YOGA SUTRAS OF MAHARISHI PATANJALI BY SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

CHAPTER I - SAMADHI PADA

CONCENTRATION: ITS SPIRITUAL USES

॥ प्रथभ् सभाणधऩाद् ॥

1. atha yoganushasanam

Now concentration is explained.

2. yogashchittavrittinirodhah

Yoga is restraining the mind-stuff (Chitta) from taking various forms (Vrttis) A good deal of explanation is necessary here. We have to understand what Chitta is, and what are these Vrttis. I have this eye. Eyes do not see. Take away the brain centre which is in the head, the eyes will still be there, the retinæ complete, and also the picture, and yet the eyes will not see. So the eyes are only a secondary instrument, not the organ of vision. The organ of vision is in the nerve centre of the brain. The two eyes will not be sufficient alone. Sometimes a man is asleep with his eyes open. The light is there and the picture is there, but a third thing is necessary; mind must be joined to the organ. The eye is the external instrument, we need also the brain centre and the agency of the mind. Carriages roll down a street and you do not hear them. Why? Because your mind has not attached itself to the organ of hearing. First there is the instrument, then there is the organ, and third, the mind attachment to these two. The mind takes the impression farther in, and presents it to the determinative faculty—Buddhi—which reacts. Along with this reaction flashes the idea of egoism. Then this mixture of action and reaction is presented to the Purusa, the real Soul, who perceives an object in this mixture. The organs (Indriyas), together with the mind (Manas), the determinative faculty (Buddhi) and egoism (Ahamkara), form the group called the Antahkarana (the internal instrument). They are but various processes in the mind-stuff, called Chitta. The waves of thought in the Chitta are called Vrtti (“the whirlpool” is the literal translation). What is thought? Thought is a force, as is gravitation or repulsion. It is absorbed from the infinite storehouse of force in nature; the instrument called Chitta takes hold of that force, and, when it passes out at the other end it is called thought. This force is supplied to us through food, and out of that food the body obtains the power of motion, etc. Others, the finer forces, it throws out in what we call thought. Naturally we see that the mind is not intelligent; yet it appears to be intelligent. Why? Because the intelligent soul is behind it. You are the only sentient being; mind is only the instrument through which you catch the external world. Take this book; as a book it does not exist outside, what exists outside is unknown and unknowable. It is the suggestion that gives a blow to the mind, and the mind gives out the reaction. If a stone is thrown into the water the water is thrown against it in the form of waves. The real universe is the occasion of the reaction of the mind. A book form, or an elephant form, or a man form, is not outside; all that we know is our mental reaction from the outer suggestion. Matter is the “permanent possibility of sensation,” said John Stuart Mill. It is only the suggestion that is outside. Take an oyster for example. You know how pearls are made. A grain of sand or something gets inside and begins to irritate it, and the oyster throws a sort of enameling around the sand, and this makes the pearl. This whole universe is our own enamel, so to say, and the real universe is the grain of sand. The ordinary man will never understand it, because, when he tries to, he throws out an enamel, and sees only his own enamel. Now we understand what is meant by these Vrttis. The real man is behind the mind, and the mind is the instrument in his hands, and it is his intelligence that is percolating through it. It is only when you stand behind it that it becomes intelligent. When man gives it up it falls to pieces, and is nothing. So you understand what is meant by Chitta. It is the mind-stuff, and Vrttis are the waves and ripples rising in it when external causes impinge on it. These Vrttis are our whole universe.

The bottom of the lake we cannot see, because its surface is covered with ripples. It is only possible when the rippled have subsided, and the water is calm, for us to catch a glimpse of the bottom. If the water is muddy, the bottom will not be seen; if the water is agitated all the time, the bottom will not be seen. If the water is clear, and there are no waves, we shall see the bottom. That bottom of the lake is our own true Self; the lake is the Chitta, and the waves are the Vrttis. Again, this mind is in three states; one is darkness, which is called Tamas, just as in brutes and idiots; it only acts to injure others. No other idea comes into that state of mind. Then there is the active state of mind, Rajas, whose chief motives are power and enjoyment. “I will be powerful and rule others.” Then, at last, when the waves cease, and the water of the lake becomes clear, there is the state called Sattva, serenity, calmness. It is not inactive, but rather intensely active. It is the greatest manifestation of power to be calm. It is easy to be active. Let the reins go, and the horses will drag you down.

Anyone can do that, but he who can stop the plunging horses is the strong man. Which requires the greater strength, letting go, or restraining? The calm man is not the man who is dull.

You must not mistake Sattva for dullness, or laziness. The calm man is the one who has restraint of these waves. Activity is the manifestation of the lower strength, calmness of the superior strength.

This Chitta is always trying to get back to its natural pure state, but the organs draw it out. To restrain it, and to check this outward tendency, and to start it on the return journey to that essence of intelligence is the first step in Yoga, because only in this way can the Chitta get into its proper course.

Although this Chitta is in every animal, from the lowest to the highest, it is only in the human form that we find intellect, and until the mind-stuff can take the form of intellect it is not possible for it to return through all these steps, and liberate the soul. Immediate salvation is impossible for the cow and the dog, although they have mind, because their Chitta cannot as yet take that form which we call intellect.

Chitta manifests itself in all these different forms - scattering, darkening, weakening, and concentrating. These are the four states in which the mind-stuff manifests itself. First a scattered form, is activity. Its tendency is to manifest in the form of pleasure or of pain. Then the dull form is darkness, the only tendency of which is to injure others. The commentator says the first form is natural to the Devas, the angels, and the second is the demoniacal form. The Ekagra, the concentrated form of the Chitta, is what brings us to Samadhi.

3.  tada  drashtuh svaroope avasthanam

At that time (the time of concentration) the seer (the Purasa) rests in his own (unmodified) state.

As soon as the waves have stopped, and the lake has become quiet, we see the ground below the lake. So with the mind;

when it is calm, we see what our own nature is; we do not mix ourself but remain our own selves.

4. vrittisaroopyam itaratra

At other times (other than that of concentration) the seer is identified with the modifications.

For instance, I am in a state of sorrow; someone blames me; this is a modification, Vrtti, and I identify myself with it, and the result is misery.

5. vrittayah pangchatayyah klishta aklishtah

There are five classes of modification, painful and not painful.

6. pramannaviparyayavikalpanidrasmritayah

(These are) right knowledge, indiscrimination, verbal delusion, sleep, and memory.

7. pratyakshanumanagamah pramanani

Direct perception, inference, and competent evidence, are proofs.

When two of our perceptions do not contradict each other we call it proof. I hear something, and, if it contradicts something already perceived, I begin to fight it out, and do not believe it.

There are also three kinds of proof. Direct perception, Pratyaksham, whatever we see and feel, is proof, if there has been nothing to delude the senses. I see the world; that is sufficient proof that it exists.

