by annie besant / part 1

Annie Besant was a British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer, orator, educationist, and philanthropist. Regarded as a champion of human freedom, she was an ardent supporter of both Irish and Indian self-rule. She was a prolific author with over three hundred books and pamphlets to her credit. She became a member of the Theosophical Society and a prominent lecturer on the subject.

As part of her theosophy-related work, she travelled to India. In 1898 she helped establish the Central Hindu School, and in 1922 she helped establish the Hyderabad (Sind) National Collegiate Board in Mumbai, India.  In 1902, she established the first overseas Lodge of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain.

Over the next few years she established lodges in many parts of the British Empire. In 1907 she became president of the Theosophical Society, whose international headquarters were, by then, located in Adyar, Madras, (Chennai). She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress.

When World War I broke out in 1914, she helped launch the Home Rule League to campaign for democracy in India, and dominion status within the British Empire. This led to her election as president of the Indian National Congress, in late 1917.

In the late 1920s, Besant travelled to the United States with her protégé and adopted son Jiddu Krishnamurti, who she claimed was the new Messiah and incarnation of Buddha. Krishnamurti rejected these claims in 1929. 

Besant met fellow theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater in London in April 1894. They became close co-workers in the theosophical movement and would remain so for the rest of their lives. After the war, she continued to campaign for Indian independence and for the causes of theosophy, until her death in 1933.

"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 fury they 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.

- Annie Besant

“These lectures [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. 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.” 

In this article I cover main points in Annie Besant’s book, “An Introduction to Yoga.”

PART 1 / Contents

The Nature of Yoga, 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, Changes of Consciousness and Vibrations of Matter, Mind + The 5 Stages of Mind, Inward and Outward-Turned Consciousness, The Cloud, The Combinations of Prakriti and Purusha (Force + Matter)

THE NATURE OF YOGA

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 scepter 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 fury-they all exist, not for the objects themselves, but for their value to the Self.

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.

That the self may know Himself as manifested in matter, as embodied in the universe.

THE UNFOLDING OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The laws by which the Self unfolds his powers in the universe, from the fire-mist up to the Logos, are the same laws of consciousness which repeat themselves in the universe of man. If you understand them in the one, you can equally understand them in the other.

The great unfolding from the stone to the God goes on through millions of years, through aeons of time.

But the long unfolding that takes place in the universe, takes place in a shorter time-cycle within the limit of humanity, and this in a cycle so brief that it seems as nothing beside the longer one. These forces that manifest and unveil themselves in evolution are cumulative in their power.  Embodied in the stone, in the mineral world, they grow and put out a little more of strength, and in the mineral world accomplish there unfolding.  Then they become too strong for the mineral, and press on into the vegetable world.  

These they unfold more and more of their divinity, until they become too mighty for vegetable, and become animal. Expanding within and gaining experiences from the animal, they gain overflow the limits of the animal, and appear as the human.

In the human being they still grow and accumulate with ever-increasing force, and exert greater pressure against the barrier; and then out of the human, they press into the super-human.

THIS LAST PROCESS OF EVOLUTION IS CALLED “YOGA.”

Our evolution here has all the force of the last evolution in it, and hence, when we come to this shortest cycle of evolution which is called Yoga, the man has behind him the whole of the forces accumulated in his human evolution, and it is the accumulation of these forces which enables him to make the passage so rapidly.

We must connect our Yoga with he evolution of consciousness everywhere, else we shall not understand it at all; for the laws of evolution of consciousness in a universe are exactly the same as the laws of Yoga, and the principles whereby consciousness unfolds itself in the great evolution of humanity are the same principles that we take in Yoga and deliberately apply to the more rapid unfolding of our own consciousness.

The whole evolution is one in its essence.  The succession is the same, the sequences identical. All the laws are one, however different in their stage of manifestation.

As you study the unfolding of consciousness, and the corresponding evolution of form, it will not seem so strange that from man you should pass on to superman, transcending the barrier of humanity, and finding yourself in the region where divinity becomes more manifest.

THE ONENESS OF THE SELF

The Self in you is the same as the Self Universal. Whatever powers are manifested through the world, those powers exist in germ, in latency, in you.

