1.21 · The Rushing Stream

It is near for those whose urgency is intense.

Word by word

tīvra

intense, keen

saṃvegānām

of those whose urgency, ardour is

āsannaḥ

near

Where it fits

If the way is the same for all (1.20), why do some arrive sooner? Vyāsa sorts practitioners into nine kinds by method and intensity (Woods p. 47). Vācaspati, glossing him, takes the method to be the five qualities of 1.20 and the intensity to be non-attachment. 1.22 refines the grades.

Reading

If the way is the same for everyone, why do some arrive sooner? The answer is saṃvega: a stirring, a strong drive or ardour. Some read it as the force of non-attachment, others as the speed and vigour of practice. Vyāsa introduces the sūtra by sorting practitioners into nine kinds: method mild, middling or intense, each with mild, middling or keen intensity. For the most intense, he says, absorption and its fruit come soon. This urgency has nothing to do with panic. It means caring enough that practice comes first.

Vyāsa

“These yogis are of nine kinds, since their method is mild, middling or strong. … Among those whose method is strong, … the gaining of absorption and its fruit [are near].”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 47.

Practice

Ask yourself honestly, on a scale of one to ten, how much you want a settled mind. Write the number down. Then write one thing you would do differently this week if the number were two points higher, and do it once today.

A question to sit with

How much do you really want this?

Where commentators disagree

What is saṃvega, the 'intensity' that brings absorption near: keen dispassion, or keen effort?

Vyāsa

Yogins are of nine kinds: gentle, moderate or vehement in their means, and each of these with mild, middling or keen intensity. For the vehement with keen intensity, absorption and its fruit are near. (Woods 1914, pp. 47–48)

Vācaspati Miśra

Intensity (saṃvega) is dispassion (vairāgya). Whether it is mild, middling or keen depends on impressions and unseen influences from earlier births. (Woods 1914, p. 47)

Bhoja

Saṃvega is energetic exertion in carrying out a task; for those whose exertion is ardent, absorption and its fruit come quickly. (Tatya 1885, p. 20; Mitra 1883, wisdomlib on 1.21)

Vijñānabhikṣu

As Jha reports him, he too explains saṃvega as energetic exertion or impetuosity, against Vācaspati's 'dispassion'. (Jha 1907, p. 23)

Key ideas

samādhi (absorption), abhyāsa (practice), vairāgya (non-attachment)