{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_4278/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_4278","id":"gutenberg_4278","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4278","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Hinduism","Yoga"],"text":"An Introduction to Yoga\n\n\nFOUR LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE\n32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,\nHELD AT BENARES, ON DEC. 27TH, 28TH, 29TH,\n30TH, 1907.\n\n\nBY\nANNIE BESANT,\n_President of the Theosophical Society_.\n\n\nTheosophical Publishing Society,\nBenares City; and London, 161, New Bond Street,\n_Theosophist_ Office, Adyar, Madras, S.\n1908.\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n Lecture I. The Nature of Yoga\n 1. The Meaning of the Universe\n 2. The Unfolding of Consciousness\n 3. The Oneness of the Self\n 4. The Quickening of the Process of Self-Unfoldment\n 5. Yoga is a Science\n 6. Man a Duality\n 7. States of Mind\n 8. Samadhi\n 9. The Literature of Yoga\n 10. Some Definitions\n 11. God Without and God Within\n 12. Changes of Consciousness and Vibrations of Matter\n 13. Mind\n 14. Stages of Mind\n 15. Inward and Outward-turned Consciousness\n 16. The Cloud\n\n Lecture II. Schools of Thought\n 1. Its Relation to Indian Philosophies\n 2. Mind\n 3. The Mental Body\n 4. Mind and Self\n\n Lecture III. Yoga as Science\n 1. Methods of Yoga\n 2. To the Self by the Self\n 3. To the Self through the Not-Self\n 4. Yoga and Morality\n 5. Composition of States of the Mind\n 6. Pleasure and Pain\n\n Lecture IV. Yoga as Practice\n 1. Inhibition of States of Mind\n 2. Meditation with and without Seed\n 3. The Use of Mantras\n 4. Attention\n 5. Obstacles to Yoga\n 6. Capacities for Yoga\n 7. Forthgoing and Returning\n 8. Purification of Bodies\n 9. Dwellers on the Threshold\n 10. Preparation for Yoga\n 11. The End\n\n\n\n\nForeword\n\nThese lectures are intended to give an outline of Yoga, in order to\nprepare the student to take up, for practical purposes, the _S\u016b\u1e6dras of\nPa\u1e6da\u00f1jali_, the chief treatise on Yoga. I have on hand, with my friend\nBhagav\u0101n \u1e0c\u0101s as collaborateur, a translation of these S\u016b\u1e6dras, with\nVy\u0101sa\u2019s commentary, and a further commentary and elucidation written in\nthe light of Theosophy. To prepare the student for the mastering of\nthat more difficult task, these lectures were designed; hence the many\nreferences to Pa\u1e6da\u00f1jali. They may, however, also serve to give to the\nordinary lay reader some idea of the Science of sciences, and perhaps\nto allure a few towards its study.\n\nANNIE BESANT.\n\n\n\n\nLecture I\nTHE NATURE OF YOGA\n\n\nBrothers:\n\nIn this first discourse we shall concern ourselves with the gaining of\na general idea of the subject of Yoga, seeking its place in nature, its\nown character, its object in human evolution.\n\n\nThe Meaning of the Universe\n\nLet us, first of all, ask ourselves, looking at the world around us,\nwhat it is that the history of the world signifies. When we read\nhistory, what does the history tell us? It seems to be a moving\npanorama of people and events, but it is really only a dance of\nshadows; the people are shadows, not realities, the kings and\nstatesmen, the ministers and armies; and the events\u2014the battles and\nrevolutions, the rises and falls of states\u2014are the most shadowlike\ndance of all. Even if the historian tries to go deeper, if he deals\nwith economic conditions, with social organisations, with the study of\nthe tendencies of the currents of thought, even then he is in the midst\nof shadows, the illusory shadows cast by unseen realities. This world\nis full of forms that are illusory, and the values are all wrong, the\nproportions are out of focus. The things which a man of the world\nthinks valuable, a spiritual man must cast aside as worthless. The\ndiamonds of the world, with their glare and glitter in the rays of the\noutside sun, are mere fragments of broken glass to the man of\nknowledge. The crown of the king, the sceptre of the emperor, the\ntriumph of earthly power, are less than nothing to the man who has had\none glimpse of the majesty of the Self. What is, then, real? What is\ntruly valuable? Our answer will be very different from the answer given\nby the man of the world.\n\n\u201cThe universe exists for the sake of the Self.\u201d Not for what the outer\nworld can give, not for control over the objects of desire, not for the\nsake even of beauty or pleasure, does the Great Architect plan and\nbuild His worlds. He has filled them with objects, beautiful and\npleasure-giving. The great arch of the sky above, the mountains with\nsnow-clad peaks, the valleys soft with verdure and fragrant with\nblossoms, the oceans with their vast depths, their surface now calm as\na lake, now tossing in fury\u2014they all exist, not for the objects\nthemselves, but for their value to the Self. Not for themselves because\nthey are anything in themselves but that the purpose of the Self may be\nserved, and His manifestations made possible.\n\nThe world, with all its beauty, its happiness and suffering, its joys\nand pains, is planned with the utmost ingenuity, in order that the\npowers of the Self may be shown forth in manifestation. From the\nfire-mist to the LOGOS, all exist for the sake of the Self. The lowest\ngrain of dust, the mightiest deva in his heavenly regions, the plant\nthat grows out of sight in the nook of a mountain, the star that shines\naloft over us-all these exist in order that the fragments of the one\nSelf, embodied in countless forms, may realize their own identity, and\nmanifest the powers of the Self through the matter that envelops them.\n\nThere is but one Self in the lowliest dust and the loftiest deva.\n\u201cMamamsaha,\u201d \u201cMy portion,\u201d \u201ca portion of My Self,\u201d says Sri Krishna,\nare all these Jivatmas, all these living spirits. For them the universe\nexists; for them the sun shines, and the waves roll, and the winds\nblow, and the rain falls, that the Self may know Himself as manifested\nin matter, as embodied in the universe.\n\n\nThe Unfolding of Consciousness\n\nOne of those pregnant and significant ideas which Theosophy scatters so\nlavishly around is this\u2014that the same scale is repeated over and over\nagain, the same succession of events in larger or smaller cycles. If\nyou understand one cycle, you understand the whole. The same laws by\nwhich a solar system is builded go to the building up of the system of\nman. The laws by which the Self unfolds his powers in the universe,\nfrom the fire-mist up to the LOGOS, are the same laws of consciousness\nwhich repeat themselves in the universe of man. If you understand them\nin the one, you can equally understand them in the other. Grasp them in\nthe small, and the large is revealed to you. Grasp them in the large,\nand the small becomes intelligible to you.\n\nThe great unfolding from the stone to the God goes on through millions\nof years, through aeons of time. But the long unfolding that takes\nplace in the universe, takes place in a shorter time-cycle within the\nlimit of humanity, and this in a cycle so brief that it seems as\nnothing beside the longer one. Within a still briefer cycle a similar\nunfolding takes place in the individual\u2014rapidly, swiftly, with all the\nforce of its past behind it. These forces that manifest and unveil\nthemselves in evolution are cumulative in their power. Embodied in the\nstone, in the mineral world, they grow and put out a little more of\nstrength, and in the mineral world accomplish their unfolding. Then\nthey become too strong for the mineral, and press on into the vegetable\nworld. There they unfold more and more of their divinity, until they\nbecome too mighty for the vegetable, and become animal.\n\nExpanding within and gaining experiences from the animal, they again\noverflow the limits of the animal, and appear as the human. In the\nhuman being they still grow and accumulate with ever-increasing force,\nand exert greater pressure against the barrier; and then out of the\nhuman, they press into the super-human. This last process of evolution\nis called \u201cYoga.\u201d\n\nComing to the individual, the man of our own globe has behind him his\nlong evolution in other chains than ours\u2014this same evolution through\nmineral to vegetable, through vegetable to animal, through animal to\nman, and then from our last dwelling-place in the lunar orb on to this\nterrene globe that we call the earth. Our evolution here has all the\nforce of the last evolution in it, and hence, when we come to this\nshortest cycle of evolution which is called Yoga, the man has behind\nhim the whole of the forces accumulated in his human evolution, and it\nis the accumulation of these forces which enables him to make the\npassage so rapidly. We must connect our Yoga with the evolution of\nconsciousness everywhere, else we shall not understand it at all; for\nthe laws of evolution of consciousness in a universe are exactly the\nsame as the laws of Yoga, and the principles whereby consciousness\nunfolds itself in the great evolution of humanity are the same\nprinciples that we take in Yoga and deliberately apply to the more\nrapid unfolding of our own consciousness. So that Yoga, when it is\ndefinitely begun, is not a new thing, as some people imagine.\n\nThe whole evolution is one in its essence. The succession is the same,\nthe sequences identical. Whether you are thinking of the unfolding of\nconsciousness in the universe, or in the human race, or in the\nindividual, you can study the laws of the whole, and in Yoga you learn\nto apply those same laws to your own consciousness rationally and\ndefinitely. All the laws are one, however different in their stage of\nmanifestation.\n\nIf you look at Yoga in this light, then this Yoga, which seemed so\nalien and so far off, will begin to wear a familiar face, and come to\nyou in a garb not wholly strange. As you study the unfolding of\nconsciousness, and the corresponding evolution of form, it will not\nseem so strange that from man you should pass on to superman,\ntranscending the barrier of humanity, and finding yourself in the\nregion where divinity becomes more manifest.\n\n\nThe Oneness of the Self\n\nThe Self in you is the same as the Self Universal. Whatever powers are\nmanifested throughout the world, those powers exist in germ, in\nlatency, in you. He, the Supreme, does not evolve. In Him there are no\nadditions or subtractions. His portions, the Jivatmas, are as Himself,\nand they only unfold their powers in matter as conditions around them\ndraw those powers forth. If you realize the unity of the Self amid the\ndiversities of the Not-Self, then Yoga will not seem an impossible\nthing to you.\n\n\nThe Quickening of the Process of Self-unfoldment\n\nEducated and thoughtful men and women you already are; already you have\nclimbed up that long ladder which separates the present outer form of\nthe Deity in you from His form in the dust. The manifest Deity sleeps\nin the mineral and the stone. He becomes more and more unfolded in\nvegetables and animals, and lastly in man He has reached what appears\nas His culmination to ordinary men. Having done so much, shall you not\ndo more ? With the consciousness so far unfolded, does it seem\nimpossible that it should unfold in the future into the Divine?\n\nAs you realize that the laws of the evolution of form and of the\nunfolding of consciousness in the universe and man are the same, and\nthat it is through these laws that the yogi brings out his hidden\npowers, then you will understand also that it is not necessary to go\ninto the mountain or into the desert, to hide yourself in a cave or a\nforest, in order that the union with the Self may be obtained\u2014He who is\nwithin you and without you. Sometimes for a special purpose seclusion\nmay be useful. It may be well at times to retire temporarily from the\nbusy haunts of men. But in the universe planned by Isvara, in order\nthat the powers of the Self may be brought out\u2014there is your best field\nfor Yoga, planned with Divine wisdom and sagacity. The world is meant\nfor the unfolding of the Self: why should you then seek to run away\nfrom it? Look at Shri Krishna Himself in that great Upanishad of yoga,\nthe Bhagavad-Gita. He spoke it out on a battle-field, and not on a\nmountain peak. He spoke it to a Kshattriya ready to fight, and not to a\nBrahmana quietly retired from the world. The Kurukshetra of the world\nis the field of Yoga. They who cannot face the world have not the\nstrength to face the difficulties of Yoga practice. If the outer world\nout-wearies your powers, how do you expect to conquer the difficulties\nof the inner life? If you cannot climb over the little troubles of the\nworld, how can you hope to climb over the difficulties that a yogi has\nto scale? Those men blunder, who think that running away from the world\nis the road to victory, and that peace can be found only in certain\nlocalities.\n\nAs a matter of fact, you have practised Yoga unconsciously in the past,\neven before your self- consciousness had separated itself, was aware of\nitself. Sand knew itself to be different, in temporary matter at least,\nfrom all the others that surround it. And that is the first idea that\nyou should take up and hold firmly: Yoga is only a quickened process of\nthe ordinary unfolding of consciousness.\n\nYoga may then be defined as the \u201crational application of the laws of\nthe unfolding of consciousness in an individual case\u201d. That is what is\nmeant by the methods of Yoga. You study the laws\u2019 of the unfolding of\nconsciousness in the universe, you then apply them to a special\ncase\u2014and that case is your own. You cannot apply them to another. They\nmust be self-applied. That is the definite principle to grasp. So we\nmust add one more word to our definition: \u201cYoga is the rational\napplication of the laws of the unfolding of consciousness, self-applied\nin an individual case.\u201d\n\n\nYoga Is a Science\n\nNext, Yoga is a science. That is the second thing to grasp. Yoga is a\nscience, and not a vague, dreamy drifting or imagining. It is an\napplied science, a systematized collection of laws applied to bring\nabout a definite end. It takes up the laws of psychology, applicable to\nthe unfolding of the whole consciousness of man on every plane, in\nevery world, and applies those rationally in a particular case. This\nrational application of the laws of unfolding consciousness acts\nexactly on the same principles that you see applied around you every\nday in other departments of science.\n\nYou know, by looking at the world around you, how enormously the\nintelligence of man, co-operating with nature, may quicken \u201cnatural\u201d\nprocesses, and the working of intelligence is as \u201cnatural\u201d as anything\nelse. We make this distinction, and practically it is a real one,\nbetween \u201crational\u201d and \u201cnatural\u201d growth, because human intelligence can\nguide the working of natural laws; and when we come to deal with Yoga,\nwe are in the same department of applied science as, let us say, is the\nscientific farmer or gardener, when he applies the natural laws of\nselection to breeding. The farmer or gardener cannot transcend the laws\nof nature, nor can he work against them. He has no other laws of nature\nto work with save universal laws by which nature is evolving forms\naround us, and yet he does in a few years what nature takes, perhaps,\nhundreds of thousands of years to do. And how? By applying human\nintelligence to choose the laws that serve him and to neutralize the\nlaws that hinder. He brings the divine intelligence in man to utilise\nthe divine powers in nature that are working for general rather than\nfor particular ends.\n\nTake the breeder of pigeons. Out of the blue rock pigeon he develops\nthe pouter or the fan-tail; he chooses out, generation after\ngeneration, the forms that show most strongly the peculiarity that he\nwishes to develop. He mates such birds together, takes every favouring\ncircumstance into consideration and selects again and again, and so on\nand on, till the peculiarity that he wants to establish has become a\nwell-marked feature. Remove his controlling intelligence, leave the\nbirds to themselves, and they revert to the ancestral type.\n\nOr take the case of the gardener. Out of the wild rose of the hedge has\nbeen evolved every rose of the garden. Many-petalled roses are but the\nresult of the scientific culture of the five-petalled rose of the\nhedgerow, the wild product of nature. A gardener who chooses the pollen\nfrom one plant and places it on the carpers of another is simply doing\ndeliberately what is done every day by the bee and the fly. But he\nchooses his plants, and he chooses those that have the qualities he\nwants intensified, and from those again he chooses those that show the\ndesired qualities still more clearly, until he has produced a flower so\ndifferent from the original stock that only by tracing it back can you\ntell the stock whence it sprang.\n\nSo is it in the application of the laws of psychology that we call\nYoga. Systematized knowledge of the unfolding of consciousness applied\nto the individualized Self, that is Yoga. As I have just said, it is by\nthe world that consciousness has been unfolded, and the world is\nadmirably planned by the LOGOS for this unfolding of consciousness;\nhence the would-be yogi, choosing out his objects and applying his\nlaws, finds in the world exactly the things he wants to make his\npractice of Yoga real, a vital thing, a quickening process for the\nknowledge of the Self. There are many laws. You can choose those which\nyou require, you can evade those you do not require, you can utilize\nthose you need, and thus you can bring about the result that nature,\nwithout that application of human intelligence, cannot so swiftly\neffect.\n\nTake it, then, that Yoga is within your reach, with your powers, and\nthat even some of the lower practices of Yoga, some of the simpler\napplications of the laws of the unfolding of consciousness to yourself,\nwill benefit you in this world as well as in all others. For you are\nreally merely quickening your growth, your unfolding, taking advantage\nof the powers nature puts within your hands, and deliberately\neliminating the conditions which would not help you in your work, but\nrather hinder your march forward. If you see it in that light, it seems\nto me that Yoga will be to you a far more real, practical thing, than\nit is when you merely read some fragments about it taken from Sanskrit\nbooks, and often mistranslated into English, and you will begin to feel\nthat to be a yogi is not necessarily a thing for a life far off, an\nincarnation far removed from the present one.\n\n\nMan a Duality\n\nSome of the terms used in Yoga are necessarily to be known. For Yoga\ntakes man for a special purpose and studies him for a special end and,\ntherefore, only troubles itself about two great facts regarding man,\nmind and body. First, he is a unit, a unit of consciousness. That is a\npoint to be definitely grasped. There is only one of him in each set of\nenvelopes, and sometimes the Theosophist has to revise his ideas about\nman when he begins this practical line. Theosophy quite usefully and\nrightly, for the understanding of the human constitution, divides man\ninto many parts and pieces. We talk of physical, astral, mental, etc.\nOr we talk about Sthula-sarira, Sukshma-sarira, Karana-sarira, and so\non. Sometimes we divide man into Anna-maya-kosa, Prana-maya-kosa,\nMano-maya-kosa, etc. We divide man into so many pieces in order to\nstudy him thoroughly, that we can hardly find the man because of the\npieces. This is, so to say, for the study of human anatomy and\nphysiology.\n\nBut Yoga is practical and psychological. I am not complaining of the\nvarious sub-divisions of other systems. They are necessary for the\npurpose of those systems. But Yoga, for its practical purposes,\nconsiders man simply as a duality\u2014Mind and Body, a Unit of\nconsciousness in a set of envelopes. This is not the duality of the\nSelf and the Not-Self. For in Yoga, \u201cSelf\u201d includes consciousness plus\nsuch matter as it cannot distinguish from itself, and Not-Self is only\nthe matter it can put aside.\n\nMan is not pure Self, pure consciousness, Samvid. That is an\nabstraction. In the concrete universe there are always the Self and His\nsheaths, however tenuous the latter may be, so that a unit of\nconsciousness is inseparable from matter, and a Jivatma, or Monad, is\ninvariably consciousness plus matter.\n\nIn order that this may come out clearly, two terms are used in Yoga as\nconstituting man\u2014Prana and Pradhana, life-breath and matter. Prana is\nnot only the life-breath of the body, but the totality of the life\nforces of the universe or, in other words, the life-side of the\nuniverse.\n\n\u201cI am Prana,\u201d says Indra. Prana here means the totality of the\nlife-forces. They are taken as consciousness, mind. Pradhana is the\nterm used for matter. Body, or the opposite of mind, means for the yogi\nin practice so much of the appropriated matter of the outer world as he\nis able to put away from himself, to distinguish from his own\nconsciousness.\n\nThis division is very significant and useful, if you can catch clearly\nhold of the root idea. Of course, looking at the thing from beginning\nto end, you will see Prana, the great Life, the great Self, always\npresent in all, and you will see the envelopes, the bodies, the\nsheaths, present at the different stages, taking different forms; but\nfrom the standpoint of yogic practice, that is called Prana, or Self,\nwith which the man identifies himself for the time, including every\nsheath of matter from which the man is unable to separate himself in\nconsciousness. That unit, to the yogi, is the Self, so that it is a\nchanging quantity. As he drops off one sheath after another and says:\n\u201cThat is not myself,\u201d he is coming nearer and nearer to his highest\npoint, to consciousness in a single film, in a single atom of matter, a\nMonad. For all practical purposes of Yoga, the man, the working,\nconscious man, is so much of him as he cannot separate from the matter\nenclosing him, or with which he is connected. Only that is body which\nthe man is able to put aside and say: \u201cThis is not I, but mine.\u201d We\nfind we have a whole series of terms in Yoga which may be repeated over\nand over again. All the states of mind exist on every plane, says\nVyasa, and this way of dealing with man enables the same significant\nwords, as we shall see in a moment, to be used over and over again,\nwith an ever subtler connotation; they all become relative, and are\nequally true at each stage of evolution.\n\nNow it is quite clear that, so far as many of us are concerned, the\nphysical body is the only thing of which we can say: \u201cIt is not\nmyself\u201d; so that, in the practice of Yoga at first, for you, all the\nwords that would be used in it to describe the states of consciousness,\nthe states of mind, would deal with the waking consciousness in the\nbody as the lowest state, and, rising up from that, all the words would\nbe relative terms, implying a distinct and recognisable state of the\nmind in relation to that which is the lowest. In order to know how you\nshall begin to apply to yourselves the various terms used to describe\nthe states of mind, you must carefully analyse your own consciousness,\nand find out how much of it is really consciousness, and how much is\nmatter so closely appropriated that you cannot separate it from\nyourself.\n\n\nStates of Mind\n\nLet us take it in detail. Four states of consciousness are spoken of\namongst us. \u201cWaking\u201d consciousness or Jagrat; the \u201cdream\u201d\nconsciousness, or Svapna; the \u201cdeep sleep\u201d consciousness, or Sushupti;\nand the state beyond that, called Turiya[1] How are those related to\nthe body?\n\n [1] It is impossible to avoid the use of these technical terms, even\n in an introduction to Yoga. There are no exact English equivalents,\n and they are no more troublesome to learn than any other technical\n psychological terms.