SANKHYA Chart & Lecture (1)

H imal ayan ayan Yoga Yoga Tr adition – Teache Teacherr Tr aini ng Program

THE SANKHYA SYSTEM OF EXISTENCE The tattvas ("thatnesses," tattvas ("thatnesses," consisting of 24 primary substances) substances) emerge from each other. This emergence is the natural natural process of unfolding, or [d]evolution, or the "normal" waking state of consciousness from the t he primal, undifferentiated, quiescent state of prakriti prakriti [Nature]. By yoga yoga the transformations, or tattvas, tattvas, are dissolved back again, this reverse movement representing a process of involution. The former process, namely that the the [d]evolutio n of the tattvas from tattvas from the subtle ( sukshma) sukshma) to the gross ( sthula), sthula), is marked by a continuous increase of tamas guna [the quality of heaviness, solidity and darkness], whereas with the return, sattva guna guna [the quality of lightness, spaciousness and illumination] comes to prevail. However, purusha However, purusha (Pure Consciousness) remains uninvolved, no matter which way the process runs, and no matter how refined the state of sattva guna guna that is attained. Purusha Purusha is beyond the system of the gunas absolutely, whether the latter be in [d]evolution or involution. Self-radiant, self-subsistent, aloof, it never changes, whereas Prakriti whereas Prakriti will will go on changing forever. (from PHILOSOPHIES (from PHILOSOPHIES OF INDIA by INDIA by Heinrich Zimmer, p. 328) (The chart below is from Swami Veda Bharati’s Commentary on the YOGA-SUTRAS OF PATANJALI, Vol PATANJALI, Vol I, p. 34.)

(PURUSHA)PRAKRITI

 MAHAT (Universal Intelligence) BUDDHI (Intellect, the Faculty of Discrimination)

 AHAMKARA (I-am-ness, egoity, the I-maker, the principle of self-identification)

 SATTVIC AHAMKARA



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MANAS (Lower Mind)

RAJASIC AHAMKARA (impelling both)

10 INDRIYAS (Powers / Capacities)

 KARMENDRIYAS (Active Senses) Speech Organs Hands Feet Organs of Generation Organs of Elimination

TAMASIC AHAMKARA





  

BUDDHINDRIYAS (Cognitive Senses) Ears Skin Eyes Tongue Nose

5 TANMATRAS Subtle Elements) Sound (Shabda) Touch (Sparsa) Sight-Form (Rupa) Taste (Rasa) Smell (Gandha)

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5 BHUTAS (Gross Elements) Space (Akasha) Air (Vayu) Fire (Agni, Tejas, Jyoti) Water (Apah) Earth (Prithivi)

______________________________________________________ __________________________ ____________________________________________________ ________________________ (The principle in ritual is to sacrifice (lit. "sacred act") the Gross to the Subtle, the Material to the Spiritual.)

The 5 Subtle Elements Sound / Audibility ———— > Touch / Tangibility ———— > Sight / Visibility ———— > Taste / Flavor ———— > Smell / Odor ———— >

The 5 Gross Elements Ritual Offerings Spaciousness / Ethereal ——— > Bell, Sea Shell Gaseous (Air) ——— > Flowers Illuminative Light (Fire) ——— > Candle Flame Liquidity, Flowing (Water) ——— > Water Solidity (Earth) ——— > Incense

©2006, 20012 Himalayan Yoga Tradition – Teacher Training Program, All rights reserved

