Yoga: Discipline of Freedom: The Yoga Sutra Attributed to Patanjali - Softcover

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Until her death in 1993, Barbara Stoler Miller was Samuel R. Milbank Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures at Barnard College, Columbia University. A leading translator of Sanskrit literature and well-versed in Indian music and art, Dr. Miller edited and translated numerous works of poetry and drama, including her much-praised translation of the Bhagavad-Gita. Dr. Miller studied philosophy as an undergraduate at Barnard College and held a doctorate in Sanskrit and Indic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She taught at Barnard for twenty-five years.

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Dating from about the third century A.D., the "Yoga Sutra distills the essence of the physical and spiritual discipline of yoga into fewer than two hundred brief aphorisms. It is the core text for any study of meditative practice, revered for centuries for its brilliant analysis of mental states and of the process by which inner liberation is achieved. Yet its difficulties are legendary, and until now, no translation has made it fully accessible.

This new translation, hailed by "Yoga Journal for its "unsurpassed readability," is by one of the leading Sanskrit scholars of our time, whose "Bhagavad Gita has become a recognized classic. It includes an introduction to the philosophy and psychology underlying the "Yoga Sutra, the full text with explanatory commentary, and a glossary of key terms in Sanskrit and English.

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PART ONE
Cessation of Thought and Contemplative Calm
 
THE NATURE OF YOGA
 
This is the teaching of yoga,  (1)
Yoga is the cessation of the turnings of thought.  (2)
When thought ceases, the spirit stands in its true identity as observer to the world.  (3)
Otherwise, the observer identifies with the turnings of thought.  (4)
 
The first four aphorisms define the nature of yoga as a state of mental tranquility and spiritual freedom, as well as the means to achieve this state. These aphorisms also introduce technical terms that will recur and be elaborated throughout the text as Patanjali clarifies his view of human psychology. In the self-reflexive style characteristic of Indian philosophical texts, the Yoga Sutra contains various complementary definitions of yoga. This first definition establishes the focus of the doctrine.
 
Yoga is defined as citta-vṛtti-nirodha, “cessation of the turnings of thought.” The text will be concerned throughout with citta, which may be translated as “thought”—the sensitive, subtle aspects of the mental capacity.1 Thought exists in the form of its activity, or “turning” (vṛtti). “The turnings of thought” (citta-vṛtti) refers to the totality of mental processes—conscious, subconscious, and hyperconscious—not simply to the faculties of intellect, recollection, or emotion. Although citta is often translated as “mind,” this blurs the contrast with manas. Manas is the organ of cognition, whereas citta is the total process of thought. This thought process is a composite of mind (manas), intelligence (buddhi), and ego (ahaṃkāra) the three mental evolutes of material nature (prakṛti).
 
Thus, in Patanjali’s view, thought is fundamental to the spirit’s involvement with material nature. The way to extricate one’s spirit is by making thought invulnerable to stimulation by the world of experience. “Cessation” (nirodha) means that the turnings of thought have stopped.
 
Insofar as the subtle mental processes are active, the subject or self is necessarily unstable and agitated. The goal of yoga is to stop the thought processes so that the spirit can be free, isolated from the turmoil of thought from which it mistakenly takes its identity. This idea is echoed in the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna says of the yogi: “He should gradually become tranquil, firmly controlling his understanding; focusing his mind on the self, he should think nothing” (6.25).
 
The observer (draṭṣṛ) is the subject who watches the visible world of phenomenal experience but who does not participate in it. For the observer everything extrinsic to itself—even the subtleties of thought—is witnessed with detachment, rather than experienced. “Observer” is also a designation for the spirit (puruṣa) in its conscious aspect (cf. 2.12, 20).
 
THE TURNINGS OF THOUGHT
 
 
The turnings of thought, whether corrupted or immune to the forces of corruption, are of five kinds.   (5)
 
They are valid judgment, error, conceptualization, sleep, and memory.  (6)
 
The valid means of judgment are direct perception, inference, and verbal testimony.  (7)
 
Error is false knowledge with no objective basis.  (8)
 
Conceptualization comes from words devoid of substance.  (9)
 
Sleep is the turning of thought abstracted from existence.  (10)
 
Memory is the recollection of objects one has experienced.  (11)
 
Patanjali delineates five modes of thought, each of which can be either corrupted or immune to corruption. The nature of “corruption” will be defined at greater length in Part Two (see 2.4-9), but it is important to note here that even the most subtle and benign workings of thought are obstructions to freedom of the spirit.
 
Valid judgment is based on one of the three legitimate methods for accurately apprehending material reality (7). Error is false knowledge that has no such basis in fact. Conceptualization is the tendency of thought to construct an image of reality that has no foundation beyond individual subjectivity. We may thus have verbal knowledge in which words and meanings fail to correspond to any objective reality.
 
Sleep includes both dreaming and dreamless states. “Thought abstracted from existence” is a liberal rendering of abhāvapratya-yālambanā, which more literally means “founded on the awareness of nonexistence.”
 
Memory is basic to Patanjali’s epistemology. No thought is ever lost; rather, it is preserved as a subliminal impression or memory trace. These traces not only allow us to recall past events and perceptions, but they also actively shape future experiences in a never-ending process.
 
PRACTICE AND DISPASSION
 
Cessation of the turnings of thought comes through practice and dispassion.  (12)
 
Practice is the effort to maintain the cessation of thought.  (13)
 
This practice is firmly grounded when it is performed for a long time without interruption and with zeal.  (14)
 
Dispassion is the sign of mastery over the craving for sensuous objects.  (15)
 
Higher dispassion is a total absence of craving for anything material, which comes by discriminating between spirit and material nature.  (16)
 
Patanjali now turns to the question of how thought may be stilled. Aphorisms 12 through 40 describe the many paths to this single goal. All involve some form of practice leading to dispassion.
 
Yogic practice is the link between the ordinary self and ultimate freedom of spirit. In Patanjali’s philosophy, we are not dependent on any external agency to grant us this freedom. It is achieved over time through our own efforts and through discipline. Practitioners may progress slowly or quickly, and may achieve different degrees of detachment or dispassion. These differences will be discussed in subsequent aphorisms.
 
A recognition, however tentative, that the spirit is distinct from material nature makes the practitioner disinterested in material things—even those which seem desirable or good. This detachment from material desire is an important step toward spiritual freedom. It culminates in Patanjali’s “higher dispassion”—a complete detachment from the world of experience, in which we cease to identify ourselves with the material world.
 
WAYS OF STOPPING THOUGHT
 
Conscious cessation of thought can arise from various forms of conjecture, reflection, enjoyment, and egoism.  (17)
 
Beyond this is a state where only subliminal impressions remain from the practice of stopping thought.  (18)
 
For gods and men unencumbered by physical bodies, but still enmeshed in material nature, the cessation of thought is limited by reliance on the phenomenal world.  (19)
 
For others cessation of thought follows from faith, heroic energy, mindfulness, contemplative calm, and wisdom.  (20)
 
For those who possess a sharp intensity, it is immediate.  (21)
 
Higher than this is cessation beyond distinctions of mild, moderate, or extreme.  (22)
 
The meaning of this crucial section has been controversial since ancient times. Most commentators say that these aphorisms refer to levels of...