Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

1.1 Now begins the teaching of yoga.

1.2 Yoga is the stilling (nirodha) of the mind's (citta) fluctuations (vritti).

1.3 Then the seer rests in its own true nature.

1.4 At other times, the seer takes on the form of the fluctuations.

1.5 There are five kinds of fluctuations, some painful and some not.

1.6 They are valid knowledge, mistaken knowledge, imagination, sleep, and memory.

1.7 Direct perception, inference, and reliable testimony are the sources of valid knowledge.

1.8 Mistaken knowledge is false knowledge that is not based on a thing as it really is.

1.9 Imagination follows knowledge conveyed by words but has no real object.

1.10 Sleep is a fluctuation based on the perception of absence.

1.11 Memory is the retention of something experienced.

1.12 Practice (abhyasa) and dispassion (vairagya) still those fluctuations.

1.13 Practice is the effort to stay in that state of stillness.

1.14 It becomes firmly established when maintained for a long time, without interruption, and with care.

1.15 Dispassion means having mastery over desire for things one has seen or heard about, with no thirst for them.

1.16 A higher dispassion comes from knowing the Self (purusha): even the qualities (guna) of nature no longer arouse desire.

1.17 Absorption (samadhi) with cognition (samprajnata) is accompanied by examination, reflection, joy, and I-am-ness (asmita).

1.18 The other kind, absorption without cognition (asamprajnata), follows practice in stopping mental activity; only latent impressions (samskara) remain.

1.19 For those without bodies and those absorbed in nature (prakriti), it arises from their state of existence.

1.20 For others, it is preceded by trust, energy, memory, absorption, and insight.

1.21 It is near for those whose commitment is intense.

1.22 Even among them there is a difference, depending on whether their commitment is mild, moderate, or very strong.

1.23 Or it can come through dedication to the Lord (Ishvara).

1.24 The Lord is a distinct Self untouched by afflictions (klesha), karma, its results, or the deposits it leaves behind.

1.25 In the Lord, the seed of all knowledge is unsurpassed.

1.26 The Lord was the teacher even of the earliest teachers, because time does not limit the Lord.

1.27 The sacred syllable (Om), called pranava, expresses the Lord.

1.28 Repeat it and reflect on what it means.

1.29 From this comes awareness of one's inner consciousness and the removal of obstacles.

1.30 Illness, mental dullness, doubt, carelessness, laziness, inability to give up pleasures, mistaken views, failure to reach a stage of practice, and inability to remain there disturb the mind. These are the obstacles.

1.31 Pain, distress, bodily trembling, and disturbed breathing accompany that disturbance.

1.32 To prevent those obstacles, practice focusing on one principle.

1.33 The mind grows clear by cultivating friendship toward the happy, compassion toward the suffering, delight in the good, and even-mindedness toward the bad.

1.34 Or by breathing out and holding the breath.

1.35 Or when awareness of an object arises, it can help steady the mind.

1.36 Or focus on a bright state that is free of sorrow.

1.37 Or focus the mind on someone who is free of desire.

1.38 Or take knowledge gained in dreams or sleep as the focus.

1.39 Or meditate on whatever one chooses.

1.40 Then one's mastery extends from the smallest atom to the greatest thing.

1.41 When the fluctuations have faded, the mind becomes like a clear jewel. It takes on the form of whatever it rests on, whether the perceiver, perception, or what is perceived. This is complete absorption in an object.

1.42 When words, their meanings, and the ideas attached to them are mixed together in that absorption, it is absorption with examination.

1.43 When memory is purified and only the object shines forth, as if the mind had no form of its own, it is absorption without examination.

