Hindu Philosophy and Dharma -14

CONCENTRATION—ITS PRACTICE - I

SINCE the dawn of history, various extraordinary phenomena
have been recorded as happening amongst human beings.
Witnesses are not wanting in modern times to attest the fact
of such events, even in societies living under the full blaze of
modern science. The vast mass of such evidence is
unreliable, as coming from ignorant, superstitious, or
fraudulent persons. In many instances the so-called miracles
are imitations. But what do they imitate? It is not the sign
of a candid and scientific mind to throw overboard anything
without proper investigation. Surface scientists, unable to
explain the various extraordinary mental phenomena, strive
to ignore their very existence. They are, therefore, more
culpable than those who think that their prayers are answered
by a being, or beings, above the clouds, or than those who
believe that their petitions will make such beings change the
course of the universe. The latter have the excuse of
ignorance, or at least of a false system of education in their
childhood, which has taught them to depend upon such
beings for help, and this dependence has no become a part of
their degenerate nature. The former have no such excuse.
For thousands of years such phenomena have been
investigated, studied, and generalised, the whole ground of
the religious faculty of man has been analysed, and the
practical result is the science of Raja Yoga. Raja Yoga does
not, after the unpardonable manner of some modern
scientists, deny the existence of facts which are very difficult
to explain; on the other hand, it gently, yet in no uncertain
terms, tells the superstitious that miracles and answers to
prayers, and powers of faith, though true as facts, are not
 
rendered comprehensible through the superstitious
explanation of attributing them to the agency of a being, or
beings, above the clouds. It declares to mankind that each
being is only a conduit for the infinite ocean of knowledge
and power that lies behind. It teaches that desires and wants
are in man, that the power of supply is also in man; and that
wherever and whenever a desire, a want, a prayer, has been
fulfilled, it was out of this infinite magazine that the supply
came, and not from any supernatural being. The idea of
supernatural beings may rouse to a certain extent the power
of action in man, but it also brings spiritual decay. It brings
dependence; it brings fear; it brings superstition. It
degenerates into a horrible belief in the natural weakness of
man. There is no supernatural, says the Yogi, but there are in
nature gross manifestations and subtle manifestations. The
subtle are the causes, the gross the effects. The gross can be
easily perceived by the senses; not so the subtle. The
practice of Raja Yoga will lead to the acquisition of the more
subtle perceptions.
All the orthodox systems of Indian philosophy have one
goal in view, the liberation of the soul through perfection.
The method is by Yoga. The word Yoga covers an immense
ground, but both the Sankhya and the Vedantist schools point
to Yoga in some form or other.
The subject of the first lectures in the present book is that
form of Yoga known as Raja Yoga. The aphorisms of
Patanjali are the highest authority and text book on Raja
Yoga. The other philosophers, though occasionally differing
from Patanjali in some philosophical aspect, have, as a rule,
acceded to his method of practice a decided consent. The
first part of this book is comprised of several lectures to
classes delivered by the present writer in New York. The
second part is a rather free translation of the aphorisms
AUTHOR’S PREFACE 
(Sutras) of Patanjali, with a running commentary. Effort
has been made to avoid technicalities as far as possible, and
to keep the free and easy style of conversation. In the first
part some simple and specific directions are given for the
student who wants to practice, but all such are especially and
earnestly reminded that, with few exceptions, Yoga can only
be safely learned by direct contact with a teacher. If these
conversations succeed in awakening a desire for further
information on the subject, the teacher will not be wanting.
The system of Patanjali is based upon the system of the
Sankhyas, the points of difference being very few.
The two most important differences are, first that
Patanjali admits a Personal God in the form of a first
teacher, while the only God the Sankhyas admit is a nearly
perfected being, temporarily in charge of a cycle. Second,
the Yogis hold the mind to be equally all-pervading with the
soul, or Purusa, and the Sankhyas do not.

THE AUTHOR.

CONCENTRATION—ITS PRACTICE - II

1. Mortification, study, and surrendering fruits
of work to God are called Kriya Yoga.
Those Samadhis with which we ended our last chapter are
very difficult to attain; so we must take them up slowly. The
first step, the preliminary step, is called Kriya Yoga.
Literally this means work, working towards Yoga. The
organs are the horses, the mind is the reins, the intellect is
the charioteer, the soul is the rider, and this body is the
chariot. The master of the household, the King, the Self of
man, is sitting in this chariot. If the horses are very strong,
and do not obey the reins, if the charioteer, the intellect, does
not know how to control the horses, then this chariot will
come to grief. But if the organs, the horses, are well
controlled, and if the reins, the mind, are well held in the
hands of the charioteer, the intellect, the chariot, reaches the
goal. What is meant, therefore, by mortification? Holding
the reins firmly while guiding this body and mind: not letting
the body do anything it likes, but keeping them both in
proper control. Study. What is meant by study in this case?
Not study of novels, or fiction, or story books, but study of
those books which teach the liberation of the soul. Then
again this study does not mean controversial studies at all.
The Yogi is supposed to have finished his period of
controversy. He has had enough of all that, and has become
satisfied. He only studies to intensify his convictions. Vada
and Siddhanta. These are the two sorts of Scriptural
knowledge, Vada (the argumentative) and Siddhanta (the
 decisive). When a man is entirely ignorant he takes up the
first part of this, the argumentative fighting, and reasoning,
pro and con.; and when he has finished that he takes up the
Siddhanta, the decisive, arriving at a conclusion. Simply
arriving at this conclusion will not do. It must be intensified.
Books are infinite in number, and time is short; thereofre this
is the secret of knowledge, to take that which is essential.
Take that out, and then try to live up to it. There is an old
simile in India that if you place a cup of milk before a Raja
Hamsa (swan) with plenty of water in it, he will take all the
milk and leave the water. In that way we should take what is
of value in knowledge, and leave the dross. All these
intellectual gymnastics are necessary at first. We must not
go blindly into anything. The Yogi has passed the
argumentative stage, and has come to a conclusion, which is
like the rocks, immovable. The only thing he now seeks to
do is to intensify that conclusion. Do not argue, he say; if
one forces arguments upon you, be silent. Do not answer
any argument, but go away free, because arguments only
disturb the mind. The only thing is to train the intellect, so
what is the use of disturbing it any more. The intellect is but
a weak instrument, and can give only knowledge limited by
the senses; the Yogi wants to go beyond the senses; therefore
the intellect is of no use to him. He is certain of this, and
therefore is silent, and does not argue. Every argument
throws his mind out of balance, creates a disturbance in the
Chitta, and this disturbance is a drawback. These
argumentations and searchings of the reason are only on the
way. There are much higher things behind them. The whole
of life is not for schoolboy fights and debating societies. By
“surrendering the fruits of work to God” is to take to
ourselves neither credit nor blame, but to give both up to the
Lord, and be at peace.
 2. (They are for) the practice of Samadhi and
minimising the pain-bearing obstructions.
Most of us make our minds like spoiled children, allowing
them to do whatever they want. Therefore it is necessary
that there should be constant practice of the previous
mortifications, in order to gain control of the mind, and bring
it into subjection. The obstructions to Yoga arise from lack
of this control, and cause us pain. They can only be
removed by denything the mind, and holding it in check,
through these various means.
3. The pain-bearing obstructions are—
ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion,
and clinging to life.
These are the five pains, the fivefold tie that binds us down.
Of course ignorance is the mother of all the rest. She is the
only cause of all our misery. What else can make us
miserable? The nature of the Soul is eternal bliss. What can
make it sorrowful except ignorance, hallucination, delusion;
all this pain of the soul is simply delusion.
4. Ignorance is the productive field of all them
that follow, whether they are dormant,
attenuated, overpowered, or expanded.
Impressions are the cause of these, and these impressions
exist in different degrees. There are the dormant. You often
hear the expression “innocent as a baby,” yet in the baby
may be the state of a demon or of a god which will come out
by and by. In the Yogi these impressions, the Samskaras left
by past actions, are attenuated; that is, in a very fine state,
and he can control them, and not allow them to become
 
