asana, pranayama, dharana, dhyana and samadhi—which are only stages of the
confronting of the problem at different levels of experience.
The tackling of the problem of karma is almost the last thing that we can do when we
become universally capable of dealing with every difficulty by proper adjustment of
ourselves with that circumstance it has created at that particular level. It again
amounts to saying that we have to raise ourselves to an impersonal state gradually;
and yoga is nothing but that. Ultimately, we have to become the most impersonal of
things—that is purusha. Purusha is not a man. It is the impersonal Reality, and that
is the goal of yoga; and we are moving towards it, we are approximating towards it,
we are tending towards it, we are aspiring for it, and our aim is only that. Therefore,
every step in our effort is a purification of ourselves towards this higher
impersonality—though it comes gradually. This sutra—atīta anāgataṁ svarūpataḥ asti
adhvabhedād dharmāṇām (IV.12)—tells us that there is a need to deal with karma in all
its aspects.
Also, we have noted that karma is not an object; it is the way in which things act. The
action and reaction among things is called karma. Our standing outside this action-
reaction process is the reason why we get caught up in it. The world has been
regarded by us as an external object and, therefore, the law of karma acts upon us
and binds us. When we become more and more harmonious with the world, which is
what is intended in samyama, ultimately, we become more and more harmonious
with the object. Ultimately, there is utter harmony, equality of status—a merger of
one with the other.
When this harmony gets established, gradually, in greater and greater degrees, the
force of karma diminishes in intensity. This is because there is no such thing as
karma except prakriti itself acting, the world itself operating—that is called karma.
Because we stand outside it as helpless creatures, it is acting upon us forcefully, as if
we are subjected to it. Yoga is that technique by which we are raised, gradually, to a
greater form of approximation to this world law, which is the law of karma, so that it
will not act upon us because we become harmonious with it. For this attainment is
the practice of samyama which has been mentioned in various ways in the earlier
sutras.
Chapter 104THE DOUBLE ACTIVITY IN MENTAL COGNITIONThe nature of an object is being discussed here in a few sutras. The philosophical
status of an object has much to do with the practice of samyama in yoga, because
yoga samyama is nothing but the resolution of the factors of relation between the
subject and the object. The philosophy of yoga has a unique concept of the nature of
the object, on the basis of which its psychology is directed and its practice is
conducted.
What is an object? We have studied something about its nature previously, where it
was said: pariṇāma ekatvāt vastutattvam (IV.14). The local presence of an object—the