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Again, referring to Samkhya-karika, 29, we find that the five v@yus are spoken of as the common func- tioning of buddhi, ahamkara and manas, and Vacaspati says that the five vdyus are their life. This means that the three, buddhz, ahamkara and manas, are each energizing, in their own way, and it is the joint operation of these energies that is called the fivefold prana which upholds the body. Thus in this view also prana is biomotor force and no air current. The special feature of this view is that this biomotor force is in essence a mental energy consisting of the specific functionings of buddhi, ahamkara and manas', It is due to the evolutionary activity of antahkarana. In support of this view the Samkhya-pravacana-bhasya, I. 31, Vyasa-bhasya, 111.39, Vacaspati’s Tattva-vaisaradi, Bhiksu’s Yoga- varttika, and Nagesa’s Chaya-vyakhya thereon may be referred to. It is true, no doubt, that sometimes inspiration and expiration of external air are also called prana; but that is because in inspira- tion and expiration the function of prana is active or it vibrates. It is thus the entity which moves and not mere motion that is called prana®, Ramanuja agrees with Sankara in holding that prana is not air (va@yu), but a transformation of the nature of air. But it should be noted that this modification of air is such a modification as can only be known by Yoga methods’. The Vaigesika, however, holds that it is the external air which 1 Gaudapada’s bhdsya on the Samkhya-kdarika, 29 compares the action of prdna to the movement of birds enclosed in a cage which moves the cage: compare Sankara’s reference to Vedanta-siitra, 11. 4. 9. ® Ramdanuja-bhasya on Vedanta-siitra, 11. 4. 8. ; ° See the Tattva-mukta-kalapa, 53-55, and also Ramanuja-bhdsya and Sruta- prakasikd, 1. 4. 1-15. x1] Prana and its Control 263 according to its place in the body performs various physiological functions!. The medical authorities also support the view that vayu is a sort of driving and upholding power. Thus the Bhava- prakasa describes vayu as follows: It takes quickly the dosas, dhatus and the malas from one place to another, is subtle, com- posed of rajo-guna; is dry, cold, light and moving. By its move- ment it produces all energy, regulates inspiration and expiration and generates ail movement and action, and by upholding the keenness of the senses and the dhdtus holds together the heat, senses and the mind’. Vahata in his Astariga-samgraha also regards vayu as the one cause of all body movements, and there is nothing to suggest that he meant air currents?. The long description of Caraka (1. 12), as will be noticed in the next chapter, seems to suggest that he considered the vdyu as the constructive and destructive force of the universe, and as fulfilling the same kinds of functions inside the body as well. It is not only a physical force regulating the physiological functions of the body, but is also the mover and controller of the mind in all its operations, as knowing, feeling and willing. Susruta holds that it is in itself avyakta (unmanifested or unknowable), and that only its actions as operating in the body are manifested (avyakto vyakta-karma ca). In the Yoga-vasistha, as we have already seen above, prana or vayu is defined as that entity which vibrates (spandate yat sa tad vayuh, 111. 13) and it has no other reality than vibration. Prana itself is, again, nothing but the movement of the intellect as ahamkara’. Prana is essentially of the nature of vibration (spanda), and mind is but a form of prana energy, and so by the control of the mind the five vayus are controlled®, The Saiva authorities also agree with the view that prana is identical with cognitive activity, which passes through the na@dis (nerves) and maintains all the body movement and the movement of the senses. Thus Ksemaraja says that it is the cognitive force which passes in the form of prana through the nadis, and he refers to Bhatta Kallata as also holding the same view, and prana is definitely spoken of by him as force (kutila-vahini prana-saktih)®. Sivopadhyaya in his Vivrti on the 1 Nydya-kandalt of Sridhara, p. 48. 2 Bhava-prakasa, Sen’s edition, Calcutta, p. 47. 3 Vahata’s Astanga-samgraha and the commentary by Indu, Trichur, 1914, pp. 138, 212. ~ 4 Yoga-vasistha, 111. 14. 5 Ibid. v. 13, 78. 6 Siva-sitra-vimarsini, 11. 43, 44. 