Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali

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

Page 98

YOGA AND ITS PRACTICE
actions of the illumined saint differ from the actions of ordinary men, because they are not motivated by any attachment or selfish desire. They are, in the most literal sense of the word, voluntary action. Action, for the rest of us, is only partially voluntary; it always contains an element of compulsion due to our past karmas and present involvements in the life of the senses. For this reason, the behaviour of a saint is often very hard for us to understand; it seems strange, arbitrary or capricious, precisely because it is not subject to our familiar compulsions. A great teacher was once asked to explain one of the most seemingly mysterious actions recorded in the Gospels, Christ's cursing of a barten fig tree. “Become a Christ,” he replied smilingly, "and then you will know why he did that.”
e. Next comes the realization that the mind and the objective world have both ended their services to the experiencer. The mind has been the instrument, and the world the object of the experience whereby the experiencer has come to know the Atman, his real nature. The mind has been used to transcend the mind, just as we use a ladder to "transcend” a ladder. Once we have reached the sill of the window against which it rested, the ladder can be kicked away; we do not need it any more.
f. Now the stored-up impressions within the mind, and the gunas themselves, fall away forever, “like rocks,” (to quote one of the classical commentators) “fallen from the top of the mountain peak, never to return."
g. And so the final stage is reached—the state of eternal existence in union with the Atman. Now there is no more returning from samadhi to partial sense-consciousness, no more identification with the mind. We realize, in the words of Vivekananda, “that we have been alone throughout the universe, neither body nor mind was ever related, much less joined, to us. They were working their own way, and we,