Latest / Sacred Texts Archive / 11 - Book 4, Sutras 1-34 - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Transcript

11 - Book 4, Sutras 1-34 - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali · Sacred Texts Archive

0:00
Book four Sutra one. Psychic and spiritual powers may be inborn, or they
0:09
may be gained by the use of drugs, or by incantations, or by
0:14
fervor, or by meditation. Spiritual powers have been enumerated and described in the
0:22
preceding section. They are the normal powers of the spiritual man, the antetype,
0:27
the divine edition of the powers of the natural man. Through these powers,
0:32
the spiritual man stands, sees, hears speaks in the spiritual world,
0:38
as the physical man stands, sees hears speaks in the natural world. There
0:45
is a counterfeit presentment of the spiritual man in the world of dreams, a
0:50
shadow, lord of shadows, who has his own dreamy powers of vision,
0:55
of hearing, of movement. He has left the natural without reaching the spiritual.
1:00
He has set forth from the shore, but has not gained the further
1:04
verge of the river. He is borne along by the stream, with no
1:07
foothold on either shore, leaving the actual. He has fallen short of the
1:12
real, caught in the limbo of vanities and delusions. The cause of this
1:19
aberran phantasm is always the worship of a false, vain self, the lord
1:23
of dreams, within one's own breast. This is the psychic man, lord
1:30
of delusive and bewildering psychic powers. Spiritual powers, like intellectual or artistic gifts,
1:38
may be inborn the fruit, that is, of seeds planted and reared
1:44
with toil in a former birth. So also the powers of the psychic man
1:49
may be inborn a delusive harvest from seeds of delusion. Psychical powers may be
1:57
gained by drugs, as power already shame debasement may be gained by the self.
2:04
Same drugs. In their action, they are baneful, cutting the man
2:07
off from consciousness of the restraining power of his divine nature, so that his
2:12
forces break forth exuberant, like the laughter of drunkards, and he sees and
2:16
hears things delusive. While sinking, he believes that he has risen, growing
2:23
weaker, he thinks himself full of strength, beholding illusions, he takes them
2:29
to be true. Such are the powers gained by drugs. They are holy
2:34
psychic, since the real powers, the spiritual, can never be so gained.
2:40
Incantations are affirmations of half truth concerning spirit and matter, what is and
2:46
what is not, which work upon the mind and slowly build up a wraith
2:50
of powers and a delusive well being. These two are of the psychic realm
2:54
of dreams. Lastly, there are the true powers of the spiritual man,
3:00
built up and realized in meditation through reverent obedience to spiritual law, to the
3:07
pure condition of being in the divine realm Sutritut. The transfer of powers from
3:16
one venture to another comes through the flow of the natural creative forces. Here,
3:23
if we can perceive it, is the whole secret of spiritual birth,
3:27
growth, and life. Spiritual being, like all being, is but an
3:32
expression of the self, of the inherent power and being of Atma. Inherent
3:38
in the self are consciousness and will, which have as their lordly heritage the
3:43
wide sweep of the universe throughout eternity. For the self is one with the
3:46
eternal, and the consciousness of the Self may make itself manifest as seeing,
3:53
hearing, tasting, feeling, or whatsoever perceptive powers there may be. Just
3:59
as the white sun light may divide into many colored rays, so may the
4:03
will of the Self manifest itself in the uttering of words, or in handling,
4:09
or in moving, and whatever powers of action there are throughout the seven
4:13
worlds. Where the Self is, there will its powers be. It is
4:18
but a question of the vesture through which these powers shall shine forth. And
4:24
wherever the consciousness and desire of the ever creative self are fixed, there will
4:28
a vesture be built up. Where the heart is there will the treasure be
4:31
also. Since through the ages the desire of the self has been toward the
4:36
natural world, wherein the self sought to mirror himself that he may know himself.
4:42
Therefore a vesture of natural elements came into being, through which blossomed forth
4:46
the self's powers of perceiving and of will, the power to see, to
4:49
hear, to speak, to walk, to handle. And when the Self
4:56
thus come to self consciousness, and with it to a knowledge of his imprison
5:00
shall set his desire on the divine and real world, and raise his consciousness
5:03
there too, the spiritual vesture shall be built up for him there, with
5:08
its expression of his inherent powers. Nor will migration thither be difficult for the
5:13
self, since the divine is no strange or form land for him, but
5:17
the house of his home, where he dwells. From Everlasting Sutra three,
5:27
the apparent immediate cause is not the true cause of the creative nature powers.
