1.7 · Moon over the Vindhyas

Valid knowing comes from perception, inference and reliable testimony.

Word by word

pratyakṣa

perception; what is before the eyes

anumāna

inference

āgamāḥ

reliable testimony; what has come down, scripture

pramāṇāni

valid means of knowing

Where it fits

The first of the five movements is the only one that gets things right. Patañjali names its three sources and moves on. He comes back to them at 1.48–1.49, where testimony and inference are set beside the direct wisdom of absorption. Here they are still movements to be stilled (1.2).

Reading

Valid knowing has three sources: perceiving directly, inferring, and the word of someone reliable. Vyāsa's example of inference: the moon and stars must move, because they get from one place to another, while the Vindhya mountains do not. Testimony is sound, he says, when the speaker has seen or inferred the thing themselves; when they pass on what they have not, it wavers. In the tradition, āgama also means scripture. All three are still movements of mind, and in the end they too are stilled.

Vyāsa

“For example: the moon and stars move, because they reach another place, as Caitra does; and the Vindhya hills, which do not reach another place, do not move.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 20.

Practice

Choose one thing you feel sure of today, about a person, the news or yourself. Ask where the certainty came from. Did you see it, work it out, or hear it? If you heard it, did the speaker see it themselves?

A question to sit with

How do you know what you think you know?

Key ideas

vṛtti (movement of the mind)