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Mantra becomes the key word, yantra the guidepost to the inner worlds whose source he must find.
These inner spheres are fundamentally, primordially a dark, inextricable, labyrinth and even he who
knows the ultimate goal needs a guide in order not to go hopelessly astray, for the intellect, like an
unclean garment, is discarded at the entrance to this mysterious world. It would be of absolutely no
help anyway. The symbol alone is Ariadne's thread, the magnet that pulls the seeker toward the other
pole that is part of himself. In the light of everyday reason the symbol seems strange and
incomprehensible, but in the depth of the unconscious it reaches a clarity that thought has never
experienced. All this, of course, is valid only for one who has learned to delve below the surface of
consciousness into the subconscious, for him who has mastered the art of meditation, the art of
samadhi.
(2-7) I now will speak of samadhi, which conquers death and which leads to bliss and union with
Brahman. --Raja yoga, samadhi, unmani, manomani, immortality, dissolution,
empti-ness-but-not-emptiness, the highest state, passivity of the intellect, non-dualism,
PASSIVE YOGA 77
Yoga Swami Svatmarama. Hatha yoga pradipika
beginninglessness, purity, liberation in this lifetime, the primordial state, and turiya (the Fourth
State), all these are synonyms. --Just as a grain of salt dissolves in water and becomes one with it,
so also in samadhi there occurs the union of mind with atman. Mind dissolves in breath and breath
subsides. Both become one in samadhi. This state of equilibrium results
from the union of the jivatman and the paramatman. When mind thus is calm we are in samadhi.
The last two slokas contain three pairs of juxtaposed terms: mind and atman; mind and prana
(breath); jivatman and paramatman. To understand the meaning of samadhi, we must understand the
significance of these paired terms.
Mind and atman: "A.
thought [mind] has just come to me [atman]," says the student. "To whom?" asks the guru. "To
whom came what, and where did it come from ? Are these three separate things: you, your mind, and
the thought process?"
Mind and breath'.
"Here is a process," the student thinks during pranayama, "and I am detached, watching the process."
This reflection is the contrary of samadhi, the unification. Just as the theatergoer does not think:
"Here I am and there is the play," but identifies with the play, forgets himself, forgets the process, is
absorbed in the play, in the immediacy of a deep experience. As soon as he becomes aware of
himself and knows he is here and the theater there, it is the intellect at work that destroys his
involvement and with this he loses the essential, the spiritual experience.
Jivatman and paramatman:
Jivatman is the individual self, paramatman the absolute, the divine Self. The universe consists of
energy and matter, nothing more. This energy is always one and the same, regardless of how it
manifests itself to our senses: as electricity, the motion of the air, the density of matter, or the beating
of the heart. It is the energy that is inherent in prayer and the energy that answers prayer. The
measure and the mass of this energy seems diverse only because of the various kinds of matter
through which it manifests. Energy-in-itself is param-atman, "the energy which creates the
personality of the living self." If I now succeed in experiencing the inner meaning, the
interrelationship of this threefold juxtaposition (sheer intellectual reflection is of little use), then
samadhi (the esstablishtnent of oneness) is realized. The real One is then recognized.
(8-9) He who recognizes the true meaning of raja yoga can by the grace of the guru achieve
realization, liberation, inner steadfastness and the siddhis. Without the grace of the guru and without
indifference to worldly things recognition of Truth, [attainment of] samadhi, is impossible.
The "grace of the guru" is his readiness to hand the student the key to success: the yantras, the
mantras, and their application.
More important at this stage is the "indifference to worldly things." The professional theater critic is
not supposed to be detached from the world, he must keep his intellect alert. Only when he no longer
succeeds in this and is carried away by the action does he recognize and admit that what has
happened to him is that which from time immemorial has been most important to man. There was a
real experience; the soul was touched; worldly matters suddenly lost their attraction. What is really
PASSIVE YOGA 78
Yoga Swami Svatmarama. Hatha yoga pradipika
gripping is always the spiritual experience and never the intellectual, and the more neutral we
become toward worldly (intellectual) things, the more open we become to real experience. The less
critically we watch the magician's fingers, the more startling are his tricks. The critic may know
more, but he experiences less.
Yet it would be an error to understand this uncritical attitude as blind acceptance of every deception.
The critical intellect can absorb only the unessential part of a so-called truth, while real Truth
reveals itself on a higher level, in the realm of the soul. Civilized man differs from primitive man in
that, among other things, he separates and objectifies with critical intellect.
But with this he immediately closes the door to a real understanding of spiritual principles or
religion.
Lack of thought is not advocated as a principle; the capacity to break the fetters of the intellect at the
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