\n\n\nJagrat is the ordinary waking consciousness, that you and I are using\nat the present time. If our consciousness works in the subtle, or\nastral, body, and is able to impress its experiences upon the brain, it\nis called Svapna, or in English, dream consciousness; it is more vivid\nand real than the Jagrat state. When working in the subtler form\u2014the\nmental body\u2014it is not able to impress its experiences on the brain, it\nis called Sushupti or deep sleep consciousness; then the mind is\nworking on its own contents, not on outer objects. But if it has so far\nseparated itself from connection with the brain, that it cannot be\nreadily recalled by outer means, then it is, called Turiya, a lofty\nstate of trance. These four states, when correlated to the four planes,\nrepresent a much unfolded consciousness. Jagrat is related to the\nphysical; Svapna to the astral; Sushupti to the mental; and Turiya to\nthe buddhic. When passing from one world to another, we should use\nthese words to designate the consciousness working under the conditions\nof each world. But the same words are repeated in the books of Yoga\nwith a different context. There the difficulty occurs, if we have not\nlearned their relative nature. Svapna is not the same for all, nor is\nSushupti the same for everyone.\n\nAbove all, the word samadhi, to be explained in a moment, is used in\ndifferent ways and in different senses. How then are we to find our way\nin this apparent tangle? By knowing the state which is the\nstarting-point, and then the sequence will always be the same. All of\nyou are familiar with the waking consciousness in the physical body.\nYou can find four states even in that, if you analyse it, and a similar\nsequence of the states of the mind is found on every plane.\n\nHow to distinguish them, then ? Let us take the waking consciousness,\nand try to see the four states in that. Suppose I take up a book and\nread it. I read the words; my eyes arc related to the outer physical\nconsciousness. That is the Jagrat state. I go behind the words to the\nmeaning of the words. I have passed from the waking state of the\nphysical plane into the Svapna state of waking consciousness, that sees\nthrough the outer form, seeking the inner life. I pass from this to the\nmind of the writer; here the mind touches the mind; it is the waking\nconsciousness in its Sushupti state. If I pass from this contact and\nenter the very mind of the writer, and live in that man\u2019s mind, then I\nhave reached the Turiya state of the waking consciousness.\n\nTake another illustration. I look at any watch; I am in Jagrat. I close\nmy eyes and make an image of the watch; I am in Svapna. I call together\nmany ideas of many watches, and reach the ideal watch; I am in\nSushupti. I pass to the ideal of time in the abstract; I am in Turiya.\nBut all these are stages in the physical plane consciousness; I have\nnot left the body.\n\nIn this way, you can make states of mind intelligible and real, instead\nof mere words.\n\n\nSamadhi\n\nSome other important words, which recur from time to time in the\nYoga-sutras, need to be understood, though there are no exact English\nequivalents. As they must be used to avoid clumsy circumlocutions, it\nis necessary to explain them. It is said: \u201cYoga is Samadhi.\u201d Samadhi is\na state in which the consciousness is so dissociated from the body that\nthe latter remains insensible. It is a state of trance in which the\nmind is fully self-conscious, though the body is insensitive, and from\nwhich the mind returns to the body with the experiences it has had in\nthe superphysical state, remembering them when again immersed in the\nphysical brain. Samadhi for any one person is relative to his waking\nconsciousness, but implies insensitiveness of the body. If an ordinary\nperson throws himself into trance and is active on the astral plane,\nhis Samadhi is on the astral. If his consciousness is functioning in\nthe mental plane, Samadhi is there. The man who can so withdraw from\nthe body as to leave it insensitive, while his mind is fully\nself-conscious, can practice Samadhi.\n\nThe phrase \u201cYoga is Samadhi\u201d covers facts of the highest significance\nand greatest instruction. Suppose you are only able to reach the astral\nworld when you are asleep, your consciousness there is, as we have\nseen, in the Svapna state. But as you slowly unfold your powers, the\nastral forms begin to intrude upon your waking physical consciousness\nuntil they appear as distinctly as do physical forms, and thus become\nobjects of your waking consciousness. The astral world then, for you,\nno longer belongs to the Svapna consciousness, but to the Jagrat; you\nhave taken two worlds within the scope of your Jagrat consciousness\u2014the\nphysical and the astral worlds\u2014and the mental world is in your Svapna\nconsciousness. \u201cYour body\u201d is then the physical and the astral bodies\ntaken together. As you go on, the mental plane begins similarly to\nintrude itself, and the physical, astral and mental all come within\nyour waking consciousness; all these are, then, your Jagrat world.\nThese three worlds form but one world to you; their three corresponding\nbodies but one body, that perceives and acts. The three bodies of the\nordinary man have become one body for the yogi. If under these\nconditions you want to see only one world at a time, you must fix your\nattention on it, and thus focus it. You can, in that state of enlarged\nwaking, concentrate your attention on the physical and see it; then the\nastral and mental will appear hazy. So you can focus your attention on\nthe astral and see it; then the physical and the mental, being out of\nfocus, will appear dim. You will easily understand this if you remember\nthat, in this hall, I may focus my sight in the middle of the hall,\nwhen the pillars on both sides will appear indistinctly. Or I may\nconcentrate my attention on a pillar and see it distinctly, but I then\nsee you only vaguely at the same time. It is a change of focus, not a\nchange of body. Remember that all which you can put aside as not\nyourself is the body of the yogi, and hence, as you go higher, the\nlower bodies form but a single body and the consciousness in that\nsheath of matter which it still cannot throw away, that becomes the\nman.\n\n\u201cYoga is Samadhi.\u201d It is the power to withdraw from all that you know\nas body, and to concentrate yourself within. That is Samadhi. No\nordinary means will then call you back to the world that you have\nleft.[2] This will also explain to you the phrase in The Secret\nDoctrine that the Adept \u201cbegins his Samadhi on the atmic plane\u201d When a\nJivan-mukta enters into Samadhi, he begins it on the atmic plane. All\nplanes below the atmic are one plane for him. He begins his Samadhi on\na plane to which the mere man cannot rise. He begins it on the atmic\nplane, and thence rises stage by stage to the higher cosmic planes. The\nsame word, samadhi, is used to describe the states of the\nconsciousness, whether it rises above the physical into the astral, as\nin self-induced trance of an ordinary man, or as in the case of a\nJivan-mukta when, the consciousness being already centred in the fifth,\nor atmic plane, it rises to the higher planes of a larger world.\n\n [2] An Indian yogi in Samadhi, discovered in a forest by some ignorant\n and brutal Englishmen, was so violently ill used that he returned to\n his tortured body, only to leave it again at once by death.\n\n\nThe Literature of Yoga\n\nUnfortunately for non-Sanskrit-knowing people, the literature of Yoga\nis not largely available in English. The general teachings of Yoga are\nto be found in the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad-Gita; those, in many\ntranslations, are within your reach, but they are general, not special;\nthey give you the main principles, but do not tell you about the\nmethods in any detailed way. Even in the Bhagavad-Gita, while you are\ntold to make sacrifices, to become indifferent, and so on, it is all of\nthe nature of moral precept, absolutely necessary indeed, but still not\ntelling you how to reach the conditions put before you. The special\nliterature of Yoga is, first of all, many of the minor Upanishads, \u201cthe\nhundred-and-eight\u201d as they are called. Few of these are translated.[3]\nThen comes the enormous mass of literature called the Tantras. These\nbooks have an evil significance in the ordinary English ear, but not\nquite rightly. The Tantras are very useful books, very valuable and\ninstructive; all occult science is to be found in them. But they are\ndivisible into three classes: those that deal with white magic, those\nthat deal with black magic, and those that deal with what we may call\ngrey magic, a mixture of the two. Now magic is the word which covers\nthe methods of deliberately bringing about super-normal physical states\nby the action of the will.\n\n [3] Dr. Otto Schr\u00e4der, Director of the Adyar Library, is now engaged\n on these, and is busy with the laborious task of constructing a\n critical text, to be followed by a complete translation, copiously\n annotated. A great boon will have been bestowed on all interested in\n Samskrt literature, when this work is completed.\n\n\nA high tension of the nerves, brought on by anxiety or disease, leads\nto ordinary hysteria, emotional and foolish. A similarly high tension,\nbrought about by the will, renders a man sensitive to super-physical\nvibrations Going to sleep has no significance, but going into Samadhi\nis a priceless power. The process is largely the same, but one is due\nto ordinary conditions, the other to the action of the trained will.\nThe Yogi is the man who has learned the power of the will, and knows\nhow to use it to bring about foreseen and foredetermined results. This\nknowledge has ever been called magic; it is the name of the Great\nScience of the past, the one Science, to which only the word \u201cgreat\u201d\nwas given in the past. The Tantras contain the whole of that; the\noccult side of man and nature, the means whereby discoveries may be\nmade, the principles whereby the man may re-create himself, all these\nare in the Tantras. The difficulty is that without a teacher they are\nvery dangerous, and again and again a man trying to practice the\nTantric methods without a teacher makes himself very ill. So the\nTantras have got a bad name both in the West and here in India. A good\nmany of the American \u201coccult\u201d books now sold are scraps of the Tantras\nwhich have been translated. One difficulty is that these Tantric works\noften use the name of a bodily organ to represent an astral or mental\ncentre. There is some reason in that because all the centres are\nconnected with each other from body to body; but no reliable teacher\nwould set his pupil to work on the bodily organs until he had some\ncontrol over the higher centres, and had carefully purified the\nphysical body. Knowing the one helps you to know the other, and the\nteacher who has been through it all can place his pupil on the right\npath; but it you take up these words, which are all physical, and do\nnot know to what the physical word is applied, then you will only\nbecome very confused, and may injure yourself. For instance, in one of\nthe Sutras it is said that if you meditate on a certain part of the\ntongue you will obtain astral sight. That means that if you meditate on\nthe pituitary body, just over this part of the tongue, astral sight\nwill be opened. The particular word used to refer to a centre has a\ncorrespondence in the physical body, and the word is often applied to\nthe physical organs when the other is meant. This is what is called a\n\u201cblind,\u201d and it is intended to keep the people away from dangerous\npractices in the books that are published; people may meditate on that\npart of their tongues all their lives without anything coming of it;\nbut if they think upon the corresponding centre in the body, a good\ndeal\u2014much harm\u2014may come of it. \u201cMeditate on the navel,\u201d it is also\nsaid. This means the solar plexus, for there is a close connection\nbetween the two. But to meditate on that is to incur the danger of a\nserious nervous disorder, almost impossible to cure. All who know how\nmany people in India suffer through these practices, ill-understood,\nrecognize that it is not wise to plunge into them without some one to\ntell you what they mean, and what may be safely practiced and what not.\nThe other part of the Yoga literature is a small book called the sutras\nof Patanjali. That is available, but I am afraid that few are able to\nmake much of it by themselves. In the first place, to elucidate the\nSutras, which are simply headings, there is a great deal of commentary\nin Sanskrit, only partially translated. And even the commentaries have\nthis peculiarity, that all the most difficult words are merely\nrepeated, not explained, so that the student is not much enlightened.\n\n\nSome Definitions\n\nThere are a few words, constantly recurring, which need brief\ndefinitions, in order to avoid confusion; they are: Unfolding,\nEvolution, Spirituality, Psychism, Yoga and Mysticism.\n\n\u201cUnfolding\u201d always refers to consciousness, \u201cevolution\u201d to forms.\nEvolution is the homogeneous becoming the heterogeneous, the simple\nbecoming complex. But there is no growth and no perfectioning for\nSpirit, for consciousness; it is all there and always, and all that can\nhappen to it is to turn itself outwards instead of remaining turned\ninwards. The God in you cannot evolve, but He may show forth His powers\nthrough matter that He has appropriated for the purpose, and the matter\nevolves to serve Him. He Himself only manifests what He is. And on\nthat, many a saying of the great mystics may come to your mind:\n\u201cBecome,\u201d says St. Ambrose, \u201cwhat you are\u201d\u2014a paradoxical phrase; but\none that sums up a great truth: become in outer manifestation that\nwhich you are in inner reality. That is the object of the whole process\nof Yoga.\n\n\u201cSpirituality\u201d is the realisation of the One. \u201cPsychism\u201d is the\nmanifestation of intelligence through any material vehicle.[4]\n\n [4] See _London Lectures_ of 1907, \u201cSpirituality and Psychism\u201d.\n\n\n\u201cYoga\u201d is the seeking of union by the intellect, a science; \u201cMysticism\u201d\nis the seeking of the same union by emotion.[5]\n\n [5] The word yoga may, of course, be rightly used of all union with\n the self, whatever the road taken. I am using it here in the narrower\n sense, as peculiarly connected with the intelligence, as a Science,\n herein following Patanjali.\n\n\nSee the mystic. He fixes his mind on the object of devotion; he loses\nself-consciousness, and passes into a rapture of love and adoration,\nleaving all external ideas, wrapped in the object of his love, and a\ngreat surge of emotion sweeps him up to God. He does not know how he\nhas reached that lofty state. He is conscious only of God and his love\nfor Him. Here is the rapture of the mystic, the triumph of the saint.\n\nThe yogi does not work like that. Step after step, he realises what he\nis doing. He works by science and not by emotion, so that any who do\nnot care for science, finding it dull and dry, are not at present\nunfolding that part of their nature which will find its best help in\nthe practice of Yoga. The yogi may use devotion as a means. This comes\nout very plainly in Patanjali. He has given many means whereby Yoga may\nbe followed, and curiously, \u201cdevotion to Isvara\u201d is one of several\nmeans. There comes out the spirit of the scientific thinker. Devotion\nto Isvara is not for him an end in itself, but means to an end\u2014the\nconcentration of the mind. You see there at once the difference of\nspirit. Devotion to Isvara is the path of the mystic. He attains\ncommunion by that. Devotion to Isvara as a means of concentrating the\nmind is the scientific way in which the yogi regards devotion. No\nnumber of words would have brought out the difference of spirit between\nYoga and Mysticism as well as this. The one looks upon devotion to\nIsvara as a way of reaching the Beloved; the other looks upon it as a\nmeans of reaching concentration. To the mystic, God, in Himself is the\nobject of search, delight in Him is the reason for approaching Him,\nunion with Him in consciousness is his goal; but to the yogi, fixing\nthe attention on God is merely an effective way of concentrating the\nmind. In the one, devotion is used to obtain an end; in the other, God\nis seen as the end and is reached directly by rapture.\n\n\nGod Without and God Within\n\nThat leads us to the next point, the relation of God without to God\nwithin. To the yogi, who is the very type of Hindu thought, there is no\ndefinite proof of God save the witness of the Self within to His\nexistence, and his idea of finding the proof of God is that you should\nstrip away from your consciousness all limitations, and thus reach the\nstage where you have pure consciousness\u2014save a veil of the thin\nnirvanic matter. Then you know that God is. So you read in the\nUpanishad: \u201cWhose only proof is the witness of the Self.\u201d This is very\ndifferent from Western methods of thought, which try to demonstrate God\nby a process of argument. The Hindu will tell you that you cannot\ndemonstrate God by any argument or reasoning; He is above and beyond\nreasoning, and although the reason may guide you on the way, it will\nnot prove to demonstration that God is. The only way you can know Him\nis by diving into yourself. There you will find Him, and know that He\nis without as well as within you; and Yoga is a system that enables you\nto get rid of everything from consciousness that is not God, save that\none veil of the nirvanic atom, and so to know that God is, with an\nunshakable certainty of conviction. To the Hindu that inner conviction\nis the only thing worthy to be called faith, and this gives you the\nreason why faith is said to be beyond reason, and so is often confused\nwith credulity. Faith is beyond reason, because it is the testimony of\nthe Self to himself, that conviction of existence as Self, of which\nreason is only one of the outer manifestations; and the only true faith\nis that inner conviction, which no argument can either strengthen or\nweaken, of the innermost Self of you, that of which alone you are\nentirely sure. It is the aim of Yoga to enable you to reach that Self\nconstantly not by a sudden glimpse of intuition, but steadily,\nunshakably, and unchangeably, and when that Self is reached, then the\nquestion: \u201cIs there a God?\u201d can never again come into the. human mind.\n\n\nChanges of Consciousness and Vibrations of Matter\n\nIt is necessary to understand something about that consciousness which\nis your Self, and about the matter which is the envelope of\nconsciousness, but which the Self so often identifies with himself. The\ngreat characteristic of consciousness is change, with a foundation of\ncertainty that it is. The consciousness of existence never changes, but\nbeyond this all is change, and only by the changes does consciousness\nbecome Self-consciousness. Consciousness is an everchanging thing,\ncircling round one idea that never changes\u2014Self-existence. The\nconsciousness itself is not changed by any change of position or place.\nIt only changes its states within itself.\n\nIn matter, every change of state is brought about by change of place. A\nchange of consciousness is a change of a state; a change of matter is a\nchange of place. Moreover, every change of state in consciousness is\nrelated to vibrations of matter in its vehicle. When matter is\nexamined, we find three fundamental qualities\u2014rhythm, mobility,\nstability\u2014sattva, rajas, tamas. Sattva is rhythm, vibration. It is more\nthan; rajas, or mobility. It is a regulated movement, a swinging from\none side to the other over a definite distance, a length of wave, a\nvibration.\n\nThe question is often put: \u201cHow can things in such different\ncategories, as matter and Spirit, affect each other? Can we bridge that\ngreat gulf which some say can never be crossed?\u201d Yes, the Indian has\ncrossed it, or rather, has shown that there is no gulf. To the Indian,\nmatter and Spirit are not only the two phases of the One, but, by a\nsubtle analysis of the relation between consciousness and matter, he\nsees that in every universe the LOGOS imposes upon matter a certain\ndefinite relation of rhythms, every vibration of matter corresponding\nto a change in consciousness. There is no change in consciousness,\nhowever subtle, that has not appropriated to it a vibration in matter;\nthere is no vibration in matter, however swift or delicate, which has\nnot correlated to it a certain change in consciousness. That is the\nfirst great work of the LOGOS, which the Hindu scriptures trace out in\nthe building of the atom, the Tanmatra, \u201cthe measure of That,\u201d the\nmeasure of consciousness. He who is consciousness imposes on his\nmaterial the answer to every change in consciousness, and that is an\ninfinite number of vibrations. So that between the Self and his sheaths\nthere is this invariable relation: the change in consciousness and the\nvibration of matter, and vice versa. That makes it possible for the\nSelf to know the Not-Self.\n\nThese correspondences are utilised in Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga, the\nKingly Yoga and the Yoga of Resolve. The Raja Yoga seeks to control the\nchanges in consciousness, and by this control to rule the material\nvehicles. The Hatha Yoga seeks to control the vibrations of matter, and\nby this control to evoke the desired changes in consciousness. The weak\npoint in Hatha Yoga is that action on this line cannot reach beyond the\nastral plane, and the great strain imposed on the comparatively\nintractable matter of the physical plane sometimes leads to atrophy of\nthe very organs, the activity of which is necessary for effecting the\nchanges in consciousness that would be useful. The Hatha Yogi gains\ncontrol over the bodily organs with which the waking consciousness no\nlonger concerns itself, having relinquished them to its lower part, the\n\u201csubconsciousness.\u201d This is often useful as regards the prevention of\ndisease, but serves no higher purpose. When he begins to work on the\nbrain centres connected with ordinary consciousness, and still more\nwhen he touches those connected with the super-consciousness, he enters\na dangerous region, and is more likely to paralyse than to evolve.\n\nThat relation alone it is which makes matter cognizable; the change in\nthe thinker is answered by a change outside, and his answer to it and\nthe change in it that he makes by his. answer re-arrange again the\nmatter of the body which is his envelope. Hence the rhythmic changes in\nmatter are rightly called its cognizability. Matter may be known by\nconsciousness, because of this unchanging relation between the two\nsides of the manifest LOGOS who is one, and the Self becomes aware of\nchanges within himself, and thus of those of the external words to\nwhich those changes are related.\n\n\nMind\n\nWhat is mind? From the yogic standpoint it is simply the individualized\nconsciousness, the whole of it, the whole of your consciousness\nincluding your activities which the Western psychologist puts outside\nmind. Only on the basis of Eastern psychology is Yoga possible. How\nshall we describe this individualized consciousness? First, it is aware\nof things. Becoming aware of them, it desires them. Desiring them, it\ntries to attain them. So we have the three aspects of consciousness\u2014\nintelligence, desire, activity. On the physical plane, activity\npredominates, although desire and thought are present. On the astral\nplane, desire predominates, and thought and activity are subject to\ndesire. On the mental plane; intelligence is the dominant note, desire\nand activity are subject to it. Go to the buddhic plane, and cognition,\nas pure reason, predominates, and so on. Each quality is present all\nthe time, but one predominates. So with the matter that belongs to\nthem. In your combinations of matter you get rhythmic, active, or\nstable ones; and according to the combinations of matter in your bodies\nwill be the conditions of the activity of the whole of these in\nconsciousness. To practice Yoga you must build your bodies of the\nrhythmic combinations, with activity and inertia less apparent. The\nyogi wants to make his body match his mind.