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Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2.12-2.25 - Breaking The Alliance of Karma
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2.12-2.25 - Breaking The Alliance of Karma
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2.12-2.25 - Breaking The Alliance of Karma
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The subtler process of breaking the alliance: Descriptions of the nature of the
objects are given (2.18), along with the subtle states of the elements (2.19), and
explanation of how the seer cognizes them (2.20). It is explained that the objects
exist for the benefit of the seer (2.21), and that they cease to exist when one
knows their true nature (2.22), though continuing to be experienced by others.
Even so, it is explained, the relationship between seer and seen had to be there, so
that the seer could eventually experience the subtler truth (2.23).
Foundation: The ability to break the alliance with karma as described in sutras
2.12-2.25 is built on a foundation of prerequisites, including stabilizing the mind
(1.33-1.39) and minimizing the gross colorings (kleshas) of the mind (2.1-2.9).
The uniting of the seer (the subject, or experiencer) with the seen (the object, or
that which is experienced) is the cause or connection to be avoided.
The objects (or knowables) are by their nature of: 1) illumination or sentience, 2)
activity or mutability, or 3) inertia or stasis; they consist of the elements and the
powers of the senses, and exist for the purpose of experiencing the world and for
liberation or enlightenment. There are four states of the elements (gunas), and
these are: 1) diversified, specialized, or particularized (vishesha), 2) undiversified,
unspecialized, or unparticularized (avishesha), 3) indicator-only, undifferentiated
phenomenal, or marked only (linga-matra), and 4) without indicator, noumenal, or
without mark (alingani).
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The Seer is but the force of seeing itself, appearing to see or experience that which
is presented as a cognitive principle. The essence or nature of the knowable objects
exists only to serve as the objective field for pure consciousness. Although
knowable objects cease to exist in relation to one who has experienced their
fundamental, formless true nature, the appearance of the knowable objects is not
destroyed, for their existence continues to be shared by others who are still
observing them in their grosser forms.
Having an alliance, or relationship between objects and the Self is the necessary
means by which there can subsequently be realization of the true nature of those
objects by that very Self. Avidya or ignorance (2.3-2.5), the condition of ignoring,
is the underlying cause that allows this alliance to appear to exist.
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2.12 Latent impressions that are colored (karmashaya) result from other actions
(karmas) that were brought about by colorings (kleshas), and become active and
experienced in a current life or a future life.
(klesha-mula karma-ashaya drishta adrishta janma vedaniyah)
Cycle of karma: The word karma literally means actions. Here, the word
karmashaya is the repository of the effects of those actions. Usually, those
individual impressions in the repository are called samskaras. There is a cycling
process whereby the samskaras in the karmashaya rise, cause more actions, which
in turn lead to more (or stronger) samskaras in the karmashaya.
Colorings or kleshas: The reason for the cycling process of deep impressions and
actions is the coloring or klishta quality described in sutras 1.5 and 2.3. It bears
repeating and reflecting on many times that it is this coloring or klishta quality that
is the key to removing the blocks over Self-realization (1.3). (See the article on
klishta and aklishta vrittis.)
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doing so through the karmendriyas. (See the article on levels and domains of
consciousness.)
Actions come at any time: The timing of the playing out of these actions is
varied. It may come in the present or seen (drishta) birth (janma), or it may come
in later or unseen (adrishta) births. In the meantime, the coloring or klishta of the
samskaras (karmashaya) may remain completely dormant, or it may play out in
the unconscious dream state.
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2.13 As long as those colorings (kleshas) remains at the root, three consequences
are produced: 1) birth, 2) span of life, and 3) experiences in that life.
(sati mule tat vipakah jati ayus bhogah)
Type of birth: First, those colored impressions lead you to this or that type
of birth, in this or that circumstance.
Span of life: Second, there is a built-in span of life programmed in, though
that span can be altered by decisions and actions during life.
Experiences: Third, you will quite naturally have many experiences related
to those impressions as they become active and play themselves out.
Altering the samskaras: Describing this process is setting the stage for the
means of altering these deep impressions. The point of this sutra is that these
consequences play out only as long as the root samskaras are there, and that they
remain colored (klishta). If the coloring is reduced or removed (aklishta), then the
consequences are altered.
Remember, once again, the foundation principle of Yoga has to do with these
colorings, as was first presented in Chapter 1, in sutra 1.5)
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2.14 Because of having the nature of merits or demerits (virtue or vice), these
three (birth, span of life, and experiences) may be experienced as either pleasure
or pain.
