**1) Here in the final verses of the final chapter of _Light on the Yoga of the Sun & Moon,_ our author Svami Svatmarama says that “the yoga of sun & moon is meant for reaching royal yoga.”  Describe, briefly & clearly, the difference between hatha and raja yoga; and their intended interaction.** In the very first verse of his entire text, the Svami stated that “the art of the yoga of the sun & moon is the one staircase for those who hope to ascend to the lofty heights of royal yoga.”  We can say that the purpose of hatha yoga is to learn practices such as the asanas (yoga poses) and bandhas (locks) and pranayama (breathing practice), in order to prepare the inner channels for carrying the inner wind (prana) successfully.  The purpose of royal yoga is then to induce that inner wind into the central channel, which triggers the direct perception of ultimate reality, or emptiness.] **2) Please give the Sanskrit term for the word “royal” in the expression “royal yoga,” including both the verbal root and some English cognates.  Then explain in a bit of detail why this yoga has been called “royal,” with some historical background.** The word “royal” in “royal yoga” comes from the Sanskrit word _rāja,_ which means “king.”  The verbal root here is itself Ö_rāj,_ which means “to be kingly.” English cognates here include _royal_ itself, and also _regal, regent,_ and _regime._  Interestingly, the Indo-European root is Ö_reg,_ which means “to move in a straight line,” and from there “to direct in a straight line”: to rule.  Cognates with this flavor include _recto, direct, rector,_ and _erect._ It’s important to appreciate that the ancient concept of a king was a person of absolute power, not the just the modern idea of a head of government.  The king or queen was literally the _owner_ of every object or person in the entire country: If they took a liking to your husband or your wife, then they had every right in a few minutes to order this person to come and live with them, forever.  And this included all of your family’s possessions. As such, the word _raja_ in _raja yoga_ is meant to indicate that this is absolutely the most powerful and important of all forms of yoga.  This is obviously so, once we appreciate its role for example in achieving immortality.] **3) In these final verses, Svami Svatmarama also states that “a person who has climbed to the heights of royal yoga can defeat death itself.”  State why this might be true, referring to the role of inner wind or _prana_ during the process of the gestation of a child within the womb.** We can think of the role of _prana_ or inner wind inside the womb as the original life force: this is reflected even in the construction of the word _prana_ (technical spelling _prā__ṇ__a_), which is composed of the prefix _pra-_ (“very much”) together with the verbal root Ö_an,_ meaning “to breathe.”  We see the latter in the cognates _animated, animal (“breathing” or “living” being),_ and _animus (“living spirit”)._  Even literally, then, the word means _life force._ Due to our residual negative emotions (the powerful roots of anger or desire, for example) as we enter the womb, our prana is blocked or impeded, which leads to tie-up spots of prana in the inner channels.  These tie-ups gel into actual flesh and bone, the way the tissue for a cancer tumor might do. The worst places of pranic blockage become the bones of our developing skeleton, which is why the largest areas of bone happen to occur in the same location as the knots or concentrations of stuck prana: for example, the skull (relating to the ajna chakra at the lower center of the forehead) or the hip bone, largest bone area of the body (relating to the combined chakras of the lower body: the manipura at the navel and the svadhisthana near the perineum). One of the results of loosening up the chakra knots and releasing the three primary channels to flow smoothly is that the process of “clotting” is reversed, eventually leading to an immortal body, free of mortal flesh & bone.] **4) Svami Svatmarama states that “equanimity is the water” that feeds the growth of the crops of our inner development.  What does this “equanimity” _not_ refer to; what does it correctly refer to; and how would this relate to our eventual, final personal development?** Equanimity in the sense of hatha & raja yoga does _not_ refer to a mental state where we feel neutral or uncaring about the needs & hopes of the people around us: It is not a “spaced-out” state where we sit in meditation and stare at a wall, trying to think of nothing. Rather, equanimity here refers to a state of love and caring for the people around us which is _equal_ to all of them: a mother with real equanimity would treat other people’s children with exactly the same care & attention that they display for their own child. At what is known as “the stage of the result,” or where we are hoping to go, this equanimity is literally as big as the universe itself: because our prana is moving perfectly within our body, we feel a love & concern for every single living creature (human or animal or otherwise) in the entire universe, perfectly equally—never favoring one over another.  