pare the brain of a snail with that of a monkey and this again with that of a highly civi-
lized mam and you see the tremendous change which has taken place as regards the
capacity of the vehicle to express the powers which are latent in consciousness. And
the mental and spiritual powers which are exhibited by the highly civilized and intel-
lectual men and women of today are as nothing compared to the powers which are de-
veloped by the advanced Yogi and which are in store for every child of man when he
jundertakes his higher evolution. A study of the various Siddhis or occult powers
which are dealt with in Section III of the Yoga-sutras will give the student some idea
of the latent capacities which are lying hidden within each one of us, capacities which
can be developed by the technique outlined in this book.
It is necessary to distinguish between the powers of Prakrti and Purusa al-
though the two are generally exercised in conjunction. The power of Prakrti is obvi-
ously the capacity of the vehicle to respond to the demands of consciousness. A par-
ticular vehicle of consciousness is a certain combination of matter on a particular plihe
integrated and held together by various forces and its efficiency depends upon how far
it can respond to the powers of consciousness. The brain of an idiot is made of the
same substance as the brain of a highly intellectual man but there is a world of differ-
ence between the capacities of the two to respond to thought vibrations. It is in the
increasing peculiarity and complexity of the vehicle that the secret of its greater re-
sponsiveness and efficiency lies and this is what evolution of the vehicle really means.
If the response to consciousness determines the evolution of the vehicle what is
meant by the unfoldment of the powers of consciousness or Purusa? According to
Yogic philosophy consciousness itself does not evolve. It is in some way which is in-
comprehensible to the intellect perfect, complete, eternal. When we refer to the powers
of the Purusa in this joint development of the powers of the two what is meant is the
power of consciousness to function through and in collaboration with the vehicle. As
Purusa is pure consciousness and consciousness is eternal, there cannot be an evolu-
tion of his powers in the sense in which we take the word evolution. But we may sup-
pose that he has to acquire the capacity to use those in association with the matter of
the different planes. So that, as evolution proceeds his consciousness is able to express
itself more and more fully on these planes and to manipulate and control his vehicles
with increasing freedom and efficiency. What a tremendous task this is can be grasped
only when we study in detail the long process of evolution through the different king-
doms of Nature and the total constitution of man which is involved in the process. As
ben green
(Ben Green)
#1