Latest / Wisdom of the Ages Library / 06 - Book Two, Sutras 28-55 - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Transcript
- Book two Sutras twenty eight to fifty five. Sutra twenty eight. From steadfastly following after the means of yoga until impurity is worn away, there comes the illumination of thought up to full discernment. Here we enter on the more detailed practical teaching of Patangili, with its sound and luminous good sense. And when we come to detail the means of yoga, we may well be astonished at their simplicity. There is little in them that is mysterious. They are very familiar. The essence of the matter lies in carrying them out. Sutra twenty nine. The eight means of yoga are the commandments, the rules, right poise, right control of the life force, withdrawal, attention, meditation, templation. These eight means are to be followed in their order, in the sense which will immediately be made clear. We can get a ready understanding of the first two by comparing them with the commandments which must be obeyed by all good citizens, and the rules which are laid on the members of religious orders. Until one has fulfilled the first, it is futile to concern oneself with the second, and so with all the means of yoga, they must be taken in their order. Sutra thirty The commandments are these non injury, truthfulness, abstaining from stealing, from impurity, from covetousness. These five precepts are almost exactly the same as the Buddhist commandments not to kill, not to steal, not to be guilty of incontinence, not to drink intoxicants, to speak the truth. Almost identical is Saint Paul's list. Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet And in the same spirit is the answer made to the young man having great possessions who asked what shall I do to be saved? And receive the reply Keep the commandments. This broad general training, which forms and develops human character, must be accomplished to a very considerable degree before there can be much hope of success in the further stages of spiritual life, first the psychical and then the spiritual. First the man, then the angel. On this broad, humane and wise foundation is the system of potentially rest suit Tra thirty one. The commandments, not limited to any race, place, time, or occasion. Universal are the great obligation. The smandments form the broad general training of humanity. Each one of them rests on a universal spiritual law. Each one of them expresses an attribute or aspect of the self, the eternal. When we violate one of the commandments, we set ourselves against the law and being of the eternal, thereby bringing ourselves to inevitable confusion. So the first steps in spiritual life must be taken by bringing ourselves into voluntary obedience to these spiritual laws, and thus making ourselves partakers of the spiritual powers the being of the eternal, Like the law of gravity the need of air to breathe, these great laws know no exceptions. Therein force in all lands, throughout all times, for all mankinds Sutra thirty two. The rules are these purity, serenity, fervent aspiration, spiritual reading, and perfect obedience to the Master. Here we have a finer law, one which humanity as a whole is less ready for, less fit to obey. Yet we can see that these rules are the same in essence as the commandments, but on a higher, more spiritual plane. The commandments may be obeyed in outer acts and abstinences. The rules demand obedience of the heart and spirit, a far more awakened and more positive consciousness. The rules are the spiritual counterpart of the commandments, and they have finer degrees for more advanced spiritual growth. Suitra thirty three. When transgressions hinder the weight of the imagination should be thrown on the opposite side. Let us take a simple case that of a thief, a habitual criminal who has drifted into stealing in childhood before the moral consciousness has awakened. We may imprison to thief and deprive him of all possibility of further theft or of using the divine gift of will. Or we may recognize his disadvantages and help him gradually to build up possessions which express his will and draw forth his self respect. If we imagine that after he has built well and his possessions have become dear to him, he himself is robbed, then we can see how he would come vividly to realize the essence of theft and of honesty, and would cleave to honest dealings with firm conviction. In some such way, does the Great Law teach us our sorrows and losses teach us the pain of the sorrow and loss we inflict on others, and so we cease to inflict them. Now, as to the more direct application to conquer a sin, let heart and mind rest not on the sin, but on the contrary virtue. Let the sin be forced out by positive growth in the true direction, not by direct opposition. Turn away from the sin, and go forward, courageously, constructively, creatively, in well doing. In this way, the whole nature will gradually be drawn up to the higher level on which the sin does not even exist. The conquest of a sin is a matter of growth and evolution, rather than of opposition. Suitra thirty four. Transgressions are injury, falsehood, theft, incontinence, envy, whether committed or caused or assented to through greed, wrath or infatuation, whether faint or middling or excessive, bearing endless fruit of ignorance and pain. Therefore must the weight be cast on the other side. Here are the causes of sin, greed, wrath, infatuation, with their effects ignorance and pain. The us are to be cured by better wisdom, by a truer understanding of the self