maintained. But how can there be only one object before us? Is it possible? Have we
seen anywhere only a single object existing, independent of relationship with any
other thing? Here again, this doubt arises because of the impossibility to conceive an
integrated object. We have never been taught what an integrated object is. An
integrated object is that which maintains a vital relationship with every other thing in
the world; that is the object of our concentration. Even if it be for the time being, let
us take for granted that our object is one among the many. It has to be borne in mind
that it maintains an internal relationship with other things of the world, so that at the
time of concentration on this given object we are simultaneously attending upon
everything else in the world also.
There is no need for us to think of other things, because this particular object
maintains a necessary connection with everything else, so all the other things in
which we are interested also will be included. This is not to be forgotten. When this
focusing of the attention of the mind is done on a particular object, we are converging
the forces of the universe on that object. So, all our business also will be there, and
we need not be frightened. As a matter of fact, our business will improve, our
relationships with the world will become friendlier, and success will be on hand, at
the tip of our fingers, in any walk of life. There need not be any fear about this
matter, provided we are able to comprehend the principle that the object of our
meditation is the focusing point of the whole universe.
Chapter 86THE HURDLE OF THE EGO IN YOGA PRACTICEThere is something which intervenes between the object of meditation and that
which tries to unite itself with this object. It is this peculiar intermediary screen that
is not easily recognised, though it is there as almost a kind of impenetrable wall
through which the meditating consciousness is unable to penetrate into the object. It
is not easy to discover as to what this thing is which stands between the
consciousness that meditates and the object. The whole of yoga is nothing but the
process of discovering this obstructing medium and eliminating it completely by
some means or the other. The schools of thought and the systems of philosophy have
been scratching their heads in trying to discover the relationship between mind and
matter, consciousness and object, and so on. All these endeavours have borne various
kinds of fruit, each one different from the other, without any kind of uniformity in
their opinions.
That which stands between the meditating consciousness and the object is something
inscrutable. It is because of this inscrutability that it cannot easily be overcome. On
scrutiny, that principle will be realised to be a projection from the meditating
consciousness itself. It is you yourself standing there as an obstacle to yourself.
Ultimately you will realise that there is nobody else. You are yourself obstructing
yourself, in some peculiar manner, by a double activity which you try to engage
yourself in. On the one side, there is the practice of yoga, the effort of consciousness
to pierce through the veil and to unite itself with the object. But on the other hand,
there is a prejudice, a peculiar habit and a notion in the mind which prevents this
unity that is endeavoured through the practice of yoga. The personality-