cause of the repulsion which they sometimes feel towards the Yogic ideal of Libera-
tion. To remove this misconception we have merely to ask what is the source of the
illusory happiness which we feel in the joyful experiences of our ordinary life and the
blissful experiences of the higher life. Of course, the Self whose very nature is bliss.
The outer experience is merely an exciting cause. It is the response from within—the
source of bliss—which produces the faint reverberations which we feel as joys and
pleasures of the lower life. In giving up the joys and pleasures of the lower life we are
merely giving up the indirect, feeble and uncertain method of obtaining bliss for the
direct method. We give up our hold on the shadow so that we may grasp the substance.
Instead of trying vainly to gain blissful experience we become Bliss itself.
As the pure consciousness of the Purusa is really quite separate and yet appears
indistinguishable from awareness in the realm of Prakrti, the question arises how to
separate the two in order to gain knowledge of the Purusa. The method prescribed in
this Sutra is Samyama on the distinction between the purpose hidden behind the
Pratyaya and the purpose of the Purusa himself. The Pratyaya is for another. It is a
product of Prakrti which according to Samkhya acts only and always for the Purusa.
The consciousness of the Purusa is for the Purusa himself. It has no ulterior motive or
purpose, the Purusa being eternal, changeless and Self-sufficient. This distinction,
subtle though it is, can be made the object of Samyama and it is possible in this man-
ner to resolve the apparently homogeneous Pratyaya into its two components, the
Sattva Guna in which the consciousness of the Purusa is reflected and the conscious-
ness of the Purusa himself. The problem is not unlike that of distinguishing between a
source of light and its reflection in a mirror. Just as there can be several methods of
distinguishing between the real object and its reflection so there can be several meth-
ods of distinguishing between the reflection of the Purusa in Sattva and the Purusa
himself. The method proposed is one of them and leads to the knowledge of the Purusa
himself as distinguished from his reflection in Sattva. When this knowledge is ob-
tained the Yogi is in a position to exercise non-instrumental perception hinted at in III-
- As the Purusa is above the limitations of Prakrti his perception must also be above
the limitations of the mind and the sense-organs.