India, such a goal can be achieved primarily through yoga. This is the main reason why we thought it useful to write a relatively complete exposition of the theory and practice of yoga, to illuminate the history of its forms and to determine its position in the Indian tradition.
We began writing this book after three years of study at the University of Calcutta (1928-1931) under the guidance of Professor Surendranath Dasgupta, and also enriched by the experience of a six-month stay in the ashrams of Rishikesh in the Himalayas. Its first version, written in English, translated by the author himself into Romanian, and from there retransmitted into French by some friends, was published in 1936 under the title "Yoga. An essay on the origins of Indian mysticism" (Yoga. Essai sur les origines de la mystique indienne).
The content of the book suffered both from the usual mistakes of youth and inexperience, and from double translation; in addition, the text was corrupted by a large number of grammatical and typographical errors. Despite these imperfections, the work was well received by Indologists; reviews by Louis de la Vallée Poussin, Jan Przyluski, Heinrich Zimmer, W. Papesso – to name only, alas, those who have already died – have long inspired us to prepare a new edition. Corrections and additions led to the appearance of a book that differs significantly from that published in 1936.
With the exception of a few chapters, we have completely revised the work, conforming it, as far as possible, to the spirit of our present views. (Part of this new version was used in the publication in 1948 of a small work "Techniques of Yoga" - Techniques du Yoga.) We tried to write a work that is accessible to non-specialists, however, without deviating from rigorous scientific analysis.
We used the existing translations of the Pali and Sanskrit texts (in the case when their quality seemed to us to be high). If, however, when translating the Yoga Sutras and commentaries on them, we sometimes deviate from traditional methods, then we do so on the basis of the oral instructions of our Indian teachers, especially S. Dasgupta, the rector of the university, with whom we translated and discussed all the most important works of yoga darshana.
In its current form, the book is addressed primarily to historians of religions, psychologists, and philosophers. Its main part is devoted to the description of various types of yogic techniques, as well as their history. There are excellent works on the Patanjali system, especially by Dasgupta; therefore, we did not consider it necessary to discuss this issue in its entirety. The same applies to the techniques of Buddhist meditation - they are widely covered in modern critical literature. Instead, the emphasis was on less studied or inadequately understood aspects: meaning those ideas, symbols and methods of yoga, which are set forth in Tantrism, alchemy, folklore and aboriginal cults of India.
This work is dedicated to the memory of our trustee, Maharaja Kassimbazar Manindra Chandra Nandi, who made our stay in India possible thanks to his scholarship, as well as to the memory of our best mentors: Nae Ionescu and Surendranath Dasgupta. We owe our initiation into philosophy and orientation in it to the lessons of the first. As for S. Dasgupta, he not only introduced us to the very core of Indian thought, but was also for three years as our Sanskrit teacher, our Teacher, our guru. The world of their memory!
Mircea Eliade
Paris, September 15, 1954

CHAPTER I YOGA TEACHINGS

ORIGINAL ITEM
Four basic and interdependent concepts, four "kinetic ideas" lead us to the core of Indian spirituality. These are karma, maya, nirvana and yoga. In principle one could write a coherent history of Indian thought from any one of these basic concepts; however, it will inevitably involve the remaining three. In the language of Western philosophy, it can be said that India, since the post-Vedic period, has primarily tried to understand the following:
1) The law of universal causality, which binds a person to the world and condemns him to endless reincarnations. This is the law of karma.
2) The mysterious process that generates and maintains the universe and, therefore, makes possible the "eternal return" of existence. Such is maya, the cosmic illusion which man endures (and even worse recognizes as real) while he is blinded by ignorance (avidya).
3) Absolute reality, which lies beyond the limits of human experience as conditioned by karma; this Absolute, pure Being can be called differently - I (Atman), Brahman, unconditioned, transcendental, immortal, indestructible, nirvana, etc.
four) Means to achieve this Being, effective techniques for gaining liberation. Yoga in the proper sense of the word consists of the totality of these means.
