Microsoft Word - Taimni - The Science of Yoga.doc

happens very frequently that one personality of an individual does some particular ac-
tion but because the Karma of that action cannot be worked out by that personality
owing to the absence of the necessary conditions, it has to be worked out by another
personality of the same individual in a later life. And this second personality has no
memory of the particular action for which it is undergoing that experience. Of course,
if this experience is pleasurable no question arises in the mind of the second personal-
ity as to the justice of the undeserved good luck. But if the experience is painful there
is felt a grievance against Fate for the undeserved pain or suffering. A tremendous
amount of this kind of resentment against ‘undeserved’ suffering poisons the minds of
people who are ignorant of the Law of Karma and its mode of working and a wider
understanding of this Law will do much to make people see things in their true light
and to take the experiences of life as they come with patience and without bitterness.
Coming back to the philosophical difficulty we may ask: ‘Why should the sec-
ond personality in the later life suffer for the wrongs done by the first personality in
the previous life and if it has to, how can the law of Karma be called just?’ The answer
to the question is given in the Sutra we are dealing with. Of course, in expounding a
philosophical system or scientific technique in the Sutra form much is left to the intel-
ligence of the student who is supposed to be familiar with the general doctrines upon
which the philosophy or science is based. Only the essential ideas which form, as it
were, the steel frame of the mental structure are given and even these are stated as
concisely as possible. The doctrine of reincarnation which is an integral part of Yogic
philosophy and which is taken for granted by Patanjall implies that the chain of per-
sonalities in the successive incarnations are temporary expressions of a higher and
more permanent entity who is called by different names in different schools of thought
such as the Jivatma or the Immortal Ego or the individuality. It is this Jivatma who
really incarnates in the different personalities and the latter may be considered to be
more or less outposts of his consciousness in the lower worlds during the period of the
incarnations.
Now, the important point to note here is that the over-all memory embracing all
the successive lives resides in the ‘mind’ of the Jivatma and the different personalities
which succeed one another do not share the over-all continuous memory. Their mem-
ory is confined only to the particular experiences gone through by them in each sepa-
rate incarnation. This continuous memory embracing the chain of lives is due to the
fact that the Samskaras of all the experiences gone through in these lives are present in