The Kathopanishad: A Wondrous Epic of the Spirit : 10. Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, January 16, 2021. 6:00. PM.

Post-10

(Spoken on June 19, 1972).

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What is yoga? 

Tām yogam iti manyante sthiram indriya-dharanam: The fixing of the powers of the senses is called yoga, according to Yama.

 Yoga is the focusing of the attention of the mind through a discipline of the senses, a conservation of the energy of the senses, and the mustering in of the powers of the senses so that they are fixed on one spot: tām yogam iti manyante. 

Sthiram indriya-dharanam: The indriyas, or the powers of the senses, as I mentioned, are not the organs of perception. The indriyas meant here are not the eyes or the ears, etc., but the powers behind the action or function of seeing, hearing, etc. These energies have to be concentrated – pratyahara, as we usually call it in yoga. This has to be practised. 

This is called yoga: sthiram indriya-dharanam.

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But this is not a state in which we can remain for a long time :  apramattas tadaabhavati, yogo hi prabhavapyayau. 

This state of concentration, which is tentatively, temporarily gained by a focusing of the energies of the senses, comes and goes: yogo hi prabhavāpyayau. It has a beginning, and it has an end. Today we may be in a good state of concentration, and tomorrow we may not be in that state. 

Therefore, a caution is given: apramattas tada bhavati. 

In the Sanatsujatiya of the Mahabharata, pramada is described. Pramada is heedlessness, carelessness. Carelessness is veritable death, says Sanatkumara to Dhritarashtra in the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, so here the very same point is brought in by Yama in the Kathopanishad when he says apramattas tadā bhavati: Do not be heedless. If we are careless and go by the notion that we have attained to yoga merely because we were concentrated yesterday for a few minutes, we will be done for. Be careful. It will not last long, even for a few minutes. It will slip out of our hand.

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And also the definition is elaborated further in another mantra of the very same Upanishad : 

yada pancavatisthante jnanani manasa saha, buddhis ca na vicestati, tam ahuh paramaṃ gatim (Katha 2.3.10). 

Pancavatisthante : 

Pancha is the fivefold energy of the senses – the energy of perception through the eyes, the energy of hearing, of tasting, of smelling, of touching. When all these forces are brought together into a single point of focus, what happens? There is conservation of energy. 

Yada pancavatisthante jnanani. 

Jnanani means : jnana-indriyani. 

Manasa saha : When the indriyas come together with the mind, or rather, when the rays of the mind are drawn back and there is a doubling of the energy of the mind, the mind is weak on account of the movement of force through the senses. 

yada pancavatisthante jnanani manasa saha : The mind gets strengthened on account of the withdrawing of the energy of the mind that usually gets spilt out through perception through the senses,   Not merely that, 

buddhis ca na vicestati : When the intellect does not oscillate;

 tam ahuh paramaṃ gatim : when that state is attained, you have reached the Supreme State. But we know the highest condition is the non-oscillation of the understanding or the intellect. The intellect oscillates whenever there is the function of judgment or decision.

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Judgment is a logical process of dovetailing a predicate with a subject. Whenever we make a statement, give an opinion or pass a judgment, what happens is we connect the subject to the predicate. There is always a separation of two units, and then an artificial bringing together of these two units. We assume a difference between the subject and the predicate, and then try to bring the two together in logical judgment. So this is a defect of the process of ratiocination.

To be continued ....

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