Sambodhi 1980 Vol 09

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

Page 14

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Shantilal M. Desai
Their order could have been far better and the same material could have been arranged in a sequential manner so that one topic would naturally follow from the former. Had he devoted more space for the synthesis of yoga systems in a better order and more systematic manner, the impact on the reader could have been much more intense, more specific and more clear. The same comment applies to the different yoga topics he has trea. ted in these two works but we have to glean them togather as they are scattered all over them. These drawbacks may be due to the fact that he was a poet too.
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Important Yoga-Concepts
Haribhadra has described some basic yoga-topics and put enough emphasis on them for yogic sadhana. Such a treatment of these topics lay before us some yoga-co acepts which are fundamental and seem to be the pillar of the edifice of an integrated yoga system. Patañjali too has very clearly stated such yoga concepts. Haribhadra is conscious of the necessity of these yoga-concepts and has set them in the treatment of yoga-principles wherever he felt them to be opportune : These yoga-concepts are like this:
(1) Self-assessment (2) Introspection (3) Human efforts v/s fate (4) Adhyātma (5) Satsang or the good company (6) Faith (7) Deity-worship (8) Japa (9) Tapa or penance (10) Bhāvanās (11) Dhyāna and (12) Prajñā.
Let us now take these topics one by one and see what Haribhadra has to say about each of them in turn. It is intended to compare the same with Patañjali's exposition on them and find out whether more light is shed in understanding and grasping the true meaning and purpose behind them all. At the first glance, it can be seen that these topics are important assets to the yoga systems in general and they convey fundemental psychological truths. Without them no psychosynthesis is possible nor can a system of yoga be built.
It is Haribhadra's pragmatic genius that could see the first necessity of self-assessment in the way of yogic life. Without the urge to assess onself no self-development can proceed. One has to find out where one is and what he is before he starts his journey on the way to self-realization. Haribhadra places self-assessment first and rightly too as it is the primary requirement and the first step for yogic life. In the Kārikās 389, 390, 391 of Yogabindu, he has well described self-assessment and lays down the methods for the same. They are three in number (1) One should see one's mental and physical operations, see how they are performed. This is a sort of watching one's activities going on inside the mind as well as outside on