I N T R O D U C T I ON T O YO GA

FO UR L E CTUR E S D E LI VERE D AT T H E
3 2 N D AN N IVE R SARY OF TH E T H E OSOPH ICAL S OCI E TY ,

H ELD AT BENAR E S ON D EC 2 7 T H 2 8 T H 2 QTR 30T H 1 907

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A N N IE B E S AN T

(S E C O N D E D I T I O N)

T H E O S OP H I OAL P U B L I S H IN G H OU S E

A D Y A R , M AD R AS, I ND I A
B E N AR E S , IN D IA ; C H I C A GO , U s
. . A .

T P s
. . .
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L ON DO N

1 9 13

THE?
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8 2 6 OAKD LE AV .
 C ONT E NTS

PA G E

L E CT UR E I . T H E N AT URE OE YOG A

l . T he Meaning of the U niverse

2 . T h e U nfolding of C onsciousness
3 T h e O n enes s of the S elf
T h e Q uick e ning of the P roce s
.

4 . s of S elf

U nfoldm ent
5 . Yoga is a Science
6 . Man a D uality
7 . State s of Mind
8 . S am adhi
9 . T h e L ite rature of Yoga
10 . S ome D e ni tions
11 . God W ithout and Go d W ithin
12 . C h anges of C onscious ness and Vibrations
of Matter
13 . Mind
14 . Stages of Min d .

15 . Inward and O utward tu rned C onsciousn ess

16 . T h e C loud
vi CO N T ENTS

L EC TURE II . S C H OOLS OF T H OU G H T

I . Th e Relation of Yoga to Indian Phil osophies 50

2 . Mind 70
3 . T h e Mental Bo dy 73
4 . M ind and Self 76

L E CTUR E III . Y OGA As S CI ENC E

1 . M ethods of Yoga
2 . T o the S el f by the Self
3 . To the S elf through th e Not S elf -

4 . Yoga and Morality

5 . C ompo sition of S tate s of t h e Mi nd
6 . P l easure and Pain

L E CT URE I V . Y OGA As P RACTIC E

1 . Inh ibition of Sta te s of Mind

M editat ion with and W ithout See d
3 . T h e U se of Mantras
4 . Atte nt ion
Obstacle s to Yoga
6 . C apacities for Yoga
7 . F orth goin g and Re t u rning
8 . P urication of B odie s
9 . D well ers on the T h reshold
10 .

11 . T h e E nd
 F OR E W O R D

THES E lect ure s areinte nded t o giv e an out

line oi Yoga, in o rde r to p re pare t h e
st ude nt t o t ake up ,for pract ical p urposes,
fm s
t h e S zlg f
o P atajali, th e ch ief t re atise
on Yoga . I h av e on h and, wit h my frie nd
B h agavan Das as collab orat e ur, a t rans

S utras, wit h Vyasa s com

lat io n of t h e se
me nt ary, and a furth e r comme nt ary and
elucidat io n w rit te n in t h e ligh t o f T h e o

S oph y T o p re pare t h e st ude nt for t h e

.

mast e ring of t h at mo re difcult ta sk, t h e se

le ct ure s we re de signed ; h e nce t h e many
re fe re nce s t o P atajali . Th ey may, h ow
e ver, also ser e v t o giv e t o th e o rdinar l
y y
a

reade r so me idea of t h e S cie nce of sciences ,

and e rh a s to allure a few t owards it s

p p
st udy .

ANN I E B ES AN T
 LE C T U R E I

THE NAT U RE O F YO GA

B ROT H ER S

In th is rst dis c ourse we shall c oncern o ur

selves with the gain ing o f a general idea of t he
subject of Yoga seeking its plac e in nature its
, ,

o wn chara cter its Obj ect in human evolution

, .

TH E M E AN I N G O F T H E U N I VE R S E

Let us rst of all ask ourselves looking at

, , ,

the world around us what it is that the history

,

o f the world signies When we read history

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,

what does the history tell us It seems to be a

moving panorama of people and even ts but i t is ,

really only a dance o f shadows the pe ople are

sh adows not realities th e kings and s tatesmen
the ministe rs and armies ; and the ev entsthe
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battles and re volutions the rises and falls of

,

Stat es are the most S hadow l ike dan c e of all
-
.

Even if the historian tries to go deeper if he ,

deals with e conomi c c ondit ions with social ,

organisations with the study of the tendencies

,

o f the currents of thought even then he is in

,

the mid st of shadows the illusory S hadows cas t

,

by unseen realities This world is full of forms

.

that are ill usory and the values are all wrong
, ,

the proportio ns are o ut of foc us The things .

which a man of the world th inks valuable a ,

S piritual man must c ast aside as worthless The .

diamonds of the world w ith the ir glare and

,

gl itter in the rays of the outside sun are mere ,

fragments of broken glass to the man of know

ledge The crow n o f the K ing the sceptre of
.
,

the Emperor the tr iumph of earthly power are

, ,

less than nothing to the man who has had one

glimpse of the maj esty of the Se lf W h at I s .
,

then real What is tr uly valuable O ur answer

,

w ill be very d ifferent from the answer given by

the man of the world .

The un iverse exists for t h e sake o f the

S elf
. N ot for what the outer world can give ,

not for control over the obj ects of de sires no t ,

for the sake even of beau ty or pleasure does the ,

Great A rch itect plan and build H is worlds He .

has lled the m with obj ects beautiful and ,

 TH E NAT UR E O F YOGA 3

pleasure giving The great arch of the sky

- .

above the mountains with snow clad peaks the

,
-
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valleys soft with verdure and fragrant with

blossoms the oceans with their vast dep ths
, ,

their surface now calm as a lake now tossing ,

in fury they all exist not for the obj ects them ,

selves bu t for their value t o the Self N ot for

,
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themsel ves because they are anything in them

selves but that the purpose of the Self may be
,

served and his manifestations made possible

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The world with all its beauty its happiness and

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s uffering it s joys and pains is planned with the

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utmost ingenuity in order that the powers of the

,

Self may be shown forth in manifestation From .

the re mis t to the L OGO S all exists for the sake of

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the Self The lowest grain of dust the mighties t

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,

D eva in h is heavenly regions the plant that ,

grows o ut of S ight in th e nook o f a mountain ,

the star that shines alof t over us all these exis t
in order that the fragments of the o ne Self ,

embodied in countless forms may realise their ,

o w n identity and manifest the powers of the

,

Self through the matter that envelops them .

There is but one Self in the lowl iest dust and

the loftiest Deva M amamsh a My portion
.
,

a portion Of My Self says Shri K rsh na are , ,

all these Jivatmas all these living Spirits F or

, .
 I N T R O D UCTIO N
C

4 To YOGA

them the universe exists for them the sun shines ,

and the waves roll and the winds blow and the
, ,

rain falls, that the Self may know himself as mani

feste d in matt er ,
as embodied in the universe .

T H E U N F OL D I N G or C O N S CIO U S N E S S

One ofthos e pregnant and S ignican t ideas

whi c h Theosophy s c atters so lavishly around is

this that the same scale is repeat ed over and
Over agaI n the same succession of events in
,

larger or small e r cycles If yo u understand one

.

cycle yo u understand t h e whole The same

,
.

laws by which a solar system is builded go t o

the building up o f the system of man Th e .

laws by which the Self unfolds hi s powers in

the universe from the re mist up to the L OGO S
,
-
,

are th e same laws of consciousness which repeat

t hemselves in the universe of man If you

understand them in the one you c an equally ,

understand them in the other Grasp them in .

the small and the large is re vealed to you

, .

Grasp them in the large and the small be comes ,

intelligible to yo u .

The great unfolding from the stone to the

Go d goe s on through millions of years thro ugh ,

aeons of t ime Bu t the long unfoldin g that

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 TH E NATUR E O F YOG A 5

takes plac e in the universe takes pl ac e in a

,

Shorter time cycle within the li mit o f humanity,

-

and this in a cycle so brief tha t i t seems as

nothing beside the longer one Within a still .

briefer cycle a similar unfolding takes plac e in

the indi v idualrapidly swiftly with all the
, ,

force o f its pas t behind it These forc e s that

.

manifest an d unveil themselves in evolution are

cumulative in their power E mbodied in th e
.

st o ne in the mineral world they grow and pu t

, ,

o ut a little more o f strength and in the mineral

,

world acco mplish their unfolding Then they .

become t oo strong for the mineral and press on ,

into the vegetable world There they unfold

.

more and more o f the ir divinity until they b e ,

come too m ighty for the vegetable and be c ome ,

Expand ing within and gaining e xperien ce s fro m

the animal they again overflow the li mits of the
,

an imal and appear as the human In the human

, .

be ing they still grow and a cc umulate with e v er

increasing force and exert greater press ure
,

against the barrier ; and then o ut o f the

they press into the super human Th is last
-
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pro cess of evolut ion is called Yog a .

C oming to the individual the man of o ur ,

o wn globe h as behind him h is long evolu tion in :

6 I N T R O D U CTIO N To YO GA

ot her c hains than ours this same evolu tion
th rough mineral t o vege t able through vegetable
,

t o animal through animal to man and th en from

, ,

Our last d el lin g place in the lunar orb on to

-

t his terrene globe that we call the earth O ur .

evolution here has all the force of the last evo

l ut io n in i t and hence when we come to this
, ,

S hor test c ycle of evolution which is called Yoga ,

the man has behind him the whole of t he forces

ac c umulated in his human evolution and it is ,

the ac c umulation o f these forces which enables

him to make the passage so rapidly We must .

c onne ct o ur Yoga with the evolution of con

scio u sne ss everywhere else we S hall not under
,

stand it at all ; for the laws of evolution of con

scio usne ss in a universe are exactly the same as

the laws of Yoga and the principles whereby

,

cons c iousness unfolds itself in the great evol ution

of humanity are the same principles that we take

in Yoga and deliberately apply to the more rapid

unfolding o f our own consciousness S O that .

Yoga when it is denitely begun is not a ne w

, ,

thing as some people imagine

,
.

The whole evolution is o ne in i t s essence T h e .

su cc ession is the same the sequen c es identical

,
.

Whe ther you are thinking o f the unfolding of

co n sc iousnes s in the universe,
or in the h u man
,
 TH E NAT UR E or YOGA 7

rac e, in the individual you c an study the

or ,

laws of the whole and in Yoga you learn to ,

apply those same laws to your own consciousness

rationally and den itely A ll the laws are one .
,

however different in the ir stages of manifestation .

If you look at Yoga in this l ight then this ,

Yoga which seem ed so alien a nd so far o ff will

, ,

begin to wear a familiar face and come to you ,

in a garb not wholly strange A S you study th e .

unfolding o f consciousness and the correspond ,

ing evolution of form it will not seem so strange ,

that from man you should pass on to super man -

,

transcending the barrier of human ity and nding ,

yourself in the region where d ivinity becomes

more manifest .

T H E ON E N ESS O F T HE S E LF

The Self in you is the same as the Self

U niversal Whatever powers are man ifested
.

throughout the world those powers exist in ,

germ in latency in you He the Supreme

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does not evolve In H im there are no ad di tions

.

o r subtractions H is port ions the Ji v at mas are

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as H imself and they o nly unfold their powers

,

in matter as conditions around them dra w those

p owers forth If you realise

. the unity of th e
8 I N T RO DU CTIO N To Y O GA

Self amid the diversities of the N ot Self then ,

Yoga will not see m an impossible thing to

ou
y .

THE Q U I C R E N I N G or T HE P ROC E SS or S E LE
U N F O LD M E N T

Educated and t houghtful men and women you

a lready are already you have climbed up that
lo ng ladde r which separates the present outer form
o f the D eity in you from H is form in the dus t .

Th e manifested D eity sleeps in the mineral and the

stone He becomes more an d more unfolde d in
.

vegetables and animals and lastly in man He h as,

rea c hed what appears as His culm ination to ordi

nary men Having done so much shall you no t

.
,

do more With the c onsciousness so far unfolded

d oes i t seem I mpossible that it should unfold in
the future into the divine ?
A s yo u realise that the laws of the evolution o f
form and of the unfolding of consciousness in the
universe and man are the same and that it is ,

through these laws that the Y og i brings out h is

h idden powers then you will unde rstand also
,

t ha t it is not necessary to go in t o the mountain

o r into the deser t t o hide yourself in a c ave o r
,

a forest in order that the union with th e Se lf

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 TH E NAT UR E OE YOGA 9

may be obtained H e who is w ithin yo u and
without you Sometimes for a special purpose
.

se clus ion may be usef ul It may be well at times

.

to retire temporarily from the busy haunts o f

men But in the universe planned by Ishvara
.
,

in order that the powers o f the Self may b e

brought out there is your best eld fo r Yoga ,

planned with D ivine wisdom and sagacity .

The world is meant for the unfolding of the Self

why should you then seek to run away from it
Loo k at Shri K rsh na Himself in that grea t
'

U pa nish at o f Yoga the B h agavad Gi t

,
He -
.

spoke it out o n a battleeld and not o n a moun ,

tain p eak He spoke it to a K sh att rya re ady

.

to ght and not to a B rahma na quietly retired

,

from the world The K u ruk sh e tra o f the world

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is the eld o f Yoga They who cannot face the

.

world have not the strength to face the dif

c ul ties o f Yoga practice If the outer world out
.

wearies your powers h o w do you expect to ,

conquer the difficulties of the inner life If you

cannot climb over the li ttle troubles of the world ,

how can you hope to climb over the di fculties

that a Yog i h as to scale Those men blunder ,

w h o think that running away from the world is

the road to victory and that peac e c an be found
,

only in c ertain loc alities .

10 I N T RO D U C TIO N To YOG A

AS a matter o f fa ct you have pra ctised Yoga

,

uncons ciously in the past e ven before your Self

,

c onsciousness had separated itself was awar e .

,

o f itself a nd knew itself t o be di e re nt in tem

, ,

p orar
y mat t ers at leas t from all the others
,
t ha t
surround it And that is the rst idea that you
.

S hould ta ke up and hold rmly Yoga is only a

quickened process of the ordinary unfolding Of
c onsciousness .

Yoga may then be dened as the rational

application of the laws of the unfolding of con
scio usness in an individual case That is what is
meant by the methods of Yoga Y ou study the .

la ws of the unfolding of consciousness in t h e uni

verse you then apply them to a S pecial c as e
,

and that c ase is your o wn You cannot apply .

them to another They must be self applied

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-
.

That is the denite prin c iple to grasp S O we .

must add one more wo rd to our den ition :

Yoga is the rational application of the laws of

the unfolding of consciousness self applied in an ,
-

individual case .

Y OGA Is A S CI E NC E

N extYoga is a science That is the sec ond

: .

thing to grasp Yoga is a s c ience and not a

.
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12 I N T R O DU CT I O N To YO GA

whic h nature is evolving forms around us and ,

yet he does in a few years what nature take s ,

perhaps hundreds o f thousands of years to do

, .

A nd h o w ? By apply ing human inte lligen c e to

choose the laws that serve h im and to neutralise ,

the laws that hinder H e brin gs t he divine .

intelligen c e in man t o utilise the divine po wers

in nature that are working for general ra ther
,

than for particular ends .

Take the breeder of p igeons O ut O f the blue .

rock pigeon he develops the pouter o r t he ,

fantail he chooses out generation after gene ra ,

ti on the forms that S how most strongly the

,

peculiari ty that he wishes to develop He mates .

such birds together ta kes every favouring ,

circumstan c e into consideration and selec ts ,

again and again and so o n and o n till t he

, ,

peculiar ity that h e wants to establish h as b ec ome

a well marked feature Remove his controlling
-
.

intelligence leave the birds to themselves and

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they revert t o the ancestral type .

O r take the case of t he gardener O ut o f t he .

wild rose of the hedge has been evolved every rose

o f the ga rden M any pe t alle d roses are but the
.
a

r esult o f the scientic cul ture of the ve pet alled -

rose o f the hedge row the wild produ c t of

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nature A gardener wh o c h o oses the polle n

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 T HE NAT URE or YOG A 13

from one plant and places it o n the carpels Of

another is simply doing deliberately what is done
every day by the bee and the y But he .

c h oo ses h is plan ts and he c hoos es those that

,

have the qualiti es he wan t s intensied and from ,

thos e again he choos es those that S how the

desired qualities still more cle arly until he h as ,

produced a ower so different from the original

st o ck that only by trac in g i t back can yo u tell
the sto c k whence it sprang .

S o is it in the application of the laws o f

p sy c hology that we call Yoga System a t

. ised
knowledge of the unfolding of consc iousness
applied t o the individual ised self that is Yoga , .

A s I have just sa id it is by the world that co n

,

scio u sne ss h a s been unfolded and the world is

,

admirably planned by the LO GO S for this unfold

ing o f consciousness ; hence the would b e Yogi -

,

choosing o ut his obj ects and applying his laws ,

nds in the world exactly the things he wants

to make hi s pr act ice o f Yoga a real a vital ,

thing a quicken ing process fo r the knowledge

,

of the Self . There are many laws Yo u can .

ch oose those which yo u require you can evade ,

those you do no t require you can utilise th ose

,

y o u need
, and thus you c an bring a b out the
result that n at ure without that application
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14 I N T R O DU CTIO N To Y OG A

of human in telligen c e ,
cannot so swiftl y
e e ct .

Take it then that Yoga is within your re ac h ;

, ,

within your p owers and that even some of th e

,

lower pra ctices o f Yoga some o f the simpler ,

applications o f the laws of the unfolding o f con

scio u sn e ss t o yourself will benet you in thi s

,

world as well as in all others F or you are .

really merely quickening your growth your ,

unfolding taking advantage of the powe rs nature

,

puts within yo ur hands and delibera t ely elimin

,

ating the c onditions which would not help you in

your work but rather hinder your march forward
,
.

If yo u see it in that light it seems to me tha t ,

Yoga will be to you a far more real practical ,

thing than it is when you merely read some

,

fragments about it t aken from S amskrt books ,

and often mistranslated into E nglish and you ,

will begin to feel tha t to b e a Yog i is no t

necessaril y a thing for a l ife far o an incarna ,

tion far removed from the present one .

M AN A D UA LITY

S ome o f the terms used in Yoga are ne c essa rily

t o b e known For Yoga takes man for a special
.

purpose and s tudies him for a special e nd and , ,

 TH E NA TURE or Y O GA 15

therefore only troubles itself about t wo grea t

,

facts regarding man Mind and Body First he

, .
,

is a U nit a U nit of consciousness

,
That I s a .

po int to be denitely grasped There I S only .

o ne of him in each s e t of envelopes and some ,

times the Th eosophist has to revise h is ideas

about man when he begins this practical
line The o sophy quite us efully and righ tly
.
, ,

fo r the understanding of the human constit u

tion divides man into many parts and pie c es
, .

We talk of physic al astral mental etc O r

, , ,
.

we talk about S th la Shar i ra S k sh ma ,

Shari ra K ara na Shar i ra and so o n Sometimes

, ,
.

we divide man into Annamayak o sh a Prana ,

mayak o sh a M an o mayak o sh a etc

,
We divide ,
.

man into so many pieces in order t o study hi m ,

thoroughly that we can hardly nd the man

,

because of the pieces This is so t o say for

.
, ,

the study of human anatomy and physiology .

But Yoga is pra ctic al and psychological I .

am not complaini ng of the various subdivisions

o f other systems They are necessary for the
.

purpose of those sys t ems But Yoga for it s .

,

practical purposes considers man s imply as a

,

duality Mind and Body a U nit of consciousn ess,

in a set of envelopes This is not the duality Of

.

the Self and the N ot Self For in Yoga Self

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,
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16 I N T R O DUC TIO N To YOG A

inc ludes con sc iousness p lus such ma tter as i t

canno t dis tinguish from itself and N ot Self is ,
-

o nly t h e ma t ter it c an put aside .

Man is not pure Self pure consciousn e ss Sam

, ,

vit . That is an abs t ra c tion In the c on c rete .

universe there are always the Self and h is

sheaths however t enuous the latter may be so
m
, ,

t hat a unit of c ons c iousness is inseparable fro

ma tter and a Jiv atma o r Mon ad is in variably
, , ,

co n sciousness p lus matter .

In order tha t this may come o ut c learly t w o ,

te rm s are used in Yoga as consti t uting man

Pr ana and Pradh ana life breath and matter ,
-
.

P rii na is not only the life breaths of the bo dy -

,

bu t the t otality of the life forc es of the universe

-
,

or,
in other words the life S ide o f the universe
,
-
.

I am Pr ana says Indra Pr ana here means
, .

the t o t ality Of the life forces They are taken a s

-
.

c ons c io u sness mind Pradh ana is the term use d

, .

fo r matter . Body o r t he Opposite o f mi nd

, ,

means for t he Yog i in prac tice so mu c h of the ,

apprO p riate d matter o f the outer world as he is

o

able t o p ut away f rom himself t o dis t inguish ,

from h is o w n cons c iousness .

This division is very signi c ant and useful if ,

y e n c an c atc h clearly hold o f the roo t idea Of .

c ourse loo kin g a t t he t hing from be ginning to

,
 TH E NAT UR E O F YOG A 17

end you will se e P rana the great Life t he

, , ,

great Self always present in all and yo u will

, ,

see the envelop es t he bodies the sh e aths prese n t

, , ,

at the di erent stages taking di ere nt forms ; ,

but fro m the standpoint of Yogic practice that ,

is called Pr ana or Self with whi ch the man , ,

identies himself for the time including every ,

sheath of matter from which the man is unable

to separate h imself in cons c iousness That unit .
,

to the Yog i is the Self so t hat it is a c hanging ,

q uantity A S he drops O ff one S heath aft er an

.

Other and says : That is not myself he is
,

coming nearer and nearer to h is highest poin t ,

t o consciousness in a single lm in a single ,

atom of matter a Monad For all prac tic al pur

,
.

pos es oi Yoga the man the working c ons cious

, , ,

man is so much o f him as he canno t separa te

,

from the matter enclosing him o r with whi c h ,

he is connec ted Only that is body whi c h the .

man is able to put aside and say This is not

I but mine
,
We nd we have a whole series
.

o f terms in Yoga which may be repeated over

and over again A ll the states o f mind exist o n

.

e very plane says V asa and this way o f dealing

y , ,

wi th man enables the same signicant words as ,

we shall see in a moment to be used over and ,

o ver again with an e ver subtler c onno t ation

,

2
18 I N T R O DUC TIO N T O YOGA

they all beco me relative and are equally true a t

,

e ac h s tage o f evolution .

