The verse and its meaning · Yoga Sutras · Kinds of Absorption

Four Layers of Absorption

Yoga Sutras 1.17

वितर्कविचारानन्दास्मितारूपानुगमात्संप्रज्ञातः

Meaning · English

Absorption with knowing is accompanied by four forms: coarse examining, subtle examining, joy, and the sense of being an individual self.

Three key words carry the sutra. Samprajnata means absorption with knowing: the mind is held on one thing and still clearly aware of it. Vitarka is examining a coarse, solid object, turning it over in thought. Vichara is the same looking, but at something subtle, finer and quieter. Two more terms follow: ananda, plain joy, and asmita, the bare sense of 'I am'. Anugama means accompanying, so each form goes along with the absorption and shapes it. Patanjali says, then, that absorption with knowing comes in four kinds. In the first the mind rests on a gross object. In the second it rests on a subtle one. In the third it rests on joy. In the fourth it rests on the sense of being one self. He says this because the earlier sutras set out practice and non-attachment as the way to hold the mind still. A student then needs to know what that stillness looks like as it deepens. Vyasa, the oldest commentator, reads the four as stages. Each one drops the layer before it: the second has no coarse examining, the third no subtle examining, and the fourth only the sense of self. Later commentators largely follow him and differ mainly on what the joy is.

Picture a deep stone well with steps going down. At the top there is the wide sky and the rim. Lower, the walls close in. At the bottom there is only still water and one reflected face. Each landing drops something from above, as each form of absorption drops the one before it.

1. Choose one plain object, such as a cup or a leaf, and sit with it for three minutes today, in daylight. 2. Look at its shape and colour. Notice when your thoughts about it, rather than the object itself, are holding your attention. 3. Then look at its finer details: a grain, an edge, a small mark. Notice whether the looking changes in kind. 4. Afterward, spend a minute noticing whether any ease or pleasure came with the looking. 5. Write one line about what you saw.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

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