An Introduction to Yoga

An Introduction to Yoga

by

Annie Besant

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Contents

An Introduction to Yoga

Annie Besant

Foreword

Lecture I - THE NATURE OF YOGA

The Meaning of the Universe

The Unfolding of Consciousness

The Oneness of the Self

The Quickening of the Process of Self-Unfoldment

Yoga is a Science

Man a Duality

States of Mind

Samadhi

The Literature of Yoga

Some Definitions

God Without and God Within

Changes of Consciousness and Vibrations of Matter

Mind

Stages of Mind

Inward and Outward-Turned Consciousness

The Cloud

Lecture II - SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

Its Relation to Indian Philosophies

Mind

The Mental Body

Mind and Self

Lecture III - YOGA AS SCIENCE

Methods of Yoga

To the Self by the Self

To the Self Through the Not-self

Yoga and Morality

Composition of States of the Mind

Pleasure and Pain

LECTURE IV - YOGA AS PRACTICE

Inhibition of States of Mind

Meditation With and Without Seed

The Use of Mantras

Attention

Obstacles to Yoga

Capacities of Yoga

Forthgoing and Returning

Purification of Bodies

Dwellers on the Threshold

Preparation for Yoga

The End

Annie Besant

Annie Besant was born on 1 October, 1847, and was a prominent British women’s rights activist, writer, theosophist and supporter of Indian and Irish self-rule. She was born in Clapham, London, England, to a middle-class family of Irish origin. After the death of her father, Besant’s mother was unable to properly provide for her family, and asked a friend, Ellen Marryat, to care for Annie. Marryat made sure that the child had a good education, and allowed her to travel widely in Europe, gaining a good understanding of the wider world.

In 1867, Annie married Frank Besant, an evangelical Anglican, with whom she had two children – Arthur and Mabel. The marriage was a disaster however, with conflicts over religious views (Annie’s increasing secularism), money, politics and her independence. The couple were legally separated in 1873 and Annie moved to London with her daughter Mabel. Hereafter, Annie Besant fought passionately for her beliefs; freedom of thought, women’s rights and secularism. She began to write attacks on the churches and the way they controlled people’s lives, earning a small weekly wage by writing a column for the National Reformer, the newspaper of the National Secularist Society. In 1877, alongside Charles Bradlaugh, a well-known atheist and republican, Besant published a book by the American birth-control campaigner, Charles Knowlton. They became household names overnight, for the controversial tract urging working class families to limit the amount of children they had, in order to improve their quality of life. The pair were arrested and put on trial for publishing the Knowlton book; they were found guilty, but were released pending appeal. The scandal cost Besant custody of her daughter however, as her ex-husband persuaded the court that she was unfit to look after Mabel. It was during this time that Besant began to build close contacts with the Irish Home Rulers and supported them in her newspaper columns, especially during the crucial years when the Irish nationalists were forming an alliance with Liberals and Radicals. Just over ten years later, Besant caused a further political crisis, through her involvement in the London ‘match girls’ strike of 1888. Besant met the poorly paid factory workers and led the women to strike for better pay and conditions. She led demonstrations which were cheered in the streets, even supported by prominent churchmen. In just over a week, they forced their firm, Bryant and May to improve pay and conditions for the women.

Besant’s socialist principles were heavily interlinked with her feminism and dedication to personal freedoms. She stood for election to the London School Board in the late 1880s, coming top of the polls in Tower Hamlets with over 15,000 votes. On her election, she wrote; ‘Ten years ago, under a cruel law, Christian bigotry robbed me of my little child. Now the care of the 763,680 children of London is placed partly in my hands.’

In the 1890s, Besant’s views on religion changed, largely due to meeting H. P. Blavatsky, the author of The Secret Doctrine, who helped her conversion to theosophy. This was an extension of her previous thought to some extent though, involved in seeking out knowledge regarding human nature and being, and its links, or otherwise, with divinity. Besant became president of the Theosophical Society in 1890, leading its direction more towards the teachings of Indian mystics and esoteric Christianity. Along with her theosophical activities, Besant continued to actively participate in political matters, and after her move to India with the Theosophical Society, joined the Indian National Congress. This was a debating body, which demanded more involvement for middle-class Indians in British Indian Government. Becoming editor of the New India Paper, Besant attacked the colonial government and called for decisive moves towards self-rule. During the First World War, she was arrested and interred at Hill Station in June 1917, however, after strong protests, Besant was released four months later. One of those who wrote for her release was Mahatma Gandhi. She was welcomed by crowds all over India, and in December, took over as President of the Indian National Congress for a year. Besant died on 20 September 1933, aged eighty-five, in Adyar, Madras Presidency, British India.