N ow i t is quite c lear that so far as many of ,

u s are c oncerned the physical b Ody is t he only

,

thing of which we c an say It is no t myself
so that in the prac tice of Yoga a t rst for yo u
, , ,

all the words that would be used in it to describe

the s ta t es o f cons c iousness the sta tes of mind
, ,

would deal with the waking c onsciousness in

t h e body as the lowest state and rising up from
, ,

th at all t h e words would be relative t erms

, ,

implying a dis tinc t and re c ognisable s t ate o f

the mind in relation t o that which is the lowes t .

In order to know how you shall begin t o apply

t o yourselves the various t erms used to de scribe
the st ates o f mind you must c are fully analyse
,

your own cons c iousness and nd out h o w mu c h

,

o f it is really cons c iousness and how much is ,

mat ter so closely ap propriat ed t hat yo u c anno t

sep ara te i t from y ourself .

S TA T E S O F MI ND

Let us take it I n det ail Four s t at es of con

.

s cio usnes s are spoken of amo ngs t u s W aking or .

,

J agrat the dream c ons c iousness or S vap na

,

the deep sle ep c ons cious ness or S ush upti ,

20 IN T R O DU CTIO N To YO GA

c onditions of each world But the same words .

are repe ated in the books of Yoga with a different

con t ext There the difficulty occurs if we
.
,

have no t learned thei r relative nature S vapna .

is no t the same for all nor is S o sh up ti the same

,

for every o ne .

A bo v e all the word Sam adhi t o be explained

, ,

in a moment is used in di e rent ways and in

,

different senses How then are we to nd o ur

.

way in this apparent tangle ? By knowing the

state which is the starting point and then the ,

sequence will always be the same A ll of you .

are familiar with the waking cons ciousness in

the physi c al body Yo u can nd four states
.

even in that if you analyse it and a s imi lar ,

sequ en c e of the states of the mind is found on

every plane .

How t o di stinguish them then ? L et us take ,

the waking c ons ciousness and t ry to see t he four

, m

states in that Suppose I take up a book and

.

read it I read the words my eyes are related

.

to the outer phy si c al cons ciousness That is .

the Jagrat state I go beh ind the words to the

.

meaning of the words I have passed from the .

waking stat e o f the physic al plane into the

S vap na state of waking c onsciousness that sees ,

thro ugh the out er form seeking the inner life , .

 TH E NATURE or YOGA 21

I pas s from this to the m ind of the writer here

the mi nd touches the mi nd ; it is the waking
consciousness in its S u sh upti sta te If I pass .

from this contact and enter the very mind of

the writer and live in that man s
,
en I

ha ve reached the Turiya state of the w a g

c onsciousness .

Take another illustration I look at my w atch

.

I a m in Jagra t I close my eyes and make an

.

image of the watc h ; I am in S vapna I call .

t ogether many ideas o f many watc hes and reach ,

the ideal wat c h ; I am in S ush upti I pass to .

the idea of time in the abstrac t I am in Turiya .

But all these are sta ges in t h e physi c al plane

consciousn e ss I have not left the b ody .

In this way you can make states of m i nd

,

intelligible and real ins tead of mere words

, .

S AMADHI

Some other impo rtant words which re c ur from

time to time in the Yoga S ti gma need to b e ,

understood though there are no exact English

,

equivalents A s they must be used to avoid

.
'

clumsy circumlo c utions it is necessary t o e xplain

,

them It is said
. Yoga is Sam adhi Sam adh i .

is a s tate in which the cons c iousness is so .

 I N T R OD U C T ION
0

22 To YOGA

dissoc iated from the body that the latter remains

inse nsible I t is a sta te o f t ran c e in whic h t he
.
,

mi nd is fully self c onscio us though th ebody is

-
,

insensitive and from which the min d returns to

,

the body with the e xperiences it h as had in the

super physical state remembering them when
-
,

again immersed in the physical brain Sam adhi .

for any one person is re lative to his waking

co nsciousne ss but implies insen sitiveness of the
,

body If an ordinary person throws himself into

.

trance and is a c tive on the astral plane h is ,

Sam adhi is on the astral I f h is consciousness .

is fun c tioning in the ment al plane h is Samadhi ,

is there The man wh o can so withd raw from

.

the body as to leave it insensitive while h is ,

mind is fully self cons cious can pra ctise -

,

The phrase Yoga is Sam adhi covers fact s

o f the highest S ign icanc e and greatest in st ru c

tion Suppose you are only able t o reach the

.

ast ral world when you are asleep your con ,

sciousness the re is as we have seen ,

in the ,

S vapna state But as you Slowly unfold your

.

powers the astral form s begin to intrude upon

,

your waking physical c onsciousness until they ,

appear as d ist in c tly as do p hysi c al for ms an d ,

thus b ecome Obj e ct s of your waking conS C I ousne ss

 TH E NATU R E or YO GA 23

The as t ral world then for you no longer

, ,

be longs t o the S vapna c onsciousness bu t t o the ,

Jagra t y ou have taken t w o worlds within the

s cope o f your J agrat consciousnessthe physical

and the astral worlds and the mental world is
in your S vapna consciousn ess Your body is .

then the physical and the as tral bodies taken

together As you go o n the mental plane begins
.
,

similarly to in trude itself and the physical as tral

, ,

and men t al all come within your waking con

sciousness ; all these are then your Jagra world
, t , .

These three worl ds form but one world to you

their three c orresponding bodies but o ne body ,

that perceives and acts The three bodies of .

V
t he ordinary man have bec ome o ne bo dy fo r t he
Yog i If under these conditions you want t o
.

see onl y one world at a time yo u must x your ,

a ttention o n it and thus focus it Yo u c an in

,
.
,

that sta te of enlarged waking concentrate your ,

attention on the physical and see it then the

ast ral and mental will appear hazy S O yo u .

can foc us your at tention O n the astral and se e

it ; then the physical and the mental being o ut ,

o f fo c us will appea r dim

,
You will easily under
.

stan d this ,
if you remember that in this hall I , ,

may focus my sight in the middle of the hall ,

when the pillars on bo th sides will appear

 24 I N T R ODU CTIO N To YO GA

indistinctly O r I may concentrate my a ttention

.

o n a pillar and se e it dis tinctly but I then see ,

you only vaguely at the same time It is a .

c hange of fo c us not a change of body R e

,
.

member that all which yo u can put a side as not

yourself is the body of the Yog i and hence as , ,

y o u go higher the lower bodies

,
form but a single
body and the consciousness in that sheath of
,

matter whi c h it s till cannot throw away that ,

becomes the man .

Yoga is Sam adhi I t is the p ower to wi th
.

draw from all that you know as body and to ,

concentrat e yourself within That is Sam adhi . .

N O ordinary means will then call you b ack to

the world that you have left This will also .
1

explain t o you the phrase in Th e S ecret D octrine

that the A dept begins his Sam adhi on t he

atm

ic plane When a J ivanmuk t a enters in to
.

Sam adhi He begins it o n the atmic plane

,
.

All planes b elow the atmic are one plane for

Him He begins His Samadhi on a plane t o
.

which the mere man ca nnot rise He begins .

it on the atmic plane and thence rises ,

stage by stage to the higher cosmic planes .

1
A n I n dian Yogi in S amadhi , dis co vere d in a fo rest b y
so me ignorant and brutal E ngl ish men , was s o viol e nt ly ill
u se d t h at h e ret urned t o hi s to rt ure d b o dy, only t o le av e it
a gain at o nce b y deat h .
 TH E NAT URE O F YOGA 25

The same word Sam adhi is used to des cribe

, ,

the states of the consc iousness whether it rise ,

above the physical into the astral as in the self ,

indu c ed tran c e of an o rdinary man or as in the , ,

case of a J ivanmukta when the consciousness , ,

be ing already centred in the fth o r stmic , ,

plane it rises to the higher planes of a larger

,

world .

T H E L IT E RA T UR E or Y OG A

Unfortunately for non S amsk rt knowing

p eople the
, litera t ure of Yoga is no t largely
available in English The general teachings o f .

Yoga are to be found in the Up ams h ats and

'

the B hagarad Gi i those in many translations
-
, ,

a re within your re ach but they are general no t ,

,

special ; they give yo u the main principles bu t do ,

not t ell o u about the methods in any detailed

y
way Even in the B hagavad Gi gei while you

.
-
,

are told to make sacri c es to beco me indi erent , ,

and so on it is all o f the nature of moral

,

precept absolutely necessary indeed but still

, ,

not telling you h ow to reach the conditions put

before you The spec ial l iterature o f Yoga is

.
,

rst of all many of the minor Up anisha ts the

, ,

hundred and eight as they are c alled Few of

- -
.
26 I N T R O DUC TIO N To Y OGA

th ese are translated Then comes t h e e nor mous .

1

mass of li t erature c alled t he Tantras These .

books have an evil signi ca n c e in the or dinary

English ear but not quite rightly The TGMT M
, .

are very useful books very valuable and ,

i nstructive ; all o c cult s c ienc e is t o be found in

them But they are divisible into three cl asses :
.

those that deal with white magi c tho se tha t ,

deal with black magic and those that deal with ,

what we may c all grey magic a mi xture of the ,

two N o w magic is the word which covers

.

the methods o f delibera t ely bringing abo u t

super normal physi cal s t ates
-
by the a c tion of ,

the will .

A high t ension of the nerves brough t on by ,

anx iety o r disease leads to o rdinary hysteria , ,

emotional and foolish A similarly high tension .

,

brought about by the will renders a man ,

sensiti ve to super physical vibratio ns Going to

-
.

sleep h as no signicance but go ing into Samadhi ,

is a priceless power The process is la rgely the .

same but one is due to ordinary condi tions

, ,

the other to the a c tion of the trained will The

. .

1
h
D r O tt o S c rade r, D irect o r o f t h e A dyar L i rary, is no w
. b
h
e ngage d o n t e se , and i s u sy w it b
t h e a orio us ta sk of h l b
c o n st ruct in g a crit ica t e xt , t o b el o o w e d b y a co m et e f ll pl
l p
t rans at io n , c o io us y anno t at e dl A gre at b oo n w i ave. ll h
b een b
e sto w e d on al l in t e re st e d i n S amsk r t it e rat ure , w en l h
h
t is w ork is com e t e d pl .
28 I N T R O D U C TIO N '
To Y OGA

body Knowing the o ne helps you t o know the

.

other and the teacher wh o has been through it

,

all can place his pupil o n the right path but i i

y o u take up these words which are all physi,
c al ,

and do not know to what the physical word is

applied then you w ill only become very confu sed
, ,

and may injure yourselves F or instance in .

,

o ne o f the siit ras it says that if o u meditate o n

y
a certain part of the tongue you will Obtain
as t ral s ight That means that if you medita te
.

o n the pituitary body just over this part o f the

,

tongue astral sigh t will be opened The parti

, .

onl a r word used t o refer to a centre has a

c orrespondence in the physical body and the ,

word is Often appl ied t o the physical organs

when the other is meant This is what is Called .

a blind and it is intende d to keep the people
,

away from dangerous practices in the books that

are published ; people may meditate on that
part of their tongues all the ir lives without any
th ing coming O f it but if th ey th ink upon the
c orresponding c entre in the body a good deal

,

-
much harm may come of it Medi tate o n

the nav el it is also said This means the .

solar plexus for there is a close c onnection

,

between the two But to medit ate on tha t is t o

.

in c ur the danger Of a serious nervous disorder ,

 T HE NAT U RE O F YOG A 29

almost impossible to cure A ll who know how .

many people in India su ffer through these

practices ill understood recognise that it is not
, ,

w ise t o plunge into them without some one to

tell you what they mean and what may be ,

safely practised and what not The other part .

Of the Yoga literature is a smal l book called

The S tras of P a ta j a li That is available but
.
,

I am afraid that few are able t o make much of

it by themselves In the rst place t o elucidate
.
,

the S tras which are s imply headings there is

, ,

a great deal of commentary in S amsk rt only ,

pa rt ially translated And even the co mmen

.

taries have this peculiarity that all the most ,

difcult words are merely repeated not explained , ,

so that the student is not much enlightened .

S O M E D E F I N ITIO N S

There are a few words co ns tantly recurring , ,

which need bri ef denitions in order to avoid ,

c onfusion ; they are unfolding evolution , ,

spirituality psychism yoga and mysticism

, , , .

U nfolding always refers to cons c iousness ,

evolution to forms Evolution a c cording t o

.
,

Herbert Spencer is the homogen eous be c oming

,

t he he t erogeneous the simple be c oming complex

, .
30 I N T RO DUC TIO N TO Y OGA

But there is no growth and no p erfectioning for

Spirit for c onsciousness ; i t is all there and
,

always and all that can happen t o it is t o turn

,

itself ou twards instead of remaining turned

inwards The Go d in yo u cannot evolve
.
,

but He may show forth His powers through

ma t ter that He has appropriated for the pur
p os e and the mat t er ev olves to serve Him
,
He .

Himself only manifes t s what He is And on .

that many a saying o f the grea t Mystics may

, .

come to your mind : Become says S Ambro se

i

,
.
,

wha t yo u are a paradoxical phrase but o ne ,

tha t sums up a grea t truth : become in ou te r

manifestation that which yo u are in inner
reality That is the obj ec t of t he whole proc e ss
.

o f Yoga .

S pirituality is the realisation of the One .

Psychism is the manifestation of intelligen ce

1
through any material vehi cle .

Yoga is the seeking of u nion by the in

telle ct a science Mystic is m is the seeki ng of

2
the same union by emotion .

1
S ee L ondon L ectu res of 1 90 7 . S pirit ual ity and

2
T h e w ord yo ga may, of co urse , b e ri g t y u sed of all

hl
union wit h l
t h e S e f , w at e ve r t h e ro ad t ak e n hI am usin g .

it h e re in t h e narrow e r s e n se , as
p e c u i ar y connect e d wit l l h
l
t h e inte l ige n ce , as a scien ce , e re i n o owin g Patajali h f ll .
 T HE NA T U R E or Y O GA 31

See the Mysti c He xes his mind o n the

.

obje ct of devotion ; he loses s elf cons c iousness -

,

and pas ses into a rapture of love and adora

tion leaving all external ideas wrapped in the
, ,

obj ect o f his love and a great surge of emotion

,

sweeps him up t o God He does not know h ow .

he h as reached that lofty state He is con .

s cious only of Go d and his love for Him Here .

is the rapture o f the Mysti c the triumph of t h e ,

Saint .

The Yog i does not work like t h at Ste p .

afte r s t ep he realises what he is doing He

, .

works by s c ience and not by emotion so that ,

any wh o do not care fo r science nding it dull ,

and dry are not at pre sent unfol ding that part
,

o f their na t ure which will nd it s best help in

the practice o f Y oga The Yog i may use devo

.

tion as a means This c omes o ut very plainly

.

in P ata jali He h as given many means

.

whereby Yoga may be followed and curi , ,

ousl devotion o T h is f several

y ,
t s vara o ne o

means There c omes o ut the spirit of the scienti

.

c thinker D evotion t o Tsh vara is not for h im

.

an end in itself but a means to an end the

,

c oncentrati on of the mi nd Y ou se e there at .

on ce t he di erence of spirit D evotion t o .

i sh v ara is the path of the Mys tic He attains .

32 IN T R O DU CTIO N To YO GA

c ommunion by that D evo tion to Tshvara as a

.

means Of concentrating the mind is the scientic

way in which t he Yog i regar ds devotion N O
number of words would have brought out the
difference o f spirit between Yoga and Mysticism
as well as this .The one loo ks upon devotion
to Tshvara as a way of reaching the Beloved ;
the other looks upon it as a means o f reaching
c oncentration To the Mystic God in Himself
.
,

is the O bject of search delight in Him is the

,

reason for approaching Him union with Him in

,

c ons c iousness is his goal ; but to t h e Yog i ,

xi ng the attention o n God is merely an e e ctive

w ay o f c oncentrating the mind In the o ne
.
,

devo tion is used to obtain an end ; in the other ,

Go d is seen as the end and is re ached d irec tly

,

by rap ture .

GOD W IT H O U T AN D GO D WIT H I N

Now that leads to the ne xt po int t he

us ,

relation of God without to God with in To the . .

Yog i who is the very type of Hin du thought

, ,

there is no denite proof of God save the witness

of the S elf within t o His existence and his idea ,

of nding t he proof o f Go d is that o u should

y
strip away from your cons c iousnes s all limi ta t ion s ,
 T HE NAT U R E O F Y O G A 33

and thus reach the stage where you have

pure consc ousness save a veil of the thin
i
nirvanic matter Then you know that Go d is
. ,

So you read in the U p anish at : Whose only

proof is the w itness of the Self This is very

.

di e re nt from western metho ds of thought whi c h ,

try to demonstra te Grod by a process o f argu

ment The Hin du will tell you that you c annot
.

demonstrate Go d by any argument or reasoning

H e is above and beyo nd reasoning and although
,

the reason may guide yo u o n the way it will ,

not prove to demonstration that Go d is The .

only w a y you can know H im is by diving into

yourself There you will nd Hi m and know
.
,

that He is without as well as with in you ; and

Y oga is a system that enables you to get rid of
everyth ing from conscious ness that is not Go d ,

save that one ve il of the ni rvanic atom and so ,

to know that God is with an unshakable

,

ce rtainty of convi ction To the Hind u that

.

inner conviction is the only thing worthy to be

c alled Faith and this gives yo u the reason why
,

faith is said to be beyond reas on and so is often

,

c onfused with credulity Faith is beyond reason

.
,

be c ause it is the testimony of the Self to himself ,

t hat conviction o f existence as Self o f whi c h ,

reason is only one of the outer manifes tations and ,

3
34 I N T R O DUCT IO N To YO GA

the only true faith is that inner c onviction whi c h ,

no argument can either strengthen O r weaken ,

o f the innermost Self o f you tha t of which alone ,

o u are e nt irelv sure It i s the aim o f Yoga to

y .

enable you t o reach that Self constantly not by ,

a sudden glimpse o f intuition bu t steadily , ) ,

unshakably an d unchangeably and when that

, ,

Self is reached then the question

,
Is there a
Go d can never again come into the human
mind .

C H AN G E S O F C O N S CIO U S N E SS AN D V I B RA TIO N S
OE M A TT E R

N ow i t is necessary to understand something

about that consciousness which is your Self and ,

about the matter which is the envelop e of con

sciou sn e ss b ut which the Self s o Oft en identies
,

with himself The great characteristic of con

.

s ciou sne ss is change with a foundation of c er

,

tainty that it is The consciousness of exist en c e

.

never changes bu t beyond this all is change

, ,

a nd only by the changes does consc iousness

become Self consciousness C onsciousness is an
-
.

ever changing thing circ ling round one idea

-
,

that never changes Self exis t en c e The con -
.

s cio usness i t self is not c hanged by any c hange

36 I N T R O D U CTIO N To

Y O GA

to a change in consc iousness There is no .

change in consciousness h o we ver sub tle that

, ,

h as no t approp riated to it a v ibration in matter

there is no v ibration in matter however swift

, ,

or delicate which has not correlated to it a

,

certain change in consc iousness That is the .

rst great work o f the L OGO S which the H ind u ,

sc ri ptures trace out in the building of the atom ,

the Tanmat ra ,
the measure of That

the ,

measure o f consc iousness He who is consc ious

.

nes s i mposes on H is ma ter ial the ans wer t o

every c hange in consciousness and that is an ,

innite number of vib rations So that between .

the Self and its sheaths there is this invariable

relation : the change in consc iousness an d the
vibr ation of matter and vi ce versa That makes
,
.

it p ossible for the Self to kno w the N o t self -

.

These correspondences are u tilise d in R aj a

Yoga and Hath a Yoga the Kingly Yoga and ,

the Yoga o f R esol ve The Raj a Yoga s eeks to

.

contro l the ch anges in consc iousness and by ,

this control t o rule the material vehicles The .

Hatha Yoga seeks to c ontrol th e vib rations

of mat t,
er and by this control to ev oke the
desired changes in cons cio usness The weak .

point in H at h a Y oga is that ac t ion o n this line

'

c annot rea c h beyond the as tral p lane and the ,

 TH E NATUR E O F YO G A 37

great strain imposed on the comparatively intrac t

able matter o f the physical plane sometimes
leads to atrophy o f the very organs the activity ,

o f wh ich is necessary for e ffecting the changes

in consciousness that would be useful The Hatha .

Yogi gains control over the bodily organs wi th

w hich the waking consciousness no longer
concerns itself having relinquished them t o it s
,

lower part the sub consc iousness

,
- This is
often useful as regards the prevention of dise as e ,

but serves no h igher purpose When he begin s

.

t o work o n the brain centres conne c ted with

,

ordinary consc iousness and still more when he

,

touches those connected with the super conscious -

ness he enters a dangerous region and is more

, ,

likely to paralyse than to evolve .

That relat ion alone it is which makes mat ter

cognisable the change in the thinker is answered
by a change outside and h is answer t o it and
, ,

the change in it that he makes by h is answer ,

re arrange again the matter o f the body which

-

is h is envelope .H ence the rhythmic chan ges

in matter are r ightly called its cogn isability .

Matte r may be known by consciousness because ,

o f th is unchanging relation between the two

.

sides of the manifes ted L OGO S w h o is o ne ,

.

and the Se lf be comes aware of changes wi thin .

 Q

38 I N T R O D U C T IO N TO YOG A

Himself and thus of tho se o f the external worlds

,

t o whi c h those changes are related .