Secondly, Anumana, inference; you see a sign, and from the sign you come to the thing signified. Thirdly, Aptavakyam, the direct perception of the Yogi, of those who have seen the truth. We are all of us struggling towards knowledge, but you and I have to struggle hard, and come to knowledge through a long tedious process of reasoning, but the Yogi, the pure one, has gone beyond all this. Before his mind, the past, the present, and the future, are alike one book for him to read; he does not require to go through all this tedious process, and his words are proofs, because he sees knowledge in himself; he is the Omniscient One. These, for instance, are the authors of the Sacred Scriptures; therefore the Scriptures are proof, and, if any such persons are living now, their words will be proof. Other philosophers go into long discussions about this Apta, and they say, what is the proof that this is truth? The proof is because they see it; because whatever I see is proof, and whatever you see is proof, if it does not contradict any past knowledge. There is knowledge beyond the senses, and whenever it does not contradict reason and past human experience, that knowledge is proof. Any madman may come into this room and say that he sees angels around him, that would not be proof. In the first place it must be true knowledge, and, secondly, it must not contradict knowledge of the past, and thirdly, it must depend upon the character of the man. I hear it said that the character of the man is not of so much importance as what he may say; we must first hear what he says. This may be true in other things; a man may be wicked, and yet make an astronomical discovery, but in religion it is different, because no impure man will ever have the power to reach the truths of religion. Therefore, we have first of all to see that the man who declares himself to be an Apta is a perfectly unselfish and holy person; secondly that he has reached beyond the senses, and thirdly that what he says does not contradict the past knowledge of humanity. Any new discovery of truth does not contradict the past truth, but fits into it. And, fourthly, that truth must have a possibility of verification. If a man says “I have seen a vision,” and tells me that I have no right to see it, I believe him not. Everyone must have the power to see it for himself. No one who sells his knowledge is an Apta. All these conditions must be fulfilled; you must first see that the man is pure, and that he has no selfish motive; that he has no thirst for gain or fame.

Secondly, he must show that he is super-conscious. Thirdly, he must have given us something that we cannot get from our senses, and which is for benefit of the world. And we must see that it does not contradict other truths; if it contradicts other scientific truths reject it at once. Fourthly, the man should never be singular; he should only represent what all men can attain. The three sorts of proof, are, then, direct sense perception, inference, and the words of an Apta. I cannot translate this word into English. It is not the word inspired, because that comes from outside, while this comes from himself. The literal meaning is “attained.”

8. viparyayomithyajnanamatad  roopapratishtham

Indiscrimination is false knowledge not established in real nature.

The next class of Vrttis that arise is mistaking the one thing for another, as a piece of mother-of-pearl is taken for a piece of silver.

9. shabdajnaananupati  vastushoonyo  vikalpah

Verbal delusion follows from words having no (corresponding) reality.

There is another class of Vrttis called Vikalpa. A word is uttered, and we do not wait to consider its meaning; we jump to a conclusion immediately. It is the sign of weakness of the Chitta. Now you can understand the theory of restraint. The weaker the man the less he has of restraint. Consider yourselves always in that way. When you are going to be angry or miserable, reason it out, how it is that some news that has come to you is throwing your mind into Vrttis.

10. abhavapratyayalambana vrittirnidra

Sleep is a Vrtti which embraces the feeling of voidness.

The next class of Vrttis is called sleep and dream. When we awake we know that we have been sleeping; we can only have memory of perception. That which we do not perceive we never can have any memory of. Every reaction is a wave in the lake. Now, if, during sleep, the mind has no waves, it would have no perceptions, positive or negative, and, therefore, we would not remember them. The very reason of our remembering sleep is that during sleep there was a certain class of waves in the mind. Memory is another class of Vrttis, which is called Smrti.

11. anubhootavishayasanpramoshah smritih

Memory is when the (Vrttis of) perceived subjects do not slip away (and through impressions come back to consciousness).

Memory can be caused by the previous three. For instance, you hear a word. That word is like a stone thrown into the lake of the Chitta; it causes a ripple, and that ripple rouses a series of ripples; this is memory. So in sleep. When the peculiar kind of ripple called sleep throws the Chitta into a ripple of memory it is called a dream. Dream is another form of the ripple which in the waking state is called memory.

12. abhyasavairagyabhyan  tannirodhah

Their control is by practice and non-attachment.

The mind, to have this non-attachment, must be clear, good and rational. Why should we practice? Because each action is like the pulsations quivering over the surface of the lake. The vibration dies out, and what is left? The Samsharas, the impressions. When a large number of these impressions is left on the mind they coalesce, and become a habit. It is said “habit is second nature;” it is first nature also, and the whole nature of man; everything that we are, is the result of habit.

That gives us consolation, because, if it is only habit, we can make and unmake it at any time. The Samshara is left by these vibrations passing out of our mind, each one of them leaving its result. Our character is the sum-total of these marks, and according as some particular wave prevails one takes that tone. If good prevail one becomes good, if wickedness one wicked, if joyfulness one becomes happy.

The only remedy for bad habits is counter habits; all the bad habits that have left their impressions are to be controlled by good habits. Go on doing good, thinking holy thoughts continuously; that is the only way to suppress base impressions. Never say any man is hopeless, because he only represents a character, a bundle of habits, and these can be checked by new and better ones. Character is repeated habits, and repeated habits alone can reform character.

13.  tatra  sthitau  yatno  abhyasah

Continuous struggle to keep them (the Vrttis) perfectly restrained is practice.

What is this practice? The attempt to restrain the mind in the Chitta form, to prevent its going out into waves.

14. sa tu dirghakalanairantaryasatkarasevito dridha-bhoomih

Its ground becomes firm by long, constant efforts with great love (for the end to be attained).

Restraint does not come in one day, but by long continued practice.

15. drishtanu shravika  vishaya  vitrishn  nasy  vashikara    samjna    vairagyam

That effort, which comes to those who have given up their thirst after objects either seen or heard, and which wills to control the objects, is non-attachment.

Two motives of our actions are (1) What we see ourselves; (2) The experience of others. These two forces are throwing the mind, the lake, into various waves. Renunciation is the power of battling against these, and holding the mind in check.

Renunciation of these two motives is what we want. I am passing through a street, and a man comes and takes my watch. That is my own experience. I see it myself, and it immediately throws my Chitta into a wave, taking the form of anger. Allow that not to come. If you cannot prevent that, you are nothing; if you can, you have Vairagyam. Similarly, the experience of the worldly-minded teaches us that sense enjoyments are the highest ideal. These are tremendous temptations. To deny them, and not allow the mind to come into a wave form with regard to them is renunciation; to control the twofold motive powers arising from my own experience, and from the experience of others, and thus prevent the Chitta from being governed by them, is Vairagyam. These should be controlled by me, and not I by them. This sort of mental strength is called renunciation. This Vairagyam is the only way to freedom.

16.  tatparan  purushakhyatergunnavaitrishnyam

That extreme non-attachment, giving up even the qualities, shows (the real nature of)  the  Purusa.

It is the highest manifestation of power when it takes away even our attraction towards the qualities. We have first to understand what the Purusa, the Self, is, and what are the qualities.

