Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali

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

Page 36

PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS
through being used. This is a very simple and obvious, yet perpetually amazing truth. Every creative artist knows those days of apparently blank stupidity and lack of inspiration on which he has to force himself to work. And then, suddenly, after hours of toiling, the effort is rewarded; ideas and enthusiasm begin to flow into him. In all our undertakings, the little daily effort is all-important. The muscles of our energy must be continually exercised. Thus, gradually, we gain momentum and purpose.
As faith increases through personal experience and energy grows through practice, the mind acquires a direction. It becomes recollected, in the basic meaning of the word. Our thoughts have been scattered, as it were, all over the mental field. Now we begin to collect them again and to direct them toward a single goal-knowledge of the Atman. As we do this we find ourselves becoming increasingly absorbed in the thought of what we are seeking. And so, at length, absorption merges into illumination, and the knowledge is ours.
तीव्रसंवेगानामासन्नः ॥२१॥ 21. Success in yoga comes quickly to those who are intense
ly energetic.
मृदुमध्याधिमात्रत्वात्ततोऽपि विशेषः ॥२२॥ 22. Success varies according to the means adopted to obtain
it-mild, medium or intense. · Theoretically, there is no reason why we should not achieve the state of perfect yoga within the space of a single secondsince the Atman is eternally within us and our ignorance of this fact could be instantaneously dispelled. Practically, however, our progress is retarded by our past karmas, our present fears and desires, and the relative strength of our energy. No one can generalize about the period required-it might, in any individual case, extend over months, years or lifetimes.