Sutra 1.38

Science too helps us understand the universe at different scales. Do you remember this classic film by Charles and Ray Eames from a science class?

स्वप्ननिद्राज्ञानालम्बनं वा ॥३८॥
svapna-nidra-ajgyaanaa-lumbanam vaa ॥38॥

Swami Prabhavananda interprets this aphorism as, ‘The mind of a yogi can concentrate upon any object of any size, from the atomic to the infinitely great.’ Concentration is not studying an object as in a science, nor observing it, nor even the experience of it – all of which are accessed through the sensory world. It is more like what William Blake has in mind in this verse:
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

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Sutra 1.37

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Sutra 1.39