The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Sutra 24 Klesha-karma-vipakasayair apara-mrshta purusa-visesa isvarah
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| Sutra 24 Klesha-karma-vipakasayair apara-mrshta purusa-visesa isvarah
Isvara is the untouched and unblemished and most pure (apara-mrshta) aspect (visesa) of beginningless undifferentiated universal seed consciousness of the pure innate true self (purusa), which is unaffected by affliction (klesha), karmic residues, or and the seed germs (asayair) that result (vipaka) from ordinary actions based on the kleshas. klesha: negative emotions, obscurations of the mind born of ignorance, afflictive or pain ridden states of mind. The body of pain (duhkha) which is limited by the sate of samsara (kleshas and karma). Kleshas obstruct the channels of clear vision, producing the chronically obscured egoic mindset, craving, antipathy, attachment to solidity, and fear. karma: Most simply, the word, karma, means action. It often refers to the law of cause and effect that states that every action has a result/effect and every result has a cause. Negative actions have negative results. Positive actions produce positive results/conditions. Results/effects in the future also create conditions for causes for future results, and so on. Duhkha (suffering/sorrow) in samsara is the result of actions driven/governed by the kleshas (afflictive emotions), Happiness is the result of actions from pure vision (vidya) and prajna (transcendental wisdom). When karma is remediated or exhausted, then the unconditioned causeless state free from samsara is realized. That liberated state is free from karma, sequential time, or other causal limitations. The body can not enter that state because it has a beginning middle, and end (is temporal), but the mind can enter it and take the body along for a ride. A common misconception is that karma, means pre-destination or fate. Rather the opposite is true. If every event in the future were preordained by some cosmic template, then yogic sadhana (spiritual practice) would be futile. Rather yoga is based upon the fact that positive actions, as skillful sadhana, can bring about good karma and conditions for liberation. The isvara as the divine purusa is free from karma. asayair: karmic residues or seed germs of the kleshas vipaka: result ishvara: inner most (ish) master or teacher (svara). Universal and innate primordial seed consciousness which is inside all beings (inside and out). Our innate evolutionary potentiality to emanate love, wisdom, joy, compassion, awakening, and liberation. Also ish (inner) vara (grace) as innate natural and spontaneous grace. purusa/purusha: Self, being, or in this sense, pure and true universal unlimited and all-encompassing self. Here purusa is defined as the universal one, who is free of karma and karmic residue; i.e., the param-purusa is isvara. As the true transpersonal "self" (purusa), Mahesvara (siva) or Samantabhadra (Buddhist) as in the innate goodness or benevolence (the Buddha seed). apara-mrshta: most pure Commentary: Isvara is the pure immutable consciousness, the purest being (purusa), untouched by klesha, karma, results, or dormant seeds. Isvara is formless and universal. When our highest seed potential is recognized and surrendered to and hence is allowed to spontaneously shine forth, it does so as pure vision. How does one perceive or conceptualize the formless? Obviously this is not possible, as purusa (pure beingness) is beyond conceptualization processes (nirvikalpa) and acognitive (asamprajnata), transcending ordinary methods of using words, ideas, concepts, ordinary thinking, buddhi (intellect), or similar human thought processes (citta-vrtti). Yet it is still always available through direct non-dual insight into the true nature of mind beyond the citta-vrtta. Isvara is always available through isvara pranidhana (see Pada II.1 and II.45) when we remember to invite our innate intelligent evolutionary nature in. It is always available, that is, if we look for that formless grace (vara) underlying All Our Relations. yet it is unaffected by causes or conditions. The ordinary egoic mindset (citta-vrtti) is affected by causes and conditions, so it is that which has to be purified and surrendered. Purusa has been a problematic term to translate because its definition varies according to time and place. In the ancient Vedas it signifies a profound idea of a divine template or original seed, where phenomena grows or coalesces around. It is quite a different idea than what is meant in sankhya philosophy, which is the common context used by the early academic oriented interpreters of the Yoga Sutras. Here, however Patanjali clearly links purusa as the purest formation of isvara, the universal, omnipresent, and omniscient seed Source in all. Hence isvara and purusa are linked as the the true Self in its seed aspect and its germination and flowering. Purusa in this sense is Effected by isvara, but is Affected by prakrti (causes and conditions) in its manifestation/flowering or being aspect. Purusa freely