THE ETHICAL PROBLEM
We have described avidyā and its special forms as the kleśas, from which
also proceed the actions virtuous and vicious, which in their turn again
produce as a result of their fruition, birth, life and experiences of
pleasure and pain and the vāsanās or residues of the memory of these
experiences. Again every new life or birth is produced from the
fructification of actions of a previous life; a man is made to perform
actions good or bad by the kleśas which are rooted in him, and these
actions, as a result of their fructification, produce another life and
its experiences, in which life again new actions are earned by virtue of
the kleśas, and thus the cycle is continued. When there is pralaya or
involution of the cosmical world-process the individual cittas of the
separate purushas return back to the prakṛti and lie within it, together
with their own avidyās, and at the time of each new creation or
evolution these are created anew with such changes as are due according
to their individual avidyās, with which they had to return back to their
original cause, the prakṛti, and spend an indivisible inseparable
existence with it. The avidyās of some other creation, being merged in
the prakṛti along with the cittas, remain in the prakṛti as vāsanās, and
prakṛti being under the influence of these avidyās as vāsanās creates as
modifications of itself the corresponding minds for the individual
purushas, connected with them before the last pralaya dissolution. So we
see that though the cittas had returned to their original causes with
their individual nescience (_avidyā_), the avidyā was not lost but was
revived at the time of the new creation and created such minds as should
be suitable receptacles for it. These minds (buddhi) are found to be
modified further into their specific cittas or mental planes by the same
avidyā which is manifested in them as the kleśas, and these again in the
karmāśaya, jāti, āyush and bhoga, and so on; the individual, however, is
just in the same position as he was or would have been before the
involution of pralaya. The avidyās of the cittas which had returned to
the prakṛti at the time of the creation being revived, create their own
buddhis of the previous creation, and by their connection with the
individual purushas are the causes of the saṃsāra or cosmic
evolution—the evolution of the microcosm, the cittas, and the macrocosm
or the exterior world.
In this new creation, the creative agencies of God and avidyā are thus
distinguished in that the latter represents the end or purpose of the
prakṛti—the ever-evolving energy transforming itself into its
modifications as the mental and the material world; whereas the former
represents that intelligent power which abides outside the pale of
prakṛti, but removes obstructions offered by the prakṛti. Though
unintelligent and not knowing how and where to yield so as to form the
actual modifications necessary for the realisation of the particular and
specific objects of the numberless purushas, these avidyās hold within
themselves the serviceability of the purushas, and are the cause of the
connection of the purusha and the prakṛti, so that when these avidyās
are rooted out it is said that the purushārthatā or serviceability of
the purusha is at an end and the purusha becomes liberated from the
bonds of prakṛti, and this is called the final goal of the purusha.
The ethical problem of the Pātañjala philosophy is the uprooting of this
avidyā by the attainment of true knowledge of the nature of the purusha,
which will be succeeded by the liberation of the purusha and his
absolute freedom or independence—kaivalya—the last realisation of the
purusha—the ultimate goal of all the movements of the prakṛti.
This final uprooting of the avidyā with its vāsanās directly follows the
attainment of true knowledge called prajñā, in which state the seed of
false knowledge is altogether burnt and cannot be revived again. Before
this state, the discriminative knowledge which arises as the recognition
of the distinct natures of purusha and buddhi remains shaky; but when by
continual practice this discriminative knowledge becomes strengthened in
the mind, its potency gradually grows stronger and stronger, and roots
out the potency of the ordinary states of mental activity, and thus the
seed of false knowledge becomes burnt up and incapable of fruition, and
the impurity of the energy of rajas being removed, the sattva as the
manifesting entity becomes of the highest purity, and in that state
flows on the stream of the notion of discrimination—the recognition of
the distinct natures of purusha and buddhi—free from impurity. Thus when
the state of buddhi becomes almost as pure as the purusha itself, all
self-enquiry subsides, the vision of the real form of the purusha
arises, and false knowledge, together with the kleśas and the consequent
fruition of actions, ceases once for all. This is that state of citta
which, far from tending towards the objective world, tends towards the
kaivalya of the purusha.
