course, the elephant does not indicate the limit of the strength which can be acquired,
this animal being mentioned merely because it is supposed to be the strongest animal
known to us. What that limit is it is difficult to say.
What we should note, however, is that all these qualities or powers like
strength, speed, etc. which involve generally physical forces are not mere abstractions
but living principles or Tattvas having their source in the consciousness of the Logos.
The Yogi who gains direct contact with these principles is therefore in touch with a
source whose potentialities are unlimited as far as we are concerned.
- Knowledge of the small, the hidden or the distant by directing the light
of superphysical faculty.
That interpenetrating the physical plane there are several super-physical planes
of progressively increasing subtlety is a well-known doctrine of Occult philosophy.
Patanjali has not definitely mentioned and classified the different planes but their exis-
tence is implicit in his doctrines of different levels of consciousness (I-17) and the
stages of the Gunas (II-19). His reference to higher sensuous activity or superphysical
faculties in the Sutra also shows that he took for granted the existence of the super-
physical worlds, and the exercise of faculties pertaining to them. Another reason, per-
haps, why the different planes of existence are not mentioned by him specifically is
that such a division of the material side of the Universe is not necessary for the pur-
pose of Yoga. Yoga as a practical Science is concerned mainly with the raising of hu-
man consciousness into progressively higher levels of existence and since all the
planes really form one heterogeneous mass of particles of matter, they may, for the
sake of convenience, be taken as one.