虔信瑜伽的自然性及其核心秘密
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中文
第三章
虔信瑜伽的自然本性及其核心秘密
"那些以恒定专注始终崇拜您的人，与那些崇拜无差别的绝对者的人，这两者中谁是最伟大的瑜伽士？"——阿周那如是问克里希纳（Krishna）。克里希纳的回答是："那些将心专注于我而以永恒的坚定崇拜我、且具备最高信心的人，他们是我最好的崇拜者，他们是最伟大的瑜伽士。那些崇拜绝对者、崇拜那不可描述、无差别、遍在、不可思议、无所不包、不可动摇而永恒者——他们以控制感官之运作为方式，对一切事物持等同之见——他们同样，以利益一切众生为己任，终将归到我这里。然而，对于那些将心归向无相之绝对者的人来说，道路上的奋斗之苦远为深重，因为对任何有身之存在来说，行走于无相绝对者的道路，实为大难之事。那些将自己一切的行为献于我、完全依靠我、冥想我、崇拜我而对任何其他事物毫无执著的人——他们的心完全系于我，我将很快将他们从生死轮回的苦海中救度出来。"（《薄伽梵歌》第十二章）
智慧瑜伽（Jnana-Yoga）与虔信瑜伽（Bhakti-Yoga）在此段落中皆有所涉及。可以说，上述段落对二者都作出了界定。智慧瑜伽是崇高的，是高深的哲学；几乎每一个人都好奇地以为，哲学所要求于他的一切，他都能圆满做到；然而，真正依照哲学来生活，实属不易。在以哲学指导生命的尝试中，我们常常容易陷入极大的危险。可以说，世界上的人可分为两类：一类是具有魔性本质的人，以照料身体为存在的全部目的；另一类是具有神性本质的人，他们认识到身体不过是达于目的的手段，是灵魂修炼的工具。魔鬼能够、也确实援引经文来为自己的目的服务；因此，知识之道似乎为坏人的所作所为提供了正当性，正如它为好人的所作所为提供了激励一样。这是智慧瑜伽中的重大危险。而虔信瑜伽则是自然的、甘甜的、温和的；虔信瑜伽的修行者不像智慧瑜伽的修行者那样飞得那么高，因此，他也不容易遭受那么严重的跌落。当然，除非灵魂的缚束消除，否则无论修行者所走的宗教道路为何种，都不可能获得自由。
以下是一则例子，说明一位蒙福的牧牛女（Gopi），其善业与恶业的束缚是如何双双被斩断的。"沉浸于冥想神明中所产生的强烈喜乐，消除了她善业的束缚效力。继而，她因未能证得祂而生起的灵魂深处的强烈苦楚，涤净了她一切的罪业倾向；如此，她便获得了解脱（Moksha）。"——（《毗湿奴往世书》）
在虔信瑜伽中，核心的秘密因此在于：认识到人心中种种激情、情感与情绪，就其本身而言并无过错；只是需要将它们小心地加以引导，并给予越来越高的方向，直至它们达到卓越的最高境界。最高的方向是那引领我们走向神的方向；一切其他的方向都是较低的。我们发现，快乐与痛苦是我们生命中极为普遍且频繁出现的情感。当一个人因为没有财富或某种世俗之物而感到痛苦时，他是在给这情感指引一个错误的方向。然而，痛苦自有其用处。让一个人因为尚未达于至高、尚未证得神而感到痛苦——那痛苦将成为他得救的契机。当你为拥有几枚铜钱而感到高兴时，这是给喜悦之官能一个错误的方向；它应当被引向更高的方向，应当使之服务于最高的理想。在那种理想中的喜乐，必定是我们最高的欢乐。这对于我们其他一切情感也同样适用。虔信者说，其中没有一个是错误的，他将它们全部把握住，并将它们无误地导向神。
English
CHAPTER III
THE NATURALNESS OF BHAKTI-YOGA AND ITS CENTRAL SECRET
"Those who with constant attention always worship You, and those who worship the Undifferentiated, the Absolute, of these who are the greatest Yogis?" — Arjuna asked of Shri Krishna. The answer was: "Those who concentrating their minds on Me worship Me with eternal constancy and are endowed with the highest faith, they are My best worshippers, they are the greatest Yogis. Those that worship the Absolute, the Indescribable, the Undifferentiated, the Omnipresent, the Unthinkable, the All-comprehending, the Immovable, and the Eternal, by controlling the play of their organs and having the conviction of sameness in regard to all things, they also, being engaged in doing good to all beings, come to Me alone. But to those whose minds have been devoted to the unmanifested Absolute, the difficulty of the struggle along the way is much greater, for it is indeed with great difficulty that the path of the unmanifested Absolute is trodden by any embodied being. Those who, having offered up all their work unto Me, with entire reliance on Me, meditate on Me and worship Me without any attachment to anything else — them, I soon lift up from the ocean of ever-recurring births and deaths, as their mind is wholly attached to Me" (Gita, XII).
Jnâna-Yoga and Bhakti-Yoga are both referred to here. Both may be said to have been defined in the above passage. Jnana-Yoga is grand; it is high philosophy; and almost every human being thinks, curiously enough, that he can surely do everything required of him by philosophy; but it is really very difficult to live truly the life of philosophy. We are often apt to run into great dangers in trying to guide our life by philosophy. This world may be said to be divided between persons of demoniacal nature who think the care-taking of the body to be the be-all and the end-all of existence, and persons of godly nature who realise that the body is simply a means to an end, an instrument intended for the culture of the soul. The devil can and indeed does cite the scriptures for his own purpose; and thus the way of knowledge appears to offer justification to what the bad man does, as much as it offers inducements to what the good man does. This is the great danger in Jnana-Yoga. But Bhakti-Yoga is natural, sweet, and gentle; the Bhakta does not take such high flights as the Jnana-Yogi, and, therefore, he is not apt to have such big falls. Until the bandages of the soul pass away, it cannot of course be free, whatever may be the nature of the path that the religious man takes.
Here is a passage showing how, in the case of one of the blessed Gopis, the soul-binding chains of both merit and demerit were broken. "The intense pleasure in meditating on God took away the binding effects of her good deeds. Then her intense misery of soul in not attaining unto Him washed off all her sinful propensities; and then she became free." —
(Vishnu-Purâna). In Bhakti-Yoga the central secret is, therefore, to know that the various passions and feelings and emotions in the human heart are not wrong in themselves; only they have to be carefully controlled and given a higher and higher direction, until they attain the very highest condition of excellence. The highest direction is that which takes us to God; every other direction is lower. We find that pleasures and pains are very common and oft-recurring feelings in our lives. When a man feels pain because he has not wealth or some such worldly thing, he is giving a wrong direction to the feeling. Still pain has its uses. Let a man feel pain that he has not reached the Highest, that he has not reached God, and that pain will be to his salvation When you become glad that you have a handful of coins, it is a wrong direction given to the faculty of joy; it should be given a higher direction, it must be made to serve the Highest Ideal. Pleasure in that kind of ideal must surely be our highest joy. This same thing is true of all our other feelings. The Bhakta says that not one of them is wrong, he gets hold of them all and points them unfailingly towards God.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。