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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
The Threads of Union
Translation by BonGiovanni

1. on Contemplations
2. on Spiritual Disciplines
3. on Divine Powers
4. on Realizations

Before beginning any spiritual text it is customary to clear the mind of all distracting thoughts, to calm the breath and to purify the heart.

1.1 Now, instruction in Union.

1.2. Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind.

1.3. Then the seer dwells in his own nature.

1.4. Otherwise he is of the same form as the thought-streams.

1.5. The thought-streams are five-fold, painful and not painful.

1.6. Right knowledge, wrong knowledge, fancy, sleep and memory.

1.7. Right knowledge is inference, tradition and genuine cognition.

1.8. Wrong knowledge is false, illusory, erroneous beliefs or notions.

1.9. Fancy is following after word-knowledge empty of substance.

1.10. Deep sleep is the modification of the mind which has for its substratum nothingness.

1.11. Memory is not allowing mental impressions to escape.

1.12. These thought-streams are controlled by practice and non-attachment.

1.13. Practice is the effort to secure steadiness.

1.14. This practice becomes well-grounded when continued with reverent devotion and without interruption over a long period of time.

1.15. Desirelessness towards the seen and the unseen gives the consciousness of mastery.

1.16. This is signified by an indifference to the three attributes, due to knowledge of the Indweller.

1.17. Cognitive meditation is accompanied by reasoning, discrimination, bliss and the sense of 'I am.'

1.18. There is another meditation which is attained by the practice of alert mental suspension until only subtle impressions remain.

1.19. For 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.

1.21. Equalminded contemplation is nearest to those whose desire is most ardent.

1.22. There is further distinction on account of the mild, moderate or intense means employed.

1.23. Or by surrender to God.

1.24. God is a particular yet universal indweller, untouched by afflictions, actions, impressions and their results.

1.25. In God, the seed of omniscience is unsurpassed.

1.26. Not being conditioned by time, God is the teacher of even the ancients.

1.27. God's voice is Om.

1.28. The repetition of Om should be made with an understanding of its meaning.

1.29. From that is gained introspection and also the disappearance of obstacles.

1.30. Disease, inertia, doubt, lack of enthusiasm, laziness, sensuality, mind-wandering, missing the point, instability- these distractions of the mind are the obstacles.

1.31. Pain, 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.

1.33. By 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.

1.35. Or activity of the higher senses causes mental steadiness.

1.36. Or the state of sorrowless Light.

1.37. Or the mind taking as an object of concentration those who are freed of compulsion.

1.38. Or depending on the knowledge of dreams and sleep.

1.39. Or by meditation as desired.

1.40. The mastery of one in Union extends from the finest atomic particle to the greatest infinity.

1.41. When 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.

1.42. The argumentative condition is the confused mixing of the word, its right meaning, and knowledge.

1.43. When the memory is purified and the mind shines forth as the object alone, it is called non-argumentative.

1.44. In this way the meditative and the ultra-meditative having the subtle for their objects are also described.

1.45. The province of the subtle terminates with pure matter that has no pattern or distinguishing mark.

1.46. These constitute seeded contemplations.

1.47. On attaining the purity of the ultra-meditative state there is the pure flow of spiritual consciousness.

1.48. Therein is the faculty of supreme wisdom.

1.49. The wisdom obtained in the higher states of consciousness is different from that obtained by inference and testimony as it refers to particulars.

1.50. The 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.

End Part One.

Part Two
on Spiritual Disciplines

2.1 Austerity, the study of sacred texts, and the dedication of action to God constitute the discipline of Mystic Union.

2.2 This discipline is practised for the purpose of acquiring fixity of mind on the Lord, free from all impurities and agitations, or on One's Own Reality, and for attenuating the afflictions.

2.3 The five afflictions are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and the desire to cling to life.

2.4 Ignorance is the breeding place for all the others whether they are dormant or attenuated, partially overcome or fully operative.

