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YOGA AND MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Author(s): Mircea Eliade

Source: The Journal of General Education, Vol. 15, No. 2 (July 1963), pp. 124-137
Published by: Penn State University Press
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Mircea Eliade
Everything leads to the belief that, at the present moment, a

more accurate knowledge of Indian thought has become possible.
India has entered the course of History, and, rightly or wrongly,
theWestern consciousness tends to take a more serious view of
the philosophies of peoples who hold a place in History. On the
other hand, especially since the last generation of philosophers,
theWestern consciousness is more inclined to define itself with
reference to the problems of Time and History. For over a cen
tury, the greater part of the scientific and philosophical effort of
Europe has been devoted to the factors that "condition" the hu
man being. It has been shown how and to what degree man is
conditioned by his physiology, his heredity, his social ambient,
the cultural ideology in which he shares, his unconscious ? and
above all by History, by his historical moment and his own per
sonal history. This last discovery ofWestern thought? thatman
is essentially a temporal and historical being, that he is, and can
?
only be, what History has made him still dominates European
philosophy. Certain philosophical trends even conclude from it
that the only worthy and valid task proposed to man is to as
sume this temporality and this historicity frankly and fully, for
any other choice would be equivalent to an escape into the ab
stract and non-authentic and would be at the price of the sterility
and death that inexorably punish any betrayal of History.
It does not fall to us to discuss these theses. We may, how

ever, remark that the problems that today absorb the Western
mind also prepare it for a better understanding of Indian spiri
tuality; indeed, they incite it to employ, for its own philosophical
effort, the millennial experience of India. Let us explain. It is
the human condition, and above all the temporality of the human
being, which constitutes the object of the most recent Western
philosophy. It is this temporality that makes all other "condi
tionings" possible and that, in the last analysis, makes man a
"conditioned being." Now this problem of the "conditioning" of
124
man (and its corollary, rather neglected in theWest: his "decon

ditioning") constitutes the central problem of Indian thought.
From the Upanisads onward, India has been seriously preoccu
?
pied with but one great problem the structure of the human
condition. The West, therefore, might well learn: 1) what India
thinks of the multiple "conditionings" of the human being; 2)
how it has approached the problem of Time and History, i.e. the
problem of the temporality and historicity of man; 3 ) what solu
tion it has found for the anxiety and despair that inevitably fol
low upon consciousness of "temporality," the matrix of all "con
ditionings."
With a rigor unknown elsewhere, India has applied itself to
analyzing the various conditionings of the human being. We
hasten to add that it has done so not in order to arrive at a pre
cise and coherent explanation of man ( as, for example, did nine
teenth-century Europe when it believed that it explained man by
his hereditary or social conditioning), but in order to learn how
far the conditioned zones of the human being extend and to
see if anything else exists beyond these conditionings. Hence it
is that, long before depth psychology, the sages and ascetics of
India were led to explore the obscure zones of the unconscious.
They had found thatmans physiological, social, and cultural con
ditionings were comparatively easy to delimit and hence to mas
ter; the great obstacles to the contemplative life arose from the
activity of the unconscious, from the samskaras and the vasanas,
"impregnations," "residues," "latencies" which constitute what
depth psychology calls the contents and structures of the un
conscious. It is not, however, this pragmatic anticipation of cer
tain modern psychological techniques which is valuable; it is its
employment for the "deconditioning" of man. Because, for India,
knowledge of the systems of "conditioning" could not be an end
in itself; itwas not knowing them that mattered, but mastering
them; if the contents of the unconscious were worked upon itwas
in order to "burn" them. We shall see by what methods Yoga
conceives that it arrives at these surprising results. And it is pri
marily these results which are of interest to European psycholo
gists and philosophers.
Let us not be misunderstood. We have no intention of in
viting Western scholars to practice Yoga (which, by the way, is
125
THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL EDUCATION
not so easy as some amateurs are wont to

suggest), nor of pro
posing that the various Western disciplines practice yogic meth
ods or adopt the yogic ideology. Another viewpoint seems to us
far more fertile? to study as attentively as possible the results
obtained by such methods of exploring the psyche. A whole im
memorial experience of human behavior in general here offers
itself toWestern investigators. It would be at least unwise for
them not to profit by it.
As we said earlier, the problem of the human condition ?

