AN

I N T RO DUC T I ON T O YO GA

FOUR L E C TUR E S D EL I VER E D AT TH E

3 2 ND ANNIVE RSARY OF TH E T H E OS OPH I CAL S OCI E TY
H EL D AT BENARE S ON DEC 2 7 TH 2 8 TH 2 ' TR 3OT H 1 907
,

BY

ANNI E B E SANT
O
D
D
TI
O
I
E
C
E
S
N
N)
(

PUB L I S H ING H OUSE

TH E O S OPH I CA L

ADYAR MADRA S I NDI A

B E N A RE S I N DI A ; C H I C A GO U s A
T P
L O N DO N
,

1 9 18
'

Pr

MDAL E AV

82 6 O

C O NT E N T S
PAGE

C TURE I

10

11

12

13

14

l5

16

T H E NATU RE

OE

YOG A

M eaning of the Universe

T he Unfolding of C onsciousness
T he Onenes s of the Self
T he ' uick ening of the Proce ss of Self
Unfoldmen t
Yoga is a Science
Man a Duali ty
State s of M ind
Sam adhi
T he L i te rature of Yoga
Some De ni tions
God W i thout and Go d W i thin
C h anges of C onscious ness and V ib rat ions
of Matter
Mind
Stages of M ind
Inward and O utward tu rned Consciousn ess
T he C loud

The

4
7

10

1 4s
18
21

25

32

vi

CO N T EN TS

L EC TU RE

0F

TH OUGH T

47

50

M ind
T he M en tal Bo dy
M ind and S elf

70

III

Y O GA

73

'

76
AS

S C I EN C E

M ethods of Yoga
T o the S el f by the S elf
T o t he S elf through the Not S elf
Yoga and M orali ty
i nd
C ompo si t ion of State s of the M
Pl easure and Pain
-

C TURE

S C H OO L S

T he Relation of Yo ga to Indian Phil osop hi es

L E C TUR E
1

II

IV

YOGA

As

PRAC TI C E

81

82
89
91

97
1 03
1 1 4:

of S ta te s O f M ind
M edi tat ion W i th and W i thout S eed
T he U se of M antras
Atte nt ion
Obs tacl e s to Yoga
C ap aci t i es for Yoga
F orth goin g and Re t u rni ng
Puri cat ion of Bodi e s
Dwe ll e rs on the T h reshold

1 15

T he E nd

1 57

Inhi bi tion

1 20
127

1 28
1 31

1 32

138
146
1 49

10
11

F ORE W ORD

TH E SE
li ne

lect ure s

Yoga,

Oi

t o t ak e

st ude nt

fm s
t h e S zlg
on

Yoga

of

me nt ary

for p ract ical p urp oses,

Patajali, th e chi ef t re at i se
up ,

I h av e

a
s
D

B h agav an
lat i o n

i nte nded t o gi v e an out

in o rde r to p re p are t h e

are

on

as

h and, wi t h

my f rie nd

collaborat e ur,

t rans

Sutras, wi t h Vyasa s com

and a f urth e r comme nt ary and

t h e se

w rit te n in

eluci dat i o n

t h e ligh t

of

Th e o

To p re p are t h e st ude nt for t h e

mast e ri ng of t h at mo re di fcult ta sk , t h e se
S op h

le ct ure s w e re de signed ; h e nce t h e

t o Patajali

re e re nce s

e v er, also serv e

reade r so

and

st ud

t o giv e t o

many

Th ey may, h ow
th e o rdinary lay

me idea of t h e Scie nce Of sciences

e rh a

to

allure

few t owards it s

ANNIE B ES ANT

L E C T U RE

T H E N ATU RE O F Y O G A
B RO T H E R S

I n this rst discourse we shall concern our

selves with the gaining of a general idea Of the
subjec t of Yoga seeking its plac e in n ature its
own chara cter i t s O bj ect in human evolution
,

TH E

MEAN I N G OF T H E

U NI VE R S E

L et us rst of all ask ourselves looking at

the world around us what it is that the history
of the world signies Whe n we read history
what does the history tell us I t seems to be a
moving panorama O f people and events b ut it is
the pe ople are
really only a dance of shadows
n ot realities th e kings an d statesme n
shadows

mi
n
ist
e
r
s
a
n
d
armies
and
the
e
e
n
ts
the
e
v
th
;
battles a n d revolutio n s the rises a n d falls of
,


S tat es are the most shadow like dance of all
E ven if the historia n tries to go deeper if he
deals wi t h e conomic conditions with social
organisations with the s tudy of the tendencies
of the currents o f though t even then he is in
the mid st o f shadows t he illusory shadows cast
by u n seen realities T his world is full of forms
that are ill usory and the values are all wrong
the propor tio ns are out of focus T he t hings
which a man of the world thinks valuable a
S piritual ma n must cast aside as wor thless
T he
diamonds of the world with t heir glare and
gli t ter in the rays of the ou t side sun are mere
fragmen t s O f broken glass t o t he man of know
ledge T he crow n o i the K ing t he scep t re of
the E mperor t he t riumph of earthly power are
less than nothing to the man who has had one
glimpse of t he maj esty of t he S e lf W h a t 1 8
then real i Wha t is t r uly valuable O ur answer
will be very different from the answer given by
the man of the world
T he universe exists for the sake o f the

S elf
N ot for what the outer w orld can give
n ot for con t rol over the obj ec t s of de sires not
for the sake even of beau ty o r pleasure does t he
G reat A rchi t ect plan and build His worlds He
h as lled the m w ith O bj ects beautiful and
-

T H E NATU R E O F YO GA

pleasure giving The great arch of the sk y

above the mountains with snow clad peaks th e
valleys soft with verdure and fragrant with
blossoms the oceans with their vast depths
their surface now calm as a lake now tossing
in furythey all exist not for the Obj ects them
selves but for their value to t he S elf N 0 t for
themsel v es because they are anything i n them
selves but that the purpose of the S elf may b e
served and his manifestations made possible
T he world with all its beauty its happiness an d
sn ering its joys and pains is pla nn ed with the
utmost ingenuity in order tha t t he powers of the
S elf may be S hown forth in manifestation Fro m
the re mis t t o t he L O G O S all exists for the sake of
the S elf The lowes t grain of dust the mightiest
i
eva
in
his
heavenly
reg
ons
the
plant
t
hat
D
grows o ut of sight in th e nook of a mountain

the star that shines alof t over us all these exist

in order that the fragments O f t he o ne S elf
embodied in countless forms may realise their
own identity and manifes t the powers O f the
S elf through the matter that envelops them
There is but one S elf in the lowliest dust an d
Mamamsh a My portio n
t he loftiest Deva

a portion O f My S elf says S hri Krsh na are

all these Jiv atmas all these living S pirits For
-

IN T R O DU CT I O N

YO GA

To

them the u n iverse exists for them the sun shines

an d th e waves roll and the winds blow and the
rain falls that the S elf may know himself as mani
feste d i n matter as embodied i n the universe
,

TH E UN FO L D ING

CO N S C I O U S N E SS

0E

One

of thos e pregnant and signicant ideas

which Theosophy scatters so lavishly around is

this that the same scale is repeated over and

o v er agai n the same succession of events in
larger or small e r cycles I f you un derstand one
cycle you understand t h e W hole The same
law s b y which a solar system is builded go to
the b uildin g up o f the system of man Th e
laws by which t he S elf unfolds hi s p owers in
the un iverse from the re mist up to the L O GO S
are th e same laws of consciousness which repeat
themselves i n the universe of man I f you
understan d them in the one you can e qually
understan d them in the other G rasp them i n
the small a n d the large is re vealed to you
Grasp them i n the large an d the small be comes
i n telligi ble to you
T he great u nfoldi n g from the stone to the
God goe s on through millions of years thro ugh
But the long u nfoldin g that
secns of time
,

TH E

NATU R E OF YO GA

takes place in the universe takes pl ace i n a

shorter time cycle wi t hin the li mit of humanity,
and this in a cycle so brief that it seems as
no t hing beside t he longer one Within a still
briefer cycle a similar unfolding takes plac e i n
the indi vidualrapidly swiftly with all the
force o f i t s pas t behind it T hese forc e s that
manifes t an d unveil themselves in evolution are
cumulat ive in t heir power E mbodied in th e
sto ne in the mineral world they grow a n d put
out a li ttle more o f strength and in the mineral
world accomplish their unfolding T he n they
become t oo strong for the mineral and press on
into the vegetable world T here they u n fold
more a n d more of their divinity until they b e
come too mighty for the vegetable and become
,

E xpanding within and gaining experie n ce s from

the animal t hey again overflow the li mi ts of t he
animal and appear as the human I n the human
be ing t hey s till grow and a ccumulat e w ith ever
increasing force and exert grea ter press ure
against t he barrier ; and then out O f the human
they press in t o t he super human
Th is last
pro cess of evolut ion is called Yog a
C oming to the individual the man of o ur
own globe h as behind him his lo n g evolution in
,

IN T R O DU CT I O N

To

YO GA

other chai n s tha n ours this sa me evolution

through mineral to vegetab le through vegetab le
to animal through animal to man and th en from
o ur last dwellin
place
in
the
lunar
orb o n to
g
this terrene globe that we call the earth O ur
evolution here has all the force o f the last evo
l ut io n in it and hence when we come to this
shortest cycle of evolu tion which is called Yoga
the man has behind him t he whole of the forces
accumulated i n his human evolution and it is
the accumulation o f these forces which enables
h im to make the passage so rapidly
We must
connect o ur Yoga with the evolution of con
scio u sne ss everywhere else we shall n ot under
stan d it at all ; for the laws of evolution of con
scio usne ss in a universe are exactly the same as
the laws of Yoga and t he principles whereby
consciousness unfolds itself in the great evolutio n
of humanity are t he same principles that we take
in Yoga and delibera t ely apply t o the more rapid
unfoldi n g o f our own consciousness SO that
Yoga when it is denitely begun is not a ne w
thing as some people imagine
The whole evolution is one in its essence Th e
the se quences identical
successio n is the same
Whether you are thinking o f the unfolding of
or in the human
co n scious n es s in the u n iverse
,

TH E NAT UR E

YO GA

or

race or in the individual you can study the

laws of the whole and i n Yoga you learn to
apply those same laws to your own consciousnes s
rationally and denitely All t he laws are one
however di fferen t in their stages of manifes t ation
I f you look at Yoga in t his ligh t then t his
Yoga which seem ed so alien a nd so far o ff will
begin to wear a familiar face and come t o you
in a garb no t wholly s t range A s you s tudy t h e
unfolding of consciousness and t he correspond
ing evolut ion of form it will not seem so strange
that from man you should pass on t o super man
transcending the barrier of humani ty and nding
yourself in the region where divinity becomes
more manifest
,

TH E ON E N ESS

or

TH E S E L F

S elf in you is the same as the Self

U niversal
Wha t ever powers are man ifested
t hroughout the world those powers exist in
germ in lat ency in you He t he S upreme
does not evolve I n Him there are no ad di t ions
or sub trac tions His por tions the Ji v at mas are
as Himself and they only unfold their powers
in mat ter as condi tions around them dra w those
p owers forth I f you realise the unity of th e
Th e

'

IN T RO D UCT I O N

To

YOGA

S elf amid the diversities of the N ot-S elf the n

Yoga will not seem an impossible thing to
you
,

TH E

E
K
U
I
C
NIN
G
'

TH E PRO C E SS
UN FO L D ME N T
OF

or

S EL E

E ducated and t houghtful men and women you

a lready are
already you have climbed up that
lo ng ladde r which separates the present outer form
o f the D eity i n you from His form in the dust
Th e ma nifested Deity sleeps in the mineral and the
stone He becomes more an d more unfolde d i n
vegetables and animals and lastly in man He has
reached what appears as His culmination to ordi
nary men Having do n e so much shall you no t
do more With the consciousness so far unfolded
d oes it seem I mpossible t ha t it should unfold in
the future into the divine '
A s yo u realise tha t the laws of the evolutio n of
form and o f the unfolding of consciousness in t he
universe and man are the same and t hat i t is
through these laws that t he Yog i brings o ut h is
h idden powers t hen you will unde rstand also
t hat it is not necessary to go into the mountai n
o r into the desert to hide yourself in a cave or
a forest
i n order that the u nio n with the Se lf
.

TH E NATU R E

or

YO GA

may be ob t ained H e who is wi t hin you and

wi thout you S ome times for a special purpose
clusion may be usef ul It may be well a t times
se
to retire t emporarily from t he b usy haunts of
men But in t he universe planned by Ishvara
in order that t he powers of the S elf may be

b rought ou t there is your best eld for Yoga

planned with Divine wisdom and sagacity
T he world is mean t for the unfolding of t he S elf :
why should yo u t hen seek t o run away from it
L oo k at S hr i Krsh na Himself in t hat great
He
Upa nish at of Yoga t he B h agavad GZ t
spoke i t out o n a ba t tleeld and not o n a mou n
tain p eak He spoke it t o a K sh att rya re ady
to ght and not t o a Bra hma n a quie tly retire d
from t he world T he K u ruk sh e tra of the world
is the eld of Yoga T hey who cannot face the
world have not t he strength to face the diffi
I f t he outer world out
c ul ties of Yoga practice
wearies your powers how do you expect to
con quer t he difculties of the inner life I f you
cannot climb over the li ttle troubles of the world
how can you hope to climb over the difculties
that a Yog i h as t o scale T hose men blunder
who think t hat running away from t he world is
the road to victory and that peace can be fou n d
only in certain localities
.

'

'

I N T RO DU CTI O N

10

As

To

YOGA

a matte r of fact you have practised Yoga

unco n s ciously in the past e ve n b efore your S elf
co n scious n ess had separated itself was awar e
of itself and knew i t self t o be di ere nt in tem
rar
matters
at
least
from
all
the
others
that
o
p
y
surroun d it And that is the rst idea that you
should take up and hold rmly Yoga is only a
quicke n ed process of the ordinary unfolding of
conscious n ess
Yoga may then be dened as t he rational
application of the laws of t he unfolding of con
scio usness in a n individual case
T ha t is what is
mean t by the me t hods of Yoga You study the
la w s of the unfolding of consciousness in t h e uni
verse you then apply them to a S pecial cas e
an d that case is your o w n You cannot apply
them to another T hey must be self applied
T hat is the denite principle to grasp S o w e
must add one more wo rd to our denition :

Yoga is the rational applica tion of t he laws of

the unfolding of consciousness self applied in an

in dividual case
,

YO GA

Is

A S C I ENC E

N ext : Yoga is a science That is the second

thi n g t o grasp Yoga is a science and n ot a
.

I N T R O DU CTI O N

12

To

YO GA

which nat ure is evolving forms around us and

yet he does in a few years what n ature take s
perhaps hundreds o f t housands of years to do
'
A nd how By applying human inte lligence to
choose the laws that serve him and to neutralise
the laws that hinder He brings t he divine
i n tellige n ce in ma n to utilise t he divine po wers
i n n ature that are working fo r general rather
than for part icular ends
T ake the breeder of pigeons O u t of the blue
rock pigeon he develops the pouter o r t he
fantail he chooses c ut generation af t er gene ra
tion the forms t hat S how most strongly t he
peculiarity that he wishes to develop He mates
such birds t ogether ta kes every favouring
circumstance in to consideration and selects
again and again and so o n and o n till t he
peculiarity that h e wan t s t o establish h as b e come
a well marked feature Remove his controlling
intelligence leave the birds t o themselves and
they revert to t he ancestral type
O r t ake the case of the gardener
O ut of the
wild rose of the hedge has been evolved every rose
M any pe t alled roses are but the
o f the garden
r esult o f the scien tic culture of the v e pet alled
hedge row the wild product of
rose
o f t he
n ature A gardener who ch o oses the polle n
,

T H E NATU RE

or

13

YO GA

from one plant and places it on the carpels Of

another is simply doing deliberately what is done
by t he bee and t he y But he
every day
chooses h is plants and he choos es t hose that
have the qualiti es he wants intensied and from
thos e again he choos es those tha t show the
desired qualities still more cle arly un til he h as
produced a ower so differe n t from the original
st ock tha t only by trac in g it back can you tell
the stock whence it spran g
S o is it in the application of the laws o f
sychology
that
we
call
Yoga
S
ystem
t
ised
a
p
knowledge of the unfolding of consciousness
applied t o the individualised self t hat is Yoga
As I have just sa id it is by the world that co n
scio u sne ss has been unfolded and the world is
admirably planned by the LO GO S for t his unfold
i n g of consciousness ; hence the would b e Yogi
choosing out h is obj ects and applying his laws
nds in the world exactly the things he wan t s
to make hi s practice of Yoga a real a vital
thing a quickening process for the knowledge
of the S elf T here are many laws You can
ch oose those which you re quire you can evade
those you do no t re quire you can utilise those
you n eed and t hus you can bring a bout the
without that application
result that n at ure
.

I N T R O D UCT I O N

14
of

human

c e c t

intellige n ce

To Y

O GA

cannot

swiftly

so

T ake it then that Yoga is within your reach

within your p owers and that even some of th e
lower practices of Yoga some o f the simpler
applications o f the laws of the unfolding o f con
will benet you in thi s
scio u sn e ss to yourself
world as well as in all others For you are
really merely quickening your growth your
unfolding taking advan tage of the powe rs n ature
puts within your hands and deliberately elimin
ating the conditions wh ich would n ot help you in
your work but rather hinder your march forward
I f yo u se e it in that light it seems to me t hat
Yoga will b e t o you a far more real practical
thing than it is when yo u merely read some
fragments abou t it t aken from Samsk rt books
and often mistranslated into E nglish and you
will begin to feel that t o be a Yog i is n ot
n ecessaril y a thing for a life far o an incarna
tion far removed from the present one
,

MAN A DUAL I T Y
S ome o f the terms used i n Yoga are necessa rily
F or Yoga takes man for a special
t o be known
purpose an d studies him for a special e nd an d
.

TH E

NA TU RE

or

YO GA

15

therefore only troubles itself about two great

facts regarding man M ind and Body First he
T hat is a
is a U nit a U nit of consciousness
po int to be deni t ely grasped T here is only
one of him in each set of envelopes an d some
times the Th eosophist has to revise his ideas
about man when he begins this p ractical
line T he o sophy quite us efully and righ tly
for the understanding of the human constit u
tion divides man into many parts an d pieces
We talk of physic al astral me n tal etc O r
we talk about Sth la S har i ra Sk sh ma
S hari ra K a ra n a S har i ra and so on S ometimes
we divide ma n into Annamayak o sh a Pran a
We divide
mayak o sh a Man o mayak o sh a e t c
man into so many pieces in order to study hi m
thoroughly that we can hardly nd the man
because of t he pieces T his is so to say for
the study of human anatomy and physiology
But Yoga is pra ctical and psychological I
am no t complaini ng of the various subdivisio n s
of o ther sys t ems They are necessary for the
purpose of those systems But Yoga for its
prac t ical purposes considers man simply as a

duality Mind and Body a U nit of consciousn es s

i n a set of envelopes T his is n ot the duality of
the S elf an d the N ot S elf For in Yoga S elf
,

I NT R O D UCT I O N

16

To

YO G A

co n scious n ess p lus such mat ter as it

an d N ot S elf is
cann ot disti n guish from i t self
on ly t h e matter it ca n put aside
M an is n ot pure S elf pure consciousn ess S am
That is an ab straction
I n the co n c re te
v it
un iv e rse there are always the S elf a n d h is
sheaths however tenuous the latter may be so
that a unit of consciousness is inseparable fro m
matter and a Jiv atma or M o n ad is in v ariably
co n sciousness p lus matter
I n order that this may come o ut clearly two
te rm s are used in Yoga as constituting man
Pran a a n d Pradh ana life b reath and matter
PTana is not only the life breaths of the bo dy
b ut the totality of the life forces o f the universe
or i n other words the life side of the universe

I am Pr a n a says I ndra Pr a n a here means

the totality of the life forces T hey are take n as
consciou s n ess mind Pradh ana is the term use d
for matter Body or the O pposite of mi n d
means for the Yog i in practice so much of the
app ropriated matter of t he outer world as he is
ab le to p ut away from himself to distin guish
from his own co n scious n es s
Thi s divisio n is very sign ican t and useful if
ca
n
c
t
h
clearly
hold
of
the
root
idea
O
f
u
a
c
o
y
loo ki n g at t he thin g from be gi nn in g to
course
in cludes

TH E

NATU R E OF YOGA

17

e n d you will see P ra n a the great L ife the

great S elf always present in all an d you will
see the envelop es the bodies the sh eaths prese nt
at the di erent stages taking di ere nt forms ;
but fro m the standpoint of Yogic prac tice that
is called P r an a or S elf wi t h whi ch the man
identies himself for the time including every
sheath of matter from which the man is unable
to separate himself in consciousness
That unit
to the Yog i is the S elf so t hat it is a cha n gin g
q uantity As he drops off one sheath after an

Other and says :

T ha t is n ot myself he is
coming nearer and nearer t o h is highest poi n t
t o consciousness in a single lm in a single
atom of matter a M onad Fo r all practic al pur
pos es of Yoga the man the working co n scious
man is so much of him as he cannot separate
from the matter enclosing him or with which
he is co n nected Only that is body which the
man is able to put aside a n d say
This is n ot

I but mine
We nd we have a whole series
of terms in Yoga which may be repeated over
a n d over again A ll the states of mi n d exist o n
e very plane says V y as s and this way of deali n g
with man enables the same signican t words as
w e shall see in a mome nt to be used over and
o ver agai n
with a n e ver subtler co nn otatio n
,

18

IN T R O D UCT I O N

YO GA

To

they all beco me relative and are e qually true at

e ach s tage o f evolution
N ow it is quite clear that so far as many of
u s are co n cerned the physical bOdy is the o nly

thi n g of which we can say

I t is n ot myself
so that i n the prac tice of Yoga at rst for you
all the words that would b e used i n it to describe
the states of co nsciousness the sta tes of min d
would deal with the waking conscious n ess i n
t h e body as the lowest state and risi n g up from
that all th e words would b e relative terms
implyi n g a disti n ct and recognisab le state o f
the mind in relation to that which is the lowest
I n order to know how you shall begi n to apply
to yourselves the various terms used to describe
the states of mind you must caref ully analyse
your o wn co n sciousness and nd out h o w much
of it is really co n scious n ess an d h ow much is
matter so clo sely ap p ropriated that yo u can n ot
sep arate it from y ourself
,

MIND

S TA T E S O F

L et us take it I n detail Four states of con

s cio usnes s are spoken o f amo ngst u s
W aki n g or
J a grat the dream co n scious n ess or Sv ap na
the deep Sle ep conscious n ess or Sush up ti
.

