Jaina Perspective in Philosophy and Religion

SR No.: 001747
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ramjee Singh
Publisher: Parshwanath Shodhpith Varanasi
Publication Year: 1993
Total Pages: 282
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ethics, & Yoga
File Size: 15 MB

Page 268

Contribution of Haribhadra to the Yoga-vidya
259
all practical activities. A man versed only in scriptural learning but lacking in yogic realisation is called as 'the friend of the learned'i but not a Yogi.
Then there are two dimensions of Yoga--the external and the internal. Even the process of concentration is regarded its outer frame, where as renunciation of all attachment and reducing oneself to zero is its inner spirit. The real Yoga, therefore, consists in the inner poise, self-mastery, its conquest of anger, sensitiveness, pride and ambition?. So there are two types of Yoga-the Yoga of knowledge and the Yoga of action. The former consists in the knowledge about the Self, its bondage, liberation and the path of liberation. But mere knowledge or theoretical knowledge is no good. What is more important is the performance of work without any selfish attachment to results, with a view to securing the welfare of the world, with the realization that agency belongs to the modes of Prakrti or to God himself.3 In fact, Yoga consists in practical realization of the self.
There are three-fold traditions of Yoga-literature in Indological writings-the Vedic, the Jaina and the Bauddha. Though the term “Yoga' has occurred many times in Rg-veda, it has always been used in the sense of 'Union' only and never in the sense of meditation or concentration of mind. Even such key-words of the Yoga-literature like meditation, nonattachment, breath control, withdrawal from external world etc. are absent in the Rg-veda.4 However, the Upanişads 5
1. Yoga-Vāśişịha, Nirvana Prakarana, Ch. 21. 2. Bhagavad-Gītā, II. 48. 3. Ibid, III, 43 ( View of Yamunācārya in Gítartha Sar
graha ). 4. The term Yoga has occurred many times in the Rgveda,
I. 34. 9; X. 266. 5; I. 18. 7; 1. 5. 3; II. 8. 1; IX. 58. 3. 5. Taittiriyopanişad, II. 4; Kaţha Upanişad, II. 6. 2; Sveta
śvatara Upanişad, II 2, IV. 3, I. 14; Chandogya Upanişad, VII. 6. 2, VII. 7. 1, VII. 26. 1.