पातञ्जल योगसूत्र (स्वामी विवेकानन्द भाष्य एवं सूत्र व्याख्या)

Patanjali Yoga Sutras
INTRODUCTION
BEFORE going into the Yoga Aphorisms I will try to discuss
one great question, upon which the whole theory of religion
rests, for the Yogis. It seems the consensus of opinion of the
great minds of the world, and it has been nearly demonstrated
by researchers into physical nature, that we are the outcome
and manifestation of an absolute condition, back of our
present relative condition, and are going forward, to return
again to that absolute. This being granted, the question is,
which is better, the absolute or this state? There are not
wanting people who think that this manifested state is the
highest state of man. Thinkers of great calibre are of the
opinion that we are manifested specimens of undifferentiated
being, and this differentiated state is higher than the absolute.
Because in the absolute there cannot be any quality they
imagine that it must be insensate, dull, and lifeless, that only
this life can be enjoyed, and therefore we must cling to it. First
of all we want to inquire into other solutions of life. There was
an old solution that man after death remained the same, that
all his good sides, minus his evil sides, remained forever.
Logically stated this means that man’s goal is the world; this
world carried a stage higher, and with elimination of its evils
is the state they call heaven. This theory, on the face of it, is
absurd and puerile, because it cannot be. There cannot be
good without evil, or evil without good. To live in a world
where all is good and no evil is what Sanskrit logicians call a
“dream in the air.” Another theory in modern times has been
presented by several schools, that man’s destiny is to go on
always improving, always struggling towards, and never
3