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09 - Book Three, Sutras 37-55 - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali · Sacred Texts Archive

• Book three Sutras thirty seven to fifty five Sutra thirty seven. These powers stand in contradistinction to the highest spiritual vision in manifestation, they are called magical powers. The divine man is destined to supersede the spiritual man. As the spiritual man supersedes the natural man, then the disciple becomes a master. The opened powers of the spiritual man, spiritual vision, hearing, and touch, stand therefore in contradistinction to the higher divine power above them, and must in no wise be regarded as the end of the way, for the path has no end, but rises ever to higher and higher glories. The soul's growth and splendor have no limit, so that if the spiritual powers we have been considering are regarded as in any sense final, they are a hindrance, a barrier to the far higher powers of the divine man. But viewed from below, from the standpoint of normal physical experience, there are powers true magical. As the power is natural to a four dimensional being will appear magical to a three dimensional being su Tra thirty eight. Through the weakening of the causes of bondage and by learning the method of passing, the consciousness is transferred to the other body. In due time, after the spiritual man has been formed and grown stable through the forces and virtues already enumerated, and after the senses of the spiritual man have awaked, there comes the transfer of the dominant consciousness, the sense of individuality, from the physical to the spiritual man. Thereafter, the physical man is felt to be a secondary, a subordinate, an instrument through whom the spiritual man works, and the spiritual man is felt to be the real individuality. This is, in a sense, the attainment to full salvation and immortal life. Yet it is not the final goal or resting place, but only the beginning of the greater way. The means for this transfer are described as the weakening of the causes of bondage and an understanding of the method of passing from the one consciousness to the other. The first may also be described as detachment, and comes from the conquest of the delusion that the personal self is the real man. When that delusion abates and is held in check, the finer consciousness of the spiritual man begins to shine in the background of the mind. The transfer of the sense of individuality to this finer consciousness and thus to the spiritual man then becomes a matter of recollection of attention, primarily a matter of taking a deeper interest in the life and doings of the spiritual man than in the pleasures or occupations of the personality. Therefore, it is said, they not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust cloth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steel, But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust cloth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steel. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also Sutra thirty nine. Through mastery of the upward life comes freedom from the dangers of water, morass, and thorny places, and the power of ascension is gained. Here is one of the sentences so characteristic of this author and indeed of the Eastern Spirit, in which there is an obvious exterior meaning, and within this a clear interior meaning, not quite so obvious, but far more vital. The surface meaning is that by mastery of a certain power here called the upward life, and akin to levitation, there comes the ability to walk on water or to pass over thorny places without wounding the feet. But there is a deeper meaning. When we speak of the disciple's path as a path of thorns, we use a symbol, and the same symbol is used here. The upward life means something more than the power often manifested in an abnormal psychical experiences of levitating the physical body or nearby physical objects. It means the strong power of aspiration, of upward will, which first builds and then awakes the spiritual man, and finally transfers the conscious individuality to him. For it is he who passes safely over the waters of death and rebirth and is not pierced by the thorns in the path. Therefore, it is said that he who would tread the path of power must look for a home in the air and afterwards in the ether of this upward life. This is written in the Kata Upanishad. A hundred and one are the hearts channels of these one passes to the crown. Going up this he comes to the immortal. This is the power of ascension spoken of in the Sutra Sutra forty. By mastery of the binding life comes radiance. In the Upanishads, it is said that this binding life unites the upward life to the downward life, and these lives have their analogies in the vital breaths in the body. The thought in the text seems to be that when the personality is brought thoroughly under control of the spiritual man through the life currents which bind them together, the personality is endowed with a new force, a strong personal magnetism. One might call it such as is often an appendage of genius. But the text seems to mean more than this, and to have in view the vesture of the color of the sun attributed by the Upanishads to the spiritual man. That vesture which a disciple has thus described, The Lord shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. Perhaps body of radiance would better translate the Greek. In both these passages, the teaching seems to be that the body of the full grown spiritual man is radiant or luminous for those at least to have anointed their eyes with eyes salve, so that they see Sutra forty one. From perfectly concentrated meditation on the correlation of