5:32
But like the husbandman in his field, it takes obstacles away. The husbandman
5:40
tills his field, breaking up the clods of earth into fine mold, penetrable
5:45
to air and rain. He sows his seed, carefully covering it for fear
5:49
of birds and the wind. He waters the seed laden earth, turning the
5:54
little rills from the irrigation tank. Now this way and that, removing obstacles
5:58
from the channels, until the even hal of water vitalizes the whole field.
6:04
And so the plants germinate and grow, first the blade, then the air,
6:10
then the full corn in the air. But it is not the husbandman
6:15
who makes them grow. It is first the miraculous plasmic power in the grain
6:19
of seed, which brings forth after its kind. Then the alchemy of sunlight,
6:26
which, in the presence of the green coloring matter of leaves, gathers
6:30
hydrogen from the water and carbon from the gases in the air and mingles them
6:33
in the hydrocarbons of plant growth. And finally the holy occult vital powers of
6:40
the plant itself, stored up through ages and flowing down from the primal sources
6:45
of life. The husbandman but removes the obstacles he plants and waters. But
6:53
God gives the increase. So with the finer husbandman of diviner fields, he
6:59
till and sows. But the growth of the spiritual man comes through the surge
7:03
and flow of divine creative forces and powers. Here again God gives the increase.
7:12
The divine Self puts forth for the manifestation of its powers, a new
7:15
and finer vesture, the body of the spiritual man, Sutraphour vestures of consciousness
7:27
are built up in conformity with the feeling of selfhood. The self, says
7:33
a great teacher, in turn, attaches itself to three vestures, first to
7:39
the physical body, then to the finer body, and thirdly to the causal
7:44
body. Finally, it stands forth radiance, luminous, joyous as the self.
7:50
When the self attributes itself to the physical body, there arises the states
7:56
of bodily consciousness built up about the physical self. When the self, breaking
8:01
through this first illusion, begins to see and feel itself in the finer body,
8:07
to find selfhood. There then the states of consciousness of the finer body
8:11
come into being. Or, to speak exactly, the finer body and its
8:16
states of consciousness arise and grow together. But the self must not dwell permanently.
8:22
There it must learn to find itself in the causal body, to build
8:26
up the wide and luminous fields of consciousness that belong to that. Nor must
8:31
it dwell forever there, for there remains the fourth state, the Divine,
8:37
with its own splendor and everlastingness. It is all a question of the states
8:43
of consciousness, all a question of raising the sense of selfhood until it dwells
8:46
forever in the eternal sutrifive in the different fields of manifestation. The consciousness,
9:00
though one, is the elective cause of many states of consciousness. Here is
9:07
the splendid teaching of oneness that lies at the heart of the Eastern wisdom.
9:11
Consciousness is ultimately one, everywhere and forever, the eternal the Father is the
9:18
one's self of all beings, and so in each individual, who was but
9:24
a facet of that self, consciousness is one. Whether it breaks through as
9:28
the dull fire of physical life, or the murky flame of the psychic and
9:33
passional, or the radiance of the spiritual man, or the full glory of
9:39
the divine, it is ever the light, not but the light. The
9:43
one. Consciousness is the effective cause of all states of consciousness on every plane.
9:52
Sutra six among states of consciousness, that which is born of kantu implati
10:01
is free from the seed of future sorrow. Where the consciousness breaks forth in
10:07
the physical body and the full play of bodily life begins, its progression carries
10:13
with it inevitable limitations. Birth involves death, Meetings have their partings. Hunger
10:22
alternates with satiety. Age follows on the heels of youth. So do the
10:28
states of consciousness run along the circle of birth and death. With the psychic,
10:35
the alternation between prize and penalty is swifter. Hope has its shadow of
10:39
fear, or it is no hope. Exclusive love is tortured by jealousy.
10:46
Pleasure passes through deadness into pain. Pain surcease brings pleasure back again. So
10:54
here too the states of consciousness run their circle. In all psychic states there
11:00
is egotism, which indeed is the very essence of the psychic. And where
11:05
there is egotism, there is ever the seed of future sorrow. Desire carries
11:09
bondage in its womb. But where the pure spiritual consciousness begins, free from
11:16
self and stain, the ancient law of retaliation ceases, the penalty of sorrow
11:20
lapses and is no more imposed. The soul now passes no longer from sorrow
11:26
to sorrow, but from glory to glory. Its growth and splendor have no
11:31
limit. The good passes to better best suits seven. The works of followers
11:43
after union make neither for bright pleasure nor for dark pain. The works of
11:48
others make for pleasure or pain, or a mingling of these. The man
11:56
of desire wins from his works the reward of pleasure, or incurs the penalty
12:01
of pain, or, as so often happens in life, his gurden.
