ur of its
manifestations of Maya, entices the individual souls, or Purushas, which
when once in the centre of attraction of the Maya are drawn into the
vortex of material existence, losing a knowledge of their real nature.
But the souls never lose entirely the glimmer of the Light of the
Spirit, and, consequently, soon begin to feel that they have made a
mistake, and consequently begin to strive to escape the bondage of
Prakriti and its Maya--but such escape is possible only through a
gradual rising up from the depths of Maya, step by step, cycle by cycle,
by a series of purification and cleansing of themselves, just as a fly
cleanses itself of the sticky substance into which it has fallen. This
escape is accomplished by Spiritual Unfoldment or Evolution, by means of
Reincarnation--this Evolution not being a "growth," but rather an
"unfoldment" or "unwrapping" of the soul from its confining sheaths, one
by one.

Another great school of Hindu philosophy is the philosophy of Patanjali,
generally known as the Yoga Philosophy, but which differs from the Yogi
Philosophy of the West, which is eclectic in nature. The Yoga Philosophy
of Patanjali bears some resemblance to the Sankhya school of Kapila,
inasmuch as it recognizes the teachings regarding Prakriti, from which
universal energy the material universe has been evolved; and inasmuch as
it also recognizes the countless individual Purushas, or souls, which
are eternal and immortal, and which are entrapped in the Maya of
Prakriti. But it then takes a position widely divergent from the Sankhya
school, inasmuch as Patanjali's Yoga school holds that there also exists
a Supreme Purusha, Spirit, Soul--or God--who is without form; infinite;
eternal; and above all attributes and qualities common to man. In this
respect, Patanjali differs from Kapila, and inclines rather toward
agreement with Kanada, of the first mentioned school of the Vaisheshika
system. All three philosophers, however, seem to generally agree in the
main upon the Mind Principle, which they hold to be beneath Soul or
Spirit, and to be in the nature of Mind-Stuff, which is of a
semi-material nature--Kapila and Patanjali even going so far as to hold
that it is a manifestation of Prakriti or the Universal Energy, rather
than a distinct principle. They hold that the Purusha, or Spirit, not
the Mind, is the Real Self, and the source of consciousness and the real
intelligence. The practical teachings of the school of P