yogalila

2.28 yoganganusthanat asuddhiksaye jnanadiptih avivekakhyateh

Iyengar:  By dedicated practice of the various aspects of yoga impurities are destroyed; the crown of wisdom radiates in glory. 

Iyengar says that the wisdom achieved by practicing yoga keeps us “innocent and free of pride”.  And this line strikes me in his commentary: “Perfection and success are certain only if one practices with ove and whole-hearted dedication.” 

This sutra got me thinking about what motivates me to do yoga.  I came to yoga to relieve physical and emotional suffering. I continue to practice for those same reasons.  I just finished reading the book Drive by Daniel Pink (http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/1594488843/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289687994&sr=8-1).  In that book he outlines three thinks you need for instrinsic motivation:

Autonomy: People want to have control over their what they do.
Mastery: People want to get better at what they do.
Purpose: People want to be part of something that is bigger than they are.

I feel like I have that in my yoga practice.  The freedom to practice when I want, what I want, and how long I want, the never-reaching-but-striving-towards mastery, and a higher purpose of connecting to myself and the larger world. 

Bryant:  Upon the destruction of impurities as a result of the practice of yoga, the lamp of knowledge arises.  This culminates in discriminative discernment. 

Bryant points out the the impurities here include the klesas – the five obstacles to yoga which are avidya/ignorance, asmita/ego, raga/attachment, dvesa/aversion, abhinivesa/clinging to life. 

He also notes that this sutra seems to break from the first 27 sutras which discuss kriya yoga.  He has a discussion on why this is not separated out in it’s own pada.  Pantanjli does not note that the three components of kriya yoga (tapas, svadyaya, and ishvarai prandhana) which are niyamas are not connected here.

Taimni:  From the practice of the component exercises of yoga on the discustion of impurity, arises a spiritual illumination which develops into awareness of Reality. 

Taimni comments that this sutra says that the guidance for yoga comes from spiritual illumination within oneself and says it is similar to intuition.  It is independent of external guidance. 

He says that students who start yoga out of curiousity often drop out because they cannot bear “its ceaseless strain and the ruthless stripping of the personality which is involved”.  And later, he says if a student comes to secure “release from the limitations and illusions of human life and its miseries” are the people qualitifed “to tread this path”. 

Carrera:  By the practice of the limbs of Yoga, the impurities dwindle away and there dawns the light of wisdom leading to discriminative discernment. 

He says that yoga doesn’t really bring anything new but removes the unwanted and once that unwanted (the impurities) is removed, the wisdom within is revealed. 

2.27 tasya saptadha prantabhumih prajna

Iyengar:  Through this unbroken flow of discriminative awareness, one gains perfect knowledge which has seven spheres.

Iyengar says the seven frontiers are integration of the body, the senses, energy, mind, intellect, consciousness, and soul – with each “realizing its own identity.” He says that the seven states of conscious awareness are emerging, restraining, individualized, tranquil, attentive, fissured, and pure consciousness.  Iyengar tries to simplify the many interpretations of the seven spheres by saying that through the practice of yoga, the student will “conquer his body, control his energy, restrain the movement of the mind and develop sound judgment” which develops luminosity. 

Bryant:  The yogi’s true insight has seven ultimate stages. 

Bryant says that several of the stages are really the same stage.  He lays out the stages like so:

1.  Suffering is avoided
2. Causes of suffering have been eradicated
3. Restraint of the mind so that purusa, nature, is not misidentified with the buddhi, intelligence.
4. The causes of misidentification have been removed
5. Intelligence has been fulfilled and is now redundant
6. The yogi’s guna’s dissolve back into nature.
7. Purusa, the true nature, shines without the bonds of the gunas. 

Taimni:  In his case the highest stage of Enlightenment is reached by seven stages. 

Taimni’s commentary is short on this sutra.  He says these stages are “a matter of transcendent experiences which cannot be interpreted in terms of the thinking processes.” 

