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destroyed all these tendencies, almost destroyed the mind,
then it has become seedless, there are no more seeds in the
mind out of which to manufacture again and again this plant
of life, this ceaseless round of birth and death. You may ask,
what state would that be, in which we should have no
knowledge? What we call knowledge is a lower state than
the one beyond knowledge. You must always bear in mind
that the extremes look very much the same. The low
vibration of light is darkness, and the very high vibration of
light is darkness also, but one is real darkness, and the other
is really intense light; yet their appearance is the same. So,
ignorance is the lowest state, knowledge is the middle state,
and beyond knowledge is a still higher state. Knowledge
itself is a manufactured something, a combination; it is not
reality. What will be the result of constant practice of this
higher concentration? All old tendencies of restlessness, and
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dulness, will be destroyed, as well as the tendencies of
goodness too. It is just the same as with the metals that are
used with gold to take off the dirt and alloy. When the ore is
smelted down, the dross is burnt along with the alloy. So
this constant controlling power will stop the previous bad
tendencies, and, eventually, the good ones also. Those good
and evil tendencies will suppress each other, and there will
remain the Soul, in all its glorious splendour, untrammelled
by either good or bad, and that Soul is omnipresent,
omnipotent, and omniscient. By giving up all powers it has
become omnipotent, by giving up all life it is beyond
mortality; it has become life itself. Then the Soul will know
It neither had birth nor death, neither want of heaven nor of
earth. It will know that It neither came nor went; it was
nature which was moving, and that movement was reflected
upon the Soul. The form of the light is moving, it is
reflected and cast by the camera upon the wall, and the wall
foolishly thinks it is moving. So with all of us: it is the
Chitta constantly moving, manipulating itself into various
forms, and we think that we are these various forms. All
these delusions will vanish. When that free Soul will
command not pray or beg, but command then watever It
desires will be immediately fulfilled; whatever It wants It
will be able to do. According to the Sankhya Philosophy
there is no God. It says that there cannot be any God of this
universe, because if there were He must be a Soul, and a
Soul must be one of two things, either bound or free. How
can the soul that is bound by nature, or controlled by nature,
create? It is itself a slave. On the other hand, what business
has the soul that is free to create and manipulate all these
things? It has no desires, so cannot have any need to create.
Secondly, it says the theory of God is an unnecessary one;
nature explains all. What is the use of any God? But Kapila
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teaches that there are many souls, who, through nearly
attaining perfection, fall short because they cannot perfectly
renounce all powers. Their minds for a time merge in
nature, to re-emerge as its masters. We shall all become
such gods, and, according to the Sankhyas, the God spoken
of in the Vedas really means one of these free souls. Beyond
them there is not an eternally free and blessed Creator of the
universe. On the other hand the Yogis say,  Not so, there is
a God; there is one Soul separate from all other souls, and
He is the eternal Master of all creation, the Ever Free, the
Teacher of all teachers. The Yogis admit that those the
Sankhyas called  merged in nature also exist. They are
Yogis who have fallen short of perfection, and though, for a
time debarred from attaining the goal, remain as rulers of
parts of the universe.
19. (This Samadhi, when not followed by
extreme non-attachment) becomes the
cause of the re-manifestation of the gods
and of those that become merged in nature.
The gods in the Indian systems represent certain high offices
which are being filled successively by various souls. But
none of them is perfect.
20. To others (this Samadhi) comes through
faith, energy, memory, concentration, and
discrimination of the real.
These are they who do not want the position of gods, or even
that of rulers of cycles. They attain to liberation.
21. Success is speeded for the extremely
energetic.
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22. They again differ according as the means
are mild, medium or supreme.
23. Or by devotion to Icvara.
24. Icvara (the Supreme Ruler) is a special
Purusa, untouched by misery, the results of
actions, or desires.
We must again remember that this Patanjali Yoga
Philosophy is based upon that of the Sankhyas, only that in
the latter there is no place for God, while with the Yogis God
has a place. The Yogis, however, avoid many ideas about
God, such as creating. God as the Creator of the Universe is
not meant by the Icvara of the Yogis, although, according to
the Vedas, Icvara is the Creator of the universe. Seeing that
the universe is harmonious, it must be the manifestation of
one will. The Yogis and Sankhyas both avoid the question of
creation. The Yogis want to establish a God, but carefully
avoid this question, they do not raise it at all. Yet you will
find that they arrive at God in a peculiar fashion of their
own. They say:
25. In Him becomes infinite that all-knowing-
ness which in others is (only) a germ.
The mind must always travel between two extremes. You
can think of limited space, but the very idea of that gives you
also unlimited space. Close your eyes and think of a little
space, and at the same time that you perceive the little circle,
you have a circle round it of unlimited dimensions. It is the
same with time. Try to think of a second, you will have,
with the same act of perception, to think of time which is
unlimited. So with knowledge. Knowledge is only a germ
in man, but you will have to think of infinite knowledge
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around it, so that the very nature of your constitution shows
us that there is unlimited knowledge, and the Yogis call that
unlimited knowledge God.
26. He is the Teacher of even the ancient
teachers, being not limited by time.
It is true that all knowledge is within ourselves, but this has
to be called forth by another knowledge. Although the
capacity to know is inside us, it must be called out, and that
calling out of knowledge can only be got, a Yogi maintains,
through another knowledge. Dead, insentient matter, never
calls out knowledge. It is the action of knowledge that
brings out knowledge. Knowing beings must be with us to
call forth what is in us, so these teachers were always
necessary. The world was never without them, and no
knowledge can come without them. God is the Teacher of
all teachers, because these teachers, however great they may
have been gods or angels were all bound and limited by
time, and God is not limited by time. These are the two
peculiar distinctions of the Yogis. The first is that in [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]