The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya-lila
Download 1.05 Mb.
|
| Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya-lila (23.5)
Please note that Patanjali is indicating here a profound practice, which is available to us through recognizing the formless nature inside of all of nature; i.e., that purusa is shining out at us from All Our Relations. This is the union but not sameness of absolute and relative truth, undifferentiated reality and differentiated, siva and shakti, Brahman and Maya, purusa and prakrti. It is obvious that Patanjali is not addressing samkhya dualism here, but an integrative relationship between prakrti and purusa; i.e., within THAT which is contained in prakrti (nature) there is a formless presence (purusa) which is the true nature of the Self (swarupa). Here the profound mergence of sattva, purusa, prakrti, isvara, and swarupa is being pointed out which is flatly stated in the last Sutra of the last Pada the most lofty (Kaivalyam) Sutra IV.34. Indeed purusa as isvara is known as self only through the agency of prakrti, not as a separate Self. Kahlil Gibran wrote, "So shall the snow of your heart melt when your Spring is come, and thus shall your secret run in streams to seek the river of life in the valley. And the river shall enfold your secret and carry it to the great sea. "All things shall melt and turn into songs when Spring comes. Even the stars, the vast snow-flakes that fall slowly upon the larger fields, shall melt into singing streams. When the sun of His face shall rise above the wider horizon, then what frozen symmetry would not turn into liquid melody? And who among you would not be the cup-bearer to the myrtle and the laurel? "It was but yesterday that you were moving with the moving sea, and you were shoreless and without a self. Then the wind, the breath of Life, wove you, a veil of light on her face; then her hand gathered you and gave you form, and with a head held high you sought the heights. But the sea followed after you, and her song is still with you. And though you have forgotten your parentage, she will for ever assert her motherhood, and for ever will she call you unto her. "In your wanderings among the mountains and the desert you will always remember the depth of her cool heart. And though oftentimes you will not know for what you long, it is indeed for her vast and rhythmic peace." This commentary on I.19 is very long, for two reasons. It fails as any attempt to conceptualize the transcognitive realm will fail. May this failed attempt not reinforce ignorance or spiritual self-alienation because of this inadequacy. Secondly it is long because most traditional "interpreters" have institutionalized a severe dualistic approach in their interpretation, which taken to the extreme, again misconstrues yoga as isolation, rather than union, separating out the eternal purusa as distinct and separate from nature; rather than presenting purusa (the self) as being revealed and clothed in nature, where form/creation reveals the act of creation (the formless). Samkhya interprets the goal of yoga as the end of existence, the world, and nature; i.e., that the problem of existence and the body is simply reduced to avoiding, escaping, denying, ignoring it, leaving it, negating it, renouncing it, etc. Patanjali, is saying something more profound. However, if the samkhya view is moderated as merely stating, that to lose awareness and become absorbed into a fragmented idea of dead nature as material/matter disintegrates and reforms in flux, then, this would be an agreeable statement, but applicable to this sutra. In reality, matter is not separate from nature, and the true nature of what is perceived as phenomena is not separate from the true nature of mind. When the yogi knows the true nature of mind or mind-essence, then the true nature of nature is seamlessly known as well. Only false views (citta-vrtti) and negative conditioning (vasana) create that illusion. That is not to say that isvara can not be discerned from nature, or that formless and form are to be conflated as the same. Rather form (swarupa) and emptiness (sunyam) are two sides of one coin. Isvara as the param-purusha is all pervasive -- it pervades the entire universe as intrinsic universal seed consciousness. Purusa is indeed not the same as prakrti, yet prakriti is inseparable from it. Together they reveal each other, and hence, the dance of evolutionary power glistens brilliantly. See III.43 for more on Maha-videha
Download 1.05 Mb. Share with your friends:
|