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Wk07 Monday, Nov 4

This Week Today:

– Loose-ends: Īṣā Upaniṣad– Intro to Sāṅkhya & Yoga

Wed– YS 1, 2.1-27– Kesarcodi-Watson 1982. "Samādhi in Patañjali's Yoga

Sūtras." – Carpenter 2003. "Practice makes perfect: The role of

practice (abhyāsa) in Pātañjala yoga."

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Weeks 7-9

Week 7– Mon: YS 1, Kesarcodi-Watson, Carpenter

Week 8– Mon: Veterans Day– Wed: YS 2-3, Whicher, Pflueger

Week 9– Mon: YS 3-4, Joseph– Wed: YS wrap up, BG Intro

Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad

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Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad

Two rescensions, Mādhyandina & Kāṇva– K: 9-11, 12-14, 15, 16, 17-18– M: 12-14, 9-11, (17), - , 15-16– 3 ~ BU 4.4.11

Demonic ← Joyless; who kill the self ← not learned/wise

– 9 = BU 4.4.10; – 15-18 = BU 5.15.1-4

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Īśā 1-3

1a: Īśā = “by the Lord” = by Brahman? ātman? 1cd: renunciation? 2: “performing works” = ritual

– 100 years = full lifespan – “smearing off” – developed further in BG

3: Killing the self– literal = suicide / destroying life– metaphorical = denying the self

contradicts KaU 2.19 (hantā cenmanyate hantuṃ…) Also BG 2.20

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Īśā 4-8: The Self

4: – not moving / swifter than the mind– standing / outpaces runners

5: – moves / does not move– far away / near at hand– within this world / outside it too

6-7: all beings ↔ one’s self no sorrow, monism8: reached the seed/śukram the shining, self-existent,

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Īśā 9-11, 12-14

9-11: ignorance / nescience (avidyā) vs. knowledge/learning (vidyā)

12-14: non-becoming (asambhava) = destruction (14) vs. becoming (sambhava)– Undifferentiated prakr̥ti vs. Creation– Analysis vs. Synthesis

Beyond death – Rebirth?

Immortality– Relative (being with gods) vs. Absolute

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Īśā 15-18

= BU 5.15 Prayer of ritualist to

– Pūṣan related to Sun god (golden dish) escorts dead to world of ancestors

– 18: Agni

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Jones on avidyā & vidyā, p. 83

emptying phase: filling phase:unknowing of forms knowledge of Brahman

(avidyā) (vidyā)

dissolution/ merging/destruction becoming

crossing death immortality

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Sāṅkhya & Yoga

First, some fancy terms

Ontology: The study of the nature of being / reality.

Epistemology: The study of how we know what we know, the nature, validity & limits of knowledge.

Soteriology: The study of salvation / liberation (mokṣa)

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6 Schools (darśana-s) of ‘Hindu’ Philosophy

1. Sāṅkhya, Dualistic Discrimination– 900 BCE – 1000 CE

2. Yoga, translation?– 200 BCE →

3. Nyāya, Logic & Empiricism– ~250 CE →

4. Vaiśeṣika, Atomism, Particularism– 200 BCE – 1 CE, 550 – 1000 CE

5. Mīmāṃsā, Vedic Exegesis– 200 BCE – 700 CE

6. Vedānta, Upaniṣads – ‘Later’ Vedic Exegesis– 200 BCE →

Sāṅkhya View (in brief)

“Radical Dualism” – Two basic ontological principles underlie the manifest

universe1. pure consciousness, puruṣa2. matter, prakṛti

Final purpose:– Attainment of isolation, kaivalya, for puruṣa– Disentanglement from material world

Not a rejection of reality of the world

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History of Sāṅkhya

var. Sāṃkhya, ← saṅkhyā, enumeration – More towards calculation, reasoning, philosophy

Three historical periods1. Proto-Sāṅkhya, 900 BCE – 300 CE RV 10.129.3-5: nāsadīya

– Distinction between consciousness & materiality– tapas, desire as creative forces

RV 10.90: puruṣa sūktam– male Puruṣa, female Virāj (Shining One)

RV 10.121: Ka, Unknown god– hiraṇyagarbha

History of Sāṅkhya, cont’d

Three historical periods1. Proto-Sāṅkhya, 900 BCE – 300 CE, cont’d BU 4.5.12: microcosm ↔ macrocosm

– Fundamental elements, convergence of: water, touch, odor, taste, sight, sound, sciences, activities, pleasures, excretion, travel, Vedas

KaU 3.10-11: gradation of fundamental principles– Higher than X is Y: senses < sense objects < mind < intellect <

immense self (ātman/mahat) < unmanifest (avyakta=prakṛti?) < person (puruṣa)

Greater development in Śvetāśvatara Up. In Mahābhārata, Book of Liberation 400 BCE – 200 CE In Bhagavad Gītā Kapila’s Sāṅkhya-sūtra (lost)

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History of Sāṅkhya, cont’d

Three historical periods2. Classical period, 350–1000 CE Sāṅkhya Kārikā of Īśvarakṛṣṇa (350-450 CE)

