ignorance, or avidya. The dirt is kama, krodha, lobha and other vrittis of the mind.
All these get eliminated automatically on account of the rising of knowledge to its
original primeval status. These experiences follow simultaneously, as it were, in such
a rapid succession that one cannot know what are the stages one has passed through.
In the earlier stages we can keep an eye upon the various steps that we proceed
through, but in the later stages the movement is very rapid.
In the earlier stages, the movement is very slow on account of the heaviness of the
obstacles. But later on, the obstacles become rarefied, and then the impediments lose
their grip over the consciousness. Then it moves with great velocity, much more
intensely than it could do earlier when the impediments were opaque, or laden with
tamas and rajas. The impediments are tamasic, rajasic and sattvic. When they are
tamasic, they do not allow the operation of the mind at all. There is a complete dross
and a lethargic attitude. There is a sleepy condition, a torpid attitude, as it were, and
one cannot concentrate the mind. The impediments that come in the form of tamas
are totally obstructive to any attempt in the line of yoga. The rajasic impediments are
subtler, but they are very distracting and compel the mind to oscillate from one
object to another. So, there also, it is not possible to concentrate the mind on the
given object.
It is the sattvic impediments that prevent communion and yet allow an insight into
the possibility of such a communion. It is only when we reach the later stages of
meditation that the sattvic impediments present themselves. They are impediments,
no doubt—the golden chains—and yet they can allow a reflection of Truth, as if there
is a clean pane of glass through which light passes. We can see the brilliance of the
light through the pane of glass; yet, it obstructs. We cannot proceed through,
inasmuch as the glass is there, obstructing our movement. It is there, obstructing,
and yet it can allow the reflection of the light. Likewise is the sattvic condition of
prakriti, which does not allow complete union, and yet there is an illumination at the
same time.
Here, the gunas of prakriti reorganise themselves into their original condition. That
is the meaning of the sutra: tataḥ kṛtārthānāṁ pariṇāmakrama samāptiḥ guṇānām
(IV.32). The succession, or the modifying process, of the gunas—sattva, rajas and
tamas—of prakriti come to an end; that is parinama-krama samapti. The reason is
kritarthanam. The reason why the gunas join together into a formation is the force
of the desire of the individual which pulls the atoms of matter around itself and
compels them to gravitate round its centre or nucleus, so that the individual becomes
something like an atom with electrons of material constituents revolving round the
nucleus of the desiring principle. But when this force of gravity that has pulled these
particles of matter is dislodged and its purpose is fulfilled, there is a dispersal of the
content. The constituents return to their sources. Prakriti becomes samya; it
becomes equilibrated.
When there is an equilibrium of this original condition, there is a union ultimate,
which is the precondition of the liberation of the purusha. It is the disturbance
caused in the equilibrium of prakriti, and the movement of the gunas of prakriti on
account of this disturbance of equilibrium, that causes the bondage of the purusha
and the attachment of consciousness to the forms into which the gunas cast
themselves. But when there is the cessation of this activity of the gunas, there are no
forms presented before the consciousness. Therefore, there is a universal void, as it