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result of past experience, and these are both the result of past
experience. Then the question is whether that experience
belongs to a particular soul, or to the body simply, whether
this experience which comes to the duck is the duck's
forefather's experience, or the duck's own experience.
Modern scientific menhold that it belongs to the body, but the
Yogis hold that it is the experience of the soul, transmitted
through the body. This is called the theory of reincarnation.
We have seen that all of our knowledge, whether we call it
perception or reason, or instinct, must come through that one
channel called experience, and all that we know call instinct is
the result of past experience, degenerated into instinct, and
that instinct regenerates into reason again. So on throughout
the universe, and upon this has been built one of the chief
arguments for reincarnation, in India. The recurring
experiences of various fears, in course of time, produce this
clinging to life. That is why the child is instinctively afraid,
because the past experience of pain is there. Even in the most
learned men, who know that this body will go, and who say
“never mind: we have hundreds of bodies; the soul cannot
die”—even in them, with all their intellectual conviction, we
still find this clinging to life. What is this clinging to life? We
have seen that it has become instinctive. In the psychological
language of Yoga if has become Samskaras. The Samskaras,
fine and hidden, are sleeping in the Chitta. All these past
experiences of death, all that which we call instinct, is
experience become sub-conscious. It lives in the Chitta, and
is not inactive, but is working underneath. These Chitta Vrttis,
these mind-waves, which are gross, we can appreciate and
feel; they can be more easily controlled, but what about these
finer instincts? How can they be controlled? When I am angry
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my whole mind has become a huge wave of anger. feel it, see
it, handle it, can easily manipulate it, can fight with it, but I
shall not succeed perfectly in the fight until I can get down
below. A man says something very harsh to me, and I begin to
feel that I am getting heated, and he goes on until I am
perfectly angry, and forget myself, identify myself with
anger. When he first began to abuse me I still thought “I am
going to be angry.” Anger was one thing and I was another,
but when I became angry, I was anger. These feelings have to
be controlled in the germ, the root, in their fine forms, before
even we have become conscious that they are acting on us.
With the vast majority of mankind the fine states of these
passions are not even known, the state when they are slowly
coming from beneath consciousness. When a bubble is rising
from the bottom of the lake we do not see it, or even when it is
nearly come to the surface; it is only when it bursts and makes
a ripple that we know it is there. We shall only be successful
in grappling with the waves when we can get hold of them in
their fine casues, and until you can get hold of them, and
subdue them before any become gross, there is no hope of
conquering any passion perfectly. To control our passions we
have to control them at their very roots; then alone shall we be
able to burn out their very seed. As fried seeds thrown into the
ground will never come up, so these passions will never arise.
10. ते प्रतिप्रसवहेयाः सूक्ष्माः ॥ १०॥
te pratiprasavaheyah sookshmah
They, to-be-rejected-by-opposite-modifications, are
fine.
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How are these fine Samskaras to be controlled? We have to
begin with the big waves, and come down and down. For
instance, when a big wave of anger has come into the mind,
how are we to control that? Just by raising a big opposing
wave. Think of love. Sometimes a mother is very angry with
her husband, and while in that state the baby comes in, and
she kisses the baby; the old wave dies out, and a new wave
arises, love for the child. That suppresses the other one. Love
is opposite to anger. So we find that by raising the opposite
waves we can conquer those which we want to reject. Then, if
we can raise in our fine nature those fine opposing waves,
they will check the fine workings of anger beneath the
conscious surface. We have seen now that all these instinctive
actions first began as conscious actions, and became finer and
finer. So, if good waves in the conscious Chitta be constantly
raised, they will go down, become subtle, and oppose the
Samskara forms of evil thoughts.
11. ध्यानहेयास्तद्वृत्तयः ॥ ११ ॥
dhyanaheyastadvrittayah
By meditation, their modifications are to be rejected.
Meditation is one of the great means of controlling the rising
of these big waves. By meditation you can make the mind
subdue these waves, and, if you go on practising meditation
for days, and months, and years, until it has become a habit,
until it will come in spite of yourself, anger and hatred will be
controlled and checked.
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12. क्लेशमूलः कर्माशयो दृष्टादृष्टजन्मवेदनीयः ॥ १२॥
kleshamoolah karmashayo
drishtadrishtajanmavedaniyah
The receptacle of works has its root in these
pain-bearing obstructions, and their experience in this
visible life, or in the unseen life.
