Kaivalya. Mystics have sometimes tried to convey in rapturous language the glorious
visions of the higher planes which they have reached in Samadhi. These descriptions,
though very inspiring, yet fail utterly to give to those who are still blind any idea of
the beauty and grandeur of those planes. How can, then, anyone convey through the
crude medium of language even a hint regarding that Supreme experience which the
Yogi gains on attaining Kaivalya and Patanjali, knowing the futility of such a task, has
not even attempted it. But he has given in a few Sutras some of the results which ac-
crue from the attainment of Kaivalya.
- Then follows freedom from Klesas and Karmas.
The first result of attaining Kaivalya is that the Yogi cannot thenceforward be
bound by Klesas and Karmas. The attainment of Kaivalya follows the destruction of
Klesas and Karmas. What the Sutra, therefore, means is that the very potentiality for
the re-emergence of these two instruments of bondage is destroyed. The Jivanmukta
cannot, after passing through Dharma-Megha-Samadhi and attaining Kaivalya, again
fall into Avidya and start generating Karmas which bind.
The relation of Klesas and Karmas should always be borne in mind by the stu-
dent, for on this is based the technique of attaining freedom from the binding action of
Karma. Klesas and Karmas are related to each other as cause and effect, as has been
thoroughly explained under II-12 and no Karma can bind where there is no Avidya but
awareness of Reality. All action in this state is necessarily done in complete identifica-
tion with the Divine Consciousness without the slightest identification with the indi-
vidual ego. That is why no result accrues to the individual. The illusion of a separate
life has been destroyed and no separate individual, in the ordinary sense, really exists
under these conditions. It is true that according to the Yogic philosophy each Purusa is
a separate individual but the separate individuality of each Purusa means merely that
He is a separate centre of consciousness in the Supreme Reality and not that his con-