Samadhi Pada – Sutra 2
Yogah Chitta Vritti Norodhah || (1 – 2)
Yoga = Union
Chitta = Mind
Vritti = Functioning / Modifications
Nirodhah = Block with Efforts / restraint
“Yoga is to block the modifications of
the mind.”
This is the 2nd verse, and Patanjali defines
Yoga for the yoga practitioners, let us understand the meaning
of each word. The first word “Yoga” has no of meanings
but the basic is join or process leading to joining. It is derived
from a Sanskrit word Yuj which means to join. Now as per Indian
stream of thought, it is the highest join between individual
soul or “Atman” and universal consciousness or “Paramatman”.
Paramatman is the divine reality and atman is part of this divine
but separated from it and confined to Body & Mind. The process
of unification of atman with paramatman is Yoga.
The second word is “Chitta” which
is derived from word ‘chit’ which means to experience,
Chitta is past tense meaning “Experienced” so it
can be regarded as store of experiences and that is mind, it
stores the experiences in form of memories, thoughts, emotions
on conscious, sub conscious and unconscious mind. More specifically
it can be taken as sub conscious mind as most of the experiences
are stored there.
Vritti is derived from Sanskrit word Vrut which
means to function, so Vritti is functioning or modifications.
Nirodhah is the 4th word, it is taken from rodha
which means to block, and nirodhah is to block with planned
efforts and controlled actions.
Thus Patanjali explains the central theme of
yoga in this sutra, and to understand the process leading to
this goal needs to be studied.
After knowing the meaning of this sutra, next
question will be; ‘what will happen when the functioning
or modifications of mind is blocked?’, and Patanjali answers
this in next sutra.
References
–
* Science of Yoga – I.K. Taimini
*
Four Chapters on Freedom
– Swami Satyananda Saraswati
*
Yoga Sutra - Mr.K.K.Kolhatkar
*
Yoga Sutra - Original Sanskrit Text
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