What is mind ? From th e yogic st andpomt it is

S imply the individualised c onsciousness the whol e ,

of it,
t he whole o f your cons c iousness including
your activitieswhich t he western psychologist
puts ou t side mind O nly on the basis Of eas t ern
.

psychology is Yoga possible How S hall we .

describe this individualised c onsciousness First

it is aware o f things Be c oming aware o f them
.
,

it desires them D esiring them it tries t o attain

.
,

them S O we have the three aspects of con

.

scl o usnessin t ellige nc e desire ac t ivi ty

,
O n th e ,
.

physical plane activity predominates although

, ,

desire and t hought are present O n the astral .

plane desire predomi nates and thought and

, ,

acti vity are subject to desire O n the mental .

plane intelligence is the dominant note desire

, ,

and a c ti vity are subj ect to it Go to th e bu ddhic

.

lane and cogni t i on a pure reason re domin

p ,
s , p ,

ates and so o n Each quality is present all the

, .

t ime b ut one predominates So with the mat te r

, .

th at belongs t o them In your combinatio ns

.

o f ma tt er you get rhythmic a ctive or stabl e, ,

 TH E NATURE or YOG A 39

ones ; and acc ordi ng to the c ombinations of

matter in your bodies will be the conditions of
the ac tivity of the whole of these in conscious
ness TO practise Yoga you must build your
.

bo di es o f the rhythmic combinations with ,

ac tivity and inertia less apparent The Yog i .

wants to make his body match h is mind .

S TA G E S or MI ND

The mind h as ve s tages P atanjali tells us , ,

and Vyasa comments that these stages o f mind

are o n every plane The rst stage is the
stage in which the mind is ung about the ,

K sh ip ta stage ; it is the buttery mind t h e ,

early stage o f humanity or in man the mind of, , ,

the child darting constantly from one object to

,

another It corresponds to ac tivity o n th e

.

physical plane The next is the confused stage

.
,

M udh a equ ivalent to the s tage of the youth

, ,

swayed by emotions bewildered by them ; he

,

i
beg ns to feel he is ignorant a state beyond
the ck le ness
of the child a characteristi c
state corresponding to activity in the astral
,

world Then comes the state o f preoccupation

.
,

or infatuation Vik sh ip ta the state of the man

, ,

p oss e ssed by an idea love ambition o r w h at, ,

40 I N T R O DU CTIO N To YOGA

not He is no longer a conf used youth but a

.
,

man with a clear aim and an idea po ssesses ,

him It may b e either the xed idea of the

.

madman o r the xed idea which makes the

,

hero o r the saint ; but in any case he is possesse d

by the idea The q uality of the idea its truth
.
,

o r falsehood makes the d ifference between the

,

man iac and th e martyr .

Maniac or martyr he is under the spell of a ,

xed idea N o reasoning avails a gainst it If

. .

he has assured h imself tha t he I S made of glass ,

no amount o f argument w ill convince him to the

c ontrary He will always regard himself as
.

being as brittle as glass That is a xed idea .

which is false But there is a xed idea whic h

.

makes the hero and the martyr For some great .

truth dearer than l ife is everything thrown

aside He is possessed by it dominate d by it
.
, ,

and he goes t o death gladly for it That s tate .

is said t o be approaching Yoga for such a man ,

is b e co mingc on ce ntrate d even if only po ssessed

by o ne idea This stage correspond s to activity

.

o n the lower mental plane W h eren t h e ma n .

possesses the idea instead of being possess e d,

by i t that o ne pointed state of the mind

,
-
,

c alled Ekagrata in S amsk rt is the fourth ,

st a e
g He.is a mature man ready for the t rue ,
 T HE NAT UR E O F Y O GA 41

life When the man has gone through life domin

.

a t ed by o ne idea then he is approaching Yoga

,

he is getting rid o f the gr ip of the w orld and is ,

b eyond it s allurements B ut when he possesses

.

that which before possessed h i m then he has b e ,

come t for Yoga and beg ins the training wh ich

,

makes h is progress rapid This stage corre .

s o nds t o act ivity on the higher mental plane

p .

O ut of th is fourth stage o r F k agrat a arises,

I ,

the fth stage N iruddh a or Self c ontrolled

,
- .

When the man not only possesses o ne id e a but , ,

rising above all ideas chooses as h e w ills takes

, ,

o r does not take a cc ord ing to the illumined Will ,

then he is Se lf controlled and can e ffectively

-
,

practise Yoga . T h is stage corresponds t o

activity o n the bu ddhic plane .

In the third stage Vik sh ipta where he is p os

, ,

sessed by the idea he is learning viveka or dis

, ,

crimination be tween the outer and the inner the ,

real and the unreal When he has learned the

.

lesson of viveka then he advances a stage for

,

ward and in Ekagrat a he chooses one idea the ,

inner life and as he xes h is mind on that idea

he learns vairagya or d ispassion H e rises
, .

above the desire to possess Objects of enjoyment ,

belo nging either to th is or any other world .

Th en he advances towards the fth s ta ge ,

4s I N T RO D U C T IO N To Y OGA

.

S elf controlled
-
.In order to reac h that h emust
p ractise th e S ix endowmen ts the Sh atsampatti ,
.

These six endowmen ts have t o do with the Will

aspe c t o f c ons ciousness as the o ther two viv eka
, ,

and vairagya have t o do with the Cogni tion and

,

Ac tivity aspects of it .

By a study of your o wn mind you c an nd ,

o ut how far you are ready to begin the deni te

pra c tice of Yoga Examine your mind in order

.

t o recognise these s t ages in yourselves If you .

are in either of the two early stages you are not ,

ready for Yoga The child and the youth are

.

not ready to be c ome Yog i s nor is the pre ,

occupied man But if you nd yourself p os

.

sess ed by a single thought you are nearly ,

ready for Yoga it leads to the next stage of

o ne -
p oin t edness where
,
you can choose your
idea and cling to it of your o wn will Shor t is
,
.

t he step from that t o the complete control which ,

c an inhibit all motions of the mind Having .

reached that stage it is comparatively easy t o

,

pass into Sam adhi .

I NW ARD AN D O U T W ARD T URN E D C O N S C IO U S N ES S

Sam adhi is of two kinds : one turned out

ward one t urned inward The ou t ward t urned
,
.
-
44 I N T R O DU CTIO N TO YOG A

into a sheath not yet recognis ed as a sheath I t .

is then for a while consc ious only of itself and

not O f the o uter world Then comes the c lou d .

,

the dawning sense aga in o f an outer a dim

,

se nsing of something other than itself ; that

again is follo wed by the functioning of the highe r
S heath and the recognition of the obj ects of the
next higher plane corresponding to that Sheath
,
.

Hence the complete cycle is S ampraj ata

Sam adhi Asamprajfiat a Samadh i Megha (cloud )
, , ,

and then the S ampraj at a Sam adh i of the next

plane and so on
, .

T HE C L O UD

This term in full D harma Megha cloud,
o f -
,

righteousness or O f rel igion is one which is
,

very scantily e xplaI ne d by the commentators .

In fact the only explanat ion they give is that

,

all the man s past karma of good gathers over

him and pours down upon h im a rain O f bless

,

ing L et us see if we cannot nd something

.

more than this meagre interpretat ion .

The term cloud is very Oft en used in the

mystic l iterature O f the West the C loud on the

Mount the C loud on the Sanctuary the
,

,

C loud on the Mercy Seat

are expressions -
,
 T HE NA T UR E OF Y OGA 45

familiar to the student A nd the experience .

which they indicate is famili ar to all Mystics in

its lower phases and t o some in its fulness
,
In .

it s lower phases it is the exper ience just noted

, ,

where the withdra wal of the consc iousness

into a sheath not yet recognised as a sheath is
followed by the beginning of the funct ion ing of
that sheath the rst ind icat ion of which is the
,

dim sensing of an outer Y ou feel as though .

surrounded by a dense m ist consc ious that you ,

are not alone but unable to see B e still ; be

,
.

pat ient ; wait Let your consc iousness be in the

.

attitude of suspense P resently the cloud will .

thin and rst in gl impses then in it s full beauty

, , ,

the v ision of a h igher plane w ill dawn o n your

entranced sight This entrance into a h igher
.

plane will repeat itself aga in and aga in until , ,

your consc iousness centred o n the bu ddhic plane ,

and its S plendours having disappeared as your

consc iousness withdraws even from that exquisite
Sheath you nd yourself in the true cloud the
, ,

cloud on the sanctuary the cloud that veils the ,

Hol iest that hides the vision o f the Self Then

, .

c omes what seems to be the draining away of the

very life the letting go of the last hold on the
,

tangible the h angingin a void the horror of great

, ,

darkness loneliness unspeakable Endure endure

, .
, .
46 I N T RO DU CTIO N To YOG A

Every thing must go N oth ing out of the Eter

.

nal c an help yo u God only shines out in th e
.

st illne ss y as says the Hebrew : Be s till and

,

know that I am God In that silen c e a Voi ce
.

Shall be heard the voice of the Self

,
In that .

stillness a L ife Shall be felt the life of the Self , .

In that void a F ulness shall be revealed t he ,

fulness of the Self In that darkness a Ligh t .

shall be seen the glory o f the Self The c loud

,
.

shall vanish and the shining of the Self Shall

,

be made manifes t That which was a glimp se

.

o f a far o f
-
f majesty shall become a perp etual
realisation and k now mg the Self and your unity
, ,

with it you S hall ente r into the Peace tha t

,

be longs to the Self alone .

 L E C T U RE I I

S C H OO LS O F TH OU GHT

B ROT H E R S

In studying psychology any one who is ,

acquainted with the S amsk rt tongue must know

h o w valuable that lan guage is for pre c ise and
scientic dealing with the subj ect The Sam .

S krt,
or the well made -
the construc ted the
, ,

built together tongue is one that lends itself

, ,

better than a ny other to the elucidation o f '

psychological difculties O ver and over again

.
,

by the mere form of a word a hint is given an e x

, ,

planation o r relation is suggested The language .

is cons tructed in a fash ion whi ch enables a large

number of meanings to be connoted by a Single
word so that you may trace all all ied ide as or
, ,

truths or facts by this verbal conne ction when

, , ,

y o u are speaking or using S amsk rt It has a .

limite d number of importan t roo t s and t hen an ,

48 I N T RO DU CTIO N T9 Y OG A

immense n umber O f words constructed on those

roo t s .

N ow the root of the word yoga is a word that

means to join yuj and that root appears

,

,

in many languages such as the Engl ishof ,

course through the Latin where in you get

, ,

j g
u aref

j g
u n,
ere to j oin and out O f that
,
a
number Of English words are derived and will at ,

once suggest themselves to you j unct ion con ,

junction disjunction and so o n The English

, ,
.

word yoke again is derived from this same

,

,

S amsk rt root S O that all through the various words

, ,

o r thoughts or facts connected with this one root

, , ,

you are abl e to gather the mean ing of the word

Yoga and to see how much that wo rd covers in
,

the ordinary processes of the m ind and how S ug ,

stiv e many of the words connected with it are

g e ,

acting so to speak as signposts t o direct yo u

, ,

along the ro ad to the meaning In other tongues .

,

as in French we have a word like rapp ort used

, ,

c ons t antly in English being en rap p ort$ a

Fren ch e xpression but S O anglicised that it is ,

c on tinu ally heard amongst ourselv e s And that .

t erm in some ways is the closest t o the meaning

, ,

of t he S amsk rt word Yoga to be I n relation

to

t o be c onnected with to enter in to

to merg e in and S O on : all these ideas are

 S C H OOLS or T H O U G HT 49

c lassied together under the head of Yoga one

.

When you nd Shri K rsh na saying tha t Yoga

is equilibrium in the S amskrt He is saying a
,

perfectly obvious thing because Yoga implies ,

balance yoking and the S amsk rt of e quilibriu m

, ,

is S ama tva, togetherness so that it is a pe rfectly

f

simple st raightforward statement not c onno ting

, ,

anyth ing very deep but merely expressing one ,

o f the fundamental meanings of the word

He is using And so with ano ther word a word
.
,

used in the commentary on the s utra I quoted

last week which conveys to the Hin dua perfec tly
,

straightforward meaning : Yoga is Samadhi .

To an only English knowing person tha t does -

not convey any very denite idea each word

needs explanation To a S amsk rt knowing man .
-

the t wo words are ob viously related to one another .

F or the word Yoga we have seen means yoked , ,

together and Sam adhi is derived from the roo t
,

d h a ,t o pla c e with the preposi ,

tions 8 am and 6 ,

meaning comple tely together S am adhi there ,

fore literally means ful ly plac ing together and

, ,

its etymologi cal equivalent in English would be

to c ompose (com sam; p osi ta= place ) Sam adhi

: .

therefore means comp osing the mind c ollec ting ,

it together checking all distractions Thus by

, .

p hilologi c al as well as by practical invest iga tio n

, ,

4
50 I N T RO D U C TI O N TO Y O GA

th e two words Yoga and Sam adh i are inseparably

lin k ed t oge ther A nd when Vyasa the c ommen t
.
,
o

a tor says
,
Yoga I S the c om posed mind he is ,

co n v eying a clear and signi c ant idea as to wh at

is im plie d in Yoga A l t hough Sam adhi h as co m e

.

t o mean by a na tural sequen c e of idea s th e

, ,

tranc e s t a te which results from perfec t co mposure

-
,

its O riginal meaning should not be lost sigh t of .

Thus in explaining Yoga o ne is ofte n a t a los s

, ,

for th e English equivalent of the ma nifold mean

ing s of the S amskrt to ngue and I earnes tly ,

advise those of you wh o can do so a t leas t to ,

ac q uain t yourselves sufc iently with t his admir

able language t o mak e the litera t ure of Yoga

,
$

more in telligible to you than it can be to a

ers o n wh o I s c omple t ely ignorant of S a mskr t
p .

I TS R E L A T I O N To I ND IAN P H I LO S O P H I E S

Let me ask yo u to t hink for a while o n th e

l ac e of Yoga in its rela t ion t o t wo of the grea t
p
Hin du S c hools of phi losophi c al t hou gh t for ,
.

n ei ther the En glishman n or t he non S amskrt -

knowing In di an c an ever really unders tand th e

tran slations of the chi ef Indian books no w ,

c urren t here and in the Wes t and t he for c e of

all the allusions t hey make unless they a c quai nt
,
 '
52 I N T R O DUC TI O N TO YOG A

A like in the B hagavad Gi

and in t he S atras-
m
a ta als t he terms are S an
j y ,

o
f P k h an and his ,

t orically Yoga is based on the S ankhya so far

,

as it s ph ilosophy is c on c erned S ankhya does not .

Con c ern i ts elf wi t h the existence of D eity but ,

only wi t h the Be c oming of a universe the order ,

of e volu t ion Hen c e i t is Often called N irish vara

.

Sankhya the S ankhya withou t God But so

, .

closely is i t bound up with the Yo ga syste m ,

that t he la tter is c alle d S esh vara S ankhya ,

the S ankhya wi th God For its understanding .

,

therefore I must Outline part of the S ankhya

,

philosophy that part which deals with the re

,

lation of Spirit and Matter note the di fference ,

from t his of the Ve dan tic conception of Self

and N ot Self and then nd th e reconc ilia
-
,

t ion in the Theosophic statement of the facts

in nat ure The directions whi c h fall from the
.

l ips of the L ord o f Yoga in t he Gi t i may some ,

t imes seem to you oppo sed t o each other and

c ontradi ctory because t hey some times are
,

phrased in t he S ankh yan and sometimes in t he

Vedan ti c terms s t ar ting from differen t stand
,

poin ts one l ooking a t t he world from the stand

,

point of Matt er the other from the standpoint ,

of Spirit If
. you are a s t udent o f Theosophy ,

t hen t he kn owledge of the fac ts will enable you

 S C H OOL S O F T H OUG HT 53

t o translate the di e rent phrases That recOn

.
-
a

cil iation and understanding o f these apparently

c ontradi c tory phrases is the obj e c t to whi c h I
would ask your atte ntion now .

The S ankh yan Schoo l s tarts with the state

ment that the universe c onsists of t w o facto rs ,

the rst pair o f opposites Spirit and Mat te r or , , ,

more accurat ely Spirits and M att er The Spirit

,
.

is called Pur usha the Man ; and ea c h Spirit is

,

an individual Puru sha is a U nit a U nit of

.
,

consciousness ; they are all of the same nature ,

but distinct everlastingly the o ne from the other .

O f these units there are many ; c ountl ess Puru sh as

are to be found in the world o f men But whil e .

they are countless in number they are identic al

in nature they are homogeneous Every Puru sha
, .

h as three characteristics and thes e three are ,

alike in all One characteristi c is aware ness ; it

.

will become C ognition The se cond o f the .

characterist ics is l ife or prana it will bec ome

A ctivity The third charac teristic is immuta
.

b ili ty the essen ce of eternity it will become Will

, .

Eterni ty is not as some mistakenl y think ever

, ,
-1

lasting time E verlasting time h as nothi ng to

.

do with e tern ity Time and eternity are two a-I-

.
z

together di erent things E ternity is c hangeless

.
,

immutable simultan eous N o su c cession in time

, .
,
54 I NT R O D U C T I O N T O W OGA

a
lbeit e v erlas ting if su c h c o ul d b e could give
e t ernity The fact t hat Puru sha h as thi s attribu t e
.

of immu t abi li ty , t ell s us t hat he is e ternal ; for

cha ngelessness is a mark of t he eternal .

Su c h are the three at tribu tes o f Purusha ,

according to t he S an khya Tho u gh t hese are .

not th e same in nomen clature as th e Ve dan ti c

S at , C hi t Anan da yet they are practi cally

, ,

iden ti c al A wareness or c ognition is Chit ; life

.

o r fo rc e is S at ; a nd immutabili ty the essen c e o f ,

,

e t erni ty , is Anan d a
-
.

O ver against thes e P urush as homogeneo us ,

uni t s, c oun tl e ss in number s tands Prak r ti Ma tte r, , ,

th e se c ond in t he S ank h yan duality P rakrti is .

one many Prakrti is a con

P urush as are .

tinuu m ; Puru sh as are dis c ontinuous be ing in ,

numerable homogeneous unit s C ontinui ty is

, .

the mark of Prakrti Pause for a moment on the .

name P rakrti Le t us investigate its root mean

.

ing The name indicate s its ess ence P m means

. .

$
fo r
t h and k? is the root make P rak rti thus

,

.

means forth making Matter is that which

-

enables th e essen c e of Being to bec ome T hat .

whi c h is Being is-tence be c omes emis tenCG o ut

, ,
- -
,

being by Matt er and to desc ribe Mat ter as

, ,

for th making is to give it s esse nc e in a single

-

wo rd Only by P rak rti can Spiri t or Purusha

.
, ,
 SC H OO LS or TH O U G HT 55

forth -m ake manifest himse lf Withou t

or

.

the presence of Prak rti Puru sha is helpless a , ,

mere abstraction O nl y by the presen c e of and .

,

in P rak rti c an Puru sha make manifest his

, ,

po wers P rakrti h as also t hree charac teris tic s

.
,

th e well known gu nas

-
attribu tes or quali ties .

enables awareness to be come cogni tion Mobili ty .

immutability to be c ome will .

Now the co n c ep tion as to t he rela tion of Spiri t

to Mat ter is a very pe culiar one and c onfused ,

ideas about i t give rise to many mis c on c eptions .

If you gras p it the B hagava d Gi td be c omes ,

-

illuminated and all the phras es abo u t action and

,

ac t or and the mistake o f saying I a c t b e com e
, , ,

easy to understand as implying te c hni c al ,

S ankh yan ideas .

The three qualiti es of Prakrti when P rak rti ,

is though t of as away from P uru sha are in ,

equilibrium motionless p oised the one agains t

, ,

the other coun terbalan c ing and neutralis ing

,

e a c h o ther S O that Mat ter is called j ade u nco n

, ,

sc ious

, dead But in the presence of Puru sha
.

all is c hanged When P uru sha is in propinquity

to Matter then the re is a c han ge in Matte r
.

, not

o u tside but in i t
, .
56 I N T RO D U C TIO N To YOGA

Puru sha acts o n P ra krti by pr opinqui ty says

$

Vyasa I t c omes near P rakrti and P rakrti

.
,

begins to live The coming near is a gure o f

.

s eech an adap t a t ion t u ideas f time and

p , o o r o

S pa ce fo r we canno t posit
, nearness of tha t

w hi ch is timeless and sp aceless Spirit By the .

word propinquity is in dicated an inuenc e

e x erted by Puru sha o n P rakrti and this where , ,

material obj ects are c oncerned would be brought ,

abo ut by the ir propinquity If a magnet b e .

brought near to a piece of soft iron or an elec ,

t ri e d b ody be brought near to a neutral one ,

c ertain changes are wrought in the soft iron or ,

in the neutral body by that bringing near The

,
.

ro i n uit
p p q y of the magnet makes the soft i ron a
magnet the qualities o f the magnet are produced
in it it manifests poles it attracts steel it attrac ts
, , ,

o r repels the end of an electr ic needle In the .

p resence of a positively electried body the ,

elec t ricity in a neutral body is re arranged and -

,

the positive retreats while the negat ive gathers

near the ele c tried body A n internal change .

h as occurred in both c ases from the propinquity

of another obj e c t So with Puru sha and P rak rti
. .

P uru sh a does nothing but from Puru sha there

,

c omes out an inuen c e as in the case o f th e ,

magneti c inuen c e The three gu nas under th is

.
,
 S C H OO L S or TH OUGHT 57

inuen ce Puru sha undergo a marv ellous

of ,

c hange I do not know what words to u se in

. ,

order not to make a mistake in putting it You .

c annot say that P rakrti absorbs the inuen ce .

You can hardly say that it reects the Puru sha .

But the presence o f Puru sha brings about

c ertain internal changes causes a differen ce ,

in the equilibrium of the three gue s s in

Prak rti The three gu nas were in a s t ate o f
.

equil ibrium N o gu na w as manifest On e gu na

. .

was balanced against another What happens .

when Puru sha inuenc es P rak rti The quality o f

awareness in Purusha is taken up by or reected ,

in the gu na called sattva rhythm and i t becomes

, , ,

cognition in P rak rt i The quality that we call

.

life in Puru sha is taken up by or reec ted in , ,

the gu na called rajas mobility and it be c omes , ,

forc e energy activity in P rak rti The quality

, , , .

that we c all immutability in Puru sha is take n

up by or reec ted in the gu na call ed tamas
, , ,

inertia and S hows itself out as will or desire in

,

P rak rti S O that in that balanced equilibrium

.
,

o f P rak rti a change

,
has taken pla c e by the
mere propinquity of or presence o f the P uru sha
, , .