(te hlada-paritapa-phalah punya apunya hetutvat)
te = they, those (referring to those who take birth, as in the last sutra)
hlada-paritapa-phalah = experiencing pleasure and pain as fruits (hlada =
pleasure, delight; paritapa = pain, agony, anguish; phalah = fruits)
punya = virtuous, meritorious, benevolent
apunya = non-virtuous, vice, bad, wicked, evil, bad, demerit, non-
meritorious
hetutvat = having as their cause (the punya or apunya)
There are three major parts in this short sutra, and each are important:
Notice that cultivating punya versus apunya is one of the stabilizing practices
introduced in sutra 1.33.
Pain or pleasure: Once the future action starts to play out as a result of the
samskaras (karmashaya), the issue of merit or demerit will cause the actions to be
experienced as either pain (paritaba) or pleasure (hlada).
Planning your karma: By understanding this process, it becomes clear that ones
actions can be planned in such a way that future karma is determined. This is
described further in the next few sutras.
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2.15 A wise, discriminating person sees all worldly experiences as painful, because
of reasoning that all these experiences lead to more consequences, anxiety, and
deep habits (samskaras), as well as acting in opposition to the natural qualities.
(parinama tapa samskara duhkhaih guna vrittih virodhat cha duhkham eva sarvam
vivekinah)
Wisdom, not depression: To simply read this, that everything worldly brings
pain, can seem rather depressing or fatalistic. This is definitely not the case. This
insight comes with wisdom, with seeing clearly the nature of the temporal process.
The Yogi feels a sense of joy in this insight, as it causes an even greater drive
towards Self-realization, the direct experience of that eternal Self, which is not
subject to change, death, decay, or decomposition.
Name and form of the prime elements: The Yogi comes to see that the primal
elements or gunas (sattvas, rajas, and tamas) just keep changing names and
forms. It is that incessant transitioning process that is seen to be not worthy of
continuing unabated. Eventually, through the practices of Yoga, the gunas
themselves are resolved back into their cause, leading to liberation (4.32-4.34).
Going in the wrong direction: The Yogi also comes to see that all of these
activities are outward bound, moving directly in the opposite direction from the
eternal Self. Because of that insight, he or she wants even more strongly to go
inward, in pursuit of the direct experience of pure consciousness, or Purusha (3.56,
4.34).
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2.16 Because the worldly experiences are seen as painful, it is the pain, which is
yet to come that is to be avoided and discarded.
(heyam duhkham anagatam)
Manifesting later: Other samskaras of the karmashaya (2.12) are not driven by
their current coloring or life circumstance to play out at the present moment. They
remain in their latent form in the latent part of the mind, destined to come to life
and play out later.
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Explore the latent: The Yogi comes to the point of practices where it is not only
the currently manifesting karmas that are dealt with. Rather, he or she intentionally
explores the unconscious processing part of the mind and the latent part of the
mind, so as to uncover, attenuate, and eliminate the coloring (klishta) (1.5, 2.3) of
these deep impressions, as was described in sutra 2.4. In this way, the effects
(karma) of those deep impressions are discarded, avoided, or prevented (hevam).
Then the absolute or pure consciousness behind the veil can be experienced.
As sensitive as the surface of the eyeball: In describing how the Yogi wants to
avoid the pain that is still to come, the commentator Vyasa says that the Yogi's
perception has become as sensitive as the surface of an eye-ball. It is because of
this highly refined sense of self-awareness that he or she discovers the future
karmas in the karmashaya, and wants to deal with them long before they have the
chance to come to fruition.
The seer and the seen: The key to this process of avoiding future karmas is
breaking the tie between the seer and the seen (2.17), as described in the
remaining sutras of this section.
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2.17 The uniting of the seer (the subject, or experiencer) with the seen (the object,
or that which is experienced) is the cause or connection to be avoided.
(drashtri drishyayoh samyogah heya hetuh)
The seer engulfs the seen: Connecting the seer with the seen does not mean the
physical eyes looking at physical objects. It means the pure consciousness (1.3,
2.20) wrapping itself around the subtlest of the traces in the deep unconscious.
Those deep impressions (samskaras) are engulfed (1.4) by consciousness, and
then the forgetting process of avidya (2.5, 2.24) becomes even more pronounced.
The subtler nature of these seen objects is described in the next few sutras, below.
(Click here for more info on the process of the observer observing the observed.)
The key is in loosening the alliance: The key here is that, in a moment when
the seer is not connected with any of those possible seen objects, there is freedom,
and that is the higher state of consciousness that is being sought (1.3, 4.26).
However, it comes in stages. Layer after layer, object after object, the seer is
loosened from its connection to the seen. This is why there is progress on the inner
journey, and it is a progress that comes from revealing and setting aside, so as to
uncover the true Self at the center.
