The yogī’s true insight has seven ultimate stages.

Bryant Commentary:

This sūtra introduces a sevenfold, saptadhā, division of prajñā, insight. We see here that Patañjali did not specify what these seven stages were, which indicates that he assumed his audience would be familiar with this seven-stepped insight (and that, therefore, as noted in the introduction, Patañjali was not the founder of yoga; this type of knowledge was already in circulation). It also reinforces the point that these sūtras served as manuals that required unpacking by a teacher.

Upon examination of how this sevenfold division is understood by the commentators, it seems that several of these stages are essentially different ways of looking at the same state rather than actual sequential stages. With regard to prajñā, it seems useful here to note Rukmani’s (reassuring) observation that “of the six schools of philosophy, Yoga is perhaps the one school which has a profusion of technical words used interchangeably. Thus we have dharma-megha, prasaṅkhyāna, anyathā-khyāti, sattvapuruṣānyatā-khyāti, viveka, viveka-khyāti, prajña, ṛtambharā, prātibha-jñāna, ekāg ra-citta, sa-bījaḥ and more being used more or less in the same sense” (1997, 619). While commentators try to tease out different semantic nuances, at the very least these terms overlap considerably. Rukmani concludes that it might not always be fruitful to attempt to extract logical consistency in the usage of terms and concepts in the system:

“The conviction grows that this [Yoga] is not something that can be logically described. It is a system that has brought in a number of ideas from so many sources and tried to make sense of them. Yoga was a practical school in which the various steps of prajñā and asamprajñāta were clearly intelligible to the adept in Yoga … This is one school which has believed all along in … following some well laid down yogic practices. So it is best to accept it as a discipline to be followed rather than to be understood intellectually. (623)”

The yogī referred to by Patañjali in this sūtra refers to the one in whom discrimination has arisen, says Vyāsa. When the impure rājasic and tāmasic coverings of the citta have been removed, and no further pratyayas, notions, arise in the mind of the discriminating yogī, true insight manifests in seven aspects, which Vyāsa lists as follows:

“(1) That which is to be avoided (suffering) is known, and there is nothing further to be known in this regard. The very desire to know ceases, says Hariharānanda, and thus knowledge itself can cease.

(2) The causes of this suffering have been completely eradicated. These causes are the kleśas, ignorance, desire, etc., and the ensuing karma, as we know.

(3) By nirodha-samādhi, the samādhi of restraint, which, we recall is how Patañjali defines the entire enterprise of yoga (citta-vṛtti-nirodha), the removal of the misidentification of puruṣa with buddhi becomes directly realized. Once this misidentification is removed, asamprajñāta-samādhi can manifest.

(4) The means to accomplish this removal of misidentification in the form of discriminative knowledge has been attained.

These first four aspects, says Vyāsa, pertain to liberation from action, or external events. One should note their obvious parallel to the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. The next three pertain to liberation of the citta. Moreover, the first four are the result of the personal effort of the yogī, say the commentators, unlike the following three, which arise spontaneously. In other words, one need no longer strive to practice yoga at this point. These final three stages represent the complete cessation of the activities of buddhi.

“(5) Intelligence has fulfilled its purpose: to provide either worldly experience or liberation. It has now become redundant.

(6) The yogī’s guṇas dissolve back into their causal matrix, prakṛti, and emerge no more, since they no longer have a function. Vyāsa compares this to boulders falling from the tops of mountains when deprived of their support. Hariharānanda hastens to point out that the guṇas to which Vyāsa is referring are the effects of the guṇas, not the primordial guṇas themselves, which are constituent ontological categories inherent in prakṛti and thus as eternal as is prakṛti. Specifically, it is the subtle body of the citta, says Vijñānabhikṣu, that dissolves.

(7) Puruṣa, removed from the bonds of the guṇas, is now eligible to shine forth in its own pure luminous nature. This is called kevala, absolute freedom. The puruṣa who has surpassed the guṇas and attained these seven stages of realization is known as an adept, says Vyāsa. In this state, one doesn’t actually realize anything, because now, by definition, one is fully detached and separated from the organ of realization or discrimination, buddhi. But just as one realizes upon awakening one has slept well, even if one cannot recall the actual experience of sleep, so does the yogī coming out of the state of asamprajñāta back into external awareness realize that this has been a state free from all suffering.

There are differing views among Hindu schools as to whether this ability to remain embodied despite having attained asamprajñātasamādhi (called jīvanmukti, liberation, while still in the body) is possible, or whether ultimate and absolute liberation can take place only after death. One can attain this stage even while living, say the Yoga commentators, although this will be such a person’s last birth. According to Vijñānabhikṣu, the jīvanmukta, the liberated yogī who is still embodied, may, if he or she wishes, merely witness the stages of insight, prajñā, produced by buddhi. There is no sense of ahaṅkāra, of wishing to appropriate prajñā or misidentify with it, as in normal consciousness.

