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Shantilal M. Desai
Among them the word Tapas seems to be the oldest. The words convey actions in the field of experience and specially the inner experiences of man. Ancient Rșis deemed it necessary to look into their own minds in their search for truth. They must have realised that the ultimate truth is not external as everything external is changing. They needed the ultimate stable truth and they must have felt that such stability is felt in the core of their very being. Man grows from a child to an old age and still he feels himself to be the same person. They began to introspect to find out the unity of personality in man. They could do this only by searching the mind. So, buman mind became the field of their research and mind itself was the instrument of such a search. This could be done only by introspetion. So introspection became the first and original principle of their research. But they soon must have found that introspection was not an easy job. It could be done only on certain conditions and it required special personal and social conduct. It required austerity and putting limitations to certain enjoyments which deflected the mind. So tapas or yoga concept came into existence. As the practice of introspection and austerity progressed they must have found by experience that merely, putting of certain limitations was not very useful; as obstructions of worldly life must have come into their way of searching the ultimate truth. Thence they must have been led to a special way of life for the search of and the union with the ultimate truth in life. So, the original concepts of all yoga are (1) introspection (2) higher conduct and (3) special, way of life. These concepts or original and primal doctrines were for an ultimate goal. The goal in Vedic tradition was the union with Brahman and 'Sama' was used for the same purpose in other traditions. The one philosophy developed round the fundamental concept of Brahman and the other philosophies round the concept of 'Sama'. Though the basic concepts remained the same their expressions differred. This is mainly due to the usage of language too. Vedic philosophy found expression mainly in Sanskrit while Jain and Buddhist doctrines and concepts in philosophy and yoga were expressed in Prakrit and Pali languages.
Reverting back to the origin and development of the basic concepts of Yoga it can be said that the Rşis experienced a great difficulty in their application. They must have tried introspection, must have observed rules of higher ethical conduct and must have tried to live in a special way of life in hermitage but they must have inevitably experienced insurmountable obstacles in the form of Klešas like Pgo, attachment, aversion etc, and even physical handicaps like lethargy, laxity and such other bodily inclinations. In search of the remedy for all these physical and mental obstructions they had to take recourse to penance or Tapas. They must have found out
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