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Introduction
In addition to the Pravritti Marga and Nivritti Marga discussed in the previous chapter, Hinduism speaks of many different methods or paths to reach God. Of them four are considered major paths: (1) Bhakti Yoga – the path of devotion, (2) Jnana Yoga – the path of rational inquiry, (3) Raja Yoga – the path of mental concentration, and (4) Karma Yoga – the path of right action. The Sanskrit word yoga means yoke – the “connecting link” between the spiritual aspirant and God. Yoga also means a method or technique to establish mental communion with God.
According to Hinduism all people can be put into four broad categories: (1) the emotional person, (2) the rational person, (3) the meditative person and (4) the habitually overactive person. Bhakti Yoga is suitable for the emotional person. Jnana Yoga is meant for the rational person. Raja Yoga is suitable for the meditative person. Karma Yoga is prescribed for the person naturally inclined toward activity.
Bhakti Yoga – The Path of Devotion
This path enables the emotional person to have a direct vision of Personal God or Ishvara. The emotion love, which is abundantly available in everyone, is skillfully used as a means to attain God-vision. Love in human beings is usually present as “selfish love.” If selfish love can somehow be sublimated and directed towards God, it becomes an effective means of God-realisation. Hindu history and legends tell us about many such instances.
In his youth Tulsidas, a famous Hindu saint of India, was passionately attached to his young wife. He loved her with all his heart and soul and could not stay away from her even for a single day. His wife had not seen her parents for a while and was eager to visit them, but Tulsidas would not allow her to go.
One day, however, when Tulsidas left his village on some errand, his wife went to her parents’ home in a nearby village without informing her husband. Tulsidas came to know this as soon as he returned home and immediately went to his in-laws’ home to find his wife. She felt extremely embarrassed at this, and said to her husband, “Shame on you! You can’t stay away from me even for a day! Had you been as attached to God as you are to me, perhaps you would have seen Him.” This admonition hurt the feelings of Tulsidas so much that he immediately left his wife and never returned home. He became a monk and a passionate lover of God. In course of time he was blessed with God-vision and became a saint.
Tulsida’s life is a beautiful example of how selfish and passionate love can be sublimated and transformed into a means of God-realisation. This technique of transforming worldly love into divine love is called Bhakti Yoga.
Bhakti Yoga disciplines consist of maintaining physical and mental purity (shaucha), prayer (prarthana), chanting of God’s holy name (japa), the singing of devotional songs (gita), and the adoration and worship of God (puja or upasana).
Worship is of two kinds: (1) external ritualistic worship and (2) mental worship. Mental worship is a kind of meditation and is considered superior to ritualistic worship. It is more suitable for those who have made adequate progress in spiritual life. Ritualistic worship is suitable for beginners. In ritualistic worship, images or holy symbols are used.
Chanting the holy name of God, or japa, is done in several ways. When it is done audibly by pronouncing the holy name correctly, it is called vachika japa. When the chanting is done by moving the tongue and the lips in such a manner that it can be heard only by the chanter and no one else, it is called upamshu japa. In the third type of chanting the Holy Name is repeated mentally without moving the tongue or the lips. This type of silent chanting is called manasa japa. Among these the third one is considered superior to the second, and the second superior to the first.
Encouragement is given to develop special mental attitudes that generate a feeling of closeness to God. The attitudes are shanta or a serene and dispassionate attitude, dasya or the attitude of a servant, sakhya or the attitude of a friend, vatsalya or the attitude of a mother towards her child, and madhura or the sweet attitude of a loving wife towards her husband. Any of these attitudes helps spiritual aspirants develop a feeling of closeness to God. These five different spiritual attitudes differ from one another in the quality and intensity of love associated with them.
In the serene or shanta attitude, the intensity of love is relatively less pronounced. The devotee does not want any personal relationship with God and yet wants to know Him with one-pointed yearning of heart.
In the dasya or serving attitude, the devotee looks upon himself as the servant of God and through his loving service wants to please Him. As a servant, however, he naturally has to maintain some distance between himself and God.
In the sakhya or friendly attitude, the relationship between the devotee and God is much closer. The devotee loves God by looking upon Him as his dearest friend, and at the same time expects reciprocal love from God.
