The 5 kleshas build high banks along the river bed of our lives.

Avidya – ignorance, not knowing

Asmita – the ego

Raga – our desires, acceptances, and likes

Dvesa – our rejections, avoidances and dislikes

Abhinivesa – fear (the motivator of the above)

Our internal disciplines can be constructed by our acceptances and avoidances. Therefore, we obstruct our own flow of life confining ourselves within our likes and dislikes, thinking we are free. Prashant Iyengar says that we do this to avoid dukha – sadness. Dukha arises from our acceptances, desires, avoidances and rejections because these make up our “neuroses and psychoses” and, as such, are klista samskaras. We have a “forestation of kleshas, and we want pleasure to get away from pain. We want to repel dukha like mosquito repellent. We do so many things to escape dukha; we are busy and occupied to avoid dukha.” (Prashant Iyengar lecture on Countering Kleshas – Anti kleshotics July 2021).

Tapas and svadhyaya together means we cannot construct or control the outcome. We do, we watch, and through this we let go of klista samskaras slowly and thorougly as we evolve towards ” the highest and noblest aspirations” of ourselves. ” Isvara pranidhana or right orientation enables a spiritual aspirant to look at everything with total attention.” (Rohit Metha; Yoga, the Art of Integration.)

” This is surrender to God (Isvara pranidhana), often equated with bhakti, the yoga of supreme devotion and selflessness. Ego is on an elastic and will always pull you back. Only the practice of meditation will eventually erode the attraction between ego and self-identity.

Surrender to God is possible only for one who has, perhaps by circumstance or adversity or humiliation, discarded ego. For the surredner to be lasting, meditation in its highest sense must be accomplished. Surrender to God is not surrender to what you think God wants. It is not surrender to our conception of the will of God. it is not God giving you instructions. As long as your ego persists (along with the kleshas) your interpretation of God’s (isvara pranidhana) wishes will be fragmented by the distorting prism of ego”. (B.K.S. Iyengar. Light on Life)

Finite and Infinite (Corine Biria)

We want to go to the infinite but nobody wants to go to the end of the finite. Everyone wants infinite, so we are in the jail of the finite because we don’t want to go to the frontier of the finite. So we move partially the body, keeping ourselves with the will to go to the infinite.

What is the frontier of the finite into the arms and legs? When we reach this, see how we reduce our own nerves.”

Unfold Your Own Myth by Rumi

Who gets up early
to discover the moment light begins?
Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms?
Who comes to a spring thirsty
and sees the moon reflected in it?
Who, like Jacob blind with grief and age,
smells the shirt of his lost son
and can see again?
Who lets a bucket down and brings up
a flowing prophet?
Or like Moses goes for fire
and finds what burns inside the sunrise?

Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies,
and opens a door to the other world.
Soloman cuts open a fish, and there’s a gold ring.
Omar storms in to kill the prophet
and leaves with blessings.
Chase a deer and end up everywhere!
An oyster opens his mouth to swallow on drop.
Now there’s a pearl.
A vagrant wanders empty ruins.
Suddenly he’s wealthy.

But don’t be satisfied with stories, how things
have gone with others. Unfold
your own myth, without complicated explanation,
so everyone will understand the passage,
We have opened you.

Start walking toward Shams. Your legs will get heavy
and tired. Then comes a moment
of feeling the wings you’ve grown,
lifting.

The Music Master: Rumi

We are the mirror as well as the face in it.

We are tasting the taste this minute

of eternity. We are pain

and what cures pain, both. We are

the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.

Svadhyaya is self study, self reflection, contemplation.

” Patanjali asks the spiritual aspirant to begin thinking for him/herself.” (Rohit Mehta: Yoga, the Art of Integration)

” Svadhyaha or self-knowledge, is difficult. We so much associate knowledge with the acquisition of learning. In reality, svadhyaha, whether through study, or self-analysis, is the path of concentration (dharana), and dhyana (contemplation and reflection – Prashant Iyengar), leading up a cruel and stoney path to knowledge and to disrobing of the false or pretenrious self with all is flaws. It’s reward is the path of wisdom (jnana marga), which so denudes us of self-illusion that we are ready for the next great step.” (B.K.S. Iyengar: Light on Life.)

Tapas and Svadhyaha are our internal checks and balances. Tapas is outward, inviting zeal and commitment: svadhyaya is inward, asking us to measure the quantity of tapas required to act skillfully. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krisha speaks to Arjuna of “skillful action” using tapas and svadhyaya as action and inaction:

” What is action and what is inaction? This question has confused the greatest sages. I will give you the secret of action with which you can free yourself from bondage. The true nature of action is difficult to grasp. (4:16 and 17)

The wise see that there is action in the midst of inaction and inaction in the midst of action. Their consciousness is unified, and every act is done with complete awareness” (4:18)

” The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results: all his selfish desires have been consumed by the fire of knowledge.”

(The Bhagavad Gita: Translation and commentary by Eknath Eswaran)

” In tapa and svadhyaha, Patanjali asks us to inquire into the nature and the content of both the opposites. A rejection of one opposite is not enough: there has to be non-indulgence in the opposite. Tapas may enable one to reject one opposite, but it is only self study which makes it possible for the student of Yoga to refrain from indulging in the other.” (Rohit Metha: Yoga the Art of Integration.)

” You have to work with the threads. The T-shirt is made of threads, vertical and horizontal. You have to open the vertical threads, the horizontal threads. These threads create your intelligence. You thread the whole body. You are tailoring the whole body. You thread the needle with your thread. The tip of the needle is itself, like conciousness. The thread is intelligence. The intelligence following conciousness.” (Geeta Iyengar: 2009 Teachers convention)

Rumi; Quietness

Inside this new love, die.

