Patanjali Yoga Sutras

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yet at every moment we find we are not free. If one idea is a
delusion, the other is also a delusion, because both stand upon
the same basis—consciousness. The Yogi says both are true;
that we are bound so far as intelligence goes, that we are free
as far as the soul is concerned. It is the real nature of man, the
Soul, the Purusa, which is beyond all law of causation. Its
freedom is percolating through layers and layers of matter, in
various forms of intelligence, and mind, and all these things.
It is its light which is shining through all. Intelligence has no
light of its own. Each organ has a particular centre in the
brain; it is not that all the organs have one centre; each organ
is separate. Why do all these perceptions harmonise, and
where do they get their unity? If it were in the brain there
would be one centre only for the eyes, the nose, the ears,
while we know for certain that there are different centres for
each. But a man can see and hear at the same time, so a unity
must be back of intelligence. Intelligence is eternally
connected with the brain, but behind even intelligence stands
the Purusa, the unit, where all these different sensations and
perceptions join and become one. Soul itself is the centre
where all the different organs converge and become unified,
and that Soul is free, and it is its freedom that tells you every
moment that you are free. But you mistake, and mingle that
freedom every moment with intelligence and mind. You try to
attribute that freedom to the intelligence, and immediately
find that intelligence is not free; you attribute that freedom to
the body, and immediately nature tells you that you are again
mistaken. That is why there is this mingled sense of freedom
and bondage at the same time. The Yogi analyses both what is
free and what is bound, and his ignorance vanishes. He finds
that the Purusa is free, is the essence of that knowledge
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