Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali

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

Page 90

YOGA AND ITS PRACTICE
There are three kinds of karma: the karma which has already been created and stored up, so that it will bear fruit in some future life, the karma created in the past or in some previous life, which is bearing fruit at the present moment, and the karma which we are now in the process of creating by our thoughts and acts. Of these, the already existing karmas are beyond our control; we can only wait until they have worked themselves out, and accept their fruits with courage and patience. But the karmas which we are now creating—“the pain which is yet to come”-can be avoided. Not by ceasing to act—that would be impossible, even if it were desirable-but by ceasing to desire the fruits of action for oneself. If we dedicate the fruits of action to God, we shall gradually unwind the wheel of karma and thus avoid its pain.
द्रष्टदृश्ययोः संयोगो हेयहेतुः ॥१७ ।। 17. This pain is caused by false identification of the experi
encer with the object of experience. It may be avoided. “The experiencer” is the Atman, our real nature. "The object of experience” is the totality of the apparent world, including the mind and the senses. In reality, the Atman alone exists, "One without a second,” eternally free. But by the false identification through maya, which is the mystery of our present predicament, the Atman is mistaken for the individual ego, subject to all the thought-waves which arise and trouble the mind. That is why we imagine that we are “unhappy" or “happy”, “angry” or “lustful". The Gita reminds us that this is not really the case:
The illumined soul.... Thinks always: “I am doing nothing." No matter what he sees, Hears, touches, smells, eats.... This he knows always: “I am not seeing, I am not hearing: