Sambodhi

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 13

Haribhadra's Synthesis of Yoga
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the comparison with the Guņasthānas too this personality is included. Real sādhanā starts from the stage Apunarbandhaka onwards and its higher stages are the real sādhakas. Dr. Dixit compares these categories with the fourteen Jain Gunasthānas thus : "Thus it is that he mentions the 'welcomers of the worldly existence and the Apunarbandhakas (both occupying the fourth Gunasthāna) the Cāritrins of the Deśaviratas type (occupying the fifth Guņasthāna), those of Sarvavirata type (occupying the sixth and the seventh Gunasthānas, those of the Ksapaka śreņi-ārohin type (occupying rather passing through the eigthth, ninth and tenth Guņasthanas) and those of Vitarāga type (occupying the twelfth Gunasthāna), the Sayoga Kevalin (occupying the thirteenth Guņasthāna), the Ayoga Kevlin (occupying the fourteenth Guņasthāna)” Thus all the fourteen Guņasthānas are covered up by these five main categories of personalities and in doing so Hari. bhadra has mostly used the terms of his own choice. In both these schemes of hierarchy of personalities the chief aim is to show the qualifications or the fitness of different categories of sādhakas. Here the eleventh-Guņasthāna is not considered because from that stage the sadhaka is not progressing upward but transcends everything.
These are the main categories of Sādhakas according to Haribhadra. It is an arbitrary categorization of sādhakas and is an outcome of prevatent conceptions of Haribhadra's times. It does not matter how the categories are construed. It only suggests that there is a hierarchy of sādhakas but it does not provide a hard and fast classification because the categories overlap in some of their characteristics.
Even then the concept of personality growth is quite clear in all yoga systems. Characterbuilding, cultivation of good habits and virtues, expansion of ego and consciousness are the main features of yogic method of personality-building. Modern psychology gives no better method than these and in a way they fall short because its emphasis is more on the ego than on the self.
It would not be out of place, nor would it be considered inappropriate if some adverse comments be made with regard to these Haribhadra's categories of sädhakas. He has devoted many Kārikās on these categories which are merely arbitrary constructions in accordance with the prevailing concepts. They may be his own concepts of different types of sädhakas. Their descriptions are unnecessarily lengthy and are overlapping too. There are avsidable repetitions which do not lend any charm to their descriptions but on the contrary they are sometimes boring. Similarly his classifications of yoga in different ways too are repetitive and are overlapping too. The arrangements of subjects and subtopics do not seem to be very systematic.