2.5 Ignorance is taking the non-eternal for the eternal, the impure for the pure, evil for good and non-self as self.

2.6 Egoism is the identification of the power that knows with the instruments of knowing.

2.7 Attachment is that magnetic pattern which clusters in pleasure and pulls one towards such experience.

2.8 Aversion is the magnetic pattern which clusters in misery and pushes one from such experience.

2.9 Flowing by its own energy, established even in the wise and in the foolish, is the unending desire for life.

2.10 These patterns when subtle may be removed by developing their contraries.

2.11 Their active afflictions are to be destroyed by meditation.

2.12 The impressions of works have their roots in afflictions and arise as experience in the present and the future births.

2.13 When the root exists, its fruition is birth, life and experience.

2.14 They have pleasure or pain as their fruit, according as their cause be virtue or vice.

2.15 All is misery to the wise because of the pains of change, anxiety, and purificatory acts.

2.16 The grief which has not yet come may be avoided.

2.17 The cause of the avoidable is the superimposition of the external world onto the unseen world.

2.18 The experienced world consists of the elements and the senses in play. It is of the nature of cognition, activity and rest, and is for the purpose of experience and realization.

2.19 The stages of the attributes effecting the experienced world are the specialized and the unspecialized, the differentiated and the undifferentiated.

2.20 The indweller is pure consciousness only, which though pure, sees through the mind and is identified by ego as being only the mind.

2.21 The very existence of the seen is for the sake of the seer.

2.22 Although Creation is discerned as not real for the one who has achieved the goal, it is yet real in that Creation remains the common experience to others.

2.23 The association of the seer with Creation is for the distinct recognition of the objective world, as well as for the recognition of the distinct nature of the seer.

2.24 The cause of the association is ignorance.

2.25 Liberation of the seer is the result of the dissassociation of the seer and the seen, with the disappearance of ignorance.

2.26 The continuous practice of discrimination is the means of attaining liberation.

2.27 Steady wisdom manifests in seven stages.

2.28 On the destruction of impurity by the sustained practice of the limbs of Union, the light of knowledge reveals the faculty of discrimination.

2.29 The eight limbs of Union are self-restraint in actions, fixed observance, posture, regulation of energy, mind-control in sense engagements, concentration, meditation, and realization.

2.30 Self-restraint in actions includes abstention from violence, from falsehoods, from stealing, from sexual engagements, and from acceptance of gifts.

2.31 These five willing abstentions are not limited by rank, place, time or circumstance and constitute the Great Vow.

2.32 The fixed observances are cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study and persevering devotion to God.

2.33 When improper thoughts disturb the mind, there should be constant pondering over the opposites.

2.34 Improper thoughts and emotions such as those of violence- whether done, caused to be done, or even approved of- indeed, any thought originating in desire, anger or delusion, whether mild medium or intense- do all result in endless pain and misery. Overcome such distractions by pondering on the opposites.

2.35 When one is confirmed in non-violence, hostility ceases in his presence.

2.36 When one is firmly established in speaking truth, the fruits of action become subservient to him.

2.37 All jewels approach him who is confirmed in honesty.

2.38 When one is confirmed in celibacy, spiritual vigor is gained.

2.39 When one is confirmed in non-possessiveness, the knowledge of the why and how of existence is attained.

2.40 From purity follows a withdrawal from enchantment over one's own body as well as a cessation of desire for physical contact with others.

2.41 As a result of contentment there is purity of mind, one-pointedness, control of the senses, and fitness for the vision of the self.