Your way begins on the other side.

Become the sky.

Take an axe to the prison wall.

Escape.

Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.

Do it now.

You are covered with thick cloud.

Slide out the side. Die,

and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign

that you have died.

Your old life was a frantic running

from silence.

The speechless full moon

comes out now. 

Our habits are called samskaras. Habits are behavioural patterns that take place physically, mentally, emotionally. They accrue through living – stored in the memories of our cells. Every experience leaves a samskara. Our samskaras can be helpful – aklista, or harmful – klista. Our klista samskaras increase “exponentially” (Prashant Iyengar), and our aklista samskaras increase “drop by drop.” They are “congealed behaviours” (Georg Feuerstein: A deeper Dimension of Yoga). Yoga practice helps us replace klista samskaras with aklista samskaras. Samskaras get better in search of truth – not subjective truth, but objective truth. New samskaras can set aside earlier samskaras. This is the process of yoga. Patanjali gives several methods that help us notice, modify, and change our samskaras.

One method is through Kriya Yoga

Tapah svadhayayesvara pranidhanani kriya yogah 2:1 The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Kriya Yoga is the yoga of action. It is comprised of three parts: Tapas, svadhyaha and isvara pranidhana

Tapas – austerity, putting away of all non essentials, discipline, patience, commitment, heat and the burning away of impurities. ” Tapas…is to be simple..devoid of all encumbrances.”

What is Tapas? Geeta Iyengar (2009 Teachers Convention)

” You know when you go to buy cloth. If one thread is damaged, you will see a space, a hole. Do you want to buy this one? You have to see that the threading is done correctly. This is how we pracctice our asana. This takes a longer time. Especially because we use only that part where the threading is easier, where the threading has gone correctly. Where it is hard, or hasn’t gone correctly, we don’t touch that portion.

So normally we ask, ” Am I able to do thhis? Yes, I did it. THAT IS NOT TAPAS. Tapas is the austere practice where you are able to face all those difficulties – threads, knots, and lose ends – and clear them; burn the impurities, so the purity surfaces.”

Discipline and tapas – Rohit Mehta: Yoga and the Art of Integration

” The problem of discipline seems to be closely related to all questions pertaining to spiritual life, and yet there is no subject on which such confusion prevails….But…the plant of spiritual life flowers in an atmosphere of freedom possible only in disciplined living. How can freedom and discipline be reconciled? ..freedom and discipline are regarded as contradictory…but the fact of the matter is that only s/he who is completely free be truly disciplined. Often a person says that s/he does not accept any discipline that is imposed by an external authority, but such a person forgets that the so-called internal authority…that impinge upon an individual either from society or from the ideological group to which one belongs. It iso nly when the individual, being alone, takes complete responsibility for all that s/he does. When we realized that no authority can save us – then alone are we supremely disciplined.

It is a discipline which emanates from the very act of living. It is not a discipline base on an ideal which one attempts to translate into one’s daily conduct. It is a discipline which comes into being in the very process of learning. One learns, and that very act of learning creates its own discipline.

It is like the river, which, in the very act of flowing, creates its own discipline in terms of the two banks. The banks are not created in advance. One may create such banks and may find that the river has taken a different course. This is equally true of the river of life. If its flow is dept uninterrupted then that very flow creates its own discipline. When the flow is obstructed, disorder starts.

It is the mind of man, with its conclusions and vested interests that creates obstructions in the flow of life.

One has only to look at nature to know how all its activities are perfectly disciplined. But this is not a discipline that is apart from living. The act of living is a dynamic state. Life’s dynamism demands a discipline that comes into being in the very act of living.”

Readings from our restorative practice 10/27/2022

REST by David Whyte

is the conversation between what we love to do and how we love to be.
Rest is the essence of giving and receiving; an act of remembering, imaginatively and intellectually but also physiologically and physically. To rest is to give up on the already exhausted will as the prime motivator of endeavor, with its endless outward need to reward itself through established goals. To rest is to give up on worrying and fretting and the sense that there is something wrong with the world unless we are there to put it right; to rest is to fall back literally or figuratively from outer targets and shift the goal not to an inner static bull’s eye, an imagined state of perfect stillness, but to an inner state of natural exchange.
The template of natural exchange is the breath, the autonomic giving and receiving that forms the basis and the measure of life itself. We are rested when we are a living exchange between what lies inside and what lies outside, when we are an intriguing conversation between the potential that lies in our imagination and the possibilities for making that internal image real in the world; we are rested when we let things alone and let ourselves alone, to do what we do best, breathe as the body intended us to breathe, to walk as we were meant to walk, to live with the rhythm of a house and a home, giving and taking through cooking and cleaning. When we give and take in an easy foundational way we are closest to the authentic self, and closest to that self when we are most rested. To rest is not self-indulgent, to rest is to prepare to give the best of ourselves, and to perhaps, most importantly, arrive at a place where we are able to understand what we have already been given.
In the first state of rest is the sense of stopping, of giving up on what we have been doing or how we have been being. In the second, is the sense of slowly coming home, the physical journey into the body’s un-coerced and un-bullied self, as if trying to remember the way or even the destination itself. In the third state is a sense of healing and self-forgiveness and of arrival. In the fourth state, deep in the primal exchange of the breath, is the give and the take, the blessing and the being blessed and the ability to delight in both. The fifth stage of deep rest is a sense of absolute readiness and presence, a delight in and an anticipation of the world and all its forms; a sense of being the meeting itself between inner and outer, and that receiving and responding occur in one spontaneous movement.
A deep experience of rest is the template of perfection in the human imagination, a perspective from which we gain that most difficult of human virtues: patience, that is, we are able to perceive the outer specific forms of our work and our relationships whilst being nourished by the shared foundational gift of the breath itself. From this perspective we can be rested while putting together an elaborate meal for an arriving crowd, whilst climbing the highest mountain, moving a herd of sheep along a Cumbrian country lane or sitting at home, surrounded by the chaos of a loving family.

