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Jaina Perspective in Philosophy and Religion
[IV]
But it was Haribhadra who for the first time gave an altogether new dimension in the interpretation of Yoga. It is only Haribhadra who defined the term 'Yoga' in the sense of 'what leads one to emancipation' ( mukhena, jayano savvo vi dhammovavaro ).1 Thus he has ushered a new era in the Yoga-literature of the Jainas. He wrote important Yoga treatises like Yoga-bindu, Yoga-dṛṣți-sammuccaya, Yoga-vimśikā, Yoga-sataka and Soḍaśaka. The term Yoga used in the general sense of subduing the senses and the mind and the process of concentration and ecstasy even in the earlier stages of the Jaina thought as well as the early Buddhist thought. But the terms Jñana (dhyana) and Samadhi were more in vogue than the term Yoga. It is only in the Yoga-sutra of Patanjali that we find the proper location of dhyana in the eight-fold process of Yoga, for the first time.2 Haribhadra's in his characteristic catholic outlook did not discuss and interpret Yoga according to the Jaina tradition only but he made a comparative and critical study of Patanjali's Yoga etc. The description of eight-fold standpoints in the Yoga-drşti-sammuccaya is altogether a new dimension in Yoga literature.
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All spiritual and religious activities that lead towards emancipation are considerd by Haribhadra as Yoga. His ingenuity lies in the yogic interpretation of the Jaina doctrine of Spiritual development ( Guna-sthana ). The soul has inherent capacity for emancipation but this capacity remains dormant and inactive due to Karmic influences. But the soul can be roused to active spiritual excertion which is nothing other than yogic activities. The Jainas do not believe either in the
1. Haribhadra Yoga Viisika, Karikä 1.
2. Tatia, N. M.: Studies in Jaina Philosophy, Jaina Cultural Research Society, Varanasi, 1951, p. 261.
3. Haribhadra : Yoga-binbu, 418, 420.
4. Haribhadra Yoga-drşti-sammuccaya, Kārikā 13.
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