2.42 Supreme happiness is gained via contentment.

2.43 Through sanctification and the removal of impurities, there arise special powers in the body and senses.

2.44 By study comes communion with the Lord in the Form most admired.

2.45 Realization is experienced by making the Lord the motive of all actions.

2.46 The posture should be steady and comfortable.

2.47 In effortless relaxation, dwell mentally on the Endless with utter attention.

2.48 From that there is no disturbance from the dualities.

2.49 When that exists, control of incoming and outgoing energies is next.

2.50 It may be external, internal, or midway, regulated by time, place, or number, and of brief or long duration.

2.51 Energy-control which goes beyond the sphere of external and internal is the fourth level- the vital.

2.52 In this way, that which covers the light is destroyed.

2.53 Thus the mind becomes fit for concentration.

2.54 When the mind maintains awareness, yet does not mingle with the senses, nor the senses with sense impressions, then self-awareness blossoms.

2.55 In this way comes mastery over the senses.

End Part Two

Part Three
on Divine Powers

3.1 One-pointedness is steadfastness of the mind.

3.2 Unbroken continuation of that mental ability is meditation.

3.3 That same meditation when there is only consciousness of the object of meditation and not of the mind is realization.

3.4 The three appearing together are self-control.

3.5 By mastery comes wisdom.

3.6 The application of mastery is by stages.

3.7 The three are more efficacious than the restraints.

3.8 Even that is external to the seedless realization.

3.9 The significant aspect is the union of the mind with the moment of absorption, when the outgoing thought disappears and the absorptive experience appears.

3.10 From sublimation of this union comes the peaceful flow of unbroken unitive cognition.

3.11 The contemplative transformation of this is equalmindedness, witnessing the rise and destruction of distraction as well as one-pointedness itself.

3.12 The mind becomes one-pointed when the subsiding and rising thought-waves are exactly similar.

3.13 In this state, it passes beyond the changes of inherent characteristics, properties and the conditional modifications of object or sensory recognition.

3.14 The object is that which preserves the latent characteristic, the rising characteristic or the yet-to-be-named characteristic that establishes one entity as specific.

3.15 The succession of these changes in that entity is the cause of its modification.

3.16 By self-control over these three-fold changes (of property, character and condition), knowledge of the past and the future arises.

3.17 The sound of a word, the idea behind the word, and the object the idea signfies are often taken as being one thing and may be mistaken for one another. By self-control over their distinctions, understanding of all languages of all creatures arises.

3.18 By self-control on the perception of mental impressions, knowledge of previous lives arises.

3.19 By self-control on any mark of a body, the wisdom of the mind activating that body arises.

3.20 By self-control on the form of a body, by suspending perceptibility and separating effulgence therefrom, there arises invisibility and inaudibilty.

3.21 Action is of two kinds, dormant and fruitful. By self-control on such action, one portends the time of death.

3.22 By performing self-control on friendliness, the strength to grant joy arises.

3.23 By self-control over any kind of strength, such as that of the elephant, that very strength arises.

3.24 By self-control on the primal activator comes knowledge of the hidden, the subtle, and the distant.

3.25 By self-control on the Sun comes knowledge of spatial specificities.

3.26 By self-control on the Moon comes knowledge of the heavens.

3.27 By self-control on the Polestar arises knowledge of orbits.

3.28 By self-control on the navel arises knowledge of the constitution of the body.

3.29 By self-control on the pit of the throat one subdues hunger and thirst.

3.30 By self-control on the tube within the chest one acquires absolute steadiness.

3.31 By self-control on the light in the head one envisions perfected beings.

3.32 There is knowledge of everything from intuition.

3.33 Self-control on the heart brings knowledge of the mental entity.

3.34 Experience arises due to the inability of discerning the attributes of vitality from the indweller, even though they are indeed distinct from one another. Self-control brings true knowledge of the indweller by itself.

3.35 This spontaneous enlightenment results in intuitional perception of hearing, touching, seeing and smelling.

3.36 To the outward turned mind, the sensory organs are perfections, but are obstacles to realization.

3.37 When the bonds of the mind caused by action have been loosened, one may enter the body of another by knowledge of how the nerve-currents function.

3.38 By self-control of the nerve-currents utilising the lifebreath, one may levitate, walk on water, swamps, thorns, or the like.

