Yoga Sutras · Book 4

Kaivalya Pada: Independence

1. 4.1Special powers, called Siddhis, can come in five ways. A person may be born with them, or gain them through herbs and potions, sacred words, hard self-discipline, or deep concentration.
2. 4.2A being can change into a different kind of being. This happens when nature fills in and flows into it.
3. 4.3Good and bad deeds do not directly make us change. They only remove blocks, like a farmer opening a gate so water flows into a field on its own. Goodness and power are already inside every person. Spiritual practice clears away what holds them back.
4. 4.4When a yogi creates extra minds, they all come from the sense of "I," called egoism. The teacher adds that our deeds never change the true Self. They only cover it or uncover it.
5. 4.5A yogi may create many minds that each do different things. Yet one original mind controls all of them.
6. 4.6Of all the kinds of minds, only the one reached through Samadhi, or deep meditation, is free from desire. Powers gained through medicines, sacred words or harsh discipline still leave a person wanting things.
7. 4.7For most people, actions are bad, good or mixed, and they bring results that bind them. A perfected yogi does good without wanting anything back, so the actions do not bind him.
8. 4.8From our many past deeds, only the desires that fit our present life and body show up. The other desires stay stored away, waiting for the right conditions.
9. 4.9Desires carry on from one life to the next, even across different bodies, places and times. They continue because memories and deep impressions are passed along.
10. 4.10Every living being always wants to be happy. Because that wish never ends, desires have no starting point.
11. 4.11Desires are held together by four things: their cause, their result, the mind that stores them, and the objects that trigger them. When these are removed, desire disappears.
12. 4.12The past and the future are real. They exist in a hidden, subtle form, because something can never come from nothing.
13. 4.13Past, present and future are just the three Gunas showing up in different ways. The Gunas are the three basic forces of nature: Sattva (calm brightness), Rajas (activity) and Tamas (heaviness). Some things are visible, and some are still hidden.
14. 4.14Each thing seems to be one single thing because its changes happen together in an orderly way.
15. 4.15Different people see and want the same thing in different ways. This shows the world is real and separate from our minds, not just our imagination.
16. 4.16We know a thing only when it affects our mind. If it leaves no mark on the mind, we do not know it.
17. 4.17We always know what is going on in our mind. This is because the Purusha, the true Self that watches the mind, never changes.
18. 4.18The mind does not shine with its own light. It is something that is seen. Only the Purusha, the true Self, gives light and awareness to the mind and everything else.
19. 4.19The mind cannot notice an object and notice itself at the very same moment. This shows the mind does not shine with its own light. The Purusha, the true Self, is what gives it light.
20. 4.20If we said a second mind watches the first mind, we would need a third to watch the second, and so on forever. Memory would make no sense then. So the watcher must be the Self, not another mind.
21. 4.21The Purusha, the true Self, never changes. When the mind takes on its reflection, the mind becomes aware and seems to be the Self for a while.
22. 4.22The mind reflects two things at once: the outside world that is seen, and the Self who sees. Because of this, the mind can know everything.
23. 4.23The mind is full of countless desires, but it is made of many parts working together. Things made of parts exist for something beyond them, so the mind works for the Purusha, the true Self.
24. 4.24A person who has learned to tell things apart clearly stops thinking the mind is the Atman, the true Self. They know the Self is not the mind.
25. 4.25Then the mind, turned toward clear seeing, moves toward Kaivalya, which means freedom or standing alone as the pure Self. The teacher adds that with long practice the veil drops and fear ends.
26. 4.26Thoughts that block this freedom come from old impressions left in the mind. The teacher explains that these are ideas that we need outside things to be happy, and they must work themselves out.
27. 4.27These old impressions are removed the same way as ignorance, ego and the other troubles described earlier in the book (II.10). That way is tracing them back to their source until they dissolve.
28. 4.28Even after gaining clear understanding, the yogi who gives up the rewards and special powers reaches a deep meditation called Dharma-megha, the cloud of virtue. The teacher says it brings peace, calm and purity.
29. 4.29From that state, pain ends and actions stop binding the person. The teacher says there is no more fear of falling back.
30. 4.30When all coverings and impurities are gone, knowledge becomes endless. Compared to it, everything there is to know seems small.
31. 4.31Then the constant changes of nature's qualities, the gunas, come to an end for that person. They have done their job.
32. 4.32Succession means the changes that happen moment by moment, which we only notice after a series of them. The teacher says that for a fully awakened mind there is no succession; only the present exists.
33. 4.33When nature's qualities fold back into their source because they have nothing left to do for the Purusha, that is Kaivalya, complete freedom. The Self then rests in its own nature as pure knowing. The teacher compares nature to a kind nurse who guides the soul until it remembers who it is.