In plain words
Do the tanks fill the moment a raindrop falls? Is thirst quenched by swallowing spittle? Does the belly grow by holding the breath? Does hair turn to charcoal merely by burning? Without sādhana, can Satya be known?
Forgetting the principle of the Ātma, which the great ṛṣis searched for, attained, experienced and rejoiced in from time without beginning, the people of Bhārata today, like slaves to Ahaṅkāra and to darkness, are falling prey to unrest.
There are many paths for recognising the secret of the Ātma. Among them the chief are four: the path of Jñāna, the path of Bhakti, the path of karma and the path of yoga. The path of karma and the path of Bhakti: both of these are well suited for ordinary people to follow. The path of Jñāna too may be easy for some. Sādhanas such as dhyāna, upāsana and tyāga are contained within karma itself. But there is a warning that must be given to the young. The path of yoga is not so easy. Today they are proclaiming it in every country and in every place of learning, through teaching and publicity. So this had to be said.
Many who preach the path of yoga have only an acquaintance with books, and no experience of their own. They give their teachings through an acquaintance with many books, but they do not recognise experience.
Saying is easy; doing is hard, even for the Creator, even for his grandfather; they can talk of a crore of things and do not do one: this is the word that tells things as they are.
Can ordinary people follow the hidden course of training in the science of yoga? Only those who have Vairāgya are fit for the path of yoga. The great ṛṣi Patañjali says, ‘Yogacchittavṛtti nirodhaḥ.’ Only those who have reined in the citta are yogīs. But they do not move about among people in the ordinary way. Passing beyond the body, time and karmas, all of these, they roam in Ānanda. Those who have come to know yoga must go far away from the business of the world. Yoga is precisely this: reaching the principle of the Ātma. For them there is no other world at all, only the Ātma. When a river reaches the ocean and merges in it, its forms and names, its taste, all of it becomes the ocean itself. When a doll of salt tries to test how deep the ocean is, does it come back from the ocean? In the very ocean from which it arose, it takes on sameness. Such a joining, such a merging, cannot be taught.
It is hard to make known to others the principle of the Ātma that lies absorbed and hidden within the Annamaya, Prāṇamaya, Manomaya, Vijñānamaya and Ānandamaya kośas. Many are born and grow up in the Annamaya kośa alone, and are absorbed in that alone. Their life comes to its end with the power of action alone. They live with no light at all from the other kośas, whose very form is the power of will and the power of Jñāna. How then can the path of yoga be understood by such people, or come into their experience?
On the path of yoga, the iḍā, piṅgalā and suṣumnā nāḍīs, and the spine that is their support, are of great importance. Take, for example, the matter of spoken words. That words set out from the throat is not true. What comes out of the throat is sound. For that sound to turn into words, the Prāṇamaya kośa and the Manomaya kośa must both take on the waking state. Through certain strings that stretch from the Mūlādhāra cakra up to the Ājñā cakra, and because the frets there quiver under pressure, it turns into words that fit the feelings in the mind.
The Mūlādhāra cakra is connected with the principle of Prakṛti. Its bond with the Annamaya kośa holds the body up and protects it. The Svādhiṣṭhāna is the principle of fire. It is a safeguard for the Annamaya kośa too, precisely because it supplies heat. Making this heat blaze up, the Svādhiṣṭhāna protects the prāṇa. The Maṇipura is the principle of water. Blood and the other fluids spreading through the whole body, casting out whatever is full of impurity and supplying whatever gives strength to every limb: this is the very principle of water. Then the Anāhata, the very form of air. Breathing in and breathing out, expanding and contracting: all of these take place through the influence of the principle of air.