39 - Yoga, or Religious Devotion.

Dattatreya continues his exhortation-Final emancipation from existence is attained through yoga or religious devotion,-and the means are restraint of the breath, mental abstraction, restraint of the senses, and deep meditation. These means are analyzed and explained at length. What circumstances are inimical to yoga. The improper performunce of yoga entails bodily ailments. How such bodily ailments may be cured. The signs of the proper performace of yoga. 

Dattátreya spoke.

1       A yogi’s removal of ignorance by the attainment of knowledge is ‘mukti’; this is union with Brahma, and separation

2 from the three qualities of Nature. ‘Mukti,’ or final emancipation from existence, comes from religious devotion; and religious devotion comes rightly from knowledge, O king; knowledge comes through suffering; suffering is the lot of those

3 whose minds are engrossed with self. Hence the man who desires final emancipation should strenuously discard every association; when associations drop, the designation ‘it is

4 mine’ disappears. Freedom from selfishness tends indeed to happiness; tho perception of faults comes from passionlessness; and passionlessness comes indeed from knowledgo; knowledge

5 is preceded by passionlessness. That is one’s house, where one resides; that is food, by which one lives; that which tends to final emancipation is described as knowledge or ignorance.

6 By consuming merits and demerits, O king, and through not

7 doing voluntarily constant acts that ought to be done, through not amassing subsequent acts, and through diminishing acts that have been previously amassed, thu body never again falls into the bonds of action, 

8 This I have declared to thee, O king! Listen also to this religious dovotion from me, by adopting which the religious devotee may attain to an eternal identity with Brahma. 

9 First indeed the soul must be conquered by soul; it is indeed a hard victory for religious devotees. He should put

10 forth effort in that victory. Hear from me the means thereto. He should burn up his faults by restraining his breath,* and his stains by steady mental abstraction,† his sensual enjoyments by restraining his senses,†† and his unbridled qualities by

* Pránáyáma. 

† Dháraná.       

 ††Pratyahára. 

11 deep meditation.§ Just as impurities urd burnt out of metals when they are melted, so the faults wrought by the organs of

§ Dhyána. 

12 sense are burnt out by restraining the breath, The religious devotee should first accomplish the regulation of his breath 

Now stopping the inhalation || is designated pránáyáma.

|| A-pána, a meaning not in the dictionary.

13 ‘restraining the breath.’ Pránáyáma is of three kinds, which are named the ‘slight, the ‘medium and the intense. ¶

¶ Uttariya, a meaning not in the dictionary

14 I will describe its measure; hear it of me, O Alarka! The ‘slight’ extends during twelve mátrás or prosodial instants and the ‘medium’ is double that, and the ‘intense’ is well-known

15 as containing thrice that number of instants. The time of a mátrá is that of the winking and opening the eyelids once. The measure of twelve mátrás is fixed for the

16 reckoning of the pránáyáma. With the first he should overcome porspiration, and with the second agitation, and with the third

17 dojection; he should gradually overcome his faults. Now as lions, tigers and elephants, when kindly treated become mild so the breath falls within the control of the religions devotee.

18 As an elephant-driver brings a rutting elephant under control according to his wish, even so a religious devotee who has the

19 wish brings his breath to perfect control. For as the proud lion when tamed does not attack deer, so the obstructed wind

20 destroys men’s guilt but not their body. Therefore, the religious devotee while engaged in devotion should pay good heed to the restraining of his breath. 

Hear its four conditions that bestow the result of final

21 emancipation. They are cessation** of the consequences of action and the power of obtaining overything,* harmony† and serenity,†† O king  Hear also their nature as I describe it in

** Dhvasti.

* Prapti.                             

††Prasáda.

†Sawvid.                    

22 order. Where the fruits of good and bad actions die away, how the mind attains pellucidity,§ that is called ‘dhvasti.’

§ Apa-kasháya-tva; not in the dictionary. 

23. When the religious devotee himself always continuously resists the desires of this world and of the next world, such as covetouness

24 and infatuation, that is “prápti’ everlasting. When the religious dovotee possessed of equal power perceives, by

25 the advantage of his knowledge, the past and future remotely concealed meanings of the moon, sun, stars and planets, and gains success, then occurs the condition of pránáyáma called

20 ‘samyid.’ The state by which his inind, and his five vital airs, his organs of sense and tho objects of those organs become serene, is called ‘prasáda.’

27 Hear also, O king, the characteristics of pránáyáma, and what kind of seat is enjoined for one who always practises yoga. 

