Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1.38 (Parisamvad)

Patanjali Yoga Sutra Transcribed from Parisamvad at The Yoga Institute.

Chapter 1, Sutra 38

 

Svapna-Nidra-Jnana Alambanam-Va

Svapna : dream
Nidra : state of dreamless sleep
Jnana : knowledge , awareness
Alambanam : object of concentration
Va : or ( other practices from 1.34 to 1.39)

Or By Taking As The Object Of Meditation The Images Of Dreams Or The State Of Dreamless Sleep (The Mind Of The Yogin Gets Stabilized)

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Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra:

“The description is about sleep. These are all areas for keeping the mind steady. It can be deep sleep or even dreams. If one can concentrate and record it helps. Various such suggestions have been given, how to keep the mind steady and this is one of the means.”

Smt. Hansaji J. Yogendra:

“This is again one of the Parikramas – techniques to hold the mind, train the mind. This technique is talking about dream state and sleep state. We have different types of sleep. 1) Deep sleep – mind is absolutely peaceful, quiet and that experience itself is beautiful – mind is totally free from stress, tension, anxiety. That experience of good sleep if you think can keep the mind steady. 2) R.E.M (Rapid Eye Movement) where there are dreams , mind is busy, active, partially awake. Deep sleep is about 2 ½ hours and rest is R.E.M. Sometimes the dreams have no link. Mostly the type of thoughts we have during the day, accordingly we have dreams. If someone has insulted you in the day and you have tolerated him, then there are chances you will see him in your dream at night hurting him back – a sort of unwinding happens. So R.E.M is also required. When a person takes sleeping pills then R.E.M is not there – it’s a deep sleep. We therefore suggest don’t take sleeping pills, sleep naturally. Only in natural sleep, relaxation occurs.

In Vedanta it is said that a deep sleep is equivalent to Samadhi – peaceful state. Yoga does not say so – to reach that stage you have to leave all desires, ego. For sleeping nicely we have to put some effort during the day – think good, do good, do good activities, read something good, meet good people. A child can comfortably sleep because he has full faith in mother. Similarly if we don’t have faith then we will not get sleep. Nowadays people with anxiety cannot even close their eyes – they get frightened. So if our sleep gets disturbed then we should realize that we are not leading a proper life and need to bring about changes at all levels – the whole life style. Sleep and dream can be a very good technique to keep the mind steady. The day you don’t sleep well the mind is quite restless, person gets easily irritated, reacts very easily, laziness and dullness comes, expectation from others become very high, non-caring behavior. So good sleep is very important.”

 

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