Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Philosophy of the Upanishads c12.s3.t4: 4. The Yoga

The Philosophy of the Upanishads c12.s3.t4

Language
English

4. The Yoga

c12.s3.t4.1

Emancipation consists in the consciousness of unity with the ātman as first principle of all things. It is essentially on the one hand an annihilation of all desire, and on the other an annihilation of the illusion of a manifold universe. The first, as we saw, is the aim of the *sannyâsa*; to effect the latter by preparatory artificial means is the function of the *yoga*. It is therefore, apart from excrescences and exaggerations, a perfectly intelligible consequence of the doctrine of the Upanishads. For if the highest end is contained in the knowledge of self-identity with the âtman, why should we not attempt to reach it by purposely dissolving the ties that bind to the illusory world of phenomena, and by self-concentration? That the external world derives little or no advantage from the practices of the Yoga does not enter into consideration for a truer ethical judgement.¹ The only real consideration that may be urged against the practices of yoga, which have always been highly esteemed in India, and are to this day widely spread (precisely as they may be urged against the self-imposed acts of penance among the Pietists of the West), consists in this, that they aim at bringing about in an artificial way that which is only thoroughly genuine when it originates naturally and without the assistance of our will. *Tout ce qui n'est naturel est imparfait*, as Napoleon would have said. In other respects the phenomena of yoga are akin not only, as has often been asserted, to certain diseased conditions that exist also among ourselves (hypnotism, catalepsy, etc., upon which we do not enter since the material to hand in the Upanishads does not suggest it), but also with the entirely healthy and joyous phenomenon of æsthetic contemplation. The more than earthly joy which we experience at the sight of the beautiful in nature or in art depends upon a forgetfulness of one's own individuality, and a union of subject and object, similar to that which the yoga endeavours to secure by artificial means. These means we propose now to consider.

c12.s3.t4.2

¹ sup. p. 364.

c12.s3.t4.3

In post-Vedic times the practice of yoga was developed into a formal system with its own text-book (the sûtras of Patañjali). The rise of this system, as its first beginnings in Kâṭh. 3 and 6, S'vet. 2 and Maitr. 6 show, belongs to the time when the original idealism of the Upanishad teaching began already to harden into the realistic philosophy of the Sâṅkhya. On this foundation, which was far from being adapted to its original conception, the later yoga system was raised. This system therefore lays the chief stress on external means (*sâdhana*), and the external results thereby attained (*vibhûti*); and regards the union with the only real âtman, which was the original aim of the yoga, as a separation (*kaivalyam*) of the purusha from the prakṛiti, dismissing entirely into the background that which was properly its chief concern, the meditation on the âtman by means of the syllable *om*. Only the theism was preserved over from the later Upanishads, in contrast to the chosen basis of the Sâṅkhya; and thus external support was secured for the system, although no real life could ever be fostered on this uncongenial ground.¹ A remarkable testimony to this theistic modification of the Sâṅkhya system in the service of the doctrine of the yoga is given by the C'ûlikâ Upanishad, which, starting from the twenty-five principles of the Sâṅkhya, ranks the Îs'vara with them on purely external grounds “as the twenty-sixth” (or probably by the insertion of âtman as twenty-seventh),² and recognises its difference from the purushas only in the freedom with which it drinks from the breasts “of its foster-mother Mâyâ” :—

c12.s3.t4.4

¹ sup. p. 238 f.

c12.s3.t4.5

² C'ûl. 14.

c12.s3.t4.6

The children indeed are numberless,
That drink there of the world of sense,
Yet one alone drinks of it as God,
Freely following his own will.³

c12.s3.t4.7

³ C'ûl. 6.

