Samyoga - Union YS II - 23

Yoga Sutra II- 23 - SVA SVAMI SAKTYOH SVARUPOPALABDHI HETUH SAMYOGAH - The union of Owner (Purusha) and owned (Prakriti) causes the recognition of the nature and powers of them both.

"Samyoga (union) is necessary for the Purusha to realize himself with the help of nature." - Swami Satchidananda further comments that this union is not of the individual self with the higher Self, but union of the Purusha and Prakriti, Self and nature. Separately they don't express themselves, however, connected they become known. "They help each other." An analogy is given that in order to print white letters a black background is needed for contrast as you can't see white on white. It is through the Prakriti (black background or nature) that the Purusha (the white letters or Self) is realized. It is through nature that we realize the higher Self. "If not for the Prakriti, we could not know ourselves. So Prakriti isn't just bondage as many people think. It is necessary."

See related posts:

• The Seen - Nature of the Gunas YS II - 18
• The Four Stages of the Gunas YS II - 19
• The Seer or Purusha YS II - 20

Between Ignorance - YS II - 5

Yoga Sutra II-5 - ANITYASUCI DUHKHANATMASU NITYA SUCI SUKHATMAKHYATIR AVIDYA - Ignorance is regarding the impermanent as permanent, the impure as pure, the painful as pleasant, and the non-Self as the Self.

Swami Satchidananda says of this sutra that Patanjali is explaining what ignorance is. (The previous sutra broke down the categories of ignorance.) He is not speaking about not knowing an object, like a piece of fruit, if one had never seen it before. Swami Satchidananda is referring to last part of the sutra the basic ignorance: "regarding the non-Self as the Self." He questions what is Self and non-Self? He says that the Self is what is eternal, never changing and always everywhere as the very basic substance. In other words, whatever exists is the Self. But because of our ignorance we see the Self as different objects.

We as human beings basically regard our body as to who we are and we identify with being a man, woman, black, white, being hungry or lame. Satchidananda says that all these are conditions and qualities of the body. Like if we say we are sick, he asks who is sick? It's the body, not who we really are - the Self. And whenever we make that type of identification, it is when we identify with the non-Self (the part that changes). Any type of feelings of the mind are modifications (vrittis). Once we have understood this then nothing can disturb us in this world. Things will come and go, it is not who we really are.

He ends the commentary with asking who is practicing Yoga. The answer is the mind along with the body. Basically our true nature, the eternal Self does not need any practice. "So, Yoga is neither for a person who has gained the light nor for the totally ignorant person who doesn't bother to know anything." Swami Satchidananda is saying that yoga is for the person in between and to dispel this ignorance(in between) that Yoga is practiced.

Higher form of Vairagya YS I - 16

The following Yoga Sutra is a spin off of the previous Yoga Sutra I-15 in the last post.

Yoga Sutras (YS) I- 16 -TAT PARAM PURUSA KHYATER GUNAVAITRSNYAM - When there is non-thirst for even the gunas (constituents of Nature) due to realization of the Purusha (true Self), that is supreme non-attachment.

Swami Satchidananda's commentary about this sutra is that "Pantanjali goes to explain the higher form of vairagya" (non-attachment). In ordinary vairagya there is the detachment of the mind from its personal desires and enjoyments. In other words, the mind might want something and you say no and it stays away. "But in the higher non-attachment you don't even think of attaching yourself". He asks us what will we do with the impressions that are already in the mind? "The memory of having experienced something will still be there." He says we just can't erase the impressions in the mind. They get erased at one point. That point is when we "succeed in going within and realizing the peace and joy of your own Self."

The essence of Swami Satchidananda's commentary is that of an analogy of discovering such peace and bliss like a brilliant sun, that the impressions of petty enjoyments experienced before would be like ordinary specks of light. He says "if that supreme non-attachment comes even once, even for a second, you experience that joy." He uses the example of finding a delicious dish in a restaurant and not wanting to go to others. If you achieve supreme vairagya then you can joy the world without getting lost in it.

Obviously this can get more complex with further dialogue. I will leave it here for now. I am sure at some point I will redress this again. Contemplate it for now.

What is your Life Saver? YS II - 33

What is your life saver? Technically one would picture a ring like in the picture on this post. A life saver is defined by www.thefreedictionary.com/lifestaver as :

1. an attendant employed at a beach or pool to protect swimmers from accidents and or
2. a life preserver in the form of a ring of buoyant material

Then you might wonder how does this apply to you? As you know, if you are a reader of this blog, that this blog entitled "Always Be Om," consists of yoga related information related to this theme. So in that context I am now using the live saver as a metaphor.

What got me to think of this subject is the energy of the time we are living in. According to the news we are in" a recession". This is affecting everyone, depending on how they see as I spoke about in the posts on "Thoughts as Eyeglasses" and "Taking Pictures". Thus, whatever we choose can fall between "Bondage and Liberation" for us.

So getting back to the original question of what is your life saver, for me it is my yoga practices. Case in point my practice of swadhyaya, self study which includes studying the yogic texts like the Guru Gita, which is latter part of the Skanda Purana. (The Guru Gita is a Hindu scripture of 182 verses, authored by the sage, Vyasa. It is a part of the larger Skanda Purana.) You can also see the post I did on swadhyaya.

I was feeling a little down noticing some thoughts I was having. I won't go into detail about the thoughts as what you focus on expands, however I do acknowledge the process. So I applied pratipaksha bhavana (a Sanskrit term)- When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite ones should be thought of. Pratipaksha bhavana is a method which is given as a clue to control and obstruct thoughts in Yoga Sutra II - 33 - VITARKA BADHANE PRATIPAKSA BHAVANAM .

I had not sat down and chanted the Guru Gita for a long time, even though I do play the CD of it from time to time. So I sat down and recited this text. I cannot begin to describe how much better I felt! My focus was no longer on the thoughts I had or how I was going to solve the situation. I was studying my Self and refreshing my self with the text of the Guru Gita. This was better than attempting to numb myself with other alternatives, which as a yoga teacher I do not do anyway. But one can see pretty much that when others do not know of yogic/or other healthy alternatives that they may attempt to "escape" through other means such as drugs, alcohol, food, shopping,etc.

So hopefully I can probe you to ask yourself what do you use as a life saver? Is it a positive tool? Again for me, my tools are the many branches of yoga which are really life savers.

Stay tuned. Check out the workshop I will be doing on 12/14/08 at http://www.bometernally.com/