Samnyasa Upanishads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation c6.s19: Laghu-Avadhūta Upaniṣad

Saṃnyāsa Upaniṣads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation c6.s19

Language: English

Laghu-Avadhūta Upaniṣad

c6.s19.1

[*337*] This is the Yoga of eight limbs: discipline, restraint, posture, breath control, withdrawal, concentration, meditation, and mental absorption.¹

¹ These are the well-known eight steps of classical Yoga. The Upaniṣad, however, presents allegorical meanings of them. The LAU probably is not an independent text, for it consists of a few verses drawn from the mantra section (*mantrabhāga*) of the *Triśikhibrāhmaṇa Upaniṣad*, 27–32, 163–166 (published in *The Yoga Upaniṣads*, ed. Pandit A. Mahadeva Sastri. [Madras: The Adyar Library and Research Centre, 1920]). See Sprockhoff 1976, 249, n. 1.

c6.s19.3

Detachment from the body and the senses is called **discipline** by the wise. Constant attachment to the highest truth is said to be **restraint**.

c6.s19.4

Indifference toward all things is the foremost **posture**. The conviction that this whole world is false constitutes **breath control**.

c6.s19.5

When the mind is focused within itself, that is the best **withdrawal**. Maintaining the steadfastness of mind they consider to be **concentration**.

c6.s19.6

[*338*] The thought "I am just pure consciousness" is said to be **meditation**. The total oblivion of meditation is termed **mental absorption**.

c6.s19.7

Having thus purified his organs,² the yogin with his mind free of desires comes to rest in himself, just as a fire when its fuel is spent [MU 110, n. 6].

c6.s19.8

² The term *tattva* refers to the cosmic principles that have evolved from primal nature (*prakṛti*) and which constitute the organs and the material components of a person's existence. In this context it refers especially to mental and sense faculties that are purified of their attachments through yogic practices.

c6.s19.9

When there is nothing to be grasped, a man, free of mind and breath and endowed with steadfast knowledge, becomes dissolved in the pure and supreme reality, as a lump of salt in water.

c6.s19.10

He has torn asunder the web of delusion, and he sees everything as if it were a dream. By his very nature he is supremely steadfast, and he goes about as if in deep sleep. Entering the state of cessation (*nirvāṇa*), the yogin attains isolation (*kaivalya*).³

c6.s19.11

³ Cessation probably refers to the products of primal nature (*prakṛti*) that constitute a person's material existence. They return to their unmanifest condition upon the liberation of the soul (*puruṣa*). This state of liberation, in which the soul is unrelated to any other reality, is technically known in Sāṃkhya and Yoga as isolation (*kaivalya*).

c6.s19.12

The yogin, indeed, attains isolation, and he who knows thus. That is the secret teaching.

Linked texts (2)

Triśikhibrāhmaṇopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Maitreyopaniṣad — Sanskrit