By the receptacle of works is meant the sum-total of these
Samskaras. Whatever work we do, the mind is thrown into a
wave, and, after the work is finished, we think the wave is
gone. No. It has only become fine, but it is still there. When
we try to remember the thing, it comes up again and becomes
a wave. So it was there; if it had not been there, there would
not have been memory. So, every action, every thought, good
or bad, just goes down and becomes fine, and is there stored
up. They are called pain-bearing obstructions, both happy and
unhappy thoughts, because according to the Yogis, both, in the
long run, bring pain. All happiness which comes from the
senses will, eventually, bring pain. All enjoyment will make
us thirst for more, and that brings pain as its result. There is no
limit to man’s desires; he goes on desring, and when he comes
to a point where desire cannot be fulfilled, the result is pain.
Therefore the Yogis regard the sum-total of the impressions,
good or evil, as pain-bearing obstructions; they obstruct the
way to freedom of the Soul. It is the same with the Samskaras,
the fine roots of all our works: they are the causes which will
again bring effects, either in this life, or in the lives to come.
In exceptional cases, when these Samskaras are very strong,
they bear fruit quickly; exceptional acts of wickedness, or of
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goodness, bring their fruits in this life. The Yogis even hold
that men who are able to acquire a tremendous power of good
Samskaras do not have to die, but, even in this life, can
change their bodies into god-bodies. There are several cases
mentioned by the Yogis in their books. These men change the
very material of their bodies; they re-arrange the molecules in
such fashion that they have no more sickness, and what we
call death does not come to them. Why should not this be?
The physiological meaning of foot is assimilation of energy
from the sun. This energy has reached the plant, the plant is
eaten by an animal, and the animal by us. The science of it is
that we take so much energy from the sun, and make it part of
ourselves. That being the case, why should there be only one
way of assimilating energy? The plant’s way is not the same
as ours; the earth’s process of assimilating energy differs from
our own. But all assimilate energy in some form or other. The
Yogis say that they are able to assimilate energy by the power
of the mind alone, that they can draw in as much as they desire
without recourse to the orindary methods. As a spider makes
his net out of his own substance, and becomes bound in his
net, and cannot go anywhere except along the lines of that net,
so we have projected out of our own substance this net-work
called the nerves, and we cannot work except through the
channels of those nerves. The Yogi says we need not be bound
by that. Similary, we can send electricity to any part of the
world, but we have to send it by means of wires. Nature can
send a vast mass of electricity without any wires at all. Why
cannot we do the same? We can send mental electricity. What
we call mind is very much the same as electricity. It is clear
that this nerve fluid has some amount of electricity, because it
is polarised, and it answers all electrical directions. We can
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only send our electricity through these nerve channels. Why
not send the mental electricity without this aid? The Yogi
says it is perfectly possible and practicable, and that when you
can do that you will work all over the universe. You will be
able to work with anybody anywhere, without the help of any
nervous system. When the soul is acting through these
channels we say a man is living and when those channels die
the man is said to be said. But when a man is able to act either
with or without these channels, birth and death will have no
meaning for him. All the bodies in the universe are made up
of Tanmatras, and it is only in the arrangement of them that
there comes a difference. If you are the arranger you can
arrange that body in one way or another. Who makes up this
body but you? Who eats the food? If another ate the food for
you, you would not live long. Who makes the blood out of
it? You, certainly. Who assimilates the blood, and sends it
through the veins? You. Who creates the nerves, and makes
all the muscles? You are the manufacturer, out of your own
substance. You are the manufacturer of the body, and you live
in it. Only we have lost the knowledge of how to make it. We
have become automatic, degenerate. We have forgotten the
process of manufacture. So, what we do automatically has
again to be regulated. We are the creators and we have to
regulate that creation, and as soon as we can do that we shall
be able to manufacture just as we like, and then we shall have
neither birth nor death, disease, or anything.
13. सति मूले तद्विपाको जात्यायुर्भोगाः ॥ १३॥
sati moole tadvipako jatyayurbhogah
The root being there, the fruition comes (in the form
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of) species, life, and expression of pleasure and pain.
The roots, the causes, the Samskaras being there, they again
manifest, and form the effects. The cause dying down
becomes the effect, and the effect becomes more subtle, and
becomes the cause of the next effect. The tree bears a seed,
and becomes the cause of the next tree, and so on. All our
works now, are the effects of past Samskaras. Again, these
Samskaras become the cause of future actions, and thus we go
on. So this aphorism says that the cause being there, the fruit
must come, in the form of species; one will be a man, another
an angel, another an animal, another a demon. Then there are
different effects in life; one man lives fifty years, another a
hundred, and another dies in two years, and never attains
maturity; all these differences in life are regulated by these
past actions. One man is born, as it were, for pleasure; if he
buries himself in a forest pleasure will follow him there.
