The Seen and the Seer

Photo by Matt Noble on Unsplash

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The "voice in my head" is not who I am.  "Who am I, then?"  
The one who sees that.
- Eckhart Tolle

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This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series.  
​Want to start at the beginning?
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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.

In Yoga Sutras 2.18 and 2.19, Patanjali describes the qualities of the seen and in Sutra 2.20, he describes the seer.  In vedic philosophy, the seen is made up of the various elements of nature and is called prakriti.  While the seer is distinct from the elements of nature and called Purusha.  The Purusha is both the Universal Consciousness or “big ‘S’ Self” (Isvara) and when it interacts with prakriti, can become an individual or “small ‘s’ self” (atma). 

Patanjali tells us that prakriti is made up of three characteristics or qualities (gunas) in Sutra 2.18.  The three gunas are luminousness (sattva), activity (rajas) and stability (tamas) and make up everything that exists beyond the Purusha.  In modern terms, we call prakriti “matter”.

Our minds, senses and bodies are all various combinations of the gunas. The last two words of Sutra 2.18 tell us that the purpose (artham) of the seen (drsyam) is to give enjoyment (bhoga) and liberation (apavarga), or putting it all together, bhogapavargartham drysam (Iyengar, 125-6).

This is an important concept to grasp as we deepen our understanding of yoga.  Although we work to restrain our senses so as not to become dependent on things that are inherently transitory, life is meant to be enjoyed.  

Spiritual liberation is experiencing enjoyment without attachment.  As my spiritual teacher, Sonia Sumar, says “yoga is the middle path” between extremes.  As we balance rajas and tamas, we find sattva, which can also be translated as clarity.

In Yoga Sutra 2.19, Patanjali explains that the gunas can further be classified into four stages.  These stages are a little tricky to understand initially because it is difficult to grasp the stages of matter beyond what is visible.

Swami Satchidananda has a useful way of explaining this.  “We can see a flower, but we can only sense the smell, rather than see it.  Even the smell is matter, although very subtle” (143). 

Using Makunda Stiles’ helpful translation guide, the four stages of matter are:

1. Visible (viśesa) - this is sometimes translated as “specific” and BKS Iyengar translates this as “distinguishable” (126).  This stage is matter that we can observe and touch.  It includes the “elements, intelligence [central nervous system], senses of perception [ears, eyes, nose, tongue and skin] and organs of action [arms, legs, mouth, genital and excretory organs].” (128)
2. Invisible (aviśesa) - this is matter that we are not able to touch or see.  For example, sound is a wave in physical form but it is invisible to us.  This includes things like “the subtle manifestations of the elements” (i.e. sound, sight, smell, taste and touch) and “the ‘I’ consciousness” (Iyengar, 128) or ego.
3. Formed (lingamatra) - lingamatra could also be translated as “manifested” (Stiles, 84) or “definable” (Satchidananda, 143).  This refers to all things (both visible and invisible) that currently exist.
4. Unformed (alingani) - vedic philosophy also distinguishes between things that exist currently and things that have existed or will exist.  The matter within and around us will one day exist in other forms (and has existed in other forms before).  This might feel woo-woo but consider, Einstein told us in his famous formula that no matter/energy is created or destroyed (e=mc^2).  Matter/energy is always shifting between forms.  So alingani is matter that is not currently manifested.

Now that Patanjali has defined the various qualities of nature and the distinction between them and the Seer, the next six sutras explain why this distinction exists in the first place.

Swami Satchidananda translates Yoga Sutra 2.20 “the Seer is nothing but the power of seeing which… appears to see through the mind.” (144)  Sutra 2.20 also contains the word suddhah, which means “pure.”  So the Seer itself is pure and untainted by the manifestations of nature but it witnesses (anupasyah) or “appears to see” (Stiles, 84).  Iyengar says simply, “the seer is pure consciousness.” (129)

Sutra 2.21 tells us that the seen exists solely for the sake of the self.  As a practitioner fulfills the goal of yoga, their relationship with the material world ceases to exist, even though it endures for others (Yoga Sutra 2.22).

Yoga Sutras 2.23 and 2.24 explain why and how the relationship between the Purusha and prakriti is there to begin with.  It exists for the Self to recognize its own essential nature.

How it comes to be is due to avidya, which is a lack of spiritual insight.  It is the Ouroboros, or the mythical serpent that eats its own tail.  Our consciousness exists because we don’t understand and learning to understand is the purpose of our consciousness.

Our consciousness exists because we don’t understand and learning to understand is the purpose of our consciousness.  

Once we truly understand the difference between the Purusha and prakriti, we recognize our essential nature (common to all things) and cease to suffer.  We stop associating our pure, essential self with the elements of nature that make up our body and mind.  Although we continue to enjoy the material world, we are free from material suffering.
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Finally, in Yoga Sutra 2.25, Patanjali tells us that without avidya, one’s association between Purusha and prakriti ends.  Iyengar calls this breaking “the link binding the seer to the seen.” (135)  If we can understand our true nature in this way, we will remedy the mistaken association.  

In Sanskrit, this is called kaivalya, which I’ve found translated as “absolute freedom, emancipation, absorption in the supreme soul” (Iyengar, 135), “absolute independence” (Satchidananda, 151), and “spiritual integration, liberation” (Stiles, 86).  Sounds pretty nice however you slice it.

Whichever way you prefer to translate kaivalya, it is a state of being wherein the inner seer, “the witness,” is freed from the limitations of the body and mind.

Next month, we will chart some very exciting territory in Pada Two.  Patanjali gives us step-by-step instructions on learning how to distinguish between Purusha and prakriti and thereby, experience our essential nature, which is unity (aka yoga).

In addition to a preview of what one accomplishes toward the end of one’s journey to kaivalya, these next Sutras give us the eight-limbed path of yoga, called Raja (Royal) Yoga or Ashtanga (Eight-Limbed) Yoga.

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Have you ever noticed “the witness” before?  What does it feel like to step back and observe things going on around and within you like a neutral observer?  If it’s difficult, does it get easier the more you try?  Can you think of other examples of things that exist but not materially?  How do you respond to the concept of karma (the universal law of cause and effect)?

Leave your thoughts below!  When you share, everyone’s understanding of these difficult texts is enhanced.