Verse 2.78
Leanness of the body, a serene expression on the face, distinctness of divine sound, purity of the eyes, absence of disease, victory of the upheld sexual seed, flaming up of the fire, purity of all the channels, and similar signs are the signs of the accomplishment of sun-moon yoga.
When the aspirant, along with observance of the restraints and observances, begins the worship of the life energy, sun-moon worship, and the worship of the swan, under their influence, his body becomes lean within only two or three months. This leanness of body, though very useful, is an ordinary type of leanness. There is another type of leanness, which is a sign of sun-moon accomplishment.
'Then does the body of the aspirant again become fat after having first become lean?' Yes, to some extent this conjecture is correct. This is because it is not only a difficult task to regulate food for many years, it is a very difficult task. If one doesn't have firm faith in [the practice of] regulating food, it is abandoned. There are many reasons for this: the flaming up of the digestive fire, longing for flavours, relaxation of the determination to regulate food, the unavailability of desirable food and the easy availability of desirable food, etcetera. Between the first leanness and the last leanness, there are not one or two years, but many years. A hundred percent of the aspirants can achieve the preliminary leanness, but there is only attainment of the final leanness, after a thousand or five hundred years, by some rare yogi who is a recipient of immediate freedom [as opposed to freedom after death, the first stage of the after-death experience].
Leanness of the body is a sign of tranquil-powerful burning austerity because the dark condition dwells in fatness, and the tranquil-powerful condition dwells in leanness. But not every leanness is indicative of tranquil-powerful burning austerity. The leanness of the
accomplishment of sun-moon yoga is the leanness of tranquil-powerful burning austerity. We may call this lean body of the yogi 'the ultimate pure body'. When this yogi accomplishes comparison-free equanimity, his body becomes divine. This divine body itself is the outward sign of the liberated while alive, great person.
The Yoga Darshana has given this information on the divine body: 'Getting the body of
beauty, grace, strength, and extreme firmness (steadfastness) like a hard weapon, is called body accomplishment'.
The second sign of sun-moon accomplishment is serenity (serene joy). When through sun- moon continued practice, the dark condition and the passionate condition fade, the tranquil- powerful condition strengthens. At that time, the yogi attains direct knowledge of the divine order, omniscience, and penultimate detachment; consequently, his pain and delusion disappear and he gets natural serenity (contentment, joy, satisfaction, pleasure, delight, clarity, brightness, purity, gladness, tranquillity, grace), which is different from worldly delight (rapture, joy,
In the forty-seventh line of the first chapter of The Yoga Darshana, entitled 'Equanimity', this serenity is called the gift of the Highest Soul. The line says that upon becoming expert in
thought-free equanimity, the yogi gets the gift of the Highest Soul; this is sun-moon
accomplishment. In it, when the yogi becomes thought-free for a long time, he attains the gift of the Highest Soul. After ascending to this thought-free level, he gets a tranquil-powerful faculty of discrimination; this is direct knowledge of the divine order. It is called omniscience.
In The Holy Bhagavad Gita as well, in the second chapter, verse sixty-four, this serenity is called a gift. This is the accomplishment of renunciation-of-action yoga. This renunciation-of- action yoga is included in Sankhya yoga. It is the antecedent stage of Sankhya yoga. This renunciation-of-action yoga is a synonym of sun-moon yoga. In this verse Dark One says, 'But the aspirant with the inner heart under his own command who roams with the organs free from attraction and repulsion, attains serenity of the inner heart.' Then, after that, in verse sixty-five, it says that upon having attained serenity of the inner heart, all his miseries cease to exist, and the judgement of this discrimination yogi of serene mental faculty, quickly withdrawing from everything else, becomes well-steadied in the soul.
There is ordinarily divine sound in each level of yoga, but in The Sun-Moon Signs, the description given of divine sound is that it is subtle in the beginning, subtler in the middle, and subtlest in the end. The last one leads to the accomplishment of equanimity. The sun-moon yogi recognizes four stages of this divine sound: the beginning stage, the jar stage, the
acquaintance stage, and the consummation stage. By listening to the unstruck song and unstruck subtle divine sounds, one-pointedness is brought about in the mental faculty; this is also an important cause of serenity.