One must remember that in the Yoga system, prajñā is still a function of buddhi and thus of prakṛtis connection with puruṣa. Therefore, according to Hariharānanda, these seven steps do not yet represent the puruṣa being in itself, asamprajñāta-samādhi, but the highest or final level of insight prior to this ultimate samādhi. As has been discussed, in asamprajñāta-samādhi, the mental function, citta, ceases completely and the yogī consequently ceases to function in the world. In the jīvanmukta stage, the yogī still retains the prākṛtic citta, since, of course, by definition, embodiment entails association with the mind and intelligence, etc. (although the jīvanmukta is fully capable of discarding all prākṛtic coverings and entering the state of asamprajñāta, notes Hariharānanda). The jīvanmukta, who has, by definition, no personal desire or reason to do so, might choose to remain embodied so as to help other beings who are still suffering. Obviously, says Hariharānanda, the jīvanmukta can rise above any suffering that might come his or her way due to any saṁskāras that might still be left, by use of the buddhi in the form of discrimination and detachment.

Thus the yogī is completely free from the control of the guṇas. Vijñānabhikṣu quotes the Gītā here: “One who renounces all endeavour is known to have transcended the guṇas” (XIV.25). In this section of the Gītā, Arjuna asks Kṛṣṇa to describe the symptoms by which one might recognize someone who has transcended the guṇas, in other words, what are the characteristics of the jīvanmukta? It might be useful for the reader to refer to the translation of this section in I.37, since this material overlaps with what the commentators have to say in their commentaries for this sūtra.

Avidya Or Nescience As Its Cause.

The cause of conjunction is ignorance.

Bryant Commentary:

Vācaspati Miśra and Vijñānabhikṣu elaborate somewhat on the fourth possible cause of ignorance outlined in the previous sūtra. Creation in Hindu cosmology is cyclical. At the end of each cosmic cycle, all manifest reality, the world and the evolutes of prakṛti, dissolve back into their original source matrix along with the souls in saṁsāra—the puruṣas who have not attained liberation—and remain there latent and inactive until the next cosmic cycle begins anew. This primordial soup, called pradhāna, thus contains all the saṁskāras from all the cittas of all the individual puruṣas that had not had a chance to fructify during the last cycle.46 At the beginning of the new cycle, these saṁskāras reactivate and cause pradhāna to produce an individual citta for each puruṣa appropriate to the specific saṁskāras possessed by that same puruṣa at the end of the last cycle. The puruṣa is thus like a fish trapped in a net of its previous saṁskāras and karma, says Rāmānanda Sarasvatī. As a result of the puruṣa being reconnected with a citta, its previous saṁskāras, most notably the saṁskāra of ignorance (i.e., the misidentification between the puruṣa and prakṛti), reexert their influence. In other words, the puruṣa picks up where it left off. The point is, from this perspective, that it is the saṁskāras that cause ignorance. This cycle of creation and dissolution is eternal for the Yoga school until liberation occurs (saṁsāra has no beginning, but it has an ending). Since the eternality of this cycle is axiomatic, the Yoga school avoids having to account for any primordial saṁskāra of ignorance that may have activated the whole cycle in the first place.

When intelligence contains the saṁskāras of ignorance, says Vyāsa, it remains active in the realm of prakṛti and thus does not produce discrimination about the true nature of puruṣa. Saṁskāras impel the intelligence to perform the first of its two functions, as expressed in II.18, namely, to provide experience of prakṛti, and it is this that is the cause of bondage. Intelligence ceases its activity only when it has attained its alternative and ultimate function, which is to provide discrimination about the distinction between puruṣa and prakṛti. As was discussed in some detail in I.50, the saṁskāra of discrimination overpowers all other saṁskāras. When this happens, ignorance, avidyā, the cause, hetu, of bondage, is removed, and ignorance, we recall, is the support of the other kleśas, obstacles (II.3–4), so they, too, dissolve.
In other words, complete liberation occurs only when intelligence first provides discrimination and then ceases to act altogether. Although discrimination, a function of buddhi, is initially indispensable in attaining the goal of yoga, as long as it remains active, puruṣa is still connected with buddhi, and thus complete liberation is not realized. But discrimination eventually completely destroys ignorance and thus its own base, like fire destroys its own fuel, says Hariharānanda. This results in asamprajñāta-samādhi, the final goal of yoga.

