through the practice of yoga. Whatever be the perceptions, whatever be the delights
that may present themselves, they have to be ignored by the practicant.
Here, there is another interesting feature which one can notice. These experiences of
encounter, or the presentations of delight or invitations, etc., which the sutra
mentions, are not necessarily super-physical. They can also be physical. That is, even
in this very physical world we may have such experiences, if our practice is intense
enough. We will not be able to discover the secret behind the experiences in our life,
and may like to pass them over as casual occurrences of the social life of a person.
The experiences that we pass through in life—even in this physical life, in this very
life itself—may be the reactions of our practice. The denizens which the sutra speaks
of may press themselves forward through the physical counterparts of this very
existence itself. They need not necessarily be ethereal beings as the Puranas speak of,
such as Indra, etc.
These personalities which the Puranas speak of do not necessarily come when we
jump from the physical level to the higher level. They can press themselves into
action even in this very level, so that we may not go to the higher realm at all. As a
result, there can be very convenient situations and comfortable experiences of the
senses as well as the ego, whose essential nature cannot easily be discovered. We will
not know what is happening to us. We will only take it as a common presentation or
an unusual experience of life. There is nothing usual in this world; everything is very
peculiar. Everything has a novel character. Even these so-called usual experiences of
our life—even my sitting here and your listening to me—is a very strange
coordination of factors which are universal in their nature. They are not simply to be
taken for an ordinary, simple social experience of human beings.
There is nothing which is not universal in life. Everything is a universal expression.
Even a leaf that moves in a tree has a universal background behind it. Even the
littlest of our experiences and the smallest of the deeds that we perform—everything,
for the matter of that—is a symbol or an index of a universal pressure that is exerted
from behind, which is invisible to the senses and incomprehensible to the ego. The
yoga philosophy and psychology opens up before our mind a new world of perception
and a new interpretation of values—a system of an entirely new type of appreciation
of things—so that we will be able to discover new meaning even in the common and
ordinary experiences of life. Even if we see a dog on the road, it is not an ordinary
experience that is happening; we will begin to see a new meaning behind it. A cat
crossing in front of us is not an ordinary experience. A wisp of breeze is not ordinary.
Everything is extraordinary in this life. This meaning of an extraordinary significance
present behind even ordinary experiences in life will be opened up only to a
discriminative understanding.
This is a great blessing if it comes; and unless this understanding arises in us, we will
not be able to progress in yoga. We should not be muffs when we begin to seek the
fruits of yoga earnestly. We must understand that we are going to face problems of a
cosmic character. They are not problems of our country, or problems of human
nature, merely. They are problems of the universal situation on every level, for the
matter of that. Everything will be stirred into action. And, as it was mentioned, the
way in which it will be stirred, and the extent to which it will be stirred into action,
will depend upon the intensity of our practice.