The current study aims to clarify the meaning, the epistemic construction, and the pragmatics of ... more The current study aims to clarify the meaning, the epistemic construction, and the pragmatics of the term āgama occurring in Pātañjalayogaśāstra I.7 and its commentaries. Since āgama is a linguistic construction, this paper is also a contribution to the inquiry into the philosophy of language of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra. The inclusion of linguistic-philosophical arguments corroborates the Pātañjalayoga system of philosophy as a śāstra text and its logical and epistemological paradigm. The structure of the present work is as follows: a first part strictly dealing with textual sources, and a second where the content of textual sources is discussed. Relying on the early literature ranging from the Pātañjalayogaśāstra (c. 400 CE) to the Pātañjalayogasūtravṛtti of Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa (PYV, half of 17th—half of 18th cent. CE), to āgama can be accorded two principal meanings: as a generic verbal testimony, and as authoritative verbal teachings. Grounded on the evaluated textual material, the second part of this essay presents a hypothesis aiming at the understanding of verbal testimony: in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, āgama exhibits an epistemological, linguistic and psychological construction. In fact, as an epistemic theory of verbal testimony āgama functions following three main vectors being: (a) epistemological source and instance of valid cognition, namely a pramāṇa, (b) linguistically structured, āgama exhibits a propositional structure (vākya); and (c) a mental episode, placing āgama as one among the different mental events (cittavṛtti) described in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra.
This article was inspired by a reading of Nāgeśa Bhaṭta's commentary, Pātañjalayogasūtravṛtti (PY... more This article was inspired by a reading of Nāgeśa Bhaṭta's commentary, Pātañjalayogasūtravṛtti (PYV), on Pātañjalayogaśāstra I.18. In explaining contentless absorption (asamprajñātasamādhi), Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa depicts the yoga practitioner as being "like a cadaver" (mṛtavat). The article investigates the use of metaphors of death in the Pātañjalayoga commentarial literature and aims to make sense of them in the context of asamprajñātasamādhi. This literature indicates that the yoga practitioner becomes deeply absorbed in contentless samādhi through the practice of cessation (nirodha), namely the progressive shutting down of psycho-physical drives, up to the point of their total annihilation. Thus, one might say that the practitioner attains a quasideath-like condition. Once the practitioner has reached this advanced phase of absorption, metaphors of death are used to depict his condition. This raises the question of how these metaphors relate to the practice of yoga. I argue that these expressions were intended to convey the stillness of the yoga practitioner's mind and body, once he or she has reached asamprajñātasamādhi, which makes the yoga adept fit either for liberation-in-life (jīvanmukti) or at the time of death (videhamukti).
The current study aims to clarify the meaning, the epistemic construction, and the pragmatics of ... more The current study aims to clarify the meaning, the epistemic construction, and the pragmatics of the term āgama occurring in Pātañjalayogaśāstra I.7 and its commentaries. Since āgama is a linguistic construction, this paper is also a contribution to the inquiry into the philosophy of language of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra. The inclusion of linguistic-philosophical arguments corroborates the Pātañjalayoga system of philosophy as a śāstra text and its logical and epistemological paradigm. The structure of the present work is as follows: a first part strictly dealing with textual sources, and a second where the content of textual sources is discussed. Relying on the early literature ranging from the Pātañjalayogaśāstra (c. 400 CE) to the Pātañjalayogasūtravṛtti of Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa (PYV, half of 17th—half of 18th cent. CE), to āgama can be accorded two principal meanings: as a generic verbal testimony, and as authoritative verbal teachings. Grounded on the evaluated textual material, the second part of this essay presents a hypothesis aiming at the understanding of verbal testimony: in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, āgama exhibits an epistemological, linguistic and psychological construction. In fact, as an epistemic theory of verbal testimony āgama functions following three main vectors being: (a) epistemological source and instance of valid cognition, namely a pramāṇa, (b) linguistically structured, āgama exhibits a propositional structure (vākya); and (c) a mental episode, placing āgama as one among the different mental events (cittavṛtti) described in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra.
This article was inspired by a reading of Nāgeśa Bhaṭta's commentary, Pātañjalayogasūtravṛtti (PY... more This article was inspired by a reading of Nāgeśa Bhaṭta's commentary, Pātañjalayogasūtravṛtti (PYV), on Pātañjalayogaśāstra I.18. In explaining contentless absorption (asamprajñātasamādhi), Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa depicts the yoga practitioner as being "like a cadaver" (mṛtavat). The article investigates the use of metaphors of death in the Pātañjalayoga commentarial literature and aims to make sense of them in the context of asamprajñātasamādhi. This literature indicates that the yoga practitioner becomes deeply absorbed in contentless samādhi through the practice of cessation (nirodha), namely the progressive shutting down of psycho-physical drives, up to the point of their total annihilation. Thus, one might say that the practitioner attains a quasideath-like condition. Once the practitioner has reached this advanced phase of absorption, metaphors of death are used to depict his condition. This raises the question of how these metaphors relate to the practice of yoga. I argue that these expressions were intended to convey the stillness of the yoga practitioner's mind and body, once he or she has reached asamprajñātasamādhi, which makes the yoga adept fit either for liberation-in-life (jīvanmukti) or at the time of death (videhamukti).
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