EAST AND WEST QUARTERLY PUBLISHED BY THE

ISTITUTO ITALIANO PER IL MEDIO ED ESTREMO ORIENTE UNDER THE AUSPICES AND WITH THE GRANT OF THE

« CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE »

Editor: GIUSEPPE TUCCI

Co-editors: DOMENICO FACCENNA - LIONELLO LANCIOTTI - MAURIZIO TADDEI

IsM EO

New Series, Vol. 19 - Nos. 1 - 2 (March -June 1969)

CONTENTS

A.-..� BRITT TILIA, Reconstruction of the Parapet on the Terrace Wall at Persepolis,

South and West of Palace H . 9

GIORGIO STACUL, Excavation near Ghaligai (1968) and Chronological Sequence of Proto-

historical Cultures in the Swat Valley (W. Pakistan) . 44

GIORGIO STACUL, Discovery of Protohistoric Cemeteries in the Chitral Walley {W.

Pakistan) 92

CHIARA SILVI ANTONINI, Swat and Central Asia 100

G. S. P. MISRA, Monastic and Civil Architecture in the Age of the Vinaya . 1 1 6

S. SETTAR, A Buddhist Vihara a t Aiho!e . 126

SIEGBERT HuMMEL, The sMe-ba-dgu, the Magic Square of the Tibetans . 139

ANGELO M. PIEMONTESE, An Italian Source for the History of Qagar Persia: the

Rep'Orts of the General Enrico Andreini (1871-1886) 147

SERGIU AL-GEORGE, Sign (Lak�at;ta) and Propositional Logic in Pat;tini. 176

CORRADO PENSA, On the Purification Concept in Indian Tradition, with Special Regard

to Yoga · 194

SANDRA MARINA CARLETTI, PETER FINGESTEN, GusTAV GLAESSER, LIONELLO LANCIOT-

TI, MAs SIMO ScALIGERO, MAuRIZIO TADDEI, GmsEPPE Tucc1, Book Reviews 229

Publications of IsMEO . 272

On the Purification Concept in Indian Tradition,

with Special Regard to Yoga

1 - Introduction

The more or less explicit affirmation that there is an extremely close relationship between the concepts of purification, knowledge and power and, similarly, the conception of a series of "powers" deriving from the various ascetic or religious practices and reali­

zable both in action and knowledge, find a particularly full and detailed formulation in India in the schools of Yoga and Buddhism, to cite two examples of immediate evidence. Suffice it to say, with regard to the specific question of the powers, that one of the four

books composing Patafijali's Yogasutras is entirely devoted to the study of the powers ( vibhutis) or perfections (siddhis ), or that, in the field of Buddhism for example, two long chapters in Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga C) are given up to abhiiiiia ( abhijiia in Sanskrit),

a word that has been variously translated as "higher", "direct" or "intuitive sciences (or know ledges)".

Now to our mind the interest to be roused by an examination of these subjects, which

have perhaps not up till now received the attention they deserve, is both general and par­ticular. Particular in so much as it permits a better general understanding of certain doc­

trines, e.g. Yoga, general in that it seems to us that such an examination may well indi­cate an important aspect of continuity and unity in India's practical and speculative tradi­tion- even if, as it has rightly been written, continuity does not mean identity C) - and

{*) A large part of the present article has been already published in Italian under the title « Inter­dipendenza di purificazione, conoscenza e potere nello Yoga in rapporto alia continuita della tra­dizione indiana », AIUON, N.S. XIX, 1969, pp. 217-260. Here, besides minor modifications, a new chapter, "Purity and Ritual", has been added. - The following abbreviations have been used: AK = Abhidharmakosa by V ASUBANDHU, transl. by L. de La Vallee Poussin, 6 vols . , Paris, 1923-1931 ; MP = Mat:tiporabha by RaMaNANDA SARASVA­TI, transl. by J. H. Woods, ]AOS, XXIV, 1915, pp. 1-1 14 ; RM = Rajamartat:tifa by BHOJA, ed. by Vidyabhushana and Vidyaratna, Calcutta, 19363; SPbh = Saf!lkhyapravacanabha�ya by VIJNiiNA­BHIK�u, ed. by R. Garbe, Harvard, 1895 ; Siddhi = Viifiaptimatrata, La Siddhi de Hiuan-Tsang, transl. by L. de La Vallee Poussin, 2 vols . , Paris, 1928; Sss = Siiraf!tgamasamadhisiitra, L�· Concentration

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de la marche hero'ique, transl. by E. Lamotte, MCB, XIII, Bruxelles, 1965 ; TV = Tattvavaisaradi, by VacASPATIMISRA, ed. by J. Vidyasagara, Calcutta, 19408; Vkn = Vimalakirtinirdesa, L'Enseignement de Vimalakirti, transl. by E. Lamotte, Louvain, 1962; Ybh = Yogabhana by VYasA, ed. by J. Vidyasagara, Calcutta, 19408; YS = Yogasiitra by PATANJALI, ed. by J. Vidyasagara, Calcutta, 19403; YSS = Yogasarasaf!tgraha, by VIJNiiNABHIK�U, Madras, 1933 .

(1) See infra, pp. 23 ff. (2) J. GoNDA, Change and Continuity in Indian

Religion, The Hague, 1965, p. 17: « Whereas the contrast between the Vedic yajfia and the Hindu piija has, in the West, been often commented upon, the similarity and continuity of the ideas underlying both rituals have not rarely been dis­regarded. Indian traditionalists on the other hand failed to recognize that continuity is no identity,

can hence to some extent support the theory of a substantial continuity in Indian "religion".

At this point we should like to refer to two important studies by J. Gonda C), both concerned with noting various expressions of this continuity, not only on the basis of a textual and linguistic study, but also by means of numerous references to the history of religions and anthropology. The "continuative" thesis, as it might be called, supported by the various essays which make up the two works, seems particularly explicit in two passages, one of which we would like to quote in full: «And it must be added that also from an objective point of view there are many arguments for the thesis that the Indian culture which is expressed and reflected by the uninterrupted literary production from the

�gveda onward is an unmistakable continuum which while transforming and rejuvenating itself has always been subject to processes of adaptation and assimilation, that- to express myself otherwise - there is in many respect.5 no occasion whatever to deny that Hinduist

traits have developed from Vedic beginnings: e.g. the respect for and the sanctity of the cow, the ••magic power" attributed to an appeal to truth which appearing already in the �gveda underlies later conceptions of the powe!' of truth, including Gandhi's theory about satyagraha, the eager desire to be freed from the impending dangers of death and other worldly ills, a desire already before the early Upani�ads known to Vedic man» (4).

Gonda reached these conclusions after a series of special studies. In the present con­text we are particularly interested in those contained in The Vision of the V edic Poets,

where the Author, starting from a discussion of dhzf? or "vision" in Vedism, ends by touching on subjects such as dhyana or conc entration-meditation (always considered, and not only in Yoga contexts, as a primary source of knowledge and power), pratibha C) or higher intuition (in Yoga, part of the vibhiitis, or powers), divyacak�uf?, "divine eye"

in Buddhism, constantly listed among the abhijnas, higher knowledge-powers; and, what is most important, demonstrates the numerous affinities between these subjects without how­

ever associating himself with the traditional tendencies which, taking the continuity-unity of Indian tradition for granted, on the one hand recur only in part to the scientific criteria on which Gonda's work is based and on the other end by taking continuity to mean iden­tity and staticity (6).

To return to the question of dhzf? C), we attribute particular interest to the fact that J.

Gonda, with logical reasoning in close adherence to the texts, is against both the "secular"

that is to say that culture elements which are preserved are nevertheless subject to change and transformation ».

{3) The Vision of the Vedic Poets, The Hague, 1963 ; Change ... , cit.

(4 ) GoNDA, Change . . . , cit., p. 15. {5) Or pratibham, the form preferred by Yoga

texts. (6) No less tenacious, on the other hand, are

the positions against the admission of continuity, even at times within a single system. See for example F. SIERKSMA, Tibet's Terrifying Deities,

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Rutland and Tokyo, 1966, p. 43 : « the Mahayana - not to mention the later Vajrayana - should be regarded as a wholesale perversion of the Doctrine » . But against, see D. L. SNELLGROVE, Buddhist Himalaya, Oxford, 1957, p. 258: "it is totally misleading. . . to explain away the Mahii.yana as a degeneration for which popular notions were responsible".

(7) See the essay «Dhll:t in the �gveda», in The Vision . .. , cit., pp. 68-169 and the general intro­duction, ibid., pp. 7-67 .

or purely literary interpretation offered by Renou ("don poetique", "parole", "poe­me") (8), the theistic and devotional one sustained by Geldner, who frequently translates the term as "Gebet" ('), and finally the generic translation "'thought" and the like. Gonda, on the contrary, while allowing that these different versions reflect by no means unimportant properties of the term C0), nevertheless reaches the conclusion that the original meaning of dhzf? is that of an « exceptional and supranormal faculty, proper to "seers", of

"seeing" in the mind things, causes, connections as they really are, the faculty of acquiring a sudden knowledge of the truth, of the functions and influence of divine powers » (p. 68 ).

In the course of the essay the characteristics of the Vedic "'vision" are then exam­ined; these characteristics, in our opinion, point to a vast correspondence of meaning not only between the dhif? and closely connected subjects of later periods - such as dhyana,

pratibha, etc. - but also with the entire conception - implicit in Yoga and Buddhism - of purification-knowledge-power as mutually interacting factors of a unitary structure.

Thus, thanks to Gonda's interpretation, certain readings of the Veda are completely

revolutionized, with the important result of shortening the distance from the successive spec­ulation considerably. Consequently, for example, from RV 8,3,18, « ime hi te karavo vava­

sur dhiya vipraso medhasataye », Gonda infers that the vipraf? are stated to aspire by means of dhif? to medha, "wisdom", whereas Geldner' s translation rings in quite a different, "se­cular" manner: « denn diese deine Dichter, die Redegewaltigen, verlangen mit ihrer Dich­tung die Meisterschaft zu gewinnen » (p. 104) . Hence the "visions" also appear as a means

to achieve a general state different from the ordinary one, medha, for which the interpre­tation "wisdom" or even "supranormal insight and understanding" is proposed (p. 127).

The dhif? does not in fact represent an isolated, casual, unrepeatable event; on the contrary, it appears to be part of a veritable technique, since « it was left to the seer to foster, develop, cultivate the dhif? which he had acquired » (p. 106 ), translating it, eventually, into a hymn able to influence the gods or to render the sacrifice particularly efficacious. In

any case, a means that may be refined and cultivated. Moreover, while the dhiyaf? are

themselves considered a source of purification (p. 106), they cannot on the other hand be obtained without a certain degree of purification.

The dhif? or "vision" is closely associated with the rite: it either strengthens it, is by

it engendered or merely strengthened, or, in one with it, aims at achieving a special goal. The sacrificial matter, soma, is the "lord of the vision": both because it favours the vision and because it acts as agent between the vision and the cosmic and ritual truth, rta (pp. 69,

73-6, 119); on the other hand the "vision", translated into words, "impregnates" the soma

and increases its specific potency. The dhzf? is thus not only "vision" but also power. In

(8) Ibid., p. 12, where we also read: « Here the risk is not imaginary of overestimating the element of 'poetry' and of viewing this concept through modern or at least traditionally European spectacles, and to overlook the decidedly religious and psychological elements of the idea expressed by the term under examination » (our italics) .

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(') Ibid., p . 80 and passim. (1°) In fact, for example, if the r# originally

"sees" through the dhiya�, it is also true that immediately -afterwards he can "translate" the vision into a hymn or prayer (op. cit., p. 69 and passim) .

fact it implies vaja�, « a general term for the specific power substance of the generative potency» (p. 150); the "vision", received, elaborated and recited in the correct manner, con­fers the vaja� (p. 152) and makes it possible to achieve precise effects either on the level of material goods, the defeat of poverty etc. (p. 147) or on a more general level, since « only by obtaining the dhi� the r�i is able to execute his religiously and socially im­

portant task » (p. 71 ) . In this context the gods appear more than ever as "powers" in varying degree '"internal'' to the r#, in the sense that they are included in the sphere of his action not only due to their influence over it but also to the fact that they are dependent upon it; for this reason it is said that human dhiya� have the power of inciting the gods (p. 156).

* * *

This series of Gonda's observations and conclusions seems important to us for two reasons: because they have caught some of the most vital aspects of Vedism and because these aspects, apart from shedding light upon the meaning of the Vedic religion, are reveal­ed as being able to promote better understandmg of the successive tradition, proving to be

its logical predecessor and so confirming the thesis of a substantial continuity connecting the various stages of Indian "religion". In this connexion, we would like to call to mind our previous considerations, that is, that in our opinion the correspondence between Vedism and post-Vedism may be. extended also to the entire purification-knowledge-power pattern which

is particularly evident in Yoga, Buddhism and Tantrism.

2 - The Powers in Yoga : Modern Historical and Critical Literature and Textual Literature.

It is our impression that the question of the "powers" in Yoga and Buddhism in par­ticular has not infrequently been taken into c onsideration in a biased, oversimple or at any rate excessively summary fashion up till now, whereas it seems to us that there are abundant reasons for considering the powers problem extremely complex. It may be useful in this connexion to remember how very active the prejudice to this effect was and how harmful its consequences in a not too distant past. Suffice it to think of Pischel - to mention only a few blatant examples - who, regardless ot the contrast with the texts, excluded the possibility that a "great rationalist" like Buddha could have had anything to do with out

of the ordinary faculties; or of Das Gupta, amazed at what he termed the "groundless fantasies" of de La Vallee Poussin, ·who had, in fact, limited himself to dealing with the

subject with his usual philological learning ( 11 ) . The prejudice was thus such as to silence

the texts, so to speak. It should be noted that acknowledgement of precise textual ref­erences to the powers would have added little to the solution of the problem of their actual

(11) Cf. for all the above mentioned L. DE LA VALLJ�.E PoussrN, « Le Bouddha et les Abhijfia »,

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Le Museon, XLIV, 193 1 , pp. 335-342.

existence, a problem on which the historian or philologist cannot have the last word C2). The historical and philological sciences can however verify the presence and evaluate the weight and value of certain beliefs, aspirations, doctrines, within the framework of a given tradition. Now the aforesaid prejudice was actually directed against such a preliminary verification, having arbitrarily established a priori the exclusively "rationalist" or "idealist" nature of this or that Indian doctrine and hence its incompatibility with anything that did not fit into these categories. Today, things have certainly changed but often only in part. On the basis of his extremely vast knowledge a great contemporary scholar such as P. V. Kane refuses, in contrast with many others, to deny the importance of the powers in Yoga;

at. the same time however, he expresses his regret for this: «From the fact that with most yogins the siddhis are an important part of the yoga doctrines and the fact that, out of 195 siitras of the Yogasiitras, 35 (Ill, 16-50) are devoted to the description of siddhis, the present author is costrained to say that siddhis are an integral part of yoga » C3). Hence although the prejudice has disappeared, an equally gratuitous evaluation remains im­plicit.

