servient tasks, and that even if they did a man's job, they should receive
less pay. Most people no longer believe this. The climate of opinion has
changed. And we would say that the current evidence confirms our
change of opinion. We consider this progress away from erroneous
knowledge. It is based on actual evidence of how women perform in
the workplace and so is less shackled to prejudice. Prejudice means
making up your mind before you look.
During this process of change, if a man and a woman came to you
for a job, you might have been inclined, all other things being equal,
to favor the woman, consciously trying to act out of the new view of
women's capabilities and perhaps to redress past injustice. But if you
favor the woman when the candidates are equal, you are still acting out
of prejudice. The past still has its hold. You have effectively turned a
bad habit into a "better" one, but where is the right action, based on
right knowledge, without previous conditioning? In this example, pre
sumably the solution is to be able to interview the candidates with such
clarity of vision as regards their abilities and suitability, that a choice
emerges, but without any shadow of reference to their gender.
This example is external. Yogic practice is internal. What we have
to look at is how the culture of the self leads to direct, right knowledge
that then inevitably reforms and transforms our relationship with the
external world as well as furthering our inner quest.
ACCORDING TO YOGA PIDLOSOPHY, correct knowledge is based
on three kinds of proof: direct perception, correct deduction, and tes
timony from authoritative sacred scriptures or wise experienced
people. Initially, therefore, individual perception should be checked by
logic and reason and then seen to correspond to traditional wisdom.
We are all familiar with this process. In the example of buying a house,
we see the house and form an impression (our direct perception). We
then ma ke an assessment hased on what we learn ahout the houst•
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