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

Yogis ; for others they are threefold, black, larhite, and mixed.

When the Yogi has attained to that state of perfection, the actions of that man, and the Karma produced by those actions, will not bind him, because he did not desire them. He just w^orks on ; he works to do good, and he does good, but does not care for the result, and it will not come to him. But for ordinary men, who have not attained to that highest state, works are of three kinds, black (evil actions), white (good actions), and mixed.

8. From these threefold wrorks are manifested in each state only those desires (which are) fitting to that state alone. (The others are held in abeyance for the time being.)

Suppose I have made the three kinds of Karma, good, bad and mixed, and suppose I die and become a god in heaven ; the desires in a god body are not the same as the desires, in a human body. The god body neither eats

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nor drinks ; what becomes of my past unworked Karmas, which produce as their effect the desire to eat and drink ? Where would these Karmas go when I became a god ? The answer is that desires can only manifest themselves in proper environments. Only those desires will come out for which the environment is fitted ; the rest will remain stored up. In this life we have many godly desires, many human desires, many animal desires. If I take a god body, only the good desires will come up, because for them the environments are suitable. And if I take an animal body, only the animal desires will come up, and the good desires will wait. What does that show ? That by means of environment we can check these desires. Only that Karma which is suited to and fitted for the environments will come out. This proves that the power of environment is the great check to control even Karma itself.

9. There is consecutiveness in desires, even though separated by species, space and time, there being identification of memory and impressions.

Experiences becoming fine become impressions ; impressions revivified become memory. The word memory here includes unconscious co-ordination of past experience, reduced to impressions, with present conscious action. In each body the group of impressions acquired in a similar body only will become the cause of action in that body. The experiences of dissimilar bodies will

YOGA APHORISMS.

be held in abeyance. Each body will act as if it were a descendant of a series of bodies of that species only ; thus, consecutiveness of desires will not be broken.

10. Thirst for happiness being eternal desires are without beginning.

All experience is preceded by desire for becoming happy. There was no beginning of experience, as each fresh experience is built upon the tendency generated by past experience ; therefore desire is without beginning.

11. Being held together by cause, effect, support, and objects, in the absence of these is its absence.

These desires are held together by cause and effect ; if a desire has been raised it does not die without producing its effect. Then again, the mind-stuff is the great storehouse, the support of all past desires, reduced to Samskara form ; until they have worked themselves out they will not die. Moreover, so long as the senses receive the external objects fresh desires will arise. If it be possible to get rid of these, then alone desires will vanish.

12. The past and future exist in their own nature, qualities having different ways.

13. They are manifested or fine, being of the nature of the Gunas.

2i6 RAJA YOGA.

The Gunas are the three substances, Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, whose gross state is the sensible universe. Past and future arise from the different modes of manifestation of these Gunas,

14. The unity in things is from the unity in changes. Though there are three substances their changes being co-ordinated all objects have their unity.