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Pushing the Tree Back Into the Seed from “Process of Conscious Mind” Mind” – #3401 #3401 by Swami Veda Veda Bharati You are given a mantra, or you are given the breath, and we say, “Now don’t pay attention to all the [random] processes of your your conscious mind. Let all the energy of your conscious mind be concentrated into one experience in the experience of breathing. Or let all the energy of the conscious mind direct you to that one experience of mantra.” Now that is a process of pushing the tree back into the seed. I do not know if the Zen people have a koan like that, but I would create this koan, and you can use it: “Pushing the tree back into the seed.” Think of all these activities of the mind being like the waving branches, twigs, leaves, shapes and kinds, and colors (green (green and red and yellow) all waving about. about. And then you say, “Now where is this activity coming from? It’s going on, or some wind is blowing.” So you trace the leaves to a twig. You trace the twig to a small branch. You trace the small small branch to a larger branch. You trace that branch to the trunk. Then you trace the trunk. Where did it all come from? From where did the tree tree sprout from the seed? All of this thought, thought, the entire rational and intellectual process, all of your emotional experience is a mixture of the subconscious and the conscious. All of this this experience, like the branches and the the twigs, belongs to to some trunk. It is like the sprouts coming from a seed. In what shape shape and form are the sprouts inside inside the seed? In what shape and form is the tree inside the seed? In what shape and form was I when I was smaller than an ant’s egg attached to the wall of my mother’s uterus? In what shape and form form were you when you were smaller than an ant’s egg attached attach ed to the wall of your mother’s uterus? In what form form was was your nose there? In what form were your eyes there? Where were your your ears? They were there or where? In what form? So where does the mantra mantra leads you? you? It leads you to a seed, to a point in the core of the mind from where all of these thoughts and emotions have sprouted out and become the tree. And the process of meditation that you have learned is a very direct process. It’s a short cut. In twenty minutes you you can go to that seed where all the syllables of your your mantra are all one. So when I sit down in meditation, I do my mantra. But what do I do the rest of the time? I am a philosopher, I am a professor, I am a man with a natural intellectual inquiry, and I want God, God, and I have emotions, and I have intellectual needs, and I have general activity in life. life. What do I do with all of that? that? So the system system of the Yogas of Life Life (Jnana Yoga, Karma Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga) says, “Well, okay, dedicate it all to God. So, like your meditative process process of twenty minutes a day, let the other processes of your your life also lead to that same very seed. Otherwise how far will will you go? A few leaves, a few twigs to one branch. But that one branch will not merge with the one tall big branch and will not merge with the trunk and will not go back into the real seed until all of of these other branches are taken care of. So as long as there is any an y conflict, so long as there is the slightest difference between your meditation and your emotional life, you have not reached the path of Bhakti, and your meditation will not reach reach the final enlightenment. So long as there is the slightest slightest conflict and slightest difference between your meditational life and your daily life of things that you do for your husbands, wives, children, employment, education, so long as there is the slightest difference, you will not reach the ultimate ultimate enlightenment. And so long as there is the slightest difference between your intellectual activity and your reading of books and your inquiry and your philosophy and your ©2006, 20012 Himalayan Yoga Tradition – Teacher Training Program, All rights reserved

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discussion and your libraries and your novels, stories, films and the whole intellectual process of criticism and analysis between that and meditation, until you have taken those branches to the trunk and the trunk back to the seed also through twenty minutes a day of meditation, you will not reach ultimate enlightenment. In Swami Veda’s Commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga-sutras Yoga-sutras these three important philosophical concepts are explained: The dissolution of [d]evolutes in reverse order of their creation; effects dissolving The Prati-prasava: into their causes and finally into prakrti; into prakrti; the the return of the gunas the gunas into into equilibium in their ultimate cause (unmanifest prakrti (unmanifest prakrti). ). In In Sankhya philosophy, the principle of orderly dissolution of material Prati-chanchara: [d]evolutes into their causes in reverse order of their [d]evolution and development ( sanchara); sanchara); the dissolution of the universe and its phenomena. A A doctrine of Sankh ya schools stating that the qualities of objects pre-exist in Sat-karya-vada: their causes, that gunas that gunas are are constantly transmuted into their [d]evolutes, and that a cause does not cease to be simply because it is transmuted into an effect. "That which is not, does not come into being; that which is, never ceases to be." Bhagavad (Bhagavad Gita II.16) Gita II.16)

Lecture IV on Sankhya: "Pain, and the Four Purposes of Life" by Swami Veda Bharati th August 8 , 1973 Om. Saha nav avatu. Saha nau bhunaktu. Saha viryam karavavahai. Tejasvi nav adhitam astu. Ma vidvisavahai. Om. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti . Om. May He protect us together. May he accept of our offerings together. May we gather strength together. together. May our study be filled with brilliance. May there be no distances among us. Om. Peace, Peace, Peace.