Another man, wherever he goes, pain follows him, everything
becomes painful. It is all the result of their own past.
According to the philosophy of the Yogis all virtuous actions
bring pleasure, and all vicious actions bring pain. Any man
who does wicked deeds is sure to reap the fruit of them in the
form of pain.
14. ते ह्लादपरितापफलाः पुण्यापुण्यहेतुत्वात् ॥ १४॥
te hladaparitapafalah punyapunyahetutvat
They bear fruit as pleasure or pain, caused by virtue
or vice.
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15. परिणामतापसंस्कारदुःखैर्गुणवृत्तिविरोधाच्च दुःखम् एव सर्वं
विवेकिनः ॥ १५॥
parinamatapasanskaraduhkhairgunnavritti -
virodhaccha duhkham eva sarvan vivekinah
To the discriminating, all is, as it were, painful on
account of everything bringing pain, either in the
consequences, or in apprehension, or in attitude
caused by impressions, also on account of the counter
action of qualities.
The Yogis say that the man who has discriminating powers,
the man of good sense, sees through all these various things,
which are called pleasure and pain, and knows that they are
always equally distributed, and that one follows the other, and
melts into the other; he sees that men are following an ignis
fatuus all their lives, and never succeed in fulfilling their
desires. There was never a love in this world which did not
know decay. The great king Yudisthira once said that the
most wonderful thing in life is that every moment we see
people dying around us, and yet we think we shall never die.
Surrounded by fools on every side, we think we are the only
exceptions, the only learned men. Surrounded by all sorts of
experiences of fickleness, we think our love is the only lasting
love. How can that be? Even love is selfish, and the Yogi says
that, in the end, we shall find that even the love of husbands
and wives, and children and friends, slowly decays.
Decadence seizes everything in this life. It is only when
everything, even love, fails, that, with a flash, man finds out
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how vain, how dream-like is this world. Then he catches a
glimpse of Vairagyam (renunciation), catches a glimpse of
the beyond. It is only by giving up this world that the other
comes; never through building on to this one. Never yet was
there a great soul who had not to reject sense pleasures and
enjoyments to become such. The cause of misery is the clash
between difference forces of nature, one dragging one way,
and another dragging another, rendering permanent happiness
impossible.
16. हेयं दुःखम् अनागतम् ॥ १६॥
heyan duhkham anagatam
The misery which is not yet come is to be avoided.
Some Karma we have worked out already, some we are
working out now in the present, and some is waiting to bear
fruit in the future. That which we have worked out already is
past and gone.
That which we are experiencing now we will have to work
out, and it is only that which is waiting to bear fruit in the
future that we can conquer and control, so all our forces
should be directed towards the control of that Karma which
has not yet borne fruit. That is meant in the previous
aphorism, when Patanjali says that these various Samskaras
are to be controlled by counteracting waves.
17. द्रष्टृदृश्ययोः संयोगो हेयहेतुः ॥ १७॥
drashtridrishyayoh sanyogo heyahetuh
The cause of that which is to be avoided is the
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junction of the seer and the seen.
Who is the seer? The Self of Man, the PuruSa. What is the
seen? The whole of nature, beginning with the mind, down to
gross matter. All this pleasure and pain arises from the
junction between this PuruSa and the mind. The PuruSa, you
must remember, according to this philosophy, is pure; it is
when it is joined to nature, and by reflection, that it appears to
feel either pleasure or pain.
18. प्रकाशक्रियास्थितिशीलं भूतेन्द्रियात्मकं भोगापवर्गार्थं दृश्यम् ॥ १८॥
prakashakriyasthitishilan bhootendriyatmakan
bhogapavargarthan drishyam
The experienced is composed of elements and organs,
is of the nature of illumination, action and intertia,
and is for the purpose of experience and release (of
the experiencer).
