{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_2526/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_2526","id":"gutenberg_2526","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2526","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Hinduism","Yoga -- Early works to 1800"],"text":"THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI\n\n\u201cThe Book of the Spiritual Man\u201d\n\nAn Interpretation By\nCharles Johnston\n\nBengal Civil Service, Retired;\nIndian Civil Service, Sanskrit Prizeman;\nDublin University, Sanskrit Prizeman\n\n\nContents\n\n INTRODUCTION TO BOOK I\n BOOK I\n INTRODUCTION TO BOOK II\n BOOK II\n INTRODUCTION TO BOOK III\n BOOK III\n INTRODUCTION TO BOOK IV\n BOOK IV\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION TO BOOK I\n\n\nThe Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are in themselves exceedingly brief, less\nthan ten pages of large type in the original. Yet they contain the\nessence of practical wisdom, set forth in admirable order and detail.\nThe theme, if the present interpreter be right, is the great\nregeneration, the birth of the spiritual from the psychical man: the\nsame theme which Paul so wisely and eloquently set forth in writing to\nhis disciples in Corinth, the theme of all mystics in all lands.\n\nWe think of ourselves as living a purely physical life, in these\nmaterial bodies of ours. In reality, we have gone far indeed from pure\nphysical life; for ages, our life has been psychical, we have been\ncentred and immersed in the psychic nature. Some of the schools of\nIndia say that the psychic nature is, as it were, a looking-glass,\nwherein are mirrored the things seen by the physical eyes, and heard by\nthe physical ears. But this is a magic mirror; the images remain, and\ntake a certain life of their own. Thus within the psychic realm of our\nlife there grows up an imaged world wherein we dwell; a world of the\nimages of things seen and heard, and therefore a world of memories; a\nworld also of hopes and desires, of fears and regrets. Mental life\ngrows up among these images, built on a measuring and comparing, on the\nmassing of images together into general ideas; on the abstraction of\nnew notions and images from these; till a new world is built up within,\nfull of desires and hates, ambition, envy, longing, speculation,\ncuriosity, self-will, self-interest.\n\nThe teaching of the East is, that all these are true powers overlaid by\nfalse desires; that though in manifestation psychical, they are in\nessence spiritual; that the psychical man is the veil and prophecy of\nthe spiritual man.\n\nThe purpose of life, therefore, is the realizing of that prophecy; the\nunveiling of the immortal man; the birth of the spiritual from the\npsychical, whereby we enter our divine inheritance and come to inhabit\nEternity. This is, indeed, salvation, the purpose of all true religion,\nin all times.\n\nPatanjali has in mind the spiritual man, to be born from the psychical.\nHis purpose is, to set in order the practical means for the unveiling\nand regeneration, and to indicate the fruit, the glory and the power,\nof that new birth.\n\nThrough the Sutras of the first book, Patanjali is concerned with the\nfirst great problem, the emergence of the spiritual man from the veils\nand meshes of the psychic nature, the moods and vestures of the mental\nand emotional man. Later will come the consideration of the nature and\npowers of the spiritual man, once he stands clear of the psychic veils\nand trammels, and a view of the realms in which these new spiritual\npowers are to be revealed.\n\nAt this point may come a word of explanation. I have been asked why I\nuse the word Sutras, for these rules of Patanjali\u2019s system, when the\nword Aphorism has been connected with them in our minds for a\ngeneration. The reason is this: the name Aphorism suggests, to me at\nleast, a pithy sentence of very general application; a piece of\nproverbial wisdom that may be quoted in a good many sets of\ncircumstance, and which will almost bear on its face the evidence of\nits truth. But with a Sutra the case is different. It comes from the\nsame root as the word \u201csew,\u201d and means, indeed, a thread, suggesting,\ntherefore, a close knit, consecutive chain of argument. Not only has\neach Sutra a definite place in the system, but further, taken out of\nthis place, it will be almost meaningless, and will by no means be\nself-evident. So I have thought best to adhere to the original word.\nThe Sutras of Patanjali are as closely knit together, as dependent on\neach other, as the propositions of Euclid, and can no more be taken out\nof their proper setting.\n\nIn the second part of the first book, the problem of the emergence of\nthe spiritual man is further dealt with. We are led to the\nconsideration of the barriers to his emergence, of the overcoming of\nthe barriers, and of certain steps and stages in the ascent from the\nordinary consciousness of practical life, to the finer, deeper, radiant\nconsciousness of the spiritual man.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK I\n\n\n1. OM: Here follows Instruction in Union.\n\nUnion, here as always in the Scriptures of India, means union of the\nindividual soul with the Oversoul; of the personal consciousness with\nthe Divine Consciousness, whereby the mortal becomes immortal, and\nenters the Eternal. Therefore, salvation is, first, freedom from sin\nand the sorrow which comes from sin, and then a divine and eternal\nwell-being, wherein the soul partakes of the being, the wisdom and\nglory of God.\n\n2. Union, spiritual consciousness, is gained through control of the\nversatile psychic nature.\n\nThe goal is the full consciousness of the spiritual man, illumined by\nthe Divine Light. Nothing except the obdurate resistance of the psychic\nnature keeps us back from the goal. The psychical powers are spiritual\npowers run wild, perverted, drawn from their proper channel. Therefore\nour first task is, to regain control of this perverted nature, to\nchasten, purify and restore the misplaced powers.\n\n3. Then the Seer comes to consciousness in his proper nature.\n\nEgotism is but the perversion of spiritual being. Ambition is the\ninversion of spiritual power. Passion is the distortion of love. The\nmortal is the limitation of the immortal. When these false images give\nplace to true, then the spiritual man stands forth luminous, as the\nsun, when the clouds disperse.\n\n4. Heretofore the Seer has been enmeshed in the activities of the\npsychic nature.\n\nThe power and life which are the heritage of the spiritual man have\nbeen caught and enmeshed in psychical activities. Instead of pure being\nin the Divine, there has been fretful, combative, egotism, its hand\nagainst every man. Instead of the light of pure vision, there have been\nrestless senses nave been re and imaginings. Instead of spiritual joy,\nthe undivided joy of pure being, there has been self-indulgence of body\nand mind. These are all real forces, but distorted from their true\nnature and goal. They must be extricated, like gems from the matrix,\nlike the pith from the reed, steadily, without destructive violence.\nSpiritual powers are to be drawn forth from the psychic meshes.\n\n5. The psychic activities are five; they are either subject or not\nsubject to the five hindrances (Book II, 3).\n\nThe psychic nature is built up through the image-making power, the\npower which lies behind and dwells in mind-pictures. These pictures do\nnot remain quiescent in the mind; they are kinetic, restless,\nstimulating to new acts. Thus the mind-image of an indulgence suggests\nand invites to a new indulgence; the picture of past joy is framed in\nregrets or hopes. And there is the ceaseless play of the desire to\nknow, to penetrate to the essence of things, to classify. This, too,\nbusies itself ceaselessly with the mind-images. So that we may classify\nthe activities of the psychic nature thus:\n\n6. These activities are: Sound intellection, unsound intellection,\npredication, sleep, memory.\n\nWe have here a list of mental and emotional powers; of powers that\npicture and observe, and of powers that picture and feel. But the power\nto know and feel is spiritual and immortal. What is needed is, not to\ndestroy it, but to raise it from the psychical to the spiritual realm.\n\n7. The elements of sound intellection are: direct observation,\ninductive reason, and trustworthy testimony.\n\nEach of these is a spiritual power, thinly veiled. Direct observation\nis the outermost form of the Soul\u2019s pure vision. Inductive reason rests\non the great principles of continuity and correspondence; and these, on\nthe supreme truth that all life is of the One. Trustworthy testimony,\nthe sharing of one soul in the wisdom of another, rests on the ultimate\noneness of all souls.\n\n8. Unsound intellection is false understanding, not resting on a\nperception of the true nature of things.\n\nWhen the object is not truly perceived, when the observation is\ninaccurate and faulty, thought or reasoning based on that mistaken\nperception is of necessity false and unsound.\n\n9. Predication is carried on through words or thoughts not resting on\nan object perceived.\n\nThe purpose of this Sutra is, to distinguish between the mental process\nof predication, and observation, induction or testimony. Predication is\nthe attribution of a quality or action to a subject, by adding to it a\npredicate. In the sentence, \u201cthe man is wise,\u201d \u201cthe man\u201d is the\nsubject; \u201cis wise\u201d is the predicate. This may be simply an interplay of\nthoughts, without the presence of the object thought of; or the things\nthought of may be imaginary or unreal; while observation, induction and\ntestimony always go back to an object.\n\n10. Sleep is the psychic condition which rests on mind states, all\nmaterial things being absent.\n\nIn waking life, we have two currents of perception; an outer current of\nphysical things seen and heard and perceived; an inner current of\nmind-images and thoughts. The outer current ceases in sleep; the inner\ncurrent continues, and watching the mind-images float before the field\nof consciousness, we \u201cdream.\u201d Even when there are no dreams, there is\nstill a certain consciousness in sleep, so that, on waking, one says,\n\u201cI have slept well,\u201d or \u201cI have slept badly.\u201d\n\n11. Memory is holding to mind-images of things perceived, without\nmodifying them.\n\nHere, as before, the mental power is explained in terms of mind-images,\nwhich are the material of which the psychic world is built, Therefore\nthe sages teach that the world of our perception, which is indeed a\nworld of mind-images, is but the wraith or shadow of the real and\neverlasting world. In this sense, memory is but the psychical inversion\nof the spiritual, ever-present vision. That which is ever before the\nspiritual eye of the Seer needs not to be remembered.\n\n12. The control of these psychic activities comes through the right use\nof the will, and through ceasing from self-indulgence.\n\nIf these psychical powers and energies, even such evil things as\npassion and hate and fear, are but spiritual powers fallen and\nperverted, how are we to bring about their release and restoration? Two\nmeans are presented to us: the awakening of the spiritual will, and the\npurification of mind and thought.\n\n13. The right use of the will is the steady, effort to stand in\nspiritual being.\n\nWe have thought of ourselves, perhaps, as creatures moving upon this\nearth, rather helpless, at the mercy of storm and hunger and our\nenemies. We are to think of ourselves as immortals, dwelling in the\nLight, encompassed and sustained by spiritual powers. The steady effort\nto hold this thought will awaken dormant and unrealized powers, which\nwill unveil to us the nearness of the Eternal.\n\n14. This becomes a firm resting-place, when followed long,\npersistently, with earnestness.\n\nWe must seek spiritual life in conformity with the laws of spiritual\nlife, with earnestness, humility, gentle charity, which is an\nacknowledgment of the One Soul within us all. Only through obedience to\nthat shared Life, through perpetual remembrance of our oneness with all\nDivine Being, our nothingness apart from Divine Being, can we enter our\ninheritance.\n\n15. Ceasing from self-indulgence is conscious mastery over the thirst\nfor sensuous pleasure here or hereafter.\n\nRightly understood, the desire for sensation is the desire of being,\nthe distortion of the soul\u2019s eternal life. The lust of sensual stimulus\nand excitation rests on the longing to feel one\u2019s life keenly, to gain\nthe sense of being really alive. This sense of true life comes only\nwith the coming of the soul, and the soul comes only in silence, after\nself-indulgence has been courageously and loyally stilled, through\nreverence before the coming soul.\n\n16. The consummation of this is freedom from thirst for any mode of\npsychical activity, through the establishment of the spiritual man.\n\nIn order to gain a true understanding of this teaching, study must be\nsupplemented by devoted practice, faith by works. The reading of the\nwords will not avail. There must be a real effort to stand as the Soul,\na real ceasing from self-indulgence. With this awakening of the\nspiritual will, and purification, will come at once the growth of the\nspiritual man and our awakening consciousness as the spiritual man; and\nthis, attained in even a small degree, will help us notably in our\ncontest. To him that hath, shall be given.\n\n17. Meditation with an object follows these stages: first, exterior\nexamining, then interior judicial action, then joy, then realization of\nindividual being.\n\nIn the practice of meditation, a beginning may be made by fixing the\nattention upon some external object, such as a sacred image or picture,\nor a part of a book of devotion. In the second stage, one passes from\nthe outer object to an inner pondering upon its lessons. The third\nstage is the inspiration, the heightening of the spiritual will, which\nresults from this pondering. The fourth stage is the realization of\none\u2019s spiritual being, as enkindled by this meditation.\n\n18. After the exercise of the will has stilled the psychic activities,\nmeditation rests only on the fruit of former meditations.\n\nIn virtue of continued practice and effort, the need of an external\nobject on which to rest the meditation is outgrown. An interior state\nof spiritual consciousness is reached, which is called \u201cthe cloud of\nthings knowable\u201d (Book IV, 29).\n\n19. Subjective consciousness arising from a natural cause is possessed\nby those who have laid aside their bodies and been absorbed into\nsubjective nature.\n\nThose who have died, entered the paradise between births, are in a\ncondition resembling meditation without an external object. But in the\nfullness of time, the seeds of desire in them will spring up, and they\nwill be born again into this world.\n\n20. For the others, there is spiritual consciousness, led up to by\nfaith, valour, right mindfulness, one-pointedness, perception.\n\nIt is well to keep in mind these steps on the path to illumination:\nfaith, valour, right mindfulness, one-pointedness, perception. Not one\ncan be dispensed with; all must be won. First faith; and then from\nfaith, valour; from valour, right mindfulness; from right mindfulness,\na one-pointed aspiration toward the soul; from this, perception; and\nfinally, full vision as the soul.\n\n21. Spiritual consciousness is nearest to those of keen, intense will.\n\nThe image used is the swift impetus of the torrent; the kingdom must be\ntaken by force. Firm will comes only through effort; effort is inspired\nby faith. The great secret is this: it is not enough to have\nintuitions; we must act on them; we must live them.\n\n22. The will may be weak, or of middle strength, or intense.\n\nTherefore there is a spiritual consciousness higher than this. For\nthose of weak will, there is this counsel: to be faithful in obedience,\nto live the life, and thus to strengthen the will to more perfect\nobedience. The will is not ours, but God\u2019s, and we come into it only\nthrough obedience. As we enter into the spirit of God, we are permitted\nto share the power of God.\n\n Higher than the three stages of the way is the goal, the end of the\n way.\n\n23. Or spiritual consciousness may be gained by ardent service of the\nMaster.\n\nIf we think of our lives as tasks laid on us by the Master of Life, if\nwe look on all duties as parts of that Master\u2019s work, entrusted to us,\nand forming our life-work; then, if we obey, promptly, loyally,\nsincerely, we shall enter by degrees into the Master\u2019s life and share\nthe Master\u2019s power. Thus we shall be initiated into the spiritual will.\n\n24. The Master is the spiritual man, who is free from hindrances,\nbondage to works, and the fruition and seed of works.\n\nThe Soul of the Master, the Lord, is of the same nature as the soul in\nus; but we still bear the burden of many evils, we are in bondage\nthrough our former works, we are under the dominance of sorrow. The\nSoul of the Master is free from sin and servitude and sorrow.\n\n25. In the Master is the perfect seed of Omniscience.\n\nThe Soul of the Master is in essence one with the Oversoul, and\ntherefore partaker of the Oversoul\u2019s all-wisdom and all-power. All\nspiritual attainment rests on this, and is possible because the soul\nand the Oversoul are One.\n\n26. He is the Teacher of all who have gone before, since he is not\nlimited by Time.\n\nFrom the beginning, the Oversoul has been the Teacher of all souls,\nwhich, by their entrance into the Oversoul, by realizing their oneness\nwith the Oversoul, have inherited the kingdom of the Light. For the\nOversoul is before Time, and Time, father of all else, is one of His\nchildren.\n\n27. His word is OM.\n\nOM: the symbol of the Three in One, the three worlds in the Soul; the\nthree times, past, present, future, in Eternity; the three Divine\nPowers, Creation, Preservation, Transformation, in the one Being; the\nthree essences, immortality, omniscience, joy, in the one Spirit. This\nis the Word, the Symbol, of the Master and Lord, the perfected\nSpiritual Man.\n\n28. Let there be soundless repetition of OM and meditation thereon.\n\nThis has many meanings, in ascending degrees. There is, first, the\npotency of the word itself, as of all words. Then there is the manifold\nsignificance of the symbol, as suggested above. Lastly, there is the\nspiritual realization of the high essences thus symbolized. Thus we\nrise step by step to the Eternal.\n\n29. Thence come the awakening of interior consciousness, and the\nremoval of barriers.\n\nHere again faith must be supplemented by works, the life must be led as\nwell as studied, before the full meaning can be understood. The\nawakening of spiritual consciousness can only be understood in measure\nas it is entered. It can only be entered where the conditions are\npresent: purity of heart, and strong aspiration, and the resolute\nconquest of each sin.\n\nThis, however, may easily be understood: that the recognition of the\nthree worlds as resting in the Soul leads us to realize ourselves and\nall life as of the Soul; that, as we dwell, not in past, present or\nfuture, but in the Eternal, we become more at one with the Eternal;\nthat, as we view all organization, preservation, mutation as the work\nof the Divine One, we shall come more into harmony with the One, and\nthus remove the barrier\u2019 in our path toward the Light.\n\nIn the second part of the first book, the problem of the emergence of\nthe spiritual man is further dealt with. We are led to the\nconsideration of the barriers to his emergence, of the overcoming of\nthe barriers, and of certain steps and stages in the ascent from the\nordinary consciousness of practical life, to the finer, deeper, radiant\nconsciousness of the spiritual man.\n\n30. The barriers to interior consciousness, which drive the psychic\nnature this way and that, are these: sickness, inertia, doubt,\nlightmindedness, laziness, intemperance, false notions, inability to\nreach a stage of meditation, or to hold it when reached.\n\nWe must remember that we are considering the spiritual man as enwrapped\nand enmeshed by the psychic nature, the emotional and mental powers;\nand as unable to come to clear consciousness, unable to stand and see\nclearly, because of the psychic veils of the personality. Nine of these\nare enumerated, and they go pretty thoroughly into the brute toughness\nof the psychic nature.\n\nSickness is included rather for its effect on the emotions and mind,\nsince bodily infirmity, such as blindness or deafness, is no\ninsuperable barrier to spiritual life, and may sometimes be a help, as\ncutting off distractions. It will be well for us to ponder over each of\nthese nine activities, thinking of each as a psychic state, a barrier\nto the interior consciousness of the spiritual man.\n\n31. Grieving, despondency, bodily restlessness, the drawing in and\nsending forth of the life-breath also contribute to drive the psychic\nnature to and fro.\n\nThe first two moods are easily understood. We can well see bow a sodden\npsychic condition, flagrantly opposed to the pure and positive joy of\nspiritual life, would be a barrier. The next, bodily restlessness, is\nin a special way the fault of our day and generation. When it is\nconquered, mental restlessness will be half conquered, too.\n\nThe next two terms, concerning the life breath, offer some difficulty.\nThe surface meaning is harsh and irregular breathing; the deeper\nmeaning is a life of harsh and irregular impulses.\n\n32. Steady application to a principle is the way to put a stop to\nthese.\n\nThe will, which, in its pristine state, was full of vigour, has been\nsteadily corrupted by self-indulgence, the seeking of moods and\nsensations for sensation\u2019s sake. Hence come all the morbid and sickly\nmoods of the mind. The remedy is a return to the pristine state of the\nwill, by vigorous, positive effort; or, as we are here told, by steady\napplication to a principle. The principle to which we should thus\nsteadily apply ourselves should be one arising from the reality of\nspiritual life; valorous work for the soul, in others as in ourselves.\n\n33. By sympathy with the happy, compassion for the sorrowful, delight\nin the holy, disregard of the unholy, the psychic nature moves to\ngracious peace.