Yogadrstisamuccaya and Yogavinshika

Author(s): K K Dixit
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 24

YOGADRSTISAMUCCAYA
SECTION I THE INTRODUCTORY REMARKS (a) The Benedictory Verse.
नत्वेच्छायोगतोऽयोगं योगिगम्यं जिनोत्तमम् । . वीरं वक्ष्ये समासेन योगं तदृष्टिभेदतः ॥१॥ natvecchāyogalo'yogań yogiganyan jinottamam /
vīram vaksye samāsena yogam laddīşsibledataḥ 1/1/1. Taking recourse to what is technically called 'yoga by intention' I bow to Mahāvīra, the supreme victor (i. e. the supreme among those who have gained victory over the spiritual affiictions like attachment, aversion etc.), one who is rid of all bodily, mental and vocal activity, and one who is accessible only to the yogins; thereafter I proceed on to briefly narrate . yoga as viewed from diverse standpoints (i.e. as observed on diverse planes).
(1) This routine benedictory verse, incidentally brings to light certain useful matters the most important of which is the ambiguity attached to the word yoga. In the Jaina tradition the word yoga was employed in the sense of 'a bodily, mental or vocal operation' while in the nonTaina traditions it was a synonym for the words like samadhi, dhyāna etc. all meaning a meditative trance. But Haribhadra proposed a third meaning of the word and held that whatever activity on a man's part is conducive to his mokşa (i. e. to his release from the transmigratory cycle) is yoga. And since the gradual development of an ideal human persona... lity is according to Haribhadra--as according to the entire Jaina tradi. tion - the means of attaiping mokşa he would attribute the epithet yogin to whoever is seeking to develop an ideal human personality. On Haribhadra's showing-as on the showing of the traditional Jaina thinkersthe process of developing an ideal human personality is completed in several stages, and hence according to him there will be several grades of yogins. But Haribhadra-again following the Jaina tradition - also be. lieved that a man just on the eve of attaining mokşa has to perform a . meditative trance in which all bodily, mental and vocal operations come to a dead stop; thus according to him the supreme jogin will be one who not only develops the most sublime type of human personality but also manages to perform the trance in question (and then attain mokşa in the form of a release from the transmigratory cycle). Again, the in