The Basic Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali. Avneet Kumar Singla

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The Basic Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali - Avneet Kumar Singla

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Holy, disregard for the unholy, the psychic nature moves towards gracious peace.

      When we are wrapped in ourselves, wrapped in the cloak of our selfishness, immersed in our pain and bitter thoughts, we are not willing to disturb or burden our own sick mood by giving friendly compassion to the happy ones, thus doubling their joy or showing compassion for the sad ones, thus halving their grief. We refuse to find joy in holy things and let the spirit brood over unholy things in sad pessimism. All these evil psychic moods must be conquered by strong effort. This tearing of the veils will reveal to us something of the grace and peace that are of the inner consciousness of the spiritual man.

      34.or peace can be achieved by the even emission and control of the life breath.

      Here, too, we can look for a double meaning: first, the even and calm breathing that is part of the victory over physical restlessness; then the even and calm tenor of life, without hard or dissonant impulses that bring silence to the heart.

      35. Faithful, persistent application to any object, if completely attained, will bind the mind to the resistance.

      We are still considering how to overcome the wavering and disturbance of the psychic nature, which makes it quite unsuitable to transmit the inner consciousness and silence. We are once again asked to use the Will and train it through constant and persistent work: by sitting near our work, in the phrase of the original.

      36. As well as a joyful, radiant spirit.

      There is no illusion like gloomy pessimism, and it has really been said that a man's cheerfulness is the measure of his faith. Darkness, dejection, the pale world of thought, are very accessible to the will.

      Robust and courageous efforts bring a clear and brave spirit. But it must always be remembered that this is not a consolation for the personal person, but a sacrifice for the ideal of spiritual life, a contribution to the universal and universally shared treasure in heaven.

      37. Or the cleaning of the indulgence from the psychic nature.

      We must realize that the fall of man is a reality illustrated in our own persons. We have very different sins from the animals and far more harmful; and they have all come through forbearance, with which our psychic natures are soaked through and through. As we climbed down the hill for our pleasure, we also had to climb back up to our former high estate for our cleaning and restoration. The process is painful, perhaps, but indispensable.

      38. or a reflection on the perceptions in dreams and dreamless sleep.

      For the eastern sages, dreams consist of images of Waking Life, Reflections of what the eyes have seen and the ears have heard. But dreams are something more, because the images are in a sense real, objective on their own plane; and the knowledge that there is another world, even a dream-world, lightens the tyranny of material life. Much of the poetry and art is such a comfort from dreamland. But there is more in the dream, because it can imagine what is above, as well as what is below; not only the children but also the children on the shore of the immortal sea that brought us hither, may throw their images on this magic mirror: the secrets of dreamless sleep with its pure vision, in even greater dimensions.

      39. Or meditative brooding on what is the heart of the loved one.

      Here is a thought that our own day is beginning to grasp: that love is a form of knowledge; that we really know something or some person by becoming one in love. Thus love has a wisdom that the mind cannot claim, and through this hearty love of becoming one with what lies beyond our personal boundaries, we can take a long step towards freedom. Two directions for this can be suggested: the pure love of the artist for his work and the serious, compassionate search into the hearts of others.

      40. He controls everything, from the atom to the Infinite.

      Newton was asked how he made his discoveries. With the intention of giving my opinion about it, he replied. This constant pressure, this becoming one with what we want to understand, be it atom or soul, is the one means of knowing. When we become a thing, we really know it, no other way.

      Therefore live life to know the doctrine; do the will of the father, if you would know the father.

      41. when the disorders of psychic nature are all satisfied, then consciousness, like a pure crystal, takes on the color of what it rests upon, whether it be the perceiving, perceiving, or the perceived thing.

      This is a more complete expression of the last Sutra and is so clear that one can hardly add it. Everything is either perceiving, perceiving or the perceived thing; or, as we might say, consciousness, force, or matter. The Sage tells us that the one key will unlock the secrets of all three, the secrets of consciousness, force and matter alike. The thought is that the warm sympathy of a gentle heart that intuitively understands the hearts of others is really a manifestation of the same force as the pervasive perception in which one perceives the secrets of planetary movements or atomic structure.

      42. If the consciousness in the perception of ready to connect the name, the object and the idea with each other, this is perception with exterior consideration.

      In the first phase of the contemplation of an external object, the perceiving mind comes to it, which conventionally deals with the name and Idea

      associated with this object. For example, when we come to study a book, we think of the author, his time, the school to which he belongs. The second stage, outlined in the next Sutra, goes directly to the spiritual meaning of the book, putting aside its traditional features and applying it to our own experiences and problems.

      The commentator makes a very simple illustration: a cow, where in the first Phase you look at the name of the cow, the animal itself and the idea of a cow in your head. In the second stage, one pushes aside these traps and enters the innermost being of the cow, sharing its consciousness, as do some of the artists who paint cows. They come into the life of what they study and paint.

      43. When the object dwells in the mind, free of memory-images of the spirit unstained, as a pure luminous idea, this is perception without exterior or consideration.

      We are still looking at external, visible objects. Such a perception as is described here lies in the nature of that penetrating vision, in which Newton, who intended his thoughts on things, made his discoveries, or in which a truly great portrait painter pierces the soul of the one he paints and brings that soul to life on canvas. These stages of perception are described in this way to lead the mind to an understanding of the pervasive soul vision of the spiritual man, the immortal.

      44. The same two steps, when referring to things of finer substance, are said to be with, or without, judicial action of the mind.

      We now come to mental or psychic objects: images in the head. It is precisely by comparing, arranging and superimposing these thought images that we obtain our general ideas or concepts. This process of analysis and synthesis, in which we select certain qualities in a group of thought images and then summarize those of similar quality, is the judicial action of the mind that is spoken of. But if we exercise quick divination on the mental images, as a poet or a man of genius does. then we use a power that is higher than justice, and one that is closer to the sharp vision of the spiritual man.

      45. Subtle substance rises in ascending degrees to that pure nature which has no distinguishing power.

      When we ascend from external material things that are permeated with separation and whose main characteristic is to be separate, just as so many pebbles are separated from each other; when we first ascend to thought images that overlap and merge in both space and time, and then to ideas and principles, we finally come to purer essences

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