The Serpent Power — Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) (1924)

1 See Gheranda Sanghitā, Fourth Upadesha; Shāndilya Up., Ch. I; Amritanāda Up.; Mandalabrāhmana Up., First Brāhmana. The Shāradā Tilaka defines Pratyāhāra as “the forcible obstruction of the senses wandering over their objects” (Indriyāṇāng vicharatāng vishayeshu balād āharaṇam tebhyah pratyāhārah vidhīyate). The Shāndilya Up. (loc. cit.) speaks of five kinds of Pratyāhāra, the last of which is Dhāranā on eighteen important points of the body.

cast away thought of all other objects.¹ Through Dhyāna is acquired the quality of mental realisation (Pratyaksha). It is of two kinds: Saguna, or meditation of a form (Mūrti); and Nirguna, in which the self is its own object.²

Samādhi has been defined to be the identification of Manas and Ātmā as salt in water,³ that state in which all is known as one (equal)⁴ and the “nectar of equality” (oneness).⁵ Complete Samādhi is thus the state of Parā- samvit or Pure Consciousness. Of Samādhi there are two degrees, in the first of which (Savikalpa) the mind in a lesser degree, and in the second (Nirvikalpa) in a complete degree, continuously and to the exclusion of all other objects, assumes the nature and becomes one with the subject of its contemplation.

There are in Advaita Vedānta three states (Bhūmikā) of Samprajnāta (Savikalpa) Samādhi—namely, Ritambharā, Prajnālokā, Prashāntavāhitā.⁶ In the first the content of the mental Vritti is Sachchidānanda. There is still a separate knower. The second is that in which every kind of Āvarana (screening) is cast away, and there is Sākshātkāra Brahmajnāna passing into the third state of Peace in which the mind is void of all Vritti and the self exists as the Brahman alone:⁷ “On which being known everything is known” (Yasmin vijnāte sarvvam idam 2vijnātam bhavati). Entrance is here made into Nirvikalpa Samādhi by Rājayoga.

These three—Dhāranā, Dhyāna, Savikalpa Samādhi— called Sangyama, are merely stages in the mental effort of concentration, though, as later stated, according to the Hathayoga aspect, they are progressions in Prānāyāma, each stage being a longer period of retention of Prāna.¹ Thus by Yama, Niyama, Āsana, the body is controlled; by these and Prānāyāma the Prāna is controlled; by these and Pratyāhāra the senses (Indriyas) are brought under subjection. Then through the operation of Dhāranā, Dhyāna, and the lesser Samādhi (Savikalpa or Samprajnāta), the modifications (Vritti) of the Manas cease and Buddhi alone functions. By the further and long practice of dispassion or indifference to both joy and sorrow (Vairāgya) Buddhi itself becomes Laya, and the Yogī attains the true unmodified state of the Ātmā, in which the Jīva who is then pure Buddhi is merged in Prakriti, and the Brahman as salt in the waters of ocean and as camphor in the flame.

Passing then to the processes² peculiar to the different Yogas, Mantrayoga comprises all those forms of Sādhanā in which the mind is controlled by the means of its own object—that is, the manifold objects of the world of name and form (Nāmarūpa). The whole universe is made up of names and forms (Nāmarūpātmaka) which are the objects (Vishaya) of the mind. The mind is itself modified into the form of that which it perceives. These modifications are called its Vritti, and the mind is not for one moment devoid of ideas and feelings. It is the feeling or intention (that is, Bhāva) with which an act is done which determines 3its moral worth. It is on this Bhāva that both character and the whole outlook on life depend. It is sought therefore to render the Bhāva pure. As a man who falls on the ground raises himself by means of the same ground, so to break worldly bonds the first and easiest method is to use those bonds as the means of their own undoing.¹ The mind is distracted by Nāmarūpa, but this Nāmarūpa may be utilised as the first means of escape therefrom. In Mantrayoga, therefore, a particular form of Nāmarūpa, productive of pure Bhāva, is given as the object of contemplation. This is called Sthūla or Saguna Dhyāna of the five Devatās, devised to meet the requirements of different natures. Besides the ordinary “eight limbs” (Ashtānga)² cammon to all forms of Yoga, certain modes of training and worship are prescribed. In the latter material media are utilised as the first steps whereby the formless One is by Jnānayoga attained—such as images (Mūrti),³ emblems (Linga, Shālagrama), pictures (Chitra), mural markings (Bhittirekhā), Mandalas and Yantras (diagrams),⁴ Mudrās,⁵ Nyāsa.⁶ With this the prescribed Mantra is said (Japa) either aloud or softly only. The source of all Bīja-Mantra (Seed-Mantra), the Pranava (Om), or Brahman, is the articulate equivalent of that primal “Sound” which issued from the first vibration of the Gunas of Mūlaprakriti, and the other Bīja-Mantras are the same equivalents