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AWAKENING OF ENERGY-VALUE AND PURPOSE
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natural characteristics of objects. They are products of physical combinations. Gross combinations of atoms and our experiences thereof produce the feelings of lightness and weight. Once the combinations are changed, lightness and weight will disappear. Bigness or smallness or lightness or weight are not the basic characteristics of physical objects. Therefore, we should not wonder if an object raises itself up in the air. Magicians produce several kinds of miracles. These appear to be miracles to those who do not know the art of magic. Even ordinary men who have mastered some of the rules of the art of magic can produce these so-called miracles.
If you wrote something on a white sheet of paper with a certain kind of chemical fluid, the characters of your writing will not be visible. But as soon the paper has been soaked in water, they will become distinctly visible. This may appear to be a miracle, but anyone who knows the rules of the gam will not think so.
The first kindling of fire in primitive times must have appeared to be a miracle. Men who stood before it might have wondered how there were light and heat in the fire. They might have thought the kindling and extinguishing of fire to be miracles. For us, however, there is no miracle in them.
Meditation does not produce miracles. Sādhanā is not a matter of wonder. Self-exertion is not a magical practice. They are practices according to the rules of nature. Those who have understood the nature of the soul, of bodily energy and the instruments of sådhanā know how nature works through them. As the ordinary man is ignorant of these rules, he takes them to be miracles.
Yoga is not a miracle, but a rational and simple process of spiritual progress. There is nothing supernatural or unnatural about it. Everyone has a tongue, speech and body and he works with these mediums. What the practitioner needs to know is the causes and methods by which dormant energy can be aroused. He has to render a sort of 'operation' of those causes which keep energy dormant and inffective. Once these causes have been removed and their operation has been carried out a state of physical and mental balance will be achieyed and that is yoga.
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