12:05
Like the passionate mood of the lover. His part pleasure and part pain.
12:11
Works done with self seeking bear within them the seeds of future sorrow. Conversely,
12:16
according to the proverb, present pain his future gain. But for him
12:22
who is gone beyond desire, whose desire is set on the eternal, neither
12:26
pain to be avoided nor pleasure to be gained inspires his work. He fears
12:31
no hell and desires no heaven. His one desire is to know the will
12:37
of the Father and finish his work. He comes directly in line with the
12:41
divine will, and works cleanly and immediately, without longing or fear. His
12:46
heart dwells in the eternal. All his desires are set on the eternal suture.
12:54
Eight. From the force inherent in works comes the manifestation of those tynamic
13:00
mind images which are conformable to the ripening out of each of these works.
13:05
We are now to consider the general mechanism of karma, in order that we
13:09
may pass on to the consideration of him who is free from karma. Karma,
13:13
indeed, is the concern of the personal man of his bondage or freedom.
13:18
It is a succession of the forces which built up the personal man,
13:22
reproducing themselves in one personality after another. Now let us take an imaginary case
13:28
to see how these forces may work out. Let us think of a man
13:33
with murderous intent in his heart, striking with a dagger at his enemy.
13:37
He makes a red wound in his victim's breast. At the same instant he
13:43
paints in his own mind a picture of that wound, a picture dynamic with
13:48
all the fierce will power he has put into his murderous blow. In other
13:52
words, he has made a deep wound in his own psychic body, And
13:56
when he comes to be born again, that body will become his outermost vesture,
14:01
upon which, with its wounds still there, bodily tissue will be built
14:05
up, so the man will be born maimed or with the predisposition to some
14:09
mortal injury. He is unguarded at that point, and any trifling accidental blow
14:15
will pierce the broken joints of his psychic armor. Thus, to the dynamic
14:20
mind, images manifest themselves, coming to the surface, so that works done
14:24
in the past may ripen and come to fruition. Suitur nine, works separated
14:33
by different nature or place or time are brought together by the correspondence between memory
14:39
and dynamic impression, just as in the ripening out of mind images into bodily
14:46
conditions, the effect is brought about by the ray of creative force sent down
14:50
by the self. Somewhat as the light of the magic lantern projects the details
14:54
of a picture on the screen, revealing the hidden and making secret things palpable
15:00
and visible. So does this divine ray exercise a selective power on thy dynamic
15:05
mind images, bringing together into one day of life the seeds gathered for many
15:09
days. The memory constantly exemplifies this power. A passage of poetry will call
15:15
up in the mind, like passages of many poets read at different times,
15:20
So a prayer may call up many prayers in like manner. The same overruling
15:26
selective power, which is a ray of the higher self, gathers together from
15:31
different births and times, and places those mind images which are conformable and may
15:35
be grouped in the frame of a single life or a single event. Through
15:41
this grouping, visible body conditions or outward circumstances are brought about, and by
15:46
these the soul is taught and trained. Just as the dynamic mind images of
15:50
desire ripen out in bodily conditions and circumstances, so the far more dynamic powers
15:56
of aspiration, wherein the soul reap which is toward the eternal, have their
16:00
fruition in a finer world building the vesture of the spiritual man. Ten the
16:10
series of dynamic mind images is beginningless because desire is everlasting. The whole series
16:18
of dynamic mind images, which make up the entire history of the personal man,
16:22
is a part of the mechanism which the self employs to mirror itself in
16:26
a reflection, to embody its powers in an outward form, to the end
16:30
of self expression, self realization, self knowledge. Therefore, the initial impulse
16:37
behind these dynamic mind images comes from the self, and is the descending ray
16:41
of the self, so that it cannot be said that there is any first
16:45
member of the series of images from which the rest arose. The impulse is
16:48
beginningless, since it comes from the self, which is everlasting. Desire is
16:55
not to cease. It is to turn to the eternal, and so become
16:59
as aspiration Sutra eleven. Since the dynamic mind images are held together by impulses
17:08
of desire, by the wish for personal reward, by the substratum of mental
17:14
habit, by the support of outer things desired. Therefore, when these cease,
17:19
the self reproduction of dynamic mind images ceases. We are still concerned with
17:26
the personal life in its bodily vesture, and with the process whereby the forces
17:32
which have upheld it are gradually transferred to the life of the spiritual man and
17:37
build up for him his finer vesture in a finer world. How is the
17:41
current to be changed? How is the flow of self reproductive mind images,
17:45
which have built the conditions of life after life in this world of bondage to
17:49
be checked, that the time of imprisonment may come to an end the day
17:53
