Page 91 - Hinduism

contribute to karma. But Īśvara is the ultimate agent and is the means and the end. In this sense, karma yoga is a direct way to mukti, but it is developed only in the final stage of religious life.
Rāja Yoga is mind-control (cittavrtti nirodha) and is a royal path to Brahman or God. The mind is ordinarily fleeting and frittered and it is the aim of the yoga to collect it and centre it in God. It is therefore a psychological method as different from the moral method of karma yoga. This yoga consists of eight stages, namely, yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyama, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇa, dhyāna and samādhi. Purity of body and mind are essential to the practice of this yoga. The first four stages refer to the cleansing of the body and breath-control. The next four stages refer to mind-control. At last, the mind expands, attains samādhi and śānti or peace. This expansion is explained in two ways both physically and mentally. It is the ascent of spiritual energy in the centres of the body from mulādhāra in the lowest part of the spinal cord to sahasrāra in the brain. From the mental point of view there is expansion of consciousness from the lowest stage to the highest state. There is expansion from the unconscious to the sub-conscious and the conscious to the super- conscious state of samādhi. The Yogin can acquire suddhis or miraculous powers like entering into the bodies of others and acquiring control over nature. But such siddhis are real obstacles to spiritual life and union with God, and they should therefore be
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