I thought Ramaswami's newsletter this month was a useful introduction to Yoga philosophy but am aware too that we often read blog posts 'on the fly', here's the newsletter article divided up into three bite size pieces.
Pictures and format is mine.
Part One
CHITTAVRITTI — AN ILLUSION?
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are.
In childhood everything is a wonderment. There are so many things to know, to experience, to see, to search -- like the stars, God.
When I was a child, I had an uncle (my paternal aunt's husband) who was living in a small town in deep south India. We were living in Madras about 400 miles away. Many relatives and family friends used to visit us, every now and then and my uncle also used to visit us. Usually in India the elders do not spend much time with children but this person used to spend considerable time with us. We used to like him. One evening my parents suddenly left Madras to his town, leaving us in the care of my grand aunt. My uncle had suddenly died. When my grand aunt told us that my uncle died I did not fully comprehend it and she started explaining following the general belief in India that he had gone to heaven. I would ask questions like if he had reached haven already, she would say that he would be traveling and would reach there in about 9 days or so and then he would reach God and be with him. She would assure us that we should not worry about him as God would take care of him. I remember my grand aunt pointing her finger up the sky where she said heaven was. I used to run out of the house and look up to see if I could see heaven. And heaven I learnt is
above the sky, one has to see beyond the sky--up above the sky I guessed.
Like this when we are young, a lot of questions arise in the mind like how the world came into existence, why and how we are born, about reincarnation and many more. Then as we get older, all these questions remain in the background unanswered. The care about family, career and the concerns about keeping the head above water consume all our time and attention. A few however keep these wonderment queries alive. Did a Super-being create the Universe or did it come about by itself, evolved by itself. Can one identify oneself in the purest form and answer the question “Who am I, what am I made of?” Is there any principle which does not undergo any change and hence is eternal or do all things change and are subject to time? “Is it always nature's law to change and constancy alone is strange?”
And there are very powerful, compelling but competing theories, premises and speculations about these questions. So one finds over time that it is prudent not to spend time trying to find convincing answers to all these questions.These appear to be trivial questions and we turn our attentions thereafter to trivia.
While the puranas of ancient times describe in great detail how the Supreme Being created the Universe, there are also theories which find it unnecessary to bring in a Supreme Intelligent Being to create the Universe, like the Samkhyas and the Yogis piggybacking on the Sankhya framework. The Sankhyas say that the entire universe evolved out of a primordial atomic entity called mulaprakriti made of three essential characteristics, called satwa (order), Rajas (energy) and tamas (disorder/chaos) in perfect equilibrium. Firstly with the equilibrium disturbed by the dominance of Satwa, the first stage of evolution called Mahat or Universal Intelligence emerges. In it then Rajas raises its head to evolve the next tatwa called Ahamkara or what may be termed as Universal Ego. Then the Samkhyas thoughtfully say that from Ahamkhara emanate two streams of evolution, one the microcosmic the other macro cosmic. The satwic aspect of Ahamkara starts the microcosmic stream, leads to eleven indriyas, the five sense and five motor organs along with the coordinating agency called manas. On the other side, the tamasic aspect of ahamkara leads to five sensations or tanmatras (touch, form etc) which in turn produce the five bhutas or the gross elements like earth, water, etc. The intellect (buddhi), the ahamkara, the 11 senses (13 in all) form the subtle body. The three principles buddhi(mahat), ahamkara and manas are also called antahkarana or the internal organ. And life force made up of the five pranas is considered just an incessant function (samanya vritti) of this antahkarana. The five bhutas or gross elements combine in various combinations and different permutations and become the variegated universe we experience. The spirit or purusha, the non-changing eternal consciousness tatwa, joins the subtle body and remains with it, a mute spectator, until the yogi 'liberates' it with yoga. Until then with the subtle accumulated karma bundle and old vasanas attached to it, the subtle body transmigrates and takes a new birth and acquires a new physical body by taking the help of the bhutas of the macrocosm. There is no room for a creator principle in this rather ingenious philosophy. They are able to recognize that for the kind of experience we have, one has to explain how the subject evolves and how the objects evolve so that one can explain the kind of subject object experience we have all our life and life thereafter. They also recognize that in addition there has to be a consciousness principle that experiences all life without undergoing any change.
