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Continuing our understanding of the antaranga yoga, especially the samyama part, the technical word used by Maharshi Patanjali in explaining, in expressing the three processes of transformation of dharana, dhyana and samadhi as samyama. These two Sutras, Sutra number 5 and 6, are a little deep understanding of the samyama.
And Sutra 5 of the Vibhuti Pada is
तज्ज॒यात्प्र॑ज्ञालो॒कः ॥ ३.५॥
Tad jayat prajñālokaḥ
And the sixth one is
तस्य भूमि॑षु वि॒नि॒योगः ॥ ३.६॥
Tasyabhūmiṣu viniyogaḥ
Sutra 5 is Tad is that, tad jayat winning over, victory, gaining a mastery, Prajña is another beautiful special word, unique word used by Patanjali. It is a special intuitional power. Prajña is an intuitional power. Āloka is illuminating, flashlight. Tad jayat prajñālokaḥ means by the mastery of that, that means samyama, by mastering samyama, flashes of light of illumination. How beautiful it is! Flashes of discovery, flashes of knowledge, flashes of illumination, a flash in the mind. Many times we exclaim and that is out of the mastery over samyama it is. Tad jayat, tad is used.
So some problem is troubling in the mind, some unsolved questions are filling the mind, unable to find an answer. Sometimes, many times, we experience a flash, the answer comes in a flash. The understanding comes in a flash. Because there is no other word to express, we are expressing the word as if coming by a flash. But behind this flash, at the background of this flash, there was a process took place and that process is samyama. And behind that, which is a culmination of the dharana, dhyana and samadhi. We have examples of Archimedes, Kekule, Edison, like of the many people, even in the modern world, examples of discoveries, without understanding, by not able to connect the things, we may explain it. We may exclaim that, it happened just by flash. But let us remember, it is not just by flash. There was a process which took place behind. Patanjali exactly hammers that point. Tad jayat, by gaining mastery, victory, over that, that is samyama, prajña, that is intuitional power, intuition. prajña, it is called prakāśena jñāna, it is. The knowledge blooms. The knowledge is understood. Suddenly, it seems we understood. But it is not a sudden process. So as this samyama process becomes more and more intensified, the light of the knowledge. You should remember, in the earlier sutras, ṛtambharā prajñā was used, ṛtambharā prajñā it is. The flash of illumination, filled with knowledge and this then would be a process, an understanding, a knowledge, manifesting from the samyama it is. And the reason for reiterating this process is, behind, at the background, at the foundation, there were processes. And also laying a beginning for the future sutras about the powers, the vibhūtis.
So the fifth sutra is -- Tad jayat prajñālokaḥ, Swami Vivekananda beautifully gives a wonderful commentary on this particular sutra. I quote it. “When one has succeeded in making this samyama, all powers come under his control. This is the great instrument of the Yogi. The object of knowledge are infinite, and they are divided into the gross, grosser, grossest, and the fine, finer, finest, and so on. This samyama should be first applied to gross things. Then, when you begin to get knowledge of the gross, slowly, by stages it should be brought to finer things.” An experienced, an adept sādhaka like Swami Vivekananda alone could have written like this, could have given such a wonderful commentary, filled with an experience.
And the sixth sutra is tasyabhūmiṣu viniyogaḥ. Tasya its, bhūmiṣu levels, stages, planes, viniyogaḥ utilization, application, utility. It is not upayoga, it is viniyoga. So the application or the utilization is in stages. And it should be made in stages. And that is how the sutra explains that this prajñālokaḥ, the penetrative power of the ṛtambharā prajñā, is achieved, or it is to be utilized, or it is to be applied, in stages. And it can be only in stages. It is a very very important and significant suggestion, that not to speed up or fast in the sādhana. There can be fast food, there cannot be fast sādhana. There can be fast vehicles, but sādhana has to be slow and steady, and unfolding, unravelling, a rendezvous with oneself.
Just for an example of this bhūmiṣu, planes, from one plane to the other plane, from one stage of understanding to the other stage of understanding. And the stages are not upward, they are deeper, lower, downwards, internal it is. Just for a clear understanding, just take an example of a stone, a rose and a human being. And all three objects for comparison are made out of the pañca bhūtas, all the three objects are there, and they are just a physical conglomeration of physical matter, atoms, cells, etc., are the pañca bhūtas, but the understanding is very deep, the basis is very deep. In case of a rose also we have a conglomeration, a mixture, like a mixture in the stone, and the matter of this combination differs from that of a stone in two things. Firstly, it has the capacity for organic growth. See the difference, stone may not grow, a flower, a tree grows, even if there are growing stones, as we hear sometimes, some parts of the world, there are growing stones, responding stones, but even that growing and response is not as active as the manifestation in the trees, plants and the rose. It is inherent, and it is an archetype, even to an ordinary superficial observer we can feel it. But coming back to the human, the combinations and the reactions are much deeper, much wider, much subtler, much more. Coming to the human form, we cannot help feeling that we are face to face with a profound mystery. The entire construction, the structure, is so deep. We have here not only a more elaborate material structure, but the form is the vehicle of a complicated phenomena like thoughts, emotions, decisions, interactions, transactions, communications, and the world of web it is, and all the aspects of the consciousness. Whatever may be the nature and the potentiality, whatever may be made up of the things of a stone, rose and a human, the materialistic side, but we know the differences. And that difference of application, viniyogaḥ, is in bhūmiṣu stages, tasyabhūmiṣu viniyogaḥ it is.
The very, very important dimension Patanjali expresses and mentions here, that the knowledge, light, prajñālokaḥ, for there would be nothing to bring it about, there can be no lamp light, unless we know that there are three things, the oil, the wick and the flame are brought together, and this combination of the three is an important factor, and each one has a specific role into it. And this intuition, though seems to be like a flash, and as we have seen in this particular sutra, it is in stages. Just for understanding, an example like a blind man, by birth, ascending steps or descending steps, walking on the steps or walking down on the steps, from the feel of his foot on the first step, he keeps confidently and steps confidently on the second steps, and where to keep his foot in the next one, that carefulness and confidentiality and that confidence is tasyabhūmiṣu viniyogaḥ, step by step, ascending the flights, descending the flights, out of confidence. And that is importance, progress, in the path of yoga, in the practice of the antaranga yoga, and that is the forward growth of the sādhaka and the yoga practitioners. Let us see further sutras of the Vibhuti Pada.To Be Continued.. ---------------------------------------
These are transcription of session delivered by Vice-President of Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra, Sri M. Hanumantha Rao Ji.
Audio Link - https://youtu.be/fOCEHUYtgDE?si=XJZ9P3I6K2fOxdXQ
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मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्धयसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥
Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26
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