2.39 · The Empty Room

When non-possessiveness is steady, the how and why of birth is understood.

Word by word

aparigraha

non-possessiveness

sthairye

when steady

janma

birth

kathaṃtā

the how and why

saṃbodhaḥ

understanding

Where it fits

The last restraint's fruit turns inward: understanding of one's births, past, present and to come. Vyāsa closes the series: these are the powers that come when the restraints are steady (Woods p. 187). He then announces the observances, whose fruits run from 2.40 to 2.45.

Reading

The last restraint's fruit turns inward, to the question of one's own life. When aparigraha, not grasping, is steady, Vyāsa says one comes to know one's births, past, present and to come, as the questions 'Who was I? How was I? What will we become?' answer themselves. One way to read this today: what we own tells a story about who we are. When the story loosens, a deeper question opens: what is this life for?

Vyāsa

“'Who was I? How was I? What is this [life]? How did it come about? What will we become? How will we become it?' His wish to know himself in the past, the future and the time between is answered of its own accord.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 187.

Practice

Choose one possession you are attached to and give it away, or put it out of sight for a week. Write down whatever question comes up in its place.

A question to sit with

What would you understand if you owned less?

Where commentators disagree

What 'possessing' must stop for knowledge of one's births to arise?

Vyāsa

For one steady in non-possessiveness, the wish to know 'Who was I? How was I? What is this birth? What shall we become?' is fulfilled of itself. (Woods 1914, p. 187)

Vācaspati Miśra

Birth is relation to a body and senses of some kind. The knowledge is a direct seeing of past, present and future births, and it comes from the desire to know, by the maxim that one does what one desires. (Woods 1914, pp. 187–188)

Bhoja

Possessiveness is not only wanting the means of enjoyment; it reaches as far as the self's wanting a body. When one is indifferent even to that, knowledge of past and future births arises. (Tatya 1885, pp. 81–82; Mitra 1883, wisdomlib on 2.39)

Key ideas

aṣṭāṅga (the eight limbs), siddhi (powers), karma (action and its residue)