Microsoft Word - Taimni - The Science of Yoga.doc

events in the phenomenal world merely conform to a Plan which exists in the Divine
Mind in the same way as the construction of a building follows the plan of the archi-
tect? The first view will imply Determinism in its most rigid form while the second
will leave some room for Free Will.
The Sutra under discussion throws some light on this philosophical problem. It
is composed of two separate parts, the second part amplifying the first. The statement
‘the past and future exist in their own form’ means obviously that the succession of
phenomena which constitute the world process or any part of it are the expression, in
terms of time, of some reality which exists in the subtler realms of consciousness be-
yond the range of the human intellect. This reality transcends time and yet expresses
itself as time in the world process.
As this question of time will be dealt with thoroughly in connection with IV-33
let us pass on and proceed to consider the second part of the Sutra with which we are
immediately concerned at this stage. ‘The difference of Dharmas is on account of the
difference of paths.’ This is apparently an abstruse statement which does not seem to
make sense and the existing commentaries do not throw any light on it. Let us see
whether it is not possible to get at the meaning of the author in the light of what has
been said with regard to the nature of the past and future in the first part of the Sutra.
If the succession of phenomena which we cognize with our mind is the expres-
sion of some reality and if this expression is not a mere mechanical projection imply-
ing Determinism in its rigid form then it follows logically that the fulfilment of this
reality in terms of time and space must be possible along a number of paths any one of
which may be actually followed as a result of all the forces working in the realm of
Nature. The series of events which have taken place already and become the ‘past’ rep-
resent the path trodden by the Chariot of Time so far and have become fixed—part of
the memory of Nature in the Akasic records. What about the events which are still in
the womb of the ‘future’? What shape are these events going to take in becoming the
‘past’ in their turn? As these events will not be the result of the working out of a rigid
inexorable Destiny but elastic adaptations to a Divine Pattern the path which they take
must be at least to some extent indeterminate. There must be a certain amount of lati-
tude for movement if there is freedom of choice and free will has any place in the
scheme of things. Of course, there are forces working in the field which, to a certain
extent, will determine the direction in which events will move. There is, for example,
the pressure of evolutionary forces. There is the directing force of the Divine Plan and