In the vatsalya or motherly attitude, the devotee looks upon God as his child, and like a mother showers all his love and affection on Him. The devotee does not expect anything in return from God.
In the madhura or sweet attitude, the devotee loves God with the same intensity of love that a faithful and loving wife has for her husband. The reader should understand very clearly that in this attitude the devotee is not even aware of his or her body or sex. This is entirely a spiritual relationship.
Other than these attitudes, the devotee can also look upon God as his father or mother and himself as the child. Many great saints of Bengal, such as Ramprasad, Kamalakanta, and Shri Ramakrishna, maintained this attitude and looked upon God as the Divine Mother.
With the help of these spiritual attitudes, and following the other disciplines of Bhakti Yoga, the devotee’s love for God becomes more and more mature. This love gradually purifies his mind and enables him to have the vision of the Personal God or Ishvara.
Jnana Yoga – The Path of Rational Inquiry
According to one American author, a theologian who belongs to the Episcopal Church, “The top 10% of the people who are most creative, constructive and thoughtful, do not have much to do with churches. To them the canons of reason come first, making faith secondary and questionable.” It is these people who can especially benefit from Jnana Yoga. Such a person may say, “I can’t accept things on faith alone. I have difficulty believing in what the saints or the prophets say. How can I be sure that they are not self-deluded or mistaken? I can’t believe in God because I have not experienced or known Him yet. Besides, I am not even sure if this world really exists; the whole thing may be just an illusion or my mental projection!”
Jnana Yoga will try to resolve these doubts by saying, “You doubt the existence of this world and also the experiences of the saints and prophets. Your reasoning may disprove the existence of all this, but you can’t disprove your own existence as the doubter. Therefore, as a doubter you must exist. But who are you “really”? Are you your physical body, vital energy, senses, or mind? You can’t deny that you have the awareness that you own them. The “owner” and the “owned” can’t be the same. They have to be different from each other. Therefore, you are not your physical body, energy, senses or mind; you are different from them all. Try to know your true identity; try to know who you really are.”
The first instruction of Jnana Yoga is “Atmanam viddhi” or “Know thyself.” This instruction is based on the fundamental teaching of the Vedas that everything in this universe is divine. As divinity is present everywhere, it must also be present in all human beings. The true Self of man or the indwelling Spirit is this divinity which forms the very core of one’s being or existence. This true Self is not the ego. According to Hinduism, the ego or “I-ness” is purely mental; it is an idea only. The true Self of man or the indwelling Spirit is different from this ego. The goal of students of Jnana Yoga is to gain 100% conviction that this true Self is divine.
First a student has to go through some preparatory disciplines, such as the observance of moral and ethical practices in order to strengthen the will or mental muscles. Then he has to purify his mind through selfless work. Once the student’s mind has been purified, the spiritual teacher asks the student to meditate on the divinity of his true inner Self.
In order to follow the instructions of his teacher the student has to go through three steps: (1) Shravana, (2) Manana and (3) Nididhyasana. Shravana means “hering.” The student has to hear from the mouth of his teacher the ultimate truth about himself. The teacher says to his student, “Tat tvam asi,” which means, “You are that Divine Reality” or “You are God.”
The student must have implicit faith (shraddha) in the words of his teacher. The purity of mind which the student has acquired through his preliminary spiritual practice enables him to have such faith. Consequently he says to himself, “My teacher has said that I am divine. But my experience is that I am still a mortal, limited in my power and knowledge. I don’t feel that I am eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful and all-pervading. How can I then be divine? But my teacher’s words can’t be false. There must be something in me which is divine. Let me try to find it. Obviously my body is not divine, because it is transient and subject to decay and death. My vital energy can’t be divine either, because it is limited and not infinite. For the same reason my senses and mind can’t be divine.
Through such mentation or manana the student tries to negate everything that is not Divine in himself; this negation is called the process of neti (lit. “not this”) in Sanskrit. Gradually his contemplation on his divine Self becomes one-pointed. This is called nididhyasana, and it eventually leads him to the divine core of his being.