On the other hand, Kane's acknowledgement that the siddhis are an integral part of

Yoga is a considerable step forward that leaves the author practically isolated. In fact Oberhammer's statement to the contrary, according to which Patafijali gives no importance to the siddhis, « der Yoga des Patafijali ihnen keine Bedeutung beimisst » C4), is quite

recent. We shall return to this subject later. In the meantime we should like to draw

attention to the confusion reigning on this subject: in reality, if the siddhis are an integral part of Yoga, is it probable that Patafijali should ignore them? It should also be noted

that the most widespread opinion in this matter is generally identical, or at any rate very similar, to that of Oberhammer. It would take too long and would after all be superfluous

to dwell on a list of the various authors that have in some way dealt with the subject. Radhakrishnan's position seems to us to be characteristic of a certain type of approach to the question and may thus serve as a general example. On the whole, Radhakrish­nan C5 ), and with him several others dealing either generally with Indian philosophy or

in particular with Yoga (with the exception however of Kane and others to be discussed below), maintain that the siddhis, far from incarnating an essential quality of Yoga, are rather a secondary by-product, capable only of producing harmful effects with regard to the yogin's interior progress; in a word, a magical residue in complete dissonance with Yoga's most authentic foundations. A no be tter identified «spirit of accomodation » is

(12) But he can make an important contribu­tion within the context of an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, increasingly to be desired. As R. GonEL writes in his s·timulating work Essais sur !'experience liberatrice, Paris, 1952, p. 31 : « Un grand et perseverant labeur est requis des equipes a venir. Ces groupes devront associer, autour d'un programme commun, des psychologues, des biologistes, des historiens des religions, des physiciens et mathematiciens, des philosophes sans

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prejuges ». (13 ) P. V. KANE, History of Dharmasiistra,

Poona, 1962, V, part II, pp. 145 1-52; our italics. (14) G. 0BERHAMMER, « Meditation und Mistik

im Yoga des PatafijaH », Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde Sud und Ostasiens und Archiv fur indische Philosophie, IX, 1965, p. 102.

(15) S. RAnHAKRISHNAN, Indian Philosophy, London-New York, 1956 , II, pp. 366-8.

held responsible for the « miscellaneous character of the Yoga system, which exhibits a medley of low naturalism and high idealism »; in other words, «the popular cult of magic is mixed up with the religious scheme of salvation in the Yoga ».

Now it is immediately apparent that the siddhis are not and cannot be the ultimate goal of Yoga: any opinion to the contrary would dash with the unanimous agreement of the texts on the subject. The subordinate nature of some of them is thus equally apparent,

as is the resulting danger of a standstill or at any rate distraction. In all this, then, Radha­krishnan is a faithful echo of the texts. But - and this is the point - the texts have

much else to say on the siddhis. In other words, the first criticism we feel we have to make against a certain current opinion on the question is that of only partial use of the texts, which on the contrary offer a far more complex, variegated and at times ambivalent

view of the powers, a view for which the oversimple and unilateral formula now prevail­ing is thus quite inadequate. As examples of positive evaluations of the powers alongside

the negative ones, it is sufficient to quote Ybh III, 55, where it is stated that the powers

are a suitable means for the purification of the sattva - « sattvasuddhidviirer:ta etat samii­dhijam aisvaryam » - or Ybh III, 33, which points to the "'saving" ( tiirakam ) faculty of intuition or priitibha, in the sense, TV explains, that it sets one free from the birth and death cycle (sarrtsiiriit tiirayati ); or even MP, when he affirms that certain siddhis contribute direct­ly to the achievement of kaivalya or "isolation", Yoga's ultimate goal, and that others con­tribute to it indirectly·by deepening the yogin's faith C6). We shall return to all this shortly: for the time being we shall content ourselves with having noted a number of quotations

which should suffice to warn against a rigidly stereotype conception of the doctrine of the powers: bearing them in mind but assigning them a secondary function, as sometimes occurs, seems questionable. One of the principal grounds for the thesis devaluing the siddhis is drawn by most scholars from YS III, 37: «these are impediments to ecstasy, perfections in the ordinary experience » ( « te samiidhav upasargii vyutthiine siddhaya}:t » ) , a sutra that is normally intended as a total condemnation of the siddhis C7). Yet we feel that we cannot

(16) S. N. DASGUPTA, The Study of Pataiijali, Calcutta, 1920, p. 164, feels it worth emphasizing at least this final aspect: « These vibhiitis as they rise wi-th the performance of the processes of Yoga gradually deepen the faith, sraddha, of the yogin in the performance of his deeds and thus help his main goal or ideal by always pushing or drawing him forwards and forwards towards it by the more and more strengtheni11g of his faith. Divested from the ideal they have no value of any im­portance ».

(17} Apart from R.AnHAKRISHNAN, op. cit. , p. 367, whose comment on YS Ill, 37, is very dry: « the siddhis are by-products of the higher Hfe . . . only through the disregard of those per­fections can freedom be gained », we should like to quote the deductions of P. 0LTRA­MARE, which are not, in our opinion, in perfect

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agreement with the texts taken as a whole : « les 'perfections• ne realisent le but de l'ame que pour un homme qui, par la jouissance d'objets exterieurs, a perdu pied clans sa meditation et dont la pensee instable est tomnee vers le dehors . Ce sont en effet, dit le sutra Ill, 37 des obstacles ... » ; or J. W. HAUER's deductions, also questionable in our view when YS, Ill, 37 is evaluated in the light of all the other textual statements con­cerning the siddhis: « sie [the siddhis] hindern, wenn der Y ogin diese Erreichnisse pflegt, die 'Ein­faltung• und dadurch die Tiefenerkenntnis, die das eigentliche Ziel der Yoga ist » (Der Yoga. Ein Indischer Weg zum Selbst, Stuttgart, 1958, p. 332). In reality it is not understood how such drastic interpretations may he reconciled with the various positive potentialities attributed to the siddhis by the texts, as has been mentioned above. The

omit a certain number of reservations on su.ch an evaluation. Above all it should be noted

that Pataiijali's affirmation does not refer to the "perfections" or powers in general, but rather to the group of siddhis that are the subject of the immediately preceding sutra (III, 36 ), viz. the five "subtle" or supranormal senses, plus priitibha or intuition. On this point comments are explicit and unanimous C8). It is strange, in this connexion, that in spite

of its undoubted importance, this is so seldom made dear by Yoga scholars C'). It could also be observed that had Pataiijali intended giving the sutra in question a general scope it would have been more logical to place it at the beginning or end of Book III of the YS, devoted to the vibhutis, not half-way through, where even in the absurd hypothesis that one should not wish to give credit to the commentators, the pronoun te, "these", can cer­

tainly not refer to the vibhutis that have not yet been described. There is moreover a substantial objection to be made, in our opinion. The sutra declares that some siddhis are an obstacle to samiidhi. Now in fact this could not be otherwise: samiidhi is a state of

intense absorption, of mental continuum, which would inevitably be. disturbed, if not pre­judiced, by interference from an olfactory, visual or auditive etc. sensation even if of an

extra normal character. It goes without saying that in ordinary psychic states ( vyutthane)

on the contrary, such achievements constitute a reward. It seems to us that there can be no doubt about all this. Pataiijali is thus concerned with emphasizing something that is an important technical problem and no more. In consequence it is difficult to understand how the sutra can be taken as a definite witness to the negative or at the most ambiguous

nature believed to be proper to the siddhis. This would in any case ring as a sharp con­tradiction to the doctrine of the parikarmas (see below), that is, of real siddhis, which, far from being obstacles, are considered effective means for obtaining samadhi. From all thrs we may in consequence conclude that YS III, 37 is no other than a clarification of the effects of certain particular siddhis in relation to samiidhi. Other siddhis, as we have already mentioned, not only do not impede samiidhi but rather help to promote it. On the other hand, even the fact that a certain number of siddhis are incompatible with samiidhi cannot automatically imply a substantial incompatibility with Yoga. This may be explained by the fact that even assuming samadhi to have primary importance in Yoga it is still subordinate, a� a means, to the ultimate goal - the final liberation or kaivalya. I£, in practice, samii­dhi may sometimes become the end and not the means, this is a deviation from the doctrine

pratibha, for example, becomes such a "Tiefener­kenntnis" that it enables the samsara to be over­come; and if it is true that Y�ga may disregard specific vibhutis, it is also true however that Ra­dhakrishnan's statement that only by disregarding them may liberation be attained seems in sharp contrast with the passages of the texts which give a positive evaluation. Even M. ELIADE, Le Yoga, Immortalite et Liberte, Paris, 1954, p. 102, seems to attribute a certain amount of importance to YS, III, 37. His general approach to the problem, however, makes him differ considerably from the other authors mentioned and leads him to affirm

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that « le yogin se sert des innomhrables siddhi en vue de recouvrer la Hberte supr�me, 1' asamprajfia­tasamadhi, nullement pour obtenir la maitrise -fragmentaire et provisoire, au demeurant - des elements».

(18) Ybh: « the pratibhadayal,t samahitacittasyot­padyamana »; RM: « te prak pratipadital,t phala­vi5e�as ea »; YSS pp. 55-6 .

(19) We have met it, for example, in E. W. HoPKINS, « Yoga Technique in the Great Epic», JAOS, XXII, 1901 , p. 344, but it hardly seems credible that others should not have considered it worthwhile stressing the point.

for which single individuals are responsible. The texts speak clearly in this connexion: even samadhi is to be progressively transcended, « dhyane samadhim utpadya tad api tyajati kramat » C0). Thus the devotee who stops at samadhi falls into an error similar to that committed by the yogin who stops at the siddhis: both of them have taken a means for an end. It is no coincidence that Buddhist texts are particularly drastic with those who lin­ger over samadhi (see below). And it is not by chance that samadhi and vibhutis, in their ordinary quality of instruments, are sometimes to be found placed on the same level: to be more exact, samadhi engenders both a power (aisvarya ) and a superior knowledge (jfiana), both of which contribute towards stripping the mental sattva of its impurity. Fur­thermore, it is the subject of discussion among the various commentators as to whether the vibhutis should be considered as direct (sak�iit) or indirect (asak�at) means in relation to

kaivalya : MP (21) considers them direct in certain cases, TV C2), generally indirect. At this point an interesting objection could be made, viz. that an anti-vibhuti attitude is typical of some important texts, e.g. the ]zvanmuktiviveka, in which YS III, 37 is used to support the affirmation that the "conscious" type of samadhi, despite its careful description by Pa­tafijali, deserves no attention, associated as it is to the production of siddhis, and is an obstacle to the "'unconscious" or "undifferentiated" (nirvikalpa ) samadhi that leads to lib­eration C3). We are evidently before an important precedent in the interpretation of YS III, 37 discussed above: this is the typical Vedantic position on the subject, a position that is to be found again in Radhakrishnan, whose philosophical reflection is known to proceed along Vedantic lines. It may however be asked whether it is right from an historical view­point to analyse Yoga in the light of Vediinta. In our opinion there are two facts prevent­ing this possibility. First of all, the declared anti-Yoga in toto (and hence anti-siddhi)

attitude assumed by Vediinta from the very beginning: Sankhara's comment on the Vedan­

tasutra confutes at length both Sarp.khya and Yoga and repeatedly maintains Yoga's defec­tiveness C4). Secondly, the time gap between the two "systems" cannot be ignored: even if commentators of the Yoga texts often belong to much later periods, the YS are neverthe­less much earlier than Sankhara. The comparison between Yoga and Buddhism, on the contrary, seems to us to be much more legitimate since it does not come up against the time gap and, especially, proves to be widely based on numerous convergencies and agree­ments in practice, terminology and concepts (25).

Thanks also to comparison with the analogous Buddhist term abhijfia, we shall be able to indicate other defects in the conventional attitude to the siddhis. Before taking up

(20) Mahabharata, XII, 196, 20, cited in HoPKINS, ibid.

(21) Ad YS Ill, 55. (22) Ibid., « natyantam ahetaval;l kaivalye vi­

bhutaya, kitp.tu na sak\!iit ». (23) « yadyapi Patafijalina bhautikabhutatanma­

trendriyahatp.karadivi\!ayal;l satp.prajfiatasavikalpasa­madhayo bahudha prapaficital;l, tathiipi te�am an­tardhanadisiddhihetutaya muktihetusamadhivirodh-

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ltvan nasmabhis tatradaral;l kriyate », ed. by S. Subrahmanya Shastri and T. R. Srinivasa Ayya·ngar, Adyar, Madras, 1935, p. 97.

(24) Sribhana II, 1 , 2 and 3, where one reads, for example: « na satp.khyajfianena vedanirapek�e­J;la yogamargeJ;�a va nil;l\!reyasam adhigamyata iti ».

(25) Cf. L. DE LA VALLI�E PoussiN, «Le Boud­dhisme et le Yoga de Patafijali », MCB, V, l936-37, pp. 223-242.

this comparison however, we feel we should stress the need to approach phenomena such as Yoga not so much with a "philosophical" spirit, as is sometimes the case, as with one that i,; philological and historical-religious at the same time. In the field of the powers and their relation to Yoga· there is a fairly typical example to be taken into consideration with regard to this need.

