Part 1 - Basic Principles of Yoga and Jainism

Foundation:

Indian culture mainly and basically flows through three traditions: Vedic, Bauddhist and Jain. All of them provide the scientific background necessary for spiritual progress, whereas, Yoga in general, provides technical details, how it can be put into practice. The path of Yoga through its practices takes us towards liberation or kaivalya sooner or later. Yoga has noway any direct connection with any of the religion or culture, but its wide range of practices is already inculcated in each culture. Jainism is one of the oldest living religions. It is most environment friendly, ecology protecting with intrinsic respect and equality for all living beings. There is a provision for the highest level of enlightment for all in a scientific way in both these philosophies.

The special features of Jain philosophy are based on independent existence of the soul and matter, denial of supreme divine creator, owner, preserver or destroyer and a strong emphasis on non-violence, accent on relativity, multiple facets of truth and strong ethics for the purpose of liberation.

Yoga basically is a kind of technology to put into practise. The main principles of yoga to attain permanent peace by controlling mind and living life with detached attitude are told by almost all religions of India. Now, it is officially accepted as a Science which is beneficial to the entire mankind. Therefore, it is accepted by 192 countries in the world (almost entire world), today.

After having knowledge of history, we are not interested in proving whether the pioneer of Yoga culture, Hiranyagarbha was same as first Jain Tirthankara and founder of Yoga Rsabhadeva. According to “Srimad Bhagvata Purana”, Rsabhadeva was the first Yogi^[1]. Even Hathayoga believes Adinath as the first founder and pioneer of Yoga^[2]. Apart from this information, if we go through the list of current twenty four Jain Tirthankars starting with Adinath, the names of eighteen Tirthankars ends with word “nath” like Ajitnath, Sambhavnath and Sumtinath. “Nath tradition” is one of the two pioneer traditions of Yoga, (the other is “Datta’) of which Adinath is the founder “Adipurusa”. This shows that there must be some connection between sequence of Jain Tirthankars and Yoga founders^[3].

Jiva v/s Purusa:

An independent existence of consciousness is termed as jiva according to Jainism. The similar term used by Maharshi Patanjali is “Purusa”. According to Samkhya philosophy which is the basis of Patanjali’s yoga, Purusa comes in contact with Prakrti gives rise to bondage. The main causes of bondage of jiva according to Jainism are perverse attitude, delusion and influx of karmas.

Goal:

Today, there are millions of Yoga practioners all over the globe. Also, there are more than millions of spiritual practioners in various religions and with non-religious background wanting to attain peace and happiness. They enjoy glimpses of the secrets of consciousness and its mysterious capacity to take them beyond their own conditioning. If they are provided with more powerful practices from the fields of Yoga and Jainism and a proper sutrachotechnological blend of both, the effect, experience and result will be astonishing sutrachospiritual.

The purpose of doing comparison of spiritual practices of Patanjal Yoga and Jainism and analysing both these fields is that atleast some of the followers of each tradition can try to reach upto the deeper levels of body and mind and find the alchemical elixir of enlightenment. The best part is that both these fields and related practices are equally open to all, Jains and non-Jains, Yogis and common people, eastern as well as western global populations.

In the old era, all the rsis were true scientific researchers making their body-mind systems virtual laboratories for their spiritual experiments. All Rishi-munis from different religious sects were searching for eternal bliss or permanent happiness where there is no suffering. The happiness should be independent of anything, including outside material, person or situations, which is long lasting and also calms down the mind. And for this, they went into deeper level of practices consistently including meditation and came out with great results. What they found eternal, they called it “Atman” (self), what they got infinite, they called it “Brahman” and the element supporting and controlling the entire universe was termed as “universal consciousness” or “Isvara”. And the path through which they got this realized is ‘Yoga sadhana’. This is the basis of comparision of any religion or philosophy with Yoga.