So the purpose of the study stud y of Sankhya philosophy is discrimination – discrimination – to to find the one and the one in the two. Which is the one and which is the other one. There is one thing in common between Sankhya-Yoga and Buddhism. That both start out with with the problem of pain. It is not certain historically historically whether Sankhya borrowed the preoccupation with pain from Buddhism or that Sankhya had already developed this philosophy, and then it was passed on to the Buddha. I already told you that the birthplace of the Buddha was Kapilavastu, the city which was built on the site of the ashram of the sage Kapila [the great sage of Sankhya philosophy] and that Buddha in his wanderings in search of Truth spent a great deal of time with with a Sankhya teacher named Aradakalam. The Four Noble Truths of the Buddha are called the Arya-Satya the Arya-Satya (Noble Truths). They are dukham, duhkha-hetuh, duhkha-hanam and dukha-hanopaya. (Pain, the cause of pain, the removal of pain, and the means of removing the pain.) This was the first first Truth that dawned upon the Buddha. There is also Vyasa, the commentator on the Yoga-sutras, the most authentic, most important commentator on the Sutras. You cannot read the the Yoga-sutras without the ©2006, 20012 Himalayan Yoga Tradition – Teacher Training Program, All rights reserved

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commentary of Vyasa. And Vyasa says the identical words. He says, "As the medical science is four-fold: disease, cause of disease, removal of disease, and the means if removing the disease, so the Moksa-shastra the Moksa-shastra (the (the Science of Liberation) is fourfold: pain, the cause of pain, the removal of pain, and the means of removing the pain, the same fourfold things. The text I am reading here is in verse form. There is also Sankhya-sutra, Sankhya-sutra, which the traditional Indian orthodox teachers regard as very ancient; however, modern Western th scholarship regards it as very recent, about the 1 1 Century A.D. The first sutra sutra is "atha trividha-dubkha- ????? yanta-nirvrttih atyanta-purusarthah." We must must understand understand the the word " purushartha." purushartha." Remember I spoke of purusha of purusha,, the conscious principle, the sentient principle, the purpose of a purusha a purusha,, of a personality coming into being, coming into life , is fourfold – fourfold – and and this is the essence essence of the entire Hinduism. Everyone, all schools philosophy agree on this purushartha, this purushartha, the the purpose of the existence of human beings. The Vedic philosophy, and the epics like the Ramayana the Ramayana and and the Mahabharata the Mahabharata,, and all the stories, everything is geared towards that one aim, ex plaining the purpose of human beings – beings – what what is your personal purpose in life. And this is fourfold. If you don't know the four purusharthas, purusharthas, you know nothing, absolutely nothing about the Hindu philosophy. You can call it Yoga philosophy, you can call it Vedanta philosophy, if you want give non-sectarian names, fine – fine – anything – anything – but but the view of life as developed in India is this fourfold purushartha, purushartha, the purpose of human beings. beings. The purpose of a personality being constituted: Dharma, artha, kama, and kama, and moksha. moksha. Dharma

Dharma is Dharma is "the right way," although dharma is dharma is a lot more than that. Dharma is Dharma is the natural order of all things, things, an understanding of that natural order. The first thing is the natural order, the natural qualities of things, the natural harmony of the universe. The second part in dharma will dharma will then be a person's understanding of that natural order and thereby regarding himself part of that natural order. So that at any point where there is no understanding of the natural order, there is is no understanding of persons. And therefore, then, the right right action cannot evolve; because without understanding, without jnana without jnana,, there is no karma, karma, no action. So you come to dharma also dharma also meaning the way of life. So you have three things: natural order, understanding of the natural order, and then the way of life based b ased on that natural order. A way of life based on that that natural order, the corollary corollary of which will then be all the laws, all the politics, all the economics, all the rituals, all the ceremonies, the whole social bit. Everything. So to say that the Yoga philosophy is not inclusive of the natural order, that Yoga philosophy is not inclusive of the socio-political questions and so on, is wrong. It must must be included. included. They come under dharma. dharma. Artha

From those laws, from "the right way," is derived and is dependent on that dharma is dharma is the second category: artha. artha. " Artha" Artha" simply means "means." And that includes the details of your material needs. What business should should I go into? How should I be successful in it? How should I run my politics? politics? How should I vote for an assembly? What taxation should I charge as a King? What taxes should I pay as a subject? All of that that is the the means.


