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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Book 3 - Union achieved and its Results
53. From this intuitive knowledge is born the capacity to distinguish (between all beings) and to cognize their genus, qualities and position in space. The difficulty of this sutra will be obviated if a free paraphrase is here given. "Through the development of the intuition there will arise exact knowledge of the sources of the manifested life, of its characteristics or qualities, and of its location within the whole." Right through the Yoga Sutras it has been made apparent that the divine triplicities are everywhere to be found, and that every form ensouling a life (and there is naught else in manifestation) is to be known as: 1. Life. The life of God emanates from its source in seven streams, emanations or "breaths," and every form in the objective world is the expression of a life as breathed forth on one or other of these streams. The development of the intuition enables the seer to know the nature of the life atom. This is inferred in the word "genus." The modern occultist might prefer the word "ray," and the Christian "pneuma" or spirit, but the thought is one. 2. Consciousness or soul. All these living forms of divine life are conscious, even though all states of consciousness are not the same but range from the life of the atom of substance, limited [365] and circumscribed as it may be, to that of a solar Logos. The state of the conscious response of all forms to their environment, esoteric and unseen, produces the varying characteristics plus the distinction produced by: Ray, Plane of manifestation, Rate of vibration, Point of development, and these characteristics form the quality referred to in the sutra. This is the subjective aspect in contradistinction to the objective and the essential. 3. Form or body. This is the esoteric aspect, that which emerges from the subjective as a result of spiritual urge. The position in space is that part of the body of the Heavenly Man in which any atom or form has its locale. Here it should be remembered that according to the occult student "space is an entity" (Secret Doctrine I, 583), and this entity is one and the same as the cosmic Christ, the "body of Christ," referred to by St. Paul in I. Cor., XII. In this sutra, therefore, it is made apparent that the liberated yogi who has developed the intuition can know all things about all forms of life, and this involves a knowledge of:
1. Genus. | 2. Quality. | 3. Position in Space.
Ray | Character | Place in body of Heavenly Man.
Spirit | Soul | Body.
Life aspect | Consciousness | Form.
Essence | Subjective nature | Objective form.
[366] Of this knower we can apply the words of the teacher whose works are found in the archives of the Lodge: "To him, standing before the Spark, the flame and the smoke are equally to be seen. To him, the shadow veils the reflection and yet the light is seen. To him, the tangible but demonstrates the intangible, and both reveal the spirit, whilst form, color and number speak aloud the word of God."
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