\n\nWhen we are wrapped up in ourselves, shrouded with the cloak of our\negotism, absorbed in our pains and bitter thoughts, we are not willing\nto disturb or strain our own sickly mood by giving kindly sympathy to\nthe happy, thus doubling their joy, or by showing compassion for the\nsad, thus halving their sorrow. We refuse to find delight in holy\nthings, and let the mind brood in sad pessimism on unholy things. All\nthese evil psychic moods must be conquered by strong effort of will.\nThis rending of the veils will reveal to us something of the grace and\npeace which are of the interior consciousness of the spiritual man.\n\n34. Or peace may be reached by the even sending forth and control of\nthe life-breath.\n\nHere again we may look for a double meaning: first, that even and quiet\nbreathing which is a part of the victory over bodily restlessness; then\nthe even and quiet tenor of life, without harsh or dissonant impulses,\nwhich brings stillness to the heart.\n\n35. Faithful, persistent application to any object, if completely\nattained, will bind the mind to steadiness.\n\nWe are still considering how to overcome the wavering and perturbation\nof the psychic nature, which make it quite unfit to transmit the inward\nconsciousness and stillness. We are once more told to use the will, and\nto train it by steady and persistent work: by \u201csitting close\u201d to our\nwork, in the phrase of the original.\n\n36. As also will a joyful, radiant spirit.\n\nThere is no such illusion as gloomy pessimism, and it has been truly\nsaid that a man\u2019s cheerfulness is the measure of his faith. Gloom,\ndespondency, the pale cast of thought, are very amenable to the will.\nSturdy and courageous effort will bring a clear and valorous mind. But\nit must always be remembered that this is not for solace to the\npersonal man, but is rather an offering to the ideal of spiritual life,\na contribution to the universal and universally shared treasure in\nheaven.\n\n37. Or the purging of self-indulgence from the psychic nature.\n\nWe must recognize that the fall of man is a reality, exemplified in our\nown persons. We have quite other sins than the animals, and far more\ndeleterious; and they have all come through self-indulgence, with which\nour psychic natures are soaked through and through. As we climbed down\nhill for our pleasure, so must we climb up again for our purification\nand restoration to our former high estate. The process is painful,\nperhaps, yet indispensable.\n\n38. Or a pondering on the perceptions gained in dreams and dreamless\nsleep.\n\nFor the Eastern sages, dreams are, it is true, made up of images of\nwaking life, reflections of what the eyes have seen and the ears heard.\nBut dreams are something more, for the images are in a sense real,\nobjective on their own plane; and the knowledge that there is another\nworld, even a dream-world, lightens the tyranny of material life. Much\nof poetry and art is such a solace from dreamland. But there is more in\ndream, for it may image what is above, as well as what is below; not\nonly the children of men, but also the children by the shore of the\nimmortal sea that brought us hither, may throw their images on this\nmagic mirror: so, too, of the secrets of dreamless sleep with its pure\nvision, in even greater degree.\n\n39. Or meditative brooding on what is dearest to the heart.\n\nHere is a thought which our own day is beginning to grasp: that love is\na form of knowledge; that we truly know any thing or any person, by\nbecoming one therewith, in love. Thus love has a wisdom that the mind\ncannot claim, and by this hearty love, this becoming one with what is\nbeyond our personal borders, we may take a long step toward freedom.\nTwo directions for this may be suggested: the pure love of the artist\nfor his work, and the earnest, compassionate search into the hearts of\nothers.\n\n40. Thus he masters all, from the atom to the Infinite.\n\nNewton was asked how he made his discoveries. By intending my mind on\nthem, he replied. This steady pressure, this becoming one with what we\nseek to understand, whether it be atom or soul, is the one means to\nknow. When we become a thing, we really know it, not otherwise.\nTherefore live the life, to know the doctrine; do the will of the\nFather, if you would know the Father.\n\n41. When the perturbations of the psychic nature have all been stilled,\nthen the consciousness, like a pure crystal, takes the colour of what\nit rests on, whether that be the perceiver, perceiving, or the thing\nperceived.\n\nThis is a fuller expression of the last Sutra, and is so lucid that\ncomment can hardly add to it. Everything is either perceiver,\nperceiving, or the thing perceived; or, as we might say, consciousness,\nforce, or matter. The sage tells us that the one key will unlock the\nsecrets of all three, the secrets of consciousness, force and matter\nalike. The thought is, that the cordial sympathy of a gentle heart,\nintuitively understanding the hearts of others, is really a\nmanifestation of the same power as that penetrating perception whereby\none divines the secrets of planetary motions or atomic structure.\n\n42. When the consciousness, poised in perceiving, blends together the\nname, the object dwelt on and the idea, this is perception with\nexterior consideration.\n\nIn the first stage of the consideration of an external object, the\nperceiving mind comes to it, preoccupied by the name and idea\nconventionally associated with that object. For example, in coming to\nthe study of a book, we think of the author, his period, the school to\nwhich he belongs. The second stage, set forth in the next Sutra, goes\ndirectly to the spiritual meaning of the book, setting its traditional\ntrappings aside and finding its application to our own experience and\nproblems.\n\nThe commentator takes a very simple illustration: a cow, where one\nconsiders, in the first stage, the name of the cow, the animal itself\nand the idea of a cow in the mind. In the second stage, one pushes\nthese trappings aside and, entering into the inmost being of the cow,\nshares its consciousness, as do some of the artists who paint cows.\nThey get at the very life of what they study and paint.\n\n43. When the object dwells in the mind, clear of memory-pictures,\nuncoloured by the mind, as a pure luminous idea, this is perception\nwithout exterior or consideration.\n\nWe are still considering external, visible objects. Such perception as\nis here described is of the nature of that penetrating vision whereby\nNewton, intending his mind on things, made his discoveries, or that\nwhereby a really great portrait painter pierces to the soul of him whom\nhe paints, and makes that soul live on canvas. These stages of\nperception are described in this way, to lead the mind up to an\nunderstanding of the piercing soul-vision of the spiritual man, the\nimmortal.\n\n44. The same two steps, when referring to things of finer substance,\nare said to be with, or without, judicial action of the mind.\n\nWe now come to mental or psychical objects: to images in the mind. It\nis precisely by comparing, arranging and superposing these mind-images\nthat we get our general notions or concepts. This process of analysis\nand synthesis, whereby we select certain qualities in a group of\nmind-images, and then range together those of like quality, is the\njudicial action of the mind spoken of. But when we exercise swift\ndivination upon the mind images, as does a poet or a man of genius,\nthen we use a power higher than the judicial, and one nearer to the\nkeen vision of the spiritual man.\n\n45. Subtle substance rises in ascending degrees, to that pure nature\nwhich has no distinguishing mark.\n\nAs we ascend from outer material things which are permeated by\nseparateness, and whose chief characteristic is to be separate, just as\nso many pebbles are separate from each other; as we ascend, first, to\nmind-images, which overlap and coalesce in both space and time, and\nthen to ideas and principles, we finally come to purer essences,\ndrawing ever nearer and nearer to unity.\n\nOr we may illustrate this principle thus. Our bodily, external selves\nare quite distinct and separate, in form, name, place, substance; our\nmental selves, of finer substance, meet and part, meet and part again,\nin perpetual concussion and interchange; our spiritual selves attain\ntrue consciousness through unity, where the partition wall between us\nand the Highest, between us and others, is broken down and we are all\nmade perfect in the One. The highest riches are possessed by all pure\nsouls, only when united. Thus we rise from separation to true\nindividuality in unity.\n\n46. The above are the degrees of limited and conditioned spiritual\nconsciousness, still containing the seed of separateness.\n\nIn the four stages of perception above described, the spiritual vision\nis still working through the mental and psychical, the inner genius is\nstill expressed through the outer, personal man. The spiritual man has\nyet to come completely to consciousness as himself, in his own realm,\nthe psychical veils laid aside.\n\n47. When pure perception without judicial action of the mind is\nreached, there follows the gracious peace of the inner self.\n\nWe have instanced certain types of this pure perception: the poet\u2019s\ndivination, whereby he sees the spirit within the symbol, likeness in\nthings unlike, and beauty in all things; the pure insight of the true\nphilosopher, whose vision rests not on the appearances of life, but on\nits realities; or the saint\u2019s firm perception of spiritual life and\nbeing. All these are far advanced on the way; they have drawn near to\nthe secret dwelling of peace.\n\n48. In that peace, perception is unfailingly true.\n\nThe poet, the wise philosopher and the saint not only reach a wide and\nluminous consciousness, but they gain certain knowledge of substantial\nreality. When we know, we know that we know. For we have come to the\nstage where we know things by being them, and nothing can be more true\nthan being. We rest on the rock, and know it to be rock, rooted in the\nvery heart of the world.\n\n49. The object of this perception is other than what is learned from\nthe sacred books, or by sound inference, since this perception is\nparticular.\n\nThe distinction is a luminous and inspiring one. The Scriptures teach\ngeneral truths, concerning universal spiritual life and broad laws, and\ninference from their teaching is not less general. But the spiritual\nperception of the awakened Seer brings particular truth concerning his\nown particular life and needs, whether these be for himself or others.\nHe receives defined, precise knowledge, exactly applying to what he has\nat heart.\n\n50. The impress on the consciousness springing from this perception\nsupersedes all previous impressions.\n\nEach state or field of the mind, each field of knowledge, so to speak,\nwhich is reached by mental and emotional energies, is a psychical\nstate, just as the mind picture of a stage with the actors on it, is a\npsychical state or field. When the pure vision, as of the poet, the\nphilosopher, the saint, fills the whole field, all lesser views and\nvisions are crowded out. This high consciousness displaces all lesser\nconsciousness. Yet, in a certain sense, that which is viewed as part,\neven by the vision of a sage, has still an element of illusion, a thin\npsychical veil, however pure and luminous that veil may be. It is the\nlast and highest psychic state.\n\n51. When this impression ceases, then, since all impressions have\nceased, there arises pure spiritual consciousness, with no seed of\nseparateness left.\n\nThe last psychic veil is drawn aside, and the spiritual man stands with\nunveiled vision, pure serene.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION TO BOOK II\n\n\nThe first book of Patanjali\u2019s Yoga Sutras is called the Book of\nSpiritual Consciousness. The second book, which we now begin, is the\nBook of the Means of Soul Growth. And we must remember that soul growth\nhere means the growth of the realization of the spiritual man, or, to\nput the matter more briefly, the growth of the spiritual man, and the\ndisentangling of the spiritual man from the wrappings, the veils, the\ndisguises laid upon him by the mind and the psychical nature, wherein\nhe is enmeshed, like a bird caught in a net.\n\nThe question arises: By what means may the spiritual man be freed from\nthese psychical meshes and disguises, so that he may stand forth above\ndeath, in his radiant eternalness and divine power? And the second book\nsets itself to answer this very question, and to detail the means in a\nway entirely practical and very lucid, so that he who runs may read,\nand he who reads may understand and practise.\n\nThe second part of the second book is concerned with practical\nspiritual training, that is, with the earlier practical training of the\nspiritual man.\n\nThe most striking thing in it is the emphasis laid on the Commandments,\nwhich are precisely those of the latter part of the Decalogue, together\nwith obedience to the Master. Our day and generation is far too prone\nto fancy that there can be mystical life and growth on some other\nfoundation, on the foundation, for example, of intellectual curiosity\nor psychical selfishness. In reality, on this latter foundation the\nlife of the spiritual man can never be built; nor, indeed, anything but\na psychic counterfeit, a dangerous delusion.\n\nTherefore Patanjali, like every great spiritual teacher, meets the\nquestion: What must I do to be saved? with the age-old answer: Keep the\nCommandments. Only after the disciple can say, These have I kept, can\nthere be the further and finer teaching of the spiritual Rules.\n\nIt is, therefore, vital for us to realize that the Yoga system, like\nevery true system of spiritual teaching, rests on this broad and firm\nfoundation of honesty, truth, cleanness, obedience. Without these,\nthere is no salvation; and he who practices these, even though ignorant\nof spiritual things, is laying up treasure against the time to come.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK II\n\n\n1. The practices which make for union with the Soul are: fervent\naspiration, spiritual reading, and complete obedience to the Master.\n\nThe word which I have rendered \u201cfervent aspiration\u201d means primarily\n\u201cfire\u201d; and, in the Eastern teaching, it means the fire which gives\nlife and light, and at the same time the fire which purifies. We have,\ntherefore, as our first practice, as the first of the means of\nspiritual growth, that fiery quality of the will which enkindles and\nillumines, and, at the same time, the steady practice of purification,\nthe burning away of all known impurities. Spiritual reading is so\nuniversally accepted and understood, that it needs no comment. The very\nstudy of Patanjali\u2019s Sutras is an exercise in spiritual reading, and a\nvery effective one. And so with all other books of the Soul. Obedience\nto the Master means, that we shall make the will of the Master our\nwill, and shall confirm in all wave to the will of the Divine, setting\naside the wills of self, which are but psychic distortions of the one\nDivine Will. The constant effort to obey in all the ways we know and\nunderstand, will reveal new ways and new tasks, the evidence of new\ngrowth of the Soul. Nothing will do more for the spiritual man in us\nthan this, for there is no such regenerating power as the awakening\nspiritual will.\n\n2. Their aim is, to bring soul-vision, and to wear away hindrances.\n\nThe aim of fervour, spiritual reading and obedience to the Master, is,\nto bring soulvision, and to wear away hindrances. Or, to use the phrase\nwe have already adopted, the aim of these practices is, to help the\nspiritual man to open his eyes; to help him also to throw aside the\nveils and disguises, the enmeshing psychic nets which surround him,\ntying his hands, as it were, and bandaging his eyes. And this, as all\nteachers testify, is a long and arduous task, a steady up-hill fight,\ndemanding fine courage and persistent toil. Fervour, the fire of the\nspiritual will, is, as we said, two-fold: it illumines, and so helps\nthe spiritual man to see; and it also burns up the nets and meshes\nwhich ensnare the spiritual man. So with the other means, spiritual\nreading and obedience. Each, in its action, is two-fold, wearing away\nthe psychical, and upbuilding the spiritual man.\n\n3. These are the hindrances: the darkness of unwisdom, self-assertion,\nlust hate, attachment.\n\nLet us try to translate this into terms of the psychical and spiritual\nman. The darkness of unwisdom is, primarily, the self-absorption of the\npsychical man, his complete preoccupation with his own hopes and fears,\nplans and purposes, sensations and desires; so that he fails to see, or\nrefuses to see, that there is a spiritual man; and so doggedly resists\nall efforts of the spiritual man to cast off his psychic tyrant and set\nhimself free. This is the real darkness; and all those who deny the\nimmortality of the soul, or deny the soul\u2019s existence, and so lay out\ntheir lives wholly for the psychical, mortal man and his ambitions, are\nunder this power of darkness. Born of this darkness, this psychic\nself-absorption, is the dogged conviction that the psychic, personal\nman has separate, exclusive interests, which he can follow for himself\nalone; and this conviction, when put into practice in our life, leads\nto contest with other personalities, and so to hate. This hate, again,\nmakes against the spiritual man, since it hinders the revelation of the\nhigh harmony between the spiritual man and his other selves, a harmony\nto be revealed only through the practice of love, that perfect love\nwhich casts out fear.\n\nIn like manner, lust is the psychic man\u2019s craving for the stimulus of\nsensation, the din of which smothers the voice of the spiritual man,\nas, in Shakespeare\u2019s phrase, the cackling geese would drown the song of\nthe nightingale. And this craving for stimulus is the fruit of\nweakness, coming from the failure to find strength in the primal life\nof the spiritual man.\n\nAttachment is but another name for psychic self-absorption; for we are\nabsorbed, not in outward things, but rather in their images within our\nminds; our inner eyes are fixed on them; our inner desires brood over\nthem; and em we blind ourselves to the presence of the prisoner\u2019 the\nenmeshed and fettered spiritual man.\n\n4. The darkness of unwisdom is the field of the others. These\nhindrances may be dormant, or worn thin, or suspended, or expanded.\n\nHere we have really two Sutras in one. The first has been explained\nalready: in the darkness of unwisdom grow the parasites, hate, lust,\nattachment. They are all outgrowths of the self-absorption of the\npsychical self.\n\nNext, we are told that these barriers may be either dormant, or\nsuspended, or expanded, or worn thin. Faults which are dormant will be\nbrought out through the pressure of life, or through the pressure of\nstrong aspiration. Thus expanded, they must be fought and conquered,\nor, as Patanjali quaintly says, they must be worn thin,-as a veil\nmight, or the links of manacles.\n\n5 The darkness of ignorance is: holding that which is unenduring,\nimpure, full of pain, not the Soul, to be eternal, pure, full of joy,\nthe Soul.\n\nThis we have really considered already. The psychic man is unenduring,\nimpure, full of pain, not the Soul, not the real Self. The spiritual\nman is enduring, pure, full of joy, the real Self. The darkness of\nunwisdom is, therefore, the self-absorption of the psychical, personal\nman, to the exclusion of the spiritual man. It is the belief, carried\ninto action, that the personal man is the real man, the man for whom we\nshould toil, for whom we should build, for whom we should live. This is\nthat psychical man of whom it is said: he that soweth to the flesh,\nshall of the flesh reap corruption.\n\n6. Self-assertion comes from thinking of the Seer and the instrument of\nvision as forming one self.\n\nThis is the fundamental idea of the Sankhya philosophy, of which the\nYoga is avowedly the practical side. To translate this into our terms,\nwe may say that the Seer is the spiritual man; the instrument of vision\nis the psychical man, through which the spiritual man gains experience\nof the outer world. But we turn the servant into the master. We\nattribute to the psychical man, the personal self, a reality which\nreally belongs to the spiritual man alone; and so, thinking of the\nquality of the spiritual man as belonging to the psychical, we merge\nthe spiritual man in the psychical; or, as the text says, we think of\nthe two as forming one self.\n\n7. Lust is the resting in the sense of enjoyment.\n\nThis has been explained again and again. Sensation, as, for example,\nthe sense of taste, is meant to be the guide to action; in this case,\nthe choice of wholesome food, and the avoidance of poisonous and\nhurtful things. But if we rest in the sense of taste, as a pleasure in\nitself; rest, that is, in the psychical side of taste, we fall into\ngluttony, and live to eat, instead of eating to live. So with the other\ngreat organic power, the power of reproduction. This lust comes into\nbeing, through resting in the sensation, and looking for pleasure from\nthat.\n\n8. Hate is the resting in the sense of pain.\n\nPain comes, for the most part, from the strife of personalities, the\njarring discords between psychic selves, each of which deems itself\nsupreme. A dwelling on this pain breeds hate, which tears the warring\nselves yet further asunder, and puts new enmity between them, thus\nhindering the harmony of the Real, the reconciliation through the Soul.\n\n9. Attachment is the desire toward life, even in the wise, carried\nforward by its own energy.\n\nThe life here desired is the psychic life, the intensely vibrating life\nof the psychical self. This prevails even in those who have attained\nmuch wisdom, so long as it falls short of the wisdom of complete\nrenunciation, complete obedience to each least behest of the spiritual\nman, and of the Master who guards and aids the spiritual man.\n\nThe desire of sensation, the desire of psychic life, reproduces itself,\ncarried on by its own energy and momentum; and hence comes the circle\nof death and rebirth, death and rebirth, instead of the liberation of\nthe spiritual man.\n\n10. These hindrances, when they have become subtle, are to be removed\nby a countercurrent.