Means conducive to liberation

The realization of freedom involves both the knowing process (jñānamārga) and the willing process (yogamārga). Caraka has emphatically stated that the path of life prescribed is nothing but what has been dictated by the Yogins and the followers of Sāṃkhya.^[1]

Unless the impurities like desire aversion and attachment are removed by right efforts, there can be no complete freedom. For this one has to raise from the level of the sense-bound cognition of worldly objects to the level of intuition (prajñā or vidyā)^[2] The intuitional knowledge, according to Caraka, is one of identity or “knowledge of two in one”. That is if one realizes oneself as the universe and the universe as one it is the transcendental knowledge.^[3]

Fundamentally speaking, the way to liberation is the acceleration of intelligence, fortitude, and memory of ultimate reality. The continuity of the psychosomatic relation will be destroyed when these three factors engender human perfection.^[4] Among these three factors, the memory of transcendent reality occupies the prominent place.^[5] The causal factors that lead to memory are apprehension of cause and form, similarity, difference, indulgence of mind, recurrence of cognition, repetitive hearing and recollection of all former experiences.^[6] The main factors that catalyze one's memory capacity are devotion to the nobles, abstinence from the wicked; observance of vows and fasts, apprehension of Dharmaśāstras and performance of duties in accordance with its rules, inclination to live in solitude, detachment from the worldly objects, right apprehension, supreme fortitude, desisting from new activities, annihilation of the past actions, extermination of egoistic dispositions, fear of attachment, serenity of mind and consciousness, and meditation.^[7] To be precise, it is the recollection of the ultimate reality that leads one to ultimate liberation from sufferings.^[8]

If the ultimate freedom is implicit in the transcendental knowledge, the psychosomatic spiritual endeavour that brings about the condition of quiescence is called Yoga.^[9] Yoga is the awakening of a man into the freedom of the self. Yoga is a self impelled and self initiated effort by which man ascents from the lower to the higher existence.^[10] Meditative contemplation or the exploration of the deeper reaches of consciousness of a Yogin is marked by the purity of mind that gives rise to the eight kinds of divine strength and powers.Those powers are (1) the capacity of the self to enter the body of others, (2) the capacity for cognition of mental objects, (3) doing things at will, (4) supernatural vision, (5) supernatural audition, (6) miraculous memory, (7) extraordinary brilliance, and (8)the state of unawareness when desired.^[11]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ibid., 151.

[2]:

Ibid., V, 19.

[3]:

sarvalokamātmanyātmānaṃ ca sarvaloke samamanupaśyataḥ satyā buddhiḥ samutpadyate. sarvalokaṃ hyātmani paśyato bhavatyātmaiva sukhaduḥkhayoḥ kartā nānya iti. karmātmakatvācca hetvādibhiryuktaḥ sarvaloko'hamiti viditvā jñānaṃ pūrvamutthāpyate'-pavargāyeti, Ibid., V. 7; V. 20- 21.

[4]:

tayoravṛttiḥ kriyate parābhyāṃ dhṛtismṛtibhyāṃ parayā dhiyā ca, Ibid., II. 42.

[5]:

Ibid., I. 150.

[6]:

Ibid., I. 148-149.

[7]:

Ibid., I. 143-146.

[8]:

Ibid., 147.

[9]:

However, Caraka does not give the scheme of eight fold yoga in a systematic way.

[10]:

EWU, p.83.

[11]:

CS, Śārīra - sthāna, I. 140-141.