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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is a foundational text of Yoga . It forms part of the corpus of Sutra literature dating to India's Mauryan period . In Indian philosophy , Yoga (also Raja Yoga to distinguish it from later schools) is the name of one of the six orthodox philosophical schools. See below
The Sutras are built on a foundation of Samkhya philosophy and also exhibit the influence of Upanishadic and Buddhist thought. (From Wikipedia)
1
OM: Here follows Instruction in Union.
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Union, spiritual consciousness, is gained through control of the versatile psychic nature.
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Then the Seer comes to consciousness in his proper nature.
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Heretofore the Seer has been enmeshed in the activities of the psychic nature.
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The psychic activities are five; they are either subject or not subject to the five hindrances (see Book 2, verse 3).
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These activities are: Sound intellection, unsound intellection, predication, sleep, memory.
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The elements of sound intellection are: direct observation, inductive reason, and trustworthy testimony.
The right kinds of knowledge are: direct perception, inference and scriptural testimony. [Pranabananda and Isherwood]
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Unsound intellection is false understanding, not resting on a perception of the true nature of things.
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Predication is carried on through words or thoughts not resting on an object perceived.
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Sleep is the psychic condition which rests on mind states, all material things being absent.
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Memory is holding to mind-images of things perceived, without modifying them.
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The control of these psychic activities comes through the right use of the will, and through ceasing from self- indulgence.
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The right use of the will is the steady, effort to stand in spiritual being.
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This becomes a firm resting-place, when followed long, persistently, with earnestness.
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Ceasing from self-indulgence is conscious mastery over the thirst for sensuous pleasure here or hereafter.
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The consummation of this is freedom from thirst for any mode of psychical activity, through the establishment of the spiritual man.
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Meditation with an object follows these stages: first, exterior examining, then interior judicial action, then joy, then realisation of individual being.
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After the exercise of the will has stilled the psychic activities, meditation rests only on the fruit of former meditations.
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Subjective consciousness arising from a natural cause is possessed by those who have laid aside their bodies and been absorbed into subjective nature.
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For the others, there is spiritual consciousness, led up to by faith, valour right mindfulness, one- pointedness, perception.
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Spiritual consciousness is nearest to those of keen, intense will.
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The will may be weak, or of middle strength, or intense.
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Or spiritual consciousness may be gained by ardent service of the Master.
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The Master is the spiritual man, who s free from hindrances, bondage to works, and the fruition and seed of works.
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In the Master is the perfect seed of Omniscience.
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He is the Teacher of all who have gone before, since he is not limited by Time.
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His word is OM.
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Let there be soundless repetition of OM and meditation thereon.
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Thence come the awakening of interior consciousness, and the removal of barriers.
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The barriers to interior consciousness, which drive the psychic nature this way and that, are these: sickness, inertia, doubt, lightmindedness, laziness, intemperance, false notions, inability to reach a stage of meditation, or to hold it when reached.
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Grieving, despondency, bodily restlessness, the drawing in and sending forth of the life-breath also contribute to drive the psychic nature to and fro.
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Steady application to a principle is the way to put a stop to these.
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By sympathy with the happy, compassion for the sorrowful, delight in the holy, disregard of the unholy, the psychic nature moves to gracious peace.
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Or peace may be reached by the even sending forth and control of the life-breath.
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Faithful, persistent application to any object, if completely attained, will bind the mind to steadiness.
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As also will a joyful, radiant spirit.
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Or the purging of self-indulgence from the psychic nature.
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Or a pondering on the perceptions gained in dreams and dreamless sleep.
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Or meditative brooding on what is dearest to the heart.
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Thus he masters all, from the atom to the Infinite.
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When the perturbations of the psychic nature have all been stilled, then the consciousness, like a pure crystal, takes the colour of what it rests on, whether that be the perceiver, perceiving, or the thing perceived.
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When the consciousness, poised in perceiving, blends together the name, the object dwelt on and the idea, this is perception with exterior consideration.
