The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Chapter One Samadhi Pada

“What are the symptoms of a person whose consciousness is absorbed in Brahman? How does he speak, how does he sit, and how does he walk?“ (Bhagavad-gita 2.54)

“One who is situated in Brahman sees Brahman everywhere, and he thinks, ‘I am also Brahman.’ Thinking in this way, he will meditate on Brahman, and will not experience happiness or distress. He remains steady in any situation, and merges his

“Go on doing your duty and don’t desire the fruits of your labour.“ (Bhagavad-gita 2.47)

“That formless Brahman that I mentioned to you before don’t go there! Beware! It is extremely difficult to attach your consciousness to something which is formless.“ (Bhagavad-gita 12.5).

“One who links with Supersoul in yoga is really in the renounced order of life (a sannyasi) and is a real yogi. One does not become a real sannyasi merely by refraining from prescribed activities, or by muttering ‘I am Brahman.’ (Bhagavad-gita 12.56) This is all more secret instruction.

“Because you are very dear to Me, I am telling you this most hidden of all instructions.“ (Bhagavad-gita 18.64)

“Absorb your mind and heart in Me, become My devotee, worship Me, offer your obeisances to Me, and then certainly you will come to Me. I make this promise to you because you are very dear to Me.“ (Bhagavad-gjta 18.66)

In meditation (dhyana), sit without any expectation. Apply vairagya to each and every thought as soon as it arises. Soon you will cut through sentences and even the beginning of words constructs. This cuts through the discursive or adventitious mind (monkey mind) and creates an open space for silence and light to abide. Accustom yourself to that open space.

In asana, allow yourself to be surprised and expect the unexpected. Allow yourself to learn from pure awareness in the present. Release (vairagya) any grasping, tightness, rigidity, or stasis thus using the body as a tool to release old body-mind configurations of fear, attachment, anger, attachment, or self-limitations until ego is let go.

The same process can be applied to all practices, making a sustained effort toward letting go ALL fixations and limitations. That is vairagyabhyam.

 

Sutra 13 Tatra sthitau yatno-abhyasah

That accomplishment of being present (tatra sthitau) is sustained upon continuous dedication, devotion, zeal, and concentrated enthusiastic (yatnah) application (abhyasa).

tatra: there, in that way.

yatnah: enthusiasm: zeal, endeavor. Enthusiastic sustained effort.

abhyasa: focused and conscious continuous application. At first this continuity appears difficult to sustain, because of the momentum of past karmic tendencies. However, with practice over time, practice becomes easier and effortless -- self sustaining, because the practice remediates past negative karmic patterns, creates positive karma, and heightens awareness. Thus practice becomes naturally self sustaining, liberating, and effortless.

yatno-abhyasah: A continuous sustained enthusiastic dedicated practice.

sthitau: based upon, resting upon, dependent, a state of balanced strength, stability, supported, foundational, unwavering.

Commentary: This continuous enthusiastic abiding is characterized by a resting into a great peace and stillness of the mind, which is effortless, open, liquid, and flowing. Tatra refers to Sutra 12 or vairagyabhyam. Here, distractive attachments toward an "object" are released or do not arise. Yogic practice will then become steady, stable, strengthened, and balanced (sthitau). A self supporting and naturally self instructing spiritual practice will unfold and become self-perpetuating nd enthusiastic, capable of supporting itself in itself. This way we form the stable base to progress further in yoga practice, which is to be firmly established in the practice of release (vairagya). Vairagyam as non-expectation is to be enthusiastically applied in all situations.

A sustaining, dedicated, devotional zeal, and/or natural concentrated enthusiasm enters into our practice moving us into stillness and provides direction, centeredness, and groundedness for All Our Relations. It provides an increasingly accessible still, stable, and balanced self supporting impetus in which to proceed. Thus, Patanjali defines yoga practice (abhyasa) as that activity which leads us toward, supports, and strengthens the presence of a sense of balanced and steady stillness (sthiti) where the polar turbulences or conflicts no longer tug nor nag the mind stream. Here, the word, sthitau, is translated as a passive firmness, stillness, or a restful steadiness, something like what we can experience in sama-sthiti or tadasana, rather than associate it with the idea of, fixity, which conjures up a contracted and active image of rigidity. Yogis do not pursue rigid minds and bodies. One translation of sthitau is a coming into a stable situation of rest, stillness, and quietude -- a steady abiding at REST.

Abhyasa should lead to a relaxed, stable, calmness, steadiness, restful, and self supporting foundational stillness and stability of the mind-field (sthiti). After it is firmly established it self perpetuates its own power and intelligence as we become accustomed to being stress free, empty, and open.

