The Quickening of the Process of Self-unfoldment
Educated and thoughtful men and women you already are; already you
have climbed up that long ladder which separates the present outer
form of the Deity in you from His form in the dust. The manifest Deity
sleeps in the mineral and the stone. He becomes more and more unfolded
in vegetables and animals, and lastly in man He has reached what
appears as His culmination to ordinary men. Having done so much, shall
you not do more ? With the consciousness so far unfolded, does it seem
impossible that it should unfold in the future into the Divine?
As you realize that the laws of the evolution of form and of the
unfolding of consciousness in the universe and man are the same, and
that it is through these laws that the yogi brings out his hidden
powers, then you will understand also that it is not necessary to go
into the mountain or into the desert, to hide yourself in a cave or a
forest, in order that the union with the Self may be obtainedÄHe who
is within you and without you. Sometimes for a special purpose
seclusion may be useful. It may be well at times to retire temporarily
from the busy haunts of men. But in the universe planned by Isvara, in
order that the powers of the Self may be brought outÄthere is your
best field for Yoga, planned with Divine wisdom and sagacity. The
world is meant for the unfolding of the Self: why should you then seek
to run away from it? Look at Shri Krishna Himself in that great
Upanishad of yoga, the Bhagavad-Gita. He spoke it out on a
battle-field, and not on a mountain peak. He spoke it to a Kshattriya
ready to fight, and not to a Brahmana quietly retired from the world.
The Kurukshetra of the world is the field of Yoga. They who cannot
face the world have not the strength to face the difficulties of Yoga
practice. If the outer world out-wearies your powers, how do you
expect to conquer the difficulties of the inner life? If you cannot
climb over the little troubles of the world, how can you hope to climb
over the difficulties that a yogi has to scale? Those men blunder, who
think that running away from the world is the road to victory, and
that peace can be found only in certain localities.
As a matter of fact, you have practised Yoga unconsciously in the
past, even before your self- consciousness had separated itself, was
aware of itself. Sand knew itself to be different, in temporary matter
at least, from all the others that surround it. And that is the first
idea that you should take up and hold firmly: Yoga is only a quickened
process of the ordinary unfolding of consciousness.
Yoga may then be defined as the "rational application of the laws
of the unfolding of consciousness in an individual case". That is what
is meant by the methods of Yoga. You study the laws' of the unfolding
of consciousness in the universe, you then apply them to a special
caseÄand that case is your own. You cannot apply them to another. They
must be self-applied. That is the definite principle to grasp. So we
must add one more word to our definition: "Yoga is the rational
application of the laws of the unfolding of consciousness,
self-applied in an individual case."
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