laws operate in different countries. When one gains entry into a particular realm, one
becomes one with the law that operates in that realm; and to a lower realm, that
upper law looks like a miracle. The aim of yoga is the liberation of the spirit. The
highest perfections are not control of the elements, or bodily perfection, etc., as
mentioned. The eight siddhis etc. are not the aim of yoga. Rather, they are obstacles
if they are independently aimed at. The purpose is Cosmic-consciousness, which also
is an incidental experience to the last stage which is called liberation, or moksha.
Omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence are the last powers that come to a
person. That is Ishvara shakti: entering into the mind of a yogi. That is the last
perfection, and is connected with the Pure Spirit, or the purusha.
These perfections come in various ways: sometimes without one’s knowing that they
have come, or sometimes they become objects of one’s mental awareness. All people
are not of the same kind. Every yogi is a specific character by himself or herself, so we
cannot compare one with the other. Though many people may practise a similar
technique of meditation, the experiences will not be uniform; they will vary because
of the peculiarity or novelty of the physical and the mental strain of the individual
concerned. These powers and experiences are the reactions set up in the personality
of the yogi by the powers of nature as a whole, and inasmuch as the individualities of
the yogis vary in the structure and the makeup of their organism, the reactions also
vary in nature. Hence, experiences vary. Sometimes we may see light, sometimes we
may not see light, and so on.
It is not the intention of the Yoga Shastra to describe what powers come to a yogi
when he concentrates or practises samyama, as these are temptations and
sidetracking issues. But anyhow, for the purpose of giving an idea of the greatness of
the practice, and also to give some sort of an enthusiasm to the practitioners, the
Yoga Sutra has gone into some detail as to the nature of these powers.
Our main point is samyama. There is no use merely counting the number of rich
persons in the world and trying to find out the means by which they have become
rich. Well, that may be a good science as a kind of theoretical pursuit, but what do we
gain by knowing how many rich people are there in this world and how they have
become rich? We will not become rich by knowing these methods, because it is a
science by itself and not merely a historical study or a survey that we make
statistically. The science is a more important aspect of the matter than merely a
statement of the consequences or results that follow by the pursuit of the science.
What is the science? That is samyama, the subject that we have been studying all
along. How are we able to concentrate the mind? For this purpose the author has
taken great pains in some of the sutras to explain how the mind can be made to
agree, wholeheartedly, with the pursuit of yoga, and how distractions can be
eliminated. It is this that is the intention of the sutras, right from those which dealt
with the nirodha parinama, etc., onwards.
The whole of yoga is summed up in one word: samyama. This is the entire system of
Patanjali. How can we grasp the object in our consciousness? That is called
meditation. This grasping of the object by consciousness is the gradual identification
of consciousness with the object, and vice versa. How this can be done is the point on
hand; and once this is understood, every other perfection will follow. We ourselves
will be surprised at the powers that we gain. And as I mentioned, many times we will