Yoga-sutras (with Bhoja’s Rajamartanda)
by Rajendralala Mitra | 1883 | 103,575 words
The Yoga-Sutra 4.31, 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 4.31
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 4.31:
ततः कृतार्थानां परिणामक्रमसमाप्तिर्गुणानाम् ॥ ४.३१ ॥
tataḥ kṛtārthānāṃ pariṇāmakramasamāptirguṇānām || 4.31 ||
31. Thereupon takes place the termination of the succession of the modifications of the qualities which have accomplished their end.
The Rajamartanda commentary by King Bhoja:
[English translation of the 11th century commentary by Bhoja called the Rājamārtaṇḍa]
[Sanskrit text for commentary available]
Those which have “accomplished” (kṛta), completed, soul's purpose or object in the form of experience and emancipation are called kritārthāḥ, or those which have accomplished their end. The “qualities” (guṇāḥ) are goodness, foulness, and darkness. “Their modifications” (pariṇāma) are their conditions of existence in relation to each other as members and membered, in a progressive or a regressive state to the time of the completion of the purpose of soul. Their “succession” (krama) is to be presently described. Its “termination” (parisamāpti) is its finality, i.e., it does not arise or happen again.
Notes and Extracts
[Notes and comparative extracts from other commentaries on the Yogasūtra]
[Proceeding onwards, the next effect of the Yoga is a cessation of the tendency on the part of the qualities to undergo change. The qualities are the most active agents in worldly life, and it is their modifications that produce the various impressions of life, and when they cease to change, there is ipso facto a cessation of worldly impressions. It is the duty of Prakṛti to minister to the purposes of soul, and as the qualities are inherent in Prakṛti, the qualities may be taken as synonymous with Prakṛti, and those qualities, having done their work, cease from labour. The work of the qualities is said to be two-fold; they have to minister to soul’s experience of the world, and then to bring on its emancipation; and when the state above described is attained, the qualities have already accomplished both these works, and, having nothing else left to do, stop work in re the soul concerned.]
He now describes the succession above referred to.