\n\nThe darkness of unwisdom is to be removed by the light of wisdom,\npursued through fervour, spiritual reading of holy teachings and of\nlife itself, and by obedience to the Master.\n\nLust is to be removed by pure aspiration of spiritual life, which,\nbringing true strength and stability, takes away the void of weakness\nwhich we try to fill by the stimulus of sensations.\n\nHate is to be overcome by love. The fear that arises through the sense\nof separate, warring selves is to be stilled by the realization of the\nOne Self, the one soul in all. This realization is the perfect love\nthat casts out fear.\n\nThe hindrances are said to have become subtle when, by initial efforts,\nthey have been located and recognized in the psychic nature.\n\n11. Their active turnings are to be removed by meditation.\n\nHere is, in truth, the whole secret of Yoga, the science of the soul.\nThe active turnings, the strident vibrations, of selfishness, lust and\nhate are to be stilled by meditation, by letting heart and mind dwell\nin spiritual life, by lifting up the heart to the strong, silent life\nabove, which rests in the stillness of eternal love, and needs no harsh\nvibration to convince it of true being.\n\n12. The burden of bondage to sorrow has its root in these hindrances.\nIt will be felt in this life, or in a life not yet manifested.\n\nThe burden of bondage to sorrow has its root in the darkness of\nunwisdom, in selfishness, in lust, in hate, in attachment to sensation.\nAll these are, in the last analysis, absorption in the psychical self;\nand this means sorrow, because it means the sense of separateness, and\nthis means jarring discord and inevitable death. But the psychical self\nwill breed a new psychical self, in a new birth, and so new sorrows in\na life not yet manifest.\n\n13. From this root there grow and ripen the fruits of birth, of the\nlife-span, of all that is tasted in life.\n\nFully to comment on this, would be to write a treatise on Karma and its\npractical working in detail, whereby the place and time of the next\nbirth, its content and duration, are determined; and to do this the\npresent commentator is in no wise fitted. But this much is clearly\nunderstood: that, through a kind of spiritual gravitation, the\nincarnating self is drawn to a home and life-circle which will give it\nscope and discipline; and its need of discipline is clearly conditioned\nby its character, its standing, its accomplishment.\n\n14. These bear fruits of rejoicing, or of affliction, as they are\nsprung from holy or unholy works.\n\nSince holiness is obedience to divine law, to the law of divine\nharmony, and obedience to harmony strengthens that harmony in the soul,\nwhich is the one true joy, therefore joy comes of holiness: comes,\nindeed, in no other way. And as unholiness is disobedience, and\ntherefore discord, therefore unholiness makes for pain; and this\ntwo-fold law is true, whether the cause take effect in this, or in a\nyet unmanifested birth.\n\n15. To him who possesses discernment, all personal life is misery,\nbecause it ever waxes and wanes, is ever afflicted with restlessness,\nmakes ever new dynamic impresses in the mind; and because all its\nactivities war with each other.\n\nThe whole life of the psychic self is misery, because it ever waxes and\nwanes; because birth brings inevitable death; because there is no\nexpectation without its shadow, fear. The life of the psychic self is\nmisery, because it is afflicted with restlessness; so that he who has\nmuch, finds not satisfaction, but rather the whetted hunger for more.\nThe fire is not quenched by pouring oil on it; so desire is not\nquenched by the satisfaction of desire. Again, the life of the psychic\nself is misery, because it makes ever new dynamic impresses in the\nmind; because a desire satisfied is but the seed from which springs the\ndesire to find like satisfaction again. The appetite comes in eating,\nas the proverb says, and grows by what it feeds on. And the psychic\nself, torn with conflicting desires, is ever the house divided against\nitself, which must surely fall.\n\n16. This pain is to be warded off, before it has come.\n\nIn other words, we cannot cure the pains of life by laying on them any\nbalm. We must cut the root, absorption in the psychical self. So it is\nsaid, there is no cure for the misery of longing, but to fix the heart\nupon the eternal.\n\n17. The cause of what is to be warded off, is the absorption of the\nSeer in things seen.\n\nHere again we have the fundamental idea of the Sankhya, which is the\nintellectual counterpart of the Yoga system. The cause of what is to be\nwarded off, the root of misery, is the absorption of consciousness in\nthe psychical man and the things which beguile the psychical man. The\ncure is liberation.\n\n18. Things seen have as their property manifestation, action, inertia.\nThey form the basis of the elements and the sense-powers. They make for\nexperience and for liberation.\n\nHere is a whole philosophy of life. Things seen, the total of the\nphenomena, possess as their property, manifestation, action, inertia:\nthe qualities of force and matter in combination. These, in their\ngrosser form, make the material world; in their finer, more subjective\nform, they make the psychical world, the world of sense-impressions and\nmind-images. And through this totality of the phenomenal, the soul\ngains experience, and is prepared for liberation. In other words, the\nwhole outer world exists for the purposes of the soul, and finds in\nthis its true reason for being.\n\n19. The grades or layers of the Three Potencies are the defined, the\nundefined, that with distinctive mark, that without distinctive mark.\n\nOr, as we might say, there are two strata of the physical, and two\nstrata of the psychical realms. In each, there is the side of form, and\nthe side of force. The form side of the physical is here called the\ndefined. The force side of the physical is the undefined, that which\nhas no boundaries. So in the psychical; there is the form side; that\nwith distinctive marks, such as the characteristic features of\nmind-images; and there is the force side, without distinctive marks,\nsuch as the forces of desire or fear, which may flow now to this\nmind-image, now to that.\n\n20. The Seer is pure vision. Though pure, he looks out through the\nvesture of the mind.\n\nThe Seer, as always, is the spiritual man whose deepest consciousness\nis pure vision, the pure life of the eternal. But the spiritual man, as\nyet unseeing in his proper person, looks out on the world through the\neyes of the psychical man, by whom he is enfolded and enmeshed. The\ntask is, to set this prisoner free, to clear the dust of ages from this\nburied temple.\n\n21. The very essence of things seen is, that they exist for the Seer.\n\nThe things of outer life, not only material things, but the psychic man\nalso, exist in very deed for the purposes of the Seer, the Soul, the\nspiritual man Disaster comes, when the psychical man sets up, so to\nspeak, on his own account, trying to live for himself alone, and taking\nmaterial things to solace his loneliness.\n\n22. Though fallen away from him who has reached the goal, things seen\nhave not alto fallen away, since they still exist for others.\n\nWhen one of us conquers hate, hate does not thereby cease out of the\nworld, since others still hate and suffer hatred. So with other\ndelusions, which hold us in bondage to material things, and through\nwhich we look at all material things. When the coloured veil of\nillusion is gone, the world which we saw through it is also gone, for\nnow we see life as it is, in the white radiance of eternity. But for\nothers the coloured veil remains, and therefore the world thus coloured\nby it remains for them, and will remain till they, too, conquer\ndelusion.\n\n23. The association of the Seer with things seen is the cause of the\nrealizing of the nature of things seen, and also of the realizing of\nthe nature of the Seer.\n\nLife is educative. All life\u2019s infinite variety is for discipline, for\nthe development of the soul. So passing through many lives, the Soul\nlearns the secrets of the world, the august laws that are written in\nthe form of the snow-crystal or the majestic order of the stars. Yet\nall these laws are but reflections, but projections outward, of the\nlaws of the soul; therefore in learning these, the soul learns to know\nitself. All life is but the mirror wherein the Soul learns to know its\nown face.\n\n24. The cause of this association is the darkness of unwisdom.\n\nThe darkness of unwisdom is the absorption of consciousness in the\npersonal life, and in the things seen by the personal life. This is the\nfall, through which comes experience, the learning of the lessons of\nlife. When they are learned, the day of redemption is at hand.\n\n25. The bringing of this association to an end, by bringing the\ndarkness of unwisdom to an end, is the great liberation; this is the\nSeer\u2019s attainment of his own pure being.\n\nWhen the spiritual man has, through the psychical, learned all life\u2019s\nlessons, the time has come for him to put off the veil and disguise of\nthe psychical and to stand revealed a King, in the house of the Father.\nSo shall he enter into his kingdom, and go no more out.\n\n26. A discerning which is carried on without wavering is the means of\nliberation.\n\nHere we come close to the pure Vedanta, with its discernment between\nthe eternal and the temporal. St. Paul, following after Philo and\nPlato, lays down the same fundamental principle: the things seen are\ntemporal, the things unseen are eternal.\n\nPatanjali means something more than an intellectual assent, though this\ntoo is vital. He has in view a constant discriminating in act as well\nas thought; of the two ways which present themselves for every deed or\nchoice, always to choose the higher way, that which makes for the\nthings eternal: honesty rather than roguery, courage and not cowardice,\nthe things of another rather than one\u2019s own, sacrifice and not\nindulgence. This true discernment, carried out constantly, makes for\nliberation.\n\n27. His illuminations is sevenfold, rising In successive stages.\n\nPatanjali\u2019s text does not tell us what the seven stages of this\nillumination are. The commentator thus describes them:\n\nFirst, the danger to be escaped is recognized; it need not be\nrecognized a second time. Second, the causes of the danger to be\nescaped are worn away; they need not be worn away a second time. Third,\nthe way of escape is clearly perceived, by the contemplation which\nchecks psychic perturbation. Fourth, the means of escape, clear\ndiscernment, has been developed. This is the fourfold release belonging\nto insight. The final release from the psychic is three-fold: As fifth\nof the seven degrees, the dominance of its thinking is ended; as sixth,\nits potencies, like rocks from a precipice, fall of themselves; once\ndissolved, they do not grow again. Then, as seventh, freed from these\npotencies, the spiritual man stands forth in his own nature as purity\nand light. Happy is the spiritual man who beholds this seven-fold\nillumination in its ascending stages.\n\n28. From steadfastly following after the means of Yoga, until impurity\nis worn away, there comes the illumination of thought up to full\ndiscernment.\n\nHere, we enter on the more detailed practical teaching of Patanjali,\nwith its sound and luminous good sense. And when we come to detail the\nmeans of Yoga, we may well be astonished at their simplicity. There is\nlittle in them that is mysterious. They are very familiar. The essence\nof the matter lies in carrying them out.\n\n29. The eight means of Yoga are: the Commandments, the Rules, right\nPoise, right Control of the life-force, Withdrawal, Attention,\nMeditation, Contemplation.\n\nThese eight means are to be followed in their order, in the sense which\nwill immediately be made clear. We can get a ready understanding of the\nfirst two by comparing them with the Commandments which must be obeyed\nby all good citizens, and the Rules which are laid on the members of\nreligious orders. Until one has fulfilled the first, it is futile to\nconcern oneself with the second. And so with all the means of Yoga.\nThey must be taken in their order.\n\n30. The Commandments are these: nom injury, truthfulness, abstaining\nfrom stealing, from impurity, from covetousness.\n\nThese five precepts are almost exactly the same as the Buddhist\nCommandments: not to kill, not to steal, not to be guilty of\nincontinence, not to drink intoxicants, to speak the truth. Almost\nidentical is St. Paul\u2019s list: Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou\nshalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet. And in the\nsame spirit is the answer made to the young map having great\npossessions, who asked, What shall I do to be saved? and received the\nreply: Keep the Commandments.\n\nThis broad, general training, which forms and develops human character,\nmust be accomplished to a very considerable degree, before there can be\nmuch hope of success in the further stages of spiritual life. First the\npsychical, and then the spiritual. First the man, then the angel. On\nthis broad, humane and wise foundation does the system of Patanjali\nrest.\n\n31. The Commandments, not limited to any race, place, time or occasion,\nuniversal, are the great obligation.\n\nThe Commandments form the broad general training of humanity. Each one\nof them rests on a universal, spiritual law. Each one of them expresses\nan attribute or aspect of the Self, the Eternal; when we violate one of\nthe Commandments, we set ourselves against the law and being of the\nEternal, thereby bringing ourselves to inevitable con fusion. So the\nfirst steps in spiritual life must be taken by bringing ourselves into\nvoluntary obedience to these spiritual laws and thus making ourselves\npartakers of the spiritual powers, the being of the Eternal Like the\nlaw of gravity, the need of air to breathe, these great laws know no\nexceptions They are in force in all lands, throughout al times, for all\nmankind.\n\n32. The Rules are these: purity, serenity fervent aspiration, spiritual\nreading, and per feet obedience to the Master.\n\nHere we have a finer law, one which humanity as a whole is less ready\nfor, less fit to obey. Yet we can see that these Rules are the same in\nessence as the Commandments, but on a higher, more spiritual plane. The\nCommandments may be obeyed in outer acts and abstinences; the Rules\ndemand obedience of the heart and spirit, a far more awakened and more\npositive consciousness. The Rules are the spiritual counterpart of the\nCommandments, and they have finer degrees, for more advanced spiritual\ngrowth.\n\n33. When transgressions hinder, the weight of the imagination should be\nthrown\u2019 on the opposite side.\n\nLet us take a simple case, that of a thief, a habitual criminal, who\nhas drifted into stealing in childhood, before the moral consciousness\nhas awakened. We may imprison such a thief, and deprive him of all\npossibility of further theft, or of using the divine gift of will. Or\nwe may recognize his disadvantages, and help him gradually to build up\npossessions which express his will, and draw forth his self-respect. If\nwe imagine that, after he has built well, and his possessions have\nbecome dear to him, he himself is robbed, then we can see how he would\ncome vividly to realize the essence of theft and of honesty, and would\ncleave to honest dealings with firm conviction. In some such way does\nthe great Law teach us. Our sorrows and losses teach us the pain of the\nsorrow and loss we inflict on others, and so we cease to inflict them.\n\nNow as to the more direct application. To conquer a sin, let heart and\nmind rest, not on the sin, but on the contrary virtue. Let the sin be\nforced out by positive growth in the true direction, not by direct\nopposition. Turn away from the sin and go forward courageously,\nconstructively, creatively, in well-doing. In this way the whole nature\nwill gradually be drawn up to the higher level, on which the sin does\nnot even exist. The conquest of a sin is a matter of growth and\nevolution, rather than of opposition.\n\n34. Transgressions are injury, falsehood, theft, incontinence, envy;\nwhether committed, or caused, or assented to, through greed, wrath, or\ninfatuation; whether faint, or middling, or excessive; bearing endless,\nfruit of ignorance and pain. Therefore must the weight be cast on the\nother side.\n\nHere are the causes of sin: greed, wrath, infatuation, with their\neffects, ignorance and pain. The causes are to be cured by better\nwisdom, by a truer understanding of the Self, of Life. For greed cannot\nendure before the realization that the whole world belongs to the Self,\nwhich Self we are; nor can we hold wrath against one who is one with\nthe Self, and therefore with ourselves; nor can infatuation, which is\nthe seeking for the happiness of the All in some limited part of it,\nsurvive the knowledge that we are heirs of the All. Therefore let\nthought and imagination, mind and heart, throw their weight on the\nother side; the side, not of the world, but of the Self.\n\n35. Where non-injury is perfected, all enmity ceases in the presence of\nhim who possesses it.\n\nWe come now to the spiritual powers which result from keeping the\nCommandments; from the obedience to spiritual law which is the keeping\nof the Commandments. Where the heart is full of kindness which seeks no\ninjury to another, either in act or thought or wish, this full love\ncreates an atmosphere of harmony, whose benign power touches with\nhealing all who come within its influence. Peace in the heart radiates\npeace to other hearts, even more surely than contention breeds\ncontention.\n\n36. When he is perfected in truth, all acts and their fruits depend on\nhim.\n\nThe commentator thus explains: If he who has attained should say to a\nman, Become righteous! the man becomes righteous. If he should say,\nGain heaven! the man gains heaven. His word is not in vain.\n\nExactly the same doctrine was taught by the Master who said to his\ndisciples: Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit they\nare remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are\nretained.\n\n37. Where cessation from theft is perfected, all treasures present\nthemselves to him who possesses it.\n\nHere is a sentence which may warn us that, beside the outer and\napparent meaning, there is in many of these sentences a second and\nfiner significance. The obvious meaning is, that he who has wholly\nceased from theft, in act, thought and wish, finds buried treasures in\nhis path, treasures of jewels and gold and pearls. The deeper truth is,\nthat he who in every least thing is wholly honest with the spirit of\nLife, finds Life supporting him in all things, and gains admittance to\nthe treasure house of Life, the spiritual universe.\n\n38. For him who is perfect in continence, the reward is valour and\nvirility.\n\nThe creative power, strong and full of vigour, is no longer dissipated,\nbut turned to spiritual uses. It upholds and endows the spiritual man,\nconferring on him the creative will, the power to engender spiritual\nchildren instead of bodily progeny. An epoch of life, that of man the\nanimal, has come to an end; a new epoch, that of the spiritual man, is\nopened. The old creative power is superseded and transcended; a new\ncreative power, that of the spiritual man, takes its place, carrying\nwith it the power to work creatively in others for righteousness and\neternal life.\n\nOne of the commentaries says that he who has attained is able to\ntransfer to the minds of his disciples what he knows concerning divine\nunion, and the means of gaining it. This is one of the powers of\npurity.\n\n39. Where there is firm conquest of covetousness, he who has conquered\nit awakes to the how and why of life.\n\nSo it is said that, before we can understand the laws of Karma, we must\nfree ourselves from Karma. The conquest of covetousness brings this\nrich fruit, because the root of covetousness is the desire of the\nindividual soul, the will toward manifested life. And where the desire\nof the individual soul is overcome by the superb, still life of the\nuniversal Soul welling up in the heart within, the great secret is\ndiscerned, the secret that the individual soul is not an isolated\nreality, but the ray, the manifest instrument of the Life, which turns\nit this way and that until the great work is accomplished, the age-long\nlesson learned. Thus is the how and why of life disclosed by ceasing\nfrom covetousness. The Commentator says that this includes a knowledge\nof one\u2019s former births.\n\n40. Through purity a withdrawal from one\u2019s own bodily life, a ceasing\nfrom infatuation with the bodily life of others.\n\nAs the spiritual light grows in the heart within, as the taste for pure\nLife grows stronger, the consciousness opens toward the great, secret\nplaces within, where all life is one, where all lives are one.\nThereafter, this outer, manifested, fugitive life, whether of ourselves\nor of others, loses something of its charm and glamour, and we seek\nrather the deep infinitudes. Instead of the outer form and surroundings\nof our lives, we long for their inner and everlasting essence. We\ndesire not so much outer converse and closeness to our friends, but\nrather that quiet communion with them in the inner chamber of the soul,\nwhere spirit speaks to spirit, and spirit answers; where alienation and\nseparation never enter; where sickness and sorrow and death cannot\ncome.\n\n41. To the pure of heart come also a quiet spirit, one-pointed thought,\nthe victory over sensuality, and fitness to behold the Soul.\n\nBlessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, who is the\nsupreme Soul; the ultimate Self of all beings. In the deepest sense,\npurity means fitness for this vision, and also a heart cleansed from\nall disquiet, from all wandering and unbridled thought, from the\ntorment of sensuous imaginings; and when the spirit is thus cleansed\nand pure, it becomes at one in essence with its source, the great\nSpirit, the primal Life. One consciousness now thrills through both,\nfor the psychic partition wall is broken down. Then shall the pure in\nheart see God, because they become God.\n\n42. From acceptance, the disciple gains happiness supreme.