Thus, great caution is given by Patanjali himself that one who is not sufficiently
equipped with the requisites of vairagya will not be able to go even one step in yoga.
When we open the eyes of yogic perception—even as a student of yoga, and not
necessarily as an adept—we will begin to see new meanings in things. When we talk
to our friends, they will not be friends with whom we are talking. They will be some
‘significances’ which we are encountering and facing. We will begin to see the
meaning within the forms of the world, which we missed in the forms commonly
encountered by the senses in ordinary life. There are no such things as friends and
enemies in this world. They do not exist. For yogic vision, there are no such things as
humans, animals, trees, stones, etc. They do not exist. They are something
extraordinary in this world. Even the things that we see with our eyes, even just now,
are extraordinary things. We miss their meaning due to a habituation of the mind
through this gross perception of personalities.
The personalities are not personalities at all for yogic vision. They are not ‘persons’.
They are only configurations of a cosmical significance, which has to be grasped very
well before we are able to face anything. We have to guard ourselves well in every
respect. The beginning of yogic perception is the recognition of the fact that we are
citizens of the universe, not citizens of India or America or any country—nothing of
the kind. We are not even inhabitants of this earth; we are something more than that.
We are denizens of the whole cosmos, and the laws of the universe will act upon us,
and they will subject us to obedience. They are the forces that we are facing.
In yoga, we are not facing crows and cows and trees and persons. We are facing the
whole cosmos in front of us. One has to be prepared for the consequences before one
actually enters into this arduous enterprise; this is a great caution meted out to us by
the Yoga Shastra. When this vision is kept up clearly, continuously, without break,
we will be able to understand even the meaning of the oppositions and impediments
that come before us. And when they are detected, they cease to be impediments—
they become friends. The dismal look that may appear to be there at the beginning
will put on a new face altogether, and a new contour. The darkness will be dispelled,
and light will manifest itself. These are hard things for the mind to grasp.
At a stage where we are about to transfer ourselves from the first level to the second
level, direct guidance of a competent master is necessary. This is the usual tradition
of the Yoga Shastra. When we are highly advanced and can grasp all the meanings for
ourselves, we may be able to stand on our own feet; that is true. But there is a
particular stage we reach when we have not been endowed with that perception of
the meaning behind things, when we have lifted our feet from the ground of the earth
and we have not yet reached the summits of the heavens. In the middle of the
atmosphere where we are hanging, we will find ourselves helpless. There, the need of
a Guru is necessary.
THE VIBHUTI PADA ENDS