YOGA PRACTICE: A SERIES OF POSITIVE STEPS:- The great adventure of yoga is not easy for those whose minds are distracted with narious occupations. The difficulty with the human mind is that it cannot be wholly interested in anything. While on the one hand there is a pressure of the mind towards taking interest in things, there is, simultaneously, a peculiar cussedness of the mind on account of which it cannot take interest in anything for all times. It has a peculiar twofold rajas, or inability to rest in itself, working behind it, inside it & outside it—from all sides—as a disturbing factor. There is no harm in taking interest in anything; but the interest should be only in one thing, not in many things. Anything in this world can be taken as a medium for the liberation of the soul. An object of sense can cause bondage; it also can cause liberation under certain conditions. When an object becomes merely one among the many—just one individual in a group—and the interest in the object may shift to another after a period of time, then that object becomes a source of bondage, because it is not true that any single individual object can manifest the wholeness of truth in itself. Such an apprehension that any peculiar individual feature can reveal the whole of truth is regarded as the lowest of understanding. Yat tu krtsnavad ekasmin karye saktam ahaitukam, atattvarthavad alpam ca tat tamasam udahrtam (B.G. XVIII.22), says the Bhagavadgita. The lowest type of knowledge is where clings a peson clings to an object as if it is everything & there is nothing outside it—it is all reality. But, this feeling that a peculiar object is all reality is not sincere. It is an insincere feeling which can subject itself to modifications under other circumstances. A VERY IMPORTANT SADHANA:- For the purpose of those students of yoga who would not be in a position to practice these meditations daily as has been indicated up to this time, the great sage Patanjali says that the same goal can be reached, though with a greater effort & in a longer period of time, by milder techniques of sadhana if intense meditation is difficult. The very attempt at the control of the senses—austerity, about which we were discussing previously—generates a new strength in the mind & sets the mind in tune with more impersonal powers. Thus, meditation becomes less difficult than it woild have been otherwise. It is the pressure of the senses towards objects that prevents the mind from taking to exclusive spiritual meditation. The objects of sense are so real to the senses that they cannot easily be ignored or forgotten. Even the very thought of an object will draw the mind towards it, & every particularized thought of an object is a further affirmation of the falsity that Reality is only in some place, in some object, in some thing, in some person, etc., & it is not universal in its nature. The universality of Truth is denied by the senses, at every moment of time, in their activities towards sense gratification. PRACTICE WITHPUT REMISSION OF EFFORT:- The practice mentioned is for the purpose of directing the mind slowly towards its final achievement, & for the attenuation of all the obstacles. The difficulties that present themselves with great intensity, ostensibly as if they are insurmountable, will be there in that form for a long time making it appear that perhaps they are impossible to approach & difficult to overcome. It is the experience of all students of yoga, & saints & sages of the past, that honey does not start flowing in the beginning itself. One cannot see the light of day at the very commencement of the practice. It will be like a dark sky thickly covered with black clouds, & the only thing that one will be able to see or visualize in front of oneself are problems, difficulties, pains, & everything that is the opposite of what one is asking or aspiring for. It is not till very late in the day that a feeling comes within oneself that, after all, things are not so bad as they appear. LACK OF KNOWEDGE IS THE SOURCE OF SUFFERING:-In the discussion of the yoga sutra [II.4] whose meaning we are trying to understand at present, the great that is insisted upon finally is that a mere tackling of the effect, or an attempt at subjugating the effect while allowing the cause to remain as it is, will not vield beneficial results. Most of the endeavours in spiritual practice become failures on account of the causes being left untouched & the effects being taken into consideration with great ardour & force of concentration. This is partly due to circumstantial reasons. We should say that the internal causes of one’s mental suffering are such that, in most caese, society is not sympathetic with these presences. It is unfortunate historical circumstance, but nevertheless it is there, so that mankind is perpetually kept in an artificial state of inward tension merely because of its own peculiar ethics. It has created its own bondage by creating rules which are ultimately no good. But this situation is there, whatever be the analytical reasons behind the worthwhileness of such a condition.