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

Various races differ in their processes. Just as in the same society some individuals want to control external nature, and others want to control internal nature, so, among races, some want to control the external nature, and some the internal. Some say that by controlhng internal nature we control everything ; some that by controlling external nature we control everything. Carried to the extreme both are right, because there is ) neither internal nor external. It is a fictitious limitation that never existed. Both are destined to meet at the same point, the externalists and the internalists, when both reach the extreme of their knowledge. Just as the physician, when he pushes his knowledge to its limits, linds it melting away into metaphysics, so the metaphysician will find that what he calls mind and matter are but apparent distinctions, which will have to vanish for ever.

The end and aim of all science is to fmd a unit, thai One out of which all this manifold is being manufactured, that One existing as many. R&ja Yoga proposes to start from the internal world, to study internal nature, and, through that, control the whole — both internal and external. It is a very old attempt. India has been its special stronghold, but it was also attempted by other nations. In Western countries it is thought to be mysticism. People who wanted to practise it were eitlier burned or killed as witches and sorcerers, and in India, for various reasons, it fell into the hands of persons who destroyed 90 per cent, of the knowledge, and of that portion which remained tried to make a great secret. In modern times many so-called teachers have arisen worse than those of India, Injcause the latter knew something, v.hile these modern exponents do not.

Anything that is secret and mysterious in these s)slems of Yoga should be at once rejected. The best guide in life is strength. In religion, as in everything else, discard everything that weakens you, have nothing to do with it. AH mystery-mongering weakens the human brain. Through it this science of Yoga has been v.ell nigh destroyed, but it is really one of the grandest

INTRODUCTORY.

of sciences. From the time that it was discovered, more than 4000 years ago, it was perfectly deHneated and formulated and preached in India, and it is a striking fact, that the more modern the commentator, the greater the mistakes he makes. The more ancient the writer on it the more rational he is. Most of the modern writers talk of all sorts of mystery. Thus it fell into the hands of a few persons who made it a secret, instead of letting the full blaze of daylight and reason fall upon it, and they did so that they might have the powers to themselves.

In the first place there is no mystery in what I preach. What little I know I will tell you. So far as I can reason it out I will do so, but what I do not knoAV I will simply tell you that it is what the books say. It is wrong to blindly beheve. You must exercise your own reason and judgment ; you must practise, and see whether these things happen or not. Just as you would take up any other science of a material nature, exactly in the same manner you should take up this science for study. There is neither mystery nor danger in it. So far as it is true it ought to be preached in the public streets, in the broad daylight. Any attempt to mystify these things is productive of great danger.