\n\nOne of the wise has said: accept conditions, accept others, accept\nyourself. This is the true acceptance, for all these things are what\nthey are through the will of the higher Self, except their\ndeficiencies, which come through thwarting the will of the higher Self,\nand can be conquered only through compliance with that will. By the\ntrue acceptance, the disciple comes into oneness of spirit with the\noverruling Soul; and, since the own nature of the Soul is being,\nhappiness, bliss, he comes thereby into happiness supreme.\n\n43. The perfection of the powers of the bodily vesture comes through\nthe wearing away of impurities, and through fervent aspiration.\n\nThis is true of the physical powers, and of those which dwell in the\nhigher vestures. There must be, first, purity; as the blood must be\npure, before one can attain to physical health. But absence of impurity\nis not in itself enough, else would many nerveless ascetics of the\ncloisters rank as high saints. There is needed, further, a positive\nfire of the will; a keen vital vigour for the physical powers, and\nsomething finer, purer, stronger, but of kindred essence, for the\nhigher powers. The fire of genius is something more than a phrase, for\nthere can be no genius without the celestial fire of the awakened\nspiritual will.\n\n44. Through spiritual reading, the disciple gains communion with the\ndivine Power on which his heart is set.\n\nSpiritual reading meant, for ancient India, something more than it does\nwith us. It meant, first, the recital of sacred texts, which, in their\nvery sounds, had mystical potencies; and it meant a recital of texts\nwhich were divinely emanated, and held in themselves the living, potent\nessence of the divine.\n\nFor us, spiritual reading means a communing with the recorded teachings\nof the Masters of wisdom, whereby we read ourselves into the Master\u2019s\nmind, just as through his music one can enter into the mind and soul of\nthe master musician. It has been well said that all true art is\ncontagion of feeling; so that through the true reading of true books we\ndo indeed read ourselves into the spirit of the Masters, share in the\natmosphere of their wisdom and power, and come at last into their very\npresence.\n\n45. Soul-vision is perfected through perfect obedience to the Master.\n\nThe sorrow and darkness of life come of the erring personal will which\nsets itself against the will of the Soul, the one great Life. The error\nof the personal will is inevitable, since each will must be free to\nchoose, to try and fail, and so to find the path. And sorrow and\ndarkness are inevitable, until the path be found, and the personal will\nmade once more one with the greater Will, wherein it finds rest and\npower, without losing freedom. In His will is our peace. And with that\npeace comes light. Soul-vision is perfected through obedience.\n\n46. Right poise must be firm and without strain.\n\nHere we approach a section of the teaching which has manifestly a\ntwo-fold meaning. The first is physical, and concerns the bodily\nposition of the student, and the regulation of breathing. These things\nhave their direct influence upon soul-life, the life of the spiritual\nman, since it is always and everywhere true that our study demands a\nsound mind in a sound body. The present sentence declares that, for\nwork and for meditation, the position of the body must be steady and\nwithout strain, in order that the finer currents of life may run their\ncourse.\n\nIt applies further to the poise of the soul, that fine balance and\nstability which nothing can shake, where the consciousness rests on the\nfirm foundation of spiritual being. This is indeed the house set upon a\nrock, which the winds and waves beat upon in vain.\n\n47. Right poise is to be gained by steady and temperate effort, and by\nsetting the heart upon the everlasting.\n\nHere again, there is the two-fold meaning, for physical poise is to be\ngained by steady effort of the muscles, by gradual and wise training,\nlinked with a right understanding of, and relation with, the universal\nforce of gravity. Uprightness of body demands that both these\nconditions shall be fulfilled.\n\nIn like manner the firm and upright poise of the spiritual man is to be\ngained by steady and continued effort, always guided by wisdom, and by\nsetting the heart on the Eternal, filling the soul with the atmosphere\nof the spiritual world. Neither is effective without the other.\nAspiration without effort brings weakness; effort without aspiration\nbrings a false strength, not resting on enduring things. The two\ntogether make for the right poise which sets the spiritual man firmly\nand steadfastly on his feet.\n\n48. The fruit of right poise is the strength to resist the shocks of\ninfatuation or sorrow.\n\nIn the simpler physical sense, which is also coveted by the wording of\nthe original, this sentence means that wise effort establishes such\nbodily poise that the accidents of life cannot disturb it, as the\ncaptain remains steady, though disaster overtake his ship.\n\nBut the deeper sense is far more important. The spiritual man, too,\nmust learn to withstand all shocks, to remain steadfast through the\nperturbations of external things and the storms and whirlwinds of the\npsychical world. This is the power which is gained by wise, continuous\neffort, and by filling the spirit with the atmosphere of the Eternal.\n\n49. When this is gained, there follows the right guidance of the\nlife-currents, the control of the incoming and outgoing breath.\n\nIt is well understood to-day that most of our maladies come from impure\nconditions of the blood. It is coming to be understood that right\nbreathing, right oxygenation, will do very much to keep the blood clean\nand pure. Therefore a right knowledge of breathing is a part of the\nscience of life.\n\nBut the deeper meaning is, that the spiritual man, when he has gained\npoise through right effort and aspiration, can stand firm, and guide\nthe currents of his life, both the incoming current of events, and the\noutgoing current of his acts.\n\nExactly the same symbolism is used in the saying: Not that which goeth\ninto the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth,\nthis defileth a man\u2026. Those things which proceed out of the mouth come\nforth from the heart \u2026 out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,\nuncleanness, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Therefore the first\nstep in purification is to keep the Commandments.\n\n50. The life-current is either outward, or inward, or balanced; it is\nregulated according to place, time, number; it is prolonged and subtle.\n\nThe technical, physical side of this has its value. In the breath,\nthere should be right inbreathing, followed by the period of pause,\nwhen the air comes into contact with the blood, and this again followed\nby right outbreathing, even, steady, silent. Further, the lungs should\nbe evenly filled; many maladies may arise from the neglect and\nconsequent weakening of some region of the lungs. And the number of\nbreaths is so important, so closely related to health, that every\nnurse\u2019s chart records it.\n\nBut the deeper meaning is concerned with the currents of life; with\nthat which goeth into and cometh out of the heart.\n\n51. The fourth degree transcends external and internal objects.\n\nThe inner meaning seems to be that, in addition to the three degrees of\ncontrol already described, control, that is, over the incoming current\nof life, over the outgoing current, and over the condition of pause or\nquiesence, there is a fourth degree of control, which holds in complete\nmastery both the outer passage of events and the inner currents of\nthoughts and emotions; a condition of perfect poise and stability in\nthe midst of the flux of things outward and inward.\n\n52. Thereby is worn away the veil which covers up the light.\n\nThe veil is the psychic nature, the web of emotions, desires,\nargumentative trains of thought, which cover up and obscure the truth\nby absorbing the entire attention and keeping the consciousness in the\npsychic realm. When hopes and fears are reckoned at their true worth,\nin comparison with lasting possessions of the Soul; when the outer\nreflections of things have ceased to distract us from inner realities;\nwhen argumentative-thought no longer entangles us, but yields its place\nto flashing intuition, the certainty which springs from within; then is\nthe veil worn away, the consciousness is drawn from the psychical to\nthe spiritual, from the temporal to the Eternal. Then is the light\nunveiled.\n\n53. Thence comes the mind\u2019s power to hold itself in the light.\n\nIt has been well said, that what we most need is the faculty of\nspiritual attention; and in the same direction of thought it has been\neloquently declared that prayer does not consist in our catching God\u2019s\nattention, but rather in our allowing God to hold our attention.\n\nThe vital matter is, that we need to disentangle our consciousness from\nthe noisy and perturbed thraldom of the psychical, and to come to\nconsciousness as the spiritual man. This we must do, first, by\npurification, through the Commandments and the Rules; and, second,\nthrough the faculty of spiritual attention, by steadily heeding endless\nfine intimations of the spiritual power within us, and by intending our\nconsciousness thereto; thus by degrees transferring the centre of\nconsciousness from the psychical to the spiritual. It is a question,\nfirst, of love, and then of attention.\n\n54. The right Withdrawal is the disengaging of the powers from\nentanglement in outer things, as the psychic nature has been withdrawn\nand stilled.\n\nTo understand this, let us reverse the process, and think of the one\nconsciousness, centred in the Soul, gradually expanding and taking on\nthe form of the different perceptive powers; the one will, at the same\ntime, differentiating itself into the varied powers of action.\n\nNow let us imagine this to be reversed, so that the spiritual force,\nwhich has gone into the differentiated powers, is once more gathered\ntogether into the inner power of intuition and spiritual will, taking\non that unity which is the hall-mark of spiritual things, as diversity\nis the seal of material things.\n\nIt is all a matter of love for the quality of spiritual consciousness,\nas against psychical consciousness, of love and attention. For where\nthe heart is, there will the treasure be also; where the consciousness\nis, there will the vesture with its powers be developed.\n\n55. Thereupon follows perfect mastery over the powers.\n\nWhen the spiritual condition which we have described is reached, with\nits purity, poise, and illuminated vision, the spiritual man is coming\ninto his inheritance, and gaining complete mastery of his powers.\n\nIndeed, much of the struggle to keep the Commandments and the Rules has\nbeen paving the way for this mastery; through this very struggle and\nsacrifice the mastery has become possible; just as, to use St. Paul\u2019s\nsimile, the athlete gains the mastery in the contest and the race\nthrough the sacrifice of his long and arduous training. Thus he gains\nthe crown.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION TO BOOK III\n\n\nThe third book of the Sutras is the Book of Spiritual Powers. In\nconsidering these spiritual powers, two things must be understood and\nkept in memory. The first of these is this: These spiritual powers can\nonly be gained when the development described in the first and second\nbooks has been measurably attained; when the Commandments have been\nkept, the Rules faithfully followed, and the experiences which are\ndescribed have been passed through. For only after this is the\nspiritual man so far grown, so far disentangled from the psychical\nbandages and veils which have confined and blinded him, that he can use\nhis proper powers and faculties. For this is the secret of all\nspiritual powers: they are in no sense an abnormal or supernatural\novergrowth upon the material man, but are rather the powers and\nfaculties inherent in the spiritual man, entirely natural to him, and\ncoming naturally into activity, as the spiritual man is disentangled\nand liberated from psychical bondage, through keeping the Commandments\nand Rules already set forth.\n\nAs the personal man is the limitation and inversion of the spiritual\nman, all his faculties and powers are inversions of the powers of the\nspiritual man. In a single phrase, his self seeking is the inversion of\nthe Self-seeking which is the very being of the spiritual man: the\nceaseless search after the divine and august Self of all beings. This\ninversion is corrected by keeping the Commandments and Rules, and\ngradually, as the inversion is overcome, the spiritual man is\nextricated, and comes into possession and free exercise of his powers.\nThe spiritual powers, therefore, are the powers of the grown and\nliberated spiritual man. They can only be developed and used as the\nspiritual man grows and attains liberation through obedience. This is\nthe first thing to be kept in mind, in all that is said of spiritual\npowers in the third and fourth books of the Sutras. The second thing to\nbe understood and kept in mind is this:\n\nJust as our modern sages have discerned and taught that all matter is\nultimately one and eternal, definitely related throughout the whole\nwide universe; just as they have discerned and taught that all force is\none and eternal, so coordinated throughout the whole universe that\nwhatever affects any atom measurably affects the whole boundless realm\nof matter and force, to the most distant star or nebula on the dim\nconfines of space; so the ancient sages had discerned and taught that\nall consciousness is one, immortal, indivisible, infinite; so finely\ncorrelated and continuous that whatever is perceived by any\nconsciousness is, whether actually or potentially, within the reach of\nall consciousness, and therefore within the reach of any consciousness.\nThis has been well expressed by saying that all souls are fundamentally\none with the Oversoul; that the Son of God, and all Sons of God, are\nfundamentally one with the Father. When the consciousness is cleared of\npsychic bonds and veils, when the spiritual man is able to stand, to\nsee, then this superb law comes into effect: whatever is within the\nknowledge of any consciousness, and this includes the whole infinite\nuniverse, is within his reach, and may, if he wills, be made a part of\nhis consciousness. This he may attain through his fundamental unity\nwith the Oversoul, by raising himself toward the consciousness above\nhim, and drawing on its resources. The Son, if he would work miracles,\nwhether of perception or of action, must come often into the presence\nof the Father. This is the birthright of the spiritual man; through it\nhe comes into possession of his splendid and immortal powers. Let it be\nclearly kept in mind that what is here to be related of the spiritual\nman, and his exalted powers, must in no wise be detached from what has\ngone before. The being, the very inception, of the spiritual man\ndepends on the purification and moral attainment already detailed, and\ncan in no wise dispense with these or curtail them.\n\nLet no one imagine that the true life, the true powers of the spiritual\nman, can be attained by any way except the hard way of sacrifice, of\ntrial, of renunciation, of selfless self-conquest and genuine devotion\nto the weal of all others. Only thus can the golden gates be reached\nand entered. Only thus can we attain to that pure world wherein the\nspiritual man lives, and moves, and has his being. Nothing impure,\nnothing unholy can ever cross that threshold, least of all impure\nmotives or self seeking desires. These must be burnt away before an\nentrance to that world can be gained.\n\nBut where there is light, there is shadow; and the lofty light of the\nsoul casts upon the clouds of the mid-world the shadow of the spiritual\nman and of his powers; the bastard vesture and the bastard powers of\npsychism are easily attained; yet, even when attained, they are a\ndelusion, the very essence of unreality.\n\nTherefore ponder well the earlier rules, and lay a firm foundation of\ncourage, sacrifice, selflessness, holiness.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK III\n\n\n1. The binding of the perceiving consciousness to a certain region is\nattention (dharana).\n\nEmerson quotes Sir Isaac Newton as saying that he made his great\ndiscoveries by intending his mind on them. That is what is meant here.\nI read the page of a book while inking of something else. At the end of\nhe page, I have no idea of what it is about, and read it again, still\nthinking of something else, with the same result. Then I wake up, so to\nspeak, make an effort of attention, fix my thought on what I am\nreading, and easily take in its meaning. The act of will, the effort of\nattention, the intending of the mind on each word and line of the page,\njust as the eyes are focussed on each word and line, is the power here\ncontemplated. It is the power to focus the consciousness on a given\nspot, and hold it there Attention is the first and indispensable step\nin all knowledge. Attention to spiritual things is the first step to\nspiritual knowledge.\n\n2. A prolonged holding of the perceiving consciousness in that region\nis meditation (dhyana).\n\nThis will apply equally to outer and inner things. I may for a moment\nfix my attention on some visible object, in a single penetrating\nglance, or I may hold the attention fixedly on it until it reveals far\nmore of its nature than a single glance could perceive. The first is\nthe focussing of the searchlight of consciousness upon the object. The\nother is the holding of the white beam of light steadily and\npersistently on the object, until it yields up the secret of its\ndetails. So for things within; one may fix the inner glance for a\nmoment on spiritual things, or one may hold the consciousness steadily\nupon them, until what was in the dark slowly comes forth into the\nlight, and yields up its immortal secret. But this is possible only for\nthe spiritual man, after the Commandments and the Rules have been kept;\nfor until this is done, the thronging storms of psychical thoughts\ndissipate and distract the attention, so that it will not remain fixed\non spiritual things. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of\nriches, choke the word of the spiritual message.\n\n3. When the perceiving consciousness in this meditative is wholly given\nto illuminating the essential meaning of the object contemplated, and\nis freed from the sense of separateness and personality, this is\ncontemplation (samadhi).\n\nLet us review the steps so far taken. First, the beam of perceiving\nconsciousness is focussed on a certain region or subject, through the\neffort of attention. Then this attending consciousness is held on its\nobject. Third, there is the ardent will to know its meaning, to\nillumine it with comprehending thought. Fourth, all personal bias\u2014all\ndesire merely to indorse a previous opinion and so prove oneself right,\nand all desire for personal profit or gratification must be quite put\naway. There must be a purely disinterested love of truth for its own\nsake. Thus is the perceiving consciousness made void, as it were, of\nall personality or sense of separateness. The personal limitation\nstands aside and lets the All-consciousness come to bear upon the\nproblem. The Oversoul bends its ray upon the object, and illumines it\nwith pure light.\n\n4. When these three, Attention, Meditation Contemplation, are exercised\nat once, this is perfectly concentrated Meditation (sanyama).\n\nWhen the personal limitation of the perceiving consciousness stands\naside, and allows the All-conscious to come to bear upon the problem,\nthen arises that real knowledge which is called a flash of genius; that\nreal knowledge which makes discoveries, and without which no discovery\ncan be made, however painstaking the effort. For genius is the vision\nof the spiritual man, and that vision is a question of growth rather\nthan present effort; though right effort, rightly continued, will in\ntime infallibly lead to growth and vision. Through the power thus to\nset aside personal limitation, to push aside petty concerns and cares,\nand steady the whole nature and will in an ardent love of truth and\ndesire to know it; through the power thus to make way for the\nAll-consciousness, all great men make their discoveries. Newton,\nwatching the apple fall to the earth, was able to look beyond, to see\nthe subtle waves of force pulsating through apples and worlds and suns\nand galaxies, and thus to perceive universal gravitation. The Oversoul,\nlooking through his eyes, recognized the universal force, one of its\nown children. Darwin, watching the forms and motions of plants and\nanimals, let the same august consciousness come to bear on them, and\nsaw infinite growth perfected through ceaseless struggle. He perceived\nthe superb process of evolution, the Oversoul once more recognizing its\nown. Fraunhofer, noting the dark lines in the band of sunlight in his\nspectroscope, divined their identity with the bright lines in the\nspectra of incandescent iron, sodium and the rest, and so saw the\noneness of substance in the worlds and suns, the unity of the materials\nof the universe. Once again the Oversoul, looking with his eyes,\nrecognized its own. So it is with all true knowledge. But the mind must\ntranscend its limitations, its idiosyncrasies; there must be purity,\nfor to the pure in heart is the promise, that they shall see God.\n\n5. By mastering this perfectly concentrated Meditation, there comes the\nillumination of perception.\n\nThe meaning of this is illustrated by what has been said before. When\nthe spiritual man is able to throw aside the trammels of emotional and\nmental limitation, and to open his eyes, he sees clearly, he attains to\nilluminated perception. A poet once said that Occultism is the\nconscious cultivation of genius; and it is certain that the awakened\nspiritual man attains to the perceptions of genius. Genius is the\nvision, the power, of the spiritual man, whether its possessor\nrecognizes this or not. All true knowledge is of the spiritual man. The\ngreatest in all ages have recognized this and put their testimony on\nrecord. The great in wisdom who have not consciously recognized it,\nhave ever been full of the spirit of reverence, of selfless devotion to\ntruth, of humility, as was Darwin; and reverence and humility are the\nunconscious recognition of the nearness of the Spirit, that Divinity\nwhich broods over us, a Master o\u2019er a slave.