1.29 · The Current Turned Back

From that also comes realisation of the inward self, and the obstacles fall away.

Word by word

tataḥ

from that

pratyak-cetanā

the inward self; awareness turned back on itself

adhigamaḥ

realisation, attainment

api

also

antarāya

of the obstacles

abhāvaḥ

absence, falling away

ca

and

Where it fits

Vyāsa asks what else comes to this yogi (Woods p. 62). There are two results: awareness turned inward, and the obstacles gone. Naming the obstacles here sets up 1.30, so the passage on Īśvara becomes the hinge into the account of what scatters the mind.

Reading

Two results come from repeating Om with its meaning. Attention, which usually streams outward to objects, turns back toward its own source. And the obstacles, listed in the next sūtra, fall away. Vyāsa explains the first by likeness: as Īśvara is a pure self, untouched by affliction, so the practitioner comes to see that he too is a self. Devotion to another leads to knowing yourself. Commentators note the surprise here. Meditating on Īśvara does not leave you lost in something outside you.

Vyāsa

“Whatever obstacles there are … through devotion to Īśvara they do not arise. He also comes to see his own true nature. Just as Īśvara is a self that is pure, clear, alone and untroubled, so too, he realises, is the self in him that witnesses the intellect.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 62.

Practice

Three times during ordinary tasks today, stop and turn attention around: from what you are looking at to the fact of looking, from the sound to the hearing. Stay there for one breath, then go back to the task.

A question to sit with

What is looking out through your eyes?

Key ideas

īśvara (the Lord), puruṣa (the seer, the self), antarāya (obstacles), praṇava (Om)