Reflecting - Pratipaksha Bhavana (continued) YS II - 34

Yoga Sutra II- 34 - VITARKA HIMSADAYAH KRTA KARITANUMODITA LOBHA KRODHA HOHA PURVAKA MRDU MADHYADHIMATRA DUHKHAJNANANANTA PHALA ITI PRATIPAKSHA BHAVANAM - When negative thoughts or acts such as violence, etc. are caused to be done or even approved of, whether incited by greed, anger or infatuation, whether indulged in with mild, medium or extreme intensity, they are based on ignorance and bring certain pain. Reflecting thus is also pratipaksha bhavanam.

Swami Satchidananda states that this sutra is a further explanation of pratipaksha bhavanam (entertaining a counter-idea). Swami Satchidananda's commentary for the sutra tells us that "We need not even cause the pain directly for the reaction to occur. We can effect this just by approving of another's painbearing actions due to our avariciousness, anger or ignorance."

So in other words, even when we don' t directly cause others pain we can still contribute to it. And thus, if we reflect on what the consequences of what our actions could cause, even indirectly, a reflection of this is considered pratipaksha bhavanam.

The following quotations from "How to Know God - The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali" translated and commented on by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood gives similar commentary:

"Everything we do, say or think, or even indirectly cause or passively sanction, will inevitably produce consequences -- good, bad, or composite-- and these consequences will react in some measure upon ourselves. Our most secret ill-wishes towards others , our remotest permission of evil done to others, can only end up hurting us, by increasing our own ignorance and pain. This is the absolute law of Nature. If we could remember it always, we should learn to control our tongues and our thoughts."