Yoga-sutras (with Bhoja’s Rajamartanda)
by Rajendralala Mitra | 1883 | 103,575 words
The Yoga-Sutra 3.21, 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 3.21
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 3.21:
कायरूपसंयमात्तद्ग्राह्यशक्तिस्तम्भे चक्षुष्प्रकाशासंयोगेऽन्तर्धानम् ॥ ३.२१ ॥
kāyarūpasaṃyamāttadgrāhyaśaktistambhe cakṣuṣprakāśāsaṃyoge'ntardhānam || 3.21 ||
21. From Saṃyama with reference to the shape of the body, the power of vision being benumbed, and the correlation of light and sight being severed, there is disappearance.
The Rajamartanda commentary by King Bhoja:
[English translation of the 11th century commentary by Bhoja called the Rājamārtaṇḍa]
[Sanskrit text for commentary available]
He describes another perfection.
[Read Sūtra 3.21]
The “body” (kāya) is the human frame, and its shape (rūpa) is that quality of it which is perceptible by the eye. The meaning is—of such a body such is the shape. Through Saṃyama the power of the eye to perceive things becoming ‘benumbed’ (stambha), i.e., obstructed through contemplation with reference to that shape, and “the correlation of light and sight being severed,” i.e., the luminousness of the eye which proceeds from the quality of goodness being “severed,” or rendered incapable of performing its function, there is a disappearance of a Yogi, i.e., none can see him. By this it should be known that the disappearance of sounds &c. is also implied, i.e., by this exposition of the means of the disappearance of shape, &c., the disappearance of sounds, &c., the objects of the ears, &c., is described.
Notes and Extracts
[Notes and comparative extracts from other commentaries on the Yogasūtra]
[Objects are perceivable by the light which the quality of goodness throws on them, but if this light be withdrawn by the quality of goodness being confined in the thinking principle, they cease to be so. Accordingly, when a Yogī performs Saṃyama with reference to his body or any part of it he withdraws therefrom the quality of goodness, and the body or the part of it so acted upon ceases to have the quality of perceptibility, and the Yogī becomes invisible, inaudible, &c. When an object has no power of visibility in it, it necessarily becomes invisible. This is how the Yogi makes himself invisible.]
He describes another form of perfection.