Carrera:  One’s wisdom in the final stage is sevenfold. 

Carrera’s commentary is similar to Bryant’s in the way he lays out the seven stages.  He says that viveka (discriminating knowledge) changes our view on life and can reveal a whole different universe from what we previously had known. 

I’ve personally been thinking a lot about the causes of suffering, the klesas, and how they can be thinned out as this is part of a final project we are doing in teacher training.  I’ll report back when I have it all figured out. 

2.26 vivekakhyatih aviplava hanopayah

Iyengar:  The ceaseless flow of discriminative knowledge in thought, word, and deed destroys ignorance, the source of pain. 

In his commentary, BKS Iyengar says: “The seeds of false knowledge are to be burnt up through uninterrupted yogic practices to maintain an unbroken flow of discriminative intelligence.”  For the key is “uninterrupted” – that means I have to practice off the mat as well as on the mat. 

Bryant:  The means to liberation is uninterrupted discriminative discernment.

Bryant points out the commentators say this discrimination can be developed by listening to the sacred texts and contemplating their content – for a long time.  And then it can be further developed by yoga practices.  Discrimination as he describes seems like a practice that can be continually honed until it is so skilled it can weed out all illusion. 

Taimni:   The uninterrupted practice of the awareness of the Real is the means of dispersion (of Avidya). 

Taimni points out that “a mere glimpse of Reality does not constitute Kaivalya (emancipation) although it certainly shows that the goals I near.  He emphasizes the uninterrupted practice as the means of achieving this. 

Carerra:  Uninterrupted discriminative discernment is the method for its removal. 

Carerra says that we use Viveka (discrimination) constantly – it’s an innate skill we have.  But “viveka requires a high order of clear, steady focus and the absence of selfish attachment” to perceive the Self as our True Identity.  He says: “Viveka is the shifting of awareness from the object of perception to the power of perception itself.”

I wonder if I will ever attain this kind of discrimination, even only a glimpse, in this lifetime.

 

2.25 tad abhavat samyogabhavah hanam taddresh kaivalym

Iyengar:  The destruction of ignorance through right knowledge breaks the link binding the seer to the seen.  This is kaivalya, emancipation. 

Iyengar says that sutras 2.16-2.24 talk about how to control pleasure and pain.  This sutra explains what happens when the bind is broken between the seer and seen. He sums his commentary up with this: “Though [the seer] is pure, it becomes entangled in the tricks of the mind, which are part of nature.  Yet the vehicles of nature are all there to help the seer to experience serene, pristine, divine purity.  Then the elements of nature and their counterparts recede and merge into the root of nature, mula prakrti.”

Bryant:  By the removal of ignorance, conjunction is removed.  This is the absolute freedom of the seer. 

Bryant says that freedom occurs when “ ignorance is fully removed, as a result of which the conjunction, samyoga, between purusa and buddhi, the cause of suffering, is removed” in other words “ purusa never gets mixed up with the gunas again.”  Recall the three gunas are tamas, rajas, and sattva. 

Taimni:  The dissociation of Purusa and Prakrti brought about by the dispersion of Avidya is the real remedy and that is the Liberation of the Seer. 

Just a note – the copyright of Taimni’s book is 1961 and is considerably older than all other translations.  I find his text similar to descriptions found in Autobiography of a Yogi.  For example, he says “ …the Yogi is able to leave the vehicle at will in Samadhi and to look down upon it, as it were, from a higher plane”.  Autobiography is filled with stories of yogis leaving their bodies. 

Carerra:  Without this ignorance, no such union occurs.  This is the independence of the Seer. 

Carerra says “Yoga practice gradually removes ignorance”.  One of the things my Iyengar teachers have me do regularly is to see what my alignment really is in a pose.  I am often unaware of body patterns.  This is avidya and with discrimination, I can determine my alignment in a pose (even if I can see it directly).  I can bring this discrimination to the rest of the life. 

