Yoga
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Sadhana
The Realisation of Life
By Rabindranath Tagore
An Introduction
to Yoga
by Annie Besant
- The Unfolding of Consciousness
- The Oneness of the Self
- The Quickening of the Process of Self-Unfoldment
- Yoga is a Science
- Man a Duality
- States of Mind
- Samadhi
- Some Definitions
- God Without and God Within
- Changes of Consciousness and Vibrations of Matter
- Stages of Mind
- Inward and Outward-turned Consciousness
- The Cloud
- Mind
- The Mental Body
- Methods of Yoga
- To the Self by the Self
- To the Self through the Not-Self
- Yoga and Morality
- Composition of States of the Mind
- Inhibition of States of Mind
- Meditation with and without Seed
- The Use of Mantras
- Obstacles to Yoga
- Capacities for Yoga
- Forthgoing and Returning
- Purification of Bodies
- Dwellers on the Threshold
- Preparation for Yoga
- The End
The Doctrine and Practice of Yoga
by Swami Mukerji
Jogi of the South India Order
Patanjali's
Yoga Sutras
Lessons in Gnani and Raja Yoga
The Yoga of Wisdom
by Yogi Ramacharaka
Acupressure
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Lessons in Gnani and Raja Yoga
The Yoga of Wisdom
by Yogi Ramacharaka
THE SECOND LESSON
OMNIPRESENT LIFE
In our First Lesson of this series, we brought out the idea that the
human mind was compelled to report the fact that it could not think of
The Absolute except as possessing the quality of
Omnipresence--Present-Everywhere. And, likewise, the human mind is
compelled to think that all there IS must be The Absolute, or of the
Absolute. And if a thing is of the Absolute, then the Absolute must
be in it, in some way--must be the essence of it. Granting this, we
must then think that everything must be filled with the essence of
Life, for Life must be one of the qualities of the Absolute, or rather
what we call Life must be the outward expression of the essential Being
of the Absolute. And if this be so, then it would follow that
everything in the Universe must be Alive. The mind cannot escape this
conclusion. And if the facts do not bear out this conclusion then we
must be forced to admit that the entire basic theory of the Absolute
and its emanations must fall, and be considered as an error. No chain
is stronger than its weakest link, and if this link be too weak to bear
the weight of the facts of the universe, then must the chain be
discarded as imperfect and useless, and another substituted. This fact
is not generally mentioned by those speaking and writing of All being
One, or an emanation of the One, but it must be considered and met. If
there is a single thing in the Universe that is
"dead"--non-living--lifeless--then the theory must fall. If a thing is
non-living, then the essence of the Absolute cannot be in it--it must
be alien and foreign to the Absolute, and in that case the Absolute
cannot be Absolute for there is something outside of itself. And so it
becomes of the greatest importance to examine into the evidences of the
presence of Life in all things, organic or inorganic. The evidence is
at hand--let us examine it.
The ancient occultists of all peoples always taught that the Universe
was Alive--that there was Life in everything--that there was nothing
dead in Nature--that Death meant simply a change in form in the
material of the dead bodies. They taught that Life, in varying degrees
of manifestation and expression, was present in everything and object,
even down to the hardest mineral form, and the atoms composing that
form.
Modern Science is now rapidly advancing to the same position, and each
months investigations and discoveries serve only to emphasize the
teachings.
Burbank, that wonderful moulder of plant life, has well expressed this
thought, when he says: "All my investigations have led me away from the
idea of a dead material universe tossed about by various forces, to
that of a universe which is absolutely all force, life, soul, thought,
or whatever name we may choose to call it. Every atom, molecule, plant,
animal or planet, is only an aggregation of organized unit forces, held
in place by stronger forces, thus holding them for a time latent,
though teeming with inconceivable power. All life on our planet is, so
to speak, just on the outer fringe of this infinite ocean of force. The
universe is not half dead, but all alive."
Science today is gazing upon a living universe. She has not yet
realized the full significance of what she has discovered, and her
hands are raised as if to shade her eyes from the unaccustomed glare
that is bursting upon her. From the dark cavern of universal dead
matter, she has stepped out into the glare of the noon-day sun of a
Universe All-Alive even to its smallest and apparently most inert
particle.