The Puru sha has lost nothing but at the same ,

time a change has taken place in matter .

C ogni tion has appeared in it A c tivity for c e .

, ,
 N T R O D U C TI O N YOGA

58 I To

h as ppe ared in it Will or desire h as appeared

a .

in i t With this change in Prakrti ano t her c hange

.

o cc urs The three at tribu t es of P urusha c an not

.

be se parated from eac h o ther nor c an the three ,

attrib ut es of P rak r ti be separa t e d ea ch fr o m

ea c h Hen c e rhythm whi le ap propria tin g
.
,

awareness is under the inuence of the whole

,

th r ee in one Puru sha and c anno t bu t also take up

- -
,

sub ordina tely life and immutability as acti vi ty

and will And so with mobility an d iner tia
. .

In c ombina tions one quality or another may

predominat e and we may have c ombina tio ns ,

whi c h Show pr e ponderantly awareness rhythm -

,

or li fe mo b ili ty or immutabili ty inertia

-
Th e
,
-
.

c ombinations in whi c h awareness rh ythm or -

,

c ognition predominat es be c ome mind in nat ure

, ,

the subject or subj ec tive half of nature C o m

, .

b inations in whi c h either of the o ther t wo pre

dominates be c ome the obj ect o r obj ective half ,

o f nature , t he for c e and matter of the Euro pean

1
sc ientist .

We hav e thus nature divided in to t wo th e ,

subj e c t and the obj ec t W e have now in nat ure .

everything that is wanted fo r the man ifes tatio n

1
friend notes t h at th e rst is t h e S h u ddha S attva of t h e
A
B i mi nuja S chool and t h e se co nd and t h ird t h e Prakrti or
, ,
.

S p irit matt er in t h e lowe r se nse o f t h e same

-
, .
60 I N T R O DU CTI O N To Y O GA

that is c le ar in o ur minds we c an ne ver disc rim

d
,

inat e the mean ing under the phrases of a i

p articular philosophy .

Let u S now turn to the Vedan tic idea ; Accords

'

ing t o the Ved antic view the Se lf is o ne omni ,

p resent all permeating the n reali t N o

o e
y
-
, ,
.

thing e xists except the Self th at is the starting
poin t in Ved anta All permeating all contro l .
-
,
-

ling all inspiring the S elf is everywhere present

,
-
,
.

A s the ether permea tes all ma t t er S O does th e ,

O ne S elf p ermeate restrain support vivify all , , ,

.

It is writt en in the Gi i that as the air goes

everywhere so is the Self everywhere in the
,

inn ite diversity o f Obj ects A s we t ry t o follow .

the outline o f Ve dan tic thought as we try to ,

grasp this idea of the o n e universal Self who is ,

existence consciousness bliss S at C hi t Ananda

, , ,
- -
,

we nd that we are carried into a loftier regio n

of philosophy than that occupi ed by the S an khya :
The Self is O ne The Self is every where co n: .

scious the S elf is everywhere exis tent the Self

, ,

is everywhere blissful There is no divisio n .

'

between these qual ities of the Self Everywhere .

,

all embracing these qualities are found at every

-
,

p oint in ,
every
pl ace Th ere is no s p ot on .

which you can put your nger and say Th e

S elf is no t here
i
Where the Self s and He
.
 S C H OO LS or T H O UG H T 61

is
everywhere there is existence there is c on ,

sciou sn e ss, and there is bl iss The Self being .

,

con sciousness imagines limitation

,
division , .

F rom that imagination of limitation arises form ,

diversity manyness From that thought o f the

,
.

S elf,
from that thought of l imitation all diver ,

sit y o f the many is born Matter is the l imitation .

impos ed upon the Self by H is o wn will to l imit

Himself E k oh am bahu syama I am one
.
, ,

I w ill to be many ; let me be many is the
,

thought of the O ne and in that thought the ,

ma ni fold universe comes into existence In that .

limit ation Self created He exists He is conscious

,
-
, , ,

He is happy In Hi m arises the thought that

.

He is Self existence and behold $ all existence

-
,

be c omes possible Because in Him is the will

.
.

to manifest all manifestation at once comes into

,

e xi s t ence Becaus e in Him is all bliss therefore

.
,

is the law of l ife the s eeking for happiness, the

ess e ntial characteristic of every sentient creature .

The U niverse appears by the Self l imitation in -

thought of the Self The moment the Self .

ceases to think it the universe is not it , ,

vanishes as a d ream That is the fundamental .

idea of the Ve dan ta Then it ac c epts the Spirits

.

o f the S an khya the P urush as ; but it says that

,

th ese Spirits are only ree c tions of the on e Self ,

62 I N T R O DU CTIO N To
,
YOG A

emanated by the ac tivity o f the S elf and th at ,

t hey all repr odu c e Him in miniature wi t h t h e ,

li mita ti ons whi c h the universal Self h as imp ose d

u po n them whi ch are apparently port ions of
,

th e universe bu t are really iden t i c al wit h H im

, .

I t is the play of the Supreme Self that makes the

limi t ation S and thus reprodu c es withi n limitatio ns
,

t he quali ties of t he Self the cons ciousness o f th e

Self of the Sup reme Self b ec om es in the particm
, , ,

larise d Self cognition the po wer to know ; and

, ,

t he exis t en c e of the Self be c omes a c tivi ty th e ,

ower t o ma nifest and t he bliss of the Self b e

p
c omes will the deep es t part of all the lo ngin g
, ,

for happiness for b liss t he resolve t o obtain i t

,

is wha t we c all will A nd so in the limited th e

.
,

p ower t o know and

,
the power to ac t and t h e ,

p ower t o will t,
h ese are the ree ct ions in t he
$

p ar t i c ular Sel f o f the es sen tial quali ti es of the

v ersal Self O therwise put : tha t whi c h was uni

.

versal awareness be c omes now cogni tion in th e

,

separa te d S elf ; that whi ch in the uni v e rsal Se lf

w as awareness of i t self be c omes in t he limi t ed
,

S elf awareness o f others the awareness of the

whole be c omes t he cognition of the individual .

S o with the existen c e of the Self ; the Self e xist i -

en c e of t he universal Self be c omes in the limi ted

Self ac ti vity preserv a tion of e xis ten c e S o d oe s
, , .
 S C H OOL S or TH O U GHT 63

t he blis s of the universal Self in the limit ed e x ,

r ssion o f the individual Self be come the will

p e .
,

t h at seeks for happiness the Self de te rmination

,
-

o f the Self the seeking for S elf realisation tha t

,
-
,

dee pest essence o f human life .

The difference comes with li mitation with the ,

narrowing o f the universa l quali t ies in to t h e

sp e c ic quali ties o f t he limi ted Self ; both are the

same in essence though seeming di fferent in

,

manifestation We have the power to know th e

.
,

o wer to will and the power t o act These are

p , .

the three grea t powers of the Self that Show ,

themselves in the separated Self in every dive r ,

sity o f forms from the minu t est moneron to the

,

lofti est Logos .

Then just as in the S ankhya if the Puru sha

, , ,

t he particular Self should identify himself wi th

,

the matt er in whi c h he is reec ted then there is ,

delusi on and bondage so in the Vedan ta if the ,

Self et ernally free imagines hi mself to b e bo und

, ,

by matter identifying himself with h is limi t

,

at ions ,
he is deluded he is under t he domain of
,

Maya; for M ay a is the Self ident i cation of the -

Se lf with his l imitation s The eternally free can

,

never be bound by matter ; the eternally pure

can never be tainted by matter ; the eternally
knowing c an never be deluded by ma t ter ; th e
64 I N T R O DUC TIO N To Y OG A

eternally Self de t ermi ned c an never be ruled by

-

matter save by his o wn ignoran c e His own

,
.

$o olish fancy limi ts h is inherent powers ; he is

bou nd, be c ause he imagines himself bound h e
i s I mpure because he imagines him sel f impure
,

he is ignoran t be c ause he imagines hi ms e lf ig

,

no rant With the vanishing of delusion he n ds

.

that he is e ternally free e t ernally pure e te rnall y

, ,

wise .

Here is the great differen c e be tween the

Sankhya and the Ve danta A ccording to the .

S ankhya P uru sha is the spe c tator and never

, ,

the ac t or A c c ording to Ve dan ta the Self is the

.
,

only act or all else is M aya : there is no one else

,

who ac t s bu t the Self ac c or di ng to t he Vedanti c

,

t ea ching A s says the U p anish at the S elf willed

.

to se e and there were eyes the Self will ed to

,

hear and there were ears the Self will ed to

think and t here was mind Th e eyes th e ears
,
.
, ,

the mind exis t b ec ause the Self has will ed th em

,

in to e xis ten c e The Self appropriat es mat ter in

.
,

order th at He may manifest his powers through i t .

There is the dis tinc tion between the S ankhya,

and the Ve danta in the S ankhya the propinqui ty
o f P uru sha b ringS o ut in matter or P rak r i
t all

, ,

these charac t eristics the P rak rti ac ts and no t ,

the Puru sha : in the Ve dan ta Self alone e xis ts , ,

 S C H OOLS or T H OUG H T 65

and Self alone acts He imagines limit ation and

matter appears He appropria tes that mat ter in ,

order that He may manifest His own capa c ity .

The S ankhya is the view o f the universe of

t he scientist the Ve dan ta is the V I ew of the uni
verse o f the met aphysician Haeckel uncon .

sciously is expounding the S an kh yan philoso phy

almost perfectly S O c lose to the S ankh yan is
.

h is exposition that another idea would make it

,

purely S ankh yan he has no t ye t supplied that

ropinqu ity o f consciousness which the S an khya
p
p ostulates in its ultimate duality He has force .

and matter he has mind in matter but he h as no

, ,

Puru sha H is last book criticised by Sir O liver

.
,

Lodge is thoroughly intelligible from the H ind

,

standpoint as an almost accurate representation

,

of S an k h ya n philosophy It is the view of the

.

indi e re nt t o the why of the facts

sc ien t is t ,

which he rec ords The Ve danta as I said is

.
, ,

the view of the metaphysician ; he seeks the

unity in whi ch all diversities are roo t ed and in to ,

which they are resolved .

N ow what light does Theosop hy t hrow on bo th

these sys tems A S usual by giving the fa c ts of
,

the universe Theosophy enables every thinker

,

t o re c on cile the p artial s ta temen ts which are ap

a re ntly so con t ra di ctory The osophy wi t h th e
p .
,

5
66 I N T R O DUC TIO N To YOGA

Ve dan ta proclaims the universal Self

, . A ll th at
th e Ve danta says o f t h e universal Self and th e
Self li mitation Theosophy repeats We c all these
-
, .

S elf limited selves Mon ads and we say as the

-
, ,

V e dantin says that these M o nads repro duce t h e

nature of the universal Self whose portions they

are A nd hen c e you nd in them three qualities
.

whi c h yo u nd in the Supreme They are uni ts .

,

and these represent the P urush as of the S ankhya

but with a very great di erence for they are ,

no t pa ssive wat chers but active agents in t he

,

drama o f the universe although being above , ,

t he ve fold universe they are as spectat ors wh o

-
,

ull the strings o f the players o n the Stage

p .

The Mo nad takes t o himself from the unive rs e

o f matter ato ms which S how ou t the qualities
corresp onding to his t hree qualities and in ,

t hese he thi nks and wills and a ct s

, He .

takes to himsel f rhythmic combina tions and ,

S hows his quali ty o f cogni t ion He t akes to .

himself c ombinations that are mobile ; through

those he S hows out his a c tivit y He takes t he .

co mbinations that are inert and shows out hi s ,

quality of bliss as the will to be happy Now

, .

no ti c e t he differen c e of p hrase and though t In .

the S ankhya Matt er c hanged t o reec t the

,

S pirit ; in the fact the Spiri t appropria tes

,
68 I N T RO DUC TIO N To YOG A

triad is the ree c tion in the ve fold unive rse of -

t he Mon ad beyond the ve fold universe Those -

.

are th e fac ts of nat ure The terms of Theoso phy

.

can be easily iden tied with those of other

Schoo ls The Monad o f Theoso phy is the
.

J ivatma of Indian philosophy the Puru sha of ,

the S ankhya the particularised Self of the

,

Ve danta The three fold manifestation Atma

.
-
,

b u ddhi manas is the result of the P urush a s

-
,

ro
p p inq ui ty t o P rak r
t i t he su b j e ct,
of the
S ankh yan philosophy the Self embodied in ,

th e highest sheaths ac cording t o the Ve dan tic

.
,

teac hi ng In the one you have this Self and

.

its sheat hs and in the other the Subject a

, ,

ree ction in matt er of Puru sha Thus yo u can .

rea di ly see that yo u are dealing with the same

fa cts bu t they are loo ked at from di fferen t

,

standp oin ts W e are nearer t o the Ve dan ta

.

th an t o th e S ankhya ; but if yo u know the fa cts

u can put the S t a temen t s of the two p hilo
y o

S ophi es in t heir ow n niches an d will not b e

theo sophical tea c hing ; it giv e s you the fac ts ,

a nd l eaves
y studyou the
top hilo s o hies and
p ,

ou Stu dy th em with a t o rc h in yo u r hand ins t ead

y
o f in the d ark .
 S CHOO LS or T HO U GH T 6Q

N ow when we unders tand th e nature of the

Spiritual man or triad what do we nd wi th
, ,

regard to all the manifestations o f c on sc ious

ness That they are duads Spirit mat te r every ,
-

where ou every plane o f o ur ve fold universe

,
-
.

If you are a scientist yo u will call it spiritualised

,

matter if you are a metaphysi cian you will c all

it materialised Spirit Either phrase is equ ally
.

true so long as yo u re member tha t both are

,

always present in every manifesta ti on t hat wha t ,

you se e is not the play o f matter alone bu t th e ,

play of Spirit matter inseparable through the

-
,

period of manifes tation Then when you c ome

.
, ,

in readi ng an ancient book to the state men t , ,

mind is material yo u will not be c onfused ;

,

y o u w ill know that the writer is only s pe aking

o n the S an kh yan line which speaks of ma tter
,
:

everywhere but always implies t hat the Spiri t

,

is looking o n and tha t this presence makes th e

,

work of matter possible Y ou will not when .

,

reading the constant statement in Indian philo

S ophi e s that mind is mat erial co nfuse this with ,

the opposite view Of the mat erialist whi c h says

th at
mind is the product of mat ter a v er
y
-

different thi ng Although the S ankh yan may

.

use materialistic terms he always posits th e

,

vivifying inuen c e of Spirit while the materialist ,

70 IN T R O D U C T I O N To YO GA

makes Spirit t he produ ct of matter R eally a .

g ulf di vides t hem although t he language,

the y
u se may of t en be t he same .

Yo ga is the inhibition of the functions of the

mind ,
says P ata jali The fu n c tions of t he .

mind must be suppresse d and in order tha t we ,

may be able to follow out really what this means ,

we mus t go more closely into what the Indian

'

p hil osopher means by t he word mind

Min d in the wide sense of t he term has three

, ,

great p roperties or qualities : c ognit ion desire or ,

will ac tivity N ow Yoga is no t immediat ely

, .

c on c ern ed with all these three but only with one , ,

cogni tion the S an k h yan subj ect

,
But you can .

not separat e cognition as we have seen co m , ,

p le te ly from the others because c onsciousness

,
is
a unit and although we are only concerned with
, ,

that part o f consciousness whi c h we specic ally

c all cognition we cannot get c ognition all by
,

i tself Hen c e the Indian psychologist investi

.
,

ga t ing this property cognition divid es it up into

, ,

t hree or as the Ve danta says into four (with all

, ,

submission t he Ve dant in here makes a mi s t ake )

, .

If you take up any Ve dantin book and read

 S C HOO LS or TH OU GH T 71

abo u t mind you will n d a p artic ular word used

,

for i t whi ch transla t ed means in ternal o rgan

, ,

Thi s antahk arana is the word always used

whe re the Englishman wo ul d use mind but
i t is only used in rela tion to cogn ition no t in ,

rela tion t o activity and des ire It is said to .

be four fold being made up of manas buddhi

-
, , ,

aha nk ara and ch itta ; but this four fold di vision

,
-

is a very curious division We know what .

manas is what bu ddhi is what aha nk ara is bu t

, , ,

what is this chi tta ? What is ch itta ou ts i de ,

manas bu ddhi and aha nk ara A sk any one

,
?
,

o u like and re c ord his a nswer ; you will nd

y ,

that it is of the vaguest kind L e t u s try to .

analyse i t for ourselves and se e whe ther light ,

will come upon it by us ing the Theo sophi c idea

o f a triplet summed up in a fourth that is not ,

really a fourth but the su mmation of the th ree

,
.

Ma nas bu ddhi and aha nkara are the three

,

di e re nt sides of a tria ngle which triangle is ,

c alled C hi tta The chi t ta is not a fourth but

.
,

the sum O f the three : manas bu ddhi and , ,

aha n k ara This is the old idea o f a trinity in

.

unity O ver and over again H P B uses thi s

. . . .

summation as a fourth to her triplets for sh e ,

follows the Old metho ds The fourth whi ch .

,

s ums up t he thr e e but is not other than they ,

72 IN T RODU C TI O N To Y O GA

make s a uni ty o ut o f their apparen t div e rsity .

L et us apply t ha t to antahk arana .

Take cogni tion Though in c ogni tion t hat

.

as pe c t o f the S elf is predominant ye t i t cannOt

,

e x ist absolu t e ly alone The whole Self is there

.

in every a c t o f cognition Similarly with t h e

.

O ne cannot exist separate from th e

'

o ther tw o .

o thers . Where the re is c og nition the other t wo

are
p resent ,
though subordinate t o it The .

a ctivity is there the will is there

, Le t u s think .

o f cognition as pure as it can be turned o n it ,

s elf, reected in itself and we have bu ddhi the

, ,

pure re ason the very essence Of cognition ; thi s

,

in the universe is represented by Vi sh nu the ,

sus t aining wisdom o f the universe N o w le t us .

think o f cognition looking outwards and as ,

ree cting i tself in activity its bro ther quality

, ,

a nd we have a mixture of cogniti on and a c tivity ,

w hich is ca lled manas t he active mind c ognition

,

reec ted in a c tivity is manas in man or Brahma , ,

t he creative mi nd in the universe When cogui

,
.

tion similarly reects itself in will then it b e ,

c omes aha nk ara the I am I in man represen t

, ,

,

ed b y Mah adeva in the uni verse Thus we hav e .

found within the limit s Of this cognition a

triple division m aking up the int ernal organ
,
 S CH OO L S or TH O UG HT 73

a
h a nk ara and we can nd no fourth Wha t .

is t hen c hi t ta ? It is the summation of the t hree ,

the three taken together the totality o f the th rm

,
.

Be cause of the old way of counting these thin gs;

y ou
get th i s division of an t h
a k arana into four .

TH E M E NT A L BO D Y

We must now deal with t he mental bo dy ,

which is taken as equivalent t o mind for prac t i cal

u rposes The rst thing for a man t o do in
p .

prac tical Yoga is t o separate himself from the

mental body to draw away from that into th e
,

sheath ne xt above it And here yo u will remember

.

V
what I said yesterday that in Yoga the Self is,

always the consciousness p h ase the vehicle from

which the c onsciousnes s is unable to separate it
self All that is above the body yo u cannot leave
.

is the Self for practi cal purposes and your rs t ,

attempt must be t o draw away from your men tal

body U nder these condit ions man as must be
.
,

identied with the Self and the spiritual t riad , ,

the Atma buddhi manas is to be realised as

- -
,

sep arate from the mental body That is the rst .

step Yo u must b e able to take up and lay down

'

your mind as you do a tool before i t is Of any use ,

to c onsider the furt her progress of the Self in

74 I N T R O DUC T IO N T O Y O G A

ge tting rid of its envelopes Hen c e t he me ntal .

,

b ody is t aken as t he starting po in t ; Supp re ss

-

th ough t s .
Q uie t i t S.t ill i t N ow what .is the
Ordinary c ondi tion of the mental body A s you
loo k upon that body from a higher plane you ,

s e e c onstan t c hanges of colours playing in i t .

Yo u nd that they are sometimes initiat ed from

wi thin some t imes from without
,
Some times .

a vib ration from without has caused a change

in consciousness and a corresponding change in
,

the c olours in the men tal body If there is a .

c hange of consciousness that cause s vibration

,

in the mat te r in which that c onsciousness is

function ing The men t al body is a body of eve r
.

c hanging hues and c olours never still changing, ,

colours with S wift rap idity throughout the whole

of i t Yoga is the st opping of all th ese the

.
,

in hibition of vibrations and changes alike .

Inhibition of the change o f c onsciousness stops

the vibration o f the mental body the chec king
o f the vibration of the mental body che c ks the

c hange in consciousnes s In the mental body of

.

a M aster there is no change of colour save as

initiated from wi thin no outward stim ul us c an
p r o du c e any answer any ,
vibration in that p er

fectly c ontrolled mental body The c olour of th e .

mental body of a Mast er is as moonl igh t on the

76 I NT R O DUC TIO N To Y O GA

and hold the mind in per fe c t st illness Sh eath .

after sheath h as to be trans c ended and th e ,

pr oof o f trans cending i s that i t can no longer

affe ct yo u You can affe ct it but it cann ot
.
,

a ect o u The moment that nothing ou tsid e

y .

y o u c an harass you c an stir

,
the mind t h e ,

momen t that the mind does not respond to

the ou ter save under your o wn impulse then
, ,

c an you say o f i t : This is not my Self It h as .

be c ome part of the ou t er i t c an no longer b e

,

identi ed with the Self .

