Sūtra 3.18

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 3.18:

संस्कारसाक्षात्करणात्पूर्वजातिज्ञानम् ॥ ३.१८ ॥

saṃskārasākṣātkaraṇātpūrvajātijñānam || 3.18 ||

18. A knowledge of former existence by making the residua apparent.

The Rajamartanda commentary by King Bhoja:

[English translation of the 11th century commentary by Bhoja called the Rājamārtaṇḍa]

[Sanskrit text for commentary available]

He describes another form of perfection.

[Read Sūtra 3.18]

Two-fold are the residual impressions of the thinking principle. Some are simply productive of memory; others are the causes of the deserts, kind, life, and enjoyment, called virtue and vice. When Saṃyama is performed in regard to these residua, the performer, enquiring into his former actions to the effect—thus has that object been perceived by me, thus has that act been performed by me, remembers all the past by the mere reflection, the residua being by themselves excited without any separate stimulants, and gradually visibly sees in the self-excited residua the kind, &c., experienced in former existences.

Notes and Extracts

[Notes and comparative extracts from other commentaries on the Yogasūtra]

[As explained in A. XVIII, C. I., the residual impressions are of a twofold character. One class of them produce memory, that is when excited by a stimulus, the impressions which lie latent in the mind become vivid, even as an action done in childhood and afterwards entirely forgotten, is brought up in the mind many years after by the sight of the locality or other circumstance connected with it. Involuntary impressions received in dreams and the like are also so produced. The second class of impressions are those which bring on the desert of works; they are perfectly involuntary, and are mostly residua of former existences. By applying Saṃyama to these, they are excited and become visible to the Yogi, and thereby he is able to know the events of his former existences.]

Another form of perfection.