Based on these four concepts, we can imagine how the fundamental problem of any philosophy, the search for truth, is present in Indian thinking. For Indians, truth in itself has no value. It becomes a value only due to its soteriological * orientation: knowledge of the truth helps a person to free himself. It is not the possession of truth that is the pinnacle of the path of the Indian saint, but precisely liberation, the attainment of absolute independence. Those sacrifices that the European philosopher is ready to make in order to know the truth in and for himself - religious faith, worldly ambitions, prosperity, legal freedom and even life - the Indian sage makes only in order to achieve liberation. "To be freed" means to move to another level of existence, to acquire another mode existence that transcends "normal" life. It can be said that for India, metaphysical knowledge is not only understood in terms of rupture and death (one who “breaks” with the human world “dies” to everything human), it also entails consequences that have a mystical character: rebirth to an unconditioned form being.
And this is liberation, complete independence. Exploring the theories and practices of yoga, we will be able to refer to all other "kinetic ideas" of Indian consciousness. First of all, let's start by clarifying the meaning of the term "yoga". The etymology of this word comes from the verbal root yuj, i.e. "bind together", "fast", "connect"; it is cognate with Latin jungere, jugum, French joug, etc. In the most general terms, "yoga" refers to any ascetic technique and any method of meditation.
Of course, different types of asceticism and meditation were evaluated differently by Indian philosophical schools and mystical movements. As we will soon see, there is a "classical" yoga, i.e. "system of philosophy" expounded by Patanjali in his famous Yogasutras, and it is from this "system" that we must proceed in order to understand the place of yoga in the history of Indian thought. However, side by side with this "classical" yoga are countless forms of "popular", unsystematic yoga; there are also varieties of non-Brahmin yoga (Buddhist, Jain); there are also forms of yoga with a "magical" or "mystical" lining, and so on. In fact, the term yoga itself allows for such a wide variety of meanings, for even if, according to etymology, yuj means "to bind", it is nonetheless clear that the "connection" resulting from the process of binding presupposes as its precondition the destruction of worldly "connections".", enveloping the spirit. In other words, liberation cannot become an event until the individual "frees himself" from the world, until he leaves the cosmic cycle. But acting in this way, he will never be able to comprehend himself and master himself. Even in its "mystical" meaning of unity, yoga implies that first it is necessary to disengage from matter, to free oneself from connection with the world. The emphasis is on human effort, on self-discipline - with their help, the adept acquires a concentration of consciousness even before he requested (in the mystical schools of yoga) support from the deity. "Bind together", "observe fasting", "pair" - the purpose of all these actions is to unite the intentions of the spirit, avoiding the dispersion and automatism inherent in the profane consciousness. For the "cult" (mystical) currents of yoga, such a union, of course, only precedes the true union - the union of the human soul with God. However, yoga is characterized not only by its practical side, but also by its initiatory structure. Yoga cannot be achieved alone, it requires the guidance of a mentor, a guru. Strictly speaking, all other "systems of philosophy", as well as in fact any traditional disciplines and arts, are taught in India by mentors and are therefore initiations; for thousands of years they were transmitted in speech form, "from mouth to ear." In yoga, initiation is even more pronounced. As in other religious initiations, the yogin begins with the rejection of the profane world (family, society) and, guided by his guru, consistently gets rid of the behavioral patterns and values ​​​​of ordinary people. When we see to what extent the yogi tries to dissociate himself from the profane world, we will understand his desire to "die for this life." But after such a "death" comes a rebirth on another level of being, the level of liberation. The analogy between yoga and initiation becomes even clearer if we think of the primitive or complex initiatory rituals that represent the creation of a "new", "mystical" body (symbolically likened by primitive people to the body of a newborn). The "mystical" body, which allows the yogi to enter into transcendental forms of existence, plays a significant role in all types of yoga, especially in Tantrism and alchemy. From this point of view, yoga overcomes and, on a different level, continues the universal archaic symbolism of initiation - a symbolism that is already fixed in the tradition of Brahmanism (where the initiated is called "twice

India, such a goal can be achieved primarily through yoga. This is the main reason why we thought it useful to write a relatively complete exposition of the theory and practice of yoga, to illuminate the history of its forms and to determine its position in the Indian tradition.
