A large proportion of what I understand of Yoga Sutra of Patanjali is through Swami Venkatesananda's commentary which I mention either verbatim or paraphrase it or mention it's essence below. Wherever it's verbatim, I will indicate the page no, sutra no.
YS 1.2 states "yoga citta vritti nirodah" - quite a famous sutra
YS 1.12 states "abhyasa vairagya tan nirodah"
J Glenn Ingersoll (http://mechanicsofmind.000webhostapp.com/) in Pg 82 (catvari aryasatyani) of his work "Mechanics of Mind: Subject - Object Relationships" states:
"Both verses 1:2 & 1:12 end with the same word, nirodha. All commentators agree that the word tan (1:12) refers to the chitta vrttis (1.2). Therefore, yoga, as remedy, is the union of abhyasa & vairagya."
So the way to attain yoga is through "abhyasa vairagya"
and how can you do abhyasa? This is explained by Sutra 1.17 (this is after defining abhyasa and vairagya in the previous few sutras - Abhyasa: 1.13, 1.14 & Vairagya 1.15) which states -
"vitarka vichara ananda asmitaroopa anugamat sanprajnatah"
This is defined as 4 different types of samadhi by various commentators, but Swami Venkatesananda has a different take on it - he doesn't define them as samadhis, but just defines what they are i.e. what these technical words mean.
Out of this - he spends a lot of words explaining vicara specifically. Basis this, it emerges that to do abhyasa the way is vicara, at least it is the starting point. If you are able to do vicara in a disciplined manner, you get self-realization, then and there! The other way (in case the path of vicara doesnt suit you) is ishwara pranidhana (see in same sutra Swamiji's explanation in Pg 85). In a manner, he equates vicara with "jnana yoga" and ishwara pranidhana with "bhakti yoga". What Ramana Maharishi did was vicara.
Vitarka is analysis - say you have some psychological complex, you assess it logically, rationally. As Swamiji explains if say someone's wife leaves him, then it is the wife's problem, why is the person agitated. Because he has an attachment to the wife, some expectations. This kind of approach only helps to an extent. At times, we are beset with a deep seated fear or anxiety. If we start analyzing it, the fear or anxiety gives some rational explanations for it's existence - like you may not succeed in something important could be reason for the fear, if you try to logically attack it (if you can), then it will find some other reason. The point is the fear will find some target or other. What you have to address is the fear itself. It's like that snake in the dark, which is not a snake but a rope. Vicara is the method of directly looking at the fear, encountering it, not running away from it, not analyzing it, but seeing it for what it is. Frankly despite the difficulty of even comprehending what this means, this approach really appeals to me. Over last few days, to an extent, I have been able to do this (I dont know if what I did was what is explained by Swamiji - but it felt good!).
Presenting below Swami Venkatesananda's explanation of Vicara is his book: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Pg (50-56)
"When you try to meditate, the first thing is that the mind throws up all kinds of arguments - pro and con. As this happens, you confront these arguments with counter arguments. So, argument and counter argumentation is the first stage in this meditation. This goes on for some time until the mind reaches its own barrier, which is the rational barrier. The intellect does not function beyond ratiocination, the logic barrier, and logic comes to its own conclusion. You have no logic or rationalising intellect now, so you begin to watch and look - not inquiring in the sense of using the mind, because that vitarka stage is past. Now you see no argument at all for or against the existence of this indwelling intelligence, you see no reason for or against the truth or the falsity of the ego.
The intellect is helpless and so it stops functioning there. When this happens, the intelligence which is reflected within you begins to function. You cannot rationally discover this intelligence. Now you can only look - vicara.
Vicara starts when you feel trapped, you experience bondage, unhappiness. Vicara has no proper translation in English, though it has been translated into 'enquiry', which has unfortunately been misunderstood to be intellectual pursuit. It is not enquiry in the sense of asking questions, etc. You may ask once, 'What is happening in me, who is repeating the mantra?', but once that asking has been done, it is merely looking at it. If that is the meaning of the English word 'enquiry', marvellous! If it is not, the proper meaning has to be discovered. It is merely looking without thought, without thinking.
'Car' in sanskrit means movement, and 'vicara' means to move efficiently. Without vicara there is no spirit in yoga practice. In vicara there is neither argument nor rationalisation. There is no anxiety to get rid of unhappiness - then you avert your gaze from the unhappiness and you cannot understand what it is, nor is there a desire to grin and bear it - again you are not looking at it. There is a
third alternative - to look within to discover where this unhappiness is.
The question of 'what' is the essence of vicara. Here one merely looks at it and enquires 'What is this sorrow?', not 'Why is it there?', or 'How did it arise?' There is no 'my' sorrow and 'your' sorrow, there is just sorrow. You must be able to extricate this phenomenon of suffering or sorrow - which is independent of the personality and the circumstances, and see the phenomenon as it is.