F rom this you pass o n to the conquest of t h e

c ausal body in a similar way Wh en th e c onquer
.

ing of the causal body is c omple t e then you go to ,

the conquering o f the bu ddhi c body W h en .

m astery over the bu ddhic body is comple t e yo u ,

ass on t o the conquest of the atmic b ody

p .

MI ND AND S E LF

Y ou c anno t be surprised that under these co n

ditions of con tinued disappearance of func tions ,

the unfortunate student asks What be comes

o f the mind itself If yo u suppress all the fun c
9

tions what is left

,
In the Indian wa y of t ea c h

ing when you come t o a di i cult y some one

, ,

jumps up and asks a ques tio n: And in the

 S C H OO LS or T H OUG H T 77 ,

commentaries the question which raises the di

,

c ulty is always put The answer of Pata jali is

.

Then the spectator remains in his own form .

Theosophy answers The Monad remains It .

is the end of the human p ilgrimage That is the .

highest point to which human ity may cl imb to

suppress all the reections in the v e fold uni -

verse through which the Monad has manifested

hi s powers and then for the Monad to real ise
,

himself enriched by the experiences through

,

whi c h h is manifested aspec ts have passed But .

to the S ankh yan the di i culty is very great ,

for when he has only h is spectator left when the ,

sp ect acle ceases the spectator himself almost

,

vanishes H is only fun c tion was to look on at

.

the play of mind When the play of mind is .

g o ne
,
what is left ? He c an no longer be a spe c
ta tor S ince there is nothi ng t o s e e
,
The only .

ans wer is He remains in h is o wn form .

He is no w out o f man ifes ta tion the duality is ,

transcended and so the Spirit sinks ba c k int o

,

la ten cy n o longer capable of manifes t a tion

, .

There you come to a very serious differen c e with

the fact s of the universe for ac cording t o the ,

fac ts of the universe when all these fun c tions

have b een suppressed then the Monad is
,

ruler over ma t ter and is pre pared for a new

,
78 I N T R O D U CTION To YOGA

cycle of a c tivity no longer slave but

, ,

master .

All analogy shows us that as the Self wi th

draws from sheath after sheath he does not lose ; ,

but gains in Self realisation Self realisation

,
-
.
-

becomes more and more vivid with each suc

c e ssive withdrawal ; so that as the Self put s
aside one ve il of matter after another re ,

c ognises in regular suc c ession that each body

in turn is not himself by that process o f with
,

draw al his sense o f Self reality becomes keener

,
-
,

no t less keen It is important to remember

.

that because often wes tern readers dealing

, ,

with eastern ideas in consequence of mis

,

understanding the meaning o f the sta te o f

liberation o r the condition of N irvana iden t ify ,

it with nothingness o r unconsciousness an,

entirely mis t aken idea whi ch is apt t o colour th e

whole of their thought when dealing with yogic
processes Imagine the condition of a man
.

who iden ties himself c ompletely with t he

body so that he canno t even in thought separa te
,

himself from it the st ate o f
the savage and
c ompare tha t with t he strength vigour and , ,

lu cidity of your own men t al c ons ciousness .

The c onsciousness o f the savage limi t ed to ,

the physi c al body with o cc asional tou c hes of

,
 S C H OOL S or T H O U G HT 79

dream c onsciousness is very restricted in its

-
,

range He has no idea of the sweep of your con

.

sciou sne ss of your abstract thinking

,
But is tha t .

c onsciousness o f the savage more vivid or less ,

vivid than yours ? C ertainly you will say i t

, , ,

is less vivid You have largely transcended his

.

powers o f cons c iousness Your consciousnes s is .

astral rather than physical but h as thereby in ,

creased its vividness A S the Self withdraw s .

himself from sheath after sheath he realises ,

himself more and more not less and less Self , ,

realisation bec omes more intense as S heath after ,

sheath is cast aside The centre grows more.

powerful as the circumference be c omes more

permeable and at last a stage is reached when
,

the centre knows itself at every point Of the

c ircumference When that is accompl ished the
.

c ircumference vanishes but no t so t h e ice nt re, .

The c en t re still remains Jus t as you are more .

vividly conscious than the savage jus t as yo ,

c onsciousness is more alive no t less than that of , ,

a savage so i t is as we climb up the stairway o f

,

life and cast away garment after garment We .

be c ome more conscious o f existence more ,

c ons cious o f knowledge more cons c ious o f Self,

de termined power The fac ul ties o f the Self

.

shin e o ut more strongly as v eil after veil ,

80 I N T R O DU CTION To YOG A

falls away By analogy then wh en we t ou c h

.
, ,

th e Monad our c ons c iousness shoul d be mightier

, ,

mo re vivid and more p erfect A s you learn to

, .

truly live your powers and feelings grow in

,

strength .

And remember that all con t rol is exerc ised

over sheaths over portions o f t he N ot Self
,
-

.

Y ou do not c ontrol your Self that is a mis c on

ce pt ion you control your not Self The Self is
-
.

never controlled ; he is the inner R uler Immor tal ,

.

He is the controller not the controlled

, As .

sheath after sheath bec omes subject to yo ur

Self and body after body be c omes the tool o f
,

your Self then shall you realise the truth o f

,

t he saying of the U p anish at tha t you are the ,

Self the inner R ul er the Immort al

, ,
.
 LE C T U R E I I I

YO GA A S S C IE N C E

B R OT H E R S

This afternoon I propose t o deal rs t with the

'
,

t wo great methods o f Yoga o ne rela ted to the ,

Self and the other to the N ot Self And let me -

.

remind you ere I begin tha t we are dealing

, ,

only with the science of Yoga and not with o ther

means of attaining union with the Divine The .

s c ientic method following the old Indian con

,

ce p tio n is the one to which I am asking your

,

a ttention I would remind you however that

.
, , ,

thou gh I am only dealing wi th this there remain ,

also the other t w o great ways of Bhakti and

Karma ; the Yoga we are studying specially co n
eerns the M arga o f J anam o r kn owledge and , ,

wi thin that way wi thin that M arga o r path o f

, , ,

knowl e dge We nd that three sub divis ion s

,
-

occ ur as e v erywhere in na t ure

,
.

6
82 I N T R O DU C T ION To YOG A

ME TH O D S or Yo u

Wi th regard to what I have jus t c alled th e

t wo great methods in Yoga we nd tha t by one ,

of these a man treads the path o f knowledge by

bu ddhi the pure reason and the oth er the sam e

, ,

ath by manas the conc re t e mind Y ou ma

p , y .

rememb er tha t in speaking yes t erday of the sub

divisions o f A ntahkarana I pointed o ut t o you

,
,

that there we had a pro cess o f reection of o ne

qu ali ty in another and within the limits o f the
,

c ognitional asp ect Of the Self you nd bu ddhi , ,

c ognition reec ted in c o gnition an d aha nk ara ,

c ognition reected in will and manas cognition ,

reected in activity Be aring those three sub

.

divisions in mind yo u will very readily be able

,

t o se e that these two methods o f Yoga fall

naturally under t wo of these heads But wha t .

of t h e t hird ? What o f the will o f which ,

ahank ara I s t he representative in c o gni tion

Tha t c ertainly h as it s road but it can s carce ly ,

be said to be a method
Will break s its way
.

upwards by sheer un i n c hing de ter mina tio n ,

keepin g its eyes xed on the end and usin g ,

either bu ddhi or manas indi erently as a means

t o tha t end . Metaphysi c s is used t o re alise t h e

Self ; s cien c e is used to unde rs tand the N ot S e lf; e

84 I N T R O D U CT IO N TO YOG A

intehse de te rmination whi c h is the very essen c e

of individuali ty
, .

N ow wha t are these t wo great method s O ne

of t hem may be desc ribed as seeking the Self by

th e Self t he o t her may be des c ribed as seeking

th e Self by the N ot Self and if you will think
.
-

of t he m in that fashion I think you will nd the ,

i dea illuminative Those who seek the Self by

.

the Self seek Him through the faculty of bu ddhi

,

t hey turn ever inwards and turn away from the ,

o u t er world
, Those wh o seek the Self by the
.

N o t Self seek Him through the a c tive working

-
,

manas ; t hey are out ward turned and by study -

,

of t h e N o t Self they learn t o realise the Self

-
, .

The one is the path of the metaphysician th e

other is the path o f the scientist .

To TH E S E LE BY T HE S E LE

Le t us loo k a t this a lit tle more c losely wi th

.
,

its ap propr iate meth ods The pat h on whi ch .

t he fa c ulty of bu ddhi is used pre dominan tly is ,

as jus t said the pa t h o f the me taphysician

,
It .

is the path of the phi losopher He turns inwards .

,

e ver seeking t o n d t he Self by diving in to the

re c esses of h is own nature Knowing tha t the .

S elf is wi thin him he tries t o strip away ves t ure

,
 Y O GA As S CI E N C E 85

after vesture, envelope after envelo pe and by a , ,

pro c ess Of rejecting them he re ac hes th e glory ,

'

of the unveiled Self T o be gin this he mus t

.
,

give up concrete thinking and dwell amidst ,

abstractions His method then mu st b e strenu

.
,
a

o u s long sustained patient meditation

,
-
,
N ot h , .

ing else will serve his end strenuous hard think

ing by which he rises away from the concre te
,

into the abstract region s of th emind s trenuous

hard thinking further continued by whi c h h e
, ,

reaches from the abstra c t region of the mind up

t o the region o f buddhi where unity is se nsed ; f
,

still by strenuous thinking climbing ye t further , ,

until bu ddhi as it were Opens o ut in to atma

, , ,

until the Self is seen in H is splendour wi th only ,

a lm of atmic mat ter the envelope of atm a in ,

the manif ested ve fold world I t is along th at

-
.

diffi cult and strenuous path that the Self must

be found by way o f the Self .

Such a man must utterly disregard the N ot $

Self He must shut his senses against the ou tsid e

.

world The world must no lo nger be able to

.

touch him The senses must be closed again

.

all the vibrations that come from withou t and ,

he must turn a deaf ear a blind eye to all th e , ,

allurement s of ma tter to all the diversi ty Of ,

obje cts whi c h make up the universe of the

,
$
86 I N T R O D U CT I O N To YOGA

N ot Se lf
-
Se clusio n will h efp him , ere he is
.

st rong en o ugh to c l ose t e lf agains t the ou ter

Stimuli or allurements The co nt emplative

.

or ders in t he R oman C atholi c C hurch Offer a good

e nvironment for this path They put the outer
.

world away as far away as possible It is a

, .

s na re a tempta t ion a hindrance

, ,
Al w ays turn .

ing away from the world the yog i mus t x his ,

t h oug h t h is at tention upon the Self

, ,
Hence .

for t hose w h o walk along this ro ad what are ,

called the siddhis are direc t obstac les and no t ,

h e lps Bu t that s t a tement tha t yo u n d so o ft en

.
,

th at the si ddhis are things t o be avoided is far ,

more sweeping than so me of o ur modern Theo

S ophists are ap t to imagine They declare that .

t he S i ddhis are to be avoid ed but forget that ,

t h e Indian wh o says this also avoids the use o f

the p hysi c al senses He closes physical eyes
.

and ears as hindrances But some Theosophists

.

urge avoidan c e o f all use o f the astral senses

and mental senses bu t they do no t objec t to

,

the free use of the physical senses or dream ,

t ha t they are hindrances Why no t ? If t h e .

se ns es are o b s t ac les in their ner forms the y ,

are also ob sta c les in t heir grosser manifestation s .

To the man wh o would nd the Self b y the Se lf ,

eve ry se nse is a hindranc e and an Obs tac le and ,

 YO G A AS S C I E NC E 87

t here is no logi c no reason in denounc ing the

, ,

subtler senses only while forgetting the t e mpta

,

tions of the physi c al senses impedime nts as ,

much as the other N0 such division exists for

.

the man who tries to understand the universe in

which he is In the search for the Self by the
.

Self a ll that is no t Self is an obstacle Your

, .

eyes your ears everything that puts you in to

, ,

co ntac t wi th the oute r world is jus t as much an ,

Obsta c le as the subtler forms of the same senses

which put you into touch with the sub tler
worlds o f matter whi ch yo u call astral and
,

ment al This exaggerated fear of the si ddhis

.

is only a pas sing rea c tion not based on under ,

st andi ng but o n lack o f understanding ; and

,

those of you who denounce the si ddhis Should

rise to the logical position of the H ind Yogi ,

o r o f the R oman C atholic r ec luse who denounces ,

all the senses and all the obj ects of the senses
, ,

as obstacles in the way Many Th eo sophis ts

.

here an d more in the West think that much is

, ,

gained by acuteness o f the physical senses and ,

of the other faculties in the physical brain but

the moment the senses are acu te enough to b e
astral o r the faculties begin to work in as tral
,

matte r th ey treat them as objects of denuncia

,

tion . Tha t is not ra tional It is no t l ogical . .

 88 I N T R OD U C TI O N DO
'
. Y O GA

O bs ta cles then are all the s enses whe ther you

, , ,

c all th em siddh is or n ot in the search for the S elf

,

b y turning away fro m the N ot S elf -

.

I t is neces sary for th e man who seeks the Self

by the Self t o have the quality whi ch is called

faith in the sense in which I de ned it th e

,

a
d y be fore yesterday the profound intense ,

c onvi ction that nothing c an s h ake of the reality ,

o f the Self within ou That is the one thin

y .
g
that is worthy to be digni ed by the name of
faith. Truly i t is beyond reaso n for not by ,

reason may the Self be known as real Truly i t .

is not based on argument for not by reasoning ,

may t he Self be di scovered It is the witn ess of .

the Self within yo u to his o wn suprem e reality ,

an d t hat un shakable conviction which is ,

Shra ddha is necessary for the tre ading of t his

,

p a t.h It is neces sa ry because without

,
it t h e

human mi nd would fail the human courage ,

would be daunted the human perseverance,

would break with the di fficult ies of the seek ing

,

fo r t h e Self Onl y tha t imperious c onviction

.

that the Self is only t hat can chee r the pilgrim

,

in the darkn ess that comes down upon h im in t h e ,

v oid th at he must c ross before the life of the

lower being thrown away the life of the high er
is realise d This impe rial faith is to l t h e yogi
.
'
 -Y O GA As S CI EN C E w 89

on this path wha t experienc e and knowledg e are

to the yog i on the other .

To TH E S E LF T H RO U G H T HE N OT - S E LF

Turn from him to the seeker for the Self

through the N o t Self T his is the way of the
-
.

s cientist o f the man wh o uses the concrete ac tive

,

manas in order scienti cally to understand the

,

universe ; he has t o nd the r eal among the

unreal the eternal among the changing the Self
, ,

amid the diversity of forms How is he to do .

it ? By a close and rigoro us study o f every

c hanging form in which the Self has veil ed
Himse lf By studying t h e No t Self around him
.
-

and in him by understanding his o wn nature

, ,

by analysing in order to understand by study ,

ing nat ure in others as well as in hi mself by ,

learning to know himself and to gain knowledge

o f others slowly gradually step by step plane ,
, ,

after plane he has to climb upwards rej ecting

, ,

one form of mat t er after another nding no t ,

in the se the Self he seeks AS he learn s t o .

conquer the physical plane he uses the kee nest ,

senses in order to understand and nally t o ,

rej ec t He says : This is not my S elf This

. .

90 I N T R O D UCTIO N To YOGA

c ontinual transformations these are Obvio usly ,

t he an t i thesis of the eternity , the lu c idity th e ,

stability o f the Self These canno t be my Self
. .

And thus he constantly rej ects them He climbs .

on tothe astral plane and using there the ner

, ,

astral senses he st udies the astral world only to

, ,

nd that that also is changing and manifes ts ,

no t t he c hangelessness of the Self A ft er the .

astral world is conquered and reje c te d he , ,

c limbs o n into the mental plane and there ,

still studi es the eve rchanging forms of th at

-

man asi c world only once more to rej e c t

'

t hem : These are not the Self C limbing .

still higher ever following the track o f forms he

, ,

goes fro m the men t al t o the buddhi c plane ,

where the Self begins t o show His radiance and
b ea uty in manifested union Thus b y studying .

diversity he reaches the concepti on of uni ty ,

and is l ed into the understand ing of the One .

T o him the realisation o f t he Self comes through

the s t udy o f the Ne t Self by the separation of
-
,

the N ot Self from the Self Thu s he d oes by

-
.

knowledge and experience what the o th er does ,

by pure thi nking and by faith In this path o f .

nding the Self through t he N ot Self t he so -

,

called si d dhis are nece ssary J us t as yo u c anno t

.

st udy t he physi c al world wi t hout t he physi c a l

92 I N T RO D U C T IO N To Y
. O GA

of
ps
ycho l
yog I want
. fur t h er t o poin t o ut t o y o u

that i t is not a scien c e of ethic t hough ethic ,

is certainly the found ation o f it Psychol ogy .

and ethi c are not the same The s c ien c e of pay .

ch olo y is the result of the study of mi nd T h

g e .

s c ience of e thi c is the result of the s t udy of

c ondu ct so as to bring about the harmonio us
,

rela tion o f o ne to ano ther Ethic is a s c ien c e o f

life and no t an investigation into the nat ure of
,

mind and the methods by which the powe rs of

,

the mind may be developed and evolved I .

pause o n this because of the confusion t hat

,

exists in many people as regards this point If .

you unders t and the scope o f Yoga aright su ch ,

a c onfusion ought not to arise The co nfus ed .

idea makes people think that in Yoga they

ought to nd necessarily wha t are called pre
ce t s of morality , ethic
p Though P
. at j
a al i gives
the universal precepts of morality and righ t con
duct in the rs t two a ng as o f Yoga called yams ,

and niyama yet they are subsid iary to the main

,

topi c are t he foundation of it as j us t said N o

, , .

p ractice o f Yoga is possible u nless you p osses s

the ordinary moral att ributes summed up in yama

and myama that goes without saying Bu t you .

shoul d not expe c t t o n d moral precep ts in a

scienti c te xt book of p sychology dike Yoga
-
, .
 YOGA AS S C I EN C E 93

A man studying the s c ience of ele c t ri c ity is not

h cked if he does not nd in it moral precepts ;
s o ,

why then Should one studying Yoga as a science ,

o f psychology expect to nd moral precepts in

,

it ? I do not say that morality is u ni mportant

fo r the yog i N ay o n the contrary it is all
.
, ,

impo rtant It is absolu tely ne cessary in the rst

.

stages o f yoga for everyone But to a Yogi .

,

wh o h as mastere d the se it is not necessary if he, ,

wants to fol low th e left h and p ath For you .

must remember that there is a Yoga of the left

hand path as well as a Yoga of the right
,

hand path Yoga is there also followed and

.
,

though asceticism is always found in the early

s tages and sometimes in the later true morality
, ,

is absent The Blac k Magician is often as rigid

.

in his morality as any Brother o f the White

Lo dge O f the disciples of the Black and W hite
.

Magi cian the dis c iple o f the Bla c k Magi cian is

,

often the more as c etic His obje c t is no t the .

purication of life for the sake of humanity but ,

the puri cation of the vehi c le that he may be ,

bette r able to ac quire power The differen c e .

be tw e en the White and the Blac k Magician lies

in th e motive
'

You might have a White

.

Magi cian a follower of the righ t hand path

,
,

reje cting m ea t be c ause the way of ob taini n

g
94 IN T RO DU CTIO N To YOGA

follower of t h e left hand path may also reject

meat but for the reason that he would not
,
?

be able to work so w ell with his vehicle if it ,

,

were full o f the rajasic elements of meat Th e .

difference is in the motive The out er action

is the same Both men may be called moral if

.
,

judged by t he outer action alone The moti ve .

marks the path while the Outer actions a re

,

often identi cal .

It is a moral thing to abstain fro m meat b e ,

cause thereby you are l e ssening the in ic tion o f

suffering it is not a mora l act to a b stain fro m
meat from the yog i standpoint but only a means ,

to an end Some of the greatest yog i s in H ind

.

literature were and are men whom yo u would

, ,

rightly call Black Mag icians But still t hey .

are yo gi s O ne of the greatest yogi s Of all was

.

R avana the anti C hrist the Avat ara of ev il

,
-
, ,

who summed up all the evil o f the world in h iS

o wn person in order to oppose the A va tara Of

good He was a great a marvellous yog i and

.
, ,

by Yoga he gained his po wer Ravana Was a .

typical yogi o f the left hand path a great de :

,

stroyer and he practised Yoga t o ob tain the

,

power o f destru c tion in order to for c e from the

,

hands of the Plane tary Lo gos th e b oon that no

96 I N T RO DUC T IO N TO IfOGA

c harity with a view to nding out a new ele $

ment H e will not fail in a well wro ught

.
. -

experimen t however viciou s h is priva te life may

,

be . The things are in di erent regio ns and he ,

does not c onfus e t he laws of the two As .

i shvara is absolu tely j us t the man who obeys ,

a law reaps t he fru it of that law whether h is ,

ac tions in any other elds are bene cial t o

, , ,

man or not If you so w ric e you will reap

.
,

ri c e ; if you so w wee ds you will reap weeds ; ,

rice for ri c e and weed for weed The harvest

,
.

is according t o the sowing For this is a uni .

v e rse O f law By la w we conquer by law we

.
,

suc c eed Where does morality come in then

.
?
,

When you are dealing with a Magician of the

right hand path the servant of the W hite ,

Lodge there morality is an all important fac tor

,
-
.

Inasmu c h as he is learning t o b e a se rvant of

hu manity he must Observe th e high e s t moral
,

it y, not merely the morality of the world for ,

th e W h i t e Magician h as t o deal with hel ping on

h armonious relations between man and man .

The Whi te Magician must be p atien t Th e .

Blac k Ma gician may quite well be harsh The .

Whi te M agi ci an must b e compassion ate ; com

a s si on widens o u t his n ature and he is trying
p .. ,

to m ake his c on s c iousness includ e the w ho le of

 Y O GA AS S C I E NC E 97

humanity But not so the Black Magi c ian

. .

He can afford to ignore compassion .

