Keśidhvaja and Khāṇḍikya: The Teaching of Yoga

The Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa tells this account in Chapters 6 and 7 of its Shashṭhāṃśa. It is set in the line of the Janaka kings. Two cousins are at the centre of it: Keśidhvaja, a master of ātma-vidyā (the knowledge of the self), and Khāṇḍikya, a king who followed karma-mārga (the path of action). They were enemies, yet each gave the other what he needed. The account sets out two paths to moksha, desireless action and yoga-jñāna (yoga and knowledge), and says that both lead to the same Vāsudeva.

The family and the enmity

Dharmadhvaja was a king of the Janaka line. He had two sons, Mitadhvaja and Kṛtadhvaja. Both followed the adhyātma path (the path of the inner self), but in different ways.

Kṛtadhvaja’s son was Keśidhvaja, an extraordinary master of ātma-vidyā. Mitadhvaja’s son was Khāṇḍikya. He followed the karma-mārga, ruled the earth as king, and was skilled in all the rites and duties of a king’s dharma.

The cousins came into conflict. Keśidhvaja defeated Khāṇḍikya and took away his kingdom. Khāṇḍikya went with his ministers and his purohita (family priest) into a deep forest that was hard to reach. Even without a kingdom, he kept to the path of karma in the forest. He performed yajñas (fire rituals), kept the sacred fires, and sought through his actions the moksha that his path promised.

This is in Chapter 6.

The death of the gharmadhenu and the search for the prāyaścitta

During a yajña that Keśidhvaja was holding, a tiger killed the gharmadhenu. This is the cow used in the morning rite (gharma) of the soma yajña. Without this cow, the yajña was not complete by the rules and might be spoiled. Keśidhvaja asked his ṛtvijas (priests) which prāyaścitta (expiation rite) was needed. None of them knew.

On the advice of the ṛtvijas, Keśidhvaja went to Kāśeruka. Kāśeruka did not know and sent him to Bhārgava. Bhārgava did not know and sent him to Śunaka. Śunaka told him that there was only one man in the world who knew the answer. It was Khāṇḍikya, the enemy whom Keśidhvaja had driven into the forest.

When Keśidhvaja heard this, he did not hold back. He valued the right completion of his yajña above his own pride. He climbed into his chariot and drove into the deep forest to ask his enemy.

This is in Chapter 6.

The meeting in the forest: dharma above enmity

Khāṇḍikya saw Keśidhvaja coming with a bow in his hand, and his anger rose. He said: “You have come wearing the black deer skin and think it will protect you. A hide on an animal’s back does not protect the animal from arrows. You are my enemy, you took my kingdom, you are an ātatāyin (one who attacks with weapons). I will kill you, and you will not leave this place alive.” His ministers said the same: “He is our enemy and he is within reach. Kill him now and take back the kingdom.”

But Khāṇḍikya would not do it. He reasoned before his ministers: “If I kill him, I gain this earth, a prize that does not last. If I let him go and teach him, I gain paro-dharma, the eternal fruit. Paro-dharma is ananta (endless). Winning the earth (mahī-jaya) is alpa-kāla (short-lived). A true jñānī (knower) does not want a kingdom that is not lasting and is born of ahaṃkāra (the sense of ‘I’). I will not kill him.”

Khāṇḍikya went forward and said to Keśidhvaja: “Ask what you need. I will give you the answer.”

Keśidhvaja told him everything from the death of the gharmadhenu and asked for the prāyaścitta. Khāṇḍikya gave him the exact procedure, in full agreement with dharma and the rules of the śāstra.

This is in Chapter 6.

The guru-dakshiṇā and the true request

Keśidhvaja went back to his place of yajña, completed all the rites as Khāṇḍikya had told him, and took the avabhṛtha-snāna (the closing bath that marks the completion of a yajña). Then, as he sat thinking, he saw that he had received a deep teaching from Khāṇḍikya and had not given guru-dakshiṇā (a gift to the teacher). He climbed into his chariot at once and went back to the forest.

When Khāṇḍikya saw him coming a second time, he again reached for his weapon. But Keśidhvaja called out: “Khāṇḍikya! I have not come to harm you. I remembered that I forgot to give guru-dakshiṇā for your teaching. I have come to offer it. Ask for whatever you wish.”

