Patanjali Yoga Sutra 2.42 - Impact of Santosha | Yoga Teacher Training | Anvita Dixit

Transcript

namaste everyone in today's video we're going to focus on muni patanjali's yoga sutra 2.42 now in this particular yog sutra muni patanjali is helping us to understand the impact of santosh which is the second niyama so let's get into understanding this sutra looking at each of the words and understanding it in its entirety so the sutra itself goes santosha all right so this is quite a short and compact sutra it's pretty easy and straightforward but let's understand it word by word so the first word that we have over here is santosh itself and santosh refers to contentment or deep level of internal satisfaction and this appears as the second niyama in the yama and the niyama now let's look at the next word which is now uttam is a word that is commonly used even in hindi which refers to the best so utta means the absolute best and anuthama means unsurpassably the best so this one is absolutely nothing can be better than this in a way so this is what is used as an anyway refers to not so not nothing can be better than this so that is now coming to sukha lab this refers to sukhar which means happiness another common hindi word where we say i'm suki or i'm happy or suk which refers to happiness and la baha lab again very common word it refers to the gain of something so when you say that you made a profit it also says it refers to lab or gain but even otherwise in daily life gain and lab means just getting more of something and profiting out of something now these are the different words but let's understand what is the suits you're trying to say so the sutra is saying that the more you practice santosh and you really do it on a daily basis mentally and you embody it physically as well what happens is this becomes the best way the absolute best way to move towards happiness and so they're saying that nothing can be better than this nothing is better than being content inside in your pursuit of happiness and that's also movies in it the pursuit of happiness so it's it's really interesting how this sutra is telling us the importance of santosh and how it's taking us along this journey now let's start understanding this a little bit better and get into the depths of this sutra all right so what the sutra is trying to tell us is that the most important thing to do is to start feeling content from inside it indicates that the source of all happiness is our desire and unfulfilled desires lead to unhappiness i think there's something that we all know inherently but it's very hard to put it into practice because if i really really want something and i don't get it it's difficult to sit there and say yeah it's all good you know it's very difficult to do that so what we're trying to say in this sutra is to really be content from within to kind of just control what you can which is your effort which is your mindset which is your reaction and kind of really just let the rest be because there are some things which are beyond our control but the things that are within our control like the work we put in the work ethic we have that is something that we can work towards and work on but ultimately the point is that if you start getting attached to their desires the fulfillment of those desires then unhappiness is bound to come so what it's saying is to practice contentment in such a way that no matter what happens you're just i'm content from inside because it's also similar to feeling secure from within the more we feel that security of the self the less we will be dependent on these outer you know elements to make us feel that way and so i feel that what the sutra is trying to say is okay so the source of all your unhappiness is external objects we're fine then how can you find joy peace contentment within you cultivate that on a daily basis and be unaffected by what's happening to you on the outside easier said than done of course and i'm no expert at it either as yet we're all just a work in progress but that is what the sutra is saying and at the same time what the sutra is indicating is that you know to practice santosha one very important yama is a parigraha which means non-hodding so you can only be content when you don't hoard and vice versa but if you're constantly hoarding things trying to feel secure with the attainment of material objects there's no end to that there's going to be no end to that like if i'm if i really want to have um sneakers that's it i can have an entire closet full and still not feel content right so it's like there's no end to to your desires it's just going to keep spiraling upwards so instead to have aparigriha and santosh go hand in hand we can start to cultivate a different kind of attitude and honestly i think the pandemic has taught us that to a large extent and i think even for me my cupboard used to be quite full but i really gave away a lot of things try to kind of minimize and now i i almost would literally just wear like eight or ten things because i just i don't we don't need that many things and the quicker we realize that um the easier it gets it also helps with decision fatigue when there's fewer things there's less decision making and you just slip on whatever is available and you get going but the more options you have the more we hoard the more things we want becomes difficult to take a step back we're kind of just sucked into that you know um sucked into that bermuda triangle of just wanting things more and more so it's really never ending and that's why santosh is such an important principle to practice on the yogic path because creating santosh internally will help us to stay a little detached from external happenings and create that internal satisfaction right by ourselves so that is what this sutra is all about i hope you've been able to understand it a little bit better now if you have any questions about the sutra please pop it in the comment section below if you like this video give it a big thumbs up and we upload new videos every week and i'm sure they're going to be really really helpful for you apart from that if you'd like to connect with us do join in for some of our classes courses and workshops the link is in the description and we really look forward to seeing you there now take care until the next video i'm gonna see you really soon keep practicing and i'll see you in the next one namaste [Music] you