Raja Yoga (the Yoga Sūtras with commentary) — trans. Swami Vivekananda (1896)

This Prana is the vital force in every being, and the finest and highest action of Prana is thought. This thought, again, as we sec, is not all. There is also a sort of thought which we call instinct, or unconscious thought, the lowest plane of action. If a mosf]uito stings us, without thinking, our hand will strike it, automatically, instinctively. This is one expression of thought. ;\11 refle.x actions of the body belong to this plane of thought. There is then a still higher plane of thought, the conscious. I reason, I judge, I think, I see the pros and cons of certain things ; yet that is not all. W'e know that reason is limited. There is only a certain extent to which reason can go ; beyond that it cannot reach. The circle within which it runs is very very limited indeed. Yet, at the same time, we find fact;-

PR ANA.

rush into this circle. Like the coming of comets certain things are coming into this circle, and it is certain they come from outside the Hmit, although our reason cannot go beyond. The causes of the phenomena protruding themselves in this small limit are outside of this limit. The reason and the intellect cannot reach them, but, says the Yogi, that is not all. The mind can exist on a still higher plane, the super-conscious. When the mind has attained to that state, which is called Samadhi, — perfect concentration, super-consciousness — it goes beyond the limits of reason, and comes face to face with facts which no instinct or reason can ever know. All these manipulations of the subtle forces of the body, the different manifestations of Prana, if trained, give a push to the mind, and the mind goes up higher, and becomes super-conscious, and from that plane it acts.

In this universe there is one continuous mass on every plane of existence. Physically this universe is one ; there is no difference between the sun and you. The scientist will tell you it is only a fiction to say the contrary. There is no real difference between the table and me ; the table is one point in the mass of matter, and I another point. Each form represents, as it were, one whirlpool in the infinite ocean of matter, and these are not constant. Just as in a rushing stream there may be millions of whirlpools, and the water in each of these whirlpools is fresh every moment, turning round and round for a few seconds, and then passing out at the other end, and fresh particles of water coming in, so this