Some of the important Jain authors who use the term “yoga” to refer to śramaṇa spiritual practices include Haribhadra Virahāṅka (550 CE) and Haribhadra Yākinī Putra (700-770) [1] and Hemacandra (1089-1172). Tradition ascribes both of the Haribhadra-s (Yākinī Putra and Virahāṅka) as being the same person who authored a great number of texts, amongst which are his four main texts on yoga (Yogaviṃśika, Yogaśataka, Yogabindu, and Yoga-dṛṣṭi-sammucaya). 

Haribhadra exemplifies religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue in his approach to Jain Yoga in dialogue with other yoga traditions. Religious pluralism refers to valuing of religious diversity as a source of societal strength, often enhanced through interfaith dialogue, respect, and therefore peace-building (see my earlier blog post, “Jain Dharma as Pluralistic”). 

Criteria for Non-violent Interfaith Dialogue 
Elsewhere I have proposed a set of criteria of nonviolent communication—ahiṃsā communication— that can further interfaith dialogue and peacebuilding. This involves the principles of: (1) ensuring that dialogue is consensual, (2) affording the maximum value to the diverse teachings of other traditions, (3) understanding the “other” by their own self-definition, (4) readily admitting our own limitations with regards to understanding reality at large (“epistemological humility”), and finally, (5) remaining faithful to, and maintaining our own non-negotiable beliefs. Haribhadra’s discussions of Jain yoga follow these elements of nonviolent communication in several of his texts on Jain Yoga.

Criteria #2: Affording Maximum Valuation to the “Other” 
In terms of #2, “affording the maximum value to the diverse teachings of other traditions,” Haribhadra readily validates non-Jain yoga traditions by employing the terms and heuristic frameworks of these traditions when they are applicable to the non-negotiable fundamentals of Jain Dharma. 

Perhaps most consistent with the interests of religious pluralism and peace building, Haribhadra, in his Yoga Bindu,  is adamant that “Yoga of any path will lead to deliverance,” listing the gradations of soteriology in the Hindu Yoga Sūtra, the desire to attain the “eternal self (amṛtātman) of Vedāntins, amongst other Hindu concepts, systems, and theistic beliefs (such as Śiva’s strength arising within, bhava-sakra-sivodaya, Chapple 2016, “Haribhadra,” 136). 

The admission that other systems can attain a similar or the same result—despite one’s disagreement with the ontologies, theologies, etc.—can be considered a strong religious pluralism, and is therefore conducive to the interests of social harmony and strength. It also very much seems consistent with the philosophy of pragmatism which allows spiritual gnosis and advancement for other traditions based on the principle that practice is more of a determining principle of spiritual advancement, far more important than the theoretical underpinnings of otherwise polemical traditions.

Criteria #2: Shared Terms & Heuristic Frameworks
Moreover, in terms of #2, “affording the maximum value to the diverse teachings of other traditions,” Haribhadra readily validates non-Jain yoga traditions by employing the terms heuristic frameworks of these traditions when they are applicable to the non-negotiable fundamentals of Jain Dharma.

Of course, all dharma traditions have a shared understanding of karma as being that which binds one to the suffering of the material universe, and Haribhadra express the Jain karma theory in the terms of the Tattvārtha-sūtra, etc. that we see in other Jain texts.

For example, the dialectic between the instrumental value of pravṛtti- (“active engagement”) with certain behavioral prescriptions and objects of meditation and the intrinsic value of nivṛtti-marga-s (“withdrawn disengagement) from external behaviors and a psychological withdrawal into increasingly interior states of ones being is a dialectic of yoga psychology in many diverse yoga traditions. Pan-yogic systems tend to agree this dialectic in terms of pravṛtti ethical conduct and objects of meditation that become increasingly subtle, and nivṛtti withdrawal from these until one is situated within one’s essential nature (or realizes that one has no essence, as per Buddhists). This also follows the dialect between instrumental karma-yoga – yoga of action –and intrinsic jñāna-yoga, or the yoga of wisdom.   

Haribhadra’s Yoga-Drṣṭi-Samuccaya (YDS) is a thoroughly interfaith text since an important part of his mission in the work is to propose parallel themes between the Vedāntic yoga of Bhagavaddata, and the Buddhist Yoga of Bhāskara. This amounts to “affording the maximum valuation to the dialogical partners,” in this case, Buddhists and Hindus.

Much of the basis for this harmonious parallel, and for Haribhadra’s argument against sectarianism, is that “all those who believe in omniscience and in mokṣa should find no difficulty in forgetting their mutual differences inasmuch as all concepts of omniscience and mokṣa are at root the same” (K.K. Dixit 1970, 55). Further, all traditions are united in the sense that liberation is likened to having been cured by a disease of karma (YDS  188-190).

Chapple does list a variety of Haribhadra’s themes in the YDS that constitute as affording the maximum valuation to his pan-dharmic, pan-yogic dialogical partners. First, he notes that Haribhadra “always refers to good action” in a way that is generalized and applicable to practitioners of any tradition since he doesn’t specify which “holy book (śāstras)…ought to be followed” (Chapple 2003, 8). This is calls to mind how the Quran refers “people of the book” (ahl al-kitāb) in a pluralistic way to emphasize the community of faith and therefore commonality, between practitioners of multiple religions.

[1] Tradition maintains that both Haribhadras (Yākinī Putra and Virahāṅka) are the same person who authored around 1,400 texts, and died either in 478 or 529 BCE. But his familiarity with Dharmakīrti may indicate a date beyond 650 CE (Wiley 2009, 93).

For additional articles on the key figures and texts of the Jain yoga tradition:

• The Yoga of Haribhadra Yākinīputra's Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya by Christopher Jain Miller, PhD
• The Yoga of Haribhadra Virahāṅka’s Yogabindu by Christopher Jain Miller, PhD
• An Overview of Jain Meditation in the Yoga-śāstra by Cogen Bohanec, MA, PhD
• What is “Jain Yoga”? by Christopher Jain Miller, PhD

References

Chapple, Christopher Key. 2016. “Haribhadra Virahāṅka’s Yoga Bindu.” In Yoga in Jainism, edited by Christopher Key Chapple. New York: Routledge.

———.2003. Reconciling Yogas: Haridhadra’s Collection of Views on Yoga. 2003. New York: State University of New York Press.

Dixit, K.K. 1970. Tr. The Yogabindu of Ācārya Haribhadrasūri. Ahmedabad: Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Bharatiya Sanskriti Vidyamandir.

Wiley, Kristi L. 2009. The A to Z of Jainism. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. 

Cogen Bohanec, MA, PhD currently holds the position of Assistant Professor in Sanskrit and Jain Studies at Arihanta Institute where he teaches various courses on Jain philosophy and its applications.  He received his doctorate in Historical and Cultural Studies of Religion from the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, California where his research emphasized comparative dharmic traditions and the philosophy of religion. He teaches several foundational self-paced, online courses based in Jain philosophy, yoga, ecology, languages, and interfaith peace-building, including:

• 2001 | Introduction to Jain Philosophy
• 3001 | Introduction to Jain Yoga
• 1007 | Peacebuilding & Interfaith Dialogue in the Jain Tradition
• 1010 | Toward a Jain Ecotheology
• 2010 | Research Sanskrit: Level 1
• 2012 | University Sanskrit 1 Live