He, the Supreme, does not evolve. In Him there are no additions or subtractions.

THE QUICKENING OF THE PROCESS OF SELF-UNFOLDMENT

Educated and thoughtful men and women you already are; already you have climbed up that long ladder which separates the present outer form of the Deity in you from His form in the dust.

They who cannot face the world have not the strength to face the difficulties of Yoga practice.

If the outer world outwears your powers, how do you expect to conquer the difficulties of the inner life? If you cannot climb over the little troubles of the world, how can you hope to climb over the difficulties that a yogi has to scale?

These men blunder, who think that running away from the world is the road to victory, and that peace can be found only in certain localities. Yoga may then be defined as the “rational application of the laws of the unfolding of consciousness in an individual case.” 

That is what is meant by the methods of Yoga. You study the laws of the unfolding of consciousness in the universe, you then apply them to a special case-and that case is your own. They must be self-applied.

YOGA IS A SCIENCE

Yoga is an applied Science.  Of systematizing collection of laws applied to bring about a definite end. It takes up the laws of psychology, applicable to the unfolding of the whole consciousness of man on every plane, in every world, and applies those rationally in a particular case.

Systematic knowledge of the unfolding of consciousness applied to the individualized Self, that is Yoga. The would-be Yogi, choosing out his objects and applying his laws, finds in the world exactly the things he wants to make his practice of Yoga real, a vital thing, a quickening process for the knowledge of the Self.

There are many laws. You can choose those which you require, you can evade those you do not require, you can utilize those you need, and thus you can bring about the result that nature, without that application of human intelligence, cannot so swiftly effect.

MAN A DUALITY

Man is a unit of consciousness. Yoga is practical and psychological.

Man is Mind and Body.

A unit of consciousness in a set of envelopes.

This is NOT the duality of the Self and the Not-Self.

Man is consciousness plus matter.

Prana is not only the life-breath of the body, but the totality of the life-forces of the universe or, in other words, the life-side of the universe.

Prana means the totality of life forces.

In order to know how you shall begin to apply to yourselves the various eras used to describe the states of mind, you must carefully analyze your own consciousness, and find out how much of it is really consciousness, and how much is matter so closely appropriated that you cannot separate it from yourself.

STATES OF MIND

Waking Consciousness - Jagrat

Dream Consciousness - Swapna

Deep Sleep Consciousness - Sushupti

If our consciousness worlds in the subtle, or astral, body, and is able to impress its experiences upon the brain, it is called Svapna, or in English, dream consciousness; it is more vivid and real that the Jagrate state.

When working in the subtler form-the mental body-it is not able to impress its experiences on the brain, it is called Sushupti or deep sleep consciousness; then the mind is working on its own contents, not on outer objects.  But if has so far separated itself from connection with the brain, that is cannot be readily recalled by outer means, then it is called Turiya, a lofty state of trance.

Beyond - Turiya

These 4 states represent a much unfolded consciousness in 4 planes.

Jagrat - Physical / ordinary waking consciousness, that you and I are using at the present time.

Svapna - Astral

Sushupti - Mental

Turiya - Buddhic

When passing from one world to another, we should use these words to designate the consciousness working under the conditions of each world.

You can find 4 states in the physical body, if you analyze it, and a similar sequences of the states of the mind is found on every plane.

I go behind the words to the meaning of the words.

I have passed from the waking state of physical plane into the Svapna sate of waking consciousness, that sees through the outer form, seeking the inner life.

I pass from this to the mind of the writer; here the mind touches the mind; it is the waking consciousness in its Sushupti state.

If I pass from this contact and enter the very mind of the writer, and live in that man’s mind, then I have reached the Turiya state of the waking consciousness.

Samadhi is a state in which the consciousness is so dissociated from the body that the latter remains insensible.

It is a state of trance in which the mind is fully self-conscious, thought body is insensitive, and from which the mind returns to the body with the experiences it has had in the super physical sate, remembering them when again immersed in the physical brain.

Yoga is Samadhi.  It is the power to withdraw from all that you know as body, and to concentrate yourself within.  That is samadhi.

