Talks and Lectures on the System of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga

Principles and Goals of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga

The system of Rajayoga as propounded by Sri Ram Chandraji of Shahjahanpur U.P. attempts to bring back Rajayoga in its original purity and simplicity to the ordinary man, the man of the world, so that he may live a life of harmonious development and inward calm. Yoga has been a practice which was held in almost sacred trust by the sanyasins, the renouncers, so much so, Swami Vivekananda held that Rajayoga is not for the householder. Perhaps it suggested that Karmayoga, Jnanayoga and Bhaktiyoga are eminently fitted for the householder. But even among them, karma and bhakti yogas would be held to be more suited to the ordinary man than Jnana yoga, that may demand renunciation or detachment from works. However we have come to see that these three types of yoga cannot be separated from one another, even as the three modes of our consciousness, cognition, conation and affections, cannot be separated.

In all Yogas the one supreme requisite seems to be the control of the manas or citta, which is ever undergoing modifications or movements towards objects of sense and pleasure. In every way the manas or citta is flowing outward to gain more and more experience (anubhava) and enjoyment (bhoga) of the external world. It seems to be fickle and unsteady, and moving from one joy to another and from one sorrow to another.The checking of these movements seems to be necessitated by the very fact of suffering and non-peace (ashanti). Karma yoga is utilised to help concentration on works or duties or service, bhakti yoga helps to detach the world from ungodly things and links it with godly worship, whereas Jnana yoga helps the detachment of the mind from the objects of the outer world which are in constant flux and fix it on the permanent self within or God. These are helpful aids or means to control the manas in the first instance and as such may be said to occupy the same place as the Yama and Niyama of the Astanga Yoga.

It is only when the goal is union with God and God alone is being sought that one even bye-passes the control of the mind. Perhaps one even gets behind the mind and mind becomes a veritable disturbance.

In earlier forms of the three yogas mentioned above, the purpose of yoga was union with the Ultimate Reality or God or Self. Karma meant the sacrificial activities as prescribed in the srutis. Jnana meant sruti-jnana and bhakti meant the devotional attitude that arises out of the sruti-janya-jnana. But the modern versions of these three yogas has almost made them man oriented and reason directed. All anubhava is restricted to anumana. Service of man is said to be karma yoga, and that of course leads to jnana which is social knowledge, and devotion also becomes worship of man, as he is and perhaps as he ought to be.

This basic man centredness of yoga has made yogas meaningless even when the expounding of the scriptures slants towards sruti, mula-karma, sruti-janya-jnana and Brahma-bhakti-bhava.

In this later development however an attempt had been made to make yoga a means of practice for the ordinary man but in the process as we can see the basic goal of union with Reality has been either lost sight of or deliberately dropped from view.

The basic fact is that man is endowed with Manas. Taking it in the comprehensive way, it could be said to include the mental processes of intellect, sensation, affection, desire and emotion. As psychologists know these have quite a variety of modifications, pure and impure. As recognised by Indian psychology of Nature, there are sattvika or harmonious or synthetic manifestations, as well as extremely active and forceful and equally extreme indolence and inert and perverse manifestations known as rajasic and tamasic forms of force.

Manas has been known to have sixteen manifestations such as Samjnanam, Ajnanam, Vijnanam, Prajnanam, Medha, Dhrtih, mati, manisa, dhrsti, jutih, samkalpa, smrti, kratuh, asuh, kama, vasa. This list can be expanded with the inclusion of Dhi (buddhi). Manas is said to be that which came out of Brahman first and expressed itself as samkalpa and expanded to become Bhuma. The word Manas then almost looks to be equivalent to the Prakrti which emerged out of the Brahman at the time of creation and became the field for the enjoyment of the Purusha. These sixteen forms of manas can be seen to be the instruments by which the different ways of 'knowing', 'enjoying' and experiencing the outer world manifested by the Manas are rendered possible. It is possible to consider that Manas means thought force and has been in Yoga identified with Citta (thought force generated by the presence of the Cit (purusa) or Brahman from whom it has arisen and which is in continuous touch with it, sustaining it and supporting it and determining it. While Samkhya uses the term Manas only in respect of the individual self or purusa, Yoga uses the Citta to cover all modifications from the prakrti down to the elements and organs, and in fact introduces the word Dhi as the upward moving Citta, even as the Samkhya realises that Buddhi in its sattvika condition has the four fold attributes of aiswarya, vairagya, jnana and sakti. In the Vedic times Manas has been almost used to be identical with the Prakrti or the First manifestation of Brahman. Sri Ramchandraji uses the term Ksobh which arises from the Brahman conceived as Akshobh. All this world is Thought - creation and thought and thing are in-fact different levels of Manas, the former is subtle whereas latter is gross. Speech (Vak) may be considered to be that which mediates between these two stages of Manas.

