Yoga-sutras (with Bhoja’s Rajamartanda)
by Rajendralala Mitra | 1883 | 103,575 words
The Yoga-Sutra 3.33, 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 3.33
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 3.33:
प्रातिभाद्वा सर्वम् ॥ ३.३३ ॥
prātibhādvā sarvam || 3.33 ||
33. Or from Prātibha, everything.
The Rajamartanda commentary by King Bhoja:
[English translation of the 11th century commentary by Bhoja called the Rājamārtaṇḍa]
[Sanskrit text for commentary available]
He now describes the means of becoming all-knowing.
[Read Sūtra 3.33]
Pratibhā is that knowledge which is independent of cause, produced solely in the mind, uncontradictory, and suddenly evolved. By performing Saṃyama with reference to it this Prātibha knowledge, called Tāraka or emancipator, which results before the manifestation of thorough knowledge, arises. Even as the light which becomes apparent before the rising sun, so this Tāraka, or knowledge of everything before the manifestation of thorough knowledge, becomes apparent. When this is the case, the Yogī can know everything without resource to any particular Saṃyama.
Notes and Extracts
[Notes and comparative extracts from other commentaries on the Yogasūtra]
[The Pātañjala Bhāṣya explains the word Prātibha by the phrase Prātibham nāma tārakam, which may mean the Morning Star, the one which is visible a little before sunrise, or that it is an emancipator. Patañjali, perhaps, referred to the star, as the light of that star prepares the way for the illumination of the universe by the sun; but Bhoja, having set a limit to external objects at the close of the 28th aphorism, is compelled to take the Pratibhā to be something different. According to his definition, it is a sort of instinct, or intuition, “the knowledge which is independant of cause, produced solely in the mind, uncontradictory, and suddenly evolved.” He has, nevertheless, been obliged to preserve the relation of the star to the sun by referring to the illumination resulting from sunrise. The morning star is not, like the Polar star, always the same, different planets serving its place at different times, and this uncertainty must have told against the material meaning being accepted as the right one. Whether the practising Yogī should think on the morning star, or intuition is a question which I cannot decide, but Bhoja has obviously the best of the argument.]
Another perfection.