Book Presentation

"Lessons on the Yoga of Patanjali"

by Dr. E. Krishnamacharya

 

The whole practice of Yoga is to sublimate one’s own activity of the lower nature and get it absorbed into the Original Existence so that one can live with the same machine of the human constitution in terms of true existence. Master E.K. makes us experience a masterly synthesis of the essence of Patanjali unfolded by dynamic teachings that simplify complex ideas, and through a process of correspondence to everyday life makes them accessible to the modern mind.

The book is the transcription of a seminar given in Geneva, Switzerland, from October 16th – 24th, 1981.

The World Teacher Trust – Publications, Visakhapatnam, India, 1982

 

 

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Sample:

Lesson 1 - Extract

I will explain something by way of introduction to the Science of Yoga, propounded by Patanjali and the Bhagavadgita. This science presupposes the need and the utility of the individual effort to lift oneself up into the being of the real self, from the activity of the not-self i. e. the lower being of the human existence.

Everything is natural in this creation of God. The advent of man on this earth is also natural since it is not man-proposed. It is a process that is preprogrammed, preplanned and it forms part of the planetary work of this earth. The earth goes on producing its own kingdoms: The Mineral Kingdom, the Plant Kingdom, the Animal Kingdom and the Human Kingdom. The whole creation starts with the work of the Intelligences in nature which we call the members of the Deva Kingdom. At the end we find the Human Kingdom that includes the flower and the fruit of the evolution on this earth. Hence the Devas expect that the human being should join hands with the Deva Kingdom as a scout and a helper to the Devas. This expected role of man is technically called Yajna in Sanskrit. Pythagoras called it Theocracy. To that end the human being is being trained by the Devas of our Planet.

Though everything is natural there is a very dark crisis in human evolution which we see around and within us in the form of our behaviour. We know this also from the remarks made by the Masters of Wisdom in their teachings. The crisis is as follows:

When once there is the origin of the individual mind it inaugurates individual activity that is bound to be a bit different from the activity of nature. As a result, we the human beings create a reactive nature on the lower planes of consciousness. Then it stands an inevitable duty of ours to neutralize this reactive nature and to sublimate it into the active nature of human existence. An attempt is to be made by everyone when it is necessary. It means when one feels the necessity. The time comes and everyone feels his own necessity. Conversely, when everyone feels his own necessity it is time for him. Until the attempt is made the human being lives on the individual plane trying to find out how he is different from others. When once the attempt is made it is time to practise Yoga. It is to be made until we get at the right path which is possibly a single path for every one. There are no two right paths just as there are no two centres to a circle.

The path is known by different names by people living in different places through different centuries. Languages differ, civilizations differ and expressions differ. (Hence the birth of many names denoting the same Path). When people from different places meet, they feel the difficulty with the different terms sometimes. They have to grow aware of a closer understanding and a proper equating of the terms so that the experience is recognized precisely. After passing though all these difficulties, it is necessary for us to find a common text book which is of universal values. Then we should learn the terminology of that book. Then we will be able to have communion on the truth-levels.

Luckily we have two books of that type: Patanjali Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavadgita. The same terminology, almost, is used in the two books. The words Yoga, Chitta, Prana etc. are used commonly in the two books to offer the same import. Patanjali's book contains practical instructions to follow and reach perfection in the training. The Bhagavadgita, besides offers us the path to externalise the higher self through the lower vehicles of man, and to live a life of those higher values. It points out that our life should be an expression, an utterance and externalisation of the soul-light in terms of our words, thoughts and actions. So we find that the Bhagavadgita supplements the information given in the Book of Patanjali. But as far as the practical instructions are concerned, Patanjali gives us a clearer, more magnified and more practical procedure since it is exclusively a text-book, for Yoga Practice. About this path, the Bhagavadgita, is sometimes concise.

A few words by way of introduction to the subject of Yoga: The first aphorism of Patanjali is properly understood by very few. It speaks of "Anusasana" which means instruction on the practical level and which is not at all a discourse. Many people translated the first aphorism into English as "And now the discourse on Yoga", and this is wrong. It is not a discourse, but it is the set of instructions to follow. What is given is — how to do it — and not what happens when we do it. This is the reason why, you do not find the names and explanations of descriptive concepts like Kundalini and the Six Chakras in any part of the Book of Patanjali or the Bhagavadgita.

The whole province of Yoga is to sublimate one's own activity of the lower nature and get it absorbed into the original existence so that one can live with the same machine of the human constitution in terms of true existence. From the stage of understanding how one is different from others, the student begins to understand how he is one with others. (The Omnipresence of oneself is known as THE ONE SELF). This transformation is bound to take place in everyone someday. It is the day when one begins to awaken towards such a fact. This is the one true prediction in his horoscope, the one true prophecy for everyone in the World Scriptures. It is promised, it will be fulfilled and everyone, some moment, finds it fulfilled with him. An individual attempt is to be made and it is the beginning. His evolution cooks an inclination, an inducement in him to make that individual decision. When the time of maturity comes everyone finds himself drawn towards the same attempt to lift up one's own lower self and establish the Light of the Higher Self, as himself. At this point we have the need for the Yoga Science to conduct the discipline of the Yoga practice. Even after getting the inducement there is a long process with a scientific procedure which is many times discovered after a longer period of trial and error.

