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Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry, c. 1915
Introduction
Sapta Chatusthaya
SAPTA CHATUSTHAYA
I. Shanti-Chatusthaya समता शान्ति: सुख हास्यमिति शान्तिचतुष्टय ।̇ Samata shantih sukham hasyam iti shantichatusthayam.
Samata The basis of internal peace is samata, the capacity of receiving with a calm and equal mind all the attacks and appearances of outward things, whether pleasant or unpleasant, ill-fortune and good-fortune, pleasure and pain, honour and ill-repute, praise and blame, friendship and enmity, sinner and saint, or, physically, heat and cold etc. There are two forms of samata, passive and active, samata in reception of the things of the outward world and samata in reaction to them. (1) Passive Passive samata consists of three things तितिक्षोदासीनता नतिरिति समता । titiksha, udasinata, natih iti samata
Titiksha Titiksha is the bearing firmly of all contacts pleasant or unpleasant, not being overpowered by that which is painful, not being carried away by that which is pleasant. Calmly and firmly to receive both and hold and bear them as one who is stronger, greater, vaster than any attack of the world, is the attitude of titiksha.
Udasinata Udasinata is indifference to the dwandwas or dualities; it means literally being seated above, superior to all physical and mental touches. The udasina, free from desire, either does not feel the touch of joy & grief, pleasure and pain, liking and disliking, or he feels them as touching his mind and body, but not himself, he 4 being different from mind and body and seated above them. Nati Nati is the submission of the soul to the will of God; its acceptance of all touches as His touches, of all experience as His play with the soul of man. Nati may be with titiksha, feeling the sorrow but accepting it as God’s will, or with udasinata, rising superior to it and regarding joy and sorrow equally as God’s working in these lower instruments, or with ananda, receiving everything as the play of Krishna and therefore in itself delightful. The last is the state of the complete Yogin, for by this continual joyous or anandamaya namaskara to God constantly practised we arrive eventually at the entire elimination of grief, pain etc, the entire freedom from the dwandwas, and find the Brahmananda in every smallest, most trivial, most apparently discordant detail of life & experience in this human body. We get rid entirely of fear and suffering; Anandam Brahmano vidvan na bibheti kutaschana. We may have to begin with titiksha and udasinata but it is in this ananda that we must consummate the siddhi of samata. The Yogin receives victory and defeat, success and ill-success, pleasure and pain, honour and disgrace with an equal, a sama ananda, first by buddhi-yoga, separating himself from his habitual mental & nervous reactions & insisting by vichara on the true nature of the experience itself and of his own soul which is secretly anandamaya, full of the sama ananda in all things. He comes to change all the ordinary values of experience; amangala reveals itself to him as mangala, defeat & ill-success as the fulfilment of God’s immediate purpose and a step towards ultimate victory, grief and pain as concealed and perverse forms of pleasure. A stage arrives even, when physical pain itself, the hardest thing for material man to bear, changes its nature in experience and becomes physical ananda; but this is only at the end when this human being, imprisoned in matter, subjected to mind, emerges from his subjection, conquers his mind and delivers himself utterly in his body, realising his true anandamaya self in every part of the adhara. 5 (2) Active It is this universal or sama ananda in all experiences which constitutes active samata, and it has three parts or stages,- रस: प्रीतिरानन्द इति सर्वानन्द: Rasah, pritir anandah [iti sarvanandah]
Rasa is the appreciative perception of that guna, that aswada, taste and quality which the Ishwara of the lila perceives in each different object of experience (vishaya) and for the enjoyment of which He creates it in the lila. Pritih is the pleasure of the mind in all rasa, pleasant or unpleasant, sweet or bitter. Ananda is the divine bhoga superior to all mental pleasure with which God enjoys the rasa; in ananda the opposition of the dualities entirely ceases. Shanti Only when samata is accomplished, can shanti be perfect in the system. If there is the least disturbance or trouble in the mentality, we may be perfectly sure that there is a disturbance or defect in the samata. For the mind of man is complex and even when in the buddhi we have fixed ourselves entirely in udasinata or nati, there may be revolts, uneasinesses, repinings in other parts. The buddhi, the manas, the heart, the nerves (prana), the very bodily case must be subjected to the law of samata. Shanti may be either a vast passive calm based on udasinata or a vast joyous calm based on nati. The former is apt to associate itself with a tendency to inaction and it is therefore in the latter that our Yoga must culminate. Sukha Sukham is the complete relief & release from duhkha, from vishada, which comes by the fulfilment of samata and shanti. The perfected Yogin has never in himself any touch of sorrow, any tendency of depression, cloud or internal repining and weariness, but is always full of a sattwic light and ease. Hasya Hasyam is the active side of sukham; it consists in an active 6 internal state of gladness and cheerfulness which no adverse experience mental or physical can trouble. Its perfection is God’s stamp and seal on the siddhi of the samata. It is in our internal being the image of the smile of Srikrishna playing, balavat, as the eternal balaka and kumara in the garden of the world. 7 Shakti Chatusthaya
