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it is clear that more attention must be given to *śvara and gama in the Yoga Sktras
than Eliade was prepared to allow.
3
The Yoga Psychology Underlying
Bhartrhari s Vkyapad%2Å‚ya
.
In the previous chapter we saw how the function of language as valid knowledge and the
Vedas as divine truth were given psychological explanation by Patañjali in his Yoga
Sktras. This chapter turns to the analysis of how words and sentence function according
to Bhartrhari, India s greatest philosopher of language. Living after Patañjali, Bhartrhari
. .
(c. 500 CE) undoubtedly knew the Yoga Sktras and the understanding of language and
the Vedas put forth by Patañjali (described in chapter 2). In this chapter we examine
how Patañjali s Yoga psychology is assumed by Bhartrhari in writing his great work, the
.
Vkyapad%2Å‚ya (The Philosophy of Word and Sentence).
The seventh-century Chinese pilgrim to India, I-tsing, reports in his diary that in
the education curriculum of the day Bhartrhari s Vkyapad%2Å‚ya, or Philosophy of Word
.
and Sentence, was the crowning work studied by the most serious students. Yoga was
the traditional psychology of India in Bhartrhari s day, and indeed has continued to oc-
.
cupy that status in the minds of most Indians right up to the present. It is only during
the last few decades that the psychology taught in Indian universities and colleges has
come to be modern empirical or scientific psychology. As noted in the introduction,
the classic formulation of traditional Yoga psychology is the Yoga Sktras of Patañjali,
which are usually dated around 200 CE. The important commentary, or bhsya, on
.
the Yoga Sktras is attributed to Vysa, and seems to be contemporary with Bhartrhari.
.
Later, an explanation, or t%2łk, called the Tattva-Vicrad%2ł, written by Vcaspati Miśra,
.
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was added. Although the Yoga Sktras are written within the context of the Snkhya
school of metaphysics,1 the focus throughout is on the analysis of the psychological
processes commonly accepted by all of the various schools, orthodox and heterodox
alike, as described at the beginning of the introduction.
An understanding of this commonly assumed Yoga psychology is necessary if
Bhartrhari s Vkyapad%2Å‚ya (and his thought generally) is to be seen in its full perspec-
.
tive. A complete analysis of the Vkyapad%2Å‚ya must include both its philosophical as-
21
22 YOGA AND PSYCHOLOGY
pect (i.e., the metaphysical inquiry into the nature of meaning in language) and its
psychological aspect (i.e., the Yoga explanation of the processes required for com-
municating meaning at the lower level of language, and the discipline for becoming
one with the Divine Word, śabdapkrvayoga). In current writing on the Vkyapad%2łya,
scholars such as K. A. S. Iyer2 and G. Sastri3 have concentrated on the first aspect,
the metaphysics, and largely neglected the second, the psychological and practical as-
pects.4 In this study a conscious effort is made to give equal treatment to both as-
pects. In this chapter an attempt is made at describing the Yoga psychology assumed
by Bhartrhari but often left unstated. Not only will this provide a more complete
.
picture of Bhartrhari s theory of language; it will also suggest in detail what he may
.
have meant by śabdapkrvayoga as a discipline for meditation upon the Divine Word
until moksa, or union with Zabdabrahman (Divine Word-Consciousness) is realized.5
.
THE STRUCTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
AS ZABDABRAHMAN
Vkyapad%2Å‚ya I: 123 describes consciousness as an intertwined unity of cognition and
word that constantly seeks to manifest itself in speech. A conception of consciousness
that seems parallel to Bhartrhari s description is found in the Yoga Sktra analysis of
.
*śvara s omniscience which we examined in the previous chapter.6 Here the inter-
twining of word and meaning in consciousness is seen in its purest form. Within
*śvara s consciousness is the seed form of all words, which remains constant through-
out the various manifestations and dissolutions of each cycle of creation. Every new
cycle arises out of the need of *śvara s consciousness to burst forth into expression.
Thus *śvara, or the Lord, is described as having two characteristics: a pure conscious-
ness of perfect quality (sattva) and as being the germ or seed (bija) of omniscience at
its utmost excellence.7
Let us briefly review the detailed description of this special consciousness of *śvara
undertaken in Yoga psychology through an analysis of one s own experience of con-
sciousness. In one s ordinary experience of consciousness, three aspects or substantive
qualities (gunas) are found: sattva, which is brightness or intelligence; rajas, which is pas-
.
sion or energy; and tamas, which is dullness or inertia. Although each of these gunas
.
keeps its own separate identity, no individual guna ever exists independently. Rather, the
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three gunas are always necessarily found together like three strands of a rope. However,
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the proportionate composition of consciousness assigned to each of the gunas is con-
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stantly changing.8 Only the predominant guna will be easily recognized in a particular
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thought. The other two gunas will be present but subordinate, and therefore their pres-
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ence will have to be determined by inference.
In the case of *śvara, as we saw in chapter 2, his consciousness is described as being
completely dominated by pure sattva. Within this sattva there is a teleology that ensures
the reappearance of *śvara in each new creation for the purpose of communicating to all
beings his omniscient knowledge, so that they may, with the help of his grace, attain
moksa. The psychological mechanism by which *śvara s reappearance in each new cre-
.
ation is ensured is as follows. At the end of each creation, *śvara freely wishes that his
sattva consciousness should appear again at the time of the next creation. This wish
THE YOGA PSYCHOLOGY 23
.
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