20

INT R O D UCTI O N T O

YO GA

conditio n s of each world But the same words

are repeated i n the b ooks o f Yoga with a differe nt
contex t
T here the difficul ty occurs if we
have not learned thei r relative nature Sv ap na
is not the same for all nor is So Sh up ti the same
for every one
Abo v e all the word S am a dhi to b e explained
i n a moment is used in di e rent ways and in
differe n t senses How then are we to nd o ur
way in this apparent tangle ' By knowin g the
s t at e which is the starting point an d then the
seq uence will always b e t he same A ll of you
are familiar with t he waking consciousness in
the p hysical body Yo u can nd four states
even in that if yo u analyse i t an d a s imi lar
se qu e n ce o f the states o f the mind is found on
every plane
H o w to di stinguish them then ' L et us take
the waking consciousness and try to see the four
states i n that S uppose I take up a book and
read it I read the words my eyes are related
to the outer phy sical co n sciousness That is
the Jagrat state I go beh ind the words to the
meaning of the words I have passed from the
waking stat e of the physic al plane into the
Sv ap na state of waki n g consciousness that sees
thro ugh the outer form seeki n g the inner life
.

TH E

NATU R E OF YO GA

21

I pas s from this to the mind of the writer here

the mi nd touches the mi nd ; it is the waking
consciousness in it s Su sh up ti sta te If I pass
from this contact and enter the very mi n d of
the writer and live in t hat man s
en I
ha ve reached t he Turiya state of the w a g
c onsciousne ss
T ake another illustration I look at my w atch
I a m in Jagra t I close my eyes and make an
image o f t he watc h ; I am in Sv ap na I call
together many ideas of many watches an d reach
the ideal watch ; I am in S ush upti I pass to
the idea of time in the abstract I am in Turiya
Bu t all these are sta ges in t he physical plane
consciousn e ss I have no t left the body
In this way you ca n make states o f m i nd
intelligible and real instead of mere words
.

SAMADHI

S ome other impo rtan t words which recur from

time to time in t he Yoga S ti gma need t o b e
understood though there are n o exact E nglish
e quivalents AS they mus t b e used to avoid
clumsy circumlocutions it is necessary t o explai n

them I t is said
Yoga is S am a dhi
S am adh i
is a state i n which the con sciousn ess is so
,

I NT R ODU CT I O N

22

To

Y O GA

dissociated from the b ody that the latter r emains

inse nsib le It is a state of tran ce i n which the
mi n d is fully self co n scio us though the body is
insensitive and from which the min d return s to
the b ody with the experiences it has had in the
super p hysical state remem b erin g them when
again immersed in the physical brai n S am a dhi
for a ny one person is re lative to his waking
co n sciousne ss but implies insen sitiveness of the
b ody I f an ordinary person throws himself into
trance an d is active o n the astral plane his
S am ad hi is on the astral I f h is consciousness
is fun ctioning i n the mental plane h is S amad hi
T he man who can so wi thd raw from
is there
the body as to leave it insensitive while h is
mi n d is fully self conscious can pra ctise
.

T he phrase Yoga is S am a dhi covers facts

o f the highest signicanc e and greatest in st ru c
tion S uppose you are only able to reach t he
ast ral world when yo u are asleep your con
sciousness the re is
in the
as we have seen
Sv ap na state
But as yo u slowly u n fold your
powers the astral form s begin to intrude upon
your waking physical consciousness until they
ap p ear as disti n ctly as do p hysical forms an d
thus b eco me Obj ects of your waki n g consol ousness
.

TH E

NATUR E

Th e

23

YO GA

or

astral world the n for you n o lon ger

be lon gs to the Sv apna co nscious n ess b ut to th e
J a grat
you have take n two worlds within the
scope o f your J agra t co n sciou sn ess
the physical

and the astral worlds an d the mental world is

i n your Sv apna co n sciousn ess
Your body is
then the phy sical an d the as tral bodies take n
together As you go o n the mental plan e b egins
similarly to intrude itself and the physical astral
and me ntal all come within your waking con
sciousness ; all these are t hen your J agra world
t
These three worlds form b u t one world to you
their three corresponding bodies but one b ody
V
that perceives and acts T he three bodies of
the ordinary man have become one bo dy for the
Yog i I f under these conditions you want to
see
onl y one world at a time you must x your
atte ntion on it and thus focus it You can i n
that state of e nlarged waking concentrate your
attention on the physical and see it then the
S o you
ast ral and mental will appear ha z y
can focus your atten t ion O n the astral and se e
it ; then the physical and the mental being o ut
of focus will appear dim You will easily under
if you remember t hat in this hall I
st an d t his
may focus my sight in t he middle of the hall
whe n the p illars on bo th sides will appear
,

24

I NT R OD UCT I O N

YO GA

To

indistinctly O r I may concentrate my attentio n

o n a pillar and see it distinctly b ut I the n see
you only vaguely at t he same time I t is a
change of focus no t a chan ge of body Re
member that all which you can put a side as not
yourself is the body of t he Yog i and he nce as
u
o
go
higher
the
lower
bodies
form
bu
t
a
S
i
n
gle
y
body and the consciousness in that sheath of
matter which it still cannot throw away t hat
becomes the man

Yoga is S am adhi
I t is the p ower to with
draw from all that you know as body and to
concentrate yourself within T hat is S am a d hi
NO ordinary means will then call you b ack to
the world that yo u have left T his will also
explain to you the phrase in Th e S ecret D octrine

that the A dept begins his S am a dhi o n the

atmic plane
When a J iv anmuk t a enters into
S am adhi He begins it o n the atmic plane
All planes below the atmic are one plane for
Him He begins His S ama dhi o n a plane t o
which the mere man ca nnot rise He begins
it on the atmic plane and t hence rises
stage by stage t o t he higher cosmic planes
.

m adhi di c ere d in a f re st by
v i l e nt ly ill
m i gn rant and brutal E ngli h m en w a
nly t
l e a e it
u e d t h at h e ret urn e d t o hi t rt ure d b dy
a gai n at
nce by deat h
1

so

An I n dian Yogi in S a
e

ov

s so

TH E NATU RE OF YO GA

25

The same word S am adhi is used t o describe

t he states of the consciousness whe ther it rise
above t he physical in t o the as tral as in t he self
i n duced trance o f an o rdinary man or as in the
case of a J iv anmuk ta when the consciousness
be ing already centred in t he fth o r atmic
plane it rises to the higher planes of a larger
world
,

TH E

L I T E RA TU R E

or

YO GA

U nfortunately fo r non Samsk rt knowi n g

eople
the
litera
ure
f
Yoga
is
not
largely
t
o
p
available in English The general teachings of
Yoga are to be found in the Up ams h ais an d
the B hagarad Gi i those in many translations
a re within your re ach but they are general not
special ; they give you the main principles but do
no t tell you abou t the methods in any detailed
way E ve n in the B hagac ad Gi gci while you
are told to make sacrices to beco me indi erent
and so on it is all o f the nature of moral
precep t absolutely necessary indeed but still
not telling you how to reach the condi tions put
before you The special literature o f Yoga is
rst of all many of the minor Up anisha ts the
hun dred and eight as they are called Few of
,

'

IN T R O D UCTI O N

26

Y OGA

To

th ese are tra nslated T he n comes t h e e nor mous

mass of literature called the Tangas
T he se
books have an evil signi ca n ce i n the or dinary
E nglish ear but n ot q uite rightly T he Tan yas
are very useful books very valuab le and
i n structive ; all occult scie nce is t o be fou n d in
them But they are divisible into three cl asses :
tho se that deal with white magic tho se that
deal with b lack magic and those that deal with
what we may call grey magic a mi xture of the
two No w magic is the word which covers
the methods of deliberat ely bringing about
by the actio n of
super normal physical states
the will
A high tensio n o f the nerves b rought on by
a nxiety or disease leads to o rdinary hysteria
emotional and foolish A S imilarly high te n sion
b rought about by t he will renders a man
Going to
sensiti v e to super physical vibratio ns
sleep h as n o signicance but going into S ama d hi
T he process is largely the
is a priceless power
but o n e is due to ordinary conditio n s
same
the other to the actio n of the trained will T he
1

h rad er Direct r of t h Adyar L i b rary i s now

engage d n t h e e and i bu y w i th t h l abori us task of
t
b e f ll we d by a com p l et e
n t r uct i n g a cri t i al t e xt
n
d
A
i
ly
n
t
t
e
r
e
a
t
w
ill
h
a
u
a
a
b
oo
n
t ran l at i n
e
g
p
be en b es to we d on all intere ste d in S am k rt lit erature when
mp l et e d
t hi s w ork i
1

Dr O tt o S c
.

co

co

s co

28

IN T R O DU CTI O N

To

O GA

b ody K n owing the one helps you to k n ow the

o t her and the t eacher who has been t hrough it
all can place his pupil o n the right path but if
you take up these words which are all physical
an d do no t know t o W hat the physical word is
ap plied then you will on ly become very confused
and may injure yourselves For instance in
o ne o f the s ut ras it says that if you meditate o n
a certain part of t he tongue you will obtain
astral sight T hat means that if you meditate
o n the pituitary body just over this part of the
tongue astral sigh t will be opened T he parti
onl a r
word used to refer to a centre has a
correspondence in the physical body and the
word is often applied to the physical orga n s
when t he other is meant T his is what is Called
a blind and it is intende d t o keep the people
away from dan gerous practices in the books that
are published ; people may medi tate o n that
part of their tongues all their lives w i t hout any
thing coming o f it but if th ey t hink upo n t he
corresponding centre in the body a good deal

much harm may come of it

M editate on

t he nav el it is also said T his mean s the

solar plexus for there is a close co nn ectio n
betwee n the t w o But to meditate on that is to
i n cur the danger of a serious nervous disorder
.

TH E NAT URE

YO G A

OF

29

almos t impossible t o cure All who know how

many people in I ndia su ffer through these
practices ill understood recognise that it is not
w ise to plunge into them without some one to
tell you what they mean and what may b e
safely practised and what not The other part
of the Yoga literature is a smal l book called
That is available bu t
The S tms of P a ta j a li
I a m afraid that few are able to make much of
it by themselves I n the rst place to elucidate
the Stras which are simply headings there is
a great deal o f commentary in Samsk rt only
part ially t ranslated A nd even the oommen
taries have t his peculiarity that all the most
difcult words are merely repeated no t explained
so that the s t uden t is not much enlightened
.

S O ME

DE F INI T I O N S

are a few words co nstantly recurri n g

which need bri ef denitions i n order to avoid
confusion ; they are
unfolding evolution
spirituality psychi sm yoga and mysticism
U nfolding always refers to conscious n ess
evolution to forms E volution according to
Herbert S pencer is the homogen eous b ecomin g
the heterogeneous the simple becomi n g complex
There

T O

30

T ON

IN R DUC I

Y GA

TO

But there is n o growth and no p erfectioning for

S pirit for con scious n ess ; it is all there a n d
always and all that can hap p e n to it is t o t urn
itself outwards instead of remaining turn ed
i n wards
T he G od in yo u cannot evolve
but He may S how forth His powers through
matter that He has appropriated for the pur
p ose and the mat ter ev olves to serve Him He
Himself o n ly manifests what He is And on
that many a saying of the great Mystics may

come t o your min d : Become says S Ambro se

a paradoxical phrase but o ne

what you are
tha t sums up a grea t t ruth : become in outer
manifestation that which you are in inner
reality T hat is the obj ect of the whole p roc e ss
o f Yoga
S piritualit y is t he realisatio n of the One
P sychism is the manifestatio n of in t ellige n ce
through any material vehi cle
Yoga is t he seeking of union by the in
M ysticis m is the seeki ng of
telle ct a scie n ce
the same union by emotion
,

Se e

L ondon

1 90 7

of

ectu res

Sp

irit uali ty

and

rs e b e ri ght ly u ed f all
I am us ing
S elf wh t e e r t h r ad t k e n
uni n wi th t h
it h e re in t h narr w er e n s e a p e u li ar ly conne t e d w i t h
i en e h re i n f ll w in g Patajali
t h int ell i ge n e a a
2

Th e

w rd y
o

o ga

o f co u

sc

may,

'

TH E NA TU RE O F YO GA

31

S ee the Mystic He xes his mind o n the

object of devotion ; he loses s elf co n sciousness
and pas ses into a rapture of love and adora
tion leaving all external ideas wrap p ed in the
obj ect of his love and a great surge of emotio n
sweeps him up to G od He does n ot know how
he h as reached that lofty state He is con
scious only of G od and his love for Him Here
is the rap ture o f t he Mystic the triumph of th e
S ain t
T he Yog i does not work like t h at S te p
he realises what he is doing He
afte r step
works by science and not by emotion so that
any who do not care fo r scie n ce nding it dull
and dry are not at pre sent unfol ding that part
of their n ature which will nd its best help i n
the practice o f Yoga The Yog i may use devo
tion as a means This comes o ut very plainly
in Patajali
He h as given ma n y means
whereby Yoga may b e followed and curi
ousl
I
devotio
n
to
shvara
is
one
f
several
o
y
means There comes out the spiri t of the scienti
D evotion t o Ishvara is not for h im
c thinker

an end in itself but a means t o an end the

con cen trati on of the mi nd You se e there at
D evotion t o
once the di erence of spirit
He attains
Ishvara is the path of the Mystic
.

32

IN T R O D UCT I O N

To

YO GA

communion by that Devotion to Ishvara as a

means o f concentrating the mi n d is the scientic
way i n which the Yog i regar ds devotion No
n umber of words would have brought out the
difference o f S pirit between Yoga and Mysticism
The one looks upo n devotio n
as well as this
t o Ishvara as a way of reaching the Beloved ;
the other looks upon it as a means of reachi ng
co n cen t rati on
To the Mystic G od in Himself
is the O b ject of search delight i n Him is the
reason for approaching Him union with Him in
consciousness is his goal ; but to the Yog i
xi ng the attention on Go d is merely a n e e ctiv e
I n the one
w ay of concentrating the mind
devotion is used to O btain an end ; in the other
G od is seen as the end and is reached directly
b y rapture
.

GOD W I T H O UT

AND

GO D W I T H IN

N ow that leads us to the next po i n t the

relatio n of God without to Go d with in T o the
Yog i who is the very type of Hin d u thought
there is n o denite proof of G od save the witn ess
of the S elf within to His existence an d his idea
of ndi n g the proof o f G od is that you should
strip away from your co n sciousnes s all limi tatio n s
,

TH E NATU R E

OF

33

YO GA

and t hus reach the stage where you have

pure consciousness save a veil of the thi n

nirva nic ma tt er T hen you know that G o d is

S o yo u read in the Up anish at : Whose only

proof is the witness o f the S elf

T his is very
di e re nt from wes t ern methods of t hought which

try t o demonstrate God by a process of argu

men t T he Hin d u will tell you that you cannot
demons trat e God by any argument or reasoning
He is above and beyo nd reasoning and al though
t he reason may guide you o n the way i t will
no t prove to demonstration t ha t Go d is T he
only w a y you can know H im is by diving into
yourself T here you will nd Hi m and know
t ha t He is wi t hout as well as within you ; and
Yoga is a sys t em that enables you to ge t rid of
everything from conscious ness that is not G od
save that one veil of the ni rva n ic atom and so
know that G od is with a n u n shakable
to
certainty of convi ction T o the Hind u that
inner conviction is t he only thing wort hy to be
call e d Fai th and this gives you the reason why
fai t h is said to be beyond reas o n and so is often
confused with credulity Faith is beyond reason
because it is t he testimony of the S elf to himself
tha t conviction of existence as S elf of which
reaso n is o n ly o ne of the outer man ifestations and
.

IN TR O D UCT I O N

34

To

YO GA

the only true faith is that inner conviction which

n o argument can either strengthe n or weake n
of the i n nermost S elf of yo u that of which alo n e
you are e ntirelv sure I t is the aim of Yoga to
enable you to reach that S elf cons t antly not b y
a sudden glimpse o f intuition but steadily
unshakably an d unchangeably and when that
S elf is reached then the question
I S there a

can never again come into the human

Go d i
mind
,

CH ANG E S

OF

CO N S C I O U S N E SS

MATT E R

OF

AND

V I B RA TI O N S

N ow it is necessary to understand something

about that consciousness which is your S elf and
ab out the matter which is the e n velop e of con
sciou sn e ss but which the S elf so O fte n identies
with himself T he great characteristic of co n
change with a foundation of cer
s ciou sne ss is
tainty that it is The consciousness o f existe nce
n ever changes but beyond this all is change
by the changes does consciousness
a nd only
become S elf consciousness C onsciousness is a n
ever changing thing circling round one idea

that n ever changes S elf existence T he con

s cio usness itself is n ot cha n ged b y any cha n g e
,

I NT ROD U C T I O N

36

To Y

O GA

t o a change in consciousness T here is no

change in consciousness h o w e v er subtle tha t
has not approp riated to i t a vibration in matter
there is no vibration in matter however swif t
delicate which has not correla ted to it a
or
T hat is the
certain change i n consciousness
rst grea t work of the L O GO S which the Hind u
scrI p t ure s trace out in t he building of the atom

the Tanmat ra
the measure of T hat
the
measure of consciousness He who is conscious
n es s i mposes on His material the ans w er t o
every change in consciousness and t hat is an
inni t e number of vib rations S o that between
the S elf and i t s sheat hs t here is this invariable
relation : the change in consciousness an d the
T hat makes
V ibration of mat t er and vi ce v ers a
i t p ossible for the S elf t o kno w the N o t self
T hese correspondences are utilise d in Raj a
Yoga a n d Hath a Yoga the K ingly Yoga and
the Yoga of Resol v e The Raj a Yoga s eeks to
contro l the changes in conscious n ess an d by
this con trol to rule the material vehicles T he
Hatha Yoga seeks to control th e vibrations
of matter and by this co ntrol to ev oke the
desired changes in co n s cio usness T he weak
point in Hat ha Yoga is that action o n this li n e
e
s
a
n
not
reach
beyo
n
d
the
a
tral
p
la
n
an d the
c
.

