Patanjali's
Yoga Sutras

from Muni to Maharishi

Invocation

As per the deistic model we have utilized here, an invocation is no mere praise song to something external, but a way to instill that being's spirit within.

Muni

In his original invocation shloka, Patanjali is referred to as hailing from a line of Muni's.

Mouna means silent - which coincides interestingly with his phenomenal work in the sutra's - just 196 or so extremely terse lines of how the Yoga mind works.

Just about how much a mostly silent yogi would utter.

Yogena chittasya padena vāchām, malam shareerasya cha vaidya-kena

योगेन चित्तस्य, पदेन वाचां, मलं शरीरस्य च वैद्यकेन

By means of yoga the mind, by means of grammar hence speech, the impurities of the body - the medicine

Yopa karottham pravaram muninām, Patanjalim prānjalir-ānathosmi

योपाकरोत्तं प्रवरं मुनीनां पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिरानतोस्मि

He who removed these impurities, to that most exalted one from the lineage of Muni’s, Patanjali, I offer divine salutations

Maharishi

Later on as his work gains popularity and his backstory comes to life, his form is imbued with the mythic powers of the shankha & chakra, and thus gets the accolade of a Maha-Rishi - a great cosmic storyteller, as his life stands testament to the power of Yoga.

Aabāhu purushā-kāram shankha-chakrāsi dhārinam

आबाहु पुरुशाकारं शंख चक्रासि धारिनं

That most skilled primordial person adorned with a Shankha & a Chakra

Sahasra shirasam shvetham patanjalim prānjalir-ānatosmi

सहस्र शिरसं श्वेतं पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिरानतोस्मि

His head is adorned with the pure light of the sahasraara chakra - to that Patanjali I give my special salutations

A Nāga

Considered as an avatār of Adi-sesha, the cosmic serpent on whom Vishnu rests, similar to:

Lakshmana from the Rāmāyana, who is always watchful, alert, protective
Rāmānujāchārya the foremost exponent of Vishishta-Advaita
etc

Patanjali is thus an adept Nāga.

Nāga's are beings, embodied in serpent energy, who go even beyond the ida & pingala nādi's to the subtlest of nādi's:

Vajrini - neuronal sparks & synapses (vajra means lightning) and
Chitrini - images (chitra) that get generated with the drip of DMT in the awakened mind.

Thus PYS can also be termed as Nāga Vidya.

This is the psychic being we have invoked.

Model

This model also underlies Vajrāyana Buddhism, not surprising since the Buddha was considered a Sānkhya Yogi, the source on which PYS is crafted.

Deistic

Albeit PYS starts in a very clinical "secular" manner, the subsequent portions deals with instilling spirits.

We hasten to add that this is not a Theistic approach to God, but Deistic, or spiritual, where spirits accelerate us towards "God" - whatever that surfaces as, eventually.

Purusha

PYS is very much based on Sānkhya Yoga.

As per Sānkhya, our atomic-self is Purusha, similar to the ātman/soul of Vedānta.

Purusha can be considered as our individually differentiated consciousness which comes from the pure source consciousness of the cosmic Vedic Self, which has its own mega-story, including Brhma, Vishnu, Shiva etc., obviously a male-centric view.

Prakriti

From a female-centric perspective, Prakriti is our differentiable consciousness, its Guna attributes under constant flux, manifesting material reality in all its permutations & combinations.

Mula-Prakriti being the root from which Prakriti nature itself arises, is complete, and thus solitary, and wishes to experience universe/herself.

So she sets pieces of her self free, as individual Purusha's into the ocean of experiences of Prakriti.

But as they go further away from her, their minds get jumbled, and entangled with Prakriti, instead of just experiencing her.

Unable to evolve, the Purusha's reorganize their mindspace through Yoga, and then re-engage with clarity, with the world of experiences - and that is the Yoga of re-union.

Note, unlike in Vedānta where the Purusha-ātman needs to detach towards liberation/moksha, here the model is that it needs to de-entangle & re-engage so that the experiencer & the experience are in clear & continual union.

Thus it is that Purusha & Prakriti coevolve.

Embodied Mind

Although PYS is a Rāja Yoga text focused primarily on the Yoga Mind, unlike the Hatha Yoga texts focused on the body, the perspective of Yoga is that Mind pervades the body, hence a perfected Mind results in a perfected body too.

Of course, the physical aspects are essential, and dealt with specifically in Hatha Yoga, for "wetware & hardware" have to both function at peak levels as Mind & Body is a continuum.

Pāda's - Sections

There are 4 major sections (Pāda's) in the Sutras with a total of 196 Sutras, that is aphorisms, for they are quite cryptic in nature that, not only one needs to know the Sanskrit meanings but also interpret them correctly.

A Sutra has, as usual with Sanskrit, familiar linguistic root, in this case it indicates "suture" as in "to stitch", a whole bunch of aphorisms into a coherent whole.

