Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali

Author(s): Prabhavnanda Swami, Christopher Isherwood
Publisher: Ramkrishna Math Madras

Page 21

YOGA AND ITS AIMS
of the little limited love we all experience. To love someone, even in the usual human manner, is to get a brief, dim glimpse of something within that person which is tremendous, aweinspiring, and eternal. In our ignorance, we think that this "something” is unique. He or she, we say, is like nobody else. That is because our perception of the Reality is clouded and obscured by the external manifestations—the character and individual qualities of the person we love-and by the way in which our own ego-sense reacts to them. Nevertheless, this weak flash of perception is a valid spiritual experience and it should encourage us to purify our minds and make them fit for that infinitely greater kind of love which always awaits us. This love is not restless or transient, like our human love. It is secure and eternal and calm. It is absolutely free from desire, because lover and beloved have become one. Note the following from the Bhagavad-Gita:
Water flows continually into the ocean But the ocean is never disturbed: Desire flows into the mind of the seer But he is never disturbed. The seer knows peace... He knows peace who has forgotten desire.
He lives without craving: Free from ego, free from pride.
वितर्कविचारानन्दास्मितानुगमात् सम्प्रज्ञातः ॥१७॥
17.
Concentration upon a single object may reach four stages: examination, discrimination, joyful peace and simple awareness of individuality.
In order to understand this and the following aphorisms, we must now study the structure of the universe as it is presented in Vedanta philosophy. (Vedanta is the philosophy based on the teachings of the Vedas—the earliest Hindu scriptures.)