\n\n\nStages of Mind\n\nThe mind has five stages, Patanjali tells us, and Vyasa comments that\n\u201cthese stages of mind are on every plane\u201d. The first stage is the stage\nin which the mind is flung about, the Kshipta stage; it is the\nbutterfly mind, the early stage of humanity, or, in man, the mind of\nthe child, darting constantly from one object to another. It\ncorresponds to activity on the physical plane. The next is the confused\nstage, Mudha, equivalent to the stage of the youth, swayed by emotions,\nbewildered by them; he begins to feel he is ignorant\u2014a state beyond the\nfickleness of the child\u2014a characteristic state, corresponding to\nactivity in the astral world. Then comes the state of preoccupation, or\ninfatuation, Vikshipta, the state of the man possessed by an idea\u2014love,\nambition, or what not. He is no longer a confused youth, but a man with\na clear aim, and an idea possesses him. It may be either the fixed idea\nof the madman, or the fixed idea which makes the hero or the saint; but\nin any case he is possessed by the idea. The quality of the idea, its\ntruth or falsehood, makes the difference between the maniac and the\nmartyr.\n\nManiac or martyr, he is under the spell of a fixed idea. No reasoning\navails against it. If he has assured himself that he is made of glass,\nno amount of argument will convince him to the contrary. He will always\nregard himself as being as brittle as glass. That is a fixed idea which\nis false. But there is a fixed idea which makes the hero and the\nmartyr. For some great truth dearer than life is everything thrown\naside. He is possessed by it, dominated by it, and he goes to death\ngladly for it. That state is said to be approaching Yoga, for such a\nman is becoming concentrated, even if only possessed by one idea. This\nstage corresponds to activity on the lower mental plane. Where the man\npossesses the idea, instead of being possessed by it, that one-pointed\nstate of the mind, called Ekagrata in Sanskrit, is the fourth stage. He\nis a mature man, ready for the true life. When the man has gone through\nlife dominated by one idea, then he is approaching Yoga; he is getting\nrid of the grip of the world, and is beyond its allurements. But when\nhe possesses that which before possessed him, then he has become fit\nfor Yoga, and begins the training which makes his progress rapid. This\nstage corresponds to activity on the higher mental plane.\n\nOut of this fourth stage or Ekagrata, arises the fifth stage, Niruddha\nor Self-controlled. When the man not only possesses one idea but,\nrising above all ideas, chooses as he wills, takes or does not take\naccording to the illumined Will, then he is Self-controlled and can\neffectively practice Yoga. This stage corresponds to activity on the\nbuddhic plane.\n\nIn the third stage, Vikshipta, where he is possessed by the idea, he is\nlearning Viveka or discrimination between the outer and the inner, the\nreal and the unreal. When he has learned the lesson of Viveka, then he\nadvances a stage forward; and in Ekagrata he chooses one idea, the\ninner life; and as he fixes his mind on that idea he learns Vairagya or\ndispassion. He rises above the desire to possess objects of enjoyment,\nbelonging either to this or any other world. Then he advances towards\nthe fifth stage\u2014 Self-controlled. In order to reach that he must\npractice the six endowments, the Shatsamapatti. These six endowments\nhave to do with the Will-aspect of consciousness as the other two,\nViveka and Vairagya, have to do with the cognition and activity aspects\nof it.\n\nBy a study of your own mind, you can find out how far you are ready to\nbegin the definite practice of Yoga. Examine your mind in order to\nrecognize these stages in yourself. If you are in either of the two\nearly stages, you are not ready for Yoga. The child and the youth are\nnot ready to become yogis, nor is the preoccupied man. But if you find\nyourself possessed by a single thought, you are nearly ready for Yoga;\nit leads to the next stage of one-pointedness, where you can choose\nyour idea, and cling to it of your own will. Short is the step from\nthat to the complete control, which can inhibit all motions of the\nmind. Having reached that stage, it is comparatively easy to pass into\nSamadhi.\n\n\nInward and Outward-Turned Consciousness\n\nSamadhi is of two kinds: one turned outward, one turned inward. The\noutward-turned consciousness is always first. You are in the stage of\nSamadhi belonging to the outward-turned waking consciousness, when you\ncan pass beyond the objects to the principles which those objects\nmanifest, when through the form you catch a glimpse of the life. Darwin\nwas in this stage when he glimpsed the truth of evolution. That is the\noutward-turned Samadhi of the physical body.\n\nThis is technically the Samprajnata Samadhi, the \u201cSamadhi with\nconsciousness,\u201d but to be better regarded, I think, as with\nconsciousness outward-turned, i.e. conscious of objects. When the\nobject disappears, that is, when consciousness draws itself away from\nthe sheath by which those objects are seen, then comes the Asamprajnata\nSamadhi; called the \u201cSamadhi without consciousness\u201d. I prefer to call\nit the inward-turned consciousness, as it is by turning away from the\nouter that this stage is reached.\n\nThese two stages of Samadhi follow each other on every plane; the\nintense concentration on objects in the first stage, and the piercing\nthereby through the outer form to the underlying principle, are\nfollowed by the turning away of the consciousness from the sheath which\nhas served its purpose, and its withdrawal into itself, i.e., into a\nsheath not yet recognised as a sheath. It is then for a while conscious\nonly of itself and not of the outer world. Then comes the \u201ccloud,\u201d the\ndawning sense again of an outer, a dim sensing of \u201csomething\u201d other\nthan itself; that again is followed by the functioning of the nigher\nsheath and the Recognition of the objects of the next higher plane,\ncorresponding to that sheath. Hence the complete cycle is: Samprajnata\nSamadhi, Asamprajnata Samadhi, Megha (cloud), and then the Samprajnata\nSamadhi of the next plane, and so on.\n\n\nThe Cloud\n\nThis term\u2014in full, Dharma-megha, cloud of righteousness, or of\nreligion\u2014is one which is very scantily explained by the commentators.\nIn fact, the only explanation they give is that all the man\u2019s past\nkarma of good gathers over him, and pours down upon him a rain of\nblessing. Let us see if we cannot find something more than this meagre\ninterpretation.\n\nThe term \u201ccloud\u201d is very often used in mystic literature of the West;\nthe \u201cCloud on the Mount,\u201d the \u201cCloud on the Sanctuary,\u201d the \u201cCloud on\nthe Mercy-Seat,\u201d are expressions familiar to the student. And the\nexperience which they indicate is familiar to all mystics in its lower\nphases, and to some in its fullness. In its lower phases, it is the\nexperience just noted, where the withdrawal of the consciousness into a\nsheath not yet recognised as a sheath is followed by the beginning of\nthe functioning of that sheath, the first indication of which is the\ndim sensing of an outer. You feel as though surrounded by a dense mist,\nconscious that you are not alone but unable to see. Be still; be\npatient; wait. Let your consciousness be in the attitude of suspense.\nPresently the cloud will thin, and first in glimpses, then in its full\nbeauty, the vision of a higher plane will dawn on your entranced sight.\nThis entrance into a higher plane will repeat itself again and again,\nuntil your consciousness, centred on the buddhic plane and its\nsplendouis having disappeared as your consciousness withdraws even from\nthat exquisite sheath, you find yourself in the true cloud, the cloud\non the sanctuary, the cloud that veils the Holiest, that hides the\nvision of the Self. Then comes what seems to be the draining away of\nthe very life, the letting go of the last hold on the tangible, the\nhanging in a void, the horror of great darkness, loneliness\nunspeakable. Endure, endure. Everything must go. \u201cNothing out of the\nEternal can help you.\u201d God only shines out in the stillness; as says\nthe Hebrew: \u201cBe still, and know that I am God.\u201d In that silence a Voice\nshall be heard, the voice of the Self, In that stillness a Life shall\nbe felt, the life of the Self. In that void a Fullness shall be\nrevealed, the fullness of the Self. In that darkness a Light shall be\nseen, the glory of the Self. The cloud shall vanish, and the shining of\nthe Self shall be made manifest. That which was a glimpse of a far-off\nmajesty shall become a perpetual realisation and, knowing the Self and\nyour unity with it, you shall enter into the Peace that belongs to the\nSelf alone.\n\n\n\n\nLecture II\nSCHOOLS OF THOUGHT\n\n\nBrothers:\n\nIn studying psychology anyone who is acquainted with the Sanskrit\ntongue must know how valuable that language is for precise and\nscientific dealing with the subject. The Sanskrit, or the well-made,\nthe constructed, the built-together, tongue, is one that lends itself\nbetter than any other to the elucidation of psychological difficulties.\nOver and over again, by the mere form of a word, a hint is given, an\nexplanation or relation is suggested. The language is constructed in a\nfashion which enables a large number of meanings to be connoted by a\nsingle word, so that you may trace all allied ideas, ,or truths, or\nfacts, by this verbal connection, when you are speaking or using\nSanskrit. It has a limited number of important roots, and then an\nimmense number of words constructed on those roots.\n\nNow the root of the word yoga is a word that means \u201cto join,\u201d yuj, and\nthat root appears in many languages, such as the English\u2014of course,\nthrough the Latin, wherein you get jugare, jungere, \u201cto join\u201d\u2014and out\nof that a number of English words are derived and will at once suggest\nthemselves to you: junction, conjunction, disjunction, and so on. The\nEnglish word \u201cyoke\u201d again, is derived from this same Sanskrit root so\nthat all through the various words, or thoughts, or facts connected\nwith this one root, you are able to gather the meaning of the word yoga\nand to see how much that word covers in the ordinary processes of the\nmind and how suggestive many of the words connected with it are,\nacting, so to speak, as sign-posts to direct you along the road to the\nmeaning. In other tongues, as in French, we have a word like rapport,\nused constantly in English; \u201cbeing en rapport,\u201d a French expression,\nbut so Anglicized that it is continually heard amongst ourselves. And\nthat term, in some ways, is the closest to the meaning of the Sanskrit\nword yoga; \u201cto be in relation to\u201d; \u201cto be connected with\u201d; \u201cto enter\ninto\u201d; \u201cto merge in\u201d; and so on: all these ideas are classified\ntogether under the one head of \u201cYoga\u201d. When you find Sri Krishna saying\nthat \u201cYoga is equilibrium,\u201d in the Sanskrit He is saying a perfectly\nobvious thing, because Yoga implies balance, yoking and the Sanskrit of\nequilibrium is \u201csamvata\u2014togetherness\u201d; so that it is a perfectly\nsimple, straightforward statement, not connoting anything very deep,\nbut merely expressing one of the fundamental meanings of the word He is\nusing. And so with another word, a word used in the commentary on the\nSutra I quoted before, which conveys to the Hindu a perfectly\nstraightforward meaning: \u201cYoga is Samadhi.\u201d To an only English-knowing\nperson that does not convey any very definite idea; each word needs\nexplanation. To a Sanskrit-knowing man the two words are obviously\nrelated to one another. For the word yoga, we have seen, means \u201cyoked\ntogether,\u201d and Samadhi derived from the root dha, \u201cto place,\u201d with the\nprepositions sam and a, meaning \u201ccompletely together\u201d. Samadhi,\ntherefore, literally means \u201cfully placing together,\u201d and its\netymological equivalent in English would be \u201cto compose\u201d (com=sam;\nposita= place). Samadhi therefore means \u201ccomposing the mind,\u201d\ncollecting it together, checking all distractions. Thus by\nphilological, as well as by practical, investigation the two words yoga\nand samadhi are inseparably linked together. And when Vyasa, the\ncommentator, says: \u201cYoga is the composed mind,\u201d he is conveying a clear\nand significant idea as to what is implied in Yoga. Although Samadhi\nhas come to mean, by a natural sequence of ideas, the trance-state\nwhich results from perfect composure, its original meaning should not\nbe lost sight of.\n\nThus, in explaining Yoga, one is often at a loss for the English\nequivalent of the manifold meanings of the Sanskrit tongue, and I\nearnestly advise those of you who can do so, at least to acquaint\nyourselves sufficiently with this admirable language, to make the\nliterature of Yoga more intelligible to you than it can be to a person\nwho is completely ignorant of Sanskrit.\n\n\nIts Relation to Indian Philosophies\n\nLet me ask you to think for a while on the place of Yoga in its\nrelation to two of the great Hindu schools of philosophical thought,\nfor neither the Westerner nor the non-Sanskrit-knowing Indian can ever\nreally understand the translations of the chief Indian books, now\ncurrent here and in the West, and the force of all the allusions they\nmake, unless they acquaint themselves in some degree with the outlines\nof these great schools of philosophy, they being the very foundation on\nwhich these books are built up. Take the Bhagavad-Gita. Probably there\nare many who know that book fairly well, who use it as the book to help\nin the spiritual life, who are not familiar with most of its precepts.\nBut you must always be more or less in a fog in reading it, unless you\nrealise the fact that it is founded on a particular Indian philosophy\nand that the meaning of nearly all the technical words in it is\npractically limited by their meaning in philosophy known as the\nSamkhya. There are certain phrases belonging rather to the Vedanta, but\nthe great majority are Samkhyan, and it is taken for granted that the\npeople reading or using the book are familiar with the outline of the\nSamkhyan philosophy. I do not want to take you into details, but I must\ngive you the leading ideas of the philosophy. For if you grasp these,\nyou will not only read your Bhagavad-Gita with much more intelligence\nthan before, but you will be able to use it practically for yogic\npurposes in a way that, without this knowledge, is almost impossible.\n\nAlike in the Bhagavad-Gita and in the Yoga-sutras of Patanjali the\nterms are Samkhyan, and historically Yoga is based on the Samkhya, so\nfar as its philosophy is concerned. Samkhya does not concern itself\nwith, the existence of Deity, but only with the becoming of a universe,\nthe order of evolution. Hence it is often called Nir-isvara Samkhya,\nthe Samkhya without God. But so closely is it bound up with the Yoga\nsystem, that the latter is called Sesvara Samkhya, with God. For its\nunderstanding, therefore, I must outline part of the Samkhya\nphilosophy, that part which deals with the relation of Spirit and\nmatter; note the difference from this of the Vedantic conception of\nSelf and Not-Self, and then find the reconciliation in the Theosophic\nstatement of the facts in nature. The directions which fall from the\nlips of the Lord of Yoga in the Gita may sometimes seem to you opposed\nto each other and contradictory, because they sometimes are phrased in\nthe Samkhyan and sometimes in the Vedantic terms, starting from\ndifferent standpoints, one looking at the world from the standpoint of\nmatter, the other from the standpoint of Spirit. If you are a student\nof Theosophy, then the knowledge of the facts will enable you to\ntranslate the different phrases. That reconciliation and understanding\nof these apparently contradictory phrases is the object to which I\nwould ask your attention now.\n\nThe Samkhyan School starts with the statement that the universe\nconsists of two factors, the first pair of opposites, Spirit and\nMatter, or more accurately Spirits and Matter. The Spirit is called\nPurusha\u2014the Man; and each Spirit is an individual. Purusha is a unit, a\nunit of consciousness; they are all of the same nature, but distinct\neverlastingly the one from the other. Of these units there are many;\ncountless Purushas are to be found in the world of men. But while they\nare countless in number they are identical in nature, they are\nhomogeneous. Every Purusha has three characteristics, and these three\nare alike in all. One characteristic is awareness; it will become\ncognition. The second of the characteristics is life or prana; it will\nbecome activity. The third characteristic is immutability, the essence\nof eternity; it will become will. Eternity is not, as some mistakenly\nthink, everlasting time. Everlasting time has nothing to do with\neternity. Time and eternity are two altogether different things.\nEternity is changeless, immutable, simultaneous. No succession in time,\nalbeit everlasting\u2014if such could be\u2014could give eternity. The fact that\nPurusha has this attribute of immutability tells us that He is eternal;\nfor changelessness is a mark of the eternal.\n\nSuch are the three attributes of Purusha, according to the Samkhya.\nThough these are not the same in nomenclature as the Vedantic Sat,\nChit, Ananda, yet they are practically identical. Awareness or\ncognition is Chit; life or force is Sat; and immutability, the essence\nof eternity, is Ananda.\n\nOver against these Purushas, homogeneous units, countless in number,\nstands Prakriti, Matter, the second in the Samkhyan duality. Prakriti\nis one; Purushas are many. Prakriti is a continuum; Purushas are\ndiscontinuous, being innumerable, homogeneous units. Continuity is the\nmark of Prakriti. Pause for a moment on the name Prakriti. Let us\ninvestigate its root meaning. The name indicates its essence. Pra means\n\u201cforth,\u201d and kri is the root \u201cmake\u201d. Prakriti thus means\n\u201cforth-making\u201d. Matter is that which enables the essence of Being to\nbecome. That which is Being\u2014is-tence, becomes ex-is-tence\u2014outbeing, by\nMatter, and to describe Matter as \u201cforth-making\u201d is to give its essence\nin a single word. Only by Prakriti can Spirit, or Purusha, \u201cforth-make\u201d\nor \u201cmanifest\u201d himself. Without the presence of Prakriti, Purusha is\nhelpless, a mere abstraction. Only by the presence of, and in Prakriti,\ncan Purusha make manifest his powers. Prakriti has also three\ncharacteristics, the well-known gunas\u2014attributes or qualities. These\nare rhythm, mobility and inertia. Rhythm enables awareness to become\ncognition. Mobility enables life to become activity. Inertia enables\nimmutability to become will.\n\nNow the conception as to the relation of Spirit to Matter is a very\npeculiar one, and confused ideas about it give rise to many\nmisconceptions. If you grasp it, the Bhagavad-Gita becomes illuminated,\nand all the phrases about action and actor, and the mistake of saying\n\u201cI act,\u201d become easy to understand, as implying technical Samkhyan\nideas.\n\nThe three qualities of Prakriti, when Prakriti is thought of as away\nfrom Purusha, are in equilibrium, motionless, poised the one against\nthe other, counter-balancing and neutralizing each other, so that\nMatter is called jada, unconscious, \u201cdead\u201d. But in the presence of\nPurusha all is changed. When Purusha is in propinquity to Matter, then\nthere is a change in Matter\u2014not outside, but in it.\n\nPurusha acts on Prakriti by propinquity, says Vyasa. It comes near\nPrakriti, and Prakriti begins to live. The \u201ccoming near\u201d is a figure of\nspeech, an adaptation to our ideas of time and space, for we cannot\nposit \u201cnearness\u201d of that which is timeless and spaceless\u2014Spirit. By the\nword propinquity is indicated an influence exerted by Purusha on\nPrakriti, and this, where material objects are concerned, would be\nbrought about by their propinquity. If a magnet be brought near to a\npiece of soft iron or an electrified body be brought near to a neutral\none, certain changes are wrought in the soft iron or in the neutral\nbody by that bringing near. The propinquity of the magnet makes the\nsoft iron a magnet; the qualities of the magnet are produced in it, it\nmanifests poles, it attracts steel, it attracts or repels the end of an\nelectric needle. In the presence of a postively electrified body the\nelectricity in a neutral body is re-arranged, and the positive retreats\nwhile the negative gathers near the electrified body. An internal\nchange has occurred in both cases from the propinquity of another\nobject. So with Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha does nothing, but from\nPurusha there comes out an influence, as in the case of the magnetic\ninfluence. The three gunas, under this influence of Purusha, undergo a\nmarvellous change. I do not know what words to use, in order not to\nmake a mistake in putting it. You cannot say that Prakriti absorbs the\ninfluence. You can hardly say that it reflects the Purusha. But the\npresence of Purusha brings about certain internal changes, causes a\ndifference in the equilibrium of the three gunas in Prakriti. The three\ngunas were in a state of equilibrium. No guna was manifest. One guna\nwas balanced against another. What happens when Purusha influences\nPrakriti? The quality of awareness in Purusha is taken up by, or\nreflected in, the guna called Sattva\u2014 rhythm, and it becomes cognition\nin Prakriti. The quality that we call life in Purusha is taken up by,\nor reflected, in the guna called Rajas\u2014mobility, and it becomes force,\nenergy, activity, in Prakriti. The quality that we call immutability in\nPurusha is taken up by, or reflected, in the guna called Tamas\u2014inertia,\nand shows itself out as will or desire in Prakriti. So that, in that\nbalanced equilibrium of Prakriti, a change has taken place by the mere\npropinquity of, or presence of, the Purusha. The Purusha has lost\nnothing, but at the same time a change has taken place in matter.\nCognition has appeared in it. Activity, force, has appeared in it. Will\nor desire has appeared in it. With this change in Prakriti another\nchange occurs. The three attributes of Purusha cannot be separated from\neach other, nor can the three attributes of Prakriti be separated each\nfrom each. Hence rhythm, while appropriating awareness, is under the\ninfluence of the whole three-in-one Purusha and cannot but also take up\nsubordinately life and immutability as activity and will. And so with\nmobility and inertia. In combinations one quality or another may\npredominate, and we may have combinations which show preponderantly\nawareness-rhythm, or life- mobility, or immutability-inertia. The\ncombinations in which awareness-rhythm or cognition predominates become\n\u201cmind in nature,\u201d the subject or subjective half of nature.\nCombinations in which either of the other two predominates become the\nobject or objective half of nature, the \u201cforce and matter\u201d of the\nwestern scientist.[6]\n\n [6] A friend notes that the first is the Suddha Sattva of the Ramanuja\n School, and the second and third the Prakriti, or spirit-matter, in\n the lower sense of the same.\n\n\nWe have thus nature divided into two, the subject and the object. We\nhave now in nature everything that is wanted for the manifestation of\nactivity, for the production of forms and for the expression of\nconsciousness. We have mind, and we have force and matter. Purusha has\nnothing more to do, for he has infused all powers into Prakriti and\nsits apart, contemplating their interplay, himself remaining unchanged.