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When the object dwells in the mind, clear of memory-pictures, uncoloured by the mind, as a pure luminous idea, this is perception without exterior or consideration.
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The same two steps, when referring to things of finer substance, are said to be with, or without, judicial action of the mind.
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Subtle substance rises in ascending degrees, to that pure nature which has no distinguishing mark.
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The above are the degrees of limited and conditioned spiritual consciousness, still containing the seed of separateness.
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When pure perception without judicial action of the mind is reached, there follows the gracious peace of the inner self.
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In that peace, perception is unfailingly true.
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The object of this perception is other than what is learned from the sacred books, or by sound inference, since this perception is particular.
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The impress on the consciousness springing from this perception supersedes all previous impressions.
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When this impression ceases, then, since all impressions have ceased, there arises pure spiritual consciousness, with no seed of separateness left.
1
The practices which make for union with the Soul are: fervent aspiration, spiritual reading, and complete obedience to the Master.
2
Their aim is, to bring soul-vision, and to wear away hindrances.
3
These are the hindrances: the darkness of unwisdom, self-assertion, lust hate, attachment.
4
The darkness of unwisdom is the field of the others. These hindrances may be dormant, or worn thin, or suspended, or expanded.
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The darkness of ignorance is: holding that which is unenduring, impure, full of pain, not the Soul, to be eternal, pure, full of joy, the Soul.
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Self -assertion comes from thinking of the Seer and the instrument of vision as forming one self.
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Lust is the resting in the sense of enjoyment.
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Hate is the resting in the sense of pain.
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Attachment is the desire toward life, even in the wise, carried forward by its own energy.
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These hindrances, when they have become subtle, are to be removed by a countercurrent.
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Their active turnings are to be removed by meditation.
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The burden of bondage to sorrow has its root in these hindrances. It will be felt in this life, or in a life not yet manifested.
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From this root there grow and ripen the fruits of birth, of the life-span, of all that is tasted in life.
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These bear fruits of rejoicing, or of affliction, as they are sprung from holy or unholy works.
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To him who possesses discernment, all personal life is misery, because it ever waxes and wanes, is ever afflicted with restlessness, makes ever new dynamic impresses in the mind; and because all its activities war with each other.
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This pain is to be warded off, before it has come.
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The cause of what is to be warded off, is the absorption of the Seer in things seen.
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Things seen have as their property manifestation, action, inertia. They form the basis of the elements and the sense-powers. They make for experience and for liberation.
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The grades or layers of the Three Potencies are the defined, the undefined, that with distinctive mark, that without distinctive mark.
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The Seer is pure vision. Though pure, he looks out through the vesture of the mind.
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The very essence of things seen is, that they exist for the Seer.
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Though fallen away from him who has reached the goal, things seen have not alto fallen away, since they still exist for others.
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The association of the Seer with things seen is the cause of the realising of the nature of things seen, and also of the realising of the nature of the Seer.
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The cause of this association is the darkness of unwisdom.
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The bringing of this association to an end, by bringing the darkness of unwisdom to an end, is the great liberation; this is the Seer's attainment of his own pure being.
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A discerning which is carried on without wavering is the means of liberation.
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His illuminations is sevenfold, rising in successive stages.
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From steadfastly following after the means of Yoga, until impurity is worn away, there comes the illumination of thought up to full discernment.
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The eight means of Yoga are: the Commandments, the Rules, right Poise, right Control of the life-force, Withdrawal, Attention, Meditation, Contemplation.
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The Commandments are these: nom injury, truthfulness, abstaining from stealing, from impurity, from covetousness.
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The Commandments, not limited to any race, place, time or occasion, universal, are the great obligation.
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The Rules are these: purity, serenity fervent aspiration, spiritual reading, and per feet obedience to the Master.
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When transgressions hinder, the weight of the imagination should be thrown' on the opposite side.
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Transgressions are injury