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Author's Preface |
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Since the dawn of history various extraordinary phenomena have been
recorded as happening amongst human beings. Witnesses are not wanting in
modern times to attest such events even in societies living under the full
blaze of modem science. The vast mass of such evidence is unreliable, coming
as it does from ignorant, superstitious, or fraudulent persons. In many
instances the so-called miracles are imitations. But what do they imitate?
It is not the sign of a candid and scientific mind to throw overboard anything
without proper investigation. Surface scientists, unable to explain the
various extraordinary mental phenomena, strive to ignore their very existence.
They are therefore more culpable than those who think that their prayers
are answered by a being or beings above the clouds, or than those who believe
that their petitions will make such beings change the course of the universe.
The latter have the excuse of ignorance, or at least of a defective system
of education, which has taught them dependence upon such beings, a dependence
which has become a part of their degenerate nature. The former have no
such excuse. For thousands of years such phenomena have been studied, investigated,
and generalized; the whole ground of the religious faculties of man has
been analyzed; and the practical result is the science of Raja-yoga. Raja-yoga
does not, after the unpardonable manner of some modern sciences, deny the
existence of facts which are difficult to explain; on the contrary, it
gently, yet in no uncertain terms, tells the superstitious that miracles
and answers to prayer and powers of faith, though true as facts, are not
rendered comprehensible through superstitious explanations attributing
them to the agency of a being or beings above the clouds. It declares that
each man is only a conduit for the infinite ocean of knowledge and power
that lies behind mankind. It teaches that desires and wants are in man,
that the power of supply is also in man, and that wherever and whenever
a desire, a want, or a prayer has been fulfilled, it was out of this infinite
magazine that the fulfillment came, and not from any supernatural being.
The idea of supernatural beings may rouse to a certain extent the power
of action in man, but it also brings spiritual decay. It brings dependence;
it brings fear; it brings superstition. It degenerates into a horrible
belief in the natural weakness of man. There is no supernatural, says the
yogi, but there are in nature gross manifestations and subtle manifestations.
The subtle are the causes' the gross the effects. The gross can be easily
perceived by the senses; not so the subtle. The practice of raja-yoga will
lead to the acquisition of the subtle perceptions.
All the orthodox systems of Indian philosophy have one goal in view: the liberation of the soul through perfection. The method is yoga. The word yoga covers an immense ground. Both the Samkhya and the Vedanta schools point to yoga in some form or other. The subject of the present book is that form of yoga known as Raja-yoga. The aphorisms of Patanjali are the highest authority on Raja-yoga and form its textbook. The other philosophers, though occasionally differing from Patanjali in some philosophical points, have, as a rule, accorded to his method of practice a decided consent. The first part of this book comprises several lectures delivered by the present writer to his classes in New York. The second part is a rather free translation of the Aphorisms (Sutras) of Patanjali, with a running commentary. An effort has been made to avoid technicalities as far as possible, and to keep to the free and easy style of conversation. In the first part some simple and specific directions are given for students who want to practice; but all such are especially and earnestly warned that, with few exceptions, Raja-yoga can be safely learnt only by direct contact with a teacher. If these conversations succeed in awakening a desire for further information on the subject, the teacher will not be wanting. The system of Patanjali is based upon the system of Samkhya, the points of difference being very few. The two most important differences are, first, that Patanjali admits the Personal God in the form of the First Teacher, while the only God that Samkhya concedes is a nearly perfected being, temporarily in charge of a cycle of creation. Second, a yogi holds the mind to be equally all-pervading as the Soul, or Purusha, and Samkhya does not. |
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COPYRIGHT REGISTERED UNDER ACT XX OF 1847 Published by President Advaita Ashrama Mayavati Pithoragarh Himalayas |