Rested, we are ready for the world but not held hostage by it, rested we care again for the right things and the right people in the right way. In rest we reestablish the goals that make us more generous, more courageous, more of an invitation, someone we want to remember, and someone others would want to remember too.

A summary of my notes taken from a lecture given by Prashant Iyengar in June 2020

Our senses cannot be understood mechanically.  We cannot have a mechanical view of our senses.  How our eyes, ears, tongue, nose, skin function depend not just on the external object but on our subjective understanding.

A camera will pick up everything in the frame.  An audio device will pick up everything with no reservations or discriminations. But how do we have a visual act?  If we look at something beautiful or not, our eyes will function differently, unlike a camera.  Our ears as well; we listen and hear differently depending on the sound.

So don’t think the senses are very technical.  There is no formal understanding of the sensely acts like your asana or pranayama practice.

Therefore we have to have observation.  Patanjali dedicated 1 limb of 8 to deal with the senses.  This is pratyahara,

The word is so fascinating, so apt, that we have to investigate it: Prati – opposite, – ahara – food.

Vision and form(rupa) is the food for the eyes

Sound (sabha) is the food for the ears

Taste (rasa) is the food for the tongue

Touch (sparsa) is the food for the skin

Smell (gandha) is the food for the nose

When the five senses are feeding, they gravitate towards external objects and are called visheindriyas.  This is their role in the business plane of daily activity,  But, western understanding sees them as cognitive organs or jnanendriyas – organs of knowledge.  How do the senses go for knowledge? How much do they go for objects?

How are your senses involved with spiritual processes?  Do you send your senses somewhere? Ears somewhere? Eyes somewhere?  Of course – we send them within.  But they do not function in the same way.  

The eyes are not going inwards to feed on sight

The ears are not going inwards to feed on sound

The tongue is not going inwards to feed on taste

The nose is not going inwards to feed on smell

The skin is not going inwards to feed on touch

Instead, you go for wisdom.  It is then that the senses become organs of knowledge (jnanendriyas).  When we are eating mangoes we don’t bother to have any knowledge of the mango.  We just want to relish the taste, not the knowledge of the mango.  The eyes don’t necessarily look at something for knowledge, but for gratification, ears listen to gratify, not to gain knowledge etc.  In this realm, it is not right to call the senses jnanendriyas when they are grazing in the field of sense objects.  They graze to get gratified and that is their food.  

If you take the food away, then what do they become?  

-ahara is food.

Atyahara is overeating

Upahara is grazing or munching

Alpahara is undereating

Anahara is fasting

Then we can understand pratyahara.  Pratyahara is a kind of food.  The senses are not fasting.  The senses are taken inward and there is an experience.  You don’t go for a sensory deprivation condition where you are unconscious.  The senses are merely disengaged from external objects but engaged within, for knowledge.  When this happens, the roles of the 5 senses become one – wisdom alone.  

It is not like the turtle withdrawing it’s limbs.  A tortoise does this out of fear not due to yoga.  It is a defense mechanism for protection.  We do the same – we shut our eyes, block our ears and nose etc. to protect our senses. 

Pratyahara is not drawing the senses inwards.  Pratyahara is pratyahara.  It cannot be translated in technical terms. The senses go inwards for a spiritual purpose, not fasting or starving.  They have an engagement and become spiritual wisdom organs and they become absorbed from five to one.

(these are my notes, therefore any and all misunderstandings of Prashant’s teachings are mine.)

To live  demands that we make decisions on how to act, and what to do. B. K. S. Iyengar asks, “How does a freeman act, and yet remain free?” (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005, p. 238).  Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras seek to answer this question by exploring the “Klesas” (afflictions) which are the motivations that drive our actions. Through practice we can become aware of our habit patterns, act skillfully and directly, and find freedom in the life of daily routine.

The five kleśas or afflictions appear as psychological “somato-psychic” conditions (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2012 pg. 82).  The primary motivation of the kleśas is the desire to preserve the ego-self. 2.3 Avidyᾱ asmitᾱ-rᾱga-dveṣa abinveśaḥ-kleśᾱḥ lists the kleśas. The second is asmitᾱ – the ego identity. Asmitᾱ is formed to protect the identity we show to the world. To do this, asmitᾱ seeks out more of, and becomes attached to, what gives pleasure and security. This is raga, the third kleśa. Asmitᾱ rejects and avoids what is painful, disturbing, and threatening. This is dveṣa, the fourth kleśa. Asmitᾱ’s preservation techniques have a logic to them as the kleśas offer layers of protection. However, if left unattended asmitᾱ is motivated only to satisfy pleasure and avoid pain. Any challenge to these motivations brings up fear. Prashant writes that we cannot tolerate the “empirical I being tormented or harassed” (P.Iyengar, 2013, p. 33). Fear, and fear of death, is translated as abhiniveśaḥ and is the fifth kleśa. Fear is an instinctive reaction to anything that threatens asmitᾱ, not just in terms of death and dying, but to whatever challenges its continuity. B.K.S. Iyengar writes that abhiniveśaḥ “is instinctive and causes one to become selfish and self-centered” (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005, p. 105).

