4.19 · Borrowed Light

The mind is not self-illuminating, because it is something seen.

Word by word

na

not

tat

it, the mind

sva-ābhāsam

self-illuminating

dṛśyatvāt

because it is seen

Where it fits

Vyāsa states an objection to 4.18: perhaps the mind, like fire, lights up both itself and its objects. No: it is something seen, like the senses and their objects (2.18), and fire does not light itself up from darkness either. 4.20 and 4.21 add two more arguments against a self-knowing mind.

Reading

Still on the second step: the mind is not its own knower. It seems to shine by itself, but it is something seen, like the senses and their objects, and so it is not its own light. Vyāsa sets aside the counter-example of fire, which does not light up its own form as if that form had been unlit. He also points to how we speak. We say 'I am angry, I am afraid', which shows these states are known to something. To borrow an image, the mind is like a lit window: the light comes from elsewhere.

Vyāsa

“The other senses, and sound and the rest, do not illuminate themselves, because they are seen. The mind should be understood in the same way. Fire is no example here, for fire does not light up its own form as if that form had been unlit.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 328–329.

Practice

When a strong state arises today, put it into a sentence that begins 'There is…': 'There is anger.' 'There is tiredness.' Notice that the sentence already stands one step back from the state.

A question to sit with

What lights up your mind?

Key ideas

citta (the mind-field), puruṣa (the seer, the self), prakṛti (nature, the seen)