3.39 By self-control over the maintenance of breath, one may radiate light.

3.40 By self-control on the relation of the ear to the ether one gains distant hearing.

3.41 By self-control over the relation of the body to the ether, and maintaining at the same time the thought of the lightness of cotton, one is able to pass through space.

3.42 By self-control on the mind when it is separated from the body- the state known as the Great Transcorporeal- all coverings are removed from the Light.

3.43 Mastery over the elements arises when their gross and subtle forms,as well as their essential characteristics, and the inherent attributes and experiences they produce, is examined in self-control.

3.44 Thereby one may become as tiny as an atom as well as having many other abilities, such as perfection of the body, and non-resistence to duty.

3.45 Perfection of the body consists in beauty, grace, strength and adamantine hardness.

3.46 By self-control on the changes that the sense-organs endure when contacting objects, and on the power of the sense of identity, and of the influence of the attributes, and the experience all these produce- one masters the senses.

3.47 From that come swiftness of mind, independence of perception, and mastery over primoridal matter.

3.48 To one who recognizes the distinctive relation between vitality and indweller comes omnipotence and omniscience.

3.49 Even for the destruction of the seed of bondage by desirelessness there comes absolute independence.

3.50 When invited by invisible beings one should be neither flattered nor satisfied, for there is yet a possibility of ignorance rising up.

3.51 By self-control over single moments and their succession there is wisdom born of discrimination.

3.52 From that there is recognition of two similars when that difference cannot be distinguished by class, characteristic or position.

3.53 Intuition, which is the entire discriminative knowledge, relates to all objects at all times, and is without succession.

3.54 Liberation is attained when there is equal purity between vitality and the indweller.

End Part Three

Part Four
on Realizations

4.1 Psychic powers arise by birth, drugs, incantations, purificatory acts or concentrated insight.

4.2 Transformation into another state is by the directed flow of creative nature.

4.3 Creative nature is not moved into action by any incidental cause, but by the removal of obstacles, as in the case of a farmer clearing his field of stones for irrigation.

4.4 Created minds arise from egoism alone.

4.5 There being difference of interest, one mind is the director of many minds.

4.6 Of these, the mind born of concentrated insight is free from the impressions.

4.7 The impressions of unitive cognition are neither good nor bad. In the case of the others, there are three kinds of impressions.

4.8 From them proceed the development of the tendencies which bring about the fruition of actions.

4.9 Because of the magnetic qualities of habitual mental patterns and memory, a relationship of cause and effect clings even though there may be a change of embodiment by class, space and time.

4.10 The desire to live is eternal, and the thought-clusters prompting a sense of identity are beginningless.

4.11 Being held together by cause and effect, substratum and object- the tendencies themselves disappear on the dissolution of these bases.

4.12 The past and the future exist in the object itself as form and expression, there being difference in the conditions of the properties.

4.13 Whether manifested or unmanifested they are of the nature of the attributes.

4.14 Things assume reality because of the unity maintained within that modification.

4.15 Even though the external object is the same, there is a difference of cognition in regard to the object because of the difference in mentality.

4.16 And if an object known only to a single mind were not cognized by that mind, would it then exist?

4.17 An object is known or not known by the mind, depending on whether or not the mind is colored by the object.

4.18 The mutations of awareness are always known on account of the changelessness of its Lord, the indweller.

4.19 Nor is the mind self-luminous, as it can be known.

4.20 It is not possible for the mind to be both the perceived and the perceiver simultaneously.

4.21 In the case of cognition of one mind by another, we would have to assume cognition of cognition, and there would be confusion of memories.

4.22 Consciousness appears to the mind itself as intellect when in that form in which it does not pass from place to place.

4.23 The mind is said to perceive when it reflects both the indweller (the knower) and the objects of perception (the known).

4.24 Though variegated by innumerable tendencies, the mind acts not for itself but for another, for the mind is of compound substance.

