The Doctrine and Practice of Yoga | Page 2

in matter, literally made of the dust." "It is the brain
of worldly wisdom, common sense, prudence, methodical arrangement,
order, discipline, classification, the skill and knowledge of the expert in
any branch or department of art or science." This side of the mind is
well developed in Scientists, Mathematicians and Businessmen, etc.
Where it is not guided by the Subjective Mind, it can only see diversity

and difference and is the slave of Maya--the slayer of the Real.
Subjective Concentration is seeking the Kingdom of Heaven within you.
"God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship in Spirit and
Truth." LAPLACE, the great astronomer, asserted that he had swept the
heavens with his telescope and found neither God nor Heaven. Yes,
poor LAPLACE! He looked for God objectively instead of
subjectively.
The Kingdom of God comes not with 'observation' but it is 'within' you.
The be-all and the end-all of religion is the practice of Subjective
Concentration. The performance of objective work by the human
organism necessitates expenditure of energy and at last death, because
all Objective Concentration means 'going from' the Absolute
centre--God--and hence it expends Spiritual Energy. Subjective
Concentration means 'coming to' the centre and hence it husbands and
recuperates this energy. Now nature is motion to and from, and
Spirit--the centre of Life. This two-fold motion constitutes what is
known as polarity--Evolution and Involution--negative and positive. At
the negative pole life becomes involved, _i.e._, 'wrapped up' in form.
At the positive pole life 'evolves' or becomes expressed in nature. In
Subjective Concentration you return for fresh supplies to the
inexhaustible storehouse of force--the Absolute Will. Jesus healed the
sick, exhibited control over external nature by raising the dead, because
his chaste soul could receive nothing negatively from God and could
give it out positively to the objective world. All power comes from God.
I would impress upon you the all-important necessity of placing
yourself in a magnetically passive attitude towards the Universal Will
and then of taking up a calm, positive attitude towards the phenomenal
world--which is a projection of the lower nature and hence must be
handled masterfully, fearlessly and confidently. Be positive to the
external world. Be negative and receptive to the Lord's Will-force.
Remember this. This brings me to the supremest and most solid truth
contained in the Science of prayer. The praying mind, by its mere
attitude of faith and earnest expectation, opens itself out to the
tremendous inflow of Divine Energy. It draws close to the centre of
all-power, wisdom and love, and drinks deep of the living waters of life
so that even the very face or flesh begins to shine under the influence of

this self-polarization--if I may be permitted to use this word--through
prayer. Here is the causa nuxus between a prayer and its sure reply. Do
you remember what Lord Rosebery said of the great Puritan Mystic
Oliver Cromwell? If not, please let me quote: "The secret of his
extraordinary success--he was a practical mystic--the most formidable
and terrible of all combinations. The man who combines inspiration,
apparently derived--in my judgment, really derived--from close
communion with the Supernatural and the Celestial, a man who has that
inspiration and adds to it the energy of a mighty man of action, such a
man as that lives in communion on a Sinai of his own; and when he
pleases to come down to this world below, seems armed with no less
than the terrors and decrees of the Almighty Himself." Now both forms
of concentration must be practised so as to hold the two poles in the
even balance of harmonious growth.
You will perform the daily work to which you are naturally adapted in
the common weal (Objective Concentration) and after the daily task is
finished, retire to the bosom of the Universal Spirit by the regular
practice of Subjective Concentration.
Now will you realise the ideal of peace in the very midst of the toil and
sweat of the day.
The foregoing diagram, if closely and thoughtfully studied, will show
the stages the mind has to 'grow into' in objective and subjective
concentration.
In order to acquire knowledge of the laws of external nature the mirror
you require is accurate observation and you must focus your attention
and push objective concentration to its final stage of perfect knowledge
or illumination in order to master any special branch of science.
In Objective Concentration, Pratyahara and Dharana are the
preparatory stages. Take a scientist, for instance. He knows that when
the mind is engaged with several things, mind force is scattered. He
cannot be a politician, a musician, etc., and at the same time an expert
scientist. He gradually abstracts his attention from all other subjects
and pauses it on one subject or one set of subjects.

Pratyahara is the continued