________________
POWERS
133
suffering can be robbed of its continuity and made much more tolerable. For suffering is largely composed of our memory of past pain and our fear of repeated pain in the future, and this memory and this fear are dependent on our consciousness of a time-sequence. जाति-लक्षण-देशैरन्यताऽनवच्छेदात्तुल्ययोस्ततः
sferyfa: 11%811 Thus one is able to distinguish between two exactly similar objects, which cannot be distinguished by their
species, characteristic marks, or positions in space. Suppose you took two exactly similar, newly minted coins, showed first one, then the other; then changed them behind your back and showed them again. The yogi who had made this samyama would, according to Patanjali, be able to tell you correctly which one you had showed him first.
The spiritual value of this power of discrimination lies, of course, in one's ability to distinguish always between the Atman and the non-Atman, the outward appearance, however deceptive the latter may be. तारकं सर्वविषयं सर्वथाविषयमक्रमञ्चेति
विवेकजं ज्ञानम् ॥५५॥ 55. This discriminative knowledge delivers a man from the
bondage of ignorance. It comprehends all objects simultaneously, at every moment of their existence and in all their modifications.
Ordinary knowledge based on sense-perception is sequence. We learn one fact about a given object, then another fact, then more and more facts. But the yogi who possesses discriminative knowledge understands objects totally and immediately. If, for example, he meets another human being, he knows him at once in all his past and future modifications, as a baby, a