2.24 tasya hetuh avidya

Iyengar:  Lack of spiritual understanding (avidya) is the cause of the false identification of the seer with the seen. 

What is interesting about this sutra, as BKS Iyengar points out in his commentary, is that the union of prakrti (nature) and purusa (the soul) can lead to freedom or suffering because we can get over involved in desires and emotions.  Vidya is defined as discriminative knowledge.  He further says that this knowledge “releases us from the shackles of possessing and being possessed.” 

Bryant:  The cause of conjunction is ignorance

Bryant goes into a discussion of the source of ignorance.  He says “discrimination eventually completely destroys ignorance and thus its own base, like fire destroys its own fuel”.  This results in samadhi. 

Taimni:  Its cause is the lack of awareness of his Real nature. 

Taimni says: “The release is brought by….disentangling himself in consciousness from his vehicles one after another until he stands free from them, even though using them merely as instruments.”  Notice how we cannot get rid of our vehicles, our prakrti. 

Carrera:  The cause of this union is ignorance.

Carrera says: “Nature remains bound by the limitations of its own laws.  He lists a poem by Sri Swamin Vivekananda:

The beauteous earth, the glorious sun

The calm sweet moon, the spangled sky,

Causation’s law do make them run;

They live in bonds, in bonds they die. 

2.23 sva svamisaktyoh svarupopalabdhi hetuh

Iyengar:  The conjunction of the seer with the seen is for the seer to discover his own true nature. 

Sometimes when studying the Sutras, it seems as if we should forgo nature or Prakrti (the seen).  But Pantajali says in this sutra that we need the seen to discover our true nature.  Iyengar clarifies in his commentary: “If the association (between the seer and the seen) is fed by ignorance is leads the master towards enjoyment, desire, and ailments and binds him”.  He further says if the master “associates with nature without attachment and remains a witness, nature leads its owner, the soul, to freedom, moksa”.

Bryant: [The notion of] conjunction is the means of understanding the real nature of the powers of the possessed and of the possessor

Bryant’s commentary has a section on why ignorance occurs and what the causes of ignorance are?  Some possibilities:  Is it due to the mind which can distort prakrti (nature)?  Is it due to the gunas?  Is ignorance a samskara?  He concludes that the roots of ignorance are mysterious, but that the “common demonimator in them all is the conjunction of purusa with the gunas of prakrti”. (Note the three primary gunas are: sattva guṇa, and rajas guṇa, tamas guṇa). 

Taimni:  The purpose of coming together of the Purusa and Prakrti is gaining by the Purusa of the awareness of his true nature and the unfoldment of powers inherent in him and Prakrti.    

Taimni comments that the theory of evolution is explained by this sutra. “Why is Purusa brought into contact with Prakrti?  To unfold the powers latent in Parkrti and himself and to enable him to gen Self-realization.  That is the complete idea of evolution in a nutshell.”

Carrera:  The union of Owner (Purusha) and owned (Prakriti) causes the recognition of the nature and powers of them both. 

Patanjali exchanges the word Seer and Seen to Owner and Owned in this sutra because Carerra says, they “are alies in the phenomenon we experience as life”.  We need to realize changing nature to gain knowledge and realization about ourselves. 

Some of my previous yoga teachers said yoga was meant to make you feel good.  The sutras contradict this is.  Pada two has been focused on how to relieve suffering and the roots are when we get attached to worldly pleasures.  The next few sutras will delve into this dual relationship. 

2.22 krtartham prati nastam api anastam tadanya sadharanatvat

Iyengar:  The relationship with nature ceases for emancipated beings, its purpose having been fulfilled, but its processes continue to affect others.  

Iyengar’s short commentary says that when the seer is freed from his mental and sensory prison,  “Nature ceases to exist for him.  He is able to perceive his own form (svrupa).  But he points out the bondage endures for the rest of us.

Bryant:  Although the seen ceases to exist for one whose purpose is accomplished [the liberated purusa], it has not ceased to exist altogether, since it is common to other [not-librated] pursuas. 