TH E NATU R E O F YO GA

37

great strain imposed on the comparatively intrac t

able matter of the p hysical plane sometimes
leads to atrophy o f t he very organs the activity
of which is necessary for e ecting t he changes
in consciousness that would be useful T he Hatha
Yogi gains control over the bodily organs with
w hich t he waking consc iousness n o longer
concerns i t self having relin quished them to its
lo w er part t he sub consc iousness
This is
oft en useful as regards the prevention of diseas e
bu t serves no higher purpose When he begin s
t o work on t he brain centres connected with
ordinary consciousness and still more when he
touches t hose connec ted with the super conscious
ness he enters a dangerous region and is more
likely t o paralyse than to evolve
T hat relat ion alone i t is which makes matter
cognisable the change in t he thinker is an swered
by a change ou ts ide and his answer to it and
the change in i t tha t he makes by his answer
re arrange again the ma tt er o f the body which
is h is envelope Hence the rhy t hmic chan ges
in matter are righ tly called its cognisability
M at te r may be known by consciousness because
of this unchanging relati on between the two
sides of the manifested L O GO S who is o n e
and the Se lf b e comes aware of change s within
,

38

IN T RO D UCT I O N

YO G A

To

Himself and thus of th o Se o f the external worlds

to which those changes are related
,

What is mind ' From th e yogic st andp omt it is

simply the individualised co n scious n ess the whol e
of it the whole of your consciousness including
your activitieswhich the western psychologist
puts outside mind O nly on the basis of eastern
psychology is Yoga possible How shall w e
describe this i n dividualised co n sciousness Firs t
it is aware of things Becoming aware o f them
it desires them Desiring them it tries t o attai n
them S o we have the three aspects of co n
sol o usnessintellige nce desire activity
O n th e
p hysical p lane activity predominates although
desire and thought are present O n the astral
plane desire predominates and thought and
activity are subject to desire O n the mental
plane intelligence is the dominant note desire
and acti vity are subj ect to it G o to th e bu dd hi c
p la n e and cogn ition as pure reason p re domin
ates and so o n E ach quality is present all the
time b ut on e predomi n ates S o with the matte r
that b elongs to them
I n your comb inations
of matter you get rhythmic active or stabl e
,

T H E NATURE OF Y OGA

39

o n es ; and accordi ng to the comb ination s of

matter in your bodies will be the con ditions of
the activi ty of the whole of these in conscious
n ess T o practise Yoga you must build your
bo di es of the rhythmic combinations with
ac tivity an d inertia less apparent T he Yog i
wants to make his body match his mind
.

S TA G E S

or

MI N D

T he mind h as ve stages Patajali tells us

and Vyasa comme nt s tha t these stages of mind

are on every plane

T he rst stage is the
stage in which the mind is ung about the
K sh ip ta stage ; it is the bu t tery mind t h e
early s tage of humanity or in man the mind of
the child darting cons t antly from one objec t to
It corresponds to ac tivi ty on th e
another
physical plane T he nex t is the confused s t age
M dh a e quivalent to t he s tage of the youth
swayed by emo tions bewildered by them ; he

begins to feel he is ignoran t a s t ate beyond

the
ck le ness
of the child a charac t eristic
stat e corresponding to activi ty in the astral
world T hen comes the state of preoccupation
or infatuatio n Vik sh ip ta t he state of the man

p oss e ssed b y an idea love amb ition or wh at

,

I N T R O D UCT I O N

40

To

YO GA

n ot He is no longer a conf used youth but a

man with a clear aim and a n idea possesses
him It may b e either the xed idea of the
madman or the xed idea which makes the
hero o r the saint ; bu t in any case he is possesse d
by the idea The q uali ty of the idea it s truth
o r falsehood
makes t he di fference be tween the
maniac and th e martyr
M aniac or martyr he is under the spell of a
xed idea No reasoning avails a gainst i t I f
he has assured himself that he 1 8 made of glass
n o amoun t o f argumen t will convince him t o the
co n trary
He will always regard himself as
bein g as bri t tle as glass Tha t is a xed idea
which is false Bu t there is a xed idea which
makes the hero and t he mar tyr For some great
truth dearer than life is every t hing t hrown
aside He is possessed by it dominate d by i t
and he goes t o dea t h gladly fo r i t T hat s t a te
is said to be approaching Yoga fo r such a man
is becoming concentrated even if on ly po ssessed
by o ne idea T his stage correspond s t o activi ty
o n the lower mental plane Where the ma n
possesses the idea instead o f being possess e d
by it that o ne poin ted state of the mind
called Ekagrata in Samsk rt is the fourth
st a e
He
is
a
mature
ready
for
the
true
m
a
n
g
.

TH E NATU R E

or

41

Y O GA

life Whe n t he man has gone through life domi n

ated by o ne idea then he is approaching Yoga
he is ge tting rid o f the grip o f the w orld and is
Bu t when he possesses
beyond i t s allurements
that which before possessed h i m t hen he has b e
come t for Yoga and begins the t raining which
makes his progress rapid T his s tage corre
s o nds to ac t ivi t y o n the higher mental plane
p
O ut of this four th stage o r Ek agrat a arises
the fth s t age Niruddh a o r S elf con t rolled
When the man no t only possesses one id e a bu t
rising above all ideas chooses as h e wills t akes
or does not take according t o t he illumined Will
then he is S e lf controlled and can e ffectively
practise Yoga
T h is s t age corresponds t o
ac tivity o n the bu ddhic plane
I n the third stage Vik sh ip ta where he is pos
sessed by the idea he is learning viveka o r dis
crimina tion be tween the ou t er and the inner the
real and the unreal When he has learned t he
lesson of viveka t hen he advances a s tage for
war d and in Ek agrat a he chooses o ne idea t he
inner life and as he xes his mind o n tha t idea
he learns v airagya or dispassion He rises
above the desire to p ossess objects of enjoyment
b elonging either to this or any other world
Th e n he advances towards the fth sta ge

42

IN T RO DU CT I O N

To

Y O GA

I n order to reach that he must

Self co n trolled
p ractise th e six e n dowments the Sh atsamp atti
T hese six endowments have to do with the Will
aspect o f cons cious n ess as the other two viveka
and v airagya have to do with the Cognitio n and
A ctivity aspects o f it
By a study of your o wn mind you can nd
out how far you are ready to b egi n the denite
practice of Yoga Examine your mind i n order
to recognise these stages in yourselves If you
are i n either of the two early stages you are n ot
ready for Yoga T he child and t he youth are
no t ready to become Yog i s n or is the pre
occupied man But if you n d yourself pos
sess ed by a single thought you are nearly
ready for Yoga it leads to the next stage of
one pointedness where you can choose your
idea and cling to it of your own will S hort is
the step from that to the complete con trol which
can inhibit all motions of the mi n d Havi n g
reached that stage it is comparatively easy t o
pas s into S am a dhi
-

I NW ARD

AND

O UT W ARD TU RN E D CO N S C I O U S N ESS

S am ad hi is of two kinds : one turned out

ward o n e turn ed i n ward T he outward turn ed
-

44

I N T R O D U C TI O N

YO G A

TO

i n to a sheath not ye t recognis ed as a sheath I t

is then for a while conscious only of i t self an d
not o f the o uter world T hen comes the clou d
the dawning sen se again o f an outer a dim
se nsing of some t hing o t her than itself ; that
again is follo w ed by the func t ioning of the higher
S heath and the recogni t ion of t he obj ec t s of t he
n ext higher plane corresponding to t hat sheat h
Hence the comple t e cycle is Samp rajata
S am a d hi Asamp raj at a S am adhi M egha ( cloud )
and then the Sampraj at a S am adhi of the next
plane a n d so o n
.

T HE CL O U D

T his t erm in full Dharma M egha cloud of

-

religion is

righteousness or o f
o ne which is
very scantily explai ned by t he commen t a tors
I n fac t t he only explana t ion t hey give is that
all t he man s past karma o f good gathers over
him and pours down upon h im a rain of bless
ing L e t us see if we cannot nd someth ing
more t han this meagre i nt erpre t a t ion
The t erm cloud is very oft en used in the
mystic li t erature of the Wes t t he C loud on the
M ount the C loud on the S anc t uary the
C loud o n t he M
ercy S eat are expression s
,

TH E NATU R E

45

O GA

OF

familiar to t he student And the experience

which t hey indicate is famili ar t o all Mystics in
In
its lower phases and t o some in it s fulness
its lower phases i t is the experience just no t ed
where t he wi thdra w al of the consciousness
into a sheath not ye t recognised as a sheath is
followed by the beginning of t he func t ioning of
that sheath t he rs t indica t ion of which is the
dim sensing of an outer You feel as though
surrounded by a dense mis t conscious that you
are not alone but unable to see Be still ; be
patient ; wai t L et your consciousness be in the
at ti t ude of suspense Prese ntly the cloud will
t hin and rs t in gli mpses t hen in i t s full beau ty
the vision of a higher plane will dawn o n your
entranced sigh t T his en t rance in t o a higher
plan e will repeat i t self again and again un til
your consciousness centred o n the buddhic plane
and its splendours having disappeared as your
consciousness withdraws eve n from that ex quisi t e
sheath you nd yourself in the t rue cloud the
cloud on the sanc t uary t he cloud that veils the
Holiest t hat hides the vision of the S elf T hen
comes what seems to be the draining away of the
very life t he le t ting go of the las t hold on the
tangible the h angingin a void the horror of great
darkn ess loneliness unspeakable Endure e n dure
.

I N T RO D UCTI O N

46

To

YOG A

E very thing must go

N othing o ut of the E ter

n al can help yo u
G od only shines out i n th e

says the Hebrew : Be still an d

st illne ss y as

know that I am G od
I n that silence a Voice
shall be heard the voice of the S elf I n that
stillness a L ife shall be felt the life of the S elf
I n that void a F ulness shall be revealed the
fulness of the S elf I n that darkness a L ight
S hall be seen t he glory of the S elf
T he cloud
shall vanish and the S hi ning of the S elf shall
b e made manifest T hat which was a glimp se
f majesty shall become a perp etual
o f a far o f
realisation and k now Ing the S elf and your unity
with it you S hall ente r into the P eace that
be longs to the S elf alone
.

L E C T U RE II

S C H OO L S O F T H O U G H T
B RO T H E R S

I n studying psychology any one who is

ac quainted wi th t he Samsk rt tongue must know
h o w valuable that lan guage is for precise and
scientic dealing with the subj ect T he S am
the constructed the
or t he well made
sk rt
b uilt together tongue is o ne that lends itself
b et ter than any other to the elucidation o f
psychological difcul ties O ver and over again
by the mere form of a word a hint is given an ex
planation or relation is suggested T he language
is constructed in a fashion whi ch enables a large
number of mean ings to be connoted by a single
word so t hat you may trace all allied ide as or
truths or facts by this verbal connection whe n
you are speaking or using Samsk rt I t has a
limite d n umb er of important roots a n d the n a n
,

'

IN T RO D U C T I O N

48

To Y

O GA

immense number o f words constructed on those

roots
No w the root of the word yoga is a word that
means t o join yuj and t hat root appears
in many languages such as t he E nglishof
course t hrough the L atin wherein you get

are
a n ero
t
j
oin
and
that
a
u
o
o ut of
j g
j g
number of E nglish words are derived and will at
once sugges t t hemselves t o you j unc t ion con
junc tion disjunction an d so on T he E nglish
word yoke again is derived from this same
S amsk rt root so t ha t all through t he various words
o r thoughts or fac t s connected wi t h this one roo t
you are abl e t o gather the mean ing of the word
Yoga and t o see how much tha t wo rd covers in
the ordinary processes of the mind and how S ug
stiv e many of t he words connec t ed with it are
e
g
acting so t o speak as signposts t o direct you
alon g the ro ad to the meaning I n other to n gues
as in French we have a word like rapp ort used
constantly i n En glish
being on rap p ort' a
Fre n ch expression but so anglicised that it is
co n tin u ally heard amongs t ourselv e s An d that
te rm i n some ways is the closest to the mean i ng

of the Samsk rt word Yoga

to be I n relation
to
to be con n ec t ed with
to enter into
to merg e i n
a n d so on : all these ideas are
.

SCH OO LS

T H O U GHT

or

49

classied together under the one head of Yoga

When you nd S hri K rsh na saying that Yoga

is e quilibrium
in the S amskrt He is saying a
perfectly obvious th ing because Yoga implies
balance yoking and the Samsk rt of e quilibri um
is S amag
so that it is a pe rfectly
iv a, togetherness
simple st raightforward statement not connoting
anything very deep but merely expressing one
fundamental meanings of the word
o f the
He is using A nd so with another word a wor d
used in the commentary o n the s utra I quote d
last week which conveys to the Hin d ua perfectly

straightforward meaning : Yoga is S amad hi

To an only E nglish knowing person that does
not convey any very denite idea eac h word
needs explanation To a Samsk rt knowing man
the two words are ob v iously related to one another
F or th e word Yoga we have seen means yoked
together and S am ad hi is d erived from the root
i
a
h
s
to
place
with
the
prepos
tions
and
a
m
6
d
meaning completely together
Sam ad hi there
fore literally means ful ly placing together and
i ts etymologi cal e quivalent in E nglish would be

to compose ( com= sam; p osita= p lace) S am ad hi

therefore means comp osing the mind collecting
it together checking all distra ctions Thus by
p hilologic al as well as by practical investigation
.

IN T RO DU C T I O N

50

TO7

YO GA

words Y oga and S am adh i are inseparably

link e d together A n d wh en Vyasa the comment

Yoga 1 8 th e comp osed mind h e is

a tor says
c onveying a clear an d signi cant idea as to what
is impli e d in Y oga Although S am ad hi has come
t o mean b y a natu ral se quence of idea s the
trance state which results from perfect co mposure
i ts original meaning should not be lost sight of
Thus in explaining Yoga o ne is O fte n at a loss
f or t he E nglish e q ui valent of the manifol d mean
in gs of the Samskrt to ngue and I earnestly
a dvis e th ose of you w h o can d o so at leas t to
ac q uaint yourselves sufciently wi th th is admir
able language to mak e th e li terature of Yoga
more intelligible to you than it can b e to a
i s completely i gnorant O f Sa mskr
erson
w
h
o
t
p
th e tw o

l i s RE L AT I ON

TO

I NDIAN P H IL O S O PH I E S

Let me ask yo u to think for a while o n th e

place of Yoga in its relation to t w o of t h e gre at
Hin d u S chool s of p hi lo s ophical t h ought for
n either the E n glishman nor the non Samskrt
knowi ng Indi an can ever really understan d th e
tran slations of the chi ef I ndian books no w
c urrent here and i n th e W e st and t h e force of
all th e allusi ons th e y make unless they ac quaint
,

I N T R O DU C T I O N

52

T O YO GA
.

B haga/vad Gi f

A like in the
and in the Bil h as
a ta ali the terms are San
h
and
his
k
P
a
n
o
j
y
f
t orically Y oga is based on the S a n khya so far
as it s p hilosophy is concerned S a n khya does not
con ce rn its elf with the existence of Deity but
only with the B ecoming of a universe the order
of evolution Hence it is often called Nirish v ara
S a nkhya the S a nkhya withou t Go d B ut so
closely is it bound up with the Yo ga syste m
that the latter is calle d Sesh v ara S a nkhya
the S a n khy a wi th Go d F or its understanding
therefore I must outline part of the S a nkhya
philosoph y that part which deals with the re
lation of S pirit and M atter note the di fference
from this of the Ve da nt ic conception of S elf
and Not S elf and then nd the reconcilia
tion in the Theosophic statement of the facts
in nature The directions whic h fall from the
lips of the Lord of Yoga in the Gaga may some
t imes seem to you oppo sed to each other and
c ontradictory because they sometimes are
phrased in the Sank h yan and sometimes in the
V e dantic terms s t arting from different stand
po ints one looking at the w orld from the stand
point O f M atter th e other from the standpoint
f
o
S
pirit
I
f
you
are
a
student
Theosophy
of
th en the kn owledge of the fac ts will enable you
-

SC

H OO LS

53

T H O UGH T

or

to translate the di erent phrases That recon

ciliation and understanding o f these apparently
contradictory phrases is the Obj ect to which I
would ask your atte ntion now
The Sankh yan S chool starts with the state
ment that the universe consists of two facto rs
the rst pair of opposites S pirit and M atte r or
more accurat ely S pirits and Matt er The S pirit
is called P uru s ha the Man ; and each S p iri t i s
an individual P uru s ha is a Unit a Unit of
consciousness ; they are all of the same nature
but distinct everlastingly the o ne from the other
O f these units there are many ; countl ess Puru sh as
are to be found in the world of men But whil e
they are countless in number th ey are identical
in nature they are homogeneous E very P uru s ha
has three characteristics and thes e three are
alike in all One cha racteristic is aware ness ; it
will become C ognition The se cond o f the
characteristics is l ife or pran a it will become
A ctivity The third characteristic is immuta
b ili ty the essen ce of eternity 3 it will become Will
E terni ty is not as some mistakenl y think ever
lasting time E verlasting time h as nothi ng to
do with e ternity Time and eternity are t w o ah
together di erent things E ternity is changele ss
immutable simultan eous N o succession in time
.

54

I NT R O D UC T I O N

TO W OGA

lbe it eve rlas ting if suc h co ul d be coul d give

te rnity Th e f act that P uru s h a h as thi s attribute

of i mmutab i li ty
t ell s u s that h e is eternal ; for
cha ngelessne ss is a mark of th e eternal
S uc h are the three attributes O f P urusha
Tho u
gh these are
according to the S a n khy a
not th e same in nomenclature as th e Ve dantic
Sat
C hit Aman d a yet they are p racti cally
id enti cal
A wareness or cognition is Chit ; li fe
nd i mmutability the essence of
o r fo rce is S a t ; a
e tern ity i s Anan d a
O ver against thes e Purush as homogeneo us
i
M
att
r
e
units c ountl ess in numb er stands Prak r
t
Prakrti is
th e second in the Sank h yan duality
Prakrti is a con
Purush as are many
one
ti nnum Purush as are discontinuous be ing in
numerab le
homogeneous units C ontinuity is
P ause for a moment on the
th e mark of Prakrti
name Prak rti Let us inve stigate its root mean
ing Th e name indicate s its ess ence Pm means
fort h and k' is the root make Prak rti thus
m eans forth making
M atter is that which
That
enab les th e essence of B eing to become
wh ich is Being ia tence b ecomes ea is tence out
bei ng by M atter an d to desc rib e Matter as
forth making is to give it s esse nce in a single
wo rd Onl y by Prak rti can S pirit or P urus ha
e

SC

H OO LS

or

55

T HOUGH T

forth make or manifest himself Without

the presence of Prak rti P uru s ha is helple ss a
mere abstraction O nl y by t h e presenc e of an d
in Prak rti can P uru s ha make manifest hi s
po w ers Prakrti has also three charac teristics

th e w ell known gu nas attributes or quali ti e s

-

enab les awareness to be c ome cogni tion M obili ty

.

immutability to become w ill

Now the co ncepti on as to the relati on o f S pirit
to M atter is a very pe culiar one and confuse d
ideas about it give ri se to many misconceptions
I f you gras p it th e B hagava d Gii becomes
illuminated and all th e phras es about ac tion an d
actor and the mistake o f saying I act b e come
easy to understand as implying technic al
Sankh yan ideas
The three q uali ties of Prak rti when Prak rti
is thought of as away from P uru s ha are in
e q uilibrium motionless po ised the one agains t
the other counterbalancing and neutralis in g
e ach other so that M atter is called j ada u nco n
scious
dead
B ut in the presence of P uru s ha
all is changed When P uru s ha is in propinq uity
to M atter then the re is a change in M atte rnot
outside but in it
.

