Microsoft Word - Taimni - The Science of Yoga.doc

accessories of a modern diet make the physical body utterly useless for the Yogic life
and if the aspirant has been coarsening the body through the use of these he will have
to go through a prolonged period of careful dieting to get rid of the undesirable mate-
rial and make the body sufficiently refined.
The purification of the subtler vehicles which serve as instruments for the ex-
pression of thoughts and emotions is brought about by a different and more difficult
process. In their case the vibrational tendencies are gradually changed by excluding all
undesirable thoughts and emotions from the mind and replacing these constantly and
persistently by thoughts and emotions of a higher and subtler nature. As the vibrational
tendencies of these bodies change the matter of the bodies also changes pari passu and
after some time, if the effort is continued long enough, the vehicles are adequately pu-
rified. The test of real purification is provided by the normal vibrational tendencies
which one finds in the vehicle. A pure mind easily and naturally thinks pure thoughts
and feels pure emotions and it becomes difficult for it to entertain undesirable thoughts
and emotions in the same way as it is difficult for an impure mind to entertain high and
noble thoughts and emotions.
Another device recommended in the Hindu system of spiritual culture for the
purification of the subtler vehicles is the constant use of Mantras and prayers. These
make the vehicles vibrate frequently at very high rates of frequency, bring about an
influx of spiritual forces from the planes above and the agitation thus set in motion,
day after day, gradually washes out, as it were, all the undesirable elements from the
different vehicles. It will be seen, therefore, that purification or Sauca is a positive
practice. It does not take place of itself. One has to go through purificatory exercises,
day after day, for long periods of time. That is why it has been included in Niyama.
Samtosa: The second element of Niyama is Samtosa which is generally trans-
lated as contentment. It is necessary for the aspirant for the Yogic life to cultivate con-
tentment of the highest order because without it there is no possibility of keeping the
mind in a condition of equilibrium. The ordinary man living in the world is subjected
all day long to all kinds of impacts, and he reacts to these impacts according to his
habits, prejudices, training or mood of the moment, according to his nature as we say.
These reactions involve in most cases greater or lesser disturbances of the mind, there
being hardly any reaction which is not accompanied by a ruffling of the feeling or the
mind. The disturbance from one impact has hardly had time to subside before another
impact throws it out of equilibrium again. The mind seems to be apparently calm