Bryant repeats a commentary from ancient Indian texts: Color may not be seen by a blind man, but it does not cease to be, since it is seen by those who are not blind. 

Taimni:  Although it becomes non-existent for him whose purpose has been fulfilled it continues to exist for others on account of being common to others (besides him). 

Taimni’s commentary continues this discussion by asking if Pakrti (nature) can live on its own?  He wisely points out that” contradictions, paradoxes, and inconsistencies are inevitable when we try to see and interpret these realists though the instrumentality of the intellect. “’

Carrera: Although destroyed for him who has attained liberation, it (the seen) exists for others, being common to them.

Carrera says that this sutra describes “the change in the realized yogi’s relationship with the universe”.  Our mind is focused on the things around us and our sensory perception.  He says the self – our true center of existence “is experienced as an elusive dream.  With liberation, the tables are turned:  Nature is experienced as the dream while the self is the rock-solid reality”.

2.19 visesa avisesa lingamatra alingani gunaparvani

It has been almost a year since I posted to this blog, but I’m back and will pick up with the Sutras where I left off.  I’ve actually been doing a lot of Sutra study and Sanskrit study.  I’ve also added another commentary to my studies:  The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali by Edwin Bryant.  Edwin does workshops and the Sutras and the Gita (see http://www.edwinbryant.org/ for more details) and I highly recommend studying with him if you get the chance. 

Iyengar:  The gunas generate their characteristic divisions and energies in the seer.  Their stages are distinguishable and non-distinguishable, differentiable and non-differentiable. 

Iyengar discusses prakrti (or nature) so that we can release ourselves from it.  Prakrti consists of cosmic intelligence which is made up of the three gunas: sattva – luminosity, rajas – action, and tamas – inertia.  Prakrti also manifests itself in the five elements –earth, water, fire, air, and ether and in smel, taste, shape, touch, and sound.  The counterpart to the universal intelligence is citta or consciousness, which consists of the mind (processes sensory input), intelligence (discrimination), and the ego (the individual “I”).  The concrete form of prakrti also consists of the senses of perception (ears tongue eyes nose skin) and the organs of action (legs arms speech organs). 

These are the distinguishable elements.  Unspecified principles are “unevolved matter”.  Iyengar says that the merging specified into the unspecified is the “merging of nature into spirit” and is a “divine marriage, which becomes possible through the work of yoga.”

Bryant:   The different stages of the guna qualities consist of the particularized, the unparticularized, the distinctive, and the indistinctive.

Bryant adds to the understanding from Iyengar’s commentary by stating “ gunas may appear to have the nature of birth and death, but all that is really occurring is that the volutes of the gunas are manifesting and unmanifesting the various bodies and things of thins world due to the constant flux of the gunas themselves”. When I think about my own make it, I appear to be in various combinations of the three gunas at all times. 

Taimni:  The stages of the gunas are the particular, the universal, the differentiated and the undifferentiated. 

Taimni goes into a deep analysis of the gunas, but says at the end “Since the Gunas lie at the very basis of the manifested Universe and their roots are embedded in the deepest layers of consciousness their subtle nature can be realized only in Samadhi.  Their intellect can, at best, enable us to gain only a general idea with regard to their nature and their gross expressions on the lowest plane.”

Carrera:  The stages of the gunas are specific, nonspecific, defined, and undifferentiated. 

Carrera’s translation comes through so I can understand this Sutra better.  In Sutra 2.17 we sometimes confuse the Seer with the Seen (Prakrti).  This sutra helps us understand Parkrti’s evolution so we can “trace back our everyday experience of the solid three dimensional world we live in to the very doorstep of the seer”. 

Undifferentiated:  Universal Prakrti / matter

Defined:  Cosmic Intelligence; the gunas qualities begin here. 

Nonspecific: Evolution of the senses…matter becomes manifesting as…

Specific: gross objects – the things we feel and touch. 

