Patanjali Yoga Sutra 2.41 - Mental Impact of Saucha | Yoga Teacher Training | Anvita Dixit

Transcript

namaste everyone in today's video we're going to focus on muni patanjali's yoga sutra 2.41 now in this particular yog sutra muni patanjali is helping us to understand the mental aspects of showcha and what kind of an impact it has if we practice it daily and in a very very efficient and effective manner so let's take a good look at the suthra and start breaking it up word by word to understand it a little bit better so the sutra itself goes all right so that is quite a long sutra there lots of words combined together but don't worry we're going to go step by step understand the meaning of each word and start moving towards the meaning of the sutra so the first word that we have here is satvam and sattva indicates a sense of being usually characterized by illumination goodness or light that's one way of looking at it the second way of looking at the word sattva is sat which means to be along with the which indicates the quality of or nis like n-e-s-s so you can see it as the illuminative quality or just a sense of being and the basic nature or personality of a person now coming to the next word we have shuddhi and shruddhi is a very common word which refers to purification or making something more clean or something better so that is shuddhi then we come to the next word which is now this is a compound word consisting of sau and manasir and so over here means good so anything with sir or sue usually indicates something that's nice or good and then we come to manas which means the mind and ya of course indicates a particular state of being so so manasya indicates a particular good state of being of the mind so this could be sort of cheerful happy pleasant that represents someone as here now coming to the next word we have a kag so over here a kaggreha refers to a particular very conditioned straightforward state of mind where you're focused on one thing it's a one-pointed concentration and that represents a kaggarha if you remember this we've also studied it in the chittabhumi theory where the fourth state of mind is represented by ekagraha now after that we come to indriya jaya now indriya refers to our sense organs and these are the five different sense organs that we have and jaya refers to victory so indriya refers to victory over the five sense organs so clearly this means that we're able to have mastery over them they're not just running while doing their own thing but instead we really have some amount of control and dexterity over our five sense organs then coming to the next word we have atma darshan refers to the self and darshan refers to a vision or some sort of realization that we're having so when we say atma darshan that's a compound word and that's a state of being that is represented here and finally we have the last few words which is yo and this one over here is referring to something being yogya so yogya usually refers to something that's your fit for this or um so sometimes in hindi we'll say you know up is cheese which means that you are really fit for something like this so if you're an athlete and you're trying to run a 21 kilometer marathon somebody might say that you know you have the yogyata to run this marathon which means yeah you have what it takes to actually do this so yogyata over here and here especially the which is being indicated refers to nis again ness so when we're saying yo we're saying that you have the eligibility or the capability for this okay so that is yo and then again we have a little bit a small word here which is ani which refers to plural it's a suffix for plurality and finally we have cho and chur just means and all right so that's a breakup of all of the different words that appear here in this sutra but most importantly what we need to keep in mind is that all of these are different things or different attributes that happen when we practice showcha so starting with the most basic is that we start to have a very pleasant sense of being our basic personality becomes one that's cheerful that's pleasant and that impacts our mind which also becomes a cheerful very calm very peaceful state of mind in most cases and then we come to ekaga now because of that really calm state of mind what ends up happening is we have a very fixed consciousness we have one pointed focus and we're not being torn in multiple different directions we have a sense of calmness and from that calmness we're able to kind of channelize that energy in the right way in a singular direction and then of course coming to indriya jaya because of this channelization of energy we're able to control our senses because we know that we want to go down this channel or this path and so kind of everything within us works in harmony towards that and finally when all of that happens we're able to move very easily towards practices of self-realization because all of these things have happened as prerequisites and then we're able to kind of go further on the path of athama darshan so that is what the sutra is trying to tell us and now we're going to start understanding even deeper what exactly it means all right so we got a good look at the sutra and the different words that show up within it but now let's start understanding it even further so firstly what usually tends to happen with most of us in the common world is that we have a lot of rajasik and tamasikuna these are characteristics of our states of being and rajas represents over activity excitement a lot of kind of anxiety sometimes and a shifting state of mind so there's a certain amount of fickleness attached to our minds and