classes of people in India and upon the development of her moral
and spiritual culture. The literary and artistic culture of India, her
poetry and drama, her epics and lyrics, her music and painting and
sculpture and architecture, have in all ages been inspired principally by
devotional sentiments. The millions of temples and images of Gods and
Goddesses throughout the vast country are visible and tangible represen-
tations of the devotional spirit of the Indian people. All these have
developed out of the teachings of the Vedas.

In India, even ordinary domestic and social functions are performed
with religious ceremonies and with a spirit of worship to Gods and
Goddesses: the land is ploughed with a devotional attitude after
worshipping ceremoniously the Goddess of Earth and other Deities, a
new harvest is to be brought home with similar religious ceremonies;
laying the foundation of a new building, first entrance into a new house,
new admission of a child into an educational institution, the marriage of
a young boy or girl, the funeral of a deceased member of a family, and
so on and so forth,'- all these are regarded as religious duties and per-
formed with a devotional attitude and with due worship of Gods and
Goddesses, which always involves acts of sacrifice. Indian culture has so
developed ever since those ancient times that all men and women of this
land are born with religion, grow in religion, perform their normal duties

263

as religious worship, accept the enjoyments and sufferings of life with' a
religious disposition, breathe their last with the Name of the Supreme
Spirit in the mouth and with the devotional sentiment of final self-offering
to the Supreme Spirit.

From the viewpoint of Indian culture, the whole life is a life of
religion, a spiritual life, and has to be freely and consciously and
deliberately lived as such, with the ultimate Spiritual Ideal of life in view.
Such a life of religion must as a matter of course demand on the one
hand a constant control over all selfish earthly desires and propensities
and ficklenesses of the mind and on the other hand a series of sacrifices
(yajnas) in all fields of life. Actions should be sacrificial and the attitude
of mind should be devotional. The life should be dedicated to the
devotional worship (though in a variety of outer forms) of the Supreme
Spirit, of Whom all Gods and Goddesses are superordinary spiritual self-
revelations (Bibhutis) and the individual spirits (Jeevas) endowed with
human embodiments are also specially privileged spiritual self-manifesta-
tions capable of realising unity with Him. The Ideal of such a life was
presented by the Vedas for practical realisation by men, and it has
inspired the Indian culture all along. These twofold pathways to spiritual
self-realisation are generally known as Karma-Kanda (or Yajna-Kanda) and
V pasana-Kanda (which is also spoken of as Bhakti-Kdnda) of the Vedas/
but they are not dissociated in real religious life, in which Yajna and
Updsana always go together. Difference lies in emphasis. Yajna lays
stress on the performance of right and good actions involving sacrifice of
the lower interests of life, but it also enjoins that the actions should be
performed with an attitude of worship and devotional sacrifice to the
Supreme Spirit, Who is the Lord of all Jajnas (Sarva-jajneswara). Updsana
lays greater stress upon the aspect of devotional sentiments, which
inwardly unite the spiritual aspirants with the Supreme Spirit.

( d) The path of Yoga Jndna and Vairdgya.

Lastly, the Vedas prescribed for man's spiritual perfection a third
path, viz. Austerity, Asceticism, Deep Meditation, Intensive Reflection
and Perfect Absorption with the thought of the Absolute Spirit. This is
an extraordinary way of life, which demands, as the direct means to
spiritual self-fulfilment at the final stage, abandonment of domestic and
social duties and obligations, abandonment of all individual and domestic
and social prosperity and happiness, abandonment of even sacrificial
works and works of public utility, complete restraint of all normal
desires and worldly as well as other-worldly ambitions, perfect mastery
over the body and the senses and the mind, and exclusive concentration
of the energy upon the realisation of the identity of the individual soul

164

with the Supreme Spirit. This is the path of Yoga, Jndna, Vairdgya and
Sannyasa. This is the path leading directly to the realisation of the
blissful transcendent character of the Soul and its absolute liberation
(Moksha) from all possible bondages and limitations and sorrows, from
which it apparently suffers in the planes of phenomenal embodied exis-
tences. This is the Supreme Ideal (Parama-Purushdrtha) of human life,
and men of exceptional moral and spiritual merits devote their whole
time and energy to the pursuit of this Ideal, giving up the pursuit of the
worldly Ideals, namely Kama (happiness) and Artha (prosperity and power),
and even the other-worldly Ideal of Swctrga (heavenly blessedness),
through the well-planned performance of sacrificial actions and domestic
and social dudes. The Vedas indicated and set proper values upon all the
Purushdrthas of human life, enjoined upon men the pursuit of these ideals
and the performance of appropriate duties in accordance with their
adhikdras (capacities and merits and positions), and showed the way to the
progressive fulfilment of all orders of human life.

(e) An ideal Language.

Besides all these, the Vedas gave the human race an ideal language,
which is unique in its beauty and sublimity, inexhaustible in its
vocabulary, most scientific in its varnas, mdtrds, roots and their deriva-
tions, conjunctions and disjunctions of letters, varieties of swaras, chandas,
modulations of accents, etc., most refined and forceful in its expression.
This language itself has been the bond of unity of all Indian people for
thousands of years and has been the mother and nurse of all the popular
dialects (prdkrita bhdshd) in all parts of the country. This language is
revered as Deva-bhdshd (a divine language), and Classical Sanskrit is a
later form of it. The Vedic teachers advised men to learn this sacred
language in order to get continuous inspiration and guidance in the path
of the cultivation of the enlightened spiritual outlook on life and the
world and their sure and steady advancement towards spiritual self-
fulfilment.

V. THE INFLUENCE OF VEDAS UPON THE PRACTICAL
LIFE OF THE ARYANS

The great Indo-Aryan people, among whom the Vedic Truths and
Ideals revealed themselves through the medium of the superordinary truth-
seeking Rishis, were not only a virile and adventurous race, but also a
highly intellectual and imaginative and withal a deeply moral and religious
race. While the few inwardly illumined minds received by the Divine
Grace the eternal moral and spiritual Truths of the Vedas, which came out
through them in a Divine literary language, the people in general were not

265

of course on the same plane of thought and imagination and realisation.
They, with the gifts of their bodies and minds and hearts, were widely
interested in pleasure and prosperity, in establishing their homes and
organising their society on a sound and solid basis, in producing food, in
domesticating useful animals, in protecting themselves and their food and
animals, in expanding their dominions and spheres of influence, in all
sorts of works necessary for secular development of a people. Those
who were endowed with greater powers were naturally led by higher
political and economic and social ambitions. The most highly talented
poets and thinkers had aspirations for penetrating into the mysteries of
nature and life, for discovering the ultimate origin and the final destiny
of creation, for solving in general terms the intricate^ and puzzling
problems of the ever-expansive social and political life of the people.

Thus, while the interests of the early Aryan people were in all direc-
tions, the highest and noblest ideals of their life were set up by the Vedic
revelations. The secular ambitions of their individual and collective life
were governed and kept under proper limitations by the moral and spiritual
ideals with which the Vedas inspired them. Their desires for earthly
happiness and prosperity and power and self-aggrandisement were checked
and regulated by their higher aspirations for moral self-elevation and
spiritual self-fulfilment. They earned Artha and Kama with all earnest-
ness and diligence, but with a view to sacrifice them for the sake of
Dharma and Moksha. They performed their domestic and social duties
faithfully and honestly, but with the consciousness that these were not
ends in themselves, but only means to the attainment of higher and better
and happier eternal life above all earthly relations and limitations. They
cared more for the unearthly moral and spiritual fruits of their actions
than the immediate earthly fruits. Their worldly life also was governed by
an other-worldly attitude. This was the influence of the Vedas upon the
practical life of the people at large.

VI. CONTROVERSIES ON THE TRUE INTERPRETATION
OF VEDIC TEXTS

Now, even in the very early period of the development and expan-
sion and consolidation of the Aryan society there were serious controver-
sies among the pre-eminent intellectualist thought-leaders of the age with
regard to the true interpretation of the Vedic Texts which were revealed
through the mouths of the inspired Rishis and remembered verbatim by
their intelligent disciples. In the systematic efforts for the correct inter-
pretation, correct recitation and correct application of the Vedic Texts,
various sciences and arts came into being. Sikshd, Ka/pa, Vyakarana,
Nirukta, Chanda and Jyotisha were the products of such efforts, and they

266

were found to be so essential for the proper understanding of the Vedas
that they came to be known as Vedangas (limbs of the Vedas). The
Brahmanas and the Aranyakas largely elaborated and illustrated the
teachings of the Vedic Mantras and brought them much nearer to the
common understanding and the practical life of the people. They also
were regarded as parts of the Vedic literature. Lastly, the Upanishads
unveiled the deeper significance of the metaphysical and spiritual revela-
tions of the .Vedas and came to be known as Vedanta.

While the original Vedic Texts were almost universally believed to
have been Divinely revealed, the greatest thinkers and thought-leaders of
that early Ary?n society appear to have had differences among themselves,
not only in their interpretations, but sometimes even in regard to the words
of the Texts. Accordingly, the Vedic literature was divided into a number
of branches (Sakha) and sub-branches. All of them were, however,
respected as authoritative, by common thinkers and scholars. Attempts
were not wanting for bringing about reconciliation among the various
versions. The sacredness of all of them was not questioned. The entire
Vedic literature was generally accepted as the basis of the domestic and
social, moral and religious, aesthetic and philosophical culture of the
Indo- Aryan race.

(a) Interpretation from the viewpoint of Karma,

Even among the earliest interpreters of the Vedic teachings, we find,
broadly speaking, three main schools of thought. One school laid special
emphasis upon the practical aspect of the teachings of the Vedas and held
that all the Vedic revelations were chiefly concerned with the regulation
of the practical behaviour of men in the path of righteousness (Dharma).
According to this school every Vedic instruction enjoins upon men either
to do something right or to refrain from doing something wrong. From
the view-point of this school, all devotional utterances, all metaphysical
statements, all descriptions of realities and narrations of events, which are
found in the Vedic Texts and which have no direct reference to injunctions
and prohibitions, are also to be interpreted as somehow connected with
the practical instructions and the practical ideals given in other related
Texts or as explanatory of the implications of those Texts which convey
direct admonitions. Purely factual or theoretical statements of Truths,
whether of the sensuous plane or of the higher supersensuous planes,
whether empirical or transcendental, merely for the sake of right know-
ledge or the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity, have, according to this
view, no place in the Vedic Revelations.

Man is essentially an active being, and the highest possibilities of his

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nature can be realised mainly through the faithful performance of higher
and higher orders of righteous actions which are enjoined by the Vedas,
actions involving self-development and self-expansion and self-restraint and
self- purification and the sacrifice of lower pleasures and narrower interests
for the attainment of high:r orders of happiness in this life and still
higher orders of existence in after-life. Attainment of right knowledge and
cultivation of the spirit of devotion are of course necessary and essential
for the fulfilment of human life, but their utility lies principally in the
progressive ennoblement and elevation of the practical life, so as to make
it worthy of higher planes of free and blissful existence in the Heavens
(Swarga), as indicated in the Vedas. Man's destiny is determined by his
karma (action), and not by his mere knowledge of Truth or by his mere
devotion to the Gods or the God of all Gods.

This school was not much interested in what the Jnanis and Yogis and
the Upanishadic sages called Moksha or Kaivalya or Amritatwa or Nirvana
and what was regarded by them as the Supreme Spiritual Ideal of Human
Life, but incapable of being attained through the performance of righteous
actions even of the highest order. To this school Moksha meant the
Perfect Fulness of Life in the highest Swarga, and this was attainable
through the performance of the highest order of righteous actions at the
sacrifice of all finite and transitory interests and ideals of this world and
the other worlds. Thus this school stoutly advocated the Karma-Kanda of
the Vedas and regarded Jnana and Yoga and Upasana as subsidiary to
Karma.

(b) Interpretation from the viewpoint of Jndna and Yoga

Another school attached the utmost importance to the metaphysical
and transcendental Truths revealed in the Vedas, and regarded all other
principles and ideals, all injunctions and prohibitions, all rules and laws
for the regulation and elevation of practical life, as well as all glorifications
of Deities and exhortations for the cultivation of devotional sentiments and
practices, as of subordinate and, auxiliary values. The Vedas revealed that
one self-existent self-lurninous infinite eternal all-transcending Supreme Spi-
rit is the Absolute Reality, that the whole universe of diverse orders of exis-
tences and experiences is a self-manifestation in spatio-temporal forms of
that One Spirit, that the plurality of Deities are nothing but specially glorifi-
ed self-expressions of the same Absolute Spirit and,Uhough designated in
different Names and adored in different forms, They are ultimately one and
the same, that all individual souls also arc essentially non-different from
that Supreme Spirit and that the ultimate fulfilment of the worldly pheno-
menal life of every individual soul lies in the perfect realisation of its
identity with that one non-dual Spirit. Perfect Knowledge of these Truths,

268

as revealed in the Vedas, is, from the view-point of this school, the end in
itself for the self-conscious human life, and not merely a means to the
proper regulation and ennoblement of its practical deeds for the sake of
some happier state of individual existence.

Moksha (perfect liberation from all possible sorrows and bondages),
which is the Supreme Ideal of man's life, lies in the attainment of this
Perfect Knowledge. Since the individual soul is essentially a self-expression
of and as such identical with the absolutely blissful and free Supreme Spirit,
perfect knowledge of this identity is nothing less than becoming one with
the Supreme Spirit or at least realising in the individual consciousness the
perfectly free and blissful, infinite and eternal character of the Supreme
Spirit. This Knowledge also involves the blissful experience of one's own
true Self (which is nothing other than the Supreme Spirit) as revealed and
manifested in and through all the diversities of the cosmic order. The
attainment of this Knowledge cannot be the effect of any Karma, however
noble and virtuous ; but the body and the mind and the intellect and the
ego have to be disciplined and purified and refined and illumined in a
systematic way so that the ultimate transcendent character of the
Self or the Spirit may be unveiled to the calm and tranquil
consciousness.

This school strongly advocated the ascetic view of life and interpreted
the significance of the Vedic teachings from that view-point. The teachers
of this school held that renunciation of all worldly concerns, repudiation of
all domestic and social obligations, effective restraint and control of all
sensuous appetites and propensities and all mental desires and ambitions,
and exclusive self-application under the guidance of competent G'frus to
deep reflection and contemplation and meditation, are essential for the
realisation of the ultimate transcendent spiritual nature of the Self and the
attainment of absolute liberation from all kinds of bondage and sorrow.
According to them, the due performance of sacrificial duties, the cultivation
of the spirit of sacrifice and service in domestic and social life, the expan-
sion and elevation and refinement of desires and aspirations, as enjoined in
the Karma-Kanda of the Vedas, are meant to be preparatory for complete
renunciation.

They held that all fruits of Karma, whether in this world or i# higher
heavenly worlds, are originated in time and must be exhausted in time, and
that eternal Moksha, which our innermost consciousness yearns for and of
which also the Vedas speak, can not be the product of any Karma, however
noble and great. Eternal Moksha is practically realisable, because it is the
essential transcendent character of Atma or the innermost Spirit of every
individual being, and this realisation means nothing but true intimate

269

knowledge and experience of this ultimate Truth, This true Self-knowledge
can not be the effect of any pious Karma, but is attainable through getting
rid of all Karma and its effects through the experience of the eternally
actionless sorrowless changeless relationless blissful nature of the Self. To
be worthy of this self-knowledge, renunciation of the active domestic and
social life, adoption of an ascetic mode of life, suppression of all
passions and desires and attachments, systematic practice of con-
centrated reflection and meditation, etc., are regarded as essentially
necessary.

This school of thought, again, was gradually divided into two sections.
One section attached greater importance to metaphysical reflection and
intellectual refinement, and the other to the practical discipline of the body,
the senses, the vital system, and the mind, and regular practice of concen-
tration and deep meditation. The former was known as Jnani and the latter
as Yogi. Both the sections were alike in their austere habits and indifference
to worldly affairs and in their advocacy of the Nibritti-Marga and Jnana-
Kanda of the Vedas. Their face was not towards Kama, Artha and
Dharma, but exclusively towards Moksha. 'Atmanam viddhi* is the
motto of life to both the schools. This is according to them the Supreme
Ideal taught by the Vedas.

(c) Interpretation from the viewpoint of Devotion.

The third school of thought was charmed by the exquisitely beautiful
and inspiring aesthetic and devotional utterances of the Vedas and was led
to regard the cultivation of the finest emotions and sentiments and an atti-
tude of reverential and loving self-surrender towards the Supreme Spirit
and His glorious and brilliant self-manifestations in the Cosmic Order as
the essence of the Vedic teachings. The thinkers of this school did not hold
the scrupulous discharge of domestic and social duties and the faithful per-
formance of sacrificial rites and ceremonies as enough for the attainment of
the Supreme Ideal of human life, nor did they hold the Supreme Ideal as
attainable solely through renunciation and austerity or through abstract
speculation and meditation. According to them, the Supreme Ideal of
Moksha and Tattwa-Jndna (Absolute Liberation and Truth-realisation) is a
gift of Divine Mercy and the highest reward for whole-hearted devotion to
the Supreme Spirit. Such whole-hearted devotion to the Supreme Spirit
demands necessarily the purification of the body and the senses, the eleva-
tion of the mind and the heart to higher and higher planes, the enlighten-
ment of the moral and aesthetic consciousness, the illumination of the
intellect and the spiritual consciousness. All the teachings of the Vedas with
regard to duties in domestic and social life, ritualistic sacrifices and services,
as well as renunciation and austerities and contemplative life, are of course

270

greatly useful, for the development of the true devotional spirit in the
human heart. But the teaching of devotion is, according to this view, the
centre of all Vedic revelations.

These three lines of thought and ethico-spiritual discipline and these
three modes of interpretation of the Vedic Texts were evolved in the Aryan
society in the very early period of its social develoment They seem to have
given rise to various kinds of controversies. But each of these
three currents of thought gradually developed and expanded and
exercised its influence upon the life and culture of the Society. Even
in the present day these three main currents prevail in the domain
of religious thought in Hinduism, which broadly means the ethico-spiritual
culture of India.

VIII. INTERPRETATION FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF
KARMA PREVAILED IN THE SOCIETY

In the period of progressive expansion and consolidation of the
vigorous and enterprising Aryan race, people in general were naturally
much more interested in a philosophy of adion than in a philosophy of
renunciation or emotional devotion, in Pravritti-Mdrga than in Nivritti-
Mdrga or Bhakti-Mdrga in the Ideal of Abhyudaya than in the Ideal of
Nihsreyasa or Moksha or Nirvana, in a zealous and optimistic view of
life (life here as well as life after physical death in higher and happier
worlds) than in an indifferent and pessimistic view of earthly life implied
in the cult of renunciation. The great exponents of Karma-Kdnda or
Pravritti-Marga were accordingly acclaimed in the society as the true
interpreters of the Vedic revelations, and the cult of Yajna (meaning well-
planned actions involving service and sacrifice) was accepted as the best
way of virtuous life for the achievement of all-round progress of the
society as well as fulness of individual life here and hereafter.

The wise and active sages of this school, inspired by the ideal of
individual and social welfare, wonderfully elaborated and systematised the
principles and practices of Vedic Karma-Kdnda, composed independent
works on a rational basis for organising the economic and political and
domestic and communal life of all sections of. the society in accordance
with the lofty ideals set up by the Vedas, and adopted all possible measures
for popularising the cult of sacrifice and mutual service among all sections
of people. They composed a good many Smritis or Dharma-Sdstras,
for determining the sacred duties and responsibilities of each and every
section of the people and attaching penalties to the violations of the laws.
Of these Manu's Smriti, also known as Mdnava-Dharma-Sdstra, was
recognised as most authoritative. They composed a good many Srauta-

271

Sutras and Grihya-Sutras and other works of various patterns for giving
practical guidance to the people for religiously regulating all the depart-
ments of their life's interests and activities and for keeping them awake to
the moral and spiritual ideals of human life. They introduced various
kinds of elaborate and complicated rites and ceremonies into all grades of
the society in accordance with their intellectual and moral calibre and
economic resources with the same object in view. They founded a well-
reasoned system of philosophy, based upon Karma- Kanda of 'the Vedas,
and this was known as Mimamsd-darsana, which steadily developed. They
devised Varnattanw as the best social system. Maharshi Jaimini was in
ancient times the greatest exponent of Mimamsd Darsana, and Manu was
the most illustrious expounder of Varndsrama Dharma.

So widely and deeply effective were the cultural and organisational
works of the exponents of Karma-Kanda or Pravritti-Mdrga of the Vedas,
that they were generally regarded as the true interpreters of the essential
teachings of the Vedic Revelations and the Dharma of the Pravritti-Marga
was accepted in the Aryan society as the true Vedic Dharma. While the
Aryan society with its cthico-spiritual culture expanded in all parts of the
Indian sub-continent and spread its influence over all the non -Aryan races,
it had naturally to face many complicated social, political, economic, moral
and cultural problems; but it carried the banners of its Vedic Dharma
everywhere with wonderful success. This Vedic Dharma claimed to be
Sanatana-Dharma, the eternal and universal religion for the humanity.

