Yukteswar's Sankhya Philosophy

• Yukteswar's Sankhya Philosophy

Yukteswar's Sankhya Philosophy

Briefing

The wave is essentially sea.

On this page we shall see how Yukteswar reconciles Sankhya, which is an atheistic Hindu philosophy, with God of the Bible, pointing out "their underlying unity" and the like. Yukteswar accepts a God, a Supreme Being, in his study. But the Self is not to be found through discrimination, says many scriptures, since it is beyond classification. Yukteswar tries to tell of it anyway.

In Yukteswar's partial defence:

Theistic tendencies [in Sankhya] are developed in the later tradition and the sixteenth-century theologian Vijnanabhiksu, while acknowledging that the system does not need it, argues that the idea of a Lord is not irreconcilable with the earlier Sankhya view. [Gavin Flood, Ith 235]

And according to Yukteswar, "the Holy Ghost is "Kutastha Chaitanya . . . Purushottama" [Hos 26].

Kutastha is a Sanskrit word with several meanings. The word is made from kuta, the summit; stha, standing: standing on the peak, is a Sanskrit term with several meanings. As a philosophical term it suggests "holding the highest position", and is often used as another name for synonym for Isvara (Lord of Light). Another meaning: "Who pervades all, supports all, and yet undergoes no transformation." In yet another sense it refers to the consort of Vishnu. Yukteswar's guru, Lahiri Mahasaya, refers to Kutastha in several places, such as "The Ishvara in the Kutastha is untouched by the ignorance and the products." "By abiding in the Kutastha, mind becomes pure. This leads to various Anima, etc., siddhis - special abilities". " . . . siddhis and samadhis are attained. The knowledge of the space and time is also attained." [Ysl]

Then, on the other hand it refers specifically to the area between the eyebrows, an entry to higher states of mind. By sustained focus on that area, wisdom comes, for one thing. Yukteswar's disciple Yogananda calls Kutastha a "universal Christ Consciousness" and "divine guiding Intelligence". [Ak 470-71, 297].

Purushottama is another Sanskrit word. It means "Supreme Purusha", "Supreme Being". It is also one of the names of the Rama, the God of some Hindus. [Wikipedia]

The Holy Ghost of the New Testament on the other hand has many other hallmarks, and is an exclusive "thing" for followers - note that difference: [HALLMARKS].

At the end of Yukteswar's treatise his saddening conclusion comes. Man can fully comprehend the Eternal Spirit when he has comprehended that his Self is nothing but a mere idea, a vain idea. It comes very close to saying, "When you are nothing, then you are dissolved, and can really see!" - that is, then man

fully comprehends the Eternal Spirit, the Father, the only Real Substance, as Unit, the Perfect Whole, and his Self as nothing but a mere idea resting on a fragment of the Spiritual Light thereof. Man, thus comprehending, abandons altogether the vain idea of the separate existence of his own Self and becomes unified with Him, the Eternal Spirit, God the Father. This unification with God is Kaivalya, the ultimate goal of man, as explained in this treatise. [Hos 96]

Then, when you have sacrificed yourself, you get unified with the Father, he says. The problem: If you lose yourself, there is nothing or no one left to unite with anyone. So think twice.

The New Testament does not say that man is nothing or should seek to become nothing. "What is man . . .? You made him a little lower than God [the heavenly beings]; you crowned him with glory and honour and put everything under his feet." [Psalm 8:4-6]. The same verse appears in Hebrews 2:6-8 with "You made him a little [or for a little while] lower than the angels".

That to be put right with God is better than being wiped out, is a cornerstone in the Bible's message.

Yukteswar's Gospel

The first chapter in Yukteswar's book is called "The Gospel". In the sections of it, Yukteswar presents a brief and terse Sanskrit quotation - a sutra - first, next comments it, and then rounds off by a quotation from the Bible, and not always from the Revelation of John. This sectional approach is repeated on and on.

Comment: The word "gospel" in the West is taken to mean something else than 'veda'. The Sanskrit word 'veda' comes from 'vid', to know.

Yukteswar's First Sutra

The first sutra (literally: thread, i.e., aphorism) of Yukteswar in Chapter 1 runs like this:

Parambrahma (Spirit or God) is everlasting, complete, without beginning or end. It is one, invisible Being [Yukteswar, Hos 21].