The fourth sign of sun-moon accomplishment is a pure eye. Although there are many people with beautiful eyes, we cannot call their eyes pure, because beauty and purity are different. Even the eyes of a newly born baby are not pure; they are beautiful. Beauty of the eyes can be seen in many people, however there can only be purity of the eyes in the eyes of a rare yogi. His eyes are indeed pure, and also extremely alive. We may say that his complete individuality resides in his eyes. It seems to observers that his eyes are filled with accumulated power.
Discordance of the humors, bodily fluids, and instruments (organs) is called disease. By the uninterrupted continued practice of nothing-but-hold, this discordance is destroyed and the yogi becomes disease-free.
Through the uninterrupted continued practice of nothing-but-hold, the outflowing sexual seed glands become inflowing; therefore, the yogi does not have ejaculation of seed. He becomes one who has elevated sexual seed.
The seventh sign of sun-moon accomplishment is the flaming up of the fire. This fire is not the digestive fire; it is the fire of yoga. The location of the digestive fire is in the abdomen. Through the continued practice of nothing-but-hold, it is kindled as well, but its kindling is an ordinary accomplishment, and the kindling of the fire of yoga is a special accomplishment. In the thirty-seventh verse of the fourth chapter of The Holy Bhagavad Gita, the phrase 'the fire of knowledge' is used. This is a synonym of the fire of yoga. This fire of yoga is not a worldly (of the world, material, located) fire; it is an unworldly (not of the world, immaterial, unlocated) fire; it pervades the entire body. Here it should be borne in mind that the name of the fourth chapter of The Holy Bhagavad Gita is 'Renunciation-Of-Action Yoga'. This means renunciation of action through knowledge. This chapter is linked with Sankhya yoga, not with action yoga. Putting it more clearly, we may say that the fire of action yoga that the action yogi considers to be born of yoga is the 'fire of yoga'; the fire of Sankhya yoga that the Sankhya yogi considers to be born of knowledge is the 'fire of knowledge'; and the fire of devotional yoga that the
devotional yogi considers to be born of affection is the 'fire of separation'. There is only one fire, but the names are various. Despite there being three [types of] yogic worshippers of the life energy, their yoga also is only one, but their points of view are various. The principal
disposition of the discrimination yogi is logical, the principal disposition of the action yogi is scientific, and the principal disposition of the devotional yogi is emotional.
The author of this precious book, Beloved King-Among-Yogis Atmarama, is a supreme teacher of yoga. He has described the root-lock energy seal in the Third Instruction, which is on energy seals. In it there is a clue about the fire of yoga. In addition, in the verse under
discussion [2.78], the fire of yoga is mentioned. In the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, there is also a description of the fire of yoga: 'Upon the accomplishment of the joining together of the five qualities of the elements (objects of sense perception) born of the five elements, the body that is the fire of yoga itself comes about. It does not have any disease, old age, or death.' In the first chapter of the Yoga Kundali Upanishad, it says, 'Whether the physical body be small or large, when the heat greatly increases, it spreads in the whole body in the way that applying heat expands (swells) gold. Under its influence, the physical body becomes celestial (of the shining ones), and becoming very pure, becomes like the subtle body; the yogi is released from the necessity of being in the womb [rebirth], and even the march of time/death has no power over him. He comes into awareness of his own real nature [what he really is].' (1.76 – 1.79.)
The eighth sign of sun-moon accomplishment is the purification of the energy channels. By means of correct continued practice of nothing-but-hold, all channels become completely pure. Through their complete purity, the yogi becomes proficient in holding the vital air sufficiently. This is 'the mastery of the organs'. In it, the five organs of action, having become introverted due to the movement of the vital air, become actionless – they are not able to cause trouble of any kind. Such a yogi is called a defeater of sexual desire. Therefore, Revered Lord Dark One, in the third chapter of The Holy Bhagavad Gita has said, 'O White One! Having first mastered your organs of action, you should certainly kill this knowledge-and-science-destroying great sinful sexual desire (lust) with all your power!'
It is the opinion of spiritual science that lust and anger are born of the passionate condition. After the purification of the energy channels, the passionate condition fades and the tranquil- powerful condition increases; so the yogi becomes without lust and anger. The action yogi calls the purification of the energy channels both 'the purification of the energy channels' and 'victory over the elements'. The knowledge yogi calls it 'pure tranquil power', and the devotional yogi calls it 'pure feelings'.