then also tamas which represents dullness a certain inertia lethargy so these two modes of behavior unfortunately are what characterize most of us in today's day and age whether it be because of our sedentary lifestyles or just because of how the world is progressing we are usually you know just bouncing from one thing to the other or we are feeling lethargic tired and lazy now this is obviously not always the case but there's a lot of you know truth to this statement that on average we do end up feeling like this so what the sutra is saying is to kind of counterbalance these activities of rajas and tamas we need the satwik or satwik energy to show up and the way it does is through the practice of shelter so now how does that happen right because if we're keeping the mind and the body clean and we're purifying it on a daily basis physically through of course bathing and conducting nithi kriyas making sure that we're really really clean inside out and then mentally through meditation our yogic practices all that waste matters being eliminated and we're constantly rejuvenating ourselves so this process of purification makes sure that we're in the best and the most satwik state of mind even physically and so for example you know when we don't have if you don't move for about 10 days you know how dull and lethargic you feel you feel like something is you haven't released enough toxins because you haven't been sweating and i think that's why it's such an important thing to release the toxins from the body move on a daily basis and actually allow that satwik energy to rejuvenate in our bodies so when that happens and there's all this purification taking place on a physical and mental level automatically the mind enters into a much happier much calmer state of being so monastery as we were studying and this sawminus here is beautiful right because you're feeling happy you're feeling cheerful i mean you think about it the last time you exercised or moved i'm sure you felt great after that because it was also cleansing and detox process similar with nati kriyas any of the purification practices yoga meditation pranayama all of them lead to a sense of so monastery happy cheerful state of mind and then as you go forward if you keep if you do this every day and you cultivate someone assay on the daily then what's going to start happening is that you now have a grata which means your mind is able to focus consistently on a particular point on a particular subject and you don't feel torn in different directions and you get that clarity of thought and with that clarity of thought you're able then to control your sense organs in a way that it helps you so you know a lot of times um you know people like sadhguru are super inspirational have said this that for human beings in today's day and age our faculties have turned against us sometimes it's just the very things that make us human that make us extraordinary have kind of gone against us because we've allowed them to and they're kind of wrecking havoc with our minds so instead of allowing the sense organs to just take you on a journey and kind of make you feel different things it's about disciplining it it's about saying hey my mind is going to control these sense organs and direct them channelize them in the right way it's also very similar to a lot of people who have anger issues or who might have a lot of energy are advised to take up sports that help them to channelize that energy in a very constructive way so instead of using it in your daily life in a way that may not be helpful to you or to other people you use it on the sports field in a way that allows you to productively use up that energy and still feel like you did something that was good so very obviously it indicates that keeping these senses disciplined is very important and that happens when the mind is pleasant when the mind is calm when the mind knows what it wants to do and then very naturally the sense organs follow and there's no like resistance through them so that is the indriya jaya and what we're being told in the sutra is when all these things happen the most important thing is you become illegible you become fit to move on the path of self-realization because so much has happened inside you you're so calm you're so satisfic in nature there is a great channelization of energy that understanding the self becomes much easier because think about it if there's a lot going on in your mind you're distracted you're feeling lethargic lazy then it's going to be a little bit of a problem because you're going to find it very hard to focus on yourself or to understand yourself better so the sutra is kind of giving us the eligibility criteria to move towards self-realization and it's showing us how does that happen and specifically how does shout show the first myanmar facilitate that entire process so it's a great suit through lots to unpack there and we obviously study this in much more detail in our workshops this is just to introduce you to the concept and help you to understand it a little better but if you're more interested in studying it deeper please do feel free to join us for our workshops our courses and our classes and we'd love to answer your questions and help you to understand it even better over there so i hope you've been able to get a good gist and understanding of 2.41 in a nutshell and we look forward now to seeing you in the next video the next class or the next workshop so we'll see you very soon until then take care leave your thoughts in the comments below give this video a big thumbs up and keep practicing on the daily we'll see you very soon namaste [Music] you