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The Fifth Lesson: Patanjali’s Yoga System.1219
And, as we have said, Patanjali’s Yoga System has lost much of its original
philosophical significance, and is being regarded more and more in its aspect
of a system of exercises, methods, etc.) and is being studied by many for the
purpose of the attainment of psychical powers, often for the purpose of
selfish use and employment, although this use of the powers supposed to
attend the practice of the methods is expressly condemned by Patanjali
himself, as is also the acquirement of these powers for show purposes,
public exhibitions, vainglory, notoriety, etc. The founder’s teachings were
that the practices, exercises, and methods are to be employed solely for
the purpose of developing the mind so that it could contemplate clearly,
and freely receive, the Truth which leads to Emancipation and Freedom of
the Soul—as a means of subduing the body, and mind, that the Spirit might
overcome the material restraints, obstacles, and confining and restraining
sheaths, and come once more to its own blissful condition of rest and peace
above and beyond the storm of the world of Samsara.
But, nevertheless, the fact remains that the teachings have been allowed
to be overshadowed by the practices, and exercise, and methods, until
now “Yoga” means the latter instead of the former, to the minds of many
in India and in the West. As a standard work of reference says on this
subject: “The great power which the Yoga System of Philosophy has at all
periods exercised on the Hindu mind, is less derived from its philosophical
speculations, or its moral injunctions, than from the wonderful effects which
the Yoga practices are supposed to produce, and from the countenance
they give to the favourite tendency of orthodox Hinduism, the performance
of austerities.” And, indeed, this is true, in its latter sense, as well as the
former, for there is not a self-tortured Fakir (or false Yogi) in India who does
not claim the authority of Yoga for his revolting practices and terrible selftortures—his
sitting in one position for years; his fastings and emaciated
condition; his withered arm held erect for years; his finger-nails growing
through the palms of his hands; his matted locks serving as a bird’s nest;
his indescribable filth and squalor—for such are among the forms of the