3.55 · Equal in Purity

When the mind is as pure as the self, there is liberation.

Word by word

sattva-puruṣayoḥ

of the mind and the self

śuddhi

purity

sāmye

in equality

kaivalyam

aloneness, liberation

iti

thus (marking the end of the pāda)

Where it fits

The pāda ends where 3.50 pointed. When the mind is as pure as the self, there is liberation. Vyāsa says it comes whether or not the yogi has powers, which were discussed as means of purifying the mind (p. 295). Pāda 4 opens by naming other sources of powers (4.1).

Reading

The chapter of powers ends with liberation. When the mind is as pure as the self, there is kaivalya. Vyāsa explains: when the mind is cleared of the stains of activity and inertia (rajas and tamas) and the seeds of affliction are burnt, it becomes, as it were, as pure as the self, and liberation follows, whether or not the yogin ever had powers. Then nothing further is needed. The final word, iti, closes this pāda; kaivalya returns in the last sūtra of all (4.34).

Vyāsa

“…the clear mind becomes, as it were, as pure as the self. … In this state liberation comes, whether to one who has gained powers (īśvara) or to one who has not … For when one whose seeds of affliction are burnt has knowledge, nothing further is needed.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 295.

Practice

Clean one small thing completely today, a glass, a window, a lamp chimney, until it is clear. Then sit beside it for a minute. Let the mind be as uncluttered as that one clean thing.

A question to sit with

What would be left if the mind were simply clear?

Where commentators disagree

What does it mean for the mind to become 'as pure as the self', and are the powers needed?

Vyāsa

The mind's sattva is freed from rajas and tamas, has no task left but discerning itself from the self, and its seeds of affliction are burnt; then its purity equals the self's. The self's 'purity' is only the end of experience falsely attributed to it. Liberation follows whether or not the yogin has powers. (Woods 1914, p. 295)

Vācaspati Miśra

The powers are not wholly useless, since they help purify the sattva, but they are only an indirect and figurative cause; insight alone is the principal cause of liberation. (Woods 1914, p. 296)

Bhoja

The purity of the mind's sattva is its dissolution into its cause, once the conceit of being the agent is removed; the purity of the self is the absence of the experience attributed to it. When both are equally 'clear', liberation follows. (Tatya 1885, p. 139; Mitra 1883, wisdomlib on 3.55)

Key ideas

kaivalya (liberation, aloneness), puruṣa (the seer, the self), kleśa (afflictions)