4.25 For one who sees the distinction, there is no further confusing of the mind with the self.

4.26 Then the awareness begins to discriminate, and gravitates towards liberation.

4.27 Distractions arise from habitual thought patterns when practice is intermittent.

4.28 The removal of the habitual thought patterns is similar to that of the afflictions already described.

4.29 To one who remains undistracted in even the highest intellection there comes the equalminded realization known as The Cloud of Virtue. This is a result of discriminative discernment.

4.30 From this there follows freedom from cause and effect and afflictions.

4.31 The infinity of knowledge available to such a mind freed of all obscuration and property makes the universe of sensory perception seem small.

4.32 Then the sequence of change in the three attributes comes to an end, for they have fulfilled their function.

4.33 The sequence of mutation occurs in every second, yet is comprehensible only at the end of a series.

4.34 When the attributes cease mutative association with awarenessness, they resolve into dormancy in Nature, and the indweller shines forth as pure consciousness. This is absolute freedom.

End Part Four
The end of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

001. Yoga Sutras, de Patanjali. [Libro 1]

Patanjali’s Yoga Philosophy (Based on The Teachings of Sri Swami Satchidananda)

Libro I: El Problema de la Unión / Samadhipadhah

1. AUM. La siguiente instrucción concierne a la Ciencia de la Unión.

1. Aquí comienza la enseñanza del Yoga que ejerce autoridad.

2. Esta Unión (o yoga) se alcanza mediante la subyugación de la naturaleza síquica y la sujeción de la mente (chitta).

2. El Yoga es la aptitud para dirigir la mente exclusivamente hacia un objeto y mantener esa dirección sin distracción alguna.

3. Obtenido esto, el yogui se conoce a a sí mismo, tal como es en realidad.

3. Entonces nace la capacidad de comprender plena y correctamente el objeto.

4. Hasta ahora el hombre interno se ha identificado con sus formas y con las modificaciones activas de éstas.

4. La aptitud para comprender el objeto se ve simplemente reemplazada por la concepción que la mente tiene de dicho objeto, o bien por una falta de comprensión.

5. Los estados de la mente son cinco, están sujetos al placer o al dolor y son dolorosos o no.

5. Las actividades de la mente son cinco. Cada una de ellas puede ser beneficiosa y puede causar problemas.

6. Estas modificaciones (actividades) son: correcto conocimiento, incorrecto conocimiento, fantasía, pasividad (sueño) y memoria.

6. Las cinco actividades son: la comprensión, la comprensión defectuosa, la imaginación, el sueño profundo y la memoria.

7. La base del conocimiento correcto es es percepción correcta, deducción correcta y testimonio correcto (o evidencia exacta).

7. La comprensión se basa en la observación directa del objeto, la inferencia y la referencia a autoridades dignas de confianza.

8. El conocimiento incorrecto se basa en la percepción de la forma y no en el estado del ser.

8. La comprensión defectuosa es la comprensión que se toma por correcta hasta que condiciones más favorables revelan la naturaleza real del objeto.

9. La fantasía descansa sobre imágenes que no tienen existencia real.

9. La imaginación es la comprensión de un objeto basada únicamente en palabras y expresiones, incluso en ausencia del objeto.

10. La pasividad (sueño) está basada en el estado pasivo de los "vrittis" (o en la no percepción de los sentidos).

10. Hay sueño profundo cuando la mente está inmersa en la pesadez y ninguna otra actividad está presente.

11. La memoria es retención de lo conocido.

11. La memoria es la retención mental de una experiencia consciente.

12. El control de estas modificaciones del órgano interno, la mente, se logra mediante incansable esfuerzo y desapego.

12. La mente puede alcanzar el estado de Yoga por medio de la práctica y el desapego.

13. El esfuerzo incansable es empeño constante para restringir las modificaciones de la mente.

13. La práctica es, fundamentalmente, el justo esfuerzo necesario para avanzar hacia el estado de Yoga, alcanzarlo y mantenerlo.

