Yogis, Magic and Deception – III
In the previous post in this series, I examined how the powers of yoga were represented in the writings of the leaders of the Theosophical Society, such as HP Blavatsky and William Quan Judge. For the next two posts, I will examine some of Aleister Crowley’s ideas about yoga and yoga powers. First though, I will take a look at Patañjali’s Yogasūtra – which is widely held to be the original source for Crowley’s take on Yoga – and show how the attainment of extraordinary powers is dealt with.
Patañjali’s Yogasūtra is widely considered to be the foundational text of yoga practice, although that’s debatable. Nevertheless, it is one of the most widely translated of Indian yoga texts. It was first translated into English by the Missionary William Ward in 1818 (see this post for more about Ward). Composed during the first centuries of the common era, it comprises 195 short statements, divided into 4 chapters. The verses are concise, terse aphorisms that easily lend themselves to different interpretations. This is something to bear in mind when you read an English translation of the Yogasūtra – you will, for the most part, be reading an interpretation as well as a translation, which may well be coloured by the translator’s philosophical biases.
The Yogasūtra is now considered by many scholars to be part of a much larger work – the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, which consists of the sutras and a commentary, the Yogabhāṣya. 1 It draws on elements of classical Samkhya philosophy, and there are Vedic, Buddhist and Jain influences too in the text.
It is from the Yogasūtra that we get the 8 “limbs” of Yoga Practice:
These are:
-
yama – virtuous observances
niyama – disciplines
āsana – yogic postures
pranayama – breath control
pratyāhāra – withdrawal of the senses
dhāraṇā – fixity of awareness
dhyāna – meditative flow
samādhi – meditative absorption
It is also in the Yogasūtra that we find a verse that is often used in arguments against the development or usage of Yogic Powers – the idea being that such abilities are obstacles to spiritual liberation
Sutra 3.37 says:
“The siddhis are obstacles for meditation that leads to ultimate liberation; however they are perfections – instruments – when the yogi turns to the world”.
This verse could be interpreted to signify that although powers are obstacles to the yogi’s final goal of liberation; whilst the yogi is involved in the world, they are signs of success.
Over a third of Patañjali’s aphorisms in the Yogasūtra are related, one way or another, to the acquisition of extraordinary powers. From this fact alone we can safely assume that he considered the yoga siddhis to be an integral component of practice. The majority of the statements concerning the powers of yoga are in the third chapter – Vibhūti – but there are references to yogic powers – which have tended to get overlooked, in the second chapter, which is devoted to Sadhana – practice.
The Yamas
Anyone familiar with the 8 limbs of Yoga will have come across the five Yamas, sometimes translated as the “virtuous observances”. The Sanskrit “Yama” means, to curb, to bridle, or to restrain – which links it to the god of death, also called Yama, the great restrainer. Patañjali does not offer a definition of the term Yama but says what they are:
ahiṃsā – nonviolence
satya – truthfulness
asteya – non-stealing
brahmacarya – celibacy
aparigrahā – nonpossession
These practices are frequently interpreted nowadays as merely (optional) behavioral injunctions or ethical principles, but the earliest commentary on the Yogasūtra reveals that the mastery of these practices brings about extraordinary powers.
For example, the commentary on the Yama of nonviolence is:
“If [one’s practice of] non-violence is steadfast, hostility is relinquished in one’s presence. [In this case, hostility is relinquished] by all living beings.”
So when the yogi is around, people are less likely to pull out weapons and start hitting each other.
As for being truthful:
“If [one’s practice of] truthfulness is steadfast, it unifies one’s [verbal] actions with their results. [For example,] if [one says to someone,] ‘be virtuous,’ [that person] becomes virtuous. [If one says,] ‘you will obtain heaven,’ [that person] obtains heaven. One’s speech becomes efficacious.”
So by mastery of truthfulness, one’s speech directly affects the world.
What is immediately noticeable about the Yamas is that they are very much concerned with interpersonal behaviour with regard to other people and worldly behaviour.
Patañjali states (Sutra 2.31) that the Yamas constitute a mahāvrata – a “great vow” and that they are valid for all stages of a yogi’s path, and regardless of one’s caste or status. These are not just basic or preliminary practices, but something the practitioner strives to master through the course of their life. And that mastery brings extraordinary powers that are directed towards the world.
the third section of the Yogasūtra is devoted to Vibhūti – the powers of the yogin. 2 I’m not going to go through the section line by line as it would take far too long. For the sake of brevity, we can categorize the powers as forms of knowledge such as knowledge of previous births (3.18); knowledge of another’s consciousness(3.19); knowledge of that which is concealed or distant (3.25). There are also more directly “magical” powers such as: invisibility (3.20); the strength of an elephant (3.24); The ability to enter the body of another (3.38); flight (3.42); mastery of the elements (3.44); perfection of the body (3.45). 3
Generally, Patañjali has little to say concerning each of these powers. But he does give a somewhat terse explanation of how these powers are generated. This involves the process of Saṃyama – “binding together” – which comprises of Dhāraṇā, Dhyāna and Samādhi.
