"'"Vyasa said, 'O excellent son, asked by thee, I have told thee truly what
the answer to thy question should be according to the doctrine of
knowledge as expounded in the Sankhya system. Listen now to me as I
expound to thee all that should be done (for the same end) according to
the Yoga doctrine. The uniting together of Intellect and Mind, and all
the Senses, and the all-pervading Soul is said to be Knowledge of the
foremost kind. That Knowledge should be acquired (through the preceptor's
aid) by one that is of a tranquil disposition, that has mastered his
senses, that is capable (by meditation) of turning his gaze on the Soul,
that takes a pleasure in (such) meditation, that is endued with
intelligence and pure in acts. One should seek to acquire this Knowledge
by abandoning those five impediments of Yoga which are known to the wise,
viz., desire, wrath, cupidity, fear, and sleep. Wrath is conquered by
tranquillity of disposition. Desire is conquered by giving up all
purposes. By reflecting with the aid of the understanding upon topics
worthy of reflection,[967] one endued with patience succeeds in
abandoning sleep. By steady endurance one should restrain one's organs of
generation and the stomach (from unworthy or sinful indulgence). One
should protect one's hands and feet by (using) one's eyes. One should
protect one's eyes and ears by the aid of one's mind, one's mind and
speech by one's acts. One should avoid fear by heedfulness, and pride by
waiting upon the wise. Subduing procrastination, one should, by these
means, subdue these impediments of Yoga. One should pay one's adorations
to fire and the Brahmanas, and one should bow one's head to the deities.
One should avoid all kinds of inauspicious discourse, and speech that is
fraught with malice, and words that are painful to other minds. Brahma is
the effulgent seed (of everything). It is, again, the essence of that
seed whence is all this.[968] Brahma became the eye, in the form of this
mobile and immobile universe, of all entities that took birth.[969]
Meditation, study, gift, truth, modesty, simplicity, forgiveness, purity
of body, purity of conduct, subjugation of the senses, these enhance
one's energy, which (when enhanced) destroys one's sins. By behaving
equally towards all creatures and by living in contentment upon what is
acquired easily and without effort, one attains to the fruition of all
one's objects and succeeds in obtaining knowledge. Cleansed of all sins,
endued with energy, abstemious in diet, with senses under complete
control, one should, after having subdued both desire and wrath, seek to
attain to Brahma.[970] Firmly uniting the senses and the mind (having
drawn them away from all external objects) with gaze fixed inwards, one
should, in the still hours of evening or in those before dawn, place
one's mind upon the knowledge. If even one of the five senses of a human
being be kept unrestrained, all his wisdom may be seen to escape through
it like water through an unstopped hole at the bottom of a leathern bag.
The mind in the first instance should be sought to be restrained by the
Yogin after the manner of a fisherman seeking at the outset to render
that one among the fish powerless from which there is the greatest danger
to his nets. Having first subdued the mind, the Yogin should then proceed
to subdue his ears, then his eyes, then his tongue, and then his nose.
Having restrained these, he should fix them on the mind. Then withdrawing
the mind from all purposes, he should fix it on the knowledge. Indeed,
having restrained the five senses, the Yati should fix them on the mind.
When these the mind for their sixth become concentrated in the knowledge,
and thus concentrated remain steady and untroubled, then Brahma becomes
perceptible like a smokeless fire of blazing flames or the Sun of
effulgent radiance. Indeed, one then beholds in oneself one's soul like
lightning fire in the skies. Everything then appears in it and it appears
in everything in consequence of its infinitude. Those high-souled
Brahmanas that are possessed of wisdom, that are endued with fortitude,
that are possessed of high knowledge, and that are engaged in the good of
all creatures, succeed in beholding it. Engaged in the observance of
austere vows, the Yogin who conducts himself thus for six months, seated
by himself on an isolated spot, succeeds in attaining to an equality with
the Indestructible.[971] Annihilation, extension, power to present varied
aspects in the same person or body, celestial scents, and sounds, and
sights, the most agreeable sensations of taste and touch, pleasurable
sensations of coolness and warmth, equality with the wind, capability of
understanding (by inward light) the meaning of scriptures and every work
of genius, companionship of celestial damsels,--acquiring all these by
Yoga the Yogin should disregard them and merge them all in the
knowledge.[972] Restraining speech and the senses one should practise
Yoga during the hours after dusk, the hours before dawn, and at dawn of
day, seated on a mountain summit, or at the foot of a goodly tree, or
with a tree before him.[973] Restraining all the senses within the heart,
one should, with faculties concentrated, think on the Eternal and
Indestructible like a man of the world thinking of wealth and other
valuable possessions. One should never, while practising Yoga, withdraw
one's mind from it. One should with devotion betake oneself to those
means by which one may succeed in restraining the mind that is very
restless. One should never permit oneself to fall away from it. With the
senses and the mind withdrawn from everything else, the Yogin (for
practice) should betake himself to empty caves of mountains, to temples
consecrated to the deities, and to empty houses or apartments, for living
there. One should not associate with another in either speech, act, or
thought. Disregarding all things, and eating very abstemiously, the Yogin
should look with an equal eye upon objects acquired or lost. He should
behave after the same manner towards one that praises and one that
censures him. He should not seek the good or the evil of one or the
other. He should not rejoice at an acquisition or suffer anxiety when he
meets with failure or loss. Of uniform behaviour towards all beings, he
should imitate the wind.[974] Unto one whose mind is thus turned to
itself, who leads a life of purity, and who casts an equal eye upon all
things,--indeed, unto one who is ever engaged in Yoga thus for even six
months,--Brahma as represented by sound appears very vividly.[975]
Beholding all men afflicted with anxiety (on account of earning wealth
and comfort), the Yogin should view a clod of earth, a piece of stone,
and a lump of gold with an equal eye. Indeed, he should withdraw himself
from this path (of earning wealth), cherishing an aversion for it, and
never suffer himself to be stupefied. Even if a person happens to belong
to the inferior order, even if one happens to be a woman, both of them,
by following in the track indicated above, will surely attain to the
highest end.[976] He that has subdued his mind beholds in his own self,
by the aid of his own knowledge the Uncreate, Ancient, Undeteriorating,
and Eternal Brahma,--That, viz., which can not be attained to except by
fixed senses,--That which is subtiler than the most subtile, and grosser
than the most gross, and which is Emancipation's self.'"[977]
"'Bhishma continued, "By ascertaining from the mouths of preceptors and by
themselves reflecting with their minds upon these words of the great and
high-souled Rishi spoken so properly, persons possessed of wisdom attain
to that equality (about which the scriptures say) with Brahman himself,
till, indeed, the time when the universal dissolution comes that swallows
up all existent beings."'"[978]