Patanjali Yoga Sutra 2.17 (Parisamvad)

Patanjali Yoga Sutra Transcribed from Parisamvad at The Yoga Institute.

Chapter 2, Sutra 17

 

 

Drastrdrsyayoh Samyogah Heyahetuh

Drastra: to the seer
Drsyayoh: of the seen
Samyogah: union
Heyah: to be avoided
Hetuh: the cause

The Bond Of The Seer And The Seen Is The Cause Of The Pain That Is To Be Avoided

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Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra:

“See what we are doing are technical books containing philosophy, metaphysics. But the essence if practical. We misunderstand, misconstrue, have wrong ideas and live a totally wrong life. The external world is here, we take each item as ultimate and sacrifice ourselves all our life, that’s a lie. So that’s what the sutra tells us. See the real form, the Swaroop. If you do that, then you’ll recognize the differences. Consciousness is different and materiality is different. If we are to maintain just pure consciousness, there is no problem, but we lose that and get mixed up. And there is our problem.”

Smt. Hansaji J. Yogendra:

“The earlier sutra was telling us that you can always avoid the pain that is yet to come. Now this sutra tells us the cause of pain. Now we should understand what pain is, then we can avoid it. Here the Drstu is the pure consciousness, your Atma, your Swaroop, God, you may call it by any name. Drsyayoh means the material world, Prikriti, this entire world that you see. When Samyogah, i.e. both unite in such a way that their individual identity is lost, like salt in water where you cannot see both separately so you will think that the water is salty. You will not understand that water is not salty. Water is water, salt is salt. If you separate them, then things are different. But we would never think like that, we take it as salty water and accordingly we function.

So this Samyogah mixes their identity in such a way that that brings ignorance. So that becomes Heyah Hetu, the reason for pain and suffering. Prakriti by itself is matter, the material world is strong by itself and Purusha, pure consciousness is non-matter, that is separate. Now this matter and non-matter are two opposites, two different things altogether. They are mixed and that has created a confusion and unfortunately we are not aware of this confusion. So we see only Prakriti, we don’t see Purusha, we don’t see the salt and so we behave like that. So from Prakriti we take pain, Prakriti is continuously changing so we suffer with that. The three Gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, always come in the way so we suffer. And so there are various ways in which we suffer because of Prakriti and we don’t realize that there is something different with which we are made. Our real self is not Prakriti but Purusha. ”

Now if we simplify this entire thing, it’s like a family. There is the head of a family who is very wise, level-headed, calm. And many family members are there who are creating differences between each other and they are suffering and fighting but they don’t realize that there is a head. Just listen to the head and follow what he says and there will be no suffering. But we forget that and the suffering goes on.

So once there is something like this, pain could be reduced, otherwise pain will be there all the time.”

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