Yajnavalkya said, I have already spoken to you of the science of the Sankhyas. Hear now as I truly describe the science of the Yogins as heard and seen my me, O best of kings. are

There is no Knowledge like that of the Sankhyas. There is no power like that of Yoga. These two prescribe the same practices, and both are considered as capable of leading to Liberation.

Those men who not blest with intelligence consider the Sankhya and the Yoga systems to be different from each other. We, however, O king, regard them as one and the same, according to the conclusion to which we have arrived.

What the Yogins have in view is the very same which the Sankhyas also have in view. He who sees both the Sankhya and the Yoga systems to be one and the same is to be considered as truly conversant with the principles that ordain the universe.

Know, O king, that the vital airs and the senses are the chief instruments for practising Yoga. By only regulating those vital airs and the senses, Yogins go everywhere at their will.

When the gross body is destroyed, Yogins, gifted with subtile bodies possessed of the eight Yoga powers wander over the universe, enjoying all sorts of happiness, O sinless one.

The wise have, in the scriptures, spoken of Yoga as giving eight sorts of power. They have spoken of Yoga as gifted with eight limbs.

Indeed, O king, they have not spoken of any other sort of Yoga. It has been said that the practices of Yogins, excellent as those are of two sorts. Those two sorts, according to the characteristics described in the scriptures, are practices endued with attributes and those freed from attributes.

The concentration of the mind together with the regulation of the vital airs. O king, is one sort. The concentration of the mind along with subjugation of the senses, is of another sort. The first kind of Yoga is said to be that possessed of qualities; the second kind is said to be that freed from qualities.

The, again, Regulation of the Vital air is Yoga with qualities. In Yoga without qualities, the mind, freed from its functions, should be fixed. Only the regulation of the vital air which is said to be endued with qualities should, in the first instance, be practised, for, O king of Mithila, if the vital air be exhaled without mentally thinking upon a definite image, the wind in the neophyte's system will increase to his great injury.

In the first period of the night, twelve ways of suppressing the vital air are recommended. After sleep, in the last period of the night, other twelve ways of doing the same have been laid down.

Forsooth, one endued with tranquillity, of controlled senses, living in retirement, rejoicing in one's in one's own self, and fully conversant with the meaning of the scriptures, should fix his Soul.

Removing the five faults of the five sense, viz., (withdrawing them from their objects of) sound, form, touch, taste, and scent, and removing those conditions called Pratibha and Apavanga, O king, of the Mithilas, all the senses should be fixed upon the mind.

The mind should then be fixed on Consciousness, O king; Consciousness should next be fixed on Intelligence, and Buddhi should then be fixed on Nature.

Thus merging these one after another, Yogins meditate on the Supreme Soul which is One, which is freed from Darkness, which is Immutable and Infinite and Pure and without defect, and without blemish, who is Eternal Soul, who is unchangeable, who is Indivisible, who is without decay and death, who is everlasting who is above decrease, and which is Immutable Brahma.

Listen, now, O king, to the marks of one that is Yoga. All the marks of cheerful contentment that are his who is sleeping in contentment are seen in the person, that is in Samadhi.

The person in contemplation, the wise hold looks like the fixed and upward flame of a lamp that is full of oil and that burns in a spot where there is no air.

He is like a rock which is incapable of being moved in the last by even a heavy downpour from the clouds.

He is incapable of being moved by the sound of couchs and drums, or by songs, or the sound of hundreds of musical instruments beat or blown together. Even this is the characteristic of one in contemplation.

As a man of cool courage and determination, while going up a flight of steps with a vessel full of oil in his hands, does not spill even a drop of the liquid if terrified and threatened by person armed with weapons, so the Yogin, when his his mind has been concentrated and when he sees the Supreme Soul in contemplation, does not, of account of the entire stoppage of the functions of his senses at such a time, move in the slightest degree. Even these should be known to be the marks of the Yogin while he is in contemplation.

While in contemplation, the Yogin sees Brahma which is Supreme and Immutable, and which is situated like a burning Effulgence in the midst of thick Darkness.

It is by this means that he acquires, after many years, Liberation after renouncing this inanimate body. Even this is what the eternal Shruti says.

This is called the Yoga of the Yogins. What else is it? Knowing it, they who are gifted with wisdoin consider themselves as crowned with Success.