\nThe drama of existence is played out within Matter, and all that Spirit\ndoes is to look at it. Purusha is the spectator before whom the drama\nis played. He is not the actor, but only a spectator. The actor is the\nsubjective part of nature, the mind, which is the reflection of\nawareness in rhythmic matter. That with which it works\u2014objective\nnature, is the reflection of the other qualities of Purusha\u2014life and\nimmutability\u2014in the gunas, Rajas and Tamas. Thus we have in nature\neverything that is wanted for the production of the universe. The\nPutusha only looks on when the drama is played before him. He is\nspectator, not actor. This is the predominant note of the\nBhagavad-Gita. Nature does everything. The gunas bring about the\nuniverse. The man who says: \u201cI act,\u201d is mistaken and confused; the\ngunas act, not he. He is only the spectator and looks on. Most of the\nGita teaching is built upon this conception of the Samkhya, and unless\nthat is clear in our minds we can never discriminate the meaning under\nthe phrases of a particular philosophy.\n\nLet us now turn to the Vedantic idea. According to the Vedantic view\nthe Self is one, omnipresent, all-permeating, the one reality. Nothing\nexists except the Self\u2014that is the starting-point in Vedanta. All\npermeating, all-controlling, all- inspiring, the Self is everywhere\npresent. As the ether permeates all matter, so does the One Self\npermeate, restrain, support, vivify all. It is written in the Gita that\nas the air goes everywhere, so is the Self everywhere in the infinite\ndiversity of objects. As we try to follow the outline of Vedantic\nthought, as we try to grasp this idea of the one universal Self, who is\nexistence, consciousness, bliss, Sat-Chit-Ananda, we find that we are\ncarried into a loftier region of philosophy than that occupied by the\nSamkhya. The Self is One. The Self is everywhere conscious, the Self is\neverywhere existent, the Self is everywhere blissful. There is no\ndivision between these qualities of the Self. Everywhere,\nall-embracing, these qualities are found at every point, in every\nplace. There is no spot on which you can put your finger and say \u201cThe\nSelf is not here.\u201d Where the Self is\u2014and He is everywhere\u2014there is\nexistence, there is consciousness, and there is bliss. The Self, being\nconsciousness, imagines limitation, division. From that imagination of\nlimitation arises form, diversity, manyness. From that thought of the\nSelf, from that thought of limitation, all diversity of the many is\nborn. Matter is the limitation imposed upon the Self by His own will to\nlimit Himself. \u201cEko\u2019ham, bahu syam,\u201d \u201cI am one; I will to he many\u201d;\n\u201clet me be many,\u201d is the thought of the One; and in that thought, the\nmanifold universe comes into existence. In that limitation,\nSelf-created, He exists, He is conscious, He is happy. In Him arises\nthe thought that He is Self-existence, and behold! all existence\nbecomes possible. Because in Him is the will to manifest, all\nmanifestation at once comes into existence. Because in Him is all\nbliss, therefore is the law of life the seeking for happiness, the\nessential characteristic of every sentient creature. The universe\nappears by the Self-limitation in thought of the Self. The moment the\nSelf ceases to think it, the universe is not, it vanishes as a dream.\nThat is the fundamental idea of the Vedanta. Then it accepts the\nspirits of the Samkhya\u2014 the Purushas; but it says that these spirits\nare only reflections of the one Self, emanated by the activity of the\nSelf and that they all reproduce Him in miniature, with the limitations\nwhich the universal Self has imposed upon them, which are apparently\nportions of the universe, but are really identical with Him. It is the\nplay of the Supreme Self that makes the limitations, and thus\nreproduces within limitations the qualities of the Self; the\nconsciousness of the Self, of the Supreme Self; becomes, in the\nparticularised Self, cognition, the power to know; and the existence of\nthe Self becomes activity, the power to manifest; and the bliss of the\nSelf becomes will, the deepest part of all, the longing for happiness,\nfor bliss; the resolve to obtain it is what we call will. And so in the\nlimited, the power to know, and the power to act, and the power to\nwill, these are the reflections in the particular Self of the essential\nqualities of the universal Self. Otherwise put: that which was\nuniversal awareness becomes now cognition in the separated Self; that\nwhich in the universal Self was awareness of itself becomes in the\nlimited Self awareness of others; the awareness of the whole becomes\nthe cognition of the individual. So with the existence of the Self: the\nSelf-existence of the universal Self becomes, in the limited Self,\nactivity, preservation of existence. So does the bliss of the universal\nSelf, in the limited expression of the individual Self, become the will\nthat seeks for happiness, the Self-determination of the Self, the\nseeking for Self-realisation, that deepest essence of human life.\n\nThe difference comes with limitation, with the narrowing of the\nuniversal qualities into the specific qualities of the limited Self;\nboth are the same in essence, though seeming different in\nmanifestation. We have the power to know, the power to will, and the\npower to act. These are the three great powers of the Self that show\nthemselves in the separated Self in every diversity of forms, from the\nminutest moneron to the loftiest Logos.\n\nThen just as in the Samkhya, if the Purusha, the particular Self,\nshould identify himself with the matter in which he is reflected, then\nthere is delusion and bondage, so in the Vedanta, if the Self,\neternally free, imagines himself to be bound by matter, identifying\nhimself with his limitations, he is deluded, he is under the domain of\nMaya; for Maya is the self-identification of the Self with his\nlimitations. The eternally free can never be bound by matter; the\neternally pure can never be tainted by matter; the eternally knowing\ncan never be deluded by matter; the eternally Self-determined can never\nbe ruled by matter, save by his own ignorance. His own foolish fancy\nlimits his inherent powers; he is bound, because he imagines himself\nbound; he is impure, because he imagines himself impure; he is\nignorant, because he imagines himself ignorant. With the vanishing of\ndelusion he finds that he is eternally pure, eternally wise.\n\nHere is the great difference between the Samkhya and the Vedanta.\nAccording to the Samkhya, Purusha is the spectator and never the actor.\nAccording to Vedanta the Self is the only actor, all else is maya:\nthere is no one else who acts but the Self, according to the Vedanta\nteaching. As says the Upanishad: the Self willed to see, and there were\neyes; the Self willed to hear, and there were ears; the Self willed to\nthink, and there was mind. The eyes, the ears, the mind exist, because\nthe Self has willed them into existence. The Self appropriates matter,\nin order that He may manifest His powers through it. There is the\ndistinction between the Samkhya and the Vedanta: in the Samkhya the\npropinquity of the Purusha brings out in matter or Prakriti all these\ncharacteristics, the Prakriti acts and not the Purusha; in the Vedanta,\nSelf alone exists and Self alone acts; He imagines limitation and\nmatter appears; He appropriates that matter in order that He may\nmanifest His own capacity.\n\nThe Samkhya is the view of the universe of the scientist: the Vedanta\nis the view of the universe of the metaphysician. Haeckel unconsciously\nexpounded the Samkhyan philosophy almost perfectly. So close to the\nSamkhyan is his exposition, that another idea would make it purely\nSamkhyan; he has not yet supplied that propinquity of consciousness\nwhich the Samkhya postulates in its ultimate duality. He has Force and\nMatter, he has Mind in Matter, but he has no Purusha. His last book,\ncriticised by Sir Oliver Lodge, is thoroughly intelligible from the\nHindu standpoint as an almost accurate representation of Samkhyan\nphilosophy. It is the view of the scientist, indifferent to the \u201cwhy\u201d\nof the facts which he records. The Vedanta, as I said, is the view of\nthe metaphysician he seeks the unity in which all diversities are\nrooted and into which they are resolved.\n\nNow, what light does Theosophy throw on both these systems? Theosophy\nenables every thinker to reconcile the partial statements which are\napparently so contradictory. Theosophy, with the Vedanta, proclaims the\nuniversal Self. All that the Vedanta says of the universal Self and the\nSelf- limitation, Theosophy repeats. We call these Self-limited selves\nMonads, and we say, as the Vedantin says, that these Monads reproduce\nthe nature of the universal Self whose portions they are. And hence you\nfind in them the three qualities which you find in the Supreme. They\nare units, and these represent the Purushas of the Samkhya; but with a\nvery great difference, for they are not passive watchers, but active\nagents in the drama of the universe, although, being above the fivefold\nuniverse, they are as spectators who pull the strings of the players of\nthe stage. The Monad takes to himself from the universe of matter atoms\nwhich show out the qualities corresponding to his three qualities, and\nin these he thinks, and wills and acts. He takes to himself rhythmic\ncombinations, and shows his quality of cognition. He takes to himself\ncombinations that are mobile; through those he shows out his activity.\nHe takes the combinations that are inert, and shows out his quality of\nbliss, as the will to be happy. Now notice the difference of phrase and\nthought. In the Samkhya, Matter changed to reflect the Spirit; in fact,\nthe Spirit appropriates portions of Matter, and through those expresses\nhis own characteristics\u2014an enormous difference. He creates an actor for\nSelf-expression, and this actor is the \u201cspiritual man\u201d of the\nTheosophical teaching, the spiritual Triad, the Atma-buddhi-manas, to\nwhom we shall return in a moment.\n\nThe Monad remains ever beyond the fivefold universe, and in that sense\nis a spectator. He dwells beyond the five planes of matter. Beyond the\nAtmic, or Akasic; beyond the Buddhic plane, the plane of Vayu; beyond\nthe mental plane, the plane of Agni; beyond the astral plane, the plane\nof Varuna; beyond the physical plane, the plane of Kubera. Beyond all\nthese planes the Monad, the Self, stands Self-conscious and\nSelf-determined. He reigns in changeless peace and lives in eternity.\nBut as said above, he appropriates matter. He takes to himself an atom\nof the Atmic plane, and in that he, as it were, incorporates his will,\nand that becomes Atma. He appropriates an atom of the Buddhic plane,\nand reflects in that his aspect of cognition, and that becomes buddhi.\nHe appropriates an atom of the manasic plane and embodies, as it were,\nhis activity in it, and it becomes Manas. Thus we get Atma, plus\nBuddhi, plus Manas. That triad is the reflection in the fivefold\nuniverse of the Monad beyond the fivefold universe. The terms of\nTheosophy can be easily identified with those of other schools. The\nMonad of Theosophy is the Jivatma of Indian philosophy, the Purusha of\nthe Samkhya, the particularised Self of the Vedanta. The threefold\nmanifestation, Atma-buddhi-manas, is the result of the Purusha\u2019s\npropinquity to Prakriti, the subject of the Samkhyan philosophy, the\nSelf embodied in the highest sheaths, according to the Vedantic\nteaching. In the one you have this Self and His sheaths, and in the\nother the Subject, a reflection in matter of Purusha. Thus you can\nreadily see that you are dealing with the same concepts but they are\nlooked at from different standpoints. We are nearer to the Vedanta than\nto the Samkhya, but if you know the principles you can put the\nstatements of the two philosophies in their own niches and will not be\nconfused. Learn the principles and you can explain all the theories.\nThat is the value of the Theosophical teaching; it gives you the\nprinciples and leaves you to study the philosophies, and you study them\nwith a torch in your hand instead of in the dark.\n\nNow when we understand the nature of the spiritual man, or Triad, what\ndo we find with regard to all the manifestations of consciousness? That\nthey are duads, Spirit-Matter everywhere, on every plane of our\nfivefold universe. If you are a scientist, you will call it\nspiritualised Matter; if you are a metaphysician you will call it\nmaterialised Spirit. Either phrase is equally true, so long as you\nremember that both are always present in every manifestation, that what\nyou see is not the play of matter alone, but the play of Spirit-Matter,\ninseparable through the period of manifestation. Then, when you come,\nin reading an ancient book, to the statement \u201cmind is material,\u201d you\nwill not be confused; you will know that the writer is only speaking on\nthe Samkhyan line, which speaks of Matter everywhere but always implies\nthat the Spirit is looking on, and that this presence makes the work of\nMatter possible. You will not, when reading the constant statement in\nIndian philosophies that \u201cmind is material,\u201d confuse this with the\nopposite view of the materialist which says that \u201cmind is the product\nof matter\u201d\u2014a very different thing. Although the Samkhyan may use\nmaterialistic terms, he always posits the vivifying influence of\nSpirit, while the materialist makes Spirit the product of Matter.\nReally a gulf divides them, although the language they use may often be\nthe same.\n\n\nMind\n\n\u201cYoga is the inhibition of the functions of the mind,\u201d says Patanjali.\nThe functions of the mind must be suppressed, and in order that we may\nbe able to follow out really what this means, we must go more closely\ninto what the Indian philosopher means by the word \u201cmind\u201d.\n\nMind, in the wide sense of the term, has three great properties or\nqualities: cognition, desire or will, activity. Now Yoga is not\nimmediately concerned with all these three, but only with one,\ncognition, the Samkhyan subject. But you cannot separate cognition, as\nwe have seen, completely from the others, because consciousness is a\nunit, and although we are only concerned with that part of\nconsciousness which we specifically call cognition, we cannot get\ncognition all by itself. Hence the Indian psychologist investigating\nthis property, cognition, divides it up into three or, as the Vedanta\nsays, into four (with all submission, the Vedantin here makes a\nmistake). If you take up any Vedantic book and read about mind, you\nwill find a particular word used for it which. translated, means\n\u201cinternal organ\u201d. This antah-karana is the word always used where in\nEnglish we use \u201cmind\u201d; but it is only used in relation to cognition,\nnot in relation to activity and desire. It is said to be fourfold,\nbeing made up of Manas, Buddhi, Ahamkara, and Chitta; but this fourfold\ndivision is a very curious division. We know what Manas is, what Buddhi\nis, what Ahamkara is, but what is this Chitta? What is Chitta, outside\nManas, Buddhi and Ahamkara? Ask anyone you like. and record his answer;\nyou will find that it is of the vaguest kind. Let us try to analyse it\nfor ourselves, and see whether light will come upon it by using the\nTheosophic idea of a triplet summed up in a fourth, that is not really\na fourth, but the summation of the three. Manas, Buddhi and Ahamkara\nare the three different sides of a triangle, which triangle is called\nChitta. The Chitta is not a fourth, but the sum of the three: Manas,\nBuddhi and Ahamkara. This is the old idea of a trinity in unity. Over\nand over again H. P. Blavatsky uses this summation as a fourth to her\ntriplets, for she follows the old methods. The fourth, which sums up\nthe three but is not other than they, makes a unity out of their\napparent diversity. Let us apply that to Antahkarana.\n\nTake cognition. Though in cognition that aspect of the Self is\npredominant, yet it cannot exist absolutely alone, The whole Self is\nthere in every act of cognition. Similarly with the other two. One\ncannot exist separate from the others. Where there is cognition the\nother two are present, though subordinate to it. The activity is there,\nthe will is there. Let us think of cognition as pure as it can be,\nturned on itself, reflected in itself, and we have Buddhi, the pure\nreason, the very essence of cognition; this in the universe is\nrepresented by Vishnu, the sustaining wisdom of the universe. Now let\nus think of cognition looking outwards, and as reflecting itself in\nactivity, its brother quality, and we have a mixture of cognition and\nactivity which is called Manas, the active mind; cognition reflected in\nactivity is Manas in man or Brahma, the creative mind, in the universe.\nWhen cognition similarly reflects itself in will, then it becomes\nAhamkara, the \u201cI am I\u201d in man, represented by Mahadeva in the universe.\nThus wee have found within the limits of this cognition a triple\ndivision, making up the internal organ or Antahkarana\u2014Manas, plus\nBuddhi, plus Ahamkara\u2014and we can find no fourth. What is then Chitta?\nIt is the summation of the three, the three taken together, the\ntotality of the three. Because of the old way of counting these things,\nyou get this division of Antahkarana into four.\n\n\nThe Mental Body\n\nWe must now deal with the mental body, which is taken as equivalent to\nmind for practical purposes. The first thing for a man to do in\npractical Yoga is to separate himself from the mental body, to draw\naway from that into the sheath next above it. And here remember what I\nsaid previously, that in Yoga the Self is always the consciousness plus\nthe vehicle from which the consciousness is unable to separate itself.\nAll that is above the body you cannot leave is the Self for practical\npurposes, and your first attempt must be to draw away from your mental\nbody. Under these conditions, Manas must be identified with the Self,\nand the spiritual Triad, the Atma-buddhi-manas, is to be realised as\nseparate from the mental body. That is the first step. You must be able\nto take up and lay down your mind as you do a tool, before it is of any\nuse to consider the further progress of the Self in getting rid of its\nenvelopes. Hence the mental body is taken as the starting point.\nSuppress thought. Quiet it. Still it. Now what is the ordinary\ncondition of the mental body? As you look upon that body from a higher\nplane, you see constant changes of colours playing in it. You find that\nthey are sometimes initiated from within, sometimes from without.\nSometimes a vibration from without has caused a change in\nconsciousness, and a corresponding change in the colours in the mental\nbody. If there is a change of consciousness, that causes vibration in\nthe matter in which that consciousness is functioning. The mental body\nis a body of ever-changing hues and colours, never still, changing\ncolour with swift rapidity throughout the whole of it. Yoga is the\nstopping of all these, the inhibition of vibrations and changes alike.\nInhibition of the change of consciousness stops the vibration of the\nmental body; the checking of the vibration of the mental body checks\nthe change in consciousness. In the mental body of a Master there is no\nchange of colour save as initiated from within; no outward stimulus can\nproduce any answer, any vibration,\u00f9in that perfectly controlled mental\nbody. The colour of the mental body of a Master is as moonlight on the\nrippling ocean. Within that whiteness of moon-like refulgence lie all\npossibilities of colour, but nothing in the outer world can make the\nfaintest change of hue sweep over its steady radiance. If a change of\nconsciousness occurs within, then the change will send a wave of\ndelicate hues over the mental body which responds only in colour to\nchanges initiated from within and never to changes stimulated from\nwithout. His mental body is never His Self, but only His tool or\ninstrument, which He can take up or lay down at His will. It is only an\nouter sheath that He uses when He needs to communicate with the lower\nworld.\n\nBy that idea of the stopping of all changes of colour in the mental\nbody you can realise what is meant by inhibition. The functions of mind\nare stopped in Yoga. You have to begin with your mental body. You have\nto learn how to stop the whole of those vibrations, how to make the\nmental body colourless, still and quiet, responsive only to the\nimpulses that you choose to put upon it. How will you be able to tell\nwhen the mind is really coming under control, when it is no longer a\npart of your Self? You will begin to realise this when you find that,\nby the action of your will, you can check the current of thought and\nhold the mind in perfect stillness. Sheath after sheath has to be\ntranscended, and the proof of transcending is that it can no longer\naffect you. You can affect it, but it cannot affect you. The moment\nthat nothing outside you can harass you, can stir the mind, the moment\nthat the mind does not respond to the outer, save under your own\nimpulse, then can you say of it: \u201cThis is not my Self.\u201d It has become\npart of the outer, it can no longer be identified with the Self.\n\nFrom this you pass on to the conquest of the causal body in a similar\nway. When the conquering of the causal body is complete then you go to\nthe conquering of the Buddhic body. When mastery over the Buddhic body\nis complete, you pass on to the~conquest of the Atmic body.\n\n\nMind and Self\n\nYou cannot be surprised that under these conditions of continued\ndisappearance of functions, the unfortunate student asks: \u201cWhat becomes\nof the mind itself? If you suppress all the functions, what is left?\u201d\nIn the Indian way of teaching, when you come to a difficulty, someone\njumps up and asks a question. And in the commentaries, the question\nwhich raises the difficulty is always put. The answer of Patanjali is:\n\u201cThen the spectator remains in his own form.\u201d Theosophy answers: \u201cThe\nMonad remains.\u201d It is the end of the human pilgrimage. That is the\nhighest point to which humanity may climb: to suppress all the\nreflections in the fivefold universe through which the Monad has\nmanifested his powers, and then for the Monad to realise himself,\nenriched by the experiences through which his manifested aspects have\npassed. But to the Samkhyan the difficulty is very great, for when he\nhas only his spectator left, when spectacle ceases, the spectator\nhimself almost vanishes. His only function was to look on at the play\nof mind. When the play of mind is gone, what is left? He can no longer\nbe a spectator, since there is nothing to see. The only answer is: \u201cHe\nremains in his own form.\u201d He is now out of manifestation, the duality\nis transcended, and so the Spirit sinks back into latency, no longer\ncapable of manifestation. There you come to a very serious difference\nwith the Theosophical view of the universe, for according to that view\nof the universe, when all these functions have been suppressed, then\nthe Monad is ruler over matter and is prepared for a new cycle of\nactivity, no longer slave but master.\n\nAll analogy shows us that as the Self withdraws from sheath after\nsheath, he does not lose but gains in Self- realisation.\nSelf-realisation becomes more and more vivid with each successive\nwithdrawal; so that as the Self puts aside one veil of matter after\nanother, recognises in regular succession that each body in turn is not\nhimself, by that process of withdrawal his sense of Self-reality\nbecomes keener, not less keen. It is important to remember that,\nbecause often Western readers, dealing with Eastern ideas, in\nconsequence of misunderstanding the meaning of the state of liberation,\nor the condition of Nirvana, identify it with nothingness or\nunconsciousness\u2014an entirely mistaken idea which is apt to colour the\nwhole of their thought when dealing with Yogic processes. Imagine the\ncondition of a man who identifies himself completely with the body, so\nthat he cannot, even in thought, separate himself from it\u2014the state of\nthe early undeveloped man\u2014and compare that with the strength, vigour\nand lucidity of your own mental consciousness.