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

Before these we had the Pranayama, the Asana, the Yama and Niyama ; these are external parts of these three — Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. Yet these latter even are external to the seedless Samadhi. When a man has attained to them he may attain to omniscience and omnipotence, but that would not be salvation. These three would not make the mind Nirvikalpa, changeless, but would leave the seeds for getting bodies again, only when the seeds are, as the Yogi says, "fried," do they lose the possibihty of producing further plants. These powers cannot fry the seed.

8. But even they are external to the seedless

(Samadhi).

Compared with that seedless Samadhi, therefore, even these are external. We have not yet reached the real Samadhi, the highest, but to a lower stage, in which this universe still exists as we see it, and in which are all these powers.

9. By the suppression of the disturbed modifications of the mind, and by the rise of modifications of control, the mind is said to attain the controlling modifications— following the controlling poiwers of the mind.

I go RAJA YOGA.

That is to say, in this first state of Samadhi, the modifications of the mind have been controlled, but not perfectly, because if they were, there would be no modifications. If there is a modification which impels the mind to rush out through the senses, and the Yogi tries to control it, that very control itself will be a modification. One wave will be checked by another wave, so it will not be real Samadhi, when all the waves have subsided, as control itself will be a wave. Yet this lower Samadhi is very much nearer to the higher Samadhi than when the mind comes bubbling out.

10. Its flow becomes steady by habit.

The flow of this continuous control of the mind becomes steady when practised day after day, and the mind obtains the faculty of constant concentration.

11. Taking in all sorts of objects, and concentrating upon one object, these two powers being destroyed and manifested respectively, the Chitta gets the modiflcation called Samadhi.

The mind is taking up various objects, running into all sorts of things, and then there is a higher state of the mind, when it takes up one object, and excludes all others. Samadhi is the result of that.

12. The one-pointedness of the Chitta is iwhen it grasps in one, the past and present.

How are we to know that the mind has become con-

YOGA APHORISMS. igi

centrated ? Because time will vanish. The more time vanishes the more concentrated we are. In common life we see that when we are interested in a book we do not note the time at all, and when we leave the book we are often surprised to find how many hours have passed. All time will have the tendency to come and stand in the one present. So the definition is given, when the past and present come and stand in one, the more concentrated the mind.

13. By this is explained the threefold transformations of form, time and state, in fine or gross matter, and in the organs.

By this the threefold changes in the mind-stuff as to form, time, and state, are explained. The mind-stuff is changing into Vrittis, this is change as to form. To be able to hold the changes to the present time is change as to time. To be able to make the mind-stuff go to the past forms, giving up the present even, is change as to state. The concentrations taught in the preceding aphorisms were to give the Yogi a voluntary control over the transformations of his mind-stuff, which alone will enable him to make the Samyama before named.

14. That which is acted upon by transformations, either past, present or yet to be manifested, is the qualified.

That is to say, the qualified is the substance which is ic,2 RAJA YOGA.

being acted upon by time and by the Samskaras, and getting changed and being manifested all the time.

15. The succession of changes is the cause of manifold evolution.

16. By making Samyama on the three sorts of