The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 12-16: Yoga as a Process

In this episode, we discuss sutras 12-16. Having defined the goal of yoga as the stilling of the movements of the mind and described what those movements are, Patanjali now moves on to tell us in broad strokes what yoga means practically.

He answers the question that may come up by reading the previous sutras: how can the movements of the mind be stilled? The process has two divisions: practice and detachment. In other words, yoga is the stilling of the mind by the dual process of practice and detachment. Having stated this, Patanjali gives two sutras defining practice and another two defining detachment. Practice means to make an effort to control the mind and to try to maintain whatever control we can muster up. This practice becomes firm when it has been sustained with devotion and without interruption for a long period of time.

We discuss different ways to look at the word “uninterrupted” in the episode. As the practice has its beginner and advanced levels, so the second division, detachment, has two levels, broadly speaking. The first one is conscious detachment, whereas on the higher level one would be oblivious to superficial matters and therefore not needing to do any effort to stay detached from them.

To illustrate this, we can say that it’s one thing to know that cigarettes are bad and therefore avoid smoking while it’s another thing to forget what cigarettes even are. The joy of resting in one’s own being implies the absence of desire for anything superficial. Happy listening!

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