Mutual influence:

Patanjali, as explained in chapter on Yoga, through his various sutras, tried to include principles of different types of Yoga and cultures to control cittavrttis. He has mentioned Hathayoga (physical practices) in Asana-Pranayama^[4], bhaktiyoga (devotional attitude) in “Isvara-pranidhana^[5] ’, Tantrayoga in “Visayvatipravrti^[6] ”, Vairagya of Jainism in “Vitarag-visayata^[7] ’, Dhyanayoga of Buddhism in “Svapnavalambana^[8] ” and so on. This indicates that varieties of techniques were popular in different traditions during and before Patanjali’s time. Similarly, Jainism has generously included various spiritual, religious and Yogic principles and practices from other sects in exchange of their views and principles.

Basically, the main difference in the meaning of word “Yoga” according to Patanjali is control of “vrttis” where as Jain’s Agama has given one meaning of Yoga as body-mind-speech, a three-fold activity through which vrttis are rather multiplied. Actually, “Samvara” aspect (stoppage of influx of karma, which minimises all vrttis) of Jainism are close to and comparable to Patanjali’s Yoga. Later on, Jain Acarya Haribhadra and other scholars gave different meaning of “Yoga” as sarva-sanyasa which means stoppage or relief from all vrttis (activities) of mind, body and speech. This meaning is more close to Patanjali’s Yoga. Many other words which are common to both Philosophies have the same meaning like Tapa, Samadhi, Svadhyaya and Dhyana.

Though, Jain-sadhana-paddhati (spiritual practice in Jainism) was developed independently of other traditions in the beginning but later on, about 700 years after Lord Mahavira, the system was coordinated and modified by many scholars to match with Astangayoga of Patanjali^[9]. Swami Samantbhadra of second century wrote “Ratnakar’ and ‘Shravakacar’ which includes Pratyahar, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi, the internal practices of Patanjali. Kundkundacarya’s “Moksaprabhrut” in-cludes all angas of Astamga-Yoga except Pranayama of Patanjali. Acarya Shubh-chandra’s “Jnanarnav” (11^th century) has described shramanacara (guidelines for aspirants) as per principles of Jainism in details and in coordination with Astamga-Yoga. This scripture “Shramanacara’ and “Yogashastra” of Acarya Haribhadra are inspired by all of Jainyog, Patanjalyoga, Hathayoga and Tantrayoga. Maximum de-tails of Dhyana are given in “Jnanarnav”. Amongst the highest differences in religious principles and secularism during 18^th century, Upadhyay Yoshovijayji introduced Jainayoga-sadhana based on Acarya Haribhadra’s (8^th century) thoughts and writings. Yashovijayji in his scripture “Dwatrinshad-dwatrishinka” has pointed out Patanjali’s sutra “cittavrtti nirodha” is incomplete. It should be “klista-cittavrtti nirodha”, only afflictions which should be controlled according to him. Almost all of them tried to explain Patanjali’s yoga as practices for internalization of extrovert attitude of fluctuating mind (cittavrttis) and have given less stress on Hathayoga.

As per Agamas like Sthanamga sutra (10/33, 3/88), Sutrakrutamga (1/2,1/11), Uttaradhyayana sutra (27/2, 11/14) and Bhagwati sutra (18/10/9), “Yoga” word is used for Samyam (equanimity), Samadhi and Dhyana kriyas.

Haribhadrasuri’s “Yogvinshika” refers to five states of Yoga^[10] namely,

1. Sthana;
2. Urna;
3. Artha;
4. Alambana;
5. Analambana;

First two refers to Karmayoga and the remaining three are Jnanayoga.

The first state or type “Sthana” is comparable with the third limb of Patanjali’s Astamga-Yoga, “Asana” with broader approach^[11]. It indicates steady and motionless state of our body. Jain-scripture written during 8^th and9^th Century, “Adipurana” (22/75-86) refers to meditation-friendly postures like “Payandakasana”, one of the most comfortable posture similar to Sukhasana fulfilling the requirements of “Patan-jal Yogadarsana” for steady and comfortable posture (“sthirasukhamāsanam ||2.46 ||”).