that is, the temporality and historicity of the human being ? is
at the very center ofWestern thought, and the same problem has
preoccupied Indian philosophy from its beginnings. It is true
that we do not there find the terms "History" and "historicity" in
the senses that they bear in theWest today, and that we very
seldom find the term "temporality." In fact, it was impossible
that these concepts should be found under the particular desig
nations of "History" and "historicity." But what matters is not
identity in philosophical terminology; it is enough if the prob
lems are equivalent. Now, it has long been known that Indian
thought accords considerable importance to the concept of maya,
which has been translated ? and with good reason ? as "illu
sion, cosmic illusion, mirage, magic, becoming, irreality," and the
like. But looking more closely, we see that maya is illusion be
cause it does not participate in Being, because it is "becoming,"
? to
"process," "temporality" cosmic becoming, be sure, but also
historical process. It is possible, then, that India has been not
unaware of the relation between illusion, temporality, and human
suffering. Although its sages have generally explained human

suffering in cosmic terms, we realize, ifwe read them with the
attention they deserve, that they were thinking particularly of
human suffering as a "becoming," as a process conditioned by the
structures of temporality. What modern Western philosophy
terms "being situated," "being constituted by temporality and
historicity," has its counterpart, in Indian philosophy, in "exist
ence in maya" If we can homologize the two philosophical
horizons ? Indian and Western ? everything that India has
thought on the subject of maya has a certain timeliness for us
today. This becomes apparent if, for example, we read the
126
Bhagavad-Gita: its analysis of human existence is conducted in

a language that is familiar to us: maya is not only cosmic illusion
but also, and above all, historicity; not only existence in the
eternal cosmic becoming but above all existence in Time and
History.
To the third question that is of concern toWestern philoso

phy (the question, that is, what solution India proposes for the
anxiety produced by our discovery of our temporality and histori
city, the means by which one can remain in the world without
letting oneself be exhausted by Time and History), the answers
offered by Indian thought all more or less directly imply some
knowledge of Yoga. Hence it is apparent what familiarity with
this problem can mean to Western investigators and philoso
phers. To repeat: it is not a matter of purely and simply accept
ing one of the solutions proposed by India. A spiritual value is
not acquired after the fashion of a new brand of automobile.
Above all, it is not a matter of philosophical syncretism, nor of
"Indianization," still less of the detestable "spiritual" hybridism
inaugurated by the Theosophical Society and continued, in ag
gravated forms, by the countless pseudomorphoses of our time.
The problem is more serious: it is essential that we know and
understand a thought that has held a place of the first impor
tance in the history of universal spirituality. And it is essential
that we know it now. For, on the one hand, it is from now on
that, any cultural provincialism having been outstripped by the
? Western
very course of History, we are forced and non-West
ern alike ? to think in terms of Universal History and to forge
universal values. And, on the other hand, it is now that the prob
lem of man s situation in the world dominates the philosophical
consciousness of Europe ? and, to repeat, this problem is at the
very center of Indian thought.
Perhaps this philosophical dialogue will not be carried on,

especially at first,without some disappointments. A number of
Western investigators and philosophers may find the Indian an
alyses rather oversimplified and the proposed solutions ineffec
tual. Any technical language that is dependent upon a certain
spiritual tradition always remains a jargon. Western philosophers
may perhaps find the jargon of Indian philosophy outmoded,
127
lacking in precision, unserviceable. But all these risks to which

the dialogue is subject are of minor importance. The great dis
coveries of Indian thought will in the end be recognized, under
and despite the philosophic jargon. It is impossible, for example,
to disregard one of India's greatest discoveries: that of the con
sciousness as witness, of consciousness freed from its psycho
physiological structures and their temporal conditioning, the con
sciousness of the "liberated" man, of him, that is, who has suc
ceeded in emancipating himself from the temporality and there
after knows the true, inexpressible freedom. The conquest of this
absolute freedom, of perfect spontaneity, is the goal of all Indian
philosophies and mystical techniques; but it is above all through
Yoga, through one of the many forms of Yoga, that India has
held that it can be assured.
It is not easy to define Yoga. Etymologically, the term yoga

