Change of Phases - Different Stages YS III - 15

Yoga Sutra III-15 - KRAMANYATVAM PARINAMANYATVE HETUH - The succession of these different phases is the cause of the differences in stages of evolution.

Swami Satchidananda translated the above sutra without commentary.

The commentary from "How to Know God - The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali" translated and commented on by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood is as follows and includes the previous sutra 14:

"Every object within the realm of differentiated matter has attributes and is a compound object, since it is made of the three gunas in varying combination. As has already explained in chapter 1, the attributes of an object vary and change according to the action of the gunas and the constitution of the samskaras. Any object that can change into any other object. Therefore, the enlightened yogi sees no essential difference between a piece of gold and a lump of mud. Hence, he acquires complete dispassion toward the objects of the phenomenal world."

See related posts:

• An Unattached View YS II - 15
• The Four Stages of the Gunas YS II - 19
• The Seen - Nature of the Gunas YS II - 18
• Decline in Distractions - One-Pointedness YS III-...

Ego - Meditation YS II- 10, YS II - 11

Yoga Sutra II- 10 - TE PRATIPRASAVA HEYAH SUKSMAH - In subtle form, these obstacles can be destroyed by resolving them back into their primal cause [the ego].

Yoga Sutra II- 11 -DHYANA HEYAS TAD VRTTAYAH - In the active state, they can be destroyed by meditation.

Swami Satchidananda comments on the above sutras above together. In Yoga Sutra II- 10 he speaks about breaking the ego and likens it to a pot. The ego has the "smell "of thoughts and in order to get rid of the impressions of the thoughts, one has to break the pot (ego) . He then uses the analogy of using meditation as a process to understand the thoughts and to clean them up. When uprooting a tree, the branches are cut first and then the roots of the tree are dug up.

From the book "How to Know God - The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali" translated and commented on by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, for these sutras they start with the latter sutra to the former one. Instead of starting with the subtle, the gross form of the fully developed obstacle is to be overcome first. Then when they (the obstacle or klesas) exist vestigially as tendencies (samskaras), they are only destroyed "when the mind is resolved back to its cause, that is, into Prakriti, from which the mind was projected." This the process that leads to samadhi.