Here tremendous concentration is needed, so that you can focus your whole attention upon this phenomenon of suffering and let the energy of the mind flow in that single direction. Then you have forgotten why you are unhappy, you are only aware of sorrow. It is in you.
If you are aware of sorrow, are 'you' and the 'sorrow' two different entities, or are they the same? When you use a mantra in meditation and mentally repeat it, you can hear it. Who is saying it, and who is hearing it? Suddenly you realise that you are also there, you are watching both these. The sound is emanating from somewhere. Someone is saying this mantra, someone is listening to it, and
someone is watching both these fellows! Similarly, here you are merely observing this phenomenon of sorrow, and you say, 'I am aware of sorrow'.
Try this. Stand in front of your electric stove. You can see that the water is boiling in the kettle, but you do not have to boil, do you? No. So similarly, you can see sorrow, observe sorrow and become aware of that sorrow. You observe that you are aware of sorrow. As you are becoming more and more intensely aware of sorrow, you suddenly become one with that sorrow. You are not sorry any more, you are not suffering any more, you are sorrow. The fire itself does not feel hot, it is hot. So that, if you are sorrow, you do not feel sorrow any more. You are free.
So, vicara is a movement in consciousness. It is pure attention. It does not proceed from what is called 'me' towards the other, but is a direct observation within. You can focus it on sorrow, pain, fear, hate or anything you like. Unless there is a feeling that the attention is moving within towards the centre, these words have no meaning. There is pure observation, and that observation itself
discovers the true nature of experience. 'Discovers' is meant in its almost literal sense - you had covered that pure experiencing with a big label called 'sorrow', and when this light of observation shone on it, it dis-covered or peeled that label off. That is discovery - 'un-covery'. There is an endeavour to merely observe the reality or the content of that experience. This is like flashing a torch on the shadow on the wall. When the shadow is illumined, its background or substratum is seen. In that observation there is great stillness, and the object of observation alone exists.
Because of the extreme importance of vicara, let us look at another example - of pain, for instance. Pain, sorrow and suffering are really a blessing. But in ignorance we turn them into a sorrow by blaming someone or something else - the psychologist blames one's childhood and the oriental religious man blames one's previous birth, for instance. Instead of listening to these ideas, if you look at the pain immediately, you may be able to deal with it. A wise man need be hurt only once.
What is pain, what is it made of? When you begin to inquire seriously, the first thing you notice is that the mind is absolutely calm and quiet. You have pulled away from the pain, and therefore the pain is not terribly painful. You are observing it, inquiring into it, and in the meantime the body takes care of the pain, or whatever it is. There is no pain, only the mind-stuff. In the light of that observation, it becomes absolutely clear that there is only the wall - the screen; there is no shadow at all, just the background. There is no wave, there is only the water.
The observation still continues, it does not come to an end, because there is one question which we have not answered. We are using such expressions as 'I observe the mind', 'I am meditating', knowing that all these are mental modifications. Even if these statements are the fruits of direct observation, there are still these questions, 'What is I. Who is the experiencer or observer? Is the observer a totally independent entity, independent of the experience? Is I a completely different and independent being standing apart from the mind-stuff?'I do not know.
The whole area of observation has narrowed down completely. The object has gone, the experience has gone, the only thing left now is the observer. If this pure observation asks this question and gets the answer 'I do not know', then 'I' and 'do not know' are the only things left, and these are not two completely different factors, but two sides of the same thing. Here, there is no logic and no observation, there is total stillness.
Vicara is essential in the practice of Raja Yoga and meditation. Meditation helps the vicara and vicara helps the meditation, because vicara needs one-pointedness and introversion of the mind. The mind must be introverted so that both during the practice of meditation and at other times the yogi must be aware of the thoughts and the emotions that arise in him. That makes it very clear that the yogi is not looking for a blank mind and an emotionless heart!"
I can post the next few paras on Vicara here, but just pause and meditate on the beautiful explanation by Swami Venkatesanandji given above, before you go further.
"The Buddha said, 'Live in this world as you would if you were living in a room with a deadly cobra.' As soon as you become aware of it, you begin to observe - not thinking about it, knowing that your thinking or not thinking does not alter the situation. You are wide awake and full of energy, perfectly concentrated. You may panic for a couple of minutes, but once you realise that you are caught in it,
the mind is absolutely calm and alert, looking actively but passively. All this is involved in that single instruction of living with the cobra.