Beginning at Man, the highest form of Life known to us, we may pass
rapidly down the scale of animal life, seeing life in full operation at
each descending step. Passing from the animal to the vegetable kingdom,
we still see Life in full operation, although in lessened degrees of
expression. We shall not stop here to review the many manifestations of
Life among the forms of plant-life, for we shall have occasion to
mention them in our next lesson, but it must be apparent to all that
Life is constantly manifesting in the sprouting of seeds; the putting
forth of stalk, leaves, blossoms, fruit, etc., and in the enormous
manifestation of force and energy in such growth and development. One
may see the life force in the plant pressing forth for expression and
manifestation, from the first sprouting of the seed, until the last
vital action on the part of the mature plant or tree.
Besides the vital action observable in the growth and development of
plants, we know, of course, that plants sicken and die, and manifest
all other attributes of living forms. There is no room for argument
about the presence of life in the plant kingdom.
But there are other forms of life far below the scale of the plants.
There is the world of the bacteria, microbes, infusoria--the groups of
cells with a common life--the single cell creatures, down to the
Monera, the creatures lower than the single cells--the Things of the
slime of the ocean bed.
These tiny Things--living Things--present to the sight merely a tiny
speck of jelly, without organs of any kind. And yet they exercise all
the functions of life--movement, nutrition, reproduction, sensation,
and dissolution. Some of these elementary forms are all stomach, that
is they are all one organ capable of performing all the functions
necessary for the life of the animal. The creature has no mouth, but
when it wishes to devour an object it simply envelopes it--wraps itself
around it like a bit of glue around a gnat, and then absorbs the
substance of its prey through its whole body.
Scientists have turned some of these tiny creatures inside out, and yet
they have gone on with their life functions undisturbed and untroubled.
They have cut them up into still tinier bits, and yet each bit lived on
as a separate animal, performing all of its functions undisturbed. They
are all the same all over, and all the way through. They reproduce
themselves by growing to a certain size, and then separating into two,
and so on. The rapidity of the increase is most remarkable.
Haekel says of the Monera: "The Monera are the simplest permanent
cytods. Their entire body consists of merely soft, structureless plasm.
However thoroughly we may examine them with the help of the most
delicate reagents and the strongest optical instruments, we yet find
that all the parts are completely homogeneous. These Monera are
therefore, in the strictest sense of the word, 'organisms without
organs,' or even in a strict philosophical sense they might not even be
called organisms, since they possess no organs and since they are not
composed of various particles. They can only be called organisms in so
far as they are capable of exercising the organic phenomena of life, of
nutrition, reproduction, sensation and movement."
Verworn records an interesting instance of life and mind among the
Rhizopods, a very low form of living thing. He relates that the
Difflugia ampula, a creature occupying a tiny shell formed of minute
particles of sand, has a long projection of its substance, like a
feeler or tendril, with which it searches on the bottom of the sea for
sandy material with which to build the shell or outer covering for its
offspring, which are born by division from the parent body. It grasps
the particle of sand by the feeler, and passes it into its body by
enclosing it. Verworn removed the sand from the bottom of the tank,
replacing it by very minute particles of highly colored glass. Shortly
afterward he noticed a collection of these particles of glass in the
body of the creature, and a little later he saw a tiny speck of
protoplasm emitted from the parent by separation. At the same time he
noticed that the bits of glass collected by the mother creature were
passed out and placed around the body of the new creature, and cemented
together by a substance secreted by the body of the parent, thus
forming a shell and covering for the offspring. This proceeding showed
the presence of a mental something sufficient to cause the creature to
prepare a shell for the offspring previous to its birth--or rather to
gather the material for such shell, to be afterward used; to
distinguish the proper material; to mould it into shape, and cement it.
The scientist reported that a creature always gathered just exactly
enough sand for its purpose--never too little, and never an excess. And
this in a creature that is little more than a tiny drop of glue!
