| 4. When a man,
renouncing all thoughts is not attached to senseobjects and actions, then
he is said to have attained to Yoga.When a Yogin, keeping the mind steadfast,
feels no attachment for the objects of the senses such as sound, nor thinks
that he has to do any action; whether nitya (obligatory) or naimittika (obligatory
and incidental) or kamya (done with a motive) or pratishiddha (forbidden
by law); regarding it has of no use to him ; and when he has learned to
habitually renounce all thoughts which give rise to desires for objects
of this world and of the next, then he is said to have become a Yogarudha,
to be one who has attained to Yoga. The words renouncing all thoughts imply
that all desires as well as all actions should be renounced. For, all desires
spring from thoughts, as the smriti says:Verily desire springs from thought
(samkalpa), and of thought yajnas are born.Manu ii. 2).O Desire, I know
where thy root lies. Thou art born of thought. I shall not think of thee,
and thou shalt cease to exist as well as thy root (Mahabharata, Santiparva,
17725).On the abandonment of all desires, the abandonment of all actions
necessarily follows, as passages in the sruti like the following show:Whatever
forms the object of desire, that he wills ; and whatever he wills, that
he acts.Reasoning also leads to the same conclusion. For, on surrendering
all thoughts, one cannot move at all. Wherefore, by saying that the aspirant
should renounce all thoughts, the Lord implies that he should abandon all
desires and all actions as well.When a man has attained to Yoga, then the
self is raised by the self from out of the numerous evils of samsara. Therefore,Let
a man raise himself by himself, let him not lower himself ; for, he alone
is the friend of himself, he alone is the enemy of himself. |