The well-known YS IV, 1, gives a classification of the various sources and causes of the siddhis, viz. birth, o�adhi, mantra, tapas and samadhi C6). O�adhi, whose most usual meaning is �'herb", "'medicinal herb" ( 27 ) , is generally translated by "drug" or "intoxicating liq­

uor". Modern commentators sometimes appear embarrassed before this point. Radhakri­shnan sees in it an example of the "low naturalism" with which Yoga's "high idealism" is constrained to coexist by outside pressure; a coexistence which leads to confusion, in his opinion: «narcotic intoxication and ecstatic state are confused by the popular mind » ( 28) . Oberhammer, after declaring that Patafijali gives no importance to the siddhis, goes on as follows: « und explizite gesagt wird, dass diest! Wunderkrafte unter anderem auch aus dem Gebrauch von Drogen resultieren konnen » ( 2� ), as much as to say, we seem to gather,

that Patafijali's lack of interest in the powers is implicitly demonstrated by the admission that the latter can even be produced by drugs. In a book which seems very well docu­mented on other points K. Behanan, in an attempt to rectify the apparent contradiction between the low magic of drugs and Patafijali's elevated speculation, actually draws from the texts pronouncements they do not in fact make: «My acquaintance with the yogins

has convinced me that they do not use drugs. One of the aphorisms of the Y ogasutras,

admitting that "supernormal experiences· may be induced by intoxicating liquors and drugs, strictly prohibits their use » C0). But there is no trace of any such prohibition in the YS. Now in connexion with all this there are two observations to be made, in our opinion. First, that in parallel Buddhist texts, alongside classifications that are similar or identical to YS IV, 1, there appears both an indication of a hierarchy among the various sources of

the "'powers" and an illustration of their value. This seems a further argument in favour of denying the idea of a merely formal and passive acceptance - due to a "spirit of ac­comodation" - of the siddhis doctrine, and in favour of indicating, on the contrary, an active and conscious attitude, even an experimental one, as one might be tempted to describe it. For example: «la connaissance de la pensee d'autrui est bonne, mauvaise, non defi-

(26) « janmau�adhimantratap�samii.dhijii.Q. sid­dhayaQ. ». It is cited by H. Hubert and M. Mauss, among others, as an exhaustive classification also applicable to other civilizations. Cf. the chapter « L'origine des pouvoirs magiques dans les socit!tes australiennes » in Melanges d'histoire des religions, Paris, 1909; It. ed. Le origini dei poteri magici, Torino, 1951, repr. 1965, pp. 138-9 . It appears questionable however whether it is legitimate, from an historical point of view, to abstract and isolate a siitra both from its particular context, i.e. the YS, and .from its general context, i.e. Indian religion, recurring in this way to an anti-historic

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comparat1v1sm. Both contexts in fact suggest the presence of a trans-magic intention, or rather, the possibility of using such powers for ends differ­ing from those proper to "magic" as commonly understood and in that sense operating in other civilizations.

{27) Cf. M. MoNIER WrLLIAMS, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford, 1956, p. 236.

(28) RAl>HAKRISHNAN, op. cit., p. 368. (2B) 0BERHAMMER, op. cit., p. 102. {30) K. rr. BEHANAN, Yoga, a Scientific Evalua­

tion, I ed., 1937, repr. New York, 1959, p. 185.

nie, quand elle est produite par reflexion, tarka, par formules, m antra... Au contraire, pro­

duite par bhavana ou dhyana cette connaissance est seulement bonne » C1). Moreover, when

the powers are innate they do not even assume the name abhijna and have an ambivalent nature ( 32 ) . Similarly, in the Mahaprajnaparamitafastra ( 33 ) there is a scale of values for the

various types of nirmat;a or magic creation: at the first step we find the nirmiit;a produced

by O!adhi, at the fourth and last, the nirmiit;a produced by samadhi C4). Apart from this, a singular lack of interest for the opinion of the commentators of the YS on the subject h to be found in the modern authors cited above and not only in them. Yet it is our belief

that the formers' unanimous interpretation deserves attention. They in fact agree in ex­plaining the term as a reference to rasayana, i.e. alchemy (B5 ) . As to Ramiinanda Sara­svati (86), he does not hesitate to attribute the use of O!adhi to a man of Kapila's quality.

Now in this connexion we believe that in his detailed studies on Indian alchemy, with plentiful textual evidence and the historical-religious opening the need of which we have

already stressed, Eliade (37), after making the alchemy jTantrism symbiosis dear, has demon­strated that rasayana and hence, to abide by the commentators, the use of O!adhi, far from appearing as a rough form of primitive chemistry, is shown rather to suggest a complex

combination of techniques intended as an aid to salvation (38) .

The first conclusion to be drawn from these annotations on the O!adhi is, we feel, a further invitation to avoid rigid simplification& and to consider on the contrary the greater

probability of a more complex and differentiated panorama. In fact, insistence upon the antinomy between popular magic on the one hand and philosophy on the other as an expla­nation of the presence of the siddhis in Yoga or the abhijnas in Buddhism is a position

we have seen to be frequently in contrast with the texts considered, as they should be, as a whole. Naturally this does not imply a denial of Yoga's association to magism in its

strict and rudimentary sense : such an association is often to be encountered, particularly in Yoga's non classical formulations (B8 ) . But with regard to the classical texts (both

Yoga and Buddhist) where a richer and more conscious speculation is to be found, things

are not so simple, to our mind. In a word, there are two alternatives: either the siddhis

and abhijnas, with all the considerable importance attributed to them, are merely the reflec­

tion of a popular infiltration that has been more or less skilfully rationalized, or else, in spite of the constant danger of degeneration implied by some of them in particular, they

(a1) AK, VII, p. 125 . (a2) Ibid.

(aa) Translation by E. LAMOTTE, Le Traite de ,;:; Grande Vertu de Sagesse, Louvain, 1944-49, I. pp. 382-383.

:a•) Cf. also S. LINDQUIST, Siddhi und Abhiiiiia, l"?psala, 1935, p. 25.

,:as) V. Ybh, TV, and RM on YS IV, 1; YSS,

�· 64. (36) MP, on YS IV, 1.

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(87) ELIADE, «Le Yoga et l'Alchimie », in Yoga . . . , cit., pp. 274-91 and notes pp. 397-401; In., « L'Alchimie indienne » , in Forgerons et AJchi­mistes, Paris, 1956, pp. 130-44 and note p. 197.

(38) « ... il ne s'agit pas la d'une prechimie, d'une science embryonnaire, mais d'une technique spirituelle qui tout en operant sur la 'matiere•, cherchait avant tout la 'perfection de !'esprit', la delivrance et l'autonomie » (Yoga, cit. , p. 280).

( 39 ) Cf., for example, Yoga, cit., pp. 143 f., 153 , 159.

nevertheless appear as an element that has been organically grafted into the rest of the doctrine and can be in harmony with its ends. That in our opinion the only possible alter­native is the second one is what we have been trying to make clear up to now and we shall continue to do so in the rest of the article. As to the first alternative, it should be added that nothing leads us to believe, with Radhakrishnan, that outside pressure at the

time was strong enough to prevent refusal of the "powers". The condemnation of the siddhis

by Vedanta is eloquent in this respect, without considering that, on a more general scale, the Upani�ads rebellion against the Brahmat:tas' ritualistic sclerosis or the Buddhists' even more radical rebellion make it difficult to as sign so decisive a role to conformism in the history of religion in ancient India.

3 - Purification, Knowledge and Power in Yoga

Up till now our discussion has centred round the most widespread op:uuon on the question of the siddhis. We should now proceed to a more specific textual investigation,

intended both to make the meaning of the "powers" even clearer and to shed some light on the more general question of the relation between power, knowledge and purification : the problem of the siddhis being but one particular aspect of a great unitary and energetic

conception in which the physical and the psychical elements are always closely combined in mutual causality. In this way a negative motion of the psyche is recognized as having

the ineluctable power to create painful reincarnations, a positive one, on the contrary, that

of producing favourable karma, and a duly depurated and transformed psyche will have the equally ineluctable power of freedom and knowledge. The inadequacy of exclusively mystic conceptions -(40) in explaining all this should be clear. In other words, we feel it is of the utmost importance to emphasize that among the foundations of Yoga, and not only of Yoga, may be found the conception of a creative psycho-physical force of which the siddhis are but specifications. Conversely, to abstract the siddhis from this general dynamic context and turn them into a special category means understanding Yoga and similar doctrines in

another sense, using a generically philosophical yardstick. It is doubtful, however, in our

opinion, as to whether such a yardstick is completely valid, since this dynamical theory is

implicit in every stage of Yoga. As we read, for example, in Ybh I, 5, the mental activ­

ities or functions ( cittavrtti) create corresponding karmic impulses (saf?Zskara), which, in their turn, create cittavrtti, « so that the wheel of mental functions and karmic impulses turns

incessantly » (41 ). The cittavrtti may be "maculate" or '"immaculate", that is, affected to a greater or lesser extent by "impurities" or klesa : ignorance (avidya), egotism, passion,

(40) In view of the confusion prevailing in this subject, M. ELIADE's preface to R. GonEL's essay, cit., p. 9, note 1, calling attention to the difference between mysticism and Yoga in its fullest sense, is very opportune: « L'Orient, bien qu'il n'ignore nullement la mystique et la saintete,

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a developpe encore une voie qui lui est propre: celle du jivanmukta. C'est surtout cette methode indienne, a certains egards tres proche de la mys­tique, mais qui ne se confond pas avec elle. .. ».

(41) « Vfttisarp.skaracakram anisam iivartate », Ybh, I, 5.

aversion and attachment (42). Of these, avidya is not only the most important but is also

the root of all the others (43). It is thus a veritable reproductive mechanism that associates

all the various levels, physical, emotional and mental, in a dynamic relation of continual interaction: «Man thinks according to his desires, acts in order to fulfill his thoughts and becomes what he does » (44). Buddhism's pratityasamutpada) or conditioned production,

h no other than a further organization of this, the basic law of existence. What should be emphasized at this point is that the opposition between karma on the one hand and

mukti on the other is, certainly, the pivot of so much of India's practical speculation, but on condition that the apparent paradox that it is karma that generates liberation is borne in mind. This is the reason why Saq1khya and Yoga often declare that prakrti has a two­fold aim: on the one hand experience ( bhoga ), on the other, emancipation (45). In other words, it is the law of prakrti that itself leads out of prakrti. In fact, when, thanks to

Yoga, the impurities begin to fade away and a� avidya is replaced by its opposite, know­ledge, it happens that the more positively "impregnated" mental activities produce purer karmic impulses and that these in their turn give rise to a differently orientated mental activity which will then produce new impulses, and so on. «The river of the mind may flow both in a positive and in a negative direction » (46): in the latter case there will be

a pause in the saf!Zsiira) in the former, a process culminating in the liberation or isolation (kaivalya) of the soul from the mind and its forces. If it is true that the latter act implies liberation from the law of karma) it is also true that the factor leading to it is no other

than karma. Changing the mental colouring, making the mental activities "immaculate" by

inverting the more usual course of the saf!Zskara) simply means sowing in a different fash­ion but still in the furrow of the same law, any alteration of which would seem in any

case logically impossible, at least in the light of the YS. What is suggested as being pos­

sible is not an alteration but an eventual victory over karma after a difficult journey. With­out such a victory there would be no sense in talking about freedom and absolute inde­pendence as the final result of the yogic miirga. Nevertheless- and here we have a vital point - if this victory-liberation is to be achieved, it must be "sown" continually in ac­cordance with the iron logic of the basic law: liberation may be achieved only on con­dition that the mind ( citta ), through adequate depuration, be enabled to produce the neces­sary amount {47) of karmic impulses endowed with the specific quality of giving rise in their

turn to liberation .. See in this connexion Ybh I, 49-50: «Now for the yogin who has attained samiidhic knowledge there is a constant production of ever new karmic impulses arising from that very knowledge. The karmic impulses produced by samiidhic knowledge

conflict with the latent stock of impulses generated by ordinary experience and end by

overwhelming them, with a consequent cessation of the ideas produced by the latter.

(42) )TS, 11, 3 . ( '3) )TS, II, 4 . (44) Brhadara1Jyaka-upani�ad) 4, 4, 5 . (45) Cf., for example, YS, IV, 24 and the

:orresponding Ybh. (46) Ybh, I, 20.

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(47) Otherwise othe positive karmic impulse -e.g. the impulse produced by the mental halt -may weaken and be overwhelmed by the saf!1ska­ras of ordinary experience: « [nirodha]-satpskiira­mandye vyutthanadhatmil].a satpskiirel].a nirodha­dharmasatpskaro 'bhibhiiyata iti », Ybh, Ill, 10.

(It happens in fact) that the cessation of the flow of ideas is followed by samadhi which is in its turn succeeded by the knowledge produced by samadhi which then creates a stock

of karmic impulses that are incessantly renewed. New knowledge proceeds from these impulses and in its turn generates new impulses » (48 ). It may be observed that this "halt" or "inhibition" (nirodha) of the mental activities - the definition of yoga as cittavrttini­

rodhaf? is well-known - is, in perfect keeping with the doctrine, accompanied by a creative potency. In fact « inhibition does not mean destruction or negation » (4� ) : the nirodha

also presupposes a form of mental initiative, « What happens is that as these ( i.e. cittavrtti

and nirodha) are both positive entities, inhibition produces karmic impulses in no less fash­

ion than did the mental activities » e0 ); thus even a practice based on nirodha will keep on producing constantly renewed impulses ( 51 ) . Naturally however, in view of the orienta­tion of these saf?tskaras and the particular se t of purposes with which they are charged - viz. that of a halt or nirodha - as they grow progressively more and more intense they end up by turning, paradoxically, against any form of mental activity whatsoever, includ­ing their own. We could say that in the beginning the nirodha is contained in them like a seed; but with time - we know that instantaneous ripening of the karma is virtually

impossible C2) - it will inevitably ripen and bear fruit, i .e. general improductivity. This

mechanism is especially at the basis of the higher form of samadhi, asarttprajfiatasamadhi,

the unconscious, undifferentiated, abstract or seedless ( nirbija) samadhi : « when even these karmic impulses ( i .e. those generated by the knowledge deriving from the first type of

samadhi, saf?tprajfiata-samadhi) are halted, everything will be halted : and then comes the

moment of the seedless samadhi » e3); and the relative Ybh: « since in fact the impulses

developed by the halt are able to contrast even those proper to the ('seed-bearing' ) sama­

dhi » C4 ). The consequence of all this can be no other than kaivalya or isolation-libera­

tion : the mind "'dissolves", is reabsorbed by the prakrti or unmanifested nature and the

puru�a, entirely free, shines with its own light . In short, the coherent and implacable logic

governing the dynamism of the karma, or fundamental psycho-physical energetic law, can lead

to an infinite range of consequences, including the destruction of the karmic stock. It !s

naturally important to distinguish between karmic law and karmic stock, to avoid the sus­

picion of a striking contradiction such as that of a force unexplainably turning against itself.

b reality, the concept of karma is fairly complex and even when simplified to the utmost

will still include two factors : a force and a law governing that force, viz. the law of

cause and effect, of seed and fruit. Now when there is a specific type of seed, the law

.(48 ) « samadhiprajfiapratilambhe yoginaJ:t praj­fiakrtaJ:t sarpskaro navo navo jayate . . . samadhipraj­fiaprabhavaJ:t sarpskaro vyutthiinasarpskariisayarp badhate, vyut-thanasarpskarabhibhavat tatprabhavaJ:t pratyaya na bhavanti, pratyayanirodhe samadhir upatighate, tataJ:t samadhija prajfia, tataJ:t prajfia­krtaJ:t sarpskara iti navo naval?. sarpskariisayo jayate, tataJ:t prajfia tatas ea sarpskara iti ».