of life. For greed cannot endure before the realization that the whole world belongs to the Self, which self we are. Nor can we hold wrath against one who is one with the Self and therefore with ourselves. Nor can infatuation, which is the seeking for the happiness of the all in some limited part of it, survive the knowledge that we are heirs of the All. Therefore, let thought and imagination, mind and heart throw their weight on the other side, the side not of the world, but of the Self Suitra thirty five. Where non injury is perfected, all enmity ceases in the presence of him who possesses it. We come now to the spiritual powers which result from keeping the commandments, from the obedience to spiritual law, which is the keeping of the commandments. If the heart is full of kindness, which seeks no injury to another, either in act or thought or wish, this full love creates an atmosphere of harmony, whose benign power touches with healing all who come within its influence. Peace in the heart radiates peace to other hearts, even more surely than contention breeds contention Sutra thirty six. When he is perfected in truth, all acts and their fruits depend on him. The commentator thus explains, if he who has attained should say to a man, become righteous, the man becomes righteous. If he should say gain heaven, the man gains heaven. His word is not in vain. Exactly the same doctrine was taught by the Master, who said to his disciples, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remit, they are omitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. Sutra thirty seven. Where cessation from theft is perfected, all treasures present themselves to him who possesses it. Here is a sentence which may warn us that beside the outer and apparent meaning, there is in many of these sentences a second and finer significance. The obvious meaning is that he who has wholly ceased from theft in act, thought, and wish finds buried treasures in his path, treasures of jewels and gold and pearls. The deeper truth is that he who, in every least thing is wholly honest with the spirit of life, finds life supporting him in all things, and gains admittance to the treasure house of life, the spiritual universe Sutra thirty eight. For him who is perfect in content. The reward is valor and virility. The creative power, strong and full of vigor, is no longer dissipated, but turned to spiritual uses. It upholds and endows the spiritual man, conferring on him the creative will the power to engender spiritual children instead of bodily progeny. An epoch of life, that of man the animal, has come to an end. A new epoch, that of the spiritual man, is opened. The old creative power is superseded and transcended. A new creative power, that of the spiritual man, takes its place, carrying with it the power to work creatively in others for righteousness and eternal life. One of the commentaries says that he who is attained is able to transfer to the minds of his disciples what he knows concerning divine union and the means of gaining it. This is one of the powers of purity Suture thirty nine. Where there is firm conquest of covetousness, he who has conquered it awakes to the how and why of life. So it is said that before we can understand the laws of karma, we must free ourselves from karma. The conquest of covetousness brings this rich fruit. Because the root of covetousness is the desire of the individual soul, the will towards manifested life, and where the desire of the individual soul is overcome by the superb still life of the universal soul welling up in the heart within, the great secret is discerned, the secret that the individual soul is not an isolated reality, but the ray, the manifest instrument of the life, which turns it this way, and that until the great work is accomplished, the age long lesson learned. Thus is the how and why of life disclosed by ceasing from covetousness. The commentator says that this includes a knowledge of one's former births Sutra forty through purity, a withdrawal from one's own bodily life, a ceasing from infatuation with the bodily life of others. As the spiritual light grows in the heart within, as the taste for pure life grows stronger, the consciousness opens towards the great secret places within where all life is one, where all lives are one. Thereafter this outer manifested fugitive life whether of ourselves or of others, loses something of its charm and glammer, and we seek rather the deep infinitudes instead of the outer form and surroundings of our lives. We long for their inner and everlasting essence. We desire not so much outer converse and closeness to our friends, but rather the quiet communion with them in the inner chamber of the soul, where spirit speaks to spirit, and spirit answers, where alienation and separation never enter, where sickness and sorrow and death cannot come. Suitra forty one, to the peer of heart comes also a quiet spirit. One pointed thought. The victory over sensuality and fitness to behold the soul. