Key idea of the Yoga Sūtras
kaivalya · liberation, aloneness
Liberation: the seer standing alone in its own nature, free of the seen.
Kaivalya, from kevala, 'alone', is the goal of the whole text and the subject of its last sūtra. It is the seer standing in its own nature, no longer confused with the seen. The last sūtra defines it from two sides. From nature's side, it is the return of the guṇas to their source, now that they have no purpose left for the self; from awareness's side, it is the power of awareness established in its own nature (4.34). Book II reaches it through the chain of causes: without ignorance there is no joining, and that release is the seer's liberation (2.25). Book III reaches it through letting go: non-attachment even to the highest powers (3.50), and a mind as pure as the self (3.55). Book IV shows the discerning mind leaning toward it (4.26). Nothing new is gained. Vyāsa says that bondage and release belong to the mind and are only ascribed to the self, as victory and defeat are ascribed to a commander (on 2.18).
Vyāsa
“In this state the aspects, their task done, do not again submit themselves as objects-for-sight to the Self. That is the Self's Isolation. Then the Self having its light within itself becomes undefiled and isolated.”
Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya in J. H. Woods' translation (1914), p. 295–296.
How it has been read
Woods' 'Isolation' and the literal 'aloneness' can sound bleak; translators also use 'freedom', 'liberation' or 'wholeness'. Vedāntic readers sometimes hear union with brahman here, but the text speaks of the seer alone in its own nature, not of merging (4.34).
A common misreading
Kaivalya is often equated with dissolving into a universal oneness. In the text it is the seer's aloneness, free of nature (2.25, 4.34), and nature goes on for others (2.22).
Where the text defines it
- 2.25 Without ignorance there is no joining. This release is the seer's liberation.
- 3.50 By non-attachment even to that, as the seeds of fault wear away, comes liberation.
- 3.55 When the mind is as pure as the self, there is liberation.
- 4.26 Then the mind bends toward discernment and leans toward liberation.
- 4.34 Liberation is the return of the guṇas to their source, now that they have no purpose left for the self; or it is the power of awareness established in its own nature. Thus it ends.