Yogaśāstra 1.12–16: Paths to Nirodha

Sthiti is the tranquil flow of citta free from vṛtti. The effort directed toward it consists in vigor and enthusiasm; abhyāsa is the performance of the means with the wish to bring this condition about.

Practice becomes firmly grounded when cultivated for a long time, without interruption, and with devotion. The Bhāṣya explains this devotion through austerity (tapas), chastity (brahmacarya), learning, and faith. Practice grounded in this way is not quickly overwhelmed again by saṃskāras of the emergent mind.

TKVD2019 and CYS2026 add ādara, enthusiasm, respect, or devoted care, alongside satkāra. KYMV2026 agrees with the shorter PE1904 reading. Both readings are grammatical, but the longer one has a stronger effect on interpretation. The Sūtra meter label does not decide between them, and the working translation follows PE1904.

The Bhāṣya lists women, food, drink, and power among visible objects, and heaven, disembodied existence, and absorption into Prakṛti among goals known from tradition. One who sees their defects remains without thirst even in contact with divine or worldly objects through the power of discriminative knowledge. This effortless mastery of citta, neither rejecting nor appropriating, is called vaśīkāra-vairāgya.

The Bhāṣya distinguishes two levels of dispassion. The higher arises from practiced vision of Puruṣa and extends even to the guṇas in their manifest and unmanifest forms. With it the yogin recognizes: what had to be attained has been attained, the kleśas that had to be removed have been removed, and the chain of becoming through which one is repeatedly born and dies has been severed. This highest culmination of knowledge necessarily leads to kaivalya.