Most of us are unaware of our motivations. We even consider our likes, dislikes, and fears to

represent individual freedom of expression. This is avidyᾱ, the first kleśa, meaning ignorance, not knowing, or lack of awareness. Avidyᾱ encompasses all the other kleśas. Avidyᾱ leads to incorrect comprehension of reality. Strangely, avidyᾱ is seldom expressed as avidyᾱ. We rarely find ourselves saying – “I’m so ignorant about this or that”. We are more likely to say, “ I always do it this way” or “I never do it that way”. One of avidyᾱ ’s characteristics is that it is hidden. We notice avidyᾱ “more by its absence than its presence” (Desikachar, 1995, p. 11). Moreover, we may not even have an urge to notice them, let alone lessen their effect, because they are effective at protecting asmitᾱ and, as Desikachar comments, we have little, or no, interest in reducing their effects (Desikachar, 1995).  Prashant Iyengar writes that the kleśas are “utterly delicious to the body, mind, senses, like the dessert in the context of the meals of life” (P. Iyengar, 2013, p. 33). 

B. K.S. Iyengar emphasizes that the kleśas are not simply obstacles, but “wave patterns of interference that stem from our glorious individuality” (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005, p. 194) : and yet they are “suffering and the cause of suffering” (Mehta, 1975, p. 108), they are “affliction, pain, distress, sorrow, trouble” (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005, p. 105). Why? Because they stop us from being present and give us the illusion that we are living in reality, when in fact we are living in a reality built by the kleśas designed to protect asmitᾱ.

Karma means to do, to act, and also the effect, or result of an action. The Bhagavad Gita states, “no-one, even in the twinkling of an eye, ever exists without performing action” (Sargeant, 1984, p. 111).

Sutra 4.7 karma aśukla akṛṣṇam yoginaḥ trividham itareṣᾱm says that “The karma of a yogi is neither good nor bad: in the case of others, karma is of a threefold nature” (Mehta, 1975, p. 405). Edwin Bryant refers to Vyasa’s commentary on Karma (Bryant, 2009) which can be: “Black” consisting of selfish, unkind and destructive acts; “White” actions which are of honesty, austerity, self-study, and non-attachment; and Grey karma, a blend of the two with limitless shades of Black and White. The results from Black karma are negative, White karma are positive or indifferent, and Grey brings about mixed results. Vyasa comments that negative karma, can be from actions that are positive, and negative karma cannot destroy positive karma, but it can merge into grey karma, and therefore “one should aim toward good deeds” (Bryant, 2009, p. 416). 

What determines the type of karma we enact are the kleśas.  Prashant Iyengar writes that, “all the kleśas have a boiling-bubbling potential for karma” (P. Iyengar, 2013 pg. 121), and that the “kleśas are the roots and sources of karma” (P. Iyengar, 2013 pg. 41).  Sutra 2.12 kleśamūlaḥ karmᾱśayaḥ dṛṣta adṛṣṭa janma vedanῑyaḥ states that our birth is determined by past karma, and driven by the kleśas. Sati mule tadvipᾱkaḥ jᾱti ᾱyuḥ bhogᾱḥ (2.13) adds that the quality and duration of our life is determined by our karmic experiences. Sutra 2.14 te hlᾱda paritᾱpa phalᾱḥ puṇya apuṇya hetutvᾱt infers that our current birth is limited by the pleasurable or painful fruits of past and present karma (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2006).

We act from our fears, our desires, and our dislikes to preserve asmitᾱ. The results of our actions cause us to react from the kleśas, causing more karma driven by the kleśas. The accumulation of karma is known as karmasaya. Prashant writes, “Kleśas are materially responsible for our actions, reactions, unactions, nonactions, and responses” (P. Iyengar, 2013, p. 128). Our entire karmic being is present at every moment in the form of habits and tendencies. The word vᾱsanᾱ means subliminal impression or tendency. Sutra 4.8 tataḥ tadvipᾱka anuguṇᾱnᾱm eva abhivyaktiḥ vᾱsanᾱnᾱm explains that vᾱsanᾱs arise and become active under certain conditions. While we might perceive that our next action emanates from an independent decision-making process, it is, in fact, linked to past karma and motivated by the kleśas. We use the phrase “to be stuck in a rut” to mean that we feel compelled to act in the same way repeatedly as if what we do is beyond our control; that we are helpless in the face of our desires, pleasures, aversions, and fears. 4.9 jᾱti deśa kᾱla  vyavahitᾱnᾱm apy ᾱnataryaṁ smṛti saṁskᾱryoḥ ekarūpatvᾱt tells that, “due to the uninterrupted close relationship between memory and subliminal impressions, the fruits of actions remain intact from one life to the next” (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005, p. 239). The one exception is Ῑśvara 1.24 kleśa karma vipᾱka ᾱsayaiḥ aparᾱamṛṣṭaḥ puruṣaviśeṣaḥ Ῑśvaraḥ. Puruṣaviśeṣaḥ refers to a special being that is Ῑśvara, who is unaffected by the kleśas, karma, and the reactions that ensue. But we are not Ῑśvara.

