PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS
Sanskrit text with Translation and Commentary By
Swami Vivekananda
Contents
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I - SAMADHI PADA
CHAPTER II - SADHANA PADA
CHAPTER III – VIBHOOTI PADA
Sadhana Pada
Sutra
1 to 10
11 to 20
21 to 30
31 to 40
40 to 55
41.sattvashuddhisaumanasyaikagryendriyajayatmadars hanayojnatvani cha
There also arises purification of the Sattva, cheerfulness of the mind, concentration, conquest of the organs, and fitness for the realisation of the Self.
By this practice the Sattva material will prevail, and the mind will become concentrated and cheerful. The first sign that you are become religious is that you are becoming cheerful. When a man is gloomy that may be dyspepsia, but it is not religion. A pleasurable feeling is the nature of the Sattva. Everything is pleasurable to the Sattvika man, and when this comes, know that you are progressing in Yoga. All pain is caused by Tamas, so you must get rid of that; moroseness is one of the results of Tamas. The strong, the well-knit, the young, the healthy, the daring alone are fit to be Yogis. To the Yogi everything is bliss, every human face that he sees brings cheerfulness to him. That is the sign of a virtuous man. Misery is caused by sin, and by no other cause. What business have you with clouded faces; it is terrible. If you have a clouded face do not go out that day, shut yourself up in your room. What right have you to carry this disease out into the world? When your mind has become controlled you will have control over the whole body; instead of being a slave to the machine, the machine will be your slave. Instead of this machine being able to drag the soul down it will be its greatest helpmate.
42. santoshad anuttamah sukhalabhah
From contentment comes superlative happiness.
43.kayendriyasiddhirashuddhikshayat tapasah
The result of mortification is bringing powers to the organs and the body, by destroying the impurity.
The results of mortification are seen immediately sometimes by heightened powers of vision, and so on, hearing things at a distance, etc.
44. svadhyayad ishtadevatasanprayogah
By repetition of the mantram comes the realisation of the intended deity.
The higher the beings that you want to get the harder is the practice.
45.samadhisiddhirishvarapranidhanat
By sacrificing all to Isvara comes Samadhi.
By resignation to the Lord, Samadhi becomes perfect.
46. sthirasukham aasanam Posture is that which is firm and pleasant.
Now comes Asana, posture. Until you can get a firm seat you cannot practice the breathing and other exercises. The seat being firm means that you do not feel the body at all; then alone it has become firm. But, in the ordinary way, you will find that as soon as you sit for a few minutes all sorts of disturbances come into the body; but when you have got beyond the idea of a concrete body you will lose all sense of the body. You will feel neither pleasure nor pain. And when you take your body up again it will feel so rested; it is the only perfect rest that you can give to the body. When you have succeeded in conquering the body and keeping it firm, your practice will remain firm, but while you are disturbed by the body your nerves become disturbed, and you cannot concentrate the mind. We can make the seat firm by thinking of the infinite. We cannot think of the Absolute Infinite, but we can think of the infinite sky.
47.prayatnashaithilyanantasamapattibhyam
By slight effort and meditating on the unlimited (posture becomes firm and pleasant).
Light and darkness, pleasure and pain, will not then disturb you.
48. tato dvandvanabhighatah Seat being conquered, the dualities do not obstruct.
The dualities are good and bad, heat and cold, and all the pairs of opposites.
49. tasmin sati shvasaprashvasayorgativichchhedah pranayamah
Controlling the motion of the exhalation and the inhalation follows after this.
When the posture has been conquered, then this motion is to be broken and controlled, and thus we come to Pranayama; the controlling of the vital forces of the body. Prana is not breath, though it is usually so translated. It is the sum-total of the cosmic energy. It is the energy that is in each obdy, and its most apparent manifestation is the motion of the lungs. This motion is caused by Prana drawing in the breath, and is what we seek to control in Pranayama. We begin by controlling the breaht, as the easiest way of getting control of the Prana.
50.bahyabhyantarastambhavrittih deshakalasankhyabhih paridrishto dirghasookshmah
Its modifications are either external or internal, or motionless, regulated by place, time, and number, either long or short.
The three sorts of motion of this Pranayama are, one by which we draw the breath in, another by which we throw it out, and the third action is when the breath is held in the lungs, or stopped from entering the lungs. These, again, are varied by place and time. By place is meant that the Prana is held to some particular part of the body. By time is meant ho wlong the Prana should be confined to a certain place, and so we are told how many seconds to keep on motion, and how many seconds to keep another. The result of this Pranayama is Udghata, awakening the Kundalini.
51.bahyabhyantaravishayakshepi chaturthah
The fourth is restraining the Prana by directing it either to the external or internal objects.
This is the fourth sort of Pranayama. Prana can be directed either inside or outside.
52. dharanasu ch yojnata manasah
From that, the covering to the light of the Chitta is attenuated.
The Chitta has, by its own nature, all knowledge. It is made of Sattva particles, but is covered by Rajas and Tamas particles, and by Pranayama this covering is removed.
53. The mind becomes fit for Dharana.
After this covering has been removed we are able to concentrate the mind.
54. svasvavishayasanprayoge chittasy svaroopanukar ivendriyanan pratyaharah
The drawing in of the organs is by their giving up their own objects and taking the form of the mind-stuff.
These organs are separate states of the mind-stuff. I see a book; the form is not in the book, it is in the mind. Something is outside which calls that form up. The real form is in the Chitta. These organs are identifying themselves with, and taking the forms of whatever comes to them. If you can restrain the mind-stuff from taking these forms the mind will remain calm. This is called Pratyahara. Thence arises supreme control of the organs.
When the Yogi has succeeded in preventing the organs from taking the forms of external objects, and in making them remain one with the mind-stuff, then comes perfect control of the organs, and when the orgns are perfectly under control every muscle and nerve will be under control, because the organs are the centres of all the senstations, and of all actions. These organs are divided into organs of work and organs of sensation. When the organs are controlled the Yogi can control all feeling and doing; the whole of the body will be under his control. Then alone one begins to feel joy in being born; then one can truthfully say, “Blessed am I that I was born. “ When that control of the organs is obtained, we feel how wonderful this body really is.
55. Pratyahara results in the absolute control of the sense organs.
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