Silence Unheard: Deathly Otherness in Ptajala-Yoga by Yohanan Grinshpon

Review by: Lola Williamson

The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 63, No. 1 (Feb., 2004), pp. 226-227
Published by: Association for Asian Studies
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226

THE JOURNAL

OF ASIAN STUDIES

dismantle the unjust social order through struggle. Other strands emphasize
reconstruction, employing technologies appropriate to the context and times.
Problems with this book could arise from the proselytizing nature of its arguments
and the presentation of the material. The authors are clearly aiming to create a new
field, and they have succeeded in doing so in some measure. But from the numerous
case studies and examples which the authors cite, one also gets a feeling of being
bombarded with information. Oftentimes the authors pick up the thread of an
argument and then get sidetracked into a welter of details, which blunts the force of
the argument. Nevertheless, the authors' deep and sincere concern about environmental degradation in India and their clear, logical analysis and formidable crossdisciplinary armature make this book a fundamental advance in our understanding of
environmental issues and problems. This book will certainly be widely read and
discussed by all of those interested in developing a better understanding about the
environmental problems of India, in all of their dimensions.
ABDUL JAMIL URFI

Universityof Delhi
Silence Unheard: Deathly Otherness in Pataiijala-Yoga. By YOHANAN
GRINSHPON.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. xii, 156
$54.50
$17.95 (paper).
(cloth);
pp.
The Yogaszitrahas been interpreted in many ways by scholars, yoga practitioners,
and gurus over the course of the two millennia since it was first written. Yohanan
Grinshpon proposes that none of these interpreters ultimately deal with the text's
antisocial, antilife message, nor do they address the text's inclusion of supernormal
powers (siddhis)as being central to the yogin'sreality. In other words, most interpreters
gloss over the radical "otherness"of the yogin's world.
The book is written for readers who are familiar with the Yogasfztratext as well
as its various commentaries. Although Grinshpon explains some technical terms such
as samddhiand kaivalya, his overarching purpose is not to explicate the text itself, but
to make observations about others' expositions of the text. He classifies these
commentators into eight archetypal categories: complacent outsider, ultimate insider,
romantic seeker, universal philosopher, bodily practitioner, mere philologist, classical
scholar, and observers' observer.
By referring to his own interpretation of the text as a myth, Grinshpon highlights
the fact that it is impossible to know the true intent of Patafijali, the purported author
The myth that Grinshpon imagines is this: Patafijali, a socialized,
of the Yogasz7tra.
intellectual scholar of an Indian dualistic philosophy (sdnkhyayoga) encounters an
emaciated, silent yogin who has, through intense discipline, not only broken all
contact with normal reality but has also created a new world for himself in which
flying through the air, understanding the language of animals, and walking on water
are normal occurrences. The goal of the yogin, according to Grinshpon, is
disintegration and dissolution, "a complete completion, infinitely deeper and more
final than death" (p. 2). The world of the yogin is unapproachable by all normal,
socialized human beings, including Patafijali. Not only is the required discipline too
severe for all but a very few but also the goal of that discipline is undesirable for
normal people who "wish to live on and on" (p. 35).
According to Grinshpon, attempts to understand the yogin's universe result in a
mirroring of one's own disposition. This is because the yogin's world is too far from

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BOOK REVIEWS-SOUTH

ASIA

227

the observer's world. Only once, and briefly, does he concede that perhaps there is
some similarity between the yogin and the ordinary person. As he attempts to
understand the attraction of the Yogasltra to so many seekers and scholars, Grinshpon
admits that they must be looking for more than "narcissisticreflection." He contends,
"[a) more likely hypothesis would be the essential identity of the yogin's otherness
with one's innermost being" (p. 35).
Grinshpon's insistence on the extreme otherness of the yogic experience makes
his contribution to the ongoing discourse over the meaning of the Yogasfztraunique.
As well, his assertion that the text be looked at holistically, particularly without
discrediting the centrality of the siddhis to yogic experience, is rare. In this assertion
he agrees with the recent critique made by Ian Whicher in The Integrityof the Yoga
Darsana (State University of New York Press, 1998), which also contends that the
text should be viewed as a unified aggregate. However, this may be the only point
on which the two authors agree. Whereas Whicher sees the text as expounding a
system for achieving integration, Grinshpon sees a system for achieving disintegration;
whereas Whicher sees a map for attaining worldly happiness, Grinshpon sees a map
for attaining world-denying asceticism; whereas Whicher sees light, Grinshpon sees
darkness. (Grinshpon's references to darkness are numerous: for example, "the inner
... is dubious and dark" [p. 11, "the light of subjectivity becomes black" [p. 4], and
"the sunless world of the emaciated yogin's innerness" [p. 201.)
Although Grinshpon does not refer to Whicher's recent commentary, he would
undoubtedly include the author under the rubric of romantic seeker, along with
Mircea Eliade, Heinrich Zimmer, Georg Feuerstein, and others. Grinshpon places
himself in the category of observers' observer, that is, one who comments on others'
interpretations. Of his eight categories, none--except observers' observer-are able
to grasp the unbreachable chasm between the silent yogin and the vocal observer of
that yogin. Even the ultimate insider such as ParamahansaYogananda, whose book
Autobiographyof a Yogi (Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1946) is full of
anecdotes about himself and others that reveal the viability of siddhis, has no
comprehension of this gap. This is because, according to Grinshpon, Yogananda "looks
upon yogic experiences as extensions of ordinary ones .. ." (p. 17). One might think
that Yogananda's example as a well-acknowledged modern-day yogin who was socially
well adjusted would cause Grinshpon to reexamine his thesis that the lonely,
emaciated yogin, and the normal, socialized person have nothing in common.
Grinshpon has a fascination with archetypes, which may engender absorbing
mythology but may also be weak on explanatory power. The silent, dying yogin who
cannot communicate with ordinary people probably existed in Patafijali's time, as in
the present. Likewise, the intellectual philosopher who cannot access inner silence
also exists, but that is not to say that possible combinations of these two types may
not exist as well. Grinshpon's exegesis would be more realistic if it did not insist on
such an extreme polarity between the yogin/yoginT with his or her "aberrantbehavior"
and others with their "well-adjusted perceptions" (p. 1).
LOLA WILLIAMSON

Universityof Wisconsin-Madison

Water in Nepal. By DIPAK GYAWALI. Lalitpur: Himal Books and Panos

South Asia, with Nepal Water Conservation Foundation, 2001. xiv, 280 pp.
$25.00 (cloth).

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