Microsoft Word - Taimni - The Science of Yoga.doc

reproduction and rearrangement of the component images. But the mind also, accord-
ing to Yogic psychology, is Jada (inert) and it is the illumination of the Buddhi which
imparts to the mechanical work of the mind the element of intelligent understanding.
But, as this question has been dealt with thoroughly elsewhere, let us now pass on to
the problem with which the present Sutra deals, namely, the mastery of the Bhutas.
The key to the mastery of anything is a correct knowledge of its essential na-
ture. All forces of Nature have been brought under the control of man by the discovery
of laws which determine the action of these forces. The mastery of the Bhutas should
therefore depend upon the discovery of their essential nature and this is what the Yogi
aims at in performing Samyama on the different stages through which they pass in as-
suming their final form.
If we are to understand what these different stages through which the Bhutas
pass in their involution are, we will again have to recall the basic doctrine of the Yogic
philosophy according to which the whole of the manifested Universe is an emanation
of the Self. It is the Self which has become the Not-Self through a progressive involu-
tion of a part of Itself. This progressive involution of consciousness accounts for the
five stages or aspects of the Panca-Bhutas referred to in the present Sutra and also
shows how it is possible, by reversing the process, to trace them back to their source.
As it is rather difficult to comprehend the five aspects which the Bhutas assume
in the five stages of their involution let us consider a simple example to illustrate how
a simple outer expression of a thing can have subtler aspects which are hidden from
our view. Let us see what stages may be involved in the manifestation of a chemical
element like oxygen from the Divine Mind. Since oxygen has to play a definite role in
the physical world the first step in its formation should be a conception in the Divine
Mind of its function or purpose. This particular function called Arthavattva will first
require for its fulfilment a particular combination of the three Gunas which lie at the
very basis of all manifested objects. This is called the Anvaya state because the three
Gunas are all-pervading and form the common substratum of all manifested objects.
The particular combination of the Gunas from which the element oxygen is derived
will require for its next stage in manifestation a particular form such as a modern elec-
tronic configuration. This obviously is the Suksma or subtle state of the element. A
particular combination of electrons and protons with a specific arrangement and mo-
tions of the constituent particles constitutes a definite element with a definite set of
qualities which characterize the element. These in their totality constitute the Svarupa