Yoga is the Path of Union With God

4 January 2002, 01:35am IST
SWAMI SUNIRMALANANDA.

Patanjali, shankara, chaitanya and swami vivekananda might have lived ages apart, but they had something in common: they taught four independent yogas - the paths of concentration or raja yoga, knowledge or jnana yoga, love or bhakti yoga and action or karma yoga respectively. these yogic paths form the nucleus of religion. yoga is the union of the finite and the infinite. these four paths lead to union and we are born only to attain it. vivekananda says that for practical purposes we can divide humanity into four classes: mystical, philosophical, emotional and active. the four yogas correspond to these four types respectively. patanjali, the author of the yogasutras or cryptic statements, lived at least three millennia ago. sacrifices, which were supposed to bestow heaven and other boons, comprised the religion of his times. to show people the right path to liberation from suffering born of ignorance, patanjali composed the yogasutras. in just four chapters containing 191 aphorisms, patanjali showed the ideal and practice of concentration, its spiritual benefits, the siddhis or powers that come during the course of the spiritual journey, and kaivalya or the goal - the union of the part with the whole. the first chapter of the yogasutra containing 51 aphorisms deals with concentration. one can concentrate on any object, outer or inner, and thereby control the countless mental modifications. such control leads to samadhi of various types - the highest being nirvikalpa samadhi. the second chapter containing 51 aphorisms is about the technique of the three-fold kriya yoga or austerity, study and prayer; about ignorance, egotism, attachment, hatred and fear of death; and about the eight-fold path. the third chapter containing 56 aphorisms is about siddhis. the fourth chapter containing 33 aphorisms deals with the causes of bondage and the methods of liberation. patanjali made yoga a distinct path. shankara’s times carried a strong influence of the post-buddhist tantra, the idea of shunya, and the heaven-promising vedic ritualism. shankara agreed with patanjali and the buddha that ignorance was the sole cause of bondage. shankara said that everything was purna, or full; everything was full of the bliss of brahman, not duhkha or misery. shankara taught the path of knowledge - discriminating between the real and the unreal as the road to liberation, and said that this path is independent of all the other paths. the individual’s atman or self is the only reality. the rest is maya or ignorance. knowledge can bring moksha or release from ignorance. the maya and moksha theories made people think that the world is zero, and this made them sleep. india sank into ‘vedic nihilism’. chaitanya arrived, and gave the wonderful and simple bhakti path to the masses. without compromising with any other path, his path of devotion seeks nothing but love - not even moksha. by cultivating faith and singing god’s glories, the mind becomes pure and love sprouts in the heart. loving the lord is devotion. devotion is both the goal and the way. in spite of the best form of devotion that chaitanya gave, there was decline once again. sensual expressions of life became prevalent, india slept again. it was then that vivekananda stressed on karma yoga or yoga of action. this meant that everyone works. but turning ordinary work into yoga and working for the divine is something new. the greatness of vivekananda lay in his making work not only a spiritual path for individual progress but a means for social progress. here, not compassion, but service by looking upon everyone as god is the rule of life. by such service, the mind will become pure. these days, we live in a complex world and talk of harmony. therefore, vivekananda went a little further and gave us a combination of all the four paths: ‘‘each soul is potentially divine. the goal is to manifest this divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. do this either by work or worship, psychic control or philosophy and be free. this is what religion is all about. doctrines, dogmas, rituals, books, temples or forms are but secondary details’’. we must remember that this combination of yogas is the universal religion of the age, as lived and taught by sri ramakrishna. in our quest for spiritual freedom, we must follow these paths.