of liberation dawn. The answer is given in the sutra just translated, the
18:00
driving force is withdrawn and directed to the upbuilding of the spiritual body. When
18:04
the building impulses and forces are withdrawn, the tendency to manifest a new psychical
18:10
body, a new body of bondage, ceases with them Suit twelve. The
18:21
difference between that which is past and that which has not yet come, according
18:25
to their natures, depends on the difference a phase of their properties. Here
18:30
we come to a high and difficult matter which has always been held to be
18:34
of great moment in the Eastern wisdom, the thought that the division of time
18:38
into past, present, and future is in great measure an illusion that past,
18:45
present, future all dwell together in the eternal now. The discernment of
18:51
this truth has been held to be so necessarily a part of wisdom that one
18:56
of the names of the enlightened is he who has passed beyond the three times,
19:00
past, present, future. So the Western Master said before Abraham,
19:07
was I am and again I am with you always unto the end of the
19:11
world, using the eternal present for past and future alike. With the same
19:18
purpose. The Master speaks of himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the
19:22
beginning and the end, the first and the last, and a master of
19:27
our own days, writes, I feel even irritated at having to use these
19:32
three clumsy words. Past, present, and future miserable concepts of the objective
19:38
phases of the subjective whole. They are about as ill adapted for the purpose
19:42
as an axe for fine carving in the eternal. Now, both past and
19:48
future are consummated. Bjorklund, the Swedish philosopher, has well stated the same
19:56
truth. Neither past nor future can exist. To God, he lives undividedly
20:02
without limitations, and needs not as man to plot out his existence in a
20:07
series of moments. Eternity, then, is not identical with unending time.
20:11
It is a different form of existence related to time as the perfect to the
20:15
imperfect. Man as an entity for himself, must have the natural limitations for
20:21
the part conceived by God. Man is eternal in the divine sense, but
20:26
conceived by himself. Man's eternal life is clothed in the limitations we call time.
20:33
The eternal is a constant present, without beginning or end, without past
20:37
or future Sutra thirteen. These properties, whether manifest or latent, are of
20:47
the nature of the three potencies. The three potencies are the three manifested modifications
20:52
of the one primal material which stands opposite to perceiving consciousness. Three potencies are
21:00
called substance, force, darkness, or viewed rather for their moral coloring,
21:07
goodness, passion, inertness. Every material manifestation is a projection of substance into
21:15
the empty space of darkness. Every mental state is either good or passional,
21:22
or inert. So, whether subjective or objective, latent or manifest, all
21:26
things that present themselves to the perceiving consciousness are compounded of these three. This
21:33
is a fundamental doctrine of the Sanchia system Sutra fourteen. The external manifestation of
21:41
an object takes place when the transformations are in the same phase. We should
21:48
be inclined to express the same law by saying, for example, that a
21:51
sound is audible when it consists of vibrations within the compass of the auditory nerve.
21:56
That an object is visible when either directly or by reflection, it sends
21:59
forth luminiferous vibrations within the compass of the retina and the optic nerve. Vibrations
22:04
below or above that compass make no impression at all, and the object remains
22:08
invisible, as, for example, a kettle of boiling water in a dark
22:12
room, though the kettle ascending forth heat vibrations closely akintilight. So when the
22:19
vibrations of the object and those of the perceptive power are in the same phase,
22:23
the external manifestation of the object takes place. There seems to be a
22:27
further suggestion that the appearance of an object in the present or its remaining hidden
22:33
the past or future, is likewise a question of phase, And just as
22:38
the range of vibrations perceived might be increased by the development of finer senses,
22:44
so the perception of things past and things to come may be easy from a
22:48
higher point of view. Sutra fifteen. The paths of material things and of
22:56
states of consciousness are distinct, as is manifest from the fact that the same
23:00
object may produce different impressions in different minds. Having shown that our bodily condition
23:07
and circumstances depend on karma, while karma depends on perception and will, the
23:14
sage recognizes the fact that from this may be drawn the false deduction that material
23:18
things are no wise different from states of minds. The same thought has occurred
23:22
and still occurs to all philosophers, and by various reasonings, they all come
23:27
to the same wise conclusion that the material world is not made by the mood
23:32
of any human mind, but is rather the manifestation of the totality of invisible
23:37
being, whether we call this mahat with the ancients or ether with the moderns
23:45
Sutra sixteen. Nor do material objects depend upon a single mind, for how
23:52
could they remain objective to others if that mind ceased to think of them.
