The Regal Way to Realization: Yogadarsana

By Patanjali

From ancient times the Rsis or great Sages, in composing their works, drew from a fount of Wisdom that embraces the knowledge of the spiritual and scientific laws that regulate the micro and macrocosm. After a profound research and consequent self-realization, the Rsis discovered that the first cause of human suffering rests on ignorance (avidyà) o

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aurea Vidya
• Release date: May 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781931406208

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INTRODUCTION

The term yoga stems from the root yuj, which denotes the act of subjugating and, in our specific case, resolving both mental and physical turbulences in order to obtain perfect unity of consciousness that goes beyond the boundaries of thought, hence beyond the categories of time and space. There are many types of yoga, from the Haṭha to the metaphysical Asparśa.¹ The yoga we address here is the Rājayoga codified by Patañjali, the regal (rāja) yoga which leads to reintegration. Yoga is not a religion, as this term is commonly understood, rather it is a science, the science that studies the being in its totality. It is philosophy as well, because it offers a vision of life and of the nature of the being. Inasmuch as science it is of an experiential order, thus eminently practical, and is therefore constituted of both theory and praxis.

Yoga, like all traditional Doctrines, does not try to convince or impose on anybody its own philosophical convictions and its own praxis. It lives and expresses itself in the dignity of that which it is. If someone has an erroneous conception of it, this is because (especially in the West) at times it has been made into a simple profession, a commercial undertaking, and a parody, thus the degradation of that which is sacred, although there are exceptions to this.

Individuals live at different stages of awakening, of intellect and consciousness development. Therefore, it is often difficult to create relationships, not because we are insensitive, but because we are on two different wave bands, living on opposite planes and in different vibratory states. And without doubt this can happen within the same family group, couples, or between companions and friends.

What then could the attitude of the student of yoga be toward the social world or the collective unconscious? We would say an attitude of utmost reserve, and possibly of silence; the collective unconscious is constrained by some exclusive and peculiar necessities: working in order to survive, involvement in family to avoid loneliness, acquisition of material things, amusement and dismissal of any type of study whose purpose is not peculiarly material. The collective unconscious does not live, but lets itself be lived; it does not create, but is dependent; it does not think, but lets itself be thought. It is an enormous sedimentation, incrustation, a rubble of beliefs, opinions, faiths, emotions and passions, of material and sensory interests and of convictions not supported by reason. All these have been perpetuating themselves for millennia and are superimposed on pure intelligence.²

It may seem truly strange and unusual that neither research, even when regarding philosophical, spiritual and psychological truth, living according to certain principles not based on common opinion (doxa), or self-refining, are not appreciated by the majority. This is self-evident and, unfortunately, one cannot but to accept it the way it is. Human beings always put their hopes in a distant object (appearance), rather than finding the real truth close by, i.e. within themselves. In his Pithian III, Pindar says: The most inconclusive category of people is of those who denigrate what is close and turn their attention toward what is far away, letting their unrealizable hopes pursue ghosts.³

On the other hand the sincere researcher who feels a precise vocation and an authentic instruction from his consciousness cannot but pursue his path. To betray others is not allowed, but to betray oneself is suicide.

Who essentially is Yoga addressed to? To those who, due to direct experience, supra-conscious intuition, faith in the principle of transcendence, maturity of consciousness or thirst for seeking truth, can hear the call for the comprehension of oneself. And Yoga is the science of knowing oneself in order to be.

"In fact I would say that temperance [σωφρoσύνη = mastery of the polarities, desires, etc.] is knowing of oneself, in accordance, with such definition, with the author of the votive inscription at Delphi. In truth, the sentence seems to be inscribed there as a welcome from the god to the visitors." (Plato, Charmides, 164d)

While generally the individual is multiplicity, dichotomy and conflict, Yoga leads the being to find himself again as unity. In an individual’s life we always find contradiction, and often opposition, between thought and action; consciousness is torn by restless psycho-physical energies which even cause paranoid states and neuroses of various kinds. Rājayoga fills the separations, makes whole the world of duality and embraces, in a flight, both the sensible and the intelligible spheres. Pursued with loyalty and vocation, Rājayoga unveils Beatitude and Fullness, which are of pure consciousness, beyond any event-object of any order or degree. From the desire of appropriation, which is centered on the ego (love of oneself), the Yoga of Patañjali leads to the unveiling of Love that donates itself and offers itself; Love that is not weakness, passivity or passionateness, but a solar and all-knowing comprehension.⁴

There is another consideration which should be reflected upon. Some may think that only the Eastern Tradition is eminently practical, realizative and interested more in the ultimate Subject than the formal object, and is directed more toward consciousness than to mental erudition as an end in itself. This thought can be very reductive. In the West there has always been an initiatory Tradition, which, in order to be such, propounds the effective, practical and vital transformation of the entity.⁵

For example, the ancient philosophy was one of a realizative and transforming order. It did not have as its finality mere conceptual speculation, but the realization of a style of life and a state of consciousness. By propounding a vision of the true being, which is authentic Good, the philosophical dialectics was, as it should be, a precise process of liberation of the Soul from the mundane illusions, the dianoetic projections and the various sensory pleasures. Over time, though, with the prevailing materialistic and positivistic outlook, this conception began to fade and even lose the very essence of philosophizing in order to be. In modern times, to state one’s resolve to live and coherently express the philosophy of a Parmenides, Plato or Plotinus, could seem anachronistic. Thus, those few who want to perpetuate the vision of life of the Western philosophical Tradition (what the East would call: jñānamārga or way of Knowledge, that ὀδóς which the goddess proposes to Parmenides) must be in a condition of reservedness.⁶

Therefore, although Rājayoga rests on a philosophical vision of life, it is eminently practical. Its operative context is developed in five sequences which embrace the expressiveness of the being in its entirety.

We can also give a synthesis of the content of the four chapters (pādas).

PĀDA I

PĀDA II

PĀDA III

PĀDA IV