The final alliance is broken: The rest of this chapter, and the sutras of Chapter 3
further describe the process of breaking the alliances. After fully describing the
process of how the many alliances are progressively loosened, sutras 2.25 and
3.50 (end of the next chapter) describe how the final disconnect happens with the
renunciation of avidya itself, and of the alliance between buddhi and consciousness.
This means that even the finest instrument of knowing is ultimately set aside from
consciousness itself .
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2.18 The objects (or knowables) are by their nature of: 1) illumination or
sentience, 2) activity or mutability, or 3) inertia or stasis; they consist of the
elements and the powers of the senses, and exist for the purpose of experiencing
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the world and for liberation or enlightenment.
(prakasha kriya sthiti shilam bhuta indriya atmakam bhoga apavarga artham
drishyam)
Three broad types of seen objects: Based on the three gunas, or primary
constituent elements, objects have a tendency towards one or the other of three
types. These are objects predominantly of prakasha (illumination, light), kriya
(activity), or stithi (steadiness, inertia, stasis). The four states of these elements
(2.19), the purpose of these knowable objects (2.18), the reason for the seer's
alliance with them (2.23), and the means of freedom (2.25) are explained in the
following sutras of this section.
Five elements as objects of meditation: The seen objects are composed of the
five elements (indriyas) of earth, water, fire, air, and space (bhutas). The many
manifestations of these, as well as the five elements as individual entities are
examined with the razor-sharp discrimination of samyama (3.4-3.6), and are set
aside with non-attachment (1.16). Mastery over the five elements comes through
direct examination of their nature (3.45), with the fruits being renounced (3.38).
This process of examining the objects and the elements leads ever closer towards
the seer resting in its true nature (1.3).
Five indriyas as objects of meditation: Along with those many objects and the
five elements, there comes the five instruments (indriyas) of action (karmendriyas)
and sensation (jnanendriyas). After first training the senses (2.32, 2.43), these ten
means of expression and perception are themselves examined as objects (3.48).
Through samyama (3.4-3.6), the ten senses themselves are also set aside with
non-attachment (1.16), adding to the movement towards the seer resting in its
true nature (1.3).
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2.19 There are four states of the elements (gunas), and these are: 1) diversified,
specialized, or particularized (vishesha), 2) undiversified, unspecialized, or
unparticularized (avishesha), 3) indicator-only, undifferentiated phenomenal, or
marked only (linga-matra), and 4) without indicator, noumenal, or without mark
(alingani).
(vishesha avishesha linga-matra alingani guna parvani)
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guna-parvani = state of the gunas (guna = of the qualities, gunas of prakriti;
parvani = state, stage, level)
Elements evolve and involve in four stages: All of the objects and elements
mentioned in the last sutra (2.18) are constituted of the three primal elements
(gunas). As the attention of the Yogi goes deeper and deeper into the gunas, they
are seen to evolve and involve in four stages. Gradually the Yogi fathoms each of
these very subtle processes. This allows the seer to systematically break the
connection with the seen, as described in sutra 2.17.
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2.20 The Seer is but the force of seeing itself, appearing to see or experience that
which is presented as a cognitive principle.
(drashta drishi matrah suddhah api pratyaya anupashyah)
Understanding the seer and the seen: As was pointed out above (2.18), it is
essential to have some understanding of the nature of the seer and of the seen if
we are to be able to understand the nature of the alliance between them, and how
to break that alliance. Describing the nature of the seer is the subject of this
current sutra, and of the seen is the subject of the next few sutras.
Who makes the alliance?: If we are trying to break the alliance between seer
and seen (2.17, 2.12-2.25), then who is the seer who has made that false alliance?
It is the pure consciousness known as purusha, atman, or Self. It is that, which
remains (1.3) after the mastery (nirodah, 1.2) of the many impressions in the
mind field.
Nature of the objects of alliance: If the seer is pure consciousness, then what is
the nature of those objects (1.4) with which the false alliance has occurred? The
nature of those objects is described in the next sutra (2.21).
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2.21 The essence or nature of the knowable objects exists only to serve as the
objective field for pure consciousness.
(tad-artha eva drishyasya atma)
tad-artha = the purpose for that, to serve as (tad = that; artha = purpose)
eva = only
drishyasya = of the seen, knowable
atma = essence, being, existence
Relationship between seer and seen: While there are countless objects, it is
useful to know that all objects share one thing in common. They are all witnessed
by the seer, the Self, or pure consciousness. Thus, the nature of the relationship
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between consciousness and one object is similar to the relationship between
consciousness and any other object--they both share the same observer or seer.
