An Introduction to Yoga

THE NATURE OF YOGA.

selves, but that the purpose of the Self In this context, the "Self" (capitalized) refers to the Atman—the eternal, divine essence of a person, as opposed to the temporary ego or personality. may be served, and his manifestations made possible.

The world, with all its beauty, its happiness and suffering, its joys and pains, is planned with the utmost ingenuity, in order that the powers of the Self may be shewn forth in manifestation. From the fire-mist A term used in late 19th-century philosophy to describe the gaseous, nebulous state of the early universe. to the Logos The "Divine Word" or the manifested deity who brings the universe into being., all exists for the sake of the Self. The lowest grain of dust, the mightiest Deva A Sanskrit term for a celestial being or deity; a "shining one" who exists in higher realms of reality. in his heavenly regions, the plant that grows out of sight in the nook of a mountain, the star that shines aloft over us—all these exist in order that the fragments of the one Self, embodied in countless forms, may realise their own identity, and manifest the powers of the Self through the matter that envelops them.

There is but one Self in the lowliest dust and the loftiest Deva. “Mamāmsha,” original Sanskrit: "mama-aṃśa," meaning "a part of me." This is a reference to the Bhagavad Gita (15.7), where the Divine speaks of souls as eternal fragments of itself. “My portion,” “a portion of My Self,” says Shrī Kṛṣhṇa The supreme deity and teacher in the Bhagavad Gita, representing the voice of the Universal Spirit., are all these Jīvāṭmās The individual soul or "living spirit" (from jiva - life, and atman - spirit)., all these living Spirits. For them the universe exists; for them the sun shines, and the waves roll, and the winds blow, and the rain falls, that the Self may know himself as manifested in matter, as embodied in the universe.

THE UNFOLDING OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

One of those pregnant and significant ideas which Theosophy A philosophical movement that seeks to understand the underlying spiritual laws of the universe by synthesizing religion, science, and philosophy. scatters so lavishly around is this—that the same scale is repeated over and over again, the same succession of events in larger or smaller cycles. If you understand one cycle, you under-