1.44 The same distinction explains absorption with reflection and without reflection when their objects are subtle.

1.45 Such subtle objects extend as far as nature in its unmanifest state.

1.46 These are all forms of absorption with a seed.

1.47 When absorption without reflection becomes clear and steady, the inner self grows clear.

1.48 In that state, insight bears the truth.

1.49 This insight differs from insight gained by hearing or inference because it knows a particular thing directly.

1.50 The latent impression born of it blocks other latent impressions.

1.51 When even that impression is stilled, everything is stilled, and absorption is without a seed.

2.1 Discipline, study of oneself, and dedication to the Lord make up yoga in action.

2.2 Its purpose is to develop absorption and weaken the afflictions.

2.3 The afflictions are ignorance (avidya), I-am-ness, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life.

2.4 Ignorance is the ground for the others, whether they are dormant, weak, interrupted, or fully active.

2.5 Ignorance means mistaking what is temporary, impure, painful, and not the Self for what is lasting, pure, pleasant, and the Self.

2.6 I-am-ness is treating the power of seeing and the power by which one sees as though they were one self.

2.7 Attachment follows pleasure.

2.8 Aversion follows pain.

2.9 Clinging to life flows on by itself. It is strong even in the wise.

2.10 These afflictions, when subtle, must be removed by taking them back to their source.

2.11 Their active fluctuations must be removed through meditation.

2.12 The store of karma is rooted in the afflictions. Its effects are felt in this life or another.

2.13 As long as that root remains, its results are one's kind of birth, length of life, and experiences.

2.14 Those results bring pleasure or pain according to whether the actions that caused them were good or bad.

2.15 To a discerning person, everything brings suffering: things change, they cause distress, they leave latent impressions, and the fluctuations of the qualities conflict with one another.

2.16 Suffering that has not yet come can be prevented.

2.17 Its cause is the connection between the seer and what is seen.

2.18 What is seen consists of the elements and the senses. Its nature is clarity, activity, and stability, and it exists for experience and release.

2.19 The stages of the qualities are the particular, the nonparticular, the merely indicated, and the unmanifest.

2.20 The seer is nothing but seeing. Though pure, it looks through the mind's perceptions.

2.21 The very nature of what is seen exists for the seer's sake.

2.22 It ceases to exist for one who has fulfilled that purpose, but it still exists because others share in it.

2.23 The connection allows both the owner and what it owns to recognize the nature of their powers.

2.24 Ignorance causes that connection.

2.25 When ignorance is gone, the connection is gone. That is release; for the seer, it is liberation (kaivalya).

2.26 The way to release is steady insight that distinguishes the seer from what is seen.

2.27 For such a person, insight reaches its final stage in seven steps.

2.28 By practicing the limbs of yoga, impurities fade and knowledge shines out, until one clearly distinguishes the seer from what is seen.

2.29 The eight limbs (ashtanga) are restraints (yama), observances (niyama), posture (asana), breath control (pranayama), withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and absorption.

2.30 The restraints are not harming, truthfulness, not stealing, sexual restraint, and not grasping at possessions.

2.31 They form a universal, great vow, not limited by social class, place, time, or circumstance.

2.32 The observances are cleanliness, contentment, discipline, study of oneself, and dedication to the Lord.

2.33 When harmful thoughts trouble you, cultivate thoughts opposed to them.

2.34 Thoughts of harm and the like may be acted on, caused in others, or approved. They may arise from greed, anger, or confusion and may be mild, moderate, or intense. Recognize that they lead to endless suffering and ignorance; this is how to cultivate opposing thoughts.

2.35 When a person is firmly established in not harming, hostility disappears in that person's presence.

2.36 When a person is firmly established in truthfulness, actions depend on that person for their results.

2.37 When a person is firmly established in not stealing, all treasures come to that person.

2.38 When a person is firmly established in sexual restraint, that person gains strength.

2.39 When a person is firm in not grasping at possessions, that person understands how births come about.

2.40 Cleanliness brings a dislike of one's own body and an unwillingness to make bodily contact with others.

2.41 It also brings purity of mind, cheerfulness, focus, control of the senses, and readiness to see the Self.

2.42 Contentment brings unsurpassed happiness.

2.43 Discipline destroys impurities and brings power to the body and senses.

2.44 Study of oneself brings contact with one's chosen deity.

2.45 Dedication to the Lord brings mastery of absorption.

2.46 Posture is steady and comfortable.

2.47 This comes by relaxing effort and becoming absorbed in the infinite.

2.48 Then opposing pairs of conditions no longer cause harm.

2.49 Once posture is established, breath control means interrupting the movement of inhaling and exhaling.

2.50 It may involve breathing out, breathing in, or holding the breath. Measured by place, time, and number, it becomes long and subtle.

