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but the art to release those forces and then control them.
(10) When the kundalini has been raised through the practice of osanas, kumbhakas and mudras, then
emptiness
[sunya] absorbs prana.
Emptiness (from any discriminating intellect) and the process of the prana current become one; thus
all inner forces areconcentrated on the one process, the rising of the kundalini.
(11) The yogi who has raised the kundalini and has freed himself from all clinging karma will reach
samadhi naturally.
(12) When prana flows through the sushumna and the mind is dissolved in emptiness
[sunya] then the perfect yogi destroys all karma.
Thus Samadhi is the karma-free state. One could also say: the state of consciousness established in
oneness neutralizes the effects of fate.
Indian religion assumes that the fate of man is the natural result of his deeds. "As you think and act,
so you create your fate," is the saying. The less we control our thoughts, the more haphazard will be
the course of our life. This is not a question of good and evil, but simply of doing or not doing, of a
directing of our intentions and of their natural effect on our endeavors. This view is purely
psychological and to be understood only as such. A divine power is at play only in so far as this
logical law exists at all.
This karma (result of action) exists only as long as man is dependent on the relative values of this
world. If his consciousness is established in the Absolute, independent of time and space,
independent from all dynamics in static condition, then there is for him no action (not even a mental
action or action of will) and no effect can take place, because effect only results from cause, and
absolute, static Being cannot produce cause. Since karma is a time-conditioned concept, it is
eliminated as soon as time no longer exists. For where there is no flow of time there can be no
happenings, and when nothing happens there is no cause for an effect, and "cause-effect" is a
synonym for karma.
PASSIVE YOGA 79
Yoga Swami Svatmarama. Hatha yoga pradipika
(13) Salutation to Thee, oh Immortal One. Even time, into whose jaws falls the movable and
immovable universe, has been conquered by Thee.
Samadhi is the most prodigious, the most far-reaching achievement of a yogi. For, being free from
time, as he is in this state, he is also beyond the bonds of death, beyond rebirth, beyond all karmas,
which hold in their clutches all the world's pain.
Of course he is not liberated with his first successful practice, for in this samadhi the karmic seeds
that lie dormant within him are not destroyed. Each chakra controls certain karmic tendencies. Only
when the kundalini force activates one chakra after another will the respective binding force be
dissolved. For activating the chakras means gaining insight into the particular plane that has been
reached. And gaining insight means dissolution of that specific karma. To mention just a few
examples: In the muladhara chakra there is the karma of existence; in svadhisthana chakra that which
is born from the I Thou rela-
tionship; in manipura chakra the karma resulting from ambitions for power.
Samadhi, of course, is not the only way to liberation, but it is the most radical and within the
framework of this particular yoga the most essential.
CHAPTER 12
MIND AND BREATH
mind and prana, so it is said, are one, and thus mind and breath are interdependent. Where there is
breath there is thought; without breath the activities of the mind will dry up.
These rather unusual assertions must be investigated further, for they are the core of raja yoga. It is
not by accident that the German word Atem (breath), and the Sanskrit term atman (the self) have the
same root. In our understanding, to cease breathing means to die. In yoga teaching it may mean death
but does not necessarily. Certainly, consciousness in a general sense disappears along with breath,
but what really happens after that we do not know. "Unconsciousness" is a meaningless term. Do we
really know whether dying and being dead arethe same thing, whether so-called unconsciousness
does not encompass innumerable subconscious states? These are just a few problems relating to
consciousness. We can become conscious only of events that reflect states, never of states. We are
unable to grasp with our conscious mind a state that is not reflected by an event.
We are aware of some of our thought processes, among others those that bring the self into reality:
this is "self-consciousness." Everything that I perceive, recognize and judge is a part of my self, for
my already existing relationship to the perceived indicates that the image of the object is already part
of my store
of experience, and that I therefore already have that karma-producing element (the
previously-experienced object) "within" me. And my relation to the object is karmically
conditioned, as well as karma-producing. It is thus an integral part of my personality.
To the Indian mind it means that we are under an illusion so long as we consider the self as a
constant unit that which exists in itself and does not result from the sum total of consciousness
factors. Thus the total of what I "know" (even subconsciously) is my self.
MIND AND BREATH 80
Yoga Swami Svatmarama. Hatha yoga pradipika
The illusion about human personality is fundamental. Where do we get our concept of human
personality? As long as we do not get to the root of this question, we fall victim to illusion after
illusion.
We watch our conversation partner, recognizing "in him" his personality. We consciously look above [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]