Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda, a direct disciple of Swami Sivananda, opens sutras fifteen through eighteen of Patanjali’s Samadhi Pada with a single disarming image. The mind, he says, is like an umbrella. You carry it into the rain, you use it, and when you come home you set it down at the door and think nothing more of it. You do not lie awake wondering where the umbrella has been. Why then do you carry the mind everywhere, indoors and out, waking and sleeping, as though it were you? The whole teaching flows from that question: you are not the mind. You are the one who holds it, and can set it down.
The Two Wings: Practice and Dispassion
The mind is steadied by two means, abhyasa (practice) and vairagya (dispassion). Practice becomes firm, Swamiji reminds us, when it is done for a long time (deergha kaala), without interruption (nairantarya), and with reverence (satkara), a blend of love, devotion, faith, and respect. There is no retirement date for sadhana any more than there is for breathing. Done this way, practice does not add a burden to the head. It lifts one off.
Vairagya: Mastery, Not Suppression
Dispassion is defined as vashikara, mastery, over the craving for objects seen (drishta) and objects merely heard of (anushravika). It is not the violent suppression of the senses but their coming, willingly, under the guidance of the intellect. The obstacle is raga and dwesha, the like and the dislike lodged as vasanas in the unconscious, the faint fragrances (from vas, to smell) that quietly dictate what seems wonderful and what seems worthless.
The Four Stages of Dispassion
Swamiji lays out the ascent in four steps. Yatamana, striving, where one deliberately weighs the pain hidden in birth, old age, disease, and death. Vyatireka, where the impressions thin and one notices that control has degrees. Ekendriya, where the work shifts from the senses to the mind alone. And vashikara, where the chitta comes fully under command.
Para Vairagya: When Even Goodness Is Released
Lower dispassion still works with the mind, patching and cleaning the garment. Supreme dispassion, para vairagya, lets go of the garment itself. Here even the attachment to sattva, to goodness, is released, through knowledge of the Purusha, the supreme Self, moving beyond all three gunas. Swamiji tells it through the Ramayana: Kumbhakarna is tamas, Ravana is rajas, Vibhishana is sattva. With sattva‘s help the other two are destroyed, and then even sattva quietly withdraws. Like a cloud that, having grown bright, chooses at last to let the sun pour through, though it means the cloud must dissolve. That is Nirodha, the stilling of every thought wave.
The Four Rungs of Samadhi
Samprajnata samadhi, the lower samadhi that still leans on the mind, rises in four rungs. Vitarka, deliberation upon a gross object, the rose in the garden distinguished from the word on the tongue and the concept in the mind. Vichara, the subtle level of the tanmatras, the elemental roots of things. Ananda, where the mind, resting on itself, overflows with joy. And asmita, the pure sense of I am, the very question Ramana Maharshi never tired of asking, Who am I?
Beyond the Ego: Asamprajnata Samadhi
Bracket even that I am, and samprajnata gives way to asamprajnata, what Vedanta calls the movement from savikalpa to nirvikalpa. When the ego-root is gone, nothing remains but Brahman. While the body lasts, the sage lives as jivanmukta, using an ego that no longer obstructs. When the body falls, in videhamukti, even that dissolves.
Scholar’s Corner
The lecture expounds Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Samadhi Pada, Sutras 15 to 18. Sutra 15 defines vairagya as vashikara, mastery over the craving for objects both seen and heard of. Sutra 16 names para vairagya, the supreme dispassion that is freedom from the three gunas through knowledge of the Purusha. Sutra 17 lists the four supports of samprajnata samadhi: vitarka, vichara, ananda, and asmita. Sutra 18 points to the other samadhi, asamprajnata, preceded by the practice of cessation, with only latent impressions remaining. The four stages of dispassion (yatamana, vyatireka, ekendriya, vashikara) follow the classical Vyasa commentary.
Glossary
Vairagya: dispassion. Abhyasa: sustained practice. Vasana: latent tendency or impression. Raga and Dwesha: attraction and aversion. Vashikara: mastery. Para Vairagya: supreme dispassion. Guna: the three qualities of nature, sattva, rajas, and tamas. Chitta Vritti Nirodha: the stilling of the mind’s waves. Samprajnata and Asamprajnata Samadhi: samadhi with and without the support of the mind. Tanmatra: subtle element. Asmita: the pure sense of I am. Jivanmukti and Videhamukti: liberation while embodied and liberation beyond the body.
This study guide is drawn from the archived teachings of Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda.