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Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism

Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism · Chapter XII: Yoga Philosophy & Samadhi

Yoga Philosophy and Samadhi: Patanjali, Samkhya and Liberation

Yoga philosophy and samadhi explained: Samkhya dualism, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, the eight limbs, stages of samadhi, siddhis, kaivalya and the classical commentaries.

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Shushrut Statue In Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar.
Shushrut Statue In Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar.Alokprasad at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Classical yoga philosophy is the system set out in the Yoga Sutras attributed to Patanjali, which defines yoga as the stilling of the mind's fluctuations and builds on the dualist metaphysics of Samkhya. Its goal is samadhi, a state of total meditative absorption, and finally kaivalya, the "isolation" of pure consciousness from matter, which the tradition understands as liberation.

Samkhya: Purusha, Prakriti and the Three Gunas§

Samkhya, "enumeration," is one of the oldest Indian philosophical systems. Its legendary founder is the sage Kapila, but its classic text is the Samkhyakarika of Ishvarakrishna, usually placed in the fourth or fifth century CE. Samkhya recognises two ultimate principles. Purusha is pure, contentless consciousness, a witness that neither acts nor changes; there are many purushas, one for each being. Prakriti is primordial matter, from which everything else unfolds, including the intellect (buddhi), the sense of "I" (ahamkara), the mind (manas), the senses and the elements, twenty-five principles (tattvas) in all.

Prakriti is composed of three qualities, or gunas: sattva (clarity, lightness), rajas (activity, passion) and tamas (inertia, darkness). Their shifting balance produces every mental and physical state. Suffering arises because consciousness mistakenly identifies with the workings of matter, saying "I think" or "I suffer" when thinking and suffering belong to prakriti. Liberation is the discrimination (viveka) that sees the difference. Yoga accepted this framework almost entirely while adding a supreme lord, Ishvara, and a detailed method of practice.

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: Date, Structure and Definition§

Nothing reliable is known of Patanjali's life, and he is probably not the grammarian of the same name. Most scholars date the Yoga Sutras to around 400 CE; Philipp Maas has argued that the sutras and the earliest commentary, attributed to Vyasa, were composed together as a single work, the Patanjala Yogashastra. The text has four chapters (padas), on concentration (samadhi), practice (sadhana), extraordinary powers (vibhuti) and isolation (kaivalya).

In the upper register two Jain nuns visit their brother, a monk named Sthulabhadra, who reached such a high level in his practice of yoga and meditation that he could perform miracles of transformation. He…
In the upper register two Jain nuns visit their brother, a monk named Sthulabhadra, who reached such a high level in his practice of yoga and meditation that he could perform miracles of transformation. He…anonymous · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Its second sutra gives the famous definition: yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations (vrittis) of the mind (chitta). When the fluctuations cease, the seer abides in its own nature; otherwise it takes on the form of the fluctuations. Five kinds of fluctuation are named: valid knowledge, error, conceptual construction, sleep and memory. They are restrained through steady practice (abhyasa) and dispassion (vairagya). The second chapter traces suffering to five afflictions (kleshas), with ignorance (avidya) at their root, followed by egoism, attachment, aversion and clinging to life. Devotion to Ishvara, described as a special purusha untouched by affliction and karma and expressed by the syllable Om, is offered as a further means.

The Eight Limbs of Yoga§

The best-known section of the sutras is the "eight-limbed" (ashtanga) path:

  1. Yama, restraints: non-harming, truthfulness, non-stealing, sexual restraint and non-possessiveness.
  2. Niyama, observances: purity, contentment, austerity, study and devotion to Ishvara.
  3. Asana, posture, defined simply as "steady and comfortable": a stable seat for meditation, not a sequence of exercises.
  4. Pranayama, regulation of breath.
  5. Pratyahara, withdrawal of the senses from their objects.
  6. Dharana, concentration, the binding of attention to one place.
  7. Dhyana, meditation, an unbroken flow of attention toward the object.
  8. Samadhi, absorption, in which the object alone shines forth, as if empty of the meditator's own form.

