THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

RajayogaMAN fulfilling himself in the body is givenHathayoga as his means. When he rises above the body, heabandons Hathayoga as a troublesome and inferior process andrises to the Rajayoga, the discipline peculiar to the aeon in whichman now evolves. The first condition of success in Rajayoga isto rise superior to the dehÀtma-buddhi, the state of perceptionin which the body is identified with the Self. A time comes tothe Rajayogin, when his body seems not to belong to him or heto have any concern in it. He is not troubled by its troubles orgladdened by its pleasure; it has them itself and very soon, becausehe does not give his sanction to them, they fall away fromit. His own troubles and pleasures are in the heart and the mind,for he is the rajasic and psychical man, not the tamasic, material.It is these that he has to conquer in order that he may realiseGod in his heart or in his buddhi or in both. God seen in theheart — that is the quest of the Rajayogin. He may recover theperception and enjoyment of God as love and God as knowledge.The processes of the Rajayoga are mental and emotional.Patanjali's science is not the pure Rajayoga; it is mixed and allowsan important element of the Hathayoga in its initial processes.It admits the Àsana and the prÀÍÀyÀma. It is true, it reduceseach to one of its kind, but the method of conquest isphysical and therefore not Rajayogic. It may be said that thestillness of the body is essential to concentration or to samÀdhi;but this is a convention of the Hathayoga. The Rajayoga concedesno such importance to the body; he knows by experiencethat concentration can be secured in any easy and unconstrainedposture, which allows one to forget the body; it is often as muchhelped by rhythmic motion as by stillness. SamÀdhi, when itcomes, itself secures stillness of the body. The pure Rajayogindispenses therefore with the physical practice of Àsana. The realreason why Patanjali laid so much importance on Àsana, was that