VIII. DEVELOPMENT OF THE VIEWPOINT OF JNANA AND YOGA

The school of Nivrittl-Mdrga, with its cult of Jndna and Yoga and
Vairdgya and Tapasyd, developed, silently but steadily, more outside the
social environments than within them. The most earnest advocates of
this path of spiritual discipline usually bade farewell to their domestic and
social duties and retired to hills and forests early in life for the speedy
attainment of Self-Knowledge and perfect Liberation (Atma-Jndna and
Moksha). The growth of this view-point was generally resisted by the
powerful leaders of the society, who apprehended that the popularisation
of this interpretation of the Vedic Dharma might lead the brilliant young
men of the society away from the path of social well-being and harmonious
development of individual life. But in spite of their life of retirement and
exclusive devotion to the practice of Yoga and Jndna, they were not
altogether out of touch with the society, and the spiritual appeal of their
calm and simple and care-free and peaceful life and their message of per-
fect purity and goodness and non-violence and universal love and absolute
bliss was irresistible. Their literature, elaborating and systematising their
philosophical views as well as their modes of ethical and psychical and

272

spiritual discipline, their works on Jndna and Yoga, greatly developed.
Their literature, though the product of the deepest wisdom and innermost
experience of the truth-seeking Yogis and Jnanis, was not however
recognised in the prevailing society as Vedic literature. It came to be
known as Agama and Tantra.

The exponents of Nivritti-Marga were, as it has been noted, divided
into Yogis (saints) and Jnanis (philosophers). The Agama literature
developed principally through the teachings of the Yogis of the highest
order of spiritual excellence, who were chiefly concerned with the practical
methods of liberation from all bondages of the world, from ignorance of
the Ultimate .Truth and attachment to transitory and unsubstantial things
of this world and the other worlds and from all forms of sorrow and
restlessness arising from such ignorance and attachment. The origin of
the Agamas was traced to one Personal God, Who was Ma ha- Yogis war a,
in Whose consciousness the Absolute Spirit was eternally realised and
Who was eternally untouched by ignorance and egoism and attachment
and aversion and restlessness and sorrow and bondage, but Who was
full of love arid mercy for all creatures and was the Source of all true
knowledge as well as of the innerment urge in man for Truth, Beauty,
Goodness, Freedom and Bliss. He was regarded as the Guru of all Gurus,
the First Guru of Jndna and Yoga, the First Author of Agama-Sdstra. He
was variously named as Iswara,Maheswara, Rudra, Hiranya-Garbha, Siva,
Adi-Ndtha, etc. In course of time the original Agama-Sastras were lost
(perhaps due to the hostile attitude of the exponents of Karma-Kdnda),
but the school of Yoga and Jndna continued to grow through the teachings
and exemplary lives of earnest Yogis and Jnanis generations after genera-
tions, and its intellectual, moral and spiritual influence upon the thought
and life of earnest and sincere truth-seekers even within the Vedic society
continued to increase. The teachings of Nivritti^ and Jndna and Yoga
appeared to many intelligent and important members of the society as of a
superior order than the teachings of Pravritti and Yajna and Swarga,
which prevailed in the society. It is obvious that the great teachers of the
Upanishads, which were accepted as the final portions of the Vedas, got
their inspiration mainly, if not wholly, from the all-renouncing saints and
philosophers who spent their lives in spiritual self-discipline and deep medi-
tation in mountain-caves and forest-aramas.

Kapila, the reputed founder of the Sdnkhya school of philosophy,
was probably the first philosopher who gave a complete system of philo-
sophy on the strength of independent rational speculation and arrived at
definite conclusions with regard to the origin of the world-order, the
ultimate nature of the soul as transcendent self-luminous spirit, the true
meaning of Moksha and the true way to realise it. He accepted the

273

authority of the Vedas, but he was a staunch supporter of Nivritti-Margd.
To explain the origin of the cosmic system, however, he did not require to
postulate the existence one Iswara or creative Supreme Spirit. Kapila's
Sankhya Darsana exercised a great influence upon the subsequent evolution
of Hindu spiritual thought. Patanjali developed his Yoga-systGm on the
basis of the metaphysics of Kapila and the practical teachings of earlier
Mahay ogis.

IX. THE SANKHYA-DARSANA OF KAPILA

Through profoundly thoughtful reflection upon the general nature
of all subjective and objective phenomenal realities, all orders of psycho-
logical and biological and material facts, gross as well as subtle,
Mahdsiddha-Yogi Kapila discovered that all of them appear in a mani-
fested state from an unmanifested state and pass again from the manifested
state to the unmanifested state in a cyclic process. The former is popu-
larly known as creation or origination, and the latter as destruction or
dissolution. Before production and after destruction, a thing is not
absolutely non-existent, but it exists in an undifferentiated inexperience-
able unmanifested state, with the potentiality for being manifested in some
differentiated and experienceable form. This is logically known as Sat-
Karya-Vada. Causation means, not the new origination of any effect
previously non-existent, but the process of the actual manifestation of an
effect from the state of its unmanifested and undifferentiatcd existence in
the nature of its cause. Destruction also does not mean annihilation, but
only dissolution of an effect in the nature of its cause and its existence
therein in an unmanifested state. An activity is as a matter of course
involved in the process of passing from one state to another ; but deep
reflection reveals that some subtle form of activity exists in the nature of
a phenomenal reality, even when it is apparently at rest, whether in the
manifested state or in the unmanifested state.

Thus Kapila points out that Potentiality, Actuality and Activity,
an unmanifested state, a manifested state and a state of unrest for passing
from one state to another, constitute ultimately the very nature of all
phenomenal realities, i.e. the entire cosmic system. These three moments
or constituents of phenomenal existence are called by him Tamas, Sattwa
and Rajas, and they are designated as Gunas. They are however not to
be conceived as attributes or qualities of any substance or reality, nor as
substances or realities possessing other attributes or qualities, but as the
ultimate characteristics of all phenomenal existences. Kapila conceives of
a state of existence, in which Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas are in absolute
equilibrium and hence there is no manifestation of any phenomenal reality
or any process or change or action. It is a state of absolute non-manifesta-

274

tion (Avyaktd) of all phenomenal existence. This is the state of existence
of phenomenal reality before what is commonly known as Creation and
after what is known as wholesale Dissolution. The ultimate phenomenal
Reality in this state of absolute non-manifestation is called Mula-
Prakriti, and this is the ultimate Material Cause of the universe. From
this Cause all orders of phenomenal existences in the manifested universe
gradually evolve and in It they ultimately merge.

Kapila gave a wonderful conception of this subjective-objective
phenomenal cosmic system in terms of his famous twenty- four realities
(Caturvimsati tattwas). Prakriti, the absolutely unmanifested and undiffer-
entiated state of existence of all phenomenal realities, and as such the
ultimate Material Cause of the whole universe, is a self-modifying and
self-evolving non-spiritual (but certainly not material or physical) Reality,
with Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas as its constituents. The existence of
Prakriti is proved by the evolution of this diversified order of the universe
in gradual stages, since this evolution implies the ultimate Material Cause.
Prakriti can never be an object of perception or direct experience, since all
instruments of perception and experience evolve from it and are dissolved
in it. But still its existence is indisputable. This is the first Reality, the
Causal Reality, all manifested phenomenal existences being its effects.
Time plays an important part in the course of the evolution of the universe
from it. Prakriti cannot be conceived as Matter or Energy, since Matter as
well as Energy evolves from it in course of its self-modification.

Prakriti, the Ultimate Cause, manifests itself first in the form of
what is called Mahat-tattwa (the Great Reality), also spoken of as Buddhi-
tattwa (Intelligence-Reality), which may be conceived as one universal
cosmic phenomenal Intelligence or Consciousness without differentiation of
subject and object and withDut any manifest active process. This is the
Second Reality, being the first effect of Prakriti ; it is the Material Cause
of all the subsequent stages of evolution, and the whole uni/erse exists in
an unmanifested and undifferentiated state in its nature. Here Sattwa
predominates over Rajas and Tamas, though of course they are present in
it and stimulate further evolution.

The Third Reality is called Aham-tattwa or Ahamkdra (Ego-reality)
which evolves from Mahat-tattwa and becomes the Cause of all subsequent
subjective and objective phenomenal diversities. It may be conceived as
one universal phenomenal active Ego-Principle, implying the presence of
phenomenal intelligence or consciousness in its nature, but with the pre-
dominance of the active causal process (Rajas). From Aham-tattwa evolve
the instruments of knowledge and action on the one hand and the objects
of knowledge and action on the other, in differentiation from and also in

275

inseparable relation to one another. The five special senses of perception
and the five special senses of action, with^the Manas or mind presiding over
them all, are enumerated as the eleven subjective Realities, evolving from
Ahamkara. The five subtle objective Realities with the essential attributes
of Sound, Touch, Visibility, Taste and Smell, are called five Tanmatras
and are regarded as the constituents of the material world. They also
evolve from Ahamkara and are conceivable only in terms of the senses of
perception. The five gross material elements evolve from those Tanmatras.

Thus Prakriti, Afahat-tattwa, Ahctm-tattwa, Manas, five senses of
perception, five senses of action, five Tanmatras or Subtle Bhutas and five
Mahabhutas or gross elements are the 24 Tattwas or realities, by means of
which Kapila explains the evolutionary system of the universe. All kinds
of objective material things are only different forms of combinations of
the five Mahabhutas, and their characters are ascertained necessarily in
terms of their perceptible qualities or attributes. Instruments of percep-
tion and all possible objects of perception must have a common source of
existence, from which they evolve, and that source is discovered in the
original Ego-Consciousness (Ahamkara}, in which both are united and in
which both exist before differentiated manifestation. In the living organisms
(including human bodies), all mental and intellectual phenomena as well
as all physical and vital phenomena, all sensuous and super-sensuous
experience as well as all objects of such experiences, originate or evolve
from the same source, Ahamkara ; and this Ahamkara again originates or
evolves from one ego-less Phenomenal Consciousness, Mahat-tattwa, in
which the entire universe of mental and material, subjective and objective,
phenomenal realities, originally exist in an undifferentiated unmanifested
state. Mahat-tattwa, as it has been found, is the first manifested state of
Prakriti, which is the ultimate unity and potentiality of all phenomenal
existences.

Just as all orders of existences gradually emerge from Prakriti, so
they gradually merge in Prakriti in course of time in an involutionary
process. The whole universe is a temporal order, in which the evolu-
tionary and the involutionary processes, the creative and the destructive
processes, are going on in eternal continuity ; it had never any absolute
beginning and will never have any absolute end. The entire manifested
cosmic system may at one time pass into the unmanifested state, i. e. the
state of Prakriti, but therefrom it again in course of time comes to the
manifested state in the evolutionary order. There is no necessity for the
active participation of any omnipotent and omniscient Supreme Spirit,
ISwara or Brahma, in this eternally temporal process of evolution and
involution. Accordingly in Kapila's view Prakriti is a non-spiritual Reality
having an eternal independent existence. But it is not conceived as a

276

material entity or blind insentient energy or anything of this sort, because
such terms apply only to particular forms of manifested realities or objects
or phenomenal experience.

Kapila proclaims the eternal existence of an infinite number Spirits
or Souls, called by him Purusha, which are of the nature of pure transcen-
dent consciousness, without any change or modification, without any joy
or sorrow, without any will or action, without any name or form, without
any direct* causal relation with any of the phenomena of the cosmic order
and without any real bondage or limitation or imperfection. They are
essentially above time and space and unaffected by the occurrences of this
spatio-temporal and psycho-physical system evolved from Prakriti. They
are, however, eternally associated with Prakriti in a mysterious way and
are as it were forgetful of their essential transcendent self-luminous
character. Somehow there is a relation of non-discrimination (aviveka)
between these changeless Purushas and the ever- self-modify ing Prakriti,
and the changes in the domain of Prakriti are falsely attributed to the
Purushas. It is however admitted that the self-luminous Purushas, by their
mere actionless self-luminons presence, stimulate and illumine the activities
of Prakriti and enable non-spiritual Prakriti to evolve from within itself
phenomenal consciousness, phenomenal intelligence, phenomenal ego and
the phenomena implying the manifestation of consciousness. But for the
illumining presence of the spirits or souls, Prakriti could never have
evolved consciousness from within itself, and without the evolution of
consciousness there would be no real evolution at all, no experience

and no object of experience, no knowledge and no knowable world,

and hence no cosmic system.

Thus though the changeless self-luminous spirits or souls do not
directly participate in the evolutionary and involutionary processes of the
cosmic order and their essential transcendent character is in no way
affected by these processes, their association with Prakriti must be admit-
ted for a rational explanation of this cosmic order. Though ever-changing
non- self-luminous Prakriti and the changeless self-luminous Spirits
(Purushas) have eternally and essentially separate and independent real
existence of their own, Prakriti may be said to be eternally in the service
of the Purushas. for otherwise this cosmic order would be purposeless and
meaningless. Ignorance of this essential transcendent character of the
spirits is the cause of our experience of bondage and imperfection and
sorrow, since we falsely identify our souls or spirits with the operations of
Prakriti and its evolutes. When the soul is known to be essentially and
eternally transcendent and free from all bondage and imperfection and
sorrow, there is the experience of Moksha or Kaivalya. Thus a man can
Attain Moksha only and solely through the discrimination of his soul from

277

Prakriti (Viveka-khyati) . This implies that true self-knowledge is the
direct means to the realisation of the Supreme Ideal of life, and not any
pious and noble action.

Ignorance and knowledge, bondage and liberation, sorrow and joy,
sense of individuality and its limitations and imperfections, sense of virtue
and vice, karma and its fruits, desires and their fulfilments and frustrations,
states of waking and dream and deep sleep, etc. etc., all these are
phenomena of empirical consciousness and belong to the phenomenal
cosmic system evolved from Prakriti. But they can not be rationally
explained without the assumption of the existence of a plurality of perma-
nent transcendent self-luminous consciousnesses or souls or spirits
(purushas or dtmans) behind the empirical consciousnesses, through which
they are revealed and with which they are falsely identified. Every
individual consciousness, every phenomenal ego, every individual mind and
intellect, every individual living body, every organised pancabhoutic object,
must have an individual spirit (Purusha) as the ground of its unity and
individuality, as the changeless permanent background of its identity and
continuity amidst constant changes and modifications and transformations.

Thus Kapila maintains that there must be a numberless plurality of
individual purushas, eternally transcendent in their essential character, but
eternally associated with Prakriti and its course of evolution and
involution, and that in this cosmic order a particular purusha is apparently
related to a particular phenomenal egoistic consciousness and a particular
phenomenal body (gross or subtle), evolved from Prakriti. The perma-
nent "I" in every individual consciousness essentially refers to the Purusha
related to it, but it is usually unconscious of the eternally transcendent
character of this Purusha. This is the reason for the apparent bondage
and worldliness and sorrow of the "I" or Purusha. When in course of
evolution any phenomenal individual consciousness is illumined with the
knowledge of the essentially pure and self-luminous transcendent character
of the Purusha, that particular Purusha is liberated from its association
with Prakriti and the cosmic system and becomes thus free from all
phenomenal qualifications and limitations, free from all apparent bondages
and sorrows, free from the sense of individuality and relativity and
causality. The entire world-order becomes as good as non-existent to that
liberated Purusha, though to the innumerable unliberated Purushas the
world-order goes on uninterruptedly. For this liberation of a Purusha the
illumination of the individual phenomenal consciousness to which it is
related is necessary, and this can finally be attained through Jnana and
Yoga, and not as the effect of any Karma, however noble and virtuous.

The Sankhya Darsana of Kapila gave a powerful and permanent lead

278

to the philosophical approach to the Ultimate Truth and the rational con-
ception of the world-order in India and immensely strengthened the cult of
Jnana and Yoga and Sannyasa and Nivritti-Marga in preference to the cult
of Karma and Yajha and Garhasthya and Pravritti-Mdrga. The Yogis in
general adopted the method of metaphysical reflection of Sankhya, though
they laid greater emphasis upon the actual practice of austerity and priva-
tion, mastery over the body and the senses and the vital forces and the mind,
and the progressive purification and refinement and illumination of the
whole empirical being (born of Prakrit 7), as the effective means to the
realisation of the true transcendent Self or Spirit (Atmd or Purusha) in
dissociation from Prakriti and the attainment of Moksha.

The Up&nishads also accepted the view that Brahman or Atman was
realisable in the path discovered by Sankhya and Yoga, and not in the
Pravritti Marga, the path of Karma and Yajha. The Upanishads however
did not accept the Sankhya metaphysical theory of the ultimate plurality
of the Spirits or Purushas or Atmans in the transcendent plane and of the
ultimate independent existence of Prakriti. They held on the authority of
the Vedic Revelation that ultimately there is only One Purusha or Atman
or Brahman in the transcendent plane, Who appears as many Purushas or
Atmans in the realm of Prakriti, i. e. the phenomenal plane, and that
Prakriti, the Mother of all phenomenal existences, is nothing but the
inscrutable Power of Brahman, through which the non-dual Absolute
Spirit (Brahman) reveals Himself in the phenomenal plane as diverse
orders of phenomenal existences and phenomenal consciousnesses. When
all phenomenal existences and consciousnesses are in the totally unmanifes-
ted state, Prakriti can not be said to have any actual existence apart from
and distinguishable from that of the Absolute Spirit, Who then shines
alone in His transcendent self-luminosity, with of course the possibility of
phenomenal diversified self-manifestation. Prakriti in its absolutely
unmanifested state is nothing but this possibility of phenomenal diversities
and as such should reasonably be conceived as the Sakti (Power) of
Brahman, existing in and by and for Brahman and hence essentially non-
different from Him. It is also rationally meaningless to speak of the
plurality of Purushas or self-shining spirits in the transcendent plane,
wherein there is no sense of individuality or self-distinguishing conscious-
ness. Individuality lies only in the phenomenal plane, ,and the One
Absolute Spirit is ultimately the true Self of all individuals. Moksha is
attainable through the realisation of this ultimate Truth.

Thus the Upanishads, claiming to unveil the final and essential
truths of the Vedas, though differing from Sankhya in respect of some
important metaphysical concepts, agreed with the latter in holding Nivritti-
Marga and the practice of Yoga and Jnana as the true and direct means

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to the attainment of Moksha or perfect liberation from all kinds 6f
bondage and sorrow, which is the supreme ideal of life. The Brahma-
Sutras of Badardyana, known as Vedanta- Darsana, gave an ^authoritative
philosophical form to the teachings of the Upanishads, and this was
widely accepted as the true and final philosophy of the Vedas by a very
large circle of truth-seekers. It had the authority of the Vedas behind it,
and at the same time it was strongly argumentative. It very ably
maintained that the Ultimate Transcendent Truth was not ascertainable
purely by the strength of intellectual metaphysical arguments, but that It
was to be taken on faith from the Revealed Texts and then deeply reflected
upon and directly experienced through the deepest meditation and self-
absorption in It.

Sankhya and Vedanta constructed permanently the philosophical
foundation of Nivritti-Marga and stimulated in all ages the cultivation of
Vairdgya and Jndna and Yoga as the means to the ultimate fulfilment of
life. The philosophical literature based on Sankhya and Vedanta developed
wonderfully during all these thousands of years, and they had their
influence upon the general life of the people and their arts and common
literature. Neither Sankhya nor Veddnta, it should be noted, denied
altogether the relative values of domestic and social duties and the
various kinds of practices enjoined in the Pravritti-Mdrga as well as the
relative importance of Dhanna, Artha and Kama, in the gradual develop-
ment and elevation and refinement of the human life. They emphasised
the essential importance of renunciation and exclusive self-devotion to
Yoga and Jndna in the higher stages of life's spiritual progress, when the
body and the mind and the intellect would be sufficiently purified and
qualified for this higher course of spiritual self-discipline through the due
discharge of worldly duties and the faithful performance of noble deeds in
accordance with the laws of Dharma-Sdstras and social traditions.

X. DEVELOPMENT OF BHAKTI CULT

The view-point of Upasana-Mdrga (the path of devotional worship)
also continued to develop since that early age and to expand its sphere of
influence upon the minds and hearts and modes of conduct of the people.
In the earlier stages the plurality of Gods glorified in the revealed Vedic
Texts were worshipped ceremoniously in the prescribed forms with an
earnest devotional spirit, and each of the Gods was conceived by his
devoted admirers as possessed of all the superhuman Divine powers and
qualities. Gradually emphasis was laid more and more upon the One
Supreme Spirit, of Whom all these Gods were described even in the
Vedas themselves as special powerful and majestic self-manifestations in
the cosmic order. The school of worshippers of the Supreme Spirit

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gradually assimilated the groups of devotees of all the special Gods.
While recognising that all the different groups of worshippers earnestly
devoted to the worship of the particular Gods were indirectly and often
without true knowledge worshipping the same Supreme Spirit, these
devotees who claimed to be direct worshippers of the Supreme Spirit also
conceived (Him in different ways and applied various significant Holy
Names (not always Vedic) to Him and adopted different modes of
worship. The spirit of devotion was however common to them all, and
the aim of all was to be in direct emotional touch with the Absolute
Spirit through different Names and Forms.

Accordingly, even in a very early age, the school of spiritual
aspirants, maintaining that devotional worship to the One Supreme Spirit
was the principal means to liberation from all actual and possible
bondages and sorrows and enjoyment of eternal spiritual bliss, was
divided into a number of sub-sects. Thus there arose in that ancient
period a good many Updsaka Sampraddyas, devoted to the worship of
Siva, Rudra, Pasupati, Mahetwara, Vishnu, Ndrdyana, Bhagawan, Sakti,
Surya and others. Each of these Sampraddyas had its distinctive features,
a religious philosophy of its own and a complete code of moral and
spiritual self-discipline for the fulfilment of life and the attainment of
Moksha. Each of them, however, claimed to be devoted to the Absolute
Spirit, the Supreme Source of all phenomenal existences, the Ultimate
Lord of the universe, and each bowed down to the authority of the Vedas.
One point to be specially noted is that in the development of these
devotional sects the Supreme Spirit was gradually more and more
personalised and humanised, and of all the Divine powers and attributes
Love and Mercy were more and more emphasised. Truth-realisation and
Liberation also were believed to be gifts of Divine Mercy. Each develop-
ed a religious literature of its own, and the original authoritative literature
of each is known as Agama. These devotional schools steadily developed
into the wide-spread Bhakti-schools of later centuries. In course of time
the devotees of Siva, Krishna, Rama and Sakti (in the forms of Kali and
Durga) became the most popular and wide-spread devotional Sampraddyas
in the country. They all conceived and worshipped the Supreme Spirit in
these Divine Names and Forms.

