Book Title: Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali
Author(s): Prabhavnanda Swami, Christopher Isherwood
Publisher: Ramkrishna Math Madras

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Page 149
________________ 138 PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS farfurfergruf HATHETE 11811 4. The ego-sense alone can create minds. प्रवृत्तिभेदे प्रयोजकं चित्तमेकमनेकेषाम् ॥५॥ 5. Though the activities of the different created minds are various, the one original mind controls them all. These two aphorisms refer to the psychic power of creating for oneself a number of subsidiary minds and bodies, over which the original mind maintains control. Since it is the ego-sense which creates an individual mind (I, 17), it is theoretically evident that this ego-sense should be able to create subsidiary minds, revolving like satellites around the original. The idea is that the yogi might wish to have several minds and bodies in order to exhaust all of his karma more quickly. But the wisdom of this plan would seem to be doubtful. There is a story of a king who made himself many bodies, hoping in this way to exhaust his craving for sexual enjoyment. But finally he abandoned the attempt declaring: “Lust is never satisfied by gratification; it only flares up more and more, like a fire fed with butter. Patanjali seems to admit this in the next aphorism: ET EZIGGAGIERTA 11ę ll 6. Of the various types of mind, only that which is purified by samadhi is freed from all latent impressions of karma and from all cravings. In other words, karma can only be exhausted by spiritual realization; never by mere satiety of experience. कर्माशुक्लाकृष्णं योगिनस्त्रिविधमितरेषाम् ॥७॥ 7. The karma of the yogi is neither white nor black. The karma of others is of three kinds: white, black, or mixed,

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