Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book IV · 2 of 34 · tr. Charles Johnston
Sutra 2
The transfer of powers from one venture to another comes through the flow of the natural creative forces. Here, if we can perceive it, is the whole secret of spiritual birth, growth and life Spiritual being, like all being, is but an expression of the Self, of the inherent power and being of Atma. Inherent in the Self are consciousness and will, which have, as their lordly heritage, the wide sweep of the universe throughout eternity, for the Self is one with the Eternal. And the consciousness of the Self may make itself manifest as seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, or whatsoever perceptive powers there may be, just as the white sunlight may divide into many-coloured rays. So may the will of the Self manifest itself in the uttering of words, or in handling, or in moving, and whatever powers of action there are throughout the seven worlds. Where the Self is, there will its powers be. It is but a question of the vesture through which these powers shall shine forth. And wherever the consciousness and desire of the ever-creative Self are fixed, there will a vesture be built up; where the heart is, there will the treasure be also. Since through ages the desire of the Self has been toward the natural world, wherein the Self sought to mirror himself that he might know himself, therefore a vesture of natural elements came into being, through which blossomed forth the Self's powers of perceiving and of will: the power to see, to hear, to speak, to walk, to handle; and when the Self, thus come to self-consciousness, and, with it, to a knowledge of his imprisonment, shall set his desire on the divine and real world, and raise his consciousness thereto, the spiritual vesture shall be built up for him there, with its expression of his inherent powers. Nor will migration thither be difficult for the Self, since the divine is no strange or foreign land for him, but the house of his home, where he dwells from everlasting.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The Self's consciousness manifests as various perceptive powers 'just as the white sunlight may divide into many-coloured rays,' and the natural world is a mirror through which the Self knows itself, establishing a structural reflection between the one source and its multiplicity.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage narrates the origin of the material world: 'Since through ages the desire of the Self has been toward the natural world... therefore a vesture of natural elements came into being, through which blossomed forth the Self's powers.'
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
The Self pervades all being: 'Spiritual being, like all being, is but an expression of the Self,' and 'Where the Self is, there will its powers be,' asserting the divine's presence within all of creation.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
Liberation comes through the Self's direct knowledge of its own nature and its imprisonment, not through ritual or moral works: 'when the Self, thus come to self-consciousness, and, with it, to a knowledge of his imprisonment, shall set his desire on the divine and real world.'
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage traces a directional process of the Self's consciousness descending into a natural vesture and then ascending to a spiritual vesture, describing both the staged descent and its complementary return.
The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.
The divine realm is not external but is the Self's own home: 'the divine is no strange or foreign land for him, but the house of his home, where he dwells from everlasting,' making the divine accessible from within.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The Self is described as having 'the wide sweep of the universe throughout eternity' as its 'lordly heritage,' and is 'one with the Eternal,' making the individual Self a microcosmic expression of the entire cosmos.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The Self (Atma) is presented as the absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all powers and multiplicity flow, 'one with the Eternal,' with all consciousness and will inhering in it as a single source.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The Self's state in the natural vesture is explicitly called 'imprisonment,' and the return is to 'the house of his home, where he dwells from everlasting,' establishing the felt condition of exile that motivates the return.