2.32 · The Five Observances

The observances are purity, contentment, discipline, study and devotion to Īśvara.

Word by word

śauca

purity, cleanliness

saṃtoṣa

contentment

tapaḥ

discipline; heat

svādhyāya

study and recitation of sacred texts

īśvara-praṇidhānāni

devotion to Īśvara

niyamāḥ

observances

Where it fits

The second limb: five observances, the last three being the yoga of action from 2.1, now placed inside the eight limbs. Vyāsa ends his comment by recalling 1.29: from devotion come realisation of the inward self and the falling away of obstacles (Woods p. 182). 2.33 meets what disrupts both limbs.

Reading

The second limb is how you treat yourself: purity, contentment, and then the three fires of kriyā yoga from 2.1, met again. The restraints hold back; the observances cultivate. Notice that contentment sits right beside discipline. The effort Patañjali asks for comes from a place of enough, not from lack.

Vyāsa

“Inner [purity] is washing away the stains of the mind. Contentment is not wanting more than the means one already has. Discipline is bearing the pairs of opposites, and the pairs are hunger and thirst, cold and heat, standing and sitting, total silence and silence in speech …”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 181.

Practice

In the morning, clean one small space (purity). At midday, name three things that are already enough (contentment). In the evening, do one difficult thing, read one page of a text you value, and offer the day.

A question to sit with

Which observance would steady you now?

Where commentators disagree

What is the 'inner' cleanliness of śauca, and does śauca include special cleansing practices?

Vyāsa

Outer cleanliness comes from earth, water and the like, and from pure food; inner cleanliness is the washing away of the stains of the mind. (Woods 1914, pp. 181–182)

Vācaspati Miśra

Names the stains: arrogance, pride, jealousy and the like. Their removal is cleanliness of the mind. (Woods 1914, p. 182)

Bhoja

The inner washing is done by friendliness and the other attitudes, that is, the four attitudes of 1.33. (Tatya 1885, p. 76; Mitra 1883, wisdomlib on 2.32)

Rajendralala Mitra

Warns that śauca here has its ordinary sense and does not mean the six cleansing acts (ṣaṭkarma) of haṭha texts such as the Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā, which he describes and says the best yogins regard as unnecessary. (Mitra 1883, note and addendum on 2.32 (wisdomlib))

Key ideas

aṣṭāṅga (the eight limbs), kriyā-yoga (the yoga of action), īśvara (the Lord)