c12.s3.t4.8

In the sequel we limit ourselves to the *yoga*, as far as we are able to follow it up through the Upanishads, and adopt from the post-Vedic system merely as the framework of our picture the “eight members” (*aṅga*), into which the yoga is divided on the practical side, and of which the five last (with *tarka* as a sixth) are already enumerated in two passages of the Upanishads, though not yet in the regular order.¹ The later eight *aṅgas* are as follows:—(1) *yama*, discipline (consisting in abstinence from doing injury, truthfulness, honesty, chastity, poverty); (2) *niyama*, self-restraint (purity, contentment, asceticism, study, devotion); (3) *âsanam*, sitting (in the right place and in the correct bodily attitude); (4) *prâṇâyâma*, regulation of the breath; (5) *pratyâhâra*, suppression (of the organs of sense); (6) *dhâraṇâ*, concentration (of the attention); (7) *dhyânam*, meditation; (8) *samâdhi*, absorption (complete union with the object of meditation).

c12.s3.t4.9

¹ Maitr. 6. 18, Amṛitab. 6.

c12.s3.t4.10

These requirements we see already presented separately in the older Upanishads. Thus we have *pratyâhâra* in the direction of Chând. 8. 15, “to bring all his organs to rest in the âtman,” and *prâṇâyâma*, when Bṛih. 1. 5. 23 enjoins as the “sole vow” to inhale and exhale. Here and in other passages² the regulated breath takes the place of the sacrifice, and seems thenceforward to have been adopted into the yoga as a symbolic act. The word *yoga* in a technical sense first occurs, exclusive of Taitt. 2. 4, in Kâṭh. 2. 12 (*adhyâtma-yoga*), 6. 11, 18, Śvet. 2. 11, 6. 13, Maitr. 6. 18, etc. The true explanation of it as “harnessing, arranging” is evident from the expression *âtmânam yuñjîta* occurring in Mahânâr. 63. 21 and Maitr. 6. 3; while in Maitr. 6. 25 the *yoga* seems to have been conceived as a “union” (between prâṇa and the syllable *om*). The Upanishads quoted contain also the earliest theory of the yoga practice. Kâṭh. 3. 13, recalling Sâṅkhyan ideas, requires that speech and manas “shall be restrained” (yacchet) in the buddhi, the buddhi in the mahân which is still distinguished from it, and the latter again in the avyaktam. Kâṭh. 6. 10–11 enjoins a fettering (dhâraṇâ) of the organs (senses, manas, buddhi), whereby the purusha thus separated from them all may be drawn forth from the body, as the stalk from the bulrush.¹ S'vet. 2. 8–15 discusses already the choice of place,² the manner of sitting,³ the regulation of the breath,⁴ the control of the senses and manas in the heart,⁵ and mentions the phenomena that accompany and follow yoga.⁶ To this is attached the recommendation of the syllable om, which occurs as a symbol of Brahman as early as Chând. 1. 1, Taitt. 1. 8, as a vehicle (âlambanam) of meditation,⁷ as fuel,⁸ as bow,⁹ or as arrow,¹⁰ in order to pierce the darkness, and to hit the mark in Brahman. The three morae (a, u, m), of which the syllable om consists, are mentioned first in Pras'na 5, Maitr. 6. 3, while the third and a half mora first occurs as the “moraless” part of the word in Mâṇḍ. 12, as the “head of the syllable om” in Maitr. 6. 23. To these anticipations are attached descriptions of the practice of yoga, which are found in Maitr. 6. 18–30 and in the Yoga Upanishads of the Atharva-Veda. The most important are,—Brahmavidyâ, Kshurikâ, C'ûlikâ; Nâdabindu, Brahmabindu, Amṛitabindu, Dhyânabindu, Tejobindu; Yogas'ikhâ, Yogatattva, and Haṃsa; upon these we base our description, following the later order of the eight members (yama, niyama, âsanam, prâṇâyâma, pratyâhâra, dhâraṇâ, dhyânam, samâdhi).

c12.s3.t4.11

² *sup.* p. 124.

c12.s3.t4.12

¹ 6. 17.

c12.s3.t4.13

² 10.

c12.s3.t4.14

³ 2. 8.

c12.s3.t4.15

⁴ 2. 9.

c12.s3.t4.16

⁵ 2. 8, 9.

c12.s3.t4.17

⁶ 2. 11–13.

c12.s3.t4.18

⁷ Kâṭh. 2. 17.

c12.s3.t4.19

⁸ S'vet. 1. 14, Dhyânab. 20.

