Mokshadharma Parva — The practices of Yoga and the nature of the Supreme Soul

Janaka said You have, O foremost of Rishis, said that Unity is the attribute of that which is Indestructible and variety or multiplicity is the attribute of what is known as Destructible. I have not, however, clearly understood the nature of these two. Doubts are still in my mind.

Ignorant men consider the Soul as endued with multiplicity. They, however, who are endued with knowledge and wisdom consider the Soul to be one and the same. I, however, have a very dull understanding. I am, therefore, unable to understand how all this can take place.

I have almost forgotten the causes also that you have attributed to the unity and the multiplicity of the Indestructible and the Destructible on account of the restlessness of my understanding.

I, therefore, wish to hear you once more discourse to me on those subjects of unity and multiplicity, on him who is gifted with knowledge, on what is shorn of knowledge, on Individual Soul, Knowledge, Ignorance, on Indestructible, Destructible, and the Sankhya and the Yoga systems, in detail and separately and agreeable to the truth.

Vashishtha said I shall tell you what you ask. Listen, however, to me, O king, as I explain to you the practices of Yoga separately.

Contemplation, which forms an obligatory practice with Yogins, is their highest power, Those conversant with Yoga say that that Contemplation is of two sorts.

One is the concentration of the mind, and the other is called Pranayama (suppression of vital airs). Pranayama is said to be real; while concentration of mind is unsubstantial to it.

Excepting the three times when a man passes urine and stools and eats, one should devote his entire time to contemplation.

Withdrawing the senses from their objects by the help of the mind, one gifted with intelligence, having made oneself pure, should, according to the twenty-two modes of transmitting the Prana breath, unite the Individual Soul with That which is above the four and twentieth topic which is regarded by the wise as living in every part of the body and as above decay and destruction.

It is by means of those twenty-two modes that the Soul may always be known. It is certain that this practice of Yoga is his whose mind is never possessed by evil passions. It is not any other person's.

Freed from all attachments, abstemious in diet, and controlling all the senses, one should fix his mind on the Soul, during the first and the last part of the night, after having, O king of Mithila, stopped the functions of all the senses, quieted the mind by the understanding, and assumed a posture as motionless as that of stone.

When men of knowledge, conversant with the rules of Yoga, become as fixed as a stake of wood, and as immovable as a mountain, then they are said to be in Yoga.

When one does not hear, and smell and taste, and see; when one does not feel any touch; when one's mind is perfectly free from every purpose; when one is not conscious of any thing, when one cherishes no thought, when one becomes like a piece of wood, then is he called by the wise to be in perfect Yoga.

At such a time one shines like a limp that burns in a place where blows no wind; at such a time one becomes freed even from his subtile form, and perfectly at one with Brahma. When one acquires such progress, he has no longer to ascend or to fall among intermediate beings.

When persons like ourselves say that there has been a complete identification of Knower, the Known, and Knowledge, then is the Yogin said to see the Supreme Self.

While in Yoga, the Supreme Soul shows itself in the Yogin's heart like a burning fire, or like the bright Sun or like the lightning's spark in the firmament.

That Supreme Soul which is Unborn and which is the essence of nectar, which is seen by great Brahmanas gifted with intelligence and wisdom and conversant with the Vedas, is subtiler than what is subtile and greater than what is great. That Soul, though living in all creatures, is not seen by them.

The Creator of the worlds, He is seen only by a person gifted with wealth of intelligence when helped by the lamp of the mind. He lives on the other shore of the Darkness and is above the Ishvara.

Persons conversant with the Vedas and endued with omniscience call Him the remover of Darkness, stainless, above Darkness, and with and without attributes.

This is what is called the Yoga of Yogins. What else is the mark of Yoga? By such practices do Yogins succeed in seeing the Supreme Soul that is above destruction and decay.

This much that I have told you in detail is about the Science of Yoga. I shall now describe to you that Sankhya philosophy by which the Supreme Soul is seen through the gradual destruction of mistakes.