\n\nThe consciousness of the early man limited to the physical body, with\noccasional touches of dream consciousness, is very restricted in its\nrange. He has no idea of the sweep of your consciousness, of your\nabstract thinking. But is that consciousness of the early man more\nvivid, or less vivid, than yours? Certainly you will say, it is less\nvivid. You have largely transcended his powers of consciousness. Your\nconsciousness is astral rather than physical, but has thereby increased\nits vividness. AS the Self withdraws himself from sheath after sheath,\nhe realises himself more and more, not less and less; Self-realisation\nbecomes more intense, as sheath after sheath is cast aside. The centre\ngrows more powerful as the circumference becomes more permeable, and at\nlast a stage is reached when the centre knows itself at every point of\nthe circumference. When that is accomplished the circumference\nvanishes, but not so the centre. The centre still remains. Just as you\nare more vividly conscious than the early man, just as your\nconsciousness is more alive, not less, than that of an undeveloped man,\nso it is as we climb up the stairway of life and cast away garment\nafter garment. We become more conscious of existence, more conscious of\nknowledge, more conscious of Self-determined power. The faculties of\nthe Self shine out more strongly, as veil after veil falls away. By\nanalogy, then, when we touch the Monad, our consciousness should be\nmightier, more vivid, and more perfect. As you learn to truly live,\nyour powers and feelings grow in strength.\n\nAnd remember that all control is exercised over sheaths, over portions\nof the Not-Self. You do not control your Self; that is a misconception;\nyou control your Not-Self. The Self is never controlled; He is the\nInner Ruler Immortal. He is the controller, not the controlled. As\nsheath after sheath becomes subject to your Self, and body after body\nbecomes the tool of your Self, then shall you realise the truth of the\nsaying of the Upanishad, that you are the Self, the Inner Ruler, the\nimmortal.\n\n\n\n\nLecture III\nYOGA AS SCIENCE\n\n\nBrothers:\n\nThis afternoon, I propose now to deal first with the two great methods\nof Yoga, one related to the Self and the other to the Not-Self. Let me\nremind you, before I begin, that we are dealing only with the science\nof Yoga and not with other means of attaining union with the Divine.\nThe scientific method, following the old Indian conception, is the one\nto which I am asking your attention. I would remind you, however, that,\nthough I am only dealing with this, there remain also the other two\ngreat ways of Bhakti and Karma. The Yoga we are studying specially\nconcerns the Marga of Jnanam or knowledge, and within that way, within\nthat Marga or path of knowledge, we find that three subdivisions occur,\nas everywhere in nature.\n\n\nMethods of Yoga\n\nWith regard to what I have just called the two great methods in Yoga,\nwe find that by one of these a man treads the path of knowledge by\nBuddhi\u2014the pure reason; and the other the same path by Manas\u2014the\nconcrete mind. You may remember that in speaking yesterday of the sub-\ndivisions of Antah-karana, I pointed out to you that there we had a\nprocess of reflection of one quality in another; and within the limits\nof the cognitional aspect of the Self, you find Buddhi, cognition\nreflected in cognition; and Ahamkara, cognition reflected in will; and\nManas, cognition reflected in activity. Bearing those three\nsub-divisions in mind, you will very readily be able to see that these\ntwo methods of Yoga fall naturally under two of these heads. But what\nof the third? What of the will, of which Ahamkara is the representative\nin cognition? That certainly has its road, but it can scarcely be said\nto be a \u201cmethod\u201d. Will breaks its way upwards by sheer unflinching\ndetermination, keeping its eyes fixed on the end, and using either\nbuddhi or manes indifferently as a means to that end. Metaphysics is\nused to realise the Self; science is used to understand the Not-Self;\nbut either is grasped, either is thrown aside, as it serves, or fails\nto serve, the needs of the moment. Often the man, in whom will is\npredominant, does not know how he gains the object he is aiming at; it\ncomes to his hands, but the \u201chow\u201d is obscure to him; he willed to have\nit, and nature gives it to him. This is also seen in Yoga in the man of\nAhamkara, the sub-type of will in cognition. Just as in the man of\nAhamkara, Buddhi and Manas are subordinate, so in the man of Buddhi,\nAhamkara and Manas are not absent, but are subordinate; and in the man\nof Manas, Ahamkara and Buddhi are present, but play a subsidiary part.\nBoth the metaphysician and the scientist must be supported by Ahamkara.\nThat Self-determining faculty, that deliberate setting of oneself to a\nchosen end, that is necessary in all forms of Yoga. Whether a Yogi is\ngoing to follow the purely cognitional way of Buddhi, or whether he is\ngoing to follow the more active path of Manas, in both cases he needs\nthe self-determining will in order to sustain him in his arduous task.\nYou remember it is written in the Upanishad that the weak man cannot\nreach the Self. Strength is wanted. Determination is wanted.\nPerseverance is wanted. And you must have, in every successful Yogi,\nthat intense determination which is the very essence of individuality.\n\nNow what are these two great methods? One of them may be described as\nseeking the Self by the Self; the other may be described as seeking the\nSelf by the Not-Self; and if you will think of them in that fashion, I\nthink you will find the idea illuminative. Those who seek the Self by\nthe Self, seek him through the faculty of Buddhi; they turn ever\ninwards, and turn away from the outer world. Those who seek the Self by\nthe Not-Self, seek him through the active working Manas; they are\noutward-turned, and by study of the Not-Self, they learn to realise the\nSelf. The one is the path of the metaphysician; the other is the path\nof the scientist.\n\n\nTo the Self by the Self\n\nLet us look at this a little more closely, with its appropriate\nmethods. The path on which the faculty of Buddhi is used predominantly\nis, as just said, the path of the metaphysician. It is the path of the\nphilosopher. He turns inwards, ever seeking to find the Self by diving\ninto the recesses of his own nature. Knowing that the Self is within\nhim, he tries to strip away vesture after vesture, envelope after\nenvelope, and by a process of rejecting them he reaches the glory of\nthe unveiled Self. To begin this, he must give up concrete thinking and\ndwell amidst abstractions. His method, then, must be strenuous,\nlong-sustained, patient meditation. Nothing else will serve his end;\nstrenuous, hard thinking, by which he rises away from the concrete into\nthe abstract regions of the mind; strenuous, hard thinking, further\ncontinued, by which he reaches from the abstract region of the mind up\nto the region of Buddhi, where unity is sensed; still by strenuous\nthinking, climbing yet further, until Buddhi as it were opens out into\nAtma, until the Self is seen in his splendour, with only a film of\natmic matter, the envelope of Atma in the manifested fivefold world. It\nis along that difficult and strenuous path that the Self must be found\nby way of the Self.\n\nSuch a man must utterly disregard the Not-Self. He must shut his senses\nagainst the outside world. The world must no longer be able to touch\nhim. The senses must be closed against all the vibrations that come\nfrom without, and he must turn a deaf ear, a blind eye, to all the\nallurements of matter, to all the diversity of objects, which make up\nthe universe of the Not-Self. Seclusion will help him, until he is\nstrong enough to close himself against the outer stimuli or\nallurements. The contemplative orders in the Roman Catholic Church\noffer a good environment for this path. They put the outer world away,\nas far away as possible. It is a snare, a temptation, a hindrance.\nAlways turning away from the world, the Yogi must fix his thought, his\nattention, upon the Self. Hence for those who walk along this road,\nwhat are called the Siddhis are direct obstacles, and not helps. But\nthat statement that you find so often, that the Siddhis are things to\nbe avoided, is far more sweeping than some of our modern Theosophists\nare apt to imagine. They declare that the Siddhis are to be avoided,\nbut forget that the Indian who says this also avoids the use of the\nphysical senses. He closes physical eyes and ears as hindrances. But\nsome Theosophists urge avoidance of all use of the astral senses and\nmental senses, but they do not object to the free use of the physical\nsenses, or dream that they are hindrances. Why not? If the senses are\nobstacles in their finer forms, they are also obstacles in their\ngrosser manifestations. To the man who would find the Self by the Self,\nevery sense is a hindrance and an obstacle, and there is no logic, no\nreason, in denouncing the subtler senses only, while forgetting the\ntemptations of the physical senses, impediments as much as the other.\nNo such division exists for the man who tries to understand the\nuniverse in which he is. In the search for the Self by the Self, all\nthat is not Self is an obstacle. Your eyes, your ears, everything that\nputs you into contact with the outer world, is just as much an obstacle\nas the subtler forms of the same senses which put you into touch with\nthe subtler worlds of matter, which you call astral and mental. This\nexaggerated fear of the Siddhis is only a passing reaction, not based\non understanding but on lack of understanding; and those who denounce\nthe Siddhis should rise to the logical position of the Hindu Yogi, or\nof the Roman Catholic recluse, who denounces all the senses, and all\nthe objects of the senses, as obstacles in the way. Many Theosophists\nhere, and more in the West, think that much is gained by acuteness of\nthe physical senses, and of the other faculties in the physical brain;\nbut the moment the senses are acute enough to be astral, or the\nfaculties begin to work in astral matter, they treat them as objects of\ndenunciation. That is not rational. It is not logical. Obstacles, then,\nare all the senses, whether you call them Siddhis or not, in the search\nfor the Self by turning away from the Not-Self.\n\nIt is necessary for the man who seeks the Self by the Self to have the\nquality which is called \u201cfaith,\u201d in the sense in which I defined it\nbefore\u2014the profound, intense conviction, that nothing can shake, of the\nreality of the Self within you. That is the one thing that is worthy to\nbe dignified by the name of faith. Truly it is beyond reason, for not\nby reason may the Self be known as real. Truly it is not based on\nargument, for not by reasoning may the Self be discovered. It is the\nwitness of the Self within you to his own supreme reality, and that\nunshakable conviction, which is shraddha, is necessary for the treading\nof this path. It is necessary, because without it the human mind would\nfail, the human courage would be daunted, the human perseverance would\nbreak, with the difficulties of the seeking for the Self. Only that\nimperious conviction that the Self is, only that can cheer the pilgrim\nin the darkness that comes down upon him, in the void that he must\ncross before\u2014the life of the lower being thrown away\u2014the life of the\nhigher is realised. This imperious faith is to the Yogi on this path\nwhat experience and knowledge are to the Yogi on the other.\n\n\nTo the Self Through the Not-self\n\nTurn from him to the seeker for the Self through the Not- Self. This is\nthe way of the scientist, of the man who uses the concrete, active\nManas, in order scientifically to understand the universe; he has to\nfind the real among the unreal, the eternal among the changing, the\nSelf amid the diversity of forms. How is he to do it? By a close and\nrigorous study of every changing form in which the Self has veiled\nhimself. By studying the Not-Self around him and in him, by\nunderstanding his own nature, by analysing in order to understand, by\nstudying nature in others as well as in himself, by learning to know\nhimself and to gain knowledge of others; slowly, gradually, step by\nstep, plane after plane, he has to climb upwards, rejecting one form of\nmatter after another, finding not in these the Self he seeks. As he\nlearns to conquer the physical plane, he uses the keenest senses in\norder to understand, and finally to reject. He says: \u201cThis is not my\nSelf. This changing panorama, these obscurities, these continual\ntransformations, these are obviously the antithesis of the eternity,\nthe lucidity, the stability of the Self. These cannot be my Self.\u201d And\nthus he constantly rejects them. He climbs on to the astral plane and,\nusing there the finer astral senses, he studies the astral world, only\nto find that that also is changing and manifests not the changelessness\nof the Self. After the astral world is conquered and rejected, he\nclimbs on into the mental plane, and there still studies the\never-changing forms of that Manasic world, only once more to reject\nthem: \u201cThese are not the Self.\u201d Climbing still higher, ever following\nthe track of forms, he goes from the mental to the Buddhic plane, where\nthe Self begins to show his radiance and beauty in manifested union.\nThus by studying diversity he reaches the conception of unity, and is\nled into the understanding of the One. To him the realisation of the\nSelf comes through the study of the Not-Self, by the separation of the\nNot-Self from the Self. Thus he does by knowledge and experience what\nthe other does by pure thinking and by faith. In this path of finding\nthe Self through the Not-Self, the so-called Siddhis are necessary.\nJust as you cannot study the physical world without the physical\nsenses, so you cannot study the astral world without the astral senses,\nnor the mental world without the mental senses. Therefore, calmly\nchoose your ends, and then think out your means, and you will not be in\nany difficulty about the method you should employ, the path you should\ntread.\n\nThus we see that there are two methods, and these must be kept separate\nin your thought. Along the line of pure thinking\u2014the metaphysical\nline\u2014you may reach the Self. So also along the line of scientific\nobservation and experiment\u2014the physical line, in the widest sense of\nthe term physical\u2014you may reach the Self. Both are ways of Yoga. Both\nare included in the directions that you may read in the Yoga Sutras of\nPatanjali. Those directions will cease to be self-contradictory, if you\nwill only separate in your thought the two methods. Patanjali has\ngiven, in the later part of his Sutras, some hints as to the way in\nwhich the Siddhis may be developed. Thus you may find your way to the\nSupreme.\n\n\nYoga and Morality\n\nThe next point that I would pause upon, and ask you to realise, is the\nfact that Yoga is a science of psychology. I want further to point out\nto you that it is not a science of ethic, though ethic is certainly the\nfoundation of it. Psychology and ethic are not the same. The science of\npsychology is the result of the study of mind. The science of ethic is\nthe result of the study of conduct, so as to bring about the harmonious\nrelation of one to another. Ethic is a science of life, and not an\ninvestigation into the nature of mind and the methods by which the\npowers of the mind may be developed and evolved. I pause on this\nbecause of the confusion that exists in many people as regards this\npoint. If you understand the scope of Yoga aright, such a confusion\nought not to arise. The confused idea makes people think that in Yoga\nthey ought to find necessarily what are called precepts of morality,\nethic. Though Patanjali gives the universal precepts of morality and\nright conduct in the first two angas of Yoga, called yama and niyama,\nyet they are subsidiary to the main topic, are the foundation of it, as\njust said. No practice of Yoga is possible unless you possess the\nordinary moral attributes summed up in yama and niyama; that goes\nwithout saying. But you should not expect to find moral precepts in a\nscientific text book of psychology, like Yoga. A man studying the\nscience of electricity is not shocked if he does not find in it moral\nprecepts; why then should one studying Yoga, as a science of\npsychology, expect to find moral precepts in it? I do not say that\nmorality is unimportant for the Yogi. On the contrary, it is\nall-important. It is absolutely necessary in the first stages of Yoga\nfor everyone. But to a Yogi who has mastered these, it is not\nnecessary, if he wants to follow the left-hand path. For you must\nremember that there is a Yoga of the left-hand path, as well as a Yoga\nof the right-hand path. Yoga is there also followed, and though\nasceticism is always found in the early stages, and sometimes in the\nlater, true morality is absent. The black magician is often as rigid in\nhis morality as any Brother of the White Lodge. Of the disciples of the\nblack and white magicians, the disciple of the black magician is often\nthe more ascetic. His object is not the purification of life for the\nsake of humanity, but the purification of the vehicle, that he may be\nbetter able to acquire power. The difference between the white and the\nblack magician lies in the motive. You might have a white magician, a\nfollower of the right-hand path, rejecting meat because the way of\nobtaining it is against the law of compassion. The follower of the\nleft-hand path may also reject meat, but for the reason that be would\nnot be able to work so well with his vehicle if it were full of the\nrajasic elements of meat. The difference is in the motive. The outer\naction is the same. Both men may be called moral, if judged by the\nouter action alone. The motive marks the path, while the outer actions\nare often identical.\n\nIt is a moral thing to abstain from meat, because thereby you are\nlessening the infliction of suffering; it is not a moral act to abstain\nfrom meat from the yogic standpoint, but only a means to an end. Some\nof the greatest yogis in Hindu literature were, and are, men whom you\nwould rightly call black magicians. But still they are yogis. One of\nthe greatest yogis of all was Ravana, the anti-Christ, the Avatara of\nevil, who summed up all the evil of the world in his own person in\norder to oppose the Avatara of good. He was a great, a marvellous yogi,\nand by Yoga he gained his power. Ravana was a typical yogi of the\nleft-hand path, a great destroyer, and he practiced Yoga to obtain the\npower of destruction, in order to force from the hands of the Planetary\nLogos the boon that no man should be able to kill him. You may say:\n\u201cWhat a strange thing that a man can force from God such a power.\u201d The\nlaws of Nature are the expression of Divinity, and if a man follows a\nlaw of Nature, he reaps the result which that law inevitably brings;\nthe question whether he is good or bad to his fellow men does not touch\nthis matter at all. Whether some other law is or is not obeyed, is\nentirely outside the question. It is a matter of dry fact that the\nscientific man may be moral or immoral, provided that his immorality\ndoes not upset his eyesight or nervous system. It is the same with\nYoga. Morality matters profoundly, but it does not affect these\nparticular things, and if you think it does, you are always getting\ninto bogs and changing your moral standpoint, either lowering or making\nit absurd. Try to understand; that is what the Theosophist should do;\nand when you understand, you will not fall into the blunders nor suffer\nthe bewilderment many do, when you expect laws belonging to one region\nof the universe to bring about results in another. The scientific man\nunderstands that. He knows that a discovery in chemistry does not\ndepend upon his morality, and he would not think of doing an act of\ncharity with a view to finding out a new element. He will not fail in a\nwell-wrought experiment, however vicious his private life may be. The\nthings are in different regions, and he does not confuse the laws of\nthe two. As Ishvara is absolutely just, the man who obeys a law reaps\nthe fruit of that law, whether his actions, in any other fields, are\nbeneficial to man or not. If you sow rice, you will reap rice; if you\nsow weeds, you will reap weeds; rice for rice, and weed for weed. The\nharvest is according to the sowing. For this is a universe of law. By\nlaw we conquer, by law we succeed. Where does morality come in, then?\nWhen you are dealing with a magician of the right-hand path, the\nservant of the White Lodge, there morality is an all-important factor.\nInasmuch as he is learning to be a servant of humanity, he must observe\nthe highest morality, not merely the morality of the world, for the\nwhite magician has to deal with helping on harmonious relations between\nman and man. The white magician must be patient. The black magician may\nquite well be harsh. The white magician must be compassionate;\ncompassion widens out his nature, and he is trying to make his\nconsciousness include the whole of humanity. But not so the black\nmagician. He can afford to ignore compassion.\n\nA white magician may strive for power. But when he is striving for\npower, he seeks it that he may serve humanity and become more useful to\nmankind, a more effective servant in the helping of the world. But not\nso the brother of the dark side. When he strives for power, he seeks if\nfor himself, so that he may use it against the whole world. He may be\nharsh and cruel. He wants to be isolated; and harshness and cruelty\ntend to isolate him. He wants power; and holding that power for\nhimself, he can put himself temporarily, as it were, against the Divine\nWill in evolution.\n\nThe end of the one is Nirvana, where all separation has ceased. The end\nof the other is Avichi\u2014the uttermost isolation\u2014the kaivalya of the\nblack magician. Both are yogis, both follow the science of yoga, and\neach gets the result of the law he has followed: one the kaivalya of\nNirvana, the other the kaivalya of Avichi.\n\n\nComposition of States of the Mind\n\nLet us pass now to the \u201cstates of the mind\u201d as they are called. The\nword which is used for the states of the mind by Patanjali is Vritti.\nThis admirably constructed language Sanskrit gives you in that very\nword its own meaning. Vrittis means the \u201cbeing\u201d of the mind; the ways\nin which mind can exist; the modes of the mind; the modes of mental\nexistence; the ways of existing. That is the literal meaning of this\nword. A subsidiary meaning is a \u201cturning around,\u201d a \u201cmoving in a\ncircle\u201d. You have to stop, in Yoga, every mode of existing in which the\nmind manifests itself. In order to guide you towards the power of\nstopping them\u2014for you cannot stop them till you understand them\u2014you are\ntold that these modes of mind are fivefold in their nature. They are\npentads. The Sutra, as usually translated, says \u201cthe Vrittis are\nfivefold (panchatayyah),\u201d but pentad is a more accurate rendering of\nthe word pancha-tayyah, in the original, than fivefold. The word pentad\nat once recalls to you the way in which the chemist speaks of a monad,\ntriad, heptad, when he deals with elements. The elements with which the\nchemist is dealing are related to the unit-element in different ways.\nSome elements are related to it in one way only, and are called monads;\nothers are related in two ways, and are called duads, and so on.