awareness. Progressively we have to transform ourselves in such a way
that we can engage and act in the world without becoming entangled
and tainted by it.
This refers back to something mentioned very early in the book.
For average people there are three types of action, white (sattvic), black
(tamasic), and grey (rajasic). They bring respectively good, bad, or
mixed consequences. But, as we have seen, consequences cannot in
definitely be controlled, and even good actions can end up over time
with mixed or bad results. Most actions are grey as we have partially
selfish motives and so consequences are immediately mitigated by ei
ther our own impurity of intention or our ineffectiveness in carrying
out our actions. A yogi, a gunatitan, who has transcended the three
qualities of nature (guna), is able to act in a totally neutral way. He
does not seek the fruit of his action to be recognized as virtuous. He
remains free from the dualities of virtue and vice, good or bad, honor
or dishonor. He becomes a dharmi-a righteous person who merely en
acts his duty as an end and fulfillment in itself. This is what keeps him
clean and free from worldly entanglements. But, as I said earlier, de
tachment is an ongoing struggle, and the yogi cannot rest on his lau
rels, abandon his practice, and fall back into the lazy, spoiled habits of
a sort of spiritual Maharajah.
Yama is the code of ethical conduct that helps in our behavior to
ward ourselves and the environment inside as well as outside. Yama is
the foundation of yoga. The principles of yama are essential to evolu
tion at every level. Yama being the foundation, its principles are also
the structural pillars that support the whole edifice of yoga as far as the
roof, which is no roof at all but the infinite celestial vault above.
Now that we have learned to tidy the house of the self and have
discovered divinity residing within it, how do we live differently? D.T.
Suzuki, the great Japanese sage, said that the ordinary person floats two
meters above the ground. The yogi has both feet on tlw ground. I would
suggest the image that om· foot is on the earth, whl'rl'as tlw othl"r stands
I IV I Nli IN I' Il l· l'. llllM