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PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS
others, he begins to create an atmosphere around himself within which violence and enmity must cease to exist because they find no reciprocation. Animals, too, are sensitive to such an atmosphere. Wild beasts may be temporarily cowed with whips, but they can only be rendered harmless by the power of genuine harmlessness, as every good trainer knows. A lady who was accustomed to handle deadly snakes used to explain: “You see, they know I won't hurt them.”
“The test of ahimsa (harmlessness) is absence of jealousy,” said Swami Vivekananda. “The so-called great men of the world may all be seen to become jealous of each other for a small name, for a little fame, and for a few bits of gold. So long as this jealousy exists in a heart, it is far away from the perfection of ahimsa.”
सत्यप्रतिष्ठायां क्रियाफलाश्रयत्वम् ॥३६॥ 36. When a man becomes steadfast in his abstention from
falsehood he gets the power of obtaining for himself and others the fruits of good deeds, without having to
perform the deeds themselves. An ordinary man is said to be truthful when his words correspond to the facts of which he speaks. But when a man becomes perfected in truthfulness, he gains control, so to speak, of the truth. He no longer has to "obey” facts; facts obey him. He cannot think or even dream a lie; everything he says becomes true. If he blesses someone, that person is blessed-no matter whether the blessing was deserved or not. He has, in other words, the power of conferring the fruits of good deeds” in a manner which is not subject to the Law of Karma. He can also perform miraculous cures by simply telling the sick man that he is well.
अस्तेयप्रतिष्ठायां सर्वरत्नोपस्थानम् ॥३७॥ 37. When a man becomes steadfast in his abstention from