manifest. Overpowered means that sometimes one set of
impressions is held down for a while by those that are
stronger, but they will come out when that repressing cause
is removed. The last state is the expanded, when the
Samskaras, having helpful surroundings, have attained to
great activity, either as good or evil.
5. Ignorance is taking that which is noneternal,
impure, painful, and non-Self, for
the eternal, pure, happy, Atman (Self).
All these various sorts of impression have one source:
ignorance. We have first to learn what ignorance is. All of
us think that “I am the body,” and not the Self, the pure, the
effulgent, the ever blissful, and that is ignorance. We think
of man, and see man as body. This is the great delusion.
6. Egoism is the identification of the seer with
the instrument of seeing.
The seer is really the Self, the pure one, the ever holy, the
infinite, the immortal. That is the Self of man. And what
are the instruments? The Chitta, or mind-stuff, the Buddhi,
determinative faculty, the Manas, or mind, and the Indriyani,
or sense organs. These are the instruments for him to see the
external world, and the identification of the Self with the
instruments is what is called the ignorance of egoism. We
say “I am the mind, I am thought; I am angry, or I am
happy.” How can we be angry, and how can we hate? We
should identify ourselves with the Self; that cannot change.
If it is unchangeable, how can it be one moment happy, and
one moment unhappy? It is formless, infinite, omnipresent.
What can change it? Beyond all law. What can affect it?
Nothing in the universe can produce an effect on it, yet,
 through ignorance, we identify ourselves with the mindstuff,
and think we feel pleasure or pain.
7. Attachment is that which dwells on
pleasure.
We find pleasure in certain things, and the mind, like a
current, flows towards them, and that, following the pleasure
centre, as it were, is attachment. We are never attached to
anyone in whom we do not find pleasure. We find pleasure
in very queer things sometimes, but the definition is just the
same; wherever we find pleasure, there we are attached.
8. Aversion is that which dwells on pain.
That which gives us pain we immediately seek to get away
from.
9. Flowing through its own nature, and
established even in the learned, is the
clinging to life.
This clinging to life you see manifested in every animal, and
upon it many attempts have been made to build the theory of
a future life, because men like their lives so much that they
desire a future life also. Of course it goes without saying
that this argument is without much value, but the most
curious part of it is that, in Western Countries, the idea that
this clinging to life indicates a possibility of a future life
applies only to men, but does not include animals. In India
this clinging to life has been one of the arguments to prove
past experience and existence. For instance, if it be true that
all our knowledge has come from experience, then it is sure
that that which we never experienced we cannot imagine, or
understand. As soon as chickens are hatched they begin to
 
pick up food. Many times it has been seen where ducks have
been hatched by hens, that, as soon as they come out of the
eggs, they flew to water, and the mother thought they would
be drowned. If experience be the only source of knowledge,
where did these chickens learn to pick up food, or the
ducklings that the water was their natural element? If you
say it is instinct, it means nothing—it is simply giving it a
word, but is no explanation. What is this instinct? We have
many instincts in ourselves. For instance, most of you ladies
play the piano, and remember, when you first learned, how
carefully you had to put your fingers on the black and the
white keys, one after the other, but now, after long years of
practice, you can talk with your friends, and your hand goes
on just the same. It has become instinct, it becomes
automatic, but so far as we know, all the cases which we
now regard as automatic are degenerated reason. In the
language of the Yogi, instinct is involved reason.
Discrimination becomes involved, and gets to be automatic
Samskaras. Therefore it is perfectly logical to think that all
we call instinct in this world is simply involved reason. As
reason cannot come without experience, all instinct is,
therefore, the result of past experience. Chickens fear the
hawk, and ducklings love the water, and these are both the
result of past experience, and these are both the result of past
experience. Then the question is whether that experience
belongs to a particular soul, or to the body simply, whether
this experience which comes to the duck is the duck’s
forefather’s experience, or the duck’s own experience.
Modern scientific menhold that it belongs to the body, but
the Yogis hold that it is the experience of the soul,
transmitted through the body. This is called the theory of
reincarnation. We have seen that all of our knowledge,
whether we call it perception or reason, or instinct, must
 
come through that one channel called experience, and all that
we know call instinct is the result of past experience,
degenerated into instinct, and that instinct regenerates into
reason again. So on throughout the universe, and upon this
has been built one of the chief arguments for reincarnation,
in India. The recurring experiences of various fears, in
course of time, produce this clinging to life. That is why the
child is instinctively afraid, because the past experience of
pain is there. Even in the most learned men, who know that
this body will go, and who say “never mind: we have
hundreds of bodies; the soul cannot die”—even in them,
with all their intellectual conviction, we still find this
clinging to life. What is this clinging to life? We have seen
that it has become instinctive. In the psychological language
of Yoga if has become Samskaras. The Samskaras, fine and
hidden, are sleeping in the Chitta. All these past experiences
of death, all that which we call instinct, is experience
become sub-conscious. It lives in the Chitta, and is not
inactive, but is working underneath. These Chitta Vrttis,
these mind-waves, which are gross, we can appreciate and
feel; they can be more easily controlled, but what about these
finer instincts? How can they be controlled? When I am
angry my whole mind has become a huge wave of anger. I
feel it, see it, handle it, can easily manipulate it, can fight
with it, but I shall not succeed perfectly in the fightuntil I can
get down below. A man says something very harsh to me,
and I begin to feel that I am getting heated, and he goes on
until I am perfectly angry, and forget myself, identify myself
with anger. When he first began to abuse me I still thought
“I am going to be angry.” Anger was one thing and I was
another, but when I became angry, I was anger. These
feelings have to be controlled in the germ, the root, in their
fine forms, before even we have become conscious that they
 arte acting on us. With the vast majority of mankind the fine
states of these passions are not even known, the state when
they are slowly coming from beneath consciousness. When
a bubble is rising from the bottom of the lake we do not see
it, or even when it is nearly come to the surface; it is only
when it bursts and makes a ripple that we know it is there.
We shall only be successful in grappling with the waves
when we can get hold of them in their fine casues, and until
you can get hold of them, and subdue them before any
become gross, there is no hope of conquering any passion
perfectly. To control our passions we have to control them
at their very roots; then alone shall we be able to burn out
their very seed. As fried seeds thrown into the ground will
never come up, so these passions will never arise.
10. They, to-be-rejected-by-opposite-modifications,
are fine.
How are these fine Samskaras to be controlled? We have to
begin with the big waves, and come down and down. For
instance, when a big wave of anger has come into the mind,
how are we to control that? Just by raising a big opposing
wave. Think of love. Sometimes a mother is very angry
with her husband, and while in that state the baby comes in,
and she kisses the baby; the old wave dies out, and a new
wave arises, love for the child. That suppresses the other
one. Love is opposite to anger. So we find that by rasing
the opposite waves we can conquer those which we want to
reject. Then, if we can raise in our fine nature those fine
opposing waves, they will check the fine workings of anger
beneath the conscious surface. We have seen now that all
these instinctive actions first began as conscious actions, and
became finer and finer. So, if good waves in the conscious
 
Chitta be constantly raised, they will go down, become
subtle, and oppose the Samskara forms of evil thoughts.
11. By meditation, their modifications are to be
rejected.
Meditation is one of the great means of controlling the rising
of these big waves. By meditation you can make the mind
subdue these waves, and, if you go on practising meditation
for days, and months, and years, until it has become a habit,
until it will come in spite of yourself, anger and hatred will
be controlled and checked.
12. The receptacle of works has its root in these
pain-bearing obstructions, and their
experience in this visible life, or in the
unseen life.
By the receptacle of works is meant the sum-total of these
Samskaras. Whatever work we do, the mind is thrown into a
wave, and, after the work is finished, we think the wave is
gone. No. It has only become fine, but it is still there.
When we try to remember the thing, it comes up again and
becomes a wave. So it was there; if it had not been there,
there would not have been memory. So, every action, every
thought, good or bad, just goes down and becomes fine, and
is there stored up. They are called pain-bearing obstructions,
both happy and unhappy thoughts, because according to the
Yogis, both, in the long run, bring pain. All happiness which
comes from the senses will, eventually, bring pain. All
enjoyment will make us thirst for more, and that brings pain
as its result. There is no limit to man’s desires; he goes on
desring, and when he comes to a point where desire cannot
be fulfilled, the result is pain. Therefore the Yogis regard the
 sum-total of the impressions, good or evil, as pain-bearing
obstructions; they obstruct the way to freedom of the Soul.
It is the same with the Samskaras, the fine roots of all our
works: they are the causes which will again bring effects,
either in this life, or in the lives to come. In exceptional
cases, when these Samskaras are very strong, they bear fruit
quickly; exceptional acts of wickedness, or of goodness,
bring their fruits in this life. The Yogis even hold that men
who are able to acquire a tremendous power of good
Samskaras do not have to die, but, even in this life, can
change their bodies into god-bodies. There are several cases
mentioned by the Yogis in their books. These men change
the very material of their bodies; they re-arrange the
molecules in such fashion that they have no more sickness,
and what we call death does not come to them. Why should
not this be? The physiological meaning of foot is
assimilation of energy from the sun. This energy has
reached the plant, the plant is eaten by an animal, and the
animal by us. The science of it is that we take so much
energy from the sun, and make it part of ourselves. That
being the case, why should there be only one way of
assimilating energy? The plant’s way is not the same as
ours; the earth’s process of assimilating energy differs from
our own. But all assimilate energy in some form or other.
The Yogis say that they are able to assimilate energy by the
power of the mind alone, that they can draw in as much as
they desire without recourse to the orindary methods. As a
spider makes his net out of his own substance, and becomes
bound in his net, and cannot go anywhere except along the
lines of that net, so we have projected out of our own
substance this net-work called the nerves, and we cannot
work except through the channels of those nerves. The Yogi
says we need not be bound by that. Similary, we can send
 electricity to any part of the world, but we have to send it by
means of wires. Nature can send a vast mass of electricity
without any wires at all. Why cannot we do the same? We
can send mental electricity. What we call mind is very much
the same as electricity. It is clear that this nerve fluid has
some amound of electricity, because it is polarised, and it
answers all electrical directions. We can only send our
electricity through these nerve channels. Why not send the
mental electricity without this aid? The Yogi says it is
perfectly possible and practicable, and that when you can do
that you will work all over the universe. You will be able to
work with any body anywhere, without the help of any
nervous system. When the soul is acting through these
channels we say a man is living and when those channels die
the man is said to be said. But when a man is able to act
either with or without these channels, birth and death will
have no meaning for him. All the bodies in the universe are
made up of Tanmatras, and it is only in the arrangement of
them that there comes a difference. If you are the arranger
you can arrange that body in one way or another. Who
makes up this body but you? Who eats the food? If another
ate the food for you, you would not live long. Who makes
the blood out of it? You, certainly. Who assimilates the
blood, and sends it through the veins? You. Who creates
the nerves, and makes all the muscles? You are the
manufacturer, out of your own substance. You are the
manufacturer of the body, and you live in it. Only we have
lost the knowledge of how to make it. We have become
automatic, degenerate. We have forgotten the process of
manufacture. So, what we do automatically has again to be
regulated. We are the creators and we have to regulate that
creation, and as soon as we can do that we shall be able to
 
