Latest / Sacred Texts Archive / 03 - Book One, Sutras 30-51 - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Transcript
- Book one Sutras thirty to fifty one. Sutra thirty. The barriers to interior consciousness which drive the psychic nature this way and that are these sickness, inertia, doubt, light mindedness, laziness, intemperance, false notions, inability to reach a stage of meditation or to hold it when reached. We must remember that we are considering the spiritual man is enwrapped and enmeshed by the psychic nature, the emotional and mental powers, and is unable to come to clear consciousness, unable to stand and see clearly because of the psychic veils of the personality. Nine of these are enumerated, and they go pretty thoroughly into the brute toughness of the psychic nature. Sickness is included rather for its effect on the emotions and mind, since bodily infirmity such as blindness or deafness, is no insuperable barrier to spiritual life, and may sometimes be a help as cutting off distractions. It will be well for us to ponder over each of these nine activities, thinking of each as a psychic state, a barrier to the interior consciousness of the spiritual man. Sutra thirty one grieving, despondency, bodily restlessness. The drawing in and sending forth of a life breath also contribute to drive the psychic nature to and fro. The first two moods are easily understood. We can well see how a sudden psychic condition flagrantly opposed to the pure and positive joy of spiritual life would be a barrier. The next, bodily restlessness, is, in a special way the fault of our day and generation. When it is conquered, mental restlessness will be half conquered too. The next two terms concerning the life breath offer some difficulty. The surface meaning is harsh and irregular breathing. The deeper meaning is a life of harsh and irregular impulses. Sutra thirty two. Steady application to a principle is the way to put a stop to these. The will, which in its pristine state was full of vigor, has been steadily corrupted by self indulgence, the seeking of moods and sensations for sensation's sake. Hence come all the morbid and sickly moods of the mind. The remedy is a return to the pristine state of the will by vigorous positive effort, or, as we are here told, by steady application to a principle. The principle to which we should thus steadily apply ourselves should be one arising from the reality of spiritual life, valorous work for the soul in others as in ours ourselves Sutra thirty three. By sympathy with the happy, compassion for the sorrowful, delight in the holy, disregard of the unholy, the psychic nature moves to gracious peace. When we are wrapped up in ourselves, shrouded with the cloak of our egotism, absorbed in our pains and bitter thoughts. We are not willing to disturb our, strain our own sickly mood by giving kindly sympathy to the happy, thus doubling their joy, or by showing compassion for the sad, thus having their sorrow. We refuse to find delight in holy things, and let the mind brood in sad pessimism on unholy things. All these evil psychic moods must be conquered by strong effort of will. This rending of the veils will reveal to us something of the grace and peace which are of the interior consciousness of the spiritual man. Four or peace may be reached by the even sending forth and control of the life breath. Here again we may look for a double meaning, first that even and quiet breathing, which is a part of the victory over bodily restlessness. Then the even and quiet tenor of life without harsh or dissonance impulses, which brings stillness to the heart. Suitra thirty five. Faithful persistent application to any object, if completely attained, will bind the mind to steadiness. We are still considering how to overcome the wavering and perturbation of the psychic nature, which make it quite unfit to transmit the inward consciousness and stillness. We are once more told to use the will and to train it by steady and persistent work, by sitting close to our work. In the phrase of the original thirty six, as also will a joyful, radiant spirit. There is no such allusion as gloomy pessimism, and it has been truly said that a man's cheerfulness is the measure of his faith. Gloom, despondency, the pale cast of thought are very amenable to the will. Sturdy and courageous effort will bring a clear and valorous mind. But it must always be remembered that this is not for solace to the personal man, but is rather an offering to the ideal of spiritual life, a contribution to the universal and universally shared treasure in heaven Sutra thirty seven, or the purging of self indulgence from the psychic nature. We must recognize that the fall of man is a reality exemplified in our own persons. We have quite other sins than the animals, and far more deleterious, and they have all come through self indulgence, with which our psychic natures are soaked through and through. As we climbed downhill for our pleasure, so must we climb up again for our purification and restoration to our former high estate. The process is painful, perhaps yet indispensable. Sutra thirty eight, or a pondering on the perceptions gained in dreams and dreamless sleep for the Eastern stages. Dreams are, it is true, made up of images of waking life, reflections of what the eyes have seen and the ears heard. But dreams are something more, for the images are in a sense real, objective on their own plane, and the knowledge that there is another world, even a dream world lightens the tyranny of material life. Much of poetry and art is such a solace from dream lands. But there is more in dream for it may image what is above as well as what is below. Not only the children of men, but also the children by the shore of the immortal sea that brought us hither, may throw their images on this magic mirror. So too, of the secrets of dreamless sleep, with its pure vision an even greater degree Suitra thirty nine, or meditative brooding on what is dearest to the heart. Here is a thought which our own day is beginning to grasp, that love is a form of knowledge, that we truly know any thing or any person by becoming one therewith in love. Thus love has a wisdom that the minds cannot claim. And by this hearty love, this becoming one with what is beyond our personal borders, we may take a long step toward freedom. Two directions for this may be suggested, the pure love of the artist for his work, and the earnest, compassionate search into the hearts of others Sutra forty. Thus he masters all from the atom to the infinite. Newton was asked how he made his discoveries by intending my mind on them. He replied, this steady pressure, this becoming one with what we seek to understand, whether it be atom or soul, is the one means to know. When we become a thing, we really know it, not otherwise, therefore live the life to know the doctrine, do the will of the Father if he would know the Father Sutra forty one. When the perturbations of the psychic nature have all been stilled, then the consciousness, like a pure crystal, takes the color of what it rests on, whether that be the perceiver, perceiving, or thing perceived. This is a fuller expression