c12.s3.t4.20

⁹ Muṇḍ. 2. 2. 4, Dhyânab. 19.

c12.s3.t4.21

¹⁰ Maitr. 6. 24.

c12.s3.t4.22

(1) *Yama*, restraint, and (2) *niyama*, self-restraint. These two divisions do not yet occur in the enumerations of Maitr. 6. 18 and Amṛitab. 6, possibly because they are tacitly assumed to be universal duties (objective and subjective). The remark of Yogat. 15 might be quoted here with many others to prove that the yogin affords protection to all beings, since he knows them to be his own self; and admonitions like the following:—

c12.s3.t4.23

From fear, from anger, from indolence,
From excessive wakefulness, excessive sleep,
From too much food, and from starvation
The yogin should constantly protect us.¹

c12.s3.t4.24

¹ Amṛitab. 27.

c12.s3.t4.25

(3) *Āsanam*, sitting. Stress is laid in the first place on the choice of the right locality. As early as S'vet. 2. 10 it is prescribed for the practice of yoga:—

c12.s3.t4.26

Let the place be pure, and free also from boulders and sand,
Free from fire, smoke, and pools of water,
Here where nothing distracts the mind or offends the eye,
In a hollow protected from the wind a man should compose himself.

c12.s3.t4.27

Elsewhere "a pure region,"² a "level surface of the ground, pleasant and free from faults,"³ are required. According to Yogat. 15 yoga should be practised "in a lawful place, quiet, remote, and free from distractions." Kshur. 2, 21 ordains that "a noiseless place" should be chosen. In regard to the mode of sitting, the Upanishads are still free from the extravagant definitions of the later Yoga, which betray external influence. No less than eighty-four modes of sitting are there distinguished. S'vet. 2. 8 prescribes only a triple holding erect (of breast, neck and head), and symmetry of sitting posture. Amṛitab. 18 lays stress upon facing the north (the region of the way of the gods), and enjoins only three modes of sitting, viz.—the lotus seat (*padmāsanam*, *i.e.* sitting with the legs bent underneath, the usual method of sitting in India), the cruciform seat (*svastikam*), and the auspicious seat (*bhadrâsanam*); the two last differ only slightly from the first. Yogas'. 2 directs the choice of the lotus posture "or otherwise as seems good to him," with attention concentrated on the tip of the nose, hands and feet closely joined. Amritab. 22 commands the yogin to sit firm and motionless, "from every side above and below his gaze turned fixedly on himself." Kshur. 2 lays stress only on "the right mode of sitting." Kshur. 4 speaks of a correct inclination of the breast, hips, face and neck towards the heart. A special kind of bodily posture is described in the concluding verse of Sanny. 4. *Âsanam*, like *yama* and *niyama*, is not yet reckoned in the Upanishads as an *anga* of the yoga, and the latter has therefore only six divisions (*shadango yoga' uc'yate*),¹ not eight as later on. They are enumerated in Maitr. 6. 18, viz.—*prânâyâma*, *pratyâhâra*, *dhyânam*, *dhâranâ*, *tarka*, *samâdhi*. The same list, but with the transfer of *prânâyâma* to the third place, recurs in Amritab. 6. It is strange that both lists place *dhâranâ* not before, but after *dhyânam*; this may be due to some other conception of these ideas than that which later became usual. Both lists name *tarka*, reflection, in the fifth place, and this in Amritab. 16 is defined as "meditation, which is not contrary to the teaching," and explained by the commentator in one place ² as control of the *dhyânam*, but elsewhere as the knowledge free from doubt which proceeds from the *dhyânam*.

c12.s3.t4.28

² Maitr. 6. 30.

c12.s3.t4.29

³ Amṛitab 17.

c12.s3.t4.30

¹ Amritab. 6 and Maitr. 6. 18.

c12.s3.t4.31

² On Maitr. 6. 18.

