That which is knowable has the nature of illumination, activity, and inertia [sattva, rajas, and tamas].

Bryant Commentary:

It consists of the senses and the elements, and exists for the purpose of [providing] either liberation or experience [to puruṣa].

Patañjali here describes the ultimate metaphysical ingredients of the seen, dṛsyam, the manifest world, and states its ultimate purpose for existing. The commentators correlate the illumination, prakāsa, noted here with sattva (the light inherent in buddhi); activity, kriyā, with rajas (all movement and effort); and inertia, sthiti, with tamas. These three guṇas are always in flux, as long as the world is manifest, and their nature is to assert themselves in various proportions and then ebb away, thus giving rise to the ever-changing world of manifest forms. Although one or the other of the three guṇas appears dominant and the others secondary at any given moment, the presence of the secondary guṇas can always be detected. This never-ending flux is what is called the known, says Vyāsa, and it transforms itself into both the elements and the senses, bhūtendriyātmakam. As the former, it manifests subtly as the elements of sound, etc., and grossly as the elements of earth, etc.; as the latter, it manifests subtly as hearing, and also as intelligence and ego, etc.

Hariharānanda correlates sattva with the knowledge or awareness aspect of any entity, such as a tree’s impulse toward the source of light; rajas as the factors that cause any activity or motion, such as a tree’s growth toward the source of light; and tamas as when any potentiality is retained or stored, such as the winter season for trees, when sap descends to the roots and is stored (or hibernation for animals). As noted, these guṇas pervade all manifest reality, whether of the nature of grahaṇa, the instruments or organs of cognition such as the ear, or grāhya, the objects of cognition such as sound; everything other than the puruṣa itself is composed of these three guṇas. The sāttvic aspect of the ear, for example, says Hariharānanda, manifests when it makes sound known; its rajasic aspect is represented by the ear’s nervous impulse excited by vibration; and the tāmasic aspect, by the energy stored in its nerves and muscles. And sound itself has a knowledge-bestowing aspect, which is sattva; a vibrational aspect, which is rajas; and a stored energy aspect, which is the tamas element.

Patañjali makes the important statement here that the purpose of these guṇas, and thus of their prākṛtic productions, is to provide either experience, bhoga, or liberation, apavarga, for the puruṣa, as indicated also in the Sāṅkhya Kārikā (XVII, XXI, XXXI). Experience, says Vyāsa, consists of occupying oneself with the desirable and undesirable nature of the guṇas as discussed in II.14—in other words, with pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain—while liberation entails the realization by puruṣa of its own true nature. There is no other reason for the existence of prakṛti.

Vyāsa then raises a very important question: How can either the experience or liberation noted in this sūtra be imposed on puruṣa when they are the constructs and products of buddhi and exist only in buddhi and not in puruṣa itself? Or, as Śaṅkara puts it, how can the deeds of one person be the work of another? The laundryman is not the dyer of clothes. Although experience and liberation are concepts of intelligence, says Vyāsa, they are attributed to the puruṣa because the puruṣa experiences their fruit, just as the victory and defeat of soldiers are attributed to their chief, even though he may only be witnessing the battle, because he experiences the fruits of victory or defeat.

Perception, memory, deliberation, critical reasoning, knowledge of the truth, determination, and, indeed, any cognitive functioning, all of which in actual fact are existing in buddhi, are superimposed on puruṣa, continues Vyāsa. As long as the awareness of puruṣa remains focused on and is erroneously identified with buddhi and its manifestations, puruṣa remains as if bound by that connection. But bondage is a state of mind, a product of buddhi, not an actual condition of puruṣa, and it exists only for as long as the real goal of puruṣa is not realized. Liberation is when that goal is attained, namely, the uncoupling of puruṣa and buddhi by the mind. It, too, is a state of mind, or, put differently, the state of puruṣa after the mind has eliminated its own kleśas and ceased to superimpose itself onto consciousness. Vācaspati Miśra etymologizes the term for liberation, apavarga, as apa– + vṛj (prefix + verbal root), that which is separated from something else.

Expanding on the notions that bondage and freedom are in buddhi, and that the puruṣa is merely a witness, Hariharānanda adds that when buddhi is impure due to the dust of rajas and darkness of tamas, it does not discriminate between seer and seen. He notes that rajas can mean dust, and as such, it tarnishes the pure lucidity of sattva; tamas, in turn, means darkness, and this obscures sattva even more densely than does rajas. When purified and the natural illumination of sattva is able to manifest, the knowledge of the distinction between these two entities becomes clear. This is what vidyā, knowledge, is. However, ultimately, even this knowledge is taking place in buddhi and, as will be discussed below, is transcended in the higher stages of samādhi. Buddhi has to deconstruct itself. Therefore the Sāṅkhya Kārikā states: “No one is actually bound, nor is anyone liberated from saṁsāra. Only prakṛti in its myriad forms transmigrates, is bound and then freed” (LXII).

Avidya Is The Breeding Ground For The Others Whether They Be Dormant, Attenuated, Interrupted Or Active

The causes of suffering are not seeing things as they are, the sense of ‘I’, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life.

Ignorance is the fertile soil,
and, as a consequence,
all other obstacles persist.
They may exist in any state – dormant, feeble, intermittent,
or fully operative.

The lack of awareness of Reality, the sense of egoism or ‘I-am-ness’, attractions and repulsions towards objects and the strong desire for life are the great afflictions or causes of all miseries in life.

