Sanskrit/English/Etymologies
English
Sanskrit/Etymologies
Sanskrit Devanari
Sanskrit Latin
all commentaries visible
all commentaries hidden
Swami Vivekananda
Alice A. Bailey
Shaman Starseed
New translation and commentary for the Quantum Age by Shaman Starseed (in progress)
Includes translations/commentaries by Alice Bailey and Swami Vivekananda
SS started studying Sanskrit in 1980 from books and later at Bharatiya Bhavan in New York, NY
This project draws on various etymological resources, translations, and Sanskrit treatises from many sources including Swami Vivekananda, Georg Feuerstein, Alice Bailey, Michael Coulson, Medha Michika / arshaavinash.in, Gabriel Pradīpaka / sanskrit-trikashaivism.com, sanskrita.org, Theosophical Society
औं
Aum (Om)
Aum = Om, the Word of Glory
Sutra 1
अथ योगानुशासनम्॥१॥
Atha yogānuśāsanam
atha yoga anuschaasanam
sutra = thread i.e. coded, ultra-concise statement conducive to being committed to memory
atha = now, what follows
yoga = union (ascension, union of personality with omniscient Self, super-human control of one’s body/emotions/mind, state of grace as union with the Christ within)
anushaasanam = exposition
from anu = methodically, pertaining to + √śās = to instruct
What follows are instructions on the science of ascension.
Commentary by Shaman Starseed
Yep, you read that right! I’m calling “yoga” in this case… “ascension”. I just got the idea from watching Stargate SG-1. If they can use it so can I, it doesn’t have to be so hands-off” and far-fetched. Yoga means “union”. Of course, most people hear yoga and they think of people stretching and doing poses, that’s just something called “hatha yoga”, the “hatha” part signifying “by force”. For most practitioners, yoga is more akin to physical exercise that have been formulated to benefit the psycho-physical body including the mind, if done correctly. But what “union” means as implied in the word “yoga” as used by Pantanjali and elsewhere in the spiritual, mystical sense is nothing less than full-blown ascension. It’s a conscious re-“union” with the cosmic cloud. Similar to the kind of ascension that is a premise of the Stargate TV series. A complete activation of your quantum being that is achieved only after purification and focusing of your inner will to embody fortitude/love/wisdom gaining you entrance (after tests and ordeals of sacrifice) to upper echalons of the 5th dimension, rub shoulders with angels, eventually able to dematerialize/rematerialize a human (or otherwise) avatar through time, space and dimensions.
Translation/Commentary from “Light of the Soul” by Alice Bailey
The following instruction concerns the Science of Union.
Raja Yoga, or the science of Union, gives the rules and the means whereby:
1. Conscious contact can be made with the soul, the second aspect, the Christ within,
2. Knowledge of the self can be achieved and its control over the not-self maintained,
3. The power of the ego or soul can be felt in the daily life and soul powers manifested,
4. The lower psychic nature can be subdued, and the higher psychic faculties demonstrated,
5. The brain can be brought en rapport with the soul and its messages received,
6. The “light in the head” can be increased, so that a man becomes a living Flame,
7. The Path can be found and man himself become that Path.
Translation by Swami Vivekananda
Now concentration is explained.
Sutra 2
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः॥२॥
Yogaścittavṛttinirodhaḥ
yogasch chitta vritti nirodhah
yoga = yoga (Raja yoga meaning the control/overshadowing of one’s body/emotions/mind by one’s divine soul or Christ within)
chitta = “mind stuff”, consciousness, the basis of our thought processes, the electrically charged substance we use for perception and cognition, includes that part of us that embodies our emotion-based inner assessments and impulses
from cit(chit) = to perceive, shine, light up
vṛtti = fluctuations, fluidic patterns, totality of perception-induced bursts of the nervous system’s synapses and cognition
from √vṛt = to whirl
nirodha = control/restriction
from ni = back,down,negation + √rudh = confine, constrain (also related: sprout, grow)
Yoga equates to full-control of the quantum mind.
Commentary by Shaman Starseed
I didn’t plan to be so bold as to add to the many excellent commentaries for this monumental work. My first premise was to explore the etymologies and re-paraphrase a more compelling and down-to-earth translation as I found all bare translations of these concise sutras tend to also be sparing with words and glossed over inherent and rich meaning of some important Sanskrit terms. By translating, for instance, “samadhi” as “concentration”, here on one hand you have in Sanskrit a word describing a quantum state of mind that borders on “ascension” (by Stargate SG-1 definition anyway), yet on the other hand the name of a card game where you put them all face down and try to match pairs. No bare English translation (without all the commentary) I’ve come across evokes the magnitude of what Pantanjali was conveying. Sanskrit words are coded bits of information and a single word can carry a lot of meaning not so readily apparent when translators try to match one-word-for-one-word renderings. Imagine 33 centuries from now people going through news stories or memes from our era and translating “Q” simply as “the 17th letter of the English alphabet”, with no back story. Well I guess that’s what commentaries are for, but people don’t have time to read long-winded diatribes, better to put some of that meaning in the bare translations even if you have to be creative about it. My first semblance of any commentary here was to footnote why I’m using the word “luminations” in my translation of “vritti” instead of most translations that use “fluctuations” or “modifications”: I’m using this word in the sense that thought is electrical energy. Consider the following similes that we use in English: “a lightbulb went off in my head”; or you may get some “bright idea”; “he/she is absolutely brilliant”; a very “bright kid”; I had a “flash of realization” that has “illuminated” the solution to my problem.