How to begin to overcome the kleśa/karma cycle? Prashant writes, we must “trace the merit of karma in our drives, motives, tendencies, and intentions behind our actions, and influencing this analysis are the kleśas” (P. Iyengar, 2013, p. 147).  Vyasa offers the following threefold sequence to eliminate the influence of the kleśas; firstly, to remove the extreme or gross effects is like shaking a cloth, or washing it in water (Bryant, 2009). Sutra 2.2 samᾱdhi bhᾱrvanᾱrthaḥ kleśa tanūkaraṇᾱrthaśca, says that this can be done through the practice of yoga (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2006).  The second cleaning has to be more subtle; Vyasa uses the image of beating a cloth against a stone to remove the finer dirt.  Sutra 2.10 te pratiprasavaheyᾱḥ sūksmah suggests that subtle afflictions can be minimized and eradicated by a “process of involution” (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2006, p. 111) noted in sutra 2.11 as dhyᾱna (meditation), as it is the “subtlest discipline of yoga”  (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2001, p. 123).  Sutra 4.6 tatra dhyᾱnajam anᾱśayam – states that “the one born of meditation is without the storehouse of karma” (Bryant, 2009, p. 414).

Meditation can remove the effects of past karma, and its effects become “burnt seeds”, meaning that they cannot propel further action and effect (Bryant, 2009). 4.12 atῑta anᾱgataṁ svarūpataḥ asti adhavadhedᾱt dharmᾱṇyᾱm explains that through meditation “the past and the future is as real as that of the present” (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005, p. 243). 4.27 tat cchidreṣu pratyayᾱntarᾱṇi-saṁskᾱrebhyaḥ cautions “when there are moments of non-awareness the old tendencies make their appearance once again” (Mehta, 1975, p. 433) and one must be vigilant. The third level of cleaning is for the most subtle dirt and dust, this can only be done by the most accomplished yogi, for the metaphorical cloth is destroyed completely, in other words, when one’s actions are completely free from attachment to results. Mehta’s commentary on sutra 4.29 (prasaṁkhyᾱne api akusῑdasya sarvathᾱ vivekakhyᾱteḥ dharmameghaḥ samᾱdhiḥ) describes this moment as being “when a state of meditation is an end in itself, and not the means for the fulfilment of some other end” (Mehta, 1975, p. 441).  This is the moment where complete virtue and wisdom ensue and is termed as dharmameghaḥ samᾱdhi.  Finally, at this point, as sutra 4.30 states (tataḥ kleśa karma nivṛttiḥ) there is freedom from karma and its effects, “as if a kite were released in the sky, without a string, to bring it back to earth” (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005, p. 238) and one has attained kaivalya.  

References

Bryant, E. (2009). The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary with Insights from the Traditional Commentators. North Point Press.

Desikachar, T. K. V. (1995). The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice. Inner Traditions/Bear.

Iyengar, B. K. S. (2001). Astadala Yogamala (Vol. 2). Allied Publishers Private Limited.

Iyengar, B. K. S. (2005). Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (New edition edition). HarperCollins India.

Iyengar, B. K. S. (2012). Core of the Yoga Sutras: The Definitive Guide to the Philosophy of Yoga. Harper Thorsons.

Iyengar, B. K. S., Evans, J. J., & Abrams, D. (2006). Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom (Reprint edition). Rodale Books.

Iyengar, P. (2013). Fundamentals of Patanjali’s Philosophy: Theory of Klesha and Karma. Ramāmaṇi Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute & YOG.

Mehta, R. (1975). Yoga, the Art of Integration: A Commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Theosophical Publishing House.

Sargeant, W. (1984). The Bhagavad Gita: Revised Edition. SUNY Press.

Note: All transliterations of the sutra text is taken from (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005), spelling of Sanskrit is consistent with that text.

Prashant Iyengar writes that “life commences with karma” (P. Iyengar, 2013, p. 12). The process of re-birth stems from actions, their effects (karma), and natural causes stemming from the interplay of the three gunas.(Sargeant, 1994).  Patanjali examines this subject throughout the yoga sutras and, in the kaivalya pada, details what determines the nature of re-birth, and how it can be overcome.

2.12 explains that past karma affects re-birth due to the kleśas. (Kleśamūlaḥ karmᾱśayaḥ dṛṣṭᾱ adṛṣṭa janma vedanῑyah.)  The kleśas are the mental and emotional afflictions that motivate our actions. They are “the root and material cause for fruition of karma” (P. Iyengar, 2013, pg. 41). If we are not cognisent of the effect of the kleśas, karma falls into habit patterns and tendencies that we are unaware of either at a mild, moderate, or intense degree.  This is due to avidyᾱ (not knowing). Past actions can, unknowingly, affect this birth – dṛṣṭᾱ janma, and future births – adṛṣṭa janma. 2.13 (Sati mule tadvipᾱkaḥ jᾱti ᾱyuḥ bhogᾱḥ) adds that the quality and duration of our life is determined by karmic “assets and liabilities”, or good and bad deeds (P. Iyengar, 2013, p. 167). 2.14 (te hlᾱda paritᾱpa phalᾱḥ puṇya apuṇya hetutvᾱt) explains that our current birth is limited by the pleasurable or painful effects of past and present karma.  It would seem from these sutras that there is predestined quality to re-birth, and that there is little we can do to determine its nature.

