Microsoft Word - Taimni - The Science of Yoga.doc

to be worked out. It is to be noted that the objective is not a temporary and partial so-
lution of the problem but a permanent and complete solution, not a palliative but a
remedy which will root out the disease altogether. If the disease is to be rooted out we
must go to the root-cause of the malady and not bother about the mere outward super-
ficial symptoms. What is the root-cause of the misery which is caused by the Klesas
and which is to be avoided? The answer is given in II-17. The nature of the Seer and
Seen and the reason why they are yoked together are explained in the subsequent Su-
tras but before dealing with those questions let us try to understand the problem in a
general way.
It has already been pointed out in dealing with the nature of Asmita or the ten-
dency of consciousness to identify itself with its vehicles that this process begins with
the coming together of consciousness and matter as a result of the veil of Maya involv-
ing it in illusion and consequent Avidya. This problem which is linked with the origin
of things and takes us back to the question of the initial involution of the individual
consciousness in matter is really one of the ultimate problems of philosophy about
which philosophers have been speculating since the beginning of time. It is like all
such problems beyond the scope of the limited intellect and it is no use trying to solve
it through the agency of the intellect. It can be solved—or it would perhaps be better to
use the word dissolved—only in the light of the transcendent knowledge we can gain
in Enlightenment. So let us not try to answer the question why the Purusa who is pure
and perfect is yoked to Prakrti. Let us hold our soul in patience and wait till we have
transcended the intellect and its illusions and are face to face with that Reality which
holds within itself the answer to this ultimate question.
But though we cannot know the answer to this fundamental question there is no
difficulty in understanding that such yoking together has taken place and also that this
yoking is the cause of the bondage. Yoking always means bondage even in ordinary
life and that it should be the cause of bondage in the case of the Purusa is quite con-
ceivable. But what is the nature of the bondage it is impossible to conceive beyond
what is given in the philosophy of Klesas. To know that in the real sense of the term
would be to know the ultimate mystery of life and to have reached Enlightenment al-
ready. Surely, that is the end—what the aspirant sets out to achieve through Yoga.
After pointing out the cause of bondage in II-17, namely the yoking together of
the Seer and the Seen or the entanglement of pure consciousness in matter, Patanjali
proceeds to explain the essential nature of the Seer and the Seen. In the two following