Samadhi Pada (chapter one) is an overview of the structure of enlightened living (living in a constant state of samadhi). It provides an overview of the yogic context, while outlining its basic principles, goals, and processes. It defines yoga as the process of conscious integration or union, that liberates the yogi from fragmented, artificial, egoic, and limited mental frameworks, which ordinarily operate from the contracted assumption of a boxed-in and repressed sense of "self"; a consciousness that has become corrupted, split apart, isolated, and separated from the true nature of one's own mind and its greater evolutionary creative potential, which is our real uncontrived, innate, and unfabricated unconditional original awareness. This culmination of yoga in samadhi (through the practice of yoga) bestows many gifts.
Patanjali defines this state of yoga, as the cessation of the mind's limitations (citta-vrtti nirodha) where the yogi has accessed his/her innate awareness potential of boundless, universal, ever-present, and transpersonal unpolluted wisdom as one's innate primordial source of consciousness. Living consciously in deep communion within this integrity brings forth a deeply meaningful and fulfilling life, because the blockages and obscurations between our causal spiritual omnipresent essence, beginningless formless eternal spirit, or luminous heart-seed of the the all pervading intelligent consciousness principle (cit) is no longer denied, fragmented, or perverted. Although words, fail to describe nirbija (seedless) samadhi, the Yoga Sutras describes practices about how to access, abide, and reside in this direct experience. As such, it is certain that realizing the fruit of yoga is not a trivial hobby.
Describing that process, Sri Patanjali necessarily starts at the beginning, addressing how egoic consciousness operating in that reduced, limited, and distorted mindset (citta-vrtti) of the small "self" (ego), has become programmed and habituated. In the context of the egoic/limited mindset, then the great innate evolutionary potential that is our natural birthright, has become obstructed, blocked, repressed, hindered, corrupted, distorted, modified, fragmented, veiled, separated, disconnected, interrupted, disrupted, and/or made discontinuous through unnatural conditioning, but not irreversibly so. Hence, our true universal evolutionary nature although being locked up within the limited confines, prisons, and confusion of the conditioned individual "mind-field" (citta-vrtti), becomes liberated through yogic practices/exercises that break up these artificially produced mental, energetic, and physical propensities.
In chapter I verses 2-3, Sri Patanjali defines yoga as the cessation of the fragmented/limited processes of the mind-field, which when purified, reveals the true nature of the mind. Samadhi Pada (like chapter II, Sadhana Pada) then describes process oriented practices that transform the pre-existing limited programming of what appears as an inured world of a separated and fragmented mindset and identity, eventually reuniting and reconnecting our experience as a direct communion with boundless, transpersonal, universal source through yoga (union) HERE and NOW. This transpersonal limitless force is nothing other than ultimate compassionate love and light as both the motivation and the result (seed and fruit). This connection (yoga) with primordial source is the ultimate and most complete state of union, samadhi. In short, man's spiritual milieu is that his cognitive faculties have become dumbed down and disconnected from the great Integral web of Creator/Creation -- from the mother of creativity. Ultimate love is the transmission of universal transpersonal samadhi. The disconnection from this love, is a serious disability, the source of liability and pain. Breakage of this communion is caused by negative programming rooted in transgenerational spiritual self alienation called ignorance or unawareness (avidya). This limited mindset (citta-vrtta) is the cause of suffering (duhkha) and dissatisfaction. Why, because it it is inherently limited, incomplete and unsatisfying. It is eliminated by skillful yogic practices that lead to awareness, waking up, liberation, and the evolutionary free expression of universal love. Then the unbounded innate original mind (cit) is expressed naturally without resistance.
"Process oriented" is hereby differentiated from goal orientation practices. For example in gymnastics or acrobatics the goal is to achieve a distant result; hence, practice is geared toward achieving that future result. In process oriented practice, it is the practice itself that informs, guides, and directs us at each moment of the practice. It leads us to greater lucidity, peace, and wellness as we practice; hence it is said that the fruit is in the path. It is palpable in each moment. Here the moment (time wise) and the momentum as the motive force of the practice and the result are synergistically synchronized, moving in harmony and mutual support.
