Vivekananda turns an aphorism about the yogi's own transformation into a reply to Darwin. His comment on the aphorism before reads the change into another species as the yogi's, and the farmer who opens a sluice is Patanjali's image for powers the yogi already has. Here the image is widened to all life, and the lecture hails the "great ancient evolutionist, Patanjali" as author of a rival theory: progress comes from a perfection already present, and competition is a by-product of ignorance. Sexual selection and the survival of the fittest, he says, hand "every oppressor with an argument" to quiet his conscience, and self-styled philosophers would kill off the incompetent. The passage is aimed at the social Darwinism of his audience's day, more than at anything in the sutra.
Raja Yoga (the Yoga Sūtras with commentary) — trans. Swami Vivekananda (1896)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
The translator’s English as printed (Swami Vivekananda). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
broken and nature rushes in. It is nature that is driving us towards perfection, and eventually she will bring everyone there. All these practices and struggles to become religious are only negative work, to take off the bars, and open the doors to that perfection which is our birthright, our nature. To-day the evolution theory of the ancient Yogis will be better understood in the light of modern research. And yet the theory of the Yogis is a better explanation. The two causes of evolution advanced by the moderns, viz., sexual selection and survival of the fittest, are inadequate. Suppose human knowledge to have advanced so much as to eliminate competition, both from the function of acquiring physical sustenance and of acquiring a mate. Then, according to the moderns, human progress will stop and the race will die. And the result of this theory is to furnish every oppressor with an argument to calm the qualms of conscience, and men are not lacking, who, posing as philosophers, Avant to kill out all wicked and incompetent persons (they are, of course, the only judges of competency), and thus preserve the human race ! But the great ancient evolutionist, Patanjali, declares that the true secret of evolution is the manifestation of the perfection which is already in every being ; that this perfection has been barred, and the infinite tide behind is struggling to express itself. These struggles and competitions are but the results of our ignorance, because we do not know the proper way to unlock the gate and let the water in. This infinite tide behind must express itself, and it is the cause of all manifestation, not competition for life, or sex gratification, which are only momentary, unnecessary, extraneous effects, caused by ignorance. Even when all competition has ceased this perfect nature behind will make us go forward until every one has become perfect. Therefore there is no reason to believe that competition is necessary to progress. In the animal the man was suppressed, but, as soon as the door was opened, out rushed man. So, in man there is the potential god, kept in by the locks and bars of ignorance. When knowledge breaks these bars the god becomes manifest.
4. From egoism alone proceed the created minds.
The theory of Karma is that we suffer for our good or bad deeds, and the whole scope of philosophy is to approach the glory of man. All the Scriptures sing the glory of man, of the soul, and then, with the same breath, they preach this Karma. A good deed brings such a result, and a bad deed such a result, but, if the soul can be acted upon by a good or a bad deed it amounts to nothing. Bad deeds put a bar to the manifestation of our nature, of the Purusa, and good deeds take the obstacles off, and its glory becomes manifest. But the Purusa itself is never changed. Whatever you do never destroys your own glory, your own nature, because the soul cannot be acted upon by anything, only a veil is spread before it, hiding its perfection.
5. Though the activities of the different created minds are various, the one original mind is the controller of them all.
These different minds, which will act in these different bodies, are called made-minds, and the bodies madebodies ; that is, manufactured bodies and minds. Matter and mind are like two inexhaustible storehouses. When you have become a Yogi you have learned the secret of their control. It was yours all the time, but you had forgotten it. When you become a Yogi you recollect it. Then you can do anything with it, manipulate it in every way you like. The material out of which that manufactured mind is created is the very same material which is used as the macrocosm. It is not that mind is one thing and matter another, but they are different existences of the same thing. Asmita, egoism, is the material, the fine state of existence out of which these made-minds and made-bodies of the Yogi will be manufactured. Therefore, when the Yogi has found the secret of these energies of nature he can manufacture any number of bodies, or minds, but they will all be manufactured out of the substance known as egoism.
6. Among the various Chittas that which is attained by Samadhi is desireless.
Amonjr all the various minds that we see in various
YOGA APHORISMS.
men, only that mind which has attained to Samadhi, perfect concentration, is the highest. A man who has attained certain powers through medicines, or through words, or through mortifications, still has desires, but that man who has attained to Samadhi through concentration is alone free from all desires.
7. "Works are neither black nor -white for the