The Equinox (Volume I, Number III)

ATTAINMENT BY YOGA. AccorpinG to the Shiva Sanhita there are two doctrines found in the Vedas: the doctrines of “Karma Kanda” (sacrificial works, etc.) and of “ Jnana Kanda” (science and knowledge). “Karma Kanda” is twofold—good and evil, and according to how we live “there are many enjoyments in heaven,” and “in hell there are many sufferings.” Having once realized the truth of “Karma Kanda” the Yogi renounces the works of virtue and vice, and engages in ‘“‘ Jnana Kanda ”—knowledge. In the Shiva Sanhita we read: * In the proper season, various creatures are born to enjoy the consequences of their karma.f As through mistake mother-of-pearl is taken for silver, so through the error of one’s own karma man mistakes Brahma for the universe. Being too much and deeply engaged in the manifested world, the delusion arises about that which is manifested—the subject. There is no other cause (of this delusion). Verily, verily, I tell you the truth. If the practiser of Yoga wishes to cross the ocean of the world, he should renounce all the fruits of his works, having performed all the duties of his Ashrama.{ “Jnana Kanda” is the application of science to “Karma K4nda,” the works of good and evil, that is to say of Duality. * Shiva Sanhita, ii. 43. 45. 51. t+ Work and the effects of work. The so-called law of Cause and Effect in the moral and physical worlds. t The four Ashramas are (1) To live as a Brahmacharin—to spend a portion of one’s life with a Brahman teacher. (2) To live as a Grihastha—to rear a family and carry out the obligatory sacrifices. (3) To live as a Vanaprastha— 64