23:59
This is but a further development of the thought of the perceiving Sutra, carrying
24:03
on the thought that while the universe is spiritual, yet its material expression is
24:07
ordered consistent rules by law, not subject to the whims or affirmations of a
24:14
single mind. Unwelcome material things may be escaped by spiritual growth, by rising
24:18
to a realm above them, and not by denying their existence on their own
24:22
plane, so that our system is neither materialistic nor idealistic in the extreme sense,
24:30
but rather intuitional and spiritual, holding that matter is the manifestation of spirit
24:33
as a whole, a reflection or externalization of spirit, and like spirit everywhere
24:41
obedient to law. The path of liberation is not through denial of matter but
24:47
through denial of the wills of self, through obedience and that aspiration which builds
24:52
the vesture of the spiritual man Suitra seventeen. Object is perceived or not perceived,
25:03
according as the mind is or is not tinged with the color of the
25:07
object. The simplest manifestation of this is the matter of attention. Our minds
25:14
apprehend what they wish to apprehend. All else passes unnoticed. Or on the
25:19
other hand, we perceive what we resent, as for example, the noise
25:25
of a passing train, while others used to the sound do not notice it
25:30
at all. But the deeper meaning is that out of the vast totality of
25:34
objects ever present in the universe, the mind perceives only those which can form
25:40
to the hue of its karma. The rest remain unseen, even though close
25:44
at hand. This spiritual law has been well expressed by Emerson. Through solidest
25:52
eternal things, the man finds his road as if they did not subsist,
25:56
and does not once suspect their being. As soon as he needs a new
26:00
object, suddenly he beholds it and no longer attempts to pass through it,
26:06
but takes another way. When he has exhausted for the time the nourishment to
26:11
be drawn from any one person or thing, that object is withdrawn from his
26:15
observation, and though still in his immediate neighborhood, he does not suspect its
26:19
presence. Nothing is dead. Men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals
26:26
and mournful obituaries. And there they stand, looking out of the window,
26:32
sound and well, in some new and strange disguise. Jesus is not dead.
26:37
He is very well alive. Nor John, nor Paul, nor Mahomet
26:45
nor Aristotle. At times we believe we have seen them all, and could
26:49
easily tell the names under which they go. Sutra eighteen. The movements of
26:59
the psychic nature are perpetually objects of perception, since the spiritual man, who
27:03
is the lord of them, remains unchanging. Here is teaching of the utmost
27:10
import both for understanding and for practice. To the psychic nature. Belong all
27:17
the ebb and flow of emotion, all hoping and fearing, desire and hate,
27:22
the things that make the multitude of men and women deem themselves happy or
27:25
miserable. To it. Also belong the measuring and comparing, the doubt and
27:30
questioning which for the same multitude make up mental life, so that there results
27:36
the emotion soaked personality, with its dark and narrow view of life, the
27:40
shivering, terror driven personality that is life itself for all but all of mankind.
27:48
Yet the personality is not the true man, not the living soul at
27:52
all, but only a spectacle which the true man observes. Let us understand
27:57
this, therefore, and ourselves up inwardly to the height of the spiritual man,
28:02
who, standing in the quiet light of the eternal, looks down serene
28:06
upon this turmoil of the outer life. When first masters the personality the mind
28:14
by thus looking down on it from above from within, by steadily watching its
28:18
ebb and flow as objective outward, and therefore not the real self. This
28:25
standing back is the first step detachment. The second to maintain the vantage ground
28:30
thus gained is recollection suitre nineteen. The mind is not self luminous, since
28:41
it can be seen as an object. This is a further step toward overthrowing
28:48
the tyranny of the mind, the psychic nature of emotion and mental measuring this
28:52
psychic self, the personality claims to be absolute, asserting that life is ferish
28:56
and through it it seeks to impose on the being of man its narrow,
29:00
materialistic, faithless view of life and the universe. It would clip the wings
29:06
of the soaring soul. But the soul dethrones the tyrant by perceiving and steadfastly
29:12
affirming that the psychic self is no true self at all, not self luminous,
29:17
but only an object of observation, watched by the serene eyes of the
29:21
spiritual man suit or twenty. Nor could the mind at the same time know
29:30
itself and things external to it suit or twenty. Nor could the mind at
29:37
the same time know itself and things external to it. The truth is that
29:42
the mind knows neither external things nor itself. Its measuring and analyzing, its
29:48
hoping and fearing, hating and desiring, never give it a true measure of
29:52
life, nor any sense of real values. Ceaselessly active, it never really
29:56
attains to knowledge, or if we admit its knowledge, it ever falls short
30:02
of wisdom, which comes only through intuition. The vision of the spiritual man.