derives from the root yuj, "to bind together," "hold fast," "yoke,"
which also governs Latin j?ngere, jugum, French joug, etc. The
word yoga serves, in general, to designate any ascetic technique
and any method of meditation. Naturally, these techniques and
meditations have been differently evaluated by the many Indian
philosophical currents and mystical movements. There is a "clas
sic" Yoga, a darsana, a "system of philosophy" expounded by
Patanjali in his celebrated Yoga-Sutra. But, side by side with
this "classic," systematic Yoga, there are countless forms of the
nonsystematic, popular Yoga, and there are also non-Brahmanic
Yogas (Buddhist, Jainist).
What characterizes Yoga is not only its practical side, but
also its initiatory structure. One does not learn Yoga by oneself;
the guidance of a master (guru) is necessary. The yogin begins
by forsaking the profane world (family, society), and, guided
by his guru, dreams of "dying to thisworld." We witness a death
followed by a rebirth to another mode of being ? that repre
sented by freedom, by the access to a nonprofane mode of be
ing, to which the Indian schools give various names: moksa, nir
vana, mukti, asamskrta, etc.
From the time of the Upanisads India rejects the world as it

is and devaluates life as it reveals itself to the eyes of the sage
?
ephemeral, painful, illusory. Such a conception leads neither
128
to nihilism nor to pessimism. This world is rejected, this life de

preciated, because it is known that something else exists, beyond
becoming, beyond temporality, beyond suffering. In religious
terms, it could almost be said that India rejects the profane Cos
mos and profane life, because it thirsts for a sacred world and a
sacred mode of being.
?
Again and again Indian texts repeat this thesis that the
cause of the soul's "enslavement" and, consequently, the source
of its endless sufferings, lies inmans solidarity with the Cosmos,
in his participation, active and passive, direct or indirect, in
Nature. Let us translate: solidarity with a de-sacralized world,
participation in a profane Nature. Neti! netil cries the sage of the
Upanisads: "No, no! thou art not this; nor art thou that!" In other
words: You do not belong to the fallen Cosmos, as you see it
now. You are not necessarily engulfed in this Creation; neces
? that is to say, by virtue of the law of your own being.
sarily
For being can have no relation with non-being. Now, Nature
has no true ontological reality; it is, indeed, universal process.
Every cosmic form, complex and majestic though itmay be, ends
by disintegrating; the Universe itself is periodically reabsorbed
by "great dissolutions" (mahapralaya), into the primordial matrix
(prakrti). Now, whatever becomes, changes, dies, vanishes, does
not belong to the sphere of being ? to translate once again, is
not sacred. If solidarity with the Cosmos is the consequence of
a progressive desacralization of human existence, and hence a
fall into ignorance and suffering, the road toward freedom neces
sarily leads to a de-solidarization from the Cosmos and profane
life.
"All is suffering for the sage," writes Patanjali (Y.S., II, 15).
But Patanjali is neither the first nor the last to record this uni
versal suffering. Long before him the Buddha had proclaimed:
"All is pain, all is ephemeral." It is a leitmotiv of all post-Upani
sadic Indian speculation. Soteriological techniques, as well as
metaphysical doctrines, find their justification in this universal
?
suffering for they have no value save in the measure to which
they free man from pain. Human experience of whatever kind
engenders suffering. Yet, to repeat, this universal suffering does
not lead to a pessimistic philosophy. On the contrary, the revela
129
tion of "pain" as the law of existence can be regarded as the