\n\nIs this applicable to the states of mind also? Recall the shloka of the\nBhagavad-Gita in which it is said that the Jiva goes out into the\nworld, drawing round him the five senses and mind as sixth. That may\nthrow a little light on the subject. You have five senses, the five\nways of knowing, the five jnanendriyas or organs of knowing. Only by\nthese five senses can you know the outer world. Western psychology says\nthat nothing exists in thought that does not exist in sensation. That\nis not true universally; it is not true of the abstract mind, nor\nwholly of the concrete. But there is a great deal of truth in it. Every\nidea is a pentad. It is made up of five elements. Each element making\nup the idea comes from one of the senses, and of these there are at\npresent five. Later on every idea will be a heptad, made up of seven\nelements. For the present, each has five qualities, which build up the\nidea. The mind unites the whole together into a single thought,\nsynthesises the five sensations. If you think of an orange and analyse\nyour thought of an orange, you will find in it: colour, which comes\nthrough the eye; fragrance, which comes through the nose; taste, which\ncomes through the tongue; roughness or smoothness, which comes through\nthe sense of touch; and you would hear musical notes made by the\nvibrations of the molecules, coming through the sense of hearing, were\nit keener. If you had a perfect sense of hearing. you would hear the\nsound of the orange also, for wherever there is vibration there is\nsound. All this, synthesised by the mind into one idea, is an orange.\nThat is the root reason for the \u201cassociation of ideas\u201d. It is not only\nthat a fragrance recalls the scene and the circumstances under which\nthe fragrance was observed, but because every impression is made\nthrough all the five senses and, therefore, when one is stimulated, the\nothers are recalled. The mind is like a prism. If you put a prism in\nthe path of a ray of white light, it will break it up into its seven\nconstituent rays and seven colours will appear. Put another prism in\nthe path of these seven rays, and as they pass through the prism, the\nprocess is reversed and the seven become one white light. The mind is\nlike the second prism. It takes in the five sensations that enter\nthrough the senses, and combines them into a single precept. As at the\npresent stage of evolution the senses are five only, it unites the five\nsensations into one idea. What the white ray is to the seven- coloured\nlight, that a thought or idea is to the fivefold sensation. That is the\nmeaning of the much controverted Sutra: \u201cVrittayah panchatayych,\u201d \u201cthe\nvrittis, or modes of the mind, are pentads.\u201d If you look at it in that\nway, the later teachings will be more clearly understood.\n\nAs I have already said, that sentence, that nothing exists in thought\nwhich is not in sensation, is not the whole truth. Manas, the sixth\nsense, adds to the sensations its own pure elemental nature. What is\nthat nature that you find thus added? It is the establishment of a\nrelation, that is really what the mind adds. All thinking is the\n\u201cestablishment of relations,\u201d and the more closely you look into that\nphrase, the more you will realise how it covers all the varied\nprocesses of the mind. The very first process of the mind is to become\naware of an outside world. However dimly at first, we become aware of\nsomething outside ourselves\u2014a process generally called perception. I\nuse the more general term \u201cestablishing a relation,\u201d because that runs\nthrough the whole of the mental processes, whereas perception is only a\nsingle thing. To use a well-known simile, when a little baby feels a\npin pricking it, it is conscious of pain, but not at first conscious of\nthe pin, nor yet conscious of where exactly the pin is. It does not\nrecognise the part of the body in which the pin is. There is no\nperception, for perception is defined as relating a sensation to the\nobject which causes the sensation. You only, technically speaking,\n\u201cperceive\u201d when you make a relation between the object and yourself.\nThat is the very first of these mental processes, following on the\nheels of sensation. Of course, from the Eastern standpoint, sensation\nis a mental function also, for the senses are part of the cognitive\nfaculty, but they are unfortunately classed with feelings in Western\npsychology. Now having established that relation between yourself and\nobjects outside, what is the next process of the mind? Reasoning: that\nis, the establishing of relations between different objects, as\nperception is the establishment of your relation with a single object.\nWhen you have perceived many objects, then you begin to reason in order\nto establish relations between them. Reasoning is the establishment of\na new relation, which comes out from the comparison of the different\nobjects that by perception you have established in relation with\nyourself, and the result is a concept. This one phrase, \u201cestablishment\nof relations,\u201d is true all round. The whole process of thinking is the\nestablishment of relations, and it is natural that it should be so,\nbecause the Supreme Thinker, by establishing a relation, brought matter\ninto existence. Just as He, by establishing that primary relation\nbetween Himself and the Not-Self, makes a universe possible, so do we\nreflect His powers in ourselves, thinking by the same method,\nestablishing relations, and thus carrying out every intellectual\nprocess.\n\n\nPleasure and Pain\n\nLet us pass again from that to another statement made by this great\nteacher of Yoga: \u201cPentads are of two kinds, painful and non-painful.\u201d\nWhy did he not say: \u201cpainful and pleasant\u201d? Because he was an accurate\nthinker, a logical thinker, and he uses the logical division that\nincludes the whole universe of discourse, A and Not-A, painful and\nnon-painful. There has been much controversy among psychologists as to\na third kind \u2014indifferent. Some psychologists divide all feelings into\nthree: painful, pleasant and indifferent. Feelings cannot be divided\nmerely into pain and pleasure, there is a third class, called\nindifference, which is neither painful nor pleasant. Other\npsychologists say that indifference is merely pain or pleasure that is\nnot marked enough to be called the one or the other. Now this\ncontroversy and tangle into which psychologists have fallen might be\navoided if the primary division of feelings were a logical division. A\nand Not-A\u2014that is the only true and logical division. Patanjali is\nabsolutely logical and right. In order to avoid the quicksand into\nwhich the modern psychologists have fallen, he divides all vrittis,\nmodes of mind, into painful and nonpainful.\n\nThere is, however, a psychological reason why we should say \u201cpleasure\nand pain,\u201d although it is not a logical division. The reason why there\nshould be that classification is that the word pleasure and the word\npain express two fundamental states of difference, not in the Self, but\nin the vehicles in which that Self dwells. The Self, being by nature\nunlimited, is ever pressing, so to say, against any boundaries which\nseek to limit him. When these limitations give way a little before the\nconstant pressure of the Self, we feel \u201cpleasure,\u201d and when they resist\nor contract, we feel \u201cpain\u201d. They are not states of the Self so much as\nstates of the vehicles, and states of certain changes in consciousness.\nPleasure and pain belong to the Self as a whole, and not to any aspect\nof the Self separately taken. When pleasure and pain are marked off as\nbelonging only to the desire nature, the objection arises: \u201cWell, but\nin the exercise of the cognitive faculty there is an intense pleasure.\nWhen you use the creative faculty of the mind you are conscious of a\nprofound joy in its exercise, and yet that creative faculty can by no\nmeans be classed with desire.\u201d The answer is: \u201cPleasure belongs to the\nSelf as a whole. Where the vehicles yield themselves to the Self, and\npermit it to \u2018expand\u2019 as is its eternal nature, then what is called\npleasure is felt.\u201d It has been rightly said: \u201cPleasure is a sense of\nmoreness.\u201d Every time you feel pleasure, you will find the word\n\u201cmoreness\u201d covers the case. It will cover the lowest condition of\npleasure, the pleasure of eating. You are becoming more by\nappropriating to yourself a part of the Not-Self, food. You will find\nit true of the highest condition of bliss, union with the Supreme. You\nbecome more by expanding yourself to His infinity. When you have a\nphrase that can be applied to the lowest and highest with which you are\ndealing, you may be fairly sure it is all-inclusive, and that,\ntherefore, \u201cpleasure is moreness\u201d is a true statement. Similarly, pain\nis \u201clessness\u201d.\n\nIf you understand these things your philosophy of life will become more\npractical, and you will be able to help more effectively people who\nfall into evil ways. Take drink. The real attraction of drinking lies\nin the fact that, in the first stages of it, a more keen and vivid life\nis felt. That stage is overstepped in the case of the man who gets\ndrunk, and then the attraction ceases. The attraction lies in the first\nstages, and many people have experienced that, who would never dream of\nbecoming drunk. Watch people who are taking wine and see how much more\nlively and talkative they become. There lies the attraction, the\ndanger.\n\nThe real attraction in most coarse forms of excess is that they give an\nadded sense of life, and you will never be able to redeem a man from\nhis excess unless you know why he does it. Understanding the\nattractiveness of the first step, the increase of life, then you will\nbe able to put your finger on the point of temptation, and meet that in\nyour argument with him. So that this sort of mental analysis is not\nonly interesting, but practically useful to every helper of mankind.\nThe more you know, the greater is your power to help.\n\nThe next question that arises is: \u201cWhy does he not divide all feelings\ninto pleasurable and not-pleasurable, rather than into \u2018painful and\nnot-painful\u2019?\u201d A Westerner will not be at a loss to answer that: \u201cOh,\nthe Hindu is naturally so very pessimistic, that he naturally ignores\npleasure and speaks of painful and not-painful. The universe is full of\npain.\u201d But that would not be a true answer. In the first place the\nHindu is not pessimistic. He is the most optimistic of men. He has not\ngot one solitary school of philosophy that does not put in its\nforeground that the object of all philosophy is to put an end to pain.\nBut he is profoundly reasonable. He knows that we need not go about\nseeking happiness. It is already ours, for it is the essence of our own\nnature. Do not the Upanishads say: \u201cThe Self is bliss\u201d? Happiness\nexists perennially within you. It is your normal state. You have not to\nseek it. You will necessarily be happy if you get rid of the obstacles\ncalled pain, which are in the modes of mind. Happiness is not a\nsecondary thing, but pain is, and these painful things are obstacles to\nbe got rid of. When they are stopped, you must be happy. Therefore\nPatanjali says: \u201cThe vrittis are painful and non-painful.\u201d Pain is an\nexcrescence. It is a transitory thing. The Self, who is bliss, being\nthe all-permeating life of the universe, pain has no permanent place in\nit. Such is the Hindu position, the most optimistic in the world.\n\nLet us pause for a moment to ask: \u201cWhy should there be pain at all if\nthe Self is bliss?\u201d Just because the nature of the Self is bliss. It\nwould be impossible to make the Self turn outward, come into\nmanifestation, if only streams of bliss flowed in on him. He would have\nremained unconscious of the streams. To the infinity of bliss nothing\ncould be added. If you had a stream of water flowing unimpeded in its\ncourse, pouring more water into it would cause no ruffling, the stream\nwould go on heedless of the addition. But put an obstacle in the way,\nso that the free flow is checked, and the stream will struggle and fume\nagainst the obstacle, and make every endeavour to sweep it away. That\nwhich is contrary to it, that which will check its current\u2019s smooth\nflow, that alone will cause effort. That is the first function of pain.\nIt is the only thing that can rouse the Self. It is the only thing that\ncan awaken his attention. When that peaceful, happy, dreaming, inturned\nSelf finds the surge of pain beating against him, he awakens: \u201cWhat is\nthis, contrary to my nature, antagonistic and repulsive, what is this?\u201d\nIt arouses him to the fact of a surrounding universe, an outer world.\nHence in psychology, in yoga, always basing itself on the ultimate\nanalysis of the fact of nature, pain is the thing that asserts itself\nas the most important factor in Self-realisation; that which is other\nthan the Self will best spur the Self into activity. Therefore we find\nour commentator, when dealing with pain, declares that the karmic\nreceptacle the causal body, that in which all the seeds of karma are\ngathered Up, has for its builder all painful experiences; and along\nthat line of thought we come to the great generalisation: the first\nfunction of pain in the universe is to arouse the Self to turn himself\nto the outer world, to evoke his aspect of activity.\n\nThe next function of pain is the organisation of the vehicles. Pain\nmakes the man exert himself, and by that exertion the matter of his\nvehicles gradually becomes organised. If you want to develop and\norganise your muscles, you make efforts, you exercise them, and thus\nmore life flows into them and they become strong. Pain is necessary\nthat the Self may force his vehicles into making efforts which develop\nand organise them. Thus pain not only awakens awareness, it also\norganises the vehicles.\n\nIt has a third function also. Pain purifies. We try to get rid of that\nwhich causes us pain. It is contrary to our nature, and we endeavour to\nthrow it away. All that is against the blissful nature of the Self is\nshaken by pain out of the vehicles; slowly they become purified by\nsuffering, and in that way become ready for the handling of the Self.\n\nIt has a fourth function. Pain teaches. All the best lessons of life\ncome from pain rather than from joy. When one is becoming old, as I am\nand I look on the long life behind me, a life of storm and stress, of\ndifficulties and efforts, I see something of the great lessons pain can\nteach. Out of my life story could efface without regret everything that\nit has had of joy and happiness, but not one pain would I let go, for\npain is the teacher of wisdom.\n\nIt has a fifth function. Pain gives power. Edward Carpenter said, in\nhis splendid poem of \u201cTime and Satan,\u201d after he had described the\nwrestlings and the overthrows: \u201cEvery pain that I suffered in one body\nbecame a power which I wielded in the next.\u201d Power is pain transmuted.\n\nHence the wise man, knowing these things, does not shrink from pain; it\nmeans purification, wisdom, power.\n\nIt is true that a man may suffer so much pain that for this incarnation\nhe may be numbed by it, rendered wholly or partially useless.\nEspecially is this the case when the pain has deluged in childhood. But\neven then, he shall reap his harvest of good later. By his past, he may\nhave rendered present pain inevitable, but none the less can he turn it\ninto a golden opportunity by knowing and utilising its functions.\n\nYou may say: \u201cWhat use then of pleasure, if pain is so splendid a\nthing?\u201d From pleasure comes illumination. Pleasure enables the Self to\nmanifest. In pleasure all the vehicles of the Self are made\nharrnonious; they all vibrate together; the vibrations are rhythmical,\nnot jangled as they are in pain, and those rhythmical vibrations permit\nthat expansion of the Self of which I spoke, and thus lead up to\nillumination, the knowledge of the Self. And if that be true, as it is\ntrue, you will see that pleasure plays an immense part in nature, being\nof the nature of the Self, belonging to him. When it harmonises the\nvehicles of the Self from outside, it enables the Self more readily to\nmanifest himself through the lower selves within us. Hence happiness is\na condition of illumination. That is the explanation of the value of\nthe rapture of the mystic; it is an intense joy. A tremendous wave of\nbliss, born of love triumphant, sweeps over the whole of his being, and\nwhen that great wave of bliss sweeps over him, it harmonises the whole\nof his vehicles, subtle and gross alike, and the glory of the Self is\nmade manifest and he sees the face of his God. Then comes the wonderful\nillumination, which for the time makes him unconscious of all the lower\nworlds. It is because for a moment the Self is realising himself as\ndivine, that it is possible for him to see that divinity which is\ncognate to himself. So you should not fear joy any more than you fear\npain, as some unwise people do, dwarfed by a mistaken religionism. That\nfoolish thought which you often find in an ignorant religion, that\npleasure is rather to be dreaded, as though God grudged joy to His\nchildren, is one of the nightmares born of ignorance and terror. The\nFather of life is bliss. He who is joy cannot grudge Himself to His\nchildren, and every reflection of joy in the world is a reflection of\nthe Divine Life, and a manifestation of the Self in the midst of\nmatter. Hence pleasure has its function as well as pain and that also\nis welcome to the wise, for he understands and utilises it. You can\neasily see how along this line pleasure and pain become equally\nwelcome. Identified with neither, the wise man takes either as it\ncomes, knowing its purpose. When we understand the places of joy and of\npain, then both lose their power to bind or to upset us. If pain comes,\nwe take it and utilise it. If joy comes, we take it and utilise it. So\nwe may pass through life, welcoming both pleasure and pain, content\nwhichever may come to us, and not wishing for that which is for the\nmoment absent. We use both as means to a desired end; and thus we may\nrise to a higher indifference than that of the stoic, to the true\nvairagya; both pleasure and pain are transcended, and the Self remains,\nwho is bliss.\n\n\n\n\nLecture IV\nYOGA AS PRACTICE\n\n\nBrothers:\n\nYesterday, in dealing with the third section of the subject, I drew\nyour attention to the states of mind, and pointed out to you that,\naccording to the Samskrit word vritti, those states of mind should be\nregarded as ways m which the mind exists, or, to use the philosophical\nphrase of the West, they are modes of mind, modes of mental existence.\nThese are the states which are to be inhibited, put an end to,\nabolished, reduced into absolute quiescence. The reason for this\ninhibition is the production of a state which allows the higher mind to\npour itself into the lower. To put it in another way: the lower mind,\nunruffled, waveless, reflects the higher, as a waveless lake reflects\nthe stars. You will remember the phrase used in the Upanishad, which\nputs it less technically and scientifically, but more beautifully, and\ndeclares that in the quietude of the mind and the tranquility of the\nsenses, a man may behold the majesty of the Self. The method of\nproducing this quietude is what we have now to consider.\n\n\nInhibition of States of Mind\n\nTwo ways, and two ways only, there are of inhibiting these modes, these\nways of existence, of the mind. They were given by Sri Krishna in the\nBhagavad-Gita, when Arjuna complained that the mind was impetuous,\nstrong, difficult to bend, hard to curb as the wind. His answer was\ndefinite: \u201cWithout doubt, O mighty-armed, the mind is hard to curb and\nrestless; but it may be curbed by constant practice (abhyasa) and by\ndispassion (vai-ragya).\u201d[7]\n\n [7] _loc. cit._, vi. 35, 35\n\n\nThese are the two methods, the only two methods, by which this\nrestless, storm-tossed mind can be reduced to peace and quietude.\nVai-ragya and abhyasa, they are the only two methods, but when steadily\npracticed they inevitably bring about the result.\n\nLet us consider what these two familiar words imply. Vai-ragya, or\ndispassion, has as its main idea the clearing away of all passion for,\nattraction to, the objects of the senses, the bonds which are made by\ndesire between man and the objects around him. Raga is \u201cpassion,\naddiction,\u201d that which binds a man to things. The prefix \u201cvi\u201d\u2014changing\nto \u201cvai\u201d by a grammatical rule \u2014means \u201cwithout,\u201d or \u201cin opposition to\u201d.\nHence vai-ragya is \u201cnon-passion, absence of passion,\u201d not bound, tied\nor related to any of these outside objects. Remembering that thinking\nis the establishing of relations, we see that the getting rid of\nrelations will impose on the mind the stillness that is Yoga. All raga\nmust be entirely put aside. We must separate ourselves from it. We must\nacquire the opposite condition, where every passion is stilled, where\nno attraction for the objects of desire remains, where all the bonds\nthat unite the man to surrounding objects are broken. \u201cWhen the bonds\nof the heart are broken, then the man becomes immortal.\u201d\n\nHow shall this dispassion be brought about? There is only one right way\nof doing it. By slowly and gradually drawing ourselves away from outer\nobjects through the more potent attraction of the Self. The Self is\never attracted to the Self. That attraction alone can turn these\nvehicles away from the alluring and repulsive objects that surround\nthem; free from all raga, no more establishing relations with objects,\nthe separated Self finds himself liberated and free, and union with the\none Self becomes the sole object of desire. But not instantly, by one\nsupreme effort, by one endeavour, can this great quality of dispassion\nbecome the characteristic of the man bent on Yoga. He must practice\ndispassion constantly and steadfastly. That is implied in the word\njoined with dispassion, abhyasa or practice. The practice must be\nconstant, continual and unbroken. \u201cPractice\u201d does not mean only\nmeditation, though this is the sense in which the word is generally\nused; it means the deliberate, unbroken carrying out of dispassion in\nthe very midst of the objects that attract.\n\nIn order that you may acquire dispassion, you must practice it in the\neveryday things of life. I have said that many confine abhyasa to\nmeditation. That is why so few people attain to Yoga. Another error is\nto wait for some big opportunity. People prepare themselves for some\ntremendous sacrifice and forget the little things of everyday life, in\nwhich the mind is knitted to objects by a myriad tiny threads. These\nthings, by their pettiness, fail to attract attention, and in waiting\nfor the large thing, which does not come, people lose the daily\npractice of dispassion towards the little things that are around them.\nBy curbing desire at every moment, we become indifferent to all the\nobjects that surround us. Then, when the great opportunity comes, we\nseize it while scarce aware that it is upon us. Every day, all day\nlong, practice\u2014that is what is demanded from the aspirant to Yoga, for\nonly on that line can success come; and it is the wearisomeness of this\nstrenuous, continued endeavour that tires out the majority of\naspirants.\n\nI must here warn you of a danger. There is a rough-and- ready way of\nquickly bringing about dispassion. Some say to you: \u201cKill out all love\nand affection; harden your hearts; become cold to all around you;\ndesert your wife and children, your father and mother, and fly to the\ndesert or the jungle; put a wall between youself and all objects of\ndesire; then dispassion will be yours.\u201d It is true that it is\ncomparatively easy to acquire dispassion in that way. But by that you\nkill more than desire. You put round the Self, who is love, a barrier\nthrough which he is unable to pierce. You cramp yourself by encircling\nyourself with a thick shell, and you cannot break through it. You\nharden yourself where you ought to be softened; you isolate yourself\nwhere you ought to be embracing others; you kill love and not only\ndesire, forgetting that love clings to the Self and seeks the Self,\nwhile desire clings to the sheaths of the Self, the bodies in which the\nSelf is clothed. Love is the desire of the separated Self for union\nwith all other separated Selves. Dispassion is the non-attraction to\nmatter\u2014a very different thing. You must guard love\u2014for it is the very\nSelf of the Self. In your anxiety to acquire dispassion do not kill out\nlove. Love is the life in everyone of us, separated Selves. It draws\nevery separated Self to the other Self. Each one of us is a part of one\nmighty whole. Efface desire as regards the vehicles that clothe the\nSelf, but do not efface love as regards the Self, that never-dying\nforce which draws Self to Self. In this great up-climbing, it is far\nbetter to suffer from love rather than to reject it, and to harden your\nhearts against all ties and claims of affection. Suffer for love, even\nthough the suffering be bitter. Love, even though the love be an avenue\nof pain. The pain shall pass away, but the love shall continue to grow,\nand in the unity of the Self you shall finally discover that love is\nthe great attracting force which makes all things one.