CHAPTER XIX

THE EVOLUTION OF HINDU SPIRITUAL
CULTURE (II).

I. SRI KRISHNA'S GRAND SYNTHESIS OF ALL CULTS

As the Aryan Society developed and expanded and gradually spread
over all the parts of this great sub-continent, its culture naturally became
more and more variegated and poly-morphous; but all its aspects continued
to be pervaded by the three (or four) aforesaid idealistic anfl spiritualistic
thought-currents, flowing down from the Vedic Revelations. The
exponents of these view-points were sometimes engaged in heated contro-
versies with one another, but they generally cooperated with one another
for the peace and unity and steady progress of the society and the race.
Faith in the Vedas was the strongest bond of union among all the sections
of the ever-growing community. Saints and sages with extraordinary
intellectual powers and spiritual intuitions flourished in all ages among
the advocates of all these view-points and spread their influence upon the
minds and hearts of the people at large, including the people of the alien
races who were culturally conquered by the Aryans and gradually
absorbed in the Aryan Society. As the result of friendly controversies and
also as the inevitable result of co-existence and cooperation, the followers
of each path of self-discipline appreciated more and more deeply the
practical values of the other paths and adapted many of their modes of
moral and spiritual and social discipline to their own. Each cult was thus
more and more liberalised and assimilative in course of its development
and expansion.

A psychological, social, moral and spiritual necessity was always
felt in the inner consciousness of impartial and earnest truth-seekers for
a perfect synthesis and harmony of Karma, Jnana, Yoga and Bhakti,
of Pravritti-Marga, Nivritti-Marga, Vicdra-Mdrga, Dhyana-Marga, and
Upasand-Mdrga,o{ domestic and social duties and responsibilities as
demanded by our Moral Consciousness, detachment from worldly affairs
and concentration of the whole energy upon the realisation of the
Ultimate Truth as demanded by our spiritual consciousness, and cultiva-
tion of emotional love and reverence for the beautiful and magnificent
Divine Source of the cosmic order and the Soul of all souls as demanded
by our enlightened emotional and aesthetic consciousness.

Early post- Vedic religious, philosophical, social, moral and poetical

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literature of the illustrious saints and sages definitely indicates that various
admirable attempts were made even in those ancient times for a rational
reconciliation of the various modes of interpretations of the Vedas, for a
real satisfaction of all the fundamental demands of the human conscious-
ness and for a synthesis of the view-points of the different schools of
thought. But the most successful attempt in this direction was made by
Lord Sri Krishna in the small Divine Song, Bhagavad-Gitd. Sri Krishna
was the truest representative of the Spirit of the Vedic Revelations. His extra-
ordinarily eventful life, his super-human dynamic personality, his profound
spiritual insight, and his most comprehensive and practical philosophy and
religion, gave him a unique place in the history of the evolution of the
spiritual cultfire of Bharatavarsha. Even in his own life-time he was
acclaimed and adored as a veritable Incarnation of God in human form.
He was the greatest statesman and strategist, the greatest hero and man of
action, and all the same the greatest philosopher and sage and Yogi of his

The Bhagavad-Gitd, believed to have been spoken by him to Arjuna
on the battle-field of Kurukshetra just before the commencement of the
horrible all-out battle, gives within the shortest possible compass the most
rational and most practicable synthesis of all forms of moral and social and
emotional and spiritual discipline based upon the spiritual outlook on
human life and human society and all physical environments, as taught by
the Vedas. Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, who gave the widest publicity to
the life and teachings of Sri Krishna and put his Glta at the centre of his
most celebrated national Epic, Mahd-Bharata, described it as Brahma-Vidyd,
Yoga-Sdstra, Bhakti-Sdstra and Karma-Sdstra at the same time and as
having exposed the true essence of the Vedas without dishonouring or doing
injustice to any aspect of their teachings or any school of thought. The
GM raised our ordinary domestic and social duties to a high spiritual level,
taught us to perform our duties efficiently for duty's sake with the spiritual
end of life in view, gave enlightened conceptions of Yajna, Yoga, Jndna,
Karma, Tydga, Sannydsa, Updsand, and Moksha from the true spiritual
point of view, brought the Supreme Source and Lord of all existences very
near to the hearts of all classes of men and the Supreme Spiritual Ideal of
life within the scope of the practical realisation of common people of all
strata of the society, and showed the people the most practicable way to
the spiritualisation of the entire human life.

Sri Krishna taught the Art of the thorough spiritualisation of the
entire life of a man and preached this as the Ideal immanent in all the
teachings of the Vedas. He protested against all the one-sided and narrow
interpretations of the Vedic Revelations. He preached that every man,

283

whatever may be his social status or intellectual attainments or domestic
and social obligations or environmental and economic conditions, should
become a Yogi in his practical life. Yoga should be the regulative principle
of everybody's life, and not only of the lives of those exceptional few who
renounce all worldly connections and devote themselves exclusively to
certain forms of physical and psychical and religious discipline and practise
deep meditation in solitude. Yoga essentially consists in living a God-centric
life, a life governed by a Spiritual Outlook on all the affairs of the world
of normal experience, a Spiritual Ideal of all human activities (domestic
and social and religious and intellectual), and an attitude of whole-hearted
Devotion and Love and Self-offering to the Supreme Spirit (God) Who is
eternally revealing Himself in all the phenomenal existences and wonder-
fully regulating and harmonising all the affairs of His self-manifestations in
this cosmic system.

Every man ought to remember that he is a particular self-manifesta-
tion of God for serving God's purpose in God's world, that he is endowed
with particular capacities and placed in a particular situation for the faithful
discharge of particular Divinely allotted duties for His sake, that he should
devotionally play the part allotted to him, without any attachment to the
works or any egoistic desire for their fruits, in a spirit of loving worship to
Him, and that the ultimate aim of all his works and all his physical and
mental and intellectual endeavours should be the realisation of perfect
Spiritual Union with Him. Some men may be fit for the performance of
ordinary domestic and social duties ; some may be fit for more brilliant
works of public utility ; some may be fit for making valuable contributions
to the literary or artistic or scientific or philosophical culture of Humanity ;
some may be fit for retirement from outer worldly concerns and exclusive
self- application to esoteric yogic practices ; and so on. According to
different kinds of fitness, different men may have different Swadharma and
God may have different purposes to be accomplished through the lives of
different men. But Yoga can and should be the regulative principle in the
lives of all men of all orders of fitness and of all strata of the
society, and all people disciplining their life according to this
univenal principle of Yoga become worthy of realising the Supreme
Spiritual Ideal.

YogeSwara Sri Krishna, with his enlightened conception of all-
comprehensive Yoga, put an end to the age-long quarrel between Pravritti-
Mdrga and Nivriiti-Mdrga, by bringing out the inner significance and the
underlying spiritual unity of the two forms of discipline. Pravrtiti-Mdrga is
based on the undeniable fact that man is by nature an active self-conscious
and self-determining being and that without carefully regulated voluntary

284

actions even the continuity of his physical existence is impossible. Hence
every man must perform actions as a matter of necessity for his existence.
But no man ought to be contented with the performance of duties impera-
tive upon him for the mere sustenance of his physical life, which is sure to
terminate sooner or later. He has indefinite potentialities for higher and
higher development of his life through the performance of nobler and
nobler actions of more and more permanent and intrinsic values. The Vedic
Pravritti-Mdrga prescribes various orders of such noble and valuable
actions for men of different orders of physical and mental and intellectual
capacities for their progressive self- development and self-elevation to higher
and higher planes of self-conscious existence. Such actions always contri-
bute to the multiform welfare of the society along with the moral and
spiritual development of the individual who performs them. The ultimate
aim of all such actions should be the moral and spiritual perfection of the
individuals who should faithfully perform them. This is the Ideal of Nivritti-
Marga as well.

Now, the Vedic Pravritti-Marga exhorts all men to perform such
noble and useful and elevating actions with pure bodies and pure hearts
and a purely religious attitude in a spirit of YajHa or Sacrifice. Yajna t as
Sri Krishna interprets it, does not consist merely or even mainly in the
scrupulous performance of certain ritualistic ceremonies and the correct
pronunciation of certain Mantra in connection with those ceremonies,
though the special values and efficacies of these rituals and Mantras for
special purposes on special occasions are undeniable. Yajna essentially con-
sists in the cultivation of the spirit of sacrifice and selfless service, the
sacrifice of a man's personal earthly possessions for common good with an
attitude of worship to the Supreme Spirit, the Soul and Lord of all beings
of the universe. The highest forms of Yajna is the absolute sacrifice of the
ego and all egoistic desires and ambitions and feelings and all senses of
possessions, with the awakened idea that everything belongs to God. The
True spirit of Yajna makes a man a Yogi.

Whatever is God's should be humbly offered to God. Yajna accor-
dingly is resolved into pure worship of God with the 'materials (rich or
poor) which God Himself in His mercy supplies to the worshipper, and
the worshipper should inwardly try to be free from the sense of owner-
ship and all egoistic feelings with regard to them. All actions should be
performed in this spirit of worship and in this spirit of offering to God
what is God's. The outer forms of the actions will involve apparent
sacrifice, and they will also be of substantial service to the human society.
The materials with which Yajna or worship is performed may not always
t>e earthly materials or outer possessions; all Japa, Dhyana, Tapasya,

285

Brahmacaryya, Vidyd-ddna, Prdndydna, Samdja-Seva, Rdstra-Sev3 9
Dharma-Yuddha, Prdna-ddna for the good of others, etc. etc., should be
practised in a spirit of Yajna or offering to God what is God's, in as
much as all our internal powers and possessions also really belong to
God and are obtained from the Divine Mercy; and these should be used
as materials for the worship of God.

Sri Krishna points out that when apparently other Deities are
worshipped with offerings of outer or inner materials, all these also go to
the Supreme Spirit, though in an indirect way on account of the prevail-
ing sense of difference in the minds of the worshippers. Truly the One
Supreme Spirit is the Soul of the plurality of Deities who are only His
glorified Self -manifest at ions in diversified names and forms. * He receives
worship through all these holy Names and Forms. Every intelligent
worshipper ought to see the One God in all Gods and concentrate his
attention upon this God of all Gods. But there must not be any conde-
mnation of the diverse modes of worship of the Supreme Spirit through
all these varieties of Divine Names and Forms.

If the whole consciousness of a man is permeated by the spirit
of Yajna, i.e. the spirit of self-offering and all-offering worship to God,
then the actions, whether performed as prescribed religious rites or as
ordinary domestic and social duties, do not become sources of bondage
and do not stand in the way of Self-realisation or God-realisation.
Rather they may become as efficacious as the practices of Jnana and
Yoga for emancipation from bondage and realisation of union with God.
Thus enlightened Pravritti-Mdrga may lead to the same spiritual goal as
enlightened Nivritti-Marga. Both may be practised as true Yoga i.e. as the
means to the spiritualisation of the whole being of a man and the union
of the individual with the Universal Soul.

Sri Krishna proclaimed in the Divine voice that if a householder or
an active member of the society, while enthusiastically discharging his
multifarious domestic and social responsibilities and performing various
kinds of noble and pioui and useful actions in different spheres of life,
can adequately train his mind and heart to remain free from pride and
vanity, free from selfish desires and ambitions, free from cares and
anxieties about the consequences of his actions, and can form the habit
of calmly and delightfully playing the parts allotted to him by the Lord
of his soul in His cosmic play as His humble servant or as an instru-
ment in His hands, in a spirit of self-offering devotional service to the
Lord, then he is to be regarded as a true Yogi and a true Bhakta, a true
Tydgi and Sannydsi, a true sddhaka of the Nivritti-Mdrga. On the other
hand, if a cave-dwelling or wandering ascetic, who having abandoned $U

286

domestic and social responsibilities lives an austere life of hardship and
privation or a life of pure contemplation or metaphysical speculation or
devotional intoxication or esoteric yogic practices, cannot free himself from
the sense of ego, selfish desires and ambitions, from pride and prejudice,
hatred and fear, attachments and aversions, cares and anxieties and other
weaknesses of his psychical nature, he is not worthy of being regarded
as a true Yogi or a true Bhakta or a true Jnani or a true Tyagi or

Sannyasl.

Sri Krishna taught people to judge the true spiritual advancement
of a person, not by the outer modes of his life, not by his outer action
or inaction, not by his outer bhoga or tydga, not by his home-dwelling
or forest-dwelling, but by his genuine internal transformation, by the
true spiritual illumination of his mind and heart, by the degree of his
emancipation from the sense of Me and Mine and his realisation of the
Supreme Spirit in himself and in the world of his experience. Sri Krishna
taught the spiritual aspirants to see Karma in Akarma and Akarma in
Karma, Pravritti in Nivritti and Nivritti in Pravritti, by deep consideration
of inner attitude and realisation of the sddhakas concerned. When
Akarma or Nivritti is attended with egoistic vanity or selfish desires or
hatred of active life, it is as good as actions born of egoism and selfish
desires and becomes a source of bondage. Karma in a spirit of selfless
devotional service to the Supreme Spirit is to be conceived as akarma,
since it cuts asunder the bondage of the world.

According to Sri Krishna's interpretation of the true Vedic way of
life, the faithful discharge of domestic and social obligations, the perfor-
mance of sacrificial deeds and other religious rites in accordance with
the injunction of the Dharma-Sastras, the cultivation of devotional senti-
ments and the various modes of ceremonial worship, the systematic
practice of the various methods of self-discipline and self-control and
self-concentration and self-illumination as prescribed in the Yoga-Sdstras,
deep reflection (vicara) and contemplation (Dhydna) upon the true
character of the Absolute Spirit or God in pursuance of the philoso-
phical method (Jndna-Mdrga), the practice of renunciation of or detach-
ment from all worldly concerns and voluntary submission to all kinds of
privations and hardships for the sake of Truth-realisation, etc., all these
are diverse ways, suited to persons of diverse tastes and capacities and
temperaments and aptitudes, for the attainment of the same spiritual
Ideal of human life. The Vedas give approval to all these ways. All of
them are particular modes of self-discipline and self-refinement and self-
elevation, with a view to the progressive self-emancipation of man from the
bondages and limitations and sorrows of the earthly life.

287

But, Sri Krishna points out emphatically, for the purpose of deriving
the best, the highest and the r most desirable and valuable benefits from
these apparently diverse modes of spiritual self-culture, attention must
be freed as practicable from their outer forms and directed to their inner
spirit. The outer forms of the various kinds of injunctions of the Vedas
may appear to be different from and often conflicting with one another,
but the inner intention of all of them is the same. Undue emphases upon
the differences of outer forms among the various modes of spiritual discip-
line gave rise to unwholesome controversies and different schools of
thought and different religious and social sects and subsects. The inner-
most spirit of all these forms of discipline enjoined by the Vedas is what
Sri Krishna called the spirit of Yoga. It is intended that, each of the
modes of discipline should be pursued with the spirit of Yoga at heart.
According to Sri Krishna, if even the most ordinary domestic duties are
performed consciously with the genuine spirit of Yoga at heart without any
selfish feelings and desires and without any attachment or aversion, this
can lead to the same spiritual good as the systematic practice of meditation
and renunciation.

Sri Krishna exhorted every human being to live the life of a Yogi,
i. e. to live a thoroughly God-centric life, in whatever situation he might
be placed and for whatever form of works or practices he might be fit by
his temperament and his physical and mental capacities. He interpreted
Yoga in such a universal way as to be practicable to every man and
woman, to the humblest Sudra or labourer as much as to the most
learned Brahmana or the most warlike Kshatriya or the most commercia-
list Vai&ya, to a person born in the lowest cadre of the society as much
as to an illustrious person occupying the highest position in the society,
to an ordinary householder as much as to an all-renouncing SannyasL
He brought down God, the Universal Soul and the Absolute Lord of the
universe, very near to the mind and heart of every man and woman of
the world. He presented the Ultimate Reality of philosophy in such a
popular and attractive form that even a person without any book-learning

might feel His vivid presence within himself and in all around him, in

his home and society, in his natural and social surroundings, in all
physical and historical events, in all forces of nature, in all mountains
and rivers, in Earth and Water and Fire and Air and Ether, and where
not? God is everywhere, within and without.

Sri Krishna exhorted all men and women to cultivate this Divine
outlook on everything and to feel the Divine presence in all the concerns
of life. Every person should be inspired by the constant remembrance
that he lives in God, he lives for God, he has to play his role in God's

288

world for God's sake out of love and reverence for God without any care
or anxiety for the fruits of his endeavours which belong to and are
determined by God. Every person should cherish the most cordial perso-
nal love for God and look upon Him as eternal Father and Mother and
Brother and Friend and Lord, nay, as the Soul of his soul, as the eternal
Beloved of his heart, as the absolute Ruler of his destiny and the unerring
Guide in all his actions. Everybody should always hope for absolute
and perfect Union with God, in which the final success and fulfilment of
his self-conscious and self- disciplined life in the human body lies. In this
system of popular and universal Yoga preached by Sri Krishna, Bhakti
or whole-hearted self-offering love for God obviously plays the most
predominant part, in as much as it supplies the motor force to all the
noblest human endeavours, makes all these endeavours pleasant and
joyful and is also a universal factor in the nature of man. This Bhakti
has of course to be purified and enlightened by the cultivation of true
knowledge and moral goodness and fully concentrated on God, Who is
the Truth and Ideal of life.

In his philosophical view ri Krishna assimilated the Prakriti-
Purusha-Vdda, Kshetra-Kshetrajna-Vdda, Kshara-Akshara- Vdda, of the earlier
Sankhya philosophers, with the Brahma- Vdda of the Upanishads, and
highly enriched the conception of Brahma by the wonderful amalgama-
tion with it of the conceptions of Paramdtmd, Iswara, Maheswara, Mahd-
YogUwara, Bhagawdn, Ndrdyana, Purushottama, etc., as conceived and
interpreted by the schools of Yogis and Bhaktas and others. He preached
an all-comprehensive conception of God (the Supreme Spirit) which
could equally satisfy the rational demand of the intellect and the emotio-
nal demand of the heart of all classes of truth-seekers and spiritual
aspirants.

The Supreme Spirit he preached is personal as well as impersonal,
active as well as inactive, transcendent as well as immanent, nirguna
as well as saguna, infinite and eternal and also revealing Himself
in a variety of finite and transitory forms, eternally unmoved by
feelings and emotions and all the same infinitely loving and
merciful. He is the absolute Cause material, efficient, final as well as
formal, of this phenomenal cosmic order in time and space, but He is
eternally above time and space and never in any way affected by the
spatio-temporal changes and diversities. He is eternally possessed of
infinite wisdom and knowledge, infinite goodness and beauty, infinite
strength and power, infinite love and mercy, infinite justice and benevo-
lence, infinite creative will and activity, and the phenomenal universe
consists of finite and variegated self-expressions of these Divine qualities.

Everywhere it is God Who manifests Himself. Whatever specially
attracts our notice is His Bibhuti or special self-manifestation. We have
to see God everywhere in His world.

Thus in stead of cursing the world as an ugly and dreadful place of
bondage and sorrow, Sri Krishna gives a glorified account of the world,
emphasising that it is really a Divine world full of Divine self-expressions
and it should be adored as such. Bondages and sorrows arise from our
egoistic outlook and our selfish desires to convert this wori'd into an
object of our sensuous enjoyment. When we do not see God in His
world of phenomenal self-manifestation and try to look upon it as our
possession and to exploit it for our enjoyments in the lower planes of
our conscious life, it amounts to a revolt against God, and sufferings are
the inevitable results. Sri Krishna intends that we should see God face
to face in His world, love and adore Him in all the forms of His mani-
festations, serve Him with all the outer and inner materials He has placed
at our disposal, absolutely surrender ourselves to His love and mercy and
be free from me and mine. This would lead to deliverance from all
bondage and sorrow and participation in His infinite joy and freedom and
beauty and peace.

Sri Krishna conveyed to Humanity another great message of hope
and strength, viz. Incarnation of God ( Avatdra-Vdda) . He announced
emphatically and unambiguously that in whatever age unrighteousness
appears to become the prevailing order in the human society and right-
eousness appears to be depressed or suppressed, whenever there happens
to be the predominance of materialism and militarism and dishonesty
and hypocrisy and arrogance in the human society and the moral and
spiritual idealism inherent in the inner nature of man becomes weakened
and loses its controlling force and is domineered over by the Asuric
powers, the Supreme Spirit incarnates Himself in special embodied forms
and exercises extraordinary Divine powers in those forms, for subduing
the forces of unrighteousness, strengthening the forces of righteousness,
reinterpreting the eternal Truth and Law immanent in the Divine Cosmic
order in appropriate forms suited to the age and restoring a proper
atmosphere for the normal development and invigoration of the moral and
spiritual outlook of the people.

