पातञ्जल योगसूत्र (स्वामी विवेकानन्द भाष्य एवं सूत्र व्याख्या)

Patanjali Yoga Sutras
nature.
Patanjali has advanced the proposition that these powers
come by first, sometimes by chemical means, or they may be
got by mortification and he has admitted that this body can be
kept for any length of time. Now he goes on to state what is
the cause of the change of the body into another species,
which he says is by the filling in of nature. In the next
aphorism he will explain this.
3. निमित्तम् अप्रयोजकं प्रकृतीनां वरणभेदस्तु ततः क्षेत्रिकवत्॥३॥
nimittam aprayojakan prakritinan varannabhedastu
tatah kshetrikavat
Good deeds, etc., are not the direct causes in the
transformation of nature, but they act as breakers of
obstacles to the evolutions of nature, as a farmer
breaks the obstacles to the course of water, which
then runs down by its own nature.
When a farmer is irrigating his field the water is already in the
canals, only there are gates which keep the water in. The
farmer opens these gates, and the water flows in by itself, by
the law of gravitation. So, all human progress and power are
already in everything; this perfection is every man’s nature,
only it is barred in and prevented from taking its proper
course. If anyone can take the bar off in rushes nature. Then
the man attains the powers which are his already. Those we
called wicked become saints, as soon as the bar is broken and
nature rushes in. It is nature that is driving us towards
perfection, and eventually she will bring everyone there. All
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