Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali

Author(s): Prabhavnanda Swami, Christopher Isherwood
Publisher: Ramkrishna Math Madras

Page 68

II. YOGA AND ITS PRACTICE
1.
तपः-स्वाध्यायेश्वरप्रणिधानानि क्रियायोगः ॥ १ ॥
Austerity, study, and the dedication of the fruits of one's work to God: these are the preliminary steps toward yoga.
Having devoted the first chapter of his aphorisms to the aims of yoga, Patanjali now begins a chapter on its practice. These preliminary steps toward yoga are known collectively as kriya yoga, which means literally "work toward yoga." The three words employed in this translation-austerity, study and dedication—are none of them quite self-explanatory; their Sanskrit equivalents have a somewhat different frame of reference. And so it will be necessary to elaborate on each of them in turn.
The English word "austerity" has a forbidding sound. But so have its two possible alternatives, "mortification" and "discipline." Discipline, to most of us, suggests a drill sergeant; mortification, a horrible gangrene; austerity, a cabinet minister telling the public that it must eat less butter. The puritanism which has so deeply coloured our language interferes here, as so often, with our understanding of Hindu thought.
The Sanskrit word used by Patanjali in this aphorism is tapas, which means, in its primary sense, that which generates heat or energy. Tapas is the practice of conserving energy and directing it toward the goal of yoga, toward union with the Atman. Obviously, in order to do this, we must exercise self-discipline; we must control our physical appetites and passions. But which is psychologically misleading about the three above-mentioned English words is that they all stress the