c12.s3.t4.32

(4) *Prânâyâma*, regulation of the breath. This is distinguished into *rec'aka*, *pûraka*, *kumbhaka*.³ In harmony with the chief passage,¹ (1) *rec'aka* is exspiration, which ought to be prolonged;² (2) *pûraka* is inspiration, described in Yogat. 12, effected either through one nostril, the other being closed with the finger,³ or through the mouth pointed like the stalk of a lotus;⁴ (3) *kumbhaka*, retention of the breath in the lungs,⁵ whence apparently it pervades all the limbs of the body by means of meditation.⁶ *Rec'aka* should be accompanied with the thought of S'iva, *pûraka* with that of Vishnu, *kumbhaka* with that of Brahmân.⁷ *Prânâyâma* effects the destruction of all sins.⁸

c12.s3.t4.33

³ They are mentioned also in the Yoga sûtras 2. 50, a fact which Garbe contests, since only other names are chosen, after a manner that the sûtras affect, as *vâhya-abhyantara-stambha-vritti*.

c12.s3.t4.34

¹ Amritab. 10 f.

c12.s3.t4.35

² Kshur. 5.

c12.s3.t4.36

³ Amritab. 19.

c12.s3.t4.37

⁴ Amritab. 13, Dhyânab. 11.

c12.s3.t4.38

⁵ Amritab. 12, Yogat. 13.

c12.s3.t4.39

⁶ Kshur. 4, 6 f.

c12.s3.t4.40

⁷ Dhyânab. 11–13.

c12.s3.t4.41

⁸ Amritab. 7–8.

c12.s3.t4.42

(5) *Pratyâhâra*, suppression of the organs of sense, is mentioned as early as Chând. 8. 15. As the tortoise draws in its limbs,⁹ so are all the senses withdrawn into the man together with the active manas, for these are only emanations of the âtman,¹⁰ are checked,¹¹ are shut up in the heart,¹² and are reduced thereby to tranquillity.¹³ The objects of sense in him are thus brought to rest,¹⁴ and the senses are restrained as in sleep.¹⁵

c12.s3.t4.43

⁹ Kshur. 3, Yogat. 12.

c12.s3.t4.44

¹⁰ Amritab. 5.

c12.s3.t4.45

¹¹ Kâth. 3. 13.

c12.s3.t4.46

¹² S'vet. 2. 8.

c12.s3.t4.47

¹³ Kâth. 6. 10.

c12.s3.t4.48

¹⁴ Maitr. 6. 19.

c12.s3.t4.49

¹⁵ Maitr. 6. 25.

c12.s3.t4.50

(6) *Dhâranâ*, concentration, affects the manas, which as the organ of the will hinders emancipation, unless it is checked, locked up in the heart, reduced to ineffectiveness, and so deliverance from the manas is attained.¹⁶ The manas should therefore be subjected to external restraint,¹⁷ curbed in every direction,¹⁸ immersed in the self,¹⁹ until it is entirely dissolved therein.²⁰ The imprisonment of the manas in the heart is taught also in Kshur. 3; in other respects also this Upanishad derives its name from the fact that it teaches a *kshurikâ*

c12.s3.t4.51

¹⁶ Brahmab. 1–5, Maitr. 6. 34.

c12.s3.t4.52

¹⁷ Maitr. 6. 19 ; a higher kind of *dhâranâ* is described in what follows, 6. 20.

c12.s3.t4.53

¹⁸ Yogas. 3.

c12.s3.t4.54

¹⁹ Amritab. 15.

c12.s3.t4.55

²⁰ Nâdab. 18.

c12.s3.t4.56

*dhāraṇā*, a concentration of the attention of the *manas* on the several limbs and veins of the body, whereby they are in turn cut off from it by the knife of *manas*, and thus freedom from desire is attained.

