4.29 · The Cloud of Dharma

For one who seeks no return even from the highest insight, discernment is constant, and from it comes the absorption called the cloud of dharma.

Word by word

prasaṃkhyāne

in the highest insight, the highest reflection

api

even

akusīdasya

for one who seeks no return, like a lender who charges no interest

sarvathā

in every way, constantly

viveka-khyāteḥ

from discerning vision

dharma-meghaḥ

the cloud of dharma

samādhiḥ

absorption

Where it fits

Here the gaps of 4.27 close. One who wants nothing even from the highest insight has discernment in every way, and Vyāsa says that, the seeds of impressions being spent, no other thoughts arise. This is the cloud of dharma. Compare 3.50: non-attachment even to the highest attainment.

Reading

Akusīda means 'not a money-lender': one who takes no interest, even on prasaṃkhyāna, the highest contemplative insight. When even that is not banked, discernment becomes constant, and an absorption arises called the cloud of dharma. Why a cloud is debated. Vācaspati, commenting on 4.31, says it rains down everything knowable; others hear rain that washes away the last afflictions, or a cloud that gives without asking. The point is the letting go. Even the best insight is not held for profit.

Vyāsa

“This brahmin looks for no profit even from meditative insight, and asks nothing even of that. Unattached even to it, he has discernment alone, in every way.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 340–341.

Practice

Recall a real insight you have had about yourself. Notice any wish to keep it, use it, or be the person who had it. Then let it go for today, and live as if you need nothing from it.

A question to sit with

What would you let go of if you wanted nothing back?

Where commentators disagree

Why is it called a 'cloud of dharma', and what does it rain?

Vācaspati Miśra

Because by its light it rains down all knowable things (dharmas), it is called the cloud of dharma. He gives this on 4.31. (Woods 1914, pp. 342–343)

Bhoja

It is the cloud of virtue (dharma) because it waters the highest virtue, the kind that is neither white nor black. (Tatya 1885, p. 168)

Vivaraṇa (attributed to Śaṅkara), as reported by Wujastyk

It is a technical name: the absorption is so called because the highest dharma, called kaivalya, rains down. (Wujastyk 2018, p. 36)

Dominik Wujastyk

Finds Vācaspati's explanation unsatisfying and traces the image to Buddhist usage: in the Milindapañha the wise yogi pours down the rain of the Dhamma, and in the Daśabhūmikasūtra the cloud of dharma is the bodhisattva's highest stage. Patañjali's hearers would have known the picture of a sage cooling the world. (Wujastyk 2018, pp. 36–38)

Key ideas

samādhi (absorption), viveka (discernment), vairāgya (non-attachment)