Haribhadras Yoga Works and Psychosynthesis

SR No.: 001262
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S A Desai
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1983
Total Pages: 106
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Yoga
File Size: 7 MB

Page 48

Haribhadra's Synthesis of Yoga
· Their order could have been far better and the same material could have been arranged in a sequential manner so that one topic. would naturally follow from the former. Had he devoted more space for the synthesis of yoga: systems in a better order and more systematic manner, the impact on the reader could have been much more intense, more specific and more clear. The same comnient applies to the different yoga topics he has treated in these two works but we have to glean them togather as they are scattered all over them. These drawbacks may be due to the fact that he was a poet too.
Important Yoga-Concepts
Haribhadra has described some basic yoga-topics and put enough 'em. phasis on them for yogic sādhana. Such a treatment of these topics lay before us some yoga-concepts which are fundamental and seem to be the pillar of the edifice of an integrated yoga system. Patañjali too has very olearly stated such yoga concepts. Haribhadra is conscious of the pecessity of these yoga-concepts and has set them in the treatment of yoga-principles wherever he felt them to be opportune : These yoga-concepts are #ke this: *** (1) Self-assessment (2) Introspection (3) Human efforts v/s fate (4) Adhyātma (5) Satsang or the good company (6) Faith (7) Deity-worship (8) Japa (9) Tapa or penance (10) Bhāvanās (11) Dhyāna ard (12) Prajñā.
Let us now take these topics one by one and see what Haribhadra has to say about each of them in turn. It is intended to compare the same with Patañjali's exposition on them and find out whether more light is shed in understanding and grasping the true meaning and purpose behind them all. At the first glance, it can be seen that these topics are important assets to the yoga systems in general and thcv convey fundemental psychological truths. With >ut them no psychosynthesis is possible nor can a system of yoga be built.
It is Haribhadra's pragmatic genius that could see the first necessity of self-assessment in the way of yogic life. Without the urge to assess onself no self-development can proceed. One has to find out where one is and what he is before he starts his journey on the way to self-realization. Haribhadra places self-assessment first and rightly too as it is the primary requirement and the first step for yogic life. In the Kärikās 389, 390, 391 of Yogabindu, he has well described self-assessment and lays down the methods for the same. They are three in number (1) One should see one's mental and physical operations, see how they are performed. This is a sort of watching one's activities going on inside the mind as well as outside 09