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APPENDIX-I
1. The world and ourselves— these two basic
phenomena are undeniable; that the world is
observable and understandable by us is a fact,
however mysterious may be the precise
mechanism and however debatable may be
the ultimate meaning we may attach to the
world and our observing intelligence.
2. Our intelligence consists of the senses,—in the
first place; but supreme over the senses is the
mind; and supreme over the mind is the
intelligent will, buddhi; that which is supreme
over the intelligent will is he, the conscious
self, the Purusha.
(Mind is superior to senses because even if
the senses are operative, but if the mind is
not attentive to the operation of the senses, we fail to take intelligent or
conscious cognisance of the objects of senses. Buddhi is
superior to the mind because it is buddhi that
turns sensations into ideas, judgment and
discrimination and co-ordination between
ideas; and it is this discrimination that enables
the power of will to choose and decide.
Purusha is superior to the intellect because
intellect itself detects the Purusha as the real
observer, the real source of consciousness
which stands behind operations of senses,
mind and intelligent will and observes as a
witness the world as its object.)
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Purusha is the supreme cause of our subjective
life; in that we have to fix our will. Then we
can destroy the restless ever- active enemy of
our peace and self-mastery, the mind's desire.
4. But what is the method of fixing the intelligent
will in the Purusha?
5. We must first understand the difficulties that
stand in the way. Normally, our intelligent
will takes its downward and outward orientation; and it gets entangled with the play of
the three gunas of Prakriti (Nature), inertia
and ignorance (tamas), passion, action and
struggle (rajas), and light, poise and satisfaction (sattwa). As a result, we fall at the mercy
of the objects of senses, and we live in the
outward contact of things. The following
psychological series follows:—
(a) Senses excited by their objects create a
restless or often violent disturbance, a strong or even headlong outward movement towards the seizure of these objects
and their enjoyment. These objects carry
away the sense-mind, "as the winds
carry away a ship upon the sea."
(b) Next, the mind carries away similarly the
intelligent will (buddhi) also.
(c) Buddhi, therefore, loses its power of
calm discrimination and mastery.
(d) As a result, the soul becomes subjected
to the play of the three gunas of Prakriti.
This is the cause of the troubled life of
the ordinary, unenlightened, undisciplined human being.
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6. Therefore, the intelligent will should be
turned upward and inward. And what is the
method or technique of achieving this goal?
(a) The first movement must be obviously
to get rid of desire which is the whole
root of suffering. And to accomplish this:
(i) We must put an end to the cause of
desire, namely, the rushing out of the
senses to seize and enjoy their objects.
(ii) We must draw the senses back when
they are inclined to rush out, draw them
away from their objects,—as the tortoise
draws in his limbs into the shell.
(iii) Senses thus drawn back enter into the
quiet mind;
(iv) The quiet mind draws back into the quiet
intelligent will, buddhi;
(v) The quiet intelligent will draws back into the soul and its self-knowledge, which
observes quietly the action of the three
gunas of Nature, but is not subject to
them, not desiring anything that the
objective life can give.
(b) This withdrawal of senses from the object
is not external asceticism, it is not
physical renunciation. This withdrawal
does not mean the austerities of the rigid
ascetic with his fasts, his maceration of
the body, his attempt to abstain even
from food.
(c) This withdrawal has to be inner
withdrawal, inner renunciation. For the
embodied soul, having a body, has to
support it normally by food for its
normal physical action. If one abstains
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from food, one removes the physical
contact with the food, but that does not
get rid of the inner relation which makes
that contact hurtful. One still retains the
pleasure of the sense in the object, the
rasa, the liking and the disliking. The
solution is that one must learn to endure
the physical contact without suffering
inwardly the sensuous reaction.
(d) A stage will come when desireless contact
with objects, the unsensuous use of the
senses, becomes possible. It is possible
by the vision of the Supreme, and by
living in Yoga, in union or oneness of
our entire inner being with the Soul. For
the one Soul is calm, satisfied in its own
delight, and that delight free from
duality can occur, once we see the
Supreme thing in us and fix the mind
and will on that. This is the true method
of liberation.
7. This is the method of self-discipline and
self-control. And this method is not easy."
Even the sage, the man of clear, wise and
discerning soul who really labours to acquire
complete self- mastery finds himself hurried
and carried away by the senses. We may dwell
once again on the reason for this.
(a) Mind naturally binds itself to the senses.
(b) It observes the objects of sense with an
inner interest.
(c) It settles upon them and makes them
the object of absorbing thought for the
intelligence and of strong interest of the
will.
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(d) By that attachment comes.
(e) By attachment desire is excited.
(f) By desire distress, passion and anger
when the desire is not satisfied or is
thwarted or opposed.
(g) By passion the soul is obscured, for the
intelligent will (buddhi) forgets to see
and be seated in the calm observing soul.
(h) As a result, there is a fall from the
memory of one's true self.
(i) By that lapse the intelligent will is also
obscured, destroyed even.
(j) For the time being, the soul no longer
exists to our memory of ourselves, it
disappears in a cloud of passion; we
become passion, wrath, grief and cease
to be Self.
This must be prevented and all the
senses must be brought utterly under
control. Then only the wise and calm
intelligent will becomes firmly established
in its proper seat.
