Key idea of the Yoga Sūtras
karma · action and its residue
Action, the store it leaves behind, and the ripening of that store.
Karma means action, and in Patañjali it usually means action together with its consequences. Rooted in the afflictions, the store of karma (karmāśaya) is felt in this life or in lives not yet seen (2.12). While that root remains, it ripens (vipāka) as birth, length of life and experience (2.13), bearing joy or sorrow according to merit or demerit (2.14). Some karma is quick to ripen and some slow (3.22). A yogi's action is neither white nor black; for others it is of three kinds (4.7). From each, only the latent tendencies that match its ripening come forth (4.8). Karma is therefore not fate. It is the momentum of past action working through the present mind, and its root is the afflictions, not action as such. When the afflictions end, karma ends with them (4.30). Īśvara is defined as untouched by afflictions, actions, their ripening and their residues (1.24).
Vyāsa
“… a latent-deposit of the karma of merit and of demerit propagated from lust [or] from greed [or] from infatuation [or] from anger. And this may be felt either in a birth seen or may be felt in a birth not seen.”
Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya in J. H. Woods' translation (1914), p. 121.
How it has been read
Vyāsa asks whether one karma causes one birth, and concludes that the varied karma of a lifetime combines at death to cause a single birth (on 2.13). The text assumes rebirth throughout (2.12, 2.39, 3.18); some modern readers take it psychologically instead.
A common misreading
Karma is often taken as cosmic reward and punishment, or as fate. In the text it is the ripening of one's own afflicted action (2.12–2.14), and it can end (4.30).
Where the text defines it
- 2.12 The store of karma is rooted in the afflictions and is felt in this life or in lives not yet seen.
- 2.13 While the root remains, it ripens as birth, length of life and experience.
- 2.14 These bear joy or sorrow, from merit or demerit.
- 4.7 A yogi's action is neither white nor black; for others it is of three kinds.
- 4.8 From that, only the latent tendencies that match its ripening come forth.
- 4.30 From that, afflictions and karma come to an end.