| 9. Fancy rests upon images which have no real existence. This means that
these images have no real existence in so far as they are conjured up by men themselves,
constructed within their own mental auras, energized by their will or desire [20] and are
consequently dissipated when attention is directed elsewhere.
"Energy follows thought" is a basic tenet of the Raja Yoga system and is true
even where these images of fancy are concerned. These fancied images fall primarily into
three groups, which the student would do well to consider.
- Those thought forms which he constructs himself, which have an evanescent life and which
are dependent upon the quality of his desires; being therefore neither good nor evil, low
nor high, can be vitalized by low tendencies or idealistic aspirations, with all the
intermediate stages to be found between these extremes. The aspirant has to guard himself
in order that he may not mistake these for reality. An illustration might well be given
here, in respect to the facility with which people judge they have seen one of the
Brothers (or Masters of the Wisdom), whereas all they have perceived is a thought form of
one of Them; the wish being father to the thought they are the victim of that form of
incorrect perception called by Patanjali, fancy.
- Those thought forms which are created by the race, the nation, the group or the
organization. Group thought forms of any kind (from the planetary form to that constructed
by any band of thinkers) form the sum total of the "great illusion!" Herein lies
a hint to the earnest aspirant.
- That thought form created by a man since his first appearance in physical form, and
called the "Dweller on the Threshold!" Being created [21] by the lower personal
self and not by the soul, it is impermanent and is simply held together by the man's lower
energy. When the man begins to function as the soul this "image" he has created,
through his "fancy" or his reaction to delusion, is dissipated by a supreme
exertion. It has no real existence once there is nothing in the aspirant to feed it, and
the realization of this enables him to free himself from its thralldom.
This is one of the sutras which, though apparently short and simple, is of the most
profound significance; it is studied by high initiates who are learning the nature of the
creative process of the planet, and who are concerned with the dissipation of planetary
maya. |
