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WHAT 1S YOGA?31are opposed to the undesirable ones. lf you want to overcomefear, mentally deny that you have fear and concentrate your attentionupon the idealof courage. When courage is developed,fear vanishes away by itself. The positive always overpowersthe negative. This is an infallible law of nature. This isPratipaksha Bhavana of Raja Yogis. You can establish newhabits, new ideals, new ideas, new tastes and new character inthe subconscious mind by changing the old ones. ThePratipaksha Bhavana method is dealt with in the subsequentSutras.The term 'memory' is used in two senses. We say:"Mr.jiJohn has got a good memory." Here, it means, that Mr.John's capacity of the mind to store up its past experiences isvery good. Sometimes we say: "l have no memory of that incident."Here you cannot bring up to the surface of the consciousmind the incident in its original form that took place some yearsago: lt is an act of remembering. lf the experience is fresh youcan have a complete recall of your past experience throughmemory. You do not get any new knowledge through memory. ltis only a reproduction.Suppose, you have received a nice fan from your amiablefriend. When you use the fan, it sometimes reminds you of yourfriend. You think of him for a short time. This fan serves asUdbhodaka or Smriti-hetu (cause for memory). lf your brotheris a tall man, the sight of a similar man in another place willbring to your mind the memory of your brother. This is memorydue to the similarity of objects (Sadrisyata).Suppose, you have seen a dwarf at Madras. When yousee a very tall man or Patiagonian, this wil! remind you of thedwarf whom you saw at Madras. The sight of a big palace willremind you of a peasant's hut or a Sannyasin's grass-hut onthe banks of the Ganga. This memory is due to dissimilarity inobj ects (Vi pareetata).The following are the four good characteristics of goodmemory: (1) lf you read a passage once and if you can repeatthe same nicely, it is a sign to indicate that you have a goodmemory. This is termed Sugamata. (2) lf you can reproduce thesame thing without increase or decrease, it is called Araihalya.(3) lf you can preserve a fact or passage or anything in your