In this sense, yoga is the process of taking us back HOME where we dwell in our original unconditioned and unmodified true nature (swarupa) NOW. This opens us to our vast creative potential. It must be emphasized that this going HOME is not an escape from "reality", but only a distancing from the sphere of confusion. When we come back home in authentic yoga, we arrive in a sacred here/presence -- are very present. The journey home to source is realized in the NOW. Hence, going to source is unidirectional (only half of the process where we are becoming more present). The descent of grace or the eternal return is the other half of the wave, which is multidimensional and timeless now. Apologies are sincerely offered to the reader who may find this non-dual framework unusual or confusing. The depth of yoga defies most words and concepts, but through authentic yogic practice the direct experience of non-duality will be realized.
According to the Yoga Sutras, the limited incomplete modifications of the mind (citta-vrtti), appear in myriad ways like spin, swaying tides, biasing of the mind, or instability. This mental state, called citta-vrtti, is a conditioned/modified framework, where the unlimited nature of consciousness has become boxed-in, depreciated, or trapped. To understand citta-vrtti as modern mankind's ordinary and normal (but not natural) egoic condition, one needs to contemplate the nature of one's own mind (the unconditioned or natural mind), contemplate samsara and mental conditioning, contemplate upon suffering/dis-ease, and practice other yoga techniques, which will unlock the full potential of mind.
Yet, it is perhaps cogent not to dwell, focus upon, or contemplate on what is not, on the negative, on the samsaric mind, falseness, untruth, illusion, the ego, samskaras, or kleshas as the danger there is that one may amplify it. Sunyata as be experienced directly, but its experience is definitely not negative or is it merely a negation or absence, although delusion/delusion falls away. Accessing a non-dual view during practice, while integrating that union in all our relations through balance and harmony and investigating "dualistic" tendencies, the samsaric mind, ego, or kleshas then becomes an intrinsic factor in our practice. By recognizing that all dualistic mental states are erroneous and limited, that they are not the whole story, then contemplation (dharana) and mindfulness is approached as a preliminary practice that by itself can be dissolved, until we become mindful/focused upon the true nature of mind, which is non-dual unconditioned light and clarity (wisdom). The well-known analogy of discarding the raft once one has crossed the sea applies here as well. It is not merely to be applied to final release in nirbija samadhi, but also to practice.
What makes the dualistic mindset (citta-vrtti) sick, is that this corrupted, distorted, fragmented, and impaired state of disturbed, obscured, agitated patterning (vrtti) of consciousness (citta), which manifests like a wavelike ripple muddling the clear waters, like a distorted lens, like a patterned screen and/or limited skew, habitually imposes itself as "normality" upon the natural unobstructed, vast, and profound unlimited panorama of pure unconditioned consciousness (cit). As long as "normal" is confused with "natural", then nature and spontaneity will continue to be suspect and feared. Vrtti (limitations based on a dualistic delusions attach to the citta producing citta-vrtti; that is, producing artificial, biased, skewed, prejudicial, and limited thought patterns. In short, a spin, which solidifies the stagnant and coarse state of chronic separation and spiritual self alienation condenses as characterized by a consensus modality of dualistic, egoic, and fearful thinking, based on greed and selfish need. This fragmented and alienated mindset then manifests itself in terms of human actions and institutions, at the cost of love, communion, fulfillment, and community. Thus this process of establishing integration and re-identification within the sphere of universal timeless ever-present samadhi all the time is the subject of yogic practice (I.5 all the way to the end of pada I, while ending in nirbija samadhi).