28 Adopting the padma half seat, and tho svastika sitting posture, he should utter tho syllable Om! in his heart and

29 practise his religious devotion. Sitting evenly on an even seat, drawing in both his feet, and firmly fixing his thighs

30 rightly in front, ho should cover his mouth; he should sit without touching his private parts with his heels, with his senses ander control; he should raise his head slightly;

31 he should not close his teeth together. Gazing at the tip of his own nose and not looking around, the religious devotee should conceal the activity of darkness with passion, and that

32 of passion with goodness, and taking his stand in unsullied goodness should practise devotion. He should hold in his Organs of sense from their objects of sense, and his breath and

33 other faculties and his mind, he should advance to abstraction with a steadfast cohesion. But he who shonld draw in

34 his desires, as a tortoise draws in all its limbs, always delighting in soul and self-collected, sees soul in soul. The

35 wise man after purifying himself externally and internally, and filling out his body from the navel to the neck, should advance to abstraction. A ‘dháraná,’ or steady mental

36 abstraction, is called twelve pránáyámas. Two kinds of dhárañá are known in religious devotion by devotees who are conversant with the truth. Moreover, when a religions

37 devotee is steeped in devotion and coutrols his soul, all his faults perish, and ho becomes whole; and he sees supreme

38 Brahma and the qualities of Nature separately, the sky and the primordial atoms and the unsullied soul. 

Thus a religious devotee, who restricts his food and who is

39 intent on restraining his breath, should occupy ground, which has been thoroughly and gradually reclaimed, as it were his house. Unreclaimed ground when it is taken possession of

40 increases faults, diseases and foolishness, therefore, he should not occupy unreclaimed ground. 

‘Pránáyáma’ or restraining the breath is so called from the

41 restriction* placed on tho breath; and this is called ‘dhárañá’ or mental abstraction, by which the mind is abstracted; since

* Upa-sam-rodha; not in the dictionary. 

42 the organs, which are occupied with words and other ations, are restrained by religious devotees by means of devotion, that is called ‘pratyáhára,’ or restraining the senses, 

And the means for this is declared by paramarshis who

43 were religious duvotees, so that diseases and other faults may not spring up in a religious devotee. Just as the thirsty may

44 drink water gradually by vessels, pipes and other means, so religious devotee who has overcome his distress may drink air. First in the navel, and next in the heart, and thirdly in the

45 breast, then in the neck, the mouth, the tip of the nose, in the eye, eye-brows, and the middle of the head, and in what is

46 there beyond, is known the highest mental abstraction. By attaining to those ten mental abstructions he reaches equality with the imperishable. Not puffed up, nor hungry, nor

47 wearied, and undisturbed in mind, the yogi should practice his yoga respectfully in order to attain final occupation, O king! 

When it is neither very cold nor warm, when there is no

48 strife, when it is not windy, at these times the ascetic who is deep in meditation should not* practice yoga. In a place where there is a noise, or fire, or water, or where study is going

*For na yogam read sa yogam, he should practice yoga?

49 on in a decayed cow-shed, at a place where four roads meet, amid a collection of dry leaves, in a river, in a burning-ground, in a place infested by snakes, in a place of fear, or on the edge

50 of a well, amid a number of funeral piles or ant-hills-in these places a learned man should avoid practising yoga. And if there is no appearance of goodness, he should avoid the place 

51 and time. There should be no sight of evil during the practice of yoga; hence he should avoid that. Whoever disregards these places and in his infatuation practises yoga, verily his

52 faults tend to his hindrance. Hearken to me in this. Deafness, stupidity, failure of memory, dumbness, blindness and fever

53 those several evils straightway befall him who practises yoga in ignorance. 

If a yogi should have these faults through inadvertence,

54 yogis should attend to their cure in order to destroy them. Hearken to me in this. He should engnge in mental abstraction, after eating rice-gruel, mingled with oil and very warm. 

55 in the diseascs of rheumatism, flatulence, and enlargement of the abdomen, circulation of the internal or obstructed wind of

56 the body should be regulated by a diet of rice-gruel.† In tremor†† a yogi should fix his mind on a mountain as it is steady, in dumbness on the faculty of speech, and in deafness

†This is the translation of the Pandit of the Bengal Asiatic Society; the text seems obscure, 

††For kalpe read kampe; 50 a MS, in the Sanskrit College. 

57 on the ear; just as one whose tongue is parched with thirst should meditate on a mango fruit. In whatever respect the body is disordered, in that very respect ho should think

58 steallily of whatever thought may remerdy the disorder, such as, a cooling thought amidst heat, and a heating thought amidst cold. He should place a stake on his head and beat Wood with wood. 

59 In that way memory immediately recurs to a yogi who has lost his memory. He should think steadily of the wind and

60 fire which indeed pervade the heaven and the earth. These injuries are cured through what is non-human or what springs

61 from goodness. If goodness that is non-buman should enter within a yogi, he should utterly burn out the sin that dwells in his body by steady thought of the wind and fire. 

Thus must every soul that is wise in yoga compass its

62 preservation, O king, since the body is the means of attaining righteousness, wealth, love and final emancipation from existence. The yogi’s knowledgo perishes through perplexity at the narration of the marks of the activities, therefore, the

63 activities must be hidden Tranquillity,* perfect health, gentleness, a pleasant odour, scanty excretions, a fine complexion, benignity, and softness of voice, are indeed the first

* A-lolya; not in the dictionary.

64 indications of tho activity of yoga. A loving person proclaims one’s virtues in one’s absence. That creatures do not fear him is the chiefest sign of complete perfection. He who is not injured by excessive cold, heat, or other natural agents, and does not fear other persons, las attained complete perfection.