We may consider the life actions of the Moneron a little further, for
it is the lowest form of so-called "living matter"--the point at which
living forms pass off into non-living forms (so-called). This tiny
speck of glue--an organism without organs--is endowed with the faculty
called sensation. It draws away from that which is likely to injure it,
and toward that which it desires--all in response to an elementary
sensation. It has the instinct of self-preservation and
self-protection. It seeks and finds its prey, and then eats, digests
and assimilates it. It is able to move about by "false-feet," or bits
of its body which it pushes forth at will from any part of its
substance. It reproduces itself, as we have seen, by separation and
self-division.
The life of the bacteria and germs--the yeasty forms of life--are
familiar to many of us. And yet there are forms of life still below
these. The line between living forms and non-living forms is being set
back further and further by science. Living creatures are now known
that resemble the non-living so closely that the line cannot be
definitely drawn.
Living creatures are known that are capable of being dried and laid
away for several years, and then may be revived by the application of
moisture. They resemble dust, but are full of life and function.
Certain forms of bacilli are known to Science that have been subjected
to degrees of heat and cold that are but terms to any but the
scientific mind.
Low forms of life called Diatoms or "living crystals" are known. They
are tiny geometrical forms. They are composed of a tiny drop of plasm,
resembling glue, covered by a thin shell of siliceous or sandy
material. They are visible only through the microscope, and are so
small that thousands of them might be gathered together on the head of
a pin. They are so like chemical crystals that it requires a shrewd and
careful observer to distinguish them. And yet they are alive, and
perform all the functions of life.
Leaving these creatures, we enter the kingdom of the crystals, in our
search for life. Yes, the crystals manifest life, as strange as this
statement may appear to those who have not followed the march of
Science. The crystals are born, grow, live, and may be killed by
chemicals or electricity. Science has added a new department called
"Plasmology," the purpose of which is the study of crystal life. Some
investigators have progressed so far as to claim that they have
discovered signs of rudimentary sex functioning among crystals. At any
rate, crystals are born and grow like living things. As a recent
scientific writer has said: "Crystallization, as we are to learn now,
is not a mere mechanical grouping of dead atoms. It is a birth."
The crystal forms from the mother liquor, and its body is built up
systematically, regularly, and according to a well defined plan or
pattern, just as are the body and bones of the animal form, and the
wood and bark of the tree. There is life at work in the growth of the
crystal. And not only does the crystal grow, but it also reproduces
itself by separation or splitting-off, just as is the case with the
lower forms of life, just mentioned.
The principal point of difference between the growth and development of
the crystals and that of the lower forms of life referred to is that
the crystal takes its nourishment from the outside, and builds up from
its outer surface, while the Monera absorbs its nourishment from
within, and grows outwardly from within. If the crystal had a soft
center, and took its nourishment in that way, it would be almost
identical with the Diatom, or, if the Diatom grew from the outside, it
would be but a crystal. A very fine dividing line.
Crystals, like living forms, may be sterilized and rendered incapable
of reproduction by chemical process, or electrical discharges. They may
also be "killed" and future growth prevented in this manner. Surely
this looks like "Life," does it not?
To realize the importance of this idea of life among the crystals, we
must remember that our hardest rocks and metals are composed of
crystals, and that the dirt and earth upon which we grow and live are
but crumbled rock and miniature crystals. Therefore the very dust under
our feet is alive. There is nothing dead. There is no transformation
of "dead matter" into live plant matter, and then into live animal
matter. The chemicals are alive, and from chemical to man's body there
is but a continuous change of shape and form of living matter. Any
man's body, decomposing, is again resolved into chemicals, and the
chain begins over again. Merely changes in living forms--that's all, so
far as the bodies are concerned.
Nature furnishes us with many examples of this presence of life in the
inorganic world. We have but to look around to see the truth of the
statement that All is Alive. There is that which is known as the
"fatigue of elasticity" in metals. Razors get tired, and require a
rest. Tuning forks lose their powers of vibration, to a degree, and
have to be given a vacation. 'Machinery in mills and manufactories
needs an occasional day off. Metals are subject to disease and
infection, and have been poisoned and restored by antidotes. Window
glass, especially stained glass, is subject to a disease spreading from
pane to pane.