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, who is the supreme Soul, the ultimate self of all beings. In the deepest sense. Purity means fitness for this vision, and also a heart cleansed from all disquiet, from all wandering and unbridled thought, from the torment of sensuous imaginings. And when the spirit is thus cleansed and pure, it becomes at one in essence with its source, the Great Spirit, the primal life, one consciousness, now thrills through both. For the psychic partition wall is broken down, then shall the pure in heart see God, because they become God Sutra forty two. From acceptance, the disciple gains happiness supreme. One of the wise has said, accept conditions, accept others, accept yourself. This is the true acceptance, for all these things are what they are through the will of the higher Self. Accept their deficiencies, which come through thwarting the will of the higher Self, and can be conquered only through compliance with that will. By the true acceptance, the disciple comes into oneness of spirit with the overruling soul. And since the own nature of the soul is being happiness bliss, he comes thereby into happiness supreme Suitra forty three. The perfection of the powers of the bodily vesture comes through the wearing a way of impurities and through fervent aspiration. This is true of the physical powers and of those which dwell in the higher vestures. There must be first purity, as the blood must be pure before one can attain to physical health. But the absence of impurity is not in itself enough, else would many nerveless ascetics of the cloisters rank as high saints. There is needed further, a positive fire of the will, a keen, vital vigor for the physical powers, and something finer, purer, stronger, but of kindredessence for the higher powers. The fire of genius is something more than a phrase, for there can be no genius without the celestial fire of the awakened spiritual will Sutra of forty four. Through spiritual reading, the disciple gains communion with the divine power on which his heart is set. Spiritual reading meant for ancient India something more than it does with us. It meant first the recital of sacred texts, which in their very sounds had mystical potencies. And it meant a recital of texts which were divinely emanated and held in themselves the living potent essence of the divine. For us, spiritual reading means a communing with the recorded teachings of the masters of wisdom, whereby we read ourselves into the Master's mind, just as through his music one can enter into the mind and soul of the master musician. It has been well said that all true art is contagion of feeling, so that through the true reading of true books. We do indeed read ourselves into the spirit of the masters, share in the atmosphere of their wisdom and power, and come at last into their very presence. Sutra forty five. Sole vision is perfected through perfect obedience to the Master. The sorrow and darkness of life come of the erring personal will, which sets itself against the will of the soul, the one great life. The error of the personal will is inevitable, since each will must be free to choose, to try and fail, and so to find the path. And sorrow and darkness are inevitable until the path be found and the personal will made once more one with the greater will, wherein it finds rest and power without losing freedom. In His will is our peace, and with that piece comes light. Soul vision is perfected through obedience Sutra forty six. Right poise must be firm and without strain. Here we approach section of the teaching which has manifestly a twofold meaning. The first is physical and concerns the bodily position of the student and the regulation of breathing. These things have their direct influence upon soul life, the life of the spiritual man, since it is always and everywhere true that our study demands a sound mind in a sound body. The present sentence declares that for work and for meditation, the position of the body must be steady and without strain, in order that the finer currents of life may run their course. It applies further to the poise of the soul, that fine balance and stability which nothing can shake, where the consciousness rests on the firm foundation of spiritual being. This is indeed the house set upon a rock which the winds and waves beat upon. In Vain Sutra forty seven, right poise is to be gained by steady and temperate effort, and by setting the heart upon the everlasting Here again there is the two folds meaning. For physical poise is to be gained by steady effort of the muscles, by gradual and wise training, linked with the right understanding of and relation with the universal force of gravity. Uprightness of body demands that both these conditions shall be fulfilled in like manner. The firm and upright poise of the spiritual man is to be gained by steady and continued effort, always guided by wisdom, and by setting the heart on the eternal filling the soul with the atmosphere of the spiritual world. Neither is effective without the other. Aspiration without effort brings weakness. Effort without aspiration brings a false strength, not resting on enduring things. The two together make for the right poise, which sets the spiritual man firmly and steadfastly on his feet. Sutra forty eight. The fruit of right poise is the strength to resis the shocks of infatuation or sorrow. In the simpler physical sense, which is also covered by the wording of the original, this sentence means that wise effort establishes such bodily poise that the accidents of life cannot disturb it, as the captain remains steady though disaster overtake his ship. But the deeper sense is far more important. The spiritual man, too must learn to withstand all shocks. Shoul remain steadfast through the perturbations of external things and the storms and whirlwinds of the psychical world. This is the power which is gained by wise, continuous effort and by filling the spirit with the atmosphere of the eternal Sutra forty nine. When this is gained, there follows the right guidance of the life currents, the control of the incoming and outgoing breath. It is well understood today that most of our maladies from impure conditions of the blood. It is coming to be understood that right breathing, right oxygenation will do very much to keep the blood clean and pure. Therefore, a right knowledge of breathing is a part of the science of life. But the deeper meaning is that the spiritual man, when he has gained poise through right effort and aspiration, can stand firm and guide the currents of his life, both the incoming current of events and the outgoing current of his acts. Exactly the same symbolism is used in the saying, not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man, But that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth the man. Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart. Out of the heart procede evil thoughts, murders, uncleanness, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Therefore, the first step in purification is to keep the commandments Sutra fifty. The life current is either outward or inward, or balanced. It is regulated according to place, time, number. It is prolonged and subtle. The technical physical side of this has its value. In the breath. There should be right in breathing, followed by the period of pause when the air comes into contact with the blood, and this again followed by right out breathing even steady silence. Further, the lung should be evenly filled. Many maladies may arise from the neglect and consequent weakening of some region of the lungs, and the number of breaths is so important, so closely related to health, that every nurse's chart records it. But the deeper meaning is concerned with the currents of life, with that which goeth into and cometh out of the heart Sutra fifty one the fourth degree and sends external and internal objects. The inner meaning seems to be that, in addition to the three degrees of control already described, control that is over the incoming current of life, over the outgoing current, and over the condition of pause or quiescence, there is a fourth degree of control which holds in complete mastery both the outer passage of events and the inner current of thoughts and emotions, a condition of perfect poise and stability in the midst of the flux of things outward and inward Sutra fifty two. Thereby is worn away the veil which covers up the light. The veil is the psychic nature. The web of emotions desires argumentative trains of thought, which cover up and obscure the truth by absorbing the entire attention and keeping the consciousness in the psychic realm. When hopes and fears are reckoned at their true worth and comparison with lasting possessions of the soul, when the outer reflections of things have ceased to distract us from inner realities, when argumentative thought no longer entangles us, but yields its place to flashing intuition, the certainty which springs from within, then is the veil worn away. The consciousness is drawn from the psychical to the spiritual, from the temporal to the eternal. Then is the light unveiled Sutra fifty three. Thence comes the mind's power to hold itself in the light. It has been well said that what we most need is the faculty of spiritual attention. And in the same direction of thought, it has been eloquently declared that prayer does not consist in our catching God's attention, but rather in our allowing God to hold our attention. The vital matter is that we need to disentangle our consciousness from the noisy and perturbed thraldom of the psychical, and to come to consciousness as the spiritual man. This we must do first by purification through the commandments and the rules, and second through the faculty of spiritual attention, by steadily heeding endless fine intimations of the spiritual power within us, and by intending our consciousness there too. Thus, by degrees transferring the center of consciousness from the psychical to the spiritual. It is a question first of love and then of attention. Sutra fifty four. The right withdrawal is the disengaging of the powers from entanglement in outer things, as the psychic nature has been withdrawn and stilled. To understand this, let us reverse the process and think of the one consciousness centered in the soul, gradually expanding and taking on the form of the different perceptive powers. The one will, at the same time differentiating itself into the varied powers of action. Now, let us imagine this to be reversed, so that the spiritual force, which has gone into the differentiated powers, is once more gathered together into the inner power of intuition and spiritual will, taking on that unity which is the hall mark of spiritual things, as diversity is the seal of material things. It is all a matter of love, for the quality of spiritual consciousness as against psychical consciousness of love and attention. For where the heart is, there will the treasure be Also, where the consciousness is, there will the vesture, with its powers be developed Sutra fifty five. Thereupon follows perfect mastery over the powers. When the spiritual condition which we have described is reached with its purity, poise, and illuminated vision, the spiritual man is coming into his inheritance and gaining complete mastery of his powers. Indeed, much of the struggle to keep the commandments and the rules has been paving the way for this mastery. Through this very struggle and sacrifice, the mastery has become possible. Just as to use Saint Paul Simile, the athlete gains the mastery in the contest and the race through the sacrifice of his long and arduous training. Thus he gains the crown. End of Book two,