Samadhi Pada: Yoga Sutras Book IYOGA SUTRAS SAMADHI PADA BOOK I
AUM atha yoganushasanam 1. OM. Now begins instruction in yoga. (1) 2. Yoga is the restraint of the modifications of the mind. (2) 3. Then the Seer is established in his own essential nature. (3) 4. Otherwise, there is self-identification with the mental modifications. (4) 5. The mental modifications are fivefold and are painful or pleasurable. (5) 6. These are correct cognition, misconception, fantasy, sleep and memory. (6) 7. Correct cognition is based on direct perception, valid inference and verbal testimony. (7) 8. Misconception is illusory knowledge based upon what is other than itself. (8) 9. Fantasy, empty of substance, is engendered by words and concepts. (9) 10. Sleep is the modification engendered by the abeyance and absence of mental contents. (10) 11. Memory is the not letting go of an object or image of subjective experience. (11) 12. The restraint of these mental modifications comes from assiduous practice (abhyasa) and through dispassionate detachment (vairagya). (12) 13. Practice (abhyasa) is the continuous effort to abide in a steady state. (13) 14. This is indeed firmly grounded when it is persistently exercised for a long time, without interruption, and with earnest, reverential attention and devotion. (14) 15. Dispassionate detachment (vairagya) is the consciousness of perfect mastery in one who has ceased to crave for objects, seen or unseen. (15) 16. That is the supreme dispassion when there is cessation of all craving for the attributes (gunas), owing to discernment of the Self (purusha). (16) 17. Cognitive contemplation is accompanied by reasoning, deliberation, bliss and the awareness of pure being (asmita). (17) 18. Another sort of contemplation comes through the previous practice, the cessation of all mental contents, residual potencies alone remaining. (18) 19. It is caused by phenomenal existence in the case of the disembodied and of those absorbed into Nature (prakriti). (19) 20. In the case of others, it is preceded by faith (shraddha), energy (virya), attentiveness (smriti), and the intellectual insight (prajna) needed for meditative absorption (samadhi). (20) (20) 21. It is close at hand for those with vehement intensity. (21) 22. There is also a further differentiation -- mild, moderate and intense. (22) 23. Or by devoted self-surrender to the Lord. (23) 24. Ishvara is a distinct spirit (purusha), untouched by troubles, actions and their results, and latent impressions. (24) 25. In Ishvara the seed of omniscience becomes infinite. (25) 26. Ishvara is the preceptor even of the Ancients, for He is not fettered by time. (26) 27. His designation is OM. (27) 28. Let there be constant chanting of OM and meditation on its meaning. (28) 29. From that comes the turning inward of consciousness and the removal of hindrances. (29) 30. The hindrances which cause mental distractions are disease, dullness, doubt, heedlessness, indolence, addiction to sense-objects, distorted perception, failure to find a footing and instability in any state. (30) 31. These distractions are accompanied by sorrow, depression, bodily restlessness and spasmodic breathing. (31) 32. To check these, there should be constant practice of one truth or principle (eka-tattva). (32) 33. The mind becomes purified through the practice of friendliness, compassion, gladness and indifference respectively towards happiness, sorrow, virtue and vice, (33) 34. Or by expulsion and retention of breath (prana). (34) 35. The awakening of subtle sensory vision can hold the mind in a state of steadiness, (35) 36. Or a state of serene luminosity, (36) 37. Or the mind is fixed on one free from craving, (37) 38. Or by dwelling on insights gained in dreams and dreamless sleep, (38) 39. Or by meditating on that which is deeply desired. (39) 40. Thus, his mastery extends from the minutest atom to the ultimate infinitude. (40) 41. When the modifications of the mind vanish, it becomes like a transparent crystal, attaining the power of transformation (samapatti), taking on the colour of what it rests on, whether it be the cognizer, the cognized or the act of cognition. (41) 42. Whenever the construction of words and meanings is confused and uncertain, the mind wavers in a polemical and chaotic state (sankirna savitarka). (42) 43. When the memory is purified, when the mind is void of its own form, it is luminous with true knowledge of its sole object, attaining to an unclouded state (nirvitarka). (43) 44. Also, by this process, the deliberative and non-deliberative states concerning subtle elements (sukshma-vishaya) are explained. (44) 45. And the subtle elements extend up to the noumenal, primordial and undifferentiated (alinga). (45) 46. They are only the basis of meditation with its seed. (46) 47. On attaining the utmost purity of the non-deliberative state, there is the dawning of spiritual light, the gracious peace and luminosity of the supreme Self. (47) 48. Therein is direct cognition (prajna), which carries and holds the unalloyed Truth. (48) 49. Direct cognition is essentially different from testimony and inference, owing to its focus upon a specific object, Truth itself. (49) 50. The impress engendered therefrom supersedes all other latent impressions. (50) 51. On the stoppage of even that, all else being eliminated, there arises meditation without a seed (nirbijah samadhi). (51) Patanjali Hermes, May 1987 by Raghavan Iyer |