An Introduction to Yoga

THE NATURE OF YOGA.

constitution, divides man into many parts and pieces. We talk of physical, astral, mental, etc. Or we talk about the Gross Body original: "Sthūla Sharīra"; the physical form., the Subtle Body original: "Sūkshma Sharīra"; the emotional and mental vehicle., the Causal Body original: "Kārana Sharīra"; the permanent spiritual seed-body that persists through incarnations., and so on. Sometimes we divide man into the Food-Sheath original: "Annamayakosha"; the physical body sustained by food., the Vital-Breath-Sheath original: "Prānamayakosha"; the energy body., the Mind-Sheath original: "Manomayakosha"; the lower mental body., etc. We divide man into so many pieces, in order to study him thoroughly, that we can hardly find the man because of the pieces. This is, so to say, for the study of human anatomy and physiology.

But Yoga is practical and psychological. I am not complaining of the various subdivisions of other systems. They are necessary for the purpose of those systems. But Yoga, for its practical purposes, considers man simply as a duality—Mind and Body, a Unit of consciousness in a set of envelopes. This is not the duality of the Self and the Not-Self. For in Yoga ‘Self’ includes consciousness plus such matter as it cannot distinguish from itself, and Not-Self is only the matter it can put aside.

Man is not pure Self, pure consciousness, or Pure Awareness original: "Samvit"; the state of absolute, unconditioned consciousness.. That is an abstraction. In the concrete universe there are always the Self and his sheaths, however tenuous the latter may be, so that a unit of consciousness is inseparable from matter, and a Living Soul original: "Jīvātmā"; the individual spark of the divine., or Monad An indivisible, single unit of being; the spiritual "atom.", is invariably consciousness plus matter.

In order that this may come out clearly, two terms are used in Yoga as constituting man—Life-Breath original: "Prāna" and Primary Matter original: "Pradhāna", life-breath and matter. Life-Breath original: "Prāna" is not only the life-breaths of the body, but the totality of