Rajas Yoga

Patanjali’s Rajas Yoga is based primarily on personal experience. His psychology is holistic and to the point. He uses the term of chitta in an exclusive way to describe a constantly fluctuating, changing phenomenon of the mind.

In his description, the mind is like a lake. Like a body of water it is potentially calm and crystal clear, but the thoughts, the modifications of the mind, stir it into activity and obscure its true nature. These thoughts or modifications as we have previously discussed under the Sutras are called vrittis and are compared to waves appearing in the body of the lake. They may arise from the lake bed (memories) or from the effects the outside world (sense perceptions). When the waves are quiet, the water is clear, and one can see the bottom of the lake.

If this process of calming and quieting is brought to perfection in man he will reach the highest state of consciousness.

Referring to Patanjali’s Sutras, the first four give us the key to the whole system; the rest is an explanation of these four with detailed instructions on how to realize and experience for oneself through our practice the knowledge they contain.

The first sutra says: ‘Now,’ inferring, that the practitioner has prepared himself for the study. In addition the student should have a strong desire for awakening his inner potential.

Patanjali classifies four types of minds:

1)    The mind which can easily be concentrated;

2)    That which is concentrated with difficulty;

3)    That which has little ability to concentrate;

4)    That which is completely unbalanced and not yet fit for yogic discipline.

The next three sutras explain that yoga (union or highest state of consciousness) is a matter of developing voluntary control and regulation of one’s thought processes (vrittis).

When this is accomplished, then the consciousness that underlies the thoughts becomes apparent. It ceases to obscure and limit the thoughts and mental changes. Prior to this, consciousness is identifies with the thoughts in that that one assumes, that in fact he is his thoughts.

The concept of false identification is as central to the Sutras as it is to modern psychology. However, Patanjali goes to a much more subtle level than modern psychology.

The latter stresses identification with the mind and ego, ‘I think therefore I am’ (Rene Descartes), whereas Patanjali says we are in essence different from our thoughts and mind, we know this to be true, because we can observe them.

This provides the foundation of a truly scientific psychology because it makes objective first hand study of the mind possible.

Patanjali goes on to classify the thought forms or modification of the mind (vrittis) in two ways:

First as to whether or not they serve as obstacles along the path of expanded awareness and second in terms of five categories which reflect their function in mental life. These are:

1)    Accurate perception or cognition;

2)    Inaccurate perceptions;

3)    Fantasy or imagination;

4)    Memory;

5)    Sleep.

Without realizing it, we have a tendency to constantly sort out our thought forms into these five categories without at least some sort of distinction between what is accurate and what is inaccurate perception.

Patanjali uses these five practical operational categories as a first step to bringing order to the complexity that confronts the observer of the mind.

Through cultivating the ability to disentangle oneself from a constant bombardment of thoughts, Patanjali outlines a systematic and detailed path for self mastery through ashtanga (eight limbed) or Rajas Yoga.

The steps are:

Yama (behaviour)

Niyama (attitude)

Asana (posture)

Pranayama (breathing exercises)

Pratyahara (sense withdrawal)

Dharana (concentration)

Dhyana (contemplation)

Samadhi (oneness with the object contemplated)

The preliminary regulation of his everyday behaviour has prepared the practitioner to be free from tension, worries and anxieties so that he can focus his attention on gaining some mastery over his body.

The next step is his work on the energy level involving special breathing practices which can lead to control of prana (life force).

Prana serves as an intermediary between body and mind as it energises both.

In the fifth face the practitioner learns to regulate sensory input, so that impacts from the sense perceptions are internalized and thus do not disturb the mind.

During the final three stages the student learns to make the mind one pointed and concentrated.

The grosser aspects of one’s being have been brought under control; behaviour, body, energy and senses have been mastered and the practitioner is now ready to focus on controlling the thoughts which my distract him.

This is achieved in three steps: concentration (Dharana), contemplation (Dhyana) and samadhi, the highest state of consciousness. Each of the latter three states is simply an expansion of the former.

In Raja Yoga, the process of samyama consists of three parts: fixation of attention or concentration on an object of meditation (dharana); witnessing of contents of consciousness or contemplation (dhyana); and absorption into the object of meditation (samadhi).

Through progressive training, the meditator learns to master these first two steps of this triad. Eventually, with persistence, they break through into the experience of samadhi, which brings ecstatic union with the object of meditation. After more practice, these three processes are seen to flow together as one in samyama.

Samyama refers to the flowing of attention, awareness and energy in meditation that occurs so spontaneously and effortlessly as to be said to be nearly simultaneous.