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Kama

Kama is Kama is the desires, passions, which are normal an d natural in persons for the fulfillment of a proper family life. life. And for an average person without these three, without passing through these three, there is no moksa, moksa, no liberation. Quite often a teacher, a yogi, a master, will force a householder to fulfill his desires quickly. Work intensively and fulfill them. If according to to your karma you karma you are meant to earn, let us say two million dollars in your lifetime, finish earning them in two years. years. Go ahead, hurry up, quickly! Then you are through. Rather than linger on, linger on, linger on, linger on and go die without moksha, finish doing that fast, fast, hurry and then go. You paid off your karma. M oksha oksha

And then finally is mokha, mokha, which is release, liberation, enlightenment. (Answering a question) Yes, it's a gradual moksha, moksha, I should should say. Each school of philosophy defines moksha according moksha according to its belief. belief. To be released to a certain degree is to be released too. (Another question.) By expansion. The progress is measured by expansion, how wide you are. I was just teaching a text on Shaivism. As the bondage develops the Atman the Atman that that was all-pervading becomes apu (minute). And as the anava-mala, anava-mala, the dirt around it, is washed, it expands. Expansion of consciousness. The first sutra of the Sankhya-sutras (recites Sankhya-sutras (recites the verse in Skt.), he says, "Now we shall discuss total removal of the three-fold pain." Total atyanta, atyanta, total removal of the three-fold pain. This is the definition of total purusartha total purusartha,, the final final purpose of humans. What is the three-fold pain? Remember the lecture Swami Rama gave to that group of doctors downstairs Wednesday night? He said, "Give me a topic." And Dr. Mayo Mayo said, "Why "Why don't you speak on the value of pain?" And Swamiji started started with, "There are three kinds of pain, adhyatmika. adhyatmika. adhidaivika. adhidaivika. and adhibhautika." adhibhautika." 

adhyatmika: adhyatmika : relating to atma, atma, or self, not necessarily the supreme Self, but personal self,

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adhidaivika: adhidaivika : coming from devas, devas, natural forces and their presiding deities, and

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adhibhautika: adhibhautika: resulting from the interaction between the living beings.

The adhyamika pain adhyamika pain is two fold, physical physical and mental. In fact the medical philosophy philosophy of India goes into a great deal of detail on this. This is one thing about the texts on any science in Sanskrit. They must go through the relationship relationship of the things in the spiritual world to the problems for which we are now seeking solutions. The student slogan today of the need for "relevance in education" is very familiar to to me. How relevant is it to my spiritual progress? So if a new surgical instrument is developed, I must view it as a means towards spiritual liberation. liberation. If you cannot prove the connection to me then it is of no use to me. So physical and mental pain is the the pain of the the person, adhyatmika. adhyatmika. Adhidaivika comes from natural forces and their presiding "deities," rains and floods an d those things, in which people often suffer suffer collectively or individually. And third is adhibhautika, adhibhautika, a mosquito bite or a war - interaction among the living beings. So, according to the first sutra, the total removal o f the three kinds of pain is the final, the highest purpose of the existence existence of human beings. Sometimes you will hear some some of the academicians state that the problem of human pain was not considered in Indian ©2006, 20012 Himalayan Yoga Tradition – Teacher Training Program, All rights reserved

