Chapter 1 - Yoga and Action
Yoga is the Path -- It is the path shown us by age-old Hindu wisdom to find health, happiness and peace of mind not in a nebulous beyond, but here and now.
The great Secret that has come down to us through the ages is as sublime as it is simple. And it is not the special property of Hinduism or indeed of any religion. It is something which is to be found, more or less buried in all religions, and which can exist apart from any formal religion.
The idea has sometimes been expressed that the union with the higher Self, which is the final object of Yoga, cannot be achieved by westerners using eastern methods. Such views are greatly exaggerated and usually based on ignorance of the real facts. They are mostly the product of a time when Yoga was practically unknown in western countries except by a few specialists of Hindu culture who were interested in Yoga mainly from a philological and philosophical viewpoint.
The situation is radically different today. The writings of many eminent teachers of Yoga have been translated, lecturers have disseminated the knowledge, and scores of Yoga schools have been founded in America and Europe. As a result of these activities, much of mystery formerly surrounding the theory and practice of Yoga has been dispelled. It has been shown that the differences dwelt upon by some writers are mainly imaginary when they are not the outcome of a desire to propagate a system of their own. Today, thousands of Yoga students, all over the world, are here to testify that there are no physical or mental exercises in Yoga which a sound-bodied and sound-minded westerner cannot learn to perform. As far as the physical exercises are concerned, they are, in the main, far easier to execute than some western so-called physical culture exercises. As for the mental and spiritual exercises, such as concentration, meditation and contemplation, they are by no means the exclusive apanage of eastern wisdom, but belong to all spiritual cultures, particularly to that of the Christian world.
But there is still a good deal of misunderstanding and consequent misinterpretation in regard to Hindu thought, even among otherwise great western minds. As an example, we cite the following statement taken from the book, 'Out of My Life and Thought', by the celebrated Dr. Albert Schweizer, (Mentor Books, p. 119): "To Indian thought all effort directed to triumphs in knowledge and power and to the improvement of man's outer life and of society as a whole is a mere folly. It teaches that the only sensible line of conduct for a man is to withdraw entirely into himself to the thought of 'no more will to live", and by abstention from action and by every sort of life-denial reduces his earthly existence to a condition of being, which has no content beyond a waiting for the cessation of being."
Withdrawl, no will to live, abstention from action, life denial, cessation of being, - these are to Dr. Schweizer, and no doubt to other American and European thinkers, the mainsprings of Indian thought, so much so that this opinion has become the generally accepted one in these countries. This is a tragic misunderstanding of the real position, as can be verified by even a cursory examination of the sources of Indian wisdom.
The reason, or at least one of the reasons for the fundamental misunderstanding may be the external method of approach by western scholars to the spiritual classics of Indian thought. As a rule, they are mainly concerned with the history of the text under consideration, its classification and criticism, with who wrote it and to what school he belonged. The follower of the Path, on the other hand, is only interested in direct knowledge and the practical application of the teachings contained in the text and cares but little about who wrote it or with what school the writer was affiliated.
But even so, the meaning of the texts should be clear to everyone. One of the most important of these, and to which any critical appreciation of Indian thought must needs refer, is the Bhagavad Gita, which has been called one foot of the triple base on which the Vedanta is founded, the two other feet being the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras.
This fundamental text is rich in injunctions that the battle of life must be won, and not run away from. In order to attain the goal of Union with the Divine Ground (the ultimate goal of Yoga) the method recommended by the Bhagavad Gita is not abstention from action, but on the contrary, skill in action in a spirit of disinterestedness, of indifference to the fruits of action, not detachment from life, but only detachment from the rewards, thus transcending the limits of selfish good and evil. This is the method of Karma Yoga, one branch of the Path.
As beautifully developed by Sri Krishna Prem in 'The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita', it is not to be understood that the sense life is to be negated or outwardly discontinued; it is an inner, not an outer withdrawl that is to be practised. The mind should be purified by the practice of selfless action.