It is quite in conformity to the Divine plan of the Cosmic Order
that there is practically a continuous tug-of-war among the Divine and
Satanic, pro-spiritual and anti- spiritual, centripetal and centrifugal,
forces in this constantly moving and changing world, and there are
alternate victories and defeats of these apparently antagonistic forces. In
reality both kinds of forces are self-manifestations of the inscrutable

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Divine Power in His Cosmic Play, and they are by the Divine Will
arrayed into rival ^parties as instruments for the maintenance of the
magnificent Play, each in its own way immensely adding to the grandeur
and beauty of the Play. It is also in accordance with the Divine Design
that on certain occasions peace and harmony and orderly progress of
the Play appears to be endangered by the heated excitements of the rival
parties and the blurring of the moral and spiritual outlook, and that on
such occasions there are special Divine interventions for putting things in
order. In the mundane lives of these Avatar as men get special opportu-
nities to witness directly not only God's superhuman wisdom and power
in a variety of forms, but also various evidences of His love and mercy
and beauty and sweetness. Through the study of the conduct of the
Avataras men can get a very good training for cultivating various forms
of sweet personal relationship with God. The Infinite comes down to us
in a finite form, the Birthless takes birth, the Blissful participates in our
joys and sorrows, the Transcendent One becomes our kith and kin, for our
sake, for the sake of elevating us to His plane. How merciful and loving
He is to us!

II. VYASA, VALMIKI, EPICS, PURANAS

Sri Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, who was a senior contemporary of
Bhagawan Sri Krishna and who also lived long after him to continue his
cultural work, played a unique role in the consolidation of the spiritual
thoughts of Bharatvarsha and in popularising them throughout the length
and breadth of this great country. He was a Mahdyogi, Maha-JMni, Maha-
Bhakta, Maha-Premi, as well as a great intellectualist, a great philosopher,
a great poet, a great preacher and organiser. He made a wonderful compil-
ation and synthesis of all the earlier Intellectual, moral and spiritual
achievements of the Aryan society, assimilated all the important cultural
developments of the Non-Vedic and even the Non- Aryan people with those
of the Vedic society, brought about a reconciliation among the exponents
of Pravritti-Marga and Nivritti-Marga in the light of the inspiration
obtained from the life and teachings of Sri Krishna, laid down a solid
philosophical foundation of the all-assimilating views he preached through
the exposition of his Brahma-Sutras, composed the encyclopaedic work, the
Mahabharata, in the form of a great epic in popular Sanskrit for bringing
all the loftiest thoughts of all the greatest saints and sages of all the religio-
philosophical schools of the country within the scope of the understanding
and appreciation of the common people, and initiated the composition and
recitation of the various Puranas for giving the widest publicity to the
noblest moral and spiritual and social ideas and ideals in the most popular
forms in every corner of the country.

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All his works were of permanent values. He may be said to have
given a definite and ever-lasting shape to Hindu spiritual culture. All the
subsequent developments were on the basis of his works. He became
immortal with his immortal bequests. He is still adored as the immortal
Guru by all sections of the Hindu community. His'authority with regard to
the interpretation of the Vedic revelations and his judgments upon the
various religious and moral and social and other practical problems of life
are generally regarded as unchallengeable. After the wholesale destruction
of all the ruling military powers of the country in the great civil .war depic-
ted in the Mahdbharata, V>asa and his followers (for a good many genera-
tions) appear to have admirably done the gigantic work of the cultural
reconstruction of the country and accomplished the lasting union of the
whole country on the basis of spiritual idealism. *

Sri Krishna Dwaipayana's first immortal work was the most compre-
hensive compilation of all the Vedic Mantras with their early commentaries
and the authoritative treatises dealing with their practical applications and
the arrangement and classification of them in the most scientific method. In
this compilation he laid the most solid foundation of the ever-growing
ever-expanding Hindu culture and guaranteed the unity of the Hindu
community amidst its ever-increasing diversities and complexities for all
times to come. In this compilation he inseparably linked together the
Upanishadic Brahma-centred spiritual thoughts and the cults of Sannyasa
and Yoga and Jnana and Bhakti with the Mantras addressed to the
(apparent) plurality of Deities and the various kinds of injunctions and
prohibitions for ennobling and spiritually elevating the practical life of all
sections of people. He wanted to live no room for any serious antagonism
between Pravritti-Mdrga and Nivritti-Marga or among the different systems
of moral and spiritual self-discipline. It was specially on account of his
accomplishing this super-human work of most far-reaching importance
that he was honoured with the title of Vyasa. Further, he trained several
batches of most highly intelligent and scholarly disciples for specialising in
different branches of the Vedic literature and for propagating them among
the rank and file of the society. The Vedic studies thereafter passed on and
on through successions of preceptors and disciples generations after genera-
tions and kept up the basic spiritual outlook of Hinduism throughout the
chequered history of its expansion and complication and its periods of
brilliance and darkness.

Secondly, he did the great work of founding the school of Vedanta-
Darsana y which has since then occupied the exalted position of the central
and most popular philosophical school of the Hindus. This Darsana
established the spiritual outlook of the Vedas on a rational basis. It showed
that the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gftd of Jri Krishna clearly unveiled

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the innermost essence of the Revelations. It supplemented the deepest
spiritual experiences of the Rishis and Mahd-Yogis by sound intellectual
arguments to demonstrate that Brahma or the Supreme Spirit is the
Absolute Reality, the sole self-existent self-shining effortless changeless
Ground and Cause and ..Soul and Lord of the amazingly diversified and
harmonised Cosmic System. It accordingly proved that Truth-realisation
means the experience of Brahma as the Ultimate Truth of all actual and
possible existences and of the essential non-difference of the world and all
individuals, .within it from Brahma. It showed that the Supreme Ideal of
human life lies in this Truth-realisation.

It is obvious that, according to this Darfana, from the view-point of
the Supreme. Ideal of human life Nivritti-Mdrga is superior to Pravritti*
Mdrga, Yoga and Tattwa-Vicdra are superior to Karma, Tydga and
Sannydsa is superior to Bhoga. This superiority of Nivritti to Pravritti has
been universally recognised theoretically as well as practically by all
sections of Hindus, and this idea cherished for so many generations has
given a special mould to their minds and hearts as well as their customs
and habits. But Veddnta Darsana never ignored the fact that only morally
and spiritually advanced individuals could renounce all worldly concerns
and devote themselves exclusively to Yoga and Tattwa-Jnana for the realis-
ation of the Ultimate Ideal. For the generality of people Pravritti- Mdrga,
i.e., the path of well-planned and well-regulated actions, was essentially
necessary, and it was indispensably necessary also for the Abhyudaya (all-
round progress) of the human society, which alone could provide the
specially gifted spiritual aspirants with adequate favourable conditions for
their undisturbed devotion to deeper intellectual and spiritual self-
discipline.

Veddnta Darsana accordingly exhorted the people in general to
advance in the path of well-planned and well-regulated active life in
conformity to their Swa-Dharma, but with the supreme spiritual ideal of
life in view. In this path the people of all levels of moral and intellectual
attainments and of all strata of the society could on the one hand be truly
serviceable to the Abhyudaya of the society and on the other hand prepare
themselves for higher and higher stages of spiritual self-discipline and
finally for renunciation and exclusive devotion to Yoga and Jndna for the
attainment of Moksha. Those who would not be able to acquire the fitness
for the higher spiritual discipline of Nivritti-Mdrga in this life must not on
that account feel depressed or be misled to think that they would be
absolutely deprived of the opportunity for the attainment of Moksha, since
they would, as the result of their faithful pursuit of Swa Dharma in this
life, be born with higher capacities and under better conditions in the
future births and get better opportunities for the realisation of the supreme

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spiritual ideal. Thus Vedanta gave a well-planned programme of life based
on the spiiitual outlook on the life and the world to all classes of people.
This has moulded the Hindu life since then.

ri Krishna Dwaipayana's third encyclopaedic work was the compo-
sition of Mahdbhdrata, which has since then been regarded not only as
the greatest national Epic of Bharatavarsha, but also as the most autho-
ritative interpretation in a popular style of all the various aspects of
Hindu culture. Bhagawan Sri Krishna is the central figure of- this great
epic and His Gltd occupies the central position in its discussion of all
problems. There is scarcely any important domestic, social, political,
economic, ethical, religious and metaphysical problem, which is not
introduced for discussion in this gigantic book, and the final solutions of
all these problems are arrived at in the light of the spiritual outlook as
taught in the Vedas (including the Upanishads) and the Bhagavad-Gitd. It
also contains the resume of the views of all the important philosophical
and religious schools, which by that time grew in the country, whether
within the Vedic society or outside.

Discussions on Karma- Mwidmsa and Atma-Mlmdmsd and Brahma-
Mlmdmsd, on Sdnkhya and Yoga and Nyaya, on the cults of the Pdncardtra
and Bhdgavata and Ndrdyaniya schools as well as those of the Saiva
and Pdsupata schools, on the materialistic views of the Cdrvdkas and the
semi-materialistic views of some other sects, on Varndsrama-Dharma and
Sannydsa-Dharma and Bhakti-Dharma, on Ahimsd and Satya and Japasyd
and Asteya and Dana and Yajna and Jiva-Seva and service and sacrifice
and other ethical principles, etc., all these found their places in this
great national Epic. All classes of people in all situations of life in all
ages could obtain inspiration and practical guidance from the study or
the hearing of this immortal literary work. There are innumerable did-
actic stories in the book, which at once appeal to the conscience of the
people and create lasting impressions upon their minds and hearts.
Really the Mahabharata has rendered an unparalleled service during all
these centuries in moulding the intellects and minds and hearts and the
practical lives of all classes of men and women of Bharatavarsha and
inspiring them with a spiritual outlook on all affairs. The stories of the
Mahabharata have supplied the poets and dramatists and artists and
musicians of all generations with the themes for their productions, which
also exercised their influence upon the people and consolidated their
spiritual outlook. Even now an intensive study of the Mahabharata can
impart an all-round education (excepting of course scientific and technolo-
gical education of the present age) to earnest scholars and thoroughly
acquaint them with what Bharatavarsha stands for.

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IM ^ fourth important work of ri Krishna Dwaipayana was the
initiation of the composition and dissemination of a number of Pur anas
for the edification of the masses of people in all parts of the great
land. The Puranas brought the Spirit of the Vedas, the Upanishades, the
CM and the Veddnta-tiarsana very near to the doors of every section
of people in various Names and Forms and presented Him as accessible
to everybody. In the opinion of a renowned western scholar the Puranas
are "a popular [encyclopaedia of ancient and mediaeval Hinduism, religious,
philosophical, historical, personal, social and political". Along with
various stories illustrating God's infinite mercy and love for His human
children, the Puranas describe various anecdotes about the lives of Mahd-
yogis, Mahdjnanis, Mahdbhaktas and Mahakarmis, about the lives of a good
many national ^saints and national heroes, about the sacredness of various
places of historical and geographical importance, about the efficacies of
various religious rites and ceremonies, about the instructive character of
various historical events, about the sources of strength and weakness in
the social J,and political lives of the people, and so on. All the descrip-
tions and [discussions have a common aim in view, viz., to make all
people religious-minded and pure-hearted and God-centred in all affairs of
their individual Jand collective lives under all possible circumstances. All
the loftiest problems of philosophy and religion are discussed in the most
popular forms from ;the most ^liberal point of view, so as be intelligible
and appealing to ~all classes^of people.

Though a leaning towards Bhakti or devotion to the Supreme Spirit
is predominant in all the Puranas, they seek to harmonise Pravritti with
Nivritti, *Karma with Jndna and Yoga, Bhoga with Tydga, energetic active
life with the calmness and tranquillity of the mind, the faithful discharge
of domestic and social obligation with the Supreme Spiritual Ideal of life.
Due homage is paid to all the religious sects and subsects seeking to
realise the ultimate ideal through different methods of moral and spiri-
tual discipline and cultivating devotion and love for the same Supreme
Spirit through such different Divine Names and Forms, as Vishnu,
Ndrdyana, Hari, Vdsudeva, Siva, Rudra, Pasupati, Kali, Durgd, Krishna,
Rdma, Skanda, Ganapati, Suryya, Agni, Vdyu, etc. etc. Thus all the out-
wardly diverse religious groups with their different creeds and rituals and
formalities are nicely assimilated within the bosom of Hinduism. The
unity of Hinduism has never been lost in these differences. The Puranas
contributed greatly to' the maintenance of the unity of Hinduism without
disturbing the specific features of the sects.

Besides the Mahdbhdrata and Puranas, the Rdmdyana of Mahd-Kabi
Valmiki played a very important role in the evolution of the ethical and
spiritual idealism of the Hindus. The Rdmdyana was the first national

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Epic of Bharatvarsha, the Mahdbharata being the second in point of
time. It was as popular and inspiring, though not so encyclopaedic and
philosophical, as the latter. In the composition of this great Epic Maha-
rishi Valmiki was inspired with the idea of presenting to the human
society the life of an ideal man, in whom there should be a combination
of Humanity with Divinity, in whom Humanity should be elevated to the
level of Divinity and Divinity should be revealed to man as the perfection
of all human excellences. He found such a God-Man in Sri Rama, who,
besides being an ideal son, an ideal brother, an ideal friend', an ideal
husband, an ideal king, an ideal hero, a man of universal sympathy and
compassion, a man of truth and love and purity and sacrifice, an ideal
man of action with the spirit of a Yogi and a veritable embodiment of
goodness and greatness, carried the banners of the Aryan ethico-spiritual
culture upto the southern-most extremity of this vast continent after
having vanquished the materialistic self-aggrandising military powers by
his wonderful heroism and having won over the hearts of the people at
large by his moral and spiritual excellences.

Taking Sri Rama as the Human-Divine Hero of his Epic, the immor-
tal saint-poet depicted a good many ideal characters, narrated great
varieties of situations, dealt with varieties of domestic and social and
political and racial and moral and spiritual problems and in and through
all these presented the ethico-spiritual culture of the Aryans at its best.
Everywhere the Mahd-Kabi demonstrated the all-conquering power of the
Spirit, the supremacy of Dharma and Moksha over Artha and Kama, the
superiority of love to hatred, of benevolence to selfishness, of sacrifice
to possession, of the dictates of duty and virture to the demands of the
natural desires and propensities. The Rdmdyana exercised a tremendous
influence upon the minds and hearts and the practical conducts of all
sections of people in the country and also abroad. The Rdmdyana
inspired a great many poets and thinkers of later times to write charm-
ing poems on the life-story of Rama and the other noble characters of
the Epic and on the topics dealt with therein, Rama has since then
occupied in the hearts of the people the position of one of the greatest
Incarnations of God and some sections of the people have been and are
still devoted to the worship of Rama as the Supreme Spirit.

The Rdmdyana, the Mahdbharata and the Purdnas did not belong to
any particular school of religious or philosophical thought, and did not
want to destroy any of the thought-currents which flowed on in the Aryan
society through different interpretations of the Vedic and the Agamic
Revelations and the diverse spiritual experiences of saints, or any of the
systems of moral and religious philosophy which developed in the society
through the intellectual efforts of great sages. They rather wanted to

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link them together and to reconcile and unify them by discovering the
deeper spiritual significance and practical utility of each and illustrating
each with inspiring examples. As the result of their wide-spread
propaganda-work, Pravrtyi-Mdrga and Nivritti-Mdrga and Updsand-Mdrga,
Karma and Jhdna and Yoga and Vairdgya and Bhakti, all these continu-
ed to develop in the ever-expanding Hindu society. They'preached in the
most attractive forms the spiritual ideal of life and universal moral
principles 9f conduct to the farthest corners of the land and aryanised all
the non-aryan peoples in course of a few centuries.

Ahimsd (harmlessness) Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (non-stealing),
Brahmacaryya (control) of the sexual and sensual propensities), Aparigraha
(control of the tendencies to hoard money), Sauca (self purification),
Santosha (contentment), Tapah (austerity), Swddhydya (search for true
knowledge) and Iswara-Pranidhdna (devotion to God in any Name and
Form), which were the bases of Yoga and were known as Yama and
Niyama in the Yoga-$dstras,WQtQ taught to all people by the Epics and
the Purdnas as the universal principles of good and noble conduct (sdrva-
bhouma mahdbrata), Sympathy and compassion for and selfless service to
all fellow-beings (men as well as all other living creatures) was taught as a
highly noble form of worship of God. Spiritual advancement (Dharma
and Moksha) was preached as superior, even in worldly life, to political
authority and economic prosperity and materialistic grandeur. The
stratification of the society into Varnas and Asramas was fmade on the
basis of spiritual culture, and the Brdhmanas and the Sannydsis were given
the most honourable positions. Before the time of Buddha and Maha-
vlra the Hindu society-building and nation- building on the moral and
spiritual basis was (at least theoretically) almost complete. The bond of
unity of all the diversities in Hinduism was supplied by their faith in the
authority of the Vedas and their spiritual outlook on all the affairs of
individual and collective life.

III. BUDDHA AND MAHAVIRA

Lord Buddha, the illustrious founder of Buddhism, and Lord
Mahavlra, the illustrious founder of Jainism, who led two powerful
ethico-religious movements, more than a thousand years after Sree
Krishna and Vyasa, were both of them Mahdyogis, and in all their funda-
mental teachings they followed the line of the ancient Yogi school and the
Nibritti-mdrga of the Vedas. Like the old enlightened Siddha-Yogis these
two great teachers regarded a life of renunciation, the systematic practice
of internal and external self-control, self-purification, self-refinement and
self -concentration, the abandonment of all selfish desires and ambitions for
and attachments to the transitory things of this world as well as of the

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other worlds, as assential for the attainment of perfect liberation from
all actual and possible sorrows and bondages. Like those ancient Yogis
they were little interested in subtle metaphysical speculations with regard
to the ultimate Source and constitution of the cosfnic order or with regard
to the existence of any eternal transcendent Reality behind this ever-
changing and ever-continuous phenomenal universe of our normal experi-
ence or with regard to the essential character of the individual soul; like
them they were chiefly interested in the practical problem of the discovery of
the most suitable and effective means of liberation from all kinds of sorrows
in this life or in any form of life hereafter. Like those ancient Yogis
these two illustrious teachers were convinced of the inefficacy of these
Yedic Karma-Kdnda and the various kinds of complicated ritualistic
sacrifices and ceremonial forms of worship offered to the Deities, as well
as of the subtle metaphysical reasonings practised by different schools of
philosophers, for liberating the people permanently from all possible
sorrows.

Moreover, they were convinced that Vedic ceremonial Karma-Kanda
as well as metaphysical Jhana-Kdnda and even complex forms of Upasand-
Kdnda were not practicable for the common people who were the worst
sufferers in this world. They accepted the view of the all-renouncing Yogis
and Jndnis that all the objects of this phenomenal world-order are transi-
tory or momentary and that desires for and attachments to such transitory
objects of the world are the real causes of all sorrows and also that
ignorance of the inevitably transitory character of all things of the world
is the root-cause of all desires and attachments and hence of all sorrows.
Accordingly the universal remedy for all sorrows is to root out all desires
and attachments from the mind. For this purpose the normal nature of the
mind has to be sufficiently purified and transformed. The consciousness
of the transitoriness of worldly things has to be fully awakened and
dynamic. For this the earnest practice of Yoga and JMna is necessary,
but Yoga must not be confused with excessive self-mortification and ascetic-
ism, nor should JMna be confused with hair-splitting metaphysical argu-
mentation and logical warfare. They expounded Yoga and JMna in a
way, which made them practicable to common people.

The rules of ethical conduct and the modes of spiritual discipline
practised and preached by Buddha and Mahavlra were essentially the same
as those prescribed by the Agamas and the old Yogi Sampradaya, though
they formulated them in some cases in different languages. Ahimsa, to
which both of them attached great importance, was the first item of Yama
of the Yogi school. The latter, however, had not raised any strong voice of

298

protest against the killing of animals in Vedic sacrifices and other religious
ceremonies prescribed in the Dharma Sdstras of Pravritti-Mdrga, though
they did not approve it. Both Buddha and Mahavira raised a standard
of rebellion against the billing of living creatures in all cases and conse-
quently against all forms of Vedic sacrifices and religious ceremonies
involving Himsd in any shape. They refused to recognise the distinction
between Vaidha and Avaidha (approved and disapproved) Himsd and
openly revolted against the infallible authority of the Vedas. This revolt
against the Vedas was the main cause of the separation of Buddhism and
Jainism from Hinduism. Hinduism, while allowing unrestricted freedom
to all sections of people to hold any philosophical views and to follow
any course ofYeligious practices according to their wisdom and choice,
could not tolerate the open rebellion by any community within its fold
against the authority of the revealed Vedas, which constituted the strong-
est bond of union for a good many centuries among the large variety of
Hindu peoples holding diverse kinds of philosophical and religious views
and living under diverse political and military powers in diverse economic
and physical conditions in different parts of the vast country. Revolt
against the Vedas meant to the Hindus revolt against the cultural and
spiritual unity of Bharatavarsha.

Both the illustrious Mahdyogi teachers, Buddha and Mahavira, seem
to have had conceived the idea of propagating a non-dogmatic non-
ritualistic non-metaphysical non-communal system of ethico-religious
discipline for the common people based on purely moral and spiritual
principles and appealing to the common-sense of these people. This was
quite consistent with the traditions of the ancient Yogi school. This seems
to have impelled them in their practical teachings to make adverse critic-
isms against all current ritualistic practices, all prevailing popular beliefs
(including belief in the infallibility of the Vedas and the unverifiable mira-
culous effects of the Vedic rites and ceremonies), all widely respected but
mutually contradicting metaphysical theories, all social institutions based
on the birthright of certain privileged classes, all injustices and cruelties in
the name of religion and all kinds of narrowness and exclusiveness and
violence and untruth. They of course harboured no ill feeling against any
school of thought or any form of religious discipline sincerely pursued for
emancipation from this sorrow-ridden world by any class of people, and
they considered it irreligious to hurt the feelings of other people. Still
they fought with their Yogic calmness and tranquillity against the prevail-
ing traditions for the propagation of their independent views.

