with the world.”^6 Despite a variety of applications of yujin the sense of
yoking, the ultimate aim of yoga according to the Yoga-s ̄utrasis neither
the yoking together of the practitioner’s aspects nor the joining of the as-
pirant with the Absolute, but something quite the opposite: kaivalya, ‘in-
dependence.’ Kaivalyais the liberation of the person’s true nature as pure
consciousness, independent of material nature, as described in the final
verse of the Yoga-sutras ̄ :
PuruÓs ̄artha ́sunyan ̄ am gu ̄ Ónan ̄ am pratiprasava ̄ Óh kaivalyamÓ
svarupa-prati ̄ ÓsÓtha v ̄ ̄a citi- ́sakter iti
Independence (kaivalya) is the re-merging of the guÓnas[constitu-
ents of materiality] back into their latent state [as undifferentiated
prakÓrti, materiality], because of their becoming empty of value for the
puruÓsa. Then puruÓsais established in its own true nature, in other
words, as pure consciousness.
YS 4.34Liberation in classical Yoga is thus not so much a yoking as a dissolution
of the bonds of matter, so that consciousness may prevail free of influ-
ences of the body, mind, and the material world. Yoking remains integral
to the meaning of Yoga in that the practices of Yoga—physical and medi-
tational—entail an effort of one-pointed focusing. One-pointed concen-
tration helps to yoke together the activities of body, breath, senses, and
mind, which supports the achievement of non-fragmented mental still-
ness in the state of sam ̄adhi.
The most explicit designation of ‘yoga’ is yoga-dar ́sana, the philo-
sophical and religious system of Yoga systematized by Patañjali. The clas-
sical Yoga of Patañjali is known as P ̄atañjala Yoga, AÓsÓt ̄a ̇nga (eight-
limbed) Yoga, and R ̄aja Yoga (the royal yoga, or yoga whereby one
becomes master or king, raja ̄ , of oneself). Classical Yoga is a synthesis
and distillation of a range of traditional Indian techniques of restraint
and meditation. In general religio-philosophical terms, ‘yoga’ designates
liberative ascetic techniques and methods of meditation. Eliade discusses
two senses of liberation in the Indian tradition:
- Transcendental: transcending the human condition and appropriat-
ing another mode of being. - Mystical:a ‘breaking’ of the human condition, “a rebirth to a non-
conditioned mode of being,” which is absolute freedom.^7
Yogic restraint of ordinary human activities—of vice, near-constant
movement of the body, erratic breathing, and chaotic and distractive
86 religious therapeutics