hearing and the ether comes the power of spiritual hearing. Physical sound, we are told, is carried by the air, or by water, iron, or some other medium on the same plane of substance. But there is a finer hearing whose medium of transmission would seem to be the ether. Perhaps not that ether which carries light, heat, and magnetic waves, but it may be the far finer ether through which the power of gravity works. For while light or heat or magnetic waves traveling from the Sun to the Earth take eight minutes for the journey, it is mathematically certain that the pole of gravitation does not take as much as eight seconds, or even the eighth of a second. The pull of gravitation travels it would seem as quick as thought. So it may well be that in thought transference or telepathy, the thoughts travel by the same way, carried by the same thought swift medium. The transfer of a word by telepathy is the simplest and earliest form of the divine hearing of the spiritual man. As that power grows, and as through perfectly concentrated meditation, the spiritual man comes into more complete mastery of it. He grows able to hear and clearly distinguish the speech of the great companions who counsel and comfort him on his way they may speak to him, either in wordless thoughts or in perfectly definite words and sentences. Sutra forty two. By perfectly concentrated meditation on the correlation of the body with the ether, and by thinking of it as light as thistle down, will come the power to traverse the ether. It has been said that he who would tread the path of power must look for a home in the air, and afterwards in the ether. This would seem to mean, besides the constant, injunction to detachment, that he must be prepared to inhabit first a psychic and then an etheric body, the former being the body of dreams, the latter the body of the spiritual man when he wakes up on the other side of dream land. The gradual accustoming of the consciousness to its new etheric vesture, its gradual acclimatization, so to speak, in the etheric body of the spiritual man, is what our text seems to contemplate. Sutra forty three. When that condition of consciousness is reached, which is far reaching and not confined to the body, which is outside the body and not conditioned by it, then the veil which conceals the light is worn away. Perhaps the best common on this is afforded by the words of Paul. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago. Whether in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell. God knoweth such a one caught up to the third Heaven. And I knew such a man. Whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. God knoweth how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable or unspoken words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. The condition is briefly that of the awakened spiritual man who sees and hears beyond the veil Sutra forty four. Mastery of the elements comes from perfectly concentrated meditation on their five forms, the gross, the elemental, the subtle, the inherent, the proposive. These five forms are analogous to those recognized by modern physics solid, liquid, gaseous, radiant, and ionic. When the piercing vision of the awakened spiritual man is directed to the forms of matter from within, as it were, from behind the scenes, then perfect mastery over the beggarly elements is attained. This is perhaps equivalent to the injunction inquire of the earth, the air, and the water. Of the secrets they hold for you. The development of your inner senses will enable you to do this Sutra forty five. Thereupon will come the manifestation of the atomic and other powers, which are the endowment of the body, together with its unassailable force. The body in question is, of course, the etheric body of the spiritual man. He is said to possess eight powers. The atomic the power of assimilating himself with the nature of the atom, which will perhaps involve the power to disintegrate material forms. The power of levitation, the power of limitless extension, the power of boundless reach, so that, as the commentator says, he can touch the moon with the tip of his finger. The power to accomplish his will, the power of gravitation, the correlative of levitation, the power of command, the power of creative will. These are the endowments of the spiritual man. Further, the spiritual body is unassailable. Fire burns it not, water wets it not, the sword cleaves it not, dry winds parch it not. And it is said the spiritual man can impart something of this quality and temper to his bodily Vesture Sutra forty six. Shapeliness, beauty, force, the temper of the diamonds. These are the endowments of that body. The spiritual man is shapely, beautiful, strong, firm is the diamond. Therefore it is written these things. Saith the son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. Heath it overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him. While I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, And I will give him the Morning Star Sutra forty seven. Mastery over the powers of perception and action come through perfectly concentrated meditation on their five fold forms, namely, their power to grasp their distinctive nature, the element of self consciousness in them, their inheritance, and their propulsiveness. Take for example, sight. This possesses first the power to grasp, apprehend, perceive. Second, it has its distinctive form of perception, that is visual perception. Third, it always carries with its operations self consciousness, the thought I perceive. Fourth, sight has the power of extension through the whole field of vision, even to the utmost star. Fifth, it is used for the purposes of the seer, so with the