What happens when ‘in yoga’?
Vula Bolou* looks at sūtra I.3 & I.4
They’ve got it in for Sarvāṅgāsana. Hardly a clarifying question passes the lips of the beginner for the more energetic āsanas. The teacher may casually ask students to do ten Ūrdhva Dhanurāsanas or Śīrṣāsana with Padmāsana variations – not so much as a grunt of effort is uttered! As soon as the prop setup for the ‘Mother of all āsanas’ is announced, they all start – suddenly the thirst for knowledge must be immediately quenched. “So, what does this pose do?” and “what is this good for?” When, then, the teacher recites the benefits as per Light on Yoga, i.e. all twenty five pages of them, fellow inquirers will hurriedly hush each other or they will begin invoking all compassionate deities for mercy and the end of it all.
Maybe this is what laconic Patañjali had in mind. The maharṣi commenced the Patañjali Yoga Sūtra (PYS), a treatise on yoga, by announcing the continuation of the study of yoga (atha yogānuśāsanaṃ I.1), then gave the definition of yoga or samādhi, as the terms are interchangeable in PYS (yogaścittavṛttinirodhaḥ I.2) and then got the two sides of the coin out of the way (I.3 & I.4) possibly to save having to deal with beginner questions, like the yogāsana teachers. Seasoned sādhakas will not have time for any this – they would be busy practicing the stopping of all mental activity, not igniting more. But the beginners will need to be enticed into action. Patañjali goes on to paint an idyllic picture for when yoga, or samādhi, is reached: “then, the seer dwells in his own true splendour” 1 , as Guruji describes. At the opposite end, Patañjali shares the downfall of the day-to-day experience of a non-accomplished mind: “at other times, the seer identifies with the fluctuating consciousness” 2 .
We have already laid the groundwork when we previously discussed sūtra I.2 3 about the definition of yoga.
yogaścittavṛttinirodhaḥ (PYS I.2)
yoga (is the) cessation (nirodhaḥ) of movements [vṛtti] (in the) consciousness [citta]
With the sūtra being terse and all, we have a bit more freedom to exercise our vṛttis before we stop them and mention the grammatical cases in Sanskrit. Sanskrit utilises no less than eight cases in order to be extremely precise and concise. Nominative (refers to subject), accusative (refers to object), instrumental (refers to method), dative (refers to purpose), ablative (refers to origin), genitive (refers to possession), locative (refers to location) and vocative (refers to evoking). We may use this knowledge to produce an accurate to the ancient text translation.
tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe ’vasthānaṃ (PYS I.3)
In typical Patañjalean style, there is continuation from the previous sūtra. Tadā (then) refers to I.2, meaning ‘when in yoga’, i.e when the fluctuations of the mind are stilled. Hence, when in yoga, there is avasthānam (situatedness). Svarūpe is a locative case and it means ‘in one’s own form’. Lastly, draṣṭuḥ is the seer, the soul, puruṣa, or, what Vyāsa in his commentary on PYS refers to as ‘the power of consciousness’ or citiśaktiḥ. draṣṭuḥ is in genitive case, so, word-by-word translation would be,
then [tadā] (there is) situatedness [avasthānaṃ] of the seer’s [draṣṭuḥ] own form [svarūpe] 4
Or, in Guruji’s poetic words reflecting his life’s epic journey,
then [tadā], the seer [draṣṭuḥ] dwells [avasthānaṃ] in his own true splendour [svarūpe]
A subsequent clarifying question begging for an answer is: what is the soul’s own form? One that is also ‘truly splendid’? Vyāsa is here for us to explain,
tadānīm citiśaktiḥ pratiṣṭhā svarūpa yathā kaivalye
At that time [tadānīm], the power of consciousness [citiśaktiḥ] is established [pratiṣṭhā] in its own nature [svarūpa], as in the state of perfect freedom [kaivalye]. 5
Like a child, where one question follows another and then another, the beginner will press on. And what is kaivalya? The word might ring a bell as the title of the final quarter of PYS, kaivalya pāda. Kaivalya is usually translated as emancipation, liberation or, in layman’s terms, the end of it all. This is what we, yogis, should be aiming for – and then, even stop aiming for that! Patañjali defines kaivalya in the very last sūtra (no. 196) of the last chapter, where there is a reference to I.3 and the exact same words are used.