\n\nMany people, in trying to kill out love, only throw themselves back,\nbecoming less human, not superhuman; by their mistaken attempts. It is\nby and through human ties of love and sympathy that the Self unfolds.\nIt is said of the Masters that They love all humanity as a mother loves\nher firstborn son. Their love is not love watered down to coolness, but\nlove for all raised to the heat of the highest particular loves of\nsmaller souls. Always mistrust the teacher who tells you to kill out\nlove, to be indifferent to human affections. That is the way which\nleads to the left-hand path.\n\n\nMeditation With and Without Seed\n\nThe next step is our method of meditation. What do we mean by\nmeditation? Meditation cannot be the same for every man. Though the\nsame in principle, namely, the steadying of the mind, the method must\nvary with the temperament of the practitioner. Suppose that you are a\nstrong-minded and intelligent man, fond of reasoning. Suppose that\nconnected links of thought and argument have been to you the only\nexorcise of the mind. Utilise that past training. Do not imagine that\nyou can make your mind still by a single effort. Follow a logical chain\nof reasoning, step by step, link after link; do not allow the mind to\nswerve a hair\u2019s breadth from it. Do not allow the mind to go aside to\nother lines of thought. Keep it rigidly along a single line, and\nsteadiness will gradually result. Then, when you have worked up to your\nhighest point of reasoning and reached the last link of your chain of\nargument, and your mind will carry you no further, and beyond that you\ncan see nothing, then stop. At that highest point of thinking, cling\ndesperately to the last link of the chain, and there keep the mind\npoised, in steadiness and strenuous quiet, waiting for what may come.\nAfter a while, you will be able to maintain this attitude for a\nconsiderable time.\n\nFor one in whom imagination is stronger than the reasoning faculty, the\nmethod by devotion, rather than by reasoning, is the method. Let him\ncall imagination to his help. He should picture some scene, in which\nthe object of his devotion forms the central figure, building it up,\nbit by bit, as a painter paints a picture, putting in it gradually all\nthe elements of the scene He must work at it as a painter works on his\ncanvas, line by line, his brush the brush of imagination. At first the\nwork will be very slow, but the picture soon begins to present itself\nat call. Over and over he should picture the scene, dwelling less and\nless on the surrounding objects and more and more on the central figure\nwhich is the object of his heart\u2019s devotion. The drawing of the mind to\na point, in this way, brings it under control and steadies it, and thus\ngradually, by this use of the imagination. he brings the mind under\ncommand. The object of devotion will be according to the man\u2019s\nreligion. Suppose\u2014as is the case with many of you\u2014that his object of\ndevotion is Sri Krishna; picture Him in any scene of His earthly life,\nas in the battle of Kurukshetra. Imagine the armies arrayed for battle\non both sides; imagine Arjuna on the floor of the chariot, despondent,\ndespairing; then come to Sri Krishna, the Charioteer, the Friend and\nTeacher. Then, fixing your mind on the central figure, let your heart\ngo out to Him with onepointed devotion. Resting on Him, poise yourself\nin silence and, as before, wait for what may come.\n\nThis is what is called \u201cmeditation with seed\u201d. The central figure, or\nthe last link in reasoning, that is \u201cthe seed\u201d. You have gradually made\nthe vagrant mind steady by this process of slow and gradual curbing,\nand at last you are fixed on the central thought, or the central\nfigure, and there you are poised. Now let even that go. Drop the\ncentral thought, the idea, the seed of meditation. Let everything go.\nBut keep the mind in the position gained, the highest point reached,\nvigorous and alert. This is meditation without a seed. Remain poised,\nand wait in the silence and the void. You are in the \u201ccloud,\u201d before\ndescribed, and pass through the condition before sketched. Suddenly\nthere will be a change, a change unmistakable, stupendous, incredible.\nIn that silence, as said, a Voice shall be heard. In that void, a Form\nshall reveal itself. In that empty sky, a Sun shall rise, and in the\nlight of that Sun you shall realise your own identity with it, and know\nthat that which is empty to the eye of sense is full to the eye of\nSpirit, that that which is silence to the ear of sense is full of music\nto the ear of Spirit.\n\nAlong such lines you can learn to bring into control your mind, to\ndiscipline your vagrant thought, and thus to reach illumination. One\nword of warning. You cannot do this, while you are trying meditation\nwith a seed. until you are able to cling to your seed definitely for a\nconsiderable time, and maintain throughout an alert attention. It is\nthe emptiness of alert expectation. not the emptiness of impending\nsleep. If your mind be not in that condition, its mere emptiness is\ndangerous. It leads to mediumship, to possession, to obsession. You can\nwisely aim at emptiness, only when you have so disciplined the mind\nthat it can hold for a considerable time to a single point and remain\nalert when that point is dropped.\n\nThe question is sometimes asked: \u201cSuppose that I do this and succeed in\nbecoming unconscious of the body; suppose that I do rise into a higher\nregion; is it quite sure that I shall come back again to the body?\nHaving left the body, shall I be certain to return?\u201d The idea of\nnon-return makes a man nervous. Even if he says that matter is nothing\nand Spirit is everything, he yet does not like to lose touch with his\nbody and, losing that touch, by sheer fear, he drops back to the earth\nafter having taken so much trouble to leave it. You should, however,\nhave no such fear. That which will draw you back again is the trace of\nyour past, which remains under all these conditions.\n\nThe question is of the same kind as: \u201cWhy should a state of Pralaya\never come to an end, and a new state of Manvantara begin?\u201d And the\nanswer is the same from the Hindu psychological standpoint; because,\nalthough you have dropped the very seed of thought, you cannot destroy\nthe traces which that thought has left, and that trace is a germ, and\nit tends to draw again to itself matter, that it may express itself\nonce more. This trace is what is called the privation of matter\u2014\nsamskara. Far as you may soar beyond the concrete mind, that trace,\nleft in the thinking principle, of what you have thought and have\nknown, that remains and will inevitably draw you back. You cannot\nescape your past and, until your life-period is over, that samskara\nwill bring you back. It is this also which, at the close of the\nheavenly life, brings a man back to rebirth. It is the expression of\nthe law of rhythm. In Light on the Path, that wonderful occult\ntreatise, this state is spoken of and the disciple is pictured as in\nthe silence. The writer goes on to say: \u201cOut of the silence that is\npeace a resonant voice shall arise. And this voice will say: \u2018It is not\nwell; thou hast reaped, now thou must sow.\u2019 And knowing this voice to\nbe the silence itself, thou wilt obey.\u201d\n\nWhat is the meaning of that phrase: \u201cThou hast reaped, now thou must\nsow?\u201d It refers to the great law of rhythm which rules even the Logoi,\nthe Ishvaras \u2014the law of the Mighty Breath, the out-breathing and the\nin-breathing, which compels every fragment which is separated for a\ntime. A Logos may leave His universe, and it may drop away when He\nturns His gaze inward, for it was He who gave reality to it.\n\nHe may plunge into the infinite depths of being, but even then there is\nthe samskara of the past universe, the shadowy latent memory, the germ\nof maya from which He cannot escape. To escape from it would be to\ncease to be Ishvara, and to become Brahma Nirguna. There is no Ishvara\nwithout maya, there is no maya without Ishvara. Even in pralaya, a time\ncomes when the rest is over and the inner life again demands\nmanifestation; then the outward turning begins and a new universe comes\nforth. Such is the law of rest and activity: activity followed by rest;\nrest followed again by the desire for activity; and so the ceaseless\nwheel of the universe, as well as of human lives, goes on. For in the\neternal, both rest and activity are ever present, and in that which we\ncall Time, they follow each other, although in eternity they be\nsimultaneous and ever-existing.\n\n\nThe Use of Mantras\n\nLet us see how far we can help ourselves in this difficult work. I will\ndraw your attention to one fact which is of enormous help to the\nbeginner.\n\nYour vehicles are ever restless. Every vibration in the vehicle\nproduces a corresponding change in consciousness. Is there any way to\ncheck these vibrations, to steady the vehicle, so that consciousness\nmay be still? One method is the repeating of a mantra. A mantra is a\nmechanical way of checking vibration. Instead of using the powers of\nthe will and of imagination, you save these for other purposes, and use\nthe mechanical resource of a mantra. A mantra is a definite succession\nof sounds. Those sounds, repeated rhythmically over and over again in\nsuccession, synchronise the vibrations of the vehicles into unity with\nthemselves. Hence a mantra cannot be translated; translation alters the\nsounds. Not only in Hinduism, but in Buddhism, in Roman Catholicism, in\nIslam, and among the Parsis, mantras are found, and they are never\ntranslated, for when you have changed the succession and order of the\nsounds, the mantra ceases to be a mantra. If you translate the words,\nyou may have a very beautiful prayer, but not a mantra. Your\ntranslation may be beautiful inspired poetry, but it is not a living\nmantra. It will no longer harmonise the vibrations of the surrounding\nsheaths, and thus enable the consciousness to become still. The poetry,\nthe inspired prayer, these are mentally translatable. But a mantra is\nunique and untranslatable. Poetry is a great thing: it is often an\ninspirer of the soul, it gives gratification to the ear, and it may be\nsublime and beautiful, but it is not a mantra.\n\n\nAttention\n\nLet us consider concentration. You ask a man if he can concentrate. He\nat once says: \u201cOh! it is very difficult. I have often tried and\nfailed.\u201d But put the same question in a different way, and ask him:\n\u201cCan you pay attention to a thing?\u201d He will at once say: \u201cYes, I can do\nthat.\u201d\n\nConcentration is attention. The fixed attitude of attention, that is\nconcentration. If you pay attention to what you do, your mind will be\nconcentrated. Many sit down for meditation and wonder why they do not\nsucceed. How can you suppose that half an hour of meditation and\ntwenty- three and a half hours of scattering of thought throughout the\nday and night, will enable you to concentrate during the half hour? You\nhave undone during the day and night what you did in the morning, as\nPenelope unravelled the web she wove. To become a Yogi, you must be\nattentive all the time. You must practice concentration every hour of\nyour active life. Now you scatter your thoughts for many hours, and you\nwonder that you do not succeed. The wonder would be if you did. You\nmust pay attention every day to everything you do. That is, no doubt,\nhard to do, and you may make it easier in the first stages by choosing\nout of your day\u2019s work a portion only, and doing that portion with\nperfect, unflagging attention. Do not let your mind wander from the\nthing before you. It does not matter what the thing is. It may be the\nadding up of a column of figures, or the reading of a book. Anything\nwill do. It is the attitude of the mind that is important and not the\nobject before it. This is the only way of learning concentration. Fix\nyour mind rigidly on the work before you for the time being, and when\nyou have done with it, drop it. Practise steadily in this way for a few\nmonths, and you will be surprised to find how easy it becomes to\nconcentrate the mind. Moreover, the body will soon learn to do many\nthings automatically. If you force it to do a thing regularly, it will\nbegin to do it, after a time, of its own accord, and then you find that\nyou can manage to do two or three things at the same time. In England,\nfor instance, women are very fond of knitting. When a girl first learns\nto knit, she is obliged to be very intent on her fingers. Her attention\nmust not wander from her fingers for a moment, or she will make a\nmistake. She goes on doing that day after day, and presently her\nfingers have learnt to pay attention to the work without her\nsupervision, and they may be left to do the knitting while she employs\nthe conscious mind on something else. It is further possible to train\nyour mind as the girl has trained her fingers. The mind also, the\nmental body, can be so trained as to do a thing automatically. At last,\nyour highest consciousness can always remain fixed on the Supreme,\nwhile the lower consciousness in the body will do the things of the\nbody, and do them perfectly, because perfectly trained. These are\npractical lessons of Yoga.\n\nPractice of this sort builds up the qualities you want, and you become\nstronger and better, and fit to go on to the definite study of Yoga.\n\n\nObstacles to Yoga\n\nBefore considering the capacities needed for this definite practice,\nlet us run over the obstacles to Yoga as laid down by Patanjali.\n\nThe obstacles to Yoga are very inclusive. First, disease: if you are\ndiseased you cannot practice Yoga; it demands sound health, for the\nphysical strain entailed by it is great. Then languor of mind: you must\nbe alert, energetic, in your thought. Then doubt: you must have\ndecision of will, must be able to make up your mind. Then carelessness:\nthis is one of the greatest difficulties with beginners; they read a\nthing carelessly, they are inaccurate. Sloth: a lazy man cannot be a\nYogi; one who is inert, who lacks the power and the will to exert\nhimself; how shall he make the desperate exertions wanted along this\nline? The next, worldly-mindedness, is obviously an obstacle. Mistaken\nideas is another great obstacle, thinking wrongly about things. One of\nthe great qualifications for Yoga is \u201cright notion\u201d \u201cRight notion\u201d\nmeans that the thought shall correspond with the outside truth; that a\nman shall he fundamentally true, so that his thought corresponds to\nfact; unless there is truth in a man, Yoga is for him impossible.\nMissing the point, illogical, stupid, making the important, unimportant\nand vice versa. Lastly, instability: which makes Yoga impossible, and\neven a small amount of which makes Yoga futile; the unstable man cannot\nbe a yogi.\n\n\nCapacities of Yoga\n\nCan everybody practise Yoga? No. But every well-educated person can\nprepare for its future practice. For rapid progress you must have\nspecial capacities, as for anything else. In any of the sciences a man\nmay study without being the possessor of very special capacity,\nalthough he cannot attain eminence therein; and so it is with Yoga.\nAnybody with a fair intelligence may learn something from Yoga which he\nmay advantageously practice, but he cannot hope unless he starts with\ncertain capacities, to be a success in Yoga in this life. It is only\nright to say that; for if any special science needs particular\ncapacities in order to attain eminence therein, the science of sciences\ncertainly cannot fall behind the ordinary sciences in the demands that\nit makes on its students.\n\nSuppose I am asked: \u201cCan I become a great mathematician?\u201d What must be\nmy answer? \u201cYou must have a natural aptitude and capacity for\nmathematics to be a great mathematician. If you have not that capacity,\nyou cannot be a great mathematician in this life.\u201d But this does not\nmean that you cannot learn any mathematics. To be a great mathematician\nyou must be born with a special capacity for mathematics. To be born\nwith such a special capacity means that you have practiced it in very\nmany lives and now you are born with it ready-made. It is the same with\nYoga. Every man can learn a little of it. But to be a great Yogi means\nlives of practice. If these are behind you, you will have been born\nwith the necessary faculties in the present birth.\n\nThere are three faculties which one must have to obtain success in\nYoga. The first is a strong desire. \u201cDesire ardently.\u201d Such a desire is\nneeded to break the strong links of desire which knit you to the outer\nworld. Moreover, without that strong desire you will never go through\nall the difficulties that bat your way. You must have the conviction\nthat you will ultimately succeed, and the resolution to go on until you\ndo succeed. It must be a desire so ardent and so firmly rooted, that\nobstacles only make it more keen. To such a man an obstacle is like\nfuel that you throw on a fire. It burns but the more strongly as it\ncatches hold of it and finds it fuel for the burning. So difficulties\nand obstacles are but fuel to feed the fire of the yogi\u2019s resolute\ndesire. He only becomes the more firmly fixed, because he finds the\ndifficulties.\n\nIf you have not this strong desire, its absence shows that you are new\nto the work, but you can begin to prepare for it in this life. You can\ncreate desire by thought; you cannot create desire by desire. Out of\nthe desire nature, the training of the desire nature cannot come.\n\nWhat is it in us that calls out desire? Look into your own mind, and\nyou will find that memory and imagination are the two things that evoke\ndesire most strongly. Hence thought is the means whereby all the\nchanges in desire can be brought about. Thought, imagination, is the\nonly creative power in you, and by imagination your powers are to be\nunfolded. The more you think of a desirable object, the stronger\nbecomes the desire for it. Then think of Yoga as desirable, if you want\nto desire Yoga. Think about the results of Yoga and what it means for\nthe world when you have become a yogi, and you will find your desire\nbecoming stronger and stronger. For it is only by thought that you can\nmanage desire. You can do nothing with it by itself. You want the\nthing, or you do not want it, and within the limits of the desire\nnature you are helpless in its grasp. As just said, you cannot change\ndesire by desire. You must go into another region of your being, the\nregion of thought, and by thought you can make yourself desire or not\ndesire, exactly as you like, if only you will use the right means, and\nthose means, after all, are fairly simple. Why is it you desire to\npossess a thing? Because you think it will make you happier. But\nsuppose you know by past experience that in the long run it does not\nmake you happier, but brings you sorrow, trouble, distress. You have at\nonce, ready to your hands, the way to get rid of that desire. Think of\nthe ultimate results. Let your mind dwell carefully on all the painful\nthings. Jump over the momentary pleasure, and fix your thought steadily\non the pain which follows the gratification of that desire. And when\nyou have done that for a month or so, the very sight of those objects\nof desire will repel you. You will have associated it in your mind with\nsuffering, and will recoil from it instinctively. You will not want it.\nYou have changed the want, and have changed it by your power of\nimagination. There is no more effective way of destroying a vice than\nby deliberately picturing the ultimate results of its indulgence.\nPersuade a young man who is inclined to be profligate to keep in his\nmind the image of an old profligate; show him the profligate worn out,\ndesiring without the power to gratify; and if you can get him to think\nin that way, unconsciously he will begin to shrink from that which\nbefore attracted him; the very hideousness of the results frightens\naway the man from clinging to the object of desire. And the would-be\nyogi has to use his thought to mark out the desires he will permit, and\nthe desires that he is determined to slay.\n\nThe next thing after a strong desire is a strong will. Will is desire.\ntransmuted, its directing is changed from without to within. If your\nwill is weak, you must strengthen it. Deal with it as you do with other\nweak things: strengthen it by practice. If a boy knows that he has weak\narms, he says: \u201cMy arms are weak, but I shall practice gymnastics, work\non the parallel bars: thus my arms. will grow strong.\u201d It is the same\nwith the will. Practice will make strong the little, weak will that you\nhave at present.\n\nResolve, for example, saying: \u201cI will do such and such thing every\nmorning,\u201d and do it. One thing at a time is enough for a feeble will.\nMake yourself a promise to do such and such a thing at such a time, and\nyou will soon find that you will be ashamed to break your promise. When\nyou have kept such a promise to yourself for a day, make it for a week,\nthen for a fortnight. Having succeeded, you can choose a harder thing\nto do, and so on. By this forcing of action, you strengthen the will.\nDay after day it grows greater in power, and you find your inner\nstrength increases. First have a strong desire. Then transmute it into\na strong will.\n\nThe third requisite for Yoga is a keen and broad intelligence. You\ncannot control your mind, unless you have a mind to control. Therefore\nyou must develop your mind. You must study. By study, I do not mean the\nreading of books. I mean thinking. You may read a dozen books and your\nmind may be as feeble as in the beginning. But if you have read one\nserious book properly, then, by slow reading and much thinking, your\nintelligence will be nurtured and your; mind grow strong.\n\nThese are the things you want\u2014a strong desire, an indomitable will, a\nkeen. intelligence. Those are the capacities that you must unfold in\norder that the practice of Yoga may be possible to you. If your mind is\nvery unsteady, if it is a butterfly mind like a child\u2019s, you must make\nit steady. That comes by close study and thinking. You must unfold the\nmind by which you are to work.\n\n\nForthgoing and Returning\n\nIt will help you, in doing this and in changing your desire, if you\nrealise that the great evolution of humanity goes on along two\npaths\u2014the Path of Forthgoing, and the Path of Return.\n\nOn the Path, or marga, of Pravritti\u2014forthgoing on which are the vast\nmajority of human beings, desires are necessary and useful. On that\npath, the more desire a man has, the better for his evolution. They are\nthe motives that prompt to activity. Without these the stagnates, he is\ninert. Why should Isvara have filled the worlds with desirable objects\nif He did not intend that desire should be an ingredient in evolution?\nHe deals with humanity as a sensible mother deals -with her child. She\ndoes not give lectures to the child on the advantages of walking nor\nexplain to it learnedly the mechanism of the muscles of the leg. She\nholds a bright glittering toy before the child, and says: \u201cCome and get\nit.\u201d Desire awakens, and the child begins to crawl, and so it learns to\nwalk. So Isvara has put toys around us, but always just out of our\nreach, and He says: \u201cCome, children, take these. Here are love, money,\nfame, social consideration; come and get them. Walk, make efforts for\nthem.