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03 - Book One, Sutras 30-51 - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali · Wisdom of the Ages Library

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Book one Sutras thirty to fifty one. Sutra thirty. The barriers to interior
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consciousness which drive the psychic nature this way and that are these sickness, inertia,
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doubt, light mindedness, laziness, intemperance, false notions, inability to
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reach a stage of meditation or to hold it when reached. We must remember
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that we are considering the spiritual man is enwrapped and enmeshed by the psychic nature,
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the emotional and mental powers, and is unable to come to clear consciousness,
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unable to stand and see clearly because of the psychic veils of the personality.
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Nine of these are enumerated, and they go pretty thoroughly into the brute
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toughness of the psychic nature. Sickness is included rather for its effect on the
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emotions and mind, since bodily infirmity such as blindness or deafness, is no
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insuperable barrier to spiritual life, and may sometimes be a help as cutting off
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distractions. It will be well for us to ponder over each of these nine
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activities, thinking of each as a psychic state, a barrier to the interior
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consciousness of the spiritual man. Sutra thirty one grieving, despondency, bodily restlessness.
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The drawing in and sending forth of a life breath also contribute to drive
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the psychic nature to and fro. The first two moods are easily understood.
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We can well see how a sudden psychic condition flagrantly opposed to the pure and
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positive joy of spiritual life would be a barrier. The next, bodily restlessness,
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is, in a special way the fault of our day and generation.
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When it is conquered, mental restlessness will be half conquered too. The next
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two terms concerning the life breath offer some difficulty. The surface meaning is harsh
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and irregular breathing. The deeper meaning is a life of harsh and irregular impulses.
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Sutra thirty two. Steady application to a principle is the way to put
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a stop to these. The will, which in its pristine state was full
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of vigor, has been steadily corrupted by self indulgence, the seeking of moods
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and sensations for sensation's sake. Hence come all the morbid and sickly moods of
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the mind. The remedy is a return to the pristine state of the will
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by vigorous positive effort, or, as we are here told, by steady
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application to a principle. The principle to which we should thus steadily apply ourselves
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should be one arising from the reality of spiritual life, valorous work for the
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soul in others as in ours ourselves Sutra thirty three. By sympathy with the
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happy, compassion for the sorrowful, delight in the holy, disregard of the
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unholy, the psychic nature moves to gracious peace. When we are wrapped up
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in ourselves, shrouded with the cloak of our egotism, absorbed in our pains
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and bitter thoughts. We are not willing to disturb our, strain our own
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sickly mood by giving kindly sympathy to the happy, thus doubling their joy,
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or by showing compassion for the sad, thus having their sorrow. We refuse
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to find delight in holy things, and let the mind brood in sad pessimism
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on unholy things. All these evil psychic moods must be conquered by strong effort
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of will. This rending of the veils will reveal to us something of the
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grace and peace which are of the interior consciousness of the spiritual man. Four
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or peace may be reached by the even sending forth and control of the life
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breath. Here again we may look for a double meaning, first that even
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and quiet breathing, which is a part of the victory over bodily restlessness.
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Then the even and quiet tenor of life without harsh or dissonance impulses, which
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brings stillness to the heart. Suitra thirty five. Faithful persistent application to any
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object, if completely attained, will bind the mind to steadiness. We are
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still considering how to overcome the wavering and perturbation of the psychic nature, which
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make it quite unfit to transmit the inward consciousness and stillness. We are once
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more told to use the will and to train it by steady and persistent work,
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by sitting close to our work. In the phrase of the original thirty
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six, as also will a joyful, radiant spirit. There is no such
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allusion as gloomy pessimism, and it has been truly said that a man's cheerfulness
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is the measure of his faith. Gloom, despondency, the pale cast of
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thought are very amenable to the will. Sturdy and courageous effort will bring a
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clear and valorous mind. But it must always be remembered that this is not
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for solace to the personal man, but is rather an offering to the ideal
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of spiritual life, a contribution to the universal and universally shared treasure in heaven
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Sutra thirty seven, or the purging of self indulgence from the psychic nature.
