The Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali 2.13-20

In the episode, we discuss sutras 13 to 20 of the second chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. These sutras and their classical commentaries go deep into explaining the root of the obstacles to yogic enlightenment. This root is the mixing up of spirit and matter. Sutra 15 reflects the first noble truth of the Buddha: life is suffering.

For Patanjali, this is a healthy acceptance of reality that allows us to unplug from habits that perpetuate this suffering.

Transcript

Hello Yogi,

Welcome to my podcast.

I'm Aiko and on this show we explore ways to put spiritual theory into sustainable practice.

Good morning Sham.

Good morning.

So where did we left last time?

What did we say about the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali?

So we're in the second chapter and last time we began with the the limbs of sadhana practice and and then the obstacles to the practice that are overcome by the practice.

Such obstacles could be for example desire and aversion and sometimes these obstacles can cover one another so that it seems like one is not suffering from some of the obstacles but they may simply be dormant.

Yeah so now we are on another section so we're gonna read from Sutra 13 to 20.

Yes so these sutras are about the the roots of the obstacles and because if we want to overcome these obstacles we need to overcome them at the root.

Yeah like in everything it's always much more healthy and long-term beneficial to go to the roots of the problems everywhere in the society in our lives.

Yeah yeah the solution is at the root like there is this saying in the Indian texts that if you if you water the root of the tree then you know you will nourish every leaf.

So instead of trying to kind of fix every little thing you fix the main thing at the bottom and everything will be everything will follow.

So Sutra 13.

Sati-muletad vipakocchati-ayur-bhogah As long as the root of the obstacles exists,

It fructifies as type of birth,

Span of life and life experience.

So this is talking about reincarnation.

As long as the kind of root of the obstacles to our practice exists we are going to need to take other births and it's gonna be you know each birth is of a particular type,

There's a particular lifespan and then the life experiences within this lifespan.

It could be for example birth as an insect,

So that's one type of birth.

The lifespan is very short,

Could be a day or a few days or some weeks and then what you experience within that lifespan.

Within human life there you know different types of births.

You could be born in a poor family,

In a dysfunctional family.

Let's say there could be a rich dysfunctional family,

A poor functional family.

So there are so many different types of births we could take which will have different lengths and we will experience different things.

It is also to some extent up to you what you do with your circumstances and of course you should focus on what you can do and let go of the rest.

Yeah and even though here we speak about life after life this principle applies also within one lifetime.

Like it for example it's well known that if you have unresolved issue somehow life will just face you again with those issues until you resolve them and this can happen in any age.

You can put it in the corner for years but then somehow it's gonna come up.

So I think if some of you doesn't believe in afterlife then this can be applied also within this life.

Yeah we can say that we live many lives within one life.

Yeah,

Yeah very true.

So Sutra 14 Te hlada paritapa pahlaha punya punya hetu tvat.

These,

The type of birth,

Span of life and life experience,

Bear the fruits of pleasure and pain as a result of the performance of virtue and vice.

So this is the basic teaching of karma that when you engage in vice or virtue then it will create good or bad karma.

And here I would like to give a note because I often hear people saying karma will catch you and things like this.

Like using karma as a reflection that of course if you do something bad something bad will come to you.

But I see more karma as a teaching.

So if you do something bad karma will come back to you but to teach you that that's bad so that you can learn not to do it again.

Not just to have someone revenge on you or something.

So karma is something very very merciful and full of compassion and really it's life trying to teach you,

Try to make you grow,

Try to understand and raise your consciousness.

It's not a revenge from the universe towards something bad you did.

Yeah it very much connects back to what we talked about just before.

That if you're not resolving issues that they will keep coming back and really what bad actions are it's simply somehow just avoiding resolving one's issues so they will keep coming back.

So it's not really,

Just like you say,

It's not a punishment.

It's simply just a just natural cycle of events.

If you keep the kind of the stone in your shoe it's gonna keep bothering you until you take it out.

As long as you keep walking.

Sutra 15.

Parinama tapa samskara dukkhair gunavrtti virodhac ca dukkham eva sarvam vivekinah.

For one who has discrimination everything is suffering on account of the suffering produced by the consequences of action by pain itself and by the samskaras,

As well as on account of the suffering ensuing from the turmoil of the vrittis due to the gunas.

