The relationship of the mind to the objects is a very important thing to be taken into
consideration at the time of the practice of samyama because samyama gradually
reduces the distance between the mind and the object, so that a stage will be reached
when there will be no distance at all. The mind will be the object, and the object will
be the mind; the thinker will be the ‘thought of’, and vice versa. But the mind will
revolt against any such attempt, which is the reason why there is difficulty in
concentration of mind. The refusal of the mind to concentrate on any given object is
due to its inability to comprehend the relationship it maintains with the object, and
the relationship of any object with other objects. The objects, which are the bhutas—
or rather, the evolutes of the bhutas, the elements—are known to exist and operate
on account of the action of the senses. The mind begins to be aware of the activity of
the world outside through the senses, the indriyas. And, the transformation, which is
the conditioning factor of the objects outside in the world, again gets conditioned
through the senses when it reaches the mind, so that there is no direct knowledge of
the nature of the transformation which the objects undergo.
It is not possible to have a correct insight into the nature of things directly by the
mind, on account of there being an intervening activity called the senses or the
indriyas. So there is a need for not only an adjustment of the internal processes of
thought, but also there is a need for the regulation of the activity of the senses in
order that there may be a harmony between the mental transformations inside and
the outer transformations which are the conditioning factors of the objects outside.
We have, therefore, a final aim in yoga, which is the thorough harmonisation of the
activities of the mind, the senses and the objects outside, without any kind of
discrepancy or disharmony intervening in the middle.
Now, at the present moment, what happens is that the thoughts of the mind do not
correspond to the nature of objects; therefore, the mind has no control over things. If
the mind has to correspond to fact, it has to understand what the fact is. Inasmuch as
the fact is not known, there is no such correspondence. The fact is nothing but the
law that operates behind the existence of the objects—which operates behind the
mind also, subjectively. But the mind is ignorant of this fact.
The ignorance present in the mind is due to the very old matter about which we were
speaking—asmita, egoism. The mind and the egoism are united; they cannot be
separated. The ego principle, which is the cohesive force that keeps the mind in a
restricted position, prevents its connection with anything else other than that with
which the ego is connected, so the mind is completely cut off from the world of
objects outside. Inasmuch as the personal notions of the mind, as determined by the
principle of the ego, cannot always correspond to the law of things in general, there is
disharmony between the subject and the object. This disharmony between the
subject and the object is the reason behind the subject having no knowledge of the
object. Consequently, there is no control over anything. There is a total helplessness
on the part of the subject and a compulsion which the subject feels in respect of
everything, because the law of the world presses upon the subject so forcefully to
yield to its dictates, in spite of whatever the mind may be thinking according to its
whims and fancies. Thus, the reason for the bondage of the jiva, or the subject, is the
vehemence of the ego, or the asmita tattva, which will not sacrifice even a whit of its
notions and opinions about things.