Santosha - Contentment - YS II - 42

Yoga Sutra II- 42 - SAMTOSAD ANUTTAMAH SUKHA LABHAH - By contentment, supreme joy is gained.

Santosha (सन्तोष), contentment, is one of the niyamas of Yoga.
According to the Wikipedia definition, contentment (also called complacence) is the neuro-physiological experience of satisfaction and being at ease in one's situation, bodymind (cf. John Money[1]), body, and/or mind.

Swami Satchidananda - "As a result of contentment, one gains supreme joy. Here we should understand the difference between contentment and satisfaction. Contentment means just to be as we are without going outside things for our happiness. If something comes, we let it come. If not, it doesn't matter. Contentment means neither to like or dislike."

An additional view of this sutra from "How to Know God - The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali" translated and commented on by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood is:

"It is well worth analyzing the circumstances of those occasions on which we have been truly happy. For, as John Masefield says, 'The days that make us happy make us wise.' When we review them, we shall almost certainly find that they had one characteristic in common." It is pointed out that it was when we lived in the depths of the present moment, not being anxious of the past or future. "This is what Patanjali means by contentment."

Also our attention is directed to happiness we get "from the satisfaction of a desire", which although being very vivid, is comparatively short in duration. For as one desire is satisfied, another one arises producing anxiety, thus a shadow that accompanies it. We are told that if we compare our memories of satisfaction versus contentment, we will see that the satisfaction wanes whereas the contentment moments remain throughout the years.

See related posts:

• The Eight Limbs of Yoga - YS II - 28, 29
• Niyama - The Observances - YS II - 32