Then a lightbulb DID go off in my head and, I thought, surely, the “fluctuations” of the “chitta” as Pantanjali phrases it could easily be equated to a “quantum mind” state. A few weeks later (2021-10-14 04:20), I’m revisiting and shaping up the format and adding ability to hide/show parts of text (mainly to aid in memorization of the Sanskrit) and I asked myself, is that even possible and apropos, to use the word “quantum” together with “mind” as in “quantum mind”? So I looked it up and lo and behold! I didn’t make it up, there’s a Wikipedia article for quantum mind. Not only that, many Buddhist references and much more food for thought such as: holonomic brain theory where this next excerpt comes from:
“This specific theory of quantum consciousness was developed by neuroscientist Karl Pribram initially in collaboration with physicist David Bohm building on the initial theories of holograms originally formulated by Dennis Gabor. It describes human cognition by modeling the brain as a holographic storage network.Pribram suggests these processes involve electric oscillations in the brain’s fine-fibered dendritic webs, which are different from the more commonly known action potentials involving axons and synapses. These oscillations are waves and create wave interference patterns in which memory is encoded naturally, and the wave function may be analyzed by a Fourier transform. Gabor, Pribram and others noted the similarities between these brain processes and the storage of information in a hologram, which can also be analyzed with a Fourier transform. In a hologram, any part of the hologram with sufficient size contains the whole of the stored information. In this theory, a piece of a long-term memory is similarly distributed over a dendritic arbor so that each part of the dendritic network contains all the information stored over the entire network. This model allows for important aspects of human consciousness, including the fast associative memory that allows for connections between different pieces of stored information and the non-locality of memory storage (a specific memory is not stored in a specific location, i.e. a certain cluster of neurons).”
Clearly, it’s just a theory and may be wrong, but it certainly sheds some light on the idea that the “fluctations of chitta” might be thought of as an electrically-fired quantum consciousness or quantum mind.
As Buddha stated in Suttanipāta 4:920
“Just as in the middle of ocean no wave arises, but the ocean remains steady, so too should he be steady, without impulse; a bhikku should not cause a swelling anywhere.”
Translation/Commentary from “Light of the Soul” by Alice Bailey
This Union (or Yoga) is achieved through the subjugation of the psychic nature and the restraint of the chitta (or mind).
The follower after union has two things to do:
1. To gain control of the “versatile psychic nature,” (SS: sum total of our nitty gritty instincts and desires as processed via one’s brain, solar plexus and heart)
2. To prevent the mind from assuming the many forms it so easily does. These are frequently called “modifications of the thinking principle.” (SS: “modifications of the thinking principle.” i.e. EVERYTHING that goes through our quantum-thinking-3-fold-astral-mental-being that has connections interlacing our solar-plexus/heart/brain/mind whether we are contemplating spiritual realizations, computer code or how best to stick the knife in, loving, hating, enjoying, suffering, pondering trivialities or ruminating including all neuro-electrical reactions to all sensual input at any given microsecond).
Translation/Commentary from “Pantanjali Yoga Sutras” by Swami Vivekananda
Yoga is restraining the mind-stuff (Chitta) from
taking various forms (Vrttis)
A good deal of explanation is necessary here. We have to
understand what Chitta is, and what are these Vrttis. I have
this eye. Eyes do not see. Take away the brain centre which is
in the head, the eyes will still be there, the retinæ complete,
and also the picture, and yet the eyes will not see. So the eyes
are only a secondary instrument, not the organ of vision. The
organ of vision is in the nerve centre of the brain. The two
eyes will not be sufficient alone. Sometimes a man is asleep
with his eyes open. The light is there and the picture is there,
but a third thing is necessary; mind must be joined to the
organ. The eye is the external instrument, we need also the
brain centre and the agency of the mind. Carriages roll down
a street and you do not hear them. Why? Because your mind has
not attached itself to the organ of hearing. First there is the
instrument, then there is the organ, and third, the mind
attachment to these two. The mind takes the impression
farther in, and presents it to the determinative
faculty—Buddhi—which reacts. Along with this reaction
flashes the idea of egoism. Then this mixture of action and
reaction is presented to the Purusa, the real Soul, who
perceives an object in this mixture. The organs (Indriyas),
together with the mind (Manas), the determinative faculty
(Buddhi) and egoism (Ahamkara), form the group called the
Antahkarana (the internal instrument). They are but various
processes in the mind-stuff, called Chitta. The waves of
thought in the Chitta are called Vrtti (“the whirlpool” is the
literal translation). What is thought? Thought is a force, as is
gravitation or repulsion. It is absorbed from the infinite
storehouse of force in nature; the instrument called Chitta
takes hold of that force, and, when it passes out at the other
end it is called thought. This force is supplied to us through
food, and out of that food the body obtains the power of
motion, etc. Others, the finer forces, it throws out in what we
call thought. Naturally we see that the mind is not
intelligent; yet it appears to be intelligent. Why? Because the
intelligent soul is behind it. You are the only sentient being;
mind is only the instrument through which you catch the
external world. Take this book; as a book it does not exist
outside, what exists outside is unknown and unknowable. It is
the suggestion that gives a blow to the mind, and the mind
gives out the reaction. If a stone is thrown into the water the
water is thrown against it in the form of waves. The real
universe is the occasion of the reaction of the mind. A book
form, or an elephant form, or a man form, is not outside; all
that we know is our mental reaction from the outer
suggestion. Matter is the “permanent possibility of
sensation,” said John Stuart Mill. It is only the suggestion that
is outside. Take an oyster for example. You know how pearls
are made. A grain of sand or something gets inside and begins
to irritate it, and the oyster throws a sort of enameling around
the sand, and this makes the pearl. This whole universe is our
own enamel, so to say, and the real universe is the grain of
sand. The ordinary man will never understand it, because,
when he tries to, he throws out an enamel, and sees only his
own enamel. Now we understand what is meant by these
Vrttis. The real man is behind the mind, and the mind is the
instrument in his hands, and it is his intelligence that is
percolating through it. It is only when you stand behind it that
it becomes intelligent. When man gives it up it falls to pieces,
and is nothing. So you understand what is meant by Chitta. It
is the mind-stuff, and Vrttis are the waves and ripples rising in
it when external causes impinge on it. These Vrttis are our
whole universe.
The bottom of the lake we cannot see, because its surface is
covered with ripples. It is only possible when the rippled have
subsided, and the water is calm, for us to catch a glimpse of
the bottom. If the water is muddy, the bottom will not be seen;
if the water is agitated all the time, the bottom will not be
seen. If the water is clear, and there are no waves, we shall see
the bottom. That bottom of the lake is our own true Self; the
lake is the Chitta, and the waves are the Vrttis. Again, this
mind is in three states; one is darkness, which is called Tamas,
just as in brutes and idiots; it only acts to injure others. No
other idea comes into that state of mind. Then there is the
active state of mind, Rajas, whose chief motives are power
and enjoyment. “I will be powerful and rule others.” Then,
at last, when the waves cease, and the water of the lake
becomes clear, there is the state called Sattva, serenity,
calmness. It is not inactive, but rather intensely active. It is the
greatest manifestation of power to be calm. It is easy to be
active. Let the reins go, and the horses will drag you down.