In the first stages, when the mind attains discriminative knowledge, the
prajñā is not deeply seated, and occasionally phenomenal states of
consciousness are seen to intervene in the form of “I am,” “Mine,” “I
know,” “I do not know,” because the old potencies, though becoming
weaker and weaker are not finally destroyed, and consequently
occasionally produce their corresponding conscious manifestation as
states which impede the flow of discriminative knowledge. But constant
practice in rooting out the potency of this state destroys the potencies
of the outgoing activity, and finally no intervention occurs in the flow
of the stream of prajñā through the destructive influence of phenomenal
states of consciousness. In this higher state when the mind is in its
natural, passive, and objectless stream of flowing prajñā, it is called
the dharmamegha-saṁādhi. When nothing is desired even from dhyāna arises
the true knowledge which distinguishes prakṛti from purusha and is
called the dharmamegha-samādhi (_Yoga-sūtra_, IV. 29). The potency,
however, of this state of consciousness lasts until the purusha is
finally liberated from the bonds of prakṛti and is absolutely free
(kevalī). Now this is the state when the citta becomes infinite, and all
its tamas being finally overcome, it shines forth like the sun, which
can reflect all, and in comparison to which the crippled insignificant
light of objective knowledge shrinks altogether, and thus an infinitude
is acquired, which has absorbed within itself all finitude, which cannot
have any separate existence or manifestation through this infinite
knowledge. All finite states of knowledge are only a limitation of true
infinite knowledge, in which there is no limitation of this and that. It
absorbs within itself all these limitations.
The purusha in this state may be called the emancipated being,
jīvanmukta. Nāgeśa in explaining _Vyāsa-bhāshya_, IV. 31, describing the
emancipated life says: “In this jīvanmukta stage, being freed from all
impure afflictions and karmas, the consciousness shines in its
infirmity. The infiniteness of consciousness is different from the
infiniteness of materiality veiled by tamas. In those stages there could
be consciousness only with reference to certain things with reference to
which the veil of tamas was raised by rajas. When all veils and
impurities are removed, then little is left which is not known. If there
were other categories besides the 25 categories, these also would then
have been known” (_Chāyāvyākhyā_, IV. 31).
Now with the rise of such dharmamegha the succession of the changes of
the qualities is over, inasmuch as they have fulfilled their object by
having achieved experience and emancipation, and their succession having
ended, they cannot stay even for a moment. And now comes absolute
freedom, when the guṇas return back to the pradhāna their primal cause,
after performing their service for the purusha by providing his
experience and his salvation, so that they lose all their hold on
purusha and purusha remains as he is in himself, and never again has any
connection with the buddhi. The purusha remains always in himself in
absolute freedom.
The order of the return of the guṇas for a kevalī purusha is described
below in the words of Vācaspati: The guṇas as cause and effect involving
ordinary experiences samādhi and nirodha, become submerged in the manas;
the manas becomes submerged in the asmitā, the asmitā in the liṅga, and
the liṅga in the aliṅga.
This state of kaivalya must be distinguished from the state of
mahāpralaya in which also the guṇas return back to prakṛti, for that
state is again succeeded by later connections of prakṛti with purushas
through the buddhis, but the state of kaivalya is an eternal state which
is never again disturbed by any connection with prakṛti, for now the
separation of prakṛti from purusha is eternal, whereas that in the
mahāpralaya state was only temporary.
We shall conclude this section by noting two kinds of eternity of
purusha and of prakṛti, and by offering a criticism of the prajñā state.
The former is said to be perfectly and unchangeably eternal (_kūṭastha
nitya_), and the latter is only eternal in an evolutionary form. The
permanent or eternal reality is that which remains unchanged amid its
changing appearances; and from this point of view both purusha and
prakṛti are eternal. It is indeed true, as we have seen just now, that
the succession of changes of qualities with regard to buddhi, etc.,
comes to an end when kaivalya is attained, but this is with reference to
purusha, for the changes of qualities in the guṇas themselves never come
to an end. So the guṇas in themselves are eternal in their changing or
evolutionary character, and are therefore said to possess evolutionary
eternity (_pariṇāminityatā_). Our phenomenal conception cannot be free
from change, and therefore it is that in our conception of the released
purushas we affirm their existence, as for example when we say that the
released purushas exist eternally. But it must be carefully noted that
this is due to the limited character of our thoughts and expressions,
not to the real nature of the released purushas, which remain for ever
unqualified by any changes or modifications, pure and colourless as the
very self of shining intelligence (see _Vyāsa-bhāshya_, IV. 33).
We shall conclude this section by giving a short analysis of the prajñā
state from its first appearance to the final release of purusha from the
bondage of prakṛti. Patañjali says that this prajñā state being final in
each stage is sevenfold. Of these the first four stages are due to our
conscious endeavour, and when these conscious states of prajñā
(supernatural wisdom) flow in a stream and are not hindered or
interfered with in any way by other phenomenal conscious states of
pratyayas the purusha becomes finally liberated through the natural
backward movement of the citta to its own primal cause, and this
backward movement is represented by the other three stages.
The seven prajñā stages may be thus enumerated:—
I. The pain to be removed is known. Nothing further remains to be known
of it.
This is the first aspect of the prajñā, in which the person willing to
be released knows that he has exhausted all that is knowable of the
pains.
II. The cause of the pains has been removed and nothing further remains
to be removed of it. This is the second stage or aspect of the rise of
prajñā.