{49 ) « nirodho na naso' bhavasamanyarp va », YSS, p. 4.

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(50 ) « atas ea bhiivatvavise�ad vrttya-iva niro­dhenapi sarpskaro janyate », ibid.

(51 ) « asamprajfiatayogo hi nirodhariipo 'pi nava­navasarpskaratisayam abhyasaj janayati », YSS, p. 20.

( 5 2 ) C£., for example, YS, II, 1 3 . ( 53 ) « tasyapi nirodhe sarvanirodhiin nirbija�

samadhih » . ( 54) �< nirodhajaJ:t samskaraJ:t samadhijan sarpska­

ran badhate ».

will in this way always be obliged to produce the corresponding fruit, even if the seed

is the halt of the force in question. The law is thus not contradictory; it would be, on the contrary, if it showed signs of functioning differently. At this point there naturally rises a mass of problems on which the texts themselves do not always seem able to shed

much light. In what sense, for example, are we to understand the destruction or "com­bustion" of an energy like that of karma ? Whether there is any meaning in affirming the complete disappearance of· an energy, or whether one should suppose, on the contrary, that

it has in some way been sublimated (but into what? The puru!a is presented as already perfect and formed ab initio), etc. Everything concerning the concept of liberation is dense with capital problems which cannot however b:.! analysed in the present context . Here our

main aim has been that of stressing how the yogic vision is closely woven onto a basic concept of force or power, operating at all levels. In this context it is clear that know­

ledge is power par excellence, both in the sense that it is founded on a power and in the

sense that it produces new power. In other words, the knowing stage is preceded by a series of saf?1skaras orientated in a certain direction and creates another series of saf?1skaras

whose ripening will sooner or later generate new knowledge. Knowledge is moreover the

opposite of avidya, the principal impurity and root of all the others, hate, attachment, etc . As avidya is gradually replaced by vidya, hate, etc. will also be replaced by their opposites, through their inevitable linking together by sartzskaras. Saf?1skaras of detachment, love,

etc., in opposition to their corresponding impurities (attachment, hate }, will in their turn enter automatically into conflict with avidya, contributing in this manner to knowledge. Yoga seeks in this way to give an analytical anJ "scientific" explanation of a "gnostic" atti­tude predominant in Indian religion, according to which true knowledge has such a totally

transforming effect on the individual as to release him from the saf?1sara. Terms such as knowledge, purification, samadhi, liberation, are thus all very closely related and interdepend­ent; but this intimate association and reciprocity could not be had outside the connective

. tissue represented by the saf?1skaras and their law.

We feel that it would be useful, in this connexion, to consider the course of the yogic way in greater detail. The fundamental principle of the way is given in YS, II, 2 8 : « yoganganu�thanad asuddhik�aye jfianadiptir a vivekakhyate}:t », « Once impurity has been

destroyed through exercising Yoga's elimbs' there arises an intuitive illumination that leads

t<J discriminative knowledge » . Ybh, II, 2 8 explains how each time the means of realiza­tion proper to Yoga are used, impurity is further decreased and how, in proportion to this·

decrease, there is an increase in the luminosity of knowledge. The practice of Yoga is thus at the same time a "'way of obtaining" in that it procures discriminative knowledge and a

"way of removing" in that it removes impurity, or the group of maculations (kleia) (55 ) . Purity (Suddhatva, vaifaradya) generally stands for purity of the mental sattva (sattvafuddhi),

( 55 ) « te�am anu�thiiniit pafieaparvaJ?.o vipa­ryayasyiisuddhiriipasya k�ayo nasa�, tatk�aye sa­myagjfiiinasyiibhivyaktir, yathii yathii ea siidhaniiny anu�thlyante, tathii tathii tanutvam asuddhir apa-

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dyate, yathii yathii ea k�iyate, k�ayakramiinurodhini jfiiinasyiipi diptir vivardhate, sa khalv e�ii vivrddhi� prakar�am anubhavaty ii vivekakhyiiter gul;lapuru­�asvariipavijfiiiniid ity arth� ».

even if the yogin's final step is that of freeing himself from the gut;as in their entirety and hence also from the sattva. It should be remembered at this point that to say gut;as means to say prakrti, nature, and hence satpskiira and viisanii, with the obvious distinction between negative satpskiiras, to be attributed to tamas and rajas, and positive or sattvic sa1?1skiiras .

A particularly clear definition of purity may be found in Ybh, I, 47 : « when free from the contaminations due to the darkening of impurity, the sattva of the mind appears in an im­mobile and transparent flux, overwhelmed neither by rajas nor tamas : this is precisely what we call purity. When it arises to crown the nirviciirasamiidhi the yogin feels himself per­vaded by an internal calm, a vision consisting in a clear and simultaneous knowledge of things as they really are » (56 ) . A further definition of purity, founded in this way on mas­tery over the rajas and the tamas, or passions and inertia, could evidently be put as follows : « Purity of the sattva consists in detachment towards what is perceived and experienced » (57 ) . As to discriminative knowledge ( vivekajfiiina, vivekakhyiitil; ) or '"knowledge of things as they are" - i.e. the perception of the difference between the soul and nature, including the mind - this is the expression of purity at its highest level and at the same time the culmination of the yogic way. A knowing, it should be observed, strictly equivalent to a being, in the sense that the yogin will know the difference or separation existing between his own intelligent being (puru!a) and the rest, prakrti, only on condition he has succeeded in actually acquiring a separation between the false self and the real self, releasing the latter from all the false identifications ( i .e . kleia and the mental activity impregnated with them) that normally keep it down. The whole process of Yoga, throughout its gradual develop­ment, is essentially a process of separation, which goes to explain the central importance of terms such as discrimination ( viveka), detachment { vairiigya) or kaivalya and viyoga, sepa­ration, the latter being a general definition of Yoga ( 58). This separation is attained in four stages : separation from the tamas first, secondly from the rajas, thirdly from the sattva,

culminating in an uncontaminated puru!a . The gap between the last two stages is fairly slight and, to simplify matters , could be described as the gap between a condition of being that is still "'contaminated" by mental activity and the integral being, pure separation or kaivalya : the puru!a rests in itself. The latter result can be achieved more swiftly by the practice of asa1?'Jprajfiiita-samiidhi, which has the power of eliminating the karma in a more rapid and effective manner. In keeping with the mechanism and law mentioned above, every period of ecstasy - characterized by the individual's momentary separation from his ordinary psyche - will influence and fecunda t� the mental complex with an image of sepa­ration and a thrust in its direction ; sooner or later, in proportion to the resistance op­posed to the relative sa1?1skiiras by sa1?1skiiras of different origin, this separation will finally be achieved (kaivalya). It should however be observed that asa1?'Jprajfiiita-samadhi figures

a5 an accelerator of the yogic way, not as an essential instrument. The difference between

(56) « asuddhyiivar�amalapetasya prakasiitma­no buddhisattvasya rajastamobhyiim anabhibhiital). svacchal). sthitipravaho vaisiiradyaQJ., yadii nirvicii­rasya samiidher vaisaradyam idatp. j ayate tadii yogino

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bhavaci adhyiitmaprasiido bhiitiirthavi�aya}_!. kra­miinanurodhi sphutaprajfiiiloka}_!. ».

(57) « sattvasuddhis tu bhuktavairiigyam iti ». (58) Cf. HOPKINS , op. cit., p. 338 .

the two types of samadhi is that while both lead to the final emancipation, the second

type, asa??Zprajfiata, is more potent, able as it is to destroy even karma that have already

ripened (prarabdha) (5' ). In short, it is a difference in time : a'i the sa??Zprajfiata-samadhi

does not have this effect, the devotee has to wait until the prarabdhakarma has born all

its fruit ( 60 ) . Apart from the substantial equivalence of the two types of samadhi, it may

be observed that Yoga lays down no hard and fast rule as to the type of means to be used.

The main point is to reach a state of irreversible purity, garanteeing on the one hand the

destruction of the negative karma and on the other a set of intentions, let us say, that are

sufficiently clear and precise to produce the right quality and quantity of sa??Zskaras required

for attaining the final goal. These will be sa1ftskaras of higher knowledge, if necessary, or

merely of mental halt (nirodha ) and thus halt of the srup.skaric production itself. For tliis

motive the texts declare, for example, that « even if the 'cloud of virtue' (dharmamegha)

type of samadhi, culminating in infinite knowledge and all the rest, has not yet been reached,

both types of liberation still take place when there is complete destruction of the seeds of

rebirth and hence presumption, attachment, aversion, etc. » ( 61 ) . Up till now we have dwelt on the goal of Yoga, which has appeared as clearly dis­

tinguished in two stages : (1 ) a condition of integral purity founded on a state of separation

implying on the one hand discriminative knowledge, total detachment from the senses and

quasi total detachment from the mind, on the other, a creative power able to fix this state

and direct its ripening towards (2 ) the second stage, or total separation (kaivalya) of the

puru�a from the prakrti in its entirety, thus also including the mind.

Now the means employed by Yoga can have no direct goal other than purity, since

kaivalya is a more or less rapid consequence of sattvasuddhi. A swift glance at the YS

will be sufficient to make it clear that both detachment and the practice (abhyasa) intended

for the advanced yogin, the first five "limbs" ot Yoga ( the bahirmigani) taken together, some

of them taken individually ( e .g. zsvaraprm;idhana, devotion-concentration on the Lord, or pra-

1Jayama, breath-control), and finally samyama or the single samadhi, ail aim essentially at

purity of the sattva.

4 - The Question of the Powers in the General Framework of Yoga

Following this bird's eye-view of the yogic conception we shall at this point analyze

the function held by the siddhis or vibhiitis within this framework. In this connexion, atten­

tion is called to a study by A. Janacek ( 62), who, on rigorously textual grounds, has reached

( 5' ) Vijiianabhik�u has dealt in particular with the subject ; see Yogavarttika, I, 17 and 18 and YSS, p. 2 ( « asamprajiiatayogasya cakhilav!-"ttisaJ1ls­karadahadviirii priirabdhasyiipy atikrame!feti ») and passim.

( 60) « eteniisamprajiiiitiibhiive 'pi priirabdhabo­ghanantaraip jiianiniiip mok�o bhavaty eveti sid-

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dhiinto na virudhyate » , YSS p. 6 . { 61 ) « ata� siirvajiiyiidiparyantadharmameghasa­

madhyanutpiide 'pi abhimiinariigadve�iidiriipabhava­bijadiihenaiva muktidvayam iti », YSS p. 17 .

{ 62) A. }ANAcEK, « The Methodical Principle in Yoga According to Pataiijali's Yogasutras », AO, XIX, 3-4, 195 1 , pp. 514-567.

some interesting conclusions in contrast with the conventional opinion on the question and less generical than such vague admissions as to the value of the siddhis as that made by Kane. The basis of the long article is the thesis, supported in its time by Jacobi (68 ), that the first two stages in the practice, yama and niyama, do not represent an integral

part of Yoga - which, it is claimed, has nothing to do with ethics - and that the siddhis

associated with them (64 ) are to be considered merely as an automatic and involuntary side effect . Instead, Janacek proves the contrary : yama and niyama are Yoga practices based upon a methodical principle - the pratipak!abhavanii or cultivation of the contrary -common to other practices. As to the siddhis, they are « a sign of a correct Yoga procedure, though not an aim of Yoga » ( 65 ) and « far from being attained automatically, may only come about as a result of constant intensification of the practices » ( 66) . It is evident that the view of the siddhis as a magical residue quite out of keeping with authentic Yoga doctrine, is radically undermined by conclusions of this type. For our part we feel that by extending research to the entire text of the YS - Janacek's study is mostly confined to the bahirangani, the main end of his work being another - further conclusions may be reached. To this end, reference should first be made to Ybh, III , 55, mentioned above, according to which both the knowledge produced by the samadhi and the powers are instru­ments for the purification of the sattva. In studies of the siddhis this passage is oddly

enough ignored for the most part . Lindquist ( 67 ) cites it but shows no signs of attributing any particular value to it . It seems to us, on the contrary, that it is worth while looking more deeply into the subject, considering that in Ybh III, 55 two terms normally repre­sented as heterogeneous and incompatible are to be found united. In what sense are the powers a means favourable to sattvasuddhi? As such, are they directly or indirectly useful for the attainment of kaivalya, in the other commentators' opinion ? And in what sense are we to see them as coupled with knowledge? This would imply that the siddhis, par­ticularly when they arise from the practice of samadhi, are not only - as J anacek demon­strates - a result of Yoga practices , but may themselves comprise an actual practice. All this may raise the objection that these are isolated claims, dictated perhaps by scholastic chauvinism, bent on justlfying all the elements in a system en bloc, even when some of these appear essentially torn out of it. Such a possibility is in fact by no means remote, especially in comments' literature, only that in our opinion the objection cannot stand in the case in question due prlmarily to the presence of further precise and specific textual references .

Certainly the most noteworthy and a t the same time the easiest t o miss i s the doctrine of the parikarmas ( 68 ). It is easy to miss because parikarma means purification and does

not, in appearance, reveal a precise link wlth the siddhis. Nevertheless, after studying the texts it is equally easy to perceive that some parikarmas are, in every respect, no other than siddhis. And since the value and functioning of the parikarmas is illustrated in rela-

(63) H. }ACOBI, « 'Ober das urspriingliche Yoga­system », Sitzungsberichte der preussischen Akade­mie der Wissenschaften, XXVI, 1929.

(64 ) YS , II, 35-45 . { 65 ) }ANACEK, op. cit., p. 553 .