Anyone can do that, but he who can stop the plunging horses
is the strong man. Which requires the greater strength, letting
go, or restraining? The calm man is not the man who is dull.
You must not mistake Sattva for dullness, or laziness. The
calm man is the one who has restraint of these waves. Activity
is the manifestation of the lower strength, calmness of the
superior strength.
This Chitta is always trying to get back to its natural pure
state, but the organs draw it out. To restrain it, and to check
this outward tendency, and to start it on the return journey to
that essence of intelligence is the first step in Yoga, because
only in this way can the Chitta get into its proper course.
Although this Chitta is in every animal, from the lowest to the
highest, it is only in the human form that we find intellect, and
until the mind-stuff can take the form of intellect it is not
possible for it to return through all these steps, and liberate the
soul. Immediate salvation is impossible for the cow and the
dog, although they have mind, because their Chitta cannot as
yet take that form which we call intellect.
Chitta manifests itself in all these different forms – scattering,
darkening, weakening, and concentrating. These are the four
states in which the mind-stuff manifests itself. First a
scattered form, is activity. Its tendency is to manifest in the
form of pleasure or of pain. Then the dull form is darkness,
the only tendency of which is to injure others. The
commentator says the first form is natural to the Devas, the
angels, and the second is the demoniacal form. The Ekagra,
the concentrated form of the Chitta, is what brings us to
Samadhi.
Sutra 3
तदा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानम्॥३॥
Tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe’vasthānam
tadaa drashtuh svaroope (a)vasthaanam
tadā (tadaa) = then, at that time, “to there”
draṣṭuḥ (drashtuh) = the “Seer” i.e. our divine Self from √dṛś = to see
svarūpe (svaroopay) = in His/Her divine body, essential soul-infused person from sva = his/hers + roopa = form, manifestation
avasthānam = is situated, abides
from ava = down + √sthaa = stands, securely situated
Upon completion of the Ascension process the Divine Self comes down and abides in full glory as that (now) enlightened person.
Commentary by Shaman Starseed
The sutra starts off with such a short and unassuming word, tadā (tadaa) = “then” which is really just a form of the most simple and all-encompassing term for the quantum field, tad = “that”. TaDAA is “to” there, same as “then” if you consider time to be a function of locality. Here to say and translate tadaa as simple (yawn) then is the literal meaning, but I’m going with “upon ascension” just as a reminder that this is no ordinary “then” LOL.
To fully envision what is meant by taDAA we’ve got to wrap our minds around the task of developing absolute and unremittent control of the entirety of actuated mental and desire body impulses that are wired up into our quantum mind. No easy feat! Like when you finally get the baby crib put together that had way too many pieces and the mysterious instruction drawings were not much help, but you get it all together, and you hold your hand out, palm facing up and sing out with that familiar two-note melody.. “TaDAA” LOL Exactly THAT!
They literally call the soul the “see-er”, the one who sees, the one who is having this human experience, but more like an observer. That person is way smarter than we are. We, meaning our personalities, are like wild horses roaming the world. Down here on our own chasing this, that and the other thing, feeling high or low, or both at the same time, fearful of death, unsure about a lot of things, but the Self is immortal, plugged into the Cosmic cloud, is omniscient, and is the true “experiencer” of human lives through incarnations, tending to these tethered avatars by a silver cord, using these remarkable biological creations as a means of experiencing embodiment in the matter of these lower planes, almost like a remote control deep-sea diver, but with no control at all over the minute to minute conscious state of the mind that projected fraction of itself that has managed to manifest it’s own mini-ego down here, which embodies our personalities, aversions, desires, loyalties, actions, good traits and faults. We’re just “winging it” down here in the jungle. Our quantum avatar contraption (human being) is controlled by whatever advisors, internal-bureaucrats and goal-striving management teams we’ve allowed to command our vessels, the Pixar movie “Inside Out” comes to mind.
When taDAA happens, it’s like our home team who are at the switchboard inside our quantum control room (I heartily recommend you watch the movie: “Inside Out”) decide to relinquish control to our real Self, who is like a god to them, who THEN steps in and blows their little minds, as our real Self is a master quantum-mind manipulator compared to the conglomerate of animal-instinct-driven-beasties and wanna-be-angels that was running the show before. In a sense, the goal of yoga, or ascension, can be seen also as a “descent” of a powerful entity that is our higher Christ Self/Buddha Nature. This higher part of ourselves is a true master of the Matrix to use an analogy with Nemo. But the rules of the game state that the only way this cosmically-endowed being can take full command of its vessel is by prolonged formal invitation by the ego or personality, our inner mental-stress-management-and-supply-procurement team, and that can only happen after they finally locate the master chill button so as to slow their ship, the quantum-contraption-avatar, down to zero un-initiated processes running so they can focus properly, and get their sack of bones resonating instead with that ultra-encompassing vibration of holographic-sub-atomic power that holds together even the quarks of quarks, resounding throughout the Cosmic Cloud behind all realities, some call it “AUM” or “OM”, that “hum” pervading the universe, embued with holographic wisdom. This biological-machine, with its fault-prone human ego at the helm, has to earn the right to have Mission Control send down its designated ace multi-dimensional pilot by first learning to master the quantum-machine by his or her own little self.
Back to Nemo, the Buddha even mentioned …and yeah, BTW, when you reach 3rd level samadhi you’ll be able to walk through walls, dive into the earth like it’s water, fly through the sky, touch the sun, know the minds of others and so forth… if so, I’m sure such an “enlightened” one could then also dodge bullets.
Translation/Commentary from “Light of the Soul” by Alice Bailey
When this has been accomplished, the Yogi knows himself as he is in reality.
