SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

1. Dharana is holding the mind on to some particular object.

2--An unbroken flow of knowledge in that object is Dhyana.

3--When that, giving up all forms, reflects only the meaning, it is Samadhi.

4--(These) three (when practiced) in regard to one object is Samyama.

5--By the conquest of that comes light of knowledge.

When one has succeeded in making this Samyama, all powers come under his control. This is the great instrument of the Yogi. The objects of knowledge are infinite, and they are divided into the gross, grosser, grossest, and the fine, finer, finest, and so on. This Samyama should be first applied to gross things, and when you begin to get knowledge of this gross, slowly, by stages. it should be brought to finer things.

6--That should be employed in stages.

This is a note of warning not to attempt to go too fast.

15--The succession of changes is the cause of manifold evolution.

16--By making Samyama on the three sorts of changes comes the knowledge of past and future.

We must not lose sight of the first definition of Samyama. When the mind has attained to that state when

it identifies itself with the internal impression of the object, leaving the external, and when, by long practice, that is retained by the mind, and the mind can get into that state in a moment, that is Samyama. If a man in that state wants to know the past and future he has to make a Samyama on the changes in the Samskaras (111. 13). Some are working now at present, some have worked out, and some are waiting to work; so by marking a Samyama on these he knows the past and future.

21--By making Samyama on the form of the body, the perceptibility of the form being obstructed, and the power of manifestation in the eye being separated, the Yogi's body becomes unseen.

A Yogi standing in the midst of this room can apparently vanish. He does not really vanish, but he will not be seen by any one. The form and the body are, as it were, separated. You must remember that this can only be done when the Yogi has attained to that power of concentration when form and the thing formed have been separated. Then he makes a Samyama on that, and the power to perceive forms is obstructed, because the power of perceiving forms comes from the junction of form and the thing formed.

25--By making Samyama on the strength of the elephant, and others, their respective strength comes to the Yogi.

When a Yogi has attained to this Samyama and wants strength, he makes a Samyama on the strength of the elephant, and gets it. Infinite energy is at the disposal

of every one, if he only knows how to get it. The Yogi has discovered the science of getting it.

26--By making Samyama on the effulgent light, (1.36) comes the knowledge of the fine, the obstructed and the remote.