of the last sutra, and is so lucid that comment can hardly add to it. Everything is either perceiver, perceiving, or the thing perceived, or as we might say, consciousness, force or matter. The stage tells us that the one key will unlock the secrets of all three, the secrets of consciousness, force, and matter alike. The thought is that the cordial sympathy of a gentle heart intuitively understanding the hearts of others is really a manifestation of the same power as that penetrating perception, whereby one divines the secrets of planetary motions or atomic structure Sutra forty two. When the consciousness poised and perceiving blends together the name, the object dwelt on, and the idea. This is perception with exterior consideration. In the first stage of the consideration of an external object, the perceiving mind comes to it preoccupied by the name and idea conventionally associated with that object. For example, in coming to the study of a book, we think of the author, his period, the school to which he belongs. The second stage, set forth in the next sutra, goes directly to the spiritual meaning of the book, setting its traditional trappings aside, and finding its application to our own experience and problems. The commentator takes a very simple illustration a cow, where one considers in the first stage the name of the cow, the animal itself, and the idea of a cow in the mind. In the second stage, one pushes these trappings aside, and, entering into the inmost being of the cow, shares its consciousness, as do some of the artists who paint cows. They get at the very life of what they study in paints Sutra forty three, when the object dwells in the mind, clear of memory, pictures uncolored by the mind, as a pure luminous idea. This is perception without exterior consideration. We are still considering external visible objects. Such perception, as is here described, is of the nature of that penetrating vision whereby Newton intending his mind on things made his discoveries, or that whereby a really great portrait painter pierces to the soul of him whom he paints and makes that soul live on canvas. These stages of perception are described in this way to lead the mind up to an understanding of the piercing soul vision of the spiritual man the Immortal Sutra forty four. The same two steps, when referring to things of finer substance, are said to be with or without judicial action of the mind. We now come to mental or psychical objects, to objects in the mind. It is precisely by comparing, arranging, and superposing these mind images that we get our general notions or concepts. This process of analysis and synthesis, whereby we select certain qualities in a group of mind images and then range together those of like quality, is the judicial action of the mind spoken of. But when we exercise swift divination upon the mind images, as does a poet or a man of genius, then we use a power higher than the judicial, and one nearer to the keen vision of the spiritual man Sutra forty five. Subtle substance rises in ascending degrees to that pure nature which has no distinguishing mark. As we ascend from outer material things, which are permeated by separateness, and whose chief characteristic is to be separate, just as so many pebbles are separate from each other. As we ascend first to mind images, which overlap and coalesce in both space and time, and then to ideas and principles, we finally come to purer essences, drawing ever nearer and nearer to unity. Or we may illustrate this principle. Thus, our bodily external selves are quite distinct and separate in form, name, place, substance. Our mental selves of finer substance meet and part meet and part again in perpetual concussion and interchange. Our spiritual cells attain true consciousness through unity, where the partition well between us and the highest, between us and others is broken down, and we are all made perfect in the one. The highest riches are possessed by all pure souls only when united. Thus we rise from separation to true individuality in Unity Sutra forty six. The above are the degrees of limited and conditioned spiritual consciousness, still containing the seed of separateness. In the four stages of perception above described, the spiritual vision is still working through the mental and psychical. The inner genius is still expressed through the outer personal man. The spiritual man has yet to come completely to consciousness as himself in his own realm, the psychical veils laid aside Sutra forty seven. When pure perception without judicial action of the mind is reached, there follows the gracious peace of the inner self. We have instanced certain types of this pure perception, the poet's divination, whereby he sees the spirit within the symbol, likeness in things unlike, and beauty in all things. The pure insight of the true philosopher, whose vision rests not on the appearances of life but on its realities, or the saint's firm perception of spiritual life and being. All these are far advanced on the way. They have drawn nearer to the secret dwelling of peace Sutra forty eight. In that piece perception is unfailingly true, the poet, the wise philosopher, and the saint not only reach a wide and luminous consciousness, but they gain certain knowledge of substantial reality. When we know, we know that we know, for we have come to the stage where we know things by being them, and nothing can be more true than being. We rest on the rock and know it to be rock rooted in the very heart of the world Sutra forty nine. The object of this perception is other than what is learned from the sacred books or by sound inference. Since this perception is particular, the distinction is a luminous and inspiring one. The scriptures teach general truths concerning universal spiritual life and broad laws, and inference from their teaching is not less general. But the spiritual perception of the awakened seer brings particular truth concerning his own particular life and needs, whether these be for himself or others. He receives defined, precise knowledge exactly applying to what he has at heart Sutra fifty. The impress on the consciousness springing from this perception supersedes all previous impressions. Each state or field of the mind, each field of knowledge, so to speak, which is reached by mental and emotional energies, is a psychical state. Just as a mind picture of a stage with the actors on it is a psychical state or field. When the pure vision, as of the poet, the philosopher, the saint, fills the whole field, all lesser views and visions are crowded out. This high consciousness displaces all lesser consciousness. Yet in a certain sense, that which is viewed as part, even by the vision of a stage, has still an element of illusion, a thin psychical veil. However pure and luminous that veil may be. It is the last and highest psychic state Sutra fifty one. When this impression ceases, then, since all impressions have ceased, there arises pure spiritual consciousness, with no seed of separateness left. The last psychic veil is drawn aside, and the spiritual man stands with unveiled vision, pure serene. End of Book one, Suitras thirty to fifty one.