2.51 A fourth kind goes beyond the sphere of external and internal breath.

2.52 Then the covering over the light is worn away.

2.53 And the mind becomes fit for concentration.

2.54 Withdrawal of the senses occurs when they no longer meet their own objects but seem to take on the nature of the mind.

2.55 Then the senses come under complete control.

3.1 Concentration is keeping the mind fixed on one place.

3.2 Meditation is the continuous flow of attention there.

3.3 Absorption is when only the object shines forth, as if the mind had no form of its own.

3.4 These three applied together are integration (samyama).

3.5 Mastering it brings the light of insight.

3.6 Integration should be applied to the different stages of practice.

3.7 These three are more inward than the earlier limbs.

3.8 But even they are external compared with absorption without a seed.

3.9 The mind changes toward stillness when latent impressions of outward activity are overcome and impressions of stillness arise, and the mind follows that moment of stillness.

3.10 Because of the resulting impression, stillness flows steadily.

3.11 The mind changes toward absorption when attention to everything fades and single-pointed attention arises.

3.12 Then the mind changes toward single-pointedness when the idea that has just passed and the one that has just arisen are alike.

3.13 This also explains changes in the properties, characteristics, and states of the elements and senses.

3.14 The underlying thing carries properties that have passed, are present, or cannot yet be named.

3.15 Differences in the order of changes cause differences in the changes themselves.

3.16 Integration applied to these three kinds of change brings knowledge of the past and future.

3.17 Words, their meanings, and the ideas they produce get mixed up because one is confused with another. Integration that separates them brings knowledge of the sounds made by all living beings.

3.18 Seeing latent impressions directly brings knowledge of past births.

3.19 Integration applied to another person's ideas brings knowledge of that person's mind.

3.20 But it does not reveal what those ideas rest on, since that has not become the object of attention.

3.21 By applying integration to the body's appearance and stopping its power to be perceived, so that it no longer meets the light of the eye, one becomes invisible.

3.22 Karma may be ready to bear fruit or not yet ready. Integration applied to it brings knowledge of death; signs of impending death can also bring that knowledge.

3.23 Integration applied to friendship and the other qualities brings their strengths.

3.24 Applied to strengths, it brings the strength of an elephant and other strengths.

3.25 Directing the light of higher perception brings knowledge of things that are subtle, hidden, or far away.

3.26 Integration applied to the sun brings knowledge of the worlds.

3.27 Applied to the moon, it brings knowledge of the arrangement of the stars.

3.28 Applied to the pole star, it brings knowledge of the stars' movements.

3.29 Applied to the center of the navel, it brings knowledge of the body's arrangement.

3.30 Applied to the hollow of the throat, it ends hunger and thirst.

3.31 Applied to the tortoise channel, it brings steadiness.

3.32 Applied to the light at the crown of the head, it brings a vision of perfected beings.

3.33 Or intuitive insight can bring knowledge of everything.

3.34 Integration applied to the heart brings knowledge of the mind.

3.35 Experience arises because the mind's clarity and the Self, though utterly different, are not distinguished. The mind's clarity exists for another's sake; integration applied to what exists for its own sake brings knowledge of the Self.

3.36 From that come intuitive insight, extraordinary hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell.

3.37 These are obstacles to absorption but powers (siddhi) in ordinary waking life.

3.38 By loosening the causes that bind the mind and knowing its pathways, the mind can enter another body.

3.39 By mastering the upward-moving breath, one avoids contact with water, mud, thorns, and the like, and can rise out of the body.

3.40 By mastering the breath that balances, one can produce a glow.

3.41 Integration applied to the connection between hearing and space brings extraordinary hearing.

3.42 Integration applied to the connection between body and space, together with absorption in the lightness of cotton, brings movement through space.

