do not forget that order and chaos make strange bedfellows, and the
results are unpredictable.
Yoga would say that this unpredictable diversity stems from the
intelligent will and life force of nature (prerana) struggling to express
itself in more and more ways, like an actor who wants to take on as
many different roles as possible. To yoga, the code embedded in DNA
is not some inexorable deterministic force. It is deterministic to the ex
tent that it carries the code of past karma. But it is also the will of na
ture seeking freedom through individualization. To take an example,
the particularity of the flounder fish, which has two eyes on one side
of its head, lies on the bottom of the sea bed and is dark for camou
flage only on one side, is not the result of a freak mutation, but the
flounder's response to the challenge of existence in a dangerous world,
animated from within and motivated by an unconscious cellular in
telligence.
The reason behind our exploration of the elements and their subtle
counterparts is to penetrate into the evolving heart of nature, to catch
it before it shows up in obvious objects like trees and tables, hotels,
saris, and motor cars. Beyond even that lies our wish to reconcile the
gunas, the unstable qualities of nature that lend it both its creative and
transient characteristics. At a material level, inertia/mass (tamas) pre
dominates, which is why it hurts when you stub your toe on a table leg.
At a psycho-sensory level, dynamism (rajas) and luminosity (sattva) are
predominant, which is why studying for an exam can be an exhila
rating experience, shame over a mean action can be fiery torture, and
a job well done can be a source of sattvic serenity. The yogi aims to be
a gunatitan, one who can restore the guna to their original proportions
and then draw them all back up in a stable form into the root of na
ture and so transcend their vicissitudes. Henceforth he is unshaken by
the turbulence of nature.
This does not mean you are unfeeling. I referred l'arlil·r to thl' loss
Il l I.\\ I II 1·. I I I V I N 1-. II (I I I Y ( .- 1 N .1 NIl .1 1
lCl'J