30:07
Life cannot be known by the mind. Its secrets cannot be learned through
30:11
the mind. The proof is the ceaseless strife and contradictions of opinion among those
30:17
who trust in the mind. Much less can the mind know itself, the
30:21
more so because it is pervaded by the illusion that it truly knows truly is
30:26
true. Knowledge of the mind comes first when the spiritual man arising, stands
30:32
detached, regarding the mind from above with quiet eyes and seeing it for the
30:37
tangled web of psychic forces that it truly is. But the truth is divined
30:41
long before it is clearly seen, and then begins the long battle of the
30:45
mind against the real, the mind fighting doggedly, craftly for its supremacy suit
30:55
Tra. Twenty one. If the mind be thought of as seen by another,
31:00
more inward minds, then there would be an endless series of perceiving minds
31:03
and a confusion of memories. One of the expedients by which the mind seeks
31:11
to deny and thwart the soul when it feels that it is beginning to be
31:15
circumvented and seen through, is to assert that this seeing is the work of
31:19
a part of itself, one part observing the other, and thus leaving no
31:23
need nor place for the spiritual man to this strategy. The argument is opposed
31:30
by our philosopher that this would be no true solution, but only a postponement
31:34
of the solution, for we should have to find yet another part of the
31:37
mind to view the first observing part, and then another to observe this,
31:41
and so on endlessly. The true solution is that the spiritual man looks down
31:48
upon the psychic nature and observes it when he views the psychic picture's gallery.
31:52
This is memory, which would be a hopeless, inextricable confusion if we thought
31:57
of one part of the mind with its memories, viewing another part with memories
32:00
of its own. The solution of the mystery lies not in the mind,
32:06
but beyond it, in the luminous life of the risen lord the spiritual man
32:14
Suit twenty two. When the psychical nature takes on the form of the spiritual
32:20
intelligence by reflecting it, then the self becomes conscious of its own spiritual intelligence.
32:29
We are considering a stage of spiritual life at which the psychical nature has
32:32
been cleansed and purified. Formerly it reflected in its plastic substance the images of
32:38
the earthy. Purified, Now it reflects the image of the heavenly, giving
32:45
the spiritual intelligence a visible form. The self beholding that visible form in which
32:51
its spiritual intelligence has, as it were, taken palpable shape, thereby reaches
32:55
self recognition, self comprehension, Self sees itself in this mirror, and thus
33:01
becomes not only conscious, but self conscious. This is, from one point
33:07
of view, the purpose of the whole evolutionary process Suture twenty three. The
33:16
psychic nature, taking on the color of the seer and of things seen,
33:22
leads to the perception of all objects. In the unregenerate man, the psychic
33:29
nature is saturated with images of material things, of things seen or heard,
33:32
or tasted or felt, and this web of dynamic images forms the ordinary material
33:37
and driving power of life. The sensation of sweet things tasted clamors to be
33:44
renewed and drives the man into effort to obtain its renewal. So he adds
33:47
image to image, each dynamic and importunate, piling up sin's intolerable burden.
