A History of Indian Philosophy v2.c19.s9: Stages of Progress
A History of Indian Philosophy v2.c19.s9
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Stages of Progress
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It has been already said that the study of philosophy and association with saintly characters are the principal means with which a beginner has to set out on his toil for the attainment of salvation. In the first stage (*prathamā bhūmikā*) the enquirer has to increase his wisdom by study and association with saintly persons. The second stage is the stage of critical thinking (*vicāraṇā*); the third is that of the mental practice of dissociation from all passions, etc. (*asaṅga-bhāvanā*); the fourth stage (*vilāpanī*) is that in which through a right understanding of the nature of truth the world-appearance shows itself to be false; the fifth stage is that in which the saint is in a state of pure knowledge and bliss (*śuddha-saṃvit-mayānanda-rūpa*). This stage is that of the *jīvan-mukta*, in which the saint may be said to be half-asleep and half-awake (*ardha-supta-prabuddha*). The sixth stage is that in which the saint is in a state of pure bliss; it is a state which is more like that of deep dreamless sleep (*suṣupta-sadṛśa-sthiti*). The seventh stage is the last transcendental state (*turyātīta*), which cannot be experienced by any saint while he is living. Of these the first three stages are called the waking state (*jāgrat*), the fourth stage is called the dream state (*svapna*), the fifth stage is called the dreamless (*suṣupta*) state, the sixth stage is an unconscious state called the *turya*, and the seventh stage is called the *turyātīta*³.
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³ *Yoga-vāsiṣṭha*, VI. 120.
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Desire (*icchā*) is at the root of all our troubles. It is like a mad elephant rushing through our system and trying to destroy it. The senses are like its young, and the instinctive root inclinations (*vāsanā*) are like its flow of ichor. It can only be conquered by the close application of patience (*dhairya*). Desire means the imaginations of the mind, such as "let this happen to me," and this is also called *saṅkalpa*. The proper way to stop this sort of imagining is to cease by sheer force of will from hoping or desiring in this manner, and for this one has to forget his memory; for so long as memory continues such hopes and desires cannot be stopped. The last stage, when all movement has ceased (*aspanda*) and all thoughts and imaginations have ceased, is a state of unconsciousness (*avedanam*)¹. *Yoga* is also defined as the ultimate state of unconsciousness (*avedana*), the eternal state when everything else has ceased². In this state *citta* is destroyed, and one is reduced to the ultimate entity of consciousness; and thus, being free of all relations and differentiations of subject and object, one has no knowledge in this state, though it is characterized as *bodhātmaka* (identical with consciousness). This last state is indeed absolutely indescribable (*avyapadeśya*), though it is variously described as the state of Brahman, Śiva, or the realization of the distinction of *prakṛti* and *puruṣa*³. The *Yoga-vāsiṣṭha*, however, describes this state not as being.essentially one of bliss, but as a state of unconsciousness unthinkable and indescribable. It is only the fifth state that manifests itself as being of the nature of *ānanda*; the sixth state is one of unconsciousness, which, it seems, can somehow be grasped; but the seventh is absolutely transcendental and indescribable.
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² See the *Nyāya-kandalī* of Śrīdhara, p. 48, and also *Dinakarī* and *Rāmarūdrī* on the *Siddhānta-muktāvalī* on *Bhāṣā-parichcheda*, p. 44.
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¹ *Yoga-vāsiṣṭha*, VI. 126.
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² *Ibid.* VI. 126. 99.
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³ *Ibid.* VI. 126. 71–72.
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The division of the progressive process into seven stages naturally reminds one of the seven stages of *prajñā* (wisdom) in Patañjali’s *Yoga-sūtra* and *Vyāsa-bhāṣya*. The seven stages of *prajñā* are there divided into two parts, the first containing four and the second three. Of these the four are psychological and the three are ontological, showing the stages of the disintegration of *citta* before its final destruction or *citta-vimukti*⁴. Here also the first four stages, ending with *vilāpanī*, are psychological, whereas the last three stages represent the advance of the evolution of *citta* towards its final disruption. But, apart from this, it does not seem that there is any one to one correspondence of the *prajñā* states of the *Yoga-vāsiṣṭha* with those of Patañjali. The *Yoga-vāsiṣṭha* occasionally mentions the name *Yoga* as denoting the highest state and defines it as the ultimate state of unconsciousness (*avedanaṃ vidur yogam*) or as the cessation of the poisonous effects of desire⁵. In the first half of the sixth book, chapter 125, the ultimate state is described as the state of universal negation (*sarvāpahnava*). Existence of *citta* is pain, and its destruction bliss; the destruction of *citta* by cessation of knowledge—a state of neither pain nor pleasure nor any intermediate state—a state as feelingless as that of the stone (*pāṣāṇavat-samam*), is the ultimate state aimed at¹.