manufacture just as we like, and then we shall have neither
birth nor death, disease, or anything.
13. The root being there, the fruition comes (in
the form of) species, life, and expression of
pleasure and pain.
The roots, the causes, the Samskaras being there, they again
manifest, and form the effects. The cause dying down
becomes the effect, and the effect becomes more subtle, and
becomes the cause of the next effect. The tree bears a seed,
and becomes the cause of the next tree, and so on. All our
works now, are the effects of past Samskaras. Again, these
Samskaras become the cause of future actions, and thus we
go on. So this aphorism says that the cause being there, the
fruit must come, in the form of species; one will be a man,
another an angel, another an animal, another a demon. Then
there are different effects in life; one man lives fifty years,
another a hundred, and another dies in two years, and never
attains maturity; all these differences in life are regulated by
these past actions. One man is born, as it were, for pleasure;
if he buries himself in a forest pleasure will follow him
there. Another man, wherever he goes, pain follows him,
everything becomes painful. It is all the result of their own
past. According to the philosophy of the Yogis all virtuous
actions bring pleasure, and all vicious actions bring pain.
Any man who does wicked deeds is sure to reap the fruit of
them in the form of pain.
14. They bear fruit as pleasure or pain, caused
by virtue or vice.
15. To the discriminating, all is, as it were,
painful on account of everything bringing
 pain, either in the consequences, or in
apprehension, or in attitude caused by
impressions, also on account of the counter
action of qualities.
The Yogis say that the man who has discriminating powers,
the man of good sense, sees through all these various things,
which are called pleasure and pain, and knows that they are
always equally distributed, and that one follows the other,
and melts into the other; he sees that men are following an
ignis fatuus all their lives, and never succeed in fulfilling
their desires. There was never a love in this world which did
not know decay. The great king Yudisthira once said that
the most wonderful thing in life is that every moment we see
people dying around us, and yet we think we shall never die.
Surrounded by fools on every side, we think we are the only
exceptions, the only learned men. Surrounded by all sorts of
experiences of fickleness, we think our love is the only
lasting love. How can that be? Even love is selfish, and the
Yogi says that, in the end, we shall find that even the love of
husbands and wives, and children and friends, slowly
decays. Decadence seizes everything in this life. It is only
when everything, even love, fails, that, with a flash, man
finds out how vain, how dream-like is this world. Then he
catches a glimpse of Vairagyam (renunciation), catches a
glimpse of the beyond. It is only by giving up this world
that the other comes; never through building on to this one.
Never yet was there a great soul who had not to reject sense
pleasures and enjoyments to become such. The cause of
misery is the clash between difference forces of nature, one
dragging one way, and another dragging another, rendering
permanent happiness impossible.
 
