Читать книгу Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Литагент HarperCollins USD - Страница 46

Kaivalya means exclusiveness, or eternal emancipation. It is release from karma: the consequences and obligations of our actions. Kaivalya is an absolute, indivisible state of existence. In it, the yogi is stripped of thoughts, mind, intellect and ego, and freed from the play of the gunas of nature, sattva, rajas and tamas. He becomes a gunatitan, a pure, flawless person.

In vibhuti pada, Patañjali describes the supernatural powers that attend such exalted yogis and how the renunciation of these powers results in kaivalya: the crowning end of the yogic sadhana, a state of fullness of the soul and of unique aloneness.

This chapter, Kaivalya pada, is impressive and exhaustive. One of its main themes is that the content of consciousness is pure, absolute and divine, provided it is unsullied by action, be it white (sattvic), grey (rajasic) or black (tamasic). The absolute nature of consciousness is to be realized by propitious birth, spiritual fervour and meditation. The cleansing transformation of consciousness liberates life-energy which accelerates the process of self-evolution. Progressively, one disentangles oneself from life’s preoccupations with dharma, duty; artha, means of livelihood; and kama, worldly enjoyment. This transcendence leads to freedom, or moksa. Consciousness, released from the attributes of nature, dissolves in the soul, purusa.

This chapter deals with the necessary rejection by yogis of the supernatural powers which attend their spiritual ascent, and indicates how such men and women, who have in a sense left the world behind, may then serve the world.