Lecture I
THE NATURE OF YOGA
In this first discourse we shall concern ourselves with the
gaining of a general idea of the subject of Yoga, seeking its place
in nature, its own character, its object in human evolution.
The Meaning of the Universe
Let us, first of all, ask ourselves, looking at the world around
us, what it is that the history of the world signifies. When we read
history, what does the history tell us? It seems to be a moving
panorama of people and events, but it is really only a dance of
shadows; the people are shadows, not realities, the kings and
statesmen, the ministers and armies; and the eventsÄ the battles and
revolutions, the rises and falls of states Äare the most shadowlike
dance of all. Even if the historian tries to go deeper, if he deals
with economic conditions, with social organisations, with the study
of the tendencies of the currents of thought, even then he is in the
midst of shadows, the illusory shadows cast by unseen realities.
This world is full of forms that are illusory, and the values are
all wrong, the proportions are out of focus. The things which a man
of the world thinks valuable, a spiritual man must cast aside as
worthless. The diamonds of the world, with their glare and glitter
in the rays of the outside sun, are mere fragments of broken glass
to the man of knowledge. The crown of the king, the sceptre of the
emperor, the triumph of earthly power, are less than nothing to the
man who has had one glimpse of the majesty of the Self. What is,
then, real? What is truly valuable? Our answer will be very
different from the answer given by the man of the world.
"The universe exists for the sake of the Self." Not for what the
outer world can give, not for control over the objects of desire,
not for the sake even of beauty or pleasure, does the Great
Architect plan and build His worlds. He has filled them with
objects, beautiful and pleasure-giving. The great arch of the sky
above, the mountains with snow-clad peaks, the valleys soft with
verdure and fragrant with blossoms, the oceans with their vast
depths, their surface now calm as a lake, now tossing in furyÄthey
all exist, not for the objects themselves, but for their value to
the Self. Not for themselves because they are anything in themselves
but that the purpose of the Self may be served, and His
manifestations made possible.
The world, with all its beauty, its happiness and suffering, its
joys and pains" is planned with the utmost ingenuity, in order that
the powers of the Self may be shown forth in manifestation. From the
fire-mist to the LOGOS, all exist for the sake of the Self. The
lowest grain of dust, the mightiest deva in his heavenly regions,
the plant that grows out of sight in the nook of a mountain, the
star that shines aloft over us-all these exist in order that the
fragments of the one Self, embodied in countless forms, may realize
their own identity, and manifest the powers of the Self through the
matter that envelops them.
There is but one Self in the lowliest dust and the loftiest deva.
"Mamamsaha"ÄMy portion,Ä" a portion of My Self," says Sri Krishna,
are all these Jivatmas, all these living spirits. For them the
universe exists; for them the sun shines, and the waves roll, and
the winds blow, and the rain falls, that the Self may know Himself
as manifested in matter, as embodied in the universe. |