Yoga-sutras (with Bhoja’s Rajamartanda)
by Rajendralala Mitra | 1883 | 103,575 words
The Yoga-Sutra 2.24, 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 2.24
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 2.14:
ते ह्लादपरितापफलाः पुण्यापुण्यहेतुत्वात् ॥ २.१४ ॥
te hlādaparitāpaphalāḥ puṇyāpuṇyahetutvāt || 2.14 ||
14. Its cause is ignorance.
The Rajamartanda commentary by King Bhoja:
[English translation of the 11th century commentary by Bhoja called the Rājamārtaṇḍa]
[Sanskrit text for commentary available]
That which has been described before (II, IV) as “ignorance” (avidyā), having the nature of doubt and delusion, is the cause of the conjunction which has the form of indiscriminateness.
Notes and Extracts
[Notes and comparative extracts from other commentaries on the Yogasūtra]
[The object of the text is to say that ignorance is the cause of the conjunction of soul with intellect, and that conjunction produces indiscriminateness, or the want of power on the part of soul to distinguish between itself and intellect, and the failure to do so leads to the feeling of the pleasures and afflictions of the world being borne by it. When the differences of the two are distinguished, the conjunction dissolves, and soul is free. Dr. Ballantyne has been misled by the presence of the word heya in the preamble of the following aphorism into the supposition that that word is a part of the aphorism under notice, and having incorporated it be has interpreted it as such. The word, however, has been cited with reference to its use in a preceding aphorism.]
The avoidable (heya) is the objective of the verb to avoid (hā), and to explain what that avoidance is, he says: