4.15 · Seen by Many

The object is the same but minds differ, so object and mind follow separate paths.

Word by word

vastu-sāmye

the object being the same

citta-bhedāt

because minds differ

tayoḥ

of the two, object and mind

vibhaktaḥ

separate, distinct

panthāḥ

path, way of being

Where it fits

Vyāsa introduces this by asking why the idealist view of 4.14 fails. One object meets many minds and gives pleasure to one, pain to another, so object and mind follow separate paths. Vyāsa adds the Sāṃkhya explanation: the object is itself made of three guṇas. 4.16 presses the point further.

Reading

One object, many minds, many experiences. Continuing the first step, that objects are real, Vyāsa says the same thing brings pleasure to one mind, pain to another, confusion or detachment to others, depending on the state each mind is in. So the object cannot be the product of any one mind: whose mind would have conjured it up? Object and mind run on separate paths. One way to read this today: your reaction tells you about your own mind as much as about the thing.

Vyāsa

“Though the object stays the same, a mind moved by merit experiences pleasure in it, and a mind moved by demerit experiences pain from that very object. … So whose mind would have conjured the object up?”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 323.

Practice

Think of a person or event that you and someone close to you see differently. Write two sentences describing it as they experience it, as fairly as you can. Notice what stays the same in both versions.

A question to sit with

What does your reaction tell you about your own mind?

Key ideas

citta (the mind-field), prakṛti (nature, the seen), guṇa (strands of nature)