Khāṇḍikya’s ministers pressed him at once: “Ask for the kingdom. Claim what is yours by right. Take back the throne without a battle.” Khāṇḍikya smiled at them and said: “A mahājñānī (one of great wisdom) would not seek a kingdom that is alpa-kāla. Those who are caught in mamakāra (the sense of ‘mine’) and ahaṃkāra crave kingdoms. We do not.”

Then he turned to Keśidhvaja and said: “You are skilled in adhyātma. You live in brahma-vidyā (the knowledge of Brahman). You can give me what no kingdom can give: the knowledge of how to reach moksha, the knowledge of the path that will end all kleśa (suffering) for ever. That is my guru-dakshiṇā.”

This is in Chapter 6.

Keśidhvaja’s teaching: avidyā and its root

Keśidhvaja was glad and full of respect for Khāṇḍikya’s vairāgya (freedom from desire). He agreed, and began the great teaching that fills Chapter 7.

He first explains the root of bondage, which is avidyā (ignorance), and how it works. Avidyā has two seeds. The first is to take as the ātman what is not the ātman, that is, the body. The second is to take as one’s own what is not one’s own. The body is pāñcabhautika (made of the five elements) and is fed by pāñcabhautika food. It belongs to the elements and is not the self. Whoever says “I am this body” or “this body and its relatives and belongings are mine” is held by avidyā.

He gives the well-known example of the pot and the water. Water and fire do not touch each other directly. Yet through a third thing, the pot, fire heats the water and makes it boil and make sound. In the same way, the ātman and prakṛti have no touch of their own. Yet through the antaḥkaraṇa (the inner instrument, the mind), the ātman seems to go through the changes of saṃsāra. The suffering of the jīva is real in experience but is not real in the nature of the ātman. The remedy for this is yoga.

This is in Chapter 7.

The eight-limbed yoga

Keśidhvaja then teaches the whole of ashṭāṅga yoga.

Yama and niyama

The five yamas are ahiṃsā, satya, asteya (not stealing), brahmacarya and aparigraha (not hoarding).

The five niyamas are svādhyāya (study of the self and recitation of the Veda), śauca (purity), santosha (contentment), tapas (austerity) and Īśvara-praṇidhāna (surrender to Bhagavān Vishṇu).

By these practices the sādhaka (seeker) makes the mind pure and builds the ground of right conduct from which all further yoga is possible.

Āsana, prāṇāyāma and pratyāhāra

After yama and niyama, the yogī practises the āsanas (postures) that suit long sitting. Then he moves to prāṇāyāma, the control of the prāṇa-vāyu (the life-breath). Prāṇāyāma has two forms. One is sādhāraṇa, the ordinary practice of joining prāṇa and apāna in a round of pūraka (breathing in), kumbhaka (holding the breath) and recaka (breathing out). The other is nirbīja (without seed), a control free of vāsanā, in which every trace of karma-vāsanā is dissolved from the breath.

After prāṇāyāma, the yogī practises pratyāhāra, the drawing back of the senses from their objects. He brings them fully under the control of the citta (mind) and does not let the objects of the senses (vishaya) pull them outward.

Dhāraṇā: the formed and the formless

Dhāraṇā is fixing the mind on one object without movement. Keśidhvaja names two kinds of dhāraṇā, for the two kinds of object.

Mūrta dhāraṇā, on the formed aspect. The whole world that shows itself is the mūrta (formed) rūpa (form) of Vishṇu. It runs from Hiraṇyagarbha and Vāsudeva down through all the devas, ṛshis, humans, animals, birds, serpents, mountains, rivers, oceans, trees, and all beings that move and do not move. The Purāṇa names these in a long list and says that all this world is the mūrta rūpa of Hari. A mind fixed on this all-pervading viśvarūpa (all-form) as the mūrta form of Vishṇu is practising mūrta dhāraṇā.

Amūrta dhāraṇā, on the formless aspect. The amūrta (formless) aspect is the brahma-śakti, the highest śakti (power) of Vishṇu. It pervades everything and cannot be known by any sense, but the mind can be fixed on it through pure ātma-saṃvit (awareness of the self). This is the deeper and finer dhāraṇā.

