elementary purposes by taking as the basis of our illustration the solar 
system as conceived by the astrologers. 
     I do not know whether the average student is aware that in practice 
the significations of the planets are based generally upon the 
philosophical conceptions of the Greek and Roman gods. Let us hope for 
the best, and go on! 
     8. The planet Saturn, which represents anatomy, is the skeleton: it is 
a rigid structure upon which the rest of the body is built. To what moral 
qualities does this correspond? The first point of virtue in a bone is its 
rigidity, its resistance to pressure. And so in Niyama we find that we need 
the qualities of absolute simplicity in our regimen; we need insensibility; 
we need endurance; we need patience. It is simply impossible for anyone 
who has not practised Yoga to understand what boredom means. I have 
known Yogis, men even holier than I, (no! no!) who, to escape from the 
intolerable tedium, would fly for refuge to a bottle party! It is a 
physiological tedium which becomes the acutest agony. The tension 
becomes cramp; nothing else matters but to escape from the self-
imposed constraint. 
     But every evil brings its own remedy. Another quality of Saturn is 
melancholy; Saturn represents the sorrow of the universe; it is the Trance 
of sorrow that has determined one to undertake the task of emancipation. 
This is the energising force of Law; it is the rigidity of the fact that 
everything is sorrow which moves one to the task, and keeps one on the 
Path. 
     9. The next planet is Jupiter. This planet is in many ways the opposite 
of Saturn; it represents expansion as Saturn represents contraction; it is 
the universal love, the selfless love whose object can be no less than the 
universe itself. This comes to reinforce the powers of Saturn when they 
agonise; success is not for self but for all; one might acquiesce in one's 
own failure, but one cannot be unworthy of the universe. Jupiter, too, 
represents the vital, creative, genial element of the cosmos. He has 
Ganymede and Hebe to his cupbearers. There is an immense and 
inaccessible joy in the Great Work; and it is the attainment of the trance, 
of even the intellectual foreshadowing of that trance, of joy, which 
reassures the Yogi that his work is worth while. 
     Jupiter digests experiences; Jupiter is the Lord of the Forces of Life; 
Jupiter 
takes 
common 
matter 
and 
transmutes 
it 
into 
celestial 
nourishment. 
     10. The next planet is Mars. Mars represents the muscular system; it 
is the lowest form of energy, and in Niyama it is to be taken quite literally 
as the virtue which enables one to contend with, and to conquer, the 
physical difficulties of the Work. The practical point is this: 'The little more 
and how much it is, the little less and what worlds away!' No matter how 
long you keep water at 99 degrees Centigrade under normal barometric 
pressure, it will not boil. I shall probably be accused of advertising some 
kind of motor spirit in talking about the little extra something that the 
others haven't got, but I assure you that I am not being paid for it.