This may be called the siddhi of the temperament or nature in the lower system, in the internal triloka of mind, life & body, manas, prana, annam. To put it from a higher standpoint, it is the siddhi of the divine Shakti working in these three principles. वीर्यं शक्तिश्चण्ड़ीभाव: श्रद्धेति शक्तिचतुष्टयं | Virya, shakti, chandibhavah, sraddha, iti shaktichatusthayam. Virya The Chaturvarnya By Virya is meant the fundamental swabhavashakti or the energy of the divine temperament expressing itself in the fourfold type of the chaturvarnya, in Brahmanyam, brahmashakti, brahmatejas, in kshatram, kshatrashakti, kshatratejas, in Vaishyaswabhava, shakti and tejas, in Shudraswabhava, shakti and tejas. We must ´ realise that the ancient Aryan Rishis meant by the chaturvarnya not a mere social division, but a recognition of God manifesting Himself in fundamental swabhava, which our bodily distinctions, our social orders are merely an attempt to organise in the symbols of human life, often a confused attempt, often a mere parody and distortion of the divine thing they try to express. Every man has in himself all the four dharmas, but one predominates, in one he is born and that strikes the note of his character and determines the type and cast of all his actions; the rest is subordinated to the dominant type and helps to give it its complement. No Brahmana is a complete Brahmana, unless he has the Kshatratejas in him, the Vaishyashakti and the Shudrashakti, but all these have to serve in him the fullness of his Brahmanyam. God manifests Himself as the four Prajapatis or Manus, the chatwaro manavah of the Gita, & each man is born in the ansha of one of the four; the first characterised by wisdom and largeness, the second by heroism and force, the third by dexterity and enjoyment, the fourth by work and service. The perfected man develops in himself all four capacities and contains at once the god of wisdom & largeness, the god of heroism and force, the god of skill and enjoyment, the god of work & service. Only, one stands dominant and leads and uses the others. 8 Brahmatejas ज्ञानलिप्सा ज्ञानप्रकाशो ब्रह्मवर्चस्य स्थैर्यमिति ब्रह्मतेजः | Jnanalipsa jnanaprakasho brahmavarchasyam sthairyam iti brahmatejah.
Lipsa I give only the dominant qualities of the type in these definitions. The purna Yogin does not reduce his nature to inaction but perfects it and uplifts in order to place it at the service of the Ishwara in His lila. He accepts the jnanalipsa and purifying it of desire turns it into a divine reaching out towards prakasha of knowledge; this divine desireless reaching out of Brahman in personality to Brahman in the vishaya or object, is the new sense which lipsa acquires in the language of the siddha. Jnanaprakasha Jnana includes both the Para and the Apara Vidya, the knowledge of Brahman in Himself and the knowledge of the world; but the Yogin, reversing the order of the worldly mind, seeks to know Brahman first and through Brahman the world. Scientific knowledge, worldly information & instruction are to him secondary objects, not as it is with the ordinary scholar & scientist, his primary aim. Nevertheless these too we must take into our scope and give room to God’s full joy in the world. The methods of the Yogin are also different for he tends more and more to the use of direct vision and the faculties of the vijnana and less and less to intellectual means. The ordinary man studies the object from outside and infers its inner nature from the results of his external study. The Yogin seeks to get inside his object, know it from within & use external study only as a means of confirming his view of the outward action resulting from an already known inner nature. Brahmavarchasya Brahmavarchasya is the force of jnana working from within a man which tends to manifest the divine light, the divine power, the divine qualities in the human being. 9 Sthairya Sthairyam is the capacity of fixity in jnana; the man who is sthira is able to hold the light and power that enters into him without stumbling or being dazzled and blinded by the shock and to receive & express the divine gunas in himself without being carried away by them & subjected to the blind, rushing stream of Prakriti. He has the dharanasamarthyam & does not, from incapacity of the adhara, lose or spill these things as they enter into him. Kshatratejas अभयं साहसं यशोलिप्सात्मश्लाघेति क्षत्रतेजः | Abhayam, sahasam, yasholipsa, atmaslagha, iti kshatratejah.
Abhaya & Sahasa Abhayam is the passive freedom from fear which with a bold calmness meets and receives every menace of danger and shock of misfortune. Sahasam is the active courage and daring which shrinks from no enterprise however difficult or perilous and cannot be dismayed or depressed either by the strength or the success of the opposing forces. Yashas By yashas is meant victory, success and power. Although the Kshatriya must be ready to face and accept defeat, disaster and suffering, yet his objective, the thing towards which he moves, is yashas. He enters the field to conquer, not to suffer. Suffering is only a means towards victory. Here again the reaching out, the lipsa must come to be free from desire & consist in the divine reaching out of God within to His self-fulfilment as the Kshatriya. Therefore the Kshatriya must manifest in himself the nature of the Brahmin, jnana & sthairyam, since without knowledge in some form desire cannot perish out of the system. Atmaslagha Atmaslagha in the unpurified Kshatriya is pride, self-confidence & the knowledge of his own might. Without these qualities the Kshatriya becomes deficient in force & fails to effect himself in type & action. But with purification it becomes no longer the slagha 10 of the aham, but the slagha of the Atman, the divine Self within rejoicing in the shakti of God and its greatness and its power as it pours itself out in battle and action through the human adhara. Vaishyashakti दानं व्ययः कौशलं भोगलिप्सेति वैश्यशक्ति: | Danam, vyayah, kaushalam, bhogalipsa, iti Vaishyashaktih.