2 1 0

( 66) Ibid., p. 567. (67) S . LINDQUIST, Die Methoden des Yoga,

Lund, 1932, p. 169. ( 68 ) YS, I, 33-39.

tion to the sattvasuddhi, it would be perfectly legitimate to add this description to the doctrine of the siddhis and cease to consider the statements carried above as isolated sug­gestions . The parikarmas are a branch of the abhyasa or exercise which, in close association with vairagya or detachment, leads the advanced yogin towards the final achievements . The parikarmas' immediate purpose is the attainm ent of mental calm ( cittaprasadana). After listing some of them ( 69 ) Pataiijali's text reads : « Or else ( this is possible}, when, in rela­tion to an object of the senses, a mental function or activity develops that is able to lead to the stability of the inner sense (manas) » C0 ) . Vyasa's comment on this sutra is par­ticularly illuminating :

« The awareness of a supranormal odour by somebody who is concentrating on the tip of his nose represents precisely the activity ( or function) that is connected with the odour. Concentration on the tip of his tongue, then, produces awareness of a supranormal taste ; concentration on the palate, awareness of a supranormal colour ; concentration on tile middle of the tongue, awareness of a supranormal touch; concentration on the bottom of

the tongue, awareness of a supranormal soun,.d. Such functions, whatever their origin, set up a relation between the mind and stability, remove doubt and become means for the form of knowledge proper to samadhi.. . In fact, whether the essence of the things is made accessible to us from the teachings of the m asters, inference or the various sciences - such means being evidently able to make us know things as they are - nevertheless, as long as there remains even a tiny part not knowable through the sense appropriate to it, the whole will also remain unknown. Nor can the mind on its own have efl:icadty in relation to matters as subtle as liberation, etc. In c onsequence, in order to reinforce the teaching

of the masters , inference, the various scienc es, any one particular object (remained un­knowable ) must be made clear by direct perception : so that once part of what has been taught by those means has been confirmed by perception, the whole will also become entirely credible, even in the most subtle matters including liberation. The aforesaid mental purification has been explained wlth precisely this aim in view. In a word, once it has become aware of its mastery over the mental functions - which normally escape control

- the mind should be able to make this or that object clear by means of perception. With this achieved, faith, energy, memory and samadhi are reached wlthout impediment » C1 ) .

And so we find ourselves before a seri es of supranormal senses, a range of extra­sensory perceptions, developed through concentration exactly like the vibhutis or powers listed in YS, Ill, 36 . The sole difference appears to be of a quantitative nature : the first

( 69 ) YS, I, 33-34. ( 1° ) « vi�ayavati vii pravrttir utpannii manasa]:I

sthitinibandhani », YS, I, 35. ( 1 1 ) « nasikiigre dhiirayato 'sya yii divyagandha­

samvit sa gandhapravrttir, j ihviigre rasasamvit, tii­luni rupasamvit, jihviimadhye sparsasamvit, jihvii­mwe sabdasamvit, ity etii]:I pravrttaya utpanniis cittam sthitau nibadhnanti, sa1psaya1p vidhamanti, samadhiprajfiiiyiifi ea dviiribhavanti iti. etena

2 1 1

candriitityagrahamal).ipradiparasmyiidi�u pravrttir utpannii vi�ayavaty eva veditavyii. yadyapi hi tat­tacchiistriinumiiniiciiryopadesair avagatam artha­tattvaqJ. sadbhutam eva bhavati ete�iiqJ. yathiibhu­tarthapratipadanasiimarthyat tathapi yavad ekade8o 'pi kasdn na svakaral).asamvedyo bhavati, tiivat sarvaqJ. parok�am ivapavargadi�u suk�me�v arthe�u na dr<;lham huddhim utpiidayati.

tasmac chiistriinumiinaciiryopadesopodbalaniir-

series ( i .e . the parikarmas ) is the effect of a limited concentration C2) and comes before the samadhi, while the second one ( the vibhutis) is the effect of a combination of concentration and samadhi - an effect, that is, of samyama - and is thus in all probability able to produce deeper results . The passage quoted above - which may thus be referred both to parikarmas and siddhis, thanks to their common characteristics as noted above - has the merit of illustrating the mechanism of these means . In short, we are dealing with an effort of "experimental" and analytical knowledge in respect of the truths expressed in theoretical and synthetical form in the texts and whose demonstration is left, in the absence of the means in question, to logical-deductive processes ( anumana or inference) whose value is obviously inferior to that of anubhava or direct experience. The ability to reach "simple" supranormal knowledge (hearing, visions , etc . ) will confirm the yogin in his path and provide

him with the intuitive and energetic basis, as it might be described, necessary for the con­crete realization of more complex or "subtle" knowledge such as liberation, puru�a, etc . The close relation between purification, knowledge and power appears more clearly than ever in all this . A further confirmation is to be found in Ybh, III, 6, which indicates that the samyama and the vibhutis deriving from it should be applied gradually, starting from the less and ending with the more subtle, in the same way as the parikarmas : « The samyama can be applied to a successive stage only when the previous one has been mas­

tered and the yogi cannot pass on to the higher stages of the samyama until he has mas­tered the lower and intermediate stages . Now if there is no samyama how will he ever be able to attain the light of knowledge ? However, if he has reached the last stages by the grace of the Lord, it will not be necessary for him to go through the lower stages of the samyama ( thought-reading, etc . ) since the aims of the latter have been attained by other means (i .e . by devotion to the Lord) » C3 ). As to the order of precedence of the various attainments , this can be established by the yogin himself in relation to his own nature ; he

will then have to persist in the exercise until the established attainment has been entirely achieved C4 ) . Moreover, the doctrine of the samyama and the powers deriving from its progressive application develops still further the possibilities contained in the parikarmas.

While the latter seem in fact to be confined to "easy" attainments able to confirm the yogin's confidence that he will arrive at direct perception of increasingly subtle entities by the same method, the samyama doctrine, founded not only on concentration but on an intensive appli­cation of concentration-ecstasy, goes further, p roposing itself as a suitable instrument for obtaining the "subtle" knowledge described above . In fact, as the technique in question

tham eviivasyaq�. kascid vise�aJ::t pratyak�ikartavyaJ::t, tatra tadupadigiirthaikadesapratyak�atve, sati sar­vaq�. susiik�mavi�ayam apy apavargiit susraddhlyate, etad artham evedaq�. cittaparikatma nirdisyate, aniyatiisu vrtti�u tadvi�ayiiyiiql vasikiirasaq�.jfiiiyiim upajiitiiyiiq�. samarthaq�. syiit tasya tasya arthasya pratyak�ikara�iiyeti, ta:thii ea sati sraddhiiviryasmrti­samiidhayo 'syiipratibandhena bhavi�yantiti » . ( 12) « alpeniibhyiisayogena tatsiik�iitkiiro vi�aya­vati pravrttir ueyate », YSS p. 27.

2 12

( 13 ) « tasya samya:masya jitabhiimer yii 'nantarii bhiimis tatra viniyogaJ::t, na hy ajitiidharabhiimir anantarabhiimiq�. vilanghya priintabhiimi�u samya­maq�. labhate, tadabhiiviie ea kutas tasya prajfiiiloka? isvaraprasiidiij jitottarabhiimikasya ea niidharabhii­mi�u paracittajfiiiniidi�u samyamo yuktaJ::t kasmiit? tadarthasyiinyata eviivagatatviit » .

(14) Cf. Ybh III, 26: « evaq�. tiivad abhyaset yiivad idaq�. sarvam dr�ta:m iti », « so he will exercise himself until all this is visible to him ».

is progressively improved, the powers produced by samyama will no longer be of the clair­voyance, levitation, etc. type, but will even.!tllally even grant perception of the puru�a and even its difference from the mental sattva C� ) . Vijfianabhik�u is explicit in this connexion : «Outside this samyama there is no other means given for direct perception of the puru�a» ( 16) .

The liberation process can certainly also take place without specific reference to the vibhutis and their use, but this applies equally to all the means adopted in Yoga, even to knowledge deriving from the samadhi : « Nor is being in possession or not of the powers or partaking or not of the knowledge born from discrimination important for the purpose o� isolation (kaivalya) : since there is no need of further knowledge for the yogin who has burnt the seeds of the impurities . In fact both the powers deriving from samadhi and

knowledge are introduced in their quality of means for achieving purity of the sattva » ( 17 ). This can obviously also be achieved by oth er means {e .g. ifvarapratzidhana, pratzayama,

which are able to complete or start off the completion of purification). There are no compulsory routes : the means are many and interchangeable, always provided they have

a merely interim value. The coupling of the. terms exercise (abhyasa) and detachment (vairagya), typical of Yoga, is no coincidence : exercise implies the use of certain means , detachment must, at a certain point, be applied to those means C8) . The main point is thus to succeed in burning the seeds of the impurities , the garantee of knowledge and ulti­mate freedom. But it is important to observe that this "combustion", whatever the instru­ments used to perform it, always implies a purification, knowledge and power, even if the knowledge and power may not be the know ledge and vibhutis typical of samadhi (here we refer to Ybh, Ill, 55, cited above). In other words , even if it is wished to ignore the "way of the siddhis" , or the development and utilization of the powers in view of Yoga's greatest aims, the power concept is still prese nt . See for example the ifvarapratzidhana and its effects, YS, I, 2 9 and 30 ( 19 ) : although up till now the text has made no mention of the siddhis as such - for this we shall have to wait for the following books - there are numerous examples of actual siddhis among the results of devotion-concentration on the Lord or on his symbols . In the same way the concept of power is structurally intrin­sic to samadhi if it is through its application that the vibhutis are produced. It is no coin­cidence that the Buddhists identify samadhi with rddhi, or extraordinary power. Samadhi

is in fact a very particular condition, capable of producing especially efficacious sa1pskaras, hence a condition of power par excellence, w hether or not specific powers are expected from it. Necessarily preceded by purification, knowledge and power, it has the capacity of

fixing ( 80 ), intensifying and deepening, and will thus be followed, equally inevitably - if

( 7 5 ) Cf., for example, YS and Ybh III, 33, 35, 49, 54.

(76) « tarn imaqt samyamaqt vihayatmasak�atkii­::asyanya upayo nasti », YSS p. 55.

(77) « etasyam avasthayaqt kaivalyaqt bhavati:­s\'arasyanisvarasya va vivekajajfianabhagina itarasya '.-a, na hi dagdhaklesa:bijasya jfiane punar apek�a kacid asti, sattvasuddhidvare1,1aitat samadhij am aisvaryam ea jfianaqt copakrantam », Ybh. III, 55.

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( 7 8 ) Cf. Ybh I, 20. { 7 9 ) Thanks to devotion-concentration on the

Lord, knowledge of the puru!a and the destruction of all obstacles such as sickness, apathy, etc. are attained. { 80 ) Cf., for example, AK, VI, p. 286 : « car c'est le caractere du samadhi de maitriser et de fixer ».

we remember the karmic reproductive mechanism -· by increased purification-knowledge­power. We are naturally considering a sama dhi that is regularly inserted in a precise yogic path, not accidental ecstasies. So true is it that power is in any case closely bound up with samadhi that even when asa7'(lpra;nata-samadhi has been reached, when the chapter on the powers ought to be closed, we find ourselves once again in the presence of a conspic­uous power, that of burning even karma that has begun ripening.

Power, implicit or explicit as it may be, is thus part of the very nature of Yoga. And it could hardly be otherwise, considering tlie close and organic interdependency of the con­cepts of purification, knowledge and power, on the basis of the sa7'(lskaras' dynamism. It is naturally clear that there is a wide range of difference between the various siddhis : some will have a mainly symptomatic and demonstrative value (for the devotee), others may be more strictly functional in respect of the op us yogicum. It is also clear that the powers, especially the more showy among them ( e.g. the eight mahasiddhis ), lend themselves to being desired for themselves, in the case of"immaturity on the part of the devotee . It is b fact here that they are particularly dangerous ( 81), as is repeatedly pointed out by the texts, in that they may cause halts or regress ions, impeding or polluting the yogin's purity, founded on detachment . Then, as Vijfianaohik�u notes in a much neglected work, they wlll be "false siddhis" as, not being founded upo n the abandonment of all that is false concep­tion, they will be unable to oppose themselves to the sa7'(lsara : « yata.J:t sa siddhir itarasya viparyayasya hanam vinai 'va bhavaty, ata}:l. sarp.sara-'paripanthitvat sa siddhyabhasa eva, na tu tattviki siddhir ity artha}:l. » ( 82).

5 - Summary and Conclusions with Regard to Yoga

From what has been written so far we feel that the following conclusions may be drawn :

( a ) Our first observation was how the "po wer" element, implicit or explicit as it may be,

is intrinsic to the very structure of Yoga, in close correlation with the concepts of purification

and knowledge. This correlation proves to be so close that in fact power, purification and

knowledge end up by assuming the air of sides of the same coin. Each implies and is implicit

in the other : progress in one means progress in the others, nor could any progress be think­

able outside this organic interaction. It could in short be said that each of the three includes

.the other two and in a certain sense is the other two . Power is purification and knowledge

because without purification it has no signific ance for the purposes of Yoga, nor is capable

of arising in its specific forms i .e . the "powers" C3). Knowledge, in its turn, is purification

{ 81) Cf. Hopkins, op. cit., p. 334, ctttng Mahiibhiirata XII, 197, 7, in which the yogin who dedicates himself to the search for the powers (aisvaryapravrtta) for wordly purposes is promised eternal hell, an exceptional punishment in India,

214

where "hell i s n o more than purgatory", a s Hopkins points out. ( 82) SPbh, p. 100.

{ 83) « etena <sarva eva puru�a isvara> iti srutism�:tipravado 'py upapadita}:t; sarvopadhlnarp

in the sense that, for example, it will not be possible to know the sattva if one has not pre­viously been depurated and freed from the rajas and tamas, while the knowledge of the sattva

(i .e . of the luminous and hence essentially pure gu1Ja), on the other hand, is itself a concrete realization, a being sattva. We may say that for every stage of purification there is a cor­

responding stage of knowledge and viceversa, provided we hold firm to the fact that there is

no priority between the two; they proceed at the same rate and to say the one means auto­matically to say the other . Naturally it also means power : power or reproductive karmic force that alone, once it has been channeled in the right direction, will permit the purifica­

tion-knowledge to establish itself and to proceed, fructifying in increasingly refined forms until it is freed from karma itself . We have seen how the coincidence between the three

terms under discussion is particularly evident in samadhi : in a duly purified mind, equipped

with the corresponding knowledge, the concentration technique develops the samadhi or ecstatic state, whose power is recognized to be particularly intense and effective ( its sarrzska­

ras halt ordinary ones ) ; a power of fresh purification and further knowledge.

(b) As to the "'powers" or "perfections" ( vibhiitis, siddhis ), they are no other - as we

feel has been made sufficiently clear by the tex tual analysis - than specializations of this

power, which, in correct Yoga practice, are used for the same purpose, i .e . purification (satt­

vafuddhi) and knowledge (sarvajfiana, puru�ajfiana). Their inherent danger or futility when

employed for selfish ends evidently is caused by a lack of harmony with the two terms with which the power is organically correlated. In this connexion, we have stressed the need for a

more careful textual research and a greater religious-historical opening ( see the question of o�adhi) .

