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Yoga-salaka
(i, e. the relatively impure) type of sâmāyika is to be viewed as some thing like the arrival (i. e. mere arrival) at a place containing ornaments.
10. Activity on the part of such one (i. e. one in possession of the pure type of sāmāyika) takes place simply because that is scriptural injunction just as the potter's wheel whirls simply because it is in conjunction with the stick; moreover, it takes place merely due to the persistence of a past habit (just as the potter's wheel wbirls due to the momentum acquired from an antecedent contact with the stick).
20. That is why the ascetic bas often been described in the scriptural texts as one wbo accords an identical treatment to the man striking him with an axe and one smearing him with sandal-paste, * as one who adopts an identical attitude towards pleasure and pain, as one who develops attachment neither towards the worldly life nor towards mokşa.
21. These various types o conduct appropriate to the various stages of spiritual development, since they are iningled with the nectar of scriptural injunction (i.e. since even if undertaken spontaneously they happen to be enjoined by scriptures ), are all yoga.
22. They are yoga because they satisfy the definition of the term yoga' (i. e. the definition that all proper conduct is yoga ), because all of them (somehow) involve a cessation of (certain) mental modes ("the cessation of mental modes' being Patñjali's definition of yoga), because they connect the soul with moksa (i. e. they lead it to moksa) as a result of its thus tending to perform virtuous acts (this broadly covering both the earlier definitions of yoga).
23. Even in the case of these (various types of yoga-seekers ) it is quite often an external (i. e. scriptural) injunction that is responsible for the tendency towards a proper type of conduct -- a tendency that is thus (i, e, on account of its being accompanied by a deep faith in scriptural injunctions) rendered very pure.
24. Hence the preceptor should administer befitting discourses to these (various types of yoga-seekers ) after having estimated through the above-mentioned signs their respective stages of spiritual development - just as the physician administers appropriate medicines (to his patients after having diagnosed their respective ailments through various symptoms).
* The phrase 'vāsi-candana-kalpa' can also be interpreted as one akin to the sandal-tree sought to be chopped off by an axe.' In that case the idea sought to be conveyed here will be that just as the axe that seeks to chop off the sandal-tree is made fragrant by this tree the man who seeks to harm the ascetic is sought to be benefitted by this ascetic.
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