Sūtra 3.1

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 3.1:

देशबन्धश्चित्तस्य धारणा ॥ ३.१ ॥

deśabandhaścittasya dhāraṇā || 3.1 ||

1. Steadfastness is the confinement of the thinking principle to one place.

The Rajamartanda commentary by King Bhoja:

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

[Sanskrit text for commentary available]

May Bhūtanātha, (the lord of elements,) by the thought of whose lotus feet, the occult powers of Animā and the rest are attained by thinkers, be to our prosperity!

With a view to describe the three accessories of the Yoga, Dhāraṇā, &c., already referred to, (C. II A. XXIX) and to explain the external, the internal, and other Siddhis, Patañjali begins this chapter, adverting first to the explanation of the term Saṃyama.

[Read Sūtra 3.1]

“To one place” (deśe), i.e., in the navel-wheel, the tip of the nose, or the like. “Confinement” (bandha) of the thinking principle is making the thinking principle steady (on one object) by excluding (the thought of) all other objects. This (confinement to one place) is called Dhāraṇā or the steadfastness of the thinking principle.

The meaning is this:—The Yogī, who has purified his internal organ by benevolence and other acts of refining the thinking principle, who has accomplished the restraints and the obligations, who has acquired mastery over his postures, who has subdued the vital airs, who has abstracted himself from the field of the senses, who has conquered the pairs (cf. C. II A. xlvIIi), should, in a quiet place, and in an erect posture, by fixing it to one object, such as the tip of the nose, produce steadfastness of the thinking principle for the practice of discriminate meditation.

Notes and Extracts

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

[The occult powers (vibhūtis) are the following: 1, aṇimā, “molicularity,” extreme minuteness, or parvitude, or invisibility; 2, Laghimā, “extreme lightness,” levity, tenuity, or incorporeality; 3, Prāpti, “accessibility,” or touching anything at will, as touching the moon with the tip of one’s finger; 4, Prākāmya, “wilfulness,” or irresistibility of will, fulfilment of every wish; 5, Garimā, “excessive pondrosity,” magnitude, or illimitable bulk; 6, Īśitā, “sovereignty,” or supreme dominion over animate and inanimate nature; 7, Vaśitā, “subjugation,” the power of changing the course of nature; 8, Kāmāvaśāyitā, “self-control,” or the power of suppressing all carnal longings. These are also indicated by the term ṛddhi, and also by siddhi or perfections. Inasmuch, however, as siddhi is applied to other profections it is sometimes qualified by the term mahā. The powers are also indicated by the terms bhūti and aiśvarya.]

Thereof, he describes the nature of steadfastness.

[Read Sūtra 3.1]

[The preliminary obligations and restraints having been accomplished, and the habit of assuming the various kinds of seats having been acquired, the Yogī should engage himself in training his thinking principle so as to be able to keep it unswervingly steady to any object to which he may wish to direct it; and this unswerving fixity is called Dhāraṇā, or steadfastness. This steadfastness cannot be acquired without a substratum. There must be some object to which the thinking principle can be applied, whether it be the tip of the nose, or a plexus of nerves in the belly, or the crown of the bead, or the ether, or the sky, for without it, in the preliminary stage, the thinking principle would be wandering. And inasmuch as there must be a substratum, the steadfastness of thinking produced by it comes under the head of discriminate meditation (saṃprajñāta-samādhi). (C. I A. XVII.) Practically it is a state of steady, immovable abstraction, but the word abstraction would be an indirect and not a direct definition of Dhāraṇā, inasmuch as abstraction gives prominence to the act of withdrawing or separating, leaving the result of the act in the background, whereas Dhāraṇā gives prominence to the fixation of the thinking principle to one point, leaving the separation or withdrawing from other things to be tacitly implied.

The Pātañjala Bhāṣya defines “Dhāraṇā to be the fixation of the function of the thinking principle on the navel-wheel, or on the lotus of the heart, or on the light in the head, or on the tip of the nose, or on the point of the tongue, or on such other place, or on some external object.”—

(nābhicakre hṛdaya-puṇḍarīke mūrdhni jyotiṣi nāsikāgre jīhvāgra-ityādiṣu deśeṣu vāhye vā viṣaye cittasya vṛttimātreṇa bandha iti bandho dhāraṇā.)

The “external object” of the commentator is explained by Vijñāna Bhikṣu to mean the image of a divinity.]

Having defined steadfastness, with a view to define contemplation he says: