Chapter 103PUTTING AN END TO REBIRTHThe attainment of liberation is equivalent to the cessation of the bondage of karma.
It is the effect of karma that prevents the knowledge and experience of the Ultimate
Spirit. Hence, the causes of karma should be discovered and their effects destroyed,
so that there may be no obstruction to the spirit beholding the Spirit. Hetu phala
āśraya ālambanaiḥ saṅgṛhītatvāt eṣām abhāve tad abhāvaḥ (IV.11). The effects of the
vasanas—the impressions of karma—will cease of their own accord when the
circumstances that have brought about these vasanas cease. What are these
circumstances? These circumstances have been mentioned already. They are a set of
various phases of impact coming from various sides: from the objects, from the mind,
from the ultimate ignorance itself which is the cause of asmita, or individual
perception, and the consequence thereof—jati, ayuh, bhoga, which are the birth that
we have taken and the time we spend undergoing experiences of various types in the
birth that we have taken. We cannot cut short the span of life except by exhaustion of
karma. It is karma that pushes itself forward as experience. That fact is not known to
the mind because it is involved in the force with which the karma acts.
The causes of the effects of karma are not known to the mind. Perhaps no one can
know them, because each aspect of that cause is influenced by every other aspect, so
we cannot say that any one is the entire cause. The cessation of these factors is the
cessation of the vasanas, says the sutra. The perception of an object is one of the
causes. Yoga psychology regards every perception as a bondage because it creates
impressions in the mind. Perception is caused by likes and dislikes in various
intensities. It is not merely a bare, indeterminate, featureless perception of an object,
but it is something which is motivated by the feelings of the mind and, therefore,
judgements are passed together with the perception of an object. We do not merely
perceive things; we pass judgements on things, and it is the judgements that are the
cause of our attachment or aversion in respect of objects, and vice versa.
We have no insight into the causes of the perception of an object. We have been
seeing the surface of the process of perception and, therefore, neither we know the
nature of the object which is perceived, nor do we know the mind itself which is
influenced in a particular manner by a perception. The reason for getting stuck to the
object is the misconception in the mind in regard to the object. This is made out in a
subsequent sutra. The mind that cognises an object does not understand what it is
that is actually cognised. It has a wrong notion about the content of the cognition.
What is this that is seen before us? We have a very common definition: “It is an
object, a substance, some solid presentation.” That is all we can say, if we can say
anything at all about that which is cognised by the mind. It makes no difference
whether it is animate or inanimate—it has a similar character of cognisability and
perceptibility. But this is not the essence of the object. There is something else
behind it which causes in the mind a sense of attraction and repulsion which the
mind itself cannot understand, because if it understands that, the very meaning of
the cognition will cease at once.
The powers that operate a particular form as an object are invisible to the senses and
unthinkable by the mind. These powers themselves are not objects. They are
transcendent features which are far, far removed from the ken of mental perception.