Dana & pratidana are the especial dharma of the Vaishya; his nature is the nature of the lover who gives and seeks; he pours himself out on the world in order to get back what he has given increased a hundredfold. Vyaya is his capacity to spend freely for this purpose without any mean and self-defeating miserliness in the giving. Kaushalam is the dexterity & skill which is able so to arrange the means, the equipment, the action as to produce the greatest results possible & the best arranged results. Law, arrangement, suiting of means to ends, of expenditure to return, are the joy of the Vaishya. Bhoga is his object; possession & enjoyment, not merely of physical things, but all enjoyment, enjoyment of knowledge, of power, of self-giving, of service, comes within its scope. The Vaishya, purified and liberated, becomes the supreme giver and lover & enjoyer, Vishnu’s ansha preserving & making the most of the world. He is the Vishnushakti, as the Brahmana is the Shivashakti & the Kshatriya the Rudrashakti. Shudrashakti कामः प्रेमः दास्यलिप्सात्मसमर्पणमिति शुद्रशाक्तिः | Kamah, premah, dasyalipsa atmasamarpanam iti Shudrashaktih.
The Shudra is God descending entirely into the lower world and its nature, giving himself up entirely for the working out of God’s lila in Matter & in the material world. From this standpoint he is the greatest of the four shaktis, because his nature goes direct towards complete atmasamarpana; but the Shudra bound has cut himself off from knowledge, power and skill & lost himself in the tamoguna. He has to recover the Brahmana, Kshatriya & Vaishya in himself and give them up to the service of God, of man, of all beings. The principle of kamah or desire in him must change from 11 the seeking after physical well-being, and self-indulgence to the joy of God manifest in matter. The principle of prema must find itself and fulfil itself in dasyalipsa and atmasamarpana, in the surrender of himself to God and to God in man and the selfless service of God and of God in man. The Shudra is the master-spirit of the Kali, as is the Vaishya of the Dwapara, the Kshatriya of the Treta and the Brahmana of the Satya.
Shakti Shakti is that perfection of the different parts of the system which enables them to do their work freely and perfectly. Dehashakti महत्त्ववोधो वलश्लाघा लघुता धारणसामर्थ्यमिति देह्शक्तिः | Mahattwabodho, balaslagha, laghuta, dharanasamarthyam iti dehashaktih.
The body is the pratistha in this material universe; for the working out of the divine lila on earth it is necessary that it should have especially the dharanasamarthyam or power of sustaining the full stream of force, of ananda, of widening knowledge & being which descends into mind and prana and the vital and bodily functions with the progress of the siddhi. If the body is unfit, the system is unable to hold these things perfectly. In extreme cases the physical brain is so disturbed by the shock from above as to lead to madness, but this is only in entirely unfit & impure adharas or when Kali descends angrily & violently avenging the attempt of the Asura to seize on her and force her to serve his foul & impure desires. Ordinarily, the incapacity of the body, the nervous system and the physical brain shows itself in slowness of progress, in slight derangements and ailments, in unsteady hold of the siddhi which comes & slips away, works & is spilled out. Dharanasamarthya comes by purification of the mind, prana and body; full siddhi depends upon full shuddhi. Pranashakti पूर्णता प्रसन्नता समता भोगसामर्थ्यमिति प्राणशक्तिः | Purnata, prasannata, samata, bhogasamarthyam, iti pranashaktih. 12 When in the physical sensations we are conscious of a full and steady vital force which is clear and glad and bright and undisturbed by any mental or physical shock, then there is the siddhi of the prana, the vital or nervous system. Then we become fit for whatever bhoga God imposes on the mind and body. Chittashakti
स्निग्धता तेजःस्लाघा कल्यानश्रद्धा प्रेमसामर्थ्यमिति चित्तशक्तिः | Snigdhata, tejahslagha, kalyanasraddha, premasamarthyam, iti chittashaktih.
These are the signs of chittashuddhi & shakti of the chitta or emotional parts of the antahkarana. The wider and more universal the capacity for love, a love self-sufficient and undisturbed by want or craving or disappointment and the more fixed the faith in God and the joy in all things as mangalam, the greater becomes the divine force in the chitta. Buddhishakti
विशुद्धता प्रकाशो विचित्रबोधः ज्ञानधारणसामर्थ्यमिति बुद्धिशक्तिः | Vishuddhata, prakasha, vichitrabodha, jnanadharanasamarthyam iti buddhishaktih.
Manas & Buddhi need not be considered separately as these elements of power apply both to the sixfold indriya and the thoughtpower in the mind. Their meaning is clear. For the full sense of vishuddhata, refer to the explanation of shuddhi in the seventh chatusthaya. Chandibhava Chandibhavah is the force of Kali manifest in the temperament.1 Sraddha Sraddha is necessary in two things:- शक्त्यां भगवति चेति श्रद्धा | Shaktyam Bhagawati cha, iti sraddha.
