vajra- sanhananatwa

The last word (vajra- sanhananatwa) though usually regarded as referring to hardness, could also mean 'great energy', for vajra means 'thunderbolt' as well as 'diamond', and sanhaanatwa means mightiness' or powerfulness.

Enough has been said to show that austerity (tapas) does not mean mortification, and must mean body-conditioning, with great firmness of will, avoiding all bodily indulgence and insisting upon that quantity and kind of food, exercise, and rest which one believes to be best for the body. This is, of course, good common sense also, leading to greater bodily health, pleasure, and happiness than can be obtained by thoughtlessness or weak indulgence.

To show that this attitude is not merely that of the raja yoga school, and of philosophic schools such as the Bhagavad Gita represents, we will quote also from that most authoritative of hatha yoga works, the Hatha yoga Pradipika: 'Overeating; effortful exertion; idle chatter; hard vows; needing to be with people; restlessness-by these six yoga is ruined.

Finally, that there may be no doubt whatsoever in this important matter, we will quote that most abstract of all philosophers, Shankaracharya, he who over two thousand years ago according to orthodox belief - made India ring with the One Reality (adwaita) doctrine.

Seat or posture is only that in which contemplation of Brahmn can be comfortable and continuous; that should be adopted, not others, which interfere with comfort.

Straightness of limbs occurs when there is resting in harmony with Brahman, not if there is only straightness like a dried-up tree.

Having achieved knowledge-sight, one sees the world, as com. posed of Brahman - that kind of seeing is the highest, not the gazing in front of the nose. Or when there is the cessation of (the distinction of) seer, seeing, and seen, there is the Steadiness of vision.

Coming now to the fourth of the five Observances, Self study (swadhyaya), we will briefly say that it means there should be some daily study bearing upon the nature of oneself not merely study of outward or objective things. There is plenty of difference of opinion about what study this implies. Many maintain that it must refer to the study of one's own scriptures, one's own religion; but the general attitude of the Sankhya philosophy which pervades the yoga. Sutras should discount this view. It is true that swa does not mean 'self', but as a prefix means 'one's own' (e.g. swa karma means an action done by oneself swakula means one's own family; szuadesha means one's own country). We shall probably rightly take the meaning to be the study of what really concerns oneself- on the principle that 'the proper study of mankind is man', the study of one's own being and nature, as distinguished from the study of external things, which is usually pursued for some gain to the bodily life. Finally, we come to the fifth of the Observances, attentiveness to God (Ishwara, Pranidhara).

It is really problematical how one should regard the idea of God as ruler (Ishwara) in the Toga Sutras. Usually the first tendency is to think that one should feel devotion to the Founder or the Basis of all known being - both matter and life. But to be grateful to God as Ruler is one thing, and to regard God as the model or archetype of one's own future state of being is another. The latter is the formulation in the meditative portion of the Toga Sutras a matter already dealt previously. The yogi must become unaffected by troubles of which ignorance is the chief and the source of all or by works and their effects outside or inside.