A white Magician may strive for power Bu t .

w hen he is strivi ng for power he seeks it that ,

he may serve humanity and be c ome more use

ful to mankind a more e ffective servant in the
,

helping o f the world But not so the Brother

.

o f the D ark side When he strives for power

.
,

he seeks it for himself so that he may ,

us e it against the whole world He may be .

harsh and cruel He wants to be isolated ;

.

and harshness and cruelty tend t o isolate him .

He wants power ; and holding that power for

himself he can put himself temporarily as it
,

w ere against the D ivine Will in Evolution

,
.

The end of the one is Nirv ana where all ,

separation h as ceased The end of the other is

.

Av i chi the uttermost iso lation the k aivalyam
of t he Black Magic ian Both are yog i s both
.
,

follow the Science of Yoga and each gets the re ,

sult of t he law he h as followed one the kaivalyam

of N irv ana t he o ther the k aivalyam o f A v i c hi
, .

C O MP O S IT IO N or S T AT E S OF TH E MI ND

Let us pass now t o the s t at es o f the mind

as they are call e d The word whi c h is u sed for
.

7
98 I N T RO DUC TIO N To YOGA

t he stat es the mind by Pataiijali is Vrtti

of

m
.

This admirably construc te d language S a sk rt , ,

gives you in tha t very word its o wn meaning .

Vrttis mean the be ing o f the min d the ways

in whi c h mind can exist the modes of the mind ;
the modes Of mental existen c e ; the ways of
e xis ting That is the literal meaning o f this
.

word A subsidiary meaning is a turning

.

around a moving in a cir cle

,
Yo u have to .

stop in Yoga every mode of existi ng I n which

, ,

t he mind manif ests itself In order to gu ide .

y d
ou towar s the power o f stoppi n g them for

y o u c annot stop them till y o u unders tand t hem

- you are told that these modes of mind are

ve fold in the ir nature
- They are pentads . .

The s utra as usually translat ed says the vrttis

, ,

are ve fold -
but pen t ad is a
more ac c urate rendering Of the word p a ch a
tayy b a in the original
,
than v e fold The word ,
-
.

p ent ad at On ce recalls t o yo u the way in whi c h

t h e chemist s peaks of a monad tria d hep t ad , , ,

.

w hen h e deals wi t h elements The elemen ts .

with which the chemist is dealing are rela te d to

the unit element in different ways Some ele
- . .

ments are rela t ed to it in one way only and are '

c alled monads ; others are relat ed in two way s ,

a nd are c all e d duads and so on , .

 1 00 I NT R O DUC TIO N To YOGA

se nse of tou c h ; and you w ould hear musical

n otes made b y the vibrations of the mole c ules ,

coming through the sense o f hearing were it ,

k eener I f you had a perfec t sense of hearing

.
,

y o u would hear t he sound of the ora n ge also ,

for wherever t here is vibration there is so u nd .

All this syn thesi sed by t he mind in to o ne idea

, ,

is an orange That is the root reason for the

.

association of ideas
I t is not only that a
.

fragrance re c alls the s c ene and the circum

s t anc es under whi c h the fragrance was Observed

but be c ause e very impre ssion is made through

'

all the ve senses and therefore when o ne is

, ,

st im ul a t ed the others are recalled The mind

,
.

is like a p rism If you put a prism in the path

.

o f a ray o f white light it will break it up

, into
its seven c onsti tuent rays and seven colours will ,

ap p ear .
Pu t another prism in the path of these
se v en rays and as they pass through the prism
, ,

t he pro c ess is reversed and the seven be c ome

o ne wh i te ligh t The mind i
.s like the se c ond
p
rism . I t tak e s in t he ve sens at ions tha t

e n te r t hrough the senses and c ombines them ,

int o a single per c ep t As a t the present stage .

;

o f evolu ti on t he senses are ve only i t u n i tes ,

the v e sensat ions in to one idea What the .

white ray is to t he se v en c oloured ligh t that is -

,
 YOGA AS S CI EN C E 1 01

a thought, or idea, to the ve-fold

sen sa tion .

Tha t is the meaning of th e mu ch c ontroverte d

s utra Vrttayah p afich atayyah the vrttis, ,

or modes of the mind are pentads
,
If you
.

look at it in that way the later teac hings will

,

be more clearly unders tood .

As I have al ready said that sen te n c e tha t

,

nothing exis ts in thought whi c h is not in sen sa

tion is not the whole truth Manas the si xth
.
,

sense adds to the sensations its o wn pure

,

elemental nature What is that nat ure that

.

y o u nd t hus added It is the es tablishment o f

a relation ; that is really what the mind add s .

A ll thinking is the e stablishment Of relations ,

and the more closely yo u look in to that phrase ,

th e more yo u will real ise how it c overs all the

varied processes of the mind The very rSt .

process of the mind is to be come aware of an

outside world However dimly at rs t we

.
,

bec ome aware o f something outside ourselves a

process generally called Perception I use th e .

more general term establishing a relation ,

because that runs through the whole of the men tal

processes whereas perception is only a single
,

thing To use a well known simile when a

.
,

li t tle baby feels a pin pri cking it it is ,

conscious of a in bu t n t at rst c ns c ious f

p ,
o o o
102 I N T R O D U CT IO N *
TO Y O GA

the pin, nor yet conscious O f where ex act ly *

the pin is I t does not re c ognise the part

$
.

o f the bo dy in w hi ch the pin is There is

no perce t ion , for perception is dened as rela

p
ting a sensa tion to the Obj ec t which causes

the sensation Y o u only t e ch nically s p e aking

.
, ,

f
p erce ive when yo u make a relation b et ween
th e Obj e c t and you rself That is the very rst .

(if t hese mental processes following o n the heels ,

Of cours e from the eastern stand

of sensa t ion .
,

p o int sensation
, is a men t al fun c tion also for the ,

se nse s are part o f t he c ognitive faculty but

th ey are un fortuna t ely classed with feelings in

,

West ern psychology N ow having established .

tha t re lati on be t ween yourself and Obje ct s o ut

.

side wha t is the next process of the mind ?

,

Reaso ni ng that is the establishi ng of relations

,

be t ween di fferent objects as perception is the ,

es t ablishment of your relation wi t h a s ingle

O bj ec t When you have per c eived many Objects
.
,

then you begin to reason in order t o establish

relations be t ween them R easoning is the .

e s t ablishment of a new rela tion which comes ,

out from t h e comariso n of the different Obj e c ts

p
f

tha t by perception you have established in

relation with yourself and the result is a conce pt
a
,
.

This o ne phrase es t ablishment o f rel a

,
tions is ,

1 04 I N T R O D UCTION To Y O GA

c lass c alled ind ifference whic h is n either p ain

, ,

ful nor pleas ant O ther psychologis ts say th at

.

indi e ren ce is merely pa in or pleas ure tha t is ,

not marked enough to be called the o ne or th e

o ther No w this controversy and tangle into
.

whi c h psy c hologists have fallen might be avoid

e d if the primary division of fee lings w ere a

,

lo gical division A and N o t A . that is the -

o nly tru e and logical division P at a jali is .

a bsolutely logi c al and right In order to avoid .

the quic ksand into which the modern p sy

c h olo ist s have he divides all v rttis
g ,

modes of mind in to painful and non painf ul

,
-
.

There Is h owever a psychological reason why

, ,

we should say pleasure and pain although i t ,

is no t a logical division The reason why there .

should be that classication is tha t the word

p leasure and t h e word pain express two funda
mental states o f difference not in the Self but , ,

in the vehicles in which that Se lf dwells The .

Self being by nature unlimited is ever pressing

, , ,

so t o sa
y against any
,
boundaries wh i c h seek t o

limi t him When these limita tions give way a

.

li ttle before the constant pressure of the Self ,

we feel pleasure and when they resis t or con

,

tract we feel pain They are not st a tes o f t h e

.

Self so much as s ta tes of the vehi c les and these

, ,
 Y OGA As S C I EN C E 105

s a t tes c ause c ertain changes in c ons c iousne ss .

Pleasure and pain belong t o the Self as a whole ,

and not to any aspect of the Self sepa rately

t aken When pleasure and pain are marked O ff
.

as belonging only to the desire nature the ,

o bjection arises Well but in the exer cise o f ,

the cognitive faculty there is an intense pleasure .

When you use the creative faculty of the mind

y ou are conscious o f a profound joy in its

exerc ise and yet that creative faculty ca

,
n by no

means be classed with desire The answer is .

Pleasure be longs to the Self as a whole .

.

Where the vehicles yield themselves to the Self ,

and permit it to expand as is its eternal

natu re then what is c al led pleasure is felt
,
It .

h as been rightly said Pleasure is a sense of

moreness Every time you feel pleasure you
.
,

will nd the word moreness covers the case

.

It will cover the lowest condition of pleasure ,

the pleasure of eating You are becoming.

more by appropriating to yourself a part of the

,

N ot Self food
-
Y ou will nd it true o f the
,
.

highest condition of bliss union with the ,

Supreme You become more by ex panding

.

yourself to H is innity Wh en you have a.

phrase that c an be applied to the lowes t and

highes t wi th which you are dealing you may b e ,
1 06 I N T ROD U C T IO N To Y OGA

fai rly sure it is all in clusive ; and th at the refore , ,

p l ea sure is moreness is a t rue s ta t ement .

Simi larly pain is lessness

,

If you understand t hese things y our phil o

so phy of life will become more practical and you ,

will b e able t o help more effectively p eople

who fall into evil ways Take drink The real
. .

attra c tion Of drinking lies in the fact that in ,

th e rst stages of it a more keen and vivid lif e

,

is felt . That stage is overstepped in the case of .

the man who gets drunk and then the attraction ,

c eas es The attra c tion lies in the rst stages

.
,

and many people have experien c ed th at wh o ,

would never dream of becoming drunk Wat ch .

people wh o are taking wine and see h ow much ,

more lively and talkative they become There .

lies the attraction the danger ,

.

The real attraction I n most coarse forms o f

sin is that t hey give an added sense of life and ,

y o u will neve r be able t o redeem a sinner from

h is sin unless you know why he sins U nder .

st anding the attractiveness o f the rst step ,

the in c rease o f life then you will be able

,

t o put your n ger o n the po int of temptation ,

and m ee t that in your argument with him .

S o tha t t his sort of men t al analysis is no t only

'

in teresting but prac tically useful t o e v ery helper

,
1 08 I N T ROD U CT I O N To Y O GA

must be happy Th erefe re P ata jali says :

.

The vrt tis are painful and non painful Pain -

.

is an excrescence It I s a transi tory thin g Th e

. .

Self wh o is bliss being the all p ermeating life Of -

the universe pain has no permanen t pla c e in i t

, .

Su c h is the Hin du position the most O ptimistic ,

in the world .

Le t us pause for a moment to ask : Why

l
should there be pain at all if the Self is bliss .

Just because the nature o f the Self is bliss I t .

would be imposs ible t o make the Self turn Out

ward come into manifestation if only streams
, ,

Of bliss owed in on him He would have re .

mained un c onscious of the streams To the .

innity of bliss nothi ng could be added If you .

had a stream of w ater owing unimpeded in its

c ourse pouring more wate r in to it would cause
,

no m illing the stream would go o n heedless of

,

the addition But put an obstacle in the way

.
,

so that the free ow is ch e cked and the stream ,

will struggle and fume against the obstacle and ,

make every endeavour to sweep it away That .

whi c h is contrary to it that which will C hec k

,

its current s smooth ow that alone will c ause

,

e ffort That is the rst fun c tion of pain It is

. .

the only thing that can rouse the Self I t is .

the only thing th at can awaken h is a tt en tio n .

 YOG A As S CI EN C E 1 09

When that peaceful happy dreaming int urned

, , ,

Self nds the surge of pain beating against hi m ,

he awakens : W hat is this contrary t o my ,

natu re antagonistic and repulsive what is th is

, ,

it arouses him to the fact of a surrounding

universe an outer world Hence in psychology
,
.
,

in Yoga always bas ing itself on the ultimate

,

analysis o f the facts of nature pain is the thing ,

that assert s itself as the most important factor

in Self real isation that which is other than the
-

Se lf will best spur the Self into activity There .

fore we nd our commentator when dealing ,

with pain declares that the karmic receptacle

, ,

the cau sal body that in which all the S eeds of

,

karma are gathered up has for its bu ilder all ,

pain ful experiences ; and along that l ine of

thought we come to the gre at generalisation
the rst function of pain in the universe is to
arouse t h e Self to turn himself to the ou ter
world to evoke h is aspect of ac tivity
, .

The next function of pain is the organisatio n

o f the vehicles Pain makes the man exert him
.

s elf
, and by that exertion the matter of h is
v ehi c les gradually becomes organised If you .

w ant t o develop and organise your mus c les yo u ,

make e o rt s yo u exercise them and thus more

, ,

life ows in to them and they be c ome s t ro ng

, .
1 10 I N T R OD U C TIO N To YOGA

Pain is n e cessary tha t th e Self may for c e h is

vehicles into making e o rts which develop and
organise them Thus pain n ot only awakens
.

awareness it also organises t he vehicle s .

It h as a third function also P ain puri es . .

We try to get rid of that which causes u s pain .

It is c ontrary to our nature and we e ndeavour to

,

throw it away Al l tha t is against the blissful

.

nature o f the Self is shaken by pain o ut of the

vehicles slowly they be c ome puri ed by su ffer
ing and in that way bec ome ready for the
,

handling of the Self .

It has a fourth function Pain teaches All

. .

the best lessons o f life c ome from pain ra th er

th an from j oy W hen o ne is becoming o ld as
.
,

I am and I look o n the long life behind me a

, ,

life of storm and stress of difculties and e fforts

, ,

I se e something o f the great lessons p ain c an

teac h O ut of my l ife story I could e ace wi t h
.

o u t regret eve ry thing that it has had of oy

j
and happiness but not one pain would I let go
, ,

for pain is the teacher o f wisdom .

It h as a fth fun c tion Pain gives power

. .

Edward C arpenter said in h is splendid poem of

,

Man and Satan after he had described the
,

wrestlin gs and the overthrows Every pain

th a t I suffered in one body b ecame a power
1 12 I N T R O DUC TIO N To YOG A

the Self belonging to him When it ha rmonise s

, .

t he vehi cles of the Self from ou t side it enables ,

the Self more readily to manifes t hi mself

t hrough the lower selves within us Hen c e .

happiness is a c ondition of illumination That .

is the explanation of the value of the r apture

of the Mystic ; i t is an intense joy A tre .

mendo u s wave o f bliss born of love t rium ,

phant sweeps over the whole of h is being and

, ,

when that great wave of bliss sweeps over him ,

i t harmonises the whole of his vehicles sub tle ,

and gross alike and the glory O f the Self is

,

made manifest and he se e s the face o f his

,

God Then comes the wonderful illumination

.
,

which for the time makes him unconscious of

all the lower worlds It is becau se for a .

momen t the Self is realising himself as divine ,

t ha t it is possible for him to see that D ivinity

which is cognat e to himself So that you .

should not fear j oy any more than you fear pain ,

as some unwise people do dwarfed by a mistaken ,

religionism That foolish thought you so ofte n

.
,

nd in an ignorant religion tha t pleasure is ,

rather to b e dreaded as though God grudged

,

o His children is on e of the nigh t mares

jyo t ,

b orn of ignorance and t error The Fath er o f .

life is bliss He who is joy c anno t grudge

.
 YOG A A S scI EN C E 1 13

Himself to H is children and every ree ction of

,

jyo in t h e world is a ree c tion of the D ivine Life ,

an d a manifestation of the Self in the mids t of

matter Hence pleas ure has it s function as well

.

as pain and that also is welcome to the wise

, ,

for he understands and util ises it You can .

e asily see how along this l ine pleasure and pain

become equally welcome Identied with .

neither the wise man takes either as it comes

, ,

knowing its purpose When we understand the

.

places o f joy and of pain then both lose their ,

p ower t o bind o r t o upset us

, If pain c omes .
,

we take it and utilise it If joy comes we tak e

.
,

i t and ut ilise it So we may pass through life

.
,

welcoming both pleasure and pain content , ,

whichever may come to us and not wishing for ,

that whi c h is for the moment absent We u se .

both as means to a desired end ; and thus we

may rise t o a higher indifferen ce than that of
t he st oi c t o the tru e vairagya both pleasure
,

and pa in are tran sc end ed and the Self remains

, ,

wh o is bliss .
 LE C TUR E IV

YO GA A S P R A C TIC E

B R OTH E R S

Yest erday in dealing with t he t hird se ction

,

o f the subject ,I drew your attention to the

st a t es o f mind ,
and pointed out t o you that ,

ac cording to the S amsk rt word vrtt i those states ,

o f mind should be regarded as ways in which

the mind exists o r t o use the philosophical

, ,

phras e of the West they are modes o f mind

, ,

m odes of men t al existen c e These are the sta te s

.

which are to be inhibited pu t an end to , ,

a bolished reduced into absolu t e quiescen c e

, Th e .

reason for th is inhibition is the produ c tion of a

state which allows the higher mi nd to pour
i tself in t o the lower To put it in ano ther way
.

the lower mind unrufe d waveless ree ct s the

, , ,

higher as a waveless lake ree c ts the s t ars

,
.

Y ou will remember the phrase used in the

 1 16 ,
I N T RO D U CT IO N To YOG A

Le t us c onsider wha t th e s e t wo familiar words

imp ly Vairagya or disp assion h as as its main
.
, ,

idea the c l earing away of all pas sion for attrae ,

tiOn t o t he obj ec ts o f t he senses the bonds

, ,

whi c h are made by desire between man and t he

obj ects around him R aga is passion addiction
.

, ,

that which binds a man to things The prex .

vi

changing to vai by a grammati c al rule

means without or in oppo sition to
,

Hence
Vai ragya is non passion absen c e of pas sion no t
-
-
, ,

bound tied or rel ated to any of these outside

, ,

obje c ts R emembering tha t thinking is th e

.

establishing o f relations we see that the ge tting ,

rid o f relations will impo se on the mind t he

stillness t hat is Yo ga All raga must be entirely
.

put aside We mus t separate ourselves from it

. .

We m us t acquire the Opposite condition where ,

every passion is stilled where no at tra ction for ,

the obj ect s of desire remains where all the bonds ,

that un it e t he man t o surroundin g Obj ect s are

$
broken . When t he bonds of the heart are

broken then the man b ec omes immorta l
,
.

H ow sh all this dis passion be brought abo u t

The re is only one righ t way o f doing it By .

slowly and gradually drawing ourselves away

from outer objec ts through t he more potent
a t t ra ct ion o f the Self The Self is ever at t rac t ed
.
 Y O GA AS P RA CTI C E 1 17

to the Self That at trac tion alone c an turn

.

these vehicles away from the alluring and repul

sive objects that surround them ; free from all
raga no more establ ishing relations with obj e cts
, ,

the separated Self nds h ims elf libera ted and

free and union with the one Self be comes th e
,

sole objec t of desire But no t instantly by one

.

supreme effort by one endeavour can this gre at

, ,

quality o f dispassion become the characteristi c

of the man bent o n yoga He mus t pra c tise .

dispassion constan tly and s teadfastly That is .

implied in the wo rd j oined with dispassion ,

ab h asa o r practi c e Th e practi c e mus t b e

y , .

cons t ant continual and unbroken

, ,
Prac tice .

doe s no t mean only meditation t ho ugh this is ,

the sense in which the word is generally used ;

it means the deliberate unbroken c arrying out ,

of dispassion in the very midst o f the obj e cts

that attract .

In order that you may ac quire disp assion you ,

must practi se it in the everyday thi ngs of life .

I have said that many conne ab h yasa to m edi

tation That is why so few people attain un t o
.

Yoga Another error is t o wai t fo r some big

.

opport unity People prepare themselves for

.

some t remendous sac ric e and forge t the li ttl e

things of ev eryday life in whi c h the mind is ,

1 18 I N T RO D U C T IO N To YOGA

knit ted to obje cts by a myriad tiny threads .

These thin gs by the ir pe tt iness fail to att rac t

, ,

at ten tion and in waiting for the large thing

, ,

whi ch does not c ome p eople lose the daily ,

pra cti c e of dispassion towards the little things

tha t are around them By curbing desire at .

every momen t we become indifferent to all the

,

obj e cts that surround u s Then when the .

,

great Opportunity comes we seize it wh ile scar c e ,

aware that it is upon us Every day all day

.
,

long pra ctice that is what is demanded from

,

the aspiran t to Yoga fo r only on that l ine can

,

su c cess come ; and it is the wearisomeness of

this strenuous continued endeavour that tires out
the majority of aspirants .

I must here warn you of a danger There is a .

ro u gh and ready way of qui ckly bringing about

- -

disp assion Some say to you : Kill out all love

.

and affe c tion harden your hearts ; become co ld

to all around you ; desert your wi fe and chi ldren ,

your father and mother and y to the desert ,

or the jungle ; put a wall between yourself and

all objects of desire then d ispassion will be

ours I t i t rue t hat it is comparativel easy

y s
.
y
t o ac quire dispassion in that way But by tha t .

ou kil l mo re t han desire You put round t he

y .

Self wh o is Love a barrier thro ugh whi c h h e

, ,
1 20 IN T ROD U C TI ON To Y O GA

p ain Shall p as s away but t he

, Love s h all c on t i nu e

t o grow and in the uni ty of the Se lf you sh all

,

nally disco v er t hat Love is the grea t attract ing

for c e which makes all things o ne .

Many people in t rying t o kill out Love only

, ,

t hrow themselves bac k be c oming less hu man

, ,

n ot superhuman by their mistaken at tempts

, .

I t is by and through human ties of l ove and

s ym athy that the Self unfolds
p It is said o f
.

t h e M as ters that They love all hu manity as a

mo ther loves her rst born son Their Love is
-
.

n ot Love watered do wn t o coolne ss but Love ,

for all ra i sed to the heat o f the highes t p arti

o nlar loves o f smaller souls Always mistrus t
.

t h e tea c h er who tells you to kill o ut Love to be ,

indi fferent to human a ffections Tha t is t he .

way whi c h leads to the left hand path .

