Before we can understand the method of samyama—the practice of yoga proper for
the solution of this mystery—an analysis is given in one or two sutras as to what this
means. It is very precisely, and without any ceremony whatsoever, openly said in one
sutra: etena bhūtendriyeṣu dharma lakṣaṇa avasthā pariṇāmāḥ vyākhyātāḥ (III.13). Here
Patanjali says practically nothing except that the dharmas, laksanas and avasthas of
things have already been explained when he explained to us the three parinamas of
the mind. He does not want to tell us anything more. But it is a very hard job to
understand what he actually means. The implication of this sutra is that there is a
corresponding law operating in the external universe, which is similar to the law that
operates in the mind inside; and the process of the control of the mind and the
process of the control of the objects outside are both similar. If we can know our own
mind thoroughly, we can also know every other object in this world. If we can control
our mind, we can control everything else also. This is what is intended in this sutra.
These three parinamas, or the transformations of the mind which we were speaking
of earlier known as nirodha parinama, samadhi parinama and ekagrata parinama,
are the systems which the whole universe follows. The law of the original substance,
known as prakriti, is hidden in these three processes. The objects that we see with
our eyes, and cognise with our mind, are a phenomenon presented by prakriti. It is a
mischievous attempt, we may say, of the mother of things to tempt us, deceive us and
trap us into an experience of something which is really not there, and to keep us
completely in ignorance of what is really there.
This prakriti, the original substance, is the material of everything—of all objects. This
material, or the cosmic substance, has a peculiar property inherent in it. This
property is the capacity within itself to modify itself into a time-form. Prakriti itself
is not in time; it is transcendent to time. The idea that a thing is in time arises later
on. This space-time complex is an evolute of prakriti. Thus, the original form of
things—of anything whatsoever, yourself, myself included—is non-temporal. Our real
nature is not temporal, or in time, but is non-temporal. It is beyond time. That is the
state in which a thing exists in the original substance of prakriti. All the properties
which follow subsequently, through space and time, inhere in this substance.
Inasmuch as all these properties inhere in the substance which is prakriti, as we
mentioned previously, this prakriti is called the dharmi, and the properties are
called dharmas.
Dharma is a character, a quality, a capacity, an inherency, a property, etc., and that
which contains this potency to modify itself into these complex forms is the
substance. Ultimately the substance is prakriti, which is a name that we give to the
universal original substance of all things. Prakriti is a peculiar Samkhya term; we
may call it by any other name we like. The idea behind this terminology is that there
is only one substance in the universe, not many substances. All things, whatever be
their variety, colour, pageantry, shape and difference in character—all this difference
matters not in the light of the great truth that all these things are reducible to a single
substance. This is a great truth indeed, which is difficult to stomach for the ordinary
mind, because we can never understand that the different objects—totally differing in
character—are identical in substance. That is the truth; and if we are able to feel this
truth, life will be something quite different from what it is now. But we cannot feel it;
we cannot even understand it thoroughly. But this is the truth, say the Yoga Sutras.