However, according to B. K. S. Iyengar, sutra 2.34 explains the “root causes of re-birth” and adds that we have a responsibility in the process, suggesting that re-birth is not entirely  predestined (Iyengar, 2012 pg. 22). Vitarkaḥ hiṁsᾱdayaḥ kṛta kᾱrita anumoditᾱḥ lobha krodha moha pūrvakaḥ mṛdu Madhya adhimᾱtraḥ duḥkha ajñᾱna anantaphalᾱḥ iti pratipakṣabhᾱvanam; The negative thoughts and actions, based in violence (hiṁsa), greed (lobha), anger (krodha), or delusion (moha), that either we perform (kṛta), or have others perform on our behalf (kᾱrita), that cause us to become stuck in a never-ending cycle (ananta) of suffering (duḥkha), due to ignorance (ajñᾱna) and incorrect knowledge (vitarkaḥ).   This can only be stopped when one cultivates the opposite, counteracting thoughts (pratipakṣabhᾱvanam).  This sutra is significant in that it infers, not only that re-birth is a repeated cycle, but also suggests that we do, through pratipakṣabhᾱvanam, have a degree of influence, and responsibility, in altering its course.  The kaivalya pada offers more detail on the causes and what determines the nature of our influence.  

The causes of re-birth are described in sutra 4.2 jᾱyantara pariṇᾱmaḥ prakṛtyᾱpūrᾱt, meaning that being born into a new form occurs when natural forces overflow. Jᾱyantara pariṇᾱmaḥ means a complete transformation, or mutation of being. This transformation, whether it is biological, or psychological, is due to the process of prakṛtyᾱpūrᾱt – prakriti means nature, and ᾱpῑrᾱt means the filling in, or pouring in of. Prakṛtyᾱpūrᾱt is an overflow, suggesting that existing banks or barriers of a previous flow are broken down, rather like a river overflowing its banks. Due to the fact that these forces are natural, it is clear that re-birth, into a new form of being, is caused by spontaneous change. The biologist Julian Huxley is quoted by Mehta (1975,p. 396) as saying, “spontaneous change, or mutation, of single factors has been, and is still probably the most important source of new departures, without which evolution could not take place”. Iyengar supports this concept and adds that nature itself is “the powerhouse for spiritual evolution” (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2006, pg. 232) suggesting that the creative cause of re-birth is unpremeditated, and due to the overflow of nature. 

Sutra 4.3 nimittaṁ aprayojakaṁ prakṛtῑnᾱṁ varaṇabhedaḥ tu tataḥ kṣetrikvat separates the natural causes of re-birth as described above, and infers thought processes, and thus karma, as an additional cause of re-birth. Patanjali uses the word nimitta to mean instrument or tool. Karma, propelled by thoughts and deeds, act as a tool that is, in part, what determines re-birth. Patanjali uses the image of a farmer, who, of course, cannot control the natural flow of water into his fields, but he can use instruments to remove the obstacles that prevent the natural flow. Thus, Patanjali defines that the instrumental causes of re-birth, are not the creative causes of re-birth. Re-birth is caused by both our conscious awareness, that we can control, and by prakṛti that are beyond our scope of control. This infers that re-birth is not entirely predestined. We do have control over our thoughts, even if consciousness can only perform a negative roll by removing obstacles of negative karma, our present karma can be improved, and affect re-birth.

 The forces that determine the nature of re-birth are memory (smṛti), subliminal tendencies (saṁskᾱras).  Saṁskᾱras are the threads that connects the process and causes of rebirth and are the obstacles to nature’s flow, as referred to in sutra 4.3. Sutra 4.9 jᾱti deśa kᾱla vyavahitᾱnᾱm api ᾱnantaryaṁ smṛti saṁskᾱrayoḥ ekarūpatvᾱt, states that even though there is a separation of time and place between re-births, there is continuity between each life due to saṁskᾱras and smṛti. Saṁskᾱras pass from life to new life, as “ᾱnantaryaṁ” or uninterrupted sequences because they are stored in memory (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005, p. 239). Saṁskᾱras remain” like seeds irrespective of whether they are of one’s last birth or of a birth aeons ago” (Bryant, 2009, p. 420). If the right conditions present themselves, the seeds will grow, and the same tendencies will recur because the drive to maintain the continuity of the ego-self and the will to exist is the most powerful motivator of all. Here, Patanjali cycles back to the kleśas, particularly abhiniveśaḥ.  Prashant Iyengar observes that “ memory is based on experience. But (abhiniveśaḥ) has no memory of experience because death is only experienced once in a lifetime” (P. Iyengar, 2013, pg. 89) thus this saṁskᾱra is created in the deaths of one’s previous lives. This motivation is ceaseless and thus our saṁskᾱras are “beginningless” (Narasimhan, 2018, p. 133).

 4.11 hetu phala aśray ᾱlambanaiḥ saṅgṛhῑtatvᾱt eṣᾱm abhᾱve tad abhᾱvaḥ.  Patanjali reinforces the impact of the karma/kleśa relationship and the preservation of asmitᾱ. According to Vyasa, this sutra lists the four ingredients that feed the saṁskᾱras. These are: dharma (virtuous acts) and adharma (impious acts), Phala, the motive that supports the production of more dharma and adharma, ᾱśrayᾱ, the mind that protects the ego-self through memory, and “ᾱlambana” meaning an object or event that causes the saṁskᾱras to be triggered and propels more dharma or adharma. (Bryant, 2009). Memory cannot be eliminated, but it can be cleansed and interrogated to give a precise, accurate picture that is unattached to past saṁskᾱras. Iyengar writes that memory “is not a platform with which to review the world…. but memory is absolutely necessary for the development of intelligence. Without memory, intelligence cannot prosper and we cannot reach our soul” (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005, p. 143). Sutra 4.11 goes onto say that, with intelligence and discriminative awareness, we start to notice the nature of our motivations, and can reduce saṁskᾱras (abhᾱve).  As such, their effects become less (abhᾱvaḥ), and the appetite to generate more is abated, and the cycle of re-birth can be stopped. Iyengar writes that, at this point, the mind “avoids desires and thoughts of reward, and direct its attention towards the exploration of the seer” (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005, p. 242).