33:55
Then comes regeneration and the washing away of sin through the fiery creative power of
34:00
the soul, which burns out the stains of the psychic gesture, purifying it
34:04
as gold is refined in the furnace. The suffering of regeneration springs from this
34:09
indispensable purifying. Then the psychic gesture begins to take on the color of the
34:15
soul, no longer stained, but suffused with golden light, and the man
34:20
red generate gleams with the radiance of eternity. Thus the spiritual man puts on
34:27
fair raiment. For of this cleansing, it is said, through your sins
34:30
be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be as
34:35
crimson, they shall be as wool suit. Twenty four. The psychic nature,
34:44
which has been printed with mind images of innumerable material things, exists now
34:49
for the spiritual man, building for him the mind. Once the tyrant,
34:54
is now the slave, recognized as outward separate, not self a well trained
35:00
instrument to the spiritual man. For it is not ordained for the spiritual man
35:06
that, finding his high realm, he shall enter altogether there and pass out
35:09
of the vision of mankind. It is true that he dwells in heaven,
35:13
but he also dwells on earth. He has angels and archangels, the hosts
35:17
of the just, made perfect for his familiar friends. But he has at
35:22
the same time found a new kinship with the prone children of men, who
35:24
stumble and sin in the dark. Finding sinlessness, he finds also that the
35:30
world's sin and shame are his not to share, but to atone. Finding
35:34
kinship with angels, he likewise finds his part in the toil of angels,
35:38
the toil for the redemption of the world. For this work, he who
35:44
now stands in the heavenly realm, needs his instrument on earth. In this
35:47
instrument he finds ready to his hand, and fitted and perfected by the very
35:52
struggles he has waged against it and the personality. The mind of the personal
35:57
man, this one's tyrant is now his servant and perfect ambassador, bearing witness
36:04
before men of heavenly things, and even in this present world, doing the
36:07
will and working the works of the Father Suitra twenty five. For him who
36:15
discerns between the mind and the spiritual man, there comes perfect fruition of the
36:21
longing after the real being of the self. How many times in the long
36:25
struggle have the soul's aspirations seemed but a hopeless, impossible dream, a madman's
36:30
counsel of perfection. Yet every finest, most impossible aspiration shall be realized,
36:37
and ten times more than realized. Once the long arduous fight against the mind
36:42
and the mind's worldview is one, And then it will be seen that unfaith
36:45
and despair were but weapons of the mind to daunt the soul and put off
36:50
the day when the neck of the mind shall be put under the foot of
36:52
the soul. Have you aspired well nigh hopeless after immortality, he shall be
36:59
paid by any the immortality of God. Have you aspired in misery and pain?
37:04
After consoling healing love, you shall be made a dispenser of the divine
37:07
love of God himself to weary souls. Have you sought ardently in your day
37:14
of feebleness? After power? You shall wield power immortal, infinite, with
37:19
God, working the works of God. Have you, in lonely darkness longed
37:24
for companionship and consolation. You shall have angels and archangels for your friends,
37:30
and all the immortal hosts of the dawn. These are the fruits of victory.
37:35
Therefore overcome, These are the prizes of regeneration. Therefore, die to
37:40
self, that you may rise again to God suit your twenty six. Thereafter
37:49
the whole personal being bends towards illumination, toward eternal life. This is part
37:55
of the secret of the soul. That salvation means not merely that a soul
38:00
shall be cleansed and raised to heaven, but that the whole realm of the
38:02
natural power shall be redeemed. Building up even in this present world the kingly
38:07
figure of the spiritual man. The traditions of the ages are full of his
38:10
footsteps. Majestic, uncomprehended shadows, myths, demi gods fill the memories of
38:16
all the nobler peoples. But the time cometh when he shall be known no
38:22
longer demi god, nor myth, nor shadow, but the ever present Redeemer,
38:27
working amid man for the life and cleansing of all souls Suitra twenty seven.
38:35
In the eternals of the batique, other thoughts will arise through the impression
38:38
of the dynamic mind images. The battle is long and arduous. Let there
38:45
be no mistake as to that go not forth to this battle without counting the
38:49
cost ages have gone to the strengthening of the foe. Ages of conflict must
38:53
be spent ere the foe, wholly conquered becomes a servant, the soul's minister
38:58
to mankind. And from these long past ages, in hours when the contest
39:02
flags will come new foes, mind born children springing up to fight for mind,
39:07
reinforcements coming from forgotten years, forgotten lives. For once this conflict is
39:14
begun, it can be ended only by sweeping victory and unconditional, unreserved surrender
39:20
of the vanquished suit Or twenty eight. These are to be overcome, as
39:28
it was taught that hindrances should be overcome. These new enemies and fears are
39:32
to be overcome by ceaselessly renewing the fight, by a steadfast, dogged persistence,
39:37
whether in victory or defeat, which shall put the stubbornness of the rocks
39:42
to shame. For the soul is older than all things and invincible. It
39:45
is of the very nature of the soul to be unconquerable. Therefore, fight
39:51
on undaunted, knowing that the spiritual will, once awakened, shall through the
39:55
effort of the contest, come to its full strength. That ground gained,
40:00
he can be held permanently. That great as is the dead weight of the
40:02
adversary, k it is yet measurable. While the warrior who fights for you,
40:07
for whom you fight, is in might, immeasurable, invincible, everlasting
40:15
Suiture twenty nine. He who, after he has attained, is wholly free
40:21
fro himself reaches the essence of all that can be known, gathered together like
40:24
a cloud. This is the true spiritual consciousness. It has been said that
40:31
at the beginning of the way, we must kill out ambition, the great
40:35
curse, the giant weed, which grows as strongly in the heart of the
40:37
devoted disciple as in the manner of desire. The remedy is sacrifice of self
40:43
obedience, humility, that purity of heart which gives the vision of God.
