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

fanaticism, some superstition which injured the world as much as the greatness of the teaching did good. To get any reason out of this mass of incongruity we call human life Ave have to transcend our reason, but we must do it scientifically, slowly, by regular practice, and we must cast off all superstition. We must take it up just as any other science, reason we must have to lay our foundation, we must follow reason as far as it leads, and when reason fails reason itself will show us the way to the highest plane. So whenever we hear a man say " I am inspired," and then talk the most irrational nonsense, simply reject it. Why ? Because these three states of the mind — instinct, reason^^nd super-consciousness, or the unconscious, conscious, and super-conscious states — belong to one and the same mind. There are not three minds in one man, but one develops into the other. Instinct develops into reason, and reason into the transcendental consciousness ; therefore one never contradicts the other. So, whenever you meet with wild statements which contradict human reason and common sense, reject them without any fear, because the real inspiration will never contradict, but will fulfil. Just as you find the great prophets saying, " I come not to destroy but to fulfil," so this inspiration always comes to fulfil reason, and is in direct harmony with reason, and whenever it contradicts reason you must know that it is not inspiration.

All the different steps in Yoga are intended to bring us scientifically to the super-conscious state, or Samadhi.

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Furthermore, this is a most vital point to understand, that inspiration is as much in every man's nature as it was in the ancient prophets. These prophets were not unique ; they were just the same as you or I. They were great Yogis. They had gained this super-consciousness, and you and I can get the same. They were not pecuHar people. The very fact that one man ever reached that state will prove that it is possible for every man to do so. Not only is it possible, but every man must, eventually, get to that state, and that is religion. Experience is the only teacher we ha\ e. We may talk and reason all our lives, without ever understanding a word of truth, until we experience it ourselves. You cannot hope to make a man a surgeon by simply giving him a few books. You cannot satisfy my curiosity to see a country by showing me a map ; I must have actual experience. Maps can only create a little curiosity in us to get more perfect knowledge, l^eyond that, they have no value whatever. All clinging to books only degenerates the human mind. Was there ever a more horrible blasphemy than to say that all the knowledge of God is confined in this or that book ? How dare men call God infinite, and yet try to compress Him into the covers of a little book! Millions of people have been killed because they did not believe what the books say, because they would not see all the knowledge of God within the covers of a book. Of course this killing and murdering has gone by, but the world is still tremendously bound up in a belief in books.