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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Book 2 - The Steps to Union
41. Through purification comes also a quiet spirit, concentration, conquest of the organs, and ability to see the Self. It should be remembered that both the Commandments and the Rules (Yama and Nyama) have to do with the lower fourfold self, functioning in the three worlds, and frequently called the lower quaternary. We have seen in the preceding sutra that the purification required is four fold and concerns four vehicles. The results of this purity are also fourfold and have reference equally to the four sheaths. These results are, in the order of the vehicles: [205]
1. Conquest of the organs | The physical body,
2. A quiet spirit | The emotional vehicle,
3. Concentration | The lower mind or the mental body,
4. Ability to see the self | The synthetic result of the triple condition of the above sheaths.
The "conquest of the organs" has reference specially to the senses and is the result of magnetic purity or the refinement of the etheric body. In this connection students should bear in mind that the physical body is not a principle, but is built in exact conformity with the etheric body. This etheric body is the magnetic vehicle on the physical plane and attracts (according to its own nature and constituents) those atoms and particles of substance out of which the dense physical is constructed. When the sense perceptions are refined and when the vibratory condition of the vital body is justly attuned, the organs of the senses are entirely dominated and controlled by the real man and put him in contact eventually with the two highest subplanes of the physical plane and not with the lower astral as is now the case. The correct order of this control of the organs of physical perception or of the five senses is as follows: Correct intellectual perception of the ideal on the mental plane. Pure desire, freed from love of form on the emotional or astral plane, Correct use and development of the five [206] centers up the spine (base of spine, sacral center, solar plexus, heart and throat centers), each of which is found in the etheric body and is allied with one or other of the five senses, Consequent correct reaction of the sense organs to the requirements of the true or spiritual man. In connection with the astral body, the result of purification is a quiet spirit, or the "gentle stillness" of the vehicle so that it can adequately reflect the Christ principle, or the buddhic nature. The relation of the astral or kamic principle (using the middle vehicle of the threefold lower man) to the buddhic principle using the middle vehicle of the spiritual triad (or atma-buddhi-manas), should be carefully considered. Quieted emotions, and the control of the desire nature ever precede the reorientation of the lower. Before the desire of a man can be towards things spiritual he has to cease to desire the things of the world, and of the flesh. This produces an interlude of great difficulty in the life of neophyte, and the process is symbolized for us in the use of the word "conversion" in orthodox Christian circles; it involves "a turning round" with its consequent temporary turmoil, but eventual quietness. In the mental body, the effect of purification is the development of the capacity to concentrate or to be one-pointed. The mind no longer flits hither and thither but becomes controlled and quiescent and receptive to the higher impress. [207] As this is discussed fully in book three we need not deal further with it here. When these three results of purification are making themselves felt in the life of the aspirant, he nears a certain climax which is a sudden perception of the nature of the soul. He gets a vision of the reality which is himself, and finds out the truth of the words of the Christ that "the pure in heart shall see God." He beholds the soul and henceforth his desire is for ever towards reality and away from the unreal and the world of illusion.
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