In Dhāraṇā, the yogi chooses a spot on the body such as the tip of the nose, to which the movements of thought – the chitta – are tied and concentrated on. The second stage is Dhyāna – often translated as “meditation” however it is better to understand it as concentration on a meditation – the fixing of consciousness on the mental construction of the object of meditation. These objects can be for example, one of the elements – air or water. The aim is to stop all discursive thoughts or associations that the yogin might have stored, in his mind, in relation to this object.
The third stage is Samādhi – often translated as “contemplation” but actually defined in the Yogasūtra as the appearance of the created object in its own form.
No longer do the movements of consciousness determine the presence of the object – rather, the object has expanded in the mind of the adept. This stage is referred to in the Yogasūtra as “the manifestation or shining forth of the object only” (3.3). Consciousness no longer produces ideas and the process of mental construction has been restrained. Rather the object itself enters – and fills up consciousness – the stuff of thought, the chitta is transformed by the object, and it is at this point that the Yogin accesses the powers and qualities ascribed to the object of meditation.
How then, can a yogi fly? It is because he has emptied his mind of any subjective impressions or thoughts concerning the air, and allowed his consciousness to be filled up or possessed by the element itself, and so gains power over the nature or essence of that element.
The commentary says: “After conquering that relation by the performance of samyama and by obtaining transformation into light things such as cotton …he walks on water, then walking on each line of the spider’s web, he walks over the rays, then he moves through the sky at will.”
There’s one last verse in the Yogasūtra I want to direct attention to.
The fourth chapter of the Yogasūtra begins with the statement:
“[spiritual] accomplishments arise from birth, herbs, incantation, asceticism, and contemplation.”
Patañjali is saying that Siddhis – magical powers – come from a variety of sources. One can be born with them – and there are several characters in the Mahabharata who are born with yogic powers – or they can arise from one’s own practices. These are:
Incantation – the repetition of mantras
Asceticism – fasting, taking a vow of silence, or prolonged standing.
Contemplation or Samādhi is the subject of the Yogasūtra.
But another legitimate route for achieving the siddhis is the use of herbs – medicines or drugs.
Anyone familiar with the long-standing argument that drugs cannot produce “legitimate” spiritual experiences might find this surprising. I don’t see any evidence that Crowley picked up on this verse, although he was certainly interested in the possibility of replicating yogic states using drugs.
I’ll examine Crowley’s take on yoga and yoga powers in the next post.
Sources
Jason Birch and Jacqueline Hargreaves, The Yamas and Niyamas: Patañjali’s View (Yoga Scotland Magazine, Issue 49: January 2016)
Carl Olson, Indian Asceticism: Power, Violence and Play (Oxford University Press, 2015)
Philipp A. Mass, “A Concise Historiography of Classical Yoga Philosophy” in Eli Franco (ed.): Historiography and Periodization of Indian Philosophy (De Nobili Series, Vienna 2013)
Lloyd W. Pflueger, “Holding on and Letting Go: The In and Out of Powers in Classical Yoga”, in A Jacobsen (ed), Yoga Powers: Extraordinary Capacities Attained Through Meditation and Concentration (Brill, 2012)
Stuart Ray Sarbacker, Herbs (auṣadhi) as a Means to Spiritual Accomplishments (siddhi) in Patañjali’s Yogasūtra (International Journal of Hindu Studies, 17, 1: 37-56)
Stuart Ray Sarbacker, “Power and meaning in the Yogasūtra of Patajañali”, in A Jacobsen (ed), Yoga Powers: Extraordinary Capacities Attained Through Meditation and Concentration (Brill, 2012)
Frederick M. Smith, The Fulcrum of Experience in Indian Yoga and Possession Trance (Religions, 10, 332, 2019)
Notes:
- The Yogabhāṣya was, for many years, attributed to an author named Vyāsa, but more recent scholarship tends to view both Yogasūtra and commentary as works by a single author. See P. Mass, 2013. ↩
- Vibhūti can be translated as “manifestation of might, or perhaps “superhuman power”. ↩
- See Olson, 2015, pp54-59 for a thorough discussion of the range of powers. ↩