conditio sine qua non for emancipation. Intrinsically, then, this
universal suffering has a positive, stimulating value. It perpetu
ally reminds the sage that but one way remains for him to attain
to freedom and bliss ? withdrawal from the world, detachment
from possessions and ambitions, radical isolation. Man, more
over, is not alone in suffering; pain is a cosmic necessity. Whether
one be a god or a tiny insect, the mere fact of existing in time, of
having duration, implies pain. Unlike the gods and other living
beings, man possesses the capability of passing beyond his con
dition and thus abolishing suffering.
To "emancipate" oneself from suffering? such is the goal
of all Indian philosophies and all Indian mysticisms. No knowl
man.
edge has any value if it does not pursue the "salvation" of
"Save for that, nothing is worth knowing," says the Svetasvatara
Up. (I, 12). And Bhoja, one of the commentators of the Yoga
Sutra (IV, 22), declares that any knowledge whose object is not
deliverance is valueless.
Theimportance that all Indian metaphysics, and even the
techniques that constitute Yoga, accord to "knowledge" is easily
explained ifwe take into consideration the causes of human suf
fering. The wretchedness of human life is not due to a divine
punishment nor to an original sin, but to ignorance. Not any and
every kind of ignorance, but only ignorance of the true nature of
spirit, the ignorance thatmakes us confuse spirit with our psycho
mental experience, that makes us attribute "qualities" and predi
cates to the eternal and autonomous principle that is spirit? in
a
short, metaphysical ignorance. Hence it is natural that it should
be a metaphysical knowledge which supervenes to end this igno
rance. This metaphysical knowledge leads the disciple to the
threshold of illumination, that is, to his true "self."
Human suffering is rooted in illusion; forman believes that
his psycho-mental life? activity of the senses, feelings, thoughts
and volitions ? is identical with Spirit, with the Self. He thus
confuses two wholly autonomous and opposed realities, between
which there is no real connection but only an illusory relation;
for psycho-mental experience does not belong to Spirit, it belongs
to Nature (prakrti). Between psychic states and Spirit there is a
difference of an ontological order; they belong to two different
130
modes of being, To say "I suffer," "I want," "I hate," "I know,"
and to think that this refers to Spirit, is to live in illusion and
prolong it. "Liberation" occurs when one has understood this
truth and when the Spirit regains its original freedom. According
to the teaching of Vedanta and Samkhya, the deliverance is ob
tained solely and directly through knowledge ? but for Yoga an
ascesis and a technique of meditation is indispensable. The aim
of Yoga, as of Samkhya or Vedanta, is to do away with "normal,"
i.e. secular, unilluminated "consciousness," in favor of a quali
tatively different consciousness, which can fully comprehend
metaphysical truth. Patanjali defines Yoga as "the suppression of
states of consciousness." Now this suppression of states of con
sciousness is not something easily attained: it implies a long
practice, an elaborate system of psycho-physiological techniques.
The point of departure of Yoga meditation is concentration
on a single point, ekagrata; whether this is a physical object
(the
space between the eyebrows, the tip of the nose, something
luminous, etc.), or a thought (a metaphysical truth), or God
(Isvara), makes no difference. According to Yoga the human
being is completely at the mercy of psycho-mental associations.
The senses or the subconscious continually introduce into con
sciousness objects that dominate and change it. Associations dis
perse consciousness, passions do it violence, the "thirst for life"
betrays it by projecting it outward. Even in his intellectual ef
forts,man is passive; for the fate of secular thoughts (controlled
not by ekagrata but only by fluctuating moments of concentra
tion) is to be thought by objects. Under the appearance of
thought, there is really an indefinite and disordered fed
flickering,
by sensations, words, and memory. The first duty of the yogin
is to think? that is, not to let himself think. This is why Yoga
practice begins with ekagrata, which dams the mental stream
and thus constitutes a solid and unified continuum.
The practice of ekagrata tends to control the two generators
of mental fluidity: sense activity and the activity of the subcon
scious. A yogin can, at any time and any place, concentrate on a
"single point" and thus become insensible to any other sensory
or mnemonic stimulus. Through ekagrata one gains the power
freely to regulate an important sector of psycho-somatic activity.
It goes without saying that ekagrata can only be obtained through
131
the practice of numerous exercises and techniques, in which

physiology plays a role of primary importance. One cannot ob
tain ekagrata if, for example, the body is in a tiring or even un
comfortable posture, nor if the respiration is unrhythmical. This
is why, according to Patanjali, yogic technique implies several
categories of physiological practices and spiritual exercises, which
one must have mastered if one seeks to obtain ekagrata, and, ul
timately, the highest concentration, samadhi. In the "classic"
Yoga exposed by Patanjali, there are eight such types of tech
niques. We cannot discuss them all, but we must say something
of the most important ones, i.e. asana (bodily attitudes and pos
tures), pranayama (the rhythm of respiration), dharana (yogic
concentration) and samadhi.
The yogic posture, asana, is one of the characteristic tech