8. But even self-discipline is not sufficient for
the purpose we have in view. It can be done
by Yoga with something which is higher than
itself and in which calm and self-mastery are
inherent.
9. And the Yoga can only arrive at its success by devoting, consecrating, by giving up the
whole self to the Divine. For the liberator is
within us, but it is not our mind, or our
intelligence, nor our personal will,—they are
only instruments. It is the Lord in whom we
have utterly to take refuge.
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10. And for that we must make him the object
of our whole being and keep in soul-contact
with him. As the Gita says : "He (the seeker)
must sit firm in Yoga, wholly given up to
Me."
B
We can now arrive at the description of the
final result of the methods and techniques indicated
above.
1. It becomes possible to move among objects of
sense, in contact with them, acting on them,
but with the senses entirely under the control
of our inner self.
2. Then, free from reactions, the senses will be
delivered from the affections of liking, disliking, escape the duality of positive and
negative desire.
3. Calm, peace, clearness, happy tranquillity,
"atmaprasada", will settle in the seeker.
4. Intelligent will is rapidly established in the
peace of the self; suffering is destroyed.
5. This calm, desireless, griefless fixity of the
Buddhi, and self-poise is called Samadhi. (The
sign of the seeker in Samadhi is not that he loses consciousness of objects and
surroundings and of his mental and physical self and
cannot be recalled to it even by burning or
torture of the body. These things happen in
a trance, and people ordinarily call this state
of trance as Samadhi. But while trance is a
particular intensity, it is not the essential sign
of Samadhi.)
6. The state of Samadhi is tested by the
following:
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(a) expulsion of all desires;
(b) inability of desires to get at the mind;
(c) inner state in which freedom from desires
arises; "
(d) the delight of the soul gathered within
itself with the mind equal and still
high-poised above the attractions and
repulsions, the alternations of sunshine
and storm and stress of external life;
(e) inward orientation even while action is
performed externally;
(f) concentration on the Self even when gaze
is on external things;
(g) entire stretching of the being towards
the Divine even when to the outward
vision of others, one is busy and pre-occupied with the affairs of the world;
(h) there is no outward, physical, practically
discernible signs of this great state of
Samadhi, which can be described in the
modes of speaking, sitting and walking
of the one who is seated in Samadhi, Samadhistha. But there are still other inner
signs;
(i) equality is the great stamp of the
liberated soul;
(j) samadhistha (one seated in Samadhi) is
with mind untroubled by sorrows; he
has done with desire for pleasure. From
him liking and wrath and fear have
passed away;
(k) he is without the triple action of the
qualities of Prakriti, without dualities,
ever based in his true being, without
getting or having, possessed of his self;
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(l) and yet he does not cease from action;
(m) but his actions are not inspired by desires
or by claims for the satisfaction of the
restless and energetic mind by a constant
activity. Therefore, the seeker is told :
"Fixed in Yoga do thy actions, having
abandoned attachment, having become
equal in failure and success; for it is
equality that is meant by Yoga."
Three questions may arise at this stage:
First : Is there not always some kind of distress
in action, because while doing action
there is always a choice between a
relative good and evil, the fear of sin
and the difficult endeavour towards
virtue?
Second: If action is entirely desireless, would it
not be devoid of descisiveness, effectiveness and large or vigorous creative
power?
Third : Does action not take one away from
liberation towards bondage?
The answers of the Gita to these questions
can be formulated as follows:
First : The liberated who has united his reason
and will with the Divine, casts away from
him even here in this world of dualities
both good doing and evil doing, for he
rises to a higher law beyond good and
evil, founded in the liberty of self-knowledge.
Second : Action done in Yoga is not only the
highest but the wisest, the most potent
and efficient even for the affairs of the
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world, for it is informed by the
knowledge and will of the Divine, who
is the Master of Works.
Third : The sages who do works without desire
for fruits and in Yoga with the Divine
are liberated from the bondage of birth
and reach that other perfect status in
which there are none of the maladies
which afflict the mind and life of a
suffering humanity.
(n) The status to which the liberated worker
of Divine Works reaches is called Brahmic
condition, "brahmi sthitih". This status
has special characteristics:
(i) It is reversal of the
whole view, experience, knowledge, values, seeings of
earth-bound creatures. What is night for
the ordinary people is day for this new
status. In other words, the life of
dualities which is the day for the
ordinary people is from the point of view
of the new status a night, a troubled
sleep and darkness of the soul. On the
other hand, that higher status which is
a night to the ordinary people is the
luminous day of true being, knowledge
and power.
(ii) That new status is of a wide ocean of
being and consciousness which is even
filled, yet ever motionless in its large
poise of the soul.
(iii) All the desires of the world enter into
him, who has this new status, as waters
enter into the sea. But he has no desire
not is he troubled.
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(iv) He, living in this new status, is one with
the one Self in all and has no "I" or "mine"
(v) He acts as others, but he has abandoned
all desires and their longings.
(vi)
He lives in great peace and is not
bewildered by the shows of things; he
has extinguished his individual ego in
the One, lives in that unity. If so willed,
he can even attain to extinction in the
Brahman by the great immergence of the
separate personal self into the vast
reality.
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