Yoga Sutras I, 3-4: The Self in Relation to Consciousness

Yoga Discussion Structural Yoga Therapy
#1

The Self in Relation to Consciousness

[b]I, 3 tada drasthuh svarupe avasthanam

When this happens,
then the Seer is revealed,
resting in its own essential nature,
and one realizes
the True
Self.

1, 4 vritti sarupyam itaratra

At all other times
the Self
appears
to assume the form
of thought?s
vacillations
and the True Self
is
lost.[/b]

M. Stiles

Sw. Satchidananda explains that the Self is neither body nor mind nor is it the thoughts the mind creates. All of these thoughts obscure the true Self; they are like waves on a lake. When all the ripples subside and the water is still, then the reflection is clear; otherwise the reflection is distorted. Vritti are the waves and ripples that distort the reflection of the True Self.

Iyengar states that when Self identifies with fluctuating consciousness, it forgets itself: ?The natural tendency of consciousness is to become involved with the object seen, draw the seer towards it and moves the seer to identify with it. Then the seer becomes engrossed in the object. This becomes the seed for diversification of the intelligence and makes the seer forget his own radiant awareness? (p.49)

Sw. Satchidananda explains that when we begin to identify with thoughts, we identify with an idea or an object. For example, ?I am a man.? I am a millionaire.? ?I am a mother.? ?I am a husband?.
He asks ?But without any identifications, who are you? Have you ever thought about it? When you really understand that, you will see we are all the same.?
?If I use the term ?spirit? or ?Self?, you may hesitate to believe me, but if the physicist says the wall is nothing but energy, you will believe that. So using the scientist?s language, there is nothing but energy everywhere. Event the atom is a form of energy. The same energy appears in different forms to which we also give different names. So form and name are just different versions of the same energy. And according to the Yogic scientists like Patanjali ? and even modern scientists ? behind the different forms of energy is one unchanging consciousness.?
?That means that behind all these ever-changing phenomena is a never-changing one. That one appears to change due to our mental modifications. So by changing your mind, you change everything.? (p.8-9)

Iyengar, B.K.S. Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. New Delhi, India: Harper Collins Publications India. 1993

Swami Satchidananda. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Buckingham, VA: Integral Yoga Publications. 2004

Stiles, M. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Boston, MA: Red Wheel/Weiser LLC. 2002

#2

This is good reflection. Persist at finding the truth of your self. namaste mukunda

#3

:smiley: Thank you for your feedback :smiley:

#4

“When the waves of consciousness are stilled and silenced, they can no longer distort the true expression of the soul. Revealed in his own nature , the radiant seer abides in his own grandeur.”

Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. B.K.S. Iyengar.
Page 52

#5

“When the soul does not radiate its own glory, it is a sign that the thinking faculty has manifested itself in place of the soul.”

“Citta projects itself, taking on the form of the objects in order to possess them. Thus it becomes enveloped by thoughts of the objects, with the result that the soul is obscured. In this way, citta becomes murky and causes changes in behaviour and mood as it identifies itself with things seen.”

Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. B.K.S. Iyengar
Page 53

#6

For me the stilling of the mind is expanded in these two sutras. When the mind is still our true nature can be seen, glimpsed, known or acknowledged. We age through life (our body) but there is an essence in ourselves that we know never changes. I believe this part of me has never changed, it is the same now as it was when a child. It is the part of me that will never age. The part that likes to sing dance and laugh but not in a high spirited way - in a knowing way of happiness and contentment - my truth.

Alistair Shearer translates the sutras “When the mind has settled, we are established in our essential nature, which is unbounded consciousness” and “Our essential nature is usually overshadowed by the activity of the mind”.

It is the mind which stops us seeing our true nature and by using yoga practices to still mind and body we may look on this part of nature.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Alistair Shearer p90

#7

In reading Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras regardless of the commentator, one must realize that this darshan (world view) is dualistic in its foundation. Purusha and Prakruti are separated and never become one. The goal of Patanjali Yoga is isolation of the two, from this one can see the separation of Spirit and matter. The realization is not union as many wish he said. Patanjali defines 5 different paths, cited by Krishnamacharya, and clarified in the introduction to my Yoga Sutra interpretation. For those who experience naturally arising samadhi this goal is realized by surrender to God, via chapter one.

      However for those seeking to purify themselves and those doing asana sadhana chapter two is the path.  Suffering is the primal issue that motivates these students.  He makes it clear after all in II, 3-10 that all our perceptions are based in avidya, ignorance.  There is no getting around illusory thinking, no matter how much the mind is paused or stopped. 

  To those who wish to truly know the truth of the One Being a different text is needed rather than misinterpreting or wishing Patanjali said something that is really untrue. 

    A deeper process is nondualism.  For me the favorite is Vasistha's Yoga and also Tantrik Kashmir Shaivism texts such as Vijnana Bhairava Tantra and the Yoga Spandkarikas. Vasistha states that the mind is the Self.  Nothing you do can make the Self reveal itself.  It is not subject to your actions, or thought.  To know the Self is to know that all is the Self just as it is free of the mind's tendency to add on.  It is the pause between breaths, and thus the pause between thoughts that reveals the Self.  See this text translated by Swami Venkatesananda, SUNY Press.  Blessings.  

      Vasistha states that for success in self realization three aids are needed - study of a scripture, aided by a spiritual teacher who helps you to think clearer, and self effort focused on illumination.  If you lack a spiritual teacher than what you have for a teacher is a fool.  Humility and surrender to a teacher is necessary to train the mind to sustain the state of reverence crucial for the ability to hold the experience of the Self.   All the effort spent in finding a spiritual teacher to illumine you through the help of timeless texts, is the best effort spent.  Blessings, mukunda stiles
#8

I K Taimni suggests that this state of Self-realization (1.3) cannot be known while we are involved with the citta-vrttis. Only after we have mastered the whole theory and technique of Yoga outlined in the treatise can this happen.

To try to understand (1.4) we are told to imagine a light bulb placed in a tank of limpid water. When the water is churned violently it makes many patterns around the light bulb, which are illuminated by the light, the patterns change from moment to moment. The bulb may even disappear from view, the light lost in the surrounding water. Then imagine the water churning more slowly, eventually becoming still. As the patterns subside the bulb emerges into view and eventually only the bulb is seen. The bulb (Purusha) doesn?t actually change throughout this process.

IK Taimni. The Science of Yoga. The theosophical Publishing House, Adyar 2005

#9

One very important distinction to be made about Patanjali is that Purusha and Prakriti are separate and are never in the state of oneness. By stilling the waves of thought the Purusha can be experienced as the Self independent from the world. This view of realization is not the highest but is the highest Patanjali and Samkhya offer. It essentially is an isolation of the two, more explicitly spoken of in chapter 4. This is attained by the process of samadhi becoming more ingrained, a naturally arising state of merging with the Self and not engaging into the world as providing any lasting joy.

    The fullness of the Self as omnipresence would be as in the description where both the water, the bulb and the swirling motions are all experienced as the Self.  It is a process of true Realization; not a state due to a purified or focused mind.   In contrast this process taught through Kashmir Shaivism, Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, Yoga Vasistha, and Tibetan teachings of Padmasambhava all is inherently one and no separation is possible except due to a poorly conditioned mind.  namaste mukunda stiles