This citta-vrtti (mind spin/bias), characterized by specific recurring thought patterns and activities, is both the result of our past programs and patterns of conditioning, which limit our experience of the Primordial Now awareness, and also the source of future citta-vrtti (until that cycle of citta-vrtti is broken). Therefore, it is the vrtti (with its concomitant samskaras, kleshas, vasana, and karma), which is the operating principles of avidya (unawareness or limited awareness), which in turn are the causal constituents of the spiritual disconnect/discontinuity. These afflictive operating mechanisms (vrtta) must be identified and released. Authentic yoga practice in turn cancels out, annuls, and releases (nirodha) these vrtti, not by ignoring them, but by recognizing them as-they-are. Once they are recognized, they can be released into the clear light of awareness. When they are so released (vairagya), then the self luminous love of samadhi can shine through without obstruction. When we have this realization we are thus enabled to reconnect -- reuniting eternal spirit with our embodiment -- as a manifestation of living love in the present, thence it is said that we abide in our own true self nature (swarupa). Thus yoga is defined as the process which removes the vrtti while the corpus of yoga are the processes and applications of the techniques (sadhana) which attenuate and releases (nirodha) the acquired component stains upon pure consciousness (cit), thus allowing a balance, harmony, and synchronicity to occur between our consciousness and our actual state of being or rather the unitive state of pure consciousness, pure beingness, and pure bliss co-arise (sat-cit-ananda). Then yoga is clearly known as the process that brings us back into our natural true state (swarupa).
As such yoga is both a verb and a noun. It is the process, the action, technique, and spirit which motivates us toward integrity and union -- it is our love; and this love manifests as the result of union itself. Samadhi (reunification) is the object, fruit, result, and fulfillment of that love in action. Simply put, this is what the entire Yoga Sutras are about and which is the essential statement of chapter I, sutras 1-3 of the Yoga Sutras.
"The chitta, by its own nature, is endowed with all knowledge. It is made of sattva particles, but is covered by rajas and tamas particles; and by pranayama this covering is removed."
Vivekananda, page 181 Raja Yoga
This is the theme that is explained in the first three Yoga Sutras. Thus, the many practices (sadhana) of yoga can be described as "processes" and procedures that deprogram the negative conditioning, egoic habituations, and dualistic tendencies, thus liberating the individual's modified consciousness from the conditioned matrix of limited "reality", while returning the yogi into full resonance with Original, Natural, Primordial, and Unmodified Mind -- the very Source of our love, inspiration, genius, creativity, and evolutionary motive ,which freely flows through the yogic (connected) vessel (the body/mind being its expression). This is described as the realization of the non-dual state (where eternal spirit is no longer absent) of Union (as yoga). Thus, the Yoga Sutras describe processes (gives practices) how an average partially sentient being, who may be so motivated, may rid oneself of confused, lonely, alienated, nihilistic, and fragmented tendencies, conflict, and pain, and become reunited, harmonized, connected, and re-integrated with one's true natural innate universal order of reality-as-it-truly-is -- in its own true form (swarupa); and thus united, forming a natural, uncontrived, and spontaneous sense of confidence and meaning, belonging as an intimate part of creation (and hence the creative/evolutionary force) in integrity -- in this very life, in the present, and in All Our Relations. This awareness produces a profound sense of freedom, well-being, contentment, fulfillment, peace, joy, and love, which is devoid of fear, insecurity, or attachment. It is reunion, reintegration and return, because what is found is the Original Indigenous unmodified and Unconditioned Unborn Mind. It is not re-integration/reunion in the sense that such a mind has never gone any other place then HERE. It has always been here.
In the first three sutras (sutra means thread and these threads weave an integrated fabric), Patanjali weaves a concise and integral definition of Yoga. Concisely, he says; that yoga is a process of becoming free from limited patterned definitions and distortions of the field of consciousness, called citta-vrtti. Then the unfettered Source of all Seeingness -- of pure unfettered universal consciousness itself -- abides as the seer inside all, and is revealed as the underlying reality in All Our Relations. To complete this union and make it whole is to realize our true nature (Sutra I.2 and I.3). This is the natural alignment and integration of beingness and consciousness --Sat and Chit, which brings about absolute fulfillment, completion, and peace (ananda). In a tantric non-dual sense then, yoga becomes the culmination of love where creator and creation (as shiva/shakti) join together in this evolutionary creative action, spirit and nature are joined, sky and earth, mind and body, sahasrara and muladhara, manifesting as a continuous self abiding living implicate order of pure integrity -- of All Our Relations. Through functional yoga practice this "reality" is integrated more completely and continuously -- increasingly shining through not only in meditation and "spiritual" practices, but also in the spiritual practice of our daily lives -- in all our relationships.
