Unfortunately for non-Sanskrit-knowing people, the literature of Yoga
is not largely available in English. The general teachings of Yoga are
to be found in the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad-Gita; those, in many
translations, are within your reach, but they are general, not special;
they give you the main principles, but do not tell you about the
methods in any detailed way. Even in the Bhagavad-Gita, while you are
told to make sacrifices, to become indifferent, and so on, it is all of
the nature of moral precept, absolutely necessary indeed, but still not
telling you how to reach the conditions put before you. The special
literature of Yoga is, first of all, many of the minor Upanishads, “the
hundred-and-eight” as they are called. Few of these are translated.[3]
Then comes the enormous mass of literature called the Tantras. These
books have an evil significance in the ordinary English ear, but not
quite rightly. The Tantras are very useful books, very valuable and
instructive; all occult science is to be found in them. But they are
divisible into three classes: those that deal with white magic, those
that deal with black magic, and those that deal with what we may call
grey magic, a mixture of the two. Now magic is the word which covers
the methods of deliberately bringing about super-normal physical states
by the action of the will.
[3] Dr. Otto Schräder, Director of the Adyar Library, is now engaged
on these, and is busy with the laborious task of constructing a
critical text, to be followed by a complete translation, copiously
annotated. A great boon will have been bestowed on all interested in
Samskrt literature, when this work is completed.
A high tension of the nerves, brought on by anxiety or disease, leads
to ordinary hysteria, emotional and foolish. A similarly high tension,
brought about by the will, renders a man sensitive to super-physical
vibrations Going to sleep has no significance, but going into Samadhi
is a priceless power. The process is largely the same, but one is due
to ordinary conditions, the other to the action of the trained will.
The Yogi is the man who has learned the power of the will, and knows
how to use it to bring about foreseen and foredetermined results. This
knowledge has ever been called magic; it is the name of the Great
Science of the past, the one Science, to which only the word “great”
was given in the past. The Tantras contain the whole of that; the
occult side of man and nature, the means whereby discoveries may be
made, the principles whereby the man may re-create himself, all these
are in the Tantras. The difficulty is that without a teacher they are
very dangerous, and again and again a man trying to practice the
Tantric methods without a teacher makes himself very ill. So the
Tantras have got a bad name both in the West and here in India. A good
many of the American “occult” books now sold are scraps of the Tantras
which have been translated. One difficulty is that these Tantric works
often use the name of a bodily organ to represent an astral or mental
centre. There is some reason in that because all the centres are
connected with each other from body to body; but no reliable teacher
would set his pupil to work on the bodily organs until he had some
control over the higher centres, and had carefully purified the
physical body. Knowing the one helps you to know the other, and the
teacher who has been through it all can place his pupil on the right
path; but it you take up these words, which are all physical, and do
not know to what the physical word is applied, then you will only
become very confused, and may injure yourself. For instance, in one of
the Sutras it is said that if you meditate on a certain part of the
tongue you will obtain astral sight. That means that if you meditate on
the pituitary body, just over this part of the tongue, astral sight
will be opened. The particular word used to refer to a centre has a
correspondence in the physical body, and the word is often applied to
the physical organs when the other is meant. This is what is called a
“blind,” and it is intended to keep the people away from dangerous
practices in the books that are published; people may meditate on that
part of their tongues all their lives without anything coming of it;
but if they think upon the corresponding centre in the body, a good
deal—much harm—may come of it. “Meditate on the navel,” it is also
said. This means the solar plexus, for there is a close connection
between the two. But to meditate on that is to incur the danger of a
serious nervous disorder, almost impossible to cure. All who know how
many people in India suffer through these practices, ill-understood,
recognize that it is not wise to plunge into them without some one to
tell you what they mean, and what may be safely practiced and what not.
The other part of the Yoga literature is a small book called the sutras
of Patanjali. That is available, but I am afraid that few are able to
make much of it by themselves. In the first place, to elucidate the
Sutras, which are simply headings, there is a great deal of commentary
in Sanskrit, only partially translated. And even the commentaries have
this peculiarity, that all the most difficult words are merely
repeated, not explained, so that the student is not much enlightened.