According to Sage Patanjali, the exponent of raja yoga, matter is the manifestation of the primal nature, energy or power. As long as a yogi lives on the material plane, he sees matter. When he transcends the mind he transcends matter. Matter exists only as long as the mind exists, or in other words, when the mind is annihilated, there is no matter.
By the practice of meditation, this crude matter is refined stage by stage. Within the folds of this mind there are traces of awareness and experiences. The practitioner sees, understands and experiences according to past memories, pleasant or unpleasant.
The yogi separates experiences, karmas, samskaras or
impressions from the mind. There comes a moment in the
life of a yogi when all that the mind has accumulated and
cherished is eliminated in totality. The mind transcends itself
and is converted back into energy.
Matter only exists on the mental plane. As soon as the barriers of the mind are transcended, matter no longer exists. Even the mind, which is matter, is totally transmuted and transformed.
April 1978