16. The misery which is not yet come is to be
avoided.
Some Karma we have worked out already, some we are
working out now in the present, and some is waiting to bear
fruit in the future. That which we have worked out already
is past and gone.
That which we are experiencing now we will have to
work out, and it is only that which is waiting to bear fruit in
the future that we can conquer and control, so all our forces
should be directed towards the control of that Karma which
has not yet borne fruit. That is meant in the previous
aphorism, when Patanjali says that these various Samskaras
are to be controlled by counteracting waves.
17. The cause of that which is to be avoided is
the junction of the seer and the seen.
Who is the seer? The Self of Man, the Purusa. What is the
seen? The whole of nature, beginning with the mind, down
to gross matter. All this pleasure and pain arises from the
junction between this Purusa and the mind. The Purusa,
you must remember, according to this philosophy, is pure; it
is when it is joined to nature, and by reflection, that it
appears to feel either pleasure or pain.
18. The experienced is composed of elements
and organs, is of the nature of illumination,
action and intertia, and is for the purpose of
experience and release (of the experiencer).
The experienced, that is nature, is composed of elements and
organs—the elements gross and fine which compose the
whole of nature, and the organs of the senses, mind, etc., and
 is of the nature of illumination, action, and intertia. These
are what in Sanskrit are called Sattva (illumination), Rajas
(action), and Tamas (darkness); each is for the purpose of
experience and relase. What is the purpose of the whole of
nature? That the Purusa may gain experience. The Purusa
has, as it were, forgotten its mighty, godly, nature. There is
a story that the king of the gods, Indra, once became a pig,
wallowing in mire; he had a she pig, and a lot of baby pigs,
and was very happy. Then some other angels saw his plight,
and came to him, and told him, “You are the king of the
gods, you have all the gods command. Why are you here?”
But Indra said, “Let me be; I am all right here; I do not care
for the heavens, while I have this sow and these little pigs.”
The poor gods were at their wits’ end what to do. After a
time they decided to slowly come and slay one of the little
pigs, and then another, until they had slain all the pigs, and
the sow too. When all were dead Indra began to weep and
mourn. Then the gods ripped his pig body open and he came
out of it, and began to laugh when he realised what a hideous
dream he had had; he, the king of the gods, to have become a
pig, and to think that the pig-life was the only life! Not only
so, but to have wanted the whole universe to come into the
pig life! The Purusa, when it identifies itself with nature,
forgets that it is pure and infinite. The Purusa does not live;
it is life itself. It does not exist; it is existence itself. The
Soul does not know; it is knowledge itself. It is an entire
mistake to say that the Soul lives, or knows, or loves. Love
and existence are not the qualities of the Purusa, but its
essence. When they get reflected upon something you may
call them the qualities of that something. But they are not
the qualities of the Purusa, but the essence of this great
Atman, this Infinite Being, without birth or death, Who is
established in His own glory, but appears as if become
 degenerate until if you approach to tell Him, “You are not a
pig,” he begins to squeal and bite. Thus with us all in this
Maya, this dream world, where it is all misery, weeping, and
crying, where a few golden balls are rolled, and the world
scrambles after them. You were never bound by laws,
Nature never had a bond for you. That is what the Yogi tells
you; have patience to learn it. And the Yogi shows how, by
junction with this nature, and identifying itself with the mind
and the world, the Purusa thinks itself miserable. Then the
Yogi goes on to show that the way out is through experience.
You have to get all this experience, but finish it quickly. We
have placed ourselves in this net, and will have to get out.
We have got ourselves caught in the trap, and we will have
to work out our freedom. So get this experience of husbands
and wives, and friends, and little loves, and you will get
through them safely if you never forget what you really are.
Never forget this is only a momentary state, and that we
have to pass through it. Experience is the one great
teacher—experiences of pleasure and pain—but know they
are only experiences, and will all lead, step by step, to that
state when all these things will become small, and the
Purusa will be so great that this whole universe will be as a
drop in the ocean, and will fall off by its own nothingness.
We have to go through these experiences, but let us never
forget the ideal.
19. The states of the qualities are the defined,
the undefined, the indicated only, and the
signless.
The system of Yoga is built entirely on the philosophy of the
Sankhyas, as I told you in some of the previous lectures, and
here again I will remind you of the cosmology of the
 Sankhya philosophy. According to the Sankhyas, nature is
both the material and efficient cause of this universe. In this
nature there are three sorts of materials, the Sattva, the
Rajas, and the Tamas. The Tamas material is all that is dark,
all that is ignorant and heavy; and the Rajas is activity. The
Sattvas is calmness, light. When nature is in the state before
creation, it is called by them Avyaktam, undefined, or
indiscrete; that is, in which there is no distinction of form or
name, a state in which these three materials are held in
perfect balance. Then the balance is disturbed, these
different materials begin to mingle in various fashions, and
the result is this universe. In every man, also, these three
materials exist. When the Sattva material prevails
knowledge comes. When the Rajas material prevails activity
comes, and when the Tamas material prevails darkness
comes and lassitude, idleness, ignorance. According to the
Sankhya theory, the highest manifestation of this nature,
consisting of these three materials, is what they call Mahat,
or intelligence, universal intelligence, and each human mind
is a part of that cosmic intelligence. Then out of Mahat
comes the mind. In the Sankhya Psychology there is a sharp
distinction between Manas, the mind function, and the
function of the Buddhi intellect. The mind function is
simply to collect and carry impressions and present them to
the Buddhi, the individual Mahat, and the Buddhi
determined upon it. So, out of Mahat comes mind, and out
of mind comes fine material, and this fine material combines
and becomes the gross material outside—the external
universe. The claim of the Sankhya philosophy is that
beginning with the intellect, and coming down to a block of
stone, all has come out of the same thing, only as finer or
grosser states of existence. The Buddhi is the finest state of
existence of the materials, and then comes Ahamkara,
 egoism, and next to the mind comes fine material, which
they call Tanmatras, which cannot be seen, but which are
inferred. These Tanmatras combine and become grosser,
and finally produce this universe. The finer is the cause, and
the grosser is the effect. It begins with the Buddhi, which is
the finest material, and goes on becoming grosser and
grosser, until it becomes this universe. According to the
Sankhya philosophy, beyond the whole of this nature is the
Purusa, which is not material at all. Purusa is not at all
similar to anything else, either Buddhi, or mind, or the
Tanmatras, or the gross material; it is not akin to any one of
these, it is entirely separate, entirely different in its nature,
and from this they argue that the Purusa must be immortal,
because it is not the result of combination. That which is not
the result of combination cannot die, these Purusas or Souls
are infinite in number. Now we shall understand the
Aphorism, that the states of the qualities are defined,
undefined, and signless. By the defined is meant the gross
elements, which we can sense. By the undefined is meant
the very fine materials, the Tanmatras, which cannot be
sensed by ordinary men. If you practice Yoga, however,
says Patanjali, after a while your perception will become so
fine that you will actually see the Tanmatras. For instance,
you have heard how every man has a certain light about him;
every living being is emanating a certain light, and this, he
says, can be seen by the Yogi. We do not all see it, but we
are all throwing out these Tanmatras, just as a flower is
continuously emanating these Tanmatras, which enable us to
smell it. Every day of our lives we are throwing out a mass
of good or evil, and everywhere we go the atmosphere is full
of these materials, and that is how there came to the human
mind, even unconsciously, the idea of building temples and
churches? Why should man build churches in which to
 worship God? Why not worship Him anywhere? Even if he
did not know the reason, man found that that place where
people worshipped God became full of good Tanmatras.
Every day people go there, and the more they go the holier
they get, and the holier that place becomes. If any man who
has not much Sattva in him goes there the place will
influence him, and arouse his Sattva quality. Here,
therefore, is the significance of all temples and holy places,
but you must remember that their holiness depends on holy
people congregating there. The difficulty with mankind is
that they forget the original meaning, and put the cart before
the horse. It was men who made these places holy, and then
the effect became the cause and made men holy. If the
wicked only were to go there it would become as bad as any
other place. It is not the building, but the people, that make
a church, and that is what we always forget. That is why
sages and holy persons, who have so much of this Sattva
quality, are emanating so much of it around them, and
exerting a tremendous influence day and night on their
surroundings. A man may become so pure that his purity
will become tangible, as it were. The body has become pure,
and in an intensely physical sense, no figurative idea, no
poetical language, it emanates that purity wherever it goes.
Whosoever comes in contact with that man becomes pure.
Next “the indicated only” means the Buddhi, the intellect.
“The indicated only” is the first manifestation of nature;
from it all other manifestations proceed. The last is “the
signless.” Here there seems to be a great fight between
modern science and all religion. Every religion has this idea
that this universe comes out of intelligence. Only some
religions were more philosophical, and used scientific
language. The very theory of God, taking it in its
psychological significance, and apart from all ideas of
 
personal God, is that intelligence is first in the order of
creation, and that out of intelligence comes what we call
gross matter. Modern philosophers say that intelligence is
the last to come. They say that unintelligent things slowly
evolve into animals, and from animals slowly evolve into
men. They claim that instead of everything coming out of
intelligence, intelligence is itself the last to come. Both the
religious and the scientific statement, though seemingly
directly opposed to each other, are true. Take an infinite
series A—B—A—B—A—B, etc. The question is which is
first, A or B. If you take the series as A—, you will say that
A is first, but if you take it as B—A you will say that B is
first. It depends on the way you are looking at it.
Intelligence evolves, and becomes the gross material, and
this again evolves as intelligence, and again evolves as
matter once more. The Sankhyas, and all religionists, put
intelligence first, and the series becomes intelligence then
matter, intelligence then matter. The scientific man puts his
finger on matter, and say matter then intelligence, matter
then intelligence. But they are both indicating the same
chain. Indian philosophy, however, goes beyond both
intelligence and matter, and finds a Purusa, or Self, which is
beyond all intelligence, and of which intelligence is but the
borrowed light.
20. The seer is intelligence only, and though
pure, seen through the colouring of the
intellect.
This is again Sankhya philosophy. We have seen from this
philosophy that from the lowest form up to intelligence all is
nature, but beyond nature are Purusas (souls), and these
have no qualities. Then how does the soul appear to be
 happy or unhappy? By reflection. Just as if be piece of pure
crystal be put on a table and a red flower be put near it, the
crystal appears to be red, so all these appearances of
happiness or unhappiness are but reflections; the soul itself
has no sort of colouring. The soul is separate from nature;
nature is one thing, soul another, eternally separate. The
Sankhyas say that intelligence is a compounds, that it grows
and wanes, that it changes, just as the body changes, and that
its nature is nearly the same as that of the body. As a fingernail
is to the body, so is body to intelligence. The nail is a
part of the body, but it can be pared off hundreds of times,
and the body will still last. Similarly, the intelligence lasts
æons, while this body can be pared off, thrown off. Yet
intelligence cannot be immortal, because is changes—
growing and waning. Anything that changes cannot be
immortal. Certainly intelligence is manufactured, and that
very fact shows us that there must be something beyond that,
because it cannot be free. Everything connected with matter
is in nature, and therefore bound for ever. Who is free?
That free one must certainly be beyond cause and effect. If
you say that the idea of freedom is a delusion, I will say that
the idea of bondage is also a delusion. Two facts come into
our consciousness, and stand or fall by each other. One is
that we are bound. If we want to go through a wall, and our
head bumps against that wall, we are limited by that wall.
At the same time we find will, and think we can direct our
will everywhere. At every step these contradictory ideas are
coming to us. We have to believe that we are free, yet at
every moment we find we are not free. If one idea is a
delusion, the other is also a delusion, because both stand
upon the same basis—consciousness. The Yogi says both
are true; that we are bound so far as intelligence goes, that
we are free as far as the soul is concerned. It is the real
 nature of man, the Soul, the Purusa, which is beyond all law
of causation. Its freedom is percolating through layers and
layers of matter, in various forms of intelligence, and mind,
and all these things. It is its light which is shining through
all. Intelligence has no light of its own. Each organ has a
particular centre in the brain; it is not that all the organs have
one centre; each organ is separate. Why do all these
perceptions harmonise, and where do they get their unity? If
it were in the brain there would be one centre only for the
eyes, the nose, the ears, while we know for certain that there
are different centres for each. But a man can see and hear at
the same time, so a unity must be back of intelligence.
Intelligence is eternally connected with the brain, but behind
even intelligence stands the Purusa, the unit, where all these
different sensations and perceptions join and become one.
Soul itself is the centre where all the different organs
converge and become unified, and that Soul is free, and it is
its freedom that tells you every moment that you are free.
But you mistake, and mingle that freedom every moment
with intelligence and mind. You try to attribute that freedom
to the intelligence, and immediately find that intelligence is
not free; you attribute that freedom to the body, and
immediately nature tells you that you are again mistaken.
That is why there is this mingled sense of freedom and
bondage at the same time. The Yogi analyses both what is
free and what is bound, and his ignorance vanishes. He finds
that the Purusa is free, is the essence of that knowledge
which, coming through the Buddhi, becomes intelligence,
and, as such, is bound.
21. The nature of the experience is for him.
Nature has no light of its own. As long as the Purusa is
present in it, it appears light, but the light is borrowed; just
 as the moon’s light is reflected. All the manifestations of
nature are caused by this nature itself, according to the
Yogis; but nature has no purpose in view, except to free the
Purusa.
22. Though destroyed for him whose goal has
been gained, yet is not destroyed, being
common to others.
The whole idea of this nature is to make the Soul know that
it is entirely separate from nature, and when the Soul knows
this, nature has no more attractions for it. But the whole of
nature vanishes only for that man who has become free.
There will always remain an infinite number of others, for
whom nature will go on working.
23. Junction is the cause of the realisation of
the nature of both the powers, the
experienced and its Lord.
According to this aphorism, when this Soul comes into
conjunction with nature, both the power of the Soul and the
power of nature become manifest in this conjunction, and all
these manifestations are thrown out. Ignorance is the cause
of this conjunction. We see every day that the cause of our
pain or pleasure is always our joining ourselves with the
body. If I were perfectly certain that I am not this body, I
should take no notice of heat and cold, or anything of the
kind. This body is a combination. It is only a fiction to say
that I have one body, you another, and the sun another. The
whole universe is one ocean of matter, and you are the name
of a little particle, and I of another, and the sun of another.
We know that this matter is continuously changing, what is
 