Each of the two Master- Yogis founded a monastic organisation (not
far off from populous localities) for the systematic training of all-renounc-

299

ing spiritual aspirants in the art of yoglc self-discipline and self-enlighten-
ment and in living the life of perfect purity and desirelessness, perfect
tranquillity and harmlessness, perfect chastity and universal friendliness,
perfect peace and bliss and freedom from the touch of all sorrows and
cares. They hoped that through these specially trained sannydsi-yogis
the true ideal of sorrowless and blissful life should be effectively propa-
gated to all classes of people in all grades of the human society. There
must be contact between the sonny dsis and the grihasthas, since the former
would have to depend upon the latter for their food and the barest neces-
saries of their physical existence and the latter must humbly approach the
former for learning the art of getting rid of sorrows and anxieties from
which they all suffered. Though renunciation had been quite familiar to
Hindu spiritual culture, such organised monasticism was ratlfer new.

The two great Masters did not naturally claim any absolute origina-
lity for their modes of sddhand and their teachings. Each of them referred
to the long line of their spiritual forefathers, the long line of Mahdyogis
(Buddhas and Tirthankaras) from whom they obtained the light. They
however used different languages, different techniques, different termino-
logy and nomenclature, in expounding their views and spiritual experi-
ences. They often differed from each other in their emphasis upon
particular details of the yogic discipline they taught and with regard to
the outer modes of conduct. Hence these two contemporary religious move-
ments grew separately and in competition with each other, but both of
them greatly popularised the yogic ideal of life. The sphere of influence of
Buddhism vastly expanded, when Emperor Asoka of immortal fame made it
his state-religion and sent missionaries to all parts of this vast country and
even to many foreign countries for preaching the noble message of Buddha.
Asoka's contribution to the propagation of Buddha's Gospel of Non-
violence and Universal Love and Friendliness and Compassion for all
distressed and neglected men and animals is unparalleled. Gradually
selfless service to helpless men and animals became a prominent feature in
the religion of the Buddhist Sanghct, and active compassion for the sorrows
of others came to be regarded as the most effective method for emancipa-
tion from one's own sorrows.

In spite of the intention of Buddha and Mahavlra to keep their
systems of ethical and spiritual discipline free from metaphysical contro-
versies and ritualistic complications, several philosophical schools developed
in Buddhism and Jainism within the framework of their teachings and a
number of tdntric rituals and modes of worship gradually appeared in
them. Buddha's utterances about the impermanence and ever-change-
ableness of all objects of our experience, his non-committal attitude

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towards all questions, regarding any permanent transcendent Reality like
Brahma or Atma or any Ultimate Material or Efficient Cause of this
ever-changing phenomenal world, his discreet silence about the true nature
of the illumined experience attainable in the deepest Samddhi and about
the real significance of N-irvdna or Moksha, were construed by his intellec-
tualist followers into the philosophical doctrines of the momentariness
(kshanikatwct) of all existences, the non-existence of any eternal supra-
phenomenal Reality like Branma or Alma, the absolute annihilation of the
individual soul in Nirvana, the Absolute Void or the Absolute Negation
of all existences (Sunya) being the ultimate Truth of all existences, and
logical corollaries were drawn from these conclusions.

The development of such philosophical views, not only widened the
gulf of difference between Buddhism and Hinduism, but also created
schisms within the Buddhist church. The Budhhists were divided into
Sarvdstitwa-Vddi, Vijndna-Vddi, Sunya-Vddi and other minor schools, and
each school was further subdivided on different grounds. Some schools,
while denying God or the Supreme Spirit, put Buddha in His place and
offered prayer and worship to Him as the eternal Divine Personality with
the devotion of their hearts and also with ritualistic ceremonies. Dharma
was personified by some as the Supreme Goddess and ceremoniously
worshipped. Some put the whole emphasis upon Renunciation and some
upon Compassion and Service. Thus Buddhism was divided into too many
schools. Maha-Yana, Hina-Ydna, Vajra-Ydna and Sahaja-Ydna became
prominent for some time in different parts of India. But they were all
gradually weakened in this country for various reasons, particularly on
account of their internal conflicts and conflicts with Hinduism. But it
cannot be doubted that the ideal life and the universally appealing
teachings of Mahayogi Gautama Buddha and the highly noble educa-
tional and cultural and philanthropic activities of the Buddhist organisa-
tions exercised a great liberalising influence upon Hindu philosophical
schools, Hindu social institutions, Hindu religious systems and Hindu
codes of morality as a whole to a considerable extent.

Philosophical doctrines as well as ceremonial modes of worship
developed also within the Jainism of Mahavira, and different subsects
arose within his monastic organisation. The Anekdnta-Vdda, Sydd-Vdda
and Saptabhangi-Nydya of Jalna philosophers made rich contributions to
philosophical studies in the country. Their interpretation of the Law of
Karma also had its special features. Jainism however had no opportunity
like Buddhism to spread beyond the borders of India.

In spite of the original ways of the Buddhist and the Jaina philoso-
phers and religious teachers in formulating and logically supporting their

301

doctrines, the spiritual and ethical ideas which they preached were neither
foreign to Hinduism nor new to the enlightened Yogis and Jndnis and
Bhaktas of the ancient times or of the time of Buddha and Mahavlra.
Sunya-Vdda, Catuskoti-vinirmukta-Vdda, Sydd-Vdda, Anekdnta-Vdda, etc.,
were all of them only different philosophical formulations of the deepest
spiritual experiences of Mahd-Yogis, Mahd-Bhaktas and Mahd- Jndnis
(including Buddha and Mahavlra) of all times in their super-conscious
Samddhi state as well of the revelations of the Vedas, viz., that the
Absolute Transcendent Reality is beyond the range of thought t and speech,
beyond the comprehension of our phenomenal mind and intellect, incap-
able of being described in terms of any of the categories of our pheno-
menal understanding and of being proved by any logical arguments,
incapable even of being characterised either as existent or as non-existent
or as both existent and non-existent or as neither-existent-nor-non-existent
(in the sense in which we commonly understand these predicates). The
ever-changing ever-unstable character of all objects of our phenomenal
experience and knowledge and of our subjective phenomenal consciousness
itself is also obvious to all enlightened as well as deep-thinking persons.
Amidst all changes the continuity of the phenomenal world-order is also
quite palpable to all. When attempts are made by the phenomenal intellect
to go beyond its range and to phenomenally conceive and describe the
Inconceivable and Indescribable Transcendent Absolute Reality, differences
of views naturally arise. Truth reveals Itself differently to different view-
points of different phenomenal intellects. Hence philosophers differ.
Spiritually enlightened persons do not mind these differences, because
they see the Ultimate Truth behind all philosophical views. The trans-
cendent experiences of these spiritually enlightened saints and sages are
the real foundations of Hindu outlook, and it is on this account that the
Hindus have the capacity and tendency to assimilate all differences and to
tolerate all kinds of views.

For several centuries, while Buddhism and Jainism and some other
minor systems were developing as Non-Vedic (and hence Non-Hindu)
ethico-religious and philosophical sampraddyas, the progress of the Veda-
believing Hindu philosophical schools, devotional sects, socio-domestic
ritualistic practices and yogi-sannydsi sampraddyas, was not retarded, but
rather accelerated in healthy competition with the opposite camps. The
religious and philosophical literature of each system was greatly enriched,
in the intellectual attempts of the thinkers and scholars of every system
to meet the criticisms of those of the other systems and to justify and
strengthen their own views. The stories of the Epics and the Pur anas
were widely spread and the ethical and spiritual significance of these
Stories was clearly and artistically explained in suitable forms so as to be

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intelligible and inspiring to the common people of all grades of the
society; the Buddhist missionaries also similarly preached the stories of
the present life and of many other previous lives of Buddha with their
moral and spiritual meanings for the edification of the common people.
Different groups of people were attracted towards the devotional and
ceremonial worship of the Deities glorified in the Pur anas for the fulfil-
ment of their particular desires and aspirations; but their views were
enlightened by the idea that all these Deities were the same Supreme
Spirit appearing in apparently different Names and Forms. The worship
of the Avatdras (special Divine Incarnations), particularly of Krishna and
Rama, became popular. Mahd-Yogiswara Siva also was worshipped by
all classes as a most popular God accessible to all. Buddha was
ceremonially worshipped as God Incarnate by many devotees of the
(apparently atheistic) Buddhist church. He was accepted as a great
Avatdra by large sections of Hindus as well and worshipped as such. The
faith in the spiritual efficacy of devotional worship deeply permeated the
hearts of large sections of Buddhist spiritual aspirants. Vedic Yajnas
continued to prevail in the Hindu society, and they were celebrated by
the people in accordance with the prescribed rules and regulations as far
as their resources and circumstances allowed. The belief in the religious
and moral values of these practices was never lost in the Hindu society.
Many Yajnas entered into the ceremonial forms of devotional worship
and became their essential parts. The common people all over the
country were not much affected by the ideological differences among the
higher circles. They followed their customs in practical life and cherished
the feelings of admiration and reverence for the saints and sages of all
communities and sects and subsects. To them a Buddhist Bhikshu or a
Jaina Muni was as much adorable as a Hindu Sannydsi or Yogi. How-
ever the philosophers and the orthodox advocates of the different systems
might on the intellectual plane fight against each other, it was in course
of time more and more widely appreciated that there were not much
differences on fundamental moral aad spiritual principles among Hinduism
and Buddhism and Jainism, and hence the viewpoint of each was more
and more liberalised.

IV. Kumarila, Sankara and Gorakshanatha.

A few centuries later some exceptionally talented super-human
saintly personalities appeared as exponents of all the currents of Vedic
spiritual culture and marvellously revivified them throughout the length
and breadth of this vast country. Kumarila Bhatta appeared as the
great exponent of Vedic Pravritti-Mdrga or Karma-Mdrga. He infused
new life into Mimdmsa-Darsana and Smriti-Sdstra, He refuted with

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irresistible force all adverse criticisms against the authority of the Vedas
and the efficacy of the Vedic sacrificial ceremonies as well as against the
Varna and Asrama organisation of the society based upon the differences
of spiritual aptitude of men and the spiritual importance of the due
discharge of domestic and social obligations. He strongly counteracted
the belief, which was being created by the preachings of the monastic
schools, that the renunciation of domestic and social life of service and
sacrifice and the adoption of sannyasa or Bhikshutwa or Muntfwa in the
very early stages of life were the only way to Moksha or Nirvana or
spiritual self-fulfilment. He and his school restored the shaking faith of
many people in the dignity and nobility of the life of Dharma within the
society and its necessity for spiritual advancement towards* Moksha, the
ultimate ideal of human life. The Vedic Pravriiti-Marga got a new vigorous
life from the preachings of Kunaarila and his school.

Acarya Sankara appeared as the greatest exponent of the Vedic or
Vedantic Nivritti-Mdrga and Jndna-Mdrga. He was a born philosopher,
endowed with superhuman intelligence. He based his philosophy on the
authority of the Upanisnads, the Geeta and the Brahma-sutras, and
established with irresistible logical arguments that they all reveal the
existence of One Infinite Eternal Changeless DhTerenceless Actionless
Attributeless Self-luminous Transcendent Spirit (or Brahman) as the
Absolute Reality and that they all teach us to look upon all phenomenal
relative contingent realities of our normal experience (i.e. the cosmic
system with all its diversified orders of existences, subjective as well as
objective) as illusory appearances of Brahman through the instrumentality
of some inexplicable mysterious Power or Entity, called Maya. This
Maya is of the nature of Root-Ignorance (Mula-Avidya), and all diversi-
ties of subjects and objects constituting this universe are products of this
Ignorance, which is not explicable either as existent or as non-existent.
All individual souls also illusorily appear as individual and finite and
under bondage on account of this Ignorance. They are really no other
than Brahman.

This is the famous Adwaita-Vada of Sankara. It established on the
authority of the recognised Scriptures as well as by cogent logical argu-
ments of the Spiritual Oneness of ah 1 phenomenal existences. It sought to
awaken in man the enlightened consciousness of the essential unity of
mankind, irrespective of caste or creed or race or sex, the essential unity
of men and all other living creatures on account of the same Supreme
Spirit being embodied in all of them, and also the real spiritual character
of all conscious beings as well as of all unconscious material objects. It
proclaimed that all differences are illusory and the underlying unity is

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truly real, that all differences are merely in names and forms, which are
changeable and unsubstantial, while the Substance upon Which these
names and forms are superimposed is the same infinite eternal Absolute
Spirit. It disclosed tht every Jeeva is in reality Siva or Brahman,
though it in its embodied state illusorily appears as an individual being,
limited in time and space and capacity, passing through births and deaths
and developments and degradations, and suffering from bondages and
sorrows. By its metaphysical conclusion Sankara's Adwaita-Vada aimed
at thoroughly spiritualising the outlook of man on himself and the whole
world of phenomenal experience.

Sankara'did not, however, deny the practical values of the philoso-
phical conceptions of the other schools of thought or of the diverse forms
of religious discipline or different modes of devotional worship or even of
the various kinds of domestic and social duties and ritualistic practices
and ceremonies of Pravritti-Mdrga. Though the Ultimate Truth of all
existences is, according to Sankara, One Changeless Differ enceless Action-
less Uncharacterisable Impersonal Spirit or Brahman, this Brahman as
qualified by the inexplicable (anirvacaniya) Maya appears as One Personal
God or Iswara endowed with infinite power and wisdom, capable of self-
manifestation in infinite ways and forms in the spatio-temporal cosmic
system and eternally creating and destroying and ruling over this diversi-
fied world of Maya. This Personal God has undoubtedly a glorious
phenomenal existence like the existence of the cosmic order of which He
is the Supreme Lord, though from the highest metaphysical point of view
He is to be characterised as neither-real-nor-unreal or as the Mdyika
appearance of Impersonal Nirguna Brahma. Saguna Brahma may be
worshipped in diverse holy Names and Forms and He has love and
mercy for His devotees and fulfils the desires and aspirations of the
devotees through all Names and Forms. Sankara himself worshipped
Saguna Brahma in all Names and Forms. Moksha, however, consists in
transcending Saguna Brahma and realising the absolute non-dual reality
of Nirguna Brahma.

Sunya-tattwa of the Buddhists could be easily equated with the
Nirguna-Brahma-tattwa of Sankara. Nirguna-Brahma is as much beyond
the range of intellectual phenomenal knowledge and uncharacterisable in
terms of the categories of phenomenal understanding as Sunya. By Exis-
tence (sattd) Buddha in his common discourses meant phenomenal exis-
tence possessing practical efficiency (artha-kriyd-kdritwa) and hence he
preferred to give a negative term (implying non-existence) to what is
beyond this phenomenal cosmic order. On the other hand, Sankara in his
philosophical discourses used the term Existence to mean eternal infinite

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noumenal existence (the non-existence of which at any time is inconceivable)
and hence he described the Eternal Infinite Background of all phenomenal
spatio-temporal existences as Absolute Existence, and the phenomenal
existences as false or illusory or non-existent (Asat). Both Buddha and
Sankara pointed to the same Ultimate Reality behind and beyond all
apparent phenomenal existences which are orginated and destroyed in the
temporal order. According to both Buddha and Sankara, Avidyd is the
beginning of the causal chain giving birth to this phenomenal world, and
Nirvana or Moksha consists in liberation from this Avidyd. ' This ever-
flowing cyclic world-order being ultimately a product of Avidyd (Ignorance)
may reasonably be conceived as of the nature of an illusory appearance.

Buddha is ordinarily silent about the Substratum (adhisthdna) and
Support (dsraya) of this Cosmic Illusion or speaks of It as Sunya (Absolute
Void); Sankara speaks of It as Brahma, as of the nature of Absolute
Existence (Sat), Absolute Consciousness (Cit), Absolute Bliss (Ananda).
Buddha is silent about whether there is any permanent being that suffers
from Avidyd and consequent desires, sorrows, etc., undeigoes the system
of discipline necessary for the attainment of liberation from them and
finally attains Nirvana or Moksha; and he does not definitely disclose
whether Nirvana means total self-annihilation or infinite eternal supra-
phenomenal absolute existence. Sankara delivers a positive message of
hope and aspiration. He says that the individual soul illusorily suffering
from Avidyd and its consequents and seeking for liberation is not only a
permanent being, but is essentially no other than Brahman, the Transcen-
dent Soul and Substratum and Support of this illusory cosmic order, and
in Nirvana or Moksha this individual soul realises its essential infinite
eternal blissful transcendent character and its absolute identity with
Brahman. An enlightened Yogi feels even in his embodied state that he is
eternally free from all bodily bondages and sorrows and limitations, that
he is eternally free from all births and deaths and diseases and worldly
connections, and also that all the diversities of the world are essentially
nothing but his own apparent self-manifestations or appearances.

Thus Sankara's Adwaita-Vdda assimilated Sunya-Vdda of Buddhism,
supplied positive spiritual significance to the Buddhist conceptions of
Sunya and Nirvana, and added an inspiring message of hope for mankind.
It assimilated Jaina Anekdnta-Vdda as well, in as much as the Ultimate
Reality, Adwaya Brahman may reasonably be regarded as having many-
faced appearances, when viewed from different phenomenal stand-points.
It assimilated all the mutually conflicting Dwaita schools of philosophy,
in so far as it brought to the forefront the Ultimate Spiritual Ground of
Unity of all Dualistic Intellectual Conceptions, and sought to put an end

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to all quarrels among the various sects of worshippers, each of whom
claimed that the Deity it worshipped was the highest God or the Supreme
Spirit. Adwaita-Vada pointed out that all the Gods worshipped by all
sects of devotees are the same Absolute Spirit, Brahma, differing only in
Names and in the phenomenal attributes and activities and glories ascribed
to them. While recognising the spiritual value of Bhakti-sadhana (devo-
tional worship), he regarded it as subsidiary to JMna, since the former is
based upon the conception of phenomenal Saguna- Brahma, i.e. the Abso-
lute Spirit as conditioned by Maya and hence possessing illusory pheno-
menal attributes and powers, and therefore necessarily involving difference
between Him and the individual soul; JMna, on the other hand, seeks
directly to transcend the dualistic phenomenal plane, to rise above the
apparent difference between the soul and Brahma and to realise the
ultimate noumenal non-difference of Brahma and the soul. Bhakti finds
its fulfilment in JMna, i.e. the realisation of the identity of the soul with the
Absolute Spirit.

Similarly Sankara appreciated the social, moral and spiritual values
of Pravritti-Mdrga and Karma-sadhana and preached them as useful and
necessary for all householders and all classes of common people living in
the domain of Ignorance (Avidya). Through the due discharge of domestic
and social obligations and the performance of sacred sacrificial works they
have to purify and ennoble and elevate their minds and hearts, so as to
acquire the capacity of cultivating Yoga and JMna for the attainment of
Moksha. Thus Sankara made a marvellous attempt to link together and
harmonise and unify on the basis of his Vedantic Adwaita philosophy all
the currents of Vedic ethico-spiritual discipline and even the systems
which revolted against the authority of the Vedas. He founded a power-
ful monastic organisation with branches in all parts of this vast country
for the intensive cultivation of Vedantic JMna-sadhand and for the extensive
propagation of his views. He discovered and revived many old sacred
places and many shrines and many centres of pilgrimage throughout India.
He exercised a great influence upon the reorganisation of Hinduism after
the Buddhistic revolt.

Near about the same time Mahayogi Gorakshanatha (commonly
spoken of as Gorakhnath) appeared as a great teacher of Yoga and popu-
larised the Yogic culture throughout the length and breadth of India and
even beyond its borders. As a true Mahayogi he was not much interested
in metaphysical controversies. He principally expounded and practically
taught the yoga system of moral and spiritual self-discipline and demons-
trated by the example of his own extraordinary life the miraculous effects
of the practice of yoga. He placed before all classes of truthseekers

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Maha-Yogiswara Siva or Idinatha as the eternal and supreme Ideal of
human life as well as the Ultimate Truth of the universe. Siva, by virtue
of His eternal self-luminous (cinmaya] self-concentrated (samadhimayd) self-
enjoying (dnandamaya) self-perfect (swayampurna) character eternally
transcends this phenomenal cosmic system, and also by virtue of the
infinite Power (with infinite wisdom) inherent in His nature eternally
manifests Himself without any effort or motive in infinite ways as an
infinitely diversified and changeful variety of spatio-temporal phenomenal
existences constituting one magnificent and beautiful and harmonious
Cosmic Order, and also as an infinite number of finite individual Spirits or
souls playing distinctive parts in various forms under various conditions
within this phenomenal Cosmic Order and capable of transcending it and
consciously participating in the blissful transcendent character of Siva.
Thus Siva has eternally a supra-cosmic supra-phenomenal supra-personal
transcendent character as well as a freely and delightfully self-revealing
self-diversifying playful dynamic character, and similarly every individual
soul also has a transcendent as well as a conditioned character. An
individual soul has to realise its transcendent character, i.e. its essential
&v#-hood, through the systematic practice of Yoga and the attainment of
the perfectly illumined state of Samddhi.

Gorakhnath regarded the controversy among the advocates of
Dualism (Dwaita) and Non-Dualism (Adwaita) and all other 'isms' ( Vadas]
as useless from the spiritual point of view, in as much as the Absolute
Reality, the Ultimate Ground and Source of all phenomenal existences, is
beyond all intellectual conceptions, though realisable in supra-intellectual
subject-object-less Absolute Experience in the perfectly illumined samadhi-
state of the individual phenomenal consciousness. Philosophically his
doctrine was described as Dwaita- Adwaita- Vilakshana. While fully subscrib-
ing to the Adwaita-view of the Absolute Spirit, he did not look down upon
Dwaita as illusory or false caused by any such mysterious entity as Maya
or Avidyd essentially unrelated to the Adwaita-tattwa. In the place of
Maya- Vada of Sankara, Gorakhnath and his Sampradaya preached Sakti-
Vada, Sakti being the real Absolute Power of the Absolute Spirit for His
diversified self-manifestation.

