Iyengar: Nature, its three qualities, sattva, rajas, and tamas, and its evolutes, the elements, mind, senses of perception and organs of actions, exist eternally to serve the seer, for enjoyment or emancipation.
Taimni: The Seen (objective side of manifestation) consists of the elements and sense organs, is of the nature of cognition, activity and stability (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas) and has for its purpose (providing the Purusa with) experience and liberation.
Carrera: The seen is of the nature of the gunas: illumination, activity, and inertia. It consists of the elements and sense organs, whose purpose is to provide both experiences and liberation to the Purusha.
Iyengar discusses the three qualities of the “visible objective world” called gunas which are illumination, motion or action, and inertia or dormancy. These qualities can be used to experience the pleasures of the world or for emancipation.
He introduces the concept of sheaths that the seer has. They are anatomical (earth), physiological (water), mental (fire), intellectual (air), and spiritual (ether). We can purify these sheaths with our senses of perceptions and organs of action (our arms, legs, hands, etc.) through yama and niyama. Asana and pranayama, and pratyahara “divest the seer of the mental sheath”. Dharana and dhyana cleanse the intellectual sheath and Samadhi is the emancipation. He has a useful diagram that shows how the various combinations of the gunas work inside the citta (or consciousness).
Taimni points out the brilliance of this sutra: it has “the fundamental facts concerning the essential nature of the phenomenal world and its perception and purpose”. His analysis is often scientific and compares the gunas to wave motion and his text matches Iyengars diagrams of the various combinations of the gunas.
He compares Sattva to the equilibrium in a storage battery. It’s power can produce any combination of the gunas. But it can stop and not provide power in an instant. The gunas cease to function when the purusa is self realized. He says the world exists for the growth and perfection of the individual and contrasts it to the scientific view that there may not be a purpose to the universe, which is says is a vain and bleak perspective.
Carrera reminds us that the seen is prakrti. And he says this sutra answers the question “what is the purpose of life?” Why do we live our lives in the material world? Are life’s trials and tribulations leading us to a goal? Or is life random?
He says for a yogi(ni), every moment of life is filled with meaning. Purusha is gaining experience
He also says that “From observation of Nature we can find examples of qualities such as strength, patience, caring, selflessness, order, and perseverance that eloquently speak to the existence of a Divine Intelligence”.
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