We began writing this book after three years of study at the University of Calcutta (1928-1931) under the guidance of Professor Surendranath Dasgupta, and also enriched by the experience of a six-month stay in the ashrams of Rishikesh in the Himalayas. Its first version, written in English, translated by the author himself into Romanian, and from there retransmitted into French by some friends, was published in 1936 under the title "Yoga. An essay on the origins of Indian mysticism" (Yoga. Essai sur les origines de la mystique indienne).
The content of the book suffered both from the usual mistakes of youth and inexperience, and from double translation; in addition, the text was corrupted by a large number of grammatical and typographical errors. Despite these imperfections, the work was well received by Indologists; reviews by Louis de la Vallée Poussin, Jan Przyluski, Heinrich Zimmer, W. Papesso – to name only, alas, those who have already died – have long inspired us to prepare a new edition. Corrections and additions led to the appearance of a book that differs significantly from that published in 1936.
With the exception of a few chapters, we have completely revised the work, conforming it, as far as possible, to the spirit of our present views. (Part of this new version was used in the publication in 1948 of a small work "Techniques of Yoga" - Techniques du Yoga.) We tried to write a work that is accessible to non-specialists, however, without deviating from rigorous scientific analysis.
We used the existing translations of the Pali and Sanskrit texts (in the case when their quality seemed to us to be high). If, however, when translating the Yoga Sutras and commentaries on them, we sometimes deviate from traditional methods, then we do so on the basis of the oral instructions of our Indian teachers, especially S. Dasgupta, the rector of the university, with whom we translated and discussed all the most important works of yoga darshana.
In its current form, the book is addressed primarily to historians of religions, psychologists, and philosophers. Its main part is devoted to the description of various types of yogic techniques, as well as their history. There are excellent works on the Patanjali system, especially by Dasgupta; therefore, we did not consider it necessary to discuss this issue in its entirety. The same applies to the techniques of Buddhist meditation - they are widely covered in modern critical literature. Instead, the emphasis was on less studied or inadequately understood aspects: meaning those ideas, symbols and methods of yoga, which are set forth in Tantrism, alchemy, folklore and aboriginal cults of India.
This work is dedicated to the memory of our trustee, Maharaja Kassimbazar Manindra Chandra Nandi, who made our stay in India possible thanks to his scholarship, as well as to the memory of our best mentors: Nae Ionescu and Surendranath Dasgupta. We owe our initiation into philosophy and orientation in it to the lessons of the first. As for S. Dasgupta, he not only introduced us to the very core of Indian thought, but was also for three years as our Sanskrit teacher, our Teacher, our guru. The world of their memory!
Mircea Eliade
Paris, September 15, 1954

CHAPTER I YOGA TEACHINGS

ORIGINAL ITEM
Four basic and interdependent concepts, four "kinetic ideas" lead us to the core of Indian spirituality. These are karma, maya, nirvana and yoga. In principle one could write a coherent history of Indian thought from any one of these basic concepts; however, it will inevitably involve the remaining three. In the language of Western philosophy, it can be said that India, since the post-Vedic period, has primarily tried to understand the following:
1) The law of universal causality, which binds a person to the world and condemns him to endless reincarnations. This is the law of karma.
2) The mysterious process that generates and maintains the universe and, therefore, makes possible the "eternal return" of existence. Such is maya, the cosmic illusion which man endures (and even worse recognizes as real) while he is blinded by ignorance (avidya).
3) Absolute reality, which lies beyond the limits of human experience as conditioned by karma; this Absolute, pure Being can be called differently - I (Atman), Brahman, unconditioned, transcendental, immortal, indestructible, nirvana, etc.
four) Means to achieve this Being, effective techniques for gaining liberation. Yoga in the proper sense of the word consists of the totality of these means.
