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 74

Haribhadra's Synthesis of Yoga
of some of the basic terms like Vitarka and others and the process o Vịtti itself. A Vịtti is the modification of the mind from the moment to moment. On seeing any object for instance, a Vștti arises. But a Vștti is not simple but a complex operation of the mind. There are at least four layers or levels in each Vịtti which like the wave arises and falls
d again merges in other waves. Each wave or Vrtti, then consists of four layers or levels and they are the Vitarka, Vicāra, Ananda and Asmitā and finally they can be merged in the Svarūpa by the Sādhaka by Sarprajñāta Samadhi. But in the ordinary mind the first four levels of a Vrtti submerge again and again.
On seeing an object the first operation in a Vștti that arises is Vitarka i.e. image of the object in the mind. The second layer or level is Vicāra i.e. the images of the relations of the different aspects of the object. The third level is about the concommitant feeling of pleasure (or pain) and the last layer is the cognition of the ego or the modification of the ego in consequence of the impact of these three former layers. Thus every Vrtti has a four-fold impact on the mind at four different levels. Vitarka has an impact on an image and so it affects the imagination of the mental Visualization. Vicăra affects the capacity to relate different aspects of the object and thus it has an impact on the thinking power. Ananda affects one's affective capacity of pleasure and pain and the Asmitā has an impact on the evolving ego of man. The Svarūpa is always unaffected but in the Samprajñāta the sādhaka can merge the Vștti in Svarūpa after sublimating and transforming it by process of Samyama. But in ordinary mind only the four layers can be observed by self-introspection alone because they form a complex. All these layers arise as a complex Vstti and merge again in the mind so quickly that untrained mind cannot see them in succession. But they are all there in every Vštti or the modification of the mind. Výttis also arise so quickly and submerge also at once that they can also be observed only by self-introspection alone. Kishorlalbhai Mashruwala has explained this four-fold process in the last part of his wellknown book Jivanaśodhana very ably and I would say it is his original contribution in the field of yoga. I feel he has rightly interpreted this sutra on Samprajñāta. Sadhaka is for inner bliss alone and that is why the third layer is named Ananda. But in the ordinary Vștti this layer may consist of either pleasure or pain. But Patanjali here talks o the process af Samyama and is such a process this layer conists of bliss and bliss alone,
When Samprajñāta stage is attained it is easy to understand Asamprjañāta because therein the Soul is bereft of all connections of the Karma