the sunlight cannot enter the rooms of a house if all the doors and windows are
closed. Even if the sun is blazing outside, we may be shivering inside due to the doors
and windows being closed, preventing the light of the sun from entering.
Likewise the forces of nature, which are really what are meant by the powers of
nature, cannot enter into the personality of an individual on account of the very
presence of individuality. What we call individuality is nothing but the closed house
of the asmita, where every avenue of entry of cosmic force is closed completely due to
the intensity of self-consciousness. One is so intensely aware of oneself as an
individual that it is impossible for cosmic forces to enter that person, so that one
begins to rot from within due to this ego, and undergoes intense suffering which is
the direct outcome of the absence of freedom which is equivalent to the harmony of
oneself with nature.
The stages of yoga that are going to be mentioned—the limbs of yoga as they are
called—are the stages of the mastery which one gains over phenomena, external and
internal, by a systematic ascent to greater and greater degrees of harmony. Thus,
yoga is, in a sense, a system of harmony. The Bhagavadgita has put it very
beautifully: samatvaṁ yoga ucyate (B.G. II.48).
In every stage there is an establishment of equilibrium of oneself with the
atmosphere. The study of the limbs of yoga is a study of the various stages by which
we have to establish this harmony of ourselves with the atmosphere. What is called
‘atmosphere’ is only a term used to indicate the presence of a factor that is external to
oneself. The externality consciousness also gets diminished gradually as mastery is
gained more and more.
Two things happen simultaneously. The first one is the diminution of the intensity of
one’s externality-consciousness. The feeling that there is a world outside is so intense
in us that we have no say in the matter of things in this world. We seem to be
helpless. In the ascent that we are going to speak about, there will be a slow decrease
in the intensity of this feeling of externality and a corresponding feeling of harmony
of ourselves with the atmosphere outside.
Secondly, there will be a diminution of the extent of the object world in front of us—
which is, at present, hanging upon us as a heavy weight. The individual subject looks
upon itself as a minute content of the vast world of objects, so that we always think
that the world is larger than we are. It is far bigger than we are, so we are frightened
of the world. The object is much bigger than the subject. That is why the subject is
frightened always. It is always in a state of insecurity and sorrow.
As the ascent progresses, there is also a diminution in the extent of this object world,
and the subject becomes wider and wider. As we go higher and higher, the extent of
the jurisdiction of the subject becomes more and more, and that of the object
becomes less and less, so that the world becomes smaller and we become bigger—the
reverse of what is happening now. There is a diminution of the content of
consciousness in the form of the object world and a simultaneous expansion of the
jurisdiction of the subject consciousness, as well as a diminution in the intensity of
the feeling of externality in oneself. This is what happens, stage by stage, by the
practice.