It is very surprising how consciousness can assume such a shape—a shape which is
really not there, and which is totally unsubstantial. This point Patanjali wants to
drive into our minds so that samyama can be made easy, because as long as there are
attachments present in the mind, no samyama is possible. Subconscious impulses
will drag us in another direction altogether, so the very subconscious attachment
should be snapped in the bud. This is possible only by a thorough analysis of the
structure of things, the nature of the objects which are the causes of attachment, and
the nature of asmita, the egoism, which is another reason for the impossibility of the
mind to concentrate on anything that is given.
These few sutras which we have been studying are very difficult ones—hard nuts to
crack. But they are very important in the sense that an understanding of their import
is necessary for the purpose of a whole-souled absorption in the object of meditation,
the object of samyama, for the purpose of acquiring powers of mastery over nature.
These powers are called siddhis—which are described in the further sutras.
Chapter 95LIBERATION IS THE ONLY AIM OF YOGAThese sutras that we have been studying for some time purport to make out the
connection that exists among the principal ingredients in the process of knowledge—
namely, the object, the mind and the senses. These factors in perception or
knowledge are mutually related, and in fact they form an organic whole. It is not true
that any one is superior or inferior to the other in these three elements of knowledge.
Therefore, it is also quite unintelligible as to how one can influence the other, control
the other, inflict pain on another, or arouse joy in another. How does it happen that
an object can stimulate pleasure and pain in the subject?
Considering the organic connection that has to be there between the mind and the
objects, inasmuch as the mind and the object are both two aspects of the
manifestation of a single substance—prakriti, which is the dharmi of which both the
mind and the objects are dharmas—there is no question of one influencing the other,
because both stand on an equal footing to some extent, like the right hand and the
left hand. We cannot say which is superior to the other. There is no question of one
causing an effect in the other. They work in parallel, and work for a higher purpose,
transcending the operations of these two individually so that the mutual interaction
of the mind and the objects is not intended to bring about any experience
individually in the mind, or the subject, but is for the liberation of the spirit, as the
sutra puts it: bhogāpavargārtham dṛśyam (II.18). This bhoga, this experience of the
contact of the subject with the object, is for the purpose of the liberation of the spirit,
ultimately.
Thus, there is a transcendent purpose in this contact of the mind with the objects
through the senses. If this purpose is mistaken, misconstrued, completely forgotten
or kept out of sight, then there is bondage. If there is no transcendent purpose in the
operation of the limbs of the body, there would be no harmony in the working of the
limbs. There is a deeper motive behind every activity of the parts of an organism, and