According to Yoga philosophy the whole of nature consists of three qualities; one is called Tamas, another Rajas and the third Sattva. These three qualities manifest

themselves in the physical world as attraction, repulsion, and control. Everything that is in nature, all these manifestations, are combinations  and  recombinations  of  these  three  forces.

This nature has been divided into various categories by the Sankhyas; the Self of man is beyond all these, beyond nature, is effulgent by Its very nature. It is pure and perfect.

Whatever of intelligence we see in nature is but the reflection from this Self upon nature. Nature itself is insentient. You must remember that the word nature also includes the mind; mind is in nature; thought is in nature; from thought, down to the grossest form of matter, everything is in nature, the manifestation of nature. This nature has covered the Self of man, and when nature takes away the covering the Self becomes unveiled, and appears in Its own glory. This non-attachment, as it is described in Aphorism 15 (as being control of nature) is the greatest help towards manifesting the Self. The next aphorism defines Samadhi, perfect concentration, which is the goal of the Yogi.

17. vitarka  vicharanandasmitaroop  anugamat   sanprajnatah

The concentration called right know-ledge is that which is followed by reasoning, discrimination, bliss, unqualified ego.

This Samadhi is divided into two varieties. One is called the Samprajnata, and the other the Asamprajnata. The Samprajnata is of four varieties. In this Samadhi come all the powers of controlling nature. The first variety is called the Savitarka, when the mind meditates upon an object again and again, by isolating it from other objects. There are two sorts of objects for meditation, the categories of nature, and the Purusa. Again, the categories are of two varieties; the twenty-four categories are insentient, and the one sentient is the Purusa. When the mind thinks of the elements of nature by thinking of their beginning and their end, this is one sort of Savitarka. The words require explanation. This part of Yoga is based entirely on Sankhya Philosophy, about which I have already told you. As you will remember, egoism and will, and mind, have a common basis, and that common basis is called the Chitta, the mind-stuff, out of which they are all manufactured. This mind-stuff takes in the forces of nature, and projects them as thought. There must be something, again, where both force and matter are one. This is called Avyaktam, the unmanifested state of nature, before creation, and two which, after the end of a cycle, the whole of nature returns, to again come out after another period. Beyond that is the Purusa, the essence of intelligence. There is no liberation in getting powers. It is a worldly search after enjoyment in this life; all search for enjoyment is vain; this is the old, old lesson which man finds it so hard to learn. When he does learn it, he gets out of the universe and becomes free. The possession of what are called occult powers is only intensifying the world, and in the end intensifying suffering.

Though, as a scientist, Patanjali is bound to point out the possibilities of this science, he never misses an opportunity to warn us against these powers. Knowledge is power, and as soon as we begin to know a thing we get power over it; so also, when the mind begins to meditate on the different elements it gains power over them. That sort of meditation where the external gross elements are the objects is called Savitarka. Tarka means question, Savitarka with-question.

Questioning the elements, as it were, that they may give up their truths and their powers to the man who meditates upon them. Again, in the very same meditation, when one struggles to take the elements out of time and space, and think of them as they are, it is called Nirvitarka, without-question. When the meditation goes a step higher, and takes the Tanmatras as its object, and thinks of them as in time and space, it is called Savichara, with-discrimination, and when the same meditation gets beyond time and space, and thinks of the fine elements as they are, it is called Nirvichara, without-discrimination. The next step is when the elements are given up, either as gross or as fine, and the object of meditation is the interior organ, the thinking organ, and when the thinking organ is thought of as bereft of the qualities of activity, and of dullness, it is then called Sanandam, the blissful Samadhi. In that Samadhi, when we are thinking of the mind as the object of meditation, before we have reached the state which takes us beyond the mind even, when it has become very ripe and concentrated, when all ideas of the gross materials, or fine materials, have been given up, and the only object is the mind as it is, when the Sattva state only of the Ego remains, but differentiated from all other objects, this is called Asmita Samadhi, and the man who has attained to this has attained to what is called in the Vedas “bereft of body.” He can think of himself as without his gross body; but he will have to think of himself as with a fine body. Those that in this state get merged in nature without attaining the goal are called Prakrtilayas, but those who do not even stop at any enjoyments, reach the goal, which is freedom.

18. viramapratyayabhyasapoorvah sanskarashesho anyah

There is another Samadhi which is attained by the constant practice of cessation of all mental activity, in which the Chitta retains only the unmanifested impressions.

This is the perfect superconscious Asamprajnata Samadhi, the state which gives us freedom. The first state does not give us freedom, does not liberate the soul. A man may attain to all powers, and yet fall again. There is no safeguard until the soul goes beyond nature, and beyond conscious concentration. It is very difficult to attain, although its method seems very easy. Its method is to hold the mind as the object, and whenever through comes, to strike it down, allowing no thought to come into the mind, thus making it an entire vacuum. When we can really do this, in that moment we shall attain liberation. When persons without training and preparation try to make their minds vacant they are likely to succeed only in covering themselves with Tamas, material of ignorance, which makes the mind dull and stupid, and leads them to think that they are making a vacuum of the mind. To be able to really do that is a manifestation of the greatest strength, of the highest control. When this state, Asamprajnata, super-consciousness, is reached, the Samadhi becomes seedless. What is meant by that? In that sort of concentration when there is consciousness, where the mind has succeeded only in quelling the waves in the Chitta and holding them down, they are still there in the form of tendencies, and these tendencies (or seeds) will become waves again, when the time comes. But when you have destroyed all these tendencies, almost destroyed the mind, then it has become seedless, there are no more seeds in the mind out of which to manufacture again and again this plant of life, this ceaseless round of birth and death. You may ask, what state would that be, in which we should have no knowledge? What we call knowledge is a lower state than the one beyond knowledge. You must always bear in mind that the extremes look very much the same. The low vibration of light is darkness, and the very high vibration of light is darkness also, but one is real darkness, and the other is really intense light; yet their appearance is the same. So, ignorance is the lowest state, knowledge is the middle state, and beyond knowledge is a still higher state. Knowledge itself is a manufactured something, a combination; it is not reality.