14. Cuando el objetivo a alcanzar es valorado suficientemente, y los esfuerzos para lograrlo continúan persistentemente y sin interrupción, se asegura la estabilidad de la mente (restricción de los vrittis).

14. Sólo si la práctica adecuada se mantiene largo tiempo, sin interrupciones, con las cualidades de celo y actitud positiva, puede ésta triunfar.

15. Desapego es liberarse de la apetencia de los objetos deseados, ya sean terrenos o tradicionales, aquí o en el más allá.

15. En el más alto grado hay ausencia total de aspiración a contentar los sentidos o a vivir experiencias extraordinarias.

16. La consumación de este desapego da por resultado el exacto conocimiento del hombre espiritual, liberado de las cualidades o gunas.

16. Quien ha alcanzado la plena comprensión de su verdadero ser ya no se verá perturbado por experiencias que le distraigan, tanto en su interior como a su alrededor.

17. La conciencia de un objeto se obtiene concentrándose en su cuádruple naturaleza: la forma, por un examen de la misma; la cualidad (o guna), por participación discriminativa; el propósito, por inspiración (o beatitud), y el alma por identificación.

17. Entonces el objeto es gradualmente comprendido de manera plena. Esta comprensión es, al principio, más o menos superficial pero, con el tiempo, se hace más profunda. Llega un día que es total. Nace una alegría pura como consecuencia de una tal profundidad de comprensión que entonces el individuo está tan unido al objeto que pierde conciencia de lo que le rodea.

18. Se alcanza otra etapa de samadhi, cuando, mediante el pensamiento enfocado en una sola dirección, se aquieta la actividad externa. En esta etapa, la sustancia mental o chitta, responde únicamente a impresiones subjetivas.

18. Las perturbaciones mentales habituales están ausentes. A pesar de ello, los recuerdos del pasado subsisten.

19. El samadhi descrito no va más allá de los límites del mundo fenoménico; tampoco va más allá de los dioses ni de quienes se ocupan del mundo concreto.

19. Habrá algunas personas nacidas en un estado de Yoga. No necesitan practicar ni disciplinarse.

20. Otros yoguis alcanzan samadhi y llegan a la discriminación del espíritu puro a través de la creencia, seguida de energía, memoria, meditación y correcta percepción.

20. Gracias a la fe, que proporcionará la energía suficiente para superar todas las situaciones, se mantendrá la dirección. La consecuencia del objetivo del Yoga exige tiempo.

21. Aquellos cuya voluntad está intensamente activa, alcanzan rápidamente la etapa de conciencia espiritual.

21. A más intensa es la fe y el esfuerzo, más cercano está el objetivo.

22. Quienes emplean la voluntad difieren también, porque su empleo puede ser intenso, moderado o suave. Respecto al logro de la verdadera conciencia espiritual existe todavía otro camino.

22. La profundidad de la fe varía inevitablemente de una persona a otra y, en una misma persona, varía con el tiempo. Los resultados reflejarán estas variaciones.

23. Por la intensa devoción a Ishvara se alcanza el conocimiento de Ishvara.

23. Ofrecer regularmente plegarias a Dios, con sentimiento de sumisión a Su poder, permite ciertamente alcanzar el estado de Yoga.

24. Ishvara es el alma, a ésta no la afectan las limitaciones y está libre del karma y del deseo.

24. Dios es el Ser Supremo, cuyas acciones no se basan jamás en la comprensión defectuosa.

25. En Ishvara, el Gurudeva, el germen de todo conocimiento, se expande al infinito.

25. Él conoce todo lo que se puede conocer.

26. Ishvara, el Gurudeva, como no está limitado por el factor tiempo, es el instructor de los Señores Primitivos.

26. Dios es eterno. De hecho es el enseñante último. Es la fuente de "Guía" para todos los instructores pasados, presentes y futuros.

