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Freudian Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamics of Yoga
141
Psychoanalytic cure would be irrelevant and Yogic cure has to be recommended because Yogic therapy has been derived from Yogic metaphysics.
5. Mäyä
Sharma points out surprisingly that Maya is a vital concept of Yoga (PY, p56). Maya is relativity and Maya is nature also. It is also the embodi ment of relativity (p 56). This means that one can do what one likes with any transcedental concept. It could mean Newtonian physics if one is arguing in 17th century and it could mean Einsteinian physics if one is arguing in 20th century, just as Moksa could also mean psychoanalytic liberation in 20th century. The contrived flexibility of the concepts of Prakti, Puruşa, Maya, Avidya, Moksi, Sakti, etc. is amazing. It appears that it is better to stick to the meanings of the concepts in their classical context and 'Maya' there should mean Maya and not relativity, otherwise, Maya would mean whatever is established by the physics of the day.
6. Definition of Yoga
Sharma discusses different kinds of Yoga, and claims that Raja Yoga is Yoga for all. He however points out that Patanjali's definition of Yoga is negative because it refers to cessation of mental modifications (PY, 89). He then refers to the latest electronic devices used to record ceaseless brain-activity going on even during sleep. Modern physiological psychology has found that even during dreamless sleep and meditation, a particular brain-wave pattern is constantly generated. So there is no cessation of cerebral activity at any stage of life. Now Sharma, reinterprets "mental modifications" (cittavṛtti) as 'cerebral modifications' in the modern sense and then claims that "the cerebral modifications cease for a while" (p.90). Such cessation is possible by Yoga practice. Cessation of cerebral activity by conscious efforts of the seeker is the first principle of mental economy according to Sharma. But, in fact, voluntary cessation of all cerebral activity is not possible. "Even temporary voluntary cessation of all cerebral activity is not possible according to neurophysiology." Chittavṛtti Nirodha is not the same as cessation of all cerebral activity. Patanjali need not be neurophysiologically interpreted, just as modern concepts of cosmic or biological evolution are not equivalent to Samkhya concept of evolution. Different kinds of cerebral activities accompany different kinds of normal and altered states of consciousness and even meditative consciousness has been found to be correlated with certain cerebral activity patterns, but correlation is not identity.
Sharma claims that during Samadhi, nerve-fibres and cell-bodies ren ain unexcited. (PY, p 111). Neurophysiological evidence should have been cited to substantiate this empricial claim.
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