Friday, April 24, 2009

The Ego is The Root of Created Minds YS IV - 4, 5

Yoga Sutra - IV- 4 - NIRMANA CITTANY ASMITA MATRAT - A Yogi's egoity alone is the cause of [other artificilly] created minds.

Yoga Sutra - IV - 5 - PRAVRTTI BHEDE PRAYOJAKAM CITTAM EKAM ANEKESAM - Although the functions in the many created minds may differ, the original mind-stuff of the Yogi is the director of them all.

Swami Satchidananda translated these sutras without commentary.

"How to Know God - The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali" translated and commented on by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood says the following for suta - 5 :

'These two aphorisms refer to the psychic power of creating for oneself a number of subsidiary minds and bodies, over which the original mind maintains control. Since it is the ego-sense which creates an individual mind (I, 17), it is theoretically evident that this ego-sense should be able to create subsidiary minds, revolving like satellites around the original. The idea that the yogi might wish to have several minds and bodies in order to exhaust all of his karma more quickly. But the wisdom of this plan might seem doubtful. There was a story of a king who made himself many bodies, hoping in this way to exhaust his craving for sexual enjoyment. But finally he abandoned the attempt, declaring: 'Lust is never satisfied by gratification; it only flares up more, like a fire fed like butter.' "

2 comments:

Anne Partain said...

We do waste a lot of energy trying to get rid of what is, don't we?

Hello my friend, trusting that all is well with you.

bometernally said...

Hello Anne. Good to hear from you again. And I agree totally with your statement.

Take care