Men accustomed to handling and using tools and machinery naturally drop
into the habit of speaking of these things as if they were alive. They
seem to recognize the presence of "feeling" in tools or machine, and to
perceive in each a sort of "character" or personality, which must be
respected, humored, or coaxed in order to get the best results.
Perhaps the most valuable testimony along these lines, and which goes
very far toward proving the centuries-old theories of the Yogis
regarding Omnipresent Life, comes from Prof. J. Chunder Bose, of the
Calcutta University, a Hindu educated in the English Universities,
under the best teachers, and who is now a leading scientific authority
in the western world, tie has given to the world some very valuable
scientific information along these lines in his book entitled
"Response in the Living and Non-living," which has caused the widest
comment and created the greatest interest among the highest scientific
authorities. His experiments along the lines of the gathering of
evidence of life in the inorganic forms have revolutionized the
theories of modern science, and have done much to further the idea that
life is present everywhere, and that there is no such thing as dead
matter.
He bases his work upon the theory that the best and only true test for
the presence of life in matter is the response of matter to external
stimulus. Proceeding from this fundamental theory he has proven by
in-numerable experiments that so-called inorganic matter, minerals,
metals, etc., give a response to such stimulus, which response is
similar, if not identical, to the response of the matter composing the
bodies of plants, animals, men.
He devised delicate apparatus for the measurement of the response to
the outside stimulus, the degree, and other evidence being recorded in
traces on a revolving cylinder. The tracings or curves obtained from
tin and other metals, when compared with those obtained from living
muscle, were found to be identical. He used a galvanometer, a very
delicate and accurate scientific instrument, in his experiments. This
instrument is so finely adjusted that the faintest current will cause a
deflection of the registering needle, which is delicately swung on a
tiny pivot. If the galvanometer be attached to a human nerve, and the
end of the nerve be irritated, the needle will register.
Prof. Bose found that when he attached the galvanometer to bars of
various metals they gave a similar response when struck or twisted. The
greater the irritation applied to the metal, the greater the response
registered by the instrument. The analogy between the response of the
metal and that of the living muscle was startling. For instance, just
as in the case of the living animal muscle or nerve matter, the
response becomes fatigued, so in the case of the metal the curve
registered by the needle became fainter and still fainter, as the bar
became more and more fatigued by the continued irritation. And again,
just after such fatigue the muscle would become rested, and would again
respond actively, so would the metal when given a chance to recuperate.
Tetanus due to shocks constantly repeated, was caused and recovered.
Metals recorded evidences of fatigue. Drugs caused identical effects on
metals and animals--some exciting; some depressing; some killing. Some
poisonous chemicals killed pieces of metal, rendering them immobile and
therefore incapable of registering records on the apparatus. In some
cases antidotes were promptly administered, and saved the life of the
metal.
Prof. Bose also conducted experiments on plants in the same way. Pieces
of vegetable matter were found to be capable of stimulation, fatigue,
excitement, depression, poison. Mrs. Annie Besant, who witnessed some
of these experiments in Calcutta, has written as follows regarding the
experiments on plant life: "There is something rather pathetic in
seeing the way in which the tiny spot of light which records the pulses
in the plant, travels in ever weaker and weaker curves, when the plant
is under the influence of poison, then falls into a final despairing
straight line, and--stops. One feels as though a murder has been
committed--as indeed it has."
In one of Prof. Bose's public experiments he clearly demonstrated that
a bar of iron was fully as sensitive as the human body, and that it
could be irritated and stimulated in the same way, and finally could be
poisoned and killed. "Among such phenomena," he asks, "how can we draw
the line of demarkation, and say, 'Here the physical ends, and there
the physiological begins'? No such barrier exists." According to his
theory, which agrees with the oldest occult theories, by the way, life
is present in every object and form of Nature, and all forms respond to
external stimulus, which response is a proof of the presence of life in
the form.
Prof. Bose's great book is full of the most startling results of
experiments. He proves that the metals manifest something like sleep;
can be killed; exhibit torpor and sluggishness; get tired or lazy; wake
up; can be roused into activity; may be stimulated, strengthened,
weakened; suffer from extreme cold and heat; may be drugged or
intoxicated, the different metals manifesting a different response to