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⁴ See my *A History of Indian Philosophy*, vol. I, Cambridge, 1922, p. 273.
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⁵ *Icchā-viṣa-vikārasya viyogaṃ yoga-nāmakam. Yoga-vāsiṣṭha*, VI. 37. 1; also *ibid.* VI. 126. 99.
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¹ This *turīyātīta* stage should not be confused with the sixth stage of *suṣupti*, which is often described as a stage of pure bliss.
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*Karma*, according to the *Yoga-vāsiṣṭha*, is nothing but thought-activity manifesting itself as subject-object knowledge. Abandonment of *karma* therefore means nothing short of abandonment of thought-activity or the process of knowledge². Cessation of *karma* thus means the annihilation of knowledge. The stirring of *karma* or activity of thought is without any cause; but it is due to this activity that the ego and all other objects of thought come into being; the goal of all our endeavours should be the destruction of all knowledge, the unconscious, stone-like knowledgeless state³.
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² > *sarveṣāṁ karmaṇāṁ evaṁ vedanaṁ bījam uttamam*
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³ *Ibid.* III. 15. 16.
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As there are seven progressive stages, so there are also seven kinds of beings according to the weakness or strength of their *vāsanās*. There are *svapna-jāgara*, *saṅkalpa-jāgara*, *kevala-jāgrat-sthita*, *cirāj-jāgrat-sthita*, *ghana-jāgrat-sthita*, *jāgrat-svapna* and *kṣīṇa-jāgaraka*. *Svapna-jāgara* (dream-awake) persons are those who in some past state of existence realized in dream experience all our present states of being and worked as dream persons (*svapna-nara*). The commentator in trying to explain this says that it is not impossible; for everything is present everywhere in the spirit, so it is possible that we, as dream persons of their dream experience, should be present in their minds in their *vāsanā* forms (*tad-antaḥ-karaṇe vāsanātmanā sthitāḥ*)⁴. As both past and present have no existence except in thought, time is in thought reversible, so that our existence at a time future to theirs does not necessarily prevent their having an experience of us in dreams. For the limitations of time and space do not hold for thought, and as elements in thought everything exists everywhere (*sarvaṁ sarvatra vidyate*)⁵. By dreams these persons may experience changes of life and even attain to final emancipation. The second class, the *saṅkalpa-jāgaras*, are those who without sleeping can by mere imagination continue to conceive all sorts of activities and existences, and may ultimately attain emancipation. The third class, the *kevala-jāgaras*, are those who are born in this life for the first time. When such beings pass
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⁴ *Ibid.* VI. 2. 50. 9. *Tātparya-prakāśa*.
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⁵ *Ibid.*
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*svarūpaṁ cetayitvāntas tataḥ spandaḥ pravartate.*
*Yoga-vāsiṣṭha*, VI. 11. 2. 26.
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through more than one life, they are called *cira-jāgaras*. Such beings, on account of their sins, may be born as trees, etc., in which case they are called *ghana-jāgaras*. Those of such beings suffering rebirth who by study and good association attain right knowledge are called *jāgrat-svapna-sthita*; and finally, those that have reached the *turya* state of deliverance are called *kṣīṇa-jāgaraka*.
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Bondage (*bandha*), according to the *Yoga-vāsiṣṭha*, remains so long as our knowledge has an object associated with it, and deliverance (*mokṣa*) is realized when knowledge is absolutely and ultimately dissociated from all objects and remains in its transcendent purity, having neither an object nor a subject¹.
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¹ > *jñānasya jñeyatāpattir bandha ity abhidhīyate*