'

IN T RO DU CT I O N TO

56

TO GA

P uru s ha acts o n Pra krti by pr opin quity says

Vyasa
I t comes near Prak rti and Prakrti
begins to live The coming near is a gure o f
speech an adaptation to o ur ideas of time and
S pace for we cannot posit nearness of

w hi ch is timeless and sp aceless S piri t By the

w ord propin q uity is in dicated an in uence
e x erted by P uru s ha o n Prak rti and this where
mate rial obj ects are concerned would be b rought
abo ut by their propin quity I f a magnet be
brought near to a piece of soft iron or an elec
t rie d b ody be brought near to a neutral one
certain changes are wrought in the soft iron or
i n the neutral body by that bringing near The
prop i n quity of the magnet makes the soft iron a
magnet the qualities o f the magnet are produce d
in it it manifests poles it attracts steel it attracts
I n the
o r repels the end of an electric needle
p resence o f a positively electried body th e
electricity in a neutral body is re arranged and
the positive retreats while the negative gathers
near the electried body A n internal change
h as occurred in both cases from the propin quity
S O with P uru s ha and Prak rti
of another O bj ect
P uru sh a does nothing b ut from P uru s ha there
comes out an in uence as in the case o f the
magnetic in uence The three gu n as under th is
,

H OO L S

or

SC

57

T H O U GHT

in uence o f P uru sha undergo a marvellous

c h ange I do n ot know what words to use in
order not t o make a mistake in putt ing it You
cannot say that Prak rti absorbs the in uence
Y ou can hardly say that it re ects the P uru sha
Bu t the presence of Puru s ha brings about
certain intern al changes causes a di ere nce
in the e quilibrium o f the three gu n as in
The three gu n as were in a state o f
Prak rti
On e gu n a
N o gu na was manifest
eq ui librium
What happen s
w as balanced against another
when P uru sha in uences Prak rti 1 The quality o f
awareness in P uru sha is taken up by or re ected
in the gu n a called sattva rhythm and it becomes
co gnition in Prak rt i The quality that we call
life in P uru s ha is taken up b y or re ecte d in
the gu n a called rajas mobility and it become s
force energy activity in Prak rti The quality
that we call immutability in P urusha is taken
up by or re ected in the gu n a called t amas
inertia and shows itself out as will or desire in
Prak rti
S o t hat in that balanced e quilibrium
i
o f Prak r
a
change
has
taken
place
by
the
t
mere propin quity of o r presence o f the P uru s ha
The P uru s ha has lost nothing but at the same
time a change has taken place in matter
C ognition has appeared in it
A ctivity force
,

58

N T R O D UCTIO N

Y OG A

To

ppe ared in it Will or desire h as appeared

in it With thi s change in Prakrti another change
occurs The thr ee attributes O f P uru sha cannot
b e separated from each other nor can the t hree
attrib utes of Prak rti b e separate d ea ch from
each Hence rhythm whi le ap p ropriatin g
awareness i s un der the inuence of the whole
th ree in one P uru s ha an d cannot but al so take up
s ubordinately life and immutability as acti vi ty
and will And so with mob ility and ine rtia
I n combinations one quality or anoth er may
pre dominate and w e may have combinations
wh i ch Show pre ponderantly awareness rhythm
or
li fe mo bility or i mmutability inertia
The
combinations i n whic h awareness rh ythm or
cognition p redominates become mind in nature
the subject or subj ective half of nature C om
binations in which either of the other two pre
d ominates become the O bj ect o r Obj ective half
force and matter of the E uro p ean
o f nature the
scientist
We have thus nature divided i nto two th e
su b je c t and the objec t
We have no w in nature
everything that is wanted fo r the man ifestatio n
h as

te th t the t i the S h ddh S tt

d th e e o d nd th i d th e P
B i ma
n j
S hool
h
f
m
l
n
tt
e
i
th
e
o
e
e
e
t
e
i
n
i
t
m
w
p
1

A friend no
u a

r,

s
,

rs

s c n

an

r s

e sa

r
.

v a of

the

rak r
ti, or

60

IN TR O DU CT I O N

TO

Y OGA
x

that is clear in o ur minds we can ne ver discrim

inat e the meaning under the phrases of a
p articular philosophy
Let us now turn t o the Ve dan tic idea Accords
ing to the Ved a nt ic view the Se lf is one o mni
present all permeating the one reality
No

thing e xi sts except the S elf th at is the starting

point in Ved a n ta All permeating all contro l
ling all inspiring the S elf is everywhere present
A s the ether permeates all ma tter so does the
O ne S elf permeate restrain support vivify all
I t is written in the Gi te' that as the air goes
everywhere so is the S elf everywhere in the
innite diversity o f O bjects AS we try t o follow
the outline o f Ve dan tic thought as we try to
grasp this idea o f the one universal S elf who is
existence consciousness bliss S at C hi t Anan d a
we nd that we are carried into a loftier region
of philosophy than that occupied by the S a n khya
The S elf is O ne The S elf is every w here co n
scious the S elf is everywhere existent the S elf
is every where blissful There is no divisio n
between these qualities of the S elf E verywhere
all embracing these qualities are found at every
point in every place Th ere i s no sp ot o n
which you can put your nger and say
Th e

S elf is not h ere

Where the S elf is and He
d

us

S CH OO L S

or

61

T H O U GH T

is everywhere there is existence there is con

,

and there is bliss The S elf being

imagines limitation division
con sciousness
F rom that imagination of limitation arises form
diversity manyness F rom that thought of the
f
O
elf
from
that
thought
limitation all diver
S
M atter is the limitation
sit y of the many is born
impos ed upon the S elf by His o w n will to limit

Hi mself
I am one
E k oh am bahu syama

I w ill to be many ; let me be many is the

thought of the One and in that thought the
mani fold universe comes into existence I n that
limit ation S elf created He exist s He is conscious
He is happy I n Hi m arises the thought that
He is S elf existence and behold ' all existence
becomes possible B ecause in Him is the will
to manifest all manifestation at once comes into
B ecaus e in Him is all bliss therefore
e xistence
is the law of life the s eeking for happiness the
ess ential characteristic of every sentient creature
The Universe appears by the S elf limitation in
thought of the S elf The moment the S elf
ceases to think it the universe is not it
That is the fundamental
va nishes as a d ream
idea of the Ve da nta Then it accepts the S pirits
o f the S a n khya the Buru s has ; but it says that
the se S pirits are only re ections of the one S elf

sciou sn e ss,

IN T R O DU CT I O N

62

To

YOGA

emanated by the activity o f the S elf and that

they all reproduce Him in miniature wi t h t h e
li mitations which t h e universal S elf h as i mp ose d
upon th e m whi ch are apparently po rtions of
th e universe but are really identical with H im
I t is th e play of the S upreme S elf th at makes the
li mitati ons and th us reproduces wi thin li mitatio ns
the qualiti es of t h e S elf the consciousness o f the
S elf of the S up reme S elf b ecom es in the particm
larise d S el f cognition the po wer to know ; and
t h e existenc e of the S elf b ecomes activity th e
p o w er to mani f es t and the b liss of the S elf be
comes will the d eepest part of all the lo ngin g
for happ i ness for b liss t h e resolve to obtain it
is w hat w e call wil l
A n d so in the limited the
t
h
ower
and
the
power
to
act
and
e
t
o kno w
p
po w er to will thes e are the re ections in the
p articular S el f o f the e ss ential qualiti es of the
ve rsal S elf O th erwise put : th at whi ch was uni
versal a wareness b ecomes no w cogni tion in th e
separate d S elf ; that wh ich in the unive rsal Se lf
w as awareness of i tself becomes in t h e limite d
S elf awareness o f others th e aw areness of the
w hole become s the cogni tion o f th e individual
S o with the existence of the S elf ; the S elf e xist
ence of the universal S elf becomes in th e limi te d
S elf ac tivity prese rvati on O f e xis tence SO d oe s
,

S C H OO L S

or

63

T H O U GH T

the b lis s of the universal S elf in th e limited e x

pre ssion o f the individual S elf be come th e will
th at seeks for happiness the Self dete rmination
o f the S elf the seeking for S elf reali sation that
dee pest essence o f human life
The difference comes with li mitation with th e
narrowing o f the universal q ualities into t h e
spe cic q ualities of the limited S elf ; both are the
same in essence though seeming di fferent in
manifestation We have the power to know th e
power to will and the power to act These are
the th ree great powers of the S elf that s h o w
th emselves in the separated S elf in every di ve r
from the minu t est moneron to th e
S ity o f forms
l ofti est Logos
Then just as in the S a nkhya if the Puru s ha
the particular S elf should identify himself with
the matter in whi ch he is re ected then the re is
delusion and bondage so in the V e dan ta if the
Sel f eternally free imagines hi mself to be bo un d
by matter identifying himself wi th h is limi t
he is deluded he is under t he d omain of
at ions
May a ; for M ay s is the S elf ident ication of th e
Se lf with his limitation s The eternally free can
never be bound by matter ; the eternally pure
can never be tainted by matter ; the e ternally
knowi ng can never be deluded by mat te r ; the
,

IN T R O DU CT I O N

64

YO GA

To

eternally S elf determi ned can never be rule d by

matt er save by his o w n ignorance His o wn
foolish fancy limi ts his inherent powers ; h e i s
bou nd because he imagines himself b ound h e
I S I mpure because he imagines him sel f impure
he is ignorant b ecause he imagines hi ms elf ig
no rant
With the vanishing of delusion he n ds
that he is e ternally free eternally pure ete rn all y
wise
Here i s the great difference be tween the
Sankhya an d the Ve d a nt a A ccording to th e
S a nkhya P uru s ha is the spectator and never
the actor A ccording to Ve d an t a the S elf is the
only ac tor all else is M ay a : there is no one else
who ac ts but the S elf accor di ng to the V e da n tic
teaching As says the Up anish at the Self willed
to see and there were eyes the S elf willed to
hear and there were ears the S elf will ed to
think an d there w as mind Th e eyes th e ears
the mind exist b ecause the S elf has will ed th em
into e xi stence The S elf appropriates matter in
order that He may manifest his powers through it
There is the distinction between th e S a nkhya ,
and the Ve d a nta in th e S a nkhya the propin qui ty
of P uru s ha brings o ut in matter or Prak rti all
these characteristics the Prak rti acts and not
the P uru s ha : in the V e dan ta S elf alone e xists
-

SC

H OO LS

or

65

T H O UGH T

and S elf alone acts He imagines li mitation and

matter appears He appropriates that matter in
or d er that He may manifest His own capacity
The S a n khya is the view o f the universe of
the scientist the Ve dan ta is the V i ew of the uni
verse o f the met aphysician Haeckel uncon
kh yan philoso phy
sciously is expounding the San
almost perfectly S o close to the Sank h yan is
his exposition that another idea would make it
purely Sank h yan he has not yet supplied that
propin quity o f consciousness wh ich the S ankhya
p ostulate s in its ultimate duality He has force
and matter he has mind in matter but he has no
Puru s ha His last book criticised by S ir Oliver
Lodge is thoroughly intelligible from the Hin d u
standpoint as an almost accurate representation
k h ya n philosophy
I t is the view of the
of San
scientis t indiere nt to th e w hy of the fac ts
which he rec ords The Ve danta as I said is
the view of the metaphysician ; h e seeks the
unity in whi c h all diversities are rooted and into
w hich they are resolve d
Now what light does Theosophy throw on bo th
these systems As usual by giving the facts of
the universe Theosophy enables every thinker
t o reconcile th e p artial statements w hich are ap
T
he
osoph y wi t h th e
a
re ntly so contradictory
p
,

IN T R O DU CTI O N

66

To

YOGA

Ve dan ta proclaims the universal S elf

A ll that
t h e V e da nta says o f the universal S elf and th e
S elf li mitation Theosophy repeats We call the se
Self limited selves M on ads and we say as t h e
V e dantin says that these M onads reproduce the
nature of the universal S elf whose portions they
are A n d hence y ou nd in them three q ualities
whi ch y ou nd in the S upreme They are units
and these represent the Buru shas of the S a nkhya
but w ith a very great di erence for they are
not passive watchers but active agents in the
drama o f the universe although being above
the v e fold universe they are as spectators who
pull the strings o f the players o n the stage
The M o nad takes to himself from the unive rs e
S ho w out the q ualiti es
o f matter ato ms which
corresponding to his t hree qualities and in
these he thinks and wills and act s He
takes to himsel f rhythmic combinations an d
S hows his q uality of cognition
He takes to
h imself combi nations that are mob ile ; throug h
th ose he shows out his activity He takes the
co mbinations that are inert and shows out his
quali ty of bliss as the will to be happ y N o w
notice t h e difference of phrase and thought I n
the S a nkhya M atter change d to re ec t th e
S p irit ; in the f act th e S pirit appropri ate s
,

IN T RO DU CT I O N

68

YO GA

To

triad is the re ection i n the v e fol d unive rse of

t h e M on ad beyond the ve fold universe Those
The terms of Theosoph y
are th e facts of nat ure
can b e easily identied with th ose O f other
Schools
The M onad o f Theoso phy is the
J ivatma of I ndian philosophy the Puru s ha of
th e S a nkhya the particularised S elf of the
Ve da n t a The three fold manifestation Atma
b u dd hi manas is the result of the B uru s ha s
i
ro
p
in
q
P
rak r
the
su
b
jec
t
o f the
ui ty t o
t
p
Sank h yan philosophy the S elf embodied in
th e highest sheaths ac cording to the Ve dan tic
teachi ng I n the one you have this S elf and
its sheaths and in the other the S ubject a
re ection in matt er of P uru s ha Thus yo u can
readil y S ee that yo u are dealing with the same
facts but they are loo ked at from different
standp oints
W e are nearer to the Ve dan t a
th an to th e S ankhy a ; but if yo u kno w th e fac t s
of the two p hi lo
can
p
ut
the
statements
u
o
y
So phi e s in t h eir ow n nic h e s an d will not be
-

th eo sophical teaching ; it gives y ou the fac ts

a nd l e aves you t o study the philos ophies and
ou stu dy th em wi th a to rch in yo u r hand ins tead
y
o f in the dark
,

SC

H OOL S

or

69

T H OUGH T

N o w when we un derstand th e nature of the

S p iritual man
what do we n d wi th
o r triad
regard to all the manifestations o f con scious
ness That they are duads S pirit matte r eve ry
where ou every plane of our v e fold universe
If you are a scientist you will call it spiritualised
matter if you are a metaphysician you will c all
it materialised S pirit Either phrase is e qually
true so long as you re member that both are
always present in every manifestati on that wha t
you see is not the play o f matter alone but th e
play of S pirit matter inseparable through t h e
period of manifestation Then when you come
in readi ng an ancient book to the state ment

mind is material you will not be confused ;

you will know that the writer is only spe aking
k h yan line which speaks of matter
o n the San
everywhere but always implies that the S pirit
is looking o n and that this presence makes th e
work of matter possible Y ou will not when
reading the constant statement in I ndian philo

S ophi e s that
mind is material co nfuse this wi th
the opposite view of the materialist which says

th at mind is the product of matter

a v e ry
different thi ng Although the Sankh yan may
use materialistic terms
he always posits th e
vivifying in uence of S pirit while the material ist
,

T R O D UCT I O N

70

IN

YO GA

To

makes S p iri t the pro duct of matter Really a

gulf div ides them although the language the y
use may Often be t h e same
.

MIND
Yo ga is the inhibition of the functions of the
says Patajali The fu nctions of the
mind
mind must be suppresse d and in order that we
may b e able to follow out really what this means
w e must go more closely into what the I ndian
phil osoph er means by the word mind
Min d in the wide sense of t h e term has three
gre at properties o r qualities cognition desire or
will activity N ow Y oga is not imm ediately
concerned with all these three but only with one
cogni tion th e San
k h yan subject
B ut you can
not separate cognition as we have seen com
l
l
e
from
the
others
because
consciousness
is
t
e
p
y
a unit and although we are only concerned with
th at part of consciousness which we specic ally
call co gnition we cannot get cognition all by
itself Hence the I ndian psychologist investi
gatin g this property cognition divid es it up into
three or as the Ve da nta says into four ( with all
s ubmission the Ve dant in here makes a mi stake )
I f you take up any Ve dantin book and read
.

SC

H OOLS

or

71

TH O U GH T

about mind you will n d a partic ul ar word use d

for it whi ch translated means internal o rgan

Thi s antahk arana is the word alway s us e d
w he re the E nglishman wo ul d use mind but
it is only used in relation to cognition not in
relation to activity and desire
I t is said to
b e four fold being made up of manas bu d dhi
ah ak ara and C hi tta ; but this four fold di vision
is a very curious division We know what
manas is w hat bu dd hi is what ah a nk ara is but
what is th is C hi tta ' What is C hitta outside
'
manas bu ddhi and aha nk a ra A sk any one
you like and record his answer ; you will n d
that it is of the vaguest kind L e t u s t ry to
analyse i t for ourselves and see whether light
will come upon it by using the Theosophi c idea
o f a triplet summed up in a fourth that is not
really a fourth but the summation o f the th ree
Mane s bu ddhi and aha nka ra are the three
di e re nt sides of a tria ngle which triangle is
called C hitta The chi t t a is not a fourth but
the sum of the three : manas bu ddhi and
aha nk ara This is the old idea of a trinity in
unity O ver and over again H P B uses thi s
S ummation as a fourth to her triplets
for sh e
follows the old metho ds The fourth which
s ums up the thr ee but is not other than t h ey
,

72

T RODU CTI O N

IN

Y OGA

To

make s a unity o ut of thei r apparent dive rsity

L et us apply th at to antahk arana
Take cogni tion
Though in cogni tion t hat
as pect o f t h e S elf is predominant yet it canno t
e x ist absolute ly alone
The whole S elf is there
in every act o f cognition S imilarly with t h e
o ther two
O ne cannot exist separate from the
o thers
Where t h e re is cog nition the other two
are present though subordinate to it The
activity is there the will is there Let u s t hi nk
o f cognition as pure as it can be turned on it
s elf
re ected in itself and we have bu d d hi the
pure re ason the very essence of cognition ; thi s
in th e universe is represented by Vi s h n u the
s ustaining wisdom o f the universe N o w let us
think o f cognition looking outwards and as
re ecting i tself in activity its brother quali ty
a nd we have a mixture of cogniti on and activi ty
w hich is ca lled manas the active mind c ogniti on
re ected in activity is manas in man or Brahm a
the cre ative mi nd in the universe When cogui
tion similarly re ects itself in will then it be
comes ah afi k ara th e I am I in man represent
ed by M ah ad eva in the uni verse T hus we hav e
found within the limits of this cognition a
triple division making up the internal organ
.

H OOL S

SC

a an d

ah

73

TH O U GH T

or

a nk ar
we can n d no fourth Wh at
is then C hi t ta ' I t is the summation of the three
the three taken together the totality of the th ree
B ecause of the old way of counting these th in gs;
you get thi s divi sion of antahk arana into four
.

M E NT A L

TH E

BO D Y

We must now deal with the mental bo dy

which is taken as e q uivalent to mind for practical
pu rposes The rst thing for a man to do in
practical Yoga is to separate himself from the
mental body to draw away from that into th e
S heath ne xt above it
And here y ou will remember
what I said ye sterday that in Yoga the S elf is
always the consciousness p lu s the vehicle from
which the consciousnes s is unable to S eparate it
self All that is above the body you cannot leave
is the S elf for practical purposes and your rst
attempt must be to d raw away from your mental
body U nder these conditions man as must be
identied with the S elf and the spiritual tria d
the Atma buddhi manas is to be realised as
That is the rst
sep arate from the mental body
step You must be able to take up an d lay down
your mind as you do a tool before it is of any use
to consider the further progress of the S elf in
,

'

74

I NT RODUC T I O N

Y OGA

TO

getting rid of its envelopes H ence t h e me ntal

i
s
h
od
y
aken
as
Supp ress
t
t
e starting point
b
t h oughts
il
t
l
uiet
it
S
it
N
ow
what
is
t
h
e
'
As you
ordinary con di tion o f the mental body
look upon that body from a higher plane you
of colours playing in it
s e e c onstant changes
You nd that they are sometimes initiated from
within some t imes from wi thout
Sometimes
a vib ration from witho ut has caused a change
in consciousness and a corresponding change in
th e colours in the mental body If there is a
c hange of c onsciousness that cause s vibration
in the matte r in which that consciousness is
function ing Th e mental body is a body o f eve r
changing hues and colours never still changing
colours with s wift rapidity throughout the whole
o f it Yoga is the stopping of all these the
in h ibition of vibrations and changes alike
I nhibition of the change of consciousness stops
the vibration o f the mental body the chec king
o f the vibration of the mental body ch ecks the
ch ange in consciousness I n the mental body of
a M aster there is no change of colour save as
initiated from wi thin 3 no outward stim ul us can
pro duce any answer any vibration in that p er
fectly c ontrolled mental body Th e col o ur of th e
mental body of a Master is as moonl igh t on the
.

