Iyengar: The wise man knows that owing to fluctuations, the qualities of nature, and subliminal impressions, even pleasant experiences are tinged with sorrow, and he keeps aloof from them.
Taimni: To the people who have developed discrimination all is misery on account of the pains resulting form change, anxiety and tendencies, as also on account of the conflicts between the function of the Gunas and the Vrttis (of the mind).
Carrera: To one of discrimination, everything is painful indeed, due to its consequences: the anxiety and fear over losing what is gained; the resulting impressions left in the mind to create renewed cravings; and the conflict among the activities of the gunas, which control the mind.
In Iyengar’s translation, he discusses the association between pleasure and pain. He says “all pleasure leads to pain”. One to always use an analogy or metaphor, he says “the eyelids, being very sensitive, resist extraneous light or matter immediately and protect the eyes by shutting”. He says our intellect can become just as sensitive to discriminate between the pleasant and the unpleasant.
Taimni explores the thought that many of us have when reading this sutra: so if we lead a virtuous life, will everything be pleasurable? Taimni says this is impossible because all experiences are tinged with pain. He mentions three conditions in his translation. Change and eventually death are inevitable and we often fear change. Yoga he says helps us “discern something which is abiding, which transcends change and gives us an eternal foothold”. Anxiety is the second condition. Happiness is associated with anxiety because we have fear of losing the things that enable us to be happy. Samskara is the final condition which means impression. All experiences we have leave an impression.
Amazingly, he says that all life is full of misery and happiness is an illusion.
The final condition he mentions is the Guna-Vrttis-Virodha – the opposition or conflict of the three Gunas. These three Gunas are is constant balance of flux (recall the Gunas are svattva, rajas, and tamas)
Carrera comes to the rescue saying that this sutra does not reject the joys of life. “The insight that ‘everything is painful’ comes to those chose concerns (ambitions, focus, and objectives) have risen above the search for transitory pleasure and avoidance of pain.”
He makes the analogy with a traveler that travels to exotic locales but at some point longs for home. This is like the yoga practitioner on a long journey but nothing is more inviting than what is inside.
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