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We must recognize that the fall of man is a reality exemplified in our own
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persons. We have quite other sins than the animals, and far more deleterious,
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and they have all come through self indulgence, with which our psychic natures
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are soaked through and through. As we climbed downhill for our pleasure, so
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must we climb up again for our purification and restoration to our former high estate.
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The process is painful, perhaps yet indispensable. Sutra thirty eight, or
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a pondering on the perceptions gained in dreams and dreamless sleep for the Eastern stages.
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Dreams are, it is true, made up of images of waking life,
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reflections of what the eyes have seen and the ears heard. But dreams
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are something more, for the images are in a sense real, objective on
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their own plane, and the knowledge that there is another world, even a
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dream world lightens the tyranny of material life. Much of poetry and art is
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such a solace from dream lands. But there is more in dream for it
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may image what is above as well as what is below. Not only the
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children of men, but also the children by the shore of the immortal sea
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that brought us hither, may throw their images on this magic mirror. So
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too, of the secrets of dreamless sleep, with its pure vision an even
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greater degree Suitra thirty nine, or meditative brooding on what is dearest to the
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heart. Here is a thought which our own day is beginning to grasp,
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that love is a form of knowledge, that we truly know any thing or
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any person by becoming one therewith in love. Thus love has a wisdom that
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the minds cannot claim. And by this hearty love, this becoming one with
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what is beyond our personal borders, we may take a long step toward freedom.
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Two directions for this may be suggested, the pure love of the artist
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for his work, and the earnest, compassionate search into the hearts of others
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Sutra forty. Thus he masters all from the atom to the infinite. Newton
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was asked how he made his discoveries by intending my mind on them. He
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replied, this steady pressure, this becoming one with what we seek to understand,
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whether it be atom or soul, is the one means to know.
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When we become a thing, we really know it, not otherwise, therefore
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live the life to know the doctrine, do the will of the Father if
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he would know the Father Sutra forty one. When the perturbations of the psychic
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nature have all been stilled, then the consciousness, like a pure crystal,
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takes the color of what it rests on, whether that be the perceiver,
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perceiving, or thing perceived. This is a fuller expression of the last sutra,
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and is so lucid that comment can hardly add to it. Everything is
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either perceiver, perceiving, or the thing perceived, or as we might say,
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consciousness, force or matter. The stage tells us that the one key
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will unlock the secrets of all three, the secrets of consciousness, force,
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and matter alike. The thought is that the cordial sympathy of a gentle heart
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intuitively understanding the hearts of others is really a manifestation of the same power as
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that penetrating perception, whereby one divines the secrets of planetary motions or atomic structure
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Sutra forty two. When the consciousness poised and perceiving blends together the name,
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the object dwelt on, and the idea. This is perception with exterior consideration.
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In the first stage of the consideration of an external object, the perceiving
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mind comes to it preoccupied by the name and idea conventionally associated with that object.
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For example, in coming to the study of a book, we think
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of the author, his period, the school to which he belongs. The
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second stage, set forth in the next sutra, goes directly to the spiritual
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meaning of the book, setting its traditional trappings aside, and finding its application
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to our own experience and problems. The commentator takes a very simple illustration a
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cow, where one considers in the first stage the name of the cow,
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the animal itself, and the idea of a cow in the mind. In
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the second stage, one pushes these trappings aside, and, entering into the
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inmost being of the cow, shares its consciousness, as do some of the
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artists who paint cows. They get at the very life of what they study
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in paints Sutra forty three, when the object dwells in the mind, clear
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of memory, pictures uncolored by the mind, as a pure luminous idea.
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This is perception without exterior consideration. We are still considering external visible objects.
