Raja Yoga (the Yoga Sūtras with commentary) — trans. Swami Vivekananda (1896)
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The translator’s English as printed (Swami Vivekananda). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
60. By giving up even these comes the destruction of the very seed of evil ; he attains Kaivalya.
He attains aloneness, independence. Then that man is free. When he gives up even the ideas of omnipotence and omniscience, there will be entire rejection of enjoyment, of the temptations from celestial beings. When the Yogi has seen all these wonderful powers, and rejected them, he reaches the goal. What are all these powers ? Simply manifestations. They are no better than dreams. Even omnipotence is a dream. It depends on the mind. So long as there is a mind it can be understood, but the goal is beyond even the mind.
51. There should be entire rejection of enjoyment of the temptations from celestial beings, for fear of evil again.
There are other dangers too ; gods and other beings come to tempt the Yogi. They do not want anyone to be perfectly free. They are jealous, just as we are, and
YOGA APHORISMS.
worse than we sometimes. They are very much afraid of losing their places. Those Yogis who do not reach perfection die and become gods ; leaving the direct road they go into one of the side streets, and get these powers. Then again they have to be born ; but he who is strong enough to withstand these temptations, and go straight to the goal, becomes free.
52. By making Samyama on a particle of time and its multiples comes discrimination.
How are we to avoid all these things, these Devas, and heavens, and powers ? By discrimination, by knowing good from evil. Therefore a Samyama is given by which the power of discrimination can be strengthened. This is by making a Samyama on a particle of time.
53. Those which cannot be differentiated by species, sign and place, even they will be discriminated by the above Samyama.
The misery that we suffer comes from ignorance, from non-discrimination between the real and the unreal. We are all taking that which is bad for that which is good, and that which is a dream for that which is real. Soul is the only reality, and we have forgotten it. Body is an unreal dream, and we think we are all bodies. So this non-discrimination is the cause of misery, and it is caused by ignorance. When discrimination comes it brings strength, and then alone can we avoid all these various ideas of body, and heavens, and gods and Devas. This ignorance arises through differentiating by species, sign or place. For instance, take a cow. The cow is differentiated from the dog, as species. Even with the cows alone how do we make the distinction between one cow and another ? By signs. If two objects are exactly similar they can be distinguished if they are in different places. When objects are so mixed up that even these differentiae will not help us, the power of discrimination acquired by the above-mentioned practice will give us the ability to distinguish them. The highest philosophy of the Yogi is based upon this fact, that the Purusa is pure and perfect, and is the only simple that exists in this universe. The body and mind are compounds, and yet we are ever identifying ourselves with them. That is the great mistake that the distinction has been lost. When this power of discrimination has been attained, man sees that everything in this world, mental and physical, is a compound, and, as such, cannot be the Purusa.
64. The saving knowledge is that knowledge of discrimination which covers all objects, aii means.
Isolation, that is the goal; when that is attained, the soul will find that it was alone all the time, and it required no one to make it happy. As long as we require someone else to make us happy we are slaves. When the Purusa finds that It is free, and does not require anything to complete Itself, that this nature is quite unnecessary, then freedom is attained. Then comes this Kaivalya.