[Advaita-l] Yoga - aparOkshAnubhUti - Vedanta Sara

K Kathirasan NCS kkathir at ncs.com.sg
Wed Feb 2 00:28:37 CST 2005


Namaste 

Aparokshanubhuti is an interesting text. Shankara(?) re-interprets the 8 limbed Yoga with an additional 7 limbs. Altogether you will find 15 limbs in the Yoga of Aparokshaanubhuti. But this Yoga is not Patanjala Yoga. It is more of Mananam & Nididhyasana. 

I guess the word RajaYoga is to eulogize this re-interpretation by Shankara. And then he recommends Karma (hatha yoga) for those not being able to appreciate this (anadhikaris).

Good question about Vedanta Sara. I did mention in the other Advaitin list the misleading nature of this 'traditional' text. He prescribes Patanjala Yoga after shravana, manana & nididhyasana for the attainment of Samadhi. 

-----Original Message-----
From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org [mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org] On Behalf Of Srikrishna Ghadiyaram
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 1:43 PM
To: Advaita Vedanta List
Subject: [Advaita-l] Yoga - aparOkshAnubhUti - Vedanta Sara


hariH Om !!

I have not personally read the book aparOkshAnubhUti.
But based on browsing a few slokas and also from what
I heard from secondary sources, it deals with Yoga as
a 'practical' method to  Self-Realisation. 

Would the members comment on the position of
aparOkshAnubhUti in the tradition and also in the
scholarly circles. How the contents of this book are
explained in the context of Sankara's main
preseciption for Self-Realization  ?

Just a few days ago I was hearing Svami Dayananda's
lectures on Vedanta Sara and therein I heard him
saying Patanjali never called his method 'Raja Yoga',
and it is Vivekananda who coined that word. I am
surprised today to see that the word Raja Yoga is used
in the concluding slokas 143 and 144 which are
translated by Swami Vimuktananda as below:

"143. Thus has been described Raja-Yoga consisting of
these steps (mentioned above). With this is to be
combined Hatha-Yoga for (the benefit of) those whose
worldly desires are partially attenuated.
   144. For those whose mind is completely purified
this (Raja-Yoga) alone is productive of perfection.
Purity of the mind, again, is speedily accessible to
those who are devoted to the teacher and the Deity."

Also, Vedanta Sara of Sadananda mentions SravaNa,
manana, nididhyAsana, and samadhi as the four steps
for sadhana. See paragraph 181.

I understand Vedanta Sara is followed as a standard
text book. So what is the tradition ? Does it mean
that the Sankara's followers accept the position of
this author, because they are teaching it.

Om  Namo Narayanaya !!

Srikrishna





		
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