Patanjali Yoga Sutra 2.26 (Parisamvad)

Patanjali Yoga Sutra Transcribed from Parisamvad at The Yoga Institute.

Chapter 2, Sutra 26

 

Vivekakhyatih Aviplava Hanopayah

Vivekakhyatih: discriminative knowledge
Aviplava: uninterrupted
Hana: of removal
Upayah: the means, method

The Means Of Attaining Liberation Is Undisturbed Discriminative Knowledge

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Smt. Hansaji J Yogendra:

“In this sutra, they make it very clear that a person has to come to a level where only pure knowledge flows from his system. Nothing else. Nothing can make that knowledge vitiated or tinted. Knowledge has to be pure and clear. And the knowledge they are talking about is the clarity in what is Purusha and Prakriti.

Purusha is pure consciousness, permanent, which can’t be destroyed. It’s there, it’s going to be there. Sattvik state is very close to Purusha. And Prakriti is ever changing with all colours, flavours, varieties, all creations. Both of these things are totally separate.

The word used is ‘Hana,’ that is pain and suffering and what is the treatment of this problem, of all our suffering? Knowledge. Suffering is only at the level of Prakriti and not at all at the level of Purusha. Purusha doesn’t get affected by Prakriti at all. Once that clarity comes, the person is free from pain and suffering.

Now here they have used one more word – Aviplava – which is a stage where you have the knowledge but that knowledge flows, it continues. Many times in life, we have the knowledge. See, information is one thing, we all have lots of information. We don’t call it as knowledge. But here knowledge has come, Vivek Khyati has happened but that knowledge has to continue. I don’t know whether you have observed that under certain circumstances, even the wisest people behave like the most stupid and ignorant people. It is mentioned that when there is a toothache, even the wisest person can’t tolerate it. So somehow they don’t realize that this pain is a body pain – Prakriti – I don’t have to get affected by it. He gets affected.

So this knowledge has to remain and continue. For that, a person has to do a good amount of meditation, stay with that knowledge for a long, long period. That state is called Aviplava state. So when a person gets into that level, he is absolutely free from everything, all the problems.

So for us, this is theory, but we should understand this theory thoroughly well. And practically we should know that even though we say that “I know this and that,” we should know that we don’t have any knowledge because knowledge is a very different thing altogether. So we should always remain in a learning and receiving state, open to change and so on.”

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