Page 130 - Wisdom Unfurled
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The Master now gets into a discussion of the means to move through the stages of ascent towards the Goal of human life. The topic of meditation is taken up. The Master makes a reference to Sage Patanjali, the author of the well known ‘yoga-sutras’, the most authoritative text on Rajayoga. Scholars differ widely in ascribing a date to the yoga sutras, the period ranging from the 4th century BC and the 4th century AD. However according to Revered. K.C.Varadachari, the yoga sutras could not belong to the post Christian era, rather they must be placed early enough in the 2nd century BC (CW V3 p 370). There seem to have been two Patanjalis, one of them a grammarian. Patanjali’s work is basically a compilation or reformulation, as the very opening sutra says (atha yoganushasanam), of the spiritual disciplines and techniques of meditation which enable the practicant to achieve the object of yoga normally understood in the Upanishadic tradition as the union of the individual soul with the universal soul. However according to Patanjali, yoga does not mean union but the spiritual effort to realize one’s real nature and abide in it through the control of the body, senses and mind and right discrimination between Purusha and Prakriti. The system of Patanjali is closely allied to Samkhya philosophy which may be considered to be the theoretical aspect and the Yoga constituting the practical disciplines leading to viveka-discriminative knowledge by which alone one attains liberation. The above referred techniques have been mentioned already in various Upanishads, such as the Katha, Swetasvatara, the Chandogya, the Taitriya and Maitrayani Upanishads very many centuries earlier.
Sri Ramchandra’s Rajayoga and the Patanjali school
In the Ashtanga yoga of Patanjali, the eight steps are yama-the restraints, niyama-the observances, asana-posture, pranayama-breath control, pratyahara-diversion of attention towards the divine from objects of the senses, dharana-point of attention or holding of the thought, dhyana- meditation and samadhi-absorption.
We start from the seventh step in SRRY, which however does not mean that the other steps are not significant or they are omitted. They come into practice automatically when we proceed with meditation supported by the divine influx of the transmitted consciousness of the Master. The modification thus introduced saves lot of time and labour for the abhyasi and needless to add, that it is possible only because of the active and continuous support of the Master through Pranahuti.
Light as object of meditation and heart as the nucleus
We find the Master referring to the Patanjali sutras I.36 and I.37 during his discussion on the topic of meditation. I.36 (visoka va jyotishmati) states that concentration in the sense of cessation of the mental modifications, as that is
  




























































































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