BLUFF OF ABILITY TO ENTER ANOTHER BODY

BLUFF OF ABILITY TO ENTER ANOTHER BODY
SUTRA (III-38) – MIRACLES OF YOG
VERSUS THE BLUFFS OF YOGA
ALL THE BLUFF – CALL THE BLUFF

PUNCH LINES
Just sample the following observations:
a) The only example quoted by the spiritualists to make people believe in this bluff is an unverifiable episode of SHANKRACHARYA keeping the dead body of AMRU alive for three months for getting sexual initiation and orientation. Does it not amount to interference with heavenly dispensation so ardently propagated by them as impregnable?
b) Strange is the soul of SHANKRACHARYA that is supposed to carry the imprints of all the innumerable previous births now suddenly finding itself helpless in basic instinctual function and had to perform this gimmick of entering some dead body.
c) Imagine the implications of souls entering other bodies at will, thus keeping themselves always youthful in appearance and creating unmanageable chaos. Even one soul possessing such ability would have wrecked havoc not only on entire humanity but on animal and plant kingdom as well
d) Is it not safer to outright reject such bluffs than to live in an awe of such a YOGI who just cannot and does not exist?

BLUFF OF POSSESSING ABILITY TO ENTER ANOTHER BODY DEAD OR ALIVE – SUTRA (III-38)

The Patanjali sutra quoted as authority for spreading this bluff is as under:

(III-38) BANDHKARANSHAITHILYAT PRACHARSANVEDNACH (first part) CHITTASYA PARSHARIRAVESH (third part)
(III-38) बंधकारण शैथिल्यात प्रचारसंवेदनाच्च चित्तस्य परशरीरावेशः
In this sutra also word of the second part SANYAM संयम is not written and it is understood to be present. As usual the STANDARD SPIRITUALISTIC translation is as under which is arrived at by filling in the blanks of the outline

STANDARD SPIRITUALISTIC TRANSLATION

By MEDITATING / CONCENTRATING on deactivation (शैथिल्यात) of the reasons that bind (बंधकारण) the CHITT to a body and the knowledge of the routes of communication (प्रचारसंवेदनाच्च), it is possible to make CHITT enter someone else’s body (परशरीरावेशः) and leave its own.

BLUFF PROPAGATED – A yogi possesses the ability of entering and exiting any physical body at will

GLARING INFIRMITIES

The spiritualistic translation suffers from the following additional infirmities besides the non-cognizance of the contexts of SANYAM and PARINAM that are common to all the sutras of this chapter:

• The last word AVESH आवेश of the expression PARSHARIRAVESH (परशरीरावेशः) has been substituted arbitrarily by the word PRAVESH (प्रवेश ) and translated as such meaning ‘entry’, while no meaning of the existing word AVESH आवेश in the sutra corresponds to the translation ‘entry’
• There is no intention of even thinking on the lines that this sutra is hinting about another property / function of CHITT

MIRACLE AS MEANT BY PATANJALI

The same sutra gives the entirely logical and practical approach to the subject if the contexts of SANYAM संयम and PARINAM परिणाम as explained by Patanjali are duly kept in mind. The translation will read as under:

STANDARD TRANSLATION AS PATANJALI MEANT

If you have made up your mind (DHARNA धारणा) to choose your subject of study as finding out the properties (DHARM धर्म), the symptoms (LAKSHAN लक्षण) and the states of existence (AWASTHA अवस्था), the three dimensions of PARINAM (परिणाम), about the reasons of hurdles (BANDHKARAN बंधकारण) in the functioning of CHITT; ways to remove these (SHAITHILYAT शैथिल्यात) in order to achieve smooth functioning of the routes of communication (PRACHARSANVEDNACH प्रचारसंवेदनाच्च), a subject of senses (INDRIYAN इन्द्रियां covered under ATM GYAN आत्मज्ञान)

And you are determined to pay never distractible attention (DHYAN ध्यान) in order to stick to this decision under any circumstances and you are confident of working wholeheartedly (SAMADHI समाधि) come what may for execution of this decision; you are likely to get that insight (PRAGYA प्रज्ञा) into the underlying principles of sequence (KRAM क्रम) about composition and functioning of CHITT, the subject of your study which will be of help to you

In understanding the underlying reasons of behavioral functions based on emotions of even others’ bodies (PARSHARIRAVESH परशरीरावेशः) which you should be able to make use or implement (VINIYOG विनियोग) in any field of further exploration and invention etc”.

BRANCHES OF KNOWLEDGE INDICATED – Assessment techniques, study of emotions, laws of communication, development of will, behaviour patterns etc.

RECIPROCAL STATEMENT OF THIS SUTRA
If you are interested in studying the behaviour pattern of people (परशरीरावेशः), then pay attention to the impediments / hurdles (बंधकारण) likely to come in way of your CHITT and the ways to overcome them (शैथिल्यात) as these are common to all the human beings. Behaviour is the result of the impediments one is victim of and the ability / inability to resolve them.

ANALYSIS OF THE COMPARISON AND CONCLUSIONS

It is again a further extension about the functions of CHITT that is capable of analyzing the commonality of behaviour based on emotions (AVESH आवेश) studied under VRITTI (वृत्ति) to the levels of predictions even about unknown others. The following vernacular rendering is the apt description of the idea hinted in the sutra, howsoever mundane it may appear:
अपने हिय से जानिए पर के हिय की बात
There are nine hurdles / reasons enumerated by Patanjali in sutra I-30 and such a state of CHITT is called CHITT VIKSHEP (चित्त विक्षेप). These impediments called ANTARAYA (अन्तरायाः) by Patanjali are universal in nature and are applicable to all human beings. A person who comes over these by the methodology of YOG explained in YOGSHASTRA can alone develop this faculty of CHITT of understanding the behaviour patterns of others. Such a conclusion about the purport of this sutra is quite logical also but we are conditioned to that system of assessment where assessment of sick by the sick is considered perfection; where it is either free for all in the name of so believed noble notion of ‘right to expression’ or a hierarchical approach where the competence and capability of the assessor of others is the least criterion. Either way there is no emphasis on the development of assessing faculty of CHITT. It cannot be also for the simple reason that all chances of human knowledge appropriating the concept of CHITT as discussed by Patanjali have been obliterated by the spiritualistic insistence of converting CHITT into an unverifiable concept of ethereal soul (ATMA आत्मा) and refusing to understand CHITT as CHITT, a unique physical apparatus possessed by all and having definite functions and properties which have got to be found out by hard work and perspiration unlike sitting in idle postures recommended by bluffing techniques of YOGA and its various varieties in vogue.