forming the sun one day, the next day may form the matter
of our bodies.
24. Ignorance is its cause.
Through ignorance we have joined ourselves with a
particular body, and thus opened ourselves to misery. This
idea of body is a simple superstition. It is superstition that
makes us happy or unhappy. It is superstition caused by
ignorance that makes us feel heat and cold, pain and
pleasure. It is our business to rise above this superstition,
and the Yogi shows us how we can do this. It has been
demonstrated that, under certain mental conditions, a man
may be burned, yet, while that condition lasts, he will feel no
pain. The difficulty is that this sudden upheaval of the mind
comes like a whirlwind one minute, and goes away the next.
If, however, we attain it scientifically, through Yoga, we
shall permanently attain to that separation of Self from the
body.
25. There being absence of that (ignorance) there
is absence of junction, which is the thingto-
be-avoided; that is the independence of
the seer.
According to this Yoga philosophy it is through ignorance
that the Soul has been joined with nature and the idea is to
get rid of nature’s control over us. That is the goal of all
religions. Each Soul is potentially divine. The goal is to
manifest this Divinity within, by controlling nature, external
and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic
control, or by philosophy, by one, or more, or all of these—
and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or
dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but
 secondary details. The Yogi tries to reach this goal through
psychic control. Until we can free ourselves from nature we
are slaves; as she dictates so we must go. The Yogi claims
that he who controls mind controls matter also. The internal
nature is much higher that the external, and much more
difficult to grapple with, much more difficult to control;
therefore he who has conquered the internal nature controls
the whole universe; it becomes his servant. Raja Yoga
propounds the methods of gaining this control. Higher
forces than we know in physical nature will have to be
subdued. This body is just the external crust of the mind.
They are not two different things; they are just as the oyster
and its shell. They are but two aspects of one thing; the
internal substance of the oyster is taking up matter from
outside, and manufacturing the shell. In the same way these
internal fine forces which are called mind take up gross
matter from outside, and from that manufacture this external
shell, or body. If then, we have control of the internal, it is
very easy to have control of the external. Then again, these
forces are not different. It is not that some forces are
physical, and some mental; the physical forces are but the
gross manifestations of the fine forces, just as the physical
world is but the gross manifestation of the fine world.
26. The means of destruction of ignorance is
unbroken practice of discrimination.
This is the real goal of practice—discrimination between the
real and unreal, knowing that the Purusa is not nature, that it
is neither matter nor mind, and that because it is not nature,
it cannot possibly change. It is only nature which changes,
combining, and recombining, dissolving continually. When
through constant practice we begin to discriminate,
 ignorance will vanish, and the Purusa will begin to shine in
its real nature, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent.
27. His knowledge is of the sevenfold highest
ground.
When this knowledge comes, it will come, as it were, in
seven grades, one after the other, and when one of these has
begun we may know that we are getting knowledge. The
first to appear will be that we have known what is to be
known. The mind will cease to be dissatisfied. While we
are aware of thirsting after knowledge we begin to seek here
and there, wherever we think we can get some truth, and,
failing to find it we become dissatisfied and seek in a fresh
direction. All search is vain, until we begin to perceive that
knowledge is within ourselves, that no one can help us, that
we must help ourselves. When we begin to practice the
power of discrimination, the first sign that we are getting
near truth will be that that dissatisfied state will vanish. We
shall feel quite sure that we have found the truth, and that it
cannot be anything else but the truth. Then we may know
that the sun is rising, that the morning is breaking for us,
and, taking courage, we must persevere until the goal is
reached. The second grade will be that all pains will be
gone. It will be impossible for anything in the universe,
physical, mental, or spiritual, to give us pain. The third will
be that we shall get full knowledge, that omniscience will be
ours. Next will come what is called freedom of the Chitta.
We shall realise that all these difficulties and struggles have
fallen off from us. All these vacillations of the mind, when
the mind cannot be controlled, have falled down, just as a
stone falls from the mountain top into the valley and never
comes up again. The next will be that this Chitta itself will
 
realise that it melts away into its causes whenever we so
desire. Lastly we shall find that we are established in our
Self, that we have been alone throughout the universe,
neither body nor mind was ever connected with us, much
less joined to us. They were working their own way, and
we, through ignorance, joined ourselves to them. But we
have been alone, omnipotent, omnipresent, ever blessed; our
own Self was so pure and perfect that we required none else.
We required none else to make us happy, for we are
happiness itself. We shall find that this knowledge does not
depend on anything else; throughout the universe there can
be nothing that will not become effulgent before our
knowledge. This will be the last state, and the Yogi will
become peaceful and calm, never to feel any more pain,
never to be again deluded, never to touch misery. He knows
he is ever blessed, ever perfect, almighty.
28. By the practice of the different parts of
Yoga the impurities being destroyed
knowledge becomes effulgent, up to
discrimination.
Now comes the practical knowledge. What we have just
been speaking about is much higher. It is way above our
heads, but it is the ideal. It is first necessary to obtain
physical and mental control. Then the realisation will
become steady in that ideal. The ideal being known, what
remains is to practise the method of reaching it.
29. Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara,
Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi, are the
limbs of Yoga.
 30. Non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing,
continence, and non-receiving, are called
Yama.
A man who wants to be a perfect Yogi must give up the sex
idea. The Soul has no sex; why should it degrade itself with
sex ideas? Later we shall understand better why these ideas
must be given up. Receiving is just as bad as stealing;
receiving gifts from others. Whoever receives gifts, his
mind is acted on by the mind of the giver, so that the man
who receives gifts becomes degenerated. Receiving gifts
destroys the independence of the mind, and makes us mere
slaves. Therefore, receive nothing.
31. These, unbroken by time, place, purpose,
and caste, are (universal) great vows.
These practices, non-killing, non-stealing, chastity, and nonreceiving,
are to be practiced by every man, woman and
child, by every soul, irrespective of nation, country or
position.
32. Internal and external purification, contentment,
mortification, study, and worship of
God, are the Niyamas.
External purification is keeping the body pure; a dirty man
will never become a Yogi. There must be internal
purification also. That is obtained by the first-named virtues.
Of course internal purity is of greater value that external, but
both are necessary, and external purity, without internal, is
of no good.
33. To obstruct thoughts which are inimical to
Yoga contrary thoughts will be brought.
 This is the way to practice all these virtues that have been
stated, by holding thoughts of an opposite character in the
mind. When the idea of stealing comes, non-stealing should
be thought of. When the idea of receiving gifts comes,
replace it by a contrary thought.
34. The obstructions to Yoga are killing etc.,
whether committed, caused, or approved;
either through avarice, or anger, or ignorance;
whether slight, middling, or great, and result
is innumerable ignorances and miseries. This
is (the method of) thinking the contrary.
If I tell I lie, or cause another to tell a lie, or approve of
another doing so, it is equally sinful. If it is a very mild lie,
it is still a lie. Every vicious thought will rebound, every
thought of hatred which you have thought, in a cave even, is
stored up, and will one day come back to you with
tremendous power in the form of some misery here. If you
project all sorts of hatred and jealousy, they will rebound on
you with compound interest. No power can avert them; when
once you have put them in motion you will have to bear
them. Remembering this, will prevent you from doing
wicked things.
35. Non-killing being established, in his
presence all emnities cease (in others).
If a man gets the idea of non-injuring others, before him
even animals which are by their nature ferocious will
become peaceful. The tiger and the lamb will play together
before that Yogi and will not hurt each other. When you
have come to that state, then alone you will understand that
you have become firmly established in non-injuring.
 