1The detailed description of this power is deferred. 13 There must be faith in the love & wisdom of God fulfilling Himself through us, fulfilling the Yogasiddhi, fulfilling our life work, working out all for our good even when it is apparently veiled in evil; and there must be faith in the power of the Shakti manifested by Him in this adhara to sustain, work out and fulfil the divine knowledge, power & joy in the Yoga and in the life. Without sraddha there is no shakti; imperfect sraddha means imperfect shakti. Imperfection may be either in the force of the faith or in its illumination. It is sufficient at first to have full force of the faith, for we cannot from the beginning of the Yoga have full illumination. Then, however we err & stumble, our force of faith will sustain us. When we cannot see, we shall know that God withholds the light, imposing on us error as a step towards knowledge, just as He imposes on us defeat as a step towards victory. 14 Vijnanachatusthaya
Siddhis Siddhis, their justification, dangers and use. The two first chatusthayas of the adhara have reference mainly to the central principle of man’s existence, the antahkarana; but there is one superior faculty and one inferior instrument which have each its peculiar siddhi, the vijnana or supraintellectual faculty and the body. The siddhi of the vijnana and the siddhi of the body belong both of them to that range of experience and of divine fulfilment which are abnormal to the present state of humanity. These are called specially siddhis, because of their abnormal nature[,] rarity and difficulty; they are denied by the sceptic and discouraged by the saint. The sceptic disbelieves in them and holds them to be impostures, fables or hallucinations, as a clever animal might disbelieve in the reasoning powers of man. The saint discourages them because they seem to him to lead away from God; he shuns them just as he shuns the riches, power & attainments of this world, and for the same reason. We need not shun them and cannot shun them, because God is sought by us in His world-fulfilment as well as apart from the world and in the world these are the riches of His power and knowledge which we cannot avoid, once we dwell in Him perceiving and sharing His nature. Indeed, there is a stage reached by the Yogin, when, unless he avoids all action in the world, he can no more avoid the use of the siddhis of power and knowledge than an ordinary man can avoid eating and breathing unless he wishes to leave his body; for these things are the natural action of the vijnana, the plane of ideal consciousness, to which he is rising, just as mental activity and physical motion are the natural action of man’s ordinary life. All the ancient Rishis used these powers, all great Avatars and Yogins and vibhutis from Christ to Ramakrishna have used them; nor is there any great man with the divine power at all manifest in him who does not use them continually in an imperfect form without knowing clearly what are these supreme faculties that he is employing. If nothing else, he uses the powers of intuition & inspiration, the power of ishita which brings him 15 the opportunities he needs and the means which make these opportunities fruitful and the power of vyapti by which his thoughts go darting & flashing through the world & creating unexpected waves of tendency both around him and at a distance. We need no more avoid the use of these things than a poet should avoid the use of his poetical genius which is also a siddhi unattainable by ordinary men or an artist renounce the use of his pencil. At the same time there is a justification for the denial of the sceptic and the renunciation by the saint, & of this justification we must take note. The saint renounces because when these siddhis show themselves fragmentarily in a weak adhara dominated by egoism, the egoism becomes enormously enhanced, the ignorant sadhaka thinking that he is the possessor & creator of these abnormal powers and a very great man indeed, (just as we find an abnormal egoism very frequent in the small poet and the half artist, for those who have a really great power, know well enough that the power is not theirs but a gift from God & feel that the power of God is using them & not they the power); so the sadhaka, misled by ahankara goes running after these powers for their own sake and leaves following after God. The denial of the sceptic is justified by the credulity of ordinary men who regard these things as miracles & invent them where they do not exist, and by the weakness & egoism of the sadhakas themselves and of many who are not sadhakas; for if they catch even a glimpse of these things in themselves or others, they exaggerate, puff, distort & build around some petty & imperfect experiences all sorts of jargon, mysticism, charlatanism & bujruki of all kinds which are an offence & a stumbling block to the world. We must therefore keep in view very strictly certain fixed principles;— 1. That these powers are not miraculous, but powers of Nature, which manifest of themselves as soon as the vijnanapadma in us begins to open, & are no more a cause for bragging & vanity than the power of eating & breathing or anything else that is Nature’s. 2. That they can manifest fully only when we leave ego and offer up our petty separate being in the vastness of God’s being. 3. That when they manifest in the unpurified state, they are a dangerous ordeal to which God subjects us and we can only pass through it safely by keeping our minds clear of vanity, pride, 16 selfishness and by remembering continually that they are His gifts and not our acquirements. 4. That these powers are not to be pursued for their own sake, but developed or allowed to develop as part of the flower of divine perfection which is by God’s grace blossoming out in us. Subject to these cautions, we have not to reject these powers when they come but accept them, to be used in us by God for His own purposes and not by us for ours, to be poured out by vyapti on humanity and not kept for our own use & pride.