This might be described in the following way: The man who knows the conditions and has fulfilled them as indicated in the preceding sutra,
1. Sees the self,
2. Realises the true nature of the soul,
3. Identifies himself with the inner Reality, and no longer with the concealing forms,
4. Dwells in the centre and no longer upon the periphery,
5. Achieves spiritual consciousness,
6. Awakes to recognition of the God within. In these three verses, the method and the goal are described in clear and certain terms and the way prepared for the more detailed instruction to follow. The aspirant faces his problem, the clue to its solution is given to him, and the reward—union with the soul—is held before his seeking eye.
Translation/Commentary from “Pantanjali Yoga Sutras” by Swami Vivekananda
At that time (the time of concentration) the seer (the
Purusha) rests in his own (unmodified) state.
As soon as the waves have stopped, and the lake has become
quiet, we see the ground below the lake. So with the mind;
when it is calm, we see what our own nature is; we do not mix
ourself but remain our own selves.
Sutra 4
वृत्तिसारूप्यमितरत्र॥४॥
Vṛttisārūpyamitaratra
vritti saa roopyam itaratra
itaratra = otherwise (when the reins of our thoughts and emotions are not soundly tethered by our soul)
vṛitti = the fickle, fluidic patterns that shape our thoughts and emotions at any given instant (even when we’re sleeping!)
sa = of the person (his/hers)
rūpyam (roopyam) = body, manifestation, i.e. constitute the body* of expression for that soul as pertaining to that person;
*Our bodies are 3-fold, we all exist with a physical, emotional and mental body bound together as one “person”. Together these constitute our avatar’s “footing” in the so-called 3 worlds, physical, astral and mental corresponding one might say to the 3rd, 4th and 5th dimensions of our cosmic existence on this prison planet (prison of souls) we call Earth.
Otherwise the Divine Self can only identify with its avatar’s fickle and unbridled mind and emotions.
Commentary by Shaman Starseed
What I called “luminations” (of the quantum mind) and now, the “avatar’s fickle and unbridled mind and emotions” in Sanskrit is simply “vrittis” which is literally “modifications” or “swirlings”. But let’s be clear about this, again, one word here is ripe with meaning and is referring to EVERYTHING that goes through our quantum-thinking-3-fold-astral-mental-being with gates, routes and end-points interlacing our solar-plexus/heart/brain/mind quantum-consciousness whether we are contemplating spiritual realizations, computer code or how best to stick the knife in, whether we be working, calculating, loving, hating, enjoying, suffering, pondering trivialities or ruminating. These modifications also include assessment of data from an internal emergency broadcast system, instinct-based-command-procedures and any current seek-and-destroy/seek-and-procure engagement orders via extensive hardwire connections linking earth/water/fire/air-based modules (cells) condensed in vast networks throughout the 3D physical apparatus (nervous system) which are processing neuro-electrical signals of all sensory input, like an unimaginable array of entangled qubits, continuously and simultaneously, with new status reports sent up to be reviewed and assessed by whoever is on duty in the control room every millionth of a nano-second. We have quite an impressive team, even without our ace pilot on board, that has been brutally developed to its current level of proficiency over the course of eons.
The point being, however, is that, with our composite base ego in charge of our minds, or rather, not in charge, and just reacting to the sensory and other input somewhat like a kid at a shooting arcade, the “soul” or higher self is “the odd man out”, is not at the controls, is not even acknowledged by the identity that lives in that body, and that trigger-happy identity is the one driving the car. Our higher Self is just a passenger. It can only see out the window where the driver, our ego, chooses to go, so that is what is meant by “can only identify with the fluctuations” as pertaining to these human avatars. In its own world the soul has its own awareness on a completely different playing field, but here in these bodies with human brains, hearts and loins, the soul can only experience the sights, sounds and exhilerations of Earthly existence through the whims of the hu-MAN in charge, until such time as that thinking person realizes the soul is there, becomes awestruck at the soul’s magnitude, and hands over the steering wheel.
Translation/Commentary from “Light of the Soul” by Alice Bailey
Up till now the inner man has identified himself with his forms and with their active modifications.
These forms are the modifications mentioned in the various translations, conveying the subtle truth concerning the infinite divisibility of the atom; these are the veiling sheaths and rapidly changing transformations which prevent the true nature of the soul becoming manifest. These are the externalities which hinder the light of the inner God from shining forth, and which are occultly spoken of as “casting a shadow before the face of the sun.”
The inherent nature of the lives which constitute these active versatile forms has hitherto proved too strong for the soul (the Christ within, as the Christian puts it) and the soul-powers have been prevented full expression. The instinctual powers of the “animal soul,” or the capacities of the aggregate of lives which form the sheaths or bodies, imprison the real man and limit his powers. These lives are intelligent units on the involutionary arc of evolution, working towards self-expression. Their objective is, however, different from that of the Inner Man and they hinder his progress and self-realization. He becomes “enmeshed in their activities” and must free himself before he comes into his heritage of power and peace and bliss. He cannot attain “unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ” (Eph. 4:13) until there are no modifications to be felt, until the forms are transformed, their activities quieted, and their restlessness stilled.
The lower forms are constantly and ceaselessly active, endlessly assuming the forms of impulsive desires or dynamic mental thought forms, and it is only as this “form-taking” is controlled and the tumult of the lower nature stilled that it becomes possible for the inner ruling entity to liberate himself from thraldom and impose his vibration upon the lower modifications.
Translation/Commentary from “Pantanjali Yoga Sutras” by Swami Vivekananda
At other times (other than that of concentration) the
seer is identified with the modifications.
For instance, I am in a state of sorrow; someone blames me;
this is a modification, Vrtti, and I identify myself with it, and
the result is misery.
Sutra 5
वृत्तयः पञ्चतय्यः क्लिष्टा अक्लिष्टाः॥५॥
Vṛttayaḥ pañcatayyaḥ kliṣṭā akliṣṭāḥ
vrittayah pangchatayyah klishtaa aklishtaah
vṛttayaḥ = of these mental/emotional modifications
pañcatayyaḥ (pangchatayyah) = there are 5 (states)
from pañca- = five + “ataya” = “of”, “in that set”, genitive declensional word ending agreeing with the first word
kliṣṭā (klishta) = (which can be either) afflicted, troubled, painful
akliṣṭāḥ (aklishtaah) = or non-afflicted, untroubled,non-painful
Of the states of mental/emotional modifications there are five in number, any one of which can be afflictive or non-aflictive.
