IV. Kaivalya Pāda · The mind and the seer (4.18–4.24)
4.18 · The Constant Witness
The movements of the mind are always known to their master, the self, because the self does not change.
Word by word
- sadā
- always
- jñātāḥ
- known
- citta-vṛttayaḥ
- the movements of the mind
- tat-prabhoḥ
- to their master
- puruṣasya
- of the self, the seer
- apariṇāmitvāt
- because of not changing
Where it fits
Vyāsa's lead-in turns from objects to the one for whom the mind itself is the object. The mind's movements are always known, so their knower does not change. This is the seer of 1.3 and 2.20, and it begins the case (4.18–4.21) that the mind cannot be its own knower.
Reading
The second step of the argument (4.18–4.21) shows that the mind is not its own knower. The mind's movements are always known: worry, joy and confusion all show up to something. Vyāsa reasons that if the knower changed like the mind, those movements would be sometimes known and sometimes missed, the way sounds are. Since they are always known, the knower does not change. This is the puruṣa of 1.3 and 2.20, the seer behind every passing state. Much of practice is learning to rest there.
Vyāsa
“If the master, the self, also changed as the mind does, then the movements of the mind, which are its objects, would be sometimes known and sometimes unknown, like sound and the other objects of the senses.”
Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 328.
Practice
Sit for five minutes. Every so often ask quietly, 'Is this being known?' Whatever is happening, a thought, an itch, a blank, the answer is yes. Notice what stays the same each time you ask.
A question to sit with
What in you has seen every mood and not changed?
Key ideas
puruṣa (the seer, the self), vṛtti (movement of the mind), citta (the mind-field)