योगसूत्रYoga SūtrasOpen in the app

III. Vibhūti Pāda · sūtras 3.38–3.43

Powers of body and breath

What this passage does

A second run of powers, now of the subtle body: the mind entering another body (3.38), mastery of the currents of breath (3.39–3.40), divine hearing (3.41) and movement through space (3.42). It ends with the 'great bodiless' (3.43), where the covering over the light wears away, the phrase 2.52 used of breath control. Even this run ends on clearing the mind, not on a power.

Learning goals

The argument, step by step

  1. By loosening the cause of bondage and knowing the mind's pathways, the mind can enter another body.
  2. Mastering the upward breath, one is not caught by water, mud or thorns, and rises at death.
  3. Mastering the balancing breath, one shines.
  4. Saṃyama on the relation of hearing and space gives divine hearing.
  5. Saṃyama on the relation of body and space, with coalescence on lightness like cotton, gives movement through space.
  6. A real movement of mind outside the body is the great bodiless, and from it the covering over the light wears away.

The sūtras

  1. 3.38 bandhakāraṇaśaithilyāt pracārasaṃvedanāc ca cittasya paraśarīrāveśaḥ
    By loosening the cause of bondage and knowing the mind's pathways, the mind can enter another body.
  2. 3.39 udānajayāj jalapaṅkakaṇṭakādiṣv asaṅga utkrāntiś ca
    Mastering the upward breath, one is not caught by water, mud, thorns and the like, and rises at death.
  3. 3.40 samānajayāj jvalanam
    Mastering the balancing breath, one shines.
  4. 3.41 śrotrākāśayoḥ saṃbandhasaṃyamād divyaṃ śrotram
    Saṃyama on the relation of hearing and space gives divine hearing.
  5. 3.42 kāyākāśayoḥ saṃbandhasaṃyamāl laghutūlasamāpatteś cākāśagamanam
    Saṃyama on the relation of body and space, and coalescence with lightness like cotton, gives movement through space.
  6. 3.43 bahir akalpitā vṛttir mahāvidehā tataḥ prakāśāvaraṇakṣayaḥ
    A movement of mind outside the body, not imagined, is the great bodiless; from it the covering over the light wears away.

Study

After the warning of 3.37 the list resumes with a second run of powers, now of the subtle body. Patañjali states them as attainments and Vyāsa explains them as such. A teacher can report them plainly and show how the passage ends.

'By loosening the cause of bondage and knowing the mind's pathways, the mind can enter another body' (3.38). The sūtra says only 'the cause of bondage'; Vyāsa identifies it as karma (Woods p. 266). His image is of bees: when the king bee flies up, the rest follow, and the senses follow the mind in the same way, as at 2.54.

Two sūtras on breath follow. Vyāsa sets out the five currents of the life-breath: prāṇa through mouth and nose as far as the heart; samāna, which distributes evenly, as far as the navel; apāna down to the soles; udāna up to the head; and vyāna through the whole body (p. 267). Mastering udāna, the upward current, one is not caught by water, mud and thorns, and departs upward at death (3.39). Mastering samāna, one shines (3.40); Vyāsa says the yogin fans his inner fire and blazes (p. 268). 'Mastering' here is a fruit of saṃyama. These sūtras give no breathing method and ask for no forceful control of the breath.

Then two sūtras on relations with space. Ākāśa is the element whose quality is sound, and Vyāsa makes it the ground of every ear and every sound (pp. 268–269). Saṃyama on the relation of hearing and space gives divine hearing (3.41), one of the gifts 3.36 listed and 3.37 called obstacles. Saṃyama on the relation of body and space, together with coalescence on light things such as cotton (as in 1.41), gives movement through space (3.42). Vyāsa describes a ladder: becoming light, walking on water, then on a spider's thread, then on rays of light (p. 271).

The passage ends at 3.43, and the ending matters. 'A movement of mind outside the body, not imagined, is the great bodiless; from it the covering over the light wears away.' Vyāsa distinguishes the imagined form, where the mind stays grounded in the body and only reaches outward, from the real one, where the mind itself works outside it, and he says the first is the means to the second (p. 272). Its fruit is the very phrase 2.52 used of breath practice: 'the covering over the light wears away'. So this run of powers closes on the clearing of the mind.

Readings differ. Traditional commentary takes these sūtras literally, and later legends tell of yogins entering other bodies. Many modern readers set the claims aside, or read them as images. Neither reading changes what 3.37 and 3.50 say: even these are to be let go.

For a class, the ordinary and safe content is attention to the body's weight and lightness, to the space in which sounds arise. Nobody should be asked to hold the breath, practise leaving the body, or test these claims.

For discussion

  1. What does Vyāsa say the 'cause of bondage' in 3.38 is, and why would loosening it matter?
  2. What does Vyāsa's map of the five currents of breath tell us about how the tradition pictured the body?
  3. Why might Patañjali end this run with the covering over the light wearing away (3.43), the words of 2.52?
  4. How can a teacher report a claim like 3.42 honestly, without endorsing or mocking it?

A common misreading

That 3.39–3.40 teach breathing techniques for gaining powers. Mastery of udāna and samāna is a fruit of saṃyama; the sūtras give no method, and pāda 2's guidance on breath asks that it become 'long and subtle' (2.50), not forced.

A practice for the room

Stand with feet hip-width apart; anyone may stay seated. One minute: feel the body's weight pass down through the soles. One minute: feel the lift from the soles up through the spine to the crown, breathing naturally. Then walk slowly across the room, letting each foot meet the floor as lightly as it can. Return to stillness and, for one minute, listen to the space in which the room's sounds arise and fade.