Commentary by Shaman Starseed
“Afflictive” meaning futhering the thralldom of the soul to a non-enlightened state. Study of these sutras, for instance, with the sincere purpose of achieving enlightenment would be considered non-afflicted, whereas studying these same sutras to bolster egoistic pride first and reaching enlightenment second, would then be afflictive. Most modifications are naturally afflictive. Mahayana Buddhism at its very core deals with this concept as even the desire for enlightenment can stem from a selfish motive and therefore be afflictive, whereas striving to obtain enlightenment “for the purpose of helping others” is not.
Nothing is a coincidence according to some, and that notion also fits in with the notion that the entirety of perceived existence are merely fluctuations in a singular quantum field. Note that the states are five and so is the sutra number. The word in English “punch”, when a verb, many times refers to the 5-fingered kind, and when a drink is thought to be derived from this same Sanskrit root in Hindi, as it was the name for a favorite concoction popularized in India’s British colonial days that has 5 ingredients: (spirits, water, lemon juice, sugar, spice).
If you consider that they all can be afflictive or non-afflictive, so that makes ten. Give ’em the old one-two (two punches, one from each hand). We count in 10s. Just a coincidence one might say.
Translation/Commentary from “Light of the Soul” by Alice Bailey
The mind states are five, and are subject to pleasure or pain; they are painful or not painful.
.In the original the word “pleasure” does not occur; the thought conveyed is more technical, and is usually translated as “not painful.” Nevertheless, the underlying thought is the hindrance to realization caused by the pairs of opposites. The student must remember that in this sutra it is the chitta or mind-stuff which is under consideration, with the modifications it undergoes as long as its versatility and activity are controlling factors. He must not lose sight of the fact that we are dealing with the lower psychic nature, which is the term occultly applied to the lower mind processes as well as to the astral or emotional reactions. All activity in the lower nature is the result of kama-manas, or of mind tinged with feeling, of the desire-will of the lower man. The goal of the Raja Yoga system is that these impulses should be replaced by the considered intelligent action of the soul or spiritual man, whose nature is love, whose acts are wise (occultly understood) and whose motive is group development. Therefore that reaction called pain must be transcended and likewise that termed pleasure, for both of these are dependent upon identification with form. Non-attachment must supersede them.
It is interesting to note that the modifications of the internal organ, the mind, are five in number. Manas, or mind, the actuating principle of the chitta, or mind-stuff, is the fifth principle, and like all else in nature, manifests as a duality. This duality is:
1. Lower concrete mind, demonstrating as the activity of the mental body.
2. Abstract mind, demonstrating as the lowest aspect of the ego.
In the microcosm, man, this duality becomes a triple modification upon the mental plane, and in these three we have in miniature a picture of the macrocosmic manifestation. These three are:
1. The mental permanent atom, the lowest aspect of the spiritual Triad or of the soul,
2. The egoic body, the causal body, or the karana sarira,
3. The mental body, the highest aspect of the lower personal self.
The mental body itself has five modifications or activities, and thus is a reflection, or correspondence of the fifth principle, as it manifests upon the fifth plane, the mental. The modifications are the lower shadow of manas (or mind in the microcosmic manifestation), and this mind is a reflection of mahat (the universal mind), or mind manifesting in the macrocosm. This is a great mystery but will reveal itself to the man who overcomes the five modifications of the lower mind, who through non-attachment to the lower, identifies himself with the higher, and who thus solves the mystery of the “Makara” (SS: a cosmic “Crocodile” LOL) and treads the Way of the Kumaras.
Translation by Swami Vivekananda
There are five classes of modification, painful and not
painful.
Sutra 6
प्रमाणविपर्ययविकल्पनिद्रास्मृतयः॥६॥
Pramāṇaviparyayavikalpanidrāsmṛtayaḥ
pramaanna viparyaya vikalpa nidraa smritayah
pramāṇa (pramaana) = right knowledge, valid cognition
from pra = on, greatly, forward + maana = mind/mental from √maan = to think
viparyaya = misconception, incorrect knowledge
from vi = apart, away from + pari = beyond, to a high degree + √i = to go
vikalpa = verbal delusion, imagination, day dreaming, conceptualization, fancy, indiscrimination
from vi = apart, away from + √klp = to be fit, to serve,competent
nidrā (nidraa) = quiscience, passivity, sleep
from ni = down, within + draa = to sleep
smṛtaya = memoryfrom smṛ = to remember
These are correct knowledge, incorrect knowledge, deluded verbal conceptualization, quiescence and memory.
Translation/Commentary from “Light of the Soul” by Alice Bailey
These modifications (activities) are correct knowledge, incorrect knowledge, fancy, passivity (sleep) and memory.
There exists a vast field of knowledge which the seer must cognise at some time or another. …there are three modes of apprehension:
1. Direct cognition through the avenue of the senses, each sense, when in use, putting its user into contact with a distinct range of vibrations, demonstrating as form manifestations.
2. Deduction or inference, the use by the cogniser of the reasoning powers of the mind in relation to that not directly perceived. This is, for the occult student, the use of the Law of Correspondences or of Analogy.
3. The direct cognition of the yogi or seer, centered in the consciousness of the self, the ego on its own plane. This is achieved through the right use of the mind as an organ of vision and transmission.
“The seer is pure knowledge (gnosis). Though pure he looks upon the presented idea through the medium of the mind.” Book II. Sutra 20.
Translation by Swami Vivekananda
(These are) right knowledge, indiscrimination, verbal
delusion, sleep, and memory.
Sutra 7
प्रत्यक्षानुमानागमाः प्रमाणानि॥७॥
Pratyakṣānumānāgamāḥ pramāṇāni
pratyaksha anumaana agamah pramaanaani
pramāṇāni (pramaanaani) = right knowledge is/includes
from pra = on, greatly, forward + maana = mind/mental
pratyakṣā (pratyakshaa) = perception
from prati = upon, near + aksa = eye
anumāna(anumaana) = inference, deduction
from anu = subordinate to, through + maana = mind/mental
āgama (aagama) = testimony, coming from
from aa + √gam = to go
Correct knowledge is based on correct perception, correct deduction and valid testimony.