40:49
Thereafter, he who has attained is wrapt about with the essence of all that
40:52
can be known, as with a cloud. He has that perfect illumination,
40:55
which is the true spiritual consciousness. Through a being edience to the will of
41:00
God, he comes into oneness of being with God. He is initiated into
41:05
God's view of the universe, seeing all life as God sees it Sutra thirty.
41:13
Thereon comes sur cease from sorrow and the burden of soil. Such a
41:19
one, it is said, is free from the bond of karma, from
41:22
the burden of toil, from that debt to works which come from works done
41:25
in self love and desire, free from self will. He is free from
41:30
sorrow too, for sorrow comes from the fight of self will against the divine
41:34
will, through the correcting stress of the divine will, which seeks to counteract
41:38
the evil wrought by disobedience. When the conflict with the divine will ceases,
41:44
then sorrow ceases, and he who has grown into obedience thereby enters into joy.
41:52
Sutra thirty one. When all veils are rent, all stains washed away,
41:57
his knowledge becomes infinite. Little remains for him to know. The first
42:02
veil is the delusion that thy soul is, in some permanent ways separate from
42:06
the great soul, the divine eternal. When that veil is rent, thou
42:09
shalt discern thy oneness with everlasting life. The second veil is the delusion of
42:15
enduring separateness from thy other selves, whereas in truth, the soul that is
42:19
in them is one with the soul that is in thee. The world sin
42:22
and shame are thy sin and shame its joy. Also these veils rent,
42:29
thou shalt enter into knowledge of divine things and human things. Little will remain
42:34
unknown to thee. Sutra thirty two. Thereafter comes the completion of the series
42:43
of transformations of the three nature potencies. Since their purpose is attained. It
42:50
is a part of the beauty and wisdom of the great Indian teachings, the
42:53
Vedanta and the Yoga alike, to hold that all life exists for the purposes
42:58
of the soul, for the may king of the spiritual man. They teach
43:01
that all nature is an orderly process of evolution leading up to this, designed
43:06
for this end, existing only for this to bring forth and perfect the spiritual
43:10
man. He is the crown of evolution. At his coming, the goal
43:15
of all development is attained Sutra thirty three. The series of transformations is divided
43:23
into moments. When the series is completed, time gives place to duration.
43:31
There are two kinds of eternity, says the commentary, the eternity of immortal
43:37
life, which belongs to the spirit, and the eternity of change, which
43:42
inheres in nature, in all that is not spirit. While we are content
43:46
to live in and for nature, in the circle of necessity Sansara, we
43:52
doom ourselves to perpetual change. That which is born must die, and that
43:57
which dies must be reborn. It is change more a ceaseless series of transformations.
44:02
But the spiritual man enters a new order. For him, there is
44:07
no longer eternal change, but eternal being. He has entered into the joy
44:12
of his Lord. This spiritual birth, which makes him air of the everlasting,
44:17
sets a term to change. It is the culmination, the crowning transformation
44:22
of the whole realm of change Sutra thirty four. Pure spiritual life is therefore
44:32
the inverse resolution of the potencies of nature which have emptied themselves of their value
44:37
for the spiritual man. Or it is the return of the power of pure
44:42
consciousness to its essential form. Here we have a splendid generalization in which our
44:47
wise philosopher finally reconciles the naturalists and the idealists, expressing the crown and end
44:54
of his teaching, first in the terms of the naturalist, and then in
44:59
the terms of the idealist. The birth and growth of the spiritual man and
45:04
his entry into his immortal heritage, may be regarded, says our philosopher,
45:08
either as the culmination of the whole process of natural evolution and involution, where
45:15
that which flowed from out the boundless deep turns again home. Or it may
45:20
be looked at as the videntants look at it, as the restoration of pure
45:23
spiritual consciousness to its pristine and essential form. There is no discrepancy or conflict
45:30
between these two views, which are but two accounts of the same thing.
45:35
Therefore, those who study the wise philosopher, be they naturalist or idealist,
45:39
have no excuse to linger over dialectic subtleties or disputes. These things are lifted
45:45
from their path, lest they should be tempted to delay over them, and
45:49
they are left facing the path itself, stretching upward and onward, from their
45:53
feet to the everlasting hills, radiant with infinite light. End of Book four
46:06
of the Yoga Sutras of Potangeli, the Book of a Spiritual Man.