So some technical terms here but if one has heard about the four noble truths of the Buddha,

It's the same teaching given here by Patanjali.

The four noble truths of the Buddha is number one,

Life is suffering.

Number two,

The suffering is because we are attached to things.

Number three,

There is a way out of the suffering.

And number four is the practice that is the way out of the suffering.

And here,

Of course,

This sutra here is mainly talking about the first of the four noble truths,

Life is suffering.

Because he says here that for someone who has viveka,

Meaning that you are able to kind of analyze things in life,

That is a term very similar to buddhi,

Which buddha is someone who has buddhi,

Like intelligence or discrimination.

Here discrimination is not like,

Often this word is used with a negative connotation in today's society,

Like you discriminate between white and black or something,

But here it's like to be able to discriminate cause and effect in life.

So it says here for someone who has this kind of discrimination,

Everything in life is suffering.

And it is for,

Number one,

There are things we also find that we like that don't feel like suffering,

But they have the seed of suffering in them because we get used to them,

We like them,

But nothing lasts.

So someday it's gonna go and it's gonna be suffering.

Then number two,

There is also the kind of fear of losing the things that we have.

So that is like a suffering in itself.

There's either like suffering in potential,

Or there's the suffering in itself in the form of worrying about losing what we have.

Then there is,

Even if we appreciate the things we have and let go of them when they go,

There's still like an impression that we would like to experience something like that again.

So that kind of impression is what kind of keeps us in the cycle of rebirth.

And then number four is that there is also inherent suffering in the constantly shifting nature of the gunas,

These kind of strands of material nature,

Which we have talked about in several previous episodes.

But everything in this material world is built up of sattva,

Rajas,

And tama.

So goodness,

Passion,

And ignorance,

It has many layers and levels.

It can be,

For example,

The kind of mass of matter and the energy that gets it going,

And the balance between them.

So when we have a kind of balance in life,

That is sattva.

When we are restless,

That's rajas.

And when we are lazy,

That's ignorance,

Sattva,

Rajas,

And tamas.

LC.

Yeah,

There are quite a few very explanatory episodes we made on the Bhagavad Gita about these gunas.

AMR.

Then Sutra 16,

Hiyam dukkham anagatam.

Suffering that has yet to manifest is to be avoided.

So this means there are different types of suffering.

There is suffering that we can avoid by not letting it manifest,

Which is basically by doing yoga practice.

And then in the next sutra is introduced something that is going to be explained further in Sutras 23 and forward,

So that we will take up in the next episode.

But we will kind of speak a little bit now of what leads up to that.

So 17.

Drashtri drishyayo samyogo heya hetuhu.

The conjunction between the seer and that which is seen is the cause of suffering to be avoided.

So it's basically that we are mixing up the seer and the seen,

Like ourselves and what we are experiencing.

Like for example,

Just take a simple example,

Like we think we are our thoughts.

So for example,

If we are worrying about something,

We kind of identify with the worries,

And we think it's us,

Like I am this kind of worry.

I am worry,

We say.

Mm.

But it's something we are engaging in,

And we can actually learn to kind of stand back from that and just see it all pass like clouds in the sky.

It's a classical example from meditation practice.

Yeah,

Like I see the cloud,

I feel it,

But I let it go.

Like I feel the worry right now for this and this reason,

But it's unnecessary,

So I can let it go.

Yes.

And this kind of shows that although the yogi sees everything as suffering,

It's not like complaining about that or like,

Oh,

It's all suffering.

It's just kind of just admitting it and kind of finding peace with it.

So it's actually at the base level,

There is a sort of happiness in accepting that life is suffering,

Because then you can actually do something about it.

If you don't kind of accept that,

Then you're going to try to kind of hide from that fact.

Yeah.

Sutra 18,

Prakasha kriya sthiti silam butendriyatmakam bhogah pavargartam drsyam.

That which is knowable has the nature of illumination,

Activity,

And inertia.

So here it's again the three gunas,

Sattva,

Rajas,

And tamas.

It consists of the senses and the elements and exists for the purpose of providing either liberation or experience to Purusha.

So this means this nature that we are getting ourselves mixed up with,

That we think,

Like we are identifying with,

For example,

Our thoughts or things we see.

Here it's teaching us that these things that we see,

They exist for the purpose of providing either liberation or experience.

It means that until we want to kind of come up with this kind of at the root solution,

We will remain within this kind of cycle of experiences,

Which it says here,

It's fine.

