Yogasutra vibhutipada sutra 25-26

Yogasutra Vibhutipada sutra 25-26

Sri Sadgurubhyoh Namah

25. pravritti aloka nyasat sukshma vyavahita viprakristta jnanam

Meaning : By calming the pravritti(activities) of mind, and doing samyama on pravritti on mind, yogi comes to know of his latent impressions well and also of things that are far off from his understanding earlier.

26. bhuvana jnanam surye samyamat
Meaning : Samyama on solar principle, will give a yogi knowledge of all worlds (bhuvana).

Hari OM

Yogasutra vibhutipada sutra 22-23

Yogasutra Vibhutipada sutra 23-24

Sri Sadgurbhyoh Namah

23. maitri aadishu balani

Meaning : Samyama on positive qualities strengthens them, for ex: samyama on friendliness strengthens that particular aspect.

24. baleshu hasti bala-adini

Meaning : By samyama (dharana, dhyana, samadhi) on strength of elephant, yogi knows what strength is.

commentary : It is not meant that one acquires a strength equivalent to an elephant. The strength of friendly feeling might be even more greater than an elephant's strength. The strength of positive feelings like friendliness should be more or great than an elephant's strength.

Hari OM

Yogasutra Vibhutipada Sutra 21-22

Sri Sadgurubhyoh Namah

21. kaya-rupa samyamat tad grahya shakti stambhe chakshuh prakasha asanprayoge antardhanam

Meaning 1: Samyama on body form can help yogi to achieve a capability of invisibility.

Meaning 2: Samyama on body form can help a yogi to actually see the body for what it is 'energy or shakti' after which the body as we are accustomed to see is no more visible.

My commentary : Yoga is practiced to change ourself, change our view, we should not be bothered about how world views us, whether visible or invisible.

The body form is also a form of energy. The entire universe is an energy pattern, while consciousness is witnessing the changing energy pattern. This energy is symbolically told as Shakti and Witness is told as Shiva.

22. sopakramam nirupakramam ca karman tad samyamat aparanta jnanam aristebhyah va

Meaning : The karma can be classified as two types depending on the fastness with which the results visit us. karma that is already set in motion (sopakramam) and dormant karma (nirupakramam). Samyama on these types of karma will tell yogi about dangers, and forewarning of death. Understanding the karma that is set in motion, will tell about how long the vehicle i.e body will run.

Hari OM

Yogasutra Vibhutipada sutra 20

Yogasutra Vibhutipada Sutra 20

Sri Sadgurubhyoh Namah

20. na cha tat salambana tasya avishayee bhutatvat

Meaning : The deep samskaras of other person is beyond reach still. One can read the mind of other person, but to get at the source of these thoughts, a yogi requires deeper understanding than this. Yogi needs understanding of root cause, the latent samskaras.

Hari Om

Yogasutra vibhutipada sutra 19

Yogasutra Vibhutipada Sutra 19
Sri SadGurubhyoh Namah

19. pratyayasya para chitta jnana
Meaning : By Samyama (Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi) on Pratyaya (concepts, ideas), one will gain knowledge of other's mind.
it is a usual practice to say 'read between lines'. this sutra goes one step ahead and says, 'read the mind, by what the other person says'.

Yogasutra Vibhutipada sutra 18

Yogasutra Vibhutipada Sutra 18
Sri SadGurubhyoh Namah

18. samskara sakshat karanat purva jati jnanam
Meaning : Samyama on samskaras (latent impressions in subconscious mind) lead a yogi towards understanding yogi's previous incarnation and the karma that lead to the current samskara.
Further commentary : What is 'today' is the child of yesterday and what is tomorrow is the child of today. This is true for any result, state of mind also.
The cross roads that we are in today is determined by past actions (karma). What decision we take, which road we take now, determines tomorrow. Today , present has the seed for making a conscious choice towards better tomorrow.. Every moment is a decision point. Hence great masters say 'live in present moment' and this living has to be done every moment. Hence enlightenment is not a once in a lifetime achievement. Enlightenment is to live 'moment to moment in awareness'. One can live the current moment through subconscious mind, or through awareness. What we do by subconscious mind becomes karma, and anything done by awareness leads towards cleaning previous karmic influence and towards enlightenment.
Upon closer examination of our current samskaras, yogi comes to know why he is thinking in a certain way, why he is acting in a certain way, why he is reacting in a certain way. What is past is past. But we just cannot simply throw away past baggage, because that has brought us to current state and if we are not careful in our choice by awareness, we fall back into reacting mode and into further karma.
Understanding of our past is important, as that will tell us clearly why the 'current state'. Karma cycle is there to teach us lessons. If we dont learn the lesson properly, the universe will keep us in the same class, and we take the teacher's (nature's) own way of teaching (fruits of karma will visit us time and again till we learn).

Hari Om

Yogasutra Vibhutipada Sutra 17

Yogasutra Vibhutipada Sutra 17
Sri SadGurubhyoh Namah

17. shabda artha pratyaya itaretara adhyasat samkara tat pravibhaga samyama sarva bhuta ruta jnana

Meaning : One will get knowledge of all sounds by samyama.

Samyama will give jnana (knowledge) of the sound (shabda) and its associated meaning (artha) , and its conceptual meaning as well as its contextual meaning, the mixup of all the above meanings, and also distinctive meanings based on above categories of meanings of all ruta (sounds, languages) of bhuta (living beings or beings made of pancha bhutas).

This sutra actually implies that through samyama one attains understanding of the world. This world is made up of shabda (sound) and artha (meaning) and also pratyaya (concept of sound and meaning). The universe is a one continuous entity. We divide it into different objects by drawing boundaries within infinity and make infinity into pieces. We give a name and a form to those objects. The name is denoted by shabda (sound) and form is denoted by artha (meaning) and also pratyaya (concept).

The world is made up of pancha bhutas (earth, fire, water, air, space). All the sounds and its meanings are actually within mind. Mind says so and so object has these boundaries and this is its name and form. Conceptualisation is the nature of mind. It cannot comprehend one universe as one entity. It needs division of universe thus giving rise to Dvaita bhava. Seeing universe as one is advaita bhava.

Seeing and understanding clearly this by the mind through samyama (dharana, dhyana, samadhi) , one can understand the nature of world (all sounds, its meanings, conceptual meaning, languages).

Hari OM

NOTE : the opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my personal and does not represent that of any organization.

Article on Patanjali Yogasutra

The following link Article on Patanajali Yogasutra for Dattapeetham souvenir magazine, was written by me on April-4-2010.

Hari Om