Swami Veda Bharati interestingly translates Vyasa's commentary (bhasya) on I.13 as:

Later SW. Veda Bharati comments on Vyasa's commentary:

Again the mutuality of abhyasa (as the sustaining practice) and vairagyam (letting go) in I-13-16 reflects a very profound and skillful balance and synergistic synthesis taken together as upaya, because "ordinary" mental processes that are operating under the dictation of dualistic mentation (the normal situation of the ordinary discursive mind) very often create a confusion between "practice" on one hand, and "letting go" (vairagya) on the other. This occurs because ordinarily we often confuse/associate practice with individual willfulness. In yoga balance and openness are key. For example, in India there often may too much indifference and surrender, then abhyasa (enthusiastic endeavor) is often emphasized, while vairagya is taken for granted. However, in the West, generally there is more fixation, goal orientation, obsession, and attachment, so vairagya has to be emphasized in order to achieve synergistic balance. However vairãgya and abhyasa both operate together in balance. For the hatha yogi, HA (or pingala nadi) represents abhyasa and THA (or the ida nadi) represents vairagya. This energetic balance between prana and apana respectively, provokes a mutual synchronization, synergy, and activation in the central channel (sushumna nadi), where a stable self-supporting (sthitau) enthusiastic base (yatnah) is`established.

Those of us who are lost in duality mistakenly think that practice, on one hand, and non-attachment to results, on the other, are conflicting. That way, a needless tension is created. Really, they are meant to work together as will be illustrated in the following sutras. In the same way, vairagyabhyam is the practice that clears the citta-vrtti and leads to samadhi. Continuous application of focused intent eventually reveals what we are holding onto; i.e., what is holding us back. Thus release (via vairagya) catalyzes our liberation (mukti) from bondage. Similarly, just the intent of taking up a practice is an affirmation of making a change in one's life and that it concomitant with letting go of something. Here effort and non-effort form the yang and yin -- the two poles of the great process of yoga sadhana that Patanjali is describing in Samadhi Pada. Just as profound is the question whether it is through man's work or divine grace that ultimate realization dawns. Is it earned or is it is bestowed? This is easily answered that by vairagya one does not mean a passive collapse or state of inertia because Patanjali calls it a practice. It is a particularly advanced practice that lets go of all attachments, even that of practice, thus creating space for Grace -- for the higher transpersonal wisdom to dawn (as we will see in Sutra 49 (Rtambhara prajna). One finds that in order to even find our practice and to have the grace to "do" practice, as well as to be successful in practice, such is due to to Grace alone due in the end to Grace -- a higher and more profound transpersonal wisdom and identification. But this does not mean that abhyasa does not act as an invitation to Grace when practiced wisely (upaya). In fact, vairagyabhyam leads to presence, whose recognition makes it much easier to let go of the citta-vrtti.

Consistent focused intent over time by itself builds up its own intelligent momentum and acts as the innate always accessible transpersonal teacher, especially apparent when we are able to give up expectation and preference (attachment to results) other than to simply abide in the sacred space which is always available and present within. This enables us to focus upon the innate beauty and power of the practice as an ongoing self revelatory process which provides access within to the timeless attributeless eternal universal transpersonal source which resides in all (isvara). HERE inspiration, zeal, dedication, devotion, and natural enthusiasm (yatnah) work reciprocally so that the practice becomes self perpetuating, self sustaining, effortless, energizing, and self inspiring. All activity becomes a moving meditation which reveals the ever present true Self and thus the practice takes on a life by itself, becomes energized and empowered, self actualizing, self empowering, self liberating, fertilizing the pregnant fields (abhumih) which gives forth beginningless birth, and which endows the fount of inspiration (virya). Eventually this practice become continuous (the esoteric meaning of the word, yoga, in All Our Relations!

Commentary: Practice will eventually spontaneously manifest from the inside out as a natural result. One naturally abides in their true self-nature (buddhanature) after the pulls of the past, the future, and existential fixations are broken. Practice becomes continuously inner directed (nairantarya), gains its own integrity and maturity eventually becoming firmly established through repeated prolonged or consistent application (dirgha-kala) especially when combined with the concentrated energetics of dedication, diligence, devotional attentiveness (satkara) which are assiduously cultivated (asevito). Simultaneously as our practice matures in stages, the quality of our enthusiasm, dedication, devotion, and desire to practice synergistically improves. In other words we find that functional practice leads to even more enthusiasm to the fertile soil (abhumih) of an even more functional (a-sevitah) practice i.e., it becomes natural, flowing, and self perpetuating. In terms of psycho-neuro-physiology a positive biofeedback loop is formed. Thus we start to listen within and are instructed by the innate original wisdom embedded in cit-shakti instead of the chitta-vrtti. When a practitioner releases old bodymind patterns they may feel a bit unstable or different. Not being predictable often is feared, but one can start to cultivate and welcome that state. Fresh unpredictability and non-expectation are to be welcomed. Here a sense of great fearless stability is eventually won (swarupa-sunyam as described in III.3). As we will learn in Sutra I.17-19 this is a timeless state of boundless openness that yoga provokes. It is not a state of attachment (raga) to things, objects, or separate phenomena upon which to grasp.

