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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Book 2 - The Steps to Union
44. Spiritual reading results in a contact with the Soul (or divine One). This might perhaps more literally be translated as "the reading of symbols produces contact with the soul." A symbol is a form of some kind which veils or hides a thought, an idea or a truth and it might be laid down therefore as a general axiom that every form of every kind is a symbol, or the objective veil of a thought. This when applied, will be found to refer equally to a human form, which is intended to be the symbol (or made in the image) of God; it is an objective [211] form veiling a divine thought, idea or truth, the tangible manifestation of a divine concept. The goal of evolution is to bring to perfection, this objective symbolic form. When a man knows that, he ceases to identify himself with the symbol which is his lower nature. He begins to function consciously as the divine inner subjective self, using the lower man to veil and hide his form, and daily dealing with that form so that it is moulded and wrought into an adequate instrument of expression. The idea is also carried forward into the daily life, in the attitude of the man to every form (in the three kingdoms of nature) he contacts. He seeks to see below the surface and to touch the divine idea. This is the fourth of the Rules and concerns the man's inner attitude to the objective universe. It might be said therefore that the rules concern a man's attitude towards:
1. His own lower nature | internal and external purification,
2. His karma or lot in life | contentment,
3. His soul or ego | fiery aspiration,
4. Environment and physical plane contacts | spiritual reading,
5. The one Existence, God | devotion to Ishvara.
Thus a "right attitude" to all things covers this set of rules.
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