This Abhyasa is said to become firmly grounded, if practised for a long time thoroughly and unintermittingly (I, 14).

Dispassion, Vairagya.

Next follows the definition of dispassion (Vairagya), as the consciousness of having overcome (the world) on the part of one who has no longer any desire for any objects whatsoever, whether visible or revealed (I, 15).

Here visible (Drishta) stands for perceptible or sensuous objects, while Ânusrâvika may be translated by revealed, as it is derived from Anusrava, and this is identical with Sruti or Veda. Perhaps Anusrava is more general than Veda, including all that has been handed down, such as the stories about the happiness of the gods in paradise (Devaloka), &c. The consciousness of having subdued or overcome all such desires and being no longer the slave of them, that, we are told, is Vairagya or dispassionateness, and that is the highest point which the student of Yoga-philosophy hopes to reach.

It is interesting to see how deeply this idea of Vairagya or dispassionateness must have entered into the daily life of the Hindus. It is constantly mentioned as the highest excellence not for ascetics only, but for everybody. It sometimes does not mean much more than what we mean by the even and subdued temper of the true gentleman, but it signifies also the highest unworldliness and a complete surrender of all selfish desires. A very good description of what Vairagya is or ought to be is preserved to us in the hundred verses ascribed to Bhartrihari (650 A. D.), which are preceded by two

other centuries of verses, one on worldly wisdom and the other on love. Many of these verses occur again and again in other works, and it is very doubtful whether Bhartrihari was really the original author of them all, or whether he only collected them as Subhashitas'. Anyhow they show how the philosophy of Vairagya had leavened the popular mind of India at that distant time, nor has it ceased to do so to the present day. It was perhaps bold, after Bhartrihari, to undertake a similar collection. of verses on the same subject. But as the Vairagyasataka of Gainâkârya seems in more recent times to have acquired considerable popularity in India, a few extracts from it may serve to show that the old teaching of Patañgali and Bhartrihari has not yet been forgotten in their native country.

'Death follows man like a shadow, and pursues him like an enemy; perform, therefore, good deeds, so that you may reap a blessing hereafter.'

'Frequent enjoyment of earthly prosperity has led to your sufferings. Pity it is that you have not tried the "Know Yourself."'

'Live in the world but be not of it, is the precept taught by our old Rishis, and it is the only means of liberating yourself from the world.'

'The body is perishable and transitory, while the Self is imperishable and everlasting; it is connected with the body only by the link of Karman; it should not be subservient to it.'

'If, through sheer negligence, you do nothing good

1 His work is actually called Subhashita-trisatî, see Report of Sanskrit and Tamil MSS., 1896-97, by Seshagiri Sastri, p. 7.

for your fellow creatures, you will be your own enemy, and become a victim to the miseries of this world.'

'Better to do less good, with purity of heart, than to do more with jealousy, pride, malice, or fraud. Little, but good and loving work, is always valuable, like a pure gem, the essence of a drug, or pithy advice.'

'If you are unable to subject yourself physically to penances, to undergo austerities, and engage in deep contemplation, the proper course to liberate your soul from the hard fetters of Karman would be to keep the passions of your heart under control, to check your desires, to carry out your secular affairs with calmness, to devote yourself to the worship of God, and to realise in yourself the "Permanent Truth," bearing in mind the transitory nature of the universe.'

'To control your mind, speech, and body, does not mean to be thoughtless, silent or inactive, like beasts or trees; but, instead of thinking what is evil, speaking untruth, and doing harm to others, mind, speech, and body should be applied to good thoughts, good words, and good deeds.'

Dispassionateness, as here taught for practical purposes chiefly, reaches its highest point in the eyes of the Yoga-philosopher, when a man, after he has attained to the knowledge of Purusha, has freed himself entirely from all desire for the three Gunas (or their products). This is at least what Patañgali says in a somewhat obscure Sûtra (I, 11)'. This Sûtra seems intended to describe the highest state within reach of the true Vairâgin, involving

1 Garbe, Grundriss, p. 49.

indifference not only to visible and revealed objects, but likewise towards the Gunas, that is, if I am not mistaken, the twenty-four Tattvas, here called Gunas', because determined by them. The knowledge of the Purusha implies the distinction between what is Purusha, the Self, and what is not, and therefore also between Purusha and the Gunas of Prakriti. Vigñâna-Bhikshu explains it by Atmânâtmavivekasâkshâtkârât, i. e. from realising the difference between what is Self and what is not Self, and not as a possessive compound: the sense, however, remaining much the same. It is curious that Rajendralal Mitra should have rendered Purushakhyâteh by 'conducive to a knowledge of God.' From a purely philosophical point of view Purusha may be translated by God, but such a translation would be misleading here, particularly as the Sûtra 23, on the devotion to the Lord, follows so soon after. It would have been better also to translate arising from,' than 'conducive to.'

6

Meditation With or Without an Object.

Patañgali next proceeds (I, 17) to explain an important distinction between the two kinds of meditative absorption (Samâdhi), which he calls Sampragñâtâ

1 These Gunas are more fully described in II, 19, where we read that the four Gunas or Gunaparvâni are meant for (1) Visesha, i.e. the gross elements and the organs; (2) Avisesha, i.e. the subtle elements and the mind; (3) the Limgamâtra, i.e. Buddhi; (4) the Alimga, i. e. Prakriti as Avyakta. In the commentary to I, 45, the same classes of Gunas are described as Alimga, a name of Pradhâna, Visishtalimga, the gross elements (Bhûtâni); Avisishtalimga, the subtle essences and the senses; Limgamatra, i. e. Buddhi, and Alimga, that is, the Pradhana.

and Asampragñâtâ. This seems to mean that there is one kind of meditation when our thoughts are directed and fixed on a definite object, and another when there is no definite object of meditation left. Here the spirit of minute distinction shows itself once more, for though these two kinds of meditation may well be kept apart, and the former be considered as preliminary to the latter, the numerous subdivisions of each hardly deserve our notice. We are told that what is called conscious meditation may have for its object either one or the other of the twenty-four Tattvas or the Îsvara, looked upon as one of the Purushas. The twenty-four Tattvas are called unconscious, the twenty-fifth or Purusha is conscious. When meditation (Bhâvanâ) has something. definite for its object it is called not only Pragñâta, known, or, as referred to the subject, knowing, but also Saviga, literally with a seed, which I am inclined to take in the sense of having some seed on which it can fix, and from which it can develop. The Asampragnâta-samâdhi, or meditation without a known object, is called Aviga, not having a seed from which to spring or to expand. Native commentators, however, take a different view.

Those who in their Samâdhi do not go beyond the twenty-four Tattvas, without seeing the twentyfifth, the Purusha, but at all events identify themselves no longer with the body, are called Videhas, bodyless; others who do not see the Purusha yet, but only existence, are called Prakritilayas, absorbed in Prakriti.

This again is not quite clear to me, but it is hardly necessary that we should enter into all the intricate subdivisions of the two kinds of meditation,