76

INT RODUC TI O N

To

Y OGA

and hold th e mind in per fec t st illness Sh eath

afte r s h eath h as to be trans c ended and th e
pr oo f of trans cending I s that it can no long er
affect you You can aff ect it but it cannot
a ect you
Th e moment that nothing outside
you can h arass you can stir the mind t h e
moment that the mind does not respond to
th e outer save under y our own impulse th en

c an you say of it
I t h as
This is not my Self
become part o f the ou t er it can no longer be
identied with the Self
From this you pass on to the conquest of t h e
causal body in a similar way Wh en th e conquer
ing of the causal body is complete then you go to
the conquering of the bu d dhic body W h en
mastery over t h e bu d dhic body is complete yo u
pass on to the conquest of the atmic b ody
.

M IND AND S E L F
You c annot be surprised that under these co n
ditions of continued disappearance of functions
the unfortunate student asks
What becomes
of the mind itself I f you suppress all the fun c

tions what is left 3 I n the I ndian way of tea ch

ing w hen y ou come to a difculty some one
jumps up and asks a qu e stion And in the
,

'

'

SCH O O L S

or

THOUGHT

77

commentaries the question which raises the dii

culty is always put Th e answer of Patajali is :

Then the spectator remains in his own form

Th e Monad remains I t
Theosophy answers
is the end of the human pilgrimage
That is the
highest point to which humanity may climb to
suppress all the re ections in the v e fold uni
verse through which the M onad has manifested
hi s powers and then for the M onad to realise
himself enriched b y the experiences through
which h is manifested aspec ts have passed But
to the Sankh yan the di f culty is very great
f or when he has only his spectator left when the
sp ect acle ceases the spectator himself almost
vanishes H is only function was to look on at
th e play of mind When the play of mind is
gone what is left ' He can no longer be a spec
ta tor since there is nothi ng to s e e
Th e only

ans w er is
He re mains in his own form
He is no w out of man ifestation the duality is
transcended and so the Spirit sinks back int o
latency no longer capable o f manifestation
There you come to a very serious difference with
t h e facts of the universe for according to t h e
fac ts of th e universe when all these functions
have b een suppressed then t h e Monad is
ruler over matter
and is prepared for a new
,

IN T RO DU CT I O N

78

To

YO G A

cycle of a c tivity no longer slave b ut

master
All analogy sh ows us that as th e Self with
draws from sheath after s h eath he does not 10 8 61
but gains in Self realisation Self realisation
becomes more and more vivid with each suc
c e ssiv e
withdrawal ; so that as the Sel f put s
aside one veil of matter after another re
cognises in regular succession t h at each body
in turn is not himself by that process of with
draw al his sense of Self reality becomes keener
not less keen I t is important to remember
that because often western readers dealing
with eastern ideas in consequence O f mis
understanding the meaning o f the state of
liberation or the condition of N irvana identify

it with nothingness or unconsciousness an

entirely mistaken idea whi ch is apt to colour th e
whole of their thought when dealing with y ogic
processes I magine the condition of a man
who identies himself completely with t he
body so that he cannot even in thought separate

O
f
himself from it the state
the savage and
compare that with t h e strength v igour and
lucidity o f your own mental consciousness
Th e consciousness O f the savage limi t e d to
the phy si c al body with occasional t ou ch es of
,

SCH OO L S

T H O U GHT

0F

79

dream consciousness is very restricted in its

range He has no idea of the sweep of your con
But is th at
sciou sne ss of your abstract thinking
c onsciousness of the savage more vivid or less
'
vivid than yours
C ertainly you will say it
is less vivid You have largely transcended his
powers of consciousness Your consciousnes s is
astral rather than physical but has thereby in
creased its vividness A s the Self withdraw s
himself from sheath after sheath he realises
himself more and more not less and less Self
realisation bec omes more intense as sheath after
sheath is cast aside Th e centre grows more
powerful as the circumference becomes more
permeable and at last a stage is reached when
the centre knows itself at every point of t h e
circumference When that is accomplished the
circumference vanishes but not so t h e ;ce nt re
Just as you are more
Th e centre still remains
vividly conscious than the savage just as yo
consciousness is more alive not less than that o f
a savage so it is as we climb up the stairway of
li f e and cast away garment after garment We
become more conscious of existence more
c onscious of knowledge more conscious of Self
determined power Th e fac ulties of the Sel f
sh in e
o ut
more strongl y as veil a fter veil
-

IN T R O DU C T I ON T O YO GA

80

falls away By analogy then wh en we tou ch

th e Monad our consciousness shoul d be mightier
mo re vivid and more perfect A s you learn to
truly live your powers and feelings grow in
strength
And r emember that all control is exercised
over sheaths over portions of the N ot Self
You do not c ontrol your Self that is a miscon
caption you control your not Self Th e Self is
never controlled ; he is the inner R uler I mmortal
He is the controller not the controlled
As
sheath after sheath bec omes subject to yo ur
Self and body after body becomes the tool of
y our Self then shall you realise the truth of
the saying of the Up anish at that you are the
S elf the inner R ul er the I mmortal
.

L E C TU R E
YO GA

III

A S S C I EN CE

B ROTH E R S

afternoon I propose to deal rst with th e

two great methods of Yoga one rela ted to the
Self and the other to the N ot Self And let me
remind you ere I begin that we are dealing
only with the science of Yoga and not with other
means o f attaining union with the Divine Th e
s cientic method following the old I ndian con
is the one to which I am asking your
ce p tio n
attention I would remind you however th at
thou gh I am only dealing with this there remain
also the other two great ways of Bhakti and
K arma ; the Yoga we are studying specially con
cerns th e M arga of Janam or knowledge and
wi thin that way within that M arga or path of
knowl e dge We nd that three sub division s
occur as ev ery w h ere in nature
This

'

IN T R O DU C T I O N

82

ME TH O D S

To

Y O GA

Yo

or

With regard to wh at I h ave just c alled th e

two great methods in Yoga we nd that by one
of these a man treads the path of knowledge b y
bu dd hi the pure reason and the oth er the sam e
path by manas the conc rete mind You may
remember that in speaking yes t erday of the sub
divisions of Antahkarana I pointed out t o you
that there we had a pro cess of re ection of one
quality in another and within the limits of the
c ognitional asp ect of the Self you nd bu dd hi
cognition re ected in c o gnition an
d aha n kara
c ognition re ected in will and manas cognition
re ected in activity Be aring those t h ree sub
divisions in mind you will very readily be able
to see that these two meth ods of Yoga fall
naturally under two of these heads But wh at
of th e third ' What o f the will of which
aha nk ara I s the representative in cognition
That certainl y has its road but it can s carce ly
be said to be a method
Will break s its way
upwards by sheer un i nching deter mination
keeping its eyes xed on the end and using
either bu d dhi or manas indiiferently as a means
Metaphysics is used to re alise t h e
to that end
Self ; s cien c e is used to unde rstand th e Not 8 6 1f
,

84

IN T RO DU CTI O N

TO

YO GA

intehse

d ete rmination wh ich is the very essenc e

o f individuality
O ne
Now wha t are these two great methods
o f th em may be described as seeking the Self by
th e Sel f the ot h er may be described as seeking
th e S el f by the Not Self and if you will think
o f the m in that fashio n I think you will nd the
i dea illuminative Those who seek t h e Self by
t h e Self seek Him through the faculty of bu dd hi
t hey turn ever inwards and turn away from t h e
Those who seek the Self by the
o uter world
N ot Self seek Him through the active working
manas ; they are out w ard turned and by study
o f th e N ot Sel f they learn to realise the Self
Th e one is the path of the metaphysician th e
other is th e path of the scientist
.

To

TH E

S ELE

BY

T HE S EL F

loo k at this a little more closely with

Th e path on w hi ch
its appropr iate meth ods
t h e fa c ulty of bu d d hi is used pre dominantly is
It
as just said the path o f the metaphysician
is the path of the philosopher He turns inwards
e ver seeking to nd the Sel f by diving in to the
K nowing that th e
rec esses of h is own nature
Sel f is wi thin him he tries to strip away vesture
L et

us

YO GA

As

SC I ENC E

85

afte r vesture, envelope after envelo p e and by a

pro c ess of rejecting them he r each es the glory
o f the unveiled Self To
this h e mus t
give up concrete thinking and dwell amidst
abstractions His method then must be strenu
ous long sustained patient meditation
N ot h
ing else will serve his end strenuous hard think
ing by which he rises away from the concre te
into the abstract region s of the mind strenuous
hard thinking further continued by w hich h e
reaches from the abstract region of the mind u p
to the region of bud dhi where unity is se n sed ;
still by strenuous thinking climbing yet further
until bu dd hi as it were opens out into 23t
until the Self is seen in H is splendour with only
a lm of atmic mat ter the envelope of atma in
the manif ested v e fold world It is along th at
diffi cult and strenuous path that the Self must
be found by way of the Self
Such a man must utterly disregard t h e N ot
Self He must Shut h is senses against the outsid e
world Th e world must no lo nger be able to
touch him Th e senses must be close d against
all the vibrations that come from without and
he must turn a deaf ear a blind eye to all th e
allurements of ma tter to all the diversity of
obje cts whic h make up the univ erse of t h e
,

86

IN T R ODU CT I O N

To

YO GA

will h elp him , ere h e is

e lf against the ou t er
strong en o ugh to cl ose t
stimuli
or allurements
The c ontemplative
or ders in th e R oman C ath olic C h urc h O ffer a good
e nvironment for this path
They p u t the outer
world away as far away as possible I t is a
s na re a te mptation a hindrance
Al w ays turn
ing away from the world the yog i must x his
th ou g h t h is att ention upon the Self Hence
for those who walk along this ro ad what are
called the sidd his are direct obstacles and not
h e lps B ut that statement that you n d so o ften
th at th e si dd his are things t o be avoided is far
more sweeping than so me o f our modern Theo
They declare that
Sophists are ap t to imagine
t h e si ddhis are to be avoid e d but forget that
t h e I ndian w h o says this also avoids the use of
th e p hysical senses He closes physical eyes
and ears as hindrances But some Theosophists
u rge avoidance of all use of the astral senses
and mental senses but they do not Object to
th e free u se of the physical senses or dream
t hat they are hindrances
Wh y not ' I f t h e
se ns es are Ob s t acles in their ner forms the y
are also O b stacles in their grosser manifestation s
T o th e man w h o would nd the Self by the Se l f
e very se nse is a h indra nc e and an O bstac le and
Not Self
-

Se c lusio n

O GA AS S CI E N C E

87

t h ere is

no logic no reason in denouncing th e

subtler senses only while forgetting the tempta
tions of the physical senses impedime nts as
much as the other N0 such division exists for
the man who tries to understand the universe in
which he is I n the search for the Self by the
Self a ll that is not Self is an obstacle Your
eyes your ears everything that puts you into
contact wi th the oute r world is just as much an
O bstacle as the subtler forms of the same senses
which put you into touch with the subtler
worlds of matter which you call astral and
ment al This exaggerated fear of the si dd his
is only a pas sing reaction not based on under
standi ng b ut on lack of understanding ; and
those of you who denounce the si dd his should
rise to the logical position o f the Hind u Yogi
or of the R oman C atholic r ecluse who denounces
all the senses and all the Obj ects of the senses
obstacles in the way M any Th eo sophists
as
here an d more in the West think that much is
gained by acuteness of the physical senses and
of the other faculties in the physical brain but
the moment the senses are acu te enough to b e
or the faculties begin to work in as tral
astral
matte r th ey treat th em as objects of denuncia
tion
Th at is not rational It is not logical
,

88

I N T R O DU C TI O N

O GA

TO Y

Obs ta cl es th en are all th e se nses w h e th er ycm

c all th em si d dh is or n ot in th e search for th e Self
by turning away fro m the N ot S elf
I t is necessary for th e man who seeks th e S elf
by th e Sel f to h ave the quality whi c h is call ed
faith in th e sense in w hich I de ned it th e

day be fore yesterday the profound intense

c onvic tion th at nothing can sh ake of the reality
o f th e Self with in
hat
is
the
one
t
h
ing
ou
T
y
th at is worthy to be digni ed by t h e nam e of
faith Truly it is b eyond reaso n for not b y
reason may the Self be known as real Truly it
is not based on a rgument for not by reasoning
may t h e Self be di scovered I t is th e witn ess o f
t h e Self within you to his own supreme r eality
that un shakable conviction which is
an d
Shra dd h a is necessary for the tre ading of t h is
path It is neces sary because without it the
h uman mi nd would fail the human courage
w ould be daunted th e human perseveranc e
would break with the di fculties of the seeking
for th e Self
Onl y that imperious conviction
th at the Self is only t h at can chee r the pilgrim
in the darkn ess that comes down upon h im in t h e

void that he must cross before th e lif e of the

lower being th rown away the lif e of th e hi g her

This i mperial faith is to ' t h e yog i
is realise d
,

YO GA AS SC I EN C E

89

on th is path what experienc e and knowledge are

to th e yog i on the other
.

To

T H E S E L F T H RO U G H T H E NOT S E L F
-

Tum

from him to the seeker for the Self

th rough the N ot Self This is the way of th e
s cientist of t h e man who uses the concrete active
manas in order scientically to understand th e
universe ; he h a s to nd the r eal among the
unreal the eternal among the changing the Self
amid the diversity of forms How is he to do
it ' By a close and rigoro us study of every
changing form in which the Self h as veil ed
Himse lf By studying t h e No t Self around him
and in him by understanding h is own nature
by analysing in order to understand by study
ing nat ure in others as well as in hi mself by
learning to know himself and to gain knowledge
of others slowly gradually step by step plane
after plane he has to climb upwards rej ecting
one form of matter after another nding not
in th e se the Self he seeks As he learn s to
conquer the physical plane he uses the kee nest
sens es in order to understand and nally to
rej ec t He says : This is not my S el f This
-

90

IN TR O D UCTI O N

Y O GA

To

continual trans formations th ese are obviously

t he antithesis of the eternity the lu cidity th e

stability o f the Self These cannot be my Self

And thus he constantly rej ects them He climbs
on to the astral plane and using there the ner
astral senses he st udies the astral world only to
nd that that also is changing and manifests
not the changelessness of the Self A fte r the
astral world is conquered and rejected he
climbs on into the mental plane and there
still studi es the ever changing forms of th at
man asic world only once more to rej e ct

These are not the Self

them :
C limbin g
still higher ever following the track of forms he
goes from the men tal to the bu dd hi c plane
where the Self begins to Show H is radiance and
bea uty in manifested union Thus by studying
diversity he reac h es the conception of unity
and is l ed into the understanding of th e One
To him the realisation of the Self com es through
th e study of the Ne t Self by the se paration of
the N ot Self from the Self Thus he d oes by
knowledge and experience w h at the ot h er does
by pure thi nking and by faith I n this path o f
nding th e Self through th e N ot Self t h e so
c alled si dd his are nece ssary J ust as yo u cannot
st udy t h e ph y sical world wit h out the physical
,

92
L

IN TRO DU CT I O N

To

Y O GA

of p sycho logy I want furth er to point out to you

that it is not a science o f ethic t hough ethi c
is certainly th e found ation of it P sy chol o gy
and ethi c are not th e same Th e science of ps y
ch olo y is the r e sult of the study of mi nd
T
h
e
g
science of ethic is the result of the s t udy of
conduct so as to bring about the harmonio us
relation O f one to another E thic is a scien c e o f
lif e and no t an investigation into the nat ure of
mind and the methods by whic h th e powe rs of
the mind may be developed and evolved I
pause on this because of the confusion t h at
exis ts in many people as regards this point I f
y ou understand the scope of Yoga aright su ch
a confusion ought not to arise Th e co nfus ed
idea makes people think that in Yoga they
ought to nd necessarily what are called pre
ce t s of morality , ethic

l
a
a
i
T
hough
gives
a
P
t j
p
the universal precepts of morality and right c on
duct in the rs t two a n g as of Yoga called yama
and niyama yet they are subsidiary to the main
topic are the foundation of it as j us t said No
practice of Yoga is possible unless you possess
the ordinary moral attributes summed up in yama
and n iyama that goes without saying But you
shoul d not expect to nd moral pre cep t s in a
scienti c te x t book of p sychol ogy like Yoga
.

Y O GA

SC I E N C E

As

93

A man studying the science of elec t ricity is not

sho cked if he does not nd in it moral precepts ;
why then Should one studying Yoga as a science
o f psychology expect to nd moral precepts in
it ' I do not say that morality is u ni mportant
N ay on the contrary it is all
fo r the yog i
impo rtant I t is absolu tely ne cessary in the rst
stages of yoga for everyone But to a Yogi
who h as mastere d the se it is not necessary if he
left h and p ath
For you
w an ts to fol low th e
must reme mb er that there is a Yoga of the left
hand path as well as a Yoga of the righ t
hand path Yoga is there also followed and
though asceticism is always found in the early
stages and sometimes in the later true morality
Th e Blac k M agician is often as rigid
is absent
in his mo rality as any Brother of the White
Lodge O f the disciples of the Black and W hite
Magi cian th e disciple of the Black Magician is
His Object is not the
often the more ascetic
purication of life for the sake of humanity but
th e purication of the vehicle that he may be
bette r able to acquire power Th e difference
be tw e en the White and the Blac k Magician lies
You might have a White
in th e motive
Magician a follower of the right hand path
o f ob taining
rej e c ting m eat because the way
,

INT RO DU C TI O N T O YO GA

94

f ollower of t h e left hand path may also reject

meat b ut for the reason that he would not
be able to work so w ell with his vehicle if it
were full of the rajasic elements of meat Th e
difference is in the motive Th e out er action
is the same Both men may be called moral if
judged by the O uter action alone Th e motive
marks the path while the outer actions are
often identical
I t is a moral thing to abstain fro m meat b e
cause thereby you are l e ssening the in ic tion o f
su ffering it is not a mora l act to a bstain fro m
meat from the yog i standpoint but only a means
to an end Some of the greatest yog i s in Hin d u
literature were and are men whom you would
rightly call Black Magicians But still t hey
are yo gi s O ne of the greatest yogi s o f all w as
R avana the anti C hrist the Avat ara o f ev il
who summed up all the evil of the world in h is
own person in order to oppose the A vatara Of
good H e w as a great a marvellous yog i and
by Yoga he gained his po w er Ravana Was a
typical yogi of the left hand path a great de
stroyer and he practised Yoga to obtain the
power of destruction in order to for ce from thie
hands o f the Planetary Logos th e boo n th at n
o
,

IN T R O DU C T I O N

96

YOGA

To

ch arity with a view to nding out a new ele

ment He will not fail in a well wro ught
experiment h owever vicious h is private life ma
y
Th e things are in di e rent regio ns and h e
be
does not confus e the laws of the tw o As
Ishvara is absolutely j ust the man who obeys
a law reaps the fru it of that law whether h is
actions in any other elds are benecial to
man or not I f you sow rice you will reap
rice ; if you so w wee ds y ou will reap weeds ;
rice for rice and weed for weed Th e harvest
For this is a uni
is according t o the sowing
v e rse of law By law we conquer by law we
'
succeed Where does morality come in then
When you are d ealing with a M agician of t h e
right hand path the servant of the W hite
Lodge there morality is an all important fac tor
Inasmuch as he is learning to b e a S ervant o f
h umanity he must Observe th e hig h e st moral
it y, not merely the morality of the world for
h
a
s
W
h
ite
Magician
to
deal
with
h
elping
on
h
e
t
h armonious relations between man and man
Th e White Magician must be patient Th e
Blac k Ma gician may quite well be harsh The
White Magici an must b e compassion ate ; com
passion widens out his nature and he is try ing
to make his c ons c iousn ess includ e the w h ol e of
'

O GA A S SC I E N C E

97

humanity But not so the Black Magi cian

He can afford to ignore compassion
A white Magician may strive for power But
w hen he is striving for power h e seeks it that
he may serve humanity and become more use
ful to mankind a more e ffective servant in the
helping of the world But not so the Brother
of the D ark side When he strives for power
he seeks it for himself so that he may
H e may be
us e it against the whole world
harsh and cruel He wants to be isolated ;
and harshness and cruelty tend to isolate him
He wants power ; and holding that power for
himself he can put himself temporarily as it
w ere against the D ivine Will in E volution
Th e end of the one is N irv ana where all
separation h as ceased Th e end of the other is

Av i chi the uttermost iso lation the k aiv alyam

of the Black Magician Both are yog i s both
follow the Science of Yoga and each gets th e re
sult of the law he h as followed one the k aiv alyam
of N irv ana the other the k aiv alyam of Av ic h i
.