M E D ITATIO N W IT H AN D W IT H O U T S E E D

The ne x t step is o ur method o f me dita tion .

What do we mean by meditation ? Medi tation

c anno t be the same for every man Though .

the same in prin c iple namely the steadying

, ,

o f the mind the me t hod mus t vary wi th th e

,

te mpe ramen t of the prac ti tioner Suppose t hat .

o u are a strong minded and in telligen t man,

y
v
 YOGA AS P RA CT I C E 12 1

fond of easoning Suppo se tha t c onne cted

r .

links of thought and argument have been to

y ou the only exercise o f the mind U tilise .

that past train ing D o not imagine that you

.

can make your mind still by a single e ffort .

Follo w a logical chain o f reasoning step by ,

s tep link after link do not allow the mind to

,

swerve a hair s breadth from it D o not allow

.

the mind to go aside to other lines o f though t .

Kee p it rigidly along a single line and st eadi ,

ness will gradually result Then when yo u h ave .

,

worked up to your highest poin t o f reasoning

and rea c hed the last l ink of your chain o f argu
men t and your mind will carry yo u no further
, ,

and beyond that you c an se e nothing then s top ,

.

A t that highest point o f thinking cling desper ,

ately to the las t link o f the c hain and there ,

keep the mind poised in s t eadiness and strenuou s

,

quiet waiting for what may come

,
After a .

while you will be able to main t ain this at titude

,

for a considerable time .

For o ne in whom imagination is s t ronger than

the reasoning faculty the method by devotion
, ,

rather than by reasoning is the method Le t , .

him call imagination to his help He should .

p i c ture some scene in which

,
the object o f h is

devo tion forms the c entral gure building i t up , ,

122 I N T R O DUC TIO N To YOG
A

bi t by bit as a pain ter paints a pic ture putting

, ,

in i t gradually all the elements of the scene He .

must work at it as a painter works on h is canvas ,

line by line his brush the brus h of imagination

, .

A t rst the work w ill be very slow b ut the

, ,

pi c ture soon begins to present itself at call .

O ver and over he should picture the scene ,

dwelling less and less on the surrounding obj ects

and more and more o n the central Figure whi ch
is the object of his heart s devotion The draw

.

ing of the mind to a point in t his way brings it,

'

under control and s t eadies it and thus gradually , ,

by this use of the imagination he brings the ,

mind under command The O bject o f devotio n

.

will be a c cording to the man s religion Sup

.

pose as is the case with many of you that h is
O bj ect o f devotio n is Shri K rsh na p icture Him
in any scene of His earthly life as in the battle ,

o f K u ru k sh e tra Imagine the armies arrayed

.

for battle on both sides imagl ne A rj una o n the

oor of the chariot despondent despairing
, ,

then come to Shr i K rsh na th e C harioteer the , ,

Friend and Teacher Then xing your mind

.
,

o n the central gure let your heart go o ut to

,

Him with One pointed d e votion

-
R esting o n .

Him po ise yourself in silen c e and as before

, , , ,

wai t for what may come .

 IN T R O DU CTIO N
'

12 4 To Y O GA

though t and thus t o reac h illuminat ion One

,
.

word of warning You c annot do this while you

.
,

are trying m e ditation with a seed until yo u are ,

able to cling t o your seed denitely for a

considerable time and maintain throughout an ,

alert attention It is th e emptines s of alert

.

exp ectation not the emptiness of impending

,

sleep If your mind be not in tha t c ondition

.
,

i t s mere emp tiness is dangerous It l eads to .

mediumship to possession to obsession Y o u

, ,
.

c an wisely aim at em ptiness only when you ,

have so disciplined the mind that i t can hold

for a c onsiderable time t o a single point and
remain aler t when that point is droppe d .

The question is sometimes asked Suppo se

that I do this and suc c e e d in be c oming
unconscious of the body suppose that I do rise
into a higher region is it quite sure that I shall
,

c ome back again to the body Having left the

body shall I be c ertain t o return 1
,

The idea
o f non return makes a man nervous
- Even if .

he says t hat matter is nothing and S pirit is

everything he yet does not like to lose tou ch
,

with his body and losing that t ouch by shee r

, , ,
'

fear he drops back to the earth after having

,

taken so much trouble to leave it You sh ould .

,

however have no su ch fear Tha t whi c h wil l

, .
 YO GA As P RACT IC E 1 25

draw you ba c k again is the trace o f your pas t ,

whi c h remains mnder all these con di tions

The question is of the same kind as Wh y
should a sta te of pralaya ever come to an end ,

and a new state of manvan tara begin ? A nd
the answer is the same from the H in du psycho
logi c al standpoint : becau se although you have ,

dropped the very seed of thought you cannot ,

dest roy the traces which that tho u ght has left ,

and that trace is a germ and it tends t o draw

,

again to itself matter that it may express itself

,

once more This trace is what is called the

.

privation of matter samsk ara Far as you may .

soar beyond the concrete mind that trace left , ,

in the thinking pr in ciple o f what you have ,

though t and have known that remains and w ill

,

inevitably draw you back You cannot escape .

your past and until your life pe riod is over

, ,
-
,

that samsk ara will bring you back I t is this .

,

8 18 0
,
which a t the c lose of the heavenly life
, ,

brings a man bac k to re birth It is the -

.

ex pression of the law of rhythm In the .

Light on the P ath that wonderful o cc ult

,

treatise th is state is spoken o f and t he

, ,

di sciple is pictured as in the silence The .

W riter goes on to say : O ut o f the silence

that is p eac e a reso nant voi c e shall arise .

1 26 IN TRODU C T I O N T O Y oda

A nd this voi c e will say It is not well ; :

thou hast reaped now thou mus t so w , An d .

knowing this voice t o be the silence itself tho u ,

wilt obey .

What is the meaning of that phrase Thou

has t reaped now thou must so w
, It refe rs
to th e great l aw of rhyth m which rules even the
Logoi the Tshvaras the law of the Migh ty
,
-

Breath the out breat hing an d the in breathing

,
- -
,

which compels every fragmen t which is separat

ed for a time A Logos may leave His universe
.
,

and it may drop away when He turns Hi s

gaze inward for i t was He who gave reality
,

to it .

He may plunge into the innit e depths o f

Being but even then there is the samsk ara of
,

the past universe the shadowy latent memory, ,

the germ o f maya from which He cannot escape .

To escap e from it would b e to cease to b e Tshvara ,

and to beco me Brahma N irguna There is no .

Tshvara without m aya there is no may a withou t

,

Tshvara Even in p ralaya a time comes when

.
,

t he rest is over and the inner life again de

,

mands manifestation then the outward t urning

begins and a new universe comes fort h Such is
,
.

t he law o f rest and a cti vity activ ity followed .

by r es t ; rest followed again by the desire for

1 28 IN TRODU C T I O N T o rot a

man tra c annot be tra slated ; translation

a
n
al ters the sounds N o t only in Hin duism,
.

but in Bud dhism in R oman C atholicism in

, ,

Is l am and among the Pars i s man tras are found

, ,

and they are never translated, for when you

have changed the succession and order of
the sounds the man tra ceases to be a man tra
,
.

If you translate the words you may have ,

a very beautiful p rayer but not a man tra , .

Your translation may be beaut iful inspired

poetry but it is not a living mantra It will
,
'

no longer harmonise the vibratio ns of the sur

rounding sheaths and thus enable the con

,

sci o u sne ss t o become still The poe t ry the in .

,

S pired prayer these are mentally translatable

, .

But a man tra is unique and untranslatabl e .

Poe try is a great thing it is Often an inspirer o f

t he so ul i t gives grati cation to the ear and i t
, ,

may be su b lime and beau tiful bu t it is not a ,

-
.

man tra .

ATT E N T I O N

Le t us c onsider c on c ent ration You ask a man .

if he can con c entra t e He at onc e says : O h $

.

it is very dif c ult I have Often tried and failed
. .

But put the same question in a di erent way and ,

 Y O GA As P R A C TI C E 129

ask h im C an
you pay atten tion t o a thing
He will at once say Yes I c an do tha t , .

C oncentration is attention The xed attitude .

o f attention that is concentration If you pay

, .

attention to what you do your m ind w ill be con

,

ce nt rat e d .Many sit down for meditation and

wonder why they do not succeed H ow can .

o u suppose that half an hour o f meditation and

y
twenty three and a half hours of scat ter ing of
-

t hought throughout the day and night w ill e u ,

able you to concentrate during the h alf hour ?

Y o u have undone during the day and n ight wha t
o u did in the morning as Penelope unravelled
y ,

the web she wove T O become a yog i you mus t

.
,

be attentive all the time You must practise .

concentration every hour O f your active life .

N o w yo u scatter your though ts fo r many hours ,

and yo u wonder that you do not succeed T h e .

wonder would b e if you di d Y o u must pay at .

tention every day to everything you do That .

is no doubt hard t o do and you may make it

, ,

easier in the rst stages by choosing out of you r

day s work a portion only and doing that portion
,

wi th perfec t unagging a tten tion D O no t let

, .

your mind wander from the thing before you .

I t does not mat ter what the thing is It may b e .

the adding up of a c olumn of gures or th e ,

9
1 30 IN TRODU C T I O N T O Y O GA

r eading of a b o ok Any th ing will do I t is the

. .

a t titude o f the mind tha t is import ant and not

t h e obj e ct before i t This is the only way of

.

learning concentration Fi x your mind rigidly

.

o n the work before yo u for the time being and ,

when yo u have done wi th it drop it Pra c tis e , .

s teadily in this way for a few months and you ,

will b e surprised to nd how easy it becomes to

c oncentrate the mind Moreover the body will
.
,

soon learn to do many t hings automatically If .

y o u for c e it to do a thing regularly it will

, ,

begin to do it after a time o f its own accord and

, , ,

t hen you nd that you c an manage to do t wo o r

t hree things at the same time In Englan d for .
,

instance women are very fond Of knitting

, .

Wh en a girl rst learns to knit sh e is obliged ,

t o be very in t en t on her ngers Her at t ention .

mus t not wander from her ngers for a momen t ,

$
o r she will make a mis t ake She goes on doin g
.

t hat day after day and p resently her ngers

,

h ave learnt to pay at tention to the work with ;

$
o ut her supervision and they may be left
,

t o do the knitting while she employs the con

s cious mind o n some t hing else It is furth er .

p ossible to t rain your mind as the girl h as trained

her ngers The mind also the men t al body
.
, ,

c an be so trained as to do a thing au t omati c ally .

1 32 IN T RODU C T I O N T O YOG A

wh o l acks the power and th q will to ex ert him

self h o w shall he make the desperate exertions
,

wan ted along this line ? The next worldly ,

mindedness is Obviously an obsta c le Mi staken

,
.

ideas is another great Obstacle thi nking wrongly ,

about things (O ne Of the great qualications

.

for Yoga is right notion

Right not ion
.

means that the thought shall correspond with

the outside truth ; that a man shall be funda
men tally true so that his thought corresponds t o
,

fact ; unl ess there is truth in a man Yoga is for ,

him impossible ) Missing the point : illogical

.
,

stu pid making the important unimportant and

, ,

vice versa. L astly instability : which makes

,

Yoga impossible and even a small amo unt o f

,

whi c h makes Yoga fu tile ; the unstable man

canno t be a yogi .

C APACI T IE S F OR YOGA

Can everyb ody practise Yoga ? N0 Bu t .

eve ry well edu c a te d person can prepare for its

-

future pra cti c e F or rapid progress you mus t

.

have spec ial capa c ities as for any thing else

,
.

In any of the sciences a man may study without

being the possessor of very spe c ial c apacity ,

although he cannot attain eminen c e therein ; and

 YOGA AS P RAC T IC E 13 3

so it is with Yoga A nybody with a fair intelli

.

gen c e may learn something from Yoga whi ch he

may advantageously prac tise but he c an not ,

hope unless he starts with certain capa c ities t o

, ,

be a success in Yoga in this life It is only .

right to say that for if any special sc ien ce

needs particular capacit i es I n order t o attain
eminence there in the scien c e Of sciences
,

certainly c annot fall behind the ordinary sciences

in the demands that i t makes o n its students .

Suppose I am asked C an I be c ome a grea t

mathematician ? What must be my answer ?
Yo u must have a natural aptitude and capac ity
fo r mathematics to be a great mathematician .

If you have no t that capa c ity you cannot be a ,

great mathematician in this life But this .

does not mean that you c annot learn any mathe

matics To be a great mathe matician yo u must
.

be born with a Special cap acity for mathema ti cs

T o be born with such a c apac ity means that you

have pra tised it in very many lives past and
c

n o w yo u are born with it ready made I t is the .

same with Yoga Every man c an learn a little

.

of it .But to be a great yog i means li ves o f

practice If the se are behind you you will
.
,

have been born with the necessa ry fac ul ties in

t h e presen t birt h .
1 84 IN TRO DU CT I O N To Y O GA

T h ere are three fa c ulties whi c h one mus t have

to O b tain su cc ess in Yoga The rs t is a s t rong
.

desire . D esire ardently Su c h a desire is

.

needed to break the strong links of desire which

knit you t o the out er world Moreover witho ut .
,

t hat strong desire you will never go through all

t he dif culties that bar your way Y ou mus t .

have the c onviction tha t you will ul timately

su cc eed a nd the resolution to go on un t il yo u
,

do succeed It m ust be a desire so ardent and

.

so rmly roo t ed that Obstacles only make it

,

more keen To su ch a man an Obs ta cle is lik e

.

fuel tha t you throw on a re It burns but the .

m ore s t rongly as it c a t ches hold o f it and n d s

i t fuel for the burning S O difc ulties and .

Ob st ac l es are but fuel to feed the re of th e

yogi s resolu te desire He only becomes the more

.

rml y x ed because he nds the difculties

,
.

If you have not this strong desire its absenc e ,

s h o ws that y o u are new t o t he work but y o u ,

can begin t o prepare for i t in this life Yo u can .

c reat e desire by thought you canno t create

desire by desire O u t of the desire nature th e
.
,

t rai ning of the desire nat ure cannot come .

Wha t is i t in u s tha t c alls o ut d e sire L oo k

into y our o wn mind and you will nd tha t
,

memory and imagination are the two things tha t

136 I N T R O D U C T I O N TO YOG A

Yo u have a t on c e ready to your han ds the way

t o get rid of t hat desire Think O f t he ul timate
.

resul t s . Let your mi nd dwell c arefully on all

the painful things Jump over the momen tary
.

p leasure and
,
x your thought steadily o n the pain

which follo ws the grati c ation o f that desire .

A nd when yo u have done that for a month

or S O ,
the very sight o f that obj ect of desire
will repel you You will have associa ted it in
.

y our mind with su fferi ng and will recoil,

f rom i t
instinctively You wil l no t want it Y ou have
. .

c hanged the want and have changed it by your

,

power o f imagination There is no more .

ef fe ct iv e way o f destroyin g a vi c e than by

delibera tely picturing the ultima te results Of its
indulgen c e Persuade a young man wh o is
.

in c lined to be p roigat e to keep in his mind

the image Of an o ld p ro igat e ; S how him t h e
p ro ig a t e worn o ut d esiring w ithou
,
t the powe r

to gratify and if you can get him to think in

that way unconsciously he will begin to shrink
,

from that which before attracted him t he very

hideousness Of the results frightens away th e
man from clinging t o the objec t of desire And .

t he would b e yogi h as to use his thought to

-

mark o ut the desires he will p ermit an d th e

,

de sires that he is de t ermined t o S lay .

 YOG A A S P RAC TIC E 137

The next thing afte r a strong D esirefis a

s trong Will Will is D esire transmuted its
.
,

di recting is c hanged from without to within .

If your Will is weak you must strengthen i t ,

.

D eal with it as you do with other weak things :

st rengthen it by practice If a b oy knows that.

h e has weak arms he says : My arms are

,

weak but I shall prac tise gymnas tics work on

, ,

the parallel bars ; thus my arms will gro w

stro ng It is the same with the Will Practice
. .

will make strong the little weak Will that yo u ,

h ave at present .

R esolve for example saying : I will do

, ,

su ch and such a thing every morning and do i t , .

O ne thing at a time is enough for a feeble will .

Make yourself a promise to do su c h and such a

thing at such a time and you will soon nd that
,

o u will be ashamed t o break your promise

y .

When you have kept su c h a promise t o yourself

for a day make it for a week then for a fort
, ,

night Having succeeded yo u can choose a

.
,

harder thing to do and S O on By this forcing

, .

o f action o u strengthen the Will D ay after

y , .

da y it grows greater in power and you nd ,

your inner strength increase F irst have a .

$
.

s trong D esire Then transmute it in to a strong

Will.
13 8 IN TRO DU C TI O N To YO G A

The third requisit e for Yoga is a keen and

broad intelligen c e Y ou c anno t con trol your
.

mind unless you have a mind t o control Th ere

, .
a

f ore you must develop your mind You must .

study By study I do not mean the reading of

.
,

boo ks I mean thinking You may read a

. .

dozen Of books and your mind may be as feeble

s in the beginning But if have re ad o ne
a yo u .

serious book properly th en by slow readi ng , ,

and much thinking your intelligen c e wi ll be

,

nurtured and your mind gro w strong '

These are the things you wan t a s trong
D esire an indomitable Will a keen In telligence
, , .

Those are the capa c ities that you must unfold

in order that the practi ce of Yoga may b e
possible t o you If your mind is very unsteady
.
,

if it is a buttery mind like a child s you must ,

make it steady That comes by close study and

.

thinkin g Yo u must unfold the mind by which

.

o u are t o work
y .

F O R T R GOI N G AN D R E TURNING

I t will help you in doing this and m ch anging

your desire if you realise tha t the great ev olution

,

of h umani ty goes o n alon g two paths the Pa t h

O f Forthgoing and the Pa t h o f R e t urn .
1 40 IN T RODU C T I O N To YOGA

H ow shall we spend this wealth ? I read th e
other day of a millionaire in Ameri c a w h o is now ,

wal king on foot from city to c ity in order to dis ,

tribute th e vast wealth which he has ac cumula ted .

He h as learned his lesson N ever in another .

life will that man be induced to p ut forth e ffo rt s

for the to y Of wealth Love Of fame love of
.
,

p ower ,
stimulate men t o most strenuous effor t .

But when they are grasped and held in the hand ,

weariness is the result The mighty statesman

.
,

the leader o f the n ation the man idolised by

,

i
m llions follow him home and there yo u will ,

s e e the weariness o f power the satiety that cloys

,

p assion . D o es then G o d mock us with all the se

obj ects N O The Obj ect h as been to bring o ut

.

t he power of the Self to develop the capacity

,

la tent in man and in the development of human

, ,

faculty the result o f the grea t L il a may be seen

.
,

That is the way in which we learn to unfold

the God within us ; that is the result of the
play of the D ivine Father with His children .

But sometimes the desire for O bj ects is lost

to o early and the lesson is but half learn e d
,
.

Th at is one o f the dif culties in the India of to day .

Y ou have a mighty spiritual philosophy whi c h ,

was the natural e x pression for the souls wh o

we re born c enturies ago They were re ady t o .
 YO GA AS PR ACT I C E 14 1

throw away the fruit of action and to work for

the Supreme t o carry O ut H is Will .

But the lesson for India at the pre sent time is

to wake up the des ire It may look l ike going
.

back but it is really a go ing forward

,
The .

ph ilosophy is true but it belonged to those

,

older souls who were ready for it and the ,

younger souls now be ing born into the people are

not ready for t h at philosophy They repeat it .

by rote they are hypnotise d by it and they sink

, ,

down in to inert ia because there is noth ing they

,

desire enough to force them to exertion The .

consequence is that the nation as a whole is

going downhill The Old lesson of the great
.

c aste system O f putt ing di fferent objects before

,

souls o f d ifferent ages is forgotten and every

, ,

o ne is now nom inally a iming at ideal perfection ,

which can only be reac hed when the preliminary

steps have been successfully mounted It is .

the same as with the Sermon o n the Mount in

C hristian countries but there the practical co mmon

,

se nse of the people bows to it and ignores it .

NO nation tries to l ive by the Sermon on the

Moun t . It is not meant for ordinary men
and women but for the saint For all those .

wh o are on the P ath O f Forthgoing desire is ,

nec essary for progress .

1 42 IN TRODU CT I O N TO YO GA

What is the P ath of N iyijtt i It is the Path

o f R eturn There desire mus t cease ; and the
.

Self determined Will must tak e it s place The

-
.

last obje c t of desire in a person commencing the

Path of R eturn is the desire to work with the
Will Of the Supreme ; he harmonises his Will
wi th the Supreme Will renoun c es all separa te
,

desires and thus works t o turn the wheel of life

,

as long as such turning is needed by the

Law of Life D esire on the Path of Forth
.

going becomes Will O n the Path Of Return

the soul in harmony wi th the D ivine works with
, ,

the Law Thought on the Path o f For thgoing is

.

ever alert igh ty and c hanging ; it becom es

,

Reason o n the Path of R eturn ; the yoke Of

reason is placed on the neck o f the lowe r mind ,

and R eason guides the bull Work ac tivi ty on.

, ,

t he Path o f Forthgoing is restless action by

which the ordinary man is bound on the Pa th
o f R eturn work be c om es sacrice and thus its ,

binding force is broken These are then th e

.
, ,

manifestations O f three aspe c ts as S hown on the,

Paths of Forthgoing and R eturn .

Bliss manifested as D esire is c hanged in to

Will .

Wisdom R eason .

Ac tivity
1 44 IN TRODU C TI O N To YO GA

t ransmu t ed in t o will A ll t hese corresponden c es

.

hav e a profound meanin g if you will only look

int o them and that universal Will to live
,
- -

t ranslates itself as the des ire for happiness

that you nd in every man and woman in every ,

sentient creature Has it ever struck you how

.

surely you are j ustifying that analysis o f your

o wn nature by the way you ac cept happiness

as your right and resent misery and ask what

, ,

y o u have done to deserve it You d o not ask

the same about happiness which is the natural ,

resu lt of your o wn nature The thing tha t has

t o be explained is not happiness but pain the ,

t hings that are against the nature of the Self ,

that is bliss A nd so looking into this we see

.
, ,

how desire and will are both t h e determination

to be happy But the o ne is ignorant drawn
.
,

ou t by outer Obj ects the o ther is self cons cious -

,

initiated and ruled from within D esire is .

evoked and direc t ed from outside ; and when

t he same aspe c t rules from within it is will , .