We draw parallels to Vedic evolution levels also, to make it easier to see the transitions.

Samādhi Pāda

PYS first teaches Samādhi - strange, isn’t that the end state of the Yoga mind ?

Indeed, full Samādhi is the eventual state, but primarily it is a process, and there are various types of Samādhi's, from some basic techniques and all the way to the expert Yogi.

As all the mind sharpening techniques are kept together in this section, it is the ultimate mindfulness brain accelerator.

That is, the experience of our existence as per Vedānta, in this very material Bhu-loka can be changed - not just by wishful thinking, but by crafting the Yoga Mind to perfection.

Sādhana Pāda

The real fun of Meditation practices begins in second chapter Sādhana Pāda - where it is clear that Yoga is a spiritual process, involving divinization, thus referred to as a Kriya.

The psychic Being, where eventually the entire human is nothing but psyche, is being nourished in this stage, so treat this with care.

In Vedāntic terms, we can say we are now in the Bhuvar-Loka - the space of disembodied spirits which we chose, with purpose, to embody in our own psyche.

Vibhuti Pāda

Experience the Mind of Nature and all its powers.

In Vedāntic terms, we are now in the Suvar-Loka, the domain of the Devas, where all kinds of wondrous outcomes are enabled, beyond space-time.

Kaivalya Pāda

This is the transition point to the next level of Vedāntic existence, called Mahar-Loka, where the Universal Mind starts to reveal itself.

Interestingly in Sānkhya too the highest state of intelligence is called Mahat, which is what led to the above decode of parallelism with Vedānta.

Further

Subsequent levels, as per Vedic model, realized through the second phase of applying PYS are :

Jana-loka - the space of evolved beings understanding the nature of the universal mind - Samādhi Pāda
Tapa-loka - burn away needless stuff to be see the universe itself - Sādhana Pāda
Satya-loka - acquire cosmic power - Vibhuti Pāda
Sat-Chit-Ananda - ultimate existence - Kaivalya Pāda

This is purely theoretical mapping as of now, since we have not even completed (embodied) a complete pass over PYS - yet!

Particle-Wave Model

Entire perspective is that the world is all waves, but of course particle model helps us to understand better - until we advance to the point of going from a solidly conceptualized particle to ephemeral waves

As such, each of the Pāda's can be viewed like this :

Samādhi Pāda - the particles are Distractors
Sādhana Pāda - the particles are Attractors & Repulseers
Vibhuti Pāda - the particles are Fulfillers
Kaivalya Pāda - the particles are now just One - consider it as Brhman/God itself.

Patanjali Story

There is a story about Maharishi Patanjali.

He sits on a stage behind a curtain, transmitting his knowledge to a room full of students.

He had two conditions of his students.

One, no one should leave in the middle of the session.

Second, no one should lift the curtain from behind which he was seated.

The blast of transmitted energy is really intense!

One of the students leaves, desperate to answer a call of Nature.

Another student cannot resist his curiosity and lifts the curtain.

The entire hall gets blasted by the intense Energy and the students are vaporized.

Except for the one that took a break.

Patanjali decides to communicate the rest of his Sutras to the one remaining student.

Except that the student has to pay a price for his indiscipline.

He must remain a Brhma-rAkshasa until he can retransmit the received knowledge.

Patanjali then departs.

The Brhma-rAkshasa now dangles from a tree in the forest accosting passers-by.

He asks penetrating questions to first determine their worthiness.

None are able to answer his questions and each of them is swallowed up.

Patanjali takes pity on his erstwhile student and re-appears on the scene - now as a student.

At last the Brhma-rAkshasa has found a worthy recipient for his master's teachings - Patanjali himself!

Patanjali re-learns all the Sutras and thus liberates the Brhma-rAkshasa from his fate.

Moksha!

Patanjali wraps up his palm-leaf inscribed Sutras and places them below the tree.

He then goes to the river for a well-deserved bath.

Upon his return, Patanjali finds that a goat has swallowed up a portion of the Sutras.

Yoga Implication

For those who have read our Model, the Brhma-rākshasa psychic virus must be by now familiar.

What about the goat though? The goat is but our ruminating Mind chewing away mindlessly without understanding the import of any experience.

As we still that relentless process, we re-discover the missing knowledge for our Self, for Yoga at this level can never be taught - it is only transmitted & received - and always we find, in such knowledge traditions, the student is meant to fill in the gaps of the teacher's lessons.

read Patanjali Sutras

And if you want some practical techniques along the way ... read this section on Yoga Techniques

Source

this book is hands down the best compendium of commentaries and interpretation, amongst the twenty or so books I have purchased on the Sutras.

One glaring issue though is in his use of the word "theistic", which takes the mind into religion, whereas this Yoga is actually "deistic", that is invoking spirits of deities.

Otherwise, it's brilliant.

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Patanjali's Yoga Sutras