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philosophy. This is wrong. An entire school of philosophy was developed on the word "dhuka," dhuka," pain. Here now I start with the Sankhya-karika which Sankhya-karika which is the versified text: "The total removal of pain cannot be accomplished through visible means." Anything that is accomplished through through visible means is always seen to return. Let us say, pain of hunger. You remove it through visible means, but the moment you have finished eating, it starts again. You have attempts at removing disease, the disease returns. Some diseases have been totally eradicated from the earth, but other diseases have returned to take their place. Malaria mosquitoes were killed to extinction, but now a strain strain has developed that is totally immune to the spray. We say, "Let's put a hospital within everybody's reach and make a very fast road so a sick man can reach the doctor quickly." So these are built, and although some people stopped dying from disease, they th ey died from auto accidents. No matter what precautions you take to remove human misery, you will remove one category of human huma n misery, but another category will automatically, immediately take its place. You remove physical diseases, or hunger and poverty and that kind of discomfort and misery, you create a society in which those things no n o longer exist, immediately you create a society in which psychological disease has increased a hundredfold. Now you have more psychiatric patients than you have physically ill ill patients in the United States. This is because these attempts, attempts, however valid for an individual type of disease, at removing human misery are naturally replaced by other diseases. Therefore, says a Sankhya philosopher, let u s look for a means of removing the pains of persons which is permanent. He says among the visible, the sensed objects, the material things of the world, we do not no t find a means whereby there will be total removal of all three kinds of pain. Again, the philosopher says, if you want to test whether a law "x" or an action "x", a goal, a pursuit, is really a valid means for removing the pain then test whether all the three kinds of pain will equally be removed removed by it. But if you remove a physical physical pain and cause mental pain, or if you remove mental pain and cause physical pain, then it is not a valid means. And, if the pain returns in another form, then, too, it was not a valid means. Now, the verse says that people suffering from these three kinds of pain will naturally naturally have a desire to seek for for a means for removing the pain. And we find that the visible means which we see before us is not no t sufficient; for we are looking for something that is beyond the tangible means for removing the pain. The second verse: (in Sanskrit) is something visible in religious arts, rituals ceremonies, and worship. worship. Don't they contribute to the removal of pain? Sankhya says, "No!" The seeking of heaven is no seeking of liberation. liberation. Heaven is a temporary state. The pleasures of paradise are just a form of temporary experience resulting from good deeds. Even the good deeds, ritual acts, and that kind of external worship leads to the temporary state of heaven. When the force, momemtum of good karmas is karmas is exhausted, one must return from heaven to earth to start anew. The only way of total eradication eradication of pain is by the the knowledge of three factors:


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H imal ayan ayan Yoga Yoga Tr adition – Teache Teacherr Tr aini ng Program 

Vyakta: Vyakta: manifest matter, which is only a transmutation, an alteration of Avyakta of Avyakta,,

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Avyakta: Avyakta: the unmanifest matter, from which the manifest matter arises, and

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Jna: Jna: the Consciousness Principle (as in jnana in jnana)) the Purusha the Purusha.. " Jna" Jna" means "the knower."

On this you should read the 13th 1 3th Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita the Bhagavad-gita,, which speaks of ksetra and ksetra and ksetra-jna, ksetra-jna, the "field" and the "field-knower." "field-knower." The body is the field, the spirit is the fieldfieldknower. Matter is the field, and Purusha is the field-knower. Now he defines these. And in the next lecture we will come to twenty-five categories of Sankhya. Categories mean the essential elements that the Sankhya deals with: the elements of the universe and the step by-step discrimination of those twenty-five. twenty-five. This is the subject of Sankhya. I'll list those, next time. Q. & A: Knowledge is the determinant of your action, isn't it? You know that there is such a thing as a bookshop, so you you go to buy a book. But if you did not know this other thing as a bookshop, you wouldn't know what to do. You know that a car is something something that can be driven, and you know the way to drive it. With that knowledge you are able able to drive, although the philosophy itself itself will be of no use unless translated into action. You cannot drive a car on paper no matter how well well you master the theory. See? You'll have to to do it. As you do it, your knowledge improves, because the senses of experience and the senses of action have constant interaction among themselves. Q. & A: All schools of philosophy are true. There is no false false school of philosophy. That's the way it goes. The school of philosophy that is totally materialistic is is true, so long as it explains matter. Having explained matter, matter, it goes silent. Then it has no business talking about anything else. A materialist scientist scientist is perfectly right in explaining matter and explaining everything from a purely materialistic point of view. He knows his business, he knows his molecules, and he knows his energies. But for him to state state that no other kind, no spiritual energy exists is trespassing into a field that he has never explored. Any exclusive statement, a statement that "there is none else," th at is not true. When you have reached the all-inclusive knowledge of Brahman, [that is different]. different]. We have a saying: "All feet are included in the elephant's foot. All feet are smaller than the elephant's foot, so the ant's foot can't cove r an elephant's foot, but the elephant's foot can certainly cover an ant's foot. So, the purpose of Sankhya Sankh ya is the total removal of pain through the discrimination between purusha and purusha and prakrti prakrti.. You know that for a human being there are two parts: the path of pravrtti and pravrtti and the path of nivrtti. nivrtti. The path of pravrtti of pravrtti is is the path of involvement with the world, and the path of nivrtti is nivrtti is the path of turning away. The path of pravrtti of pravrtti is is also called preyas, preyas, the Path of Pleasures. And the path of nivrtti is nivrtti is called the Path of the Good, or in the Western philosophy summum philosophy summum bonum, bonum, the Highest Good, the Final Good, which is called shreyas called shreyas.. So, a human being, before embarking upon any path, any action, making any decision, has to decide whether he is on the path of pravrtti of pravrtti or or on the path of nivrtti, nivrtti, the path of involvement or the path of turning away; whether s/he is after the pleasant or after the good.


