English Translation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Books I-IV
Book I: Consciousness and Superconsciousness (Samadhi Pada)
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
30. The obstacles, or mental distractions, are sickness, laziness, doubt, lack of attention and enthusiasm, lack of energy, sensuality, false perception, and failure to attain or maintain concentration.
31. The symptoms of a distracted mind are grief, anxiety, trembling, and irregular breathing.
32. To overcome these symptoms one should meditate on one particular truth (ekatattva).
33. By cultivating feelings of friendship toward the happy, compassion toward the unhappy, joy toward the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked, the mind becomes purified and calm.
34. Also the mind becomes calm by regulating the expulsion and retention of the breath (pranayama).
35. Or the mind becomes controlled and stable through the changes produced by extraordinary sense perceptions.
36. Or by meditating on the shining Inner Light (jyotismatee) which is beyond all suffering.
37. Or by meditating on one who has attained desirelessness.
38. Or by meditating on the subconscious knowledge gained from dreams or dreamless sleep.
39. Or by meditating on anything which particularly appeals.
40. By such meditations the yogi gains mastery over all from the atomic to the infinite.
41. The yogi whose mind retains only one object of concentration becomes identified with either the knowable object, the method of knowing, or the knower, as pure crystal becomes coloured by objects placed nearby.
42. The first stage of this mode of concentration is when the name, meaning, and knowledge of an object are intermingled. This is called superconsciousness "with questioning" (savitarka samadhi).
- The second stage, superconsciousness "beyond questioning" (nirvitarka samadhi), is attained when memory is so controlled that the object of concentration is known directly without interference from memories of it.
- Two higher stages of superconsciousness where the object of concentration is a subtle element (suksam visayam) are explained in a similar way. These are superconsciousness "with meditation" (savichara samadhi) and superconsciousness "beyond meditation" (nirvichara samadhi).
- The province of the subtle elements extends up to the very essence of Nature (prakriti). [See Book I:16.]
- All these stages of superconsciousness are called samadhis "with seed."
- With the pure flow of consciousness in nirvichara samadhi comes a spiritual clarity.
- And in this stage discriminative knowledge becomes identical with natural law.
- Because this discriminative knowledge is specific and complete, it differs in essence from knowledge gained from scriptures or by logical analysis.
- The mental impression arising from nirvichara samadhi prevents all other impressions.
- With
the control even of that impression all impressions cease and that samadhi
is called "without seed" (nirvikalpa samadhi).