Become in outer manifestation that which you are in inner reality.

That is the object of the whole process of Yoga.

Yoga is the seeking of union by the intellect, a science. Mysticism is the seeking of the same union by emotion.

CHANGES OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND VIBRATIONS OF MATTTER

A change of consciousness is a change of a state; a change of matter is a change of place.

Every change of state in consciousness is related to vibrations of matter in its vehicle.

When matter is examined, we find 3 fundamental qualities…

Rhythm, Mobility, Stability - Sativa, Rajas, Tamas.

He who is consciousness imposes on his material the answer to every change in consciousness, and that is an infinite number of vibrations.

So that between the Self and his sheaths there is this invariable relation; the change in consciousness and the vibration of matter and vise versa.

That makes it possible for the Self to know the Not-Self.

MIND

How shall we describe this individual consciousness? First, it is aware of things.

Becoming aware of them, it desires them. Desiring them, it tries to attain them.

So we have the 3 aspects of consciousness - intelligence, desire, activity.

On the physical plane, activity predominates, although desire and thought are present.

On the astral plane, desire predominates, and thought and activity are subject to desire.

On the mental plane, intelligence is the dominant note, desire and activity are subject to it.

Go to the buddhic plane, and cognition, as pure reason, predominates, and so on.

In your combinations of matter you get rhythmic, active, or stable ones; and according to the combinations of matter in your bodies will be the conditions of the activity of the whole of these in consciousness.

To practice Yoga you must build your bodies of the rhythmic combinations, with activity and inertia less apparent.

The yogi wants to make his body match his mind.

THE 5 STAGES OF MIND

First stage - Kshipta stage- butterfly mind, mind of the child, early humanity

Second stage - Mudha - Confused stage - youth, swayed by emotions, a characteristic state, astral world

Third stage - Vikshipta - Preoccupations, infatuation state.  Love, ambition, an idea. Lower Mental Plane.

Fourth stage - Ekagrata - possesses idea, instead of being possessed by it - one-pointed state of mind - mature mind - Higher Mental Plane

Fifth stage - Niruddha - Self controlled.  Possesses one idea, but rising above all ideas, chooses as he wills, Activity on the Buddhic plane.

By a study of your own mind, you can find out how far you are ready to begin the definite practice of Yoga. Examine your mind in order to recognize these stages in yourself.

If you are in either of the two early stages, you are not ready for Yoga.

The child and the youth are not ready to become yogi’s, nor is the preoccupied man. But if you find yourself possessed by a single thought, you are nearly ready for Yoga. It leads to the next stage of one-pointedness, where you can choose your idea, and cling to it o your own will.

Short is the step from that to the complete control, which can inhibit all motions of the mind. Having reached that stage, it is comparatively easy to pass into Samadhi.

INWARD AND OUTWARD-TURNED CONSCIOUSNESS

Samadhi is of two kinds: one turned outward, one turned inward.

The outward-turned consciousness is always first.

You are in the stage of Samadhi belonging to the outward-turned waking consciousness, when you can pass beyond the objects to the principles which those objects manifest, when through the form you catch a glimpse of the life.

Darwin was in this stage when he glimpsed the truth of evolution.

That is the outward-turned Samadhi of the physical body.

This is technically the Samprajnata Samadhi, the "Samadhi with consciousness," but to be better regarded, I think, as with consciousness outward-turned, i.e. conscious of objects.

When the object disappears, that is, when consciousness draws itself away from the sheath by which those objects are seen, then comes the Asamprajnata Samadhi; called the "Samadhi without consciousness".

I prefer to call it the inward-turned consciousness, as it is by turning away from the outer that this stage is reached.

These two stages of Samadhi follow each other on every plane; the intense concentration on objects in the first stage, and the piercing thereby through the outer form to the underlying principle, are followed by the turning away of the consciousness from the sheath which has served its purpose, and its withdrawal into itself, i.e., into a sheath not yet recognized as a sheath.

It is then for a while conscious only of itself and not of the outer world.  Then comes the “cloud.”

The dawning sense again of an outer, a dim sensing of “something” other than itself, that again is followed by the functioning of the higher sheath and the recognition of the objects of the next higher plane, corresponding to that sheath.

