4.1 · The Five Sources

Powers come from birth, herbs, mantras, discipline or absorption.

Word by word

janma

birth

oṣadhi

herbs, medicinal plants

mantra

sacred formula, chant

tapaḥ

discipline; heat

samādhi

absorption

-jāḥ

born of (all five sources)

siddhayaḥ

powers, perfections

Where it fits

Book IV picks up the powers of Book III, which 3.37 called obstacles to absorption, and names five sources. Its real subject is freedom (kaivalya): which mind is fit for it (4.1–4.6), how karma and tendencies end (4.7–4.11), why world and seer are both real (4.12–4.24), and how the mind finally lets go (4.25–4.34).

Reading

The last book opens by returning to powers, and lists five sources: birth, herbs, mantras, discipline (tapas, often rendered austerity) and absorption. Vyāsa gives an example of the first four, from a new body gained at birth to elixirs and spells for moving through space, and points back to Book III for the fifth. Patañjali says such things happen. His interest lies further on: only one of the five, the mind born of meditation, leaves no residue (4.6), and that is the one that matters for liberation. As 3.37 warned, powers become obstacles once they are the goal.

Vyāsa

“The power that comes by birth is taking on another body. Power by herbs comes through an elixir of life in the realms of the asuras, and the like. By mantras come moving through space, becoming minute, and so on. … The powers born of absorption have already been explained.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 299.

Practice

Make a short list of your strengths and where each came from. Some you were born with, some came from teachers or medicine, some from years of effort, some from quiet attention. Beside each one, write what it is for.

A question to sit with

Where did your gifts come from, and what are they for?

Where commentators disagree

Are the five sources of power separate causes, or do they all go back to practice in earlier lives?

Vyāsa

Treats the five as separate sources and gives an example of each: another body gained by birth, an elixir got in the mansions of the asuras, spells for moving through space, and by tapas a perfected will that can take any form or go anywhere. For the fifth he points back to Book III. (Woods 1914, p. 299)

Vācaspati Miśra

Takes the examples literally and adds to them: the elixir may be brought by the asuras' maidens, or used in this world, as the sage Māṇḍavya did with potions in the Vindhya hills. In his gloss on this sūtra he does not trace the first four to earlier practice. (Woods 1914, p. 300)

Bhoja

The real cause of every power is absorption (samādhi) practised in former births. Herbs, mantras and the rest are only the instruments through which it shows. (Tatya 1885, p. 141; Mitra 1883, wisdomlib on 4.1)

Rāmānanda Sarasvatī

Agrees that the first four are really produced by yoga practised in former births, and draws a lesson: even if no result is seen, one should begin, because the fruit may come in another birth. (Woods 1915, JAOS 34, p. 89)

Key ideas

siddhi (powers), kaivalya (liberation, aloneness), samādhi (absorption)