(c ) In consequence, neither power nor "the powers" , i f we want to make this distinc­

tion ( 84 ), can be in any way separated from Yoga's essentially organic and unitary structure;

considering them as spurious elements or magical residues has no textual basis .

svabhavikaisvaryasya rajastamobhyam evavara:!fad iti », SPbh, p. 78 . Thus the powers, aisvarya, are innate in every man, but are not generally devel­oped because of inertia ( tamas) and passion (ra;as) .

( 84) That an excessively rigid distinction be­tween siddhis on the one hand and "pure" Yoga on the other leads, in the last analysis, to a certain degree of contradiction and confusion can quite easily be noted. Let us take for example the work of Ramakrishna (v. L'Enseignement de Ramakrishna edited by ]. HERBERT, Paris, 19499 ) . After meeting with drastic warnings of the type : « les pouvoirs psychiques qui sont de veritables pie­ges sur la voie du pelerin de Brahman. Gardez vous de ces pouvoirs » etc. (p. 205), we read further on: « Au cours de la sadhana, un ecorps d'amour' se cree en vous, avec les yeux et les oreilles de !'amour, et c'est avec ces organes spirituels que

215

vous voyez et entendez Dieu »; or even « ces formes de Dieu sont per\=ues par des organes de vision spirituelle appartenant au corps spirituel ( bhaga­vati-tanu) » (pp. 5 1 0-5 1 1 ) .

Now these spiritual organs - which are spoken of in quite a different tone from that used for the siddhis - are really no other than siddhis, vibhutis or abhi;fias, at least according to the classical tradition of Yoga and Buddhism that we are examining in these notes . It is superfluous to recall the divine eye or ear of the Buddhist texts or the infinite possibilities in this direction indicated by the YS. Probably what has happened is that, due in part to the mystic interpretation of Yoga, the siddhis have been given an increas­ingly restrictive meaning, in sharp contrast with the original assumption of the Yoga and Buddhist schools.

(d) The continuity between Yoga and the vital aspects of Vedism brought into focus by

Gonda may be demonstrated merely by comparing the results described above with regard

to Yoga with those regarding the Vedic dhi� carried at the beginning of the artlcle. Apart from the law of karma, which appears clearly expressed only later on, the dynamism of puri­

fication-knowledge-power as mutually dependent elements jumps immediately to the eye. If

it is true, then, that Yoga's pratibha is a feature of specific continuity ( B5 ) with regard to the earlier dhz�, it is also true that this continuity may under many aspects be extended to the entire purification-knowledge-power pattern.

6 - Points of Correspondence with the Buddhist Doctrine of the Abhijfias

A barely exhaustive study of the same subject in Buddhism would require at least as much space as that required for a preliminary approach to the subject in Yoga. It would

undoubtedly be worth undertaking, both within the sphere of Hinayana, in which it is dealt with only in so far as concerns the abhijiias ( B 6 ) ( i .e . the counterpart of Yoga's vibhiitis) and with regard to Mahayana, in which the abhijfias themselves assume a predominant function

in some cases . For our part, we prefer to confine ourselves for the moment to a few observa­tions that are sufficient to indicate how Buddhist tradition fully confirms the conclusions reached in relation to Yoga and thus also reveals continuity in respect of the aforesaid Vedic elements .

In the first place i t should be noted that the coincidence between knowledge and power

( for purification see below) appears in Buddhism in even clearer evidence than elsewhere . Already, in general, the lists of abhijfias ( B7 ) or "higher knowledge" on the one hand and those of the tathagatabalar ( 8B ) or "powers of Buddha" on the other are in themselves eloquent : the abhijiias include rddhis or powers of action (bilocation, levitation, etc . ), supra­normal sight and hearing (divyacak�us and divyafrotra) , thought reading (paracittajfiana) , the

faculty of remembering previous lives (purvani vasanusmrti), knowledge of the destruction of

the impurities (asravak-?ayajiiana) ; the "ten powers of Buddha" , apart from including, in the eighth and tenth positions, the last two abhijfias of the list given above, include various

forms of "subtle" knowledge like, for example, knowledge of the elements (dhatu), of the

true inclinations of individuals (adhimukti) or of the conditions of ripening of karma (karma­

vipaka), etc. The different types of "knowledge" then, are also "powers" and the powers are

also knowledge. The intrinsic connexion of the two concepts could not be any clearer and it is for this reason that the ten powers are jiianabala, or force, faculty of knowing, which de­monstrates the complete fusion of the two terms . So that, as the Mahayanasutralmikara ( 8' )

( 85 ) Thus, for example, Surdvara defines pra­tibha as ar�a-, i .e . characteristic of the ancient r#, see GoNDA, « Pratibhii », in The Vision, cit., p. 325.

( 86 ) See especially the two works by LINDQUIST already cited.

21 6

( B7 ) See F. EDGERTON, Buddhist Hybrid Sans­krit Dictionary, New Haven, 1953 , p. 50.

( BB ) Ibid., s .v. bala, p. 397. ( Bs ) Ed. and transl . by S . L:Evr, Paris, 1907,

pp. 25 and 56.

affirms, the bodhisattva's power (prabhava), in a general sense, consists in the knowledge,

jiiana, ensuing from the six abhijiias. There is, in this connexion, a strangely tenacious mlsun­

derstanding. The Pall term iddhi corresponds to the Sanskrit rddhi ( 90 ) and thus designates

the powers of action mentioned above ; but iddhi is often taken to be the equivalent of the

Sanskrit siddhi ( 91 ), to the detriment both of the unitary nature of Yoga and Buddhism and of

the unitary nature of power and knowledge wi thin both of these doctrines . In reality, Yoga's

riddhis or vibhutis are the exact equivalent of Buddhism's abhi;iias and, at the limit, of the ten "powers of Buddha" . In fact, as we have seen, they include powers of action, correspond­

ing to rddhi, and powers of knowledge corresponding to the other abhijiias. As to the nature

of the abhijiia, this , as H. G. A. van Zeyst writes in his excellent analysis of the subject, « is not a knowledge of composites, but insight in to their nature . Such a complete knowledge

becomes an experience which can bring abuut a total transformation in the relationship bet­

ween the subject and object of this knowledge . It consists ultimately in seeing things as they are (yatha bhutam) and that is realization » ('2 ) . The doctrine of the abhijiias also reveals an

indication of gradualness in their application and effects that places them in an even clearer - if this is possible - saving and integrational perspective than in Yoga. The rddhis, pre­

ceded by a careful preparation based on rddhipadas C3 ) and samadhi, can already legitimately

be considered as the first, less refined form of intuitive knowledge, even if it is their prac­

tical effects that are given most evidence . The subsequent forms - like for example di­

vyacak�us - although not an end in themselves, are nevertheless « a means to spiritual

growth and mental culture, to be discarded almost as soon as acquired, to prevent it from taking root or forming a source of attachment » ( 94 ) . Finally, the last form, the knowledge

of the destruction of the impurities or obstructions ( asravak!ayajiiana), though not repre­senting the absolute goal of the Buddhist way, is however its immediately preceding stage,

as in Yoga the destruction of the kldas precedes kaivalya. For this reason, the first five

abhijiiiis are defined "worldly" ( laukika), while the last is "supra-worldly" ( lokottara) .

Given the close association between power and purification there will obviously be . an automatic condemnation of those who, for ex ample, indulge in the exhibition of special

faculties or who pretend to possess them ('5 ) . As to the intrinsic connexion between the concept of purification and that of power and knowledge, this also appears extremely

clearly in Buddhism. As indicated above, the Visuddhimagga or "Way of Purification"

dedicates two whole chapters ( 9 6 ) to the powers, introducing them with a comment on the

celebrated passage of the Dighanikaya ( I, 77 ) : « When his concentrated mind has thus ·

( 90 ) Cf. EDGERTON, op. cit. , s .v. rddhi, p. 151 . (91) See ELIADE, Yoga, cit., p. 183 and GoNDA,

« Some notes on Buddhist ideas on •vision' » in The Vision, cit., p.305.

(92) Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, ed. by G. P. MALALASEKERA, vol . A-H, Ceylon 1961 , s .v . abhififia (pp. 97-102) , p . 97 .

( 93 ) I.e. the bases for realizing rddhis : energy, zeal, research, etc. Cf. EDGERTON, op. cit. , s .v . ,

2 1 7

p . 151-2 and VAN ZEYST, op. cit. , p . 100. (u ) VAN ZEYST, op. cit., p. 98. ( 95 ) Cf. for example ibid., p. 99, which cites

the Vinayapifaka, II, 1 12 and Ill, 9 1 ; see also ELIADE, op. cit. , pp. 183-186.

( 96) Cf . H. C. WARREN's edition reviewed by D. KosAMBI, Harvard Oriental Series, Cambridge Mass. - London, 1 950, chapters 12 and 1 3 .

become purified, luminous , incontaminated and spotless . . . he turns it towards the powers » . « Concentrated », Buddhaghosa notes, « by virtue of the fourth type of jhana; epurification:­through separation from the obstructions . . . espotless� due to the disappearance of desi­re » C7) . Or see AK: « Si elles n'ont pas ete acquises dans une vie anterieure, elles ne sont pas acquises que par exercice, effort (prayoga ). . . Lorsqu'elles ont ete pratiquees (ucita)

dans une vie anterieure, elles sont acquises par le detachement ( vairagya) » C8) . But even here, as in Yoga, purification is at the same time a presupposition and a result of the abhijfias. The last of these, (asravak�ayajfiana), is in fact the knowledge of destruction of the impurities - such as ignorance (avidya) , desire, etc . , the equivalent of Yoga's kleias,

in short - and implies immediate access to the condition of arhat. Anyone can see how the

coincidence of the purification-knowledge-po wer is particularly close in this abhijfia: a peak of knowledge and power corresponds to a peak of purification. The same may be noted with regard to samadhi or the various types of dhyana. Here also the best way to achieve it is detachment and the purification produced by sila is its indispensable prelim­inary. With practice, samadhi or dhyana on the one hand begin to produce further purifi­cation - which is why it is claimed for example that the four dhyanas are a capital element in thought purification (cittaparifaddhipradhana) C9) - and on the other make a direct contribution to the emergence of the abhijfias, to such an extent that there is some­times identificatiOn between the twO : (( rddhi is Samadhi » ef}O ) Or, at any rate, (( leS cinq

premieres abhijfias s 'appuient sur les quatre dhyanas, c'est-a-dire sont obtenues par un ascete en dhyana » C01 ). A "thought created" ( nirma7Jacitta) , a being "created'' (nirmita)

are only possible thanks to the force of the samadhi, since « la volition (adhimok�a, ceta­

na) acquiert dans le recueillement, une force souveraine » C02 ). It goes without saying that all this assumes particular importance in Buddhism in relation to the doctrine of the three bodies : « Les sravakas de la classe asaik�a ont completement epuise la renaissance (punar­

bhava) . Comment pourront-ils realiser la sambodhi? Non pas certes aves un corps qui serait la retribution de l'acte (karmavipakakaya) mais avec un nirmii?Jakaya » C03 ) . And this "created body" or nirma?Jakaya is manifested by virtue of the "purete de samadhi" C04 ).

The creative, purifying and intuitive potency both of ecstasy and of concentration-medita­tion is thus reconfirmed in the most explicit manner. « L'union intime entre samadhi et

( 1 7 ) Ibid., p. 3 1 7 : « catutthajjhanasamadhina samahite ; nivarai).adiiribhavena parisuddhe . . . papa­kanam icchavacaranam abhavena anangai).e ».

(98 ) AK, VII, p. 105. Also in Buddhism de­tachment-separation, far from appearing as a mere mortificational exercise, proves to have a precise function in the field of power and knowledge, as is clearly suggested in the doctrine of the "psychic body" (manomaya), duly equipped with senses that are evidently freer and more acute than tli.e ordinary ones ; a "body" that is obtained by learning to disidentify oneself gradually from the physical body and, in general, from all that offers support to the "I" and "my", learning, that is, to practice

2 1 8

suitable detachment, i .e. separation, i.e. purification. A classic passage of the Majjhimanikaya, II, 17-18, could be recalled in this connexion : « yathapa­tipanna me savaka imamha kaya aiifia�p. kaya�p. abhinimminanti riipiip. manomayatp. sabbangapac­cangiip. abhinindriyam . . . ».

(9') AK, VIII, p. 130 ; see also VII, p. 1 17. ( 1°0 ) AK, VII, pp. 98 and 1 12 ; VI, p . 285 .

Cf. also Siddhi, p. 771 . ( 1°1 ) AK, VII, p . 101 . ( 102 ) Siddhi, II, p. 771 and AK, VII, p. 1 12. ( 1°3 ) Ibid., II, p . 507. ( 1°4 ) Ibid., p. 800.

praJna », as E. Lamotte observes, « apparait en pleine lumiere clans les abhijna ou pouvoirs surnaturels decoulant du recueillement » e05 ). And the association between abhijnas and prajna or higher knowledge is constant : in AK we read that the abhijnas are "prajna de vimuktimiirga" e06 ) and in the prajniiparamitii literature, for example, the declaration that the bodhisattva who wishes to preserve the six abhijniis must cultivate perfection of the

prajnii e07) is frequendy repeated. Moreover, particularly in Mahayanic literature, the abhijnas take first place in all the lists of qualities, states, means favourable to illumination,

either peculiar to the bodhisattva or to the "body of Tathagata" cos ) or to the "nature of Buddha" C0").

From these few references, that could however be multiplied for ever, it is evident that the close connexion between the concep ts of purification, knowledge and power, their

dynamism and functionality already noted in classical Yoga and, under other forms, also in certain aspects of Vedism, are equally present, and even more clearly, in Buddhism. Even in this field Buddhism seems to have gone deeper into and made more clear and arti­

culate themes that have not been completely analyzed or made explicit in other doctrines . The comparison with Yoga, particularly close to Buddhism for various reasons, both his­torical and typological, seems most useful to us since it helps to confirm and enrich the general and particular conclusions drawn abo ve with regard to Yoga; general, in relation to the central position and continuity of the purification - knowledge - power pattern in Indian tradition; particular in the sense that the comparison with Buddhism and the doctrine of the abhijnas makes the inadequacy of an oversimple and unilateral judgement :m the siddhis and vibhutis in Yoga directly evident . Conversely, the complex function­ring of the latter within the basic structure hinged on purification, knowledge and power, apart from being indicated by the Yoga texts themselves, is illustrated point by point in

Buddhism's corresponding doctrine of the abhijnas.

