Jean Bouchart d'Orval

Éditions Libre Expression

1992

(excerpt in English)

Atha yogânushâsanam

From now on starts the revelation of yoga (I-1)

Atha: now, here, from now on. Yoga: Oneness, yoga. Anushâsanam: discipline, teaching.

The masterly exposition that starts here is different from what we have accustomed our brain to. At last something will change: that is why the first word sounds like “from now on” more than just “now”, which is the usual translation of commentators. What the word atha says surpass the dull and common place meaning of which the bored and distract eye would easily content itself with. That is precisely what is going to change now: compromise with the great darkness or even with the small light.

So far, we have accepted the role of a mortal and limited being, the role of a creature as opposed to a creator, the role of a subject who observes as opposed to the rest of the universe, as opposed to “the other”, with all the waves of hope and despair it means, but also with the certainty of never being able to get out of doubt and scepticism. This discourse is for the one who, after having conducted all kinds of searches on all levels, has arrived to the conviction that life conceals an immense mystery and that it is possible to touch it with a simple mind. Simple means open to what is, as opposed to the boundage of all the opinions accumulated over the last millions of years. That simplicity of mind, which could be called the beginner's mind, is actually the only path to the mystery. Because this mystery withdraws in front of the frantic insistence of thought, who would like to hear the mystery express the known. After having considered the question of existence or happiness from many complex, indirect and artificial angles, the searcher discovers one day the freshness and lets go a cry of the heart: “from now on!”

The Master of Nazareth brings this word form Isaias, which describes well the spirit brought by Patanjali with the inaugural word of his exposé:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because he has anointed me;
to bring good new to the poor
he has sent me to proclaim the captive's release
and sight to the blind;
to set at liberty the oppressed
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord¹.

The poor, those to who the good news is offering the acceptable year, are neither only nor mainly the poor in the body but rather the poor of the mind. We have a colossal fortune, but all the time we ignore where it is hidden, we keep living like we have always done, worrying about everything and nothing. The captives are the captives of ignorance, the prisoners of thought and opinion, in brief those who are caught by the idea that they are the body or the mind. The blinds are those who don't see the light of the Being, while thinking they'll see reality in things and phenomena. The oppressed are those who entertain the idea that something outside of them makes them suffer, whereas it is their own mind that acts like a tyrant with them. It is to all those people that Christ brings grace. It is in man' power to stretch this “acceptable year” to an acceptable life. This is what the discipline exposed by Patanjali makes possible.

Yoga means Oneness, or Pure Existence. Eternal and universal, it touches man's heart in all countries and traditions. Just like the sun never ceases to shine, whether we see it or not, it is. What begins here is its revelation. This discovery involves the nervous system of the searcher who has net yet realized his true nature and not Pure Consciousness as such. For Being, how could there be reunion or discovery, since there never has been division or forgetfulness?

Of what kind of revelation are we talking? That,s what the next word reveals. Anushâsanâm is generally translated by “teaching”, or “exposition”. Very good. But this word says more. Anu means ancient and shâs means discipline. So, it is really a discipline, thus a practical learning and not another philosophical system or a platform for some scholar's drivel. Discipline means learning and that requires an opening to what is going to be said. Patanjali's sutras are not meant to convince the indecisives or to reduce the infidels to silence. It is for those who are ready to go to the end and dig the joy. “From now on” is the call for such people.

(1) Isaias 61, 1-2 and Luke 4, 18-19