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Hathayoga

THE evolution of man has been upwards from the body to the spirit and there are three stages in his progress. He bases himself upon the body, rises through mind and soul and culminates in spirit. And to each stage of his evolution belong certain kinds of sādhanā, a particular type of Yoga, a characteristic fulfilment. There was no aeon in man’s history, no kalpa to use the Indian term, in which the Yoga was withheld from man, or fulfilment denied to him. But the fulfilment corresponded to his stage of progress, and the Yoga corresponded to the fulfilment. In his earlier development, he was realising himself in the body and the divinity of the body was his fulfilment. He is now realising himself in the heart and mind and the divinity of the heart and mind will be his culmination. Eventually he will realise himself in the spirit and the divinity of his true spiritual self will round off his history. Yoga is the realisation of one’s capacity of harmony, communion or unity with God. Whatever religious standpoint, creed or philosophy one adopts, Yoga is possible as long as God’s existence or omnipresence is admitted, whether it be as a Personality, a Force or a Condition of Things. The infinite in some form or idea must be admitted. To be in tune with the Infinite, that is harmony. To be in touch with the Infinite that is communion. To be one in kind, extent or self-realisation with the Infinite, that is unity. But fulfilment is not possible, unless the "Soham" — "He am I" — is recognized and practised as the ultimate truth of things. The realisation of God in self with the eye on the body is the fulfilment of the tamasic or material man; that with the eye on the mind is the fulfilment of the rajasic or psychic man; that with the eye on the spirit is the fulfilment of the sattwic or spiritual man. And each fulfils himself, by rising beyond himself. When the material man fulfils the divinity of the body, he does so by rising into the psychic part and finding his strength in the ahankāra or the psychic principle of egoism. The psychic man fulfils the

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divinity of the soul, by rising into the spirit and finding his strength in the super-psychic Will or Intelligent Force in things. The spiritual man fulfils the divinity of the spirit by rising beyond the human spirit, the jivātman and finding his strength in the parameśvaram and parabrahman, the sah and tat, God revealed and unrevealed, the Universe and Supreme Spirit who supports and contains the individual. To put it in language easier but more capable of misconception, the material man realises himself by identifying God with his own ego; the psychic man by identifying God with passionless, intelligent, blissful Will in himself, the spiritual man by identifying God with the All, in whom everything abides. The first is the rāksasa or asura of the lower order, the second is the deva or the asura of the highest order, the third is the pūrna or siddhapurusa, the perfect being.

The pure Hathayoga is the means of the fulfilment through the body. Its processes are physical, strenuous, colossal, complex, difficult. They centre in āsana, prānāyāma and the physical purifications. The number of āsanas in the modern mixed Hathayoga is limited and even they are numerous and painful; in the ancient or pure Hathayoga they were innumerable and the old yogin practised them all. The āsana means simply particular position of the body and is perfect or ‘conquered’ in the technical language, when a man can stay in a single posture, however strained or apparently impossible, for an indefinite period, without being forced by strain to remember the body.

The first object of the Asana is to conquer the body, for the body must be conquered before it can become divine — to be able to lay any command upon it and never be commanded by it. The second object is to conquer physical nature, by developing the four physical siddhis — laghimā, animā, garimā, mahimā. By perfect laghimā, man can rise into the air and tread the winds as his natural element, by perfect animā he can bring the nature of the subtlety into the gross body which the fire will no longer burn, nor weapon wound, nor want of air stifle, nor the waters drown; by perfect garimā he can develop an adamantine steadiness which no shock of even an avalanche can overbear; by perfect mahimā he can without muscular development outdo the feats of a Hercules. These powers in their fullness are no longer

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visible in men, but in some degree they belong to all adepts in Hathayoga. Their existence no one can doubt, who has gone deep into Yoga at all, or who had any personal experience of the Siddhis. The third object is to develop in the body yogic force, the Tapah or the Viryam, the fire of Yoga. The fourth object is to become ūrdhvaretāh, that is to say to draw the whole virile force in the body into the brain up and return so much of it as is needed for the body, purified and electrified. Pranayama is the mastery of the vital force, the mobile energy that keeps the universe going. In the human body, the most notable function of the Prana or vital force, is the breathing which is in ordinary men necessary to life and motion. The Yogin conquers it and renders himself independent of it. But he does not confine his attention to the simple vital operation. He distinguishes five major vital forces and several minor to each of which he has given a name and he learns to control all the numerous pranic currents in which they operate. As there are innumerable Asanas, so there are a great number of different kinds of Pranayama and a man is not a perfect Hathayogin till he has mastered them all. The conquest of the Prana confirms the perfect health, vigour and vitality gained by the Asanas; it confirms the power of living as long as one pleases and it adds to the four physical Siddhis — the five psychical— prākāmya or absolute keenness of the mind and the senses, including telepathy, clairvoyance and the faculties commonly supposed to be supernormal; vyāpti or the power of receiving other men’s thoughts, powers and feelings and projecting one’s own thoughts etc. or personality into others; aiśvaryam or the control over events, lordship, wealth and all objects of desire; vaśitā or the power of exacting implicit and instantaneous obedience to the spoken or written word; īśitā or the perfect control over the powers of nature and over things inert and intelligent. Some of these powers have recently been discovered in Europe as phenomena of hypnotism or will- force. But the European experiences are feeble and unscientific if compared with the achievements of the ancient Hathayogins or even with those of some of the modern. The will-power developed by Pranayama is said to be psychical, not spiritual.

Besides these two great practices, the Hathayogins have

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numerous others, such as the extraordinary means by which they clean out daily all physical impurities. By these numerous and difficult practices, they attain an extraordinary power, vitality, virility, longevity and are also able to attain knowledge transcending the ordinary human bounds, leave the body in Samadhi, and in one word exercise every mere power that comes by Yoga. But the practice of unmixed Hathayoga generates a colossal egoism and the Yogin seldom exceeds it. The modern Hathayoga is mixed with Rajayoga and neither so virile and potent nor so dangerous as the ancient. The modern Hathayogin often falls a prey to egoism but he knows he has to transcend it. The ancient embraced it as a fulfilment; only he managed and directed it by the use of psychic Will-power.

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