Dhyāna: the form of Bhagavān Vishṇu

For dhyāna (meditation), Keśidhvaja gives a full description of the form of Bhagavān Vishṇu to be held in the mind. It has these marks:

eyes like lotus petals
a pleasant, broad forehead
cheeks that are beautiful and well formed
fine kuṇḍala earrings on the ears
a neck like a conch
a broad chest marked with the śrīvatsa
a deep navel, with three folds of skin above the belly
eight long arms, or four, holding the conch, the disc, the mace and the lotus
thighs and ankles well formed
beautiful lotus feet
clothes of bright yellow silk (pīta-vastra)

This form is sākshāt (directly) Brahman.

The yogī first holds this form in his mind while he is active, walking, standing or at any other time. If the mind holds the form and does not wander, dhāraṇā has been reached. Then he meditates step by step. First he meditates on the full form, adorned with the conch, the disc and the crown. Then he meditates on the form without ornaments but with the aksha-mālā (rosary). Then he meditates on the form with all ornaments taken away. Then he meditates limb by limb, staying with each limb until dhyāna deepens.

Samādhi and the three bhāvanās

Samādhi comes when all bhāvanā (what the mind lays over things, every “this is such-and-such”) is fully dissolved. What is left is kevala saṃvit, pure awareness without an object. The dhyeya (the object of meditation) and the dhyātā (the one who meditates) both dissolve, and only the pure self-awareness of the ātman remains. At this point the Purāṇa names the three bhāvanās:

Karma-bhāvanā. The bhāvanā of all bound beings (devas, humans and animals) who are engaged in action.
Brahma-bhāvanā. The bhāvanā of the great siddhas such as Sanaka and his brothers, who rest in pure Brahma-awareness.
Karma-brahma-ubhaya-bhāvanā. The joined bhāvanā of beings such as Hiraṇyagarbha, who hold both.

When all three bhāvanās are dissolved, when both “this is the world” and “this is Brahman” have ended, what is left is the pure ātma-saṃvit that is the same as Brahman. That is samādhi. That is moksha.

This is in Chapter 7.

The three śaktis of Vishṇu

In the same teaching, Keśidhvaja names the three śaktis of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Together they make up all that exists.

Parā śakti. The highest śakti. It is above all conditions and cannot be described. It shines by itself and is the same as the nature of Vishṇu.
Kshetrajñā śakti. The śakti of awareness, which is the jīva (the individual ātmā). It shows itself in different degrees in all beings, from the smallest being that does not move up to Hiraṇyagarbha. In humans it is shown in a specially developed way. It is present in all life in rising steps. It is least in beings that do not move, greater in snakes and insects, greater again in birds, greater again in animals, and greatest among humans. Beyond humans it is greater in the nāgas, gandharvas, yakshas, devas, Indra, Prajāpati and Hiraṇyagarbha, in that order.
Avidyā-karma śakti. The third śakti is the power of ignorance and karma. It wraps the Kshetrajñā śakti in a veil. This makes the conditions for saṃsāra. As long as the Avidyā-karma śakti covers the Kshetrajñā śakti, the jīva stays bound. It appears differently in different beings according to how far it is covered. Moksha comes when the hold of the Avidyā-karma śakti is dissolved by yoga-jñāna, and the Kshetrajñā śakti is seen to be the same as the Parā śakti.

This is in Chapter 7.

The end: two paths, one goal

Khāṇḍikya said that his heart was fully satisfied and made pure by the teaching. He agreed that the whole meaning of “I” and “mine” was nothing but avidyā, the root error and first delusion. He had now seen through it. With Keśidhvaja’s blessings, Khāṇḍikya made his son king. He gave up his home in the forest, which was still a kind of attachment, and went into a deeper forest to practise the yoga he had been taught. The yoga was deep and moksha did not come at once. By steady practice over many births he reached ātyantika laya, the complete dissolving of the jīva‘s seeming separateness.

Keśidhvaja stayed in the world. He did his karma without attachment to its fruits and burned away all his stored karma in the fire of nishkāma action (action without desire). He too reached ātyantika-siddhi, which is moksha, by his own path.

So the Purāṇa shows that both karma-mārga, made perfect as desireless action, and the yoga-jñāna path, made perfect as samādhi, lead to the same Vāsudeva, the one Paramātmā and the one moksha.

This is in Chapter 7.

Sources

Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Shashṭhāṃśa, Chapters 6–7
Chapter 6: the family and enmity; the death of the gharmadhenu; the meeting in the forest; the guru-dakshiṇā
Chapter 7: the teaching on avidyā; eight-limbed yoga; the three śaktis; the end of both cousins