264 The Philosophy of the Yoga-vasistha [cH. Vijftana-bhairava also describes prana as force (Sakti), and the Vijfana-bhairava itself does the same!. Bhatta Ananda in his Vijnana-kaumudi describes prana as a functioning of the mind (citta-vrttt). Stages of Progress. It has been already said that the study of philosophy and association with saintly characters are the principal means with which a beginner has to set out on his toil for the attainment of salvation. In the first stage (prathama bhiimika) the enquirer has to increase his wisdom by study and association with saintly persons. The second stage is the stage of critical thinking (vicarand) ; the third is that of the mental practice of dissociation from all passions, etc. (asanga-bhavana); the fourth stage (vilapani) is that in which through a right understanding of the nature of truth the world-ap- pearance shows itself to be false; the fifth stage is that in which the saint is in a state of pure knowledge and bliss (suddha-samvit-maya- nanda-riipa). This stage is that of the jivan-mukta, in which the saint may be said to be half-asleep and half-awake (ardha-supta- prabuddha). The sixth stage is that in which the saint is in a state of pure bliss; it is a state which is more like that of deep dreamless sleep (susupta-sadrsa-sthiti). The seventh stage is the last transcen- dental state (turyatita), which cannot be experienced by any saint while he is living. Of these the first three stages are called the waking state (jdagrat), the fourth stage is called the dream state (svapna), the fifth stage is called the dreamless (susupta) state, the sixth stage is an unconscious state called the turya, and the seventh stage is called the turyatita®. Desire (iccha@) is at the root of all our troubles. It is like a mad elephant rushing through our system and trying to destroy it. The senses are like its young, and the instinctive root inclinations (vasan@) are like its flow of ichor. It can only be conquered by the close application of patience (dhairya). Desire means the imaginations of the mind, such as “‘let this happen to me,” and this is also called sankalpa. The proper way to stop this sort of imagining is to cease by sheer force of will from hoping or desiring in this manner, and for this one has to forget his memory; for 1 Viujfana-bhairava and Vivrti, verse 67. 2 See the Nydaya-kandali of Sridhara, p. 48, and also Dinakari and Ramaridri on the Siddhanta-muktavali on Bhasa-parichcheda, p. 44. 3 Yoga-vasistha, v1. 120. x11] Stages of Progress 265 so long as memory continues such hopes and desires cannot be stopped. The last stage, when all movement has ceased (aspanda) and all thoughts and imaginations have ceased, is a state of un- consciousness (avedanam)!. Yoga is also defined as the ultimate state of unconsciousness (avedana), the eternal state when every- thing else has ceased?. In this state citta is destroyed, and one is reduced to the ultimate entity of consciousness; and thus, being free of all relations and differentiations of subject and object, one has no knowledge in this state, though it is characterized as bodhatmaka (identical with consciousness). This last state is indeed absolutely indescribable (avyapadesya), though it is variously de- scribed as the state of Brahman, Siva, or the realization of the distinction of prakrti and purusa®,. The Yoga-vasistha, however, describes this state not as being,essentially one of bliss, but as a state of unconsciousness unthinkable and indescribable. It is only the fifth state that manifests itself as being of the nature of ananda; the sixth state is one of unconsciousness, which, it seems, can somehow be grasped; but the seventh is absolutely transcendental and indescribable. The division of the progressive process into seven stages naturally reminds one of the seven stages of prajfia (wisdom) in Patanyali’s Yoga-sitra and Vydsa-bhasya. 'The seven stages of prajna@ are there divided into two parts, the first containing four and the second three. Of these the four are psychological and the three are ontological, showing the stages of the disintegration of citta before its final destruction or citta-vimukti*. Here also the first four stages, ending with vilapani, are psychological, whereas the last three stages represent the advance of the evolution of citta towards its final disruption. But, apart from this, it does not seem that there is any one to one correspondence of the prajia states of the Yoga-vasistha with those of Patafijali. The Yoga-vasistha occasionally mentions the name Yoga as denoting the highest state and defines it as the ultimate state of unconsciousness (avedanam vidur yogam) or as the cessation of the poisonous effects of desire’. In the first half of the sixth book, chapter 125, the ultimate state is described as the state of universal negation (sarvapahnava). Existence of citta is pain, and its destruction bliss; the destruction 1 Yoga-vasistha, v1. 126. 2 Ibid. v1. 126.99. ° Ibid. v1. 126. 71-72. 4 See my A History of Indian Philosophy, vol. 1, Cambridge, 1922, p. 273. 5 Iccha-visa-vikdrasya viyogam yoga-namakam. Yoga-vasistha, V1. 37.1; also ibid. V1. 126. 99. 266 The Philosophy of the Yoga-vasistha [cH. of citta by cessation of knowledge—a state of neither pain nor pleasure nor any intermediate state—a state as feelingless as that of the stone (pdsanavat-samam), is the ultimate state aimed at’.