Vijnana ज्ञानं त्रिकालदृष्टिरष्टसिद्धिः समाधिरिति विज्ञानचतुष्टयम् | Jnanam, trikaldrishtir, ashtasiddhih, samadhir, iti vijnanachatusthayam.
Jnana By jnana is meant that power of direct and divine knowledge which works independently of the intellect & senses or uses them only as subordinate assistants. It perceives the things that are hidden from the ordinary man, helps us to cease seeing the world in the terms of our sense experiences and enables us to become sensitive to the great unseen forces, powers, impulses & tendencies which stand behind our material life and determine and govern it. To jnana the whole machinery of the world reveals itself in its hidden principles; the nature of Purusha, the workings of Prakriti, the principles of our being, God’s purpose in His world-workings, the harmony of His gunas,—Brahman, Iswara, Atman, man & beast & object, idea & name and form, reality & relation, all these show themselves to the eye that God has illuminated with the sun of His knowledge, jnanadipena bhaswatá.
सत्यस्य दृष्टिः श्रुतिः स्मृतिः प्रतिवोध इति ज्ञानम् | वृत्ते तु कर्मणि च सत्यधर्म एब ज्ञानम् |
Jnana is of three kinds, jnana of thought, jnana of experience, (realisation or pratibodha) and jnana of action or satyadharma. Jnana of thought consists of three powers, 17 1. Drishti, revelation or swayamprakasha
2.
Sruti, inspiration
Drishti Drishti is the faculty by which the ancient Rishis saw the truth of Veda, the direct vision of the truth without the need of observation of the object, reasoning, evidence, imagination, memory or any other of the faculties of the intellect. It is as when a man sees an object and knows what it is, even if, sometimes, he cannot put a name on it; it is pratyakshadarsana of the satyam. Sruti Sruti is the faculty by which we perceive as in a flash the truth hidden in a form of thought or in an object presented to our knowledge or in the word by which the thing is revealed. It is that faculty by which the meaning of the mantra dawns on the mind or on the being of the sadhaka, although when he first heard it, he did not know its meaning nor was it explained to him. It is as when a man hears the name of a thing and by the name itself, without seeing the thing, comes to know its nature. A special power of sruti is the revelation of truth through the right & perfect vak in the thought. Smriti Smriti is the faculty by which true knowledge hidden in the mind reveals itself to the judgment and is recognised at once as the truth. It is as when a man has forgotten something he knew to be the fact, but remembers it the moment it is mentioned to him. Intuition & viveka Intuition is the power which distinguishes the truth and suggests at once the right reasons for its being the truth; viveka the power which makes at once the necessary limitations and distinctions & prevents intellectual error from creeping in or an imperfect truth from being taken for the whole satyam. The importance of viveka for the purposes of man’s progress in his present stage, is supreme. At present in the greatest men the 18 powers of the vijnana act not in their own power, place & nature, but in the intellect; as helpers of the intellect & occasional guides. Directly we get an intuition or revelation, the intellect, memory, imagination, logical faculty seize hold of it & begin to disguise it in a garb of mingled truth & error, bringing down truth to the level of the nature, sanskaras and preferences of a man instead of purifying & elevating his nature & judgments to the level of the truth. Without viveka, these powers are as dangerous to man as they are helpful. The light they give is brighter than the light of the intellect, but the shadow which the intellect creates around them is often murkier than the mist of ignorance which surrounds ordinary intellectual knowledge. Thus men who use these powers ignorantly, often stumble much more than those who walk by the clear though limited light of the intellect. When these powers begin to work in us, we must be dhira and sthira and not be led away by our enthusiasm; we must give time for the viveka to seize on our thoughts & intuitions, arrange them, separate their intellectual from their vijnanamaya elements, correct their false extensions, false limitations, misapplications & assign them their right application, right extension, right limitation,—make, in the image of the Upanishads, the vyuha or just marshalling of the rays of the sun of knowledge, suryasya rashmayah. Knowledge is not for the hasty mind but only for the dhira, who can sit long accumulating & arranging his store and does not rush away with fragments like a crow darting off with the first morsel of food on which it can seize. Realisation Realisation or jnana of experience is the perception of things through bhava,—bhava of being or Sat, realising the truths of being,—bhava of Chit or knowledge, realising the truths of thought, bhava of tapas or force, realising the truths of force & action, bhava of love or ananda realising the truths of emotion & sensation and bliss. Satyadharma Satyadharma is the carrying out of the jnana in bhava and action. 19 Trikaladrishti Trikaldrishti is a special faculty of jnana by which that general power is applied to the actuality of things, their details of event, tendency etc in the past, present & future of the world as it exists, has existed & will exist in Time. It deals with particular fact, just as jnana deals with general truth. Trikaldrishti works in several ways; 1. Directly, without a means or excuse, by drishti, sruti & smriti. 2. By dwelling in concentration on the object,—that process which Patanjali calls sanyama on the object,—until the mind in observer & observed becoming one, we know what the object contains, whether past, present or future, just as we can know the contents of our own being. 3. By using as a means some external sign or some indicative science, such as samudrik, astrology, augury etc. These sciences are worth little, if not used by the higher vijnanamaya faculties; for the signs they use, are mostly indications of tendencies and to distinguish perfectly tendencies of possibility from actual eventualities cannot be done by following written shastra or by rule of thumb. 4. By the two powers of vyapti & prakamya which constitute what the Europeans call telepathy.