Translation/Commentary from “Light of the Soul” by Alice Bailey
The basis of correct knowledge is correct perception, correct deduction and correct witness (or accurate evidence).
One of the most revolutionary realizations to which the occult student has to adjust himself is the appreciation that the mind is a means whereby knowledge is to be gained. In the west the idea has mostly been held that the mind is that part of the human mechanism which utilizes knowledge. The “process of turning things over in the mind,” of striving to solve problems by hard mental labor has no part ultimately in the [17] unfoldment of the soul. It is only a preliminary stage and has to be superseded by a different method.
The student of Raja Yoga has to realise that the mind is intended to be an organ of perception; only thus will he arrive at a right understanding of this science. The process to be followed in relation to the mind might be described somewhat as follows:
1. Right control of the modifications (or activities) of the thinking principle.
2. Stabilization of the mind and its subsequent use by the soul as an organ of vision, a sixth sense, and the synthesis of all the five other senses.
Result: Correct knowledge.
3. Right use of the perceiving faculty, so that the new field of knowledge which is now contacted is seen as it is.
4. That which is perceived is rightly interpreted through the subsequent assent of the intuition and the reason.
5. Right transmission to the physical brain of that which has been perceived; the testimony of the sixth sense is correctly interpreted, and the evidence is transmitted with occult accuracy.
Result: Correct reaction of the physical brain to the transmitted knowledge.
Translation by Swami Vivekananda
Direct perception, inference, and competent evidence, are proofs.
Sutra 8
विपर्ययो मिथ्याज्ञानमतद्रूपप्रतिष्ठम्॥८॥
Viparyayo mithyājñānamatadrūpapratiṣṭham
viparyayo mithyaa gnyaanam atad roopa pratishtham
viparyaya = incorrect knowledge is
from vi = apart, away from + pari = beyond, to a high degree + i = to go
mithyā (mit-hyaa) = false, erroneous
from √mith = “to conflict with”
jñāna (gnyana) = knowledge
from √jñā = to know (related to ‘gnosis’ and ‘know’)
pratiṣṭham (pratishtham) = based on
from pra = to a great degree + √sthā = to stand
rūpa (roopa) = form/body/manifested appearance
atad = not the underlying essential nature
from a = not + tad = that, essential essence, core reality of something
Incorrect knowledge is erroneous conclusion drawn from misinterpretation of the veiling appearance of a form, not based on the underlying essential nature.
Commentary by Shaman Starseed
Again we see ‘tad’ but here it’s a-tad “not that”. So Pantanjali here is saying that “incorrect knowledge” is when you just “don’t get it” SMH LOL. (with a very straight face and John Wayne accent) “I’m sorry, son, you just don’t get it, do you? You NEED a driver’s license to drive a car through Texas and you’re coming with me now.” said the sheriff. What is “it” that I don’t get? It’s an enlightened and fully garnered view, what Buddha called “Right View.” One gets this kind of view from the perspective of tad THAT which also can mean THERE. Buddhas are known as “tataa gata” in Pali, “tad gatva” in Sanskrit, meaning “having gone THERE” (so naturally he is an authority on THAT place). The perception that any “object,” be it an elephant or the thought to scratch your back, is real and not simply a temporary and insubstantial manifestation—a temporary fluctation of chitta from a higher dimension of reality—is here being called out as “incorrect knowledge”. The old adage, “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” carries in it more sense than one might imagine!
Translation/Commentary from “Light of the Soul” by Alice Bailey
Incorrect knowledge is based upon perception of the form and not upon the state of being.
This sutra is somewhat difficult to paraphrase. Its significance consists in this: Knowledge, deduction and a decision which is based upon externals, and upon the form through which any life in any kingdom of nature is expressing itself, is (to the occultist) false and untrue knowledge. At this stage in the evolutionary process no form of any kind measures up to, or is an adequate expression of, the indwelling life. No true adept judges any expression of divinity through its third aspect. Raja Yoga trains a man to function in his second aspect and through that second aspect to put himself en rapport with the “true nature” latent in any form. It is the “being” that is the essential reality, and all beings are struggling toward true expression. All knowledge therefore which is acquired through the medium of the lower faculties and which is based upon the form aspect is incorrect knowledge. (SS: one way to view that last statement: all current rules are only guidelines as you may be dealing with presented holographic forms that veil entities way beyond the norm)
The soul alone perceives correctly; the soul alone has the power to contact the germ or the principle of Buddhi (in the Christian phraseology, the Christ principle) to be found at the heart of every atom, whether it is the atom of matter as studied in the laboratory of the scientist, whether it is the human atom in the crucible of daily experience, whether it is the planetary atom, within whose ring-pass-not all our kingdoms of nature are found, or the solar atom, God in manifestation through the medium of a solar system. Christ “knew what was in man” and therefore could be a Saviour.
Translation by Swami Vivekananda
Indiscrimination is false knowledge not established in real nature.
Sutra 9
शब्दज्ञानानुपाती वस्तुशून्यो विकल्पः॥९॥
Śabdajñānānupātī vastuśūnyo vikalpaḥ
shabda gnyaana aanupati vastu shoonyo vikalpah
ṣabda (shabda) = verbal, from sound
jñāna (gnyana) = knowledge
ṣūnya (shoonya) = without, void
from √ṣvi = to swell
vastu = object, reality from √vas = to remain
anupātin (anupaatin) = produces the “fruit” thereby, produces consequences, generates
from anu = after + √pat = to fall
vikalpa = verbal delusion, imagination, day dreaming, conceptualization, fancy, indiscrimination
from vi = apart, away from + √klp = to be fit, to serve,competent
Verbal delusion proceeds from word-based conceptualization that has no basis in reality.
Commentary by Shaman Starseed
Pipe dreams, fantasy island, the boogie man… the list goes on and on. The obvious connotation is clear however there’s more. What about thinking about a table that’s right in front of me for instance. Surely that has a basis in reality. A story of a physicist comes to mind, not sure if it’s true, he committed suicide after grappling with the realization via quantum physics that the table he was sitting at didn’t really exist. Maybe it’s just a jokish anecdote.