27. La palabra de Ishvara es AUM (u OM). Ésta es el Pranava.

27. La forma más apropiada tiene en cuenta las cualidades de Dios.

28. Mediante la emisión de la Palabra y la reflexión sobre su significado, se descubre el Camino.

28. Para estar en relación con Dios es necesario dirigirse a Él de una manera adecuada y reflexionar regularmente sobre Sus cualidades.

29. Por esto llega el conocimiento del yo (el alma) y la eliminación de todos los obstáculos.

29. Llegará un momento en que la persona percibirá su auténtica naturaleza. Ya no se verá perturbada por ninguna de las interrupciones que pueden aparecer a lo largo de su camino hacia el estado de Yoga.

30. Los obstáculos para el conocimiento del alma son: incapacidad corporal, inercia mental, duda, abandono, pereza, apasionamiento, percepción errónea, incapacidad para lograr la concentración , o imposibilidad para mantener la actitud meditativa una vez alcanzada.

30. Hay nueve tipos de interrupciones al desarrollo de la claridad mental: la enfermedad, el estancamiento mental, las dudas, la imprevisión, la fatiga, el exceso de complacencia, las ilusiones sobre el verdadero estado mental de uno mismo, la falta de perseverancia y la regresión. Son obstáculos porque crean perturbaciones mentales y refuerzan las distracciones.

31. Los resultados de los obstáculos sobre la naturaleza psíquica inferior son: dolor, desesperación, errónea actividad corporal y equívoca dirección o control de las corrientes de vida.

31. Todas estas interrupciones provocan uno o más de los siguientes síntomas: incomodidad mental, pensamiento negativo, incapacidad de sentirse cómodo en diferentes posturas corporales y dificultad para controlar la propia respiración.

32. Para superar los obstáculos y sus derivados, se requiere intensa aplicación de la voluntad a alguna verdad o principio.

32. Si se puede escoger y poner en práctica un medio apropiado para estabilizar la mente, las interrupciones no pueden echar raíces, sean cuales sean las provocaciones.

33. La paz de la sustancia mental o chitta se puede alcanzar practicando la simpatía, la ternura, la firmeza de propósito y el desapasionamiento respecto al placer y al dolor, o a todas las formas del bien y del mal.

33. En la vida cotidiana vemos, a nuestro alrededor, personas más felices que nosotros. Algunas hacen cosas dignas de elogio, otras originan problemas. Sea cual sea nuestra actitud habitual hacia tales personas y sus acciones, si podemos estar contentos con aquellos que son más felices que nosotros, ser compasivos con los infortunados, estar alegres con los que realizan acciones dignas de elogio y si los errores de los demás no nos afligen, nuestras mentes estarán muy tranquilas.

34. Además, la paz de chitta se alcanza mediante la regulación del prana o aliento de la vida.

34. Puede ser útil la práctica de ejercicios respiratorios a base de espiraciones prolongadas.

35. La estabilidad mental puede obtenerse mediante esas fórmulas de concentración, relacionadas con la percepción sensoria.

35. Por medio de la indagación habitual sobre el papel de los sentidos podemos podemos reducir las distorsiones mentales.

36. Meditando sobre la luz y el resplandor, se puede llegar al conocimiento del espíritu y alcanzar la paz.

36. Por medio de la indagación sobre lo que es la vida y sobre lo que nos mantiene vivos, podemos encontrar algún alivio a nuestras distracciones mentales.

37. La mente (chitta) se estabiliza y queda liberada de la ilusión, a medida que se purifica la naturaleza inferior y ya no se la satisface.

37. Cuando nos enfrentamos a problemas, el consejo de alguien que haya dominado problemas similares puede ser de gran ayuda.

38. La paz (estabilización de la sustancia mental o chitta) puede lograrse meditando sobre el conocimiento que proporcionan los sueños.

38. La exploración de nuestros sueños, de nuestro sueño y de las experiencias vividas en estados o en relación con ellos nos puede ayudar a clarificar algunos de nuestros problemas.