The experienced, that is nature, is composed of elements and
organs—the elements gross and fine which compose the
whole of nature, and the organs of the senses, mind, etc., and
is of the nature of illumination, action, and intertia. These are
what in Sanskrit are called Sattva (illumination), Rajas
(action), and Tamas (darkness); each is for the purpose of
experience and relase. What is the purpose of the whole of
nature? That the PuruSa may gain experience. The PuruSa
has, as it were, forgotten its mighty, godly, nature. There is a
story that the king of the gods, Indra, once became a pig,
wallowing in mire; he had a she pig, and a lot of baby pigs,
and was very happy. Then some other angels saw his plight,

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and came to him, and told him, “You are the king of the gods,
you have all the gods command. Why are you here?” But
Indra said, “Let me be; I am all right here; I do not care for the
heavens, while I have this sow and these little pigs.” The poor
gods were at their wits’ end what to do. After a time they
decided to slowly come and slay one of the little pigs, and
then another, until they had slain all the pigs, and the sow too.
When all were dead Indra began to weep and mourn. Then the
gods ripped his pig body open and he came out of it, and
began to laugh when he realised what a hideous dream he had
had; he, the king of the gods, to have become a pig, and to
think that the pig-life was the only life! Not only so, but to
have wanted the whole universe to come into the pig life! The
PuruSa, when it identifies itself with nature, forgets that it is
pure and infinite. The PuruSa does not live; it is life itself. It
does not exist; it is existence itself. The Soul does not know;
it is knowledge itself. It is an entire mistake to say that the
Soul lives, or knows, or loves. Love and existence are not the
qualities of the PuruSa, but its essence. When they get
reflected upon something you may call them the qualities of
that something. But they are not the qualities of the PuruSa,
but the essence of this great Atman, this Infinite Being,
without birth or death, Who is established in His own glory,
but appears as if become degenerate until if you approach to
tell Him, “You are not a pig,” he begins to squeal and bite.
Thus with us all in this Maya, this dream world, where it is all
misery, weeping, and crying, where a few golden balls are
rolled, and the world scrambles after them. You were never
bound by laws, Nature never had a bond for you. That is what
the Yogi tells you; have patience to learn it. And the Yogi
shows how, by junction with this nature, and identifying itself
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with the mind and the world, the Purusa thinks itself
miserable. Then the Yogi goes on to show that the way out is
through experience. You have to get all this experience, but
finish it quickly. We have placed ourselves in this net, and
will have to get out. We have got ourselves caught in the trap,
and we will have to work out our freedom. So get this
experience of husbands and wives, and friends, and little
loves, and you will get through them safely if you never forget
what you really are. Never forget this is only a momentary
state, and that we have to pass through it. Experience is the
one great teacher—experiences of pleasure and pain—but
know they are only experiences, and will all lead, step by step,
to that state when all these things will become small, and the
Purusa will be so great that this whole universe will be as a
drop in the ocean, and will fall off by its own nothingness. We
have to go through these experiences, but let us never forget
the ideal.
19. विशेषाविशेषलिङ्गमात्रालिङ्गानि गुणपर्वाणि ॥ १९॥
visheshavisheshalinggamatralinggani
gunnaparvani
The states of the qualities are the defined, the
undefined, the indicated only, and the signless.
The system of Yoga is built entirely on the philosophy of the
Sankhyas, as I told you in some of the previous lectures, and
here again I will remind you of the cosmology of the Sankhya
philosophy. According to the Sankhyas, nature is both the
material and efficient cause of this universe. In this nature
there are three sorts of materials, the Sattva, the Rajas, and the
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Tamas. The Tamas material is all that is dark, all that is
ignorant and heavy; and the Rajas is activity. The Sattvas is
calmness, light. When nature is in the state before creation, it
is called by them Avyaktam, undefined, or indiscrete; that is,
in which there is no distinction of form or name, a state in
which these three materials are held in perfect balance. Then
the balance is disturbed, these different materials begin to
mingle in various fashions, and the result is this universe. In
every man, also, these three materials exist. When the Sattva
material prevails knowledge comes. When the Rajas material
prevails activity comes, and when the Tamas material prevails
darkness comes and lassitude, idleness, ignorance. According
to the Sankhya theory, the highest manifestation of this
nature, consisting of these three materials, is what they call
Mahat, or intelligence, universal intelligence, and each
human mind is a part of that cosmic intelligence. Then out of
Mahat comes the mind. In the Sankhya Psychology there is a
sharp distinction between Manas, the mind function, and the
function of the Buddhi intellect. The mind function is simply
to collect and carry impressions and present them to the
Buddhi, the individual Mahat, and the Buddhi determined
upon it. So, out of Mahat comes mind, and out of mind comes
fine material, and this fine material combines and becomes
