School of Santhi
Yoga School in India,
Traditional Yoga Teacher Training in Kerala, South India
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Yoga Sutra of Patanjali
ADHA YOGANUSASANAM
And now the treatise of yoga
The Yoga Sutras begins with the words:
"And now"
which clearly denotes that the treatise
is a continuation; certainly a continuation of a process of learning and teaching
both are part of the search.
We are here to experience ourself and the world around; understand both as it is; fix what we have understood deeply in our being that we call as learning and transmit what we have understood out of compassion to
the fellow-beings, known as teaching and in turn finally with awareness come
out of the learning-teaching cycle.
Life in its essence is a continuous process
of learning and finally even learning how to unlearn. Yoga is unlearning. It
teaches us how to suspend the fluctuations of the consciousness.
While the Master was saying "And now", he is pin-pointing to a very significant point of
time, a moment, and its relevance in the context of studying Yoga.
This moment - the very present - is seemingly the continuation of a preceding moment. Present is
the only moment existing where as all other moments are non existent.
That which exists is real and no other moment is real as the past and future
are not present in the existing present.
The treatise of yoga comes to you only in the precious
present, where reality unravels!
We have been learning many things and finally
here we are now to unlearn; to say goodbye to the mind!
Yoga Sutra 1.
ADHA YOGANUSASANAM
And now the treatise of Yoga
Yoga means union. The term union connotes an activity as well
as the culmination of it. Here the activity is the activity of
Joining.
Action happens and is bound by a moment of time, which is the present.
Time proceeds through moments. Every moment is a present moment.
Action could happen only in the present as present alone exists. There is
nothing 'before' and nothing 'after' and there could be no attribute for
nothingness.
The significance of action is that it always happens
in silence. Silence rather restfulness is the pivot of action.
Action comes out of silence, exists on silence and withdraws
into the silence. Silence and activity are the two modes of existence.
The former is Absolute and the later Relative.
Action exists on silence and the silence is understood in terms of action!
The significance is that, silence doesn't need the support of action for its existence as it is self born, where as action has its base in silence.
Action manifests in silence but is unable to touch it; ceasing of action leads to attribute less silence.
The silence never comes; never goes; it always remains as the witness, the witness of action!
Dissolution of all movements or activities and abiding in ones own silence rather stillness, the self, which is the SEER, is what is meant by Yoga.
And now here the discourse or the code or the treatise of Yoga:
Yoga Sutra 2.
YOGASCITAVRUTI NIRODHA
Yoga is the stoppage of the fluctuation of the consciousness.
Yoga is the ceasing of modifications of consciousness. Consciousness is Absolute Reality and the modifications or vibrations that occur in the consciousness express as manifestation, which are the Relative Reality taking different names and forms according to the content of the consciousness.
When the consciousness is abiding in itself beyond manifestations, it is Absolute where as when it appears as fluctuating, due to ignorance, is Maya created by its content, the mind.
Yoga thus is the stopping of the fluctuations or modifications of consciousness
rather suspension of the mind that leads to unravelling of ones own essence,
the self.
Yoga Sutra 3.
TADA DRUSTU SWARUPE AVASTANAM
In the state of Yoga the Seer abides in itself.
Consciousness is the witness, the Seer. When there is suspension of modifications there is only consciousness without content which is the Silent, impartial, witness the Seer. As it is the only reality without a second, it exists in itself and there is Absolute stillness, the Silence!
At other times THE CONSCIOUSNESS appears to the mind as assuming the form of its contents and appears as modifications in association with the mind and its objects.
Yoga Sutra 4.
VRITI
SARUPYAMITARETRA
At other times identifies with
the fluctuations.
At other times the seer appears to assume the form of the modification
of the mind. It in turn appears to fluctuate with the fluctuating
consciousness, the mind.
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