At that stage he no longer is conscious of his physical body or the external world. His mind and ego have, as it were, melted away in the infinite ocean of divinity. The mind is then said to be in nirvikalpa samadhi. Though such samadhi he comes to experience his identity with the Impersonal God or Nirguna Brahman. Knowing one’s divine identity or divine Self is the ultimate goal of Jnana Yoga. This divine identity is the ultimate Truth which a student of Jnana Yoga experiences through nirvikalpa samadhi at the end of his spiritual quest.
There is, however, a lower state of samadhi, called savikalpa samadhi, where the ego of the meditator is still retained in a very subdued form.
Raja Yoga – The Path of Mental Concentration
Eight steps of Raja Yoga
Raja Yoga is most suitable for a person with a natural tendency to explore and know his own mind in order to gain total mastery over it. The founder of this yoga is the renowned sage Patanjali. Raja Yoga is ordinarily called Yoga; it is also called Kriya Yoga. The disciplines of Raja Yoga consist of eight steps: (1) yama or inner restraint, (2) niyama or cultivating good habits, (3) asana or posture, (4) pranayama or the art of controlling the breath, (5) pratyahara or withdrawal of the senses, (6) dharana or fixing the mind on a chosen object, (7) dhyana or meditation, and (8) samadhi or intense mental concentration.
Yama or inner restraint consists in abstention from violence, falsehood, stealing, indulging in passions or carnal desires, and accepting unnecessary gifts from other people.
Niyama consists in the cultivation of good habits, such as keeping the body and mind clean, contentment, austerity, regularity in the study of religious books, and submission to God.
Asana means sitting postures suitable for prolonged contemplation or meditation. Raja Yoga prescribes various postures for that purpose.
Pranayama, or breath control, is a type of rhythmic breathing which helps in calming down and concentrating a restless mind. It consists in inhalation, retention of breath, and exhalation, all done according to techniques which can be learned only from expert teachers of Raja Yoga. Pranayama, if not practiced under the guidance of a capable teacher, can do irreparable physical and mental damage to one who engages in it.
Pratyahara is the art of withdrawing the senses and the mind from external objects.
Dharana is the art of fixing the mind on a chosen object of contemplation for a short period of time.
Dhyana or meditation is a more mature state of dharana. When the mind is concentrated on the object of contemplation without any break or disturbance for a longer period of time, it is called dhyana. In both dharana and dhyana the meditator’s mind retains its distinction from the object of meditation. Dhyana at a higher state of maturity is called samadhi.
Samadhi is a state of the most intense mental concentration on the object of contemplation. The meditator can have different types of samadhi, one superior to the other, because of the various levels of mental concentration.
A relatively inferior samadhi is called samprajnata samadhi. The power of controlling nature comes to a person who attains this samadhi. In this samadhi the meditator still retains his ego.
In the highest type of samadhi, called asamprajnata samadhi, the ego disappears completely. In this state of intense concentration the mind loses itself or melts away in the object of its contemplation. It is no longer aware of its own independent existence. In other words, the mind is without thought. This samadhi is the goal of Raja Yoga.
According to Raja Yoga, the uncontrolled and impure mind of a person can be compared to a lake with many waves and ripples in it. Its water is not clear because it has many impurities. At the bottom of the lake there is a powerful light. In this particular analogy the waves are the thoughts, the turbidity of water is the impurity of the mind, and the light source at the bottom of the lake is the soul or inner Divine Self of the person.
The light of the inner Self is not visible on the surface because of the cloudy water and numerous waves in the lake. If the lake can be made free from waves, and its water free from impurities, the light at the bottom will shine forth. In other words, the Divine Self of the person will manifest itself in all its glory when the person’s mind becomes pure and free of all thoughts. The goal of Raja Yoga is to create such a state of mind. This state of mind is asamprajnata samadhi. Anyone who has been able to attain this samadhi has attained the highest level of saintliness.
Past mental impressions & how to free the mind from them
The impurity of the mind is primarily caused by the accumulated thoughts of the past. According to Raja Yoga, not a single thought is ever lost. Every thought eventually goes down to the subconscious level and remains there as an impression. There are innumerable impressions of past thoughts in the subconscious level of an average mind. These impressions are called samskaras in Sanskrit. The technique of Raja Yoga, such as meditation or dhyana, can help cleanse the mind of these samskaras.
