The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali | Page 8

holy, disregard of the unholy, the psychic nature moves to
gracious peace.
When we are wrapped up in ourselves, shrouded with the cloak of our
egotism, absorbed in our pains and bitter thoughts, we are not willing to
disturb or strain our own sickly mood by giving kindly sympathy to the
happy, thus doubling their joy, or by showing compassion for the sad,
thus halving their sorrow. We refuse to find delight in holy things, and
let the mind brood in sad pessimism on unholy things. All these evil
psychic moods must be conquered by strong effort of will. This rending
of the veils will reveal to us something of the grace and peace which
are of the interior consciousness of the spiritual man.

34. Or peace may be reached by the even sending f orth and control of
the life-breath.
Here again we may look for a double meaning: first, that even and quiet
breathing which is a part of the victory over bodily restlessness; then
the even and quiet tenor of life, without harsh or dissonant impulses,
which brings stillness to the heart.
35. Faithful, persistent application to any object, if completely attained,
will bind the mind to steadiness.
We are still considering how to overcome the wavering and
perturbation of the psychic nature, which make it quite unfit to transmit
the inward consciousness and stillness. We are once more told to use
the will, and to train it by steady and persistent work: by "sitting close"
to our work, in the phrase of the original.
36. As also will a joyful, radiant spirit.
There is no such illusion as gloomy pessimism, and it has been truly
said that a man's cheerfulness is the measure of his faith. Gloom,
despondency, the pale cast of thought, are very amenable to the will.
Sturdy and courageous effort will bring a clear and valorous mind. But
it must always be remembered that this is not for solace to the personal
man, but is rather an offering to the ideal of spiritual life, a contribution
to the universal and universally shared treasure in heaven.
37. Or the purging of self-indulgence from the psychic nature.
We must recognize that the fall of man is a reality, exemplified in our
own persons. We have quite other sins than the animals, and far more
deleterious; and they have all come through self-indulgence, with
which our psychic natures are soaked through and through. As we
climbed down hill for our pleasure, so must we climb up again for our
purification and restoration to our former high estate. The process is
painful, perhaps, yet indispensable.
38. Or a pondering on the perceptions gained in dreams and dreamless
sleep.
For the Eastern sages, dreams are, it is true, made up of images of
waking life, reflections of what the eyes have seen and the ears heard.
But dreams are something more, for the images are in a sense real,
objective on their own plane; and the knowledge that there is another
world, even a dream-world, lightens the tyranny of material life. Much
of poetry and art is such a solace from dreamland. But there is more in

dream, for it may image what is above, as well as what is below; not
only the children of men, but also the children by the shore of the
immortal sea that brought us hither, may throw their images on this
magic mirror: so, too, of the secrets of dreamless sleep with its pure
vision, in even greater degree.
39. Or meditative brooding on what is dearest to the heart.
Here is a thought which our own day is beginning to grasp: that love is
a form of knowledge; that we truly know any thing or any person, by
becoming one therewith, in love. Thus love has a wisdom that the mind
cannot claim, and by this hearty love, this becoming one with what is
beyond our personal borders, we may take a long step toward freedom.
Two directions for this may be suggested: the pure love of the artist for
his work, and the earnest, compassionate search into the hearts of
others.
40. Thus he masters all, from the atom to the Infinite.
Newton was asked how he made his discoveries. By intending my mind
on them, he replied. This steady pressure, this becoming one with what
we seek to understand, whether it be atom or soul, is the one means to
know. When we become a thing, we really know it, not otherwise.
Therefore live the life, to know the doctrine; do the will of the Father, if
you would know the Father.
41. When the perturbations of the psychic nature have all been stilled,
then the consciousness, like a pure crystal, takes the colour of what it
rests on, whether