\n\n6. This power is distributed in ascending degrees.\n\nIt is to be attained step by step. It is a question, not of miracle,\nbut of evolution, of growth. Newton had to master the multiplication\ntable, then the four rules of arithmetic, then the rudiments of\nalgebra, before he came to the binomial theorem. At each point, there\nwas attention, concentration, insight; until these were attained, no\nprogress to the next point was possible. So with Darwin. He had to\nlearn the form and use of leaf and flower, of bone and muscle; the\ncharacteristics of genera and species; the distribution of plants and\nanimals, before he had in mind that nexus of knowledge on which the\nlight of his great idea was at last able to shine. So is it with all\nknowledge. So is it with spiritual knowledge. Take the matter this way:\nThe first subject for the exercise of my spiritual insight is my day,\nwith its circumstances, its hindrances, its opportunities, its duties.\nI do what I can to solve it, to fulfil its duties, to learn its\nlessons. I try to live my day with aspiration and faith. That is the\nfirst step. By doing this, I gather a harvest for the evening, I gain a\ndeeper insight into life, in virtue of which I begin the next day with\na certain advantage, a certain spiritual advance and attainment. So\nwith all successive days. In faith and aspiration, we pass from day to\nday, in growing knowledge and power, with never more than one day to\nsolve at a time, until all life becomes radiant and transparent.\n\n7. This threefold power, of Attention, Meditation, Contemplation, is\nmore interior than the means of growth previously described.\n\nVery naturally so; because the means of growth previously described\nwere concerned with the extrication of the spiritual man from psychic\nbondages and veils; while this threefold power is to be exercised by\nthe spiritual man thus extricated and standing on his feet, viewing\nlife with open eyes.\n\n8. But this triad is still exterior to the soul vision which is\nunconditioned, free from the seed of mental analyses.\n\nThe reason is this: The threefold power we have been considering, the\ntriad of Attention, Contemplation, Meditation is, so far as we have yet\nconsidered it, the focussing of the beam of perceiving consciousness\nupon some form of manifesting being, with a view of understanding it\ncompletely. There is a higher stage, where the beam of consciousness is\nturned back upon itself, and the individual consciousness enters into,\nand knows, the All consciousness. This is a being, a being in\nimmortality, rather than a knowing; it is free from mental analysis or\nmental forms. It is not an activity of the higher mind, even the mind\nof the spiritual man. It is an activity of the soul. Had Newton risen\nto this higher stage, he would have known, not the laws of motion, but\nthat high Being, from whose Life comes eternal motion. Had Darwin risen\nto this, he would have seen the Soul, whose graduated thought and being\nall evolution expresses. There are, therefore, these two perceptions:\nthat of living things, and that of the Life; that of the Soul\u2019s works,\nand that of the Soul itself.\n\n9. One of the ascending degrees is the development of Control. First\nthere is the overcoming of the mind-impress of excitation. Then comes\nthe manifestation of the mind-impress of Control. Then the perceiving\nconsciousness follows after the moment of Control.\n\nThis is the development of Control. The meaning seems to be this: Some\nobject enters the field of observation, and at first violently excites\nthe mind, stirring up curiosity, fear, wonder; then the consciousness\nreturns upon itself, as it were, and takes the perception firmly in\nhand, steadying itself, and viewing the matter calmly from above. This\nsteadying effort of the will upon the perceiving consciousness is\nControl, and immediately upon it follows perception, understanding,\ninsight.\n\nTake a trite example. Supposing one is walking in an Indian forest. A\ncharging elephant suddenly appears. The man is excited by astonishment,\nand, perhaps, terror. But he exercises an effort of will, perceives the\nsituation in its true bearings, and recognizes that a certain thing\nmust be done; in this case, probably, that he must get out of the way\nas quickly as possible.\n\nOr a comet, unheralded, appears in the sky like a flaming sword. The\nbeholder is at first astonished, perhaps terror-stricken; but he takes\nhimself in hand, controls his thoughts, views the apparition calmly,\nand finally calculates its orbit and its relation to meteor showers.\n\nThese are extreme illustrations; but with all knowledge the order of\nperception is the same: first, the excitation of the mind by the new\nobject impressed on it; then the control of the mind from within; upon\nwhich follows the perception of the nature of the object. Where the\neyes of the spiritual man are open, this will be a true and penetrating\nspiritual perception. In some such way do our living experiences come\nto us; first, with a shock of pain; then the Soul steadies itself and\ncontrols the pain; then the spirit perceives the lesson of the event,\nand its bearing upon the progressive revelation of life.\n\n10. Through frequent repetition of this process, the mind becomes\nhabituated to it, and there arises an equable flow of perceiving\nconsciousness.\n\nControl of the mind by the Soul, like control of the muscles by the\nmind, comes by practice, and constant voluntary repetition.\n\nAs an example of control of the muscles by the mind, take the ceaseless\npractice by which a musician gains mastery over his instrument, or a\nfencer gains skill with a rapier. Innumerable small efforts of\nattention will make a result which seems well-nigh miraculous; which,\nfor the novice, is really miraculous. Then consider that far more\nwonderful instrument, the perceiving mind, played on by that fine\nmusician, the Soul. Here again, innumerable small efforts of attention\nwill accumulate into mastery, and a mastery worth winning. For a\nconcrete example, take the gradual conquest of each day, the effort to\nlive that day for the Soul. To him that is faithful unto death, the\nMaster gives the crown of life.\n\n11. The gradual conquest of the mind\u2019s tendency to flit from one object\nto another, and the power of one-pointedness, make the development of\nContemplation.\n\nAs an illustration of the mind\u2019s tendency to flit from one object to\nanother, take a small boy, learning arithmetic. He begins: two ones are\ntwo; three ones are three-and then he thinks of three coins in his\npocket, which will purchase so much candy, in the store down the\nstreet, next to the toy-shop, where are base-balls, marbles and so\non,\u2014and then he comes back with a jerk, to four ones are four. So with\nus also. We are seeking the meaning of our task, but the mind takes\nadvantage of a moment of slackened attention, and flits off from one\nfrivolous detail to another, till we suddenly come back to\nconsciousness after traversing leagues of space. We must learn to\nconquer this, and to go back within ourselves into the beam of\nperceiving consciousness itself, which is a beam of the Oversoul. This\nis the true onepointedness, the bringing of our consciousness to a\nfocus in the Soul.\n\n12. When, following this, the controlled manifold tendency and the\naroused one-pointedness are equally balanced parts of the perceiving\nconsciousness, his the development of one-pointedness.\n\nThis would seem to mean that the insight which is called\none-pointedness has two sides, equally balanced. There is, first, the\nmanifold aspect of any object, the sum of all its characteristics and\nproperties. This is to be held firmly in the mind. Then there is the\nperception of the object as a unity, as a whole, the perception of its\nessence. First, the details must be clearly perceived; then the essence\nmust be comprehended. When the two processes are equally balanced, the\ntrue onepointedness is attained. Everything has these two sides, the\nside of difference and the side of unity; there is the individual and\nthere is the genus; the pole of matter and diversity, and the pole of\noneness and spirit. To see the object truly, we must see both.\n\n13. Through this, the inherent character, distinctive marks and\nconditions of being and powers, according to their development, are\nmade clear.\n\nBy the power defined in the preceding sutra, the inherent character,\ndistinctive marks and conditions of beings and powers are made clear.\nFor through this power, as defined, we get a twofold view of each\nobject, seeing at once all its individual characteristics and its\nessential character, species and genus; we see it in relation to\nitself, and in relation to the Eternal. Thus we see a rose as that\nparticular flower, with its colour and scent, its peculiar fold of each\npetal; but we also see in it the species, the family to which it\nbelongs, with its relation to all plants, to all life, to Life itself.\nSo in any day, we see events and circumstances; we also see in it the\nlesson set for the soul by the Eternal.\n\n14. Every object has its characteristics which are already quiescent,\nthose which are active, and those which are not yet definable.\n\nEvery object has characteristics belonging to its past, its present and\nits future. In a fir tree, for example, there are the stumps or scars\nof dead branches, which once represented its foremost growth; there are\nthe branches with their needles spread out to the air; there are the\nbuds at the end of each branch and twig, which carry the still closely\npacked needles which are the promise of the future. In like manner, the\nchrysalis has, as its past, the caterpillar; as its future, the\nbutterfly. The man has, in his past, the animal; in his future, the\nangel. Both are visible even now in his face. So with all things, for\nall things change and grow.\n\n15. Difference in stage is the cause of difference in development.\n\nThis but amplifies what has just been said. The first stage is the\nsapling, the caterpillar, the animal. The second stage is the growing\ntree, the chrysalis, the man. The third is the splendid pine, the\nbutterfly, the angel. Difference of stage is the cause of difference of\ndevelopment. So it is among men, and among the races of men.\n\n16. Through perfectly concentrated Meditation on the three stages of\ndevelopment comes a knowledge of past and future.\n\nWe have taken our illustrations from natural science, because, since\nevery true discovery in natural science is a divination of a law in\nnature, attained through a flash of genius, such discoveries really\nrepresent acts of spiritual perception, acts of perception by the\nspiritual man, even though they are generally not so recognized. So we\nmay once more use the same illustration. Perfectly concentrated\nMeditation, perfect insight into the chrysalis, reveals the caterpillar\nthat it has been, the butterfly that it is destined to be. He who knows\nthe seed, knows the seed-pod or ear it has come from, and the plant\nthat is to come from it. So in like manner he who really knows today,\nand the heart of to-day, knows its parent yesterday and its child\ntomorrow. Past, present and future are all in the Eternal. He who\ndwells in the Eternal knows all three.\n\n17. The sound and the object and the thought called up by a word are\nconfounded because they are all blurred together in the mind. By\nperfectly concentrated Meditation on the distinction between them,\nthere comes an understanding of the sounds uttered by all beings.\n\nIt must be remembered that we are speaking of perception by the\nspiritual man.\n\nSound, like every force, is the expression of a power of the Eternal.\nInfinite shades of this power are expressed in the infinitely varied\ntones of sound. He who, having entry to the consciousness of the\nEternal knows the essence of this power, can divine the meanings of all\nsounds, from the voice of the insect to the music of the spheres.\n\nIn like manner, he who has attained to spiritual vision can perceive\nthe mind-images in the thoughts of others, with the shade of feeling\nwhich goes with them, thus reading their thoughts as easily as he hears\ntheir words. Every one has the germ of this power, since difference of\ntone will give widely differing meanings to the same words, meanings\nwhich are intuitively perceived by everyone.\n\n18. When the mind-impressions become visible, there comes an\nunderstanding of previous births.\n\nThis is simple enough if we grasp the truth of rebirth. The fine\nharvest of past experiences is drawn into the spiritual nature,\nforming, indeed, the basis of its development. When the consciousness\nhas been raised to a point above these fine subjective impressions, and\ncan look down upon them from above, this will in itself be a\nremembering of past births.\n\n19. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on mind-images is gained the\nunderstanding of the thoughts of others.\n\nHere, for those who can profit by it, is the secret of thought-reading.\nTake the simplest case of intentional thought transference. It is the\ntestimony of those who have done this, that the perceiving mind must be\nstilled, before the mind-image projected by the other mind can be seen.\nWith it comes a sense of the feeling and temper of the other mind and\nso on, in higher degrees.\n\n20. But since that on which the thought in the mind of another rests is\nnot objective to the thought-reader\u2019s consciousness, he perceives the\nthought only, and not also that on which the thought rests.\n\nThe meaning appears to be simple: One may be able to perceive the\nthoughts of some one at a distance; one cannot, by that means alone,\nalso perceive the external surroundings of that person, which arouse\nthese thoughts.\n\n21. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the form of the body, by\narresting the body\u2019s perceptibility, and by inhibiting the eye\u2019s power\nof sight, there comes the power to make the body invisible.\n\nThere are many instances of the exercise of this power, by mesmerists,\nhypnotists and the like; and we may simply call it an instance of the\npower of suggestion. Shankara tells us that by this power the popular\nmagicians of the East perform their wonders, working on the mind-images\nof others, while remaining invisible themselves. It is all a question\nof being able to see and control the mind-images.\n\n22. The works which fill out the life-span may be either immediately or\ngradually operative. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on these\ncomes a knowledge of the time of the end, as also through signs.\n\nA garment which is wet, says the commentator, may be hung up to dry,\nand so dry rapidly, or it may be rolled in a ball and dry slowly; so a\nfire may blaze or smoulder. Thus it is with Karma, the works that fill\nout the life-span. By an insight into the mental forms and forces which\nmake up Karma, there comes a knowledge of the rapidity or slowness of\ntheir development, and of the time when the debt will be paid.\n\n23. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on sympathy, compassion and\nkindness, is gained the power of interior union with others.\n\nUnity is the reality; separateness the illusion. The nearer we come to\nreality, the nearer we come to unity of heart. Sympathy, compassion,\nkindness are modes of this unity of heart, whereby we rejoice with\nthose who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. These things are\nlearned by desiring to learn them.\n\n24. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on power, even such power as\nthat of the elephant may be gained.\n\nThis is a pretty image. Elephants possess not only force, but poise and\nfineness of control. They can lift a straw, a child, a tree with\nperfectly judged control and effort. So the simile is a good one. By\ndetachment, by withdrawing into the soul\u2019s reservoir of power, we can\ngain all these, force and fineness and poise; the ability to handle\nwith equal mastery things small and great, concrete and abstract alike.\n\n25. By bending upon them the awakened inner light, there comes a\nknowledge of things subtle, or concealed, or obscure.\n\nAs was said at the outset, each consciousness is related to all\nconsciousness; and, through it, has a potential consciousness of all\nthings; whether subtle or concealed or obscure. An understanding of\nthis great truth will come with practice. As one of the wise has said,\nwe have no conception of the power of Meditation.\n\n26. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the sun comes a knowledge\nof the worlds.\n\nThis has several meanings: First, by a knowledge of the constitution of\nthe sun, astronomers can understand the kindred nature of the stars.\nAnd it is said that there is a finer astronomy, where the spiritual man\nis the astronomer. But the sun also means the Soul, and through\nknowledge of the Soul comes a knowledge of the realms of life.\n\n27. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the moon comes a knowledge\nof the lunar mansions.\n\nHere again are different meanings. The moon is, first, the companion\nplanet, which, each day, passes backward through one mansion of the\nstars. By watching the moon, the boundaries of the mansion are learned,\nwith their succession in the great time-dial of the sky. But the moon\nalso symbolizes the analytic mind, with its divided realms; and these,\ntoo, may be understood through perfectly concentrated Meditation.\n\n28. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the fixed pole-star comes a\nknowledge of the motions of the stars.\n\nAddressing Duty, stern daughter of the Voice of God, Wordsworth finely\nsaid:\n\n     Thou cost preserve the stars from wrong,\n     And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong\u2014\n\n\nthus suggesting a profound relation between the moral powers and the\npowers that rule the worlds. So in this Sutra the fixed polestar is the\neternal spirit about which all things move, as well as the star toward\nwhich points the axis of the earth. Deep mysteries attend both, and the\nveil of mystery is only to be raised by Meditation, by open-eyed vision\nof the awakened spiritual man.\n\n29. Perfectly concentrated Meditation on the centre of force in the\nlower trunk brings an understanding of the order of the bodily powers.\n\nWe are coming to a vitally important part of the teaching of Yoga:\nnamely, the spiritual man\u2019s attainment of full self-consciousness, the\nawakening of the spiritual man as a self-conscious individual, behind\nand above the natural man. In this awakening, and in the process of\ngestation which precedes it, there is a close relation with the powers\nof the natural man, which are, in a certain sense, the projection,\noutward and downward, of the powers of the spiritual man. This is\nnotably true of that creative power of the spiritual man which, when\nembodied in the natural man, becomes the power of generation. Not only\nis this power the cause of the continuance of the bodily race of\nmankind, but further, in the individual, it is the key to the dominance\nof the personal life. Rising, as it were, through the life-channels of\nthe body, it flushes the personality with physical force, and maintains\nand colours the illusion that the physical life is the dominant and\nall-important expression of life. In due time, when the spiritual man\nhas begun to take form, the creative force will be drawn off, and\nbecome operative in building the body of the spiritual man, just as it\nhas been operative in the building of physical bodies, through\ngeneration in the natural world.\n\nPerfectly concentrated Meditation on the nature of this force means,\nfirst, that rising of the consciousness into the spiritual world,\nalready described, which gives the one sure foothold for Meditation;\nand then, from that spiritual point of vantage, not only an insight\ninto the creative force, in its spiritual and physical aspects, but\nalso a gradually attained control of this wonderful force, which will\nmean its direction to the body of the spiritual man, and its gradual\nwithdrawal from the body of the natural man, until the over-pressure,\nso general and such a fruitful source of misery in our day, is abated,\nand purity takes the place of passion. This over pressure, which is the\ncause of so many evils and so much of human shame, is an abnormal, not\na natural, condition. It is primarily due to spiritual blindness, to\nblindness regarding the spiritual man, and ignorance even of his\nexistence; for by this blind ignorance are closed the channels through\nwhich, were they open, the creative force could flow into the body of\nthe spiritual man, there building up an immortal vesture. There is no\ncure for blindness, with its consequent over-pressure and attendant\nmisery and shame, but spiritual vision, spiritual aspiration,\nsacrifice, the new birth from above. There is no other way to lighten\nthe burden, to lift the misery and shame from human life. Therefore,\nlet us follow after sacrifice and aspiration, let us seek the light. In\nthis way only shall we gain that insight into the order of the bodily\npowers, and that mastery of them, which this Sutra implies.\n\n30. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the centre of force in the\nwell of the throat, there comes the cessation of hunger and thirst.\n\nWe are continuing the study of the bodily powers and centres of force\nin their relation to the powers and forces of the spiritual man. We\nhave already considered the dominant power of physical life, the\ncreative power which secures the continuance of physical life; and,\nfurther, the manner in which, through aspiration and sacrifice, it is\ngradually raised and set to the work of upbuilding the body of the\nspiritual man. We come now to the dominant psychic force, the power\nwhich manifests itself in speech, and in virtue of which the voice may\ncarry so much of the personal magnetism, endowing the orator with a\ntongue of fire, magical in its power to arouse and rule the emotions of\nhis hearers. This emotional power, this distinctively psychical force,\nis the cause of \u201chunger and thirst,\u201d the psychical hunger and thirst\nfor sensations, which is the source of our two-sided life of\nemotionalism, with its hopes and fears, its expectations and memories,\nits desires and hates. The source of this psychical power, or, perhaps\nwe should say, its centre of activity in the physical body is said to\nbe in the cavity of the throat. Thus, in the Taittiriya Upanishad it is\nwritten: \u201cThere is this shining ether in the inner being. Therein is\nthe spiritual man, formed through thought, immortal, golden. Inward, in\nthe palate, the organ that hangs down like a nipple,-this is the womb\nof Indra. And there, where the dividing of the hair turns, extending\nupward to the crown of the head.