Yoga is thus a process designed to bring the practitioner (sadhak) into a continuous process of co-evolutionary awakening or samadhi (the experience of transpersonal and non-dual union/absorption); or rather more specifically into the final stage of self realization called nirbija samadhi (samadhi without seed), wherein even the seeds of future vrttis have become eliminated, dissolved, and released (nirodha) in the state of citta-vrtti-nirodha.
The scene of Pada I, Sutra 1 is (as it always has been) the underlying all pervasive primordial timeless Now (ever presence), which is beyond words, name, and form; Formless, yet it includes and underlies all form. The speaker, Patanjali, emerges out of this eternal now to break the profound silence and describe in words for the benefit of the present and future generations that all pervasive Great All Inclusive Reality of Integrity in All Our Relations - That Boundless Reality which is beyond the power of words to define or describe. A contradiction? No, because his words teach us how to go beyond words and concepts via practice.
Thus these teachings of yoga differ vastly from book knowledge, where before Patanjali wrote them down they were part of a living oral tradition passed on from generation to generation into fit vessels, where the practice itself is designed to reveal the teachings -- to activate the inner teacher. Patanjali says in many places that success in yoga is dependent upon going beyond the individual human process and beyond words. For example in sutra 9, Patanjali says: shabda-jnanaupati vastu-shunyo vikalpah (true wisdom where the ordinary discursive mind stops its spinning occurs when the words and concepts cease). Hence this translation will necessarily remain an interlineal interpretation, where the true and most profound teachings awaits the sincere seeker in the more subtle and silent spaces in-between the lines and spaces of the words.
Patanjali tells us right from the start in pada One, that the context of yoga is all inclusive and lays beyond the grasp of the intellect (conceptual mind), and thus he tells us that we must develop the innate wisdom in order to successfully "understand" the subject. Thus the way to study the sutras is to read them and then to mediate and reflect upon them, rather than to approach it as an intellectual exercise.
Christopher Chapple, in "The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali", Satguru Publication, New Delhi, 1990, says in his introduction:
"To understand Patanjali's success, we must keep in mind that the text is one not of positions but of practices. Furthermore, the telos of the various practices, whether described as nirodha, kaivalyam, or samadhi, lies beyond language, beyond intellectual speculation: and this experience, which is itself beyond syncretism or synthesis hold the text together. The text has meaning in that its practice obliterates all meaning. Patanjali has no point to prove: he does not advance one practice above another. The practice which is effective is the one to be used, as indicated in Sutra I:39; yatnah abhimata dhyanad va (or from meditation as desired). Patanjali provides us with an important clue regarding his method in the first pada. When listing all the practices to be undertaken, he uses the connecting particle va (or), not ca (and)...
This method is similar to that employed in the Bhagavad Gita where again and again Arjuna asks Krishna for one truth and again and again Krishna offers Arjuna yet another perspective, another chapter, another yoga. Each view, whether that of a god being sacrificed to or a yogic discipline being practiced, is given life as long as it proves effective. Multiplicity is the rule, without one perspective, one god, or one yoga gaining ascendancy. The culmination of yoga comes when all differentiations are obliterated in nirodha or samadhi. This is not to say that life ends, but a state of being is attained wherein, paraphrasing Sutra I.41, 'like a crest jewel, one has unity among the grasper, grasping, and grasped,' a state of yoga wherein totality is embraced without denying multiplicity."
This translation will try to keep those wise words, in mind.
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