An Introduction to Yoga | Page 6

becomes
more manifest.

The Oneness of the Self

The Self in you is the same as the Self Universal. Whatever powers are
manifested throughout the world, those powers exist in germ, in latency,
in you. He, the Supreme, does not evolve. In Him there are no additions
or subtractions. His portions, the Jivatmas, are as Himself, and they
only unfold their powers in matter as conditions around them draw
those powers forth. If you realize the unity of the Self amid the
diversities of the Not-Self, then Yoga will not seem an impossible thing
to you.

The Quickening of the Process of Self-unfoldment

Educated and thoughtful men and women you already are; already you
have climbed up that long ladder which separates the present outer
form of the Deity in you from His form in the dust. The manifest Deity
sleeps in the mineral and the stone. He becomes more and more
unfolded in vegetables and animals, and lastly in man He has reached
what appears as His culmination to ordinary men. Having done so
much, shall you not do more ? With the consciousness so far unfolded,
does it seem impossible that it should unfold in the future into the
Divine?
As you realize that the laws of the evolution of form and of the
unfolding of consciousness in the universe and man are the same, and
that it is through these laws that the yogi brings out his hidden powers,
then you will understand also that it is not necessary to go into the
mountain or into the desert, to hide yourself in a cave or a forest, in
order that the union with the Self may be obtainedÄHe who is within
you and without you. Sometimes for a special purpose seclusion may
be useful. It may be well at times to retire temporarily from the busy
haunts of men. But in the universe planned by Isvara, in order that the
powers of the Self may be brought outÄthere is your best field for
Yoga, planned with Divine wisdom and sagacity. The world is meant
for the unfolding of the Self: why should you then seek to run away

from it? Look at Shri Krishna Himself in that great Upanishad of yoga,
the Bhagavad-Gita. He spoke it out on a battle-field, and not on a
mountain peak. He spoke it to a Kshattriya ready to fight, and not to a
Brahmana quietly retired from the world. The Kurukshetra of the world
is the field of Yoga. They who cannot face the world have not the
strength to face the difficulties of Yoga practice. If the outer world
out-wearies your powers, how do you expect to conquer the difficulties
of the inner life? If you cannot climb over the little troubles of the
world, how can you hope to climb over the difficulties that a yogi has
to scale? Those men blunder, who think that running away from the
world is the road to victory, and that peace can be found only in certain
localities.
As a matter of fact, you have practised Yoga unconsciously in the past,
even before your self- consciousness had separated itself, was aware of
itself. Sand knew itself to be different, in temporary matter at least,
from all the others that surround it. And that is the first idea that you
should take up and hold firmly: Yoga is only a quickened process of
the ordinary unfolding of consciousness.
Yoga may then be defined as the "rational application of the laws of the
unfolding of consciousness in an individual case". That is what is
meant by the methods of Yoga. You study the laws' of the unfolding of
consciousness in the universe, you then apply them to a special
caseÄand that case is your own. You cannot apply them to another.
They must be self-applied. That is the definite principle to grasp. So we
must add one more word to our definition: "Yoga is the rational
application of the laws of the unfolding of consciousness, self-applied
in an individual case."

Yoga Is a Science

Next, Yoga is a science. That is the second thing to grasp. Yoga is a
science, and not a vague, dreamy drifting or imagining. It is an applied
science, a systematized collection of laws applied to bring about a

definite end. It takes up the laws of psychology, applicable to the
unfolding of the whole consciousness of man on every plane, in every
world, and applies those rationally in a particular case. This rational
application of the laws of unfolding consciousness acts exactly on the
same principles that you see applied around you every day in other
departments of science.
You know, by looking at the world around you, how enormously the
intelligence of man, co-operating with nature,