III. The nature of the extinction of pain has already been perceived by
me in the state of samādhi, so that I have come to learn that the final
extinction of my pain will be something like it.
IV. The final discrimination of prakṛti and purusha, the true and
immediate means of the extinction of pain, has been realised.
After this stage, nothing remains to be done by the purusha himself. For
this is the attainment of final true knowledge. It is also called the
para vairāgya. It is the highest consummation, in which the purusha has
no further duties to perform. This is therefore called the kārya vimukti
(or salvation depending on the endeavour of the purusha) or jīvanmukti.
After this follows the citta vimukti or the process of release of the
purusha from the citta, in three stages.
V. The aspect of the buddhi, which has finally finished its services to
purusha by providing scope for purusha’s experiences and release; so
that it has nothing else to perform for purusha. This is the first stage
of the retirement of the citta.
VI. As soon as this state is attained, like the falling of stones thrown
from the summit of a hill, the guṇas cannot remain even for a moment to
bind the purusha, but at once return back to their primal cause, the
prakṛti; for the avidyā being rooted out, there is no tie or bond which
can keep it connected with purusha and make it suffer changes for the
service of purusha. All the purushārthatā being ended, the guṇas
disappear of themselves.
VII. The seventh and last aspect of the guṇas is that they never return
back to bind purusha again, their teleological purpose being fulfilled
or realised. It is of course easy to see that, in these last three
stages, purusha has nothing to do; but the guṇas of their own nature
suffer these backward modifications and return back to their own primal
cause and leave the purusha kevalī (for ever solitary). _Vyāsa-bhāshya_,
II. 15.
Vyāsa says that as the science of medicine has four divisions: (1)
disease, (2) the cause of disease, (3) recovery, (4) medicines; so this
Yoga philosophy has also four divisions, viz.: (I) Saṃsāra (the
evolution of the prakṛti in connection with the purusha). (II) The cause
of saṃsāra. (III) Release. (IV) The means of release.
Of these the first three have been described at some length above. We
now direct our attention to the fourth. We have shown above that the
ethical goal, the ideal to be realised, is absolute freedom or kaivalya,
and we shall now consider the line of action that must be adopted to
attain this goal—the _summum bonum_. All actions which tend towards the
approximate realisation of this goal for man are called kuśala, and the
man who achieves this goal is called kuśalī. It is in the inherent
purpose of prakṛti that man should undergo pains which include all
phenomenal experiences of pleasures as well, and ultimately adopt such a
course of conduct as to avoid them altogether and finally achieve the
true goal, the realisation of which will extinguish all pains for him
for ever. The motive therefore which prompts a person towards this
ethico-metaphysical goal is the avoidance of pain. An ordinary man feels
pain only in actual pain, but a Yogin who is as highly sensitive as the
eye-ball, feels pain in pleasure as well, and therefore is determined to
avoid all experiences, painful or so-called pleasurable. The
extinguishing of all experiences, however, is not the true ethical goal,
being only a means to the realisation of kaivalya or the true self and
nature of the purusha. But this means represents the highest end of a
person, the goal beyond which all his duties cease; for after this comes
kaivalya which naturally manifests itself on the necessary retirement of
the prakṛti. Purusha has nothing to do in effectuating this state, which
comes of itself. The duties of the purusha cease with the thorough
extinguishing of all his experiences. This therefore is the means of
extinguishing all his pains, which are the highest end of all his
duties; but the complete extinguishing of all pains is identical with
the extinguishing of all experiences, the states or vṛttis of
consciousness, and this again is identical with the rise of prajñā or
true discriminative knowledge of the difference in nature of prakṛti and
its effects from the purusha—the unchangeable. These three sides are
only the three aspects of the same state which immediately precede
kaivalya. The prajñā aspect is the aspect of the highest knowledge, the
suppression of the states of consciousness or experiences, and it is the
aspect of the cessation of all conscious activity and of painlessness or
the extinguishing of all pains as the feeling aspect of the same
nirvīja—samādhi state. But when the student directs his attention to
this goal in his ordinary states of experience, he looks at it from the
side of the feeling aspect, viz. that of acquiring a state of
painlessness, and as a means thereto he tries to purify the mind and be
moral in all his actions, and begins to restrain and suppress his mental
states, in order to acquire this nirvīja or seedless state. This is the
sphere of conduct which is called Yogāṅga.
Of course there is a division of duties according to the advancement of
the individual, as we shall have occasion to show hereafter. This
suppression of mental states which has been described as the means of
attaining final release, the ultimate ethical goal of life, is called
Yoga. We have said before that of the five kinds of mind—kshipta, mūḍha,
vikshipta, ekāgra, niruddha—only the last two are fit for the process of
Yoga and ultimately acquire absolute freedom. In the other three, though
concentration may occasionally happen, yet there is no extrication of
the mind from the afflictions of avidyā and consequently there is no
final release.