हठयोग प्रदीपिका (योगी स्वात्माराम - ज्योत्स्ना टीका सहित सटीक)

4 HAṬHAYOGAPRADĪPIKĀ
3. To those who wander in the darkness of
conflicting doctrines, being ignorant of Rāja-yoga, the
most compassionate Svātmārāma Yogin offers the light
of Haṭha-vidyā.
Here the author says that it is impossible to obtain Rāja-
vidyā by any other means than the Haṭha-vidyā, that is through
Mantra-yoga, Laya-yoga, contemplation on the images of the
various deities, etc. The name of the author, Svātmārāma Yogin,
is very suggestive. It means one who delights in communion
with his higher Self. This represents the last of the seven stages
of knowledge (jñāna): ‘The Brahmavariṣṭha is one who sports
and delights in his higher Self.’ The seven stages are thus des-
cribed in the Yoga-vāsiṣṭha, one of the most authoritative works
on Yoga: One who has rightly distinguished between the per-
manent and the impermanent; who has cultivated a feeling of
dislike towards worldly pleasures; who, having acquired full
mastery over his organs, physical and mental, feels a deep yearning
to free himself from this cycle of existence, has attained the first
stage: śubhecchā, or a longing for the Truth. He who has pondered
over what he has read and heard and has realized it in his life
has attained the second stage: vicāraṇā or Right Inquiry. When
the mind, having abandoned the many, remains steadily fixed
on the One, he has attained the third stage: tanumānasā or the
attenuation of mental activities. Till now he is a sādhaka or
practitioner. Having reduced his mind by the three previous
stages to a state of pure sattva, when he cognizes directly in himself
the truth, ‘I am Brahman’, he is on the fourth stage: sattvāpatti
or attainment of the state of sattva. Here the Yogin is called
knower of Brahman (brahmavid). Till now he was practising
Samprajñāta Samādhi, or contemplation in which consciousness
of duality still lingers. The three remaining stages form the
Asamprajñāta Samādhi, i.e. having no consciousness of the triad:
knower, knowledge and the known. When the Yogin is unaffected
by the siddhi-s that manifest themselves at this stage, he attains
the stage called asaṁsakti (being unaffected by anything). The