3.43 When the mind functions outside the body without imagining it, this is the great bodiless state. Then the covering over the light disappears.

3.44 Integration applied to the elements in their gross form, their true nature, their subtle form, their connections, and their purpose brings mastery over the elements.

3.45 From this come powers such as becoming tiny, perfection of the body, and freedom from being harmed by the elements' properties.

3.46 Bodily perfection means beauty, grace, strength, and a body as hard as a diamond.

3.47 Integration applied to the senses' powers of perception, their nature, I-am-ness, their connections, and their purpose brings mastery over the senses.

3.48 From this come movement as fast as the mind, perception without the senses, and mastery over nature's primary substance.

3.49 A person who simply knows the difference between the mind's clarity and the Self gains power over all states of being and knowledge of everything.

3.50 Through dispassion even toward these powers, the seeds of flaws disappear and liberation comes.

3.51 If those in high places invite you, do not become attached or proud; otherwise, unwanted consequences may follow again.

3.52 Integration applied to a moment and its sequence brings knowledge born of discernment.

3.53 This knowledge lets one distinguish two things that cannot be told apart by kind, characteristics, or place.

3.54 Knowledge born of discernment leads one across: it embraces every object in every way, all at once rather than in sequence.

3.55 When the mind's clarity and the Self are equally pure, liberation comes.

4.1 Powers arise from birth, herbs, sacred formulas, discipline, or absorption.

4.2 Change into another kind of being comes when nature's potential fills out.

4.3 An external cause does not make nature act. It merely removes an obstacle, as a farmer opens a channel for water.

4.4 Created minds arise from I-am-ness alone.

4.5 Though their activities differ, one mind directs the many created minds.

4.6 Of these, a mind born of meditation carries no store of karma.

4.7 A yogi's karma is neither white nor black. For others it is of three kinds.

4.8 From those kinds of karma, only the tendencies suited to their results become active.

4.9 Even when birth, place, and time separate them, tendencies follow one another without a break, because memory and latent impressions have the same form.

4.10 These tendencies have no beginning, since the desire to live is constant.

4.11 They are held together by cause, result, support, and object. When those are absent, the tendencies are absent too.

4.12 Past and future things exist in their own nature; their properties simply belong to different times.

4.13 These properties, whether visible or subtle, consist of the qualities.

4.14 A thing's reality comes from the unity of the changes it undergoes.

4.15 Though the thing is the same, minds differ; so the thing and the mind each have their own course.

4.16 A thing does not depend on one mind. If that mind did not perceive it, what would happen to the thing?

4.17 A thing is known or unknown depending on whether it colors the mind.

4.18 The mind's fluctuations are always known because their master, the Self, does not change.

4.19 The mind does not illuminate itself, because it is something that can be seen.

4.20 It cannot perceive both itself and its object at the same time.

4.21 If one mind were seen by another mind, there would be an endless series of minds knowing minds, and memories would become confused.

4.22 Consciousness itself does not shift, but when the mind takes on its form, the mind becomes aware of its own understanding.

4.23 The mind, colored by both the seer and what is seen, can serve every purpose.

4.24 Though colored by countless tendencies, it exists for another's sake, because its parts work together.

4.25 When one sees the difference between the mind and the Self, one stops thinking of the mind as oneself.

4.26 Then the mind moves toward discernment and leans toward liberation.

4.27 When there are gaps in that discernment, other ideas arise from latent impressions.

4.28 These must be removed in the same way as the afflictions.

4.29 For one who has no interest even in the highest insight and who sees the difference in every way, there is absorption called the cloud of virtue.

4.30 Then afflictions and karma end.

4.31 Then knowledge is infinite, with every covering and stain gone; what remains to be known is little.

4.32 Then the succession of changes in the qualities ends, since they have fulfilled their purpose.

4.33 A sequence is a series of moments; it becomes clear at the end of a change.

4.34 Liberation is when the qualities return to their source because they no longer serve the Self's purpose. Or it is the power of consciousness established in its own nature.