V. MEDIEVAL HINDUISM

The advocacy of Kumarila and the Mlmdmsd school founded by him
for the Pravritti-Marga of the Vedas made a substantial contribution to
the re-establishment of the Hindu Society in all the parts of Bharatavarsha
on the basis of the principle of Catur-Varna (stratification of the society
into four Varnas, viz. Brahmana, Kashatriya, Vaisya and Sudra, and
regulation of their religious and social duties in accordance with the

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Swa-Dharma of each) and Catur-Israma (division of each individual life
into four stages, viz. Brahmacaryya, Garhasthya, Banaprastha and
Sannyasa, with special kinds of duties and forms of self-discipline allotted
to each). The most dignified position in the society was given to the
Brahmana-Varna on the principle that those who were devoted to the
advancement of Learning and the enrichment of higher culture in the
society should be voluntarily recognised as superior and worthy of homage
by those who had political and executive power and authority in their
hands as well as those who had economic resources and prestiges in the
society, not to speak of the various grades of skilled and unskilled
labourers. There must of course be mutual dependence upon and hearty
cooperation Between each other among the four Varnas, without which
the society would be disintegrated and there would be constant rivalry
and warfare among the different classes. It may be noted that the
division of each Varna of the society into hundreds of castes artificially
created by the varieties of professions and means of livelihood as well as
geographical distances had no spiritual significance, and that such casteism
was no essential factor in Hinduism. It may further be noted that Hindu-
ism with its fundamental spiritual outlook, though admitting adhikara-
bheda in respect of duties and rights, does not and can not look down
upon any section of people as untouchable or unworthy of offering worship
to God, Who is the Indwelling Spirit of every man and every living being.
However, the social structure of Hinduism throughout this vast country,
which is principally based on Pravritti-Marga together with the spiritual
outlook of the Vedas, has in its fundamental features continued to uphold
itself in spite of repeated attacks upon it for several thousand years.

Along with the invigoration of the long-standing frame-work of the
Hindu society based on the cultural leadership of the Brahmanas and the
spiritual leadership of the Sannydsis and Yogis all over Bharatavarsha,
faith in the authority of the Vedas was also strengthened and the Vedic
ritualism was also revivified particularly among the upper sections of the
society. But for the masses of Hindus (including those who were
Brahmanas by birth, but without any proficiency in Vedic culture) the
Vedic Yajna generally took the forms of Seva and Puja and pilgrimage to
the sacred places. For the people in general the ritualistic Vedic Sacrifices
(Srauta-Yajha) were in most cases found inconvenient, if not impracti-
cable; works of social and public utility involving personal sacrifice and
performed in a spirit of worship became more popular forms of Yajna and
they were known as Smarta-Yajna. The spiritual significance of these
forms of Yajna was highly appreciated by all sections of the society.
Elaborate ceremonial worship (Puja) of a variety of Gods and Goddesses
(or rather of the One Supreme Spirit in a variety of glorified Names and
Forms) became widely popular throughout the country. In such Puja

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there was a splendid amalgamation of Karma and Bhakti, of ritualism
and devotion, of Yajna and Upasand, of the Vedic principle of Sacrifice
and the Pauranic form of the loving worship of Personal God conceived
as very near and dear to the worshipper. Many jYogic practices also are
involved in the prescribed methods of worship, and the Mantras uttered
in eulogising the Deities imply in every case the conception of One
Supreme Spirit as the Soul of all the apparently different Deities and as
the true ultimate Object of worship. Image-worship became a part and
parcel of Hinduism. This had a great spiritual significance, in as much as
it awakened in the hearts of all grades of men and women the feeling that
the infinite and eternal Supreme Spirit, the Supreme Source of all exis-
tences, was vividly present before their eyes in finite fosms to receive
their humble offerings and to bestow all kinds of blessings upon them.
The Divine Images, even though products of imagination, are of immense
help in making the people heartily feel the presence of God in their
midst. The practice of pilgrimage, which was enjoined upon all Hindus,
kept alive the consciousness of the unity of all Hindus in all parts of this
vast country (however different their outer manners and customs and
garments and dialects might be) and the consciousness that they were
worshippers of the same God Who might be met with everywhere and in
amazingly various forms.

While the social system and the practical life of the Hindus all over
the vast country were principally governed by the Smritis or Sastras
based upon the Pravritti-Marga of the Vedas amalgamated with the
spiritual ideology and devotional attitude of the U ' pdsand-Mdrga, the
thought-atmosphere became gradually more and more saturated with
the thorough-going spiritual outlook of the Nivritti-Mdrga under the
influence of the Veddnta- Darsana as most elaborately and philosophically
expounded by Acaryya Sankara and his school and widely preached in
every corner of the country by the great monastic organisation founded
by him. Sankara's contribution to the reorientation of Hindu religious
thought was unparalleled. Since his time the Veddnta became the prevail-
ing philosophy of Bharatavarsha and Hinduism became essentially the
Religion of the Veddnta. Within his short life-time he is said to have per-
sonally met most of the leading philosophers and religious heads of his
time (not only of the diverse sects of Hindus, but also of the Buddhist
and the Jaina churches) and convinced them with irresistible arguments of
the Vedantic view-point. Rumania's chief disciple, Mandana Misra, who
was then the greatest exponent of Pravritti-Mdrga and Mimamsa-Darsana,
had after a stiff intellectual fight to admit the superiority of Nivritti-Mdrga
and Veddnta-Darsana and to embrace the monastic order. Many
Buddhist leaders also with their followers were won over by Sankara,

310

Sankara travelled in all parts of this vast country, gave new life to many
old centres of Hindu Learning and converted them into centres of
Vedantic culture, created many such centres in different provinces under
the supervision of competent spiritual guides, revived many old holy
places of pilgrimage and turned them into living centres of spiritual
inspiration, and made efficient provisions for close contact between world-
renouncing Sannydsis and world-bound house-holders so that there might
be continual flow of Vedantic spiritual ideas into every stratum of the
society. His, Vedanta did not in any way disturb the social order and the
practical life of the worldly people, as they were regulated by the Sdstras
of Karma-Kdnda and Updsand-Kdnda , but sought to keep all the people
of the society awake to the Ultimate Truth of the universe and the Ulti-
mate Ideal of liftman life, to save them from excessive attachment to the
transitory things of the world and the relative ideals of worldly life, to
teach them Tydga and Vairdgya even in the midst of their Karma and
Bhoga and to show them the path for remaining free from cares and
anxieties and enjoying peace and tranquillity even when bearing the burden
of domestic and social responsibilities.

The fundamental contentions of Sankara and his school were that
the Vedas must be accepted as the supreme authority with regard to the
super-sensuous super-mental supei -intellectual ultimate Truths and Princi-
ples upon which true Religion in its higher aspects is and ought to be
based and that the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gitd and the Brahma-Sutras
unveiled the true spirit and essence of the Vedas. These three were regar-
ded as Sruti-Prasthdna, Smriti-Prasthdna and Nydya-Prasthdna respectively
of the Veddnta (i.e. the ultimate truths revealed in the Vedas), and it was
contended that the whole of the Vedas should be studied in the light of
these three. Sankara wrote elaborate commentaries on each of them and
philosophically established on the basis of them his famous Adwaita- Vdda
which he preached as the true essence of Hinduism, i. e. the Religion of
the Vedas. He strongly criticised all other conceptions about the Ultimate
Reality and the Ultimate ideal of human life, which were propounded by
other religio-philosophical sampraddyas on the basis of their intellectual
thought or the religious experiences of particular individual saints. He
sought to prove that what he established as the Religion of the Vedas (i.e.
the Veddnta) was the only genuine Religion for all Humanity.

Now, the fundamental contentions of Sankara and his school were
generally accepted by all the philosophical schools and all religious sects
among the Hindus all over India. They admitted the authority of the
Vedas and also admitted the Upanlshads and the Gitd and the Brahma-
Sutras as expounding the innermost spirit of the Vedas, Thus all sections

of Hindus were united under the banner of the Veddnta. It was almost
universally agreed that a sampraddya whose creed was not based upon or
demonstrably consistent with the Upanishads, the Gltd and the Brahma-
Sutras should not have recognition as a genuine Hindu sampraddya.
Hence the illustrious Acdryyas of the various Updsaka Sampraddyas,
devoted to the worship of the Supreme Spirit in various Names and
Forms and holding the view that Bhakti (emotional love and reverence for
the Supreme Spirit) was the most effective means to the realisation of the
Supreme Ideal of life, applied their Jntelligence'and energy to the interpreta-
tion of the Upanishads and the Git a and the Brahma-Sutras from their
own respective view-points in order to demonstrate that their sampraddyas
also were Veddntic Sampraddyas, that the particular modes of religious
discipline they preached were truly based on the Veddnta and that they
had their legitimate rights to be recognised as truly Hindu.

In the centuries that followed the age of Kumarila, Sankara and
Gorakhnath, both Pravritti-Mdrga and Nivritti-Mdrga, Karma-Mdrga and
JMna-Marga and Yoga-Mdrga, were considerably influenced by each
other and were developing side by side in the society throughout the
country; the ritualistic ceremonies as well as the domestic and social
duties emphasised in Pravritti-Mdrga were suitably modified and enlighten-
ed by the philosophy and the spirit of renunciation of Nivritti-Mdrga, and
the Sannyasis and Yogis of Nivritti-Mdrga established more and more
Maths and Mandirs and Asramas amidst social surroundings for the pro-
pagation of their higher spiritual ideals, and participated more and more in
practical works of social welfare as parts of their spiritual self-dicipline.
This close contact between Yogis and Sannyasis and Grihasthas sustained
and developed the spiritual outlook of Veda and Veddnta among all
sections of the Indian Humanity in the midst of their normal works and
enjoyments and sufferings.

But in these centuries Upasand-Mdrga and the Bhakti-cult got a
great impetus by the birth of a pretty large number of extraordinary
Bhakta-saints with high spiritual attainments in different provinces of the
country. We may name a few of them, such as, Ramanuja, Nimbarka,
Madhwa, Ballabha, Caitanya, Jnanadeva, Nanak, Kabir, Ramananda,
Tulsidas, Mirabai, etc. They and their disciples and followers exercised a
a great spiritual influence upon the minds and hearts of all classes of
people and practically moulded the character of mediaeval Hinduism.
Mainly due to their influence Bhakti became the predominant note of
popular Hinduism in this age. They preached the Religion of Divine Love
and Devotion and also emphasised the importance of love and sympathy
and compassion for and active service to God's creatures (particularly

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poor and distressed human beings) as a practical expression of Divine
Love. All men and all creatures ought to be adored as living Temples of
the Supreme Spirit, because He resides in the hearts of all as the Soul of
their souls. Life should everywhere be respected and loved and served
and nowhere should ifc be trampled down upon or injured in any way.
This is part and parcel of Bhakti to God. These saints also popularised the
worship of God in the forms of His special Incarnations, such as Krishna,
Rama, etc. and also in the forms of Holy Images. It was due to their
teachings that Purdnas acquired great prominence in Hinduism in this age,
and Bhdgavata acquired a foremost position. The inspiring anecdotes of
the lives of Krishna and Rama and other Divine Incarnations as well as of
the lives of remarkable Maha-Bhaktas, Maria-Yogis, Maha-Jnanis, Maha-
Karmis, all orders of saints and sages, reached every corner of India, and
became perpetual fountains of spiritual inspiration to all classes of people.

Among these influential teachers of the Bhakti schools, Rarnanuja,
Nimbarka, Madhwa, Ballava and Baladeva Vidyabhushan (Chaitanya's'
follower) wrote independent commentaries on the Vedanta and thus
founded distinct Veddntic Bhakti-sampraddyas. In distinction from
Ankara's Adwaita* Vdda, their interpretations of the Vedanta came to be
known respectively as Visista-adwaita-vdda, Dwaita-adwaita-vdda, Dwaita-
vdda, Suddha-adwaita vdda and Acimya-bheda-abheda-vdda. Each of them
attempted to establish that its own interpretation truly represented the
spirit of the Vedanta and therefore of the Vedas. Their fundamental
difference from Ankara's view lay in this that they did not regard the
Creation and the Creative Power of Brahma as illusory nor did they
regard the individual souls as absolutely identical with Brahma. Instead
of the Mdyd-vdda of Ankara, they preferred to accept the Sakti-vdda of
Gorakhnath, though neither Gorakhnath nor any of his direct yogi-
followers wrote any commentary on the Vedanta. They all accepted the
Ved antic Brahma as the sole ultimate absolute self-existent Reality and as
the sole Ground and Cause of this phenomenal Cosmic Order, and they
looked upon the Sakti (Power) of Brahma manifested in this Cosmic
Order as a real Power eternally inherent in His nature. They however
interpreted the relation of this Sakti to Brahma logically in various
ways, which created differences among them. The plurality of individual
souls or finite spirits were also conceived by them as having eternal
spiritual individuality, though eternally existing in and by and for the
Absolute Spirit, Brahma, and holding inalienable spiritual relationship
with Him.

For the purpose of religious discipline and devotional worship,
different Acdryyas and their sampraddyas generally designated Brahma

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by different Divine Names, such as, Hari, Vishnu, Ndrdyana, Vdsudeva,
Krishna, Rama, etc. They all revived the old Vaishnava or Bhdgavata
cult. The old Saiva cult also was revived by a large number of saints
and philosophers flourishing in various parts of^the country and exerting
their influence far and wide. The Saiva-Siddhdnta, the Vira-Saiva, and
the Kashmiri- Saiva Sampraddyas deserve special mention. Saiva philoso-
pher, 5'ri-Kantha, wrote a valuable commentary on the Veddnta from
the ^aiva point of view. Abhinava Gupta wrote a huge number of
learned treatises to expound the Saiva philosophy and religion. There
was a great revival of the Tdntric system of religious discipline and the
worship of Sakti in the names of Kali, Durga, etc. In many places
Buddhism also was greatly tdntricised. Thus the V ' pasand-Jtfdrga or the
Bhakti-Mdrga was widely popularised in various forms in this age in all
parts of the country. As the result of all these revivalist movements
Buddhism and Jainism were almost wholly assimilated with Hinduism.

The Siva-Sdkti-Vdda or Brahma- Sakti-Vdda, as preached by Gorakh-
nath and his Yogi-Sampraddya and the Tdntric Sampraddya, appears to
have had far-reaching influence, not only upon the philosophical thought-
current of the age, but also upon the popular mode of devotional worship
of most of the j5/za/c//-schools since that time. The Supreme Spirit was
conceived and represented in the form of a Divine Couple (Yugala) eter-
nally and inalienably associated by a bond of conjugal union as it were.
The Supreme Spirit and His Infinite Power (essentially immanent in His
nature) were imagined and adored as eternally wedded to and in loving
embrace with each other. Brahma is eternally non-dual and also eternally
reveals Himself in the duality of forms. He is one in two and two in
one. The Dynamic Aspect of the Absolute Spirit is represented by His Sakti
through Whom He manifests Himself in this phenomenal Cosmic Order.
His Sakti is the Divine Mother of the universe, and He is the Divine
Father. The Absolute Spirit reveals Himself in this dual form.

Almost every Updsaka Sampraddya adopted this conception in its
mode of worship. The Vaishnava Updsaka Sampraddyas worshipped the
Absolute Spirit in the names and forms of Ndrdyana in union with
Lakshmi, Krishna in union with Rddhd, Rama in union with Sita, and so on.
In the Saiva Sampraddyas, the Maha-Sakti was represented as Sati, Umd,
Gaun, Kali, Tdrd, Tripura-Sundari, Bhairavl, Chinna-mastd, Shodasi, Bhuvan-
eswari, Dhumdvati, Bagald, Chandi, MatangI, Kamala, Kamakshya, etc. The
Maha-Sakti, the eternal Divine Consort of Siva, is worshipped in various
Names and Forms as the Mother-God in all parts of the country. Siva,
however, is usually worshipped, not in any image-form, but Lingo-form,

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which perhaps stands for a flame of light representing the transcendent
spiritual character of Siva.

Image-worship in 9 wonderful variety of forms became in this period
the most popular and universal mode of religious discipline among all
sections of Hindus and it was considered to be an essential feature of
Hinduism. It was really one of the most glorious factors of Hindu
spiritual outlook that the mind was trained to feel the shining presence
of the Infinite Eternal Absolute Spirit in the finite transitory relative
and conditioned material objects of normal sensuous experience (natural as
well as artificial). Image worship played an important part in this spiritual
training of the Hindu mind. It was therefore encouraged by the greatest
Hindu philosophers, and the saints of the highest spiritual attainments.
The Hindu mind was also trained in the conception of the Divinity of
Man through the worship of the Human Incarnations of God and of the
Holy Personalities, of extraordinary Mahd-Yogis, Mahd-Jndnis, Mahd-
Bhaktas and Mahd-Kannis. The Divinity of Nature also was brought
home to the Hindu mind through the worship of sacred rivers, sacred
mountains, sacred forests and other places of sacred associations and
through insistence on pilgrimage to sacred places scattered over all parts
of the vast country. Bharatavarsha as a whole was specially Divinised in
the conception of the Hindus and was worshipped as a glorious self-
manifestation of the Divine Mahd-Sakti. Many so-called rationalist
thinkers, lacking in spiritual insight and blinded by various secular and
materialistic superstitions, looked down upon many of these religious
conceptions and modes of spiritual training as blind superstitions of the
Hindus.

It was during this period that Islam entered into Bharata as an
inveterate enemy of Image-worship, ^of the worship of God in the forms
of a plurality of Gods and Goddesses, of the worship of the Infinite and
Eternal in finite and destructible human or superhuman or subhuman
forms, of the One in the variety of Names and Forms. Islam in its
deeper spiritual aspects is essentially a religion of unflinching faith in
and absolute devotion and self-surrender to One Omnipotent and Omnis-
cient and Merciful God (the Supreme Spirit) and a religion of Unity,
Peace, Harmony, Cooperation, Universal Brotherhood, Social Equality of
men as men, Active Sympathy for and Compassion upon all the distressed
and depressed sections of God's creatures. But unfortunately the message
of Islam was carried to India as well as to other countries, not by Moslem
saints and sages, but by invading and conquering warriors, plundering
hordes and builders of kingdoms and empires, who exploited religion for
purposes of their military and political and economic adventures. Hence

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Islam fell upon Hinduism as a fanatical iconoclastic religion and a religion
of forcible conversion. It converted large sections of Hindus, but had little
to contribute to the spiritual culture of the Hindus.

VI. MODERN HINDUISM

Hinduism, as it took shape and form in the middle age, continues
without much substantial change in the present age, though it had occa-
sionally to adjust itself with newer and newer situations. During several
centuries of the political sovereignty of Afghans and Moghafs, Hinduism
was to some extent rather terror-stricken on account of the aggressive
iconoclastic and proselytizing attitude of the fanatical Moslems under the
patronage of the short-sighted rulers. But Hinduism never , lost its vitality
and vigour. Innumerable Images were broken, Temples were demolished,
Maths and Monasteries were destroyed, the sanctity of religious institu-
tions was violated and thousands and thousands of Hindus were forcibly
converted. But the spiritual faith as well as the social structure of Hindu-
ism were immortal. Hinduism survived all these crises. By the Divine
Grace it was during these critical periods that Mahd-Yogis, Maha-Jndnis,
Mahd-Bhaktas and Maha-Karmis flourished in different parts of the
country in large numbers and they revived the spiritual glories of Sanatoria
Dharma even under unfavourable outer circumstances. The social leaders
had to make the rules of social discipline more stringent for the sake of
moral defence of the society and the religious leaders had to interpret the
religious concepts and the methods of spiritual discipline in more liberal
ways.

The illustrious religious teachers of the age formulated the spiritual
doctrines of Hinduism in such a way as to assimilate the essential spiritual
truths of Islam with them and to be appealing to the inner hearts of
those Moslems who were sincere and earnest seekers of Truth. Among
the upholders of Islam also there appeared on the scene a good many
saints with deeper spiritual experiences and liberality of outlook, who
represented in their life and teachings the inner spirit of Islam. They,
having come in close contact with the Hindu saints and philosophers,
discovered that Islam in its deeper spiritual aspects had more in common
with the teachings of the Veddnta and the Yoga and the Bhakti of the
Hindus than with the professions and practices of the political and the
fanatical Moslems. Thus closer and closer contact between Hindu saints
and Moslem saints brought Hinduism and Islam very near to each other
and contributed substantially to the establishment of brotherly relation-
ship among Hindus and Moslems. In many places there were Hindu
saints with Moslem disciples and Moslem saints with Hindu disciples,
without interfering with each other's social <}uties and responsibilities,

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Sufism was one of the products of the spiritual union of Hinduism and
Islam, and in it Hindus and Moslems jointly try for spiritual elevation.

In the modern times Hinduism with its spiritual outlook on human
life and all its worldly concerns had to face a tremendous challenge, when
the adventurous peoples of Western Europe with their materialistic outlook
and scientific and technological achievements made commercial and politi-
cal and military inroads into India and finally the British people acquired
the absolute sovereign power over the whole country. These enterprising
Western nations professed Christianity as their religion and paid lip
homage to Christ and the Bible. Each of these nations had their church-
organisations, through which they preached the outward features of the
Christian faith 'wherever they would go with their commercial and political
motives. But in their outlook on the human life and the worldly concerns,
they were far from being truly Christian, far from being guided by the
exemplary life and the spiritual teachings of Christ.