The most important fact for the purpose of Yoga is to recognise that Thought-force which is constantly supporting and sustaining the things is also actively in each one of us and can be utilised to raise itself to that pure level of subtle cit-sakti. What is the same in the macrocosm is the same in the microcosm. Thought within each one of us can be purified and lifted up to the standard of purity as the original thought force or manas as it emerged from Brahman or the Ultimate centre. In fact it is only when one really arrives at that purest condition, the human individual can realise that he is the Manisi or manisa the lord of Manas.

From Thought (Manas), time came into being and space also. All these categories of what may be called the Ksobh or thought as it progressively expands or drops from subtleness to grossness. In a sense this view explains how the process of creation has proceeded and has brought into being all sorts of complexities however exhilarating and amusing and revealing the infinite potentialities of thought (manas) which may be taken to be at later stages equivalent to maya (the principle of delusive delight). It could be seen also how the Manas has become the principle of bondage or limitation, grossening and conflict, at different levels of man's consciousness, posing problems of inextricable ingenuity. It was recognised by the Indian psychologists that there is a principle of automatic reversion of the process of gross manifestation and regaining of the subtle condition or the original pure state. Thus manas is stated to be also the principle of liberation. Samkya held the view that pradhana itself liberates the purusa or soul after the purusa has experienced all modifications and their interplay. More clear of course is this principle that Manas can be utilised to bring about the gradual return to the original condition of itself and thus liberate(?) the soul which realises its being in Brahman that which is Amanaska - the state of being before and beyond Manas, in which the Manas rests and from which it proceeds.

It would be necessary to relate the emergence of the Ksobh from the Infinite. The Immensity of Ksobh is even transcosmic. At first there is an infinite Field of Radiance or Splendours from which obviously there concretises the super cosmic world known as Para-Brahmanda. Then further concretion brings out Cosmoses (Brahmandas), and further concretions lead to the formation of Pinda (individuated bodies) wherein the several elements and subtle atoms and their aggregations take place. This is the downward journey of the Ksobh or Manas. The Upward journey has to be perforce in the same way from the pinda, to Brahmanda, from Brahmanda to Para-Brahmanda to the Central region and then to the Centre that is sustaining and supporting and regulating the Ksobh. It is so very transcendent to all that Ksobh means that it cannot be described. One who enters into that enters into something beyond all. That is something that cannot be described or spoken about. It is beyond Manas.

The downward movement in terms of time has taken so long that it might well appear that it must take double the time for return to that original matrix or Brahman. However it must be considered that this process of return or nivrtti or nisprapancikarana is not all really crave for seriously. If moksa or liberation means the cessation of all modifications of the Manas or citta, then it should follow that one would cease to be and may also involve that line of creative modification would have merged into the Manas and become nugatory or non-existent or realised its oneness in the ultimate. This might mean that other lines or rays of the Ksobh, such as the pinda, brahmanda, and Parabrahmanda and the Central Regions. The souls at different levels will continue to have their individualities till the whole ksobh is withdrawn into the Centre.

The total extinction of the individualities is not necessarily presumed.

Yoga is not an attempt to arrive at this pralaya or total extinction either of the Ksobh or of the individuality in some manner involving individual pralaya. Yoga would mean to realise the union or linking up of the individual Manas with the Manas at first so that he may be linked up with the Brahman which supports and sustains the Manas or Nature. According to some this linking up would involve or must involve the extinction of the individual manas and the individuality itself being swallowed up by the Great Manas (mahat). All that may be expected would be that the individual manas would have merged in the Cosmic and Supra-Cosmic Manas and become of their nature. Such a person would have become a cosmic man or one having supermind or vijnana or buddhi or any such manas which has gone beyond the limitations of the individual and particularised gross mentality.

