The way in which this obstruction in the form of the ego is removed is twofold—
subjective as well as objective. The subjective method was described in the form of
the three parinamas mentioned in the earlier sutras. Now the objective method is
mentioned—namely, the way in which the mind can concentrate on an object as the
form taken by the original substance, or the mulaprakriti—the concentration which
can be practised by which the egoistic affirmation can be broken through.
The ego is broken either by internal self-analysis or by objective concentration. Both
ways are equally applicable and effective. It is the ego that prevents us from
concentrating ourselves on anything, because the ego has a notion of the variety of
things, and a need for appropriating various diverse characters for its own
satisfaction. And inasmuch as we are preventing this kind of contact and satisfaction,
it resents all forms of concentration of mind. The three gunas work in the mind as
well as the objects.
Na tad asti pṛithivyāṁ vā divi deveṣu vā punaḥ, sattvaṁ prakṛitijair muktaṁ yad ebhiḥ syāt
tribir guṇaiḥ (B.G. XVIII.40), says the Bhagavadgita. There is nothing in all of earth
and heaven which is free from these three gunas; not even the gods are free from
this. All the objects outside, present in all the fourteen realms—all the lokas—and the
mind itself, are this dramatic picturesque presentation of the three gunas. Thus,
before mastery is gained over objects and prakriti itself through samayama in yoga,
it is necessary to concentrate on the manner in which prakriti modifies itself into
these formations.
Chapter 94UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE OF THINGSThe sutra we are studying, etena bhūtendriyeṣu dharma lakṣaṇa avasthā pariṇāmāḥ
vyākhyātāḥ (III.13), tells us that the variety of things that we see in this world is the
last shape that is taken by prakriti through the processes known as dharma, laksana
and avastha. Every object of perception of the senses is a condition, or avastha, that
is maintained by prakriti. The maintenance of this avastha condition in its form as
an object of sense is internally regulated by a pattern, or laksana; the form of the
object is a manifestation of this pattern. This laksana pattern, again, is due to a
character called dharma that is inherent in the original substance, prakriti. In spite
of the multitudinous variety that we see in the form of things in the world, all this
variety is the last shape taken by prakriti and is reducible to a single substance by the
reverse process of the return of the effects to the cause.
This is what is done in samyama on any particular object. It is this variety that
troubles us and entangles us, confuses us, deludes us, and consequently makes us
attached to variety, which is really not there. Thus, attachment of any kind is a kind
of confusion of thought. It is a blunder that the mind commits due to not being able
to gain entry into the basic substance which has taken this variety of shape in the
form of these objects to which the mind is attached.