C O MPO S IT I O N

OE

S T AT E S

OE

T H E M IND

Let us pass now to the stat es of th e mind

Th e word whi ch is us ed for
as th ey are call e d
.

IN T RO DU C T I O N

98

To

Y O GA

t h e stat e s o f the mind by Patajali is Vrtti

Th is admirably constructe d language Sa sk rt
gives you in that very word its own meaning
Vrttis mean the be ing of the min d the ways
in whi c h mind can exist the modes of the mind ;
th e modes of mental existence ; the ways o f
e xisting That is the literal meaning of this
w ord A su b sidiary meaning is a turning
around a moving in a circle
You have to
stop in Yoga every mode of existi ng In which
the mind manif ests itself I n order to guide

d
n
y ou towar s the power of stoppi g them for
y ou cannot stop them till you understand them
you are told that these modes of mind are
They are pentads
ve f old in their nature
Th e s utra as usually translat ed says the v rttis
are v e fold
but pentad is a
more acc urate rendering of the word p a ch a

v
e
the
original
than
fold
h
word
T
e
i
a
n
a
t yy h
pentad at on ce recalls to you the way in w hich
t h e chemist speaks of a monad tria d hept ad
Th e element s
w h en h e deals with elements
with w h ich the chemist is dealing are relate d to
the unit element in di fferent ways Some ele
ments are related to it in one way only and are
called monads ; others are related in two way s
a nd are call e d duads and so on

NT R O DU C T I O N

1 00

To

Y O GA

nse o f touch ; and you would hea r musical

notes made by th e vibrations of the molecules
co ming through the sense of hearing were it
k eener I f you had a perfect sense of hearing
you would hear th e sound of the orange also
f or w h erever there is vibration there is sou nd
All this synth esI se d by the mind into one idea
That is the root reason for the
is an orange

association of ideas
I t is not only that a
f ragrance recalls the scene and the circum
stanc es under which the fragrance w as O bserved
but because e v ery imp re ssion is made through
and therefore when one is
all t h e ve senses
st imul ated the others are recalled Th e mind
I f you put a prism in the path
is like a prism
of a ray o f white light it will break it up into
its seven constituent rays and seven colours will
P ut another prism in the path of these
appear
seven rays and as they pass through the prism
proc
ss
reversed
and
the
seven
become
i
s
e
h
e
t
one whi te light Th e mind is like the second
prism
I t tak es in the ve sens ations that
and combines them
e n t e r t h rough t h e senses
into a single percept AS at th e present stage
n
evolut
on
the
senses
are
ve
only
it
u
ites
i
of
t
ve
sensations
in
o
one
idea
W
h
at
t
h
e
h
e
t
w hite ray is to the s ev en c oloured light that is
se

'

101

Y O GA A S SC I E N C E

th ought or idea to the

sensation
Th at is the meaning of th e much controverte d

the vrttis
st ra
Vrttayah p arich atayyah

o r modes of the mind

are pentads
I f you
look at it in that way the later teac hings will
be mo re clearly understood
As I have al ready said that sente nce that
nothing exis ts in thought which is not in sensa
tion is not the whole truth Manas the si x th
sense adds to the sensations its own pure
elemental nature What is that nature that
you nd thus added I t is the establish ment of
a relation ; that is really what the mind add s
All thinking is the e stablishment of relations
and the more closely you look into that phrase
th e more you will realise how it covers all the
vari ed processes of the mind Th e very rst
process of the mind is to become aware of an
outside world However dimly at rst we

become aware of something outside ourselves a

process generally called P erception I use th e
more general term establishing a relation
because that runs through the whole of the mental
processes whereas perception is only a singl e
thing To use a well known simile when a
little baby feels a pin pricking it it is
c onscious o f pain, but not at rst cons cious of
a

v e-fold

102

IN T R O DU CT I ON
i
n
p ,

th e

To

Y O GA

yet conscious o f wh ere ex actly

t h e pin is
I t does not recognise th e p art
o f th e bo dy in w
h ich the pin is There is
no percep t ion
for perception is dened as rela
ting a sensation to the Obj ect which causes
th e sensation Yo u only technically Speaking
pe r c eive when you make a relation b et w een
th e Obj ect and yourself
That is the very rst
o f t hese mental processes following on the heels
of sensa tion
Of cours e from the eastern stand
oint
sensation
is
mental
function
also
for
the
a
p
se nse s are part of the cognitive faculty
but
th ey are un fortunately classed with feelings in
N ow having established
W e st ern psychology
t h at re lation be t ween yourself and objec t s o ut
side
what is the next process of the mind '
Re aso ni ng that is the establishi ng of relations
be t ween di fferent O bjects as perception is the
of your relation with a single
e stablishment
obj ec t Wh en you have perceived many Objects
th en y ou begin to reason in order to establish
relations be tween them
R easoning is the
which comes
e stablishment of a new relation
out from t h e comparison of the different O bj ects
that by perception you have established in
relation with yourself and th e result is a conce pt
Th is one phrase establish ment O f rel a
tions is
nor
.

I N TRO DU C T I O N

1 04

To

Y O GA

c lass c alled indifference which is neither pain

ful nor pleas ant O ther psychologis ts say th at
indi e ren ce is merely pa in or pleas ure that is
not marked enough to be called the one or th e
o th er
N ow this controversy and tangle into
whic h psychologists have fallen might be avoid
e d if t h e primary division of feelings were a

A
logical division
A and N o t
that is the
Pat ajali is
o nly tru e and logical division
I n order to avoid
a bsolutely logical and right
the quic ksand into which the modern p sy
v rttis
have
f
llen
he
divides
all
c h olo ist s
a
g
modes of mind in to painful and non painf ul
There Is h owever a psyc h ological reason wh y
w e should say pleasure and pain although it
is not a logical division
Th e reason why there
S h ould be that classication is that the word
pleasure and t h e word pain express two funda
mental states of difference not in the Self but
in the vehicles in w hich that Se lf dwells Th e
Sel f being by nature unlimited is ever pressing
so to say against any boundaries whi ch seek to
limit him When these limita tions give way a
little before th e constant pressure of th e Sel f
w e feel pleasure and when they resist or con
tract we feel pain
They are not states of t h e
S el f so muc h as s ta te s of the vehicles and t hese
,

Y O GA

SC I ENC E

As

105

t t s cause certain changes in consciousne ss

Pleasure and pain belong to the Self as a w h ole
and not to any aspect of the Self sepa rately
t aken
When pleasure and pain are marked o ff
as belonging only to the desire nature
the
objection arises
Well but in the exercise of
the cognitive faculty there is an intense pleasure
When you u se the creative faculty of the mind
you are conscious of a profound joy in its
n by no
exerc ise and yet that creative faculty ca

means be classed with desire

Th e answer is :

Pleasure belongs to the Self as a whole

Where the vehicles yield themselves to the Self
and permit it to expand as is its eternal

It
natu re then what is cal led pleasure is felt
Pleasure is a sense of
h as been rightly said

moreness
E very time you feel pleasure you
will nd the word moreness covers the case
I t will cover the lowest condition of pleasure
the pleasure of eating
You are becoming
more by appropriating to yourself a part of the
N ot Self food You will nd it true of the
highest condition of bliss union with the
Supreme
You become more by ex panding
yourself to His innity
Wh en you have a
phrase that c an be applied to the lowest and
h igh est with wh ich you are dealing you may be
s a e

1 06

IN TRODUCT I ON

O GA

To Y

fai rly sure it is all inclusive ; and th at th e refore

pl ea sure is moreness is a true s tatement
Simi larly p ain is lessness
I f you understand these things y our phil o
so phy O f life will become more practical and you
will be able t o help more effectively p eople
w ho fall into evil ways
Take drink
Th e real
attraction of drinking lies in the fact that in
th e rst stages of it a more keen and vivid li fe
is felt
That stage is overstepped in the case o f
the man who gets drunk and then the attraction
ceases Th e attraction lies in the rst stages
and many people have expe rienced that who
w ould never dream of becoming drunk Watch
people who are taking wine and see how much
more lively and talkative they become There
lies the attraction the danger
Th e real attraction I n most coarse forms of
S in is that t hey give an added sense of life and
will
neve
be
able
t
o redeem a sinner from
o
u
r
y
Under
h is sin unless you know why he sins
st anding the attractiveness o i the rst step
th e increase of life then you will be able
to put your n ger on the po int of temptation
and mee t that in your argument with h im
So th at this sort o f men t al analysis is not only
interesting but p rac tically use f ul t o every h elper
,

1 08

I NT ROD UCT ION

TO

Y O GA

must be h app y
There fo re Patajali says :

Th e v rttis are painful and non painful

Pain
is an exc rescence I t is a transi tory thing Th e
Self who is bliss being the all p ermeating life of
th e universe p ain has no permanent place in it
Such is the Hin d u position the most optimisti c
in th e world
Let us pause f or a moment to ask : Why
should there be pain at all if the Self is bliss
Just because the nature of t h e Self is bliss It
would be imposs ible to make the Sel f turn out
ward come into manifestation if only streams
of bliss owed in on him He would h ave re
mained un c onscious of the streams To the
innity of bliss nothi ng could be added I f you
had a stream of w ater owing unimpeded in its
course pouring more wate r into it would cause
no ru fing the stream would go on heedless of
the addition But put an obstacle in the way
so that the free ow is ch e cked and the stream
will struggle and fume against the obstacle and
make every endeavour to sweep it away That
which is contrary to it that which will check
its current s smooth ow that alone will cause
e ffort That is the rst function of pain I t is
the only thing that can rouse the Self It is
the only thing th at can awaken h is a ttentio n
.

YO GA A S S C I E N C E

1 09

When that peaceful happy dreaming int urned

Self nds the surge of pain beating against hi m
h e awake ns : W hat is this contrary t o my
natu re antagonistic and repulsive what is this
it arouses him to the fact of a surrounding
universe an outer world Hence in psychology
in Yoga always basing itself on the ultimate
analysis of the facts of nature pain is the thing
t h at assert s itself as the most important factor
in Self realisation that which is other than the
Se lf will best spur the Self into activity There
fore we nd our commentator when dealing
with pain declares that the karmic receptacle
th e cau sal body that in which all the seeds of
karma are gathered up has for its builder all
pain ful experiences ; and along that line of
thought we come to the gre at generalisation :
the rst function of pain in the universe is to
arouse t h e Self to turn himself to the outer
world to evoke his aspect o f ac tivity
Th e next function of pain is the organisatio n
of the vehicles Pain makes the man exert him
and by that exertion the matter of h is
self
vehicles gradually becomes organised If you
want to develop and organise your muscles you
make e o rt s you exercise them and thus more
lif e ows in to them and they be c ome stro ng
,

IN T R ODUC TI O N TO YO GA

1 10

Pain is n e cessary that th e Self may for c e h is

vehicles into making e o rts which develop and
organise them Thus pain not only aw akens
awareness it also organises the vehicle s
P ain puries
It h as a third function also
We try to get rid of that whic h causes us pain
It is contrary to our nature and we e ndeavour to
throw it away Al l that is against the blissful
nature of the Self is shaken by pain out of the
vehicles slowly they become puri ed by su ffer
ing and in that way become ready for th e
h andling of the Self
P ain teaches All
I t h as a fourth function
the best lessons of life come from pain rath er
than from j oy W h en one is b ecoming old as
I am and I look on the long life behind me a
life of storm and str ess of difculties and e fforts
I se e someth ing o f the great lessons p ain can
teac h O ut of my l ife story I could eace wit h
out regret eve ry thing that it has had of
and happiness but not one pain would I let go
for pain is the teacher of wisdom
P ain gives po w er
It h as a fth function
E dward C arpenter said in h is splendid p oem of

Man and Satan

after he had described the
wrestlin gs and the overthrows
E very pain
th at I sn ered in one body b ecame a p ower
.

1 12

IN T R O DUC TI O N T O YO G A

th e

Self belonging to him When it ha rmonises

t h e vehicles of the Self from outside it enables
the Self more readily to manifest hi msel f
t hrough the lower selves within us Hen c e
h appiness is a condition of illumination That
is the explanation of the value of the r apture
of the M ystic 3 it is an intense j oy A tre
mendo ns wave of bliss born of love t rium
phant sweeps over the whole of his being and
when that great wave of bliss sweeps over him
it harmonises the whole of his vehicles subtle
and gross alike and the glory of the Self is
made manifest and he se e s the face of his
G od Then comes the wonderful illumination
which for the time makes him unconscious o f
all the lower worlds It is becau se for a
moment the Self is realising himself as divine
that it is possible for him to see that D ivinity
which is cognat e to himself SO that y ou
s h ould not fear j oy any more than you fear pain
as some unwise people do dwarfed by a mistaken
religionism That foolish thought you S O oft en
nd in an ignorant religion that pleasure is
rather to be dreaded as though G od grudged
j oy to His children is one of the nightmares
Th e Fath er o f
b orn o f ignorance and terror
life is bliss He who is joy cannot grudge
,

YO GA A S SC I E N C E

1 13

Himself to H is children and every re ection o f

j oy in th e world is a re ection of the D ivine Life
an d a manifestation of the Self in the midst O f
matter Hence pleas ure has its f unction as well
and that also is welcome to the wise
as pain
for he understands and util ises it You can
e asily see how along this line pleasure and pain
become equally welcome
I dentied with
neither the wise man takes either as it comes
knowing its purpose When we understand the
places of joy and Of pain then both lose their
power to bind or to upset us I f pain comes
we take it and utilise it If joy comes we tak e
it and ut ilise it So we may pass through life
w elcoming both pleasure and pain content
whichever may come to us and not wishing for
We u se
t hat which is for the moment absent
both as means to a desired end ; and thus we
may rise t o a higher indifference than that of
t h e st oi c to th e tru e vairagya 3 both pleasure
and pa in are tran sc end ed and the Sel f remains
w h o is bliss
,

L E C TURE

IV

Y O G A A S P RA C TI C E
B R OT H ERS

Yesterday in dealing with the t hird sec tion

I drew your attention to the
O f the subject
and pointed out to you that
st ates of mind
according to the S amsk rt; word vytti those states
o f mind should be regarded as ways in which
the mind exists or t o use the philosophical
phras e of the West they are modes o f mind
These are the states
m odes of mental existen c e
which are to be inhibited put an end to
The
a bolished reduced into absolute quiescence
reason for t h is inhibition is the production O f a
state which allows the h igher mi nd to pour
T
o
tsel
f
into
the
lower
put it in another w ay
i
the lower mind unrufe d waveless re ec t s the
h igher as a waveless lake re ects the s t ars
You will rememb er th e ph rase used in th e
,

1 16

IN T RODUCT I O N

L et

YO GA

To

consider wha t th e s e two familiar words

imply Vairagya or disp assion h as as its main
idea th e cl earing away o f all pas sion for attrac
tion t o the obj ects of the senses the bonds
whic h are made by desire between man and th e
obj ec t s around him Raga is passion addiction
that which binds a man to things Th e prex

CVc h anging to vai by a grammatical rule

means without or in oppo sition to

Hence
Vai ragya is non passion absence of passion not
bound tied or related to any of these outside
objec ts R emembering that thinking is the
establis h ing of relations we see that the getting
rid o f relations will impo se on the mind the
stillness that is Yo ga All raga must be entirely
put aside We must separate ourselves from it
We must acquire the opposite condition w h ere
every passion is stilled where no attraction for
the obj ect s o f desire remains where all th e bonds
that
un
i
t
e the man to surrounding obj ec t s are
/
broken
Wh en th e bonds of the h eart are

brok en th en th e man b ec omes immorta l

H ow sh all this dispassion be brought about 2
T here is only one righ t way of doing it By
slowly and gradually drawing ourselves away
from outer Obj ects through the more potent
i
s ever at t racted
ttra
c
tion
of
t
h
e
Self
Th
e
Self
a
us

1 17

YO GA AS P RACTIC E

to the Self
That attrac tion alone c an turn
th ese vehicles away from the alluring and repul
sive objects that surround them ; free from all
raga no more establishing relations with obj ec ts
the separated Self nds h ims elf liberated and
free and union with the one Self becomes the
sole Object of desire But not instantly by one
supreme e ffort by one endeavour can this gre at
quality of dispassion become the charact eristi c
of the man bent on yoga He must practise
dispassion constantly and steadfastly That is
implied in the wo rd j oined with dispassion
ab h asa
Th
or
practice
e
practi
c
e
m
st
u
b
e
y

cons t ant continual and unbroken

Prac tice
doe s not mean only meditation though this is
the sense in which the word is generally used ;
it means the deliberate unbroken carrying out
of dispassion in the very midst of the obj e c ts
th at attract
I n order that you may acquire disp assion you
must practi se it in the everyday thi ngs of life
I have said that many conne abh yasa to m edi
That is wh y S O few people attain unto
tation
Yoga Another error is to wait fo r some big
opportunity P eop le prepare themselves for
some t remendous S ac rice and forget t h e li tt l e
things o f ev eryday life in wh i c h th e mind is
.

1 18

IN T RO D UC T I O N

To

YO GA

knitted to objec ts by a myriad tiny threads

These things by the ir pettiness fail to attract
at tention and in waiting for the large thing
which does not come p eople lose the daily
practice of dispassion towards the little things
that are around them By curbing desire at
every moment we becom e indifferent to all t h e
Obj ects that surround u s
Then when the
great O pportunity comes we seize it while scarce
aware that it is u pon us E very day all day

long practice that is what is demanded from

the aspirant to Yoga for only on that l ine can
success come ; and it is the wearisomeness of
this strenuous continued endeavour that tires out
t h e majority of aspirants
I mus t here w arn you of a danger There is a
ro u gh and ready way of qui ckly bringing about

disp assion Some say to you : K ill out all love

and affection 3 harden your hearts 3 become cold
to all around you ; desert your wi fe and chi ldren
y our father and moth er and y to the desert
or th e jungle 3 put a wall between yourself and
all objects of desire 3 then dispassion will be

i
ours
I
t
s
rue
that
it
is
comparativel
y
easy
t
y
But by tha t
t o ac quire dispassion in that way
y ou kil l more than desire You put round th e
Self w h o is Love a barrier th rough whic h h e
.

1 20

INT ROD UC TI ON

YO GA

To

pain Sh all pass away but th e L ove sh all continue

t o grow and in the unity of the Se l f y ou S hall
nally discover that Love is th e grea t attract ing
force which makes all things one
Many people in trying to kill out Love onl y
t h row themselves back becoming less hu man
n ot superhuman
by their mistaken atte mpts
It is by and through human ties of love and
s ympathy that the Self unfolds
I t is said o f
t h e Masters that They love all hu manity as a
mother loves her rst born son Their Love is
n ot Love watered do w n to coolne ss but Love
for all rai sed to the heat of the highest parti
Always mistrust
o ular loves of s maller souls
t h e teacher who tells y ou to kill out Love to be
That is t h e
indi fferent to human a ffections
w ay whi c h le ads to the left h and path
,

M E DI TAT I O N W I T H AND W I T H O UT S E E D

Th e ne x t step is our method o f me dita tion

Wh at do we mean by meditation ' Medi tation
Thoug h
c annot be the same for every man
the same in principle namely the steadying
the method must vary with th e
o f the mind
te mpe rament o f the practitioner Suppose that
are
a
s
r
t
ong mind ed and in telligent man,
u
o
y
.

YO GA

As

12 1

P RACT IC E

fond o f reasoning Suppo se th at c onne cte d

links of thought and argument have been to
y ou the only exercise of the mind Utilise
that past training D o not imagine that you
can make your mind still by a single e ffort
Follo w a logical chain of reasoning step by
step link after link 3 do not allow the mind to
S werve a hair s breadth from it D o not allow
th e mind to go aside to other lines of thought
K ee p it rigidly along a S ingle line and st ea di
ness will gradually result Then when you h ave
worked up to your highest point of reasoning
and reached the last link of your chain of argu
ment and your mind will carry yo u no further
and beyond that you can se e nothing then stop
A t that highest point of thinking cling desper
ately to the las t link of the chain and there
keep the mind poised in steadiness and strenuou s
quiet waiting for wh at may come
After a
while you will be able to maintain this attitud e
for a considerable time
For one in whom imagination is stronger th an
the reasoning faculty the method by devotion
rather than by reasoning is the method L et
h im call imagination to his help He S hould
picture some scene in wh ic h the object of h is
devo tion forms the central gure building it up
.