– Source text for school– Systematization of its philosophy

Described in detail next …

3. Later Sāṅkhya, 1000 CE → Refutations of its position start to ‘decline’ Development of ideas continues within Yoga school Overall influence widespread

Sāṅk

hya

Stru

ctur

e of

Rea

lity

25 tattvas, ontological principles puruṣa - #1 prakṛti - #2

– originating, mūla prakṛti 3 qualities, guṇa-s

– sattva, lucidity / goodness / intelligence / subjectivity– rajas, passion / energy / motion & agency– tamas, inertia / objective or determinate aspect

– buddhi / mahat, intellect - #3– ahaṃkāra, egoity - #4– manas, mind - #5

– 5 sense capacities - #6-10 hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, smelling

– 5 action capacities - #11-15 speaking, grasping, movement, excreting,

procreation

– 5 subtle elements - #16-20 sound, contact, form, taste, smell

– 5 gross elements - #21-25 space, wind, fire, water, earth

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Sāṅkhya View

Our true self is puruṣa– Transcendent Witness– Mistakenly tangled up with prakṛti, forgets self– Forgetting is cause of the delusion of suffering, rebirth

Goal:– To discern the true nature of reality– Extricate oneself from saṃsāra, embodied existence– Return to Witness state

Plurality of puruṣa-s? “Ontologically identical”? Hamilton 114 box

Classical Yoga

Yoga ← √yuj, to yoke, bind together– theistic systems: union with divine– Vyāsa: unification of the mind/self in meditation– inner control– method, exertion, diligence

Different Yogas– BG: karma-, bhakti-, jñāna-yoga– Haṭha-yoga, Yoga of force: body strength, postures– Patañjali: Rāja (royal) Yoga

Kriyā yoga – yoga of action Aṣṭāṅga yoga – Eight-limbed yoga

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What is Yoga?

Physical & spiritual disciplines– not limited to Hindu realm

Not just a ‘system’ of belief / metaphysics A method of getting something

– usu. liberation

“Sāṅkhya → knowing, Yoga → doing” Patañjali’s system:

– Knowledge of person as whole– Action integrating knowledge– Theory + practice

Who was Patañjali?

3rd-4th century CE Not the grammarian (3rd-

2nd century BCE) Legend: Incarnation of

Viṣṇu’s serpent Ananta / Śeṣa (cf. YS 2.47)

Compiler, not creator of system

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Context of Yoga Sūtra

450-370 BCE: The Buddha, Siddārtha Gautama 4th-1st c. BCE: Different schools of Buddhism 3rd c. BCE - 2nd c. CE: Mahābhārata epic 1st c. BCE – 1st c. CE: Mahāyāna B’ism emerges 1st c. BCE – 1st c. CE: Bhagavad Gītā ‘composed’ 2nd c. CE: Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka B’ism 3rd c. CE: Yoga Sūtras ‘composed’ 4th c. CE: Yogācāra B’ism 4th-5th c. CE: Sāṅkhya Kārikās composed

Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra195 aphorisms, 4 sections:I. Samādhi, meditative concentration (51 verses)II. Sādhana, path to attainment (55 verses)III. Vibhūti, supernormal powers (55 verses)IV. Kaivalya, nature of liberation (34 verses)

Commentaries: Vyāsa – was he a yogin? 5th c. CE Vācaspati Miśra, 9th c. King Bhoja, 11th c. Vijñāna Bhikṣu, 16th c.

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Yoga Metaphysics: puruṣa

Essential self, root-consciousness Highest goal of life is to realize identity with

puruṣa– end identification with prakṛti– end to all fears, suffering

Liberation while living or upon death?– “spatio-temporal existence is mere epiphenomenon”

– Feuerstein, p. 11

Plurality of puruṣa-s?– Feuerstein: Academic question

Yoga Metaphysics: prakṛti

Nature, primordial matter Absolutely real Objective reality (seen, grasped) Both single (undifferentiated) and manifold Object consciousness ← puruṣa + prakṛti Has three guṇa-s

– in balance in undifferentiated form:– sattva, lucidity / goodness / intelligence / subjectivity– rajas, passion / energy / motion & agency– tamas, inertia / objective or determinate aspect

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Another Perspective on S-Y

puruṣa = consciousness– content-less, non-intentional– plural in manifestation

prakṛti = materiality– singular entity, despite 3 guṇa-s, 24 elements– includes conventional notion of “self” intellect + egoity + mind

Each appears as what it is NOT! Goal: Meditation to disjoin (vi-yoga) these

Yoga Metaphysics: Iśvara, Lord

Special puruṣa, never entangled with prakṛti Omniscient, unbound by time Not creator Teacher of former yogins (1.26) – How? Archetype? Śiva? Absolute? Theistic? 26th principle? (cf. Sāṅkhya)

– Target of devotion? (praṇidhāna per Vyāsa) BHS: “fixation of mind, taking a vow”

Object of contemplation? Oṃ

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