36. By the establishment of truthfulness the
Yogi gets the power of attaining for himself
and others the fruits of work without the
works.
When this power of truth will be established with you, then
even in dream you will never tell an untruth, in thought,
word or deed; whatever you say will be truth. You may say
to a man “Be blessed,” and that man will be blessed. If a
man is diseased, and you say to him, “Be thou cured,” he
will be cured immediately.
37. By the establishment of non-stealing all
wealth comes to the Yogi.
The more you fly from nature the more she follows you, and
if you do not care for her at all she becomes your slave.
38. By the establishment of continence energy
is gained.
The chaste brain has tremendous energy, gigantic will power,
without that there can be no mental strength. All men of
gigantic brains are very continent. It gives wonderful control
over mankind. Leaders of men have been very continent, and
this is what gave them power. Therefore the Yogi must be
continent.
39. When he is fixed in non-receiving he gets
the memory of past life.
When the Yogi does not receive presents from others he does
not become beholden to others, but becomes independent
and free, and his mind becomes pure, because with every gift
he receives all the evils of the giver, and they come and lay
coating after coating on his mind, until it is hidden under all
 sorts of coverings of evil. If he does not receive the mind
becomes pure, and the first thing it gets is memory of past
life. Then alone the Yogi becomes perfectly fixed in his ideal,
because he sees that he has been coming and going so many
times, and he becomes determined that this time he will be
free, that he will no more come and go, and be the slave of
Nature.
40. Internal and external cleanliness being
established, arises disgust for one’s own
body, and non-intercourse with other bodies.
When there is real purification of the body, external and
internal, there arises neglect of the body, and all this idea of
keeping it nice will vanish. What others call the most
beautiful face to the Yogi will appear to be an animal’s face,
if there is not intelligence behind it. What the world will call
a very common face he will call heavenly, if that spirit
shines behind it. This thirst after body is the great bane of
human life. So, when this purity is established, the first sign
will be that you do not care to think you are a body. It is
only when purity comes that we get rid of this body idea.
41. There also arises purification of the Sattva,
cheerfulness of the mind, concentration,
conquest of the organs, and fitness for the
realisation of the Self.
By this practice the Sattva material will prevail, and the
mind will become concentrated and cheerful. The first sign
that you are become religious is that you are becoming
cheerful. When a man is gloomy that may be dyspepsia, but
it is not religion. A pleasurable feeling is the nature of the
Sattva. Everything is pleasurable to the Sattvika man, and
 
when this comes, know that you are progressing in Yoga.
All pain is caused by Tamas, so you must get rid of that;
moroseness is one of the results of Tamas. The strong, the
well-knit, the young, the healthy, the daring alone are fit to
be Yogis. To the Yogi everything is bliss, every human face
that he sees brings cheerfulness to him. That is the sign of a
virtuous man. Misery is caused by sin, and by no other
cause. What business have you with clouded faces; it is
terrible. If you have a clouded face do not go out that day,
shut yourself up in your room. What right have you to carry
this disease out into the world? When your mind has
become controlled you will have control over the whole
body; instead of being a slave to the machine, the machine
will be your slave. Instead of this machine being able to
drag the soul down it will be its greatest helpmate.
42. From contentment comes superlative
happiness.
43. The result of mortification is bringing
powers to the organs and the body, by
destroying the impurity.
The results of mortification are seen immediately sometimes
by heightened powers of vision, and so on, hearing things at
a distance, etc.
44. By repetition of the mantram comes the
realisation of the intended deity.
The higher the beings that you want to get the harder is the
practice.
45. By sacrificing all to Icvara comes Samadhi.
By resignation to the Lord, Samadhi becomes perfect.
 46. Posture is that which is firm and pleasant.
Now comes Asana, posture. Until you can get a firm seat
you cannot practice the breathing and other exercises. The
seat being firm means that you do not feel the body at all;
then alone it has become firm. But, in the ordinary way, you
will find that as soon as you sit for a few minutes all sorts of
disturbances come into the body; but when you have got
beyond the idea of a concrete body you will lose all sense of
the body. You will feel neither pleasure nor pain. And
when you take your body up again it will feel so rested; it is
the only perfect rest that you can give to the body. When
you have succeeded in conquering the body and keeping it
firm, your practice will remain firm, but while you are
disturbed by the body your nerves become disturbed, and
you cannot concentrate the mind. We can make the seat firm
by thinking of the infinite. We cannot think of the Absolute
Infinite, but we can think of the infinite sky.
47. By slight effort and meditating on the unlimited
(posture becomes firm and pleasant).
Light and darkness, pleasure and pain, will not then disturb
you.
48. Seat being conquered, the dualities do not
obstruct.
The dualities are good and bad, heat and cold, and all the
pairs of opposites.
49. Controlling the motion of the exhalation
and the inhalation follows after this.
When the posture has been conquered, then this motion is to
be broken and controlled, and thus we come to Pranayama;
 the controlling of the vital forces of the body. Prana is not
breath, though it is usually so translated. It is the sum-total
of the cosmic energy. It is the energy that is in each obdy,
and its most apparent manifestation is the motion of the
lungs. This motion is caused by Prana drawing in the
breath, and is what we seek to control in Pranayama. We
begin by controlling the breaht, as the easiest way of getting
control of the Prana.
50. Its modifications are either external or
internal, or motionless, regulated by place,
time, and number, either long or short.
The three sorts of motion of this Pranayama are, one by
which we draw the breath in, another by which we throw it
out, and the third action is when the breath is held in the
lungs, or stopped from entering the lungs. These, again, are
varied by place and time. By place is meant that the Prana
is held to some particular part of the body. By time is meant
ho wlong the Prana should be confined to a certain place,
and so we are told how many seconds to keep on motion,
and how many seconds to keep another. The result of this
Pranayama is Udghata, awakening the Kundalini.
51. The fourth is restraining the Prana by
directing it either to the external or internal
objects.
This is the fourth sort of Pranayama. Prana can be directed
either inside or outside.
52. From that, the covering to the light of the
Chitta is attenuated.
 The Chitta has, by its own nature, all knowledge. It is made
of Sattva particles, but is covered by Rajas and Tamas
particles, and by Pranayama this covering is removed.
53. The mind becomes fit for Dharana.
After this covering has been removed we are able to
concentrate the mind.
54. The drawing in of the organs is by their
giving up their own objects and taking the
form of the mind-stuff.
These organs are separate states of the mind-stuff. I see a
book; the form is not in the book, it is in the mind.
Something is outside which calls that form up. The real
form is in the Chitta. These organs are identifying
themselves with, and taking the forms of whatever comes to
them. If you can restrain the mind-stuff from taking these
forms the mind will remain calm. This is called Pratyahara.
Thence arises supreme control of the organs.
When the Yogi has succeeded in preventing the organs
from taking the forms of external objects, and in making
them remain one with the mind-stuff, then comes perfect
control of the organs, and when the orgns are perfectly under
control, every muscle and nerve will be under control,
because the organs are the centres of all the senstations, and
of all actions. These organs are divided into organs of work
and organs of sensation. When the organs are controlled the
Yogi can control all feeling and doing; the whole of the body
will be under his control. Then alone one begins to feel joy
in being born; then one can truthfully say, “Blessed am I that
I was born. “ When that control of the organs is obtained,
we feel how wonderful this body really is.

THE CHAPTER OF POWERS

We have now come to the chapter which is called the
Chapter of Powers.
1. Dharana is holding the mind on to some
particular object.
Dharana (concentration) is when the mind holds on to some
object, either in the body, or outside the body, and keeps
itself in that state.
2. An unbroken flow of knowledge to that
object is Dhyana.
The mind tries to think of one object, to hold itself to one
particular spot, as the top of the head, the heart, etc., and if
the mind succeeds in receiving the sensations only through
that part of the body, and through no other part, that would
be Dharana, and when the mind succeeds in keeping itself in
that state for some time it is called Dhyana (meditation).
3. When that, giving up all forms, reflects
only the meaning, it is Samadhi.
That is, when in meditation all forms are given up. Suppose
I were meditating on a book, and that I have gradually
succeeded in concentrating the mind on it, and perceiving
only the internal sensations, the meaning, unexpressed in any
form, that state of Dhyana is called Samadhi.
4. (These) three (when practised) in regard to
one object is Samyama.
 When a man can direct his mind to any particular object and
fix it there, and then keep it there for a long time, separating
the object from the internal part, this is Samyama; or
Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi, one following the other,
and making one. The form of the thing has vanished, and
only its meaning remains in the mind.
5. By the conquest of that comes light of
knowledge.
When one has succeeded in making this Samyama, all
powers come under his control. This is the great instrument
of the Yogi. The object of knowledge are infinite, and they
are divided into the gross, grosser, grossest, and the fine,
finer, finest, and so on. This Samyama should be first
applied to gross things, when when you begin to get
knowledge of the gross, slowly, by stages, it should be
brought to finer things.
6. That should be employed in stages.
This is a note of warning not to attempt to go too fast.
7. These three are nearer than those that
precede.
Before these we had the Pranayama, the Asana, the Yama
and Niyama; these are external parts of these three—
Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. Yet these latter even are
external to the seedless Samadhi. When a man has attained
to them he may attain to omniscience and omnipresence, but
that would not be salvation. These three would not make the
mind Nirvikalpa, changeless, but would leave the seeds for
getting bodies again; only when the seeds are, as the Yogi
says, “fried,” do they lose the possibility of producing
further plants. These powers cannot fry the seed.
 
