Book
2 - The Steps to Union
1. The Yoga of action, leading to union
with the soul is fiery aspiration,
spiritual reading and devotion to
Ishvara.
2. The aim of these three is to bring
about soul vision and to eliminate
obstructions.
3. These are the difficulty producing
hindrances: avidya (ignorance) the sense
of personality, desire, hate and the
sense of attachment.
4. Avidya (ignorance) is the cause of
all the other obstructions whether they
be latent, in process of elimination,
overcome, or in full operation.
5. Avidya is the condition of confusing
the permanent, pure, blissful and the
Self with that which is impermanent,
impure, painful and the not-self.
6. The sense of personality is due to
the identification of the knower with
the instruments of knowledge.
7. Desire is attachment to objects of
pleasure.
8. Hate is aversion for any object of
the senses.
9. Intense desire for sentient existence
is attachment. This is inherent in every
form, is self-perpetuating, and known
even to the very wise.
10. These five hindrances, when subtly
known, can be overcome by an opposing
mental attitude.
11. Their activities are to be done away
with, through the meditation process.
12. Karma itself has its root in these
five hindrances and must come to
fruition in this life or in some later
life.
13. So long as the roots (or samskaras)
exist, their fruition will be birth,
life, and experiences resulting in
pleasure or pain.
14. These seeds (or samskaras) produce
pleasure or pain according as their
originating cause was good or evil.
15. To the illuminated man all existence
(in the three worlds) is considered pain
owing to the activities of the gunas.
These activities are threefold,
producing consequences, anxieties and
subliminal impressions.
16. Pain which is yet to come may be
warded off.
17. The illusion that the Perceiver and
that which is perceived are one and the
same is the cause (of the pain-producing
effects) which must be warded off.
18. That which is perceived has three
qualities, sattva, rajas and tamas
(rhythm, mobility and inertia); it
consists of the elements and the sense
organs. The use of these produces
experience and eventual liberation.
19. The divisions of the gunas (or
qualities of matter) are fourfold; the
specific, the non-specific, the
indicated and the untouchable.
20. The seer is pure knowledge (gnosis).
Though pure, he looks upon the presented
idea through the medium of the mind.
21. All that is exists for the sake of
the soul.
22. In the case of the man who has
achieved yoga (or union) the objective
universe has ceased to be. Yet it
existeth still for those who are not yet
free.
23. The association of the soul with the
mind and thus with that which the mind
perceives, produces an understanding of
the nature of that which is perceived
and likewise of the Perceiver.
24. The cause of this association is
ignorance or avidya. This has to be
overcome.
25. When ignorance is brought to an end
through non-association with the things
perceived, this is the great liberation.
26. The state of bondage is overcome
through perfectly maintained
discrimination.
27. The knowledge (or illumination)
achieved is sevenfold and is attained
progressively.
28. When the means to yoga have been
steadily practised, and when impurity
has been overcome, enlightenment takes
place, leading up to full illumination.
29. The eight means of yoga are, the
Commandments or Yama, the Rules or
Nijama, posture or Asana, right control
of life-force or Pranayama, abstraction
or Pratyahara, attention or Dharana,
Meditation or Dhyana, Contemplation or
Samadhi.
30. Harmlessness, truth to all beings,
abstention from theft, from incontinence
and from avarice, constitute yama or the
five commandments.
31. Yama (or the five commandments)
constitutes the universal duty and is
irrespective of race, place, time or
emergency.
32. Internal and external purification,
contentment, fiery aspiration, spiritual
reading and devotion to Ishvara
constitutes nijama (or the five rules).
33. When thoughts which are contrary to
yoga are present there should be the
cultivation of their opposite.
34. Thoughts contrary to yoga are
harmfulness, falsehood, theft,
incontinence, and avarice, whether
committed personally, caused to be
committed or approved of, whether
arising from avarice, anger or delusion
(ignorance); whether slight in the
doing, middling or great. These result
always in excessive pain and ignorance.
For this reason, the contrary thoughts
must be cultivated.
35. In the presence of him who has
perfected harmlessness, all enmity
ceases.
36. When truth to all beings is
perfected, the effectiveness of his
words and acts is immediately to be
seen.
37. When abstention from theft is
perfected, the yogi can have whatever he
desires.
38. By abstention from incontinence,
energy is acquired.
39. When abstention from avarice is
perfected, there comes an understanding
of the law of rebirth.
40. Internal and external purification
produces aversion for form, both one's
own and all forms.
41. Through purification comes also a
quiet spirit, concentration, conquest of
the organs, and ability to see the Self.
42. As a result of contentment bliss is
achieved.
43. Through fiery aspiration and through
the removal of all impurity, comes the
perfecting of the bodily powers and of
the senses.
44. Spiritual reading results in a
contact with the soul (or divine One).
45. Through devotion to Ishvara the goal
of meditation (or samadhi) is reached.
46. The posture assumed must be steady
and easy.
47. Steadiness and ease of posture is to
be achieved through persistent slight
effort and through the concentration of
the mind upon the infinite.
48. When this is attained, the pairs of
opposites no longer limit.
49. When right posture (asana) has been
attained there follows right control of
prana and proper inspiration and
expiration of the breath.
50. Right control of prana (or the life
currents) is external, internal or
motionless; it is subject to place, time
and number and is also protracted or
brief.
51. There is a fourth stage which
transcends those dealing with the
internal and external phases.
52. Through this, that which obscures
the light is gradually removed.
53. And the mind is prepared for
concentrated meditation.
54. Abstraction (or Pratyahara) is the
subjugation of the senses by the
thinking principle and their withdrawal
from that which has hitherto been their
object.
55. As a result of these means there
follows the complete subjugation of the
sense organs.
Swami Veet Chintan T'Zorba-Krsna
Jyotish
Shastracharya
& Vedic Astrologer of India
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