The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s12.47

v2.c40.s12.47

With the usual curious turns of Indian thought the Sannyāsin, who is really a person beyond the Āçramas as the Çvetāçvatara Upaniṣad calls him, becomes in the later Upaniṣads a man striving for the knowledge of the Ātman by means of asceticism. He should undertake this stage only as a rule after being a forest hermit, though he may enter into it direct from the householder's state.⁴ He parts solemnly after sacrifice from all his kin, abandons all sacrifice for ever, gives up the sacred cord and the tonsure, lays aside his former garments and his staff, is clad in rags and a loincloth, and wanders about save at the period of the rains, living on what he begs and inhabiting lonely spots: some texts even demand nudity: he bears now a triple staff or a single staff, to signify perhaps the reconciliation of caste differences. Only one night may he live in a village, five in a town, but in the four months of the rains he may stay there. He is to recite Upaniṣads and the Āraṇyaka, to meditate, perform bathings, be indifferent to every human emotion, and show charity to all creatures. He must practise Yoga, that is, exercises intended to bring the mind into mystic union with the absolute. Though the system of the later Yoga,⁵ which is linked to the Sāṁkhya, and which, therefore, in theory aims really primarily at the isolation of the spirit and nature, not at union with the divinity, is not found set out in the same precise detail, most of its elements can be traced in the Upaniṣads,¹ and in the Kaṭha we are distinctly told that it is necessary to suppress speech and mind, merging the latter in the knowledge self, that in the great self, and that in the calm self, the absolute. The highest stage is attained when the five senses cease to give knowledge, when the mind and the intellect are at rest; the firm restraint of the senses is Yoga. The Çvetāçvatara devotes its second chapter to the praise of Yoga, prefacing it with prayers, adapted from the Taittirīya Saṁhitā, in which the aid of Savitṛ is invoked to secure the application of the mind to the task set before the Yogin. He should hold erect his body, and cause his senses and mind to enter into the heart, check his movements, and breathe with diminished intensity through the nose, restraining from distraction his mind. A clean level spot, free from pebbles, fire or gravel, favourable to thought by the presence of water, not offensive to the eye, protected from the wind and secluded, is recommended. Fog, smoke, sun, fire, wind, fireflies, lightning, crystal, the moon, are given as the preliminary appearances which present themselves to the Yogin; lightness, healthiness, steadiness or freedom from desire, clearness of countenance, pleasantness of voice, sweetness of odour, and scantiness of excretions are the first stage in his progress. The revelation of the absolute procures freedom from fetters and sorrow; sickness, old age, and death are overcome. The Upaniṣad, however, does not rely on Yoga alone; the one is attainable not by Yoga merely but by reflection (*sāṁkhya*) also, terms in which we need not see references to established schools, as does Oldenberg.² The insistence on breathing as a matter of importance is noteworthy;³ restraint of breath not merely banishes evil influences, it tends to generate heat, thus producing Tapas, and by restraint serves to deaden the activity of the brain, thus favouring the feeling of severance from the world and union with the absolute.