8. But even they are external to the seedless
(Samadhi).
Compared with that seedless Samadhi, therefore, even these
are external. We have not yet reached the real Samadhi, the
highest, but to a lower stage, in which this universe still
exists as we see it, and in which are all these power.
9. By the suppression of the disturbed modifications
of the mind, and by the rise of
modifications of control, the mind is said to
attain the controlling modifications —following
the controlling powers of the mind.
That is to say, in this first state of Samadhi, the modifications
of the mind have been controlled, but not perfectly,
because if they were, there would be no modifications. If
there is a modification which impels the mind to rush out
through the senses, and the Yogi tries to control it, that very
control itself will be a modification. One wave will be
checked by another wave, so it will not be real Samadhi,
when all the waves have subsided, as control itself will be a
wave. Yet this lower Samadhi is very much nearer to the
higher Samadhi than when the mind comes bubbling out.
10. Its flow becomes steady by habit.
The flow of this continuous control of the mind becomes
steady when practices day after day and the mind obtains the
faculty of constant concentration.
11. Taking in all sorts of objects and
concentrating upon one object, these two
powers being destroyed and manifested
 respectively, the Chitta gets the modification
called Samadhi.
The mind is taking up various objects, running into all sorts
of things and then there is a higher state of the mind, when it
takes up one object and excludes all others. Samadhi is the
result of that.
12. The one-pointedness of the Chitta is when
it grasps in one, the past and present.
How are we to know that the mind has become
concentrated? Because time will vanish. The more time
vanishes the more concentrated we are. In common life we
see that when were are interested in a book we do not note
the time at all, and when we leave the book we are often
surprised to find how many hours have passed. All time will
have the tendency to come and stand in the one present. So
the definition is given, when the past and present come and
stand in one, the more concentrated the mind.
13. By this is explained the threefold
transformations of form, time and state, in
fine or gross matter, and in the organs.
By this the threefold changes in the mind-stuff as to form,
time, and state are explained. The mind-stuff is changing
into Vrttis, this is change as to form. To be able to hold the
changes to the present time is change as to time. To be able
to make the mind-stuff go to the past forms giving up the
present even, is change as to state. The concentrations
taught in the preceding aphorisms were to give the Yogi a
voluntary control over the transformations of his mind-stuff
which alone will enable him to make the Samyama before
named.
 14. That which is acted upon by
transformations, either past, present or yet
to be manifested, is the qualified.
That is to say, the qualified is the substance which is being
acted upon by time and by the Samskaras, and getting
changed and being manifested all the time.
15. The succession of changes is the cause of
manifold evolution.
16. By making Samyama on the three sorts of
changes comes the knowledge of past and
future.
We must not lose sight of the first definition of Samyama.
When the mind has attained to that state when it identifies
itself with the internal impression of the object, leaving the
external, and when, by long practice, that is retained by the
mind, and the mind can get into that state in a moment, that
is Samyama. If a man in that state wants to know the past
and future he has to make a Samyama on the changes in the
Samskaras. Some are working now at present, some have
worked out, and some are waiting to work; so by making a
Samyama on these he knows the past and future.
17. By making Samyama on word, meaning,
and knowledge, which are ordinarily
confused, comes the knowledge of all
animal sounds.
The word represents the external cause, the meaning
represents the internal vibration that travels to the brain
through the channels of the Indriyas, conveying the external
impression to the mind, and knowledge represents the
 
reaction of the mind, with which comes perception. These
three confused, make our sense objects. Suppose I hear a
word; there is first the external vibration, next the internal
sensation carried to the mind by the organ of hearing, then
the mind reacts, and I know the word. The word I know is a
mixture of the three, vibration, sensation, and reaction.
Ordinarily these three are inseperable; but by practice the
Yogi can separate them. When a man has attained to this, if
he makes a Samyama on any sound, he understands the
meaning which that sound was intended to express, whether
it was made by man or by any other animal.
18. By perceiving the impressions, knowledge
of past life.
Each experience that we have comes in the form of a wave
in the Chitta, and this subsides and becomes finer and finer,
but is never lost. It remains there in minute form, and if we
can bring this wave up again, it becomes memory. So, if the
Yogi can make a Samyama on these past impressions in the
mind, he will begin to remember all his past lives.
19. By making Samyama on the signs in
another’s both knowledge of that mind
comes.
Suppose each man has particular signs on his body, which
differentiate him from others; when the Yogi makes a
Samyama on these signs peculiar to a certain man he knows
the nature of the mind of that person.
20. But not its contents, that not being the
object of the Samyama.
 
He would not know the contents of the mind by making a
Samyama on the body. There would be required a twofold
Samyama, first on the signs in the body, and then on the
mind itself. The Yogi would then know everything that is in
that mind, past, present, and future.
21. By making Samyama on the form of the
body the power of perceiving forms being
obstructed, the power of manifestation in
the eye being separated, the Yogi’s body
becomes unseen.
A Yogi standing in the midst of this room can apparently
vanish. He does not really vanish, but he will not be seen by
anyone. The form and the body are, as it were, separated.
You must remember that this can only be done when the
Yogi has attained to that power of concentration when form
and the thing formed have been separated. Then he makes a
Samyama on that, and the power to perceive forms is
obstructed, because the power of perceiving forms comes
from the junction of form and the thing formed.
22. By this the disappearance or concealment
of words which are being spoken is also
explained.
23. Karma is of two kinds, soon to be
fructified, and late to be fructified. By
making Samyama on that, or by the signs
called Aristha, portents, the Yogis know the
exact time of separation from their bodies.
When the Yogi makes a Samyama on his own Karma, upon
those impressions in his mind which are now working, and
 