2.18 prakasa kriya sthiti silam bhutendriyatmakam bhogapavargartham drsyam

Iyengar:  Nature, its three qualities, sattva, rajas, and tamas, and its evolutes, the elements, mind, senses of perception and organs of actions, exist eternally to serve the seer, for enjoyment or emancipation.

Taimni:  The Seen (objective side of manifestation) consists of the elements and sense organs, is of the nature of cognition, activity and stability (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas) and has for its purpose (providing the Purusa with) experience and liberation. 

Carrera:  The seen is of the nature of the gunas: illumination, activity, and inertia.  It consists of the elements and sense organs, whose purpose is to provide both experiences and liberation to the Purusha. 

Iyengar discusses the three qualities of the “visible objective world” called gunas which are illumination, motion or action, and inertia or dormancy.  These qualities can be used to experience the pleasures of the world or for emancipation. 

 

He introduces the concept of sheaths that the seer has.  They are anatomical (earth), physiological (water), mental (fire), intellectual (air), and spiritual (ether).  We can purify these sheaths with our senses of perceptions and organs of action (our arms, legs, hands, etc.)  through yama and niyama.  Asana and pranayama, and pratyahara “divest the seer of the mental sheath”.  Dharana and dhyana cleanse the intellectual sheath and Samadhi is the emancipation.   He has a useful diagram that shows how the various combinations of the gunas work inside the citta (or consciousness). 

Taimni points out the brilliance of this sutra: it has “the fundamental facts concerning the essential nature of the phenomenal world and its perception and purpose”.  His analysis is often scientific and compares the gunas to wave motion and his text matches Iyengars diagrams of the various combinations of the gunas. 

He compares Sattva to the equilibrium in a storage battery.  It’s power can produce any combination of the gunas.  But it can stop and not provide power in an instant.  The gunas cease to function when the purusa is self realized. He says the world exists for the growth and perfection of the individual and contrasts it to the scientific view that there may not be a purpose to the universe, which is says is a vain and bleak perspective. 

Carrera reminds us that the seen is prakrti.  And he says this sutra answers the question “what is the purpose of life?”  Why do we live our lives in the material world?  Are life’s trials and tribulations leading us to a goal?  Or is life random?

He says for a yogi(ni), every moment of life is filled with meaning.  Purusha is gaining experience

He also says that “From observation of Nature we can find examples of qualities such as strength, patience, caring, selflessness, order, and perseverance that eloquently speak to the existence of a Divine Intelligence”. 

2.17 drastrdrsyayoh samyogah heyahetuh

Iyengar:  The cause of pain is the association or identification of the seer (atma) with the seen (prakrti) and the remedy lies in their dissociation. 

Taimni:  The cause of that which is to be avoided is the union of the Seer and the Seen. 

Carrera:  The cause of that avoidable pain is the union of the Seer (Purusha) and the Seen (Prakriti). 

I struggle with this sutra and Carrera sums it up why.  It is paradoxical that this sutra explains that the union of the Seer and the Seen is the cause of our human suffering.  “..Isn’t union –yoga – what we are seeking?”.   But Carrera clarifies that union also can mean correlation or connection.  And the false connection, he says, of mistaking the mind with the Seer, causes our suffering.  If we believe we are only our mind, then “we tend to make choices that serve its whims, fears, and habits”.  We look to the outside world for comfort.  The root of this behavior is avidya or ignorance. 

Iyengar discusses the concept of intelligence, which he says is the “vehicle closest to the soul”.  If intelligence is undiscriminating, we suffer, but if it discriminates, it can mingle with seer.  Intelligence, he says, oscillates between the head and the heart; this oscillation stops through understanding, which he explains is mediation.  The ego dissolves and allows the Self (Purusha) to shine in its own glory. 

Taimni adds in his discussion that yoking of the Seer and Seen is a form of bondage and that yoking always causes bondage. 

The next two sutras go into the “the Seen” more deeply.