Yoga-sutras (with Bhoja’s Rajamartanda)
by Rajendralala Mitra | 1883 | 103,575 words
The Yoga-Sutra 3.55, English translation with Commentaries. The Yogasutra of Patanjali represents a collection of aphorisms dealing with spiritual topics such as meditation, absorption, Siddhis (yogic powers) and final liberation (Moksha). The Raja-Martanda is officialy classified as a Vritti (gloss) which means its explanatory in nature, as opposed to being a discursive commentary.
Sūtra 3.55
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 3.55:
सत्त्वपुरुषयोः शुद्धिसाम्ये कैवल्यम् ॥ ३.५५ ॥
sattvapuruṣayoḥ śuddhisāmye kaivalyam || 3.55 ||
55. On the purification of the quality of goodness and of soul becoming equal, (there results) isolation.
The Rajamartanda commentary by King Bhoja:
[English translation of the 11th century commentary by Bhoja called the Rājamārtaṇḍa]
[Sanskrit text for commentary available]
He now says what results from this emancipating knowledge proceeding from discrimination.
[Read Sūtra 3.55]
“The quality of goodness and soul” have already been defined. When their purification becomes equal there is isolation. The “purification” (śuddhi) of the quality of goodness of the thinking principle is effected when, on the cessation of the assumption of agency, it merges into its first cause. The purification of soul is the absence of its factitious enjoyment. When the two are equally purified (in this way), isolation is effected with regard to the soul, i.e. it is emancipated.
Notes and Extracts
[Notes and comparative extracts from other commentaries on the Yogasūtra]
[The thinking principle ordinarily fancies itself to be the agent of all work, i.e., it is conscious of being the actor in all cases, and this is its natural function; but when this feeling is removed by discriminative knowledge, it reverts to its primary original condition, and ceases to cherish any idea of its being the actor, and this is its purification. Similarly soul, though itself devoid of action, is always engaged in an unnatural factitious enjoyment of the fruits of work by its association with the thinking principle, and when that association is removed it is purified. And this double purification, the cessation of the thinking principle from fancying itself the actor and consequent submersion into its original cause, and the removal of the association between the soul and the thinking principle, effects the isolation or separation of the soul from all attachments, and this is emancipation from the bondage of the world.]