niques of Indian asceticism. Asana gives the body a stable rigid
ity, at the same time reducing physical effort to a minimum. After
some practice, this yogic position becomes natural; only then does
it further concentration. As Vyasa says: "Asana becomes perfect
when the effort to attain it disappears." In this way one realizes
a certain "neutrality" of the senses; consciousness is no longer
troubled by the feeling of the "presence of the body." Asana is
the first concrete step taken for the purpose of abolishing the
modalities of human existence. On the plane of the "body," asana
is a concentration on a single point, an ekagrata; the body is con
centrated in a single position. Just as ekagrata puts an end to
the fluctuation and dispersion of the "states of consciousness,"
so asana puts an end to the mobility of the body, by reducing
the infinity of possible positions to a single motionless, hieratic
posture. The immediate purpose of this yogic exercise is obvious:
it is to abolish (or to transcend) the human condition by a re
fusal to conform to the most elementary human inclination: the
necessity to move.
Pranayama, i.e. the disciplining of respiration, is the "refusal"

to breathe like the majority ofmankind, that is, non-rhythmically.
as slow
Pranayama begins with making the respiratory rhythm
as possible; and this is its first objective. The respiration of the
ordinary man is generally arythmie; it varies in accordance with
external circumstances or with mental tension. This irregularity
132
produces a dangerous psychic fluidity, with consequent instability

and diffusion of attention. One can become attentive by making
an effort to do so. But, for Yoga, effort is an "exteriorization."
Hence, through pranayama, one attempts to do away with the
effort of respiration; rhythmic breathing must become something
so automatic that the yogin can forget it.
Commenting upon Y.S. I, 34, Bhoja remarks that "there is al

ways a connection between respiration and mental states." This
statement seems to us highly important. It contains farmore than
mere observation of the bare fact that, for example, the respira
tion of a man in anger is agitated, while that of one who is con
centrating becomes rhythmical and automatically slows down.
The relation connecting the rhythm of respiration with the states
of consciousness mentioned by Bhoja, and which has undoubted
ly been observed and experienced by yogins from the earliest
times? this relation has served them as an instrument for "uni
fying" consciousness. The "unification" here under consideration
must be understood in the sense that, by making his respiration
rhythmical and progressively slower, the yogin can "penetrate"
? that is, he can experience, in perfect lucidity ? certain states
of consciousness that are inaccessible in a waking condition, par
ticularly the states of consciousness that are peculiar to sleep.
For there is no doubt that the respiratory rhythm of a man asleep
is slower than that of a man awake. By reaching this rhythm of
sleep through the practice of pranayama, the yogin, without re
nouncing his lucidity, penetrates the "states of consciousness"
that accompany sleep.
The Indian psychology recognizes four modalities of con
sciousness: waking consciousness, consciousness in sleep with
dreams, consciousness in sleep without dreams, and turya or
"cataleptic consciousness." Each one of these four modalities of
consciousness is connected with a specific respiratory rhythm. By
means of pranayama, that is, by increasingly prolonging inhala
tion and exhalation ? the goal of this practice being to allow
as long an interval as possible to pass between the two moments
of respiration ? the yogin can, then, penetrate all the modalities
of consciousness. For the ordinary man, there is discontinuity
between these several modalities; thus he passes from the state
of waking to the state of sleep unconsciously. The yogin must
133
preserve continuity of consciousness, that is, he must penetrate

