Microsoft Word - Taimni - The Science of Yoga.doc

In this Sutra Patanjali has given us two ideas with regard to Isvara. The first is
that He is a Purusa, an individual unit of Divine Consciousness like the other Purusas.
The second is that He is not bound by Klesa, Karma, etc. like the other Purusas who
are still involved in the cycle of evolution. As is pointed out later (IV-30) the Purusa
becomes free from Klesa and Karma on attaining Kaivalya and the vehicle through
which Karma works (Karmasaya) is destroyed in his case. In what respects then does
Isvara differ from the other Mukta Purusas who have attained Kaivalya and become
Liberated? The explanation sometimes given that He is a special kind of Purusa who
has not gone through the evolutionary process and who was ever free and untouched
by the afflictions at any time is not very convincing and against the facts as they are
known to Occult Science.
The explanation of the discrepancy pointed out above lies in the fact that after
the attainment of Kaivalya the evolutionary or unfolding process does not come to an
end but new vistas of achievement and work open out before the Liberated Purusa. We
can hardly comprehend the nature of this process or the work which it involves but
that further stages do exist beyond Kaivalya is taken for granted in Occult Science.
The further unfoldment of consciousness which takes place in the evolutionary pro-
gress beyond Kaivalya passes through many stages and culminates ultimately in that
tremendously high and glorious stage in which the Purusa becomes the presiding Deity
of a Solar system. During the previous stages He has occupied progressively higher
and higher offices in the Hierarchies which govern and guide the various activities in
the Solar system. The offices of the Adhikari Purusas of different grades like Buddhas,
Manus etc. form, as it were, a ladder the lower end of which rests on the rock of
Kaivalya and its other end is lost in the unimaginable glory and splendour of Divine
Consciousness. The office of Isvara is one of the highest if not the highest rung of this
ladder. He is the Supreme Ruler of a Solar system or Brahmanda. It is in His Con-
sciousness that the Solar system lives, moves and has its being. The different planes of
the Solar system are His bodies and the powers working the machinery of the Solar
system are His powers. In short, He is the Reality whom we generally refer to as God.
How many further stages of unfoldment of consciousness exist between this
stage and the undifferentiated Ultimate Reality which is referred to as Parabrahman in
Vedanta we do not know. That such stages exist stands to reason and follows from the
facts that the suns do not occupy fixed positions but probably revolve round other