yama & niyama

AHIMSA-SATYASTEYA-BRAHMAACRYA-APARIGRAHA YAMAH.
‘The Yamas consists of non-injury, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, and non-acquisitiveness’.

Commentary:
The ‘Yamas’, or abstentions, make up the most basic of all spiritualpractices. They are the injunctions common to every religion. These formsof self-restrain purify the individual and eliminate all of one’s negativeinfluences on others and the environment.
Violence to others, whether in thought, word or deed, must be avoided.Non-injury means more than refraining from inflicting physical pain. Mental pain can be far more devastating, when one is established in complete harmless, even wild animals will approach in peace.The function of truth is to maintain harmony through trust. It is
better to be silent than tell a truth will cause pain or that springs froma wrong motive. A truthful person has power, for what he says comes to pass, and his word becomes law.

yoga path

TASYA SAPTADHA PRANTA-BHUMIH PRAJNA.
‘Enlightenment is reached through seven steps’.

Commentary:
Patanjali begins his explanation of the eight limbs of Raja Yoga. There are seven limbs before the aspirant reaches ‘samadhi’(Super Consciousness).
II.28. YOGANGANUSTHANAD ASUDDHI-KSAYE JNANA-DIPTIR AS
VIVEKA-KHYATEH.
‘By practicing the various steps of Yoga, impurities are destroyed and spiritual illumination arises, which develops into awareness of Reality’.

Commentary:
The theoretical aspect of Yoga, having been dealt with, Patanjali now points out that following the practical steps is necessary.
TASYA SAPTADHA PRANTA-BHUMIH PRAJNA.
‘Enlightenment is reached through seven steps’.

Commentary:
Patanjali begins his explanation of the eight limbs of Raja Yoga. There are seven limbs before the aspirant reaches ‘samadhi’(Super Consciousness).
II.28. YOGANGANUSTHANAD ASUDDHI-KSAYE JNANA-DIPTIR AS
VIVEKA-KHYATEH.
‘By practicing the various steps of Yoga, impurities are destroyed and spiritual illumination arises, which develops into awareness of Reality’.

Commentary:
The theoretical aspect of Yoga, having been dealt with, Patanjali now points out that following the practical steps is necessary.

AVIDYASMITA-RAGA-DVESABHINIVESAH KLESAH

‘Ignorance, egoism, attraction and aversion, and fear of death are the afflictions which cause suffering’.

Commentary:
Ignorance, avidya, is the lack of awareness of Reality. It is identification with the temporal world rather than with the imperishable Atman, or Self. Egoism is ‘I-ness’ and ‘My-ness’ which create the illusion that one person is different from another, bringing about conflict. Raga-dvesha translates as ‘like/dislikes’, when a person is swayed by feelings of attraction and aversion, he is identifying with the material world and setting himself up for the pain of loss and disappointment. Fear of death, or clinging to life, is binding and shifting. Many who have been pronounced dead and were later revived
have reported the experienced of death as indescribably beautiful and peaceful. None can say when death is useless imagination, a waste of energy, and creates waves of pain which exist only in the mind.

[from Chapter I: "Samadhi Pada- On Contemplations"] I.47

I.47. NIRVICARA-VAISARADYE ‘DHYATMA-PRASADAH’

‘On attaining the utmost purity in samadhi without inquiry,  illumination dawns’.

Commentary:
Only when the meditator achieves the state of ‘samadhi’ in which there is no longer the process of inquiry, and has purified himself, does Realization dawn. The states of ‘Samadhi’ through which he passes before that final goal are very rewarding and blissful, and many powers manifest in those states. But the seeker must see even these
rewarding experiences as obstacles for they too, though the most rewarding, must be transcended in order to merge with the Self.

“Samadhi Pada- On Contemplations” I.41

I.41. KSHEENA-VRITTER ABHIJAATASYEVA MANER GRAHEETR-GRAHANA-GRAHYESHU-TATSTHA-TADANJANATAA SAMAAPATTIH

‘For the person who has controlled the vrittis through meditation, there is a merging of the perceiver, perceived, and perception, just  as a crystal assumes the color of the background’.

Commentary:
When the mind waves are controlled, there is complete union between the two. A crystal has no color of its own, yet when placed on a colored background, it assumes and reflects that same color. The pure mind, abandoning its own form, assumes the form of whatever object it meditates.