What will be the result of constant practice of this higher concentration? All old tendencies of restlessness, and dullness, will be destroyed, as well as the tendencies  of goodness too. It is just the same as with the metals that are used with gold to take off the dirt and alloy. When the ore is smelted down, the dross is burnt along with the alloy. So this constant controlling power will stop the previous bad tendencies and, eventually, the good ones also. Those good and evil tendencies will suppress each other, and there will remain the Soul, in all  its  glorious  splendour, untrammeled by either good or bad, and that Soul is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. By giving up all powers it has become omnipotent, by giving up all life it is beyond mortality; it has become life itself. Then the Soul will know It neither had birth nor death, neither want of heaven nor of earth. It will know that It neither came nor went; it was nature which was moving, and that movement was reflected upon the Soul. The form of the light is moving, it is reflected and cast by the camera upon the wall, and the wall foolishly thinks it is moving. So with all of us: it is the Chitta constantly moving, manipulating itself into various forms, and we think that we are these various forms. All these delusions will vanish. When that free Soul will command—not pray or beg, but command—then whatever It desires will be immediately fulfilled; whatever It wants It will be able to do. According to the Sankhya Philosophy there is no God. It says that there cannot be any God of this universe, because if there were He must be a Soul, and a Soul must be one of two things, either bound or free. How can the soul that is bound by nature, or controlled by nature, create? It is itself a slave. On the other hand, what business has the soul that is free to create and manipulate all these things? It has no desires, so cannot have any need to create. Secondly, it says the theory of God is an unnecessary one; nature explains all. What is the use of any God? But Kapila teaches that there are many souls, who, through nearly attaining perfection, fall short because they cannot perfectly renounce all powers. Their minds for a time merge in nature, to re-emerge as its masters. We shall all become such gods, and, according to the Sankhyas, the God spoken of in the Vedas really means one of these free souls.

Beyond them there is not an eternally free and blessed Creator of the universe. On the other hand the Yogis say, “Not so, there is a God; there is one Soul separate from all other souls, and He is the eternal Master of all creation, the Ever Free, the Teacher of all teachers.” The Yogis admit that those the Sankhyas called “merged in nature” also exist. They are Yogis who have fallen short of perfection, and though, for a time debarred from attaining the goal, remain as rulers of parts of the universe.

19. bhavapratyayo videhaprakritilayanam

(This Samadhi, when not followed by extreme non-attachment) becomes the cause of the re-manifestation of the gods and of those that become merged in nature.

The gods in the Indian systems represent certain high offices which are being filled successively by various souls. But none of them is perfect.

20. shraddha virya smriti samadhi   prajna poorvaka itaresham

To others (this Samadhi) comes through faith, energy, memory, concentration, and discrimination of the real.

These are they who do not want the position of gods, or even that of rulers of cycles. They attain to liberation.

21. tivrasanveganam aasannah

Success is speeded for the extremely energetic.

22. mridumadhyadhimatratvat tatopi visheshah

They again differ according as the means are mild,

medium or supreme.

23. eeshvarapranidhanad va

Or by devotion to Isvara.

24. klesha karma vipakashayairaparamrishtah purusha vishesheeshvarah

Isvara (the Supreme Ruler) is a special Purusa, untouched by misery, the results of actions, or desires.

We must again remember that this Patanjali Yoga Philosophy

is based upon that of the Sankhyas, only that in the latter there

is no place for God, while with the Yogis God has a place. The Yogis, however, avoid many ideas about God, such as creating. God as the Creator of the Universe is not meant by the Isvara of the Yogis, although, according to the Vedas, Isvara is the Creator of the universe. Seeing that the universe is harmonious, it must be the manifestation of one will. The Yogis and Sankhyas both avoid the question of creation. The Yogis want to establish a God, but carefully avoid this question; they do not raise it at all. Yet you will find that they arrive at God in a peculiar fashion of their own. They say:

25. tatra niratishayan sarvajntvabijam

In Him becomes infinite that all-knowing-ness which in others is (only) a germ.

The mind must always travel between two extremes. You can think of limited space, but the very idea of that gives you also unlimited space. Close your eyes and think of a little space, and at the same time that you perceive the little circle, you have a circle round it of unlimited dimensions. It is the same with time. Try to think of a second, you will have, with the same act of perception, to think of time which is unlimited.

So with knowledge. Knowledge is only a germ in man, but you will have to think of infinite knowledge around it, so that the very nature of your constitution shows us that there is unlimited knowledge, and the Yogis call that unlimited knowledge God.

26. sa poorvesham api guruh kalenanavachchhedat

He is the Teacher of even the ancient teachers, being not limited by time.

It is true that all knowledge is within ourselves, but this has to be called forth by another knowledge. Although the capacity to know is inside us, it must be called out, and that calling out of knowledge can only be got, a Yogi maintains, through another knowledge. Dead, insentient matter, never calls out knowledge. It is the action of knowledge that brings out knowledge. Knowing beings must be with us to call forth what is in us, so these teachers were always necessary. The world was never without them, and no knowledge can come without them. God is the Teacher of all teachers, because these teachers, however great they may have been—gods or angels—were all bound and limited by time, and God is not limited by time. These are the two peculiar distinctions of the Yogis. The first is that in thinking of the limited, the mind must think of the unlimited, and that if one part of the perception is true the other must be, for the reason that their value as perceptions of the mind is equal. The very fact that man has a little knowledge, shows that God has unlimited knowledge. If I am to take one, why not the other? Reason forces me to take both or reject both. It I believe that there is a man with a little knowledge, I must also admit that there is someone behind him with unlimited knowledge. The second deduction is that no knowledge can come without a teacher. It is true as the modern philosophers say, that there is something in man which evolves out of him; all knowledge is in man, but certain environments are necessary to call it out. We cannot find any knowledge without teacher, if there are men teachers, god teachers, or angel teachers, they are all limited; who was the teacher before them? We are forced to admit, as a last conclusion, One Teacher, Who is not limited by time, and that One Teacher or infinite knowledge, without beginning or end, is called God.

27. tasya vachakah prannavah

His manifesting word is Om.

Every idea that you have in the mind has a counterpart in a word; the word and the thought are inseparable. The external part of the thought is what we call word, and the internal part is what we call thought. No man can, by analysis, separate thought from word. The idea that language was created by men—certain men sitting together and deciding on words, has been proved to be wrong. So long as things have existed there have been words and language. What is the connection between an idea and a word? Although we see that there must always be a word with a thought, it is not necessary that the same thought requires the same word. The thought may be the same in twenty different countries, yet the language is different. We must have a word to express each thought, but these words need not necessarily have the same sound.

Sounds will vary in different nations. Our commentator says “Although the relation between thought and word is perfectly natural, yet it does not mean a rigid connection between one sound and one idea.” These sounds vary, yet the relation between the sounds and the thoughts is a natural one. The connection between thoughts and sounds is good only if there be a real connection between the thing signified and the symbol, and until then that symbol will never come into general use. Symbol is the manifestor of the thing signified, and if the thing signified has already existence, and if, by experience, we know that the symbol has expressed that thing many times, then we are sure that there is the real relation between them. Even if the things are not present, there will be thousands who will know them by their symbols. There must be a natural connection between the symbol and the thing signified; then, when that symbol is pronounced, it recalled the thing signified. The commentator says the manifesting word of God is Om. Why does he emphasise this? There are hundreds of words for God. One thought is connected with a thousand words; the idea, God, is connected with hundreds of words, and each one stands as a symbol for God. Very good.

But there must be a generalisation among all these words, some substratum, some common ground of all these symbols, and that symbol which is the common symbol will be the best, and will really be the symbol of all. In making a sound we use the larynx, and the palate as a sounding board. Is there any material sound of which all other sounds must be manifestations, one which is the most natural sound? Om (Aum) is such a sound, the basis of all sounds. The first letter, A, is the root sound, the key, pronounced without touching any part of the tongue or palate; M represents the last sound in the series, being produced by the closed lip, and the U rolls from the very root to the end of the sounding board of the mouth. Thus, Om represents the whole phenomena of sound producing. As such, it must be the natural symbol, the matrix of all the variant sounds. It denotes the whole range and possibility of all the words that can be made. Apart from these speculations we see that around this word Om are centred all the different religious ideas in India; all the various religious ideas of the Vedas have gathered themselves round this word Om. What has that to do with America and England, or any other country? Simply that the word has been retained at every stage of religious growth in India, and it has been manipulated to mean all the various ideas about God.

Monists, Dualists, Mono-Dualists, Separatists, and even Atheists, took up this Om. Om has become the one symbol for the religious aspiration of the vast majority of human beings.

Take, for instance, the English word God. It conveys only a limited function, and if you go beyond it, you have to add adjectives, to make it Personal, or Impersonal, or Absolute God. So with the words for God in every other language; their signification is very small. This word Om, however, has around it all the various significances. As such it should be accepted by everyone.

28. tajjapastadarthabhavanam

The repetition of this (Om) and meditating on its meaning (is the way).

Why should there be repetition? We have not forgotten that theory of Samskaras, that the sum-total of impressions lives in the mind. Impressions live in the mind, the sum-total of impressions, and they become more and more latent, but remain there, and as soon as they get the right stimulus they come out. Molecular vibration will never cease. When this universe is destroyed all the massive vibrations disappear, the sun, moon, stars, and earth, will melt down, but the vibrations must remain in the atoms. Each atom will perform the same function as the big worlds do. So the vibrations of this Chitta will subside, but will go on like molecular vibrations, and when they get the impulse will come out again. We can now understand what is meant by repetition. It is the greatest stimulus that can be given to the spiritual Samskaras. “One moment of company with the Holy makes a ship to cross this ocean of life.” Such is the power of association. So this repetition of Om, and thinking of its meaning, is keeping good company in your own mind. Study, and then meditate and meditate, when you have studied. The light will come to you, the Self will become manifest.

But one must think of this Om, and of its meaning too. Avoid evil company, because the scars of old wounds are in you, and this evil company is just the heat that is necessary to call them out. In the same way we are told that good company will call out the good impressions that are in us, but which have become latent. There is nothing holier in this world than to keep good company, because the good impressions will have this same tendency to come to the surface.

29.tatahpratyakchetanadhigamopyantarayabhavashch

From that is gain (the knowledge of) introspection, and the destruction of obstacles.

The first manifestation of this repetition and thinking of Om will be that the introspective power will be manifested more and more, and all the mental and physical obstacles will begin to vanish. What are the obstacles to the Yogi?

30. Vyadhistyana sanshaya pramadalasya virati bhrantidar shanalabdha bhoomi kat vana va sthitatvani  chittavikshe  pastentarayah

Disease, mental laziness, doubt, calmness, cessation, false perception, non-attaining concentration, and falling away from the state when obtained, are the obstructing distractions.

Disease. This body is the boat which will carry us to the other shore of the ocean of life. It must be taken care of. Unhealthy persons cannot be Yogis. Mental laziness makes us lose all lively interest in the subject, without which there will neither be the will nor the energy to practice. Doubts will arise in the mind about the truth of the science, however strong one’s intellectual conviction may be, until certain peculiar psychic experiences come, as hearing, or seeing, at a distance, etc.

These glimpses strengthen the mind and make the student persevere. Falling away when attained. Some days or weeks when you are practising the mind will be calm and easily concentrated, and you will find yourself progressing fast. All of a sudden the progress will stop one day, and you will find yourself, as it were, stranded. Persevere. All progress proceeds by rise and fall.

31. duhkha daurmanasyanggame jayatva shvasa prashvaa vikshepasahabhuvah

Grief, mental distress, tremor of the body and irregular breathing, accompany non-retention of concentration.

Concentration will bring perfect repose to mind and body every time it is practised. When the practice has been misdirected, or not enough controlled, these disturbances come. Repetition of Om and self-surrender to the Lord will strengthen the mind, and bring fresh energy. The nervous shakings will come to almost everyone. Do not mind them at all, but keep on practising. Practice will cure them, and make the seat firm.

32. tatpratishedhartham ekatattvabhyasah

To remedy this practice of one subject (should be made).

Making the mind take the form of one object for some time will destroy these obstacles. This is general advice. In the following aphorisms it will be expanded and particularised.

As one practice cannot suit everyone, various methods will be advanced, and everyone by actual experience will find out that which helps him most.

33. maitree karuna muditopekshanan sukha duhkha punyapunya  vishayanan  bhavana  tash  chittaprasadanam

Friendship, mercy, gladness, indifference, being thought of in regard to subjects, happy, unhappy, good and evil respectively, pacify the Chitta.

We must have these four sorts of ideas. We must have friendship for all; we must be merciful towards those that are in misery; when people are happy we ought to be happy, and to the wicked we must be indifferent. So with all subjects that come before us. If the subject is a good one, we shall feel friendly towards it; if the subject of thought is one that is miserable we must be merciful towards the subject. If it is good we must be glad, if it is evil we must be indifferent.

These attitudes of the mind towards the different subjects that come before it will make the mind peaceful. Most of our difficulties in our daily lives come from being unable to hold our minds in this way. For instance, if a man does evil to us, instantly we want to react evil, and every reaction of evil shows that we are not able to hold the Chitta down; it comes out in waves towards the object, and we lose our power. Every reaction in the form of hatred or evil is so much loss to the mind, and every evil thought or deed of hatred, or any thought of reaction, if it is controlled, will be laid in our favour. It is not that we lose by thus restraining ourselves; we are gaining infinitely more than we suspect. Each time we suppress hatred, or a feeling of anger, it is so much good energy stored up in our favour; that piece of energy will be converting into the higher powers.

34. prachchhardanavidharanabhyan va prannasya

By throwing out and restraining the Breath.

The word used in Prana. Prana is not exactly breath. It is the name for the energy that is in the universe. Whatever you see in the universe, whatever moves or works, or has life, is a manifestation of this Prana. the sum-total of the energy displayed in the universe is called Prana. This Prana, before a cycle begins, remains in an almost motionless state, and when the cycle begins this Prana begins to manifest itself. It is this Prana that is manifested as motion, as the nervous motion in human beings or animals, and the same Prana is manifesting as thought, and so on.

The whole universe is a combination of Prana and Akasa; so is the human body. Out of Akasa you get the different materials that you feel, and see, and out of Prana all the various forces. Now this throwing out and restraining the Prana is what is called Pranayama. Patanjali, the father of the Yoga Philosophy, does not give many particular directions about Pranayama, but later on other Yogis found out various things about this Pranayama, and made of it a great science. With Patanjali this is one of the many ways, but he does not lay much stress on it.

He means that you simply throw the air out, and draw it in, and hold it for some time, that is all, and by that, the mind will become a little calmer. But, later on, you will find that out of this is evolved a particular science called Pranayama. We will hear a little of what these later Yogis have to say. Some of this I have told you before, but a little repetition will serve to fix it in your minds. First, you must remember that this Prana is not the breath. But that which causes the motion of the breath, that which is the vitality of the breath is the Prana.

Again, the word Prana is used of all the senses; they are all called Prana, the mind is called Prana; and so we see that Prana is the name of a certain force. And yet we cannot call it force, because force is only the manifestation of it. It is that which manifests itself as force and everything else in the way of motion. The Chitta, the mind-stuff, is the engine which draws in the Prana from the surroundings, and manufactures out of this Prana the various vital forces.

First of all the forces that keep the body in preservation, and lastly thought, will, and all other powers. By this process of breathing we can control all the various motions in the body, and the various nerve currents that are running through the body.

First we begin to recognise them, and then we slowly get control over them. Now these later Yogis consider that there are three main currents of this Prana in the human body. One they call Ida, another Pingala, and the third Susumna. Pingala, according to them, is on the right side of the spinal column, and the Ida is on the left side, and in the middle of this spinal column is the Susumna, a vacant channel. Ida and Pingala, according to them, are the currents working in every man, and through these currents, we are performing all the functions of life.

Susumna is present in all, as a possibility; but it works only in the Yogi. You must remember that the Yogi changes his body; as you go on practising your body changes; it is not the same body that you had before the practice. That is very rational, and can be explained, because every new thought that we have must make, as it were, a new channel through the brain, and that explains the tremendous conservatism of human nature. Human nature likes to run through the ruts that are already there, because it is easy. If we think, just for example’s sake, that the mind is like a needle, and the brain substance a soft lump before it, then each thought that we have makes a street, as it were, in the brain, and this street would close up, but that the grey matter comes and makes a lining to keep it separate. If there were no grey matter there would be no memory, because memory means going over these old streets, retracing a thought as it were. Now perhaps you have remarked that when I talk on subjects that in which I take a few ideas that are familiar to everyone, and combine, and recombine them, it is easy to follow, because these channels are present in everyone’s brain, and it is only necessary to recur to them. But whenever a new subject comes new channels have to be made, so it is not understood so readily. And that is why the brain (it is the brain, and not the people themselves) refuses unconsciously to be acted upon by new ideas. It resists. The Prana is trying to make new channels, and the brain will not allow it. This is the secret of conservatism. The less channels there have been in the brain, and the less the needle of the Prana has made these passages, the more conservative will be the brain, the more it will struggle against new thoughts.

The more thoughtful the mane, the more complicated will be the streets in his brain, and the more easily he will take to new ideas, and understand them. So with every fresh idea; we make a new impression in the brain, cut new channels though the brain-stuff, and that is why we find that in the practice of Yoga (it being an entirely new set of thoughts and motives) there is so much physical resistance at first. That is why we find that the part of religion which deals with the world side of nature can be so widely accepted, while the other part, the Philosophy, or the Psychology, which deals with the inner nature of man, is so frequently neglected. We must remember the definition of this world of ours; it is only the Infinite Existence projected into the plane of consciousness.

A little of the Infinite is projected into consciousness, and that we call our world. So there is an Infinite beyond, and religion has to deal with both, with the little lump we call our world, and with the Infinite beyond. Any religion which deals alone with either one of these two will be defective. It must deal with both. That part of religion which deals with this part of the Infinite which has come into this plane of consciousness, got itself caught, as it were, in the plane of consciousness, in the case of time, space, and causation, is quite familiar to us, because we are in that already, and ideas about this world have been with us almost from time immemorial. The part of religion which deals with the Infinite beyond comes entirely new to us, and getting ideas about it produces new channels in the brain, disturbing the whole system, and that is why you find in the practice of Yoga ordinary people are at first turned out of their groove. In order to lesson these disturbances as much as possible all these methods are devised by Patanjali, that we may practice any one of them best suited to us.

35. vishayavati va pravrittirut panna manasah sthitini  bandhini

Those forms of concentration that bring extraordinary sense perceptions cause perseverance of the mind.

This naturally comes with Dharana, concentration; the Yogis say, if the mind becomes concentrated on the tip of the nose one begins to smell, after a few days, wonderful perfumes. If it becomes concentrated at the root of the tongue one begins to here sounds; if on the tip of the tongue one begins to taste

wonderful flavours; if on the middle of the tongue, one feels as if he were coming in contact with something. If one concentrates his mind on the palate he begins to see peculiar things. If a man whose mind is disturbed wants to take up some of these practices of Yoga, yet doubts the truth of them, he will have his doubts set at rest, when, after a little practice, these things come to him, and he will persevere.

36. vishoka va jyotishmati

Or (by the meditation on) the Effulgent One which is beyond all sorrow.

This is another sort of concentration. Think of the lotus of the heart, with petals downwards, and ruunning through it the Sushumna; take in the breath, and while throwing the breath out imagine that the lotus is turned with the petals upwards, and inside that lotus is an effulgent light. Meditate on that.

37. vitaragavishayan va chittam

Or (by meditation on) the heart that has given up all attachment to sense objects.

Take some holy person, some great person whom you revere, some saint whom you know to be perfectly non-attached, and think of his heart. That heart has become non-attached, and meditate on that heart; it will calm the mind. If you cannot do that, there is the next way.

38  svapnanidrajnanalambanan va

Or by meditating on the knowledge that comes in sleep.

Sometimes a man dreams that he has seen angels coming to him and talking to him, that he is in an ecstatic condition, that he has heard music floating through the air. He is in a blissful condition in that dream, and when he awakes it makes a deep impression on him. Think of that dream as real, and meditate upon it. If you cannot do that, meditate on any holy thing that pleases you.

39. yathabhimatadhyanad va

Or by meditation on anything that appeals to one as good.

This does not mean any wicked subject, but anything good that you like, any place that you like best, any scenery that you like best, any idea that you like best, anything that will concentrate the mind.

40. paramanu paramamahattvantosya vashikarah

The Yogi’s mind thus meditating, becomes un-obstructed from the atomic to the Infinite.

The mind, by this practice, easily contemplates the most minute thing, as well as the biggest thing. Thus the mind waves become fainter.

41. ksheenna vritter abhijatasyev maner grahitri grahanna grahyeshu  tatsthatadangjanatasamapattih

The Yogi whose Vrttis have thus become powerless (controlled) obtains in the receiver, receiving, and received (the self, the mind and external objects), concentratedness and sameness, like the crystal (before different coloured objects.)