\u201d\n\nIndra is the name given to the creative power of which we have spoken,\nand which, we are told, resides in \u201cthe organ which hangs down like a\nnipple, inward, in the palate.\u201d\n\n31. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the centre of force in the\nchannel called the \u201ctortoise-formed,\u201d comes steadfastness.\n\nWe are concerned now with the centre of nervous or psychical force\nbelow the cavity of the throat, in the chest, in which is felt the\nsensation of fear; the centre, the disturbance of which sets the heart\nbeating miserably with dread, or which produces that sense of terror\nthrough which the heart is said to stand still.\n\nWhen the truth concerning fear is thoroughly mastered, through\nspiritual insight into the immortal, fearless life, then this force is\nperfectly controlled; there is no more fear, just as, through the\ncontrol of the psychic power which works through the nerve-centre in\nthe throat, there comes a cessation of \u201chunger and thirst.\u201d Thereafter,\nthese forces, or their spiritual prototypes, are turned to the building\nof the spiritual man.\n\nAlways, it must be remembered, the victory is first a spiritual one;\nonly later does it bring control of the bodily powers.\n\n32. Through perfectly concentrated Meditation on the light in the head\ncomes the vision of the Masters who have attained.\n\nThe tradition is, that there is a certain centre of force in the head,\nperhaps the \u201cpineal gland,\u201d which some of our Western philosophers have\nsupposed to be the dwelling of the soul, a centre which is, as it were,\nthe door way between the natural and the spiritual man. It is the seat\nof that better and wiser consciousness behind the outward looking\nconsciousness in the forward part of the head; that better and wiser\nconsciousness of \u201cthe back of the mind,\u201d which views spiritual things,\nand seeks to impress the spiritual view on the outward looking\nconsciousness in the forward part of the head. It is the spiritual man\nseeking to guide the natural man, seeking to bring the natural man to\nconcern himself with the things of his immortality. This is suggested\nin the words of the Upanishad already quoted: \u201cThere, where the\ndividing of the hair turns, extending upward to the crown of the head\u201d;\nall of which may sound very fantastical, until one comes to understand\nit.\n\nIt is said that when this power is fully awakened, it brings a vision\nof the great Companions of the spiritual man, those who have already\nattained, crossing over to the further shore of the sea of death and\nrebirth. Perhaps it is to this divine sight that the Master alluded,\nwho is reported to have said: \u201cI counsel you to buy of me eye-salve,\nthat you may see.\u201d It is of this same vision of the great Companions,\nthe children of light, that a seer wrote:\n\n\u201cThough inland far we be,\nOur souls have sight of that immortal sea\nWhich brought us hither,\nCan in a moment travel thither,\nAnd see the Children sport upon the shore\nAnd hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.\u201d\n\n\n33. Or through the divining power of tuition he knows all things.\n\nThis is really the supplement, the spiritual side, of the Sutra just\ntranslated. Step by step, as the better consciousness, the spiritual\nview, gains force in the back of the mind, so, in the same measure, the\nspiritual man is gaining the power to see: learning to open the\nspiritual eyes. When the eyes are fully opened, the spiritual man\nbeholds the great Companions standing about him; he has begun to \u201cknow\nall things.\u201d\n\nThis divining power of intuition is the power which lies above and\nbehind the so-called rational mind; the rational mind formulates a\nquestion and lays it before the intuition, which gives a real answer,\noften immediately distorted by the rational mind, yet always embodying\na kernel of truth. It is by this process, through which the rational\nmind brings questions to the intuition for solution, that the truths of\nscience are reached, the flashes of discovery and genius. But this\nhigher power need not work in subordination to the so-called rational\nmind, it may act directly, as full illumination, \u201cthe vision and the\nfaculty divine.\u201d\n\n34 By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the heart, the interior\nbeing, comes the knowledge of consciousness.\n\nThe heart here seems to mean, as it so often does in the Upanishads,\nthe interior, spiritual nature, the consciousness of the spiritual man,\nwhich is related to the heart, and to the wisdom of the heart. By\nsteadily seeking after, and finding, the consciousness of the spiritual\nman, by coming to consciousness as the spiritual man, a perfect\nknowledge of consciousness will be attained. For the consciousness of\nthe spiritual man has this divine quality: while being and remaining a\ntruly individual consciousness, it at the same time flows over, as it\nwere, and blends with the Divine Consciousness above and about it, the\nconsciousness of the great Companions; and by showing itself to be one\nwith the Divine Consciousness, it reveals the nature of all\nconsciousness, the secret that all consciousness is One and Divine.\n\n35. The personal self seeks to feast on life, through a failure to\nperceive the distinction between the personal self and the spiritual\nman. All personal experience really exists for the sake of another:\nnamely, the spiritual man. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on\nexperience for the sake of the Self, comes a knowledge of the spiritual\nman.\n\nThe divine ray of the Higher Self, which is eternal, impersonal and\nabstract, descends into life, and forms a personality, which, through\nthe stress and storm of life, is hammered into a definite and concrete\nself-conscious individuality. The problem is, to blend these two\npowers, taking the eternal and spiritual being of the first, and\nblending with it, transferring into it, the self-conscious\nindividuality of the second; and thus bringing to life a third being,\nthe spiritual man, who is heir to the immortality of his father, the\nHigher Self, and yet has the self-conscious, concrete individuality of\nhis other parent, the personal self. This is the true immaculate\nconception, the new birth from above, \u201cconceived of the Holy Spirit.\u201d\nOf this new birth it is said: \u201cthat which is born of the Spirit is\nspirit: ye must be born again.\u201d\n\nRightly understood, therefore, the whole life of the personal man is\nfor another, not for himself. He exists only to render his very life\nand all his experience for the building up of the spiritual man. Only\nthrough failure to see this, does he seek enjoyment for himself, seek\nto secure the feasts of life for himself; not understanding that he\nmust live for the other, live sacrificially, offering both feasts and\nhis very being on the altar; giving himself as a contribution for the\nbuilding of the spiritual man. When he does understand this, and lives\nfor the Higher Self, setting his heart and thought on the Higher Self,\nthen his sacrifice bears divine fruit, the spiritual man is built up,\nconsciousness awakes in him, and he comes fully into being as a divine\nand immortal individuality.\n\n36. Thereupon are born the divine power of intuition, and the hearing,\nthe touch, the vision, the taste and the power of smell of the\nspiritual man.\n\nWhen, in virtue of the perpetual sacrifice of the personal man, daily\nand hourly giving his life for his divine brother the spiritual man,\nand through the radiance ever pouring down from the Higher Self,\neternal in the Heavens, the spiritual man comes to birth,-there awake\nin him those powers whose physical counterparts we know in the personal\nman. The spiritual man begins to see, to hear, to touch, to taste. And,\nbesides the senses of the spiritual man, there awakes his mind, that\ndivine counterpart of the mind of the physical man, the power of direct\nand immediate knowledge, the power of spiritual intuition, of\ndivination. This power, as we have seen, owes its virtue to the unity,\nthe continuity, of consciousness, whereby whatever is known to any\nconsciousness, is knowable by any other consciousness. Thus the\nconsciousness of the spiritual man, who lives above our narrow barriers\nof separateness, is in intimate touch with the consciousness of the\ngreat Companions, and can draw on that vast reservoir for all real\nneeds. Thus arises within the spiritual man that certain knowledge\nwhich is called intuition, divination, illumination.\n\n37. These powers stand in contradistinction to the highest spiritual\nvision. In manifestation they are called magical powers.\n\nThe divine man is destined to supersede the spiritual man, as the\nspiritual man supersedes the natural man. Then the disciple becomes a\nMaster. The opened powers of tile spiritual man, spiritual vision,\nhearing, and touch, stand, therefore, in contradistinction to the\nhigher divine power above them, and must in no wise be regarded as the\nend of the way, for the path has no end, but rises ever to higher and\nhigher glories; the soul\u2019s growth and splendour have no limit. So that,\nif the spiritual powers we have been considering are regarded as in any\nsense final, they are a hindrance, a barrier to the far higher powers\nof the divine man. But viewed from below, from the standpoint of normal\nphysical experience, they are powers truly magical; as the powers\nnatural to a four-dimensional being will appear magical to a\nthree-dimensional being.\n\n38. Through the weakening of the causes of bondage, and by learning the\nmethod of sassing, the consciousness is transferred to the other body.\n\nIn due time, after the spiritual man has been formed and grown stable\nthrough the forces and virtues already enumerated, and after the senses\nof the spiritual man have awaked, there comes the transfer of the\ndominant consciousness, the sense of individuality, from the physical\nto the spiritual man. Thereafter the physical man is felt to be a\nsecondary, a subordinate, an instrument through whom the spiritual man\nworks; and the spiritual man is felt to be the real individuality. This\nis, in a sense, the attainment to full salvation and immortal life; yet\nit is not the final goal or resting place, but only the beginning of\nthe greater way.\n\nThe means for this transfer are described as the weakening of the\ncauses of bondage, and an understanding of the method of passing from\nthe one consciousness to the other. The first may also be described as\ndetach meet, and comes from the conquest of the delusion that the\npersonal self is the real man. When that delusion abates and is held in\ncheck, the finer consciousness of the spiritual man begins to shine in\nthe background of the mind. The transfer of the sense of individuality\nto this finer consciousness, and thus to the spiritual man, then\nbecomes a matter of recollection, of attention; primarily, a matter of\ntaking a deeper interest in the life and doings of the spiritual man,\nthan in the pleasures or occupations of the personality. Therefore it\nis said: \u201cLay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth\nand rust cloth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but\nlay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust\ncloth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for\nwhere your treasure is, there will your heart be also.\u201d\n\n39. Through mastery of the upward-life comes freedom from the dangers\nof water, morass, and thorny places, and the power of ascension is\ngained.\n\nHere is one of the sentences, so characteristic of this author, and,\nindeed, of the Eastern spirit, in which there is an obvious exterior\nmeaning, and, within this, a clear interior meaning, not quite so\nobvious, but far more vital.\n\nThe surface meaning is, that by mastery of a certain power, called here\nthe upward-life, and akin to levitation, there comes the ability to\nwalk on water, or to pass over thorny places without wounding the feet.\n\nBut there is a deeper meaning. When we speak of the disciple\u2019s path as\na path of thorns, we use a symbol; and the same symbol is used here.\nThe upward-life means something more than the power, often manifested\nin abnormal psychical experiences, of levitating the physical body, or\nnear-by physical objects. It means the strong power of aspiration, of\nupward will, which first builds, and then awakes the spiritual man, and\nfinally transfers the conscious individuality to him; for it is he who\npasses safely over the waters of death and rebirth, and is not pierced\nby the thorns in the path. Therefore it is said that he who would tread\nthe path of power must look for a home in the air, and afterwards in\nthe ether.\n\nOf the upward-life, this is written in the Katha Upanishad: \u201cA hundred\nand one are the heart\u2019s channels; of these one passes to the crown.\nGoing up this, he comes to the immortal.\u201d This is the power of\nascension spoken of in the Sutra.\n\n40. By mastery of the binding-life comes radiance.\n\nIn the Upanishads, it is said that this binding-life unites the\nupward-life to the downward-life, and these lives have their analogies\nin the \u201cvital breaths\u201d in the body. The thought in the text seems to\nbe, that, when the personality is brought thoroughly under control of\nthe spiritual man, through the life-currents which bind them together,\nthe personality is endowed with a new force, a strong personal\nmagnetism, one might call it, such as is often an appanage of genius.\n\nBut the text seems to mean more than this and to have in view the\n\u201cvesture of the colour of the sun\u201d attributed by the Upanishads to the\nspiritual man; that vesture which a disciple has thus described: \u201cThe\nLord shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his\nglorious body\u201d; perhaps \u201cbody of radiance\u201d would better translate the\nGreek.\n\nIn both these passages, the teaching seems to be, that the body of the\nfull-grown spiritual man is radiant or luminous,-for those at least,\nwho have anointed their eyes wit! eye-salve, so that they see.\n\n41. From perfectly concentrated Meditation on the correlation of\nhearing and the ether, comes the power of spiritual hearing.\n\nPhysical sound, we are told, is carried by the air, or by water, iron,\nor some medium on the same plane of substance. But then is a finer\nhearing, whose medium of transmission would seem to be the ether;\nperhaps no that ether which carries light, heat and magnetic waves,\nbut, it may be, the far finer ether through which the power of gravity\nworks. For, while light or heat or magnetic waves, travelling from the\nsun to the earth, take eight minutes for the journey, it is\nmathematically certain that the pull of gravitation does not take as\nmuch as eight seconds, or even the eighth of a second. The pull of\ngravitation travels, it would seem \u201cas quick as thought\u201d; so it may\nwell be that, in thought transference or telepathy, the thoughts travel\nby the same way, carried by the same \u201cthought-swift\u201d medium.\n\nThe transfer of a word by telepathy is the simplest and earliest form\nof the \u201cdivine hearing\u201d of the spiritual man; as that power grows, and\nas, through perfectly concentrated Meditation, the spiritual man comes\ninto more complete mastery of it, he grows able to hear and clearly\ndistinguish the speech of the great Companions, who counsel and comfort\nhim on his way. They may speak to him either in wordless thoughts, or\nin perfectly definite words and sentences.\n\n42. By perfectly concentrated Meditation em the correlation of the body\nwith the ether, and by thinking of it as light as thistle-down, will\ncome the power to traverse the ether.\n\nIt has been said that he who would tread the path of power must look\nfor a home in the air, and afterwards in the ether. This would seem to\nmean, besides the constant injunction to detachment, that he must be\nprepared to inhabit first a psychic, and then an etheric body; the\nformer being the body of dreams; the latter, the body of the spiritual\nman, when he wakes up on the other side of dreamland. The gradual\naccustoming of the consciousness to its new etheric vesture, its\ngradual acclimatization, so to speak, in the etheric body of the\nspiritual man, is what our text seems to contemplate.\n\n43. When that condition of consciousness is reached, which is\nfar-reaching and not confined to the body, which is outside the body\nand not conditioned by it, then the veil which conceals the light is\nworn away.\n\nPerhaps the best comment on this is afforded by the words of Paul: \u201cI\nknew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I\ncannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)\nsuch a one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man,\n(whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)\nhow that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable [or,\nunspoken] words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.\u201d\n\nThe condition is, briefly, that of the awakened spiritual man, who sees\nand hears beyond the veil.\n\n44. Mastery of the elements comes from perfectly concentrated\nMeditation on their five forms: the gross, the elemental, the subtle,\nthe inherent, the purposive.\n\nThese five forms are analogous to those recognized by modern physics:\nsolid, liquid, gaseous, radiant and ionic. When the piercing vision of\nthe awakened spiritual man is directed to the forms of matter, from\nwithin, as it were, from behind the scenes, then perfect mastery over\nthe \u201cbeggarly elements\u201d is attained. This is, perhaps, equivalent to\nthe injunction: \u201cInquire of the earth, the air, and the water, of the\nsecrets they hold for you. The development of your inner senses will\nenable you to do this.\u201d\n\n45. Thereupon will come the manifestation of the atomic and other\npowers, which are the endowment of the body, together with its\nunassailable force.\n\nThe body in question is, of course, the etheric body of the spiritual\nman. He is said to possess eight powers: the atomic, the power of\nassimilating himself with the nature of the atom, which will, perhaps,\ninvolve the power to disintegrate material forms; the power of\nlevitation; the power of limitless extension; the power of boundless\nreach, so that, as the commentator says, \u201che can touch the moon with\nthe tip of his finger\u201d; the power to accomplish his will; the power of\ngravitation, the correlative of levitation; the power of command; the\npower of creative will. These are the endowments of the spiritual man.\nFurther, the spiritual body is unassailable. Fire burns it not, water\nwets it not, the sword cleaves it not, dry winds parch it not. And, it\nis said, the spiritual man can impart something of this quality and\ntemper to his bodily vesture.\n\n46. Shapeliness, beauty, force, the temper of the diamond: these are\nthe endowments of that body.\n\nThe spiritual man is shapely, beautiful strong, firm as the diamond.\nTherefore it is written: \u201cThese things saith the Son of God, who hath\nhis eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass:\nHe that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I\ngive power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron;\nand I will give him the morning star.\u201d\n\n47. Mastery over the powers of perception and action comes through\nperfectly concentrated Meditation on their fivefold forms; namely,\ntheir power to grasp their distinctive nature, the element of\nself-consciousness in them, their inherence, and their purposiveness.\n\nTake, for example, sight. This possesses, first, the power to grasp,\napprehend, perceive; second, it has its distinctive form of perception;\nthat is, visual perception; third, it always carries with its\noperations self-consciousness, the thought: \u201cI perceive\u201d; fourth sight\nhas the power of extension through the whole field of vision, even to\nthe utmost star; fifth, it is used for the purposes of the Seer. So\nwith the other senses. Perfectly concentrated Meditation on each sense,\na viewing it from behind and within, as is possible for the spiritual\nman, brings a mastery of the scope and true character of each sense,\nand of the world on which they report collectively.\n\n48. Thence comes the power swift as thought, independent of\ninstruments, and the mastery over matter.\n\nWe are further enumerating the endowments of the spiritual man. Among\nthese is the power to traverse space with the swiftness of thought, so\nthat whatever place the spiritual man thinks of, to that he goes, in\nthat place he already is. Thought has now become his means of\nlocomotion. He is, therefore, independent of instruments, and can bring\nhis force to bear directly, wherever he wills.\n\n49. When the spiritual man is perfectly disentangled from the psychic\nbody, he attains to mastery over all things and to a knowledge of all.\n\nThe spiritual man is enmeshed in the web of the emotions; desire, fear,\nambition, passion; and impeded by the mental forms of separateness and\nmaterialism. When these meshes are sundered, these obstacles completely\novercome, then the spiritual man stands forth in his own wide world,\nstrong, mighty, wise. He uses divine powers, with a divine scope and\nenergy, working together with divine Companions. To such a one it is\nsaid: \u201cThou art now a disciple, able to stand, able to hear, able to\nsee, able to speak, thou hast conquered desire and attained to\nself-knowledge, thou hast seen thy soul in its bloom and recognized it,\nand heard the voice of the silence.\u201d\n\n50. By absence of all self-indulgence at this point, when the seeds of\nbondage to sorrow are destroyed, pure spiritual being is attained.