CHAPTER II.
THE student of Yoga should, as far as possible, make up his mind what kind of Yoga method he is going to adopt. For through the aim of the various systems of Yoga is the concentration of the mind, yet some are more difficult than the others, some lead to the attainment of Yoga earlier than the rest. Even there is difference in the capacity of the students which ought to be taken into consideration. There cannot be given any hard and fixed method for all. All that can be done is to give the first principles, the primary truths, and leave the rest to the intelligent student to evolve out for himself. Difference of age, difference of education, religion, race and nationality, require different treatments from the hand of the master. Thus the methods of Hath Yoga are such which an adult, after the age of twenty, can master with extreme difficulty, while to the plastic and supple limbs of a child or a boy of ten and twelve they are very easy of attainment. Similarly, a man whose mind is well cultivated with philosophy and poetry, whose fancy is vivid, whose imagination quick and creative, need not undergo any of those preliminary methods laid down in the treatises of Yoga for the development of imagination. The period within which success in Yoga is acquired by the student also has proportional variation. To an energetic and enthusiastic nature success may crown his efforts very soon, while a dull fellow may pass years ere he understands the first principles of this mind-regulating philosophy. The treatises of Hindu Yoga are full of dissertations about the various kind of persons fitted to acquire Yoga. In fact the chapter on Adhikaris, persons fitted for Yoga forms the first in all systems of Yoga. The father of Yoga philosophy disposes of this question with his characteristic brevity and universality by two sutras or aphorisms. That which puzzled the brains of the later-day Yogis, and on which so much ingenuity has been mis-spent, has been compressed likewise by Patanjali within the narrow but all-embracing compass of two lines. Aphorism twenty-two, book first, enunciates:—“According to the nature of the methods—the mild, the medium, and the transcendent—adopted, the ascetics who adopt method, are of nine kinds.” In accordance with this division, there are nine classes of the followers of the Yoga. In the mild variety there are three sub-divisions, and similarly with the medium and the transcendental methods. The following table will show the different kinds of followers of Yoga:—
Mildly impetuous (Mridu samvega), Moderately impetuous (Madhya samvega), Hotly impetuous (Tivra samvega), Mild (Mridu), Medium (Madhya), Transcendent (Adhimatra).
Patanjali promises speedy success to him who is hotly impetuous and follows the transcendental method i.e., he who comes under the ninth class of transcendent, hotly impetuous. Thus there is ample room for the student of Yoga Vidya to select from. He may follow the mild method, which is the lowest, or he may, if he can, take up the Adhimatra method. An explanation of these methods will be given further on. Now we shall speak of some of the preliminary things conducive to the concentration of the mind, and thereby unfolding the spiritual powers latent in every human soul. In this chapter we intend to dwell on the following points—food, dress, habits, and place.
Patanjali in his aphorism does not touch on any of these points. He takes it for granted that the followers of Yoga have this requisite knowledge. In fact the directions which the later authors on Yoga have given are such as are applicable not only exclusively to the student of occultism, but to every description of students. Nevertheless, we shall give here some short hints on the subject.
As regards dress, it must be borne in mind that the concentration is best facilitated when one is warmly dressed, and his attention is not distracted by the changes of weather. We think it highly unphilosophical to renounce all dress in the first stage of Yoga abhyas, as many of the Shadhus are seen to do. Instead of helping in any way the fixing of attention, their naked bodies continually divert their thought. No doubt the master Yogi needs no external help to protect his body from the inclemencies of temperatures. He can throw around him an impenetrable veil of akasa, and defy the forces of nature; but what a master may do with impunity can never be done by a neophyte without injury. The dress should not be too tight nor too loose, and, as far as possible, it should not be sewn by a tailor. If sewn-cloth cannot be dispensed with, let it be well purified of all foreign magnetism as far as possible. The clothes should be washed well every day by the student himself if possible, and it should be made a rule to change the lower garment at least once a day, and in no case to keep it on for two days. The material of which the dress of a Yogi should be made ought to be of non-conductors like silk, straw, wool, or of leaves.
