Sūtra 2.6

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 2.6:

दृग्दर्शनशक्त्योरेकात्मतेवास्मिता ॥ २.६ ॥

dṛgdarśanaśaktyorekātmatevāsmitā || 2.6 ||

6. Egoism is the identifying of the power that sees with the power of seeing.

The Rajamartanda commentary by King Bhoja:

[English translation of the 11th century commentary by Bhoja called the Rājamārtaṇḍa]

[Sanskrit text for commentary available]

“The power that sees” (dṛk-śakti,) is the soul (Puruṣa). “The power of seeing” (darśana-śakti) is the internal organ produced by the quality of goodness unaffected by the qualities of foulness and darkness. What is said is, that the assumption of the two extremely different things,—the one being the enjoyer and the other the enjoyed—the active and the inert,—being the same is egoism (asmitā). Thus, when nature (prakṛti), though really devoid of the power of enjoying and of intelligence, fancies “I am the enjoyer,” “I am the intelligent,” the blunder is the affliction called egoism.

Notes and Extracts

[Notes and comparative extracts from other commentaries on the Yogasūtra]

[The internal organ is a modification of the quality of goodness, which marks the distinction between itself and the things around it. In this state it is egotism; but when that internal organ ceases to perform this function, and only a sense of mere existence is felt in the thinking principle without any distinction of the self and the things around it is egoism. This definition was anticipated by the commentator in his remarks on A. XVII chapter I, (p. 19) and the author gives it here.]

He defines desire.