Introduction To The Yoga Sutras: Samadhi Pada

In this Yoga Sutra lesson, we will look at the philosophy of yoga as described by Pantanjali in book 1, Samadhi Pada, of the Yoga Sutras and how our thoughts can either bind us or we can be liberated from them.

Transcript

Hello everyone,

This is Melissa and welcome to my next lesson on the introduction to yoga sutras.

So in this lesson I'm just going to briefly describe book one out of the four books of Pentangeles sutras.

So book one is called Samadhi Pada which also means in English walking the path toward bliss or taking a step toward bliss.

Now in this book the sutras there's 51 of them and Pentangeles uses these sutras to describe what yoga is,

How yoga is practiced,

The philosophy behind yoga and how yoga is used to alleviate suffering created by the mind.

So Samadhi is the bliss that is felt when we are free from suffering caused by the mind no matter what is happening in our reality.

And the purpose of yoga is when yoga is practiced as Pentangeles described we no longer suffer from thoughts created by the mind.

So Pentangeles describes ways in which our thoughts create suffering and the path toward moksha or liberation from thoughts and realizing that the ego creates a lot of suffering through the different thoughts biases and judgments that we have and how we can ascend and rise above the ego in order to remain peaceful and to remain in that blissful state of Samadhi.

So we can either be a victim of circumstance or we can be a victor over circumstances and it's all about perception as we will go over when we start going through the sutras.

So think of this as an example as an example of a prison and in the prison there are prisoners who feel that they are confined and bound toward the prison and they cannot leave the prison.

And then there's the prison guards who are there to work and earn and gain financial freedom and they are free to leave when their shift is over.

So they're both in the same building but yet one feels confined and the other feels free.

So we can choose that way with our own thoughts we can either be bound by them and feel confined and restricted through what we are thinking or we can be free and think something else and change our perceptions and change our focus toward freedom and liberation.

So it's all a state of mind of how we look at things.

So our perceptions can either make or break us.

We also have to realize that not one person has the same perception as we do.

If we are all sitting in a room everybody is looking at the room differently,

Hearing things differently,

Feeling things differently,

Depending on so many different factors that not one person is perceiving it the same way.

So this is where a lot of suffering is caused in the world nowadays because we're so attached to try to get someone to see things as we do.

But we have to realize everybody has their own set of biases and judgments that we can't focus on trying to get others to see things the way we do.

What we have to do is instead of projecting our judgments and biases on others,

Rising above the ego and residing in a place of peace.

So in this book,

In the Samadhi Pada of the sutras,

We will go over each sutra and look at Pantanjali's philosophy of why yoga is what yoga is and how yoga should be practiced and the philosophy on practicing yoga so we can be free from thoughts in which bind us,

Such as the prison.

And we can be free from the thoughts and no longer be the victim of what has happened to us.

We can't hold on to the past.

And we also can't anticipate the future because the past,

Both are false,

The past and the future.

They're both false.

The past is done and over with and as it gets further and further away,

Whatever we experienced in the past,

Things start to change.

We no longer remember it as it happened.

And in the future,

It hasn't even happened yet.

And then things can definitely change based on course of action in which we're taking.

So things may or may not happen the way as we perceive them in our mind.

So the only truth is being in the present moment.

So Pantanjali in his sutras goes over being in a blissful state in the present moment and shifting our focus and our perceptions toward truth and finding our inner truth and finding our inner light.

So in the next lesson,

We will look at the first yoga sutra.

And then we will go through each one and taking a look at these principles of yoga.

So until next time,

I'll see you guys soon.

Namaste.