To be blunt, this sutra is pointing at a huge black hole in our sense of what constitutes “knowledge”. All knowledge that is “known” using word constructs is, when you get to a certain “edge of reality”, wrong. Everything is temporary and illusory, all phenomenon are simply fluctations in the quantum field brought into manifestation by conditioned causal factors of which we humans can only sense a limited aspect. All “words” that we fill books and encyclopedias with, or ramble on with to ourselves, are merely crutches and post-it notes for navigating this finite condensed realm of the cosmic cloud. Real “knowing” is beyond words, it’s more like felt at a gut level. Word-based knowledge is always relative to definitions, interpretations, expectations, prejudice, tradition, maybe even gravity sometimes! I wonder if rocket scientists would have to rehash everything they thought to be true if they got transferred to Jupiter.
But how can “verbal delusion” be anything but afflictive? Because words have the ability to “point” the way, to trigger synapses so that real “knowing” can transpire. Following wise words, even if they were based on fictitional allegories, can lead one to heaven. What is the sound of one hand clapping? In the beginning there was the Word. Quantum field revelations now indicate that all perception of reality is ultimately illusory. In the beginning God made a game called The Matrix and we all signed up to play!
Translation/Commentary from “Light of the Soul” by Alice Bailey
Fancy rests upon images which have no real existence.
This means that these images have no real existence in so far as they are conjured up by men themselves, constructed within their own mental auras, energized by their will or desire and are consequently dissipated when attention is directed elsewhere.
“Energy follows thought” is a basic tenet of the Raja Yoga system and is true even where these images of fancy are concerned. These fancied images fall primarily into three groups, which the student would do well to consider.
1. Those thought forms which he constructs himself, which have an evanescent life and which are dependent upon the quality of his desires; being therefore neither good nor evil, low nor high, can be vitalized by low tendencies or idealistic aspirations, with all the intermediate stages to be found between these extremes. The aspirant has to guard himself in order that he may not mistake these for reality.
2. Those thought forms which are created by the race, the nation, the group or the organization. Group thought forms of any kind (from the planetary form to that constructed by any band of thinkers) form the sum total of the “great illusion.” Herein lies a hint to the earnest aspirant.
3. That thought form created by a man since his first appearance in physical form, and called the “Dweller on the Threshold.” Being created by the lower personal self and not by the soul, it is impermanent and is simply held together by the man’s lower energy. When the man begins to function as the soul this “image” he has created, through his “fancy” or his reaction to delusion, is dissipated by a supreme exertion. It has no real existence once there is nothing in the aspirant to feed it, and the realization of this enables him to free himself from its thraldom.
This is one of the sutras which, though apparently short and simple, is of the most profound significance; it is studied by high initiates who are learning the nature of the creative process of the planet, and who are concerned with the dissipation of planetary maya.
Translation/Commentary by Swami Vivekananda
Verbal delusion follows from words having no
(corresponding) reality.
The next class of Vrttis that arise is mistaking the one thing for another, as a piece of mother-of-pearl is taken for a piece of silver.
Sutra 10
अभावप्रत्ययालम्बना वृत्तिर्निद्रा॥१०॥
Abhāvapratyayālambanā vṛttirnidrā
abhaava pratyaya aalambanaa vrittir nidraa
vṛttiḥ = the modification (known as)
nidrā (nidraa) = sleep, quiescence, zombification,
ālambanā (aalambanaa) = is based on, proceeds from from ā = subordinate to + √lamb = to rest upon
abhāva (abhaaba) = voidness, non-becoming, absence of activity
from a = not + √bhū = to be
pratyaya = awareness, mental state of acknowledgment of a “presented idea” (of)
The quantum state known as sleep, quiscience or zombification is based on the absence of awareness.
Commentary by Shaman Starseed
Why “zombification”? Because so many translations simple pass off nidraa as “sleep” and then you tend to gloss over this passage, pegging it as that state of mind that everyone goes through each day, so no big deal. “Quiescence” is a strange word to me that I don’t use in conversation. I find myself looking up the etymologies of the preferred equivalent English words just like I am the Sanskrit words. A drug or alcohol induced stupor is the first thing that comes to mind when considering what other quiescent states are commonly experience by modern worldlings other than snoozing. Or if the aluminum builds up in your brain and your memory blanks out, or perhaps climb a hill wearing a mask and have a stroke and become a “vegetable”… that would count. There’s also the general malady of what one might term “sheepishness” that pervades so many citizens. By that I mean when people are lulled into accepting any cockamamie string of lies and utter nonsense that the people running government organizations, news media outlets and the Zuckerbergs and Dorseys have been instructed to feed them as truth and base their lives upon them. What is happening is people are voluntarily “shutting down” their rational minds and letting it be supplanted by a foreign entity, one could say it’s a form of zombification. Heck the CDC is even encouraging and promoting Americans (we’re ALL Americans BTW in the truest sense of the U.S. Consititution) to embrace “zombies” as something cool and up-and-coming. CDC Zombie Preparedness Webpage. Hordes of people are carrying on in this manner, somehow blocking off the entire past 2.5 thousand years (back to Plato et al) of rational thinking “modification” upgrades and instead letting their bodies, mouths and minds be ruled by some evil consortium seeking to exterminate and/or enslave them. That also falls under this category, so it’s not just ordinary sleep, it can also mean a “part” of your mind that has gone to sleep, like in the case of zombified sheeple, the part of their brains that can do things like know for themselves that two plus two equals four and why, has apparently gone completely “to sleep”.
To be well rounded we should add in that there is a huge “non-afflictive” aspect of this state, in fact in a sense, one that is being highly praised in this treatise, and that is the ability to make your reactive, trigger-happy ego’s sense of being uptight about the daily panorama of life experiences go to sleep. “RELAX”, take a chill pill… “Goodnight” cravings and ill-will, “sleep well” fears and daydreams. I WANT you to take a time-out now and just lay it away so I can suss out the entire breadth of this quantum ocean that is now my new point of reference and maybe even my real identity.
Translation/Commentary from “Light of the Soul” by Alice Bailey
Passivity (sleep) is based upon the quiescent state of the vrittis (or upon the non-perception of the senses).