THE CLOUD

Dharma-megha - Cloud of righteousness.

All the man’s past karma of good gathers over him, and pours down upon him a rain of blessing.

You feel as though surrounded by a dense mist, conscious that you are not alone but unable to see. Be still; be patient; wait. Let your consciousness be in the attitude of suspense.

Presently the cloud will thin, and first in glimpses, then in its full beauty, the vision of a higher plane will dawn on your entranced sight.

This entrance into a higher plane will repeat itself again and again, until your consciousness, centered on the buddhic plane and its splendors having disappeared as your consciousness withdraws even from the that exquisite sheath, you find yourself in the true cloud, the cloud on the sanctuary, the cloud that veils the Holiest, that hides the vision of the Self.

Then comes what seems to be the draining away of the very life, the letting go of the last hold on the tangible, the hanging in a void, the horror of great darkness, loneliness unspeakable.

Endure, endure. Everything must go.

“Be still, and know that I am God.”

In that silence a Voice shall be heard, the voice of the Self, in that stillness a Life shall be felt, the life of the Self. In that void a Fullness shall be revealed, the fullness of the Self. In that darkness a Light shall be seen, the glory of the Self. The cloud shall vanish, and the shining of the Self shall be made manifest. That which was a glimpse of a far-off majesty shall become a perpetual realization and, knowing the Self and your unity with it, you shall enter into the Peace that belongs to the Self alone. 

Bhagavad-Gita and in the Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali the terms Samkhyan - the order of evolution.

Often called Nir-isvara Samkhya/without God. Vedantic conception of Self and Not-Self.

Universe consists of 2 factors.  The first pair of opposites, Spirit and Matter.

Spirit is called Purusha - the Man and each Spirit is an individual.

Purusha is a unit, a unit of consciousness; they are all of the same nature, but distinct everlastingly the one from the other.

Countless Purushas are to be found in the world of men.

Every Purusha has 3 characteristics, and these 3 are alike in all.

1 - Awareness; cognition. 2 - Life; Prana. Activity. 3- Immutability, essence of eternity; will.

Time and eternity are two altogether different things. Eternity is changeless, immutable, simultaneous. No succession in time; albeit everlasting-if such could be-could give eternity.

These 3 attributes of Purusha, according to the Samkhya.

These are not the same as nomenclature Vedantic Sat, Chit, Ananda, yet they are practically identical.

1 - Awareness; cognition. - CHIT. 2 - Life; Prana.  Activity. - SAT. 3 - Immutability, essence of eternity; will. - ANANDA

Over against these Purushas, homogeneous units, countless in number, stands Prakriti, Matter, the second in the Samkhyan duality.

Prakriti is one; Purushas are many. Prakriti is a continuum; Purushas are discontinuous, being innumerable, homogeneous units. Continuity is the mark of Prakriti.

Pra means “forth” and kris is the root “make. Prakriti means “forth-making.”

Matter is that which enables the essence in a single being to become.

Being - is-tence. Becomes Ex-is-tence - outing, by Matter. Forth-Making - Matter.

Only by Prakriti can Spirit, or Purusha “manifest” himself. Without the presence of Prakriti, Purusha is helpless, a mere abstraction. Only by the presence of Matter (Prakriti) can Purusha make manifest his powers.

Prakriri has 3 characteristics as Guns- attributes or qualities.

1 - Rhythm, Mobility and Inertia. Rhythm enables awareness to become cognition. - SATTVA. 2 - Mobility enables life to become activity. - RAJAS. 3 - Inertia enables immutability to become will. - TAMAS

THE COMBINATIONS OF THE PRAKRITI (FORCE) & PURUSHA (MATTER)

Awareness-Rhythm

Life-Nobility

Immutability-Inertia

The drama of existence is played out within Matter, and all that Spirit does is to look at it. Purusha is the spectator before whom the drama is played.

He is not the actor, but only a spectator. The actor is the subjective part of nature, the mind, which is a reflection of awareness in rhythmic matter.

Objective nature, is the reflection of the other qualities of Purusha (life and immutability) in the Gunas, Rajas and Tamas.

