Final Liberation

Chapter 4 of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is entitled Kaivalya, which means final liberation. The Chapter explains how the mind is constructed and veils the inner light of the Self. It describes how the yogi deals with the natural breaches in enlightenment, and how the primal building blocks of the mind resolve back into their cause, allowing final liberation.

    The 34 sutras of Chapter 4 have been divided into 12 sections:

    Means of attaining experience (4.1-4.3)

1)    The psychic powers may be obtained either by birth, or by means of drugs, or by the power of words, or by the practice of austerities, or by concentration.

Some are born with psychic powers as a result of their previous lives and others as saints who are filled with the knowledge of the love of God even in childhood. They often grow up untouched by the temptation of worldliness.

Certain drugs may produce visions, but these are invariably psychic, not spiritual. Furthermore they may cause prolonged spiritual dryness and even permanent damage to the brain.

The repetition of sacred words or mantras is an invaluable aid to spiritual progress.

The practice of austerity enormously strengthens will power.

Concentration is the surest of all means of obtaining psychic powers.

2   2)    The transformation of one species into another is caused by the inflowing of nature.

3   3)    Good and bad deeds are not the direct cause of the transformation. They only act as breakers of the obstacles; just as a farmer brakes down the obstacles of a water course, so that water flow through by its own nature.

Here Patanjali explains the Sankhya theory of evolution by using agriculture means as an example. The farmer who irrigates one field from a reservoir does not have to fetch water. The water is there already. All he has to do is open the flood gates and the water will flow.

The water is the flow of evolution which according to Patanjali, each one of us carries within himself, only to be released.

Vivekananda says:”All, progress and power, are already in every person. Perfection is in every person’s nature it is however often blocked from taking expression. If the block is removed, perfection rushes in.”

There is a radical difference between Eastern and Western ideas of evolution.

As an example, the West would put forth the idea that sexual selection and survival of the fittest are adequate, but suppose, humanity decides to eliminate competition and the acquiring of a mate, then according to the theory put forth, human progress would stop and the race could die. Patanjali on the other hand, declares that the true secret of evolution is the manifestation of the perfection which is already within every human being, but has been barred from expression. When man realizes his true nature as a spiritual being, he will open the obstructing barrier and his perfection will manifest.

 Accordingly, there is no reason to believe, that competition is necessary to progress.

   

    Emergence and mastery of mind (4.4-4.6)

4   4)    The ego sense alone can create minds.

5   5)    Though the activities of the different created minds are various, the one original mind controls them all.

The different minds, which act in different bodies, are called created minds and bodies. Mind and matter are like two inexhaustible storehouses. A yogi learns the secret of their control. The material, out of which a created mind is made, is the very same material which is used for the macrocosm. It is not, that the mind is one thing and matter another, they are only different aspects of the same thing.

     6)    Of the various types of mind, only that which is purified by samadhi is freed from all latent impressions of karma and from all craving.

Karma can only be exhausted by spiritual realization; never by mere experience.

  

Actions and karma (4.7-4.8)

7)    The karma of the yogi is neither white nor black. The karma of others is of three kinds: white, black or mixed.

When the yogi has attained perfection, his actions and the results produce by those actions, do not bind him, because he is free from desire. He just works on. He works to do good and does good, but he does not care for the results of his actions. The ordinary men who have not attained to that highest state, works are of three kinds: black, or evil, white or good and mixed.

8)    Of the tendencies produced by these three kinds of karma, only those are manifested for which the conditions are favorable.

In any particular incarnation, a person’s condition is determined by the balance of his karma. Suppose that balance is favorable and he is born to become a monk and a spiritual teacher, he may still have some bad karma which under less favorable conditions would produce negative tendencies. But, because he has to live up to his vocation and set a good example, these tendencies are kept in abeyance, and only his positive tendencies would manifest. This Sutra stresses the importance of the right environment in which one can unfold his positive tendencies.

    Subconscious impressions (4.9-4.12)

     9)    Because of our memory of past tendencies, the chain of cause and effect is not broken by change of species, space or time.