\n\nThe seeking of indulgence for the personal self, whether through\npassion or ambition, sows the seed of future sorrow. For this self\nindulgence of the personality is a double sin against the real; a sin\nagainst the cleanness of life, and a sin against the universal being,\nwhich permits no exclusive particular good, since, in the real, all\nspiritual possessions are held in common. This twofold sin brings its\nreacting punishment, its confining bondage to sorrow. But ceasing from\nself-indulgence brings purity, liberation, spiritual life.\n\n51. There should be complete overcoming of allurement or pride in the\ninvitations of the different realms of life, lest attachment to things\nevil arise once more.\n\nThe commentator tells us that disciples, seekers for union, are of four\ndegrees: first, those who are entering the path; second, those who are\nin the realm of allurements; third, those who have won the victory over\nmatter and the senses; fourth, those who stand firm in pure spiritual\nlife. To the second, especially, the caution in the text is addressed.\nMore modern teachers would express the same truth by a warning against\nthe delusions and fascinations of the psychic realm, which open around\nthe disciple, as he breaks through into the unseen worlds. These are\nthe dangers of the anteroom. Safety lies in passing on swiftly into the\ninner chamber. \u201cHim that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple\nof my God, and he shall go no more out.\u201d\n\n52. From perfectly concentrated Meditation on the divisions of time and\ntheir succession comes that wisdom which is born of discernment.\n\nThe Upanishads say of the liberated that \u201che has passed beyond the\ntriad of time\u201d; he no longer sees life as projected into past, present\nand future, since these are forms of the mind; but beholds all things\nspread out in the quiet light of the Eternal. This would seem to be the\nsame thought, and to point to that clear-eyed spiritual perception\nwhich is above time; that wisdom born of the unveiling of Time\u2019s\ndelusion. Then shall the disciple live neither in the present nor the\nfuture, but in the Eternal.\n\n53. Hence comes discernment between things which are of like nature,\nnot distinguished by difference of kind, character or position.\n\nHere, as also in the preceding Sutra, we are close to the doctrine that\ndistinctions of order, time and space are creations of the mind; the\nthreefold prism through which the real object appears to us distorted\nand refracted. When the prism is withdrawn, the object returns to its\nprimal unity, no longer distinguishable by the mind, yet clearly\nknowable by that high power of spiritual discernment, of illumination,\nwhich is above the mind.\n\n54. The wisdom which is born of discernment is starlike; it discerns\nall things, and all conditions of things, it discerns without\nsuccession: simultaneously.\n\nThat wisdom, that intuitive, divining power is starlike, says the\ncommentator, because it shines with its own light, because it rises on\nhigh, and illumines all things. Nought is hid from it, whether things\npast, things present, or things to come; for it is beyond the threefold\nform of time, so that all things are spread before it together, in the\nsingle light of the divine. This power has been beautifully described\nby Columba: \u201cSome there are, though very few, to whom Divine grace has\ngranted this: that they can clearly and most distinctly see, at one and\nthe same moment, as though under one ray of the sun, even the entire\ncircuit of the whole world with its surroundings of ocean and sky, the\ninmost part of their mind being marvellously enlarged.\u201d\n\n55. When the vesture and the spiritual man are alike pure, then perfect\nspiritual life is attained.\n\nThe vesture, says the commentator, must first be washed pure of all\nstains of passion and darkness, and the seeds of future sorrow must be\nburned up utterly. Then, both the vesture and the wearer of the vesture\nbeing alike pure, the spiritual man enters into perfect spiritual life.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION TO BOOK IV\n\n\nThe third book of the Sutras has fairly completed the history of the\nbirth and growth of the spiritual man, and the enumeration of his\npowers; at least so far as concerns that first epoch in his immortal\nlife, which immediately succeeds, and supersedes, the life of the\nnatural man.\n\nIn the fourth book, we are to consider what one might call the\nmechanism of salvation, the ideally simple working of cosmic law which\nbrings the spiritual man to birth, growth, and fulness of power, and\nprepares him for the splendid, toilsome further stages of his great\njourney home.\n\nThe Sutras are here brief to obscurity; only a few words, for example,\nare given to the great triune mystery and illusion of Time; a phrase or\ntwo indicates the sweep of some universal law. Yet it is hoped that, by\nkeeping our eyes fixed on the spiritual man, remembering that he is the\nhero of the story, and that all that is written concerns him and his\nadventures, we may be able to find our way through this thicket of\ntangled words, and keep in our hands the clue to the mystery.\n\nThe last part of the last book needs little introduction. In a sense,\nit is the most important part of the whole treatise, since it unmasks\nthe nature of the personality, that psychical \u201cmind,\u201d which is the\nwakeful enemy of all who seek to tread the path. Even now, we can hear\nit whispering the doubt whether that can be a good path, which thus\nsets \u201cmind\u201d at defiance.\n\nIf this, then, be the most vital and fundamental part of the teaching,\nshould it not stand at the very beginning? It may seem so at first; but\nhad it stood there, we should not have comprehended it. For he who\nwould know the doctrine must lead the life, doing the will of his\nFather which is in Heaven.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK IV\n\n\n1. Psychic and spiritual powers may be inborn, or they may be gained by\nthe use of drugs, or by incantations, or by fervour, or by Meditation.\n\nSpiritual powers have been enumerated and described in the preceding\nsections. They are the normal powers of the spiritual man, the\nantetype, the divine edition, of the powers of the natural man. Through\nthese powers, the spiritual man stands, sees, hears, speaks, in the\nspiritual world, as the physical man stands, sees, hears, speaks in the\nnatural world.\n\nThere is a counterfeit presentment of the spiritual man, in the world\nof dreams, a shadow lord of shadows, who has his own dreamy powers of\nvision, of hearing, of movement; he has left the natural without\nreaching the spiritual. He has set forth from the shore, but has not\ngained the further verge of the river. He is borne along by the stream,\nwith no foothold on either shore. Leaving the actual, he has fallen\nshort of the real, caught in the limbo of vanities and delusions. The\ncause of this aberrant phantasm is always the worship of a false, vain\nself, the lord of dreams, within one\u2019s own breast. This is the psychic\nman, lord of delusive and bewildering psychic powers.\n\nSpiritual powers, like intellectual or artistic gifts, may be inborn:\nthe fruit, that is, of seeds planted and reared with toil in a former\nbirth. So also the powers of the psychic man may be inborn, a delusive\nharvest from seeds of delusion.\n\nPsychical powers may be gained by drugs, as poverty, shame, debasement\nmay be gained by the self-same drugs. In their action, they are\nbaneful, cutting the man off from consciousness of the restraining\npower of his divine nature, so that his forces break forth exuberant,\nlike the laughter of drunkards, and he sees and hears things delusive.\nWhile sinking, he believes that he has risen; growing weaker, he thinks\nhimself full of strength; beholding illusions, he takes them to be\ntrue. Such are the powers gained by drugs; they are wholly psychic,\nsince the real powers, the spiritual, can never be so gained.\n\nIncantations are affirmations of half-truths concerning spirit and\nmatter, what is and what is not, which work upon the mind and slowly\nbuild up a wraith of powers and a delusive well-being. These, too, are\nof the psychic realm of dreams.\n\nLastly, there are the true powers of the spiritual man, built up and\nrealized in Meditation, through reverent obedience to spiritual law, to\nthe pure conditions of being, in the divine realm.\n\n2. The transfer of powers from one venture to another comes through the\nflow of the natural creative forces.\n\nHere, if we can perceive it, is the whole secret of spiritual birth,\ngrowth and life Spiritual being, like all being, is but an expression\nof the Self, of the inherent power and being of Atma. Inherent in the\nSelf are consciousness and will, which have, as their lordly heritage,\nthe wide sweep of the universe throughout eternity, for the Self is one\nwith the Eternal. And the consciousness of the Self may make itself\nmanifest as seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, or whatsoever perceptive\npowers there may be, just as the white sunlight may divide into\nmany-coloured rays. So may the will of the Self manifest itself in the\nuttering of words, or in handling, or in moving, and whatever powers of\naction there are throughout the seven worlds. Where the Self is, there\nwill its powers be. It is but a question of the vesture through which\nthese powers shall shine forth. And wherever the consciousness and\ndesire of the ever-creative Self are fixed, there will a vesture be\nbuilt up; where the heart is, there will the treasure be also.\n\nSince through ages the desire of the Self has been toward the natural\nworld, wherein the Self sought to mirror himself that he might know\nhimself, therefore a vesture of natural elements came into being,\nthrough which blossomed forth the Self\u2019s powers of perceiving and of\nwill: the power to see, to hear, to speak, to walk, to handle; and when\nthe Self, thus come to self-consciousness, and, with it, to a knowledge\nof his imprisonment, shall set his desire on the divine and real world,\nand raise his consciousness thereto, the spiritual vesture shall be\nbuilt up for him there, with its expression of his inherent powers. Nor\nwill migration thither be difficult for the Self, since the divine is\nno strange or foreign land for him, but the house of his home, where he\ndwells from everlasting.\n\n3. The apparent, immediate cause is not the true cause of the creative\nnature-powers; but, like the husbandman in his field, it takes\nobstacles away.\n\nThe husbandman tills his field, breaking up the clods of earth into\nfine mould, penetrable to air and rain; he sows his seed, carefully\ncovering it, for fear of birds and the wind; he waters the seed-laden\nearth, turning the little rills from the irrigation tank now this way\nand that, removing obstacles from the channels, until the even How of\nwater vitalizes the whole field. And so the plants germinate and grow,\nfirst the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. But it is\nnot the husbandman who makes them grow. It is, first, the miraculous\nplasmic power in the grain of seed, which brings forth after its kind;\nthen the alchemy of sunlight which, in presence of the green colouring\nmatter of the leaves, gathers hydrogen from the water and carbon from\nthe gases in the air, and mingles them in the hydro-carbons of plant\ngrowth; and, finally, the wholly occult vital powers of the plant\nitself, stored up through ages, and flowing down from the primal\nsources of life. The husbandman but removes the obstacles. He plants\nand waters, but God gives the increase.\n\nSo with the finer husbandman of diviner fields. He tills and sows, but\nthe growth of the spiritual man comes through the surge and flow of\ndivine, creative forces and powers. Here, again, God gives the\nincrease. The divine Self puts forth, for the manifestation of its\npowers, a new and finer vesture, the body of the spiritual man.\n\n4. Vestures of consciousness are built up in conformity with the Boston\nof the feeling of selfhood.\n\nThe Self, says a great Teacher, in turn attaches itself to three\nvestures: first, to the physical body, then to the finer body, and\nthirdly to the causal body. Finally it stands forth radiant, luminous,\njoyous, as the Self.\n\nWhen the Self attributes itself to the physical body, there arise the\nstates of bodily consciousness, built up about the physical self.\n\nWhen the Self, breaking through this first illusion, begins to see and\nfeel itself in the finer body, to find selfhood there, then the states\nof consciousness of the finer body come into being; or, to speak\nexactly, the finer body and its states of consciousness arise and grow\ntogether.\n\nBut the Self must not dwell permanently there. It must learn to find\nitself in the causal body, to build up the wide and luminous fields of\nconsciousness that belong to that.\n\nNor must it dwell forever there, for there remains the fourth state,\nthe divine, with its own splendour and everlastingness.\n\nIt is all a question of the states of consciousness; all a question of\nraising the sense of selfhood, until it dwells forever in the Eternal.\n\n5. In the different fields of manifestation, the Consciousness, though\none, is the elective cause of many states of consciousness.\n\nHere is the splendid teaching of oneness that lies at the heart of the\nEastern wisdom. Consciousness is ultimately One, everywhere and\nforever. The Eternal, the Father, is the One Self of All Beings. And\nso, in each individual who is but a facet of that Self, Consciousness\nis One. Whether it breaks through as the dull fire of physical life, or\nthe murky flame of the psychic and passional, or the radiance of the\nspiritual man, or the full glory of the Divine, it is ever the Light,\nnaught but the Light. The one Consciousness is the effective cause of\nall states of consciousness, on every plane.\n\n6. Among states of consciousness, that which is born of Contemplation\nis free from the seed of future sorrow.\n\nWhere the consciousness breaks forth in the physical body, and the full\nplay of bodily life begins, its progression carries with it inevitable\nlimitations. Birth involves death. Meetings have their partings. Hunger\nalternates with satiety. Age follows on the heels of youth. So do the\nstates of consciousness run along the circle of birth and death.\n\nWith the psychic, the alternation between prize and penalty is swifter.\nHope has its shadow of fear, or it is no hope. Exclusive love is\ntortured by jealousy. Pleasure passes through deadness into pain.\nPain\u2019s surcease brings pleasure back again. So here, too, the states of\nconsciousness run their circle. In all psychic states there is egotism,\nwhich, indeed, is the very essence of the psychic; and where there is\negotism there is ever the seed of future sorrow. Desire carries bondage\nin its womb.\n\nBut where the pure spiritual consciousness begins, free from self and\nstain, the ancient law of retaliation ceases; the penalty of sorrow\nlapses and is no more imposed. The soul now passes, no longer from\nsorrow to sorrow, but from glory to glory. Its growth and splendour\nhave no limit. The good passes to better, best.\n\n7. The works of followers after Union make neither for bright pleasure\nnor for dark pain The works of others make for pleasure or pain, or a\nmingling of these.\n\nThe man of desire wins from his works the reward of pleasure, or incurs\nthe penalty of pain; or, as so often happens in life, his guerdon, like\nthe passionate mood of the lover, is part pleasure and part pain. Works\ndone with self-seeking bear within them the seeds of future sorrow;\nconversely, according to the proverb, present pain is future gain.\n\nBut, for him who has gone beyond desire, whose desire is set on the\nEternal, neither pain to be avoided nor pleasure to be gained inspires\nhis work. He fears no hell and desires no heaven. His one desire is, to\nknow the will of the Father and finish His work. He comes directly in\nline with the divine Will, and works cleanly and immediately, without\nlonging or fear. His heart dwells in the Eternal; all his desires are\nset on the Eternal.\n\n8. From the force inherent in works comes the manifestation of those\ndynamic mind images which are conformable to the ripening out of each\nof these works.\n\nWe are now to consider the general mechanism of Karma, in order that we\nmay pass on to the consideration of him who is free from Karma. Karma,\nindeed, is the concern of the personal man, of his bondage or freedom.\nIt is the succession of the forces which built up the personal man,\nreproducing themselves in one personality after another.\n\nNow let us take an imaginary case, to see how these forces may work\nout. Let us think of a man, with murderous intent in his heart,\nstriking with a dagger at his enemy. He makes a red wound in his\nvictim\u2019s breast; at the same instant he paints, in his own mind, a\npicture of that wound: a picture dynamic with all the fierce will-power\nhe has put into his murderous blow. In other words he has made a deep\nwound in his own psychic body; and, when he comes to be born again,\nthat body will become his outermost vesture, upon which, with its wound\nstill there, bodily tissue will be built up. So the man will be born\nmaimed, or with the predisposition to some mortal injury; he is\nunguarded at that point, and any trifling accidental blow will pierce\nthe broken Joints of his psychic armour. Thus do the dynamic\nmind-images manifest themselves, coming to the surface, so that works\ndone in the past may ripen and come to fruition.\n\n9. Works separated by different nature, or place, or time, are brought\ntogether by the correspondence between memory and dynamic impression.\n\nJust as, in the ripening out of mind-images into bodily conditions, the\neffect is brought about by the ray of creative force sent down by the\nSelf, somewhat as the light of the magic lantern projects the details\nof a picture on the screen, revealing the hidden, and making secret\nthings palpable and visible, so does this divine ray exercise a\nselective power on the dynamic mind-images, bringing together into one\nday of life the seeds gathered from many days. The memory constantly\nexemplifies this power; a passage of poetry will call up in the mind\nlike passages of many poets, read at different times. So a prayer may\ncall up many prayers.\n\nIn like manner, the same over-ruling selective power, which is a ray of\nthe Higher Self, gathers together from different births and times and\nplaces those mind-images which are conformable, and may be grouped in\nthe frame of a single life or a single event. Through this grouping,\nvisible bodily conditions or outward circumstances are brought about,\nand by these the soul is taught and trained.\n\nJust as the dynamic mind-images of desire ripen out in bodily\nconditions and circumstances, so the far more dynamic powers of\naspiration, wherein the soul reaches toward the Eternal, have their\nfruition in a finer world, building the vesture of the spiritual man.\n\n10. The series of dynamic mind-images is beginningless, because Desire\nis everlasting.\n\nThe whole series of dynamic mind-images, which make up the entire\nhistory of the personal man, is a part of the mechanism which the Self\nemploys, to mirror itself in a reflection, to embody its powers in an\noutward form, to the end of self-expression, selfrealization,\nself-knowledge. Therefore the initial impulse behind these dynamic\nmind-images comes from the Self and is the descending ray of the Self;\nso that it cannot be said that there is any first member of the series\nof images, from which the rest arose. The impulse is beginningless,\nsince it comes from the Self, which is from everlasting. Desire is not\nto cease; it is to turn to the Eternal, and so become aspiration.\n\n11. Since the dynamic mind-images are held together by impulses of\ndesire, by the wish for personal reward, by the substratum of mental\nhabit, by the support of outer things desired; therefore, when these\ncease, the self reproduction of dynamic mind-images ceases.\n\nWe are still concerned with the personal life in its bodily vesture,\nand with the process whereby the forces which have upheld it are\ngradually transferred to the life of the spiritual man, and build up\nfor him his finer vesture in a finer world.\n\nHow is the current to be changed? How is the flow of self-reproductive\nmind-images, which have built the conditions of life after life in this\nworld of bondage, to be checked, that the time of imprisonment may come\nto an end, the day of liberation dawn?\n\nThe answer is given in the Sutra just translated. The driving-force is\nwithdrawn and directed to the upbuilding of the spiritual body.\n\nWhen the building impulses and forces are withdrawn, the tendency to\nmanifest a new psychical body, a new body of bondage, ceases with them.\n\n12. The difference between that which is past and that which is not yet\ncome, according to their natures, depends on the difference of phase of\ntheir properties.\n\nHere we come to a high and difficult matter, which has always been held\nto be of great moment in the Eastern wisdom: the thought that the\ndivision of time into past, present and future is, in great measure, an\nillusion; that past, present, future all dwell together in the eternal\nNow.\n\nThe discernment of this truth has been held to be so necessarily a part\nof wisdom, that one of the names of the Enlightened is: \u201che who has\npassed beyond the three times: past, present, future.\u201d\n\nSo the Western Master said: \u201cBefore Abraham was, I am\u201d; and again, \u201cI\nam with you always, unto the end of the world\u201d; using the eternal\npresent for past and future alike. With the same purpose, the Master\nspeaks of himself as \u201cthe alpha and the omega, the beginning and the\nend, the first and the last.\u201d\n\nAnd a Master of our own days writes: \u201cI feel even irritated at having\nto use these three clumsy words\u2014past, present, and future. Miserable\nconcepts of the objective phases of the subjective whole, they are\nabout as ill adapted for the purpose, as an axe for fine carving.\u201d\n\nIn the eternal Now, both past and future are consummated.\n\nBjorklund, the Swedish philosopher, has well stated the same truth:\n\n\u201cNeither past nor future can exist to God; He lives undividedly,\nwithout limitations, and needs not, as man, to plot out his existence\nin a series of moments. Eternity then is not identical with unending\ntime; it is a different form of existence, related to time as the\nperfect to the imperfect \u2026 Man as an entity for himself must have the\nnatural limitations for the part. Conceived by God, man is eternal in\nthe divine sense, but conceived, by himself, man\u2019s eternal life is\nclothed in the limitations we call time. The eternal is a constant\npresent without beginning or end, without past or future.