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01 - Introduction to Book One - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: The Yoga Sutras of Patangli The Book of the Spiritual Man,
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  Speaker 1: an interpretation by Charles Johnston, Bengal Civil Service, Retired Indian
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  Speaker 1: Civil Service, Sanskrit Prizeman, Dublin University, Sanskrit Prizemen. The Yoga
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  Speaker 1: Sutras of Patanjali are in themselves exceedingly brief, less than
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  Speaker 1: ten pages of large type in the original. Yet they
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  Speaker 1: contain the essence of practical wisdom set forth in admirable
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  Speaker 1: order and detail. The theme, if the present interpreter be right,
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  Speaker 1: is the great regeneration, the birth of the spiritual from
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  Speaker 1: the psychical man, the same theme which Paul so wisely
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  Speaker 1: and eloquently set forth in writing to his disciples in Corinth,
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  Speaker 1: the theme of all mystics in all lands. We think
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  Speaker 1: of ourselves as living a purely physical life in these
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  Speaker 1: material bodies of ours. In reality, we have gone far, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: from pure physical life. For ages, our life has been psychical.
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  Speaker 1: We have been centered and immersed in the psychic nature.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the schools of India say that the psychic
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  Speaker 1: nature is, as it were, a looking glass, wherein are
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  Speaker 1: mirrored the things seen by the physical eyes, unheard by
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  Speaker 1: the physical ears. But this is a magic mirror. The
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  Speaker 1: images remain and take a certain life of their own. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: within the psychic realm of our life, there grows up
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  Speaker 1: in imaged worlds, wherein we dwell a world of the
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  Speaker 1: images of things seen and heard, and therefore a world
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  Speaker 1: of memories, a world also of hopes and desires, of
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  Speaker 1: fears and regrets. Mental life grows up among these images,
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  Speaker 1: built on a measuring and comparing, on the massing of
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  Speaker 1: images together into general ideas, on the abstraction of new
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  Speaker 1: notions and images from these, till the new world is
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  Speaker 1: built up within, full of desires and hates, ambition, envy, longing, speculation, curiosity,
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  Speaker 1: self will, self interest. The teaching of the East is
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  Speaker 1: that all these are true powers, overlaid by false desires.
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  Speaker 1: That though in manifestation psychical, they are in us in spiritual,
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  Speaker 1: that the psychical man is the veil and prophecy of
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  Speaker 1: the spiritual man. The purpose of life, therefore is the
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  Speaker 1: realizing of that prophecy, the unveiling of the immortal man,
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  Speaker 1: the birth of the spiritual from the psychical, whereby we
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  Speaker 1: enter our divide inheritance and come to inhabit eternity. This
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  Speaker 1: is indeed salvation, the purpose of all true religion. In
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  Speaker 1: all times, Potangali has in mind the spiritual man to
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  Speaker 1: be borne from the psychical. His purpose is to set
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  Speaker 1: in order the practical means for the unveiling and regeneration,
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  Speaker 1: and to indicate the fruit, the glory, and the power
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  Speaker 1: of that new birth. Through the Sutras of the first book,
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  Speaker 1: Potangley is concerned with the first great problem, the emergence
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  Speaker 1: of the spiritual man from the veils and meshes of
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  Speaker 1: the psychic nature, the moods and vestures of the mental
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  Speaker 1: and emotional man. Later will come the consideration of the
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  Speaker 1: nature and powers of the spiritual man, once he stands
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  Speaker 1: clear of the psychic veils and trammels, and a view
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  Speaker 1: of the realms in which these new spiritual powers are
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  Speaker 1: to be revealed. At this point may come a word
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  Speaker 1: of explanation. I have been asked why I use the
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  Speaker 1: word sutras for these rules of Potangley's system, when the
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  Speaker 1: word aphorism has been connected with them in our minds
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  Speaker 1: for a generation. The reason is this, the name aphorism
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  Speaker 1: suggests to me, at least a pithy sentence of very
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  Speaker 1: general application. A piece of proverbial wisdom that may be
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  Speaker 1: quoted in a good many sets of circumstances, and which
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  Speaker 1: will almost bear on its face the evidence of its truth.
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  Speaker 1: But with the sutra the case is different. It comes
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  Speaker 1: from the same root as the word so and means
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  Speaker 1: indeed a thread, suggesting therefore a close knit, consecutive chain
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  Speaker 1: of argument. Not only has each sutra a definite place
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  Speaker 1: in the system, but further taken out of this place,
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  Speaker 1: it will be almost meaningless, and will by no means
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  Speaker 1: be self evident. So I have thought best to adhere
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  Speaker 1: to the original word. The sutras of Patangli are as
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  Speaker 1: closely knit together, as dependent on each other as the
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  Speaker 1: propositions of Euclid, and can no more be taken out
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  Speaker 1: of their proper setting. In the second part of the
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  Speaker 1: first book, the problem of the emergence of the spiritual
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  Speaker 1: man is further dealt with. We are led to the
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  Speaker 1: consideration of the barriers to his emergence, of the overcoming
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  Speaker 1: of the barriers, and of certain steps and stages in
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  Speaker 1: the ascent from the ordinary consciousness of practical life to
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  Speaker 1: the finer, deeper, radiant consciousness of the spiritual man. End
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  Speaker 1: of introduction to book one,