Yogaśāstra 4.9–11: Across Birth, Place, and Time

Memory and saṃskāra preserve karmic continuity across births, places, and times. Vāsanās are beginningless because of the desire to exist and end with their four supports.

Dr. Ronald Steiner

Laura von Ostrowski 18.02.2020

Patañjali Yoga Sūtra 4.9

जातिदेशकालव्यवहितानामप्यानन्तर्यं स्मृतिसंस्कारयोरेकरूपत्वात् ||9||

jāti-deśa-kāla-vyavahitānām apy ānantaryaṃ smṛti-saṃskārayor ekarūpatvāt ||9|| Analysis ▾ Analysis ▴

jāti dvandva-compound	jāti substantive feminine	birth
deśa dvandva-compound	deśa substantive masculine	place
kāla dvandva-compound	kāla substantive masculine	time
vyavahitānām genitive plural feminine	vi previx ava previx hita adjective	separated
api	api particle	even
ānantaryam nominative singular neuter	ānantarya substantive neuter	continuity
smṛti dvandva-compound	smṛti substantive feminine	memory
saṃskārayoḥ genitive dual masculine	saṃskāra substantive masculine	impression
ekarūpatvāt ablative singular neuter	ekarūpa adjective tva suffix	sameness of form

Even (api) when [the Vāsanās] are separated by birth, place, and time (jāti-deśa-kāla-vyavahitānām | gen pl), there is continuity (ānantaryam | nom sg), because memory and impression (smṛti-saṃskārayoḥ | gen du) have the same form (eka-rūpatvāt | abl sg).

Dr. Ronald Steiner - 2026 - historically literal

Memories and conditioning (smṛti, saṃskāra) can accompany you through changing places and phases of life. Recurring themes invite you to meet them differently today.

Dr. Ronald Steiner - 2026 - modern transfer

Causal continuity persists even across widely separated births, places, and times because karma of the same kind manifests the corresponding vāsanā. Memory and saṃskāra correspond in form: memory arises from saṃskāra and saṃskāra again from memory; both become manifest through the activity of the karmāśaya.

Yoga Śāstra Vyāsa-Bhāṣya

There is an immediacy among those (impressions) though intercepted by bank (in the scale of being) place and time, because the recollection and the train of selfreproductive impression are identical (that is they are not different).

James R. Ballantyne - 1852

On account of the uniformity of memory and impressions (residua), there is sequence or uninterruptibility of relation, even after breaks by class, locality and time.

Ganganatha Jha - 1907

Obwohl [die Werke und ihre Residua] durch Geburt, Raum und Zeit voneinander getrennt sind, so besteht doch zwischen ihnen Kontinuität, weil die Residua [aus einem früheren Leben] identisch sind mit der [im gegenwärtigen Leben den Handlungen zugrunde liegenden, unbewussten] Rückerinnerung.

Paul Deussen - 1908

There is an uninterrupted-causal-relation [of subconscious-impressions], although remote in species and point-of-space and moment-of-time, by reason of the correspondence between memory and subliminal-impressions.

James Haughton Woods - 1914

Patañjali Yoga Sūtra 4.10

तासामनादित्वं चाशिषो नित्यत्वात् ||10||

tāsām anāditvaṃ cāśiṣo nityatvāt ||10|| Analysis ▾ Analysis ▴

tāsām genitive plural feminine	tad pronoun dem	of these
anāditvam nominative singular neuter	anāditva substantive neuter	beginninglessness
ca	ca particle	and
āśiṣaḥ genitive singular feminine	āśis substantive feminine	desire
nityatvāt ablative singular neuter	nityatva substantive neuter	permanence

And (ca) the beginninglessness (anāditvam | nom sg) of these [Vāsanās] (tāsām | gen pl f) [follows] from the permanence (nityatvāt | abl sg) of the desire [to continue to exist] (āśiṣaḥ | gen sg).

Dr. Ronald Steiner - 2026 - historically literal

The desire to live and unfold (āśis) reaches deeper than your conscious story. You can honor this life force without having to follow every impulse it brings.

Dr. Ronald Steiner - 2026 - modern transfer

Here beginninglessness applies explicitly to the vāsanā. The Bhāṣya grounds it in the enduring wish for oneself, “May I not cease; may I be,” and in a newborn’s fear of death, which it traces to memory of previous pain and death. Citta is thus held to be interwoven with vāsanās without beginning.

