Yoga-sutras (with Vyasa and Vachaspati Mishra)
by Rama Prasada | 1924 | 154,800 words | ISBN-10: 9381406863 | ISBN-13: 9789381406861
The Yoga-Sutra 1.13, 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 1.13
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 1.13:
तत्र स्थितौ यत्नोऽभ्यासः ॥ १.१३ ॥
tatra sthitau yatno'bhyāsaḥ || 1.13 ||
tatra—of these, there, sthitau—as regards the steadiness, as regards keeping them perfectly restrained. yatnaḥ—the effort, continuous struggle, abhyāsaḥ—(is) what is called practice.
13. Of these, practice is the effort to secure steadiness.
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]
Steadiness is the undisturbed calmness of the flow of the mind, when it has become free from the modifications.
Effort to secure that end is the putting out of energy to secure, and aspiration towards that.
Practice is the resort to the means thereof with the object of attaining it.
The Gloss of Vachaspati Mishra
[English translation of the 9th century Tattvavaiśāradī by Vācaspatimiśra]
Of these, the author describes practice by stating its nature and object; ‘Of these, practice is the effort to secure steadiness.’
The commentator explains the same:—‘When the mind has become free from the modifications is separated from the modifications due to Rajas and Tamas, the flow of the modifications of the quality of Essence is established in the shape of calm one-pointedness and purity. This is steadiness.
‘Effort to secure that end? is the meaning of the locative case of the word ‘sthiti’ used to signify that object. As is the case in the sentence, ‘carmaṇi dvīpinaṃ hanti,’ of which the meaning is, ‘Kills the tiger for the sake of the skin.’
He clears the meaning of effort by giving synonyms: energy, aspiration. He explains:—‘With the object of attaining that’. ‘That’ here means steadiness.
He speaks of the field for the action of that energy ‘Resort to the means thereof.’ The means for the attainment of steadiness are the internal and external Yogas, the restraints and observances, &c. The action of the actor is directed towards the means, not towards the fruit.