\u201d And we, like children, make great efforts and struggle along to\nsnatch these toys. When we seize the toy, it breaks into pieces and is\nof no use. People fight and struggle and toil for wealth, and, when\nthey become multi-millionaires, they ask: \u201cHow shall we spend this\nwealth?\u201d I read of a millionaire in America, who was walking on foot\nfrom city to city, in order to distribute the vast wealth which he\naccumulated. He learned his lesson. Never in another life will that man\nbe induced to put forth efforts for the toy of wealth. Love of fame,\nlove of power, stimulate men to most strenuous effort. But when they\nare grasped and held in the hand, weariness is the result. The mighty\nstatesman, the leader of the nation, the man idolised by\nmillions\u2014follow him home, and there you will see the weariness of\npower, the satiety that cloys passion. Does then God mock us with all\nthe objects? No. The object has been to bring out the power of the Self\nto develop the capacity latent in man, and in the development of human\nfaculty, the result of the great lila may be seen. That is the way in\nwhich we learn to unfold the God within us; that is the result of the\nplay of the divine Father with His children.\n\nBut sometimes the desire for objects is lost too early, and the lesson\nis but half learned. That is one of the difficulties in the India of\ntoday. You have a mighty spiritual philosophy, which was the natural\nexpression for the souls who were born centuries ago. They were ready\nto throw away the fruit of action and to work for the Supreme to carry\nout His Will.\n\nBut the lesson for India at the present time is to wake up the desire.\nIt may look like going back, but it is really a going forward. The\nphilosophy is true, but it belonged to those older souls who were ready\nfor it, and the younger souls now being born into the people are not\nready for that philosophy. They repeat it by rote, they are hypnotised\nby it, and they sink down into inertia, because there is nothing they\ndesire enough to force them to exertion. The consequence is that the\nnation as a whole is going downhill. The old lesson of putting\ndifferent objects before souls of different ages, is forgotten, and\nevery one is now nominally aiming at ideal perfection, which can only\nbe reached when the preliminary steps have been successfully mounted.\nIt is the same as with the \u201cSermon on the Mount\u201d in Christian\ncountries, but there the practical common sense of the people bows to\nit and\u2014ignores it. No nation tries to live by the \u201cSermon on the Mount\u201d\nIt is not meant for ordinary men and women, but for the saint. For all\nthose who are on the Path of Forthgoing, desire is necessary for\nprogress.\n\nWhat is the Path of Nivritti? It is the Path of Return. There desire\nmust cease; and the Self-determined will must take its place. The last\nobject of desire in a person commencing the Path of Return is the\ndesire to work with the Will of the Supreme; he harmonises his will\nwith the Supreme Will, renounces all separate desires, and thus works\nto turn the wheel of life as long as such turning is needed by the law\nof Life. Desire on the Path of Forthgoing becomes will on the Path of\nReturn; the soul, in harmony with the Divine, works with the law.\nThought on the Path of Forthgoing is ever alert, flighty and changing;\nit becomes reason on the Path of Return; the yoke of reason is placed\non the neck of the lower mind, and reason guides the bull. Work,\nactivity, on the Path of Forthgoing, is restless action by which the\nordinary man is bound; on the Path of Return work becomes sacrifice,\nand thus its binding force is broken. These are, then, the\nmanifestations of three aspects, as shown on the Paths of Forthgoing\nand Return.\n\nBliss manifested as desire is changed into will Wisdom manifested as\nthought is changed into reason. Activity manifested as work is changed\ninto sacrifice.\n\nPeople very often ask with regard to this: \u201cWhy is will placed in the\nhuman being as the correspondence of bliss in the Divine?\u201d The three\ngreat Divine qualities are: chit or consciousness; ananda or bliss; sat\nor existence. Now it is quite clear that the consciousness is reflected\nin intelligence in man\u2014the same quality, only in miniature. It is\nequally clear that existence and activity belong to each other. You can\nonly exist as you act outwards. The very form of the word shows It\n\u2014\u201cex, out of\u201d; it is manifested life. That leaves the third, bliss, to\ncorrespond with will, and some people are rather puzzled with that, and\nthey ask: \u201cWhat is the correspondence between bliss and will?\u201d But if\nyou come down to desire, and the objects of desire, you will be able to\nsolve the riddle. The nature of the Self is bliss. Throw that nature\ndown into matter and what will be the expression of the bliss nature?\nDesire for happiness, the seeking after desirable objects, which it\nimagines will give it the happiness which is of its own essential\nnature, and which it is continually seeking to realise amid the\nobstacles of the world. Its nature being bliss, it seeks for happiness\nand that desire for happiness is to be transmuted into will. All these\ncorrespondences have a profound meaning if you will only look into\nthem, and that universal \u201cwill-to-live\u201d translates itself as the\n\u201cdesire for happiness\u201d that you find in every man and woman, in every\nsentient creature. Has it ever struck you how surely you are justifying\nthat analysis of your own nature by the way you accept happiness as\nyour right, and resent misery, and ask what you have done to deserve\nit? You do not ask the same about happiness, which is the natural\nresult of your own nature. The thing that has to be explained is not\nhappiness but pain, the things that are against the nature of the Self\nthat is bliss. And so, looking into this, we see how desire and will\nare both the determination to be happy. But the one is ignorant, drawn\nout by outer objects; the other is self-conscious, initiated and ruled\nfrom within. Desire is evoked and directed from outside; and when the\nsame aspect rules from within, it is will. There is no difference in\ntheir nature. Hence desire on the Path of Forthgoing becomes will on\nthe Path of Return.\n\nWhen desire, thought and work are changed into will, reason and\nsacrifice, then the man is turning homewards, then he lives by\nrenunciation.\n\nWhen a man has really renounced, a strange change takes place. On the\nPath of Forthgoing, you must fight for everything you want to get; on\nthe Path of Return, nature pours her treasures at your feet. When a man\nhas ceased to desire them, then all treasures pour down upon him, for\nhe has become a channel through which all good gifts flow to those\naround him. Seek the good, give up grasping, and then everything will\nbe yours. Cease to ask that your own little water tank may be filled,\nand you will become a pipe, joined to the living source of all waters,\nthe source which never runs dry, the waters which spring up\nunfailingly. Renunciation means the power of unceasing work for the\ngood of all, work which cannot fail, because wrought by the Supreme\nWorker through His servant.\n\nIf you are engaged in any true work of charity, and your means are\nlimited and the wealth does not flow into your hands, what does it\nmean? It means that you have not yet learnt the true renunciation. You\nare clinging to the visible, to the fruit of action, and so the wealth\ndoes not pour through your hands.\n\n\nPurification of Bodies\n\nThe unfolding of powers belongs to the side of consciousness;\npurification of bodies belongs to the side of matter. You must purify\neach of your three working bodies\u2014mental, astral and physical. Without\nthat purification you had better leave yoga alone. First of all, how\nshall you purify the thought body? By right thinking. Then you must use\nimagination, your great creative tool, once more. Imagine things, and,\nimagining them, you will form your thought-body into the organisation\nthat you desire. Imagine something strongly, as the painter imagines\nwhen he is going to paint. Visualise an object if you have the power of\nvisualisation at all: if you have not, try to make it. It is an\nartistic faculty, of course, hut most people have it more or less. See\nhow far you can reproduce perfectly a face you see daily. By such\npractice you will be strengthening your imagination, and by\nstrengthening your imagination you will be making the great tool with\nwhich you have to practice in Yoga.\n\nThere is another use of the imagination which is very valuable. If you\nwill imagine in your thought-body the presence of the qualities that\nyou desire to have, and the absence of those which you desire not to\nhave, you are half-way to having and not having them. Also, many of the\ntroubles of your life might be weakened if you would imagine them on\nright lines before you have to go through them. Why do you wait\nhelplessly until you meet them in the physical world. If you thought of\nyour coming trouble in the morning, and thought of yourself as acting\nperfectly in the midst of it (you should never scruple to imagine\nyourself perfect), when the thing turned up in the day, it would have\nlost its power, and you would no longer feel the sting to the same\nextent. Now each of you must have in your life something that troubles\nyou. Think of yourself as facing that trouble and not minding it, and\nwhen it comes, you will be what you have been thinking. You might get\nrid of half your troubles and your faults, if you would deal with them\nthrough your imagination.\n\nAs the thought body, becomes purified in this way, you must turn to the\nastral body. The astral body is purified by right desire. Desire nobly,\nand the astral body will evolve the organs of good desires instead of\nthe organs of evil ones. The secret of all progress is to think and\ndesire the highest, never dwelling on the fault, the weakness, the\nerror, but always on the perfected power, and slowly in that way you\nwill be able to build up perfection in yourself. Think and desire,\nthen, in order to purify the thought body and the astral body.\n\nAnd how shall you purify the physical body? You must regulate it in all\nits activities\u2014in sleep, in food, in exercise, in everything. You\ncannot have a pure physical body with impure mental and astral bodies\nso that the work of imagination helps also in the purification of the\nphysical. But you must also regulate the physical body in all its\nactivities. Take for instance, food. The Indian says truly that every\nsort of food has a dominant quality in it, either rhythm, or activity,\nor inertia, and that all foods fall under one of these heads. Now the\nman who is to be a yogi must not touch any food which is on the way to\ndecay. Those things belong to the tamasic foods\u2014all foods, for\ninstance, of the nature of game, of venison, all food which is showing\nsigns of decay (all alcohol is a product of decay), are to be avoided.\nFlesh foods come under the quality of activity. All flesh foods are\nreally stimulants. All forms in the animal kingdom are built up to\nexpress animal desires and animal activities. The yogi cannot afford to\nuse these in a body meant for the higher processes of thought.\nVitality, yes, they will give that; strength, which does not last, they\nwill give that; a sudden spurs of energy, yes, meat will give that; but\nthose are not the things which the yogi wants; so he puts aside all\nthose foods as not available for the work he desires, and chooses his\nfood out of the most highly vitalised products. All the foods which\ntend to growth, those are the most highly vitalised, grain, out of\nwhich the new plant will grow, is packed full of the most nutritious\nsubstances; fruits; all those things which have growth as their next\nstage in the life cycle, those are the rhythmic foods, full of life,\nand building up a body sensitive and strong at the same time.\n\n\nDwellers on the Threshold\n\nOf these there are many kinds. First, elementals. They try to bar the\nastral plane against man. And naturally so, because they are concerned\nwith the building up of the lower kingdoms, these elementals of form,\nthe Rupa Devas; and to them man is a really hateful creature, because\nof his destructive properties. That is why they dislike him so much. He\nspoils their work wherever he goes, tramples down vegetable things, and\nkills animals, so that the whole of that great kingdom of nature hates\nthe name of man. They band themselves together to stop the one who is\njust taking his first conscious steps on the astral plane, and try to\nfrighten him, for they fear that he is bringing destructiveness into\nthe new world. They cannot do anything, if you do not mind them. When\nthat rush of elemental force comes against the man entering on the\nastral plane, he must remain quiet, indifferent, taking up the\nposition: \u201cI am a higher product of evolution than you are; you can do\nnothing to me. I am your friend, not your enemy, Peace!\u201d If he be\nstrong enough to take up that position, the great wave of elemental\nforce will roll aside and let him through. The seemingly causeless\nfears which some feel at night are largely due to this hostility. You\nare, at night, more sensitive to the astral plane than during the day,\nand the dislike of the beings on the plane for man is felt more\nstrongly. But when the elementals find you are not destructive, not an\nembodiment of ruin, they become as friendly to you as they were before\nhostile. That is the first form of the dweller on the threshold. Here\nagain the importance of pure and rhythmic food comes in; because if you\nuse meat and alcohol, you attract the lower elementals of the plane,\nthose that take pleasure in the scent of blood and spirits, and they\nwill inevitably prevent your seeing and understanding things clearly.\nThey will surge round you, impress their thoughts upon you, force their\nimpressions on your astral body, so that you may have a kind of shell\nof objectionable hangers-on to your aura, who will much obstruct you in\nyour efforts to see and hear correctly. That is the chief reason why\nevery one who is teaching Yoga on the right-hand path absolutely\nforbids indulgence in meat and alcohol.\n\nThe second form of the dweller on the threshold is the thought forms of\nour own past. Those forms, growing out of the evil of lives that lie\nbehind us, thought forms of wickedness of all kinds, those face us when\nwe first come into touch with the astral plane, really belonging to us,\nbut appearing as outside forms, as objects; and they try to scare back\ntheir creator. You can only conquer them by sternly repudiating them:\n\u201cYou are no longer mine; you belong to my past, and not to my present.\nI will give you none of my life.\u201d Thus you will gradually exhaust and\nfinally annihilate them. This is perhaps one of the most painful\ndifficulties that one has to face in treading the astral plane in\nconsciousness for the first time. Of course, where a person has in any\nway been mixed up with objectionable thought forms of the stronger\nkind, such as those brought about by practicing black magic, there this\nparticular form of the dweller will be much stronger and more\ndangerous, and often desperate is the struggle between the neophyte and\nthese dwellers from his past backed up by the masters of the black\nside.\n\nNow we come to one of the most terrible forms of the dwellers on the\nthreshold. Suppose a case in which a man during the past has steadily\nidentified himself with the lower part of his nature and has gone\nagainst the higher, paralysing himself, using higher powers for lower\npurposes, degrading his mind to be the mere slave of his lower desires.\nA curious change takes place in him. The life which belongs to the Ego\nin him is taken up by the physical body, and assimilated with the lower\nlives of which the body is composed. Instead of serving the purposes of\nthe Spirit, it is dragged away for tile purposes of the lower, and\nbecomes part of the animal life belonging to the lower bodies, so that\nthe Ego and his higher bodies are weakened, and the animal life of the\nlower is strengthened. Now under those conditions, the Ego will\nsometimes become so disgusted with his vehicles that when death\nrelieves him of the physical body he will cast the others quite aside.\nAnd even sometimes during physical life he will leave the desecrated\ntemple. Now after death, in these cases, the man generally reincarnates\nvery quickly; for, having torn himself away from his astral and mental\nbodies, he has no bodies with which to live in the astral and mental\nworlds, and he must quickly form new ones and come again to rebirth\nhere. Under these conditions the old astral and mental bodies are not\ndisintegrated when the new mental and astral bodies are formed and born\ninto the world, and the affinity between the old and new, both having\nhad the same owner, the same tenant, asserts itself, and the highly\nvitalised old astral and mental bodies will attach themselves to the\nnew astral and mental bodies, and become the most terrible form of the\ndweller on the threshold.\n\nThese are the various forms which the dweller may assume, and all are\nspoken of in books dealing with these particular subjects, though I do\nnot know that you will find anywhere in a single book a definite\nclassification like the above. In addition to these there are, of\ncourse, the direct attacks of the Dark Brothers, taking up various\nforms and aspects, and the most common form they will take is the form\nof some virtue which is a little bit in excess in the yogi. The yogi is\nnot attacked through his vices, but through his virtues; for a virtue\nin excess becomes a vice. It is the extremes which are ever the vices;\nthe golden mean is the virtue. And thus, virtues become tempters in the\ndifficult regions of the astral and mental worlds, and are utilised by\nthe Brothers of the Shadow in order to entrap the unwary.\n\nI am not here speaking of the four ordinary ordeals of the astral\nplane: the ordeals by earth, water, fire and air. Those are mere\ntrifles, hardly worth considering when speaking of these more serious\ndifficulties. Of course, you have to learn that you are entirely master\nof astral matter, that earth cannot crush you, nor water drown you,\netc. Those are, so to speak, very easy lessons. Those who belong to a\nMasonic body will recognise these ordeals as parts of the language they\nare familiar with in their Masonic ritual.\n\nThere is one other danger also. You may injure yourself by\nrepercussion. If on the astral plane you are threatened with danger\nwhich belongs to the physical, but are unwise enough to think it can\ninjure you, it will injure your physical body. You may get a wound, or\na bruise, and so on, out of astral experiences. I once made a fool of\nmyself in this way. I was in a ship going down and, as I was busy\nthere, I saw that the mast of the ship was going to fall and, in a\nmoment\u2019s forgetfulness, thought: \u201cThat mast will fall on me\u201d that\nmomentary thought had its result, for when I came back to the body in\nthe morning, I had a large physical bruise where the mast fell. That is\na frequent phenomenon until you have corrected the fault of the mind,\nwhich thinks instinctively the things which it is accustomed to think\ndown here.\n\nOne protection you can make for yourself as you become more sensitive.\nBe rigorously truthful in thought, in word, in deed. Every thought,\nevery desire, takes form in the higher world. If you are careless of\ntruth here, you are creating a whole host of terrifying and deluding\nforms. Think truth, speak truth, live truth, and then you shall be free\nfrom the illusions of the astral world.\n\n\nPreparation for Yoga\n\nPeople say that I put the ideal of discipleship so very high that\nnobody can hope to become a disciple. But I have not said that no one\ncan become a disciple who does not reproduce the description that is\ngiven of the perfect disciple. One may. But we do it at our own peril.\nA man may be thoroughly capable along one line, but have a serious\nfault along another. The serious fault will not prevent him from\nbecoming a disciple, but he must suffer for it. The initiate pays for\nhis faults ten times the price he would have had to pay for them as a\nman of the world. That is why I have put the ideal so high. I have\nnever said that a person must come utterly up to the ideal before\nbecoming a disciple, but I have said that the risks of becoming a\ndisciple without these qualifications are enormous. It is the duty of\nthose who have seen the results of going through the gateway with\nfaults in character, to point out that it is well to get rid of these\nfaults first. Every fault you carry through the gateway with you\nbecomes a dagger to stab you on the other side. Therefore it is well to\npurify yourself as much as you can, before you are sufficiently evolved\non any line to have the right to say: \u201cI will pass through that\ngateway.\u201d That is what I intended to be understood when I spoke of\nqualifications for discipleship. I have followed along the ancient road\nwhich lays down these qualifications which the disciple should bring\nwith him; and if he comes without them, then the word of Jesus is true,\nthat he will be beaten with many stripes; for a man can afford to do in\nthe outer world with small result what will bring terrible results upon\nhim when once he is treading the Path.\n\n\nThe End\n\nWhat is to be the end of this long struggle? What is the goal of the\nupward climbing, the prize of the great battle? What does the yogi\nreach at last? He reaches unity. Sometimes I am not sure that large\nnumbers of people, if they realised what unity means, would really\ndesire to reach it. There are many \u201cvirtues\u201d of your ordinary life\nwhich will drop entirely away from you when you reach unity. Many\nthings you admire will be no longer helps but hindrances, when the\nsense of unity begins to dawn. All those qualities so useful in\nordinary life\u2014such as moral indignation, repulsion from evil, judgment\nof others\u2014have no room where unity is realised. When you feel repulsion\nfrom evil, it is a sign that your Higher Self is beginning to awaken,\nis seeing the dangers of evil: he drags the body forcibly away from it.\nThat is the beginning of the conscious moral life. Hatred of evil is\nbetter at that stage than indifference to evil. It is a necessary\nstage. But repulsion cannot be felt when a man has realised unity, when\nhe sees God made manifest in man. A man who knows unity cannot judge\nanother. \u201cI judge no man,\u201d said the Christ. He cannot be repelled by\nanyone. The sinner is himself, and how shall he be repelled from\nhimself? For him there is no \u201cI\u201d or \u201cThee,\u201d for we are one.\n\nThis is not a thing that many honestly wish for. It is not a thing that\nmany honestly desire. The man who has realised unity knows no\ndifference between himself and the vilest wretch that walks the earth.\nHe sees only the God that walks in the sinner, and knows that the sin\nis not in the God but in the sheath. The difference is only there. He\nwho has realised the inner greatness of the Self never pronounces\njudgment upon another, knows that other as himself, and he himself as\nthat other\u2014that is unity. We talk brotherhood, but how many of us\nreally practice it? And even that is not the thing the yogi aims at.\nGreater than brotherhood are identity and realisation of the Self as\none. The Sixth Root Race will carry brotherhood to the highest point.\nThe Seventh Root Race will know identity, will realise the unity of the\nhuman race. To catch a glimpse of the beauty of that high conception,\nthe greatness of the unity in which \u201cI\u201d and \u201cmine,\u201d \u201cyou\u201d and \u201cyours\u201d\nhave vanished, in which we are all one life, even to do that lifts the\nwhole nature towards divinity, and those who can even see that unity is\nfair; they are the nearer to the realisation of the Beauty that is God.","title":"An Introduction to Yoga","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":33594}