puruṣārtha śūnyānāṁ guṇānāṁ prati prasavaḥ kaivalyaṁ svarūpa pratiṣṭhā vā citiśaktir iti (PYS IV.34)
Kaivalya, liberation, comes when the yogi has fulfilled the puruṣārthas, the fourfold aims of life, and has transcended the guṇas. Aims and guṇas return to their source, and consciousness is established in its own natural purity. 6
Ok, fine, this is all just great! The very tip of the iceberg, the cherry on the pie, the result that practitioners like Guruji get after 80 years of long, uninterrupted, alert practice. 7
sa tu dīrgha kāla nairantarya satkārāsevito dṛḍhabhūmiḥ (PYS I.14)
What about the day-to-day experience of the rest of us? Your average beginner barely gets to grips with three minutes of Sālamba Sarvāṅgāsana, let alone manage to still the mind. Well, what happens is,
vṛtti sārūpyam itaratra (PYS I.4)
at other times [itaratra], (the seer) identifies [sārūpyam] with the fluctuating consciousness [vṛtti]
Consciousness and its constituent parts (manas, buddhi, ahaṁkāra), which are all elements of prakṛti, are attracted to objects. This attraction obscures the seer’s svarūpa. And because this svarūpa is temporarily hidden, consciousness takes the form of all other objects, i.e. the vṛttis. But despair not, fellow yogis. It might appear that the outgoing mind is not so centred in its own nature,
though in reality it always is, says Vyāsa 8 .
What to do then? To start with, we have to read on! We have only got so far as the first four verses in PYS and Patañjali still has a wealth of practical advice to offer in the remaining treatise. In the meantime though, working on extending the length of stay in Sarvāṅgāsana can only be of help. After all, Guruji Iyengar made sure to illuminate the right path for all of us.
Footnotes
1. Iyengar, B.K.S. Light on the yoga sūtras of Patañjali, Thorsons, 1996 edition. (p. 48)
2. Iyengar, B.K.S. Light on the yoga sūtras of Patañjali, Thorsons, 1996 edition. (p. 49)
3. Bolou, Vula Iyengar Yoga News, issue 45, Spring 2024
4. Vassiliades, Dimitrios patañjalayogasūtrāṇi, ELINEPA, pending publication 2025.
5. https://www.sanskrit-trikashaivism.com/en/vyasa-comments-on-patanjali-yoga-sutras-I-1-13/632
6. Iyengar, B.K.S. Light on the yoga sūtras of Patañjali, Thorsons, 1996 edition. (p. 265)
7. Iyengar, B.K.S. Light on the yoga sūtras of Patañjali, Thorsons, 1996 edition. (p. 59)
8. https://archive.org/details/PatanjalisYogaSutraswithTheCommentaryOfVyasaAndTheGlossOfVacha
spatiMisraRamaPrasadTranslation/page/n23/mode/2up
* Vula Bolou (BSc, MSc, CIYT (Level 3) lives in Athens, Greece with her family and Margie, the Persian cat. She teaches in her overflowing-with-props studio, escapes to nature as often as possible and looks forward to her yoga retreats in the summer. Chanting vedic hymns and studying Indian philosophy are part of her daily sādhana.
Articles by Vula Bolou on INDIKA
What is yoga INDIKA 2024
Introduction to the invocation to Patañjali, INDIKA 2024
The Gurur Brahmā chant – gratitude to the guru, INDIKA 2024
SANTORINI – THE IDEAL YOGA HOLIDAY DESTINATION FOR INDIANS, INDIKA 2017
DEFINING YOGA, INDIKA 2016
This article first appeared in Iyengar Yoga News, issue 46, Autumn 2024