Kaivalya PadaIn the Kaivalya Pada we are given some further detail as to the nature of the relation
that exists between the mind and the object, together with certain descriptions of the
processes of the nemesis of karma which follow as a consequence of the perceptions
of objects through the mind. In a sense, we may say that the Kaivalya Pada is
metaphysical and psychological, as well as ethical. The philosophical parts of the
Kaivalya Pada, which deal particularly with the nature of the mind in greater detail
than is done in earlier padas, can be said to be intended for clarifying the subject of
samyama, because the practice of meditation is a grappling with the contents of the
mind. It is a question of restraining one’s own self over the emotions of one’s own self
in order that there can be a harmony between the concepts of the mind and the
process of objects outside.
It is pointed out, by implication, through these sutras in the Kaivalya Pada, that
samyama, or the ultimate practice in yoga, is a bringing about of harmony between
the processes of thought and the objects outside. It is told to us that the objects
transform themselves constantly, and they influence the mind to such an extent that
the form of the object is conceived by the mind in a negative manner, by means of a
reception an of impress from the object. The mind only reproduces the form that is
cast in the mould of its own body on account of the cognition of objects, so that, in a
sense, it looks like the objects control the mind. This is what usually happens in our
public world—the world controls the individual. But, a reverse process takes place in
yoga—the individual controls the world. That is effected by a rising from the
individual mind to the Cosmic Mind, which is very subtly pointed out in some of the
sutras.
We had some occasion to dilate upon this theme particularly—that the individual
mind cannot control the world because the world is vaster. What is required in the
practice of yoga is to overcome the limitations of the individual mind and remove all
those veils and obstructions, or obscurations, or impurities which make the mind
appear as if it is individual, located in space and in time, and make it commensurate
with the universal substance. Then what happens is, the Cosmic Mind takes
possession of the individual mind. The individual rises to the Cosmic. There are no
such things as individual mind and Cosmic Mind, ultimately—they are one and the
same thing. But on account of a particular stress that is laid on certain points in the
Cosmic Mind, there arises what is called the individual. This has to be set right by the
practice of samyama.
The concentration of the mind on the object, as prescribed in the system of yoga, is
the secret of the turning of the individual to the Cosmic. Whenever the object is
presented outside, there is a subjugation of the mind by the powers of nature. This is
set right by the communion that is effected in samyama. The mind concentrates
upon the object in such a way that the objectivity of the object ceases and it becomes
a part of the subject. Then it is that the secret takes place—a miracle works. The
miracle is that the peculiar features or factors which appeared to control the mind,
and those features which put the mind under subjection, are completely eliminated
by that miracle that is worked in the process of samyama, or communion.