There is no difference in their nat ure Hen c e .

desire on the Path o f Forthgoing becomes will

o n t he Pa th o f R eturn .

Wh en D es ire Thought and Work are c hanged

,

in to W ill Reason and Sa cri c e then the man is

, ,

turning homewards then he lives b y renun cia tion

,
.
 YO GA AS P R ACT IC E 1 45

When a man has really renounced a ,

strange change takes place O n the Path of .

Forthgoing you mus t ght for every thin g

,

y ou want to get ; o n the Path of R e t urn ,

nature pours her treasures at your feet When .

a man has ceased to des ire them then all ,

tre asures pour down upon him for he h as ,

become a channel through which all good gifts

ow t o those around him Seek the Good .
,

give up grasping and then every thing will be

,

yours . C eas e t o ask t h at your o wn li ttl e

wat er tank may be lled and yo u will b e
-
,

c ome a pipe j oined t o the living sourc e of

,

all waters the S ou r c e which never runs dry

, ,

t h e waters which S pring up unfailingly Re .

n unciation means the p ower of unceasing work

for the good o f all work which c annot fail

, ,

b e c a use wrough t by the supreme Worker

t hrough His servan t .

If y ou are engaged in any t rue work of

C harity ,
and your m eans are limited and th e
wealth does not ow into your hands what ,

does it mean ? It mean s that you have not

yet learnt th e true renunciation You are .

c lin ging t o the visible to the fruit of action

, ,

an d S O t he wealth does not pour through you r

1 46 IN TR ODU CTI O N TO YOGA

P UR I F ICA T I O N O F BO D IE S

The unfolding Of powers belongs to the Si d e

o f c ons c iousness ; puri c ation Of b odies b elongs

t o the side Of matt er . You must purify ea c h of

y our t hree working bodies men ta l as tral and
-
, ,

physi c al Withou t tha t puri c ation you h ad

.

b e tter leave Yoga alone . Firs t Of all h ow shall ,

o u purify the thought body ? By right thinking

-
y .

Then yo u must use imagination your great ,

c reat ive to ol ,
once more Imagine thin gs and
.
, ,

i magining them y,
o u w ill form your t hough t
bo dy in t o the organisation that y o u desire .

Imagine some thing st rongly as the pain te r ,

i magines when he i s going t o p a int Visu. a l is e

an o bject ,
if y o u ha v e the power o f v is u a lis a tion
at all if y o u ha v e n o t , t ry t o m ake i t I t is .a n

a r ti s t i c f a c ul t y ,
o f c ourse but ,mo s t p e o ple h a v e

it m ore o r less. See h o w f a r yo u c a n re p rodu ce

r
e f ectly a f a c e yo u s ee dai l y By su c h p r a c ti ce
p
.

u wi l l be st reng t hening your im a g in a t ion a n d

y o ,

by s t reng t hening your im a ina tion

g y o u wil l be
148 IN TRODU CT IO N TO YOG A

desire t he highes t never dwelling on the fault

, ,

t he weakness the error but always on the

, ,

perfec t ed power and slowly in that way you

,

will be able to build up perfe ction in yourself .

Thi nk and desire then in order to purify the

, ,

though t body and the astral body .

A nd how shall you purify t he physic al body ?

Y ou mus t regulat e it in all i t s activities in
sleep in food in e x er c ise in everything Yo u
, , ,
.

c annot have a pure physi c al body with impure

ment al and astral bodies so t hat the work o f ,

imagination helps also in the puric ation of the

p hysi c al But
.
y ou m u st also regula t e the physi
c al body in all its activities Take for instance .
, ,

fo od The Indian says truly that every sort of

.

food h as a dominant quality in it either rhy thm , ,

or a c tivity or iner tia

,
and that all foods fall
,

u nde r one of these heads N ow the man wh o is

.

t o be a yogi must not tou c h any food which is

o n the way t o de c ay Those things belong to
.

the tamasi c foods all f oo ds for ins tance Of the , ,

na t ure o f game Of vension all food which is

, ,

S howing S igns o f dec ay (all alcoh ol is a p ro duct

.

of d ec ay ) are t o be avoi ded Flesh fo ods com e .

under the quality o f a c tivi ty A ll esh foods .

are really stimula nts All forms in the ani mal

.
 Y O GA As PRACTI CE 149

and animal activi ties The yog i c anno t a ord

.

to use these in a body meant for t h e h igh er

pro c esses of thought Vitality yes they will
.
, ,

give that ; strength w hi ch does not last they

, ,

will give that ; a sudden spurt of energy yes , ,

meat will give that but those are not the things
which the yog i wan ts so he puts as ide all those
foods as not available for the work he desires,
and chooses his food o ut Of the most highly
vitalised produc t s All the foods which tend to
.

growth those are the most highly vitalised z

,
-

grain out of which the new plant w ill grow is

, ,

packed full of the mos t nutritious substan c es ;

fru its ; all thos e thin gs which have growt h as
the ir next stage in the life cy cle those are the -
,

rhythmic foods full of life and building up a

, ,

body sen sitive and strong at the same time .

D W E LL E RS ON T HE TH RE S H O LD

Of th ese there are many kinds First ele .

,

ment als They try t o bar the astral plane

.

against man And naturally so b ec ause they

.
,

are concern ed with the b ui lding up of the lower

kingdoms these elementals of form the R upa
, ,

Devas ; and to them man is a really ha teful

c reature be c ause of his destru ctive properties
, .
1 50 I NTRODU CTTON To YO G A

Tha t is why t hey di se him so mu c h He spoils ,

their work wherever he goe s tramples down ,

v e ge table thi ng s and kills ani mals S O that t h e

, ,

whol e o f tha t great kingdom Of nature ha tes

t h e name o f man They band thems el ve s
.

to ge t her to sto p the one wh o is j ust taking his

rs t c onscious ste p s on the astral plane and try ,

t o frigh t en him for they fear t hat he is bringin g

,

d e st ru ctiveness in t o the new world They can .

not do anyt hing if you do not mi nd them

,
.

Vi h en tha t rush Of elemental force c omes agains t

the man entering o n the astral plane he must ,

remain quie t indifferent taking up the posi tion

, ,

I am a higher product Of evolution than yo u

are y o u c an do nothing t o me I am you r .

friend no t your enemy
, Peac e $ If h e be .

strong enough t o take u t hat position the

p ,

great wave o f elemen t al force will roll aside and

let him through The seemingly causeless fears
.

whi c h some feel at night are largely due t o t his

h o ility .You are at night more sensitive to
, ,

the astral plane than during the day and the ,

dislike o f the beings o n t hat plane for man is

fel t more strongly Bu t when the elemen tals
.

nd yo u are no t des tru ctive not an emb odir mnt ,

of ruin ,
they be come as friendly t o you as t hey
 1 52 INTR O DU CTI O N To Y OG A

g radu ally e x haus t and nally anni hi la t e t hem .

T his is perhap s one o f the mos t painf ul dif cul

ties that o ne has t o face in treading the astral
p lane in cons c iousness for the rst time Of .

course where a person has i n any way bee n

,

mix ed up wit h Obj ectionable thought fo rms of -

t he stronger kind s uch as those brought about

,

by practising black magic there this particular

,

form o f the dweller will be much stronger an d

more dangerous and Oft en desperate is t h e
,

s truggle between the neophy t e and t hese dwe llers

fro m his past backed up by the Masters of the

,

black S ide .

N ow we come to o ne of the most terrible forms

o f t he dwellers o n the threshold Suppose a.

c ase in which a man durI ng the past h as s tea di ly

identied himself wi th the lower part of h is
nat ure and has gone ag ainst the higher para ,

lysing himself using higher powers for lower pur

,

poses degrading his mind to be the mere Slave

,

o f h is lower desires A curious change takes

.

p lace in him . The li fe which belongs t o the

Ego in him is taken up by the physical body ,

a nd assimilated with the lower liv es O f which

the body is com posed Instead of serving th e

.

ur
p p oses o f t he S i rit
p i t is,
dragged away for

t h e purposes of t he lower and be c om es pa r t o f

,
'
 YOG A A S P RACTI C E 1 53

the animal life belonging the lower bodies 8 0

to ,

that the Ego and his higher bodies are weakened .

and the animal life Of the lower is strengthened

'
.

N ow under those con ditions the Ego will some ,

times become so disgusted with his vehicles tha t

when death relieves him of the physical body he
will cast the others quite aside And even .

sometimes during physical life he will leave the

desecrated temple N ow after death in these
.
,

ca ses the man generally reincarnates very

,

qui c kly for having torn himself away from h is

,

astral and mental bodies he h as no bo di es with

,

whi c h t o live in the astral and mental worlds ,

an d he must quickly form new Ones and come ,

again to re birth here U nder these c onditions

-
.

the Old astral and mental bodies are not disinte

grated when the new mental and astral bodies
,

a re formed and bo rn into the world and the ,

af nity between the O ld and new both having ,

had the same own er the same tenant asser ts

, ,

itself and the h ighly vital ised Old astral and

,

mental bodies will attac h themselves to the new

a stral and mental bodies and become the most
,

terrible form o f the dweller on the threshold .

These are the various forms which the dweller

may assume and all are spoken of in books
,

dealing with these partic ular subje cts though I ,

1 54 IN TR O DUC TI O N To YOG A

do not know t hat you will nd anywhere in a

single book a de ni t e classi c ation like t h e
abo ve In ad di tion to these there are of c ourse
.
, ,

the dire ct att a c ks of the dark Brothers taking ,

up v arious forms and as pects and the m os t com,

mon form t hey will take is the form of some

virtue whi c h is a little bi t in excess in the yog i t

The yog i is not att acked through h is vic es ,

bu t through his virtues for a virtue in ex c ess

b ecomes a vice It is the extrem es which are
.

ever t hp vices the golden mean is the virtue .

And t hus vir t ues bec ome temp ters in the di t

,

c ult regions of the astral and mental worlds and ,

are u t ilised by the Broth ers Of the Shadow in

or der t o en t rap the unwary

I am not here sp eaking of the four ordin ary

ordeals o f the astral plane : th e ordeals by
earth w ater re and air Those are mere
, , ,
.

t ries hardly wort h c onsidering w h en speaking

,

Of these more serious dif culties O f course .

,

ou have t o learn that you are en tirely m aste r

y
of as t ral mat t er that earth cannot c rush you
, ,

nor wate r drown yo u e tc Those are so to

, .
,

s peak v ery easy lessons Tho se amon gs t you

'

.
,

wh o be long to the M aso ni c bo dy will r e cog nis e

t hese ordeals as par t s o f t he l anguag e they are
familiar wi th in their M asoni c ri tu al .
 56 INT RO DU CTI O N To YOG A

P R E PA RA T I O N FOR YOGA

People say that I put the ideal of dis c i pleship

so very high that nobody c an hope t o become a

dis c iple But I have not said that no one c an

.

be c ome a disciple who does not reprodu ce the

,

des c ription that is given of the perfec t disciple .

O ne may But we do it at our o wn peril A man

. .

may be thoro ughly capable along one line but have ,

a serious fault along an other The serious faul t

.

will not preven t him from be c o ming a disciple ,

but h e must suffer for it The Initiate pays for

.

his faults ten times the pric e he would have had

to pay for them as a man of the world That is .

why I have put the ideal so high I have never .

said that a person must come utterly up to the

ideal before becoming a dis ciple but I have said ,

that the risks o f becoming a di sc iple withou t

these qualica tions are enormous It is the .

du ty of those who have seen the results of

going through the gateway with faults in char
a c ter to point out that it is well to get rid of these
faults rst Every fa ult you c arry through the
.

gat eway with you becomes a dagger to s t ab you

On the o ther S ide Therefore it is well to p urify
.

y ourself as much as you can before you are ,

suf c iently evolved on any line to h ave t he right

 YOGA As P R AC T I C E 157

to I will pass through that gateway

say :

.

That is what I intended to be unders tood when

I spoke of qualications for disciplesh ip I have .

followed along the ancient ro ad which lays

down these qualications wh ich the disciple
should bring with h im and if he comes without
them then the word Of Jesus is true that he
, ,

will be beaten wi th many stripes for a man can

a o rd to do in the outer world with small result

what will bring terrible results upon him when

on ce he is treadi ng the Path .

TH E E ND

What is t o be the end of this long struggle

What is t h e goal Of the upward c limbing the prize ,

of the great battle ? What d o es the yogi rea c h at

las t He reac hes unity Sometimes I am not

.

sure that large numbers of you if you rea lised ,

what unity means would re ally desire to reach

,

it There are many virtues of your ordinary

.

life which will drop entirely away from you when

y o u reach unity .M any things you admire will
be no longer helps but hindran c es when the ,

sense of unity be gins to dawn A ll those .

i
qual ties so useful n ordinary life such as
i
moral indignation repulsion from e vil judgmen t
, ,
 1 58 I N TR ODU CT I O N To YO GA

o
f o thers have no room where unity is real is e d
.

When you feel repulsion from ev il it is a Si gn ,

tha t your higher Self is beginning to awaken ,

is seeing the dangers of evil he drags the bo dy
forc ibly away from it That is the be ginning
.

of the c onscious moral life Hatre d O f evil is

.

be tt er at that s tage than indi fferen ce t o ev il I t .

is a ne c essary stage But repulsion cannot b e

.

felt when a man h as realised unity when he ,

sees God made manifest in man A man w ho .

knows unity c annot j udge ano ther I judge no .

man said the C hrist He canno t be repell e d by
, .

any one The S inn er is himself and how shall

.
,

he be repelled from hi mself ? F or hi m there is no

I or Thee ; for we are one

.

This is not a thing that many of you honest ly

wish for It is not a thin g tha t many of you
.

hones tly de sire The man wh o h as reali se d

.

unity knows no di fferen ce be t ween himself and

the vilest wret c h that walks the e arth He sees .

only the Go d that walks in the sinner and ,

kn ows th a t t he sin is not in t he God but in t h e

Sheath The differen c e is only t here He wh o h as
. .

realis ed t h e inner greatne ss of t he Self ne ver :

pronoun ces j udgmen t upon ano the r knows that ,

other as himsel f; and he hi mself as that o th er

 INDE$

PAGE

A ahd not A , 1 03 , 1 04 C APAC ITIE S for Yoga ,

A b h yasa , 1 1 5, 1 1 7 1 3 2 - 13 8
Act ivity , 5 3 , 5 4, 5 7 , 8 2 C h itta, 71
Ah ankara , 7 1 , 72 , 8 3 C lou d on the S anct u
A ngas of Yoga , ary, T h e 44, 45 , 46 ,
A n namayak osha, 15 1 23
A ntahk arana, 7 1 7 3 , 8 2 -
C ogn isabil ity, 37
A samprajiiata S ama C ognit ion , 5 3 , 5 7 , 7 2 , 8 2
43 , 44 C on centration , 1 2 8 , 1 2 9
As p ects O f C onsciou s C onsciousn es s , 18
ness , C onsciousn e ss , Asp ec t s
A ss ociat ion O f I deas , 1 00 Of 38
A stral P lan e , O rdeals C onstitut ion , Th e
of H uman 15
Avatara of E vil , 94 C ycle s , L arger and
Avitc hi, 97 S mall er 4

B H AGAVAD-Gita, 2 5 , 51 , D ANGE R S of E mptin ess

5 2 , 5 5 , 6 0, 9 9 , 1 1 5 of Mind , 1 24
B lack Magician , T h e 9 3 , D erivation of P rak rti, 54
96 , 9 7 Samadhi, 49
B lind, A

28 Yoga , 48 , 49
B ody , Pitui tary 28 D es ire for H appin ess ,
Return t o the 1 2 4 1 43 , 1 44
B rahma , 72 D evotion , 31
B rahma N irgu na, 1 26 Dharma M eg h a (t h e

B uddhi, 7 1 , 7 2 , 8 2 , 83 C loud) , 44, 1 23

11
 I
I N TR O D U CT I ON TO YO GA

PAGE

D i erence s betw ee n
Sankhya and Ved
3 11 4 ,
3 1

D rin k, 1 06
D uads (Spirit Mat
-
p

t er) , 6 9, 98
D well erson the Th e
T hreshold (3 ki nds ) ,

1 49 - 1 54 I D EAS , A ssoc iation Of ,

E K AGRATA,
Imagination
Emptine ss of Min d ,
,
Immutability (W ill
of 1 24
U nity ,

Th e 1 5 7- 1 5 9
E stablishment of R e
Inhibition 75 115
lat ions, 1 0 1 , 1 02
,

I shvara 9 31
E vil , Avatars O f
,
. 94 I shvaras T h e L o o i 1 26
,

E volution 4, 6 , 8 , 2 9 g , ,

JADA (de ad P Matt er 5 5

F AITH , 33 , 88 ),
Jagrat, 1 8 -2 1 , 23
F eelings , 1 03 Ji vanmuk ta, 24 , 2 5
F ie ld of Yoga, The 9 , 1 3 Ji vatma , 3, 7, 1 6
F ive P lanes of Matter , J anendriyas , 99
The 67
K sH I PTA, 39
K uru k sh etra,

LAR GE R and S mall er

Cycl es , 4
Li ght on the P ath , 1 2 5 s

L ogos ,
Love , 1 1 8 -1 2 0
HAE CK E L, E rn est
'

65 MA GI C , 2 6, 2 7
H appiness , D es ire for
1 44
1 64 I N T RO D U C T I O N To YO G A

P AGE P AGE

P radh ana , 1 6 S AMZ DH I , 20-2 2 , 24,

P rak rti, 5 4-5 9
,
6 4 ,
6 8 42 44 , 49
-

P ralaya, 125 S amadhi ,

Asampraj
P rana , 1 6 , 53 , 5 7
P ranamayak o sh a, 15 Sam adh i S ampraj
,

P ravrtti Marga , 139 fiata 43 44 ,

P reparation for Yoga , Samadhi Yoga and 50

,

1 56 , 1 5 7 Samsk ara 12 5 1 26
, ,

P rivation of Matte r S amvit, 16

S ankhya ,
51 -6 0 , 6 5 ,
P sych ism , 30 66 , 7 7
Psychology , 47 Sa nkhya S esh vara
,

Yoga and 9 2 ( S ankhya w ith

P ure food, 1 48 , 1 4 9 Go d) , 52
P urication , 1 46 S ah k h yan School , 53
P uru sha, 53 S amsk rt, 47
at-C h it-Anan da , 5 4, 6 0

Sattva - Rajas Tamas , 3 5

-

RAJAS TamaS Sattva 3 5

- -
, School s of P hilosophy,
Raja Yoga 36 , H in du 50, 5 1
Rat ional and Natural Scien ce of Yoga, 81
Gro wth ,11 See d , Meditation
Relations E stablish
, wit h 1 23
m ent of 1 0 1 1 02 , S e ed, Meditation
R enunciation ,
without 1 23
Re solve Yoga of 3 6 3 7
, , S elf, T h e 33 , 3 4 , 60 ,
R eturn to t h e B ody 1 2 4 , 6 1 -6 8 , 7 3 , 7 8 8 1 , 84
-

Rhythm Mo b ility
, ,
88 , 1 04
In ertia 5 5 57 5 8
, ,
Self and the Not S e lf ,

Rhyt hm Mobil ity

, ,
Th e 15
Stabil ity 35 , S elf -existence , 35
Right N otion 132 ,

S ermon on the Mount ,

Roman C atholic T he 1 41
C hurch T h e , 86 S eventh Root R w e ,
1 59
Root Rac e Seventh 1 5 9 ,
Sharira K arma
,
15
Sixt h 1 59 Sharira S th la
,
15
 I N DE$ 1 65

PAGE PAGE

Sharira , S k sh ma 15 V AI R AGYA, 4 1 , 1 1 3,
42 1 1 5-1 1 9
Shra ddha ,
5 1 , 6 0- 7 0
S iddhis , 86 87 ,
V e dant a, D i e re nce s
S ixth Root R ace 1 59 ,
b e twe e n S ankhya
Sol ar Pl exus ,
an d 64
S pe nce r H erbe rt
, 29 35
S p irit Matt e r (duads )
-
,
V ik sh ipta, 39 , 41
V ish nu, 72
S pirit Matter and
, 35 V mis , 9 8 , 1 01 , 1 14
S p iri tual ity ,
V y s a, 1 7 , 3 9 , 5 0, 5 6
Sta tes O f Mind 9 7 , , 1 03
W H I T E Magician ,
Th e
103 9 3 , 9 4, 9 6 , 9 7
S ush u pti, 18, 19 W ill , 53 , 5 4, 5 7 , 82
S utras of P ata jali 2 9 , ,

YAMA and Niy ama ,

9 2
S vap na, 1 8, 1 9 , 2 3 Yoga , 5 , 1 0, 1 7 , 30,
System Of Yoga , Th e 3 3 40 - 42
,
7 0, 7 4 ,
9 2 ,

TAMAS , S attv a -
Rajas35
Yoga and P sychology 92
Tanm tm, 36
Yoga and Samadhi
,
50
T tras
a 26 , 2 7
,
n ,

T e aching of P ataiijali,
YOga C apacities for
1 32 - 1 38
The 31 , 1 31
T h eo so phy ,
Yoga H ath a 36 , 3 7
52 ,

Thr eshol d, D we ll e rs
Yoga Moral ity
, and 9 5
on th e 1 49 - 1 5 4
Yo ga Obstac l es to
,

T riad (Atma - B u ddh i

M an as) , Th e 6 7, 73
Yoga P reparation for
,

T ri ads , 98
36
19
Yoga, System of 33
U NEO LDI N G,

29 Yoga, T h e eld of 9 , 1 3
U nity, T h e E nd o f Yogi, Th e 3 1 , 32 , 39 ,
Yoga . 93 , 94
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