Part 1 - Introduction (to Yoga and psychology)

From time immemorial man has been eager to know himself and originally psychology as its very name indicates (psyche soul and logos=knowledge about). Objective observation and measurement are the means employed today in getting psychological data. Neither soul, nor mind nor consciousness, nor even mental processes are amenable to these. Such a psychology is of very recent growth even in the west. It never existed in India, it must be frankly admitted.

But if by psychology we mean a systematic knowledge about the self, the mind and the body and their functions and relationship, we have hold no less of psychology in India than in any other country of the world in any period of history. In India people developed a very keen sense of self-observation and self-analysis. They could extend, refine and transcend their inner experience and could note the minutest changes therein. They could, by special training and culture read their mind and inner changes of the body like an open book. There is a vast literature in India in which the inner experiences of yogis, saints and mystics are described besides these of the ordinary human beings. In fact all the philosophical, ethical and religious systems of India are actually based on psychological observations and theories formulated on their basis. It is very curious indeed that almost all the systems of Indian philosophy are based on psychological data, although there are no systematic treatises on merely psychological data or speculations.

So, in a sense it can be said that there is much of psychology in India and in another sense there is no psychology as such in this country. And certainly there is none in the modern scientific sense of the term. There is however, so much psychological matter in the vast literature of India on philosophy, religion, yoga, rhetoric and ethics, that if it is systematically put together a respectable volume on Indian.

According to Yogiśikhopaniṣad there are seven stages of yogic psychology in yoga:-

(i) Śubhecchā: This is the initial noble desire of a practitioner for transformation, before reaching the stage of detachment.

(ii) Vicāraṇā: The inclination towards good conduct preceding the practice of detachment as it develops in the company of good person and study of scriptures.

(iii) Tanumānasī: is that stage in which engrossment in the sense objects becomes very weak due to the practice of two above.

(iv) Sattvāpatti: is that stage when theory the practice of three above, the intellect, having ceased to be engrossed in sense object remains stable in the pure self.

(v) Asaṃśakti: is that stage where by practice of the four above, the intellect be firmly detached from sense objects gives flashes of brilliance.

(vi) Padārthabhāvanā: After practicing the above five, a stage comes, when the practitioner experiences an abundance of self-delight and as a result becomes oblivious of material things and objects both outside and inside. He is awakened from that state only by some one else with great effort made for a long time.

(vii) Turagā: After the above six stages, the yogī ceases to differentiate between one thing and the other; between himself and God. And that is a state of oneness only in every sense. All the seeming differences melt away.

This very Upaniṣad further says that–

(i) In the first three stages, the practitioner is one desirous of emancipation.
(ii) In the fourth stage be gains knowledge of Brahma (God) further.
(iii) In the fifth stage be improves his understanding of Brahma.
(iv) In the sixth stage, that knowledge makes still further advancement. It is highly superior.
(v) And in the last and seventh stage his comprehension and experience of Brahma is supreme. There is nothing beyond that.

The successive transformation of the intellect in different stages of Yoga:—

(i) In the first three stages i.e. śubhechā etc. there is a mixture of duality and non-duality. The intellect understands the worth as it looks in waking state.

(ii) On reaching the fourth stage, the conviction in non-duality becomes stable and the duality element cools down and one looks at the world as if it is a dream. In this stage even the speak of an autumn cloud dissolves. Then only the essence remains.

(iii) When one reaches the fifth stage called suṣupti all the different from Prakṛti cease to be and the yogī lives in the advaita (non-duality) alone.

(iv) In the next stage even though indulgence in external activities, but always being engaged inwardly, he is totally fatigued and appears to be drowsy all the time. When so banished from this world as a result of continuous practice, in this stage he reaches the seventh stage called gāḍha supti deep sleep. In the stage there is neither (asat) non-existent, nor existent (sat), neither ego nor-even absence of it, all thought vanishes and he stays in the Advaita alone extremely fearless.^[1]

The Yogasūtras of Patañjali tells us what wonderful powers can be manifested by the mind which has been disciplined and refined by the process of astāṅga yoga. Some of them as classifies:-

According to Indian psychologists (particularly of the schools Yoga, Vedānta and Jainism) every mind is potentially capable of exercising these powers, by having purified and controlled and concentrated itself.

All the minds, however, do not actually and consciously posses them and exercise them. Patañjali the great Indian psychologist, tells us that those powers are manifests under the following conditions or influences.

(1) Janma (birth)

I.e., some persons are born with some of these powers. Such are the mediums found in the western countries as well as in India. Just as a child is born (congenital) as idiot or genius, so some children have some extraordinary powers from their very birth. As their parents do not have them they cannot be said to be inherited. They may not be inherited from the parents, but there is hardly any doubt entertained in India about their having been acquired by one’s own effort in the past incarnation (life, birth). Nothing according to Indian psychology is accidental.

(2) Auṣadhi (herbs, medicines, etc.).

Herbs and minerals have their effects on human personality. They not only bring about definite changes in the physical body of the individual, but also in the intelligence and will. They affect also consciousness, narrowing it, expanding it and deepening it. It is believed in India that soma helped man to be spiritually inclined. Aldus Huxley and other western sādhakas of yoga have made experiments on the effect of drugs (psychedelic drugs) on the mind of man. In ancient India it was therefore believed that some drugs heightened the towers of human mind.

(3) Mantra:

It has been a long standing belief in India that repetition of certain mantras (incantations) unfolds the potential powers of man. There are different mantras for acquiring different powers. The well known Gāyatrī mantra is the most spiritually effective mantra. There is a branch of yoga (mental discipline) which is called mantra yoga which brings about perfection and supernormal powers in man by systematic and methodical repetition of mantras (mystic sounds). Om (Aum) is the original mystic sound from which all sounds are said to have originated.

(4) Tapas (Austeritics).

From the Purāṇas, the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata it appears that there was a time when supernormal powers and spiritual perfection were attains by performing or undergoing various kinds of tapas (austeritics). The idea behind tapas was that the body was to be famished and subdued in order to realize the supremacy and power of the mind. It is really necessary sometimes to suppress the life of the body and the senses to realize the life of the mind and spirit.

Du. Preb a great German writer on mysticism, has rightly said:

“The higher powers of the soul rise in proportion as the life of the senses is depressed”.

Āsanas, mudrās and prāṇāyāma have, therefore, been prescribed as a sort of mild austerity to get control over the body and release the powers of the mind which lie buried under the bodily feeling. All books on Yoga speak in detail about the powers that a practitioner comes to have. The Yogaśikhā Upaniṣad says:

“The body controls everyone, but the yogī controls the body and the sense organs….. and the passion such as anger and lust”.^[2]

(5) Samādhi (utmost concentration of the mind).

The term Samādhi here includes all the three stages of concentration namely dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi attention. Concentration and contemplation (together called saṃyama). All the super normal powers mentioned by patañjali in his Yogasūtras are the by products of saṃyama on some object or another. All the writers on Yoga are unanimous in stating that samādhi or the utmost concentration of the mind on any object reveals the innermost secrets of the object and all that is required to be known about it as well as complete control over the object. The adopt in samādhi, according to patañjali is capable of (a) knowledge of everything (omniscience)–sarvajñātṛtva [sarvajñātṛtvam] and (b) supremacy over all states and forms of existence (omnipotence)–Sarvabhāvādhiṣṭhātṛtva [sarvabhāvādhiṣṭhātṛtvam].

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Yogaśikha-upaniṣad - VI-74-76.

[2]:

Yogaśikha-upaniṣad-I-38.