It is interesting to note how in the development of Mahayana the abhijnas at a certain point no longer appear in balance with the other dharmas useful for attaining the ultimate :ealizations, but begin to predominate until they reach a veritable inflation, an "unbridled

-haumaturgy" ( 110 ) : the bodhisattva is a being endowed with unlimited abhijnas, with -;;-bich, in contrast to the Hinayanic saint, he plays (abhijnavikrztf,ana) without effort (cit-

-:1naboghena) C11 ), using them incessantly bo th to convert and to mature . The abhijnas

:..�us become the pivot of upayakaufalya or ability in the saving means, an expression, in i:s turn, of the great compassion (mahakaru�Ja). The plenitude of the abhijnas is no other ·

;ban the science of Buddha ( buddhajniina) Cu), it is the force of the abhijniis that makes :he wheel of the law (dharmacakra) go round. The greatest danger, in this context, is no

( 1°5 ) Sss, lntrod., p. 23 . ( 1°6) AK, VII, p . 100. ( 1"7) Cf. for example Pafica-vitftsati-sahasrika­

?'"ifiii-paramita, ed. N. DuTT, London, 1934, p. 2 5 1 .

2 19

( 108 ) Cf. for example Vkn, p. 140. ( 1°9) Cf. for example Sss, pp. 31 and 1 3 1 ff. { 110 ) Sss, Introd., p. 58. (m) Ibid., p. 35. ( 112 ) Vkn, p. 1 10 .

longer seen in the use of the powers, but ra ther in complacent indulgence in ecstasy and meditation : dhyana, samadhi and samapatti are to be considered as hell, woe be to those who enjoy its savour (samadhirasasvadana) ( 11 3 ) . Yoga or other forms of Buddhism, while maintaining that samadhi is only a means and as such also to be overcome, does not give similar attention to the dangers of the phenomenon nor, even less , does it demonstrate such

radical intransigence; not to speak of a misun derstood conception of Yoga that identifies its goal with samadhi. In a word, in the way of the bodhisattva « !'accent est mis non plus sur la technique de la concentration, mais sur la force magique (rddhibala) qui en decoule pour le plus grand bien des etres » ( 114 )

. For this reason the least desirable abhijfza, from

some aspects, is precisely the sixth which by changing the devotee into arhat prevents him from remaining among human beings ; it will thus be necessary not to obtain it "a con­tretemps" (akalam ) ( 115), or to realize it only in part, in conformity, in other words, with the apratiHhitanirvat:ta or non definitive nirVatJa, that allows him to remain in the satttsara

for the relief of his fellow men.

7 - Purity and Ritual

Classical Yoga, together with other doc trines conventionally noted for their peculiarly 1'anti-ritualist" nature - such as Buddhism and Vedanta - actually reveal several ritual elements . Among the various obligations ( niyama) YS II , 32, for example, mentions sauca

or purity, produced, according to the commentators , both by practices such as ablutions, etc . , and by eating sacrificially pure food (medhya), in relation to which TV mentions cow's urine, barley, etc . It should moreover be remembered that in current practice of any type of Yoga a ritual approach is constantly to be found : choice of a place that is either naturally ••pure" - like a mountain top - or that has been duly purified with aspersions and scents; choice of the most propitious time; contact of the devotee with pure objects, like the antelope hide ( 116) - associa ted since ancient times with consecration cere­

monies - on which he sits during meditation, etc . All this not to speak of the precepts, such as chastity or fasting linked with phases of the moon, generally associated with the most various rituals and with that fundamental Vedic-Brahmanic component, brahmacarya.

In relation to Buddhism, Paul Levy ( 117 ) has recently devoted particular attention to its ritualistic aspect ( suffice it to think of the mo nastic ordination ceremonies) which has for the most part been neglected or undervalued in studies of the subject . Similarly it is hardly necessary to recall that a sannyasin or ascetic of the "philosophic" order par excellence,

i .e . Vedanta, must undergo a dik!a or consecration ( 118 ), and, in giving himself up to medit-

( 113) Ibid. , p. 347. ( 114 ) Sss, Introd., p. 23 . ( 115 ) Sss, p. 133. ( 116) Cf. for all this in general, LINDQUIST,

Die Methoden, cit., pp. 22 ff. ; for the antelope hide, Sathapata - Brahma�Ja, transl. by EGGELING,

220

V, Index. { 117 ) P. LEVY, Buddhism : a •Mystery Religion'?,

London, 1957. .( 118 ) Cf. GoNDA, Change, cit. , pp. 337 ff. ; G. S. GHURYE, Indian Sadhus, Bombay, 19642 , pp. 82-97; for a fairly interesting approach to the

ation, must subject himself too to the injunctions of a ritual nature mentioned wid1 refe­rence to Yoga ( 118 ) .

Now we may wonder what is the relation between these ritual elements and the gen­eral conception of purification-knowledge-power seen to be at the basis of Yoga and similar doctrines . Obviously, while rejecting a mechanical and sclerotized ritual approach C20), Yoga, and also Buddhism, seem far from excluding certain fundamental principles proper to VedismjBrahmanism. For this motive we feel it is quite legitimate - without ques­tioning all the differentiations that have occurred throughout the historical development of

Indian religions - to speak, with Hauer, of an "eternal India" C21) . In this way the questionable interpretation of pre-Aryan influences ( evidence of which is in any case fairly vague) as responsible for radical changes and innovations in India's religious panorama C22 ) may be avoided. Here also, moreover, it may be observed - as in the case of the siddhis

- that explaining the persistence of ritual elements in Yoga by attributing them to a tra­ditionalist conservatism proper to the schools - like Yoga and Buddhism - that were in

fact opposed to the brahmanic tradition on various points ( animal sacrifice, castes, etc . ) is most unconvincing. Rather, it seems clear to us that Yoga ( and naturally, similar sote­riological doctrines ) considers recourse to means that are not exclusively psychical as effi­

cacious for its purpose, evidently deeming the m useful from the purification-power-know­ledge aspect described above. This is a cohe rent part of the more specifically yogic theory : if the three guflas must be progressively purified in order to reach the complete purity that is Yoga's aim, then the tamas, which includes the physical sphere - hence the body, environment and objects C23 ) - must also be the object of purification. This puri-

Vedantic dzk�ii as it appears today, see A. BHARATI, The Ochre Robe, London, 1961, pp. 1 14 ff.

( 119) Further, for Sailkhara's position on rites see below, p. 30.

( 120 ) Which, as G. VAN DER LEEUW, Phiino­menologie der Religion, Tubingen, 19562, It. transl. Turin, 1960, p . 283, observes, is a feature common to various religions : when the sacrifice becomes a mechanism there is opposition within the religions and the sacrificial practice is denounced as impiety. The Author's observations on the connexion be­tween purification and power and the central position occupied by these concepts in the various religions ( ibid., pp. 27 1-276 and pp. 7-18 ) are also, we feel, particularly interesting for the pur­poses of this research. We do not however find adequate confirmation in Indian religions of what he affirms on the subject of interiorization: viz . that the latter, together with scepticism, is detri­mental to belief in the purifying force of the celebration ( ibid., p. 275). Yet in the more advanced forms of Tantrism for example, we would appear to find ourselves in the presence of a type of interiorization that has in no way

221

debilitated faith in the efficacy of the ritual. ( 121 ) HAUER, Der Yoga, cit., p. 95. ( 122 ) Once again we would like to quote

GoNDA's balanced words : « it is my conviction that the differences have, on the other hand, not rarely been exaggerated or thrown into undue relief. Or perhaps we should rather say, that a systematical examination of the similarities has not always been carried out, that their very occurrence has been left in the dark » (Change, cit., p. 199) . ( 123 ) In other words the principle of external (biihya) purity, of such central importance through­out Hinduism ( to the point of reaching a veritable hypertrophy: suffice it to think of the endless codification of pure and impure items in relation to the caste system), a premise in general of the religious and social order and in particular of the acquisition of internal (iintara) or mental purity for anyone following a way of liberation. In the Tantric tradition some of these rituals, as for example nyiisa - the casting of syllables or man­tras onto the various .parts of the yogin's body to purify it, often assimilating it to the deities represented by the syllables and mantras used -

fi.cation, since the tamas is the lowest and heaviest of the gut:tas, must necessarily precede purification of the emotional and mental spheres ( rajas and sattva) : in view of the unitary relationship linking the three gut:tas it would be nonsensical to consider purifying the rajas

and sattva while the tamas is still impure. Its impurity would be a basic impurity that would succeed in impeding the purity of the other two : the process is strictly ascensional and gradual. On the other hand, in fact, achievement of purity of the rajas or sattva -

due to the relationship described above - automatically implies possession of a tamas that is already pure and thus makes recourse to ri tes and purifying precepts C24) , i .e. , in Yoga, yama and niyama, superfluous . The afore-mentioned �itual elements appear to contribute then, in the yogic vision, to a form of initial, qualifying so to speak, purification that will certainly be physical in its application (body, environment, objects ), but, in view of Yoga's unitary conception, will also be psychical in its repercussions . Thus it is probable that the concept of prat:ta, or vital psychophysiological energy, has an essential role in this type of purification, even if the speculation and prac tices connected with it only take a definite form in later periods. This element is in fact known to be conceived not only as internal to man (breath, seed, mind), but also present outside him, e.g. in the air and food C25 ) . Hence the need for purification working also from outside and so impeding the absorption of impure substances .

In short, three different aspects of puri ty are to be found in Yoga: (a ) an initial purity (Sauca) directly connected with the ri te ; (b) based on this and hinged upon the practice of samadhi, a gradual process of mental purification (sattvasuddhi) ; (c ) developing from the sattvasuddhi, the ultimate purification or separation ( kaivalya) is reached. In con­sideration of all this it may well be said that purity's constant reappearance as means and end at the same time represents a keystone fo r understanding the yogic way. The con­siderable traits of continuity with the early Vedic-Brahmanic religion already stressed ap­pear even more evident now. The central sacrifice of Veda, that of the soma, is preceded by a consecration ceremony (d'ikfa) C26 ) imply ing ablutions , fasting, chastity, exudation from

tapas, etc. - evidently intended to induce a sufficient basic purity to allow the devotee to participate in the following rite of the soma and to ensure its success. Subsequently, it should be observed that one of the aspects of consummation of the soma, on this indispens­able basis of purity, is that of intensifying, in its turn, purification-power-knowledge : in

effect, it wipes out sin ( and it is no coincidence that the soma is assimilated with other agents of purification such as the waters and the fire contained in them), heals, grants

assume a more complex soteriological significance. On sauca in general, cf. KANE, cit., IV, pp. 267 ff. ; for dravyasuddhi, or purification of the body and external objects, p. 309.

( 124 ) Cf. YSS, p . 22. ( 125 ) Cf. for example Chiindogyopani�ad, VII,

26, 2 , that succintly notes the link between purity of food and inner purity: « iihiirasuddhau sattva­suddhi]:t ». As to prii1Ja, see e.g. Maitryupani�ad,

222

VI, 13 : « priil).o vii annasya rasal;l », prii1Ja is the essence of food.

( 128) References and discussion in GoNDA, « An Analysis of the Vedic Soma Dik�ii », in Change, cit., pp. 350 ff. ; A. B. KEITH, The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upan#ads, 2 voll., Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1925, vol. I, pp. 300 ff.

fortune and immortality C27) and confers dhiya� or veracious visions ( 128 ), which are in their turn bearers of purification. In no less fashion in Yoga the practice of samadhi

following on the establishment of a preliminary type of purity has effects that are visibly parallel to those of the sacrifice of the soma : power, i .e. the siddhis, sattvasuddhi, know­ledge ( samadhijajfiana) and, in the last analysis, kaivalya or immortality. By this we natu­rally do not intend to deny the Vedic sacrifice a content of social, utilitarian and generally "religious" aims, absent for the most part from the Yogic approach ; nor on the other hand do we intend to diminish the deepening of ethical values in the conception of purity peculiar to the latter approach. Our aim is rather that of avoiding considering the Vedic

sphere and that of Yoga in a wide sense, in keeping with a prejudice that has not yet en­tirely disappeared C29 ), as two completely different phenomena : one based exclusively on a sort of collective poetic materialism, the other, conversely, as part of an aspiration for individual psycho-physical transformation. The importance of J. Gonda's studies on the Veda, examined earlier, lies, in our opinion, precisely in that it notes already in the more ancient Indian religion the existence of veritable techniques C30 ) aiming, in a sense, to some kind of individual transformation and following a similar pattern to that of later periods . It is clear that the detection of a strong structural analogy does not render the study of the

historical development of the various religions and doctrines any less necessary, but it is equally clear, especially in the case of religions belonging to a single country and culture, that historical analysis cannot omit consideration of the solid structural link connecting the various phases of Indian religion.

An important consequence of all this wi ll inevitably imply giving more credit to In­dian tradition when it peremptorily asserts its own continuity, as for example in celebrated

passages of the Upani:_>ads : « Brahmans, through study of the Vedas , sacrifices, gift and asceticism, aspire to the knowledge of Brahman-Atman » C31); or in the words of Sankhara, when he asserts that rites - through purifica tion - lead to knowledge provided the aims in view are not material and provided purifica tion has not already been attained by medi­tative means, according to an alternative already known to the BrahmaQ.aS C32). Obviously if knowledge - i.e . the transformation of sta te implying total purification and new power - has been attained, it is superfluous to con tinue recourse to any other type of means C33 ) ;

{ 127 ) Reff. KErTH, ibid. , p. 167. ( 128) See above, pp . 3-4 . ( 12") We do not for example feel we can

share MAS SON-OURSEL's thesis on the subject expressed in his brilliant booklet on Yoga (P. MAs soN-0uRSEL, Le Yoga, Paris, 1963 ) . To what degree may it he said that Yoga « fut non pas rite, mais ardente, systematique recherche » (p . 1 1 ) and that, o n the other hand, rite is not research? Or, again, to what degree is it fitting to distinguish so peremptorily: « l 'indianite a deux aspects : veda, yoga » (p. 9 1 ) ? On the contrary, research into the continuity existing between asceticism and ritual, repeatedly emphasized by ELIADE (Yoga, cit., pp .

223

1 1 8 ff.; In. Le Chamanisme, Paris, 1951 , pp. 369 ff. ) and studied, however questionably at times,. by J. W. HAUER, particularly in Die Anffinge der Yoga-Praxis, Stuttgart, 1922, is far more fruitful, in our opinion. ( 130) See above p. 3 on the development of the dhi�.

( 131) Brhadara7Jyakopani�ad, IV, 4, 22 and rel­ative comment by Sankhara.

( 132) Cf. Satapatha-Brahma7Ja, X, IV, 3, 9 : « vidyayii. v a karmal).ii. » .