c12.s3.t4.57

(7) *Dhyānam*, meditation. Although even *svādhyāya* is found among the *niyamas*,¹ yet as a rule the study of the Veda is very lightly esteemed by the yogin. He is not proud of *brāhmanical* descent, or of knowledge of the Scriptures,² he has in the search for true knowledge thoroughly examined the books, and found in them only chaff instead of wheat.³ Therefore he throws the books away, as though they burned him.⁴ The sole wisdom is that which teaches how to reduce the *manas* to impotence in the heart, "the other is learned trash."⁵ The place of knowledge of the Veda is taken by meditation on that word, which "all the Vedas proclaim to us,"⁶ the *praṇava*, *i.e.* the sacred syllable *om*. It is the best support,⁷ the bow off which the soul as the arrow flies to Brahman,⁸ the arrow which is shot from the body as bow in order to pierce the darkness,⁹ the upper fuel which with the body as the lower fuel is kindled by the fire of the vision of God,¹⁰ the net with which the fish of *prāṇa* is drawn out, and sacrificed in the fire of the *ātman*,¹¹ the ship on which a man voyages over the ether of the heart,¹² the chariot which bears him to the world of Brahman.¹³ Its three *morae* a u m are fire, sun and wind,¹⁴ they are the essence of all things.¹⁵ He who meditates on them by one *mora* gains the world of men, by two the *pitṛyāna*, by three the *devayāna*.¹⁶ Besides the three *morae* the word has a fourth "moraless" part,¹⁷ which forms the crown of the syllable om,¹ and which later on is described as the third and a half mora.² It is this half mora which leads to the supreme goal;³ it is represented by the point (bindu) of the anusvâra, the point of strength, which bears the deepest meaning,⁴ and sounds in the echo (nâda), the toneless m-syllable (asvara makâra),⁵ which in one passage is described as completely silent, without noise, tone, consonant or vowel,⁶ but in another sounds like the echo of a tin vessel when struck, or of a bell,⁷ or like the prolonged dripping of oil, or the after tones of the notes of a bell,⁸ or again may be produced in ten different ways, of which the last is recommended, sounding like a peal of thunder.⁹ Compare also on the mention of the echo Atharvas'ikhâ 1. With increasing exaggeration there are ascribed to the syllable om five morae,¹⁰ three morae and three echoes,¹¹ three morae with a half mora anusvâra and an echo,¹² three morae and four half morae,¹³ and finally in a different sense twelve component parts.¹⁴ The Upanishads are never weary of offering interpretations of the three or three and a half morae in allegorical style as Agni, Vâyu, the Sun, and Varuṇa,¹⁵ as the three worlds, three Vedas, three fires, three gods, three daily periods, three measures, or three guṇas;¹⁶ so that meditation on the half mora (the point or the echo) was valued far above all these things.

c12.s3.t4.58

¹ *sup.* p. 385.

c12.s3.t4.59

² Tejob. 13.

c12.s3.t4.60

³ Brahmab. 18.

c12.s3.t4.61

⁴ Amṛitab. 1.

c12.s3.t4.62

⁵ Brahmab. 5.

c12.s3.t4.63

⁶ Kāṭh. 2. 15.

c12.s3.t4.64

⁷ Kāṭh. 2. 17.

c12.s3.t4.65

⁸ Muṇḍ. 2. 2. 4.

c12.s3.t4.66

⁹ Maitr. 6. 24.

c12.s3.t4.67

¹⁰ Śvet. 1. 14.

c12.s3.t4.68

¹¹ Maitr. 6. 26.

c12.s3.t4.69

¹² Maitr. 6. 28.

c12.s3.t4.70

¹³ Amṛitab. 2.

c12.s3.t4.71

¹⁴ Maitr. 6. 3.

c12.s3.t4.72

¹⁵ Maitr. 6. 5.

c12.s3.t4.73

¹⁶ Praśna 5.

c12.s3.t4.74

¹⁷ Māṇḍ. 12.

c12.s3.t4.75

¹ Maitr. 6. 23.

c12.s3.t4.76

² Nâdab. 1, Dhyânab. 17, Yogat. 7, etc.

c12.s3.t4.77

³ Yogat. 7.

c12.s3.t4.78

⁴ Tejob. 1.

c12.s3.t4.79

⁵ Amṛitab. 4.

c12.s3.t4.80

⁶ Amṛitab. 24.

c12.s3.t4.81

⁷ Brahmavidyâ 13.

c12.s3.t4.82

⁸ Dhyânab. 18.

c12.s3.t4.83

⁹ Haṃsa 4.

c12.s3.t4.84

¹⁰ Amṛitab. 30.