The very doctrine of what is known as Karma Yoga starts from the fact that a cessation from all action is an impossibility. "Not by mere cessation of activity shall the soul rise to the state of actionlessness", states the Bhagavad Gita. The only difference between action in the western sense and action such as Karma Yoga envisages, is that for Karma Yoga, action is a sacrifice, a duty; it is "right action" which is to be performed, action in accord with the higher self, action without ethical content. "As the ignorant act out of attachment to action, so should the wise act without attachment, desiring the welfare of the world." (Bhagavad Gita, 3, 25). We thus see that the thought basis for the reunion between the "will to progress" and the ethics which Dr. Schweizer so passionately sought and finally found in the idea of "reverence for life" was there all the time. Nowhere is life, in all its forms, held in greater reverence than in India, and nowhere has the notion of action a higher ethical content than in the teachings of Hinduism, or, for that matter, Buddhism.
The debate finally reduces itself to the question of the quality of action. Action in the western sense, deprived of its ethical basis most often, is action for selfish, material purposes, or at best, action for the sake of action. In early Christian times and in the Middle Ages it was often action "ad majorem Dei gloriam", for the greater glory of God. And this is exactly the type of action taught by Indian thought, in particular by the Yoga of action, Karma Yoga.
The two main psychological types, according to Jung, are the extrovert and the introvert. The latter's tendency is to occupy himself with the subjective, while the extrovert directs his activity towards the outer world. Corresponding to these two types we have two Yogas, the Yoga of Knowledge and Discrimination, called Jnana Yoga, and the Yoga of Action, Karma Yoga.
As we have said, Karma Yoga starts with the proposition that complete abstention from action is a physical impossibility. On the other hand, we must prevent action from exerting a binding power upon us, we must sever its connection with results. As Jesus said: "What would it avail a man to win the whole world, if thereby he loses his soul?"
The western misunderstanding of the nature of action and its ethical content as proclaimed by Indian thought is thus clearly based on a superficial appreciation of the inner significance of the idea of action. And if anyone, in the spirit of "by their fruit shall ye know them" points to the state of Indian society, today and yesterday, as the practical consequence of Indian negation of action and withdrawl from life, it must not be forgotten that practical results are not necessarily the fruits of ideology alone. It would be short sighted and unfair to hold an ideology responsible for a state of affairs which may be due to a number of factors, over which it can at best only exercise very partial control. It is questionable, besides, to what extent an ideology, and be it the expression of Immortal Truth itself, can materialize itself within our concept of time. Factors like climate, temperament, demography, political conditions etc, may play an important role.
"In traditional Christianity, as in all the great religious formulations of the Perennial Philosophy, it was axiomatic that contemplation is the end and purpose of action. Today, the great majority, even of professed Christians, regard action directed towards material and social progress as the end." Thus Aldous Huxley, who adds that this is so because to traditional Christianity, as to the other religions, the secret of happiness and the way to salvation were to be sought not in external environment, but in the individual state of mind in regard to the environment. "Today," he says, "the all important thing is not the state of mind but the state of the environment. Happiness and progress depend, it is thought, on bigger, and better gadgets."
It is not a question whether the "spirit of progress" is not in itself the antithesis of an ethical context of action? Maybe the two just do not go together. As Huxley puts it: "... of course it is only the possessive, the restless, the distracted who spend money on the things that advertisers want to sell. Technological progress is in part the product of a revolution, characterized by aggressivity and lust for power, in part the producer and sustainer of that revolution. So is war ever more closely associated with technological progress. It would seem, therefore, that only an inner progress, directed towards self-realization and action without regard for its fruits can, in time, prepare humanity for outer action that will not be self-destructive ..." And that is the Indian way. That is the way of Yoga.
"The world is imprisoned in its own activity except when actions are performed as worship of God", says the Bhagavad Gita.
"Action," says Thomas Aquinas, "should be something added to the life of prayer, not something taken away from it, because action unenlightened by contact with reality, uninspired and unguided, consequently is apt to be ineffective and even harmful."
It is the introspective contemplation of the Indian sage which, among other things, has given rise to the misunderstandings about negation of action and life in Indian thought. But it should be clear, that only through contemplation can we acquire the power to act well. "What a man takes in contemplation," says Ekkehard, "that he pours out in love." The container must be replenished. And Al Ghazzali regards the mystic as the salt which preserves human society from decay. Perhaps we could use a few more mystics today. They might preserve the world not only from decay, but from utter destruction.
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