Ashtasiddhi
व्याप्तिः प्राकाम्यमैश्बर्यमीशिता वशिता महिमा लघिमाणिमेत्यष्टसिद्धिः | Vyaptih, prakamyam, aishwaryam, ishita, vashita, mahima, laghima, anima, iti ashtasiddhih.
Ashtasiddhi is of three orders, 1. Two siddhis of knowledge,—vyapti and prakamya 2. Three siddhis of power,—aishwarya, ishita, vashita. 3. Three siddhis of the body,—mahima, laghima, anima. Prakamya By prakamya is meant the full prakasha of the senses and the manas, by which they surpass the ordinary limits of the body and become aware by sight[,] hearing, touch or, more usually and more easily, by mental sensation and awareness 20 1. Of objects, scenes & events at a distance or hidden from the normal operation of the mind & senses. 2. Of objects, scenes & events belonging to other planes of existence. 3. Of objects, etc belonging to the past or future the images of which are contained in the object of our study. 4. Of the present states of mind, feeling, sensation etc of others or of their particular thoughts, feelings & sensations; or of such states or particular thoughts etc which they have had in the past & of which the impression remains in the chitta record or which they will have in the future & of which the image is already prepared in the prescient parts of the chitta.
Vyapti To each form of prakamya there is a corresponding form of vyapti, ie reception or communication. By prakamya, for instance, we can have the perception of another’s feelings; by vyapti these feelings are felt striking on our own consciousness or ours are thrown into another. Prakamya is the sight of one looking from a distance & seeing an object; vyapti is the sensation of that object coming towards us or into contact with us. It is possible by vyapti to communicate anything we have in our systems,—thought, feeling, power, etc,—to another and if he is able to seize and hold it, he can make it his own & use it. This can be done either by a sort of physical throwing of the thing in us into the other or by a will upon the Swabhava compelling it to effect the transfer. The teacher & the guru habitually use this power of vyapti which is far more effective than speech or writing but all men use or suffer it unconsciously. For every thought, feeling, sensation or other movement of consciousness in us creates a wave or current which carries it out into the world-consciousness around and there it enters into any adhara which is able and allowed to receive it. Half at least of our habitual thoughts and feelings are such unconscious borrowings. Aishwarya Aishwarya is effectiveness of the Will acting on object or event without the aid of physical means. It may work 21 1. by pressure or tapas of the chaitanya straight on the object that has to be affected 2. by pressure or tapas of chaitanya on the Prakriti (either the general world-Prakriti or Prakriti in the object itself) to bring about directly the result intended 3. by pressure on the Prakriti to bring about circumstances which will compel indirectly the result intended. 4. without pressure by mere thought that is will, the ajna or ajnanam of the Ishwara which Prakriti automatically obeys. The last is the highest power of Aishwarya and its supreme siddhi; for here Chit & Tapas become one as in the Will of God Himself. Ishita Ishita is the same effectiveness of the will acting not as a command or through the thought, by ajnanam, but through the heart or temperament (chitta) in a perception of need or pure lipsa. Whatever the lipsa reaches out towards or even needs without conscious knowledge of the need, comes of itself to the man who possesses Ishita. Ishita also expresses itself either by pressure on the object or Prakriti or by simple perception automatically effective of its aim. The last is again the highest power of Ishita and its supreme siddhi. Vashita Vashita is the control of the object in its nature so that it is submissive to the spoken word, receptive of the thought conveyed or sensitive & effective of the action suggested. Vashita acts automatically through established control of one nature by another, or by the pouring of natural force into the word, thought or suggestion of action so as to produce an effect on the nature of others. The latter is the lower & ordinary siddhi, the former the supreme or entirely divine siddhi. Vyapti is one of the chief agents of Vashita. The Conditions of Power It should be noted that none of the siddhis of power can act perfectly or freely so long as there is impurity of the chitta, egoism in the thought and temperament or domination of desire in the use 22 of the siddhi. Under such circumstances there may be occasional use & irregular effectivity of the power,—a thing not worth having in itself, but useful only in training the mind to give up its own sanskaras & habitual processes & accept the activity of the vijnanamayi shakti; or there may be a regular & effective use of limited powers by fixed Tantric processes (kriyas). The latter should be shunned by the sadhakas of the purna Yoga.
The Conditions of Jnana It should also be noted that perfect jnana and trikaldrishti are only possible by complete shuddhi of the antahkarana, especially the exclusion of desire and vishuddhi of the buddhi, absolute passivity of the manas and, finally, perfected action of the powers of the vijnana. An imperfect & irregular action of these higher powers is always possible & is possessed obscurely by many who are not Yogins or sadhakas.
Physical Siddhis The physical powers, Mahima[,] Laghima, Anima, need not be considered at present, as, although belonging to the dharma of the vijnana, they act in the body and are strictly part of the physical siddhi.
