Yoga Philosophy

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi, Bhagu F Karbhari
Publisher: Devchand Lalbhai Pustakoddhar Fund

Page 37

MYSTICISM IN INDIA
avoidance of greediness. That is the fifth sub-rule of the first stage to which the student of Yoga has to submit. Greediness consists not only in coveting more than necessary but also in keeping in possession anything beyond the very necessaries of life. Some practitioners are known to carry this requirement to the extent of even not accepting any thing whatever from others. The Yoga philosophy claims that when desire is destroyed, when in fact even the last and subtle but unconquerable desire for life too is given up, there arises knowledge of the why and wherefore of existence. We thus finish the list of the five classes of forbearance--the first stage through which a student of Yoga has to pass.
The second stage through which he has to pass is Niyama, i.e., observances. The five kinds of forbearance which I mentioned before were negative injunctions; the five kinds of observances which I am now describing are positive commands. The first is purity, bodily and mental which latter consists in universal love and equanimity. The second is contentmentbeing satisfied with one's lot. The third is austerities, i.e., fasts, penances, observances mentioned in the Hindool Dharma Shastras. Study the fourth is the repetition of the sacred mystic word Om or any holy incantation. The fifth is resignation to the Supreme God which means that the practitioner should so abandon himself to the will of the supreme that he must move about only to fulfil his benign wish, not to accomplish this or that result. He must hear all