the gross material outside—the external universe. The claim
of the Sankhya philosophy is that beginning with the intellect,
and coming down to a block of stone, all has come out of the
same thing, only as finer or grosser states of existence. The
Buddhi is the finest state of existence of the materials, and
then comes Ahamkara, egoism, and next to the mind comes
fine material, which they call Tanmatras, which cannot be
seen, but which are inferred. These Tanmatras combine and
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become grosser, and finally produce this universe. The finer is
the cause, and the grosser is the effect. It begins with the
Buddhi, which is the finest material, and goes on becoming
grosser and grosser, until it becomes this universe. According
to the Sankhya philosophy, beyond the whole of this nature is
the Purusa, which is not material at all. Purusa is not at all
similar to anything else, either Buddhi, or mind, or the
Tanmatras, or the gross material; it is not akin to any one of
these, it is entirely separate, entirely different in its nature, and
from this they argue that the Purusa must be immortal,
because it is not the result of combination. That which is not
the result of combination cannot die, these Purusas or Souls
are infinite in number. Now we shall understand the
Aphorism, that the states of the qualities are defined,
undefined, and signless. By the defined is meant the gross
elements, which we can sense. By the undefined is meant the
very fine materials, the Tanmatras, which cannot be sensed
by ordinary men. If you practice Yoga, however, says
Patanjali, after a while your perception will become so fine
that you will actually see the Tanmatras. For instance, you
have heard how every man has a certain light about him;
every living being is emanating a certain light, and this, he
says, can be seen by the Yogi. We do not all see it, but we are
all throwing out these Tanmatras, just as a flower is
continuously emanating these Tanmatras, which enable us to
smell it. Every day of our lives we are throwing out a mass of
good or evil, and everywhere we go the atmosphere is full of
these materials, and that is how there came to the human
mind, even unconsciously, the idea of building temples and
churches? Why should man build churches in which to
worship God? Why not worship Him anywhere? Even if he
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did not know the reason, man found that that place where
people worshipped God became full of good Tanmatras.
Every day people go there, and the more they go the holier
they get, and the holier that place becomes. If any man who
has not much Sattva in him goes there the place will influence
him, and arouse his Sattva quality. Here, therefore, is the
significance of all temples and holy places, but you must
remember that their holiness depends on holy people
congregating there. The difficulty with mankind is that they
forget the original meaning, and put the cart before the horse.
It was men who made these places holy, and then the effect
became the cause and made men holy. If the wicked only
were to go there it would become as bad as any other place. It
is not the building, but the people, that make a church, and
that is what we always forget. That is why sages and holy
persons, who have so much of this Sattva quality, are
emanating so much of it around them, and exerting a
tremendous influence day and night on their surroundings. A
man may become so pure that his purity will become tangible,
as it were. The body has become pure, and in an intensely
physical sense, no figurative idea, no poetical language, it
emanates that purity wherever it goes. Whosoever comes in
contact with that man becomes pure. Next “the indicated
only” means the Buddhi, the intellect. “The indicated only” is
the first manifestation of nature; from it all other
manifestations proceed. The last is “the signless.” Here there
seems to be a great fight between modern science and all
religion. Every religion has this idea that this universe comes
out of intelligence. Only some religions were more
philosophical, and used scientific language. The very theory
of God, taking it in its psychological significance, and apart
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from all ideas of personal God, is that intelligence is first in
the order of creation, and that out of intelligence comes what
we call gross matter. Modern philosophers say that
intelligence is the last to come. They say that unintelligent
things slowly evolve into animals, and from animals slowly
evolve into men. They claim that instead of everything
coming out of intelligence, intelligence is itself the last to
come. Both the religious and the scientific statement, though
seemingly directly opposed to each other, are true. Take an
infinite series A—B—A—B—A—B, etc. The question is
which is first, A or B. If you take the series as A—, you will
say that A is first, but if you take it as B—A you will say that
B is first. It depends on the way you are looking at it.
Intelligence evolves, and becomes the gross material, and this
again evolves as intelligence, and again evolves as matter
once more. The Sankhyas, and all religionists, put intelligence
first, and the series becomes intelligence then matter,
intelligence then matter. The scientific man puts his finger on
matter, and say matter then intelligence, matter then
intelligence. But they are both indicating the same chain.
Indian philosophy, however, goes beyond both intelligence
and matter, and finds a Purusa, or Self, which is beyond all
intelligence, and of which intelligence is but the borrowed
light.