c12.s3.t4.85

¹¹ Pranou Up., Upan., p. 863.

c12.s3.t4.86

¹² Râmott. 2.

c12.s3.t4.87

¹³ Râmott. 5.

c12.s3.t4.88

¹⁴ Nâdab. 8–11, Kshur. 3, Amṛitab. 23, Nṛisiṃhott. 2 (cp. Deussen, Upan., p. 782 f.).

c12.s3.t4.89

¹⁵ Nâdab. 6–7.

c12.s3.t4.90

¹⁶ Brahmavidyâ 4–7, Yogat. 6–7, Atharvas'iras 5, Atharvas'ikhâ 1, etc.

c12.s3.t4.91

Essentially it was the unknowableness of the first principle of the universe, the Brahman, thus early entering into consciousness, and the impossibility of expressing it by word, conception or illustration (neti, neti), which had compelled the choice of something so entirely meaningless as the syllable om; but it was precisely on that account especially fitted to be the symbol of Brahman. The same consideration however led to a further advance beyond even the syllable, first to the half mora, and then even beyond this:—

c12.s3.t4.92

Higher than the original syllable
Is the point, the echo higher than this;
The syllable vanishes with the sound,
The highest state is silent.¹

c12.s3.t4.93

¹ Dhyânab. 4.

c12.s3.t4.94

This highest state, which is not expressed by any word or combination of words,² cannot be meditated on by means of om, but only in absolute silence. By the syllable om a man may only “enter upon” the yoga.³ It is the chariot, which is abandoned where the highway ends and the footpath begins.⁴ Om is never more than the “Brahman word,” beyond which lies still the Supreme.⁵ “Here the word signifies the sound om; ascending by this man attains to nothingness in that which is not a word,” like the sap of the flowers in the liquid honey.⁶ Thus the eighth and highest stage of yoga is reached.

c12.s3.t4.95

² Tejob. 7.

c12.s3.t4.96

³ Brahmab. 7.

c12.s3.t4.97

⁴ Amritab. 3.

c12.s3.t4.98

⁵ Brahmab. 17.

c12.s3.t4.99

⁶ Maitr. 6. 22.

c12.s3.t4.100

(8) Samâdhi, absorption. Meditation becomes absorption when subject and object, the soul and God, are so completely blended into one that the consciousness of the separate subject altogether disappears, and there succeeds that which in Maitr. 6. 20-21 is described as nirâtmakatvam (selflessness). The empirical and particularising view, with reminiscence of ideas like those in Chând. 8. 6. 5-6, Taitt. 1. 6, looks upon this union as an ascent of the soul that meditates from the heart through the vein sushumnâ and the Brahmandhram to union with the Brahman who fills the universe. Numerous descriptions of this progress are given, not always mutually consistent. The heart is represented as a lotus flower, a view already prevalent from the time of Chând. 8. 1. 1.¹ “It hangs down, encompassed by the veins, quite (â) like the calyx of a flower,” a hot fire burns in it, and from its midst a tongue of flame rises mounting upwards.² More detailed descriptions of this lotus flower of the heart are found in Dhyânab. 14–16, Haṃsa 8 and frequently. At the meditation on the a the lotus flower becomes bright, opens at the u, rings gently at the m, and with the half mora ceases to move.³ In the body (in the heart) there is a sun, in this a fire, and in this a tongue of flame which is the supreme god.⁴ This last in the meditation of the yoga pushes its way through the sun of the heart:—

c12.s3.t4.101

¹ sup. p. 287.

c12.s3.t4.102

² Mahânâr. 11. 8–12.

c12.s3.t4.103

³ Yogat. 9–11.

c12.s3.t4.104

⁴ Yogas'. 4–7.

c12.s3.t4.105

Then it winds upwards
Through the gleaming gate of the sushumnâ;
Breaking through the arch of the skull,
It gazes finally on the Supreme.

