Sutra I. 42 Tatra shabdartha-jnana-vikalpaih sankirna sa-vitarka samapattih

Commentary: Jnana-vikalpa is conceptionally based knowledge is based on specific meanings derived from words (shabdartha). It is a limited kind of knowledge which may have application in certain technological applications, but is an impediment when applied in yoga practice such as dhyana. Conceptualization (built on word meanings), imagination, and daydreaming (vikalpa) is defined by Patanjali as vrttis. When fed with the fuel of words (shabda) they reinforce vrttis even more (see I-6). These are the components of vikalpa (conceptual constructs and the discursive ramblings of the monkey mind) which as all of the sutras clearly indicate must be remediated for the inner consciousness to shine forth.

Ordinarily one becomes locked into habitual disconnection or spiritual estrangement. It becomes habitual and the normal individual mistakenly concludes that it is even necessary. This is one belief based on false ideas and conceptual processes (vikalpa) that must cease for spiritual progress to unfold. It produces unsteadiness in regard to the deeper state of non-dual union/absorption (in nirbija-samadhi) -- actually drawing us out from its completion. In meditation we learn how to let go of the the coarse oscillation (vitarka) toward various external separately defined objects of attention uphold the duality (the duality of the illusion of the separateness of an object, the observer of the object, and the process of observing). This process occurs in the mindstream of the novice meditator. Such coarseness (vitarka) interferes with the most subtle and beyond even the most subtle realms of consciousness which eventually must be pierced in yoga. So here the meditator must become conscious of the mistaken coarse fixations of the mental processes, how they arise and cease one after another, and how to release the process. This is done at first simply by noticing the process as it arises. Later, one gains insight, through the practice itself -- through awareness of the awareness.

The prefix, sa, means "with" or accompanied by. Vitarka means coarse or gross. So savitarka means thought processes that are based on gross or physical objectification -- physical objective or dualistic thoughts based on events in the objective world. This will later be differentiated from nir-vitarka (devoid of such an externalization) and savicara (subtle thoughts based on internal objects of thought itself). In other words the beginners energy and attention gets drawn out and distracted into the objective frameworks of the external world. We mistakenly think this dualistic distraction is reality and so the individual's conditioned mind has been trained to cling to it, but we can use yogic practices to uncondition/remediate such distractions.

We start then with the gross/coarse or physical objects/objectification processes (vitarka). Then we work toward the more subtle (vicara) which are the awareness of the thought process itself as objects of attention. That too must be seen as a distraction eventually. When all coarse and subtle thought processes cease (nirvitarka and nirvicara) then and only then, can the clear light of the natural mind spontaneously arise. This statement is not a statement of faith or belief, but comes from direct yogic experience. is not

Thus Patanjali is identifying an obstruction to realizing non-dual samadhi that arises in meditation practice, called vitarka. There our meditative absorption is distracted, disturbed, unstable, and limited by coarse objectifications -- fixations upon separate gross objects. This is because the objects and words start to come up, the mind starts to name them, objectify them as "this" is "that", differentiate and compare the objects, evaluate, conceptualize, daydream, etc. One's attention and energy is habitually distracted into such mind patterns or vrtti, but the meditator is attempting to recognize this distraction.

Patanjali here is helping us to recognize that such coarse distractions (savitarka) occur at first. That is normal. With continued practice (abhyasa) they will cease. For us to recognize this process is still an attainment (a samapatti) because the non-meditator has no awareness of even this or even the inner workings of his/her own mental processes. Thus meditation practice is at first a retraining and reconditioning process where one starts to wake up to our way of seeing and being in the world -- how our innate knowledge or Gnosis (jnana) becomes dissolute upon objects (artha-jnana) and we simply become objectified, fixated, separate extracted, and estranged -- that is where the union of yoga becomes corrupted. Knowledge of the causes of distraction/disunion of course is not an end in itself. Rather it simply allows us to drop our dissolute ways as soon as we become aware of them. With continued practice in meditation these savitarka (accompanied with coarse or gross) thought tendencies of the dualistic mind are recognized as they arise and thus the awareness itself no longer disappears with the momentum of the distracted thought, but rather the energy of that momentum is brought back to the source of the awareness -- the cit-prana is no longer dissipated. Eventually the mind moves from the coarse (vitarka) to the more subtle (vicara), to devoid of even the most subtle objectification/separation. Savitarka is like the inability to "see the forest for the trees (American Idiom). This then eventually is a landmark step that gradually leads in steps of consciousness from coarse (savitarka) , to devoid of coarse (nirvitarka), to vicara (subtle) awareness to eventually ultimate and authentic samadhi (beyond even the most subtle (nirvicara), in distinction to these limited states of integration called samapatti.

Thus in meditation before a conceptualization is formed, before the mind wanders in thought, before a sentence is formed, before a word appears first, but as the process itself just begins arise, it is recognized and released into the vast ocean pure awareness. Beginning meditators learn to watch the words arise, become aware of it arising, then no longer feed their arising. The resultant stillness and silence becomes naturally and increasingly more recognizable and constant. The words stop arising by themselves as we become more aware of the subtle energy behind their arising as we move more fully and naturally toward that great stillness and vast open space of pure awareness. Hence the ordinary dualistic mind stops revolving (the citta-vrtti cease in nirodha). The great peace, light, and beauty of primordial consciousness overcomes the sadhak (as long as he/she remains conscious).. This occurs naturally through focused practice without grasping. The the individual consciousness is merged with the universal mind, the Universal Citta -- it rests in the innate effulgence clear light stillness - HERE awareness recognizes itSelf.

Another definition of vitarka is, "gross thoughts being accompanied by names of physical objects or designations not free of I/it duality", i.e., thus one recognizes how absorption becomes disturbed and noisy by the process which distracts attention from Self by displacing it toward such gross thought forms. As the distraction/dissuasion processes dominate they keep on arising/coming forth producing an unsteady and wavering body/mind uncenteredness subject to the whims of the constantly morphing distractions. Thus at that stage one may temporarily experience some connection with the Primordial Self or the innate evolutionary power, but it is fleeting until one experiences nirvitarka (devoid of gross objectification processes). In nirvitarka conditions quiet dow quite a bit, but disturbances still occur, albeit more subtly.

Next Patanjali addresses nir-vitarka as meditation or consciousness devoid of gross thought processes, but still containing subtle thought processes (savicara). So to reiterate, vitarka is still a coarse stage in meditation practice, then nirvitarka (devoid of coarse objectification) smoothes things out, while vicara is the next more subtle stage, then nirvicara (devoid even of the most subtle mind processes). It is in nirvicara that one reaches into samadhi. Both both vitarka ad vicara engage dualistic thought processes (objects of the mind) and are thus temporary stages of limited and transitional realization leading from the coarse to more subtle, then beyond object/subject duality entirely -- into samadhi. according to Patanjali, there are only two types of samadhi as we will see. Sabija (temporary) and permanent (nirbija). That is where Patanjali is headed in Samadhi Pada.

If we divide this universe into two, striving to attain satori and to escape delusion, we are not the whole universe. Happiness and unhappiness, satori and delusion, life and death; see them with the same eye. In every situation the Self lives the life of the Self -- such a self must do itself by itself. This universal Life is the place to which we return."

Uchiyama Kosho Roshi

See also the commentary in Sutra I.9 on on vikalpa, sutra 49, sutra 43 (on holding on), sutra I.7 (on pramana or belief systems), I.15, I.16, 17, 49, and also sutra III.17.