Yoga-sutras (with Vyasa and Vachaspati Mishra)
by Rama Prasada | 1924 | 154,800 words | ISBN-10: 9381406863 | ISBN-13: 9789381406861
The Yoga-Sutra 3.6, English translation with Commentaries. The Yoga Sutras are an ancient collection of Sanskrit texts dating from 500 BCE dealing with Yoga and Meditation in four books. It deals with topics such as Samadhi (meditative absorption), Sadhana (Yoga practice), Vibhuti (powers or Siddhis), Kaivaly (isolation) and Moksha (liberation).
Sūtra 3.6
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 3.6:
तस्य भूमिषु विनियोगः ॥ ३.६ ॥
tasya bhūmiṣu viniyogaḥ || 3.6 ||
tasya—its. bhūmiṣu—to the planes, regions, viniyogaḥ—application.
6. Its application is to the planes.—112.
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]
When one plane has been conquered by Saṃyama, it is applied to the next immediately following. No one who has not conquered the lower plane, can jump over the plane immediately following, and then achieve Saṃyama with reference to the plane further off. And if this Saṃyama cannot be achieved, how can the visibility of the Cognition come? For him, however, who has conquered the higher planes by making Īśvara the motive of all actions it is not proper to perform Saṃyama with reference to the lower planes, such as thought-reading, &c. Why? Because the object thereof, has already been achieved by means other than this. As to which is the next immediate plane after a certain plane, it is the practice of Yoga alone that will teach this. How? It has been so said ‘The Yoga is to be known by the Yoga; the Yoga becomes manifest by the Yoga; whoever is not confused, enjoys the Yoga for long by the Yoga.’—112.
The Gloss of Vachaspati Mishra
[English translation of the 9th century Tattvavaiśāradī by Vācaspatimiśra]
But whereto is this Saṃyama to be applied in order to -achieve this fruit? For this reason the author says:—‘Its application is to be to the planes.’ The Commentator specifies the planes. ‘When one plane, &c.’ The application is to the unconquered plane immediately following the plane, that is, the mental state, which has been conquered.
When the Indistinct Trance Cognition, having the gross world for its sphere, has been achieved by Saṃyama, the application of the Saṃyama is to be to the yet unconquered Distinct Trance. When that has been conquered, the application is to be to the Meditative Transformation. Similar is the application to the Ultra-meditative.
For this very reason the Purāṇa introduces the trance with reference to the subtle objects, after the thought-transformation into gross objects has been achieved, and all the arms and ornaments have been put off one after the other:—‘Then let the wise man meditate upon the form of the Lord as devoid of the conch, the club, the discus and the bow, calm and possessing only the rosary of Rudrākṣa, When concentration has become well-established hereupon, then let the Yogī meditate upon HIM as devoid of the ornaments of head-dress, armlet, &c. Then should he devote himself to HIM as possessed of the limbs alone; and then should he think of himself as HIS SELF. ‘I am HE.’ Then should he devote himself to the thought of the ‘I am’ alone.
But then why is it that one conquers the higher plane only after having conquered the lower one? Why does he not conquer in the reverse order? For this reason the Bhāṣya-kāra says:—‘No one who has not conquered the lower plane, &c.’ No one who starts to the Ganges from the Śilāhrada, reaches the Ganges without first reaching the Meghavāna.
“For him who has conquered the higher planes by making Īśvara the motive of all actions, &c.” Why? Because the object, i.e., the conquest of the higher planes, has been achieved by another very proximate means, that is, devotion to God. When an object has been achieved, then the employment of a means for its achievement which does not introduce something new in the expected result, oversteps the propriety of the rule of practice.
Well, let that be. But the sub-planes are known by authority. Their order, however, is not so known. How is that order to be known? For this reason he says:—‘As to which is the next, &c.’ When the preceding state of Yoga is conquered it becomes the cause of the knowledge of the nature and activity of the next. This is to be understood by seeing that the state is intended to be spoken of as being identical with the object of which the state is named.