those which are just waiting to work, he knows exactly by
those that are waiting when his body will fall. He knows
when he will die, at what hour, even at what minute. The
Hindus think very much of that knowledge or consciousness
of the nearness of death, because it is taught in the Gita that
the thoughts at the moment of departure are great powers in
determining the next life.
24. By making Samyama on friendship, etc.,
various strength comes.
25. By making Samyama on the strength of the
elephant, etc., that strength comes to the Yogi.
When a Yogi has attained to this Samyama and wants
strength, he makes a Samyama on the strength of the
elephant, and gets it. Infinite energy is at the disposal of
everyone, if he only knows how to get it. The Yogi has
discovered the science of getting it.
26. By making Samyama on that effulgent light
comes the knowledge of the fine, the
obstructed, and the remote.
When the Yogi makes Samyama on that effulgent light in the
heart he sees things which are very remote, things, for
instance, that are happening in a distant place, and which are
obstructed by mountain barriers and also things which are
very fine.
27. By making Samyama on the sun, (comes)
the knowledge of the world.
28. On the moon, (comes) the knowledge of the
cluster of stars.
 29. On the pole star (comes) the knowledge of
the motions of the stars.
30. On the navel circle (comes) the knowledge
of the constitution of the body.
31. On the hollow of the throat (comes) cessation
of hunger.
When a man is very hungry, if he can make Samyama on the
pit of the throat hunger ceases.
32. On the nerve called Kurma (comes) fixity of
the body.
When he is practising the body is not disturbed.
33. On the light emanating from the top of the
head sight of the Siddhas.
The Siddhas are beings who are a little above ghosts. When
the Yogi concentrates his mind on the sop of his head he will
see these Siddhas. The word Siddha does not refer to those
men who have become free—a sense in which it is often
used.
34. Or by the power of Pratibha all knowledge.
All these can come without any Samyama to the man who
has the power of Pratibha (enlightenment from purity). This
is when a man has risen to a high state of Pratibha; then he
has that great light. All things are apparent to him.
Everything comes to him naturally, without making
Samyama on anything.
35. In the heart, knowledge of minds.
 36. Enjoyment comes by the non-discrimination
of the very distant soul and Sattva.
Its actions are for another; Samyama on this
gives knowledge of the Puruca.
This power of non-attachment acquired through purity gives
the Yogi the enlightenment called Pratibha.
37. From that arises the knowledge of hearing,
touching, seeing, tasting, and smelling,
belonging to Pratibha.
38. These are obstacles to Samadhi; but they
are powers in the worldly state.
If the Yogi knows all these enjoyments of the world it comes
by the junction of the Purusa and the mind. If he wants to
make Samyama on this, that they are two different things,
nature and soul, he gets knowledge of the Purusa. From that
arises discrimination. When he has got that discrimination
he gets the Pratibha, the light of supreme genius. These
powers, however, are obstructions to the attainment of the
highest goal, the knowledge of the pure Self, and freedom;
these are, as it were, to be met in the way, and if the Yogi
rejects them, he attains the highest. If he is tempted to
acquire these, his farther progress is barred.
39. When the cause of bondage has become
loosened, the Yogi, by his knowledge of
manifestation through the organs, enters
another’s body.
The Yogi can enter a dead body, and make it get up and
move, even while he himself is working in another body. Or
he can enter a living body, and hold that man’s mind and
 organs in check, and for the time being act through the body
of that man. That is done by the Yogi coming to this
discrimination of Purusa and nature. If he wants to enter
another’s body he makes a Samyama on that body and enters
it, because, not only is his Soul omnipresent, but his mind
also, according to the Yogi. It is one bit of the universal
mind. Now, however, it can only work through the nerve
currents in this body, but when the Yogi has loosened
himself from these nerve currents, he will be able to work
through other things.
40. By conquering the current called Udana the
Yogi does not sink in water, or in swamps,
and he can walk on thorns.
Udana is the name of the nerve current that governs the
lungs, and all the upper parts of the body, and when he is
master of it he becomes light in weight. He cannot sink in
water; he can walk on thorns and sword baldes, and stand in
fire, and so on.
41. By the conquest of the current Samana he is
surrounded by blaze.
Whenever he likes light flashes from his body.
42. By making Samyama on the relation
between the ear and the Akaca comes divine
hearing.
There is the Akaca, the ether, and the instrument, the ear. By
making Samyama on them the Yogi gets divine hearing; he
hears everything. Anything spoken or sounded miles away
he can here.
 
43. By making Samyama on the relation
between the Akaca and the body the Yogi
becoming light as cotton wool goes through
the skies.
This Akaca is the material of this body; it is only Akaca in a
certain form that has become the body. If the Yogi makes
Samyama on this Akaca material of his body, it acquires the
lightness of Akaca, and can go anywhere through the air.
44. By making Samyama on the real
modifications of the mind, which are
outside, called great disembodiness, comes
disappearance of the covering to light.
The mind in its foolishness thinks that it is working in this
body. Why should I be bound by one system of nerves, and
put the Ego only in one body, if the mind is omnipresent?
There is no reason why I should. The Yogi wants to feel the
Ego wherever he likes. When he has succeeded in that all
covering to light goes away, and all darkness and ignorance
vanish. Everything appear to him to be full of knowledge.
45. By making Samyama on the elements,
beginning with the gross, and ending with
the superfine, comes mastery of the
elements.
The Yogi make Samyama on the elements, first on the gross,
and then on the finer states. This Samyama is taken up more
by a sect of the Buddhists. They take a lump of clay, and
make Samyama on that, and gradually they begin to see the
fine materials of which is is composed, and when they have
known all the fine materials in it, they get power over that
 element. So with all the elements, the Yogi can conquer
them all.
46. From that comes minuteness, and the rest of
the powers, “glorification of the body,” and
indestructibleness of the bodily qualities.
This means that the Yogi has attained the eight powers. He
can make himsef as light as a particle, he can make himself
huge, as heavy as the earth, or as light as the air; he will rule
everything he wants, he will conquer everything he wants,
alion will sit at his feet like a lamb, and all his desires be
fulfilled at will.
47. The glorifications of the body are beauty,
complexion, strength, adamantine hardness.
The body becomes indestructible; fire cannot injure it.
Nothing can injure it. Nothing can destroy it until the Yogi
wishes. “Breaking the rod of time he lives in this universe
with his body.” In the Vedas it is written that for that man
there is no more disease, death or pain.
48. By making Samyama on the objectivity,
knowledge and egoism of the organs, by
gradation comes the conquest of the organs.
In perception of external objects the organs leave their place
in the mind and go towards the object; that is followed by
knowledge and egoism. When the Yogi makes Samyama on
these by gradation he conquers the organs. Take up anything
that you see or feel, a book, for instance, and first concentrate
the mind on the thing itself. Then on the knowledge
that it is in the form of a book, and then the Ego that sees the
book. By that practice all the organs will be conquers.
 49. From that comes glorified mind, power of
the organs independently of the body, and
conquest of nature.
Just as by the conquest of the elements comes glorified body,
so from the conquest of the mind will come glorified mind.
50. By making Samyama on the Sattva, to him
who has discriminated between the intellect
and the Purusa comes omnipresence and
omniscience.
When we have conquered nature, and realised the difference
between the Purusa and nature, that the Purusa is
indestructible, pure and perfect, when the Yogi has realised
this, then comes omnipotence and omniscience.
51. By giving up even these comes the
destruction of the very seed of evil; he
attains Kaivalya.
He attains aloneness, independence. Then that man is free.
When he gives up even the ideas of omnipotence and
omniscience, there will be entire rejection of enjoyment, of
the temptations from celestial beings. When the Yogi has
seen all these wonderful powers, and rejected them, he
reaches the goal. What are all these powers? Simply
manifestations. They areno better than dreams. Even
omnipotence is a dream. It depends on the mind. So long as
there is a mind it can be understood, but the goal is beyond
even the mind.
52.The Yogi should not feel allured or flattered
by the overtures of celestial beings, for fear
of evil again.
 There are other dangers too; gods and other beings come to
tempt the Yogi. They do not want anyone to be perfectly
free. They are jealous, just as we are, and worse than we
sometimes. They are very much afraid of losing their places.
Those Yogis who do not reach perfection die and become
gods; leaving the direct road they go into one of the side
streets, and get these powers. Then again they have to be
born; but he who is strong enough to withstand these
temptations, and go straight to the goal, becomes free.
53. By making Samyama on a particle of time
and its multiples comes discrimination.
How are we to avoid all these things, these Devas, and
heavens, and powers? By discrimination, by knowing good
from evil. Therefore a Samyama is given by which the
power of discrimination can be strengthened. This is by
making Samyama on a particle of time.
54. Those which cannot be differentiated by
species, sign and place, even they will be
discriminated by the above Samyama.
The misery that we suffer comes from ignorance, from nondiscrimination
between the real and the unreal. We all take
the bad for the good, the dream for the reality. Soul is the
only reality, and we have forgotten it. Body is an unreal
dream, and we think we are all bodies. This non-discrimination
is the cause of misery, and it is caused by ignorance. When
discrimination comes it brings strength, and then alone can
we avoid all these various ideas of body, heavens, and gods
and Devas. This ignorance arises through differentiating by
species, sign or place. For instance, take a cow. The cow is
differentiated from the dog, as species. Even with the cows
 alone how do we make the distinction between one cow and
another? By signs. If two objects are exactly similar they
can be distinguished if they are in different places. When
objects are so mixed up that even these differentiæ will not
help us, the power of discrimination acquired by the abovementioned
practice will give us the ability to distinguish
them. The highest philosophy of the Yogi is based upon this
fact, that the Purusa is pure and perfect, and is the only
“simple” that exists in this universe. The body and mind are
compounds, and yet we are ever identifying ourselves with
them. That is the great mistake that the distinction has been
lost. When this power of discrimination has been attained,
man sees that everything in this world, mental and physical,
is a compound, and, as such, cannot be the Purusa.
55. The saving knowledge is that knowledge of
discrimination which covers all objects, all
means.
Saving, because the knowledge takes the Yogi across the
ocean of birth and death. The whole of Prakriti in all its
states, subtle and gross, is within the grasp of this
knowledge. There is no succession in perfection by this
knowledge: it takes in all things simultaneously, at a glance.
55. By the similarity of purity between the
Sattva and the Purusa comes Kaivalya.
When the soul realises that it depends on nothing in the
universe, from gods to the lowest atom, that it is called
Kaivalya (isolation) and perfection. It is attained when this
mixture of purity and impurity called mind has been made as
pure as the Purusa Itself; then the Sattva, the mind, reflects
only the unqualified essence of purity, which is the Purusa.

Om Tat Sat

                                                        

(Continued...) 

(My humble Thankfulness to  H H Sri Chandrasekharendra Mahaswami ji,  Hinduism online dot com Swamijis, and Philosophers com  for the collection)

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