I. Samādhi Pāda · Coalescence (1.40–1.46)
1.40 · Dewdrop and Sky
Its mastery reaches from the smallest particle to the greatest magnitude.
Word by word
- parama-aṇu
- the smallest particle
- parama-mahattva
- the greatest magnitude
- antaḥ
- extending to the limits of
- asya
- its, of this mind
- vaśīkāraḥ
- mastery
Where it fits
This sums up 1.33–1.39: whatever support was used, the steadied mind now reaches from the smallest particle to the greatest magnitude. Vyāsa says such a mind no longer needs the preparation that practice brings (Woods p. 77). The means are finished; 1.41 turns to what the steady mind does with an object.
Reading
A mind steadied by any of these means can settle on anything, from the tiniest particle to the vastest expanse. Vyāsa says that entering something subtle it stays steady all the way down to the atom, and entering something vast it stays steady all the way out to the greatest size. Such a mind, he adds, no longer needs the cleansing of practice. The sūtra marks a turn in the pāda: the means are complete, and the next sūtras describe what a steady mind does with its object.
Vyāsa
“Entering into what is subtle, the mind becomes steady all the way to the smallest particle. Entering into what is gross, its steadiness reaches all the way to the greatest magnitude. … Made complete by this mastery, the yogi's mind no longer needs the preparation that practice brings.”
Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 77.
Practice
Spend two minutes looking closely at something tiny: a grain of rice, a dewdrop, the weave of a cloth. Then go to a window or outside and spend two minutes taking in the widest view you can. Notice whether the mind can stay with both.
A question to sit with
Can your attention go as small and as large as you need?