An analogy will make this idea clear. Let us suppose a person is standing on the shore of a lake with a roll of absorbent paper towels. He starts throwing the paper towels one by one into the lake. The towels first float on the surface for a few minutes and then sink and settle at the bottom of the lake, layer by layer, one on top of the other.
The lake is the mind and the paper towels are the thoughts. The paper towels when floating are thoughts at the conscious level of mind. In their submerged state at the bottom of the lake, they are samskaras or impressions of past thoughts in the subconscious level of mind. These impressions are like so many negatives of photographs. They have the ability to produce picture prints under favourable circumstances. Similarly, the samskaras have the potential to become conscious thoughts again if a suitable mental environment is created for them.
Meditation is contemplation done with great mental concentration. When a person meditates, his concentrated thought, like a laser beam, penetrates through the inner layers of this mind and arrives at the bottom where the samskaras are. The concentrated thought, like an underwater probe, starts disturbing the accumulated samskaras. As a result, they gradually get dislodged and rise one by one to the conscious level. They become conscious thoughts again. The meditator should watch the rejuvenated thoughts like a disinterested observer and must not act upon them. The old thoughts, once they have risen to the conscious level, burst like so many air bubbles and disappear. This is how, through the practice of meditation, one can purify one’s mind by gradually getting rid of old impressions or sanskaras. If, however, the meditator acts upon those rejuvenated thoughts, he will create new sanskaras and his mind will not be cleansed.
Siddhis or supernatural powers
In the course of practicing Raja Yoga, as a student gains considerable mastery over his mind, he acquires eight extraordinary powers called ashtasiddhi: (1) anima – the capacity to grow as small as a molecule and penetrate solid objects, (2) laghima – extreme lightness of body or the ability to levitate, (3) vyapti – the ability to expand, (4) prakamya – the acquisition of irresistible will, (5) mahima – the ability to make the body extremely large, (6) ishitva – acquiring godlike powers, (7) vashitva – the power to bring everything under one’s control, and (8) kamavasayita – the ability to obtain whatever one desires.
Other powers may also come: the ability to fly (khechari-vidya), the conquest of death (mrityunjaya-vidya), the ability to acquire hidden treasure (patala-siddhi), the ability to enter another’s body (kaya-siddhi), knowledge of the past, present, and future (trikala-jnana), the power to die at will (ichchha-mrityu), the power to make oneself invisible (antardhana), going beyond hunger and thirst (kshutpipasa-nivritti), and the power to understand all animal languages (sarvabhutaruta-jnana).
The student is advised not to use any of these powers (siddhis). These powers are like milestones on the path of spiritual progress, but can be obstacles to reaching the ultimate spiritual goal. If the student stops at any of these milestones, trapped by the lure of these powers, he cannot reach the goal. He should ignore them and proceed steadfastly along his spiritual path until the goal is reached. Once he reaches the goal, his inherent divinity will manifest itself in all its splendour and he will be free from all human limitations. He will become a saint.
Kundalini power & the six chakras
According to Raja Yoga, the spiritual power in man usually lies in a dormant state. Like a coiled-up snake in a state of hybernation, this power usually remains asleep near the lower extremity of a person’s backbone. A coil is called kundala in Sanskrit. Kundalini means something which is coiled up, such as a snake. Raja Yoga helps one to awaken this dormant spiritual power called kundalini through meditation and other spiritual practices.
The human backbone or spinal column is like so many 8’s piled one on top of the other, forming two vertical channels side by side. The vital energy or nerve current of a person works in his body by passing through these two channels. The left channel is called ida and the right channel pingala. If a person’s breath is stronger through his left nostril when he exhales, it is an indication that his vital energy is flowing through the ida channel at that time. Similarly, if the breath is stronger through his right nostril, then the energy is flowing through the pingala channel. When a person does a copious amount of physical activity, his energy usually flows through the pingala channel. When resting, his energy flows through the ida channel.
