II. Sādhana Pāda · Cultivating the opposite (2.33–2.34)
2.34 · Where It Leads
Harmful thoughts such as violence, whether done, caused or approved, arising from greed, anger or delusion, mild, middling or intense, bear endless fruit in suffering and ignorance. Reflecting on this is cultivating the opposite.
Word by word
- vitarkāḥ
- harmful thoughts (vitarka, as in 2.33)
- hiṃsā-ādayaḥ
- violence and the rest
- kṛta
- done
- kārita
- caused to be done
- anumoditāḥ
- approved of
- lobha-krodha-moha-pūrvakāḥ
- arising from greed, anger or delusion
- mṛdu-madhya-adhimātrāḥ
- mild, middling or intense
- duḥkha-ajñāna-ananta-phalāḥ
- bearing endless fruit in suffering and ignorance
- iti pratipakṣa-bhāvanam
- this is cultivating the opposite
Where it fits
Defines the harmful thoughts of 2.33 and the remedy together. Vyāsa counts eighty-one kinds of violence alone, and then calls them countless (Woods p. 184). The opposite is cultivated by seeing where such thoughts lead: endless suffering and ignorance. Once they stop arising, the fruits of each restraint appear (2.35–2.39).
Reading
Patañjali explains 2.33 by analysis. Harm can be done yourself, caused through others, or simply approved of. It springs from greed, anger or delusion. It can be mild, middling or intense. And it always bears endless fruit in suffering and ignorance. Seeing this whole map clearly is itself cultivating the opposite: you see where the thought leads and choose not to go there.
Vyāsa
“So the one who does violence first saps the victim's strength. Then he causes it pain with the blow of a knife or the like. Then he takes even its life. … Because he took a life, he himself lives every moment on the edge of losing his own …”
Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 184–185.
Practice
Take one harmful thought you've had this week and place it on the map. Was it done, caused or approved of? Did it come from greed, anger or delusion? How intense was it? Follow its likely fruit three steps ahead.
A question to sit with
Where does this thought lead?
Key ideas
aṣṭāṅga (the eight limbs), karma (action and its residue), duḥkha (suffering), avidyā (ignorance)