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SANKHYA AND YOGA
prived of by the klešas; for when the yogi wins access to them, he comes into possession like soineone taking title to rights and faculties that always had belonged to him in his character as Man (purusa, alman, purs).
The traditional simile is that of the “King's Son” (rājaputra) who did not know that he was of royal blood and by rights a king. That is to say, there is no bondage fundamentally, no release; we are by nature free. It is only an illusion that we are bound. When the yogi attains to knowledge, no fundamental change takes place in his essence; only his outlook undergoes the change-his understanding of what is “real.” He dismisses the superimposed wrong notions about the underlying reality of himself and everything else, and with that comes into possession of all that he in essence is: rājaputravat, "like the King's Son." 20 The reference of the simile is to the following symbolic tale.
“There was a king's son, once upon a time, who, having been born under an unlucky star, was removed from the capital while still a babe, and reared by a primitive tribesman, a mountaineer, outside the pale of the Brāhman civilization fi.e., as an outcaste, uneducated, ritually unclean). He therefore lived for many years under the false notion: 'I am a mountaineer.' In due time, however, the old king died. And since there was nobody eligible to assume the throne, a certain minister of state, ascertaining that the boy that had been cast away into the wilderness some years before was still alive, went out, searched the wilderness, traced the youth, and, having found him, instructed him: 'Thou art not a mountaineer; thou art the King's Son.' Immediately, the youth abandoned the notion that he was an outcaste and took to himself his royal nature. He said to himself: 'I am a king.'
"So likewise," the text continues, "following the instruction of a merciful being [the guru), who declares: 'Thou didst originate from the Primal Man (ādipuruṣa), that universal divine lisemonad which manifests itself through pure consciousness and is
20 Sankhya-sútras 4. 1.
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| SR No. | 007309 |
| Book Title | Philosophies of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell |
| Publisher | Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1953 |
| Total Pages | 709 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 34 MB |