Patanjali's Yoga Sutras -Book 4 - Rama Prasad

Continuing a basic summary of the four books of  Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, by Rama Prasad, with some suggestive observations of an esoteric nature, from the introduction to his translation: Patanjalis Yoga Sutras with the Commentary of Vyasa and the Gloss of Vachaspati Misra (1912). See   Part 1

The Fourth Chapter deals with Kaivalya or final emancipation-the realisation by Man that he is separated from Mind_Matter. The psychic powers or Siddhis are either innate, or produced through the means of medicinal drugs, or suggestion of Mantra, or asceticism or contemplation. Some are born psychics, as Kapila, Swedenborg, &c. Temporary psychic powers may be acquired through anaesthetics, such as chloroform, hashish, &c. Psychic faculties may be developed by the recitation of certain Mantras, or the suggestion of sound. Some persons have acquired psychic powers through austerities. The fifth or contemplation is the method of this Yoga system. 

The born psychics are those who had practised Yoga in their past lives. They are like eggs in which the bird has already fully formed break the shell and the bird comes out. But ordinary men are eggs that require hatching for lives to develop the bird. The born psychics are like a field by the side of a reservoir of water on a higher level. It only requires the opening of the sluice to flood the field with water. It only requires some exciting cause to make a born psychic a developed Yoga. Ordinary men are, however, like fields, which are away from any source of water, and which require to be irrigated by bringing water from a distance, with great exertion, in this life. A Yogi having attained the power of Samadhi, sets about destroying his past Karmas. All Karma may be divided into three classes :-(l) The acts done in the past whose consequences the man must suffer in the present life : the Karmas to expiate which he has taken the present birth or incarnation. They are the ripe Karmas (Prarabdha). (2) The Karmas done in the past, but which are not ripe, and will have to be expiated in some future life. They are the stored Karmas or unripe (Samchita). (3) The Karmas which a man creates in his present life, and which have to be expiated in a future or the present life. This last kind of act- the fresh Karmas, are stopped. By devotion to the Lord and doing everything in a spirit of service, no fresh karmas are generated. The incurring of debt is stopped.

The man, however, has to pay off past debts -the ripe and unripe Karmas. The ripe Karmas will produce their effects in the present life. The Yogi does not trouble himself about this. But the unripe or stored Karmas require a future birth, It is here that the Yoga is of the greatest practical importance. The Yogi is not bound to wait for future lives in order to get an opportunity to pay off the debt of Sanchita Karmas. He simultaneously creates all the bodies that those Sanchita Karmas require -through those bodies expiates all his Karmas simultaneously. Every one of such body has a Chitta or mentality of his own. This is the Nirmana-Chitta or the Artificial mind-like the Pseudo-Personalities of hypnotic trance. These artificial minds arise simultaneously like so many sparks from the Ahamkaric matter of the Yogi's Self, and they ensoul the artificial bodies created for them. These artificial bodies with artificial minds in them mdk through the earth in hundreds they are distinguished from ordinary men by the fact that they are perfectly methodical in all their acts, and automatic in their lives. All these artificial are controlled by the consciousness of the Yogi. 

One conscionsness controlling hundred automatons. Every one of these automatons has a particular destiny, a particular portion of the Sanchita Karma to exhaust. As soon as that destiny is fulfilled, the Yogi withdraws his ray from it, and the "man" dies a sudden death-a heart failure generally. Now what is the difference between the ordinary mind and the Yoga-created mind-the natural Chitta and the artificial Chitta. The natural mind by experience gains a habit, the impressions are stored in it and they, as Vasanas, become the seeds of desires and activities. The artifical mind is incapable of storing up impressions in it. It has no Vasanas and consequently it disintegrates as soon as the body falls down.

The actions performed by the Yogi, through his ordinary or the extraordinary bodies-through the body with which he was born, or through the bodies which he gives birth to by Yoga power-are no actions in the ethical sense of the word. They are not Karmas-neither good nor bad. They are the paying up of the past debts, and not incurring of fresh liabilities. With ordinary men the actions are good or bad, or a mixture of both-white or black or gray, all such actions produce their effect --particular kind of birth, particular length of life period, particular kinds of life experiences-or produce their effect as tendencies to certain kinds of actions, Both kinds of effects constitute the fate or the destiny of man.

Tendency is memory. The essence of memory is converted into tendency. The tendencies with which a man is born are the extracts of all the memories of a particular kind. The events of the past life are not remembered, but from the tendencies of the present life one can easily infer what those events must have been to give rise to these tendencies. The surgical operation may be forgotten, because performed under chloroform, or in infancy, but from the nature of the cicatrix one can infer what must have been the nature of the operation. Therefore, the Smriti (memory) and Samskara (tendency or habit) are really one (Ekaruptava)- IV. 9.  Acts produce habits, habits lead to acts-the circle of Vasana is eternal, and beginningless. Is it possible to break this chain of habits and acts, acts and habits? Jnana is the only means. Through Jnana alone is possible to destroy this inexorable chain of causation. 

Now what is this Jnana or wisdom? It is the realisation of the distinction between the Purusa or Spirit, and Prakriti or mind-matter-energy. Purusa is pure consciousness or rather Chitsakti--power of consciousness. By his proximity to Prakriti (mind-energy-matter) it induces in the latter his quality. This induction takes place in the purest part of Prakriti in the Buddhic-essence (the mental portion of Prakriti) : Just as soft iron becomes magnetised by its proximity to iron. Thus Chit-sakti or consciousness is two-fold,-the pure consciousness of  the spirit or spiritual consciousness and the consciousness of the Buddhi-sattva or mental consciousness. The pure Buddhisattva (devoid of Rajas and Tamas) reflects the spirit and appears likes spirit and is mistaken for it. The Jnana consists in the discrimination of this difference realising that the Chitta is the instrument and not the Self. In the state of Samadhi, when this highest knowledge is realised, then arises the positive activity of the Spirit. Up to this time the effort was in a sense negative only- separating the Spirit from mind-energy-matter. When this separation is realised, then the Spirit manifests its own attributes fully. 

This manifestation of the attributes (dharma) of the Spirit on its own plane above the planes of Prakriti (mind-energy-matter) is the highest form of Samadhi. It is positive Samadhi and is called Dharma-Megha Samadhi. Dharma means highest activity, above the sphere of causation, where the actions are neither white, black nor grey, an activity that leads to the highest end of Man- an activity which is the highest end of Man. It is called Megha or cloud, because this state of Samadhi rains such Dharma -is full of Dharma and Dharma alone. It is the cloud which showers all blessings on the lower planes-while the Man himself basks in the Light of to Eternal Sun. Every Mukta Yogi is a Dharma-Megha-the Cloud  of Holiness-the showerer of good and nothing but good on all creation. A man who has become a Dharma-Megha- a Cloud of Holiness, is above all afflictions and Karmas, his mind is free from all taints, and there is nothing that is beyond the scope of his knowledge. Being the Cloud of Dharma all attributes are known to him. Then the man is in his Svarupa -this is Kaivalya, this is Self-realisation-the state of true Freedom, though full of highest activity. Such a Man, the Dharma-Megha, the Cloud of Holiness, is a blessing to the thirsting humanity-nay a blessing to the whole creation. 

Dated, 24th February 1910. 

Book 1