( 133) Cf. for example Sailkhara, Sri Bhii�ya, III, 4, 28.

since the goal of both rites and meditation is precisely th;.s .transformation. As Tantric speculation C34) also observes, indulgence in ritual purilication would mean maintaining a

dualistic vision, alienating oneself, as it might be put, in an external reality, to the detri­ment of the ultimate and definitive purity, the achievement of unity of the Self. Up to this point, however, rites and meditation, often in close association as occurs in T antrism, must be practiced incessantly CM ). Once he has become a Brahmajfiiinin, a knower of Brahman, according to the name given by cer tain schools, the yogin will not only have no further need of means, but, in his quality of master, he will be able to impart knowledge to others : once again the purity, or achieving and cognitive power, impersonated in the guru, is transformed from an end into a means .

8 - Points for Comparison

One of the most interesting points for comparison, in our optruon, is offered by an aspect of Neo-Platonism C36) in particular evidence from a certain moment onwards with sevetal philosophers of this school (e .g. Jamblicus, Proclus, Sirianus ) : we are referring to

theurgy or the theurg1c art ({}sovQy Lx-ft ts,<,vrt) . i .e . the combination of rites and prac­tical exercises that, in the conviction of these authors and others, must inevitably accom­pany philosophical and mystic speculation. Its parallelism with the Tantric schools is im­mediately apparent : in both schools the most typical characteristic is represented precisely by this coexistence of "'theory" and "practice'' . More indirect but no less evident is its analogy to Yoga or Buddhism, since in the la tter, at least in the forms considered by us, it is not so much the ritual as concentration and ecstasy that serve to foster power and puri­fication which, in their turn, open up fresh possibilities to intuitive reflexion. So that, for example, in Jamblicus's Mysteries of Egypt, C37) - which is an apology of the theurgic art

( 134 ) Cf. Vijfiana Bhairava, ed. L. SILBURN, Paris, 1961 , p. 151 : « Kil:p.cijjfianair ya smrta suddhil] sa 'suddhil:J. sambhudarsane 1 na sucir hy asucis tasman nirvikalpal] sukhi bhavet »; or d. Mahanirvat;zatantra, ed. and transl . by A. AvALON, London, 1927, p. 255, n. 2 : « duality is inherent in ceremonial worship ». Similarly, in the Buddhist Tantras the supreme visuddhi consists in realiza­tion of the unity of saf!tsara and nirvat;za, d. Hevajra Tantra, ed. D. L. SNELLGROVE, vol. I, London, 1959, pp. 29 ff. and 78 ff.

(135} Cf. Mahanirvat;zatantra, ci., p. 209 : « So long, however, as the impurity of the heart (citta) is not removed so long must the worshipper practice the rites ».

(136) To choose an example close to India both from the geographical and historical aspect, the Iranian field can provide a wide series of traits similar to Indian religious conceptions, due partly

224

to the ancient Indo-Iranian cultural unity. One of the elements that we feel to be of more direct interest for our research is the maga. According to a recent study by G. GNOLI, «Lo stato di •maga'», AIUON, XV, 1965, pp. 105-1 17, the gathic maga should be understood essentially as a particular state of being ( « una trance attiva e cosciente », p. 107) in close correlation not only with the rite but also with (a) a power, xa&ra, peculiar to it, (b) a knowledge of supranormal realities or cisti obtainable thanks precisely to that power, (c) a condition of purity (apecaki� is the term used by the Pahlavic tradition to explain the maga) that is its essence and that implies a state of separation between the psycho-spiritual (menok) and the bodily (gete) spheres.

(137) See E. DES PLACES' ed. and transl., Paris, 1966, also for b�bliographical references on the subject.

against the "purist" tendencies of philosophers in a more specific sense, such as Porphyrius - we find this art in constant association wi th purification, power and knowledge; « les dieux vraix . . . frequentent ceux qu'a purifies la science hieratique; ils emondent en eux toute malice et toute passion » ; « voila quelle sera notre justification generale du culte sans souillure : il rattache intimement les autres etres a ceux qui valent mieux que nous et s 'adresse pur aux purs, exempt de passion aux etres exempts de passion » ; « le mode varie du

rite theurgique peut purifier ou perfectionner ce qui est en nous ou autour de nous ; il peut aussi lui donner proportion et ordre ou autrement le delivrer de 1' erreur des mortels et mettre toutes chases d'accord avec !'ensemble des etres superieurs a nous . Or quand se reunissent les causes divines et les preparations humaines qui leur resemblent, l'accomplisse­ment du sacrifice acheve tout et procure de grands biens » ; « les supplications hieratiques . . .

sont les symboles des dieux memes e t . . . d'une certaine £aeon elles ont l a meme puissance que les dieux » C38 ) . On this foundation of ha rmonious purification and the power rooted in it is based the whole of man's ascent towards the knowledge-realization of truth.

Even more interesting peculiarities of theurgy, from our point of view, have recently

been brought out in an article by A. J. Festugiere C39 ) . In this article the Author considers the problem of the coexistence, in a philosopher such as Produs, of subtle speculation and theurgic or telestic art and shows, by virtue of a passage by Hierodes, « comment, pour un philosophe du V siecle, l'art hieratique pouvait s 'inserer clans un systeme de philosophie contemplative ( au sens platonicien) sans le bousculer de fond en comble » C40 ) . The follow­ing is a quotation of part of the same passage by Hierocles which is of particular value for this discussion :

« Celui qui progresse comme il faut clans l'une et l'autre purification se perfectionne completement, et c'est pour aboutit. a ce but qu'on lie la philosophie a l 'art hieratique, clans la pensee que cet art a pour objet la purifica tion du corps lumineux : si en revanche tu

separes cet art hieratique de la sagesse philosophique, tu trouveras qu'il n'a plus la meme force. Des elements en effet qui constituent a plein notre perfectionnement, la sagesse philosophique a d'abord decouvert les uns, et les autres , c'est l'activite telestique qui, venant a la suite de la sagesse philosophique, les a introduits - par activite telestique, j 'entends l'art magique qui purifie le corps lumineux - en telle sorte que, la philosophie

( 138 ) "Ooo1 11ev &aot 't'ijt; cH.'tj&e£cx<;;. . . 'tot<;; li1� 't'ij<;;

!!p::t'tl1t'ij' �lt01tE1t::t&::tp(.1SYOLt,; aury£y YOY'totl, btXOlt'tOUa£ 'tS

i;:" oti>'tliiv 1t&acxv xcxxtcxv 1t::tl 1t&v mx&o<;; (p. 144) ; Ko1v�

p.sv o5v 'tcc.!i&" 1J11tv sa'tw 7totpotf16&1ot 1tapt 't'ij<;; &xpciV'tou

&p"f)OY.E(::t<;; rh<;; "tci 't'd!AA.ot ob:a£w; auv::tp(.10�0(.15V'tj<;; 'tOt<;; xpa£ 't'toaw 1J11wv, 1tcxl lilo'tt xcx&cxpci 7tpb<;; 1tot&otpou<;; xcxl

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225

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::t6't7jV EXOUOL 15iJYCC.(.1W 'tOt<;; &sot<;; (p. 66). (138) A. J. FESTUGIERE, « Contemplation philo­

sophique et art theurgique chez Proclus », in Studi di storia religiosa delta tarda antichita, Messina, 1968, pp . 7-18 .

( 140 ) Ibid., p. 9 .

prise comme tout, la partie theoretique marche en tete a titre de sagesse, la partie pratique vienne ensuite a titre d'art magique » C41 ).

« L'ensemble du texte d'Hierocles », Festugiere explains further on, « concerne princi­palement la purification du corps pneumatique . . . et des lors, parmi les fonctions de la teles­tique, il insiste surtout sur la separation de ce corps d'avec le cops mortel » . Thus the power, i .e . the theurgic art C42 ), is used for an immediately purificational end and, indi­rectly, for knowledge. The analogy with Yoga is striking : the siddhis purify the sattva, or luminous gu1Ja, thereby encouraging its separation ( viyoga) from the tamas and rajas, tl1at is, from gross matter and the passions . No less noteworthy is its affinity with the Tantric radhana also primarily directed towards the rattva C43 ) and endowed moreover with a "telestic art" not only of a psychic but also, similarly to Neo-Platonism, of a ritual nature. Hierocles in fact says : « Reste done la purifica tion du corps psychique, qu'll faut accomplir en obeissant aux ordonnances concernant les rites sacrees et a l'art de pratiquer ces rites » C44 ) ; the practices accustom the pneumatic body to sever itself from matter and « si elles sont accomplies avec piete et non a la m aniere d'un charlatan, on decouvre qu'elles s'accordent aux regles de la vertu et de la verite » C45 ) .

The morphological affinity between theurgic philosophy on the one hand and Indian « gnosis » on the other is undoubtedly considerable. It is no less interesting to observe, however, how the passages studied by Festugiere indicate that the theurgic art can coher­ently take its place within the Neo-Platonic context of Proclus and that it is consequently at the least risky to ascribe its adoption to the "failure of nerve" that, according to G.

Murray, cited by FestlJgiere C46 ), was typi cal of the era. The similarity of the contents leads therefore to a similarity of criticism. \'V/ e have seen how easily a spurious nature and origin is attributed to Yoga's vibhiitis and the same phenomenon, in even more accentuated form, can easily be noted in Tantrism. B. F addegon, to give an example among many, wrote not long ago : « We may regard this Sa ktism as an epidemic and social neurosis ; as

( 141 ) Ibid. , p. 16 ; our italics . This is Hierocles' comment on Pythagoras's Golden Verses, cf. F. G. A. MiiLLACH's ed., Berlin, 1853, p. 178 : • o aa I'JL' cip.'f' ?'tEflCJlV o lxe(ro� 1tpotwv /iJ..o� 'tSASLOU'tCXL1

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I'Je �tpa�?t-r L?tov, &, I'Juva�JlL;:, glt'l)"t«L. On this subject G. R. S . MEAD's booklet, The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in West ern Tradition, recently reprinted (London 1967), may be of some utility as a general introduction.

226

( 142) Cf. the expression 7] -ceA.eo"tL?t1j EvspyeLa�.

( 143 ) Cf. for example A. AvALON, The Serpent Power, Madras, 1964, p. 53 : «The object and the effect of the evolution, as it is of all sadhana is to develop sattva-gut:ta », a "development" that can only be understood in the sense of gradual separation from the other gut:Jas and of entire recovery, since the sattva is already present and can thus be neither removed nor added.

( 144..5 ) FESTUGIERE, op. cit. , pp. 14-15, MiiL­LACH, op. cit., pp. 1 69-170 : Ae£1tE'totL a� o5v 'I) cjJUXL?t':.U OW(10G'tC ' ?tal!-otpC!L., Yjv ltO L'Ijooto&a�L I'Jat 'tOt� tspot<;;

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such it is not without significance for neurology » C47 ) ; while the drastic judgement of an anthropologist, F. Sierksma, who in dealing with Tantric Yoga expresses himself as follows, is quite recent : « Their jealous secrecy alone betrays that they have stuck halfway between actual inferiority and imagined superiority, halfway between natural sexuality and sublimated mysticism, in ritualism and magic. This is not ridiculous or contemptible. Humanly speaking, it is saddening, ahnost tragic, and completely understandable, like that <=aping the white man., of primitives who have not the possibility and the means truly to follow him » ( 148 ) . Certainly, no one would wish to question the fact that the late ancient period in the West was a « temps de credulite massive » C49), nor that Yoga, Buddhism and Tantrism are little more than magic, at times degenerating, at certain levels . But this by no means exhausts the subject . It has been noted, in this connexion, that the "power" element, far from being isolated and gratuitous appears rather, in various Indian traditions, as an integral part of a wider structure balanced equally on the three conceptions of puri­fication, knowledge and power. Now as we have suggested earlier, Tantrism, when ex­amined in its more cultured and advanced expressions, proves to take up this "structure" in full, developing and enriching it and in no way evoking the image of a "social neurosis" or a "failure of nerve" . With regard to the earlier doctrines, we have felt the need of pointing out how unfounded are the frequent imputations of magism to Yoga. As to Bud­dhism, it has been sufficient to emphasize the interaction of the three elements in question, an interaction that implies a considerable and precise function of the abhijnas in the general context of the Buddhist marga : oddly enough, modern historical literature, particularly with regard to Hinayana, is much more cautious in the imputations of magism noted in the case of Yoga, although in view of their simi lar contents , an analogous reaction might logi­cally have been expected.

Now the comparison between these Oriental doctrines on the one hand and the aspects

of Neo-Platonism referred to above on the other is not merely a cultural curiosity in our opinion. On the contrary, we believe that confrontation of the two areas may prove mutually stimulating in various directions . For example, how far is the continuity to be found in India between relatively modern doc trines such as Tantrism and other more an­cient ones to be traced between Neo-Platonis m and its close and distant antecedents ? In other words, the parallelism with India can lead one to wonder in what degree the close relation between knowledge, puri:fication-sep aration and power associated to ritual is a peculiarity of a certain type of Neo-Platonism and of its age and, on the other hand, in what . measure and in what manner and forms it may be found in earlier (or later) periods and in related cultural areas. Specialists of the various branches of studies can judge on the prospects of research in this direction. What would seem undeniable, considering these

.( 147 ) « Brahmanisme en Hindoeisme », De Gods­diensten der Wereld, ed. by G. VAN DER LEEUW, Amsterdam, 1940, cited and translated in K. W. BoLLE, The Persistence of Religion, Leiden, 1965,

227

p. 3. ( 148 ) Tibet's Terrifying Deities, cit., p. 53. ( 149) FESTUGIERE, op. cit., p. 13 .

examples, is the stimulus to historical investigation ensuing from an initial observation ot structural and morphological affinities . As R. Pettazzoni has written : « In sede metodo­logica si tratta di vedere se la comparazione non possa essere altro che una meccanica re­

gistrazione di somiglianze e di di:fferenze o se non si dia - invece - una comparazione che, superando il memento descrittivo e classificatorio, valga a stimolare il pensiero alia sco­perta di nuovi rapporti e all'approfondimento della coscienza storica » e50 ) .

( 15 0 ) R . PETTAZZONI, Religione e societa, Bolo­gna 1966, p. 1 0 8 . See also La religione di Zara­thustra by the same Author, Bologna, 1920, p. XVI: « La comparazione, come ravvicinamento idea­le e sintesi di elementi estranei - a prima vista -

gli uni agli altri, va applicata ai fatti non tanto

228

CoRRADO PENSA

come punti nello spazio quanta come momenti nel tempo; e dunque non ai fatti avulsi dal loro am­biente culturale e fissati in un isolamento che e astrazione fuori della realta, bensl in particolar modo agli svolgimenti organici, alle linee dinami­che del divenire » .