 Although it is impossible to trace the origins of our sense of I-ness, and thus the origins of any action that we do, Patanjali makes it clear that the nature of re-birth is determined by the very issue of our I-ness. He also makes it clear that although the process of re-birth is not entirely within our control as suggested in sutra 4.2, the causes of re-birth are far from being predestined. It is the indulgent and resistant acts of karma that fuels the processes and causes of re-birth. Conscious awareness, or lack of it, determines the nature of our re-birth. Consciousness it is the very tool that created the saṁskᾱras, and it is the only tool that can be used to overcome them. Sutra 4.32 tataḥ kṛtᾱrthᾱnᾱṁ pariṇᾱmakrama samᾱptiḥ guṇᾱnᾱm is to have cultivated conscious awareness to the point where we have “unveiled perception” of the “real nature of things” (Mehta, 1975, p. 447) and a perception of ourselves simply as being and “living is its own destination” (Mehta, 1975, p. 452). Pariṇᾱmakrama samᾱptiḥ means the processes and causes of “successive mutations” (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005, p. 263) of re-birth have come to an end. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita (5.19) “Even on the moral plane, those who have conquered and established impartial minds become established in the existence of the soul in all creatures, conquering the cycle of birth and death”. (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2012, p. 26). At Geeta’s passing, it was reported to me that her last words to her sister were – “my work here is done”. This is, perhaps a very tangible illustration of how the completeness of her karma, and her detachment from its effects, enabled her to choose the time of her own passing. Such closure shows us that when we know how to live, we know how to die, and this, surely, is the deepest teaching of yoga.

References

Bryant, E. (2009). The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary with Insights from the Traditional Commentators. North Point Press.

Iyengar, B. K. S. (2005). Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (New edition edition). HarperCollins India.

Iyengar, B. K. S. (2012). Core of the Yoga Sutras: The Definitive Guide to the Philosophy of Yoga. Harper Thorsons.

Iyengar, B. K. S., Evans, J. J., & Abrams, D. (2006). Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom (Reprint edition). Rodale Books.

Iyengar, P. (2013). Fundamentals of Patanjali’s Philosophy: Theory of Klesha and Karma. Ramāmaṇi Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute & YOG.

Mehta, R. (1975). Yoga, the Art of Integration: A Commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Theosophical Publishing House.

Narasimhan, P. (2018). The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali: A Collection of Translations.

Note: All transliterations of the sutra text is taken from (B. K. S. Iyengar, 2005), spelling of Sanskrit is consistent with that text.

In gratitude for Tiffany Hambley’s post on Prashantji’s teachings. Prashant says, “Imagine a scenario where two mirrors reflect one another. The potential for refraction and reflection is endless. This is quite a different situation, he pointed out, than a wooden yoga brick and a mirror facing one another: in that instance, it can clearly be seen that one is reflected and one is reflecting. But with two mirrors, you cannot label one as the reflector and one as the reflected. They assume both roles, and the reflections produced are infinite”.

How amazing is that? Patanjali explains “pratipaksa bhavanam” – to cultivate more of the opposite. B. K. S. Iyengar writes that this is why yoga actually works (Light on Yoga sutras 2.33). It is our “internal checks and balance” process. In observing the balance poses it is clear that balance isn’t just moving away from falling, but also moving into the falling, and then away again and observing that too much of one direction is as destabilizing as too much of the opposite direction; that balance is a constant re-appraisal from the reflector and reflected. This duality plays itself out in our bodies all the time – we have instant philosophers in our legs, knees, hips, sides of the spine, shoulders, arms, neck. eyes etc. I recall Mary Dunn saying in class one day – “My two legs are like my two daughters; I love them both the same, but they are very different”. I have quoted this often, but at its essence, she is talking about the interaction of opposites, rather than the duality of opposition. That the bad hip/knee/shoulder etc, is like looking in a mirror and passing judgment from a subject (me) to an object (my bad hip). What about the reflected? and how can I know which is right or wrong, or good or bad? Pratipaksa bhavanam does not instruct us to do the opposite in the sense of either one or the other, but, as Prashant says, both sides “assume both roles” even though they may have different parts to play toward being balanced. Again, from Mary – “evenness doesn’t mean the same as”. I love this one. I might have to work differently on my right leg or left leg in order to balance. Additionally, my right and left side can only understand what to do in relation with each other, not in opposition to each other. The richness of interaction is “infinite” (Prashant again). Guruji writes that we often live in the “insanity of individualism” instead of the “joy of singularity” (Light on Life). Standing on your head, hands, shoulders, and feet requires a interaction of many single parts rather than being boxed into only one part, way, one belief, one opinion, one emotional response, or the other. Lastly from Mary…” yoga is not an either/or subject”.

“Pratipaksha bhavana works because it reflects back to us what is true, deep, and abiding. It provides opportunities to transcend an ego hampered by desires for limits, boundaries, the need to always be in control, and right (rather than in right, i.e., productive, relationship with truth)” Reverend Jaganath Carrera.

This is from a class taught at the Summer Intensive with Jess at Clear Yoga.

Who would have thought that “Who am I?” would be the theme for a weekend Yoga Intensive!! It makes sense when we realize that within each asana are tools to allow us to investigate the different parts of our body. They let us begin to uncover pieces of the picture that lead to a greater understanding of “Who I am”. We started on Friday night with the separation and lift of the side chest and the release of the neck and shoulders.  On Saturday we moved on to the discovery of the second and third metatarsals in the feet and the ramifications that they can have in our body… But to get a clear picture of the parts that contribute to the whole we need to be able to separate those parts and bring our attention and focus to them. Patanjali tells us that between us and understanding lie the klesas- the afflictions that cloud and limit our perception. The first two Avidya and Asmita are particularly relevant to our investigations.

