Yoga Sutra Of Patanjali (1.1 – 1.51) – On Samadhi

Below are the 51 translated verses from the first part of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. The first chapter of the Yoga Sutra starting with verse 1.1 deals with the concept of Samadhi and Union. In 1.1 of Yoga Sutra, Patanjali says now begins his discourse on how to achieve samadhi or union.

Verse NumberTranslation
1.1 Now, instruction in Union.
1.2Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind.
1.3Then the seer dwells in his own nature.
1.4 Otherwise, he is of the same form as the thought-streams.
1.5The thought-streams are five-fold, painful and not painful.
1.6Right knowledge, wrong knowledge, fancy, sleep and memory.
1.7Right knowledge is inference, tradition and genuine cognition.
1.8Wrong knowledge is false, illusory, erroneous beliefs or notions.
1.9Fancy is following after word-knowledge empty of substance.
1.10 Deep sleep is the modification of the mind which has for its substratum nothingness.
1.11Memory is not allowing mental impressions to escape.
1.12These thought-streams are controlled by practice and non-attachment.
1.13 Practice is the effort to secure steadiness.
1.14This practice becomes well-grounded when continued with reverent devotion and without interruption over a long period of time.
1.15Desirelessness towards the seen and the unseen gives the consciousness of mastery.
1.16This is signified by an indifference to the three attributes, due to knowledge of the Indweller.
1.17Cognitive meditation is accompanied by reasoning, discrimination, bliss and the sense of ‘I am.’
1.18There is another meditation which is attained by the practice of alert mental suspension until only subtle impressions remain.
1.19For those beings who are formless and for those beings who are merged in unitive consciousness, the world is the cause.
1.20 For others, clarity is preceded by faith, energy, memory and equalminded contemplation.
1.21Equalminded contemplation is nearest to those whose desire is most ardent.
1.22There is further distinction on account of the mild, moderate or intense means employed.
1.23Or by surrender to God.
1.24God is a particular yet universal indweller, untouched by afflictions, actions, impressions and their results.
1.25In God, the seed of omniscience is unsurpassed.
1.26Not being conditioned by time, God is the teacher of even the ancients.
1.27God’s voice is Om.
1.28The repetition of Om should be made with an understanding of its meaning.
1.29From that is gained introspection and also the disappearance of obstacles.
1.30Disease, inertia, doubt, lack of enthusiasm, laziness, sensuality, mind-wandering, missing the point, instability- these distractions of the mind are the obstacles.
1.31Pain, despair, nervousness, and disordered inspiration and expiration are co-existent with these obstacles.
1.32 For the prevention of the obstacles, one truth should be practiced constantly.
1.33By cultivating friendliness towards happiness and compassion towards misery, gladness towards virtue and indifference towards vice, the mind becomes pure.
1.34 Optionally, mental equanimity may be gained by the even expulsion and retention of energy.
1.35Or activity of the higher senses causes mental steadiness.
1.36Or the state of sorrowless Light.
1.37Or the mind taking as an object of concentration those who are freed of compulsion.
1.38Or depending on the knowledge of dreams and sleep.
1.39Or by meditation as desired.
1.40The mastery of one in Union extends from the finest atomic particle to the greatest infinity.
1.41When the agitations of the mind are under control, the mind becomes like a transparent crystal and has the power of becoming whatever form is presented. knower, act of knowing, or what is known.
1.42The argumentative condition is the confused mixing of the word, its right meaning, and knowledge.
1.43When the memory is purified and the mind shines forth as the object alone, it is called non-argumentative.
1.44In this way the meditative and the ultra-meditative having the subtle for their objects are also described.
1.45The province of the subtle terminates with pure matter that has no pattern or distinguishing mark.
1.46These constitute seeded contemplations.
1.47On attaining the purity of the ultra-meditative state there is the pure flow of spiritual consciousness.
1.48Therein is the faculty of supreme wisdom.
1.49The wisdom obtained in the higher states of consciousness is different from that obtained by inference and testimony as it refers to particulars.
1.50The habitual pattern of thought stands in the way of other impressions.
1.51 With the suppression of even that through the suspension of all modifications of the mind, contemplation without seed is attained.
Yoga Sutra
Samadhi Image Source: artmajeur

This marks the end of verses 1.1 to 1.51 of Yoga Sutra.

In the next article, we will deal with chapter 2 of the Yoga Sutra.

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