Sūtra 2.28

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 2.28:

योगाङ्गानुष्ठानाद् अशुद्धिक्षये ज्ञानदीप्तिर् आ विवेकख्यातेः ॥ २.२८ ॥

yogāṅgānuṣṭhānād aśuddhikṣaye jñānadīptir ā vivekakhyāteḥ || 2.28 ||

yoga—of yoga. aṅga—of the accessories. anuṣṭhānād—by the sustained practice. aśuddhi—of impurity. kṣaye—on the destruction. jñāna—of wisdom. dīptiḥ—the light, ā—reaching up to. viveka—of discrimination, khyāteḥ—the knowledge.

28. On the destruction of impurity by the sustained practice of the accessories of Yoga, the light of wisdom reaches up to discriminative knowledge.—79.

The Sankhya-pravachana commentary of Vyasa

[English translation of the 7th century commentary by Vyāsa called the Sāṅkhya-pravacana, Vyāsabhāṣya or Yogabhāṣya]

[Sanskrit text for commentary available]

Discriminative knowledge becomes the means of removal, when achieved. There can. be no achievement without the adoption of the means thereof. This, therefore, is taken up. “By the sustained practice of the accessories of Yoga is impurity destroyed and then the light of wisdom shines up to discriminative knowledge.”.

The accessories of Yoga are eight, to be further named. By their sustained practice is destroyed the five-fold unreal cognition, which is of the nature of impurity. Destruction means disappearance. When that is destroyed, real knowledge is manifested. As the means of achievement are being practised more and more, so is the impurity being attenuated more and more. And as more and more of it is being destroyed, so also goes on increasing more and more the light of wisdom following in the wake of destruction. This increase reaches its culmination in discriminative knowledge. This means that its highest culmination is in the knowledge of the nature of consciousness and the ‘qualities.’

The practice of the accessories of Yoga is the cause of the separation of impurity, as the axe is the cause of the separation of the piece of wood cut off thereby. It is, however, the cause of the attainment of discriminative knowledge, as virtue is the cause of happiness. It is not a cause otherwise.

Well, how many of these causes are therein the Teaching? They have been said to be nine only as follows:—‘A cause is said to operate in nine ways:—As the cause of birth, of preservation, of manifestation, of modification, of sequential cognition, of attainment, of separation, of differentiation, of upholding.’

Of these the cause of birth: the mind is of knowledge.

The sustaining cause: the achievement of the objects of the Puruṣa is of the mind, as food is of the body.

The cause of manifestation is as light is the cause of the manifestation of colour; as also the knowledge of colour.

The cause of change or modification is, as for example, a different object of the mind. Or fire of the food that is cooked.

The cause of sequential cognition is as the knowledge of smoke is of the knowledge of fire.

The cause of attainment is as the practice of the accessories of Yoga of the attainment of discriminative knowledge.

The cause of separation is as the same of impurities.

The cause of differentiation is as the goldsmith is of gold. Similarly, as in the case of the one notion of the same woman, Nescience causes forgetfulness; anger makes it painful; desire makes it pleasurable; the knowledge of realities makes it indifferent, neither pleasurable nor painful.

The causeof upholding is as the body is of the organs of sensation and action and vice versa; the elements of the bodies and each of these mutually of all the others. So also the animals, men and gods each of the others. Thus there are nine descriptions of causal operations. These are to be applied to other objects also as may be As to the practice of the accessories of Yoga they operate as causes in two ways only.—79.

The Gloss of Vachaspati Mishra

[English translation of the 9th century Tattvavaiśāradī by Vācaspatimiśra]

Now then having described the four departments of the science, and seeing that the discriminative knowledge which as the means of removal falls within these departments, has not been achieved like cow’s milk, &c., (which although existing in the udders, is not obtained until it is drawn out) and further seeing that this cannot be achieved without employing some means, he goes on to describe the means:—‘Discriminative knowledge becomes the means, &c.’

Here shows by the aphorism in what way does the means of knowledge operate as a cause of discriminative knowledge. ‘On the destruction of impurity, &c.’ The accessories of Yoga destroy impurity by operating as may be along visible and invisible lines. It should be understood that the five branches of Untrue cognition are spoken of here as indicative of virtue and vice also, because they too are of the nature of impurities, being as they are the causes of life-state, life-experience and life-period. The rest is easy.

A cause is seen operating in more ways than one. In what does the practice of Yoga operate as the cause? For this reason he says:—

‘The practice of the accessories of Yoga, &c.’ The cause of impurity being removed, means that it separates impurity from the essence of the Will-to-be. He gives an illustration ‘As the axe, &c.’ The hatchet separates the tree to be cut from the root.

Further, having separated the essence of the Will-to-be from impurity, it leads it to the attainment of discriminative knowledge, as obedience to law is the means of the attainment of happiness. Similarly is the practice of Yoga accessories the means of the attainment of discriminative knowledge. There is no other way in which the cause operates. He says this:—‘It is the cause of attainment. &c.’ Inasmuch as it is said that there is no other way in which it operates, he puts the question, How many are the ways of operation altogether? He answers: ‘They are nine only.’ He enumerates them by a verse:—‘Birth, preservation, &c.’ Now he illustrates them: ‘The cause of birth, &c.’ The mind operates to bring knowledge from the state of being unpredicable into the state of present existence; it is, therefore, the cause of the birth of knowledge. The fulfilment of the purpose of the Puruṣa is the cause of the preservation of the mind. Born of the principle of egoism, the mind is preserved as long as it has not fulfilled both the objects of the Puruṣa. When, however, both the objects of the Puruṣa have been fulfilled, it is no longer preserved as such. For this reason the non-achievement of the objects of the Puruṣa is the cause of the preservation of the mind, after it has been born Out of its cause. He gives an illustration ‘As food of the body?

