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.
qualities, bereft of any motive of action for the Purusa, is Kaivalya, or it is the establishment of the power of knowledge in its own nature.
Nature's task is done, this unselfish task which our sweet nurse Nature had imposed upon herself. As it were, she gently took the self-forgetting soul by the hand,
YOGA APHORISMS.
and showed him all the experiences in the universe, all manifestations, bringing him higher and higher through various bodies, till his lost glory came back, and he remembered his own nature. Then the kind mother went back the same way she came, for others who also have lost their way in the trackless desert of life. And thus is she working, without beginning and without end. And thus through pleasure and pain, through good and evil, the infinite river of souls is flowing into the ocean of perfection, of self-realisation.
Glory unto those who have realised their own nature ; may their blessings be on us all.
APPENDIX.
Referenxes to Yoga.
Svetasvatara Upanishad.
Chapter II.
2-6-14. Where the fire is churned, where the air is controlled, where the flow of Soma becomes plentiful there a (perfect) mind is created Placing the body in which the chest, the throat, and the head are held erect, in a straight posture, making the organs enter the mind, the sage crosses all the fearful currents by means of the raft of Brahman.
The man of well regulated endeavours controls the Prana, and when it has become quieted breathes out through the nostrils. The persevering sage holds his mind as a charioteer holds the restive horses.
In lonely places, as mountain caves, etc., where the floor is even, free of pebbles or sand, where there are no disturbing noises from men or waterfalls, in places helpful to the mind and pleasing to the eyes, Yoga is to be practised (mind is to be joined).
Like snowfall, smoke, sun, wind, fire, firefly, lightning,
APPENDIX.
crystal, moon, these forms, cominj:^ before, gradually manifest the Brahman in Yoga.
When the perceptions of Yoga, arising from earth, water, light, fire, ether, have taken place, then Yoga has begun. Unto him does not come disease, nor old age, nor death, who has got a body made up of the fire of Yoga.
The first signs of entering Yoga are lightness, health, the skin becomes smooth, the complexion clear, the voice beautiful, and there is an agreeable odour in the body.
14. As gold or silver, first covered with earth, etc., and then burned and washed, shines full of light, so the embodied man seeing the truth of the Atman as one, attains the goal and becomes sorrowless.
Yajnavalkya, quoted by Sankara.
" After practising the postures as desired, according to rules, then, O Gargi, the man who has conquered the posture will practise Pranayama.
"jOn the seat of earth, spreading the Kusa grass, and over it a skin, worshipping Ganapati with fruits and sweetmeats, seated on that seat, placing the opposite hands on the knees, holding the throat and head in the same line, the lips closed and firm, facing the east or the north, the eyes fixed on the tip of the nose, avoiding too much food or fasting, the Nadis should be purified according to the above-mentioned rule, without which pp. 226 the practice will be fruitless, thinking of the (seed-word) Hum, at the junction of Pingala and Ida (the right and the left nostrils), the Ida should be filled with external air in twelve Matras (seconds), then the Yogi meditates fire in the same place and the word ' Rang,' and while meditating thus, slowly rejects the air through the Pingala (right nostril). Again filling in through the Pingala the air should be slowly rejected through the Ida, in the same way. This should be practised for three or four years, or three or four months, according to the directions of a Guru, in secret (alone in a room) in the early morning, at midday, in the evening, and at midnight (until) the nerves become purified, and these are the signs ; lightness of body, clear complexion, good appetite, hearing of the Nada. Then should be practised Pranayama, composed of Rechaka (exhalation), Kumbhaka (retention), and Puraka (inhalation). Joining the Prana with the Apana is Pranayama.