each of these "states" with full lucidity.
There is no doubt that the cataleptic state, inwhich the res
piration is hardly perceptible, can be brought on at will by ex
perienced yogins. The French cardiologist, Dr. Th?r?se Brosse,
proved that the reduction of respiration and cardiac contraction
to a degree that is usually only observed immediately before
death ? is a genuine physiological phenomenon, which the yo
gins can realize by force of will and not as the result of autosug
gestion. It goes without saying that such a yogin can be buried
without any danger. "The restriction of respiration," writes Dr.
J. Filliozat, Professor at Coll?ge de France, "the restriction of
respiration is sometimes so great that some yogins can allow
themselves to be buried alive for a specified time, retaining a vol
ume of air which would be completely inadequate to assure their
survival. According to them, this small reserve of air is necessary
in case an accident should bring them out of their yogic state
during the experiment and put them in danger; it would allow
them to make a few inhalations, by which they could return to
their yogic state."
It is not the purpose of these exercises to obtain fakiric
powers. We should distinguish between the exhibitionism of the
fakirs and certain hathayogis ? and the goal of the authentic
yogin. The latter attempts to master his body in order to pene
trate the secret of the complex somatic conditions of his psycho
mental life.He wants to understand the deep levels of the psyche
by way of experience, to understand their dynamism and to find
the means to free himself from their dominance. For we should
not forget that the final goal of the yogin is absolute freedom,
perfect autonomy, i.e. in one word: deconditioning.
Asana, pranayama, and ekagrata succeed in abolishing the
human condition. Motionless, breathing rhythmically, eyes and
attention fixed on a single point, the yogin experiences a passing
beyond the secular modality of existence. He begins to become
autonomous in respect to the Cosmos; external tensions no longer
trouble him; sensory activity no longer carries him outward,
toward the objects of the senses; the psycho-mental stream is no
longer invaded or directed by distractions, automatisms, and
memory: it is "concentrated," "unified." The yogin returns to
134
himself, takes, so to speak, possession of himself. This state is

that of yogic concentration (dharana). If the purpose of eka
grata is to arrest the psycho-mental flux and "fix it on a single
? dharana realizes such a "fixation" for the purpose of
point"
comprehension. Patanjalfs definition of dharana is: "fixation of
thought on a single point." By prolonging this concentration for
a fairly long time, one obtains dhyana, the yogic meditation.
The final result and the crown of all the yogin s efforts and
exercises is samadhi, a term which can be translated by "union,
totality, absorption in, conjunction, en-stasis." Samadhi is a
modality of being peculiar to yoga. This paradoxical state makes
possible the self-revelation of the Self, and makes final liberation
a reality. Through samadhi, the yogin realizes the "absolute iso
lation" (kaivalya), that is the liberation of the Self from the illu
sory dominance of the psycho-somatic experience. It would be
wrong to regard this mode of being of the Spirit as a simple
"trance" inwhich consciousness is emptied of all content. For, on
the contrary, at such a moment consciousness is saturated with a
direct and total intuition of Being. As an old commentator,
Madhava, says: "The final arrest of all psycho-mental experience
must not be imagined as a non-existence, but rather as the sup
port of a particular condition of the Spirit." The yogin is now a
jivanmukta, that is a "liberated in life." He no longer lives in
Time and under the domination of Time, but in an eternal pres
ent, in the nunc stans by which Boethius defined eternity. It is
not possible to give here an adequate description of samadhi.
This ultimate stage becomes intelligible only through long tech
nical analysis. But we have said enough to understand the goal
of yoga-practice, and the importance that this practice has for
Western psychology and philosophy. We have seen that Yoga
starts from this presupposition: man suffers because he confounds
the Self with psycho-mental experience, that is to say he confuses
the Spirit with the innumerable states of consciousness. Man is
conditioned as long as he is a slave of his psycho-somatic dyna
mism. He is the object, and not the subject of existence. In order
to become free, master of himself, he must control his psycho
mental flux and finally stop it. The yogin intends to suppress the
states of consciousness because he wants to attain a stage where
thought will be free and no longer conditioned by psychic mech
135
anisms. In other words, he tries to change radically his mode of

being. He wants to be free.
As we said at the beginning, thousands of years of experi

ence have shown to the Hindus that the activity of the uncon
scious raises an obstacle insuperable for all attempts to achieve
de-conditioning. This is the reason why Patanjali and others
emphasize the importance of vasanas, the subliminal latencies.
The concept of vasana entirely agrees with the "unconscious" as
described by modern depth psychology. Yoga does not believe,
like Samkhya and Vedanta, that metaphysical knowledge alone
is sufficient to free man of illusion and suffering. For Yoga, the
problem ismore complex, for the following reason: the states of
consciousness that are to be mastered are only the actualization
of the vasanas, of the latencies. Because of their very nature, the
vasanas are forced to become manifest, that is to say to nourish
continuously the psycho-mental stream. By various techniques,
the yogin tries to penetrate into his unconscious, in order to
know itsmechanism and to annihilate it.
This means that before theWest, Yoga identified the princi

