Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c16.104

c16.104

We have already seen how Yoga is implied in the Vedic system in spite of its ritualism. The Rigveda is full of references to *tapas* and to its culmination in a state of ecstasy and trance. The Atharvaveda refers to supernatural powers one can obtain by austerities. The Upanishads take the Yoga practice as the way of achieving the knowledge of Ātman or Reality [*Bṛi.*, iv, 14; iii, 5; iv, 4; *Taitti.*, i; *Kaṭha*, iii, 12; *Praśna*, v, 5]. The *Kaṭha* more explicitly assumes the Yoga discipline in the following passage [ii, 2]: "The Being, who has emerged out of Himself, has created the senses (*Khāni*), focussing them on the external objects (*parāṁ*). Therefore, they see (know) only the things outside, and not the Self within: One who attains peace and quiet (*dhīraḥ*) sees the individual self within himself [*pratyagātmā*; cf. *Yoga-Sūtra*, i, 29], when he seeks the life immortal and turns his gaze inwards (*āvṛitta-chakshuḥ*)." The *Śvetāśvatara* not only mentions the term Yoga, but explicitly refers to its practices and the experiences arising therefrom as preliminary to the revelation of Brahman (*Brahmanyābhivyakti-karāṇi Yoge*).