One might argue, says Vyāsa, that this claim that full liberation occurs only after discrimination has dissolved itself is rather like an impotent man who, when asked by his wife why she does not have children as her sister has children, replies that he will beget children in her after he is dead. If intelligence cannot provide liberation while it is alive and active, why should one believe that it will do so after it becomes lifeless and inactive? Vyāsa affirms, again, that full and final liberation occurs precisely when the intelligence ceases to act. Intelligence ceases to act when ignorance is removed. And ignorance is removed by knowledge. In other words, bondage is caused by ignorance, ignorance is removed by knowledge, the discriminatory aspect of intelligence, and then intelligence, having performed its grand finale, ceases to operate, and the full freedom of puruṣa occurs. Thus, intelligence and knowledge are not the direct cause of liberation, but by removing ignorance, they are the indirect cause.

Not seeing things as they are is the cause of this phenomenon.

Ignorance of the True Self is the cause of this illusory union.

Its cause is the lack of awareness of his Real nature.

Lack of spiritual understanding (avidya) is the cause of the false identification of the seer with the seen.

Iyengar Commentary:

In 11.18, it was said that the mingling of prakrti with purusa can either lead to emancipation or stop our progress by involving us in desires and emotions. This sutra underlines the fact that avidya, ignorance or lack of awareness, is at the root of the confusion that brings us suffering as well as pleasure. Vidya (discriminative knowledge) destroys ignorance, for a fire will burn only as long as fuel lasts (see 1.4, 8, 30, 31 and II.5).

What is right knowledge? When discernment banishes doubt, pure understanding begins the process of disownment and detachment which releases us from the shackles of possessing and being possessed.”

The cause of this union is ignorance.

Satchidananda Commentary:

Here, Patañjali laughs at the idea he has just expressed. The cause of the saṁyoga is ignorance. This may seem a bit confusing, but if we understand it properly there’s no puzzle. You see, in the previous sūtra, we’re still in the world and wondering about the reason for nature. Once the Puruṣa understands itself, it thinks, “How did this union come about? It’s because I’ve forgotten myself. What an ignorant person I was. Because of my ignorance I created this union.” Such a person laughs at it, but this attitude comes only after realization. It’s like a dreaming person who, upon waking, laughs at his or her own frightening dream. The understanding behind this sūtra is a result of realization. Once we realize, we can advise others: “I was ignorant. I had terrible experiences. I thought nature was real, happiness was real. I ran after them. But now I know what they are. I learned the hard way. Do you also want to have to learn the hard way? Why don’t you take my advice?”

These sūtras are reminiscent of the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha: the misery of the world, the cause of misery, the removal of that misery and the method used to remove it. Patañjali tells us that pain can be avoided. He further tells us that its cause is ignorance. In sūtra 26, he gives us another word, hāna, the removal of this misery, and then hānopāya, the method to remove it. We can really see the similarity between the Four Noble Truths and the Yoga Sutras. We needn’t search for who copies whom. Truth is the same always. Whoever ponders it will get the same answer. The Buddha got it. Śri Patañjali got it. Lord Jesus got it. Prophet Muhammad got it. The answer is the same, but the method of working it out may vary this way or that.

Ignorance is its cause.

SV Commentary:

Through ignorance we have joined ourselves with a particular body, and thus opened ourselves to misery. This idea of body is a simple superstition. It is superstition that makes us happy or unhappy. It is superstition caused by ignorance that makes us feel heat and cold, pain and pleasure. It is our business to rise above this superstition, and the Yogi shows us how we can do this. It has been demonstrated that, under certain mental conditions, a man may be burned, yet, while that condition lasts, he will feel no pain. The difficulty is that this sudden upheaval of the mind comes like a whirlwind one minute, and goes away the next. If, however, we attain it scientifically, through Yoga, we shall permanently attain to that separation of Self from the body. 

The effective cause, however, of the conjunction of the individual consciousness with its own Will-to-be is Nescience, which means the potency of the habit of unreal cognition. The Will-to-know, possessed as it is of the aroma of the habits of unreal cognition, does not culminate into the knowledge of the self, which is the end of its work, and thus

having still a duty to perform, comes back. When, however, it reaches the culmination of its work, which is the attainment of the knowledge of the Puru§a, its work is achieved, ignorance is gone, the cause of bondage no longer remains, and it does no longer come back.

Someone ridicules this position by the story of the impotent husband. A foolish wife thus addressed her husband : — “ My dear, my sister has got children. Wherefore have I none ? ” He said to her : — “ I shall beget children unto thee when I am dead.’* Similarly, this knowledge while in existence, does not cause the mind to cease from action ; what hope is there that it will cause cessation when suppressed ? Says on this subject a* teacher very nearly perfect: — “Is not Moksa (freedom) the cessation of the Will-to-be itself and nothing else ? The Will-todbe ceases to act when the cause of ignorance no longer remains. The Ignorance which is the cause of bondage is removed by knowledge. Moksa (perfect freedom) then is only the cessation of the mind from its work. Wherefore then this mental confusion out of place ?