“Urna” is chanting or reading of sutras while doing each practice. “Artha” is understanding meanings of sutras. “Alamban” is taking support of a symbol or an object while practising meditation. It may be visible or invisible and comparable to

“Dharana’ and “Dhyana” states of Patanjali’s Astamga-Yoga. As the practioners has to depend on the object (alamban) and meditate on it. “Analamban” is focused mind or getting totally absorbed into the object of meditation. Though, the object and subject become one, yet the seed of the object remains. This state is comparable with sabija samadhi state of Patanjali’s astangayoga.

The methodology in Jainism differs from Patanjali’s astangayoga. Initially, beginners who are not capable of comprehending the ultimate reality should reach the ultimate truth by adopting the vyavaharika (practical / empirical) aspect and consequently he starts examining each problem from both aspects i.e. absolute or transcendental too. Jainism emphasizes more on implementation of practices than talking of principles. As such both the philosophies Yoga and Jainism are experimental and experiencial sciences.

Jainism today, does not receive the scholarly attention it deserves. Even Jain followers and scholars of this one of the most ancient tradition lack adequate resources for studying their own scripture in modern languages. There is no separate scripture amongst Agama written exclusively on dhyana (meditation) but, the scriptures are available on conduct (caritra) of an aspirant.

As mentioned earlier, the original Agamas and translations suggests a different meaning of word “Yoga” as various activities or karma pudgals generated out of our action, speech or thoughts, as against Patanjali’s meaning of Yoga as mental control or control over mental modifications. Later Jaina writers like Haribhadra suri (750 C.E.) have made use of some of the terms of Patanjali’s Yoga-sutra. In “Yoga-bindu” written by him, Yoga is described and praised in the manners of Patanjali. He has explained four preparative services (purva seva) before one enter into proper Yoga. It is worshipping different ideologies of Tirthankaras. They are pujana (veneration), sadacara (proper conduct), tapa (penance) and mukti-advesa (non-aversion towards liberation).

He also speaks of five degrees of genuine Yoga as under:

1. Adhyatman-yoga: constant pondering upon one’s essential nature.

2. Bhavana (contemplation): regular focused observation of the essential nature.

3. Dhyana: fixing mind upon auspicious subjects results into mental stability.

4. Samata: indifference towards raga and dvesa (sources of attachment and aversion).

5. Vrtti-samksaya: full removal of movements of consciousness, transcendence. Perverted world-view “Mithyatva” is the main force which obstructs the innate capacity of the soul to end the wordly existence.

Jainism, like Yoga is a science of experiencing and not only understanding it logically. The supreme sermons (upades) in Jainism are for Moksamarga (path of liberation) which are same as Kaivalya of Patanjali’s Yoga. Both the systems lead us to beyond self.

Eight fold path of Patanjali is a ladder leading from the common life of self involvement to the uncommon realization of the self beyond the ego personality. With this progressive purification, unification of consciousness is indicated by him. One has to cast this ladder off at the end of spiritual journey.

Both these types of practices guide us to recognize our inherent freedom, which gives us authority and power to see Reality in its original form beyond all.

Traditions:

Both the philosophies have similar and long lasting traditions and thought patterns which have made them popular even in current times. Main emphasis of all practices is on controlling mental modifications and meditative practices as the goal is common. Sage Patanjali has suggested gradual control over body and breath followed by mind (citta). Jainism also suggests various practices on body and mind level for gradual spiritual progress. Both suggest some ethical rules to be followed by an individual for faster progress, which are at the suttlest level for Jain monks. Jainism has put more emphasis on Tapa and Dhyana.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

bhagavān ruṣabhadevo yogīśvaraḥ | Bhagavata Purana, 5.4.3

[2]:

śrī ādināthāya namostu tasmai yenopadiṣṭā hathayogavidyā | Hathayogapradipika 1.1

[3]:

“Yogsadhana and Jaindharma”, (Guj), P.88

[4]:

Patanjali Yoga Sutra 2.46 to 2.53

[5]:

Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1.23, 2.45

[6]:

Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1.35

[7]:

Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1.37

[8]:

Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1.38

[9]:

Anand Aruna, “Patanjalayoga evam Jainyog ka Tulanattmak Adhyayan”, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Delhi, 2002, p.268-69

[10]:

Ibid., p.27

[11]:

Ibid., p.272