By memory Patanjali does not imply conscious remembering, but unconscious impressions received in past lives with the actions and thoughts of our present life. Karma, the chain of cause and effect is continuous. Only tendencies appropriate to the species will be manifested in one life.

     10)    Since the desire to exist has always been present, our tendencies cannot have had any beginning.

We have learned that yoga philosophy regards creation, maintenance and dissolution as a continuous process. Karma has always operated and created tendencies. There was no primal act. It is only as individuals that we can set ourselves free from karma by unlearning this desire to exist on the phenomenal level and realizing the Self, our eternal nature.

     11)    Our subconscious tendencies depend upon cause and effect. They have their basis in the mind and they are stimulated by sense objects. If all these are removed, the tendencies are destroyed.

Karma can only operate and produce tendencies as long as certain causes are present. These causes are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and the desire to cling to life.

The effects of these causes are re-birth, a long or short life and the experience of pleasure and pain. Basically, karma is routed in ignorance of the Self. Remove the ignorance and you destroy karma.

     12)    There is the form and expression we call past and the form and expression we call future; both exist within the object at all times. Form and expression vary according to, past, present and future.

   

Objects and the three gunas (4.13-4.14)  

     13)    They are either manifest or subtle according to the nature of the gunas. 

     14)    Since the gunas work together within every change of form and expression, there is a unity in all things.

The Bhagavad Gita teaches that which is nonexistent can never come into being and that which is, can never cease to exist and will continue to exist potentially within the object. Past and future exist within the object in an un-manifested subtle form. Nevertheless, they are there. Nothing in the universe is lost.

All objects are compounds of the gunas. The gunas may project a gross manifestation i.e. visible and tangible object. Or they may project a subtle manifestation which is not apparent to the senses. They may also alter their interrelationship so that rajas may become dominant in place of sattva in which case the form of the object may change entirely. But since the gunas never cease to be present in one form or another combination, the object preserves an essential unity, even in the diversity of its forms and expressions.

If we accept reincarnation, we can see that the same mind exists essentially throughout the rebirths of an individual. It is only the interplay of the gunas that makes the mind alter its form and expression in different incarnations; now seeming predominantly evil, or predominantly good.

In the mind of a good person, the past evil impressions still exist in subtle form and possible future impressions, whatever they are to be, also exist.

How then is liberation possible? Patanjali has already answered the question several times and he has restated his answer in sutra 11.

Our subconscious tendencies, he says, have their basis in the mind. Therefore, a person must cease to identify himself with the mind in order to gain liberation. When he knows beyond doubt, that he is the Self and not the mind, he is made free from karma.

The mind of a liberated soul, with all its past, present and future impressions, has no longer any existence as a phenomenal object, but it is not lost.

    Mind perceiving objects (4.15-4.17)

     15)    The same object is perceived in different ways by different minds. Therefore the mind must be other that the object.

     16)    The object cannot be said to be dependent on the perception of a single mind, for if it were the case, the object could be said to be non-existent when the single mind did not perceive it.

     17)     An  object is known on unknown, depending upon the mood of the mind.

In these two sutras, Patanjali refutes the philosophy of subjective idealism. Following Sankhya philosophy, he admits the reality of an objective world which is independent of our mental perception.

    Illumination of the mind (4.18-4.21)

     18)     Because the Self, the Lord of the mind, is unchangeable, the mind’s      fluctuations are always known to it.

     19)     The mind is not self-luminous, since it is an object of perception.

     20)     And since it cannot perceive both subject and object simultaneously.

As we have become aware, the mind is not the seer, but the instrument of the Self which is eternally conscious. The mind is only intermittently conscious of objects and its perceptions of them vary according to its own fluctuations. The mind is changing all the time and so is the object of perception. The Self alone by remaining unchanged provides a standard by which all perception can be measured.

     21)     If one postulates a second mind to perceive the first, then one would have to postulate an infinite number of minds and this would cause confusion of memory.