39. La paz también se alcanza concentrándose en lo que el corazón más aprecia.

39. Toda indagación digna de interés puede calmar la mente.

40. Así su comprensión se extiende desde lo infinitamente pequeño hasta lo infinitamente grande y su conocimiento se perfecciona desde annu (el átomo o partícula) hasta atma (o espíritu).

40. Cuando este estado ha sido alcanzado, no hay nada que sobrepase la capacidad de comprensión. La mente puede mantenerse y ayudar a comprender lo simple y lo complejo, lo infinito y lo infinitesimal, lo perceptible y lo imperceptible.

41. Aquel que ha controlado totalmente sus "vrittis" (modificaciones de la sustancia mental), llega a un estado de identificación y similitud con lo que ha conocido. El conocedor, el conocimiento y el campo del conocimiento se convierten en uno; así como el cristal toma los colores de lo que refleja.

41. Cuando la mente está libre de distracción, todos los procesos mentales pueden estar implicados en el objeto de indagación. Al permanecer en este estado, gradualmente se llega a estar totalmente absorto en el objeto. Entonces la mente refleja, como un diamante sin defecto, los trazos de dicho objeto y nada más.

42. Cuando el perceptor mezcla la palabra, la idea (el significado) y el objeto, esto es denominado estado mental de razonamiento sensato.

42. Al principio, a causa de nuestras experiencias e ideas pasadas, nuestra comprensión del objeto está deformada. Todo lo que ha sido oído, leído o sentido puede interferir en nuestra percepción.

43. Se llega a la percepción sin un razonamiento sensato cuando la memoria ya no controla, entonces la palabra y el objeto son trascendidos y sólo la idea está presente.

43. Cuando se sostiene la dirección de la mente hacia el objeto, las ideas y recuerdos del pasado pierden terreno gradualmente, La mente llega a ser transparente como un cristal y es una sola cosa con el objeto. En este momento no hay sentimiento de uno mismo. Es la percepción pura.

44. Ambos procesos de concentración, con o sin la acción sensata de la mente, pueden ser aplicados también a cosas sutiles.

44. Este proceso es posible con cualquier tipo de objeto, a todo nivel de percepción: superficial y general o profundo y específico.

45. Lo denso conduce a lo sutil; lo sutil lleva, por etapas sucesivas, al estado del ser espiritual puro llamado Pradhana.

45. La mente no puede comprender la fuente misma de la percepción que hay en nosotros. Por lo demás, sus objetos de comprensión son ilimitados.

46. Todo esto es meditación con simiente.

46. Todos estos procesos que consisten en dirigir la mente exigen un objeto de indagación.

47. Cuando se ha alcanzado este estado supercontemplativo, el yogui adquiere la comprensión espiritual pura, por medio de la quietud equilibrada de la sustancia mental o chitta.

47. Entonces la persona empieza a conocerse verdaderamente.

48. Su percepción es ahora infaliblemente exacta, o su mente revela únicamente la Verdad.

48. Entonces lo que esa persona ve y comparte con otros está libre de error.

49. Esta percepción particular es excepcional y revela lo que la mente razonadora, mediante el testimonio, la inferencia y la deducción, no puede revelar.

49. Su conocimiento ya no se basa en la memoria o en la inferencia. Es espontáneo, directo y se realiza a un nivel y con una intensidad que sobrepasan lo ordinario.

50. Es hostil a las demás impresiones o las reemplaza.

50. A medida que esta cualidad mental de reciente adquisición se va reafirmando gradualmente, domina las otras tendencias mentales basadas en la comprensión defectuosa.

51. Cuando este estado de percepción se ha refrenado o es reemplazado, se alcanza el estado puro de samadhi.

51. La mente alcanza un estado en el que no hay impresión de ninguna clase. Es abierta, límpida, simplemente transparente. (/www.scenia.org)