A major reason why these eight sutras (I.12-19) dedicated to vairagyabhyam (the practice of vairagya) are grossly misunderstood by scholars is because one cannot grasp onto vairagya. As soon as one attempts to hold onto it, vairagya, of course vanishes; yet it can be sustained. Yoga practitioners who meditate (dhyana) without an object know this, but scholars do not. Vairagya leads to natural openness and liquidity, our natural unconditional state (samadhi), which Patanjali defines as swarupa-sunyam (see III.3).

I.14 can be understood as a natural continuation of Sutra 13. Although Patanjali will offer many specific practices (sadhana) later on, he expands upon this theme that through a consistent and sustained dedication, inspired enthusiasm, and devoted concentration (yatnah), which is innately informed and integrated in our daily practice (abhyasa), then a certain steady and balanced (sthitau) state is achieved, which liberates the naturally fertile and self perpetuating potential of the practice over time. Here the practice itself becomes steady, self established, self liberating, and inner directed (nairantarya) having established a direct communion and intelligent energetic dynamic of its own because the inner conduits (nadis) of the (cit-prana) animated by cit-shakti has now become opened. A good practice grows on us naturally and is naturally expansive, self liberating, and self instructive.

Yoga Darshana Upanishad,4.40-58 trsl., J. Varenne, Yoga in the Hindu Tradition, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1976.

In meditation practice (dhyana), for example, the yogi may sit connecting earth with sky -- shakti with shiva, differentiated reality with undifferentiated reality, ever-newness with ever presence, body and mind, earth with sky, muladhara with sahasrara, etc. while establishing a base by completely emptying one's karmically controlled thought processes. That is the end of the citta-vrtta. That is yoga. The focus is on emptiness of thought formations by letting them go immediately. In practice when we watch for them to arise, they do not. Thoughts cannot be caught. The practice goes like this: "Empty empty empty, let it go let it go let it go, open open open". Dhyana itself bestows upon the yogi, who has self-discipline, the direct experience of an all inclusive, limitless, and boundless mind that is empty of "stuff". It is sublime spaciousness and uncontrived union devoid of conceptual processes, mental formations, partiality, or limitation. Success in meditation usually proceeds after much sustained practice (abhyasa), but mastery of vairagya is the primary keyless key that opens the open doorway. hence it is vairagyabhyam. (Please see I-15-- 19.)

Mahayana yogis use the term, sunyata, to connote emptiness. They also call the realization of the inseparability of form and emptiness as the middle way  (Madhyamika), of which the heart sutra (Hridayam Prajnaparamita) is a principle example. It is easier to understand that emptiness is directed toward "the self"; i.e., the concept the observer and/or the observed, which has been ranted by the mind (a citta-vrtti) as possessing any substantial true existence by itself. Rather the forms attributed to the self and selfness of perceived independent objects/phenomena reflect a fundamental unawareness of the evolutionary process and whole system universal awareness. Things and beings are empty of any separate/independent self, but rather are the result of fragmented and limited thought processes (citta-vrtta).

Another way of saying the same thing, is that all things and beings are inter-connected/interdependent. Theravadin Buddhists assign selflessness, no self, or similar transpersonal attributes to the miscalculation that ideates a "self", utilizing the word anatta or anatman. Mahayana yogis may criticize that as applying to the observer, but not to the observed, thus asserting the need for applying sunyata to both self and phenomena. I think this is needless nitpicking, after all if there is no separate self/observer, how could there be a separate independent object to view? We wont bother belaboring these ideological disputes, but just to say that the ideation of an independent self creates a static state that upholds all citta-vrtta. The ideation of an ego, by nature, creates static.

Emptiness is easily understood as open space, an open mind, an unobstructed mindset free from static,  the open channel for compassion and wisdom to flow. For yogis it is the central channel (the sunya nadi or sushumna). It is transconceptual, transpersonal, non-dual and uncontrived. One simply lets go (vairagya) of their dualistic attachments, and relaxes into the natural state. That natural state is the larger context – the whologram, web of life, the ever-present continuum that completes both birth and death – that which remains nameless, and transconceptual.

That is how vairagya, emptiness (sunyata), transpersonal self (anatta), non-duality (asamprajnata), and objectless transconceptual meditation (dhyana) are mutually related terms demonstrating relaxing into samadhi as our natural state. The yogic mantra: "Om Namah Shivaya", signals in the destruction of mental constructs, while making the mind open and empty, yet conscious. The Buddhist mantra: "gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond, fully self-illumined, so it is" connotes the same uncontrived unattached openness of mind.

Then in I.15 (after addressing the characteristics of abhyasa) Patanjali details the practice of vairagya (what some may call the practice of non-practice).