Everything that is wanted for the production of the universe exists in Nature. Nature does everything.  The gunas bring about the Universe. The man who says, “I act,” is mistaken and confused; the guns act, not he. He is only the spectator and looks on.

Vedantic view, Self is one, omnipresent, all permeating, the one reality. As the ether permeates all matter, so does the One Self permeate, restrain, support, vivify all.

The Self is One.  The Self is everywhere conscious, the Self is everywhere existent, the Self is everywhere blissful.

There is no division between these qualities of the Self. The Self, being consciousness, imagines limitation, division. From that imagination of limitation arises, form, diversity, manliness. From that thought of the Self, from that thought of limitation, all diversity of the many is born.

Matter is the limitation imposed upon the Self by his OWN Will to limit Himself.

In that limitation, Self-created, He exists, He is conscious, He is Happy. In Him arises the thought that He is Self-existence, and behold all existence becomes possible. All manifestation at once comes into existence.

The law of life the seeking for happiness, the essential characteristic of every sentient creature. The Universe appears by the Self-limitation in thought of the Self.

The moment the Self ceases to think it, the Universe is not, it vanishes as a dream.

It is the play of the Supreme Self that makes the limitations, and thus reproduces within limitations the qualities of the Self; the consciousness of the Self, of the Supreme Self, becomes, in the particularized Self, cognition, the power to know; and the existence of the Self becomes activity, the power to manifest; and the bliss of the Self becomes Will, the deepest part of all, the longing for happiness, for bliss; the resolve to obtain it is what we call will.

So in the limited, the power to know, the power to act, the power to will, these are the reflections in the particular Self of the essential qualities of the universal Self. We have the power to know, to will, to act.  These are the 3 great powers of the Self that show themselves in the separated Self in every diversity of forms, from the minutest organism to the loftiest Logos.

Maya is the self-identification of the Self with his limitations.

The eternally free can never be bound by matter; the eternally pure can never be tainted by matter; the eternally knowing can never be deluded by matter; the eternally Self-determined can never be ruled by matter, save by his own ignorance.

His own polish fancy limits his inherent powers, he imagines himself bound, impure, imagines himself impure, ignorant…etc.

The eyes, the ears, the ind exist, because the Self has willed them into existence.

He imagines limitation and matter appears; He appropriates that matter in order that He may manifest His own capacity.

The Samkhya is the view of the Universe of the Scientist.

The Vedanta is the view of the Universe of the Metaphysician.

These Self limiting selves Monads - reproduce the nature of the Universal Self whose portions they are.

They are not passive watchers, but active agents in the drama of the universe, although, being above the fivefold universe, they are as spectators who pull the strings of the players of the stage.

The Monad takes to himself from the universe of matter atoms which show out the qualities corresponding to his three qualities, and in these he thinks, and wills and acts.

He takes to himself rhythmic combinations, and shows his quality of cognition. He takes himself combinations that are mobile; through those he shows out his activity. He takes the combinations that are inert, and shows out his quality of bliss, as the will to be happy.

Matter changes to reflect the Spirit.

He creates an actor for Self-expression, and this actor is the “spiritual man” of the Theosophical teaching, spiritual Triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, to whom we shall return in a moment.

The Monad remains ever beyond the fivefold universe, and in that sense is a spectator.

He dwells beyond the five planes of matter.

Beyond the Atmic or Akashic; beyond the Buddhic plane, the plane of Vayu; beyond the mental plane, the plane of Agni; beyond the astral plane, the plane of Varuna; beyond the physical plane, the plane of Kubera.

Beyond all these planes the Monad, the Self, stands Self-conscious and Self-determined.

He reigns in changeless peace and lives in eternity.

He takes to himself an atom of the Atmic plane, and in that he, as it were, incorporates his will, and that becomes Atma. He appropriates an atom of the Buddhic plane, and reflects that in his aspect of cognition, and that becomes buddha.

He appropriates an atom of the Manasic plane and embodies, as it were, his activity in it, and it becomes Manas.

That triad is the reflection in the fivefold Universe of the Monad beyond the fivefold Universe.

Spiritualized Matter - Materialized Spirit.