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The Object of Our Yoga

The object of our Yoga is self-perfection, not self-annulment.

There are two paths set for the feet of the Yogin, withdrawal from the universe and
perfection in the Universe; the first comes by asceticism, the second is effected by
tapasya; the first receives us when we lose God in Existence, the second is attained when
we fulfil existence in God. Let ours be the path of perfection, not of abandonment; let our
aim be victory in the battle, not the escape from all conflict.

Buddha and Shankara supposed the world to be radically false and miserable; therefore
escape from the world was to them the only wisdom. But this world is Brahman, the
world is God, the world is Satyam, the world is Ananda; it is our misreading of the world
through mental egoism that is a falsehood and our wrong relation with God in the world
that is a misery. There is no other falsity and no other cause of sorrow.

God created the world in Himself through Maya; but the Vedic meaning of Maya is not
illusion, it is wisdom, knowledge, capacity, wide extension in consciousness. Prajna
prasrita purani. Omnipotent Wisdom created the world, it is not the organised blunder
of some Infinite Dreamer; omniscient Power manifests or conceals it in Itself or Its own

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