Multiplex Concepts of Yoga as per Philosophical Framework of Vallabha Vedenta

SR No.: 250391
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shyam Manohar Goswami, Achyutanand Dash
Publisher: Shyam Manohar Goswami
Total Pages: 19
Language: English
Classification: Article & Yoga
File Size: 2 MB

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killing non-violence (ahics), truthfulness (satya), non-stealing (astheya), detachment (asa-ga), non-grabbing (asa kaya), having faith upon (asthikya), celibacy (brahmacarya), silence (mauna), patience (sthairya), forgiveness (keama), fearlessness (abhaya), purity (sauca), chanting the mantra (Japa), penance (tapa), sacrifice (homa), stable faith (áraddha), hospitality (ärithya), adoration for the God (bhagavadarcana), visiting holy places (tirtha ana), thinking of benefaction (parürtheha), satisfaction (tu), serving the teachers (ācārya-sevana) etc. Here the term 'pu a-tirtha-jala' implies that one should give up taking plain water and visiting holy places for fulfilling material desire. The practice of this yoga is advised by sitting on seat made up off either cloth, or skin of antelope, or kusa-(Poacynosuroides)-grass. When someone practices the sabija-prāyāma (a type of breathing exercise that goes along with the chanting of Omkara), it helps him to control the breathing system quickly. The pra kayama is to be practiced with the uni-latter Omkara, that is the name of the Brahman, consisting of three holy letters namely a-kāra, u-kāra and m-kāra. By this practice one gains control over the breathing system. Anybody who cannot control over his/ her breathing system cannot control over his / her mind. A person who can control over his mind can control over his sense organs. Otherwise, the vicious attitude of the mind in the matters of sense organs may cause the mind in distracting from the practice of yoga. The mental faculty constitutes both the sensitive organs as well as the motor organs, and thus with the help of pratyāhāra (a technical name for the fifth part of yoga), one can resist from doing wrong deeds like someone controls the sense organs from their respecting matters. When someone is very perfect in doing this, now he can proceed on making a mental image or the Lord and worship Him by concentrating his mind in different parts or limbs of the image, and this is called dhara à. Concentrating the mind in any single limb/part is called dhyana. One should concentrate on the different limbs and gradually concentrate on the whole unified body. When this type of meditation becomes perfect then only for sometime one should try to make his mind completely empty, bereft of all the matters. In this process when someone realizes that his mind is relaxed and enjoying Supreme bliss then he should understand that the figure of the Lord is established in the Self itself, which is the divine eternal abode of the Lord instead of the mental faculties. Only on the ground of this concentration the yogi regains the perfection of a superior yoga called bhakti-yoga (yoga of devotion).
After this king Parikoita asked: how someone can gain this type of concentration? Whether one make a mental image and concentrate upon it or one should make a physical image as per the śāstras? The Lord is of infinite images; in that case, what type of image can be made that will be acceptable to all the yogins without any exception. What type of image? - The question implies whether it should be formal physically or qualitative intentionally? Whether it should be gross or subtle? Whether it should be formless or embodied? Whether one should meditated upon the internal composed image of the Lord or the decorative and attractive external image of the Lord? How all the mental-inflicts are eradicated?
In conciliation with this Sukamuni first of all suggested meditating upon the gross image of the Lord. The grossness is constituted with taking whole the universe into account and that helps in conceptualizing the Universal Form of the Lord. For that one has to identify the lower world with the feet of the Lord, and in the process, starting from the feet one has to go up to the head of the Lord by identifying the whole universe gradually and then to meditate upon it. That in turn will help in realizing the whole Universe as the Brahman, and all the matters in the universe will automatically get transformed into the form of the Supreme Divine Being. This happens like in a dreaming state where there is nothing other than the dreamer, or any object of dreaming; neither the sense organ for seeing the dream nor the cognitive experience exists. In the same manner when there is clear realization of the
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