The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Book 2 - The Steps to Union |
28. When the means to Yoga have been steadily
practised and when impurity has been overcome, enlightenment takes place leading up to
full illumination. We now come to the practical part of the book, wherein
instruction is given as to the method to pursue if full yoga, union, or at-one-ment is to
be achieved. The work might be described as twofold: This steadfast application to the twofold work produces two corresponding results, each
dependent upon its cause: It should be noted here that the two causes of revelation, the practice of the eight
means to yoga and the purification of the life in the three worlds, deal with the man from
the standpoint of the three worlds and bring about (in the man's physical brain) the power
to discriminate between the real and the unreal and to discern the things of the spirit.
They cause also certain changes of conditions within the head, reorganize the vital airs
and act directly upon the pineal gland and the pituitary body. When these four: are part of the life of the physical plane man, then the spiritual man, the ego or
thinker on his own plane attends to his part of the liberating process and the final two
stages are brought about from above downwards. This sixfold process is the correspondence
upon the Path of Discipleship, of the individualizing process, wherein animal man, the
lower quaternary (physical, etheric, astral and lower mental) received that twofold
expression of spirit, atma-buddhi, spiritual will and spiritual love, which completed him
and made him [180] truly man. The two stages of development which are brought about by the
ego within the purified and earnest aspirant, are: 1. Enlightenment. The light in the head, which is at first but a spark, is
fanned to a flame which illumines all things and is fed constantly from above. This is
progressive (see previous sutra), and is dependent upon steadfast practise, meditation and
earnest service. 2. Illumination. The gradually increasing downpour of fiery energy increases
steadily the "light in the head," or the effulgence found in the brain in the
neighborhood of the pineal gland. This is to the little system of the threefold man in
physical manifestation what the physical sun is to the solar system. This light becomes
eventually a blaze of glory and the man becomes a "son of light" or a "sun
of righteousness." Such were the Buddha, the Christ, and all the great Ones who have
attained. |
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