Chapter 16Sankhya and Yoga · Patanjali’s Yoga

Divine union [was the aim of Yoga in Patanjali’s day], yes — but for the ascetic schools it was union with the featureless Brahman, the Unknowable beyond existence or, if with the Ishwara, still it was the Ishwara in a supracosmic consciousness. From that point of view Patanjali’s aphorism1 is sound enough. When he says Yoga, he means the process of Yoga, the object which has to be kept in view in the process — for by the cessation of cittavr.tti one gets into sam¯adhi and sam¯adhi is the only way of uniting solely and completely with the Brahman beyond existence.

* Stopping the movements of the chitta [is what is meant by cittavr.ttinirodha]. In our Yoga it is more necessary to transform these movements than to stop them altogether, but the power to stop them is necessary — it is usually done by the mind falling into silence and then imposing the same silence on the vital nature.

* 1 Yoga´scittavr.ttinirodhah. (Yogas¯utra 1.2). — Ed.

Chit is the pure consciousness — as in Sat Chit Ananda.

Chitta is the stuff of mixed mental-vital-physical consciousness out of which arise the movements of thought, emotion, sensation, impulse etc. It is these that in Patanjali’s system have to be stilled altogether so that the consciousness may be immobile and go into samadhi.

It [stopping the movements of the chitta] has a different function [in this Yoga]. The movements of the ordinary consciousness have to be quieted and into the quietude there has to be brought down a higher consciousness and its powers which will transform the nature.

* If you suppress [the cittavr.ttis], you will have no movements of the chitta at all; all will be immobile until you remove the suppression or will be so immobile that there cannot be anything else than immobility.

If you still, the chitta will be quiet; whatever movements there are will not disturb the quietude.

If you control or master, then the chitta will be immobile when you want, active when you want, and its action will be such that what you wish to get rid of will go, only what you accept as true and useful will come.

* Some people do get disgusted with the body for its uncleanness, but I should say it is very few.

The suggestion of Patanjali2 supposes that the mind is everything, so if I get the idea that the body is an unclean thing, all my feelings will harmonise with that idea. But it is not so — there are other parts which do not care for the idea or knowledge in the mind and are not affected by it but are led by their own instincts and desires. It is only those who have already the turn to vairagya who can make use of Patanjali’s suggestion to help 2 The suggestion that disgust for one’s body arises from the idea of cleanliness. In his letter the correspondent quoted Patanjali’s aphorism, ´Sauc¯at sv¯a˙nga-jugups¯a (Yogas¯utra 2.40). — Ed.

their already existing vairagya. The medical man for instance holds his knowledge of the composition of the body as a matter of fact of science, he keeps it separate there in the scientific compartment of his mind and it does not in the least affect his other ideas, feelings or activities.