The problem for the yogi would yet be whether his gross body would be persisting when the manas has attained the cosmic or super conscious states for the gross body itself is a formation out of the Mind or Manas. Here again there have been instances of yogis who have felt that the ultimate realisation or union with the Ultimate cannot permit the continuance of this gross body nor even the subtle bodies of the superconscious mind or buddhi. Therefore many had feared for their physical existence in Yoga and therefore were afraid of undertaking yoga of liberation, or for liberation. This is one of the reasons why those who had renounced love of life alone were said to be competent to undertake the practice of Yoga. These were sanyasins. To the householders yoga was taboo, something to be honoured and feared.

However it is clear that Yoga as practised by the truly enlightened did not involve these presuppositions. It has been shown to be possible to bring down the Ultimate Manas into the gross formations of the manas and to make for the liberation being experienced as also the several levels of the Manas, such as the Pinda, Brahmanda, Parabrahmanda, Central Region and the Ocean of Infinity beyond these.

For this purpose Sri Ramchandraji has explained that along with the Ksobh there is the double poise of the inner divine along with the outer human parallelly flowing downwards even to the limits of extreme grossness. The divine is the secret inner of all manifestation of the Manas. What is done in Yoga is to realise one's inner divine line more and more and bring out its luminosity and action whilst withdrawing the outer human ray or sheath. Thus the divine interior being very much like the soul nature as it becomes more and more patent and active transforms the manas into more and more subtle conditions. The limitations of the knots which have developed during the downward journey of the manas become loosened and power is gained to move upward and become more and more subtle. The human body now begins to vibrate with the higher rhythms of the Manas, its brahmanda or cosmic and supra-cosmic parabrahmanda forms. The physical body itself undergoes transmutation in its rhythms or vibrations and subtle condition. It is also seen that the physical grossness is slowly adapted to the divine rhythms and vibrations and the atoms of the body themselves break up into cosmic vibrations and supra cosmic waves.

Here of course one does not affirm that the physical body will last forever but the very mechanism undergoes change and therefore there is every possibility of not being limited and feel bondage while remaining within the body. The divinisation of the human body is rendered possible, though it must be remarked that there is no assurance of the immortalisation of the physical body. The spiritually realised man may have his body which may for all practical purposes look like any other body, but which really is capable of functioning like a very highly developed supra-cosmic instrument in perfect co-ordination with the entire Creation, from Brahma to the blade of grass as the phrase runs. This particular transformation of the physical body which is capable of performing miracles or Siddhis reveals the possibilities of the physical body having supernormal psychic powers and capacities. This may not be the goal of the man who seeks Ultimate Reality or union with that Ultimate Reality having realised or attained all power over Nature or understanding of it so as not to be caught in its downward current.

Sri Ramchandraji points out that these natural powers or powers of Nature are open to any one who has linked up with the Ultimate or the Ksobh, the First thought.

Today man is anxious to make the earth the Kingdom of God, not a hell or a purgatory with which it has been previously identified. It may entail that divine manifestation of Thought or Consciousness would transmute the very stuff of the earth to the veriest mineral. This too is revealed by the tremendous and incredible inventions and discoveries made about Nature. But the question would yet arise whether these atomic, sub-atomic, nuclear and other forces which reveal the possibilities of cosmic or inter-planetary travel and greater than light speeds can be called the spiritual refuse or resultants or possible spiritual material. It appears that unless life is involved there hardly can be the emergence of spiritual values. The organic integration of the highest forces is only possible through Manas whose entire process is organic involution and evolution. When the lower organisms are unable to manifest the inward divine, a higher type of organism arises and we proceed from the most simple and rudimentary forms of life to more and more diversified and developed forms. The Yogi attempts at the human level to realise the possibility of the descent of the Highest or primal mind or thought into his heart so as to reorganise a new super organism capable of cosmic and super cosmic ranges of thought-cum-activity.

