The Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali
The Light of the Soul
by Alice A. Baily
Translated from Sanskrit by Tibetan Master Djwhal Kuhl
Samadhi Pada I
Samadhi Pada 1 is the first section of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. It consists of 51 sutras. Samadhi means absorption, unitive awareness or contemplation. In the Samadhi Pada, Patanjali gives us the aim of Yoga in theoretical terms, explaining it as the restraint of the chitta vrittis, or restraint of the mind. The entire summary of all four books is given in the first four sutras.
The Problem Of Union
Samadhi Pada I
1. AUM. The following instruction concerneth the Science of Union.
2. This Union (or Yoga) is achieved through the subjugation of the psychic (emotional) nature, and the restraint of the chitta (or mind).
3. When this has been accomplished, the Yogi knows himself as he is in reality.
4. Up till now the inner man has identified himself with his forms and with their active modifications.
- Five Mind States Defined(5-6, 7-11)
5. The mind states are five, and are subject to pleasure or pain; they are painful or not painful.
6. These modifications (activities) are correct knowledge, incorrect knowledge, fancy, passivity (sleep) and memory.
7. The basis of correct knowledge is correct perception, correct deduction, and correct witness (or accurate evidence).
8. Incorrect knowledge is based upon perception of the form and not upon the state of being.
9. Fancy rests upon images which have no real existence.
10. Passivity (sleep) is based upon the quiescent state of the vrittis (or upon the non-perception of the senses.)
11. Memory is the holding on to that which has been known.
- Methods to control the Modifications of the Mind (12-16)
12. The control of these modifications of the internal organ, the mind, is to be brought about through tireless endeavor and through non-attachment.
13. Tireless endeavor is the constant effort to restrain the modifications of the mind.
14. When the object to be gained is sufficiently valued, and the efforts towards its attainment are persistently followed without intermission, then the steadiness of the mind (restraint of the vrittis) is secured.
15. Non-attachment is freedom from longing for all objects of desire, either earthly or traditional, either here or hereafter.
16. The consummation of this non-attachment results in an exact knowledge of the spiritual man when liberated from the qualities or gunas.
Yoga is Samadhi (Sutra 17 and 18). Samprajanatah Samadhi Sutra 17
17. The consciousness of an object is attained by concentration upon its fourfold nature: the form, through examination; the quality (or guna), through discriminative participation; the purpose, through inspiration (or bliss); and the soul, through identification.
18. A further stage of samadhi is achieved when, through one pointed thought, the outer activity is quieted. In this stage, the chitta is responsive only to subjective impressions.
19. The samadhi just described passes not beyond the bound of the phenomenal world; it passes not beyond the Gods, and those concerned with the concrete world.
Methods of Obtaining Samadhi (20-29)
20. Other yogins achieve samadhi and arrive at a discrimination of pure Spirit through belief, followed by energy, memory, meditation and right perception.
21. The attainment of this state (spiritual consciousness) is rapid for those whose will is intensely alive.
22. Those who employ the will likewise differ, for its use may be intense, moderate, or gentle. In respect to the attainment of true spiritual consciousness there is yet another way.
- Sutras 23-29 present a complete path to Self-Realization and is directly applicable to 1st kriya.
23. By intense devotion to Ishvara, knowledge of Ishvara is gained.
24. This Ishvara is the soul, untouched by limitation, free from karma, and desire.
25. In Ishvara, the Gurudeva, the germ of all knowledge expands into infinity.
26. Ishvara, the Gurudeva, being unlimited by time conditions, is the teacher of the primeval Lords.
27. The Word of Ishvara, is AUM (or OM). This is the Pranava.
28. Through the sounding of the Word and through reflection upon its meaning, the Way is found.
Om has a unique property of burning out coarse matter and building refined matter in the subtle bodies (Editor)
29. From this comes the realization of the Self (the soul) and the removal of all obstacles.
- Obstacles to union 30-31
30. The obstacles to soul cognition are bodily disability, mental inertia, wrong questioning, carelessness, laziness, lack of dispassion, erroneous perception, inability to achieve concentration, failure to hold the meditative attitude when achieved.
31. Pain, despair, misplaced bodily activity and wrong direction (or control) of the life currents are the results of the obstacles in the lower psychic nature.
- Way to Overcome Obstacles (32, 33-39)
32. To overcome the obstacles and their accompaniments, the intense application of the will to some one truth (or principle) is required.
- Ways to still the mind to achieve peace. (33-39)
33. The peace of the chitta (or mind stuff) can be brought about through the practice of sympathy, tenderness, steadiness of purpose, and dispassion in regard to pleasure or pain, or towards all forms of good or evil.
34. The peace of the chitta is also brought about by the regulation of the prana or life breath.
35. The mind can be trained to steadiness through those forms of concentration which have relation to the sense perceptions.
36. By meditation upon Light and upon Radiance, knowledge of the Spirit can be reached and thus peace can be achieved.
37. The chitta is stabilized and rendered free from illusion as the lower nature is purified and no longer indulged.
38. Peace (steadiness of the chitta) can be reached through meditation on the knowledge which dreams give.
39. Peace can also be reached through concentration upon that which is dearest to the heart.
- Fruit of Meditation is Perfected Knowledge (40)
40. Thus his realization extends from the infinitely small to the infinitely great, and from annu (the atom or speck) to atma (or spirit) his knowledge is perfected.
- Meditation with Seed, Sabija (41-47) It is further described in sutras 48-50
41. To him whose vrittis (modifications of the substance of the mind) are entirely controlled, there eventuates a state of identity with, and similarity to that which is realized. The knower, knowledge and the field of knowledge become one, just as the crystal takes to itself the colors of that which is reflected in it.
42. When the perceiver blends the word, the idea (or meaning) and the object, this is called the mental condition of judicial reasoning.
43. Perception without judicial reasoning is arrived at when the memory no longer holds control, the word and the object are transcended and only the idea is present.
44. The same two processes of concentration, with and without judicial action of the mind, can be applied also to things subtle.
45. The gross leads into the subtle and the subtle leads in progressive stages to that state of pure spiritual being called Pradhana.
46. All this constitutes meditation with seed.
47. When this super-contemplative state is reached, the Yogi acquires pure spiritual realization through the balanced quiet of the chitta (or mind stuff).
48. His perception is now unfailingly exact (or his mind reveals only the Truth).
49. This particular perception is unique and reveals that which the rational mind (using testimony, inference and deduction) cannot reveal.
50. It is hostile to, or supersedes all other impressions.
- Meditation without Seed, Nirbija (51)
51. When this state of perception is itself also restrained (or superseded), then is pure Samadhi achieved.
Index Pada I Pada II Pada III Pada IV