There is a third channel inside the backbone which is between the ida and pingala. Its name is sushumna. Normally the sushumna channel remains closed. It opens up when the kundalini power is awakened. The awakened kundalini power starts coursing through the sushumna channel towards the brain. When that happens, the spiritual aspirant enters into an altogether different domain of experience. He starts having genuine spiritual experiences. The awakened kundalini power, as it starts moving toward the brain, seems to pass through different doors, each one of which introduces the spiritual aspirant to a newer set of genuine spiritual experiences. Each of these doors or levels of spiritual experience is called a chakra. Raja Yoga speaks of seven such levels, the topmost one of which is sahasrara. The sahasrara is located somewhere inside the brain. The lowest one, which is at the lower end of the spinal cord, is called muladhara. The next higher chakra is svadhishthana, then in succession come manipura, anahata, vishuddha, ajna, and sahasrara.
In Hinduism we read about three types of space. The space in which we and the stars and planets are posited is called mahakasha or “outer space.” Our dream world or the objects of our imagination exist in chittakasha or mental space. All genuine spiritual experiences take place in chidakasha or “knowledge space.” A person gets access to chidakasha only when his kundalini power has awakened and entered into the sushumna channel. All experiences in the chittakasha are no other than imagination or hallucination compared to the genuine spiritual experiences in the chidakasha. When the kundalini power reaches the sahasrara through the sushumna channel, the spiritual aspirant becomes spiritually illumined. He reaches the goal of Yoga – he attains asamprajnata samadhi.
Although Raja Yoga literally means the “King of all Yogas,” there is some hazard connected with its practice. In the words of Swami Vivekananda, a past master of Raja Yoga, “There must be perfect chastity, in thought, word and deed; without it the practice of Raja Yoga is dangerous, and may lead to insanity.” Aspirants who want to practice this yoga are advised to heed these words of caution.
Karma Yoga – The Path of Right Action
In the context of Karma Yoga the Sanskrit word karma means work or action. Thinking also may be considered karma. A verse of the Bhagavad Gita says, “No one can every stay without doing work even for a moment.” Work, which can be both physical and mental, is inevitable. Therefore, the impact of work on the life of the doer can never be overemphasised. Even the attempt not to work turns out to be work. The following story will clearly explain this idea.
During his wanderings in India a holy man came to a village. He stayed there for a few days and impressed the villagers greatly with one of his yogic powers. He displayed the extraordinary ability to kill or revive anything by sprinkling water on it while chanting mystic words or mantras.
During the holy man’s stay in the village, a young boy served him daily by doing various chores. As a result, the holy man grew very fond of the boy. He called the boy aside one morning and said, “I am leaving this afternoon, but before I leave I would like to give you a gift. I have had this rosary for many years; I give it to you. You may use it when you say your daily prayers.” But the boy said, “Sir, if you don’t mind, I would rather have some other gift from you.” The holy man said, “I am a man of very few possessions. What else can I give you?” The boy said, “Please teach me how to give or take life as you do. I want this gift from you.”
The holy man, bound by his commitment, had to teach the boy the mantras and said, “My child, before you chant them you have to be very careful about one thing. You must never think of a black cat. If you do, the mantras won’t work.” “I’ll never do that,” the boy assured him, and taking leave of the holy man immediately went towards his neighbourhood.
Reaching his neighbourhood, he called all his young friends and said, “I’ve the power to kill or bring anything back to life. The holy man has taught me how to do it!” But his friends would not believe him. So, the boy decided to display his power.
He had a pet cat. After tying the cat to a post he sprinkled water on it and chanted the mantras. But nothing happened; the cat did not even faint – what to speak of dying! The boy became a laughingstock in his neighbourhood. He ran to the holy man and said, “Sir, the mantras didn’t work. I feel very humiliated.” The holy man said, “Did you heed my warning? Did you, by any chance, think of a black cat when you chanted those words?” The boy said, “Sir, I may be young, but I’m not stupid. When I was chanting those words I kept telling myself all the time that I mustn’t think of a black cat.” The holy man said, “That’s as good as thinking of a black cat. In trying not to think of a black cat you actually thought of one! That’s why the mantras didn’t work.”