pal reason of human conditioning in the unconscious. But the
yogis were not satisfied simply with the objective study of these
conditionings. The yogis made an effort to control and master
the activity of the unconscious. On this point lies the great im
portance of Yoga forWestern thought. The unconscious and the
techniques that were developed to work with its dynamisms are
recent discoveries in theWest. But India disposes of a long prac
tical experience in this field. It is useful to study these practices,
to find out in how far de-conditioning is achieved. Yoga followed
this long and difficult path in order to obtain perfect autonomy,
integral freedom. Its ideal is to realize what certain Western
psychologists call "consciousness as witness," that is a conscious
ness that is no longer engaged in psycho-mental dynamism. It is
the paradoxical stage of the jivanmukta, of one who is "liberated
in life," who lives in an "eternal present," outside of Time.
We know that this stage is not illusory, that mans decondi

tioning can become reality. And I should like to conclude these
brief remarks by reminding you of the case of the greatest yogin
and saint of contemporary India, Ramana Maharshi, who died a
136
few years ago. As you perhaps know, Maharshi suffered of can

cer formany years. He was treated according to modern medi
cine, and was under the observation of several distinguished doc
tors. These doctors were puzzled by the fact that Ramana
Maharshi did not suffer, although the cancer followed its course,
and must have caused unbearable pain. Pain which one would
ordinarily treat with massive doses of morphine. He was serene;
he continued receiving visitors and spending long hours inmedi
tation as usual. Because the disease followed its course, certainly
the flesh suffered, but these sufferings did not reach Ramana
Maharshi. In other words, the sufferings of the flesh did not harm
the Spirit. I emphasize this point: Maharshi did not abolish the
pain, as a miraculous cure ? or morphine ? would have done.
He did suffer in the flesh, but this did not bother him any more.
He was a ?vanmukta, that is to say he did not confound his
psycho-somatic experience with his Spirit. In this case we see in
concreto what it means for India to discover the Self, to take
possession of the Spirit. Above all, this means to do away with
psycho-somatic conditionings and to gain access to a new mode
of being: the mode of perfect autonomy, of absolute freedom. I
think that this freedom, which is so hard to imagine, and the
techniques through which this freedom can be attained, are
problems that deserve attention in contemporary Western philos
ophy and psychology.
137

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YOGA AND MODERN PHILOSOPHY

Author(s): Mircea Eliade

Everything leads to the belief that, at the present moment, a

It does not fall to us to discuss these theses. We may, how

man (and its corollary, rather neglected in theWest: his "decon

not so easy as some amateurs are wont to

As we said earlier, the problem of the human condition ?

suffering. Although its sages have generally explained human

Bhagavad-Gita: its analysis of human existence is conducted in

To the third question that is of concern toWestern philoso

Perhaps this philosophical dialogue will not be carried on,

lacking in precision, unserviceable. But all these risks to which

It is not easy to define Yoga. Etymologically, the term yoga

From the time of the Upanisads India rejects the world as it

to nihilism nor to pessimism. This world is rejected, this life de

tion of "pain" as the law of existence can be regarded as the

the practice of numerous exercises and techniques, in which

The yogic posture, asana, is one of the characteristic tech

Pranayama, i.e. the disciplining of respiration, is the "refusal"

produces a dangerous psychic fluidity, with consequent instability

Commenting upon Y.S. I, 34, Bhoja remarks that "there is al

preserve continuity of consciousness, that is, he must penetrate

himself, takes, so to speak, possession of himself. This state is

anisms. In other words, he tries to change radically his mode of

As we said at the beginning, thousands of years of experi

This means that before theWest, Yoga identified the princi

We know that this stage is not illusory, that mans decondi

few years ago. As you perhaps know, Maharshi suffered of can

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