There are 34 sutras in the last chapter of Patanjali Yoga Sutras that talk about liberation and end to suffering. This part is based on the ultimate objectives of yoga and offers insight into the liberation that yoga leads to.
There are several ways to develop psychic abilities that we talked about in the previous chapter: it can be inborn, through drug use, through the power of words or mantras, austerity, or focus. Some people have psychic abilities from birth as a result of their battles in past lifetimes. They are the natural saints—who, from an early age, are filled with God’s wisdom and love and appear to be resistant to worldly temptations.
Additionally, certain mantras also generate psychic abilities. The aspirant’s will power is greatly strengthened by the practice of discipline and seriousness. However, the most reliable method of developing psychic abilities is focus. This was covered in detail in the 3rd chapter.
Theory of Evolution
Patanjali has used an example of agriculture to demonstrate the Hindu philosophy of evolution. By simply opening the gate of a dam, the farmer can allow gravity to carry the water into the field. The water is already present. According to Vivekananda, every man already possesses all power and he just can’t let it in to follow its natural path.
Evil actions and accumulating negative karma are similar to opening the dam in the incorrect spot and leading to a terrible flood that would destroy the area. The water is not to blame, it needs to be directed appropriately and the farmer bears full responsibility for that.
Patanjali says that the real key to progress is the expression of the perfection and divinity that exists inside all beings but has been blocked. This perfect nature will help us move forward. At first, the man was restrained to just animals, but as soon as the door opened, the man burst forth. A man also contains the capacity for divine nature which is obstructed by ignorance. The divine can manifest when knowledge overcomes the obstacles.
Actions and Karma
According to the Karma theory, our good or bad activities cause us to suffer, and the ultimate goal is to elevate humanity. All of the scriptures tend to preach Karma. The manifestation of the Purusha’s nature is hindered by bad acts; however, when good deeds remove these barriers, the Purusha’s brilliance is shown. The Purusha actually remains unchanged. Nothing you do can ever take away the true essence, since the soul is unaffected by everything. All that exists is a veil that conceals its perfection.
To swiftly exhaust one’s karma, yogis form Kâya-vyuha, or groupings of bodies, to process their karma. They develop egoistic minds for all these bodies. These are referred to as “created minds”.
The mind and matter are like two limitless warehouses. The key to their control is revealed when you become a Yogi. It was all yours, but you forgot about it. You remember it when you became a Yogi. After that, you are free to alter it any way you choose.
Although the activities of the different created minds, the one original mind controls them all. Since it is the ego-sense which creates an individual mind it is theoretically evident that this ego-sense should be able to create secondary minds, revolving like satellites around the original. The idea is that the yogi might wish to have several minds and bodies to exhaust all of his karma more quickly.
Patanjali says, that of all the mental kinds, only the mind cleansed by samadhi is liberated from all desires and all past impressions of karma. Experience alone cannot satisfy karma; rather, spiritual realization is the only way.
Ordinary individuals can have mixed, black (bad), or white (good) karma. However, a man’s deeds will no longer result in any form of karmas for him after he has reached samadhi.
On the other hand, the divine incarnation is a real manifestation of the Godhead. Rather than being compelled by the karmas of past lives, he enters the phenomenal realm by an act of grace and divine free will. He has no karma when he enters the world and produces none when he lives here.
Assume that after accumulating good, bad, and mixed karma, I die and ascend to heaven to become a deity. A deity body has different wants than a human body since it doesn’t have an appetite or a thirst. What happens to the unfinished past? Are there any Karmas that result in the want to eat and drink? Where would these Karmas go? Patanjali says desires are only able to materialize in certain settings.
The remainder of the wants will stay locked up. Those karmas that the environment permits will surface. We have many desires in life. They may be human, animal, and or divine. Only good desires will surface if I take a god. Only Karma that is appropriate and fit for the surroundings will manifest. This demonstrates how the environment has the ability to exert tremendous control over Karma.
Subconscious Dispositions
Fine experiences make impressions, and revived impressions become memories. Here, memory refers to the unconscious coordination of previous experiences—which have been reduced to impressions—with conscious awareness in the present.
Hindu philosophy views creation and destruction as an infinite and never-ending process. We can only liberate ourselves from karma as individuals by comprehending the Atman, our eternal nature, and unlearning the desire to exist on this plane.
The laws of cause and consequence govern our subconscious tendency. Karma can only function and give rise to tendencies in the presence of certain causes. Ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and the need to hold on to existence are these causes. Rebirth, a long or short life, and the sensations of joy and misery are the results of these causes. Karma essentially stems from the ignorance of the Atman. Eliminate this ignorance, and karma is destroyed.
The Swetaswatara Upanishad states, that this universe is a wheel and everything is subject to birth, death, and rebirth. It spins in circles without ever stopping. The individual self spins on the wheel as long as it believes itself to be distinct from Brahman. However, it stops revolving around the wheel when it realizes its identity with Brahman via his grace. It becomes eternal.
There are two forms and expressions that we refer to as the past and the future. Both are always present inside the object. Expression and form change depending on the time.
The 3 Gunas
Every item is made up of gunas (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas). The gunas have the ability to project a gross manifestation, which is observable. Alternatively, they could project a subtle image that can’t be seen by the human eye. Moreover, they might modify how they relate to one another, changing the object’s shape completely. The three gunas can be present in whatever combination. It maintains a fundamental unity despite the many manifestations.
Thus, we may see that the individual’s mentality remains fundamentally the same despite their several rebirths. The mind simply changes its form and expression in different incarnations due to the action of the gunas. A decent man’s mind retains the subtle leftover of past evil impressions as well as the potential future impressions.
So Patanjali states that in order to achieve liberation, a man must stop identifying with the mind. He is released from his karma when he is certain that he is the Atman and not the mind. The free soul with all of its memories from the past, present, and future, is no longer a physical object, yet it is still there.
Mind Perceiving the Objects
Various brains experience the same item in various ways. The same object is perceived differently by each of the three gunas. As a result, the mind has to be distinct from the object.
It is impossible to claim that the object depends on the perception of one mind. If that is the case, then the item would be considered nonexistent when it is not perceived by that one mind.
The mind is always changing and so is the object. The mind’s fluctuations are always known to the Atman. And because the Atman does not change it provides a degree by which all perception can be measured.
The mind is not self-luminous. Rather, it is a light reflector, similar to the moon. The Atman is the source of light like the sun and the intellect can only shine and experience through the Atman’s reflected light. The mind might sense itself and an outside object if it were self-luminous. It is incapable of doing this. It cannot reflect on itself when it is seeing an outside object, and vice versa.
Despite having many perceptions and desires, the mind only works in service of the Atman since it is a complex entity and cannot act independently or for its own sake.
Samadhi is attained when one attains to perfectly discriminate to clear the vision and to lift the veil of ignorance. From here all ignorance ends, even the source of suffering, and liberation from the influence of karma is attained. When a yogi cannot be pulled out from the state of perfect discrimination even in the face of temptations brought on by psychic powers then knowledge is blessed upon the yogi to liberate him.