What results from this constant meditation? We must remember how in a previous aphorism Patanjali went into the various states of meditation, and how the first will be the gross, and the second the fine objects, and from them the advance is to still finer objects of meditation, and how, in all these meditations, which are only of the first degree, not very high ones, we get as a result that we can meditate as easily on the fine as on the grosser objects. Here the Yogi sees the three things, the receiver, the received, and the receiving, corresponding to the Soul, the object, and the mind. There are three objects of meditation given us. Firs the gross things, as bodies, or material objects, second fine things, as the mind, the Chitta, and third the Purasa qualified, not the Purasa itself, but the egoism. By practice, the Yogi gets established in all these meditations. Whenever he meditates he can keep out all other thought; he becomes identified with that on which he mediates; when he meditates he is like a piece of crystal; before flowers the crystal becomes almost identified with flowers. If the flower is red, the crystal looks red, or if the flower is blue, the crystal looks blue.

42. tatra shabdartha jnana vikalpaih sankeerna savitarka  samapattih

Sound, meaning, and resulting knowledge, being mixed up, is (called Samadhi) with reasoning.

Sound here means vibration; meaning, the nerve currents which conduct it; and knowledge, reaction. All the various meditations we have had so far, Patanjali calls Savitarka (meditations with reasoning). Later on he will give us higher and higher Dhyanas. In these that are called “with reasoning,” we keep the duality of subject and object, which results from the mixture of word, meaning, and knowledge. There is first the external vibration, the word; this, carried inward by the sense currents, is the meaning. After that there comes a reactionary wave in the Chitta, which is knowledge, but the mixture of these three makeup what we call knowledge. In all the meditations up to this we get this mixture as object of meditation. The next Samadhi is higher.

43. smriti parishuddhau svaroopa shoonye vartha matra  nirbhasa  nirvitarka

The Samadhi called without reasoning (comes) when the memory is purified, or devoid of qualities, expressing only the meaning (of the meditated object).

It is by practice of meditation of these three that we come to the state where these three do not mix. We can get rid of them.

We will first try to understand what these three are. Here is the Chitta; you will always remember the simile of the lake, the mind-stuff, and the vibration, the word, the sound, like a pulsation coming over it. You have that calm lake in you, and I pronounce a word, “cow.” As soon as it enters through your ears there is a wave produced in your Chitta along with it. So that wave represents the idea of the cow, the form or the meaning as we call it. That apparent cow that you know is really that wave in the mind-stuff, and that comes as a reaction to the internal and external sound-vibrations, and with the sound, the wave dies away; that wave can never exist

without a word. You may ask how it is when we only think of the cow, and do not hear a sound. You make that sound yourself. You are saying “cow” faintly in your mind, and with that comes a wave. There cannot be any wave without this impulse of sound, and when it is not from outside it is from inside, and when the sound dies, the wave dies. What remains? The result of the reaction, and that is knowledge.

These three are so closely combined in our mind that we cannot separate them. When the sound comes, the senses vibrate, and the wave rises in reaction; they follow so closely upon one another that there is no discerning one from the other; when this meditation has been practiced for a long time, memory, the receptacle of all impressions, becomes purified, and we are able clearly to distinguish them from one another. This is called “Nirvitarka,” concentration without reasoning.

44. etayaiva savichara nirvichara cha sookshma vishaya  vyakhyata

By this process (the concentrations) with discrimination and without discrimination, whose objects are finer, are (also) explained.

A process similar to the preceding is applied again, only, the objects to be taken up in the former meditations are gross; in this they are fine.

45. sookshmavishayatvan chalinggaparyavasanam

The finer objects end with the Pradhana.

The gross objects are only the elements, and everything manufactured out of them. The fine objects begin with the Tanmatras or fine particles. The organs, the mind1, egoism, the mind-stuff (the cause of all manifestion) the equilibrium state of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas materials—called Pradhana

(chief), Prakriti (nature), or Avyakta (unmanifest), are all included within the category of fine objects. The Purusa (the Soul) alone is excepted from this definition.

46. ta eva sabijah samadhih

These concentrations are with seed.

These do not destroy the seeds of past actions, thus cannot give liberation, but what they bring to the Yogi is stated in the following aphorisms.

47. nirvicharavaisharadye  adhyatmaprasadah

The mind, or common sensory, the aggregate of all senses The concentration “without reasoning” being purified, the Chitta becomes firmly fixed.

48. rtanbhara tatr prajna

The knowledge in that is called “filled with Truth.”

The next aphorism will explain this.

49. shrut anumana prajnabhyam anya vishayaa vishesharthatvat 

The knowledge that is gained from testimony and inference is about common objects. That from the Samadhi just mentioned is of a much higher order, being able to penetrate where inference and testimony cannot go.

The idea is that we have to get our knowledge of ordinary objects by direct perception, and by inference therefrom, and from testimony of people who are competent. By “people who are competent,” the Yogis always mean the Rishis, or the Seers of the thoughts recorded in the Scriptures—the Vedas.

According to them, the only proof of the Scriptures is that they were the testimony of competent persons, yet they say the Scriptures cannot take us to realisation. We can read all the Vedas, and yet will not realise anything, but when we practise their teachings, then we attain to that state which realises what the Scriptures say, which penetrates where reason cannot go, and where the testimony of others cannot avail. This is what is meant by this aphorism, that realisation is real religion, and all the rest is only preparation—hearing lectures, or reading books, or reasoning, is merely preparing the ground; it is not religion. Intellectual assent, and intellectual dissent are not religion. The central idea of the Yogis is that just as we come in direct contact with the objects of the senses, so religion can be directly perceived in a far more intense sense. The truths of religion, as God and Soul, cannot be perceived by the external senses. I cannot see God with my eyes, nor can I touch Him with my hands, and we also know that neither can we reason beyond the senses.

Reason leaves us at a point quite indecisive; we may reason all our lives, as the world has been doing for thousands of years, and the result is that we find we are incompetent to prove or disprove the facts of religion. What we perceive directly we take as the basis, and upon that basis we reason.

So it is obvious that reasoning has to run within these bounds of perception. It can never go beyond: the whole scope of realisation, therefore, is beyond sense perception. The Yogis say that man can go beyond his direct sense perception, and beyond his reason also. Man has in him the faculty, the power, of transcending his intellect even, and that power is in every being, every creature. By the practice of Yoga that power is aroused, and then man transcends the ordinary limits of reason, and directly perceives things which are beyond all reason.

50. tajjah sanskaro nyasanskarapratibandhi

The resulting impression from this Samadhi  obstructs  all  other  impressions.

We have seen in the foregoing aphorism that the only way of attaining to that super-consciousness is by concentration, and we have also seen that what hinder the mind from concentration are the past Samskaras, impressions. All of you have observed that when you are trying to concentrate your mind, your thoughts wander. When you are trying to think of God, that is the very time which all these Samskaras take to appear. At other times they are not so active, but when you want them not to be they are sure to be there, trying their best to crowd inside your mind. Why should that be so? Why should they be much more potent at the time of concentration? It is because you are repressing them and they react with all their force. At other times they do not react.

How countless these old past impressions must be, all lodge somewhere in the Chitta, ready, waiting like tigers to jump up. These have to be suppressed that the one idea which we like may arise, to the exclusion of the others. Instead, they are all struggling to come up at the same time. These are the various powers of the Samskaras in hindering concentration of the mind, so this Samadhi which has just been given is the best to be practised, on account of its power of suppressing the Samskaras. The Samskara which will be raised by this sort of concentration will be so powerful that it will hinder the action of the others, and hold them in check.

