tell thee what thou askest! Listen however, to
me, O monarch, as I expound to thee the practices of Yoga separately.
Contemplation, which constitutes an obligatory practice with Yogins, is
their highest puissance[1619]. Those conversant with Yoga say that
Contemplation is of two kinds. One is the concentration of the mind, and
the other is called Pranayama (regulation of breath). Pranayama is said
to be endued with substance; while concentration of mind is unendued with
it.[1620] Excepting the three times when a man passes urine and stools
and eats, one should devote the whole of his time to contemplation.
Withdrawing the senses from their objects by the aid of the mind, one
possessed of intelligence, having made oneself pure, should agreeably to
the two and twenty modes of transmitting the Prana breath, unite the
Jiva-soul with That which transcends the four and twentieth topic (called
Ignorance or Prakriti)[1621] which is regarded by the wise as dwelling in
every part of the body and as transcending decay and destruction. It is
by means of those two and twenty methods that the Soul may always be
known, as heard by us. It is certain that this practice of Yoga is his
whose mind is never affected by evil passions. It is not any other
person's. Dissociated from all attachments, abstemious in diet, and
subduing all the senses, one should fix one's mind on the Soul, during
the first and the last part of the night, after having, O king of
Mithila, suspended the functions of the senses, quieted the mind by the
understanding, and assumed a posture as motionless as that of a block of
stone. When men of knowledge, conversant with the rules of Yoga, become
as fixed as a stake of wood, and as immovable as a mountain, then are
they said to be in Yoga. When one does not hear, and smell, and taste,
and see; when one is not conscious of any touch; when one's mind becomes
perfectly free from every purpose; when one is not conscious of any
thing, when one cherishes no thought; when one becomes like a piece of
wood, then is one called by the wise to be in perfect Yoga. At such a
time one shines like a lamp that burns in a place where there is no wind;
at such a time one becomes freed even from one's subtile form, and
perfectly united with Brahma. When one attains to such progress, one has
no longer to ascend or to fall among intermediate beings. When persons
like ourselves say that there has been a complete identification of the
Knower, t