Foreword

These lectures [¹ Delivered at the 32nd Anniversary of the Theosophical Society held at Benares, on Dec. 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th, 1907.] are intended to give an outline of Yoga, in order to prepare the student to take up, for practical purposes, the Yoga sutras of Patanjali, the chief treatise on Yoga. I have on hand, with my friend Bhagavan Das as collaborateur, a translation of these Sutras, with Vyasa’s commentary, and a further commentary and elucidation written in the light of Theosophy. [² These have never been finished or printed.] To prepare the student for the mastering of that more difficult task, these lectures were designed; hence the many references to Patanjali. They may, however, also serve to give to the ordinary lay reader some idea of the Science of sciences, and perhaps to allure a few towards its study.

Annie Besant

Lecture I -

THE NATURE OF YOGA

In this first discourse we shall concern ourselves with the gaining of a general idea of the subject of Yoga, seeking its place in nature, its own character, its object in human evolution.

The Meaning of the Universe

Let us, first of all, ask ourselves, looking at the world around us, what it is that the history of the world signifies. When we read history, what does the history tell us? It seems to be a moving panorama of people and events, but it is really only a dance of shadows; the people are shadows, not realities, the kings and statesmen, the ministers and armies; and the eventsÄ the battles and revolutions, the rises and falls of states Äare the most shadowlike dance of all. Even if the historian tries to go deeper, if he deals with economic conditions, with social organisations, with the study of the tendencies of the currents of thought, even then he is in the midst of shadows, the illusory shadows cast by unseen realities. This world is full of forms that are illusory, and the values are all wrong, the proportions are out of focus. The things which a man of the world thinks valuable, a spiritual man must cast aside as worthless. The diamonds of the world, with their glare and glitter in the rays of the outside sun, are mere fragments of broken glass to the man of knowledge. The crown of the king, the sceptre of the emperor, the triumph of earthly power, are less than nothing to the man who has had one glimpse of the majesty of the Self. What is, then, real? What is truly valuable? Our answer will be very different from the answer given by the man of the world.

The universe exists for the sake of the Self. Not for what the outer world can give, not for control over the objects of desire, not for the sake even of beauty or pleasure, does the Great Architect plan and build His worlds. He has filled them with objects, beautiful and pleasure-giving. The great arch of the sky above, the mountains with snow-clad peaks, the valleys soft with verdure and fragrant with blossoms, the oceans with their vast depths, their surface now calm as a lake, now tossing in furyÄthey all exist, not for the objects themselves, but for their value to the Self. Not for themselves because they are anything in themselves but that the purpose of the Self may be served, and His manifestations made possible.

The world, with all its beauty, its happiness and suffering, its joys and pains" is planned with the utmost ingenuity, in order that the powers of the Self may be shown forth in manifestation. From the fire-mist to the LOGOS, all exist for the sake of the Self. The lowest grain of dust, the mightiest deva in his heavenly regions, the plant that grows out of sight in the nook of a mountain, the star that shines aloft over us-all these exist in order that the fragments of the one Self, embodied in countless forms, may realize their own identity, and manifest the powers of the Self through the matter that envelops them.

There is but one Self in the lowliest dust and the loftiest deva. MamamsahaÄMy portion,Ä a portion of My Self, says Sri Krishna, are all these Jivatmas, all these living spirits. For them the universe exists; for them the sun shines, and the waves roll, and the winds blow, and the rain falls, that the Self may know Himself as manifested in matter, as embodied in the universe.

The Unfolding of Consciousness

One of those pregnant and significant ideas which Theosophy scatters so lavishly around is thisÄthat the same scale is repeated over and over again, the