...continued in part 2
.................and part 3
or full newsletter here on Ramaswami's Newsletter page
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups=#!topic/vinyasa-krama-announce/mYc5xbNbOGc
Pictures and format is mine.
 |
| Indian cosmological paining from here |
Part One
CHITTAVRITTI — AN ILLUSION?
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are.
In childhood everything is a wonderment. There are so many things to know, to experience, to see, to search -- like the stars, God.
When I was a child, I had an uncle (my paternal aunt's husband) who was living in a small town in deep south India. We were living in Madras about 400 miles away. Many relatives and family friends used to visit us, every now and then and my uncle also used to visit us. Usually in India the elders do not spend much time with children but this person used to spend considerable time with us. We used to like him. One evening my parents suddenly left Madras to his town, leaving us in the care of my grand aunt. My uncle had suddenly died. When my grand aunt told us that my uncle died I did not fully comprehend it and she started explaining following the general belief in India that he had gone to heaven. I would ask questions like if he had reached haven already, she would say that he would be traveling and would reach there in about 9 days or so and then he would reach God and be with him. She would assure us that we should not worry about him as God would take care of him. I remember my grand aunt pointing her finger up the sky where she said heaven was. I used to run out of the house and look up to see if I could see heaven. And heaven I learnt is
above the sky, one has to see beyond the sky--up above the sky I guessed.
Like this when we are young, a lot of questions arise in the mind like how the world came into existence, why and how we are born, about reincarnation and many more. Then as we get older, all these questions remain in the background unanswered. The care about family, career and the concerns about keeping the head above water consume all our time and attention. A few however keep these wonderment queries alive. Did a Super-being create the Universe or did it come about by itself, evolved by itself. Can one identify oneself in the purest form and answer the question “Who am I, what am I made of?” Is there any principle which does not undergo any change and hence is eternal or do all things change and are subject to time? “Is it always nature's law to change and constancy alone is strange?”
And there are very powerful, compelling but competing theories, premises and speculations about these questions. So one finds over time that it is prudent not to spend time trying to find convincing answers to all these questions.These appear to be trivial questions and we turn our attentions thereafter to trivia.
While the puranas of ancient times describe in great detail how the Supreme Being created the Universe, there are also theories which find it unnecessary to bring in a Supreme Intelligent Being to create the Universe, like the Samkhyas and the Yogis piggybacking on the Sankhya framework. The Sankhyas say that the entire universe evolved out of a primordial atomic entity called mulaprakriti made of three essential characteristics, called satwa (order), Rajas (energy) and tamas (disorder/chaos) in perfect equilibrium. Firstly with the equilibrium disturbed by the dominance of Satwa, the first stage of evolution called Mahat or Universal Intelligence emerges. In it then Rajas raises its head to evolve the next tatwa called Ahamkara or what may be termed as Universal Ego. Then the Samkhyas thoughtfully say that from Ahamkhara emanate two streams of evolution, one the microcosmic the other macro cosmic. The satwic aspect of Ahamkara starts the microcosmic stream, leads to eleven indriyas, the five sense and five motor organs along with the coordinating agency called manas. On the other side, the tamasic aspect of ahamkara leads to five sensations or tanmatras (touch, form etc) which in turn produce the five bhutas or the gross elements like earth, water, etc. The intellect (buddhi), the ahamkara, the 11 senses (13 in all) form the subtle body. The three principles buddhi(mahat), ahamkara and manas are also called antahkarana or the internal organ. And life force made up of the five pranas is considered just an incessant function (samanya vritti) of this antahkarana. The five bhutas or gross elements combine in various combinations and different permutations and become the variegated universe we experience. The spirit or purusha, the non-changing eternal consciousness tatwa, joins the subtle body and remains with it, a mute spectator, until the yogi 'liberates' it with yoga. Until then with the subtle accumulated karma bundle and old vasanas attached to it, the subtle body transmigrates and takes a new birth and acquires a new physical body by taking the help of the bhutas of the macrocosm. There is no room for a creator principle in this rather ingenious philosophy. They are able to recognize that for the kind of experience we have, one has to explain how the subject evolves and how the objects evolve so that one can explain the kind of subject object experience we have all our life and life thereafter. They also recognize that in addition there has to be a consciousness principle that experiences all life without undergoing any change.
...continued in part 2
.................and part 3
or full newsletter here on Ramaswami's Newsletter page
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups=#!topic/vinyasa-krama-announce/mYc5xbNbOGc
------------------------------
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