Samadhi Samadhi is the power by dwelling fixedly of the chaitanya on its object to extend the range of knowledge & consciousness through all the three states of waking, sleep & dream, to the realisation of those tattwas of the Brahman to which the ordinary waking consciousness is blind and to the experience, either in reflected images or in the things themselves, of other worlds and planes of consciousness than the material earth or this waking physical consciousness. The consideration of Samadhi may also be postponed for the present. 23 Sharira chatusthaya.
Sharirasiddhi The sharirachatusthaya, likewise, need not be at present explained. Its four constituents are named below
आरोग्यमुत्थापना सौन्दर्यं विविधानन्द इति शरीरचतुष्टयम् | Arogyam, utthapana, saundaryam, vividhananda iti sharirachatushtayam. —— The three general chatushtayas These are the four chatusthayas of the Adhara-siddhi. In addition there are three general chatushtayas— 5. Karmachatusthaya or Lilachatusthaya कृष्णः कालि कामः कर्मैति कर्मचतुष्टयं | Krishnah, Kali, kamah, karma iti karmachatushtayam. 6. Brahmachatushtaya सर्वमनन्तं ज्ञानमानन्दं ब्रह्मैति ब्रह्मचतुष्टयं | Sarvam Anantam Jnanam Anandam Brahma, iti Brahmachatushtayam. 7. Yoga chatushtaya or Sansiddhi chatushtaya. शुद्धिर्मुक्तिर्भुक्तिः सिद्धिरिति योगचतुष्टयम | Shuddhir, muktir, bhuktih, siddhir, iti yogachatushtayam. The last or seventh is at once the means, the sum and the completion of all the rest. Its explanation is essential to the full understanding of the others and will be separately treated. 24 OUTLINE OF THE SEVEN CHATUSTHAYAS (REVISED ORDER)
Yoganga— Sapta Chatusthaya—
1. Siddhichatusthaya— Shuddhi, Mukti, Bhukti, Siddhi. 2. Brahma Chatusthaya— Sarvam Anantam Jnanam Anandam Brahma. 3. Karma Chatusthaya— Krishna, Kali, Karma, Kama 4. Shanti Chatusthaya Samata, Shanti, Sukha, Hasya (Atmaprasada) 5. Shakti Chatusthaya Virya, Shakti, Chandibhava, Sraddha. 6. Vijnana Chatusthaya— Jnana, Trikaladrishti, Ashtasiddhi, Samadhi 7. Sharira Chatusthaya— Arogya, Utthapana, Saundarya, Vividhananda INCOMPLETE NOTES ON THE FIRST CHATUSTHAYA
Shanti Chatusthaya 1. Samata is either negative or positive Negative Titiksha, Udasinata, Nati. Positive Sama rasa, Sama bhoga, Sama Ananda.
Negative Samata
Titiksha. The power to bear steadily & calmly all sparshas without any reaction in the centre of the being, whether they are pleasant or painful. The mind or body may desire or suffer, but the observing Purusha remains unattracted and unshaken, observing only as Sakshi and as Ishwara holding the system firmly together & calmly willing the passing of the dwandwas. It does not crave for or demand the pleasure. It does not reject the pain. Even when pleasure or pain are excessive, it wills that the mind and body should not shrink from or repel them, but bear firmly. It deals in the same way with all dwandwas, hunger & thirst, heat & cold, health & disease, failure & success, honour and obloquy etc. It neither welcomes & rejoices, nor grieves & avoids. It gets rid of all jugupsa, fear, shrinking, recoil, sorrow, depression etc, ie all the means by which Nature (bhutaprakriti) warns us [against]1 & tries to protect from all that is hostile. It does not encourage them, nor does it necessarily interfere with such means as may be necessary to get rid of the adverse touches; nor does it reject physically, except as a temporary discipline, the pleasant touches; but inwardly it presents an equal front of endurance to all. The result is udasinata or indifference. 1 MS again 26 Udasinata— Indifference may be of four kinds, tamasic, rajasic, sattwic & trigunatita. Tamasic indifference is associated with vairagya, disgust, disappointment, weariness of effort, unwillingness to make an effort. It is not really true udasinata, for it tries to avoid all as equally a cause of suffering, directly or indirectly; it is a generalisation of jugupsa and does not come from titiksha, but from its opposite. It is sometimes called rajasic, because although its nature is tamasic, its cause is rajasic, the disappointment of desire. Tamasic udasinata is useful to the Vairagi who wishes to get rid of the world by any means, but to the striver after perfection it is a stumbling-block. Its only use is to discourage the persistent rajoguna, and when it comes, it has to be admitted for that purpose. But it does almost as much harm as good, & so long as we cannot do without it, our progress is likely to be slow, a series of oscillations between rajasic eagerness and tamasic weariness born of disappointment, with tamasic udasinata as an occasional release from the wear & tear of these opposites. To rest finally in tamasic udasinata is fatal to perfection. Rajasic udasinata is indifference enforced by effort, sustained by resolution, habitualised by long self-discipline. It is the indifference of the moral hero, of the stoic. This is more helpful than the tamasic, but if persisted in, has a hardening and narrowing effect on the soul which diminishes in flexibility & in capacity for delight. Rajasic udasinata if used, must always be surmounted. It is an instrument which may easily become an obstacle. Sattwic udasinata is indifference born of knowledge. It comes with the perception of the world either as an illusion or a play and of all things as being equal in the Brahman. It is calm, luminous, free from effort, tolerant of all things, smilingly indifferent to all happenings, careful to reject rajasic & tamasic reactions. Sattwic indifference is a great help and a