Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali

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

Page 39

YOGA AND ITS AIMS
become one with Ishwara. (Indeed, the desire to become Ishwara, the Ruler of the universe, would be the most insane of all egotistical desires it seems to be typified, in Christian literature, by the story of the fall of Lucifer.) In the state of union with Brahman, both Ishwara and His universe are transcended, since both are merely projections of Brahman.
तत्र निरतिशयं सर्वज्ञत्वबीजम् ॥२५॥ 25. In Him, knowledge is infinite; in others it is only a
germ.
स पूर्वेषामपि गुरुः कालेनानवच्छेदात् ॥२६॥ 26. He was the teacher even of the earliest teachers, since
He is not limited by time.
These two aphorisms deal with Ishwara's attribute of omniscience. If we admit the existence of knowledge-no matter how limited-in man, we must deduce from it the existence of infinite knowledge in God. Further, granted that everybody must have a teacher, Patanjali reasons that the teacher of the first teacher can only have been God, since He alone, being timeless, was present before teachers began.
er area: gura: 11 poll 27. The word which express Him is OM.
तज्जपस्तदर्थभावनम् ॥२८॥ 28 This word must be repeated with meditation upon its
meaning.
ततः प्रत्यकचेतनाधिगमोऽप्यन्तरायाभावश्च ॥२६॥ 29. Hence comes knowledge of the Atman and destruction
of the obstacles to that knowledge.