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Philosophical Speculations of Selected Purānas [CH.
are regarded as being the elements originating from the earth, manas and buddhi. The Yogin has to take these objects one by one, and then to leave them off, so that he may not be attached to any one of them. When he does so and becomes unattached to any one of these seven and concentrates on Maheśvara associated with omniscience, contentment, beginningless knowledge, absolute freedom (svātantrya), unobstructed power, and infinite power, he attains Brahman. So the ultimate object of Yoga realization is1 the attainment of Brahmahood as Maheśvara which is also called apavarga2.
In the Markandeya Purana, yoga is described as a cessation of ajñāna through knowledge, which is, on the one hand, emancipation and unity with Brahman, and, on the other, dissociation from the gunas of prakrti3. All sorrows are due to attachment. With the cessation of attachment there is also the cessation of the feeling of identifying all things with oneself (mamatva); and this leads to happiness. True knowledge is that which leads to emancipation, all else is ajñāna. By experiencing the fruits of virtues and vices through the performance of duties and other actions, through the accumulation of fruits of past karman (apūrva), and through the exhaustion of certain others, there is the bondage of karma. The emancipation from karma, therefore, can only result from an opposite procedure. The prāṇāyāma is supposed to destroy sins1. In the ultimate stage the yogi becomes one with Brahman, just as water thrown in water becomes one with it". There is no reference here to chitta-vṛtti-nirodha as yoga.
Vasudeva is described here as the ultimate Brahman, who by His creative desire has created everything through the power of time. Through this power He separated the two entities of pra
1 There is no reference in the chapters on yoga of the Vayu Purana to vṛttinirodha and kaivalya.
2 There is a chapter both in the Vayu Purana and in the Märkandeya Purana on arista, similar to what is found in the Jayakhya-samhita where signs are described by which the yogin is to know the time of his death, though the description of his death is entirely different from that given in the other two works.
3 jñāna-pūrvo viyogo yo'jñānena saha yoginaḥ | sā muktir brahmaṇā cai'kyam anaikyam prakṛtair gunaiḥ. || Märkandeya Purana, 39. 1.
4 The method of pranayama and other processes of yoga is more or less the same as that found in the Vayu Purāna.
5 Markandeya Purana, 40. 41.
The Markandeya Purana, in this connection, says that the yogin should know the approach of his death by the signs described in ch. 40, so that he may anticipate it and may not get dispirited.