During the preliminary emotional phase the individual activity causes many good attempts to lift oneself up through the political, sociological, psychological and religious folds. In every attempt the trouble is that the practitioner tries to keep the identity of his activity different from that of others. After suffering the tension of pious aristocracy it ends in failure and opens a new vista to select something better. Again something better is according to his own selection. A new Mantram, a new meditation, a new procedure, a better scripture and a better group which gives him a conversion into a new religion or a new fold. He shifts from method to method and is not satisfied with what is with him since it does not cater his need. Yes, when betterment is according to his own choice, it fails to cater. This is because the choice is made by the same mind which has not been better hitherto. Many master-locks are tried with the same key. Lack of fitness makes everything a deadlock without an opportunity for the real spiritual wedlock. Every step gives some development or other but the development is on the individual plane or at best he is permitted to expand into the personal layer of consciousness. Under the vaults of this layer he learns to commercialise his virtues. Discipline is followed to get at virtues to market them. To behave as a good man, to live smoothly, to have some good name is understood to have some utility of a broader nature and a more profitable bargain. He practises good habits to notice himself better than others. For some time the trade may be with power, with money and after sometime with a more ghastly thing - fame. This goes on until he knows that he has to make an attempt to lift himself up like a bird. Then he gets at the right path which is only one path. Then he finds no need for names like Kundalini and the chakras. Henceforth his ship is launched in a safe harbour, the Patanjali and the Bhagavadgita.

By this we should not understand that there is no Kundalini and there are no six chakras. Kundalini is a symbolic term to mean a level of consciousness with an expansion of consciousness through many layers of awareness. The term Kundalini does not indicate something that is located physically in the seat of man, just as the word 'intelligence' and the word `will' do not indicate things that can be located in the brain cells or the spinal column to be detected by a radiograph. Can you locate or examine electricity through any electrical machine? You can know only the manifestations of electricity in terms of power, light or sound. You can also know the procedure to assemble the generator and make the current flow. Still you cannot show "This is electricity". Likewise you cannot show "This is Kundalini". In the book of Patanjali you will find instructions to assemble your own generator and hence the name of Kundalini is not mentioned. It is only to know what to do, how to proceed, how to meditate, how to realise and how to live in the realised awareness, this is what is given in Patanjali. So Patanjali warns us that it is a book of instructions and not at all a book which contains exposition. The course of training leaves no time to discourse.

Conscious contact with the soul is the main aim of the process given in the Patanjali Yoga Sutras. About the necessity to take a decision some people argue that everything is predestined since everything is natural. Then what is the use of making an attempt? When it is time we will make an attempt. This is the argument of the fatalist. Still it is true. One makes an attempt when it is time for him. This is because when he feels like making an attempt it is time for him. The need of the book is also for such a one. We see some people fated not to be drawn by the book, though it existed through thousands of years. Since we mention it, we talk of it, we sit to know of it, we should know that it is time for us. We feel we want a better understanding, a better living and a better experience until it leaves no room for something better. Such a questioning and such a decision should be made since they come to us. Such a state of mind is called Jijnasa in Sanskrit. The word means the impulse to know, to follow. A convergence of all the factors in you will take place by making an attempt. The point grows into incandescence. This stage is called Tapas in Sanskrit which is translated as "Fiery aspiration" by Alice A. Bailey.

Before these two states, one lives in the psychic activity and understands it as his living. The mind receives some ideas continuously trying to put them in practice. One tries to know some people and understand them as his own people and some others, foreigners; understands some people as friends and others as enemies. Some of them like him and some dislike him. He does not realise that this is only his understanding and that it has no objective truth in it. If he finds an enemy before him he does not remember that enemy is his own concept and not the person standing before him. He cannot become conscious of this fact unless he makes a Yoga contact with the higher "Himself" in "Others". He sees the world according to his own impression, the image of himself, not according to its existence. This is the psychic state, the existence of the not-self, the false existence. This should be changed and an inversion should occur. Unless there is a contact with the higher self, (for the first time) the inversion is not possible, (since everyone is galvanized by his impressions and the reflections, his own images). It is like the one who is standing between two mirrors. Imagine for a moment that your surface-skin is made up of a well polished mirror. Whenever there is light in the room you will find light only on the surface of your body, whenever a person approaches you will find the person nearer. Before the Yoga contact is made everyone lives in such a state of mental activity which is only a reflection. The real activity of creation cannot be observed. Have a pause, a rest and a repose of the mind from this reflected activity. Then the mind will be able to compose itself into a state when it can find real activity. (It understands that it has an activity of which the mind is belonging). This is the beginning of Yoga Practise. For this we should find a procedure that is scientific and infallible. That procedure is found in the book of Patanjali.