Nirodhaḥ Yoga Blog
![]() 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. This was hard for me to grasp initially, so enmeshed in my own family’s ancient, hard-working, long-suffering ethos. If I could foresee loss ahead of time, I could prevent it. If I just struggled hard enough, I could get it. It’s a noble goal. But Patanjali is arguing here, ultimate satisfaction through attraction and aversion is impossible. All things are impermanent except that radiant inner source that connects us to the permanent. And so life can be very hard - always struggling to gain or maintain things - or it can be very easy if we realize they’re not even ours in the first place. This perspective is liberating because we are then not beholden to anything. How to achieve this liberation? Yoga Sutra 2.11 tells us the method of removing the kleshas (causes of suffering) is by eradicating subtle impressions within our mind (samskaras) through meditation. BKS Iyengar draws a distinction between the methods described in Sutras 2.10 (last month) and 2.11. 2.10 describes a process of involution or “the practice of renunciation.” Whereas 2.11 describes meditation, which is our practice and a process of evolution. So again, by practice and detachment, one reaches the goal of yoga, which is to calm the mind. In the next three sutras, Patanjali gives a brief overview of the Vedic theory of karma. This is so we can understand the extended time frame we work on our samskaras - over lifetimes. Yoga Sutra 2.12 explains how karma is formed. The kleshas are the root of karma and act as a reservoir for these impressions, both seen and unseen, which give rise to future lives the individual self (atma) will experience. (Stiles, 82) Patanjali calls the samskaras the karmic root from which status, lifespan and experiences arise in Sutra 2.13. It may be mind boggling for westerners to think in terms of lifetimes but it’s easy to see on an individual lifescale too. It is simply, “the universal law of cause and effect”. (Iyengar, 119) If you plant a seed and tend to it, it will sprout (I suppose unless the seed has karma that causes it to not grow). You take a certain action and there is an effect. This is what is meant in Sutra 2.14. “All of the pleasure and pain that we experience throughout our lives is the result of our own actions.” (Shoshoni, 21) "All of the pleasure and pain that we experience throughout our lives is the result of our own actions." When we do something meritorious, we enjoy the benefits. When we do something out of “desire, greed, anger, lust, pride [or] malice,” (Iyengar, 119) we suffer the consequences. So then Yoga Sutra 2.15 defines a person who has developed this kind of discrimination. To them, all actions ultimately result in pain due to our mind’s fluctuations, the qualities of nature and our accumulated samskaras. Therefore, “both pain and pleasure must be subjected to the process of introspection and detachment” (Shoshoni, 21) and Iyengar says we should “keep aloof from them”. (122) The good news is the next two Sutras tell us both that we may avoid future suffering (Yoga Sutra 2.16) and what the cause of that suffering is (Yoga Sutra 2.17). With this, at least we may be able to overcome ignorance (avidya), which you may remember is the “fertile soil” for all the other kleshas. There is a close association between the Seer and the seen (which we will talk more about next month). Patanjali tells us this mistaken association should be ended as it is the ultimate cause of our suffering. The Shoshoni Retreat Center’s helpful notes on the Yoga Sutras explains this union in more depth. The individual falsely perceives a conflict between [themself] and an object which allegedly brings suffering or pleasure. By practicing meditation, this duality can be dissolved in the Self, which is free from attachment and aversion. (21) Makunda Stiles calls this state of dissolution a “discriminative knowledge of the True Self”. (20) Iyengar tells us in his commentary on the Yoga Sutras that “the intelligence is the vehicle closest to the soul” and for that reason our intellectual mind (buddhi) can influence our perception of the seer (our soul or atma). The buddhi can enmesh “the seer in a painful relationship with [the] external” (124) When our mind learns to discriminate between itself and its source, suffering ends. Next month, we’ll go through Sutras that explain the difference between the permanent, universal Self and all other things in nature, why this difference exists in the first place, and the way for us to transcend our mistaken union between the Seer and the seen. In other words, how to develop this discriminative intelligence. << PREVIOUS BLOG POST IN YOGA SUTRA SERIES NEXT BLOG POST IN YOGA SUTRA SERIES >> What are your impressions of the law of karma? Does it make sense to you or feel unfamiliar? What about the causes of suffering - does the idea that even pleasurable things will one day end in pain resonate with you? Have painful experiences ever led to insight and growth? What worries you about “keeping aloof” from pleasures and pains?
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