The Light of Life is Expanded by
A Sense of Loyalty to One’s Soul
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
Few books could be as effective as the classic yoga sutras of Patanjali in stimulating a sense of duty to one’s own understanding of right living, and to one’s feeling that it is possible to live according to a high ideal of ethics and wisdom.
As the student considers a good version of Patanjali’s book – the main treatise on Raja Yoga [1] – he sees there are many different measures to take and improvements to make at the physical, emotional and mental levels.
The mere act of contemplating its unequal axioms once and again is enough to silently strengthen his will.
There is no need to pay too much attention to those axioms with which his natural interaction is weaker. The reader may dwell in those aphorisms that speak to his soul. Their “order” or sequence in the text is not necessarily the order of his needs with regard to self-training. It is right to follow one’s natural process of affinity.
The light of life is expanded by the sense of duty to one’s soul, and by the sense of purpose coming from it.
The perception of one’s failings must be compensated by a degree of detachment regarding mistakes, a “taming” of one’s dispersed will, and the concentration of the mind in the adopted goal and ideal.
In a sacred sort of silence, we start to understand Yoga.
A relaxed, contemplative view of those aphorisms that most resonate with us shows the meeting place between our next steps and the unlimited possibilities present in each moment of open-minded thought.
NOTE:
[1] See “The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali”, an interpretation by William Q. Judge, Theosophy Company, 74 pp. The book is available online in our associated websites. One of the best among the many other versions of the work is “The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali”, Translation, Introduction, Appendix and Notes by Manilal Nabhubhai Dvivedi, published by Tookaram Tatya, Bombay Theosophical Publication Fund, 1890. Classical versions include “The Yoga Philosophy: Being the Text of Patanjali, with Bhoja Raja’s Commentary”, Tookaram Tatya and Dr. Ballantyne, Bombay Theosophical Publication Fund, India, 1885. There are useful versions by Swami Vivekananda, Rohit Mehta and I. K. Taimni, among others.
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The above article was published on 11 August 2018. An initial version of it, with no indication as to the name of the author, appeared in the August 2015 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, pp. 8-9.
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