The five afflictions which disturb the equilibrium of consciousness are: ignorance or lack of wisdom, ego, pride of the ego or the sense of ‘I’, attachment to pleasure, aversion to pain, fear of death and clinging to life.

Ignorance, egoism, attachment, hatred, and clinging to bodily life are the five obstacles.

The experienced is composed of elements and organs, is of the nature of illumination, action and inertia, and is for the purpose of experience and release (of the experiencer).

SV Commentary:

The experienced, that is nature, is composed of elements and organs—the elements gross and fine which compose the whole of nature, and the organs of the senses, mind, etc., and is of the nature of illumination, action, and intertia. These are what in Sanskrit are called Sattva (illumination), Rajas (action), and Tamas (darkness); each is for the purpose of experience and relase. What is the purpose of the whole of nature? That the Purusa may gain experience. The Purusa has, as it were, forgotten its mighty, godly, nature. There is a story that the king of the gods, Indra, once became a pig, wallowing in mire; he had a she pig, and a lot of baby pigs, and was very happy. Then some other angels saw his plight, Patanjali Yoga Sutras 71 and came to him, and told him, “You are the king of the gods, you have all the gods command. Why are you here?” But Indra said, “Let me be; I am all right here; I do not care for the heavens, while I have this sow and these little pigs.” The poor gods were at their wits’ end what to do. After a time they decided to slowly come and slay one of the little pigs, and then another, until they had slain all the pigs, and the sow too. When all were dead Indra began to weep and mourn. Then the gods ripped his pig body open and he came out of it, and began to laugh when he realised what a hideous dream he had had; he, the king of the gods, to have become a pig, and to think that the pig-life was the only life! Not only so, but to have wanted the whole universe to come into the pig life! The Purusa, when it identifies itself with nature, forgets that it is pure and infinite. The Purusa does not live; it is life itself. It does not exist; it is existence itself. The Soul does not know; it is knowledge itself. It is an entire mistake to say that the Soul lives, or knows, or loves. Love and existence are not the qualities of the Purusa, but its essence. When they get reflected upon something you may call them the qualities of that something. But they are not the qualities of the Purusa, but the essence of this great Atman, this Infinite Being, without birth or death, Who is established in His own glory, but appears as if become degenerate until if you approach to tell Him, “You are not a pig,” he begins to squeal and bite. Thus with us all in this Maya, this dream world, where it is all misery, weeping, and crying, where a few golden balls are rolled, and the world scrambles after them. You were never bound by laws, Nature never had a bond for you. That is what the Yogi tells you; have patience to learn it. And the Yogi shows how, by junction with this nature, and identifying itself with the mind and the world, the Purusa thinks itself miserable. Then the Yogi goes on to show that the way out is through experience. You have to get all this experience, but finish it quickly. We have placed ourselves in this net, and will have to get out. We have got ourselves caught in the trap, and we will have to work out our freedom. So get this experience of husbands and wives, and friends, and little loves, and you will get through them safely if you never forget what you really are. Never forget this is only a momentary state, and that we have to pass through it. Experience is the one great teacher—experiences of pleasure and pain—but know they are only experiences, and will all lead, step by step, to that state when all these things will become small, and the Purusa will be so great that this whole universe will be as a drop in the ocean, and will fall off by its own nothingness. We have to go through these experiences, but let us never forget the ideal. 

Of tbese, Nescience is the field, the breeding ground for the others that follow, the Egoism, &C., having a four-fold possible mode of their existence, as the dormant, the tenuous, the alternated and tvhe fully operative.

What is dormancy? It is the existence in the mind as power alone in the germinal state. It is awake when it turns its face towards its objects. In the case of him who pclssesses discriminative knowledge, the gerlns of the a>fflictions are singed, and therefore even on the object coming in front, they do not come into operation. How call the burned up seed sprout ? Hence, the wise man whose aiftictions are gone, is said to, have’ had his last birth. It is in him alone that the afflictions pass into the fifth state, that of the ~eed Eeing burnt up; inasmuch aEc the afflictions do exist in tbat state, although their mecl-powel has been bl~rnt up. It is for this reason that th& do not awaken even when an object comes in front of them. This i~ the dcnnancy of tlme whose seedpower has been burnt nh.

Tenuitv is now described. The afflictions become ten~~ous on being cut down by habituation to contrarie.:.

And they are alternated, inasmuch ss they disappear and appear over and over again in the same condition. Anger is not obser~wl to be in operation at the time of attachme~~t~. Anger does not arise when attachment has its play. Nor does it happen that attachment, while manifesting ai tll reference to one object, has cea.sed to exifit altogether with reference ‘to another object. Recmse Chaitra is attached to one wowan, it does llot follow that Ile is averse to otl~ers. The *fact is that in the one hie attachmel~t has manifestecl itself, while in others it can-be active in the future. It is tiris that hec~lnes either donnnnt, tenuous or alternated.

The fully operative is that which has found manifestation in the object.

All these do not pass beyold the sphere of affliction. What ie it . then that is cdled an affliction, whether it be the dormant, the alternated , or the R~lly operative? This i~ true. But they become either alternated ol* anv W one else, only when they appear as so qaalified. As all are removed hy l~abitnntion to contraries, a11 art? manifested bv m the operation of competent causes.

All these aiffictions are the modifications of Nescience only. How ? It is Nescience alone that is the quickness of their life. The afflictions appear only in the form which is put upon an object by Nescience. They are found existing simultaneously with the cognition of the unreal ; and they clisappear when Ne~cience disappears.-

~ Rāma Prasāda translation.