It's actually even meant for that.

It's even meant for that.

Its material nature is meant for providing experience for us until we kind of come to the point of feeling that we are ready to dissolve our entanglement with it.

Sutra 19.

Vishesha vishesha linga matra lingani guna parvani.

The different stages of the guna qualities consist of the particularized,

The unparticularized,

The distinctive,

And the indistinctive.

So this is a very cryptic sutra.

Of course,

Most of the sutras are cryptic,

Unless we had all the commentaries.

We had to explain all these things.

But this one in particular I find cryptic even in the translation.

But the commentaries,

They talk about all the different elements of material nature and how some of them are kind of more basic in that they then evolve into other forms.

And then we had those kind of final evolutes.

Some examples given are,

Let's say that sound is one more kind of basic,

And then that evolves into ether.

So it's not that,

According to the Yoga Sutras and Sankhya philosophy,

It's not that,

For example,

The sense of smell is just like something that comes about by accident,

By things happening to smell good.

It's like the sense of smell is primary,

And then things that smell good are created after that to kind of facilitate the sense of smell.

So it's kind of a special way of thinking,

This kind of yoga philosophy.

And if we learn the kind of order of these elements,

Then we can learn to kind of turn the direction in which we go.

Like we kind of tend to go towards the evolutes.

But if we go backwards to the more primary forms of matter,

We can finally step back also from the kind of totality of matter itself and just dwell in our own being.

HN.

I think this is very beautiful and mind-opening.

MG.

Yeah,

It's really a shift in perspective.

It's very kind of actually exciting when one starts to kind of get into these things.

And we hope that our listeners will go to the commentaries,

Study it more,

Because we are simply giving a basic outline to kind of get some way into these topics,

Because they may seem at first to just be like,

What?

But if we have some sort of entrance,

Then we can learn more.

HN.

Yeah.

MG.

Okay,

So the last sutra for this episode,

Sutra 20.

Drashtah drishi-matrah suddhopi-pratyaya-nupasyah.

The seer is merely the power of seeing.

However,

Although pure,

He witnesses the images of the mind.

So it is still talking here about how we get mixed up with material nature.

We mix up soul and nature.

So the seer is merely the power of seeing.

So if these are,

Of course,

Things that are difficult to put into words,

The yoga sutras are attempting to,

As our teachers say,

Even though the words cannot really contain the whole truth about this.

It's like there's a power in the kind of in the compassion that these authors have.

Patanjali,

He's trying to convey something here,

And we can connect with that,

With his intention by studying the yoga sutras.

So even if we cannot grasp this thing of spirit and matter getting mixed up,

It is something that's happening above the level of intelligence.

So if we try to grasp it by intelligence,

We're not going to succeed.

HN.

But it's about getting to the heart of it,

As has been said in previous sections here,

Connecting with the kind of source consciousness,

God,

Or whatever anyone would like to call it,

He,

She.

Wondering what's God's preferred pronouns?

PW.

I think now recently in the US,

In the dictionary,

They change it with the non-pronouns.

They call it they,

If I remember correctly.

HN.

Okay.

Yeah.

Well,

That works.

It's something universal.

PW.

Yeah,

Yeah.

And about this principle,

Just to give a practical example,

It's like,

I think it's like if you have an orange,

You can study the orange as much as you want.

You can study the layers or all the colors.

You can know by theory how it tastes.

They taste sweet,

But also sour.

And you can read anything you want about the orange,

But until you taste it,

You don't really know what an orange is.

But at the same time,

It's very good to know everything you know about the orange so you don't go in,

You're not going to eat the skin,

For example.

So,

Knowledge is important in some way,

But it's not all.

Like,

You have to put it in practice.

HN.

Yes.

And that is exactly what this podcast is about.

PW.

Yeah.

HN.

So,

We are getting to the core here.

PW.

Yeah.

Good.

Good.

Wonderful.

So,

Let's just give a hint of what's going to be the next episode about.

HN.

Yes.

So,

As mentioned a few sutras back,

There is this kind of concept of the conjunction was introduced,

Like how a spirit and matter gets mixed up.

And that is going to be elaborated on in the coming sutras up until text 28.

PW.

Cool.

Good.

So,

Thank you so much.

As usual,

See you next time.

HN.

See you next time.

Bye.