Dear James,
The third verse of the last chapter of the Patanjali sutras says, “Good deeds or bad deeds are not the direct cause of transformation but they remove obstacles to natural evolution just as a farmer clears obstacles to the irrigation ditches in his fields.” Only if you have time can you explain the meaning?
James: It’s interesting that you should pick out this verse because I just finished commenting on a few days ago. Here is the commentary. Keep an eye on the website because ShiningWorld will soon publish the Patanjali Yoga Sutras under the title, “Yoga and Vedanta,” subtitled “Not the Same but Not Different.”
“Patanjali points out that life requires a material basis before it can appear, a view shared by both Vedanta and modern science. Life on earth existed in potentia before the first unicellular organism appeared because consciousness was present although unmanifest. Once it divided and complexified but before the mind, reflected consciousness, became self-aware and could be called human, many extroverted rudimentary life forms appeared and disappeared. Until the human animal became self-aware it merely followed the impersonal species blueprint imposed on it by the Macrocosmic Mind, but once it became aware of the consequences of its actions the value neutral law of transformation, which only takes physical survival into account, became a moral law, which is synonymous with free will.
Other conscious entities go through the their programmed changes ad infinitum. Their forms change but their minds don’t assimilate experience so they don’t evolve or devolve. They are not interested in freedom because they are not aware that they are bound. Although action itself is value neutral, certain actions assume the status of “good” and “bad” in so far as they accord, or not, with an individual’s likes and dislikes, which are memories of previous experiences. Humans are animals capable of learning, in which case they have a certain degree of influence on their destiny. But these positive and negative values themselves become obstacles to the natural unfolding of the eternal desire for freedom. Actualizing the innate desire for freedom through samadhi, Yogic or Vedantic, is the goal of evolution, which is not going forward but returning to what we essential were before we were born.
One’s likes and dislikes hinder the natural movement of life toward its source, ever-free unborn existence shining as consciousness, which is likened to the flow of water in an irrigation ditch. If the waters of consciousness are going to irrigate one’s life, a karma/dharma field, and produce food, which is to say satisfaction, one’s attractions and aversions need to be removed or the water will be diverted and not arrive at its intended destination.
Love,
James