Indian Philosophy v2.c24.s37: IX The Discipline of the Body
Indian Philosophy v2.c24.s37
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IX The Discipline of the Body
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The Yoga realises that our body has a dignity of its own, as much as the mind. Āsana, or posture, is a physical help to concentration.¹ We cannot fix our attention on an object when we are running or sleeping. We must settle ourselves down in a convenient posture before we begin to meditate. Patañjali simply mentions that the posture must be firm, pleasant and easy. The commentators have elaborated details about the different kinds of postures. When a recent critic of Indian culture assured his readers that Indian philosophers think that sitting cross-legged and contemplating one's navel are the best way of sounding the depths of the universe, he had in view one of the postures of the Yoga.
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¹ See B.G., vi. 10 ff.; ii. 46-48.
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The body can be made the basis of either animal incontinence or divine strength. We are asked to be careful about our food. We should not eat and drink things which set our nerves on edge, driving them into fever or stupor. The lower satisfactions of life generally strangle the true joy of spirit. If intellectual life and moral activity are the true ends of man, then the bodily needs should be subordinated to them. The later stages of the Yoga demand great powers of physical endurance, and cases are not wanting where the strenuous spiritual life strains the earthen vessel to the breaking-point, and so the body has to be first brought under control. Haṭha Yoga aims at perfecting the bodily instrument, freeing it from its liability to fatigue and arresting its tendency to decay and age.
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The Yoga asks us to control the body and not kill it. Abstinence from sensual indulgences is not the same as the crucifixion of the body, but the two have sometimes been confused in Hindu India as well as Christian Europe.²
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² Cp. the passage from the Autobiography of Suso, where he relates his experiences in the third person: "He was in his youth of a temperament full of fire and life, and when this began to make itself felt it was very grievous to him, and he sought in many devices how he might bring his body into subjection. He wore for a long time a hair shirt and an iron chain, until the blood ran from him, so that he was obliged to leave them off. He secretly caused an under-garment to be made for him, and in the undergarment he had strips of leather fixed into which a hundred and fifty brass nails, pointed and filed sharp, were driven, and the points of the nails were always turned towards the flesh. He had this garment made very tight, and so arranged to go round him and fasten in front, in order that it might fit closer to his body and the pointed nails might be driven into his flesh; and it was high enough to reach upwards towards his navel. In this he used to sleep at night" (Life of the Blessed Henry Suso by Himself
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Yoga says that the perfection of the body consists in beauty, grace, strength and adamantine hardness.¹
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¹ Rūpalāvaṇyabalavajrasaṃhananatvāni kāyasaṃpat (iii. 47).
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BREATH-CONTROL
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The regulation of breath receives considerable emphasis, though Patañjali mentions it as an optional measure.² Serenity of mind may be attained by the cultivation of virtues or regulation of breath.³ So it is a concession to the people who have faith in it. Breath-control is regarded as a steadying influence on the mind, and plays an important part in Haṭha Yoga, where it is esteemed for its great efficiency in producing occult powers. Respiratory exercises are even at the present day looked upon as highly beneficial to health.⁴ Monotony in breathing sometimes brings about hypnosis. When the physically weak take to some of these practices, there is great danger. This is why the Yogavidyā, or the science of concentration, is required to be kept very secret.⁵
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² i. 34.
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³ i. 33-39.
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⁴ The following extract from Dr. Weber's lecture on ' The Means for the Prolongation of Life " has some interesting observations on this point: " The remarkable improvement in the heart's nutrition and action is, I think, to a great degree caused by the deep inspirations which are necessitated by the act of climbing, especially steady and prolonged climbing. This consideration has led me to pay particular attention to respiratory exercises, which since then have been very useful to myself and many others, especially persons with weak heart muscles. . . . I have mostly commenced with moderately deep inspirations and expirations continued during three to five minutes, once or twice a day, and have gradually increased the exercises to ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. . ." (British Medical Journal, December 5, 1903).
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⁵ See Cintāmaṇi's Haṭhapradīpikā.
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translated by T. F. Knox). This book mentions many tormenting exercises of a more heart-rending description. There are other cases of Christian saints who tried to emulate the sorrows of the crucified Jesus, whose beloved companions were poverty, suffering and contempt. St. Bernard scourging his body to the point of death, St. Teresa crying out in the grip of her fierce infatuation with pain " Let me suffer or not live," St. John of the Cross, whose bodily severities are indescribable, are some of the noteworthy instances.
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SENSE-CONTROL
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The Chinese philosopher, Lao Tze, asked, “ Who is there who can make muddy water clear ? ” and answered, “ If you leave it alone, it will become clear of itself.”¹ Pratyāhāra or the withdrawal of the senses from their natural outward functioning, answers to the process of introversion in modern psychology.² The mind is to be resolutely shut against all impressions from outside. The psalmist said, “ Be still and know.” The discipline requires us to drive away the vagrant impulses and insistent thoughts. We have to reach the condition described by St. John of the Cross as the Night of Sense. Every seeker after truth is called upon to make a monastic cell in his own heart and retire into it every day.
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¹ Tao-Teh-King.
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² “ And thought is best when the mind is gathered into herself, and none of these things trouble her—neither sounds nor sights nor pain, nor any pleasure—when she has as little as possible to do with the body and has no bodily sense or feeling, but is aspiring after being ” (Plato : Phædo, Jowett’s E.T.).
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Ethical preparation (yama and niyama), bodily posture (āsana), breath-control (prāṇāyāma), and abstraction of the senses from their natural functions (pratyāhāra) are accessories to the Yoga, and not themselves elements in it.³
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³ These represent the stage of purgation, while dhyāna and dhāraṇa illumination, and samādhi union.
Cites (3)
- Yogasūtra — Patañjali (author of the Yogasūtra), Sanskrit
- Bhagavadgītā — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Haṭhapradīpikā — Svātmārāma, Sanskrit