exhaustion of them by a quick experience. This nirmana citta is a term which
signifies many aspects of this method adopted by the yogin.
There are references in our scriptures which make out that yogins can appear
simultaneously in different places, not necessarily for the exhaustion of the karmas,
but for other purposes. Here, this particular sutra seems to be pinpointing the aspect
of exhaustion of karma, for the sake of which there is the manufacture of what is
known as the nirmana citta. The body that is manufactured out of this nirmana
citta, or mind, is called nirmana kaya. This has a different meaning altogether in
Buddhist psychology, and we should not mix up one with the other. Simply, literally,
it means ‘the manufactured body’; that is nirmana kaya. And the manufactured
mind is called nirmana citta. The sutra here explains the ways by which karmas by
yogins can be exhausted. But, as I mentioned in passing, these nirmana cittas can be
created by yogins for other purposes also, not merely the exhaustion of karmas.
For example, the forms which Lord Sri Krishna is supposed to have taken with his
sixteen thousand consorts was not done for the exhaustion of any karma. It was a
kind of lila, or a play. Krishna simultaneously appeared in all places. Also, he appears
to have had lunch in two different places at the same time. It is mentioned in the
Srimad Bhagavata that one devotee invited Krishna for lunch on a particular day, at a
particular time, and at that particular time on that day, King Janaka also invited him
for lunch. So Krishna split himself into two and had lunch in two places at the same
time.
These are all yogic mysteries and powers which are effects of a high attainment. It is
a different kind of yoga altogether from the ordinary concept that we have of it. For
example, in the Bhagavadgita, Lord Krishna says, paśya me yogam aiśvaram (B.G.
XI.8): “Behold My yoga.” Well, he does not mean that one should behold his practice
of yoga in the sense of asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, etc. It is the glory,
the magnificence, the grandeur and the supreme power that is called ‘yoga’ here. The
glory of God is what is designated by the term ‘yoga’. “Behold my greatness!”—that is
what he is saying.
Now we come to the sutra again. The point in this sutra, nirmāṇacittāni asmitāmātrāt
(IV.4), is that by the control exercised through the I-principle, or the asmita tattva,
one can ramify into various shapes, just as there can be rays emanating from the sun.
The asmita, which is the I-principle, or the central personality of the yogin, is the
controlling force. It directs the operation of the other minds through the other
vehicles that it has manufactured. Pravṛtti bhede prayojakaṁ cittaṁ ekaṁ anekeṣām
(IV.5): There is only one mind, though it appears as if there are many minds. For the
purpose of executing a function or different sets of functions simultaneously—at one
time—these minds are projected by a central mind. The experiences will not be
variegated in the sense of one being completely cut off from the other; there will be a
simultaneous experience of everything, just as when winds blow from different
directions we can feel their impact from the different directions simultaneously. We
can have a headache; we can have a stomachache; we can have all sorts of things at
the same time. All pains can come at the same time, and many pleasures can also
come at the same time. We can experience all of them at the same time in different
aspects of our feeling, through the same mind. Likewise, the yogin seems to undergo
the various experiences of his karmas through the different instrumentalities of
minds which he projects out of his central personality, which is asmita.