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Such perception, as is here described, is of the nature of that penetrating
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vision whereby Newton intending his mind on things made his discoveries, or that whereby
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a really great portrait painter pierces to the soul of him whom he paints and
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makes that soul live on canvas. These stages of perception are described in this
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way to lead the mind up to an understanding of the piercing soul vision of
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the spiritual man the Immortal Sutra forty four. The same two steps, when
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referring to things of finer substance, are said to be with or without judicial
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action of the mind. We now come to mental or psychical objects, to
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objects in the mind. It is precisely by comparing, arranging, and superposing
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these mind images that we get our general notions or concepts. This process of
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analysis and synthesis, whereby we select certain qualities in a group of mind images
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and then range together those of like quality, is the judicial action of the
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mind spoken of. But when we exercise swift divination upon the mind images,
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as does a poet or a man of genius, then we use a power
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higher than the judicial, and one nearer to the keen vision of the spiritual
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man Sutra forty five. Subtle substance rises in ascending degrees to that pure nature
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which has no distinguishing mark. As we ascend from outer material things, which
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are permeated by separateness, and whose chief characteristic is to be separate, just
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as so many pebbles are separate from each other. As we ascend first to
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mind images, which overlap and coalesce in both space and time, and then
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to ideas and principles, we finally come to purer essences, drawing ever nearer
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and nearer to unity. Or we may illustrate this principle. Thus, our
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bodily external selves are quite distinct and separate in form, name, place,
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substance. Our mental selves of finer substance meet and part meet and part again
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in perpetual concussion and interchange. Our spiritual cells attain true consciousness through unity,
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where the partition well between us and the highest, between us and others is
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broken down, and we are all made perfect in the one. The highest
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riches are possessed by all pure souls only when united. Thus we rise from
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separation to true individuality in Unity Sutra forty six. The above are the degrees
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of limited and conditioned spiritual consciousness, still containing the seed of separateness. In
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the four stages of perception above described, the spiritual vision is still working through
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the mental and psychical. The inner genius is still expressed through the outer personal
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man. The spiritual man has yet to come completely to consciousness as himself in
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his own realm, the psychical veils laid aside Sutra forty seven. When pure
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perception without judicial action of the mind is reached, there follows the gracious peace
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of the inner self. We have instanced certain types of this pure perception,
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the poet's divination, whereby he sees the spirit within the symbol, likeness in
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things unlike, and beauty in all things. The pure insight of the true
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philosopher, whose vision rests not on the appearances of life but on its realities,
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or the saint's firm perception of spiritual life and being. All these are
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far advanced on the way. They have drawn nearer to the secret dwelling of
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peace Sutra forty eight. In that piece perception is unfailingly true, the poet,
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the wise philosopher, and the saint not only reach a wide and luminous
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consciousness, but they gain certain knowledge of substantial reality. When we know,
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we know that we know, for we have come to the stage where we
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know things by being them, and nothing can be more true than being.
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We rest on the rock and know it to be rock rooted in the very
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heart of the world Sutra forty nine. The object of this perception is other
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than what is learned from the sacred books or by sound inference. Since this
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perception is particular, the distinction is a luminous and inspiring one. The scriptures
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teach general truths concerning universal spiritual life and broad laws, and inference from their
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teaching is not less general. But the spiritual perception of the awakened seer brings
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particular truth concerning his own particular life and needs, whether these be for himself
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or others. He receives defined, precise knowledge exactly applying to what he has
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at heart Sutra fifty. The impress on the consciousness springing from this perception supersedes
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all previous impressions. Each state or field of the mind, each field of
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knowledge, so to speak, which is reached by mental and emotional energies,
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is a psychical state. Just as a mind picture of a stage with the
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actors on it is a psychical state or field. When the pure vision,
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as of the poet, the philosopher, the saint, fills the whole field,
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all lesser views and visions are crowded out. This high consciousness displaces all
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lesser consciousness. Yet in a certain sense, that which is viewed as part,
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even by the vision of a stage, has still an element of illusion,
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a thin psychical veil. However pure and luminous that veil may be.
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It is the last and highest psychic state Sutra fifty one. When this impression
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ceases, then, since all impressions have ceased, there arises pure spiritual consciousness,
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with no seed of separateness left. The last psychic veil is drawn aside,
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and the spiritual man stands with unveiled vision, pure serene. End of
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Book one, Suitras thirty to fifty one.