122

IN T R O DUC TI O N

YO WA

To

bit by bit as a painter paints a pict ure putting

in it gradually all the elements of the scene He
must work at it as a painter works on h is canvas
line by line his brush the brus h of imagination
A t rst the work will be very Slow but the
pi c ture soon begins to present itself at call
O ver and over he should picture the scene
dwelling less and less on the S urrounding obj ects
and more and more on the central Figure whi ch
Th e draw
is t h e object of his heart s devotion
ing of the mind to a point in t his way b rings it
under control and s t eadies it and thus gradually
by this use o f the imagination he brings the
mind under command Th e O bject of devotio n
will be according to the man s religion Sup

i
pose as s the case with many of you that his
O bj ect of devotio n is Shri K rsh na 3 picture Him
in any scene of His earthly life as in the battle
of Kuruk sh e tra Imagine the armies arrayed
f or battle on both sides 3 imag i ne A rj una on the
oor of the chariot despondent despairing 3
then come to Shr i K rsh na th e C harioteer the
Friend and Teacher Then xing your mind
on th e central gure let your heart go out to
Him with one pointed d e votion
R esting o n
Him po ise yourself in S ilence and as before
w ait for w h at may come
,

INT R ODU CT I O N

12 4

Y O GA

To

thought and thus to reac h illumination One

word of warning You cannot do this while you
are trying m e ditation with a seed until you are
able to cling to your S eed denitely for a
considerable time and maintain throughout an
alert attention I t is th e emptines s of alert
exp ectation not the emptiness o f impending
Sleep I f your mind h e not in that condition
its mere emptiness is dangerous I t leads to
mediumship to possession to obsession You
can wisely aim at em ptiness only when you
h ave so disciplined the mind that it can hold
for a considerable time to a Single point and
remain aler t when that point is droppe d
Th e question is sometimes asked :
Suppo se
t h at
I do this and succe e d in becoming
unconscious of the body 3 suppose that I do rise
into a higher region is it quite sure that I sh all
come back again to the body 3 Having le ft t h e

body shall I be certain to return 1

Th e idea
of non return makes a man nervous E ven i f
he says that matter is nothing and Spirit is
everything h e yet does not like to lose tou c h
with his body and losing that touch by shee r
f ear he drops back to the earth after having
taken S O much trouble to leave it You sh ould
h owever have no suc h f ear That whi ch wil l
.

'

YO GA A S P RACT I C E

1 25

draw you back again is the trace of y our past

w hic h remains under all these con di tions
Th e question is of the same kind as :
Wh y
S hould a state of p ralaya ever come to an end

and a new state of manvan tara begin '

A nd
the answer is the same from the H in d psycho
logical standpoint : becau se although you have
dropped the very seed of thought you cannot
dest roy the traces which that tho u ght has left
and that trace is a germ and it tends to draw
again to itself matter that it may express itself
once more This trace is what is called the

privation of matter samsk ara Far as you may

soar beyond the concrete mind that trace left
in the thinking principle of what you have
thought and have known that remains and will
inevitably draw you back You cannot escape
y our past and until your life pe riod is over
th at samsk ara will bring you back I t is this
at t h e c lose of the heavenly life
als o which
brings a man back to re birth
I t is the
of the law o f rhythm I n the
ex pression
th at wonderful o cc ult
P ath
on the
L ight
treatise this state is S poken of and t h e
di sciple is pictured as in the Silence Th e

Writer goes on to say : O ut of the S ilence

that is pea c e a reso nant voice Shall arise
,

1 26

IN T RO D UC T I O N

Y OGA

To

A nd t his voice will say

I t is not well ;
thou hast reap ed no w thou must so w
An d
knowing this voice to be the S ilence itself tho u

wilt Obey
What is the meaning o f that phras e
Th ou
h as t reaped now thou must so w
I t re f e rs
to th e great l aw of rhy th m which rules even the

Logoi the Ishvaras the law of the Mighty

Breath the out breathing an d the in breathing
which compels every fragment which is separat
ed for a time A Logos may leave His universe
and it may drop away when He turns Hi s
gaze inward for it was He who gave reality
to it
He may plunge into the innit e depths o f
Being but even then there is the sa msk ara of
the past universe the S hadowy latent memory
the germ of maya from which He cannot escape
To escap e fro m it would be to cease to b e Ishvara
and to beco me Brahma Nirguna There is no
Ishvara without m aya there is no may a without
E ven in p ralaya a time comes when
Ishvara
t h e rest is over and the inner life again de
mands manifestation 3 then the outward turning
begins and a new universe comes fort h Suc h is
t h e law of rest and acti vity : activity followed
b y r est ; rest followed again by th e d esire f or
:

1 28

IN T R O DUC T I O N

To

YOCA

man tra cannot be translated ; translation

the sounds
N ot only in H indism,
al ters
but in Bud d hism in R oman C ath olicism in
Is l am and among the Pars i s man tras are found
and they are never translated, for when you
have changed the succession and order of
the sounds the man tra ceases to be a man tra
I f you translate the words you may have
a very beautiful prayer but not a man tra
Your translation may be beautiful inspired
poetry but it is not a living mantra I t will
no longer harmonise the vibratio ns of the sur
rounding s h eaths and thus enable the con
Th e poetry the in
sci o u sne ss to become still
S pired prayer these are mentally translatable
But a man tra is unique and untranslatabl e
P oetry is a great t h ing 3 it is often an inspirer of
t h e soul it gives gratication to the ear and it
may be su blime and beautiful but it is not a
man tra
a

'

ATT E N T I O N

c onsider c on c entration You ask a man

He at onc e says : Oh '
if he can concentrate

it is very dif c ult I have often tried and failed

But put the same question in a di erent way and
L et

us

YO GA A S

RA CTI C E

129

h im

C an y ou pay attention to a thing

He will at once say

Yes I can do that
C oncentration is attention Th e xed attitude
of attention that is concentration I f you pay
attention to what you do your mind will b e con
M any sit down for meditation and
ce nt rat e d
wonder why they do not succeed H ow can
you suppose that half an hour of meditation and
twenty three and a half hours of scat tering of
thought throughout the day and night will e u
able you to concentrate during the h alf hour '
You have undone during the day and night what
you did in th e morning as P enelope unravelled
the we b sh e wove To become a yog i you must
be attentive all the time You must practis e
concentration every hour of your active life
Now you scatter your though ts for many hou rs
and you wonder that you do not succeed Th e
wonder would be if you di d You must pay at
tention every day to everything you do That
is no doubt hard t o do and you may make it
easier in the rst stages b y choosing out of you r
day s work a portion only and doing that portion
with perfect unagging attention D o not let
your mind wander from the thing before you
I t does not matter wh a t the thing is I t may b e
th e adding up of a c olumn of gures or th e

ask

IN T R O DU CT I O N

1 30

YO GA

To

eading of a b o ok Any th ing will do It is the

at titude of the mind that is important and not
This is the only way o f
t h e obj ect before it
learning concentration Fi x your mind rigidl y
and
o n the work before you for the time being
when yo u have done with it drop it P ractise
steadily in this way for a few months and you
will b e surprised to nd how easy it becomes to
Moreover the body will
c oncentrate the mind
soon learn to do many things automatically I f
force
it
to
do
a
thing
regularly
it
will
u
o
y
begin to do it after a time of its own accord and
t h en you nd that you can manage to do t w o or
I n E nglan d for
t hree things at the same time
instance women are very fond of knitting
Wh en a girl rst learns to knit she is obliged
Her attention
t o be very intent on her ngers
must not wander from her ngers for a moment
She goes on doing
0 1 she will make a mistake
t hat day after day and presently her ngers
h ave learnt to pay attention to the work with
out h er supervision and they may be le ft
to do the knitting while she employs the con
I t is furth er
s cious mind on some t hing else
p ossible to train your mind as the girl has trained
her ngers Th e mind also the mental body
c an be so trained as to do a thing au t omati c all y
r

'

1 32

IN T RO DU CT I O N T O YO GA

w h o lacks the power and th q will to ex ert him

self h o w shall he make the desperate exertions
wan t ed along this line ' Th e next worldly
mindedness is Obviously an obstacle Mi staken
ideas is another great obstacle thi nking wrongly
about things ( O ne of the great q ualications
for Yoga is right notion
Right notion
means that the thought shall correspond with
the outside truth 3 that a man S hall be funda
mentally true S o that h is thought corresponds to
fact 3 unl ess there is truth in a man Yoga is for
him impossible ) M issing the point : illogical
stupid making the important unimportant and
L astly instability : which makes
v ersa
vice
Yoga impossible and even a small amo unt of
which makes Yoga fu tile ; the unstable man
cannot be a yogi
,

C AP ACI T I E S FO R YO GA

everybody practise Yoga ' NO But

eve ry well edu c ate d person can prepare for its
f uture pra c tice For rapid progress you mus t
h ave special capacities as for anything else
I n an y of the sci ences a man may study without
being th e possessor of very special capacity
although he cannot attain eminence therein ; and
Can

1 33

YOGA A S P RAC T IC E

it is with Yoga A nybody with a f air intelli

gence may learn Something from Yoga whi ch h e
may advantageously practise but he can not
hope unless he starts with certain capacities to
be a success in Yoga in this life I t is only
right to say that 3 for if any special science
needs particular cap acit l e s I n order to attain
eminence therein the science of sciences
c ertainl y cannot fall behind the ordinary sciences
in the demands that it makes on its students
Suppose I am asked
C an I be c ome a great

mathematician ' What must be my answer '

You must have a natural aptitude and capacity
for mathematics to be a great mathematician
I f you have not that capacity you cannot be a

great mathematician in this life

But this
does not mean that you cannot learn any mathe
matics To be a great mathe matician yo u must
be born with a Special cap acity for mathemati cs
To be born with such a capacity means that you
have pra tised it in very many lives past and
now you are born with it ready made I t is the
S ame with Yoga
E very man can learn a little
of it But to be a great yog i means li ves of
practice I f the se are behind you you will
have been born with the necessa ry faculties in
t h e present birt h

so

1 34

I N T RODUCT I ON

Y OGA

To

Th ere are t hree fac ulties wh ich one must h av e

Th e rst is a strong
to o b tain success in Yoga

d esire
D esire ardently
Such a desire is
n ee ded to break the strong links of desire wh ich
knit you t o the outer world Moreover without
t h at strong desire you will never go through all
t h e difculties that bar your way You must
h ave th e conviction that you will ultimately
suc c eed a
nd the resolution to go on until you
do succeed I t m ust be a desire so ardent and
so rmly rooted that obstacles only make it
more keen T o such a man an obstacle is lik e
fuel th at you throw on a re I t burns but th e

ore
strongly
it
catc
h
es
hold
of
it
and
n
a
s
s
d
m
it fu el for t h e burning
SO difculties and
Obs t ac l e s are but fuel to f eed the re of t h e
y ogi s resolu t e desire He only becomes the more
rml y x ed becaus e he nds the d ifculties
If y ou have not this strong desire its absenc e
ows
t
h
at
you
are
new
to
the
work
but
you
h
S
You can
can begin to prepare for it in this life
c reat e desire by thought 3 you cannot create
de sire by desire O ut o f th e desire nature th e
t rai ning o f the desire nature cannot come
Wh at is it in u s that calls o ut desire L ook
into y our own mind and you will nd that
memory and imagination are th e two th ings th a t
.

136

IN T ROD UC T ION

To

Y GA

You h ave at once ready to your h ands th e way

to get rid o f that desire Think o f the ultimate
results
Let your mi nd dwell carefully on all
the painful things Jump over the momentary
pleasure and x your thought steadily on the pain
which follo w s the gratication of that desire
A nd when you have done that for a mont h
the very sight of that obj ect of desire
or so
W ill repel you You will have associated it in
our
mind
with
su
f
fering
and
will
recoil
f
om
it
r
y
instinctively You will not want it You have
c hanged the w ant and have C hanged it by y our
power of imagination There is no more
fective way of destroy ing a vice than by
ef
deliberately picturing the ultimate results of its
indulgence
P ersuade a young man who is
in c lined to b e p roigat e to keep in h is mind
t h e image of an old p ro igat e ; S how him t h e

i
worn
out
desiring
without
the
powe
r
t
e
r
a
o
p
g
to gratify 3 and if you can get him to think in
th at way unconsciously he will begin to shrink
from that which before attrac t ed him 3 t he very
hideousness of th e results frightens away the
man from clinging to the object of desire And
the would b e yogi h as to use his though t to
mark out the desires he will p ermit and th e
desire s that h e is determin e d t o S lay
.

137

YO GA A S P RAC TIC E

next thing afte r a strong Desirefis a

Will Will is D esire transmuted its
s trong
di recting is changed from without to within
I f your Will is weak you must strengthen it
D eal with it as you do with other weak things :
I f a b oy knows that
st rengthen it by practice

h e has weak arms he says :

M y arms are
weak but I shall practise gymnastics work on
the parallel bars ; thus my arms will gro w

strong
I t is the same with the Will P ractice
will make strong the little weak Will that you
have at present

R esolve for example saying : I will do

such and such a thing every morning and do i t

O ne thing at a time is enough for a feeble will
Make yourself a promise to do su c h and such a
thing at such a time and you will soon nd that
y ou will be ashamed to break your promise
When you have kept such a promise to yoursel f
for a day make it for a week then for a fort
night Having succeeded you can choose a
h arder thing to do and so on By this forcing
of action you strengthen the Will D ay after
da y it grows greater in power and you nd
y our inner strength increase First have a
s trong D esire
Then transmute it into a strong
Will
Th e

8
3
1

IN T R O DUC TI O N

Y O GA

To

Th e

th ird requisite f or Yoga is a keen and

broad intelligence You canno t cont rol your
mind unless you h ave a mind to control There
f ore you must develop your mind You must
study By study I do not mean the reading o f
boo ks I mean thinking You may read a
d ozen of books and your mind may be as feeble
s in the beginning
ad o ne
But
if
you
have
re
a
serious book properly th en by slow readi ng
and much thinking your intelligence wi ll be
nurtured and yo ur mind gro w strong

These are the things you want a strong

D esire an indomitable Will a keen I ntelligence
T hose are the capacities that you must unfold
in order that the practi ce of Yoga may b e
possible to you I f your mind is very unsteady
if it is a butter y mind like a child s you must
make it steady That comes by close study and
t h inkin g
You must unfold th e mind by which
y ou are t o work
.

'

F O RT H GO ING AND R E T URNING

I t will help you in doing this and In ch anging

y our desire if you realise that the great evolution
of h umanity goes on along two paths th e Pa t h
of Fort hgoing and th e P at h o f R eturn
,

1 40

To YOCfA

I N T RO DUC T I ON

How S hall we spend this wealth ' I read th e

other day of a millionaire in America who is now
wal king on foot from city to city in order to dis
tribute th e vast wealth which he has accumulate d
He h as learned his lesson N ever in anot h er
li fe will that man be induced to p ut forth e o rt s
f or the toy of wealth
Love of fame love of
power stimulate men to most strenuous e ort
But when they are grasped and held in the hand
weariness is the result Th e mighty statesman
the leader of the nation the man idolised by

millions follow him home and there you will

s e e the weariness of power the satiety that cloys
passion D oes then G od mock us with all these
obj ects N o Th e o b j ect has been to bring out
t h e power of the Self to develop the capacity
latent in man and in the development of human
faculty the result of the great L il a may be seen
That is the way in which we learn to unfold
the G od within us 3 that is the result of the
play of the D ivine Father with His children
But sometimes the desire for obj ects is lost
to o early and the lesson is but half learn e d
Th at is one of the difculties in the I ndia of to day
You have a mighty spiritual philosophy whic h
was the natural e xpression for the souls w ho
were born c enturies ago They were re ady to
,

RA CT I C E

YO G A AS

14 1

throw away the fruit of action and to work for

the Supreme to carry out His Will
But the lesson for India at the pre sent time is
to wake up the desire I t may look like going
back but it is really a going forward
Th e
philosophy is true but it b elonged to those
older souls who were ready for it and the
younger souls now b eing born into the people are
They repeat it
not ready for t h at philosophy
by rote they are hypnotise d by it and they sink
down into inertia because there is nothing they
desire enough to force them to exertion Th e
consequence is that the nation as a whole is
going downhill Th e old lesson of the great
caste system of putting di fferent o b jects b efore
souls of di fferent ages is forgotten and every
one is now nominally aiming at ideal perfection
which can only be reac hed when the preliminary
steps have been successfully mounted I t is
the same as with the Sermon on the Mount in
C hristian countries but there the practical common

se nse of the people bows to it and ignores it

N o nation tries to live by the Sermon on the
Mount
I t is not meant for ordinary men
and women but for the saint For all those
who are on the P ath of Forthgoing desire is
nec essary for progress
.

1 42

IN T RO DU CT I O N

To

YO GA

What is the P ath of Niyrtt i 1 I t is the P at h

of R eturn There desire must cease 3 and the
Sel f determined Will must tak e its place Th e
last object of desire in a person commencing th e
P ath of R eturn is the desire to work with the
Will of the Supreme 3 he harmonises his Will
wi th the Supreme Will renounces all separate
desires and thus works to turn the wheel of life
as long as such turning is needed by the
Law of Life D esire on the Path of Fort h
going becomes Will on the P ath of Return 3
t h e soul in harmony with the D ivine works with
the Law Thought on the P ath of Forthgoing is
ever alert igh ty and c h anging ; it becom es
Reason on the P ath of R eturn 3 the yoke of
reason is placed on the neck of the lower mind
and R eason guides the bull Work activity on
th e P ath of Forthgoing is restless action by
w hich the ordinary man is bound 3 on the P ath
of R eturn W ork be c om es sacrice and thus its
binding force is broken These are then th e
manifestations of three aspects as sho wn on the
P aths of Forthgoing and R eturn
Bliss manifested as D esire is changed into
Will
Thought
Wisdom
R eason
Work
A ctivity

2)

144

IN T R O DU CT I O N T O YO GA

transmuted into will A ll t hese correspondences

have a profound meanin g if you will only look
into them and that universal Will to live
translates itself as the desire for happiness
that you nd in every man and woman in every
sentient creature Has it ever struck you how
surely you are j ustifying that analysis o f your
own nature by the way you ac cept happiness
as your right and resent misery and ask what
you have done to deserve it
You do not ask
the same about happiness which is the natural
Th e thing that has
result of y our own nature
to be explained is not happiness but pain the
things that are against the nature of the Self
that is bliss And S O looking into this we se e
how desire and will are both t h e determination
to be happy But the one is ignorant drawn
out by o uter obj ects 3 the other is self conscious
initiated and ruled from within
D esire is
evoked and directed from outside 3 and when
t h e same aspect rules f rom within it is will
Hen c e
There is no difference in their nat ure
desire on t h e P ath of Forthgoing becomes will
on th e Path of R eturn
Wh en D esire Thought and Work are changed
into W ill Re ason and Sa crice then the man is
turning h omewards then he lives by renun ciation
.

