 Photo by Harli Marten on Unsplash Silence is a true friend that never betrays. - Confucius This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series. Want to start at the beginning? Yoga Sutra 2.55 ततः परमा वश्यतेन्द्रियाणाम् tataḥ paramā vaśyatendriyāṇām Then one achieves perfect mastery over the senses. One of the main reasons people start practicing yoga is to learn how to become calmer. With all that is going on outside ourselves, it can be really difficult to learn how to be calm.
That is why yoga’s process is one of involution, or one of leading the practitioner within and un-layering the conditioning that leads a person to feel stress, overwhelm and fear.
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 Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash The highest revelation is that God is in every man. - Ralph Waldo Emerson This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series. Want to start at the beginning? Yoga Sutra 2.52 ततः क्षीयते प्रकाशावरणम् tataḥ kṣīyate prakāśāvaraṇam As a result, the veil covering the light of the Supreme Self is dissolved. The final four Sutras within Book Two both summarize and hint at what Patanjali will spend the next two books covering. This process starts with the fifth limb of Raja Yoga, pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses). I find this limb so important that I will spend this month and next discussing the four Sutras which explain pratyahara.
 Photo by Valeriia Bugaiova on Unsplash Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure... Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer. - Shunryu Suzuki Want to start at the beginning? Yoga Sutra 2.49 तस्मिन्सति श्वासप्रश्वासयोर्गतिविच्छेदः प्राणायामः tasminsati śvāsapraśvāsayorgativicchedaḥ prāṇāyāmaḥ Having mastered a steady, comfortable position, inhalations and exhalations should be regulated. This is pranayama. Patanjali spends a little more time on pranayama in the Yoga Sutras than asana but compared to his discussion of "The Witness" and the constituents of nature (the gunas), pranayama is explained quite simply over five Sutras, which we will cover this month and next. This month, we’ll discuss what pranayama is and how to practice it. Next month, we’ll discuss the benefits of pranayama.
 Photo by Robert Anasch on Unsplash Diligence is the mother of good luck. - Benjamin Franklin This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series. Want to start at the beginning? Yoga Sutra 2.32 शौचसंतोषतपःस्वाध्यायेश्वरप्रणिधानानि नियमाः śaucasaṃtoṣatapaḥsvādhyāyeśvarapraṇidhānāni niyamāḥ Niyama is purity, contentment, self-discipline, self-study, and surrender to the Universal Self As a complement to the five Yamas we studied last month, Niyama encourages us to cultivate inner strength through five essential observances: Saucha (purity), Santosha (contentment), Tapas (self-discipline), Svadhyaya (self-study), and Isvara Pranidhana (surrender to the Universal Self). These principles invite clarity, peace, and an unshakeable joy into our daily routines and interactions with ourselves.
Sutras 2.40 to 2.45 offer insights into the development of each of the five Niyamas. We’ll again use the practice of pratipaksha bhavanam to describe how we can “cultivate the contrary.”  Photo by Megan Menegay on Unsplash The wise man should restrain his senses like the crane and accomplish his purpose with due knowledge of his place, time and ability. - Chanakya This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series. Want to start at the beginning? Yoga Sutra 2.30 अहिंसासत्यास्तेयब्रह्मचर्यापरिग्रहा यमाः ahiṃsāsatyāsteyabrahmacaryāparigrahā yamāḥ Yama is non-violence, truthfulness, non-covetousness, right use of energy, and non-possessiveness At the heart of this path stands Yama, the first limb of Raja Yoga, which serves as the first half of the ethical guidelines underpinning Patanjali’s method. Yama means control or restraint in Sanskrit. These are the boundaries we place on our behavior in order to live more harmoniously with the outer world. They offer a guide to navigating the complexities of external life - interactions with others, society itself, our senses, and environment - with grace and wisdom.
Yoga Sutra 2.30 introduces us to the five Yamas: Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (non-covetousness), Brahmacharya (right use of energy), and Aparigraha (non-possessiveness). In Sutra 2.31, Patanjali calls these principles the maha vratam (great vows) that are universal and applicable to everyone regardless of their social status, the place, time, or circumstances under which they live.  Photo by Joel Fulgencio on Unsplash There are no facts, only interpretations. ― Friedrich Nietzsche This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series. Want to start at the beginning? Yoga Sutra 2.33 वितर्कबाधने प्रतिपक्षभावनम् Vitarka bādhane pratipakṣa bhāvanam If troubled by negative thoughts, cultivate contrary thoughts. Yoga Sutra 2.33 is one of the Sutras I return to most often. In my view, this one gives perhaps the most practical advice that a practitioner can apply in their daily life.
