very forbidding and formidable indeed when we look upon it as an observer from
outside. The solution does not lie in observing this as an outside onlooker, but by
getting into its very structure—which is the practice of yoga.
Atīta anāgataṁ svarūpataḥ asti adhvabhedāt dharmāṇām (IV.12): The dharmas, which
are the characteristics of karma, have a past, a present and a future. The future is
what causes bondage. The past is already experienced, so we cannot do anything with
it. It is over. The present is being undergone. We are in it completely, so we cannot
do anything with the present either. But we can do something with the future and see
that it does not come upon us like a nemesis. Heyaṁ duḥkham anāgatam (II.16), says
an earlier sutra. The pain that has not yet come can be avoided with the adoption of
certain means. The pain which has already come cannot be avoided, because it is
there as a part of our present life. But the future, which is now hiddenly existent in
what is known as the present, can be burnt up by the adoption of the proper means.
And what is the means? It is yoga.
By the practice of yoga it is possible to see that the future does not manifest itself,
because the future has not yet taken action. It has not become part of our conscious
life. It is still hiddenly present, and it can be burnt up inside before it germinates into
action. Once it germinates, it becomes a prarabdha which is the total complex of a
present experience, including the body, the mind, etc. Once it manifests itself, we
cannot get out of it. But there are certain reservoirs inside us in the form of future
possibility. Sometimes they are called sanchita karmas, which have not yet become
prarabdha. They can be dealt with effectively by yoga. What is this yoga?
This is what we have been explaining all along, from the Samadhi Pada onwards.
Yoga is a gradual, effective effort at the abolition of the distinction between the object
of experience and the subject thereof, by the practice of samyama. That is the
solution to the problem. As long as there is object-consciousness, citta-
consciousness, ego-consciousness, personality-consciousness, karma cannot be
avoided. The power of yoga is such that it can fry up the seeds inside that are yet
ungerminated. If the force exerted by the practice of yoga is sufficiently strong, every
karma can be destroyed: sarvaṁ karmākhilaṁ pārtha jñāne parisamāpyate (B.G. IV.33).
The sutras that follow in the Kaivalya Pada will not go into details of the practice of
yoga, because the details have already been stated in the earlier sutras. Now we are
given only the psychology behind the law of karma, and the sutra points out that,
though ordinarily karma cannot be escaped and no one can be free from the
operation of the law of karma, there is one solution by which the future pains can be
avoided and rebirth abolished completely by the supernal means which is provided
by the system of yoga.