The Sankhyas, whose System is built on Nature, say that Nature, which is Unmanifest, is the foremost. From Nature they say, O king, the second principle called Greatness is produced.

We have heard that from Greatness originates the third principle called Consciousness. The Sankhyas blessed with sight of the Soul say that from Consciousness originate the five subtile essences of sound, form, touch, taste, and scent.

All these eight they call by the name of Nature. The changes of these eight are sixteen in number. They are the five gross essences of ether, light, earth, water and wind, and the ten senses of action and of knowledge including the mind.

Wise men devoted to the Sankhya path and conversant with all its ordinances, and dispensations consider these twenty-four topics as including the whole range of Sankhya enquiry. One

What is produced becomes merged in the producing cause. Created by the Supreme Soul after another, these principles are destroyed in a reverse order.

Al every new Creation, the qualities start into being in the lateral order, and (when Destruction comes) they merge in a reverse order, like the waves of the ocean disappearing in the ocean from which they originate.

O best of kings, this is the manner in which the Creation and the Destruction of Nature takes place. The Supreme Being is all that remains when Universal destruction takes place; and it is He who assumes various forms when Creation beings.

This is evern so, O king, as ascertained by men of knowledge. It is Nature that causes the Over-presiding Soul to thus assume diversity and revert back to unity. Nature also herself has the same marks.

One fully conversant with the nature of the topics of enquiry knows that Nature also assumes the same sort of diversity and unity, for when Destruction comes she reverts into unity and when Creation takes place she assumes diversity of form.

The soul makes Nature, which contains the principles of production or growth, assume various forms. Nature is called Kshetra (or soil). Above the twenty-four topics or principles is the Sour which is Great. It presides over that Nature or Kshetra.

Hence, O great king, the foremost Yatis say that the Soul is the Presider. Indeed, we have heard that on account of the Soul's presiding over all Kshetras. He is called the Presider.

And because, He knows that Unmanifest Kshetra, He is, therefore, also called Kshetrajna. And because also Soul enters into Unmanifest Kshetra (viz., the body), therefore is He called Purusha.

Kshetra is something quite different from Kshetrajna. Kshetra is Unmanifest. The Soul, which is above the twenty-four principles, is called the Knower.

Knowledge and the objects known are different from each other. Knowledge, again, has been said to be Unmanifest while the object of knowledge is the Soul which is above the twenty-four principles.

The Unmanifest is called Kshetra, understanding, and also the supreme Lord; while Purusha, which is the twenty-fifth principle has nothing superior to it and is not a principle.

This much, O king, is an account of the Sankhya philosophy. The Sankhyas call Nature the cause of the universe, and merging all the are grosser principles into the Intelligence beyind the Supreme Soul.

Rightly studying the twenty-four topics along with Nature, and determining their true nature, the Sankhyas succeed in seeing. That which is the twenty-four topics or principles.

Individual Soul in reality is that very Soui which is above Nature and the four and twenty topics. When he succeeds in knowing that Supreme Soul by dissociating himself from Nature, he then becomes at one with the Supreme Soul.

I have now told you everything about the Sankhya System truly. Those who conversant with this philosophy acquire tranquillity.

Indeed, as men whose understandings are subject to error directly perceive all objects of the senses, so men freed from error have directly known Brahma.

They who acquire that state have never to return to this world after the dissolution of their bodies; while as regards those who are said to be liberated in this life, power, concentration, and immutability, become theirs, on account of their having attained to the nature of the Indestructible.

They who see this universe as many are said to see incorrectly. These men are blind to Brahma. O chastiser of enemies, such persons have again and again to return to the world and assume bodies.

They who are conversant with all that has been said above become endued with omniscient, and accordingly when they pass from this body no longer become subject to the subjection of any more physical frames.

All things, have been said to be the result of the Unmanifest. The Soul, which is the twentyfifth, is above all things. They who know the Soul have no fear of coming back to the world.