Sutras 1.29 - 1.30. «Obstacles to Yoga» and defence mechanisms of psyche

The next two sutras of Patanjali, the lines 1.29 и 1.30, are dedicated to the so-called barriers in yoga: 

ततः प्रत्यक्चेतनाधिगमोऽप्यन्तरायाभावश्च ॥ २९॥

1.29. tataḥ pratyakcetanādhigamo'pyantarāyābhāvaśca 

व्याधिस्त्यानसंशयप्रमादालस्याविरति-भ्रान्तिदर्शनालब्धभूमिकत्वानवस्थितत्वानि चित्तविक्षेपास्तेऽन्तरायाः ॥३०॥

1.30. vyādhi-styāna-saṃśaya-pramāda-ālasya-avirati-bhrānti-darśana-alabdha-bhūmikatva-anavasthitatvāni citta-vikṣepāste'ntarāyāḥ

The traditional translation of these lines is as follows:

Sutras 1.27 - 1.28. The mechanisms of mantras effect (continuation)

In addition to and in confirmation of the foregoing I shall adduce a popular article in which they give the results of the latest speech physiology studies. 

Our particular interest is drawn by the “mechanics of phonetics” section [the original English text is here – transl.note], the investigation in which they have used the state-of-the-art methods of brain study (and I admit to look on this with admiring envy since in our research work we can so far use classical encephalography only) to show that the process of different sounds articulation involves different zones of the brain. 

Sutras 1.27 - 1.28. Sanskrit and mantra-yoga

The following two lines of Yoga Sutras are dedicated to mantras and power of the sound.

तस्य वाचकः प्रणवः ॥२७॥

1.27. tasya vācakaḥ praṇavaḥ

तज्जपस्तदर्थभावनम् ॥२८॥

1.28. tajjapastadarthabhāvanam 

Sutras 27 and 28 tell that “the expression of that (Isvara) is OM (pranava)” and “the repetition of it (Om) in one mind’s eye allows one to experience it (the Isvara)”. Without getting into specifics of what the Om-sound means let us raise a more important question: why do mantras generally exist and how do they work?

Sutra 1.25. Ishvara and the world tree. The metaphysics of plato

The line 25 of Yoga Sutras compares Ishvara with a seed that contains omniscience (sarva-jnana-bidja):

तत्र निरतिशयं सार्वज्ञबीजम् ॥ २५॥

1. 25. tatra niratiśayaṃ sārva-jña-bījam 

1. 25. In Him [Ishvara] is the complete manifestation of the seed of omniscience. [Engl. transl. by Swami Satchidananda – translator’s note].

This happens to be in a remarkable manner aligned with an amazing line from Katha Upanishad:

An aesthetically-linguistic note on Yoga and samadhi

I cannot stop marveling at the way how deeply, almost at the archetypic level those various aspects of ancient Indian views – yoga, philosophy, grammar and medicine – happen to be intertwined. Here is the recent fact that has astonished me.

As I have already written in one of my previous articles http://yoga-sutra-comment-eng.blogspot.com/2015/02/blog-post.html almost all words in Sanskrit (except the borrowed ones) have derived from the so called verbal roots which complete list and classification have been drawn in “Dhatupatha” directory that was compiled more than two thousand years ago. 

Sutra 1.26. Learning from the universe. The problem of yoga schools classicality

The next line of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras that we shall today consider continues the theme of Ishvara.

स पूर्वेषामपि गुरुः कालेनानवच्छेदात् ॥ २६॥

1.26. sa pūrveṣāmapi guruḥ kālenānavacchedāt ॥ 

sa (m.Nom.sg.) - he;

pūrveṣām (m.Gen. pl) – previous, prior, senior; with Genitive case and plural form considered – “of the previous”, “of the senior”;

The Fundamentals of sanskrit grammar

Whenever someone suggests that you translate Yoga Sutras using only a dictionary and without knowing enough about Sanskrit grammar – don’t fall for it! This person is either not aware of what he is talking about and has never been doing it himself, or it is no further than the third or fourth line of the original text that he himself has managed to “advance”. Sanskrit is a fairly sophisticated language which grammar is intricate enough. Words that have been “distorted” in the course of morphologic transformations, including the rules of guna and sandhi, may bear little resemblance to their dictionary forms, while the logic of cases is somewhat different from what we are used to in our languages [Russian and Ukrainian – translator’s note].