Patanjali Yoga Sutra 3.35 - Knowledge Of Purusha | Yoga Teacher Training | Anvita Dixit

Transcript

namaste everyone in today's video we're going to focus on muni patanjali's yog sutra 3.35 now in this particular yog sutra muni patanjali is helping us to understand yet another technique of sanyam by focusing on the correct understanding of the difference between sattva and purusha so let's take a good look at the sutra start breaking it up word by word and understanding what is trying to communicate about this essential difference between the two elements so the sutra itself goes [Music] all right so that is the sutra itself as you can see i'm not chanting it in the tonality yet just pronouncing the words now let's take a good look at each of the words and start understanding them a little bit better the first word that we have here is sattva and satwa here is referring to the essence or the potentiality of the chitta so the chitta as we know is consciousness and satwa is that latent form of consciousness before it's completely manifested it's sort of like the potential or the seed or the beginning element of the consciousness so that is satwa then coming to the next word over here we have purusha which of course is the primordial principle mentioned in the sankhya philosophy so here we're talking about that same purusha and then coming to the next word we have atianta refers to extremely so that is the meaning of atyantha or it also means very much but basically extreme and then the next word is a sangkirina really interesting word because it means non-mixable or heterogeneous so what that means is certain elements that we're going to discuss are not mixable they do not come together completely there's probably just the illusion of them coming together but they do not mix then coming to the next word we have pratya pratya means the content or the experience of the chitta and after that we have irvi shreisha now ervisher refers to something that's non-specific or not distinct so here we're talking about that non-distinct kind of meaning or explanation of this word er vishesha then coming to the next word we have bhoga now hoga particularly refers to a very pleasurable experience but just like we've studied in sutra 2.15 bhoga in yogic terminology refers to life experiences which are both you know pleasure giving but also painful and it believes that the word pog itself indicates that even if pleasure is being experienced right now eventually it will probably lead to pain because of attachment that gets created with it so that is the vulgar then coming to the next word we have paratha which here is referring to para artha so para means of another artha means the meaning and here it's talking about the meaning of the purposefulness for another all right so that is what is referred to by this word and then coming to the next word which is swartha swartha is very commonly used word which means selfishness so is self artha is you know using something for your own self so swartha is referring to the place through which we're operating in a sense of selfishness all right so that is swartha but at the same time swartha can also refers to simply using something for one's own purposefulness without having the connotation of being selfish as well so it entirely depends on which context the word is being used in and how it's being treated then the next word over here is samyam so samyam over here again refers to the combination of dharana dhyan and samadhi so the triad of three of them is samyam and the next word is purusha purusha of course is again referring to the purusha principle and the final word is gyan or nyan which means knowledge so now that we've understood all of the meanings let's take a look at what is the sutra trying to tell us so sutra can be divided into two sections in the first part of the sutra it's telling us that there is a distinction between sattva and purusha and not only is there a distinction there's a huge distinction between both of them and there would definitely be because satwa belongs to the realm of prakriti whereas purusha is a completely different element altogether and there just seems to be an illusion of them coming together but they they do not actually mix or merge in that sense all right so that is the first element that they're trying to tell us and then of course the next thing that is being explained here is that if we're able to do samyam on the correct understanding of you know these satwa and the purusha then what will happen is we'll gain a better understanding of the purusha itself because we will begin to realize what needs to be done for the purposefulness of the purusha versus what needs to be done for the purposefulness of the chitta so we'll start understanding that these are two completely different elements and to serve them requires different means different modes and depending on what how serious we are about our yoga satna we need to think about which one we are interested in serving more so that is all about the meaning of this particular sutra now let's take a deep dive and go even further to understand it a little bit better all right so this is the meaning of the sutra i hope you were able to see how sattva and purusha are two distinct entities so usually what happens for us is just the surface level consciousness the mind the starting point of consciousness itself is what we consider to be the ultimate you know spiritual realm but what is being explained to us here is that the purusha or the observant or the witness principle is completely different from these fluctuations and changes that take place in the consciousness principle which is sattva or chitta so once we understand that essential difference and we're able to concentrate upon it or do sayam on it we will be able to understand how and what is the real element of purusha so we will gain the knowledge and understanding of purusha itself and at the same time we will figure out what kind of activities are serving the chitta or just giving us that sense of vulgar or external pleasure versus what are the experiences that actually feed and help the purusha so it's almost like you know a lot of these days we see those quotes saying that which wolf will you serve which is inside you um and i think it's somewhat like that you know there is of course the sattva and the chitta and it has its needs for enjoyment and pleasure pain etc but there's also the witness principle and it goes to show that which activities are we going to do which will then help us with the understanding and observation of the purusha versus feeding and satisfying the chitta or the sattva so there is a great difference of course between these two and we need to kind of contemplate on that difference think about it very deeply so that when we're concentrating and understanding it further we gain an understanding of the ultimate reality which is a purusha and how it functions and what it's all about so that is what the sutra is indicating i will say that of course yogic activities and meditation etc allow us to take a step back and come into that sort of seat of the purusha element or the witness principle which brings us closer and more into the realm of the purusha but of course there are certain activities that ground us even more in the sensory world and take us a little away from the purusha understanding so these could be many and there are so many elements that are also being introduced within the yoga practice being termed as yoga which actually might instigate and incite the chittor more than actually calm it down or allow it to reflect inwards um i have to say i think practices like beer yoga definitely kind of um tend to do that because you know beer is definitely not something that comes down the chitta in fact it kind of creates more of a tendency for the chitta to want to enjoy and experience vulgar so in that sense certain you know things that we're trying to starting to bring into the fold of yoga inherently conflict with the meaning and the definition of yoga as a practice i think we should be all about innovation and moving forward yet keeping certain principles the same as we do so i think there are some wonderful practices within yoga such as i would say aerial yoga or even other practices which use dynamic elements in yoga but still stick with the breath stick with certain grounding foundation elements but then of course there are now practices that kind of break those very elemental rules but still use the word yoga when it's not really yoga anymore so i would say that moving forward as yoga practitioners and teachers perhaps we can use words like asana more in case we're doing something that's more physical using the asana combination rather than saying yoga because then it kind of distorts the understanding of the entire practice and and with reference to the sutra what it does is it keeps us you know in the chitta realm kind of wanting more and more vulgar rather than entering into the witness principle and just observing and entering into that state so there are a lot of real life examples as well where we can see that there we think it's the same we think that's uh satva chitta and purusha is the same but know there's so many differences metaphysically speaking and if we dive deeper into these topics philosophically and even maybe in our yoga practice we can actually start to understand them much much better so that is what i will say about this particular sutra i hope that you've been able to understand it and you know kind of reflect on some of the things that happen in our today's day and age uh with respect to the sutra so if you have any thoughts comments or suggestions on what you think the sutra is about how it plays out in the real world as well please do leave your comments in the comment section below and also because we release new videos every single week now we can't wait to see you in the next video or in our next class course or workshop the links for which are in the description so i hope to see you in the next one until then take care keep practicing and we're gonna see you very soon namaste [Music] you