Sūtra 2.16

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 2.16:

हेयं दुःखमनागतम् ॥ २.१६ ॥

heyaṃ duḥkhamanāgatam || 2.16 ||

16. Avoidable is the pain not yet come.

The Rajamartanda commentary by King Bhoja:

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

[Sanskrit text for commentary available]

Since pain, residua, works, and the fund of deserts, as aforesaid, are produced by Ignorance, and since Ignorance is of the form of false knowledge, and should be destroyed by perfect knowledge, and since perfect knowledge is that which decides what should be rejected and the cause thereof, and what should be approved and its cause, he says this by way of explanation:

[Read Sūtra 2.16]

Inasmuch as the past is gone (and cannot be recalled), and that which is being experienced cannot be avoided, that worldly pain which has not yet come (but may come) is what should be avoided. This is what is said here.

Notes and Extracts

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

[The word heya is derived from the root hā ‘to quit,’ and means both that which should be shunned and that which can be avoided. The English equivalent has not this double sense, but it affords the nearest approach to the Sanskrit term. The injunction is, since the past and the present are beyond control, exertion should be made to preclude the possibility of future pain. Dr. Ballantyne is quite right in rendering the aphorism into “what is to be shunned is pain not yet come,” but when heya is used as an adjective, this phrase “that which is to be shunned,” is too lumbering to be used with convenience. Avoidance-worthy conveys the exact meaning, and is more easy of manipulation, but it too is lumbering. A single term is wanted, and, not knowing any English word of the kind, I use what appears to me to approach the nearest to the original, without being its exact equivalent.]

He now describes the cause of the avoidable.