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In other words, "pleasant" is not the antonym of "painful." This point must be understood understood about the Sankhya and Yoga philosophy. "Pleasant" is not the exact opposite of "pain." There are three separate categories: categories: the painful, the pleasant, and the Good. And the Good is beyond pain and pleasure. In other words, we should should draw the diagram in this this way on the blackboard: Shreyas is Shreyas is equated with ananda (the ananda (the Supreme Joy, the Perfect Joy of God) Magut, (the Supreme Bliss). And the opposite of that shreyas that shreyas and and ananda is ananda is preyas preyas and and kriyas or kriyas or gupta gupta (pleasure (pleasure versus pain). pain). So, whereas in the path of withdrawal there is only one category, the Good, which is one and the same as Supreme Joy; when you move away from that unity, you immediately come into the duality of pain versus pleasure. Where ever there is duality there is pain. And therefore, pleasure is pain because it is part of that duality. It is pain because it is always coupled with pain. It's pleasantness is derived through comparison with a pain. pain. Only compared to a certain pain is something pleasant. So, Shreyan, Shreyan, the Good, the higher wellbeing is arrived at through the knowledge of Bhakti of Bhakti and Jnana and Jnana that that we spoke of last time. The manifest/unmanifest, and the Knower. Knower. And then in Chapter 13 of the Bhagavad-gita the Bhagavad-gita there there is the knowledge of the field, and the fieldknower.

THE SIMPLE PURIFICATION by Kabir (version by Robert Bly) Student, do the simple purification. You know that the seed is inside the horse-chestnut tree, and inside the seed there are the horse-chestnut blossoms, and the chestnuts, and the shade. So inside the human body there is the seed, and inside the seed There is the human body again. Fire, air, earth, water, and space – space – if if you don’t want the secret one, you can’t have these either. Thinkers, listen, tell me what you know of o f that is not inside the soul. Take a pitcher full of water and set it down on the water – water – Now it has water inside and water outside. We mustn’t give it it a name, lest silly people start talking again about the body and the soul. If you want the truth, I’ll tell you the truth: Listen to the secret sound, the real sound, which is inside you. The one no one talks of speaks the secret sound to himself, and he’s he’s the one who has made it all.


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THE CLAY JUG* by Kabir (version by Robert Bly) Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains, and the maker of canyons and pine mountains! All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars. The acid that tests gold is there, and the one who judges jewels. And the music from the strings that no one touches, and the source of all water. If you want the truth, I will tell it you the truth: Friend, listen: the God whom I love is inside

*A clay pot is a tradition tradition symbol for the the human body. One of the teachings which uses this this analogy describes the pot as having space around it and space within it. it. When the pot breaks (symbolizing death), space joins with space, the droplet joins the ocean, the infinite within joins the infinite without, and there is the realization that the re never was any difference between the internal reality and the ex ternal reality, fullness joins with fullness, perfection joins with perfection – perfection – as as in the morning Prayer of Perfection.


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SANKHYA Chart & Lecture (1)

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