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

and all can follow in their steps. In •the 'th-i-rd -pLice-, there is no other way left. There is no other explanation. Taking for granted that there is no higher state, whyare we going through this circle all the time ; what reason can explain the world ? The sensible will be the limit to our knowledge if we cannot go farther, if we must not ask for anything more. This is what is called agnosticism. But what reason is there to believe in the testimony of the senses ? I would call that man a true agnostic who would stand still in the street and die. If reason is all in all it leaves us no place to stand on this side of nihilism. If a man is agnostic of everything but money, fame and name, he is only a fraud. Kant has proved beyond all doubt that we cannot penetrate beyond the tremendous dead wall called reason. But that is the very first idea upon which all Indian thought takes its stand, and dares to seek, and succeeds in finding something higher than reason, where alone the explanation of the present state is to be found. This is the value of the study of something that will take us beyond the world. " Thou art our Father, and wilt take us to the other shore of this ocean of ignorance " ; that is the science of religion ; nothing else can be.

THE YOGA APHORISMS.

CHAPTER I.

1. Now concentration is explained.

2. Yoga is restraining the mind-stuff (Chitta) from taking various forms (Yrittis).

A good deal of explanation is necessary here. We have to understand what Chitta is, and what are these Vrittis. I have this eye. Eyes do not see. Takeaway the brain centre which is in the head, the eyes will still be there, the retina; complete, and also the picture, and yet the eyes will not see. So the eyes are only a secondary instrument, not the organ of vision. The organ of vision is in the nerve centre of the brain. The two eyes will not be sufficient alone. Sometimes a man is asleep with his eyes open. The light is there and the picture is there, but a third thing is necessary ; mind must be joined to the organ. The eye is the external instrument, we need also the brain centre and the agency of the mind. Carriages roll down a street and you do not hear them. Why ? Because your mind has not attached itself to the organ of hearing. First, there is the instrument.

then there is the organ, and third, the mind attachment to these two. The mind takes the impression farther in, and presents it to the determinative faculty — Buddhi — which reacts. Along with this reaction flashes the idea of egoism. Then this mixture of action and reaction is presented to the Purusa, the real Soul, who perceives an object in this mixture. The organs (Indriyas), together with the mind (Manas), the determinative faculty (Buddhi), and egoism (Ahamkara), form the group called the Antahkarana (the internal instrument). They are but various processes in the mind-stufF, called Chitta. The waves of thought in the Chitta are called Vritti (" the whirlpool" is the literal translation). What is thought ? Thought is a force, as is gravitation or repulsion. It is absorbed from the infinite storehouse of force in nature ; the instrument called Chitta takes hold of that force, and, when it passes out at the other end it is called thought. This force is supplied to us through food, and out of that food the body obtains the power of motion, etc. Others, the finer forces, it throws out in what we call thought. Naturally we see that the mind is not intelligent ; yet it appears to be intelligent. Why ? Because the intelligent soul is behind it. You are the only sentient being ; mind is only the instrument through which you catch the external world. Take this book; as a book it does not exist outside, what exists outside is unknown and unknowable. It is the suggestion that gives a blow to the mind, and the mind gives out the reaction. If a stone is thrown into the water the water