Īśvara and Om

What this passage does

After 1.22 Vyāsa asks whether graded effort is the only way. The answer is devotion to Īśvara. The passage says who Īśvara is (1.24–1.26), gives the name Om (1.27), the practice (1.28) and its results (1.29). The sūtras call Īśvara a distinct self and a teacher, and say nothing of creating the world; readers differ on how theistic this is. It leads straight into the obstacles.

Learning goals

• Explain how 1.23 offers devotion to Īśvara as another way, and what Vyāsa says Īśvara does in response.
• State the three marks of Īśvara in 1.24–1.26, and what these sūtras do and do not claim.
• Describe the practice of 1.27–1.28 and its two results in 1.29.

The argument, step by step

1. Absorption can also be reached through devotion to Īśvara.
2. Īśvara is a distinct self, untouched by afflictions, actions, their ripening and their residues.
3. In Īśvara the seed of all-knowing is unsurpassed, and, not limited by time, Īśvara is the teacher even of the ancients.
4. The word that names Īśvara is the praṇava, Om.
5. The practice is to repeat it and dwell on its meaning.
6. From this come realisation of the inward self and the falling away of the obstacles, which leads into the account of the obstacles.

The sūtras

1. 1.23 īśvarapraṇidhānād vā
   Or through devotion to Īśvara.
2. 1.24 kleśakarmavipākāśayair aparāmṛṣṭaḥ puruṣaviśeṣa īśvaraḥ
   Īśvara is a distinct self, untouched by afflictions, actions, their ripening and their residues.
3. 1.25 tatra niratiśayaṃ sarvajñabījam
   In Īśvara the seed of all-knowing is unsurpassed.
4. 1.26 pūrveṣām api guruḥ kālenānavacchedāt
   Not limited by time, Īśvara is the teacher even of the ancients.
5. 1.27 tasya vācakaḥ praṇavaḥ
   The word that names Īśvara is the praṇava, Om.
6. 1.28 tajjapas tadarthabhāvanam
   Repeat it, and dwell on its meaning.
7. 1.29 tataḥ pratyakcetanādhigamo 'py antarāyābhāvaś ca
   From that also comes realisation of the inward self, and the obstacles fall away.

Study

After 1.22 Vyāsa asks whether graded effort is the only way to the nearest absorption, or whether there is another (Woods p. 48). 1.23 answers with one word, 'or': 'Or through devotion to Īśvara.' Vyāsa explains that, won over by devotion, a special kind of love, Īśvara turns toward the yogi and favours him by intention alone, and absorption and its fruit become nearest (Woods p. 48). Vācaspati adds that the devotion may be of mind, speech or body (Woods p. 49).

The next three sūtras say who Īśvara is, in the system's own terms. 1.24: a distinct self (puruṣa-viśeṣa), untouched by afflictions, actions, their ripening and their residues. These belong to the mind, Vyāsa says, but are credited to the self, as victory or defeat among soldiers is credited to their lord; Īśvara is a self untouched by any such experience (Woods p. 49). Liberated selves were once bound; Īśvara never was. 1.25 adds unsurpassed knowing. Vyāsa argues from degrees: whatever admits of more and less must reach a limit, and the one in whom knowing reaches it is all-knowing. Inference proves only the general point, he says; the name must be learned from scripture. Though Īśvara needs nothing, the good of living beings is motive enough, and Vyāsa pictures Īśvara resolving to lift up beings caught in the round of existence by teaching knowledge and right conduct (Woods p. 56). 1.26: time does not limit Īśvara, so Īśvara teaches even the first teachers (Woods p. 59).

Then the practice. 1.27 names Om as the word that expresses Īśvara, and Vyāsa holds that the bond between word and meaning is fixed, like a lamp and its light (Woods p. 60). 1.28: 'Repeat it, and dwell on its meaning.' Vyāsa quotes a verse: through study practise yoga, through yoga return to study (Woods pp. 61–62). 1.29 gives two results: awareness turns inward, and the obstacles do not arise. Vyāsa's reason is likeness. As Īśvara is a pure, untroubled self, so the yogi comes to see the self in him (Woods p. 62).

Readings differ widely here. The sūtras call Īśvara a self and a teacher and say nothing about creating the world, and readers differ on how theistic the text is. They differ too on whether 'or' makes devotion a separate path or a support within the same one. Much of the living Hindu tradition reads these sūtras devotionally, with Īśvara as the Lord. A faithful reading neither turns Īśvara into a creator the sūtras do not describe nor shrinks Īśvara to a symbol.

For practice the passage gives the text's simplest method: a sacred sound repeated with its meaning. It also makes a striking claim, that turning toward another self leads to knowing one's own.

For discussion

1. What does the small word 'or' in 1.23 do to the argument of the pāda so far?
2. 1.24 describes Īśvara with the same terms Book II uses for bondage. Why define Īśvara by what Īśvara is free of?
3. Vyāsa says inference can show that an all-knowing self exists but cannot give its name. What role does that leave for scripture?
4. 1.28 joins repetition and meaning. What happens to each without the other?
5. How can devotion to another self lead, as 1.29 says, to realising one's own?

A common misreading

That Īśvara here is the creator God of later theology, or, the other way, only a symbol or an ideal. The sūtras define Īśvara as a distinct self, untouched by affliction, unsurpassed in knowing and the teacher of the ancients (1.24–1.26); they are silent on creation, and Vyāsa treats devotion as real and answered (Woods p. 48).

A practice for the room

Explain briefly that Om is sacred in the Hindu tradition and that no one need say it aloud. The leader chants Om slowly three times while the group listens to the sound and to the silence after it. Then, for five minutes, each person silently repeats Om or a short sacred word of their own, pausing now and then to recall what it means to them. Close with a minute of silence, and a simple bow or stillness, as each prefers.