\u201d\n\n13. These properties, whether manifest or latent, are of the nature of\nthe Three Potencies.\n\nThe Three Potencies are the three manifested modifications of the one\nprimal material, which stands opposite to perceiving consciousness.\nThese Three Potencies are called Substance, Force, Darkness; or viewed\nrather for their moral colouring, Goodness, Passion, Inertness. Every\nmaterial manifestation is a projection of substance into the empty\nspace of darkness. Every mental state is either good, or passional, or\ninert. So, whether subjective or objective, latent or manifest, all\nthings that present themselves to the perceiving consciousness are\ncompounded of these three. This is a fundamental doctrine of the\nSankhya system.\n\n14. The external manifestation of an object takes place when the\ntransformations ore in the same phase.\n\nWe should be inclined to express the same law by saying, for example,\nthat a sound is audible, when it consists of vibrations within the\ncompass of the auditory nerve; that an object is visible, when either\ndirectly or by reflection, it sends forth luminiferous vibrations\nwithin the compass of the retina and the optic nerve. Vibrations below\nor above that compass make no impression at all, and the object remains\ninvisible; as, for example, a kettle of boiling water in a dark room,\nthough the kettle is sending forth heat vibrations closely akin to\nlight.\n\nSo, when the vibrations of the object and those of the perceptive power\nare in the same phase, the external manifestation of the object takes\nplace.\n\nThere seems to be a further suggestion that the appearance of an object\nin the \u201cpresent,\u201d or its remaining hid in the \u201cpast,\u201d or \u201cfuture,\u201d is\nlikewise a question of phase, and, just as the range of vibrations\nperceived might be increased by the development of finer senses, so the\nperception of things past, and things to come, may be easy from a\nhigher point of view.\n\n15. The paths of material things and of states of consciousness are\ndistinct, as is manifest from the fact that the same object may produce\ndifferent impressions in different minds.\n\nHaving shown that our bodily condition and circumstances depend on\nKarma, while Karma depends on perception and will, the sage recognizes\nthe fact that from this may be drawn the false deduction that material\nthings are in no wise different from states of mind. The same thought\nhas occurred, and still occurs, to all philosophers; and, by various\nreasonings, they all come to the same wise conclusion; that the\nmaterial world is not made by the mood of any human mind, but is rather\nthe manifestation of the totality of invisible Being, whether we call\nthis Mahat, with the ancients, or Ether, with the moderns.\n\n16. Nor do material objects depend upon a single mind, for how could\nthey remain objective to others, if that mind ceased to think of them?\n\nThis is but a further development of the thought of the preceding\nSutra, carrying on the thought that, while the universe is spiritual,\nyet its material expression is ordered, consistent, ruled by law, not\nsubject to the whims or affirmations of a single mind. Unwelcome\nmaterial things may be escaped by spiritual growth, by rising to a\nrealm above them, and not by denying their existence on their own\nplane. So that our system is neither materialistic, nor idealistic in\nthe extreme sense, but rather intuitional and spiritual, holding that\nmatter is the manifestation of spirit as a whole, a reflection or\nexternalization of spirit, and, like spirit, everywhere obedient to\nlaw. The path of liberation is not through denial of matter but through\ndenial of the wills of self, through obedience, and that aspiration\nwhich builds the vesture of the spiritual man.\n\n17. An object is perceived, or not perceived, according as the mind is,\nor is not, tinged with the colour of the object.\n\nThe simplest manifestation of this is the matter of attention. Our\nminds apprehend what they wish to apprehend; all else passes unnoticed,\nor, on the other hand, we perceive what we resent, as, for example, the\nnoise of a passing train; while others, used to the sound, do not\nnotice it at all.\n\nBut the deeper meaning is, that out of the vast totality of objects\never present in the universe, the mind perceives only those which\nconform to the hue of its Karma. The rest remain unseen, even though\nclose at hand.\n\nThis spiritual law has been well expressed by Emerson:\n\n\u201cThrough solidest eternal things the man finds his road as if they did\nnot subsist, and does not once suspect their being. As soon as he needs\na new object, suddenly he beholds it, and no longer attempts to pass\nthrough it, but takes another way. When he has exhausted for the time\nthe nourishment to be drawn from any one person or thing, that object\nis withdrawn from his observation, and though still in his immediate\nneighbourhood, he does not suspect its presence. Nothing is dead. Men\nfeign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals and mournful\nobituaries, and there they stand looking out of the window, sound and\nwell, in some new and strange disguise. Jesus is not dead, he is very\nwell alive: nor John, nor Paul, nor Mahomet, nor Aristotle; at times we\nbelieve we have seen them all, and could easily tell the names under\nwhich they go.\u201d\n\n18. The movements of the psychic nature are perpetually objects of\nperception, since the Spiritual Man, who is the lord of them, remains\nunchanging.\n\nHere is teaching of the utmost import, both for understanding and for\npractice.\n\nTo the psychic nature belong all the ebb and flow of emotion, all\nhoping and fearing, desire and hate: the things that make the multitude\nof men and women deem themselves happy or miserable. To it also belong\nthe measuring and comparing, the doubt and questioning, which, for the\nsame multitude, make up mental life. So that there results the\nemotion-soaked personality, with its dark and narrow view of life: the\nshivering, terror driven personality that is life itself for all but\nall of mankind.\n\nYet the personality is not the true man, not the living soul at all,\nbut only a spectacle which the true man observes. Let us under stand\nthis, therefore, and draw ourselves up inwardly to the height of the\nSpiritual Man, who, standing in the quiet light of the Eternal, looks\ndown serene upon this turmoil of the outer life.\n\nOne first masters the personality, the \u201cmind,\u201d by thus looking down on\nit from above, from within; by steadily watching its ebb and flow, as\nobjective, outward, and therefore not the real Self. This standing back\nis the first step, detachment. The second, to maintain the\nvantage-ground thus gained, is recollection.\n\n19. The Mind is not self-luminous, since it can be seen as an object.\n\nThis is a further step toward overthrowing the tyranny of the \u201cmind\u201d:\nthe psychic nature of emotion and mental measuring. This psychic self,\nthe personality, claims to be absolute, asserting that life is for it\nand through it; it seeks to impose on the whole being of man its\nnarrow, materialistic, faithless view of life and the universe; it\nwould clip the wings of the soaring Soul. But the Soul dethrones the\ntyrant, by perceiving and steadily affirming that the psychic self is\nno true self at all, not self-luminous, but only an object of\nobservation, watched by the serene eyes of the Spiritual Man.\n\n20. Nor could the Mind at the same time know itself and things external\nto it.\n\nThe truth is that the \u201cmind\u201d knows neither external things nor itself.\nIts measuring and analyzing, its hoping and fearing, hating and\ndesiring, never give it a true measure of life, nor any sense of real\nvalues. Ceaselessly active, it never really attains to knowledge; or,\nif we admit its knowledge, it ever falls short of wisdom, which comes\nonly through intuition, the vision of the Spiritual Man.\n\nLife cannot be known by the \u201cmind,\u201d its secrets cannot be learned\nthrough the \u201cmind.\u201d The proof is, the ceaseless strife and\ncontradiction of opinion among those who trust in the mind. Much less\ncan the \u201cmind\u201d know itself, the more so, because it is pervaded by the\nillusion that it truly knows, truly is.\n\nTrue knowledge of the \u201cmind\u201d comes, first, when the Spiritual Man,\narising, stands detached, regarding the \u201cmind\u201d from above, with quiet\neyes, and seeing it for the tangled web of psychic forces that it truly\nis. But the truth is divined long before it is clearly seen, and then\nbegins the long battle of the \u201cmind,\u201d against the Real, the \u201cmind\u201d\nfighting doggedly, craftily, for its supremacy.\n\n21. If the Mind be thought of as seen by another more inward Mind, then\nthere would be an endless series of perceiving Minds, and a confusion\nof memories.\n\nOne of the expedients by which the \u201cmind\u201d seeks to deny and thwart the\nSoul, when it feels that it is beginning to be circumvented and seen\nthrough, is to assert that this seeing is the work of a part of itself,\none part observing the other, and thus leaving no need nor place for\nthe Spiritual Man.\n\nTo this strategy the argument is opposed by our philosopher, that this\nwould be no true solution, but only a postponement of the solution. For\nwe should have to find yet another part of the mind to view the first\nobserving part, and then another to observe this, and so on, endlessly.\n\nThe true solution is, that the Spiritual Man looks down upon the\npsychic nature, and observes it; when he views the psychic pictures\ngallery, this is \u201cmemory,\u201d which would be a hopeless, inextricable\nconfusion, if we thought of one part of the \u201cmind,\u201d with its memories,\nviewing another part, with memories of its own.\n\nThe solution of the mystery lies not in the \u201cmind\u201d but beyond it, in\nthe luminous life of the risen Lord, the Spiritual Man.\n\n22. When the psychical nature takes on the form of the spiritual\nintelligence, by reflecting it, then the Self becomes conscious of its\nown spiritual intelligence.\n\nWe are considering a stage of spiritual life at which the psychical\nnature has been cleansed and purified. Formerly, it reflected in its\nplastic substance the images of the earthy; purified now, it reflects\nthe image of the heavenly, giving the spiritual intelligence a visible\nform. The Self, beholding that visible form, in which its spiritual\nintelligence has, as it were, taken palpable shape, thereby reaches\nself-recognition, self-comprehension. The Self sees itself in this\nmirror, and thus becomes not only conscious, but self-conscious. This\nis, from one point of view, the purpose of the whole evolutionary\nprocess.\n\n23. The psychic nature, taking on the colour of the Seer and of things\nseen, leads to the perception of all objects.\n\nIn the unregenerate man, the psychic nature is saturated with images of\nmaterial things, of things seen, or heard, or tasted, or felt; and this\nweb of dynamic images forms the ordinary material and driving power of\nlife. The sensation of sweet things tasted clamours to be renewed, and\ndrives the man into effort to obtain its renewal; so he adds image to\nimage, each dynamic and importunate, piling up sin\u2019s intolerable\nburden.\n\nThen comes regeneration, and the washing away of sin, through the\nfiery, creative power of the Soul, which burns out the stains of the\npsychic vesture, purifying it as gold is refined in the furnace. The\nsuffering of regeneration springs from this indispensable purifying.\n\nThen the psychic vesture begins to take on the colour of the Soul, no\nlonger stained, but suffused with golden light; and the man red\ngenerate gleams with the radiance of eternity. Thus the Spiritual Man\nputs on fair raiment; for of this cleansing it is said: Though your\nsins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be as\ncrimson, they shall be as wool.\n\n24. The psychic nature, which has been printed with mind-images of\ninnumerable material things, exists now for the Spiritual Man, building\nfor him.\n\nThe \u201cmind,\u201d once the tyrant, is now the slave, recognized as outward,\nseparate, not Self, a well-trained instrument of the Spiritual Man.\n\nFor it is not ordained for the Spiritual Man that, finding his high\nrealm, he shall enter altogether there, and pass out of the vision of\nmankind. It is true that he dwells in heaven, but he also dwells on\nearth. He has angels and archangels, the hosts of the just made\nperfect, for his familiar friends, but he has at the same time found a\nnew kinship with the prone children of men, who stumble and sin in the\ndark. Finding sinlessness, he finds also that the world\u2019s sin and shame\nare his, not to share, but to atone; finding kinship with angels, he\nlikewise finds his part in the toil of angels, the toil for the\nredemption of the world.\n\nFor this work, he, who now stands in the heavenly realm, needs his\ninstrument on earth; and this instrument he finds, ready to his hand,\nand fitted and perfected by the very struggles he has waged against it,\nin the personality, the \u201cmind,\u201d of the personal man. This once tyrant\nis now his servant and perfect ambassador, bearing witness, before men,\nof heavenly things and even in this present world doing the will and\nworking the works of the Father.\n\n25. For him who discerns between the Mind and the Spiritual Man, there\ncomes perfect fruition of the longing after the real being of the Self.\n\nHow many times in the long struggle have the Soul\u2019s aspirations seemed\nbut a hopeless, impossible dream, a madman\u2019s counsel of perfection. Yet\nevery finest, most impossible aspiration shall be realized, and ten\ntimes more than realized, once the long, arduous fight against the\n\u201cmind,\u201d and the mind\u2019s worldview is won. And then it will be seen that\nunfaith and despair were but weapons of the \u201cmind,\u201d to daunt the Soul,\nand put off the day when the neck of the \u201cmind\u201d shall be put under the\nfoot of the Soul.\n\nHave you aspired, well-nigh hopeless, after immortality? You shall be\npaid by entering the immortality of God.\n\nHave you aspired, in misery and pain, after consoling, healing love?\nYou shall be made a dispenser of the divine love of God Himself to\nweary souls.\n\nHave you sought ardently, in your day of feebleness, after power? You\nshall wield power immortal, infinite, with God working the works of\nGod.\n\nHave you, in lonely darkness, longed for companionship and consolation?\nYou shall have angels and archangels for your friends, and all the\nimmortal hosts of the Dawn.\n\nThese are the fruits of victory. Therefore overcome. These are the\nprizes of regeneration. Therefore die to self, that you may rise again\nto God.\n\n26. Thereafter, the whole personal being bends toward illumination,\ntoward Eternal Life.\n\nThis is part of the secret of the Soul, that salvation means, not\nmerely that a soul shall be cleansed and raised to heaven, but that the\nwhole realm of the natural powers shall be redeemed, building up, even\nin this present world, the kingly figure of the Spiritual Man.\n\nThe traditions of the ages are full of his footsteps; majestic,\nuncomprehended shadows, myths, demi-gods, fill the memories of all the\nnobler peoples. But the time cometh, when he shall be known, no longer\ndemi-god, nor myth, nor shadow, but the ever-present Redeemer, working\namid men for the life and cleansing of all souls.\n\n27. In the internals of the batik, other thoughts will arise, through\nthe impressions of the dynamic mind-images.\n\nThe battle is long and arduous. Let there be no mistake as to that. Go\nnot forth to this battle without counting the cost. Ages have gone to\nthe strengthening of the foe. Ages of conflict must be spent, ere the\nfoe, wholly conquered, becomes the servant, the Soul\u2019s minister to\nmankind.\n\nAnd from these long past ages, in hours when the contest flags, will\ncome new foes, mind-born children springing up to fight for mind,\nreinforcements coming from forgotten years, forgotten lives. For once\nthis conflict is begun, it can be ended only by sweeping victory, and\nunconditional, unreserved surrender of the vanquished.\n\n28. These are to be overcome as it was taught that hindrances should be\novercome.\n\nThese new enemies and fears are to be overcome by ceaselessly renewing\nthe fight, by a steadfast, dogged persistence, whether in victory or\ndefeat, which shall put the stubbornness of the rocks to shame. For the\nSoul is older than all things, and invincible; it is of the very nature\nof the Soul to be unconquerable.\n\nTherefore fight on, undaunted; knowing that the spiritual will, once\nawakened, shall, through the effort of the contest, come to its full\nstrength; that ground gained can be held permanently; that great as is\nthe dead-weight of the adversary, it is yet measurable, while the\nWarrior who fights for you, for whom you fight, is, in might,\nimmeasurable, invincible, everlasting.\n\n29. He who, after he has attained, is wholly free from self, reaches\nthe essence of all that can be known, gathered together like a cloud.\nThis is the true spiritual consciousness.\n\nIt has been said that, at the beginning of the way, we must kill out\nambition, the great curse, the giant weed which grows as strongly in\nthe heart of the devoted disciple as in the man of desire. The remedy\nis sacrifice of self, obedience, humility; that purity of heart which\ngives the vision of God. Thereafter, he who has attained is wrapt about\nwith the essence of all that can be known, as with a cloud; he has that\nperfect illumination which is the true spiritual consciousness. Through\nobedience to the will of God, he comes into oneness of being with God;\nhe is initiated into God\u2019s view of the universe, seeing all life as God\nsees it.\n\n30. Thereon comes surcease from sorrow and the burden of toil.\n\nSuch a one, it is said, is free from the bond of Karma, from the burden\nof toil, from that debt to works which comes from works done in\nself-love and desire. Free from self-will, he is free from sorrow, too,\nfor sorrow comes from the fight of self-will against the divine will,\nthrough the correcting stress of the divine will, which seeks to\ncounteract the evil wrought by disobedience. When the conflict with the\ndivine will ceases, then sorrow ceases, and he who has grown into\nobedience, thereby enters into joy.\n\n31. When all veils are rent, all stains washed away, his knowledge\nbecomes infinite; little remains for him to know.\n\nThe first veil is the delusion that thy soul is in some permanent way\nseparate from the great Soul, the divine Eternal. When that veil is\nrent, thou shalt discern thy oneness with everlasting Life. The second\nveil is the delusion of enduring separateness from thy other selves,\nwhereas in truth the soul that is in them is one with the soul that is\nin thee. The world\u2019s sin and shame are thy sin and shame: its joy also.\n\nThese veils rent, thou shalt enter into knowledge of divine things and\nhuman things. Little will remain unknown to thee.\n\n32. Thereafter comes the completion of the series of transformations of\nthe three nature potencies, since their purpose is attained.\n\nIt is a part of the beauty and wisdom of the great Indian teachings,\nthe Vedanta and the Yoga alike, to hold that all life exists for the\npurposes of Soul, for the making of the spiritual man. They teach that\nall nature is an orderly process of evolution, leading up to this,\ndesigned for this end, existing only for this: to bring forth and\nperfect the Spiritual Man. He is the crown of evolution: at his coming,\nthe goal of all development is attained.\n\n33. The series of transformations is divided into moments. When the\nseries is completed, time gives place to duration.\n\nThere are two kinds of eternity, says the commentary: the eternity of\nimmortal life, which belongs to the Spirit, and the eternity of change,\nwhich inheres in Nature, in all that is not Spirit. While we are\ncontent to live in and for Nature, in the Circle of Necessity, Sansara,\nwe doom ourselves to perpetual change. That which is born must die, and\nthat which dies must be reborn. It is change evermore, a ceaseless\nseries of transformations.\n\nBut the Spiritual Man enters a new order; for him, there is no longer\neternal change, but eternal Being. He has entered into the joy of his\nLord. This spiritual birth, which makes him heir of the Everlasting,\nsets a term to change; it is the culmination, the crowning\ntransformation, of the whole realm of change.\n\n34. Pure spiritual life is, therefore, the inverse resolution of the\npotencies of Nature, which have emptied themselves of their value for\nthe Spiritual man; or it is the return of the power of pure\nConsciousness to its essential form.\n\nHere we have a splendid generalization, in which our wise philosopher\nfinally reconciles the naturalists and the idealists, expressing the\ncrown and end of his teaching, first in the terms of the naturalist,\nand then in the terms of the idealist.\n\nThe birth and growth of the Spiritual Man, and his entry into his\nimmortal heritage, may be regarded, says our philosopher, either as the\nculmination of the whole process of natural evolution and involution,\nwhere \u201cthat which flowed from out the boundless deep, turns again\nhome\u201d; or it may be looked at, as the Vedantins look at it, as the\nrestoration of pure spiritual Consciousness to its pristine and\nessential form. There is no discrepancy or conflict between these two\nviews, which are but two accounts of the same thing. Therefore those\nwho study the wise philosopher, be they naturalist or idealist, have no\nexcuse to linger over dialectic subtleties or disputes. These things\nare lifted from their path, lest they should be tempted to delay over\nthem, and they are left facing the path itself, stretching upward and\nonward from their feet to the everlasting hills, radiant with infinite\nLight.","title":"The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: The Book of the Spiritual Man","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":30323}