The last three limbs, practised together on a single object, are called samyama. The third chapter claims that samyama on various objects yields siddhis, extraordinary powers such as knowledge of past lives or of others' minds, but warns that they are obstacles to the final goal. The later hatha yoga tradition presented itself as a means to reach this meditative "royal yoga."

Samadhi: The Stages of Meditative Absorption§

The Yoga Sutras describe samadhi in stages. Samprajnata samadhi, "with cognition," still has an object and passes through levels marked by gross reflection (vitarka), subtle reflection (vichara), bliss (ananda) and pure I-ness (asmita). Further distinctions are made between states accompanied by conceptual thought and states free of it. All of these are sabija, "with seed": latent impressions (samskaras) remain that can sprout into future activity. Beyond them lies asamprajnata samadhi, without cognition of any object, and finally nirbija samadhi, "without seed," in which even the impressions of concentration are stilled.

Tirthankara panel - Jina Slab - Vidisha The sculpture follows the traditional Jain style, where Tirthankaras (spiritual teachers) are represented in two primary postures: Padmasana ː seated in meditation, seen…
Tirthankara panel - Jina Slab - Vidisha The sculpture follows the traditional Jain style, where Tirthankaras (spiritual teachers) are represented in two primary postures: Padmasana ː seated in meditation, seen…Prof Ranga Sai · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

The terms most often heard today, savikalpa (with conceptual distinctions) and nirvikalpa (without them), are rare in Patanjali and were developed chiefly in Advaita Vedanta texts such as Sadananda's Vedantasara (fifteenth century), where they describe the realisation of brahman. Modern teachers often map the two vocabularies onto each other, but their metaphysics differ: for Advaita, samadhi reveals the one self, while for Patanjali it reveals the separateness of consciousness from matter. See Hinduism and Vedanta for the Vedantic view.

Kaivalya: Liberation as Isolation§

The final chapter describes the goal as kaivalya, "aloneness" or "isolation." When discrimination is perfected, a state called dharma-megha samadhi, "the cloud of virtue," arises; the afflictions and karma cease, and the gunas, having served their purpose, return to equilibrium. Consciousness then stands in its own nature, no longer entangled in the play of matter. This is a strikingly different idea of liberation from union with God or merging into an absolute: the purusha does not become anything, it simply ceases to misidentify.

Commentaries and the Later History of Classical Yoga§

The sutras were read through commentaries. After the Bhashya attributed to Vyasa came the sub-commentary of Vachaspati Mishra (ninth or tenth century), the Rajamartanda of King Bhoja (eleventh century) and the work of Vijnanabhikshu (sixteenth century), who read yoga through Vedanta. The Persian scholar al-Biruni produced an Arabic version in the early eleventh century, one of the earliest translations of any yoga text. Over the second millennium the sutras' influence waned as tantric and hatha systems flourished.

Their revival came in the colonial era. Vivekananda's Raja Yoga (1896) presented Patanjali as a universal science of the mind, and translations multiplied. Historian David Gordon White, in his "biography" of the text, has traced how this once neglected work became the canonical scripture of global yoga. Its lucid psychology remains central to the study of meditation and to the wider field covered in what is Eastern mysticism?.

Frequently asked questions§

What is samadhi in simple terms?§

Samadhi is a state of complete meditative absorption in which the sense of a separate meditator falls away and only the object of meditation, or pure awareness itself, remains. Patanjali describes several levels, ending in a samadhi "without seed" in which no latent tendencies remain.

What are the eight limbs of yoga?§

They are yama (restraints), niyama (observances), asana (posture), pranayama (breath regulation), pratyahara (sense withdrawal), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption), as listed in the second and third chapters of the Yoga Sutras.

What is the difference between Samkhya and Yoga?§

They share the same dualist metaphysics of purusha and prakriti. Samkhya stresses liberating knowledge through analysis of the principles of existence, while Yoga adds a lord, Ishvara, and a practical method of meditation and discipline.

What is the difference between savikalpa and nirvikalpa samadhi?§

In Vedanta usage, savikalpa samadhi retains a subtle distinction between knower and known, while nirvikalpa samadhi is free of all such distinctions. Patanjali uses a different vocabulary, contrasting samadhi "with seed" and "without seed."

Sources and further reading§