 The first – Avidya means not knowing, an absence of knowledge regarding something that we have not noticed.  Through practice, we cultivate vidya – knowledge. By separating pieces, we start to notice parts we didn’t notice before, or how we habitually do, or avoid doing something. Without noticing, we cannot come to know. Prashant Iyengar speaks of yoga as being an “open minded investigation”. We start to notice what we are doing, and begin to cultivate knowledge of the different parts of the body and within that, approach the question “who am I?”

 The second klesa is Asmita – the ego self.  In the age of google it is easy to forget that a piece of information out of context can lead to misunderstood or wrong conclusions.  We live in the age of high level Asmita. Our ego, can be deluded very easily into thinking that acquiring more information means that we have all or most of the answers. In Istvan Banyai book “Zoom” – the first page shows a picture – you wonder what it is and say – yup – I got this, I know exactly what this is.  Then you turn the page, and the lens has been drawn back a bit and you see what this image belongs to – perhaps it was what you thought it was, perhaps not, but now you say – yup – I got it correct this time – I know for sure it’s this. Then you turn the page again, and it’s not what you think because it changes your perspective and makes you look at the picture differently.  Every page pulls the lens up a little higher and every page, the image turns out to be not what you thought. Life is like this, and certainly our practice is like this. Asmita can be what keeps us from turning the page and being open to a different perspective.

 The essence of practice is to try new ways of doing, investigate new ways of seeing, be open to new ways of understanding or more useful perspectives. We can let our ego (asmita) get in the way of clear knowing (vidya).  BKS Iyengar writes that avidya and asmita result in – “ the insanity of individualism, when it should be the joy of singularity”. Our culture drives us into individualism “we judge by externals and worthless comparisons. We lose joy in the existence of others. We expect others to perform according to our desires and expectations.  We lose the ability to play the ball where it lies.” (Light on LIfe).

During Saturday’s class, we practiced finding the second and third metatarsals of the feet – in standing poses, back bends, inversions, and seated poses.  Discoveries were made – hips and lower backs were eased, knees felt better, a lightness in body awareness was experienced by everyone. It was a remarkable and profound exploration. One student commented – “my big toe metatarsal won’t stop pressing. The second and third don’t even have a chance.”

BKS Iyengar described the big toe as being in a state of asmita – the ego, the second toe in a state of viparyaya (misunderstanding), the third in vikalpa (imagination), the fourth in smrti (memory – it can only copy what the other toes are doing), and the fifth in a state of nidra (sleep).   It is the nature of the big toe to be in this individualistic state – a little pushy and dominating. But, without the big toe we could not walk properly. We know people in our lives who are like the big toe – this is their nature. We know parts of our personality that are like the big toe. But the big toe cannot go it alone.  When we pay attention to the second and third metatarsals, we can experience the “joy of singularity”. These other parts are important, and have a part to play even though they look and behave differently.

The “joy of singularity’ shows that every piece of us matters, no matter how big, or small, or arrogant, or afraid, even if it feels as if it doesn’t stand a chance against the more individualistic parts of us.  Our yoga is to pay attention to all of it and notice it with compassion, understanding and open-mindedness. The “joy of singularity” teaches us to accept that there are differences in the nature of our toes, our limbs, ourselves, our community, and our world. When we take ourselves out of the “insanity of individualism” and raise the lens of perspective a little higher, we begin to appreciate the “joy of singularity” and move farther along in the quest to understand “who am I?”.

“We all sense the presence of soul in our origin and our end.  Looking at the world around us, we are torn between feelings that “soul cannot be in this” and yet, “if the soul exists at all, it must be in this also”.   It’s existence is to be unlimited to our notions of space and time. It’s existence is not defined by or confined to the span of our years between cradle and grave.  It is democratic, if in us then equally in others. (The soul) is not personal; if anything, it is we who belong to it.

If we mistake this separate, necessary but temporary “I-awareness” for our true and abiding identity, if we confuse it with soul, we are in a cleft stick.  What we all most desire is to live and to be a part of life. By choosing to identify with a part of ourselves, that MUST die, we condemn ourselves to death.  By embracing a false identity, accepting the confusion at face value, man places himself in a position of almost unbearable tension. Yoga calls this state “ignorance” and sees it as our fundamental affliction…from our ignorant identification with our ego and its mortality arises  man’s creativity and his destructiveness.

…yet in innumerable ways we endeavor to perpetuate a part of ourselves whose days are numbered, or to comfort ourselves in advance for the coming loss.  

Consumerism cannot be the gateway to immortality.  It is an ineffective and temporary balm against mortality.

The endure the fears of impermanence and to struggle against the inevitable is a tiring business, so at the same time we long equally for loss of self, for fusion, for submergence and transcendence, for release from the burden of the ego.  The egoic self is an exhausting traveling companion, forever demanding that his caprices be pandered to, that his whims be obeyed (though they can never be satisfied), and his fears be calmed (though they never can be).

The lovely asmita, single awareness in single body, is thus, transformed into an insatiable, paranoid, vainglorious tyrant, although this is phenomenon we normally notice in other people.

The reason for this sad transformation is ignorance, the misperception whereby a part of us is taken for the whole.  Much of yoga practice is concerned with cutting the ego down to size and removing the veil of unknowing.”

BKS Iyengar.  Light on Life. pg 121-122.