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Yogados!i-samuccaya The description of the stages of spiritual development found in this work differs from tbe one found in the Yoga-bindu in regard to terminology, classification and style. It incorporates certain topics of Yoga-bindu in different words and it also adds certain other new topics. The outstanding feature of this work is that it records three novel classifications of yogic stages. The first consists of the three-fold Yoga viz., - Iccbāyoga, Šāstra yoga and Samarthyayoga. The second classification records the eight types of Yoga-drstis whose nature is adumbrated below. The third classification gives us the four categories of yogis. Now let us study these three classifications.
"A qualified yogic practitioner passes through a number of stages before he reaches the consummnation of the practice. Sometimes even inspite of his knowledge and will he falters in his practice on account of spiritual inertia (pramāda). This faltering practice is called icchãyoga. The practice of one who has revealed spiritual entrgy and does not falter in his yogic practices, strictly follows the scriptural injunctions, and has developed penetrating insight is called sästrayoga. The practice of one who has fully mastered the scriptural injunctions and has developed the power to transcand them is called sāmarthya-yoga. (St. 3-5). This latter yoga, again, is of two kinds viz. (1) that which is accomplished by the dissociation of all the acquired virtues (dharmasamnyāsa) and (2) that which effects the stoppage of all activity (yogasamnyāsa). The first kind occurs at the time when the soul undergoes the process of apūrvakaraña for the second time in the ninth stage of spiritual development while the second occurs in the last stage of spiritual development immediately after which the soul attains final emancipation (St. 4-10). These viz. icchāyoga, śāstrayoga, and sãmartbayoga are the three broad divisions of all the possible stages of yoga.” The eight drsțis which are outlined below are only the elaboration of these three. (St. 12).
Drsţi means attitude towards truth. This attitude is wrong and perverse so long as the soul has not cut the knot and attained purification. The perverse attitude is known as dpsțimoba or mithyatva or avidya. The attitude of thesoul which has not cut the knot is known as ogbadrsti (literally commonplace attitude). The opposite of this is Yogadrșți, that
on the Patañjala Yoga-sütra (I. 18), he includes even the Samprajñāta in the Vịtti-samkşaya. This means that he gives a wider connotation to Vịtti-saṁkşaya and extends its range from the fourth Gunasthāna to the fourteenth one.
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