c12.s3.t4.106

According to Maitr. 6. 38, there is in the heart a sun, in the latter a moon, in this a fire, in this again the sattvam, and in this the soul, which forces its way through all the coverings named, bursts through the fourfold woven sheaths of Brahman (annamaya, prâṇa-maya, manomaya, vijñânamaya),⁵ voyages with the boat om over the ether of the heart,⁶ and so finally attains to the vision of the Supreme. Compare also the description of the ether of the heart, and its penetration of it.⁷ We should thus have to understand in Brahmavidyâ 8–10 also by s'aṅkha not as the scholiast does the valves of the brain but of the heart. In them, according to this passage, the a shines as sun, in the latter the u as moon, in this again the *m* as fire, while above this is the half mora as a tongue of flame.

c12.s3.t4.107

⁵ Taitt. 2, Maitr. 6. 28, 38.

c12.s3.t4.108

⁶ Maitr. 6. 28.

c12.s3.t4.109

⁷ Maitr. 6. 22, 27.

c12.s3.t4.110

With regard also to the ascent of the soul from the heart very numerous representations are given. According to Maitr. 7. 11, by meditation on *om*, the *tejas*, *i.e.* the individual soul (cp. the second of the verses quoted below) bursts forth, ascends on high like smoke rising in a single column, and spreads itself abroad like one branch after another (unceasingly). Amritab. 26 represents the *prâna* as ascending by means of the silent *om* “through the gates of the heart and of the wind, the gates which lead upward, and the portals of emancipation.” According to Dhyânab. 22, the half mora like a rope draws the *manas* upwards from the fountain of the lotus of the heart by the path of the veins until between the eyebrows it is lost in the Supreme. Brahmavidyâ 11–12 describes how by means of *om* the sun of the heart and the 72000 veins¹ are penetrated, the journey upwards is made on the *sushumnâ* (the carotis), and the head is broken through, and the man continues to exist as the giver of health to all beings, pervading the universe. The conception of Kshur. 8 f. is similar, according to which the *prâna* climbs up from the navel to the heart on the *sushumnâ*, like the spider on its thread (the same illustration as in Maitr. 6. 22), and so further still from the heart upwards; whereupon with the knife of the power of yoga it cuts through all the limbs, divides the 72000 and the 101 veins with the exception of the (101st) *sushumnâ*, leaves behind there its good and evil states, and ascends upon it to its termination in Brahman. Thus the yogin according to Maitr. 6. 19 strips off from himself all ideas, all consciousness, the entire psychical framework which is already separated from the external world (the *lingam* *nirâśrayam*, cp. Sâṅkhya-K. 41) and “is merged in the supreme, indescribable, ineffable Brahman”:¹—

c12.s3.t4.111

¹ Brih. 2. 1. 19.

c12.s3.t4.112

¹ Maitr. 6. 22. ² Maitr. 6. 24. ³ Amṛitab. 28 f. ⁴ Maitr. 6. 28. ⁵ Amṛitab. 30–31. ⁶ Ś'vet. 2. 12–13 ⁷ Yogat. 1. ⁸ Dhyânab. 3. ⁹ Yogas'. 10.

c12.s3.t4.113

Yet the joy, which with the gradual decay
Of the mind is content with its own witness to itself,
Is Brahman pure and eternal,
The true way, the true world.²

c12.s3.t4.114

He who “in this way at all times duly prosecutes the yoga” after three months attains to knowledge, after four to the vision of the gods, after five to their strength, and after six their absolute nature.³ After six months he “gains a part in the perfect might of yoga.”⁴ By continued meditation on the morae his body by a process of gradual refinement becomes composed in turn of earth, water, fire, air and ether, until finally he thinks only in and through himself (*c'intayed ātmanâ ātmani*).⁵

c12.s3.t4.115

He knows nothing further of sickness, old age, or suffering,
Who gains a body out of the fire of yoga.
Activity, health, freedom from desire,
A fair countenance, beauty of voice,
A pleasant odour, fewness of secretions,
Therein at first the yoga displays its power.⁶

c12.s3.t4.116

The thought of Yoga delivers from all sins,⁷ though the sins were “like mountains rising many miles high”:⁸—

c12.s3.t4.117

He who through thousands of births
Does not exhaust the guilt of his sins,
Sees finally by the yoga
The destruction of the saṃsâra even here.⁹

Cites (26)