Christianity, it may be noted, had made its way into India long
before it went to Western Europe and established itself as the sole religious
faith there, and also before the rise of the Islamic faith. But as in those
early stages Christianity was preached by saintly persons and men who
sincerely and earnestly believed in the religious path shown by the life and
the teachings of Christ, it accommodated itself quite easily and naturally
with Hinduism, the essential moral and spiritual principles of Christianity
and Hinduism being almost the same. Jesus Christ was a true Yogi with
emphasis on Bhakti, and there is a strong tradition that for a certain period
of his life he had been in India and learnt the spiritual principles and
practices of Yoga from the Himalayan Yogis and also from other Hindu
and Buddhist saints. Those spiritual aspirants who wanted to pursue the
path of Yoga and Bhakti as expounded by Christ found a more congenial
social climate in India amidst Hindu environments than even in the country
of Christ's birth, where for several generations Christianity could not even
be openly professed.

But in the modern times the situation was quite different. This time
it was not the ethico-spi ritual religion of Christ that came to be gently and
lovingly preached by genuine followers of Christ ; it was the Christianity
of the Western type as developed by the Churches organised under the
patronage of political authorities of particular countries, that came to be
aggressively pushed into this land of Hinduism as a secondary force for
popularising the Western domination in the country. This Christianity was
identified with what was called Western civilization, which was associated
with the glamorous scientific and technological advancements a

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well as the military and political organisations of the modern western
nations.

Enamoured by the onward march in secular life of the modern
Western nations, many over-enthusiastic intellectual ist Hindus felt deeply
inclined to have their countrymen initiated, not only into the scientific and
politico-economic culture of the West, but also into the religion and the
social customs of the western people. The Christian missionaries also d id
their utmost to carry on a systematic crusade against Hinduism in all its
various aspects. The more sober and far-sighted and religious-minded
Hindu thought-leaders, however, while keenly desirous of introducing the
scientific and secular culture of the West into the country for its material
progress, wanted to keep the ancient Hindu Religion and Spiritual Outlook
tree from the influence of the Western Christianity. They wanted to
modernise Hinduism on the basis of the lofty spiritual Ideals and philoso-
phical concepts preached in the ancient Hindu Scriptures. The orthodox
Hindu religious teachers as well as the masses of Hindus tried their best to
keep in tact all their holy traditions and ideologies and practices on the
strength of their profound faith in the Sastras and the infallible spiritual
wisdom of seers and saints. The British Ruling Powers, unlike most of the
Moslem Rulers, tried to maintain, at least outwardly, an attitude of non-
interference and impartiality in matters of religion and social customs of the
people.

In the meantime a pretty good number of western scholars and truth-
seekers took to a serious critical study of the Sanskrit language and the
ancient Hindu Scriptures, such as the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Gltd and
the Mahabharata, the Puranas, the Tantras, etc., and also the Hindu philo-
sophical systems. They were enamoured with the vast treasure-house of
knowledge contained in this ancient language, hitherto unknown to the
western world. It was a great discovery to them. Many of these ancient
Hindu Scriptures were translated into European languages. The western
truth-seekers saw new light in these old Scriptures. The appreciation of
Hinduism by the scientific and rational modern minds reawakened the
consciousness of the glories of Hindu culture in the minds of the western-
educated Hindus, who had lost faith in themselves and wanted to be
thoroughly westernised. The Theosophical Society, founded by Madame
Blavatsky and Col. Olcott and developed by Dr. Annie Besant made
substantial contributions to the deeper scientific study of several aspects of
Hinduism and Buddhism. The Brahma Samdj, founded by Raja Ram
Mohan Ray, and the Arya Samdj, founded by Swami Dayananda
Saraswati, made attempts to give some new shape and form to Hinduism
to suit the requirements of the present age, on the basis of the

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Upanishads and the Vedas. But Hinduism as a whole was little affected by
these socio-religious organisations, though much socially liberalised on their
accounts.

While the West w?s thus engaged in the political and economic as
well as cultural and spiritual conquest of the East and Bharatavarsha was
making various attempts to save her national religion and culture and long-
standing sacred traditions and social customs from being swept away by the
flood of western materialistic ideas, a pretty good number of Maha-Yogis,
Mahd-Jndnis, Mahd-Bhaktas, Mahd-Premis and Mahd-Karmis with excep-
tionally brilliant spiritual attainments and social influence flourished by
Divine Grace in various parts of this country and re-established the intrinsic
supremacy of spirit over matter, of Dharma and Moksha over earthly power
and prosperity, of Sacrifice and Renunciation over enjoyment of worldly
splendours and economic exploitation of others, of spiritual self-realisation
over scientific and technical knowledge. Their lives and teachings together
with their unostentatious occult powers exercised an irresistible influence
upon the minds and hearts of the intellectualists as well as the common
people and drew back their respectful attention to the inherent glories of
Hinduism. They demonstrated that the old ideals of Yoga and Jhdna and
Bhakti and Prema, the old religious rites and ceremonies and the old social
customs and habits, and the old concepts of performing domestic and
social duties in a spirit of worship of God, have as much value and efficacy
under the present conditions of life as in the past. The saints, however, did
not dissuade the worldly people of the present age, but rather encouraged
them, to learn the sciences and arts and technologies which, by the Divine
Design, were rapidly developing in this age in the western countries and
whose values from the standpoint of Abhyudaya (individual and collective)
were undeniable. But, these great saints warned, it would be most unfortu-
nate, not only for the Hindus, but also for the entire human race, if in course
of acquiring knowledge in these new sciences and arts and technologies the
Hindus lose their ancient spiritual heritage and accept the materialistic
view-point of the present western nations. They foresaw that if the
Humanity was to ascend to a higher stage of civilization the modern
western people must have to be initiated into the spiritual idealism of the
Hindus and apply it to their practical life ; scientific and technological
knowledge must be enlightened and regulated by the supreme spiritual
ideal of human life and the supreme realisation (or at least a dynamic
faith) of the spiritual unity of mankind and all existences ; power and
wealth must be placed in the voluntary and loving service of the living
self-manifestations of the Supieme Spirit.

Due to the spiritual influence of the modern saints and sages and the

exigencies of the present age, a tendency towards a comprehensive synthesis
of Karma, Jnana, Yoga and Bhakti, as expounded in the Bhagavad-Gita
of Sri Krishna, appears to be the most remarkable feature of modern
Hinduism. This synthesis involves the cultivation of the spiritual outlook
on Humanity and the world and of the spirit of renunciation and sacrifice
and worshipful service and mental tranquillity in the normal practical life.
It exhorts the house-holders to perform their domestic and social duties
faithfully and conscientiously without any selfish desires and ambitions and
in a spirit of loving worship to the Universal Soul and to cultivate the
spirit of Yoga and Sannyasa in their inner life ; it seeks to create in the
minds of the all-renouncing Sannyasis and Yogis also a tendency to live as
practically useful members of the society and to engage* themselves in
humanitarian works and to set before common men noble examples of
living in a higher spiritual domain even in the midst of the complexities
and troubles of the modern social life. Though ritualistic traditions con-
tinue to have their sway upon the popular minds, Pravritti-Marga is gradu-
ally taking the form of private and public charities and works of social
utility according to the needs of the present age, with the inspiring idea
that these would contribute to the spiritual welfare of those who perform
them with the right attitude of the mind. The Varna-Dharma has greatly
lost its healthy spiritual influence upon the character and conduct of the
members of the different Varnas and it has been practically degraded into
a secular caste-system. Moreover, the rise of a pretty good number of
saints and sages with exemplary moral lives and inspiring spiritual excel-
lences from among the people of the lower castes seem to have laid an axe
at the sacredness of the Varna-based structure of the Hindu Society. The
society is being steadily liberalised to meet the needs of the age.

Another most remarkable feature of modern Hinduism is its emphasis
upon the Harmony of all Religious Faiths and the spiritual efficacy of all
modes of religious discipline preached by all the religious systems of the
world. Modern Hinduism has discovered the underlying unity of all the
religious orders founded by great saints and messengers of God at diffe-
rent times in different parts of the world and is preaching the message
that all religious paths lead ultimately to the same spiritual goal, the
realisation of union with the same Supreme Spirit. This is a message, not
only of universal tolerance, but of universal acceptance and respect and
love. Pursue your own Swa-Dharma in the right spirit to the end, and you
will realise the Supreme Ideal of human life, which is the same for all. This
truth was most brilliantly demonstrated in the life of Sri Ramakrishna and
most forcefully preached to the East as well as to the West by Swami
Vivekananda.

The spirit of modern Hinduism has found the finest expression in the

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comprehensive Sadhana and in the simple, but inspiring, teachings of Sri
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. He practised Sadhana in accordance with
prescribed forms of Bhakti and Yoga and Jnana, of Saktism and Saivism
and Vaishnavlsm and Rfimdyatism, of Buddhism and Jainism and Christia-
nity and Mahomedanism, and in various other forms, and attained Siddhi or
perfect enlightenment in and through each of them. He demonstrated in
his life the spiritual unity of all the religious paths. He saw the same
Supreme Spirit in all the Gods and Goddesses worshipped in different
ceremonial forms by the different religious sects and saw the same infinite
and eternal Spirit embodied in all the finite and artificial material Images
of Gods and Goddesses. He bowed down to all of them and was often
immersed in S'amadhi at the sight of the One Absolute Spirit in the plur-
ality of holy Names and Forms. He taught the truth-seekers that the
sectarian modes of religious discipline, if sincerely and earnestly pursued
with a real spiritual hankering in the heart, were all good and useful for
spiritual self-fulfilment ; but sectarian bigotry and narrowness and fanati-
cism was horribly bad, being born of sheer ignorance and being a stum-
bling block in the path of spiritual advancement. He realised and taught
the unity of all men and made no distinction between eastern and western
people or between Hindus and Moslems and Christians or between
Brahmanas and !udras and Pariahs, in as much as the same Brahma was
embodied in all of them. He brought down the Vedanta and the Gita to
the plane of our practical life and taught us how to follow them in our
domestic and social affairs.

His chief disciple Swami Vivekananda was the most brilliant inter-
preter of the spirit of modern Hinduism in the light of the life and
teachings of his Master. He carried the message of Vedanta and Gltd to
the West and expounded it in the most forceful language in a form which
was intelligible and acceptable to the modern-minded people. He also
gave institutional and organisational forms to the message, by establishing
the Ramakrishna Math and Mission and a good many humanitarian and
educational and socio-religious institutions in this country as well as in
several countries in the West. He gave a solemn warning that the western
civilization was rapidly heading towards a catastrophe, from which the
teachings of Vedanta (i.e. true Hinduism) could alone save the Humanity.
Other illustrious saints and sages, like Sri Auravinda, Rama Tirtha,
Rabindranath, Gandhi, Yogananda and others, have interpreted the
spiritual outlook of Hinduism to the modern world in the same line.
Hinduism is thus going ahead towards bringing about a real transforma-
tion in the outlook of the modern people and elevating their minds to a
higher spiritual plane of unity and peace and harmony amidst the
diversities of the modern age.

CHAPTER XX.

CONCLUSION

From the foregoing discourses it is evident that ever since the pre-
historic age Lie whole course of development of Hindu culture has been
b.?sed on the great discovery that all the diverse orders of 'phenomenal
realities of the universe of our ever-expanding experience and knowledge
are wonderfully variegated self-manifestations of One self- existent self-
conscious self perfect and self-enjoying Absolute Spirit -5 One Dynamic
Sat-Cid-Ananda and that the Supreme Ideal of human life is to realise
this One Spirit in every individual body, in every phenomenal existence, in
every animate and inanimate, conscious and unconscious object of experi-
ence, as well as in the entire Cosmic Order. Not only the Hindu religious
life, but also the Hindu domestic life, social life, political life, economic
life, artistic life ail the manifold aspects of Hindu individual and collec
tive life have been sought to be organised and expanded and elevated and
refined in the light of the same spiritual outlook on all existences and with
the inner motive of the realisation of the same spiritual unity of all
existences as the true final end of life in and through all human
institutions.

Hence in every affair of the individual as well as the collective life of
the Hindus, spiritual values have been held superior to economic and
hedonistic values, spiritual self elevation superior to earthly self- aggrandise-
ment, renunciation of wealth and power and other transitory things of the
world superior to ambition for and attachment to them, inward self-
expdnsion and realisation of unity with all superior to outward self-
expansion through domination over others and enhancement of the sense
of difference. But with the progress of worldly civilization and culture the
human life inevitably becomes more and more complicated and the differ-
ences among men and men and the differences among the various orders of
self-manifestations of the Supreme Spirit come more and more to the
forefront. Difficulties in the way of the realisation of the spiritual unity in
all of them become more and more formidable. Material differences over
cloud the spiritual oneness. Hindu Yogis and JMnis and Bhaktas, saints
and seers and philosophers, have in different epochs formulated various
ways and means for the realisation of the spiritual Oneness in the midst of
of all such differences and for keeping the Supreme Ideal of life
brilliantly before the minds of all classes of people in the society.

Thus the greatest message of Hinduism to all humanity in all ages

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has been the message of One Self-shining, Self-revealing, Supreme Spirit
pervading and transcending all orders of diversities in the cosmic system
and consciousl) or unconsciously sought after and adored by all men in
v arious Holy Names andcForms and through various modes of discipline;
secondly the message of One beginningless and endless Cosmic Order
pervaded aud enlivened and illumined by One Divine Life and governed
and unified by One Divine Law; thirdly the message of the identity of every
individual soul with the Supreme Spirit the Soul of the universe of
Whom every soul is an individualised finite self-expression; fourthly the
message of the sacredness of all individual living bodies, in all of which
the same Supreme Spirit shines as the Soul; fifthly the message of the
direct realisation of the Supreme Spirit in the individual consciousness and
the actual experience of the spirituality and unity of all orders of existences
as the Supreme Ideal of all human endeavours; sixthly the message of
devotion to and sacrifice for the common good with love for all and in a
spirit of worship to the Supreme Spirit dwelling in all as the most effective
pathway to the attainment of the true good of every individual; seventhly
the message that all religious and social and economic and political and
educational and other human institutions and all codes of discipline in
human life ought to be based upon this spiritual outlook on all phenome-
nal existences and the spiritual ideal of human life.

This message of Spirit in Matter, Unity in Diversities, Tranquillity in
Action, Renunciation in Loving Service, is the message of the Heart of
Bharatavarsha to the Human World, and all the illustrious Truth seers and
Religious Teachers of this Holy Land have in all ages given expression to
it from various points of view in various forms of language and taught
various practical methods and processes in individual as well as collective
life for the realisation of the same Truth and Ideal, in accordance with the
need of the times and the social conditions. This message has gone forth
from the Heart of Bharatavarsha to all the directions of the Earth and
shown the path of Unity and Spirituality to all races and classes of people
in all the epochs of history.

Yogiguru Gorakhnath, a veritable Incarnation of the eternal Maha-
yogiswara Adinath Siva, a general outline of whose philosophy has been
sought to be expounded in tto preceding chapters, was one of the most
illustrious and powerful exponents of this glorious message that Mother
Bharata ever produced. His teachings are.as fresh and as appealing and
effective in the present age and under the present conditions of life as they
were more than a thousand years back, when he is believed to have moved
among the people in his holy physical body and personally inspired them.
He founded a monastic organisation of all-renouncing Yogis, known as

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Siddha-Yogior Ndtha~Yogior Avadhuta-Yogi Sampradaya, whicti is
one of the most wide-spread and most alive monastic orders of Bharata-
varsha even to-day. There is no province or region in this vast country
where living centres of this Sampradaya are not to be found. The^
Sampradaya has produced the most perfectly illumined truth- seers (Maha-
Siddha Yogis) with exceptional spiritual powers almost in every generation
since the time of the great founder.

Gorakhnath and many of his disciples are believed to be immortal
(conquerors of death) even in their physical bodies and to be living even
now and showering mercies upon sincere and earnest truth-seekers and
upon distressed people fervently praying to them for heljx though they
ordinarily keep themselves hidden from the views of the men of the world.
This possibility of immortalising and spiritualising the physical body and
making it permanently invulnerable to all the forces of nature through the
systematic practice of some esoteric yogic processes is one of the special
teachings of Gorakhnath and the Siddha-Yogi school. This is known as
Kaya-siddhi. But they never speak of it as the highest ideal of the life of a
Yogi. Gorakhnath and his enlightened followers always attached greater
value to the universal principles of Yoga, which can be and ought to be
scrupulously practised by all seekers of self fulfilment and perfect peace
and bliss in this phenomenal life, whatever philosophical views or religious
creeds they may adopt, to whatever country or society or religious commu-
nity they may belong, whether they live as householders or as sannyasins
in cities or villages or hills or forests. Gorakhnath and his enlightened
followers initiated into the path of Yoga earnest spiritual aspirants from
all classes of people irrespective of their social strata or religious
creeds.

Gorakhnath and his direct followers are popularly known as the
most expert teachers of various forms of esoteric ^ogic discipline and as
the most powerful preachers of the Siva-Sakti cult; his conception of
Yoga, it is to be noted, is most universal and perfectly spiritual and his
philosophy of Siva-Sakti is absolutely non-dogmatic and thoroughly
rational. The Yoga-Vidya and the Siva-Sakti cult represent the whole
spiritual message of the heart of Humanity, the heart of Bharatvarsha. It
is the same spiritual outlook on the world of our experience and the same
spiritual ideal of life, as has been variously known in Bharatvarsha as
Adhyatma-Vidya, Brahma-Vidya, Para-Vidya, Atma-Vidya Nihsreyasa-
Vidya, etc. It is the Vidya, which alone can lead to self-fulfilment and
perfect freedom and peace and bliss in individual life, to unity and liberty
and happiness and the reign of love and mutual service in mankind, to
perfect adjustment and friendly relations between man and man, between

324

man and nature, between man and all creatures, ft is the panacea for all
the evils of the world and the way to the attainment of the Highest Good.

Gora^.hnath, as a representative of the Soul of Bharatiya culture,
placed before mankind tfce ideal of Yoga as the end as well as the means
in human life. He gave a most inspiring and universally applicable
definition of Yoga, viz. Samarasa-karan. This deeply and widely signi-
ficant Sanskrit term may be superficially translated as perfect assimilation.
It means that all the various kinds of objects of our internal and external
experience, all the changing diversities of our life and the world, have to
be thoroughly transformed in our experience into the unity of the spiritual
substance of our essential being by the power of our enlightened spiritual
consciousness, "so that we may fully realise and enjoy the play of Unity in
all diversities, the play of Spirit in matter, the play of the Changeless in
all changes, the play of the Transcendent One in all the phenomena of the
world This is Ynga. This is not mere thorough adjustment of ourselves
with the world of changing diversities or mere attempt to adjust the
world with ourselves, but it is perfect assimilation of the world within
ourselves and thereby attainment of perfect freedom from slavery to all
the forces of the world and from all sorrows resulting from this slavery.
By such assimilation the Yogi sees himself in the world and the world
within himself, and thus perfect love and friendliness is established between
a yogi and the world. between man and nature.

Yogiguru Gorakhnath refers to the Ultimate Truth of all existences
and expeiiences as Sama-Tattwa or Para-Tattwa or Para-Samvit or Para-
Brahma or Parama-Pada or Parama-Sunya or Para-Siva, and he says that
the Absolute Truth is the Nameless and Formless and Subject-Objectless
Perfect Unity of Existence and Experience, free from all Contradiction
and Relativity, all Qualification and Limitation and Negation. But, he
says, the same Sama-Tattwa or Sarva-Tattwatlta-Tattwa, by virtue of His
Nijd-Sakti or Infinite Eternal Dynamic Aspect, eternally and freely
manifests Himself in all kinds of Names and Forms, all orders of
phenomenal existences and experiences, all sorts of dualities and relativities,
and harmonises and unifies them all in His perfectly calm and tranquil all-
comprehending all-unifying Self-Consciousness.

Gorakhnath does not enter into any controversy with any philoso-
phical school or any religious community; he assimilates all views with
his yogic insight into the Truth manifested in all forms of intellectual
speculations and religious disciplines. He says that some are advocates
of Non-dualism, some are advocates of Dualism, different schools advocate
different isms (vddas) by force of logical arguments and attempt to
demolish the views of other schools in a partisan spirit; they fail to

325

realise the Sama-Tattwa which is above any conflict among Adwaita and
Dwaita and other intellectual isms and which assimilates as well as
transcends them all. Eveiy intellectual concept about the Ultimate"
Tattwa, which as a matter of course involves negation or refutation of
other rival concepts, is according to Gorakbnath inadequate to fu!4$/
represent the Tattwa, but is a more or less . reasonable approach to It.
The Ultimate Truth is realisable in the Ultimate Experience to be attained
through the culture of Yoga culminated in the perfect spiritual illumination
of the phenomenal consciousness, in which all isms will vanish and
absolute assimilation (Samarasya) will be established. Gorakhnath
accordingly exhorts all truth-seekers and spiritual aspirants not to divide
themselves into narrow groups on the ground of their philosophical ideas
and religious beliefs and thereby to further accentuate "their differences
(bheda and vaishamya), but to emphasize the common universal essential
spiritual principles involved in all sound philosophical approaches and
religious disciplines and to adopt the path of Samarasakarana in knowledge
and action and feeling in all stages of life with a view to the realisation of
absolute Samarasya.

The Ideal of Sdmarasya, as preached by Gorakhnath and the
Siddha-Yogi School, i.e. the Ideal of the sweetest and most perfect adjust-
ment and harmony and unification in our entire life and experience, has
far-reaching practical importance in all the stages and conditions of our
phenomenal existence. We have to realise Samarasya in our physical life,
in our psychical life, in our intellectual life, in our moral and religious life,
in our domestic and social life, in our relations to our fellowmen, in our
relations to all creatures, in our relations to the whole world. Whatever
may be the diversities and divergences in the midst of which we may
happen to live, we have to experience and enjoy unity and beauty in them
by dint of voluntary regulation and enlightenment of the instruments of our
action and knowledge and feeling, we have to realise them all as beautifully
interrelated self-expressions of One Dynamic SacciJananda > we have to
acquire the power to maintain perfect equanimity and tranquillity within
our hearts and to behave with all with the utmost cordiality and love, we
have to play our parts in relation to all these differences joyfully with the
consciousness that we and they all belong to the Cosmic Body of One
Universal Soul.