The translation is provided by SRF, it is mentioned in a footnote on that place. And now is the time to stop and consider: "Are there any nuts to crack at this place?" There are:

First, we are into an exposition of Sankhya (also: Samkhya) philosophy, where "the existence of a god is not hypothesized" [Encyclopedia Britannica, s.v. "Sankhya"]. And it is a traditional view that Sankhya (Sankhya) is atheistic. I bring more on that subject further down.

Second, the Yoga philosophical system of Hinduism allows for God, though, and the yoga system is closely allied to Sankhya. And the God that the yoga system (of Patanjali) speaks of is Ishwar (Iswara), "God of Light", roughly said. Yukteswar's monastic name is derived from Iswar. 'Sri Yukteswar' means "Holy United-with-Light-God (Iswara)", for your information. With most swami names, 'sri' and 'sri sri' may be added according to taste.

Sankhya got its classical form and expression in the Sankhya-karikas by Isvarakrisna (c. 3rd century AD). Sankhya enumerates proposed constituents of the cosmos, and Sankhya-like speculations are found in early Jain, Buddhist and Hindu texts that some call brahmanical speculations. These and medical speculation are thought to arise out of a common ideological context where samhkya-like enumeration of the categories (of the cosmos) is central, writes Gavin Flood [Ith 232].

Flood also finds there are striking parallells between the later Sankhya philosophy, medical systems of Ayurveda, and Buddhist systems. And the earliest enumeration of cosmic principles in the brahmanical tradition comes with the Chandogya Upanishad. The enumeration of categories is also found in the Katha Upanishad and Svetasvatara Upanishad. Also, presystematic listings of elements of experience and world are found in the Mahabharata, and the Bhagavad Gita, which forms a part of the Mahabharata [Ith 233-34].

Flood further writes:

Sankhya is also an an atheistic system, whereas the yoga darsana [philosophical system] admits of the idea of God or the Lord (Isvara) as a special kind of self (purusa) which has never been entangled in prakriti [matter, the universal and subtle (i.e., unmanifest) matter, or nature] . . . These theistic tendencies are developed in the later tradition and the sixteenth-century theologian Vijnanabhiksu, while acknowledging that the system does not need it, argues that the idea of a Lord is not irreconcilable with the earlier Sankhya view. [Gavin Flood, Ith 235]

A Map

Sankhya holds the belief that there are many separate purushas ("selves"). When a purusha (at first without an object) draws to itself prakriti forms or facets, the higher mind (also called the mahat, "great one" or "spiritual awareness", or buddhi) is first evolved. Next a deep ego consciousness (ahamkara) is evolved. The ego consciousness is faceted into five gross elements (space, air, fire, water, earth), five subtle (fine) elements (sound, touch, sight, taste, smell), five organs of perception (with which to hear, touch, see, taste, smell), and five organs of activity (with which to speak, grasp, move, procreate, evacuate), and mind (manas). See the figure.

Figure: The twenty-five Sankhya tattwas (constituents)

Yukteswar enumerates twenty-five elements from the Sankhya philosophy. Yukteswar's study accepts a God, a Supreme Being, which Sankhya has not fitted into its special cosmological system. Moreover, the author includes many more central concepts into his overall scheme, and they are not found in Sankhya proper, as far as we know. The sources we have consulted, comprise An Introduction to Hinduism by Gavin Flood, An Introduction to Indian Philosophy by Satischandra Chatterjee and Dhirendramohan Datta, The Spiritual Heritage of India by Swami Prabhavananda (1893-1976), and an article by Professor Surendranath Bhattacharya in The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol. 3. Also,Hinduism by R. C. Zaehner, and A Survey of Hinduism by Klaus K. Klostermaier [Ith 231-36; Wo 251-88; Ins 208-25; Xmm 41-52; Him 67-73, 76-80; and Sf 357-62].

A question that seems needed, is: "Is Yukteswar really writing about Sankhya proper?" He says he does, and yet his overall "Sankhya scheme" does not fall into the conventional models we have seen. Some parts (concepts) are identical. A visual presentation of his conceptual scheme is furnished in the SRF edition, but it is perhaps (too) difficult to understand for persons without much knowledge of technical Sanskrit terms.

And since the author does not indicate his Sanskrit sources - verse by verse - in the book, we are in effect barred from investigating the "backbone" of the book today. The burden of proof rests with the author/publisher; the relevant Sanskrit verses need to be annotated in any decent, academic study of this sort.

Is Kaivalya, Aloofness, His Goal?