As to the food most conducive to the spiritual and psychic development, the authorities are unanimous in favor of a vegetarian diet, not that there were no Yogis who were meat-eaters, but it has been found by the concurrent experiences of ages that meat, while it increases animal activity, decreases the intellectual power. All races of meat-eaters are physically active and strong, but the same cannot be predicated with regard to their spiritual state. Animal passions and appetites become doubled by subsisting on a carnivorous diet, and the natural and constant restlessness of carnivorous animals is diametrically opposed to those conditions which favor quietness and abstraction. All hibernating animals, says Dr. N.C. Paul in his “Treatise on Yoga Philosophy”, prefer vegetable food, and Yoga is a kind of hibernation according to him. In recommending a vegetable diet for the student of the Yoga, we need not enforce our doctrine from consideration of occult philosophy, which he would not be in a position to understand were we to do so. In the very first stage of Yoga viz., Yama, the student is exhorted to practice maitri, universal kindness, and how can this be consistent with the cruel system of butchering innocent creatures for satisfying one’s taste. We need not disprove the position of those who jesuitically try to equivocate with their own conscience, by saying that it is not they who kill but the butchers, for they ought to remember the aphorism of Patanjali, which says that—“The things questionable”, e.g., killing, stealing, &c., whether done , caused to be done, or approved of, whether resulting from covetousness, anger, or delusion, whether slight, of intermediate character, or beyond measure, have no end of fruits in the shape of pain and ignorance.” In fact, vegetable world can supply all the constituents which healthy human organism requires. As to the quality of food, the Yogis of India have all shown a great love for milk and rice. The chemical analysis of milk shows that it contains all the ingredients which a human body requires, while rice is to be recommended chiefly on account of its containing proportionately smaller amount of stimulating nitrogenous matter which abounds so much in meats of every description. It must be all the while remembered, that the food above recommended is for Rishis and Yogis, and such persons whose habits are sedentary, and require intense mental abstraction; and therefore, this kind of diet has been called sawta-guni-bhojan. For warriors and mechanics employed in physical active duties of life Rajaguni food is the one to be recommended. Next as to the quality of food to be taken let the student beware of gluttony; he should eat just enough for livelihood—for the support of life. But let him not at the same time starve himself to emaciation. It is desirable that he should eat less than usual, and rise from the table with appetite remaining than fully satisfied. Let him also decrease the quantity of food slowly, steadily, but imperceptibly. In fact his progress through the several stages of Yoga will of itself tend towards decreasing the amount of food but let him nevertheless help nature. In no case should the student of Yoga indulge in alcoholic or any other intoxicating drug or liquor, &c. The practices of some class of inferior Yogis of stimulating psychic development by opium, bhang, charas, and ganja, are to be strongly denounced by every sane and reasonable creature: for these, though inducing momentary or temporary trance by their skilful administration, yet invariably are followed by terrible reaction, and make the divine temple of the soul a ruin for the vampires, spooks and elementals to take possession of and prey upon.
The student of Yoga, like his fellow-student of physical sciences, should cultivate regular habits. He should attend to all the rules of health and sanitation. Early rising and the Yoga abhyasa for an hour or so before sun-rise has been often recommended. The would-be Yogi must attend to the purity of body as well as soul. Let him bathe twice daily, in the morning and evening, and, if his constitution would allow, with cold water at all seasons of the year. Several Yogis of the Sikh school, as well as the Theosophists, maintain that keeping long hair, and preserving the animal electricity, facilitates Yoga. And in truth the majority of Saint, Rishis, and Prophets are generally represented with flowing hair. The Yogi should choose a retired and unfrequented spot for practising Yoga. A league or two away from the bustle of active life, let the contemplative student select his retreat. The place should be such as to call up pure and divine thought. But it is also possible for a student to live in the city and acquire Yoga. And as the majority of our readers, I fear, are Grihastis, house-holders, and family-men, let them, therefore, set apart a room in their house sacred and secret for holy meditation. Let it never be entered by anybody and every-body; and it should be so situated or constructed as effectually to exclude all outside noise and commotion. If he likes, he may burn incense, like dhoop, &c., to make the atmosphere of the room pleasant and agreeable. The Buddhist scripture enjoins the following particulars about the choice of place by the ascetic:—“It is a place where no business is transacted, and where there are no contentions or disputes. There are three descriptions of such places: (1) in some deep mountain ravine, remote from human intercourse; (2) in some forest resort (Aranya), at least a mile or two from a village, so as to be removed from any sound of worldly business or convention; (3) in a spot at a distance from a place where laymen live, in the midst of a quite Sangharama.” This precept of the Buddhist school is, however practicable only to the ascetic who has renounced all the concerns of the world. But as we tried to show in our preliminary remarks Yoga is not meant only for the ascetic, but is a common heritage of the Grihasta and Sanyasi, rich and poor.
Next, as to the time of practicing Yoga. Every person who has a sound mind and a healthy body is capable of attaining Yoga. The training should be begun as early in life as possible. In old age, when habits are crystallized into second nature, it becomes almost impossible for a student to shake off the old Adam and to turn over a new page in life. Our countrymen have imbibed certain mistaken and erroneous notions as to the proper age when Yoga should be begun, from the works of the latter-day poets.” They assert that great kings, &c., practiced Yoga in the last part of their lives when they had completed their worldly career, had children and grand-children, and had been satiated by satisfying all their carnal appetites. The great poet Kalidasa in his Raghuvansa says of the kings of the solar dynasty:—Yogenante tanu taijam, i.e., they (the kings) left their bodies (i.e., died) by practising Yoga. But it must be remembered that Janaka also was a great king and a great Yogi too; similarly Dhruva and Prahlad.