Manifestation means the placing of an object under certain conditions so that they may help in the act of perception either by means of the senses or by the act of the mind itself; as light is the cause of the manifestation of colour.

The cause of change or modification of the mind is an object other than that which has possession of the mind at the time. So goes the story. Mṛkaṇḍu was sitting with his mind entranced. He heard the fifth note of the musical scale emitted by a creeper that was ripening. He at once opened his eyes, and what did he see? The fair and youthful nymph Pramlocā. The sight of her beauty drew away his mind from the object of his then mental application, and his mind became attached to her. He gives an illustration of this ‘As fire is of the things cooked.’ When raw, the particles of rice, &c., are so close as to make them hard to be separated. By cooking a change is introduced. The particles become loose. Fire operates as the cause of change, that is, of the introduction of softness instead of hardness.

It is only the knowledge of an existing object that is brought about by sequential cognition. The knowledge of smoke is the cause of the knowledge of fire. Knowledge is that which is known. The knowledge of fire here means the knowledge which is the same as fire, the mental idea of fire. This is the meaning. It is by sequential cognition that it operates as the cause of the knowledge of fire existing in the present as the thing to be known.

It is natural with causes to pass into effects; but for some reason they sometimes do not pass into that state. Take, for example, water. It is the nature of water to flow downwards when poured on a higher level. But an embankment may be made to check its downward flow. The same is the case here. The essence of the Will-to-be is by nature pleasing and luminous. It is natural for it to reach the state of happiness and discriminative knowledge. It, however, does not reach that state somehow by reason of being checked in its operations by vice (adharma) or by inertia (tamas). That check is removed by virtue or by the practice of the accessories of Yoga. Its operations thus become unhampered; it reaches that state, being its natural producer. As will be said:—‘There is no operative cause to set the Prakṛtis into action; but. it pierces through the impediments like the husbandman.’—iv. 3. It is thus that the practice of the accessories of Yoga is said to operate as the cause of the attainment of discriminative knowledge. With reference, however, to another effect lower down, it is described as the cause of separation. Thus he says:—‘The cause of separation is as, &c,’

Now he describes the cause of differentiation:—‘The cause of differentiation is as the goldsmith of the gold.’ Gold is both different and not different from wristlets, earrings and armlets. It is different when it is necessary to point out the difference; not different when it is not desired to point out the difference. Thus is it different from the ear-rings. The goldsmith, however, who makes wristlets, makes them from gold which is not other than the gold of the ear-rings. He, therefore, becomes the cause of introducing another differential altogether into the otherwise quite identical gold. He is, therefore, the cause of differentiation.

Similarly is fire the cause of the differentiation of things that are cooked. It is, however, described above as the cause of modification. What is intended to be said there that the difference between cooked and raw rice, as the characteristics of the same qualified thing, is not intended to be conveyed; and therefore even though the two characteristics are born and disappear respectively, the thing qualified remains the same in both conditions. It is not possible to say that the thing qualified has become quite another thing. It is for these considerations that fire is only spoken of as the cause of modification. There is no overlapping.

The meaning is not to be understood to be that different arrangement is the cause of differentiation, because in that case the goldsmith, in the text will be quite out of place.

Having in the beginning described the cause of differentiation in the outside world, now he describes the operation of the same with reference to the mind:—Similarly as in the case of a single notion about one woman, &c. Nescience consists in the cognition of lovability, &c., in a damsel. When this nescience is coupled with forgetfulness (moha) one becomes stupid, that is full of stupid imaginings. ‘Maitra is a very fortunate man to possess such a jewel of a wife, I am unfortunate not to possess her. In the same way the notion of the same woman in the mind of a co-wife causes aversion and consequent pain. Similarly, the notion of the same woman in the mind of the husband Maitra causes attachment and consequent pleasure. The knowledge of the realities thereof consists in the recognition of the fact that the body of the woman is after all nothing but skin, muscle, fat, bone and mucus; and that it is naturally impure on account of the place of its fecundation and the seed which grows into it. This knowledge in the mind of the wise becomes the cause of the idea that it is neither pleasurable nor painful; and thus it becomes the cause of desirelessness.

The cause of upholding:—The body is the upholder of the power of sensation and action. These powers again are the upholders of the body. The five forces of Prāṇa, &c.) are the manifestations of the common energy of these powers. The body dies in their absence. Similarly, muscle and the other portions of the body support each other in life. Similarly, are the elements of Pṛthvī, &c., the supporters of the bodies of men, of Varuṇa, Sun, Vāyu and those that live in the Candraloka. The elements further support each other in life. The Pṛthvī having the five qualities of odour, taste, colour, touch and sound, all the five elements are present therein supporting and supported by each other; as also four in the Apas, three in the Tejas, two in the Vāyu. The animals, men and gods also exist supporting each other in life. But’ how can they be the supporters of each other, seeing that they are not related to each other as the container and the contained. For this reason he says:—‘They live for each other, &c.’ The body of man is sustained by the materials supplied by the bodies of beasts, bird, deer, snakes and vegetables. Similarly, the bodies of tigers and others of the same class are supported by the bodies of men, beasts, and deer, &c. Similarly, the bodies of beasts and deer, &c., are supported by vegetables, &c. Similarly, the bodies of gods are supported by the sacrifices of goats, deer, clarified butter and Purodāśa, &c., offered by men as also by means of the accessories of sacrifice, branches and stones, &c. Similarly, the gods also support men by giving them the objects of their desires and by causing rain, &c. Therefore do they live for each other. The rest is easy.—28.