The title and last part of Yukteswar's book show that liberation is "aloneness", or "aloofness" kaivalya, which is a Sankhya term. The kaivalya (separatedness) means liberation from "the wheel of transmigration" in Patanjali's yoga system [Ith 97].

Yet in Sankhya, kaivalya (liberation) is

the discriminative knowledge that pure consciousness is eternally distinct from primordial matter; there is only a proximity between them . . . Discrimination allows consciousness to distinguish the self from what is not the self, and so to perceive that the self was never actually bound to matter. This self is transcendent, the silent witness behind the embodied subject of first-person predicates . . . in the Sankhya system the dualism is between the self (purusha) and matter which embraces what in traditional western philosophy has been called 'mind' . . . the true self is beyond. [Gavin Flood, Ith 234]

Since the self defined above is utterly outside the realm of the world and its definitions, discrimination will have nothing to work on to get into the self. The self is not to be found through splendid discrimination, in other words. That may be assented through logic. Flood overlooks or ignores this sweet and neat little point; that discrimination lacks the needed conditions or premises and stuff to accomplish what old thinkers maintained it could.

Yukteswar presents kaivalya (the soul's "divorce" from the universe) as liberation, as the goal. What he further puts into the ancient term, and whether he appears to side more with Patanjali than with Kapila (the accredited founder of Sankhya), may have to wait for a while for a discussion.

"The one religious consequence of the Sankhya-Yoga is an emphasis on austere asceticism and a turning away from [many] ritualistic elements . . . Though they continue to remain as an integral part of the Hindu faith, no major religious order thrived on the basis of these philosophies," says the encyclopaedia. [Ebu "Indian philosophy"]

Yukteswar's stand and tradition is that strict control according to the twin philosophies Sankhya and yoga, yields gratifying happiness [Ay ch. 14]. And let it be mentioned in passing that according to the author, the Holy Ghost is "Kutastha Chaitanya . . . Purushottama" [Hos 26]. Such a much deviant definition of "The Holy Spirit" of the Gospels cannot be right in the Christian terminology. We have presented New Testament understanding of The Holy Spirit (or Ghost) on another page. There is room for more. [LINK]

Literature  

Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa: Man's Eternal Quest. SRF. Los Angeles, 1975.

Alk: Beck, Thomas: Astrologisk leksikon. Teknologisk forlag. Oslo, 1993.

Aso: Asimov, Isaak: Om tall. Dreyer. Oslo, 1980.

Ay: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Philosophical Library, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]

Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009.

Ha: Yogananda, Paramahansa: Autobiography of a Yogi. 12th ed. Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). Los Angeles, 1981.

Hom: Berne, Eric: What Do You Say After You Say Hello? The Psychology of Human Destiny. Bantam. New York, 1973.

Hos: Yukteswar, sw: The Holy Science. 7th ed. Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), Los Angeles, 1972.

Mas: SRF: Self-Realization Fellowship: Golden Anniversary. SRF. Los Angeles, 1970.

Maso: Mayo, Jeff: Astrology. Rev ed. Hodder and Stoughton. Sevenoaks, 1979.

Mux: Bühler, G. tr: The Laws of Manu. Banarsidass (Reprint from Oxford University's 1886-edition). Delhi,1984.

Pa: Yogananda, Paramahansa: Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). Los Angeles, 1971. – ONLINE 1st edition

Say: Yogananda, Paramahansa: Sayings of Yogananda. Self-Realization Fellowship. Los Angeles, 1958.

Scf: Yogananda, Paramahansa: Scientific Healing Affirmations. Self-Realization Fellowship. Los Angeles, 1958.

Scp: Yogananda, Paramahansa: The Science of Religion. Self-Realization Fellowship. Los Angeles, 1953.

Sob: Self-Realization Fellowship: Paramahansa Yogananda in Memoriam. SRF. Los Angeles, 1958.

Viom: Jolly, Julius tr: The Institutes of Vishnu. Banarsidass. Delhi, 1965.

Ysl: Bhattacharya, Jogesh Chandra. Yogiraj Shri Shri Lahiri Mahashaya. Kadamtala, Howrah: Shrigurudham (Ghosh), 1964. On-line read-only text at Yoganiketan, Portland, Mn: www.yoganiketan.net/main.htm. Earlier there: kalama.com/~stebro/Kriya_Library/Yogiraj/title.htm

Whip: Yogananda, Paramahansa: How You Can Talk with God. SRF. Los Angeles, 1969.



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