The prana carrying this attitude eventually reaches a state which allows us to assume a physical form where caring for every being in the entire universe is quite possible & practical—the ultimate goal of all forms of yoga.] **5) Here towards the conclusion of his classic, Svami Svatmarama refers to “the wishing tree of going beyond the mind.”  Explain both the tree and “going beyond the mind” here, giving the Sanskrit and a cognate for each.** The “wishing tree” mentioned here is the ancient Indian version of what in the West we think of as “Aladdin’s lamp,” referring to a mythical oil-lamp from the Arabian tale where a genie or powerful spirit is released from his imprisonment within the lamp and offers to fulfil three wishes of the person who helped him escape. The Asian version here is of a tree that grows, as its fruits, whatever the aspirant hopes for.  A child at Christmas might see a nice bicycle bud and grow on the tree, and then float down in front of them. The point is that the ultimate stage of the development of our practice of both hatha and raja yoga will fulfil not only all of our own wishes, but also the wishes of every other being in the entire universe. The actual fulfilment here is achieved through the straightening and unentangling of our inner channels—particularly the “big three”: which is accomplished by and leads to “going beyond the mind,” or freeing our infinite mental capabilities by opening up the full flow of our inner winds, and perceiving emptiness. Here, of course, “perceiving emptiness” refers to the deepest form of the realization that something like a pen is coming from images proceeding out of karmic seeds in our mind, planted by how we treat those around us. The Sanskrit for “wishing tree” is _kalpa virksha_ (technical spelling _kalpa v__ṛ__k__ṣ__a),_ where _kalpa_ means “anything we wish for” and _virksha_ means “tree.”  The root for the former is Ö_kal,_ which means “to consider.”  The old Indo-European version here is Ö_kel,_ meaning “to cut” or “sever”; here in the sense of dissecting thoughts in our mind.  Cognates here are _gladiator_ (from a word for “sword”); _cleave,_ or _clone._ The root for the latter is Ö_bhir_ (_bh__ṛ_), which means “to bear,” or “to carry,” referring to the huge capacity of a tree to bear the great weight of limbs, leaves, and fruit.  From this we see the English cognates _bear_ (in the sense of “carry”, and also “bear children”)_, forbear, wheelbarrow,_ and _burden,_ for a few examples. **6) As he nears his final words, the Svami states that we can become “free, abandoning every kind of thought.”  What is a classic way to misunderstand this sentiment, and then what does it actually refer to?  What is the physical basis for this point in our life, and what will it lead to?  Finally, how does this relate to Prof. Einstein?** The idea of “abandoning every kind of thought” has been misunderstood, throughout history, to refer to some kind of spaced-out state where we stop thinking about anything at all—which is then misconceived as some kind of high spiritual state.  In actuality it sounds like it would be useless, and indeed it is. What “abandoning every kind of thought” actually refers to is using our practice of both hatha and raja yoga to inject prana into our central channel fully, which has the effect of triggering the direct perception of emptiness. In this state of mind, we can no longer entertain normal thoughts, since those are not the _absence_ of misunderstanding which is perceived when we see emptiness directly. The aftermath of this injection of prana into our central channel is a residual inner “richness” of prana in this channel that allows us to appreciate that all objects and people are coming from our own karmic seeds, and that this in turn allows the possibility that we could travel the universe at will to care and assist all other beings. This is only possible because time & space themselves (we can say “space-time”) are proceeding from our own seeds, and are then infinitely malleable.  It is then—literally—possible and even practical for us to travel infinity distances and serve infinitely numerous suffering beings, even at the same time. This is simply a corollary of Einstein’s explanation of the bendability of space & time, as demonstrated in his explanation of curved space—as in the example of light from the solar transition of the planet Mercury being bent by the gravity of the sun.  In essence, Einstein has proven ultimate compassion.