stage which is almost unavoidable. But it has its limitations. It stands apart from the world and is a preparation for moksha, for the withdrawal from the Lila. It is unsuitable as a final resting place for the sadhak of perfection. Trigunatita udasinata is that which takes all things alike, making no difference between sattwic, rajasic & tamasic reactions, but 27 holding in soul aloof from all these movements & all the dwandwas, observing them first with an absolute impartiality & by constant refusal to participate in them getting rid of them out of the mind & the prana. It neither rejoices nor grieves at their coming & going, na sochati, na nandate. It regards all these things as the workings of Prakriti & their causes as the will of the Ishwara. This udasinata is the preparation for the third element of [samata],2 nati. Nati. Nati is an equal submission to the will of the Ishwara. It regards all things as that will expressing itself and refuses to grieve or revolt inwardly at anything because it is hurt in its egoistic desires, opinions, preferences etc. Its whole attitude is based on the perception of God in all things & happenings. It accepts pleasure & pain, health & disease, bad fortune & good fortune, honour & disgrace, praise & blame, action & inaction, failure & victory; but attaches itself to none of them. Nati is not a tamasic acquiescence in inaction, a subjection to failure, an indifference to life. That is tamasic udasinata. Nati is active; it accepts life & effort as part of God’s will & His being, but it is prepared equally for all results. It has no longing for fruits, but works for the results pointed out to it as kartavya karma without rajasic straining or tamasic indifference. Shanti The fullness of negative samata is measured by the firm fixity of Shanti in the whole being. If there is an absolute calm or serenity in the heart & prana, no reactions of trouble, disturbance, yearning, grief, depression etc, then we may be sure that negative samata is complete. If there is any such disturbance, then it is a sign that there is some imperfection of titiksha, of udasinata or of nati. This imperfection may not be in the centre of the being, but only in its outer parts. There will then be a fixed calm in the centre, but some disturbance on the surface. These superficial disturbances may even be violent & veil the inner established shanti, but it always reemerges. Afterwards the disturbance becomes more & more thin 2 MS udasinata 28 in its density & feeble in its force. It ends in an occasional depression of the force & courage & faith & joy in the soul, negative & often without apparent cause, & then disappears entirely. Negative samata & shanti are the necessary preparation of positive samata and ananda. Without this foundation ananda is always liable to be uncertain in its duration & imperfect in its even fullness. Therefore all these things endurance of all contacts, indifference to all dualities, submission to all movements of the divine Will, perfect inner peace and tranquillity are the first step in perfection. Negative samata & shanti are the result of shuddhi & the condition of mukti == Positive Samata.
On the basis of Nati we proceed to the positive Samata, ie to say, to Sama Ananda. Its foundation is the Atmajnana or Brahma jnana by which we perceive the whole universe as a perception of one Being that manifests itself in multitudinous forms and activities. This One is therefore the one Self of all beings, my Self as well as the self of all others, friend and enemy, saint and sinner, man, bird and beast, tree & stone,—and all things in the manifestation are the forms and activities of my Self. Moreover, this Self is again the Lord of the Cosmos, the Purushottama, the divine Vishnu, Shiva or Krishna, of whom every individual soul is a conscious centre, aware of its unity with Him in being and also of its difference in the universe; and the manifestation is a Lila or play of the Lord who is in His being all delight; the play, too, therefore, is not only a play of Existence and Consciousness, but also a play of delight. It is the dualities born of ego-sense in the heart, mind & body which creates grief and pain. We have to unite ourselves with this Self, Lord & One & with all things in Him, viewing them as our self, in order to get rid of pain & enjoy the divine Ananda. But, first, it is necessary that we should accept without revolt the Lila equally in all its details & happenings. This comes by Nati. Titiksha is the attitude of equal acceptance by the sense-mind & body, udasinata the attitude of equal acceptance by mind & heart, Nati the attitude 29 of equal acceptance by the soul. The soul accepts all things as the play of the all-Blissful Lord, the Will of the supreme self and Ishwara. It accepts action also & the results of action, without being attached to them. But, though not attached, it must learn to take delight in all things even as the Lord takes delight in them. The first delight is that of the Sakshi or Witness, who looking upon the whole action of the universe & even his own action like one who is watching a play or a drama, takes the rasa or taste of the whole thing by the intellect, the sense and the aesthetic faculties. All things, all events are the manifestation of certain gunas or qualities in universal Being; God is Ananta guna, Infinite Qualities. The rose is a manifestation of form, colour, odour & other less obvious qualities, each stamped with a particular form of the rasa, divine Delight. |