Breaking the alliance is similar: If the nature of the alliances is similar, then the
means of breaking those alliances is also similar. This means that there is a basic
simplicity in the process of discrimination (2.26-2.29) that leads to Self-realization.
This doesn't make the process easy, but it sure is useful to see the underlying
simplicity in the process. Regardless of what object is seen by the seer, and
regardless of its coloring (klishta), the means of seeing clearly through
discrimination is similar in all cases. Thus, the Yogi keeps doing the same basic
process of examining, discriminating, and setting aside with non-attachment (1.12-
1.16). Over and over, through all the levels of concentration (1.17), and with each
of the kinds of coloring (2.4), the same means of razor-like discrimination occurs
(3.4-3.6).
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2.22 Although knowable objects cease to exist in relation to one who has
experienced their fundamental, formless true nature, the appearance of the
knowable objects is not destroyed, for their existence continues to be shared by
others who are still observing them in their grosser forms.
(krita-artham prati nashtam api anashtam tat anya sadharanatvat)
Objects cease to exist: As attention moves subtler and subtler through the layers
of existence, those objects that were there for the benefit of the seer (2.21) no
longer exist for the seer. A most simple example of this is when one's attention
turns inward, even for the beginning meditator. At first, the external world and its
sounds are a distraction. Yet, suddenly, when attention actually moves inward, it is
as if the external world, its objects, and people cease to exist. When attention
moves inward, down through the levels of manifestation of earth, water, fire, air,
and space, for example, those levels also cease to exist for the seer.
Objects continue for others: While the objects cease to exist for the Yogi, they
continue to exist for others. For example, in case of the meditator mentioned
above, the external world ceases for that person, but continues for others. The
same is also true for the subtler aspects such as the elements and indriyas (2.18).
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2.23 Having an alliance, or relationship between objects and the Self is the
necessary means by which there can subsequently be realization of the true nature
of those objects by that very Self.
(sva svami saktyoh svarupa upalabdhi hetuh samyogah)
Alliance was necessary to know objects: If the alliance between the seer and
the seen had never happened, it would not be possible for the seer to have
objective knowledge. Later, as practices unfold, that so-called knowledge is seen to
be based on ignorance (avidya, 2.5), and thus, is seen to be not knowledge after
all.
Alliance allows breaking the alliance: Furthermore, having that false alliance
between seer and seen allows one to seek, and to find the true Self (1.3). Had
there been no alliance, this journey would not have been possible. In other words,
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the alliance itself (between seer and seen) was an essential prerequisite! Thus, it is
sometimes said that the entire universe is all lila, or play.
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How the alliance arose in the first place: All of the alliances between seer and
seen, which have been described in the previous few sutras (begin 2.17), were able
to arise because of the foundation klesha (coloring) (1.5, 2.3) of avidya, or
ignorance (2.5). Without that primary foundation, the other alliances simply could
not have grown. It is somewhat like saying the walls and roof of a house could not
be built without a foundation, or that plants could not grow without some form of
soil or substratum in which to grow.
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tat = its
abhavat = due to its disappearance, lack or absence (of that ignorance in the
last sutra)
samyogah = union, conjunction
abhavah = absence, disappearance, dissolution
hanam = removal, cessation, abandonment
tat = that
drishi = of the knower, the force of seeing
kaivalyam = absolute freedom, liberation, enlightenment
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moving beyond the misperceptions of avidya, of which there are four major forms
(2.5): 1) regarding that which is transient as eternal, 2) mistaking the impure for
pure, 3) thinking that which brings misery to bring happiness, and 4) taking that
which is not-self to be self.
Discrimination is the tool: Over and over, with our razor-like discrimination, we
set aside the alliances between seer and seen (2.17), seeing beyond the four forms
of avidya (2.5). This constitutes breaking the alliance of karma. This process of
discrimination is described in the next (2.26-2.29) and later (3.1-3.3, 3.4-3.6)
sutras.
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ways, while not compromising quality or depth. The goal of our sadhana or
practices is the highest Joy that comes from the Realization in direct experience
of the center of consciousness, the Self, the Atman or Purusha, which is one and
the same with the Absolute Reality. This Self-Realization comes through Yoga
meditation of the Yoga Sutras, the contemplative insight of Advaita Vedanta, and
the intense devotion of Samaya Sri Vidya Tantra, the three of which complement
one another like fingers on a hand. We employ the classical approaches of Raja,
Jnana, Karma, and Bhakti Yoga, as well as Hatha, Kriya, Kundalini, Laya, Mantra,
Nada, Siddha, and Tantra Yoga. Meditation, contemplation, mantra and prayer
finally converge into a unified force directed towards the final stage, piercing the
pearl of wisdom called bindu, leading to the Absolute.
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