Completion of Book III
iii. 50-55 Avoidance of Spiritual Downfalls
3.50 Dispassion towards the Siddhic Powers must be assured lest the yogin succumb to the pride of a grandiose spirit.
Our series on The Śūrańgama Sūtra forewarned what would befall a spiritual adept if one succumbed to the temptations that lie in ambush over the unwary mind, regardless of the spiritual attainments. Indeed, the closer one gets to the proximity of the heights of Noble Spiritual Consciousness, all the more will the evil one and his legions of demons await in the shadows for their chance to forestall and permanently damage one’s progress.
3.51 The yogin needs to refrain from accepting spiritual advances even from the highest celestial heavens.
If the yogin fails to maintain a dispassionate spirit in their cultivation of these yogic techniques, then one will be exposed to all manner of temptation, even from the realms of the jealous gods and from any mischievous devas who would like nothing more than to ruin the yogin’s Hard-Won Path. Mara, too can disguise himself as an angel of false-light. Caveat Spiritus!
3.52 Through sanyama on measured moments of time, the yogin gains healthy discernment.
Jaganath Carrera writes:
Our minds tend to misperceive the distinct individuality of moments as the blur of time. It’s like watching a movie. The illusion we fall into (and willingly accept) is that the images are moving, but in reality, what we are viewing is a series of still photos traveling past the light and lens of the projector. Time is how we perceive change. This sanyama unveils time in its most elemental form, as distinct waveforms of Prakriti that gradually unfold their inner nature. Self-realization requires the ability to distinguish between that which undergoes change and that which is changeless. [Carrera, Jaganath (2012-06-22). Inside The Yoga Sutras: A Comprehensive Sourcebook for the Study and Practice of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (p. 197). BookMasters. Kindle Edition].
3.53 From this heightened discernment the yogin can classify all manner of phenomena (through genus, their qualities, and their position in space).
Mastering time and all that falls under its conditioned laws, the yogin learns to discern even the most minute and subtle differences in apparent similarities that remain unaware in the clouded minds of others.
3.54 This precise-gnosis is a self-liberating one and lies beyond the boundaries of time and space.
It’s as if the yogin can discern all through the Eternal-Now from the other shore of deathless suchness.
3.55 When tranquility is realized through the mind of the yogin that is synonymous with the Great Liberation of Self, the Pure Light of Mind now beckons one homewards.
Now the Diamond-Mind-Body fully Recollects its Absolute Staturehood in the Unborn.
***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Accomplishment with the siddhis assures a better prepared and more highly advanced Yogin who can utilize these powers for high spiritual-purposes. Hence, if the yogin has authentically mastered these Siddhis in Light of the Unborn, completely devoid of any ego-centric intentions, then the way is prepared for the highest drama of the Spiritual Life—full Noble Self-Realization in the Diamond-Mind-Body that will assure Self-Completion in the Luminous and Liberating Light of the Dharmakaya, accompanied with the total and unequivocal end of Karmic being.