For the actual realisation of this Ideal of Samarasa, the body and
the senses and the vital forces and the mental functions have to be brought
under control and thoroughly systematised and the intellect has to be
refined and enlightened. The consciousness has to be elevated to higher
and higher planes. The Yogi school asserts and practically demonstrates

326

that man has got in his inner nature the capacity to exercise perfect control
not only over his own physical and vital and sensuous and psychical nature
t/ut also over the forces of outer nature. It is also demonstrated that
control over one's own nature is the surest and most effective way to the
development of power to control the forces of outer nature. Through self-
control the will-power of a man is extraordinarily developed and this
development has practically no limit. A man with perfect self-control can
develop such will- power in himself as to conquer all the forces of the
world. But bis nature becomes so calm and tranquil and so perfectly
adjusted and harmonised and all- assimilative, his individual nature becomes
so wonderfully attuned to the life of Cosmic Nature, that he usually
enjoys the magnificent unity and beauty of all the diversified self
manifestations of Saccidananda in the world and seldom finds any occasion
for exercising his personal will for bringing about any revolutionary change
in this world- order. It is to be remembered that the human individuality
and the cosmic process are evolved from and regulated by the same
Supreme Power of the same Supreme Spirit.

The Yoga-system, which is as old as the spiritual culture of Bharata-
varsha and which has been greatly expatiated and widely popularised by
Gorakhnath and the monastic organisation founded by him, is not condi-
tioned by any metaphysical theory or any particular religious belief or
creed. It is quite compatible with every philosophical and religious
system. It is open to all those who earnestly seek for the fulfilment of
their life and the attainment of peace and bliss and perfect adjustment
and harmony and unity of all internal and external relations. It is the
most scientific and comprehensive method of self- discipline for the attain-
ment of perfect mastery over the body and the senses and the vital func-
tions and the mental tendencies as well as the forces of external nature
and for the progressive purification and enlightenment and universalisation
and harmonisation of the human consciousness till the highest plane of
absolute Sdmarasya is reached. The system never becomes too old and
antiquated for any modern age and in any modern circumstances. One
may be a man of action and an advocate of Karma-marga, or a man of
emotional temperament and an advocate of Bhakti-mdrga, or a man of
philosophic temperament and an advocate of Jnana-marga, the Yoga
system of self- discipline is suitable for all and it strengthens the character
and develops and refines the mental and intellectual and spiritual powers
of everybody to march forward more easily and quickly in the path he
chooses.

The Yoga-system is generally known to have eight principal steps or
limbs (ashta-anga). The first two are known as Yama and Niyama, which

327

are universal ethical principles for the proper regulation and refinement of
a man's character and conduct and the perfect adjustment of his indivi-
dual and social life. Gorakhnath and his school formulated ten rules of
Yama and ten rules of Niyama which every man aspiring for higher lift*
must conform to, to whatever religious sect or to whatever society or
country or age he may belong. Through the practice of Yama and Niyama
a man can develop in himself immense moral powers and strength of will,
can bring all his natural passions and propensities under his control, can
establish calmness and equanimity in his body and mind and the most
healthy and noble relationship with ail fellowmen and fellow creatures,
and also refine and liberalise his outlook on all objects of experience and
elevate his consciousness to higher planes. When Yartla and Niyama
become habitual in the character of a man, not only does he become a
man of extraordinary personal magnetism, but the world becomes a land
of beauty and harmony to him.

The second two limbs of the Yoga-system are called Asana and
Prdndydma, In a general way these two consist in steadying the body and
subduing its habitual restlessness and in regulating the breathing process
and thereby harmonising the vital functions. These are necessary for all
cultured people, as well as for all moral and spiritual aspirants, whatever
religious cult or social institution they may be attached to. Gorakhnath
and his followers have however immensely developed and elaborated these
two limbs of Yoga. They have formulated various forms of Mudra,
Bandha, Bedha, etc., through the intensive practice of which all the bodily
and vital functions can be brought under the control of rational will and a
man can become a perfect master of his physiological organism and
acquire various kinds of miraculous powers. These esoteric processes
have of course to be practised under competent guidance under the
guidance of some Guru who is an adept in them. But nobody is debarred
from practising them by reason of his birth or social strata or religious
creed or nationality.

The developments made by Gorakhnath and his school in these
aspects of the Yoga-system are so valuable for the attainment of complete
mastery over the entire psycho -physical organism and the elevation of the
phenomenal consciousness to the higher spiritual planes of enlightenment,
that they have got special recognition as a distinctive branch of Yoga
known as Hatha-Yoga and this school has come to be famous as the
Hatha-Yogi school par excellence. The enlightened members of this school,
it may be noted, never attach primary importance to the miraculous or
supernatural physical or psychical or intellectual powers attained through
such esoteric practices. No doubt these achievements show what ordinarily

328

inconceivable powers are present in a sleeping state in the nature of man
and how they can be awakened and what wonders they can accomplish.
But they are not meant for display. It is to be realised that all such powers
we only partial manifestations of One Supreme Divine Power, Which is
the Source and Sustainer and Harmoniser of the universe, but Which at
the same time is present in the nature of every individual and the direct
enlightened experience of Which within himself is the goal of all voluntary
efforts of every individual human being. According to Gorakhnath and
his school. Hatha-Yoga should on the one hand make man conscious of
what infinite potency Temains hidden in him and on the other enlighten his
whole being so as to make him perfectly fit for the realisation of the
Supreme Spirit Siva with the Supreme Spiritual Power (Mahd-Sakti) imma-
nent in Him as his own soul and as the Soul of the universe.

The third two limbs of Yoga are called Pratydhdra and Dhdrcwa.
They essentially consist in the practice of checking the restlessness and
outward movements of the mind and concentrating it upon some chosen
object or ideal, so that the mind may be purified and refined and elevated
and strengthened and opened to the self- revelation of the Truth. Through
the practice of these two, attention has to be withdrawn from the finite and
transitory diversities of sense- experience and to be fixed more and more
steadily upon the relatively infinite and permanent unities behind sense-
experience, to be withdrawn from the lower planes of experience and to be
concentrated in the higher planes, to be withdrawn from the pettier and
grosser interests of outer life and to be devoted to wider and subtler
interests of inner life, to be withdrawn from the superficial hedonistic and
materialistic values of sensuous animal life and to be directed towards the
deeper moral and spiritual values for fulfilment of the fundamental
demands of man's essential spiritual nature, to be withdrawn from egoistic
desires and ambitions and sentiments and to be concentrated upon the
Universal Good and perfect self- fulfilment, which lies in the realisation of
absolute Sdmarasya.

Gorakhnath and other enlightened Mahdyogis have taught various
processes of Pratydhdra and Dhdrand for the self-discipline of the novitiates,
all with the same end in view. One most important form of Pratydhdra
and Dhdrand, which Gorakhnath emphasized, is that a spiritual aspirant
should see one infinite and eternal self- shining and self revealing Atmd
(Self or Spirit) in all objects of experience and all finite changing diversi-
ties, should withdraw his attention from their non-essential differentiating
outer characteristics and should concentrate his attention upon the one
Atma, which is the Soul of them all and which is revealed in and through
them. A Yogi should learn to realise the spiritual unity of all existences

329
and to be absorbed in the thought of this unity.

The last two limbs of Yoga are Dhydna and Samddhi. Dhydna means
a continuous stream of calm and tranquil consciousness with only one
objective content or concept in it without any abstraction or agitation, and
Samddhi means absolute unity of consciousness, in which the container
and the content, the subject and the object, are completely identified, in
which even the process of consciousness is stopped and the consciousness
reveals itself as One Infinite External Transcendent Existence-Conscious-
ness-Bliss.

Pratydhdra, Dhdrand, Dhydna and even Samddhi may be efficiently
practised in every plane of experience and on the basis of every metaphysi-
cal theory and every religious creed, and in every case they are useful
forms of self-discipline for the development of man's internal powers, for
the acquisition of temporary self mastery and tranquillity and for the
elevation of the consciousness to higher spiritual planes. A man may with
sincerity and earnestness choose any particular object or concept or ideal
for the practice of the concentration of his mind, withdraw his attention
from all other objects and concepts and ideals, fix his mind with firm
determination upon the chosen object or concept or ideal and progressively
increase the duration of concentration and deepen its intensity, so that the
entire consciousness occupied with that one content may flow on in a still
peaceful luminous current and may ultimately be perfectly identified with
it with no trace of difference between the consciousness and its content.
Such identification is possible, because in every plane the consciousness
and its content are of the same spiritual essence. In natural course the
mind is again drawn down to the state of fickleness and attracted by the
varieties of objects of normal sense-experience and habituated desires and
passions. Hence the effort for concentration has to be repeated strenuo-
usly again and again.

But a Yogi with the highest spiritual aspiration is not to be satisfied
with the attainment of Samddhi in any but the highest spiritual plane
of transcendent experience or with the acquisition of supernatural powers
in the lower planes. The Yoga system has to be taken as a whole. The
consciousness has to be adequately purified and refined and liberalised
through the practice of the subsidiary processes like Yama and Niyama, a
refined idea of the supreme Ideal of human life has to be formed through
the thoughtful study of the most sacred Scriptures and the deepest expe-
riences of the highest order of Mahdyogis, Mahdjndnis and Mahdbhaktas,
and inspiration and guidance have to be obtained from personal contact
with saints and sages having no sectarian bias or prejudice. Yogiswara
Gorakhnath has given the most suggestive, most comprehensive, most

330

illuminative and most universal expression to the Supreme Spiritual Ideal
of human life in his doctrine of Samarasya, which ought to be sought after
by all spiritual aspirants of all religious communities and all philosophical
schools in all times and places, and the processes of Pratyahdra, Dhdrand,
Dhydna and Samadhi should be so practised that the phenomenal con-
sciousness may transcend all phenomenal limitations and may be permanen-
tly established in the state of Samarasya.

Thus Ybga-Sddhana, as popularised by Gorakhnath and his school,
is a form of universal physical and psychical and moral and spiritual self-
discipline, capable of being appropriately practised by all people of all
times and places nd of all religious denominations and leading them all to
perfect peace and harmony and tranquillity and bliss in inner as well as in
outer life. It seeks to lead humanity from darkness to pure Light, from
ignorance to self-shining Truth, from struggle for existence to perfect all-
comprehensive Existence, from limited and conditioned egoistic conscious-
ness to infinite and unconditioned Universal Self-Consciousness, from
the region of cares and fears and death to the realm of calmness and
fearlessness and immortality, from the plane of differences and rivalries and
hostilities to the plane of unity and harmony and love. It wants to show
to every human being the path of identifying himself with the Humanity
and the whole universe, vividly experiencing the mankind and the whole
cosmic system within himself and himself as pervading the mankind and
the whole cosmic system It seeks to lead every truth-seeker to the
realisation that the whole universe with all its complexities and diversities
and changes and evolutions and involutions is essentially one magnificent
and beautiful spiritual Entity, being the phenomenal Cosmic Body of One
Supreme Spirit (IVA)> with Whom his own individual Soul is identical.

Through the popularisation of the devotional worship of Siva and
Sakti, Gorakhnath and the enlightened Yogis of his school have brought
down the Supreme Ideal of Yoga vividly before the eyes of all classes of
people, Siva is Samarasa-Tattwa personified. He is eternal Mahd-Yogi-
swara. He eternally transcends the world and inwardly enjoys the absolute
bliss of his transcendent non-dual existence, and all the same He eternally
reveals and enjoys the infinite glories of His all- perfect nature in the forms
of diverse orders of phenomenal existences by virtue of His immanent
Power (Sakti). His Sakti is represented as His eternally wedded Divine
Consort, Who is in constant union with Him and always in His service for
giving Him delight in an endless variety of ways, though He is totally in-
different to and disinterested in all Her affiairs. Thus His Saktl is the
eternally active Mother and He is the eternally indifferent Father of all
phenomenal beings, though there is never any separation between Them.

331

Siva is thus an eternal Sannyasi and Mahdyogi as well as an eternal House-
holder. This ideal Sannyasi-Yogi in an ideal worldly life is presented to
all as the Supreme Deity for devotional worship, and the worshipper is
instructed to seek inspiration and blessing from Him for the advancement
of his life in the yogic path, the path of Samarasya.

Again, though Siva is the Supreme God, the God of all Gods,
eternally transcending and eternally manifested in this Cosmic Order, He
is conceived as the most cosmopolitan and most easily accessible and
lovable Deity. Men and women and children, Brahmanas and Sudras and
Chandalas, Devas and Asuras and Rakshasas, all have equal unrestricted
access to Siva, and He receives direct worship from and showers blessings
upon all devotees without consideration of their social or racial or sexual
differences or differences of religious or philosophical views. There is no
untouchability or unapproachability in the domain of Siva. He is the
inuwelling Soul in every individual body and in every body it is His own
Sakti that is manfested in a particular form. Every body is in constant
touch with Him. How can any body be untouchable to Him or He
unapproachable to any body? He is most easily pleased with every body
that may take refuge in Him. No correctly pronounced Sanskrit Mantra
is necessary for offering worship to Him, nor any mediation of a
Brahmana priest, nor any elaborate ritual. A sincere and devoted heart
with purity of character is enough to please Him. He is conceived as a
never- failing friend in life as well as in death. He is spoken of as
Viswa-Ndth, Loka-Ndtha, Maheswara, Mahd-Deva, and also Bhuta-Ndth,
Preta-Ndth, Pasu-Pati, etc. All such appellations indicate His perfect
Divinity absolute lordliness, supreme transcendence, as well as His love
and sympathy and compassion for all orders of creatures in life and death.
He can be worshipped in all the planes of human experience and by the
highest and the lowest alike. An enlightened Yogi deeply meditates on
the transcendent character of Siva and aims at realising Siva-consciousness
or Sivahood in himself. A common man worships Him as the most
loving and merciful and easily-pleased Divine Father and prays to Him
for relief from distress and fulfilment of his heart's craving. The symbols
for Siva are the simplest and at the same time most significant. A burning
lamp, a lump of clay, a piece of stone, etc. may be enough, for He
shines as the Soul of everything, He is the ever-self-shining Light in the
universe. He may be worshipped in artistic images also according to the
aesthetic tastes of the devotees.

Thus Gorakhnath and the enlightened Yogis of his school, as reli-
gious teachers, have placed before mankind a pattern of Universal
Religion which can solve all the problems of religious differences in the

332

modern world and which can inspire mankind with the spiritual Ideal of
Samarasya in the midst of all kinds of differences that outwardly prevail
in the world. The yogic ideal of life is the panacea for all the evils of the
^orld and this is the mesftage of Bharatavarsha to mankind in all ages and
particularly in the present age.

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Appndix II

Glossary of Philosophical Terms

A

Absolute

Absolute Reality
Absolute Truth

Absolute Existence
Absolute Being

I %5M

Absolute Consciousness
Absolute Spirit

Absolute Bliss

Absolute Cause

Consciousness (in the
metaphysical or noumenal
sense)

Consciousness (in the * f frr-^^ i ^R-ffo m
phenomenal or empiricl-
cal sense)

Consciousness-individual s
4 Consciousness-intellectual

Consciousness-mental

Consciousness-supramen- 37ftww
tal, Super-Consciousness g-sq^ft-^R i

Consciousness-sensuons

Consciousness-momentary :

Consciousness-transc-
endental or transcendent

Witness-Consciousness

Self-Consciousness
I consciousness

Moral consciousness

Aesthetic Consciousness

Spiritual Consciousness sr

i ^r^^fi i

i ^ MI n *i

Cosmic Consciousness fgrcsri^r \ *prfe$eFT \ fo^r^n i ^^en-
Universal Consciousness mvw i fM^nwrra 1 i firctz-^Ri i

Non-dual Consciousness
Non-dual Spirit

Divine Consciousness
Dynamic Consciouness

Manifested Consciousness

Uinnanifested Consci.
ousness

Pure Consciousness

Selfluminous Consci-
ousness

Existence (in the abstract *TT?T i
sense)

Existence (in the concrete
sense

Pure Existence

Pure Being ft^rrfo

Phenomenal Existence
,5 Being
Reality

Transcendental Existence
Being

Reality

Derivative Existence scqri%*ft<ir

^Unconditional Existence ft^ifa^ srsr i

Conditional Existence *5tarte *r<n i

^Unconditional Exi
Relative Existence

Contingent Existence

Eternal Existence fe^r ^TTTI i srantftaftsr *TTTI i

f^ra^n i

Temporal Existence
Spatial Existence
Infinite Existence
Supra-temporal Existence

Supra-Spatial Existence ^rrihr ^n
Illusory Existence snfiwifoE

Apparent

False ^n^^rfe^ ^rar i fir^ri

Imaginary Existence
Self-Existence
Existence-Consciousness-
Bliss

Planes of Existence

Higher plane of Existence s^ ^tfa:^ Hrfi i

Lower plane of Existence fw^tfcp ^r^n i

Cause

Material Cause

Efficient Cause

Auxilliary Cause

Experience

Phenomenal Experience! 5
Knowledge f%w

Transcendental Experience 1

Knowledge / 3FR I

Intuitive Experience

Knowledge

Phenomenal Cause
Metaphysical cause

Efficient-cum-Material
Cause

Root Cause
first Cause

Illusory Cause sn^fir^ ^R^T i ^rr^rtft^

Cause-effect relation

Law of Causation
Law of Causality

Cause Sui

Supersensuous Experience
Supramental Experience srfinnw rg*r% i
Normal Experience

Super-normal-Experience

Enlightened Mind!
Illumined Mind /

Pure Mind fir^g; farf i

Body siffr i ^s i

Gross Body 1
Physical Body/

Subtle body

Causal Body

Mind (in the general
sense)

Mind (in a restricted
sense)

Mind in the waking state
Mind in the dream state
Mind in the sleeping state
Mind in the swoon state

Mind in the subconscious
state

Mind in the unconscious
state

Mind in the super- 1
conscious state >
Supermind J

The Supreme Mind-the

same as the Supreme

Spirit

The Cosmic Mind flwFSRfaft TT fezsi firarcn *R i wrfe SR i

Individual Mind ^rfe *R \ 5^2 ir?^:^^ i s*rfe StfT-

3[FjtT I tf

I ?R

Inscrutable Power srftei'&fcn scrf^i i

Moral Power
Spiritual Power

Sleeping Power
Awakened Power

Power of selfmanifesta- "1
tion >

Power of selfexpression J

Power of selfenjoyment

Power of selfilluminattion
Power of self-
diversification

Individual body s^fe-srfft i

Cosmic Body fe*^<? ^i i fere

3PfiT WER ft 7 ^ I %

Power ^rftri i fay i-^TW-HW^sr \

Supreme Power TO^fira i srfr-frfiri i

Subtle Power sj^RTRrfor i

Unique power (of Siva) PraRifiRr i

Will-Power 5^T^fer i
Free Power
Cbnsciousness-Power

Power of creation

Power of Preservation
,, Sustenance
Power of Destruction
Power of Dissolution sn^qsrfwr 25^ i srtf^fr
Power of Annihilation fa^'raifaflr wfw \
Power ot

of Unification / f^nfeft

Power of Assimilation

Power of Spiritualisation
Power of materialisation

Power of Self-expansion
Power of Self unfoldment

Power of Self-contraction

Power of Self-veiling

Reality ^r^; ^g i HXT^ i H&R ^g i

Objective Reality TOT^*mK ^g v\ 3<sr i

Phenomenal Reality See Phenomenal Existence.

Subjective Reality WRITO ^ri f^r^ tw *rsr i

Imaginary Reality
Externel Reality
Internal Reality

Transcendental Reality The same as Transcendental Existence.
Absolute Reality-See adove.
Realities ot the same order

Realities of different
orders

Planes of Realities-The same as Planes of existence,
Inexplicable Reality srfN'sMtar *rre-T^i4 t srfonx4 a^r i

Both-real-and-unrcal *r^ a^ i

Neither-real-nor-unreal WTT^TW ^rfe^^r i T scj ~i

Unreal

Illusory Reality
Self-Perfcbt-Reality
Void

Fulness

Action *$ i

Fruits of actions! w '

Effects of actions/

Visible effects of actions! ro:-q
Perceptible >
Physical J

Invisible or imperceptible!
effects of actions >

Moral effects of actions j

Psychological effects of
actions.

Matured actions
Fructifying actions

Accumulated actions
Current actions
Virtuous or pious actions.
Vicious or sinful actions.

Neither-virtuous-nor srsin f><a?r $*h pp TO

vicious actions

Partly virtuous and partly fasr
vicious actions

Desireless actians

Actions enjoined or faffs

approved by scriptures.

Actions prohibited or
disapproved by scriptures

Daily duties \

Duties of perfect oblgation j

Occasional duties.

Actions tor the fulfilment
of desires.

Actions for the fulfil-
ment of worldly desires.

Actions for the fulfil

ment of other-wordly

desires.

Actions fcr the sake of

God, Actions for pleasing

God.

Sacrificial actions

Substance

Attribute

Attributeless

Space
Time
Coexistence

Succession

Invariable coexistence
Invariable succession.

Dualism fa ^ Pluralism

i

Materialism sr^i^; \ ^ftaspr^r^

Non-dualism ^rfgrarr? i fajf JIT

Qualified Non-dualism

Dualism-cum-non-
dualism

Pure Non-dualism
Theism