1.2 · The Still Lake

Yoga is the stilling of the movements of the mind.

Word by word

yogaḥ

yoga, joining

citta

the mind-field, all of mental life

vṛtti

turnings, movements, whirls

nirodhaḥ

stilling, settling, holding back

Where it fits

Vyāsa says this sūtra gives yoga's defining mark (Woods p. 8). The rest of the pāda unpacks its words: the mind, its movements (1.5–1.11) and their stilling (1.12–1.51). Because the sūtra does not say 'all' movements, Vyāsa notes, absorption with an object also counts as yoga (Woods p. 8). 1.3 says what the stilling reveals.

Reading

In one short line Patañjali defines the whole path. The mind is pictured as a field that keeps turning: knowing, mistaking, imagining, sleeping, remembering (1.6). Nirodha is not forcing thought to stop. It is the settling that happens when the turning is no longer fed. The next sūtra says what is revealed then: the seer rests in its own nature (1.3). When the wind drops, the lake does not become a different lake. It simply shows the moon whole.

Vyāsa

“Because the word 'all' is not used, absorption with an object is also called yoga. For the mind is made of the three guṇas, since by nature it tends to clarity (prakhyā), activity (pravṛtti) and inertia (sthiti).”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 8.

Practice

Sit for five minutes. Each time a thought appears, name its kind silently using Patañjali's five: knowing, mistaking, imagining, sleep, memory. Don't push any of them away. Just name it, and notice the small stillness after each naming.

A question to sit with

What is moving the water today?

Where commentators disagree

Does the definition of yoga cover absorption with an object, or only the complete stilling of every movement?

Vyāsa

Because the sūtra does not say 'all' the movements, absorption with an object (samprajñāta) also counts as yoga. Only when all movements are stilled is there absorption without an object. (Woods 1914, pp. 8–9)

Vācaspati Miśra

Meets the objection that in absorption with an object the sattva movements are not stilled. What is stilled there are the movements of rajas and tamas, so the definition still fits. (Woods 1914, p. 9)

Bhoja

Defines nirodha as the dissolving of the movements back into their causes by turning the mind inward; the stilling is a kind of effort, beyond the senses, that brings their end. He does not mention Vyāsa's point about the missing 'all'. (Tatya 1885, p. 2; Mitra 1883, wisdomlib on 1.2)

Rajendralala Mitra

Warns that the definition seems to require complete suppression of thought, which is not meant, since the lower stages of meditation are also yoga. He finds it remarkable that Bhoja overlooked Vyāsa's qualification. (Mitra 1883, note on 1.2 (wisdomlib))

Key ideas

nirodha (stilling), citta (the mind-field), vṛtti (movement of the mind)