towards the objects. We are not aware, even now, that the mind is gravitating
towards objects, because we have become one with the objects. We have become
object-consciousness so forcefully that we cannot even be conscious that there is
something other than the object world. Hence we cannot grasp, at the present
moment, what it means when the mind traverses this realm of object-consciousness
and goes to a different realm of a different gravitation altogether.
When the purusha begins to pull the mind, there is a pull received from every
direction while, when the object pulls, we are pulled only from one direction. There is
a great difference in this gravitation. Every object does not pull us at the same time.
It is only one object that pulls us at one time. Sometimes one or two objects may join
together and pull us for a particular purpose. But the pull of the purusha, or the
gravitational force exerted by the purusha, is universal in character. It will call us
from every nook and corner. It is a summons that is received from every quarter of
the universe because the purusha is everywhere, while the objects are not
everywhere. The object cannot call us from all directions because it is in one place
only. Thus, we are inclined sensorily in one direction when the object calls us, and
there is an attachment of the mind towards one object.
When the purusha calls, there is an efflorescence of the mind—an opening of the bud
of the flower of the mind, as it were—wherein it becomes aware of the call it receives
from the whole universe. The call of the purusha is the call of the universe. The
universe is the face of the purusha. It is the expression of the purusha in the sense
that the purusha is manifest through the things of the universe. We will feel a kind of
sensation in respect of anything and everything around us as if they are friendly, as if
they are one with us, as if we are living in a family that is spread out around us,
wherever we are placed in this world. This is a rare and novel experience in a higher
state of spiritual aspiration and experience, and it cannot be understood in the
beginning stages. We will be friendly and at home at any place in the world, in any
circumstance. Even in a dustbin we will find heaven, if this call comes. But until this
call comes, we cannot appreciate or understand the meaning of the way in which the
mind is gravitated towards the purusha.
Well, this is a very high and lofty state of experience which the sutra refers to, and it
is a question of practice. When we actually enter into the practice of yoga, we will
pass through all these stages. We will pass through stages of various kinds of pull
exerted in many ways, by various things, so that at the different levels through which
we pass, different things will look real and satisfying. But, it is only in the last stage,
where we can perceive the dawn of the consciousness of the purusha, that the
meaning of this pull can be properly grasped. Until that time, there will be movement
from one side or the other side, and there will be an experiment made by the mind in
respect of one object or two objects, or groups of objects. Actually, it is the purusha
that is searched for in the objects of sense. We do not want objects; we want the
purusha only. Even in this wretched condition, it is the purusha that we are asking
for, not anything else. But the blinkers of the mind, which prevent its perception of
the universal that is present in particulars, has become the cause of an intensification
or attachment in respect of groups of objects.
Thus, there are very great difficulties on the way towards getting over the pulls of
even one level. At each level there is a great force exerted upon us by the laws of that
particular realm, so that when we are on the earth, the earth plane pulls us so