1 45

YO GA AS P RACT IC E

When a man has really renounced a

strange change takes place O n the Path of
Forthgoing you must ght for every thing
you want to get 3 on the P ath of R eturn
nature pours her treasures at your feet Wh en
a man has ceased to desire them then all
tre asures pour down upon him for he h as
become a channel through which all good gifts
ow to those around him
Seek the Good
give up grasping and then everything will be
yours
C eas e to ask t h at your own li ttl e
water tank may be lled and you will be
c ome a pipe j oined to the living source o f
all waters the Sou rce which never runs dry
Re
t h e w aters which S pring up unfailingly
n unciation means the p ower of unceasing work
for the good of all work whic h c annot fail
be cause wro ught by the supreme Worker
t h rough His servant
I f you are engaged in any t rue work o f
charity and your m eans are limited and th e
wealth does not ow into your hands what
does it mean ' I t mean s that you have not
yet learnt th e true renunciation
You are
c lin ging to the visible to the fruit o f action
an d so t h e wealth does not pour t hrough you r
,

10

IN TRO D UC TI O N

1 46

YO GA

To

P URI FICA T I O N O F BO DI E S
unf olding o f powers belongs to the Si d e
o f consciousness ; purication o f b odies b elongs
You must purify each o f
t o the S ide o f matter

s
a l astral and
our
three
working
bodie
ment
y
physical Withou t that purication you had
First o f all how shall
b etter leave Yoga alone
y ou puri fy th e th ought body ' By right thinking
Th en you must use imagination your great
once more I magine thin gs and
c reative tool
ill
agining
them
you
w
form your though t
m
i
into
the
organisation
that
you
d
sire
e
b o dy
Imagine something strongly as the painte r
i
a
s
magines
when
h
e
going
to
p
int
isu
li
a
V
s
e
i
s
a
a
bj
ct
i
f
you
have
t
h
e
power
o
f
vi
u
lis
tion
e
o
an
r
t
o
t
i
all
i
f
y
ou
h
ave
not
ake
it
I
t
s
an
m
y
at
s
r
isti
c
f
a
c
ul
y
of
course
but
mo
t
p
ople
h
a
v
t
e
e
t
a
ore
or
less
See
how
f
ar
you
c
an
reprodu
c
e
m
it
l
ee
s
r
f
ectl
y
a
f
ace
you
dai
y
By
su
ch
p
r
a
c
ti
e
c
e
p
i
m
t
n
n
w
i
l
s
rengthening
your
a
i
a
ion
a
t
d
e
b
l
u
o
g
y
agination you w ill be
strengthening
y
our
im
by
Th e

148

IN T R ODUCT I O N

To

YO GA

d esire the highest never dwelling on the fault

the weakness the error but always on the
perfected power and S lowly in that way you
will be able to build up perfe ction in yourself
Thi nk and desire then in order to purify the
thought body and the astral bod y
And how shall you puri fy the physic al body '

You must regulat e it in all its activities in

S leep in food in e x ercise in everything Yo u
cannot h ave a pure physical body with impure
ment al and astral bodies S O that the work of
imagination h elps also in the purication of the
p hysical But you m ust also regula te the physi
Take for instance
c al body in all it s activities
fo od Th e I ndian says truly that every sort of
food h as a dominant quality in it eith er rhyth m
or activity or inertia and that all foods fall
unde r one o f these heads N ow the man who is
t o be a yog i must not touc h any food w h ic h is
on the way to de cay Those th ings belong to

th e tamasic foods all f oo ds for instance of the

nat ure of game of v ension all food which is
showing signs of dec ay ( all alcohol is a produ c t
of d ec ay ) are to be avoided Flesh fo ods come
under the quality of a ctivity A ll es h foods
are really stimulants All forms in the ani mal
,

YO GA

AS

and

P RACTICE

14 9

animal activities Th e yog i c annot a ord

to use these in a body meant for the higher
processes of thought Vitality yes they will
give that 3 strength w hi ch does not last they
will give that 3 a sudden s p urt of energy yes
meat will give that 3 but those are not the things
which the yog i wants 3 SO he puts as ide all those
foods as not available for the work he desires,
and chooses his food out of the most highly
vitalised products All the foods which tend to
growth those are the most highly vitalised
grain out of which the new plant w ill grow is
packed full of the most nutritious substances ;
fruits 3 all thos e thin gs which h ave growth as
their next stage in the life cycle those are the
rhythmic foods full of life and building up a
body sen sitive and strong at the same time
.

D W E L L E RS

ON

TH E

TH R E S H O L D

Of

th ese there are many kinds First ele

ment als They try to b ar the astral plane
against man And naturally so b ecause they
are concern ed with the b ui lding up of the lower
kingdoms these elementals of form the Rpa
Devas ; and to them man is a really hateful
creature because of his destru ctive properties
.

1 50

I NT RODUCTION

To

YOGA

wh y t hey di slike him S O mu ch He spoils

t h eir work wherever he goes tramples down
vege table thi ngs and kills ani mals so th at t h e
w hol e of that gre at kingdom o f nature hate s
Th ey band thems elv e s
t h e name of man
toget h er to stop the one who is j ust taking his
rst c onscious ste ps on the astral plane and try
t o frigh t en him for they fear that he is bringing
d e structiveness into th e new world They can
not do anyt hing if you do not mi nd them
Vt h en t h at rush of ele mental force comes agains t
the man ente ring on the astral plane he must
remain quiet indifferent taking up the position :
I am a higher product of evolution than you
are 3 yo u can do not h ing to me
I am y our
f riend not your enemy P eac e
I f h e be
strong enough to take up th at position the
great wave o f elemen t al force will roll aside and
let him through Th e seemingly causeless fears
w hich some feel at night are largely due to t his
h ost ility
You are at nigh t more sensitive to
th e astral plane th an during the day and the
dislike of the beings on that plane for man is
felt more strongly But when the elementals
nd you are not destru c tive not an embo diment
o f ruin
they be come as friendly t o you as t h ey
Th at is

1 52

I NT RODUCTI ON

To

Y OGA

gradually e xh aust and nally annihi lat e them

T h is is perhaps one o f the most painf ul difcul
t ies that one has to face in treading the astral
plane in consciousness for the rst ti me Of
course where a person has i n any way bee n
mix ed up w ith o bj ectionable th ought fo rms of
t h e stronger kind s uch as those brought about
by practising black magic there this particular
form of the dweller will be much stronger an d
more dangerous and Often desperate is t h e
s truggle between the neophyte and these d w e llers
f ro m his past backed up by the Masters of the
black S ide
N ow we come to one of the most terrible forms
Suppose a
o f t h e dwellers on the threshold
c ase in which a man duri ng the past h as s teadi ly
identied himself wi th the lower part of his
nature and has gone ag ainst the higher para
lysing himself using higher powers for lower pur
poses degrading his mind to be the mere Slave
A curious change takes
o f his lower desires
place in him Th e li fe which belongs to the
E go in him is taken up by the physical body
a nd assimilated with the lower lives of whic h
the body is composed I nstead of serving th e
purposes of the Spirit it is dragg ed away for
t h e purposes o f t h e lo wer and be c omes pa rt o f
.

1 53

Y OGA A S P RACT IC E

the animal lif e belonging to th e lower bodies S O

that the Ego and his higher bodies are weakened
and the animal life of the lower is strengthened
N ow under those con ditions the E go will some
times become so disgusted with his vehicles that
when death relieves him of the physical body he
will cast the others quite aside
And even
sometimes during physical life he will leave the
desecrated temple N ow after death in these
ca ses the man generally reincarnates very
qui ckly 3 for having torn himself away from h is
astral and mental bodies he h as no bo di es with
which to live in the astral and mental worlds
an d he must quickly form new ones and come
again to re birth here Under these conditions
the old astral and mental bodies are not disinte
grated when the new mental and astral bodies
a re formed and bo rn into the world and the
af
nity between the old and new both having
had th e same owner the same tenant asserts
itself and the highly vitalised old as tral and
mental bodies will attach themselves to the new
a stral and mental bodies and become the most
terrible form of the dweller on the threshold
These are the various forms which the dweller
may assume and all are spoken of in books
dealing with these particular subjects though I
,

1 54

IN T RODUC TI ON

To

YO GA

do not know tha t you will nd an ywh ere in a

s ingle book a denite classication like th e
above I n ad di tion to t hese th ere are of course
th e direct attacks o f the dark Broth ers taking
up various forms and as p ects and t h e most com
mon form they will take is the form o f some
virtue which is a little bit in excess in the yog i
Th e yog i is not attacked through h is vi c es
but through h is virtues 3 for a virtue in exc ess
I t is the extrem es which are
b ecomes a vice
ever t hp vices 3 the golden mean is the virtue
And thus virtues bec ome tempters in the di f
cult regions of th e astral and mental w orlds and
are utilised by the Broth ers of the Shadow in
Or der to entrap the unwary
I am not here speaking o f the f our ordin ary
ordeals of th e astral plane : th e ordeals by
earth w ater re and air T hose are mere
t ries hardly wort h c onsidering w h en S peaking
of these more serious difculties O f course
y ou h ave to learn that you are entirely m aster
th at earth cannot crus h you
of astral mat t er
nor wate r drown you etc Those are S O to
spe ak very easy lessons Those amon gst you
who be long to the Maso nic bo dy will r e cognis e
t h ese ordeals as part s o f th e l anguag e th ey are
familiar with in their Masoni c ritu al
.

15 6

INT RO D UCTI O N

To

Y O GA

PRE PARA T I O N FO IL YO G A
P eople say that I put the ideal of disc iplesh ip
SO very h igh that nobody can hope to become a
disciple But I have not said that no one can
become a disciple who does not reprodu ce the
description that is given of the perfect disciple
O ne may But we do it at our o w n peril A man
may be thoro ughly capable along one line but have
a serious fault along another Th e serious fault
will not prevent him from beco ming a disciple
but h e must suffer for it Th e Initiate pays for
his f aults ten times the price he would have had
to pay for them as a man of the world That is
why I have put the ideal so high I have never
said that a person must come utterly up to the
ideal before becoming a disciple but I have said
that the risks of beco ming a di sciple without
these qualications are enormous I t is the
duty of those who have seen the results o f
going through the gateway with faults in char
acter to point out that it is well to get rid of these
faults rst E very fa ult you carry through the
gateway with you b ecomes a dagger to stab you
on the other S ide Therefore it is well to purify
y ourself as much as you can before you are
sufciently evolved on any line to h ave th e right
.

YO GA AS

157

RACTI C E

to say :
I will pass through that gateway
That is what I intended to be understood when
I S poke of qualications for disciplesh ip I have
followed along the ancient ro ad which lays
down these qualications which the disciple
S hould bring with h im 3 and if he comes without
th em then the word of Jesus is true that he
will be beaten with many stripes 3 for a man can
a o rd to do in the outer world with small result
what will bring terrible results upon him when
once he is treadi ng the P ath
.

TH E E ND

Wh at is to be the end of this long struggle

What is the goal of the upward c limbing the prize
o f the great battle ' What d oes the yogi reach at
last He reaches unity Sometimes I am not
sure that large numbers of you if you realised
what unity means would re ally desire to reach
it There are many virtues of your ordinary
life which will drop entirely away from you when
you reach unity Many things you admire will
be no longer helps but hindrances when the
of
unity be gins to dawn A ll those
sense

qualities so useful in ordinary life such as

moral indignation repulsion from e vil judgment
,

IN T R ODUCT I O N

1 58

YO GA

To

of others have no room where unity is realis

d
Wh en you feel repulsion from evil it is a Sign
th at y our higher Self is beginning to awaken ,
is seeing the dangers o f evil 3 he drags the b ody
forcibly away from it That is the be ginning
of the c onscious moral life Hatre d of evil is
better at that stage than indi fference to evil I t
is a necessary stage
But repulsion cannot be
felt when a man has realised unity when he
sees G od made manifest in man A man w ho
knows unity cannot j udge another
I judge no

man said the C hrist He cannot be repell e d by

any one Th e S inn er is himself and how S hall
he be repelled from himsel f ' For h im th ere is no
I or Th ee ; for we are one
This is not a thing that man y o f you h onestly
wis h for I t is not a th in g that many o f you
h onestly de sire Th e man who h as reali se d
unity knows no difference be tween hi mself and
th e vilest w retch th at walks the e arth He sees
only the G od that walks in th e sinner and
kn ows th at the S in is not in the G od but in t h e
Sheath The difference is only t here He wh o has
realis ed t h e inner greatness of the Self ne ver
pronoun ces judgment upon anoth er knows th at
other as himsel f and h e hi mself as th at o th er
e

INDE'

PA GE

and no t

A b h yasa ,

1 03 , 1 04
1 1 5, 1 1 7
5 3 , 5 4, 5 7 , 8 2
7 1 , 72 , 8 3
,

Activity
Ah ankara
A ngas of Yoga
,

43 , 44

As p ects o f C onsci ou s
ness
A ss ociation of I deas 1 00
A stral P l ane Ordeals
of
Avatara of E vil
94
,

97

B H AGAVAD-Gita,
2 5 , 51 ,
5 2 , 5 5 , 60, 9 9 , 1 1 5
B lack Magi cian , Th e 9 3 ,
96 , 9 7

B lind, A
28
B ody , Pitui tary
28
e turn t o t h e
1 24
B rahma ,
72
B rahma Nirgu na,
1 26
Buddhi , 7 1 , 7 2 , 8 2 , 83

11

CAPAC ITI E S for Yoga

C hitta
C loud on

1 3 2 - 13 8
71

t h e S anct u

T
h
e
,
y

44 , 45 , 46 ,
1 23
C ognisability,
37
C ognition, 5 3 , 57 , 7 2 , 8 2
C on cent rati on, 1 2 8 , 1 29
C onsciousnes s ,
18
ar

15
A n namayak osha,
Antahk arana, 7 1 7 3 8 2
A samp rajiiata S ama

Av itc hi,

PAGE

C onsciousness As p ec t s
,

of

38

C o nstitution Th e
H uman
Cycles L arger and
S mall er
,

15

DAN GE R S

of E mp tiness

M ind
1 24
D erivat i on of Prak rti 54
S amadhi 4 9
Yoga 48 49
Desire for H app in ess
of

D evoti o n,

a
h
rma
M
h
a
e
D
g
C loud) 44
,

1 43 , 1 44
31
( th e
1 23

1 62

IN T R O DU CT I O N

YO GA

To

PA GE
Di erence s betw een
S ank h ya and Ve d

Drin k,
Duads ( S p irit
t er)

1 06
-

Mat
6 9, 98

Dwe ll ers

on

th e

Threshold ( 3

H uman Co nsti t ut l on ,
Th e

kinds )

15

1 49 - 1 54

E KAGRATA,

Emp tine ss
Th e

of M in d
of
Unity
,

1 24
,

1 5 7- 1 5 9
E stablishment of Re
lat ions,
1 0 1 , 1 02
E vil , Avatara of
94
4, 6, 8, 2 9
E volution
FAITH ,
33 , 88
F eelings ,
1 03
F i e l d o f Yoga, Th e 9 , 1 3
F ive P lanes of M atter,
Th e
67

Inhib iti on ,

I shvara
Ishvaras
,

Th e

75 115
9, 3 1
ogoi , 1 26

JADA ( de ad M att er 5 5
),
Jagrat,
1 8 -2 1 , 23
Ji v anmuk ta,
24 , 2 5
Ji vatma ,
3, 7, 1 6
J anendriyas ,
99

K SH IPTA,
Kuru k sh etra,

39

LAR GE R and S maller

Cycl es
L i gh t on the Path
L ogos
L ove
1 18

4
125

HAE CKE L , E rnest

H app iness , Desire

'

65

for

1 43 , 1 44

MA GI C

1 20

2 6, 2 7

IN T RO D UC T I O N

1 64

To

YO GA
PAG E

PAGE

P radh ana

6
1
,
-5 9
5
4
6
4
6
8
Prak rti,
,
,
125
Pralaya,
1 6 , 53 , 5 7
P rana ,
15
Pranamayak o sh a,
139
Pravrtti M arga ,
P re p aration for Y oga ,
1 56 , 1 5 7

P rivation of Matte r
P sych ism
30
47
Psychol ogy
Yoga and 9 2
P ure food
1 48 1 49
P uricatio n
1 46
P uru sha 53
,

S AMADH I ,

20-2 2 , 24,
42 44 , 49
-

S amadhi , Asamp raj

S amadhi , Samp raj

ata
43 , 44
S amadhi , Yoga and 50
S amsk ara,
12 5, 1 26
16
Samv it,
S ank h ya ,
51 -6 0 , 6 5 ,
66 , 7 7
S a nkhya , S esh v ara
k
h
S
I
I
a
with
R
(
y
52
Go d) ,
53
S ank h yan S cho o l ,
47
S amsk rt,
at- C h i t-Anan da, 5 4 , 6 0
S attva - RajaS Tamas, 3 5
S ch oo l s o f P hilo so p hy ,
H i n du
50 , 5 1
81
S ci en ce o f Yoga,

RAJAS TamaS S attva 3 5

Raja Y ga
36
Rat ional and Natural
-

Gro wth ,

Relation

s,

11

E st ab li sh

m ent of
1 0 1 102
R enunciation
Re solve Yoga of 3 6 3 7
R eturn to t h e Body 1 2 4
Rhyt hm M o bility
5 5 57 5 8
In e rtia
Rhyt hm Mobility
S tability
35
Right N otion
132
Ro man C atholic
C hurch Th e
86
Root Rac e S eventh 1 5 9
S ixt h
1 59
,

S ee d ,

wit h

M editation

1 23

S e ed

M editation
with out
33 3 4
S elf Th e
,

1 23
6
0
,
,
,
,
6 1 -6 8 , 7 3 , 7 8 8 1 , 84
88 , 1 04
S e lf and t h e Not S e lf,
15
Th e
35
S elf -existence ,
S ermon o n t h e Mount ,
The
1 41
S eventh oot Race , 1 5 9
15
S harira , K arma
15
S harira, Sth l a
-

IN D E '

1 65

PAGE
S hari ra, Sk sh ma

15
42

S hra ddha,
S i ddhi s
8 6, 8 7
S ixt h Ro o t R ace ,
1 59
S ol ar Pl exus ,
S pe nce r, H erbe rt
29
S p irit Matt e r ( duads) ,
,

S p irit, Matte r and

35
S p i ri tu al ity,
S ta te s o f M ind, 9 7 , 1 03
103
S ush u p ti,
18, 19
S utras of Pata jali 2 9 ,
,

Svap na,

S ys te m

of

1 8, 1 9 , 2 3
Yoga , Th e 3 3

TAMAS

, S attv a
Tanmtm,
n
a
T tras ,

Rajas

35
36
26 , 2 7
Patajali,
31 , 1 31
52
-

T e ach i ng of
Th e
Th eo so p hy ,
Thr esh o l d, D we ll e rs
on th e
1 4 9 - 1 54
Triad ( Atma - B u ddhi
M anas) , Th e 6 7 , 7 3
T ri ads ,
98
19

UNEO L DING,
Unity, T h e E nd of

Yoga

Up anish ats,

29

PAGE

V AI RZ GYA,

4 1 , 1 1 3,
1 1 5-1 1 9
5 1 , 6 0 - 70

V e dant a, Di e re nce s
be twe e n S ank h ya
an d
64
35
V ik sh ip ta,
39, 41
V i sh nu,
72
v ntis ,
9 8 , 1 01 , 1 14
V yas a,
1 7 , 3 9 , 5 o, 5 6

W H IT E M agician
W ill

Th e
9 3 , 9 4, 9 6 , 9 7
53 , 5 4, 5 7 , 82

YAMA

Yoga

and Niy ama

9
2
,
5 , 1 0, 1 7 , 30 ,
- 42
2
9
4
7
7
0
40
,
,
,
,

Yoga and P sychology

Yoga and S amadhi
Yoga C ap acities for

92
50

1 32 - 1 38
36 , 3 7
95
and

Yoga H ath a
Yoga Morality
Yoga Obstac l es to
,

Yoga P re paration
,

for

36
33
Yoga, System of
Yoga, Th e eld of 9 , 1 3
Yogi , Th e
3 1 , 32 , 39 ,
93 , 94

Th e o so p h ica l L e ct ure s

By ANNI E B E S AN T
Th e

Building of

th e K os mos

C loth
or 2 8 or 50c
Boards
or 2 d Or 4c
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RS 1 2 or 1 8 6d or 40c
Boards Ans 1 1 or 1 1 d or 2 20
Fo ur Great Religions
C loth
Rs 1 8 or 2 S or 500
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RS 1 8
AR E 2
-

C loth
Boards

RS

Re

1 8
-

or

or
ls

28
6d

An cient I deals in Modern Life

C loth
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Boards Re 1 or l s 6 d
The Religious P roblem I n I ndia
C lot h RS 1 4 or l s 8d
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or
or

500
40c

or
or

500
400

or
or

Ele me nt a ry B oo k s

T h e os o p h y

on

Ah Ou tline of Theosop hy

or

1 26
2 5c

or

1 20

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Ans 1 2

An s 6

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Theosop h y

Ans 6

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By C

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Th eosop hyfor B eginners

6d

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Th eosop h ical Publ ish ing H

,

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400

or

500

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Besant
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Madras

Theosop hy By A nnie
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or

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120

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Pop u lar L ectwres

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Rs 1 8 or 2 8
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By A nnie

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18

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500
400 ,

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RETURN

Al l BO O KS

e ne w

CIRC ULATIO N DEPARTMENT

MAY BE RECALLED A FTER 7

a ls a nd

Bo o ks

may be

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Re ne w e d by

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be mad

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DAYS
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6 4 2 -3 4 05

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