I. Samādhi Pāda · Ways to a clear mind (1.33–1.39)
1.37 · The Empty Hermitage
Or a mind that rests on one who is free of desire.
Word by word
- vīta-rāga
- free of desire, whose passion is gone
- viṣayam
- having as its object
- vā
- or
- cittam
- the mind
Where it fits
From the mind's own light (1.36) the list turns to another person: a mind free of desire. Vyāsa's comment is a single line (Woods p. 76). It echoes the non-attachment of 1.15, now taken as an object to rest on rather than a state to reach.
Reading
The mind can steady itself by resting on a mind that is already steady: one free of desire. Vyāsa's comment is a single line. Vācaspati Miśra gives Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana, the Vyāsa of the Mahābhārata, as an example, and traditions apply the sūtra to their own saints and gurus. The principle is simple: we grow like what we attend to. Holding in mind someone at peace lets their steadiness become, for a while, your own.
Vyāsa
“Or, coloured by taking as its support the mind of one free of desire, the yogi's mind reaches steadiness.”
Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 76.
Practice
Bring to mind someone, living or remembered, who seems free of grasping: a teacher, a saint, a grandparent. Picture them sitting quietly for five minutes. Notice how your own body and breath change while you hold them in mind.
A question to sit with
Whose steadiness can you borrow today?