Yoga Śāstra Vyāsa-Bhāṣya

They have eternity because the benediction is eternal.

James R. Ballantyne - 1852

Besides there is no beginning about them, because of the eternity of desire.

Ganganatha Jha - 1907

Diese [Residua der Werke] sind anfanglos, weil der [in ihnen sich bekundende] Wille von Ewigkeit her ist.

Paul Deussen - 1908

Furthermore the [subconscious-impressions] have no beginning [that we can set in time], since desire is permanent.

James Haughton Woods - 1914

Patañjali Yoga Sūtra 4.11

हेतुफलाश्रयालम्बनैः संगृहीतत्वादेषाम् अभावे तदभावः ||11||

hetu-phalāśrayālambanaiḥ saṃgṛhītatvād eṣām abhāve tad-abhāvaḥ ||11|| Analysis ▾ Analysis ▴

hetu dvandva-compound	hetu substantive masculine	cause
phala dvandva-compound	phala substantive neuter	fruit
āśraya dvandva-compound	āśraya substantive masculine	substrate
ālambanaiḥ instrumental case plural neuter	ālambana substantive neuter	object
saṃgṛhītatvāt ablative singular neuter	saṃgṛhīta adjective tva suffix	being held together
eṣām genitive plural feminine	etad pronoun dem	of these
abhāve lokative absolutus singular	abhāva substantive masculine	in the absence
tat tatpuruṣa-compound genitive	tad pronoun dem	of those [Vāsanās]
abhāvaḥ nominative singular masculine	abhāva substantive masculine	absence

Since [the Vāsanās] are held together (saṃgṛhītatvāt | abl sg) by cause, fruit, substrate, and object (hetu-phalāśrayālambanaiḥ | ins pl), in the absence (abhāve | loc absl sg) of these [four supports] (eṣām | gen pl), there is the absence of those [Vāsanās] (tad-abhāvaḥ | nom sg).

Dr. Ronald Steiner - 2026 - historically literal

Habits are sustained by causes, consequences, inner ground, and surroundings (hetu, phala, āśraya, ālambana). When you change these conditions, even entrenched patterns can begin to loosen.

Dr. Ronald Steiner - 2026 - modern transfer

The hetu of the vāsanās is the cycle, guided by avidyā, from dharma and adharma to pleasure and pain, passion and aversion, effort, and renewed karma. Phala is the result for whose sake a pre-existing dharma or the like becomes presently operative; āśraya is citta while its task remains unfulfilled, and ālambana is the object that manifests a particular vāsanā. When these four are absent, the vāsanās sustained by them are absent as well.

Yoga Śāstra Vyāsa-Bhāṣya

As (they are) collected by cause, effect, substratum and support (therefore) on non-existence of these, non-existence of the impressions takes place.

James R. Ballantyne - 1852

Being held together by cause, effect, substratum and support, the absence of these would produce their absence.

Ganganatha Jha - 1907

Weil die Werkresidua sich zusammensetzen aus der Grundursache (dem Willen), ihrer Frucht (den Werken), ihrem Substrat (der Person) und ihrer Unterlage (den Objekten), so kommen, wo diese [vier Faktoren] fehlen, auch sie [die Werkresidua] in Wegfall.

Paul Deussen - 1908

Since [subconscious-impressions] are associated with cause and motive and mental-substrate and stimulus, if these cease to be, then those [subconscious-impressions] cease to be.

James Haughton Woods - 1914

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Dr. Ronald Steiner

From Ulm

The "Yoga Doc" - Dr. Ronald Steiner is the founder of the AYI method. This method links traditional Ashtanga Yoga with innovative Yogatherapy and living Philosophy. This forms a practice that is personal for each and... more ›

Laura von Ostrowski

Ich bin 2004 das erste Mal mit Yoga in Berührung gekommen und habe seitdem unendlich viele Facetten kennengelernt. Einerseits die vielfältigen praktischen Seiten von Yoga - in Form verschiedener Ausbildungen (500 h... more ›

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Yogaśāstra 4.9–11: Across Birth, Place, and Time

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