If a philosopher in order to avoid admitting the existence of the Self were to suggest that the mind is really two minds, a knower and an object of knowledge, then he would find himself in difficulty. For if mind A is known by mind B, then one must postulate a mind C and so forth. There would be an infinite number of progressions causing nothing but confusion.

    Buddhi and liberation (4.22-4.26)

     22)     The pure consciousness of the Self is unchangeable. As the reflection of its consciousness falls upon the mind, the mind takes the form of the Self and appears to be conscious.

     23)     The mind is able to perceive because it reflects both the Self and the object of perception.

The mind stands midway between the Self and external objects. Its power to perceive the object is only borrowed from the Self.

     24)     Though the mind has innumerable impressions and desires, it acts only to serve another, the Self; being a compound substance, it cannot act independently and for its own sake.

Every combination of individuals or forces in this world has to have purpose for its action or existence; otherwise it would be just a meaningless, functionless collection of objects brought together haphazardly.

     25)     The man of discrimination ceases to regard the mind as the Self.

     26)     When the mind is bent on the practice of discrimination, it moves toward liberation.

    Breaches in enlightenment (4.27-4.28)

     27)     Distraction due to past impressions may arise if the mind relaxes its discrimination even a little.

     28)     They may be overcome in the same manner as the obstacles to enlightenment.

That is, by meditation and by resolving the mind back into its primal cause. (See Chapter 2, Sutra 10 and 11).

    Perpetual enlightenment (4.29-4.30)

     29)     He, who remains un-distracted even when he is in possession of all the psychic powers, achieves, as a result of perfect discrimination, that Samadhi which is called the cloud of virtue.

     30)     Thence come cessation of ignorance, the cause of suffering and freedom from the power of karma.

When the yogi cannot be turned aside from the path of discrimination even when he is faced by the temptation of psychic powers, then knowledge is said to shower down upon him like a rain cloud, a “cloud of virtue,” pouring down liberation and bliss of God.

    Knowables become few (4.31)

     31)     Then the whole universe, with all its objects of sense knowledge becomes as nothing in comparison to that infinite knowledge which is free from all obstructions and impurities.

To people in ordinary sense consciousness, the universe seems full of secrets. There seems so infinitely much to be discovered and known. Every object is an invitation to study. He is overcome by a sense of his own ignorance. But to the illumined yogi the universe does not seem at all mysterious. It is said that if one knows clay, one knows the nature of everything that is made of clay. Therefore when one knows the Self, one knows the nature of everything in the universe.

    Gunas after liberation (4.32-4.34)

32)     Then the sequence of mutations of the gunas comes to an end, for they have fulfilled their purpose.

33)     This is the sequence of the mutations which take place at every moment, but which are only perceived at the end of a series.

The gunas as mentioned in chapter II, 18, form the universe in order that the experiencer may experience it, and thus become liberated. When liberation is achieved, the gunas have fulfilled their purpose.

Time is a sequence of moments and therefore a sequence of mutations of the gunas which take place at every moment. We only become aware of these moment-changes at intervals, when a whole series of them has resulted in a mutation and becomes apparent to our senses.

For example, we are not aware from moment to moment that a bud of a rose is opening, but in time, we see its flower. The same thing happens at the end of a series of mental impressions and thoughts leading to a decision of an idea.

However, to the illumined soul, time has no reality. There is no sequence of thought patterns. He controls time, as it were and knows past, present and future like a flash in the eternal now.

34)     Since the gunas no longer have any purpose to serve for the Self, they resolve themselves into Prakriti (nature). This is liberation. The Self shines forth in its own pristine nature, as pure consciousness.

Self Realization - Nature’s task is done. This unselfish task which nature has imposed on itself comes to an end, as she gently takes the forgetting soul by the hand and shows it all the experiences in the universe, all manifestations, bringing it higher and higher through various realms until at last it remembers its true nature. Then, the kind Mother Nature goes back the same way she came, for others who also have lost their way and thus, she works without beginning and without end, through pleasure and pain, through good and evil until all souls are floating in the river of perfection, of  Self Realization.