2.10 · Returning the Seed

In their subtle form, they are overcome by returning to their source.

Word by word

te

they (the afflictions)

pratiprasava

return to the source; reverse unfolding

heyāḥ

to be overcome, given up

sūkṣmāḥ

subtle, in seed form

Where it fits

With the five afflictions named (2.3–2.9), the text says how they are overcome, starting with their subtle seed form. Thinned by practice (2.2) and burned by insight, the seeds, Vyāsa says, set together with the mind itself once its work is done (Woods p. 119). The active forms follow in 2.11.

Reading

In their subtle seed form, the afflictions are not overcome by effort but by return. In the end, the mind itself folds back into its source and takes the seeds with it. The same word, pratiprasava, comes back in the very last sūtra (4.34). Practice prepares the ground, and the final release is a dissolving rather than a fight.

Vyāsa

“When the five afflictions have become like burned seeds, they come to rest together with the yogi's mind, once the mind has finished its work and dissolved.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 119.

Practice

At the end of your practice, draw your attention back step by step: from thoughts to feelings, from feelings to breath, from breath to the body, and from the body to the quiet that was there before all of them.

A question to sit with

What needs to be dissolved rather than fought?

Key ideas

kleśa (afflictions), saṃskāra (latent impressions), kaivalya (liberation, aloneness)