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

15. The object being the same, perception and desire vary according to the various minds.

16. Things are known or unknown to the mind, being dependent on the colouring which they give to the mind.

17. The states of the mind are always known because the lord of the mind is unchangeable.

The whole gist of this theory is that the universe is both mental and material. And both the mental and material worlds are in a continuous state of flux. What is this book ? It is a combination of molecules in constant change. One lot is going out, and another coming in ; it is a whirlpool, but what makes the unity ? What makes it the same book ? The changes are rhythmical; in harmonious order they are sending impressions to my mind, and these pieced together make a continuous picture, although the parts are continuously changing. Mind itself is continuously changing. The mind and body are like two layers in the same substance.

moving at different rates of speed. Relatively, one being slower and the other quicker, we can distinguish between the two motions. For instance, a train is moving, and another carriage is moving slowly alongside it. It is possible to find the motion of both these, to a certain extent. But still something else is necessary. Motion can only be perceived when there is something else which is not moving. But when two or three things are relatively moving, we first perceive the motion of the faster one, and then that of the slower ones. How is the mind to perceive ? It is also in a flux. Therefore another thing is necessary which moves more slowly, then you must get to something in which the motion is still slower, and so on, and you will find no end. Therefore logic compels you to stop somewhere. You must complete the series by knowing something which never changes. Behind this never ending chain of motion is the Purusa, the changeless, the colourless, the pure. All these impressions are merely reflected upon it, as rays of light from a camera are reflected upon a white sheet, painting hundreds of pictures on it, without in any way tarnishing the sheet.

18. Mind is not self-luminous, being an object.

Tremendous power is manifested everywhere in nature, but yet something tells us that it is not self-luminous, not essentially intelligent. The Purusa alone is self-luminous, and gives its light to everything. It is its

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power that is percolating through all matter and force.

19. From its being unable to cognise two things at the same time.

If the mind were self-luminous it would be able to cognise everything at the same time, which it cannot. If you pay deep attention to one thing you lose another. If the mind were self-luminous there would be no limit to the impressions it could receive. The Purusa can cognise all in one moment ; therefore the Purusa is self-luminous, and the mind is not.

20. Another cognising mind being assumed there will be no end to such assumptions and confusion of memory.

Let us suppose there is another mind which cognises the first, there will have to be something which cognise? that, and so there will be no end to it. It will result in confusion of memory, there will be no storehouse of memory.

21. The essence of knowledge (the Purusa) being unchangeable, when the mind takes its form, it becomes conscious.

Patanjali says this to make it more clear that knowledge is not a quality of the Purusa. When the mind comes near the Purusa it is reflected, as it were,

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upon the mind, and the mind, for the time being, becomes knowing and seems as if it were itself the Purusa.

22. Coloured by the seer and the seen the mind is able to understand everything.

On the one side the external world, the seen, is being reflected, and on the other, the seer is being reflected ; thus comes the power of all knowledge to the mind.

23. The mind through its innumerable desires acts for another (the Purusa), being combinations.