51. tasyapi nirodhe sarvanirodhannirbijah samadhih

By the restraint of even this (impression, which obstructs all other impressions), all being restrained, comes the “seedless” Samadhi.

You remember that our goal is to perceive the Soul iself. We cannot perceive the Soul because it has got mingled up with nature, with the mind, with the body. The most ignorant man thinks his body is the Soul. The more learned man thinks his mind is the Soul, but both of these are mistaken. What makes the Soul get mingled up with all this, these different waves in the Chitta rise and cover the Soul, and we only are a little reflection of the Soul through these waves, so, if the wave be one of anger, we see the Soul as angry: “I am angry,” we say.

If the wave is a wave of love we see ourselves reflected in that wave, and say we are loving. If that wave is one of weakness, and the Soul is reflected in it, we think we are weak. These various ideas come from these impressions, these Samskaras covering the Soul. The real nature of the Soul is not perceived until all the waves have subsided; so, first, Patanjali teaches us the meaning of these waves; secondly, the best way to repress them; and thirdly, how to make one wave so strong as to suppress all other waves, fire eating fire as it were. When only one remains, it will be easy to suppress that also, and when that is gone, this Samadhi of concentration is called seedless; it leaves nothing, and the Soul is manifested just as It is, in Its own glory. Then alone we know that the Soul is not a compound, It is the only eternal simple in the universe, and, as such, It cannot be born, It cannot die, It is immortal, indestructible, the Ever-living Essence of intelligence.

CHAPTER II - SADHANA PADA

CONCENTRATION - ITS PRACTICE

॥ DWITIYA SADHANAPADA॥

1. tapahsvadhyayeshvarapranidhanani kriyayogah

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; therefore 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. samadhibhavanarthah leshatanookaranarthashch

(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.  avidyasmitaragadveshabhiniveshah kleshaah

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. avidya kshetram uttareshan prasupta tanu vichchhinnodaranam

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. anityashuchi duhkh anatmasu nitya shuchi sukhatmakhyatir  avidya

Ignorance is taking that which is non-eternal, 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. drigdarshanashaktyorekatmatevasmita

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 mind-stuff, and think we feel pleasure or pain.

7. sukhanushayi raagah

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. duhkhanushayi dveshah

Aversion is that which dwells on pain.

That, which gives us pain we immediately seek to get away from.

9. svarasavahi vidushopi tatharoodho bhiniveshah

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. feel it, see it, handle it, can easily manipulate it, can fight with it, but I shall not succeed perfectly in the fight until 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 are 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. te pratiprasavaheyah  sookshmah

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 raising 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. dhyanaheyastadvrittayah

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. kleshamoolah karmashayo drisht adrishta janma vedaniyah

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 ordinary 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. Similarly, 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 amount 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 anybody 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. sati moole tadvipako jatyayurbhogah

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. te  hlada  paritapa  falah   punyapunya  hetutvat

They bear fruit as pleasure or pain, caused by virtue

or vice.

15. parinama tapa sanskara duhkhair gunnavritti-virodhaccha   duhkham   eva   sarvan   vivekinah

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. heyan duhkham anagatam

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. drashtridrishyayoh sanyogo heyahetuh

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. prakashakriyasthitishilan bhootendriyatmakan

bhogapavargarthan drishyam

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 release.

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. visheshavishesha lingga   matra linggani gunna parvani

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. drashta drishi matrah shuddhopi pratyay anupashyah

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. tadarth eva drishyasyatma

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. kritarthan prati nashtam apya nashtan tad anya sadharannatvat

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. svasvamishaktyoh svaroopopalabdhi hetuh sanyogah

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. tasya heturavidya

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. tadabhavat sanyogabhavo hanan taddrisheh kaivalyam

There being absence of that (ignorance) there is absence of junction, which is the thing-to-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. vivekakhyatiraviplava hanopayah

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. tasya saptadhaa prantabhoomih prajna

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 fallen 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. yogangganushthanada shuddhikshaye  jnana diptira  vivekakhyateh

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 samadhayo-a-shtava anggani

Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana,  Dhyana,  Samadhi, are the limbs of Yoga.

30.  ahinsa satyasteya brahmacharya aparigraha yamah

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. jati desha kala samayanav achchhinnah sarvabhauma  mahavratam

These, unbroken by time, place, purpose, and caste, are (universal) great vows.

These practices, non-killing, non-stealing, chastity, and non-receiving, are to be practiced by every man, woman and  child, by every soul, irrespective of nation, country or position.

32. shaucha santosha tapah svadhyay eshvara pranidhanani   niyamah

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. vitarka  badhane  pratipakshabhavanam

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. vitarkaa  hinsadayah  krita  karitanumodita  lobha  krodha moha poorvaka mridu madhyadhi matra duhkhajnananantafala  iti  pratipakshabhavanam

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.  ahimsa  pratishthayam   tat  sannidhau  vairatyagah

Non-killing being established, in his presence all enmities 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. satya  pratishthayam  kriyafalashrayatvam

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. asteya   pratishthayam   sarvaratnopasthanam

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.  brahmacharya  pratishthayam   viryalabhah

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. aparigrahasthairye  janmakathanta  sanbodhah

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. shauchat svangga jugupsa  parairasansargah

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. sattva  shuddhi  saumanasyaikagryendriyajay

atmadarshanayojnatvanicha

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. santoshad anuttamah sukhalabhah

From contentment comes superlative happiness.

43. kayendriyasiddhirashuddhikshayat tapasah

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. svadhyayad ishtadevatasanprayogah

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. samadhisiddhirishvarapranidhanat

By sacrificing all to Isvara comes Samadhi.

By resignation to the Lord,  Samadhi  becomes perfect.

46. sthirasukham  aasanam

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. prayatnashaithilyanantasamapattibhyam

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. tato dvandvanabhighatah

Seat being conquered, the dualities do not obstruct.

The dualities are good and bad, heat and cold, and all the pairs of opposites.

49.  tasminsa ati   shvasaprashvasayor gati  vichchhedah    pranayamah

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 body, 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 breath, as the easiest way of getting control of the Prana.

50. bahyabhyantara stambhavrittih desha kala sankhya bhih  paridrishto  dirghasookshmah

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 how long 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. bahyabhyantaravishayakshepi chaturthah

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. dharanasu ch yojnata manasah

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. Dharanasu cha yogyata manasah

The mind becomes fit for Dharana.

After this covering has been removed we are able to concentrate the mind.

54. svasvavishayasanprayogechittasy svaroopanukar

ivendriyanan pratyaharah

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 organs are perfectly under control, every muscle and nerve will be under control, because the organs are the centres of all the sensations, 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."

There are 55 sutras in many versions of Patanjali Yoga Sutra. The 55th Sutra is “Pratyahara results in the absolute control of the sense organs”.

Swami Vivekananda has not commented upon this sutra.