PREFACE.

or imperceptible aspects; and thus by the time he has passed through the four stages, the object is present before him in all its aspects.

These four kinds are—(1) the ‘Argumentative’ original: Savitarka; a stage of meditation where the mind still reasons about the physical properties of the object, whereby the aspirant is enabled to apprehend all the past, present and future aspects of the ordinary perceptible kind, of the object of his devotion—such for instance as the elements and the sense-organs; (2) the ‘Deliberative’ original: Savichara; a subtler stage where the mind reflects on the abstract essence of the object—whereby he is enabled to apprehend the ordinarily imperceptible aspects of that object; as for instance, Nature, Intelligence, Self-consciousness and the Rudimentary Elements. (3) the ‘Joyous’ original: Sananda; a state of bliss arising from the clarity of meditation—whereby contemplating the object of devotion the aspirant feels a peculiar blissful sensation; and (4) the ‘Self-conscious’ original: Sasmita; the highest stage of conscious meditation where one focuses on the pure sense of "I am"—whereby the aspirant comes to look upon himself as one with the object of devotion.

A distinction is made between what is called the human self,—which forms the twenty-fifth ‘principle’ principle: or Tattva, the fundamental building blocks of reality in Indian philosophy in the constitution of the Universe, whereof Nature, Intelligence, Self-consciousness, the eleven organs, the five rudimentary elements and the five gross elements are the other twenty-four ‘principles’—and the Supreme Self, on the ground that the latter is far more subtle than the former; as the human self is directly perceived in the aforesaid fourth stage of Conscious Meditation, while that of the Supreme Self we can have no direct knowledge; the only conception that we can have of it is what we may form out of our ideas of such qualities (if ‘qualities’ they can be called) as Absolute Unchangeability, Indivisibility and the like. The contemplation of the self (human) is possible during the aforesaid egoistic meditation; this is what is spoken of in Sankhya and Yoga works as ‘the discernment of the distinction between the self and the other principles’ original: Sattvapurushânyatâkhyâti; the realization that the pure consciousness of the self is different from the material mind-stuff. The meditation of the supreme Self however is spoken of only in aphorism original: sutra I. 23.