object, or the jurisdiction of the existence of the object, gets restricted, the extent of
knowledge is correspondingly expanded, so that if knowledge is infinite there is no
place for the object to exist. It is the finitude of knowledge that perceives the finitude
of the object, and it is the finitude of the object that causes the finitude of the
knowledge that knows it. Thus, it is the finite that knows the finite. But when the
knower is the Infinite, there cannot be any possibility of an extraneous content for
that knowledge. In other words, the object of knowledge cannot exist outside
knowledge, and this is the reason why the knower here has complete control over the
object.
When it is said that the object ceases to be, it does not mean that it has vanished into
the air, because anything that is real cannot vanish. What has happened is not merely
the vanishing, as if there was no object earlier, but the absorption of the object-
content into the content of knowledge. Earlier, the content existed outside
knowledge, but now, the object has ceased to be in the sense that it has become part
of the existence of knowledge itself. Thus, here knowledge is not merely a function of
the mind; it is not an operation of the psychological organ, but it is something so
heavily laden with content that its value is enhanced to much more than what it was
earlier when the content was outside it. In ordinary informative knowledge,
knowledge remains abstract, featureless, contentless. It remains merely like an
illuminating factor—the object illuminated being something different. It is something
like abstract mathematics where we have only the principle of calculation and the
object upon which it is applied is something quite different. Here, the object becomes
one with the principle.
The existence of the object cannot stand independent of the existence of the process
of knowledge. This was the meaning of a sutra which we studied long ago in the
Samadhi Pada, where it was said that in the condition of communion, or deep
samadhi, there is a commingling of the features, characters and beings of the
knower, the knowing process and the object that is known. Kṣīṇavṛtteḥ abhijātasye iva
maṇeḥ grahītṛ grahaṇa grāhyeṣu tatstha tadañjanatā samāpattiḥ (I.41). The same thing is
applied here. There is a mutual reflection of one upon the other, as it were. The
object and the subject do not stand apart as the content and the knowing process.
Therefore, knowledge becomes the only reality—the content getting absorbed into it,
the reality of the object becoming part and parcel of the reality of knowledge so that
there is a gradual withdrawal of the content of the object into the process of knowing,
and the process of knowing gets absorbed into the existence of the knower. What
remains finally is the knower—purusha. The purusha reverts to himself. Tadā draṣṭuḥ
svarūpe avasthānam (I.3) was a sutra mentioned very early, near the beginning of the
text. Now we are coming to the very same point: the purusha returns to himself.
When the purusha returns to himself, there is no object before the purusha because
the consciousness of an object is possible only when there is an operation of the
vrittis of the mind. And yoga is nothing but the inhibition of the modifications of the
mind, which are the vrittis—yogaḥ cittavṛtti nirodhaḥ (I.2). It is only when the nirodha,
or the restriction or inhibition of the vrittis of the mind, is effected that the purusha
can return to himself—so immediately follows: tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe avasthānam (I.3).
This state is described here: tadā sarva āvaraṇa malāpetasya jñānasya ānaṅtyāt jñeyam
alpam (IV.31). All covering, or the veil over consciousness, is torn and lifted on
account of all the dross or impurity being eliminated thoroughly. Avarana and mala
are removed. Avarana is the veil. Mala is the dirt, the impurity. The avarana is the