For that reason, I’d like to move a little out of order here. We’ll study the eight limbs of Raja Yoga, one month at a time starting next month. Now let’s look at Yoga Sutras 2.33 and 2.34, which appear in the middle of Patanjali’s description of these eight components and specifically, the first two: Yama and Niyama.  Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us - and those around us - more effectively. Look for the learning. - Louisa May Alcott This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series. Want to start at the beginning? Yoga Sutra 2.26 विवेकख्यातिरविप्लवा हानोपायः vivekakhyātiraviplavā hānopāyaḥ The method of removing ignorance is by unceasing discerning awareness. Viveka kakhyatir, the first phrase of Sutra 2.26, is an important concept in Vedic studies. Sometimes simply called viveka, it is discernment of the difference between “the real [and] the unreal.” (Satchidananda, 294) It is wisdom.
 Photo by Matt Noble on Unsplash The "voice in my head" is not who I am. "Who am I, then?" The one who sees that. - Eckhart Tolle This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series. Want to start at the beginning? Yoga Sutra 2.21 तदर्थ एव दृश्यस्यात्मा tadartha eva dṛśyasyātmā The seen exists for the sake of the seer. Now we come to the reason behind all of these experiences. Why should we need to go through the ups and downs of life in the first place? Why would we need to go through pain at all?
Patanjali tells us in these next few sutras that all our experiences are here to benefit us - the individual self (atma) - by educating us on our True Nature. Whatever comes to us is a way to further improve ourselves and overcome the obstacles on our pathway to peace. This is the law of karma, which is natural cause and effect.  Photo by Arun Antony on Unsplash Liberation must come from within. - Sandra Cisernos This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series. Want to start at the beginning? Yoga Sutra 2.15 परिणामतापसंस्कारदुःखैर्गुणवृत्तिविरोधाच्च दुःखमेव सर्वं विवेकिनः pariṇāmatāpasaṃskāraduḥkhairguṇavṛttivirodhācca duḥkhameva sarvaṃ vivekinaḥ The discriminating realize that all actions ultimately result in pain. Again, this first part of Book Two of The Yoga Sutras is ostensibly quite dark as Patanjali outlines the things that cause humans suffering. Ultimately, it is uplifting as it lights the pathway for us out of the mire of our mind.
It reminds me of a comparison Swami Satchidananda made in one of his lectures about two proverbs he had learned growing up in Tamil Nadu. One said “oh lord, life is very hard” and the other, “oh lord, life is very easy.” What this means is, it’s all due to your perspective. All of us gain and lose, flow and struggle, are ill and heal, were born and will die. Pain is life but suffering is a choice.  Photo by Louis Galvez on Unsplash The human body has limitations. The human spirit is boundless. - Dean Karnazes This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series. Want to start at the beginning? Yoga Sutra 2.3 अविद्यास्मितारागद्वेषाभिनिवेशाः क्लेशाः avidyāsmitārāgadveṣābhiniveśāḥ kleśāḥ There are five causes of suffering: ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion and fear of death In book two, Patanjali dives into the practical steps of yoga headfirst.
The first sutra in this pada (or chapter) tells us that there are three practices that constitute what BKS Iyengar defines as the “yoga of action” or kriya yoga. Yoga Sutra 2.1 says that kriya yoga is composed of discipline, self-study and surrender. Practicing kriya yoga will diminish “mental turmoil” (Shoshoni, 18) and bring one closer to enlightenment, according to Yoga Sutra 2.2. The third sutra in this pada might seem kind of heavy. 2.3 lists the five causes of suffering (kleshas) and Patanjali goes into depth about each one from 2.5 - 2.9. Yoga Sutra 2.4 tells us that the first klesha, ignorance, is the “fertile soil” (Stiles, 17) for the others. All other suffering and turmoil originates from a “lack of true knowledge.” (Iyengar, 112) |
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