Yoga-sutras (with Bhoja’s Rajamartanda)
by Rajendralala Mitra | 1883 | 103,575 words
The Yoga-Sutra 1.51, English translation with Commentaries. The Yogasutra of Patanjali represents a collection of aphorisms dealing with spiritual topics such as meditation, absorption, Siddhis (yogic powers) and final liberation (Moksha). The Raja-Martanda is officialy classified as a Vritti (gloss) which means its explanatory in nature, as opposed to being a discursive commentary.
Sūtra 1.51
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 1.51:
तस्यापि निरोधे सर्वनिरोधान्निर्बीजः समाधिः ॥ १.५१ ॥
tasyāpi nirodhe sarvanirodhānnirbījaḥ samādhiḥ || 1.51 ||
51. On the removal of this also, everything being removed, there is meditation without a seed.
The Rajamartanda commentary by King Bhoja:
[English translation of the 11th century commentary by Bhoja called the Rājamārtaṇḍa]
[Sanskrit text for commentary available]
Having thus described conscious meditation, he now explains the un conscious form of meditation, (Aph. XVIII).
[Read Sūtra 1.51]
“Of this,” i.e., of conscious meditation. “Removal” (nirodha) is dissolution. On its dissolution all functions of thought melting into their causes, and the mere residua which arise in this state being also rejected by the conviction “this is not, this is not,” meditation without a seed becomes manifest. On this being accomplished the soul (puruṣa) becomes pure, and abides solely in its own nature.
Notes and Extracts
[Notes and comparative extracts from other commentaries on the Yogasūtra]
[The Pātañjala Bhāṣya explains the aphorism thus: “That meditation is not only antagonistic to the impressions of the Samādhi state, but also to the residua left by those impressions. But how do the residua of the suppressed (nirodka) state remove the residua of the meditative state? By the influence of the duration of the suppressed state the existence alone of the impressions produced by the suppressed thinking principle is perceptible. As the thinking principle then merges into its own natural form along with all the impressions of the waking, the meditative, the suppressed and the isolated states, their residua can no longer be antagonistic to the natural state of the thinking principle, nor the causes of its (separate) existence. And since the thinking principle, divested of its functions, along with the residua of the isolated state, is suppressed, and in that suppression the soul resides in its own form, it is called pure and liberated.”]