Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Book 4 - Sutra 19







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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Book 4 - Illumination





19. Because it can be seen or cognized, it is
apparent that the mind is not the source of illumination.This sutra and the two
following give us a typical oriental approach to a very difficult problem, and this method
of reasoning is not an easy one for western minds to grasp. In the six schools of Hindu
philosophy this whole problem of the source of creation and of the nature of the mind is
dissected and discussed and so completely covered that practically all our modern schools
can be regarded as outgrowths or logical sequential results of the varied Hindu positions.
The clue to the diversity of opinions on these two points may perhaps be found in the six
types into which all human beings fall, for the seventh is but the [412] synthesis of them
all and inclusive, not exclusive.
In the Yoga Sutras, the mind is relegated simply to the position of an instrument, of
an intermediary, of a sensitive plate, registering either that which pours into it from
above or that which affects it from below. It has no personality of its own; it has no
life or light of its own, except that which is inherent in all substance and therefore to
be found in the atoms which constitute the mind stuff. These latter, being along the same
evolutionary line as the rest of the lower nature, swell the tide of material forces which
seeks to hold the soul prisoner, and constitute the great illusion.
The mind, therefore, can be cognized in two directions: first, it can be known,
recognized and seen by the thinker, the soul on its own plane, and secondly, it can be
seen and known as a vehicle of the man on the physical plane. For a long time man became
that with which he identified himself to the exclusion of the true spiritual man, who can
be known, contacted and obeyed once the mind is relegated to its rightful place as an
instrument of knowledge.
A physical plane analogy may help here. The eye is one of our major senses, that
whereby we acquire knowledge, a medium through which we see. We, however, do not make the
mistake of regarding the eye itself as a source of light and as that which produces
revelation. We know it as an instrument which is responding to certain light vibrations
whereby certain information is conveyed anent the physical plane to our brain, [413] that
great receiving plate upon the physical plane. To the soul, the mind acts also as an eye
or a window through which information comes, but is not itself the source of light or
illumination.
It is interesting here to note that as the brain and the mind became coordinated, (as
was first the case in Lemurian days) the sense of sight was simultaneously developed. As
evolution proceeds, a higher coordination takes places, and the soul and the mind become
at-oned. Then, that organ of subtle vision (the third eye) begins to function, and instead
of mind, brain, and two eyes, another triplicity supersedes and we have soul, mind and the
third eye. The brain, therefore, is not the source of illumination but becomes aware of
the light of the soul and of what it reveals in the realm of the soul. The third eye
simultaneously develops and admits its possessor into the secrets of the subtler realms in
the three worlds, so that the brain receives illumination, information and knowledge from
two directions; from the soul via the mind, and from the subtler planes in the three
worlds via the third eye. It should be remembered here that the third eye reveals
primarily the light to be found in the heart of every form of divine manifestation.





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