20. द्रष्टा दृशिमात्रः शुद्धोऽपि प्रत्ययानुपश्यः ॥ २०॥
drashta drishimatrah shuddhopi pratyayanupashyah
The seer is intelligence only, and though pure, seen
through the colouring of the intellect.
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This is again Sankhya philosophy. We have seen from this
philosophy that from the lowest form up to intelligence all is
nature, but beyond nature are Purusas (souls), and these have
no qualities. Then how does the soul appear to be happy or
unhappy? By reflection. Just as if be piece of pure crystal be
put on a table and a red flower be put near it, the crystal
appears to be red, so all these appearances of happiness or
unhappiness are but reflections; the soul itself has no sort of
colouring. The soul is separate from nature; nature is one
thing, soul another, eternally separate. The Sankhyas say that
intelligence is a compounds, that it grows and wanes, that it
changes, just as the body changes, and that its nature is nearly
the same as that of the body. As a fingernail is to the body, so
is body to intelligence. The nail is a part of the body, but it can
be pared off hundreds of times, and the body will still last.
Similarly, the intelligence lasts æons, while this body can be
pared off, thrown off. Yet intelligence cannot be immortal,
because is changes— growing and waning. Anything that
changes cannot be immortal. Certainly intelligence is
manufactured, and that very fact shows us that there must be
something beyond that, because it cannot be free. Everything
connected with matter is in nature, and therefore bound for
ever. Who is free? That free one must certainly be beyond
cause and effect. If you say that the idea of freedom is a
delusion, I will say that the idea of bondage is also a delusion.
Two facts come into our consciousness, and stand or fall by
each other. One is that we are bound. If we want to go through
a wall, and our head bumps against that wall, we are limited
by that wall. At the same time we find will, and think we can
direct our will everywhere. At every step these contradictory
ideas are coming to us. We have to believe that we are free,
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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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which, coming through the Buddhi, becomes intelligence,
and, as such, is bound.
21. तदर्थ एव दृश्यस्यात्मा ॥ २१॥
tadarth eva drishyasyatma
The nature of the experience is for him.
Nature has no light of its own. As long as the PuruSa is
present in it, it appears light, but the light is borrowed; just as
the moon's light is reflected. All the manifestations of nature
are caused by this nature itself, according to the Yogis; but
nature has no purpose in view, except to free the PuruSa.
22. कृतार्थं प्रति नष्टमप्यनष्टं तदन्यसाधारणत्वात् ॥ २२॥
kritarthan prati nashtam apyanashtan
tadanyasadharannatvat
Though destroyed for him whose goal has been
gained, yet is not destroyed, being common to others.
The whole idea of this nature is to make the Soul know that it
is entirely separate from nature, and when the Soul knows
this, nature has no more attractions for it. But the whole of
nature vanishes only for that man who has become free. There
will always remain an infinite number of others, for whom
nature will go on working.
23. स्वस्वामिशक्त्योः स्वरूपोपलब्धिहेतुः संयोगः ॥ २३॥
svasvamishaktyoh svaroopopalabdhihetuh sanyogah
Junction is the cause of the realisation of the nature of
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both the powers, the experienced and its Lord.
According to this aphorism, when this Soul comes into
conjunction with nature, both the power of the Soul and the
power of nature become manifest in this conjunction, and all
these manifestations are thrown out. Ignorance is the cause of
this conjunction. We see every day that the cause of our pain
or pleasure is always our joining ourselves with the body. If I
were perfectly certain that I am not this body, I should take no
notice of heat and cold, or anything of the kind. This body is a
combination. It is only a fiction to say that I have one body,
you another, and the sun another. The whole universe is one
ocean of matter, and you are the name of a little particle, and I
of another, and the sun of another. We know that this matter is
continuously changing, what is forming the sun one day, the
next day may form the matter of our bodies.
24. तस्य हेतुरविद्या ॥ २४॥
tasya heturavidya
Ignorance is its cause.
Through ignorance we have joined ourselves with a particular
body, and thus opened ourselves to misery. This idea of body
is a simple superstition. It is superstition that makes us
happy or unhappy. It is superstition caused by ignorance that
makes us feel heat and cold, pain and pleasure. It is our
business to rise above this superstition, and the Yogi shows us
how we can do this. It has been demonstrated that, under
certain mental conditions, a man may be burned, yet, while
that condition lasts, he will feel no pain. The difficulty is that
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