Based on these four concepts, we can imagine how the fundamental problem of any philosophy, the search for truth, is present in Indian thinking. For Indians, truth in itself has no value. It becomes a value only due to its soteriological * orientation: knowledge of the truth helps a person to free himself. It is not the possession of truth that is the pinnacle of the path of the Indian saint, but precisely liberation, the attainment of absolute independence. Those sacrifices that the European philosopher is ready to make in order to know the truth in and for himself - religious faith, worldly ambitions, prosperity, legal freedom and even life - the Indian sage makes only in order to achieve liberation. "To be freed" means to move to another level of existence, to acquire another mode existence that transcends "normal" life. It can be said that for India, metaphysical knowledge is not only understood in terms of rupture and death (one who “breaks” with the human world “dies” to everything human), it also entails consequences that have a mystical character: rebirth to an unconditioned form being.
And this is liberation, complete independence. Exploring the theories and practices of yoga, we will be able to refer to all other "kinetic ideas" of Indian consciousness. First of all, let's start by clarifying the meaning of the term "yoga". The etymology of this word comes from the verbal root yuj, i.e. "bind together", "fast", "connect"; it is cognate with Latin jungere, jugum, French joug, etc. In the most general terms, "yoga" refers to any ascetic technique and any method of meditation.
Of course, different types of asceticism and meditation were evaluated differently by Indian philosophical schools and mystical movements. As we will soon see, there is a "classical" yoga, i.e. "system of philosophy" expounded by Patanjali in his famous Yogasutras, and it is from this "system" that we must proceed in order to understand the place of yoga in the history of Indian thought. However, side by side with this "classical" yoga are countless forms of "popular", unsystematic yoga; there are also varieties of non-Brahmin yoga (Buddhist, Jain); there are also forms of yoga with a "magical" or "mystical" lining, and so on. In fact, the term yoga itself allows for such a wide variety of meanings, for even if, according to etymology, yuj means "to bind", it is nonetheless clear that the "connection" resulting from the process of binding presupposes as its precondition the destruction of worldly "connections".", enveloping the spirit. In other words, liberation cannot become an event until the individual "frees himself" from the world, until he leaves the cosmic cycle. But acting in this way, he will never be able to comprehend himself and master himself. Even in its "mystical" meaning of unity, yoga implies that first it is necessary to disengage from matter, to free oneself from connection with the world. The emphasis is on human effort, on self-discipline - with their help, the adept acquires a concentration of consciousness even before he requested (in the mystical schools of yoga) support from the deity. "Bind together", "observe fasting", "pair" - the purpose of all these actions is to unite the intentions of the spirit, avoiding the dispersion and automatism inherent in the profane consciousness. For the "cult" (mystical) currents of yoga, such a union, of course, only precedes the true union - the union of the human soul with God. However, yoga is characterized not only by its practical side, but also by its initiatory structure. Yoga cannot be achieved alone, it requires the guidance of a mentor, a guru. Strictly speaking, all other "systems of philosophy", as well as in fact any traditional disciplines and arts, are taught in India by mentors and are therefore initiations; for thousands of years they were transmitted in speech form, "from mouth to ear." In yoga, initiation is even more pronounced. As in other religious initiations, the yogin begins with the rejection of the profane world (family, society) and, guided by his guru, consistently gets rid of the behavioral patterns and values ​​​​of ordinary people. When we see to what extent the yogi tries to dissociate himself from the profane world, we will understand his desire to "die for this life." But after such a "death" comes a rebirth on another level of being, the level of liberation. The analogy between yoga and initiation becomes even clearer if we think of the primitive or complex initiatory rituals that represent the creation of a "new", "mystical" body (symbolically likened by primitive people to the body of a newborn). The "mystical" body, which allows the yogi to enter into transcendental forms of existence, plays a significant role in all types of yoga, especially in Tantrism and alchemy. From this point of view, yoga overcomes and, on a different level, continues the universal archaic symbolism of initiation - a symbolism that is already fixed in the tradition of Brahmanism (where the initiated is called "twice