The ideal of a superman has been brilliantly mooted and efforts have been made to realise such an organic superman possessed of most wide ranging occult powers utilised for the beneficence and glory of God. God is not only good in his transcendence but also in His immanence according to Sri Aurobindo. His Lila is to be more glorious than His Eternity.

This ideal is yet in the proving. There is no doubt that there have been legends of those who have attained that status but that has not been the general nature of man or possible to humanity. Superman as a member of super humanity is a promised goal. But as Sri Ramchandraji says that it presumes that there is a Goal for God Himself or the Transcendent to realise Himself in terms of terrestrial immanence. On the other hand it is really possible to show that the Divine Transformation of the gross entails nothing more than that the gross can be divinely used according to the Nature in its highest purity. The human organism so infilled and re-organised in all its atoms and forces, tanmatras and bhutas, could perform supra cosmic functions and order in a natural way. For this the concept of an Ideal of humanity to be supermen is not strictly germane. Not the discovery of the supermind is strictly relevant as a step in the evolutionary cycle. It could be bye-passed. In any case the Yogi of this system sees that the divinisation of his nature requires the primal thought (Ksobh) rather than the descent of a supramental consciousness as that may mean the formation of a different type of humanity which is yet unfree, freedom being the supreme nature of the Ultimate Transcendence itself.

In a sense the ancients' felt that even the Devas are unfree though they are not subject to karma, they are subject to bhoga. They are also in a sense when rulers of the several levels of Nature subject to the laws of the several levels. Though the laws are perhaps framed by the Devas they are subject to them. The provision that the king can do no wrong does not apply, though perhaps this proviso has been adopted to put finality or omniscience in a person. The Devas may conceivably do no wrong. Our mythologies have demoted the Devas so much so they are shown in the ugliest of colours and poses. To speak of a devajati seems inappropriate in the context of our mythologies. The ancient seekers after liberation, knowing that gods are also bond, sought to go beyond the ideal of gods, or devajati. The Seer is far beyond them, not in the sense in which the Brahmins conceived them to be capable of being dictated to do what the ritualist Vedic rishi wished to do, but in the sense the real Seer is beyond the bondage of the Kshobh or Creative thought with all its cycle of births and deaths and dualities.

Man's manas is at that particular turning point which makes it resemble so much the original Manas that at this point that original Manas could be made to bring about a radical change or open up the pathway to that Infinite State. The Devas perhaps have a manas that is not at this condition and so it has to be brought to the human condition before it could be linked up with the Primal Manas. In other words it seems to lose its capacity to be stimulated directly by the Primal Manas or Ksobh. Gods even therefore it is said have to become or take a human birth- so very important in evolution in the human state. It becomes imperative at this point to emphasise that there is a real side-tracking when one attempts to evolve the super-humanity or devajati, unless the deva is defined in different terms as the jnani of the Bhagvad Gita- Jnanavan mam prapadyate- where the word has the connotation of the illumined being or illuminating being. In any case the divine as amanava without the manas would have transcended the terrestrial evolution.

The above gives an outline of the genesis of the theory of Knowledge of this system of yoga, where knowledge is regarded not in the usual sense of the professional philosophers of Nature or even psychology. It is what results when one is born so to speak in Brahman- brahma-sambhuta as the Isavasya Upanishad intimates. The Isa Upanishad intimates in its 8th Mantra about the levels of attainment as Kavih, Manishi, Paribhuh, Svayambhuh. These four terms connote the spiritual insights of the abhyasi or seer. In the 12 to 14 Mantras the Upanishad mentions the two terms asambhuti and sambhuti, which seem to be higher attainments than Avidya and Vidya. In any case the Upanishads mention about Brahmaja. This transcendent living, or living by the Brahman in the creation or the world of Thought and its modifications(Vikriti), seems to have been known as the most desirable goal which grants atyantam santi, and basic reality- experience (yatharthanubhava) as it is in itself and for itself.

This is the spiritual possibility presented to man by the true mystic vision of Sri Ramchandraji following his own Master of the same name popularly known as Lalaji of Fatehgarh.