According to Hinduism, work, which is inevitable, has one great disadvantage. Any work done with attachment to its fruits generates a kind of psychological bondage for the doer. Consider a florist who with great care has been trying to grow for the first time an extremely rare and delicate variety of rose in his garden. When the roses are about to bloom, he gets a call from a close friend who says, “I am going on a trip to Europe for a month. I shall be very happy if you come with me. All expenses are mine, you don’t have to worry about anything!” But the florist, even though he would like to go on that trip, feels that he cannot do so. It is as though his attachment to his exotic roses has put him in some kind of bondage. If he could shake off his attachment to the roses, he instantly would be free from this bondage and could go anywhere he liked.
So also with every action that a person does. An action done with attachment to its fruits puts the doer in bondage. Karma Yoga teaches the secret of how to maintain one’s freedom even though working all the time.
The secret consists in working without any attachment to the fruits of the work. Attachment is selfish involvement, and always rooted in selfish expectations. Therefore, work done without attachment to its fruits is no other than work done unselfishly.
The art and science of performing unselfish work is Karma Yoga or the Yoga of Right Action. It is not easy to work unselfishly. A student of Karma Yoga is often instructed to work for the pleasure of God. If work is done for God, and not for one’s own sake, then that work becomes unselfish work.
It may be argued, however, that even when a person works for the sake of God, the desire for his own spiritual progress actually motivates his action. Therefore, such action cannot be called truly unselfish action. But according to Karma Yoga the desire for one’s own spiritual progress is not considered selfishness; it is considered “enlightened” selfishness. It is not harmful.
The saint Shri Ramakrishna makes this point clear with the help of an analogy. He says that uneducated villagers in rural Bengal believe that sweets and candies are harmful for a person suffering from an acid stomach. According to them, sweets and candies aggravate acidity. But they believe that rock candy – which itself is a candy – is an antidote for acidity. Similarly, the desire for one’s own spiritual progress, even though a selfish one, is an antidote for selfishness. It is conducive to one’s ultimate spiritual enlightenment.
Work done for the sake of God gradually transforms the doer’s mind into a purified mind, devoid of the sense of agency or doership. Such a mind alone can enable a person to have God-vision, which is the goal of Karma Yoga.
Karma Yoga also liberates a person from the chain of repeated births and deaths. Every link of this chain is created by the person’s own karmaphala. If the person can learn to work in such a manner that the fruits of his work do not come back to him, then no new links will be created. As a result, the continuity of the chain of repeated births and deaths will be broken, and he will become free. The secret of gaining this freedom is to work without attachment to its results. If the doer does not want the fruits of his action, the fruits will never come to him.
It is like a person who has deposited one million dollars in a bank with the instruction that the income from his investment must not be credited to his account; it should be given in charity to a church. In this case, the account holder is not expecting the fruits of his investment. The result of his investment – the interest income – will not come back to him. In the same manner, a person who works while disowning the fruits of his action will break a link in the chain of repeated births and deaths and will not be born again. In other words, he will attain liberation.
According to Hinduism, work in itself is neither good nor bad. The mental attitude with which work is done determines if the work is good or bad. A surgeon performs surgery on a patient and the patient dies. Even though the patient dies at the hands of the surgeon, the doctor is not considered a criminal because he had a helping attitude toward the patient. He wanted the patient to be cured. In another case, an assassin who has killed someone is considered a criminal, because he had a harmful attitude. He deliberately wanted to harm his victim. The consequences of the action in these two externally similar cases will be diametrically opposite to each other – one good, the other bad.
But merely maintaining the right attitude toward work is not enough in Karma Yoga. The doer must also know how to work properly. Otherwise, he will not have the desired spiritual progress. The following story will make this idea clear.
A soldier had a pet monkey. He trained the monkey to do many intelligent tricks. One hot summer afternoon, the soldier was having a nap lying on the grass in the shade of a large tree. He had put his sword by his side on the grass. The monkey was sitting near the soldier and keeping a close watch over its master. The monkey noticed that a fly kept sitting again and again on the soldier’s face and disturbing his sleep. The monkey did not like it. When the fly sat on the soldier’s face again the monkey unsheathed its master’s sword and with one swift and powerful stroke tried to kill the fly. The fly flew away and the soldier died!
The monkey had the right attitude; it wanted to help its master. But its method was all wrong. Similarly, a person who has the right attitude toward work, but does not know how to work properly, will not have the full benefit of Karma Yoga.