Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali

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

Page 37

YOGA AND ITS AIMS
All we can say is this- -no effort, however small, is wasted, and the harder we try, the sooner we shall succeed.
27
ईश्वरप्रणिधानाद्वा ॥२३॥
23. Concentration may also be attained through devotion to Ishwara.
क्लेशकर्मविपाकाशयैरपरामृष्टः पुरुषविशेष
ईश्वरः ॥ २४॥
24. Ishwara is a special kind of Being, untouched by ignorance and the products of ignorance, not subject to karmas or samskaras or the results of action.
Here, for the first time, Patanjali introduces the idea of God. According to Vedanta philosophy Ishwara is the supreme Ruler of the universe-its Creator, Sustainer and Dissolver. Brahman, the ultimate Reality, cannot properly be said to create, sustain or dissolve, since Brahman is, by definition, without attributes. Ishwara is Brahman seen within Prakriti. He corresponds, more or less, to God the Father in the Christian tradition.
What is important is the concept of devotion. Liberation, as we have already seen, can be reached without devotion to God. But this is a subtle and dangerous path, threading its way through the pitfalls of ambition and pride. Devotion to a personal ideal of God brings with it a natural inclination to humility and service. It sweetens the dryness of intellectual discrimination and calls forth the highest kind of love of which man is capable. We cannot even imagine Brahman until the moment of our liberation, but we can all imagine Ishwara, according to our different natures-for Ishwara has attributes which our minds can recognize. Ishwara is all that we can know of the Reality until we pass beyond Prakriti.
If we set ourselves to serve Ishwara, if we dedicate our actions and surrender our wills to Him, we shall find that He