intermingles in its all pervasive aspect contained in prakrti, but it is not the same as prakrti. There is no place this purusa is not. In fact we know this pure universal purusa as pure being only through our own being/flowering which includes prakrti. Purusa as a divine universal template can only be known in the world of form (prakrti) as universal, in its dormant aspect, it resides at the innermost heart core of all as isvara. If we ask for primordial wisdom and omnipresent sacred presence to guide us at each moment (isvara pranidhana), then that is an intentional practice which leads to primordial grace. Again we are "re-minded" that isvara is the highest purusa (pure being). Reminded in Sutra 16 where Patanjali first talks about purusa, where it is vairagya which leads to param vairagya and the param-purusa who is none other than isvara (Maheshvara). Thus surrender to isvara (isvara pranidhana) and vairagya are two sides of the same coin; i.e., losing the small self (dualistic ego identifications of separateness) while simultaneously embracing and being embraced by expansive non-dual reality of Maheshvara and Prakrti wedded as one in siva/sakti. Simply put, the word, purusha, means the self, but who is this self? Here we are describing the pure stainless or unconditioned self, hence maheshvara/siva). In Buddhism this corresponds to one's innate Buddhanature or bodhicitta. As the timeless ultimate reality it is Samantabhadra. This all pervasive universal altruistic mind is unbounded and permeates all beings as sacred presence. To know this in suchness (tahata), it must be experienced directly. It cannot be successfully cognized intellectually by the dualistic mind. In India, as time went by its definition changed depending on the school of thought. Some translate it as an isolated consciousness separate and isolated (and hence undefiled by the gunas). That's an assumption of dvaita samkhya (dualists). However, the Yoga Sutras are not so reductionist, rather it is integrative, albeit samkhya dualistic adherents claim ownership to the term, as do other schools. It is a subject of doctrinal dispute and polemics amongst differing schools, but here Patanjali defines ishvara as the divine purusa. This seems to be an adequate resolution. Purusha is the stainless ever-pure conscious/intelligent and natural/unconditioned original uncreated principle, which is ever free and unlimited (the self-effulgent spiritual noumenon) ultimate omniscient principle underlying all of creation and beyond creation as the true undying self or true nature of mind. In a syncretic manner then it is this same Conscious Principle which is realized by the human being which encompasses prakrti, but cannot be extracted from it, nor is it altered by it. Rather it cannot be destroyed or tarnished according to Patanjali. Therefore, it is found in all (when our own inner sight is opened) as well as in the formless disembodied state of stainless pure absolute consciousness (dharmakaya). In sutra I.16 Patanjali says that this inner sight is opened through abhyasa-vairagyabhyam until para is experienced (para-vairagya), "The Purusha is Divine, formless, existing inside and outside, unborn, free from Prana and mind, pure, and greater than the great unmanifest. Purusha is one who fills all space or who resides in the cavity of the heart. The Purusha is immaterial, and therefore, divine in nature. For the same reason it is inside and outside. It is unborn because it is causeless. It does not undergo any process such as of life and its experiences. The Universal Self knows without the ordinary Pramanas or proofs of knowledge. Its knowledge does not consist in perception, inference, verbal testimony or any kind of commonly known proof. Worldly knowledge is relative and mediate. There is no necessity for the cognitive or perceptive organs in the highest Self, because in it knowledge consists in Self-realisation or realisation of Itself. Even the distinction which is ordinarily made between the sheaths of a person, cannot be made in the true Self. Virat, Hiranyagarbha and Isvara are of the nature of Pure Consciousness. The apparent distinction which is seen to exist among these three aspects of the Divine Being, is more the result of a convention or habit of the mind to find objectively what it experiences in itself. Logically this distinction cannot be proved, though it is simply believed in. Hence, the Upanishad says that the Divine Being is without Prana or mind. The Pranas and the mind are limiting factors, and therefore, they have no basis in the unlimited Divine Being. The Mantras of the Vedas and the declarations of the Upanishads which describe the Divine Being as having heads, eyes, feet, etc., are only figurative, meant to convey its universal nature. There is neither the vibration of Iccha Sakti nor of Kriya Sakti in the Divine Being; therefore, there are no sense-organs also. In short, there is nothing in It which belongs to the special characteristic of the individual." Download 1.05 Mb. Share with your friends:
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