Can Yoga Pave The Way For World Unity

Here's a comprehensive summary of the Jain text "Can Yoga Pave the Way for World Unity?" by Sitadevi Yogendra:

The essay explores the potential of Yoga to foster world unity by examining Yoga as both a culture and a science. The author asserts that Yoga, as old as civilization itself, is a process that aims to overcome and control ignoble aspects of human nature, thereby demonstrating humanity's superiority in achieving ultimate goals. Evidence from ancient scriptures like the Vedas and findings from the Indus civilization suggest that practices leading to physical, mental, moral, and spiritual development existed in archaic forms even before the Aryan arrival in India. These early efforts were later refined, systematized, and compiled into what is known as Yoga.

While there are numerous definitions of Yoga, their unifying principle lies in their collective aim to uplift humanity towards the Absolute through cultural endeavors. Culturally, Yoga is presented as a scientific process of individual cultural evolution, elevating the ignoble in humans to the noble and leading to the realization of the highest consciousness. The text highlights that even divine beings, according to Yoga authorities, attained their status through Yoga.

Scientifically, Yoga is grounded in positive sciences such as physical education, hygiene, therapeutics, psychology, ethics, and sociology, and it inspires cultural arts like music, painting, and literature.

Crucially, the author argues that achieving world unity through Yoga does not necessarily require the complete practice of Yoga, especially its more subjective and advanced stages leading to self-realization. The preliminary training in Yoga, which cultivates social virtues like universal brotherhood (maitri) and universal sympathy (karuna), along with adherence to its catholic vows (yama-niyama), is deemed sufficient to pave the way for world unity.

Yoga's approach to world unity begins with a focus on the individual as the fundamental unit for solving global problems. It acknowledges that individuals inherit impure traits and tendencies from their animality, along with accumulated desires and complexes, necessitating personal reformation. Yoga posits that the simultaneous reformation of masses, with their divergent qualifications, is problematic. Therefore, the most rational alternative is self-education through practical efforts that regenerate mental purity. This personal moral elevation, in turn, is expected to create an elevating reaction in society and the world.

The essay details Yoga's "immaculate moral activism" as the first step towards world unity. This involves cultivating and habituating to vital social virtues through both objective and subjective self-culture, aiming for absolute purity in will, thought, and action in relation to oneself and others. Yoga's negative approach identifies and gradually eliminates elements hindering world unity, while its positive counterpart supports efforts that promote it.

The text outlines specific practices that are fundamental to Yoga and conducive to world unity:

• Yamas (restraints): These include non-violence (ahimsa) in thought, word, and deed; truthfulness (satya); abstinence from theft (asteya); sexual sublimation (brahmacharya); and non-covetousness (aparigraha). These are presented as necessary to counter biological instincts that create division.
• Niyamas (observances): These reinforce moral efforts and include universal brotherhood (maitri), universal sympathy (karuna), complacency (mudita), and non-violent non-cooperation with evil (upeksha). These virtues require lifelong self-control and are considered the foundational lessons in Yoga education for purifying and steadying the mind, making them the most reliable basis for world unity.

The essay then elaborates on other virtues that naturally follow as an individual progresses in Yoga behavior (yogacara): contentment (santosha), purity (sauca), indifference to opposites (tapa), self-education (svadhyaya), and renunciation of the fruits of actions (ishvarapranidhana). When individuals, free from moral and mental impurities, transcend their ego (ahankara), their actions become self-denying and aligned with the common good, thereby paving the way for world unity.

The author summarizes Yoga's scientific moral activism into twelve ethical maxims, presented as practical guides for daily life. These maxims, encompassing both negative (subjective) and positive (objective) aspects of conduct, are universal and harmonize with the teachings of various religions and schools of thought. The key distinction is that Yoga emphasizes actual practice over mere knowledge.

The twelve maxims are:

1. Avoid and disapprove all forms of violence.
2. Think, speak, and act nothing but truth; dissociate from untruth.
3. Practice "live and let live"; resist exploitation.
4. Regulate sex life within marital obligations; refuse passion's force.
5. Accept only due dues; disclaim social injustice.
6. Maintain physical and mental purity; avoid contamination.
7. Be content with what you have; reject immoral gains.
8. Cultivate indifference to pleasure and pain; uphold moral principles.
9. Pursue knowledge for self-realization; condemn intellectual misuse.
10. Discharge duties honorably and leave results to the Absolute; oppose self-aggrandizement.
11. Uphold world fellowship through universal thoughts, speech, and actions; deprecate division.
12. Keep out immoral thoughts; annihilate evil.

The essay concludes by stating that consistent practice of this moral code is sufficient to ensure world unity. Furthermore, it leads to higher states such as immunity from emotional imbalance, improved physical and mental health, character development, inner strength, selfless social service driven by universal love, freedom from ego, a strong moral conscience, sensitivity to social justice, mental purity focused on higher pursuits, psychic equipoise, and ultimately, the enjoyment of absolute holiness. The text ends with a quote from Kundakunda defining a self-disciplined person.