Some explanation as to the nature of the vrittis is perhaps necessary here. The vrittis are those activities of the mind which eventuate in the conscious relation between the sense employed and that which is sensed. Apart from a certain modification of the mental process or an assertion of the I-am-I realization, the senses might be active yet the man be unaware of them. The man is aware that he sees, tastes or hears; he says, “I see, I taste, I hear,” and it is the activity of the vrittis (or those mental perceptions which have relation to the five senses) which enables him to recognize the fact. By withdrawing himself from active sense perception, by no longer utilising the “outward-going” consciousness, and by abstracting that consciousness from the periphery to the centre, he can bring on a condition of passivity,—a lack of awareness, which is not the samadhi of the yogi, nor the achievement of one-pointedness such as the student of yoga aspires to, but which is a form of trance. This self-imposed quieting is not only a detriment to the achievement of the highest yoga but is excessively dangerous in many cases.
Students will do well to remember that right activity of the mind and its correct use is the goal of yoga, and that the state called “a blank mind” and a condition of passive receptivity, with the sense relations cut off or atrophied, is not part of the process. The sleep here referred to is not the passing of the body into the state of slumber, but the putting to sleep of the vrittis. It is the negation of the contacts of the senses without the sixth sense, the mind, superseding their activities. In this condition of sleep, a man is open to hallucination, to delusion, to wrong impressions and to obsessions.
Sleep is of several kinds, and only a short tabulation is possible in such a commentary as this is.
1. The ordinary sleep of the physical body, where the brain does not respond to any sense contacts;
2. Sleep of the vrittis, or of those modifications of the mental processes which correlate the man with his environment, through the medium of the senses and the mind;
3. The sleep of the soul, which, occultly speaking, covers that part of human experience which dates from a man’s first human incarnation until he “awakens” to a knowledge of The Plan, and endeavors to bring the lower man into line with the nature and will of the inner spiritual man;
4. The sleep of the ordinary medium, wherein the etheric body is partially extruded from the physical body, and is likewise separated from the astral body, bringing in a condition of very real danger;
5. Samadhi, or the sleep of the yogi, the result of the conscious scientific withdrawal of the real man from his lower threefold sheath in order to work on high levels, preparatory to some active service upon the lower;
6. The sleep of the Nirmanakayas, which is a condition of such intense spiritual concentration and focussing in the spiritual or atmic body that the outward going consciousness is withdrawn not only from the three planes of human endeavor but likewise from the two lower expressions of the spiritual Triad. For purposes of his peculiar and specific work the Nirmanakaya “sleeps” to all states save that of the third, or atmic plane.
Translation/Commentary by Swami Vivekananda
Sleep is a Vrtti which embraces the feeling of voidness.
The next class of Vrttis is called sleep and dream. When we awake we know that we have been sleeping; we can only have memory of perception. That which we do not perceive we never can have any memory of. Every reaction is a wave in the lake. Now, if, during sleep, the mind has no waves, it would have no perceptions, positive or negative, and, therefore, we would not remember them. The very reason of our remembering sleep is that during sleep there was a certain class of waves in the mind. Memory is another class of Vrttis, which is called Smrti.
Sutra 11
अनुभूतविषयासम्प्रमोषः स्मृतिः॥११॥
Anubhūtaviṣayāsampramoṣaḥ smṛtiḥ
anubhoota vishaya aasampramoshah smritih
smṛtiḥ (smritih) = re-membering/recollection (is)
asampramoṣaḥ (asampramoshah) = without taking from external sources
from a = not + sam = with + pra on, forth + √muṣ = to steal, take from another; (i.e. no digital recordings allowed)
viṣaya (vishaya) = (any) thing (you ever experienced); any registry of quantum input
from √viṣ = to be active + aya = going
anubhūta = that happened previously; existing in the sum of one’s experiences
from anu = in, ordered from + √bhū = to be
Remembering is the act of retrieving impressions that were previously experienced.
Commentary by Shaman Starseed
“Remembering” it’s a verb, like “jazz”. Consider memories not so much being inscribed somewhere in the cells of our brain like a computer writes to a hard drive, but rather the process of our minds behaving like a quantum computer registering two places at once, and so in a sense time-travel to “re”-“collect” impressions that we attenuated to in the past.
Translation/Commentary from “Light of the Soul” by Alice Bailey
Memory is the holding on to that which has been known.
This memory concerns several groups of realizations, either active or latent; it deals with certain congeries of known factors, and these might be enumerated as follows:
1. The thought images of that which is tangible, objective and which has been known by the thinker upon the physical plane.
2. Kama-manasic (or desire-lower mind) images of past desires and their gratification. The “picture making faculty” of the average man is based upon his desires (high or low desires, aspirational or degrading, in its sense of pulling down) and their known gratification. This remains equally true of the memory of a gluttonous man, for instance, and his latent image of a satisfactory dinner, and the memory of the orthodox saint, based upon his picture making of a joyous heaven.
3. That memory activity which is the result of mental training, the accumulation of acquired facts, the consequence of reading or of teaching, and which is not purely based upon desire, but which has its basis in intellectual interest.
4. All the various contacts which the memory holds and recognises as emanating from the five lower sense perceptions.
5. Those mental images, latent in the memory making faculty, which are the total of the knowledge contacted and the realisations evoked by the right use of the mind as a sixth sense.
All these forms of the memory faculty have to be dropped and no longer held; they must be recognised as modifications of the mind, of the thinking principle, and therefore as part of that versatile psychic nature which has to be dominated before the yogi can hope to attain liberation from limitation and from all lower activity. This is the goal.
6. Finally (for it is not necessary to enumerate more intricate subdivisions) memory includes also the accumulated experiences gained by the soul through the many incarnations, and stored up in the true consciousness of the soul.
Translation/Commentary by Swami Vivekananda
Memory is when the (Vrttis of) perceived subjects do not slip away (and through impressions come back to consciousness).
Memory can be caused by the previous three. For instance,
you hear a word. That word is like a stone thrown into the lake
of the Chitta; it causes a ripple, and that ripple rouses a series
of ripples; this is memory. So in sleep. When the peculiar
kind of ripple called sleep throws the Chitta into a ripple of
memory it is called a dream. Dream is another form of the
ripple which in the waking state is called memory.