other senses. Perfectly concentrated meditation on each sense, a viewing it from behind and within, as is possible for the spiritual man, brings a mastery of the scope and true character of each sense, and of the world on which they report collectively. Sutra forty eight. Thence comes the power swift as thought independent of instruments, and the mastery over matter. We are further enumerting the endowments of the spiritual man. Among these is the power to traverse space with the swiftness of thought, so that whatever place the spiritual man thinks of, to that he goes in that place he already is thought now has become his means of locomotion. He is therefore independent of instruments, and can bring his force to bear directly wherever he wills Sutra forty nine. When the spiritual man is perfectly disentangled from the psychic body, he attains to mastery over all things and to a knowledge of all The spiritual man is enmeshed in the web of the emotions desire, fear, ambition, passion, and impeded by the mental forms of separateness and materialism. When these meshes are sundered, these obstacles completely overcome, then the spiritual man stands forth in his own wide world, strong, mighty, wise. He uses divine powers with the divine scope and energy, working together with divine companions to such a one. It is said, thou art now a disciple, able to stand, able to hear, able to see, able to speak. Thou hast conquered desire and attained to self knowledge. Thou hast seen thy soul in its bloom, and recognized it and heard the voice of the Silence Sutra fifty. By absence of all self indulgence. At this point, when the seeds of bondage to sorrow are destroyed, pure spiritual being is attained. The seeking of indulgence for the personal self, whether through passion or ambition, sows the seed of future sorrow. For this self. Indulgence of the personality is a double sin against the real, a sin against the cleanness of life, and a sin against the universal being, which permits no exclusive particular good. Since in the real all spiritual possessions are held in common. This twofold sin brings its reacting punishment its confining bondage to sorrow, but ceasing from sid self indulgence brings purity, liberation spiritual life. Sutra fifty one. There should be complete overcoming of allurement or pride in the invitations of the different realms of life, lest attachment to things evil arise once more, the commentator tells us the disciples seekers for union are of four degrees. First those who are entering the path, Second those who are in the realm of allurements. Third, those who have won the victory over matter and the senses. Fourth, those who stand firm in pure spiritual life. To the second, especially, the caution in the text is addressed. More modern teachers would express the same truth by a warning against the delusions and fascinations of the psychic realm which open around the disciple as he breaks through into the unseen worlds. These are the dangers of the ante room. Safety lies in passing on swiftly into the inner chamber him that overcometh. Will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out Sutra fifty two. From perfectly concentrated meditation on the divisions of time and their succession comes that wisdom which is born of discernment. The Upanishads say of the liberated that he has passed beyond the triad of time. He no longer sees life as projected into past, present, and future, since these are forms of the mind, but beholds all things spread out in the quiet light of the eternal. This would seem to be the same thought, and to point to that clear eyed spiritual perception which is above time, that wisdom born of the unveiling of time's delusion. Then shall the disciple live neither in the present nor the future, but in the eternal. Sutra fifty three. Hence comes discernment between things which are of like nature, not distinguished by difference of kind, character, or position. Here, as also in the preceding sutra, we are close to the doctrine. The distinctions of order, time, and space are creations of the mind, the threefold prism through which the real object appears to us, distorted and refracted. When the prism is withdrawn, the object returns to its primal unity, no longer distinguishable by the mind, yet clearly knowable by that high power of spiritual discernment, of illumination, which is above the mind. Sutra fifty four. The wisdom which is born of discernment is starlike. It discerns all things and all conditions of things. It discerns without succession simultaneously. That wisdom, that intuitive divining power, is starlike, says the commentator, because it shines with its own light, because it rises on high and illumines. All things. Nought is hid from it, whether things past, things present, or things to come, For it is beyond the threefold form of time, so that all things are spread before together in the single light of the divine. This power has been beautifully described by Columba. Some there are, though very few, to whom divine grace has granted this, that they can clearly and most distinctly see, at one and the same moment, as though under one ray of the sun, even the entire circuit of the whole world, with its surroundings of ocean and sky, the inmost part of their mind being marvelously enlarged. Sutra fifty five. When the vesture and the spiritual man are alike pure, then perfect spiritual life is attained. The vesture, says the commentator, must first be washed pure of all stains of passion and darkness, and the seeds of future sorrow must be burned up utterly. Then both the vesture and the wearer of the vesture being alike pure, the spiritual man enters into perfect spiritual life. End of Book three.