If you can dramatise the whole thing within yourself for five minutes, you have learnt all about meditation and vicara. You know what it is to enquire into, to look into, to observe. In the same way, if you are able to observe pain, either physical or psychological, and you have pulled yourself away from it, there is this inner feeling, 'I am here, I am not affected by this.' It is not verbal, and you are
not trying to bluff yourself. The pain seems to go away, because you are acting as an observer now, you do not really experience the pain that the body is experiencing. But this does not last long. Once this observation comes to an end, you get caught up in the pain again.
If you are serious about this enquiry, if your mind, heart, emotions and life itself all come together and 'functionise' vicara, then you have tremendous energy which is derived from the non-dissipation of the mind. There is nothing that you cannot achieve. Use whatever pleasure and pain life brings you every day for your enquiry, and if you are sincere and earnest about it, then there is not a single moment in your life when this enquiry need be really absent. For example, when you are singing, can you forget about everybody else and listen to your voice? How and where does it
originate? How does it feel inside? Even as you are listening you, can look at the process of listening - not the anatomical and physiological aspects, but how listening takes place. If, while you are singing, you are merely observing the singing, neither thinking about it, analysing it nor examining it, it is a beautiful sensation. So, whatever the experience - singing, walking, driving, eating or having a shower - you can utilise it for pure awareness or vicara.
YS 1.2 states "yoga citta vritti nirodah" - quite a famous sutra
YS 1.12 states "abhyasa vairagya tan nirodah"
J Glenn Ingersoll (http://mechanicsofmind.000webhostapp.com/) in Pg 82 (catvari aryasatyani) of his work "Mechanics of Mind: Subject - Object Relationships" states:
"Both verses 1:2 & 1:12 end with the same word, nirodha. All commentators agree that the word tan (1:12) refers to the chitta vrttis (1.2). Therefore, yoga, as remedy, is the union of abhyasa & vairagya."
So the way to attain yoga is through "abhyasa vairagya"
and how can you do abhyasa? This is explained by Sutra 1.17 (this is after defining abhyasa and vairagya in the previous few sutras - Abhyasa: 1.13, 1.14 & Vairagya 1.15) which states -
"vitarka vichara ananda asmitaroopa anugamat sanprajnatah"
This is defined as 4 different types of samadhi by various commentators, but Swami Venkatesananda has a different take on it - he doesn't define them as samadhis, but just defines what they are i.e. what these technical words mean.
Out of this - he spends a lot of words explaining vicara specifically. Basis this, it emerges that to do abhyasa the way is vicara, at least it is the starting point. If you are able to do vicara in a disciplined manner, you get self-realization, then and there! The other way (in case the path of vicara doesnt suit you) is ishwara pranidhana (see in same sutra Swamiji's explanation in Pg 85). In a manner, he equates vicara with "jnana yoga" and ishwara pranidhana with "bhakti yoga". What Ramana Maharishi did was vicara.
Vitarka is analysis - say you have some psychological complex, you assess it logically, rationally. As Swamiji explains if say someone's wife leaves him, then it is the wife's problem, why is the person agitated. Because he has an attachment to the wife, some expectations. This kind of approach only helps to an extent. At times, we are beset with a deep seated fear or anxiety. If we start analyzing it, the fear or anxiety gives some rational explanations for it's existence - like you may not succeed in something important could be reason for the fear, if you try to logically attack it (if you can), then it will find some other reason. The point is the fear will find some target or other. What you have to address is the fear itself. It's like that snake in the dark, which is not a snake but a rope. Vicara is the method of directly looking at the fear, encountering it, not running away from it, not analyzing it, but seeing it for what it is. Frankly despite the difficulty of even comprehending what this means, this approach really appeals to me. Over last few days, to an extent, I have been able to do this (I dont know if what I did was what is explained by Swamiji - but it felt good!).
Presenting below Swami Venkatesananda's explanation of Vicara is his book: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Pg (50-56)
"When you try to meditate, the first thing is that the mind throws up all kinds of arguments - pro and con. As this happens, you confront these arguments with counter arguments. So, argument and counter argumentation is the first stage in this meditation. This goes on for some time until the mind reaches its own barrier, which is the rational barrier. The intellect does not function beyond ratiocination, the logic barrier, and logic comes to its own conclusion. You have no logic or rationalising intellect now, so you begin to watch and look - not inquiring in the sense of using the mind, because that vitarka stage is past. Now you see no argument at all for or against the existence of this indwelling intelligence, you see no reason for or against the truth or the falsity of the ego.
The intellect is helpless and so it stops functioning there. When this happens, the intelligence which is reflected within you begins to function. You cannot rationally discover this intelligence. Now you can only look - vicara.
Then another movement in consciousness begins. It is not
mental activity, but pure attention. It is not a movement in consciousness
which proceeds from what is called ‘me’ towards the other. It is a movement in
the consciousness which seems to flow towards its own centre. It is neither
mental activity, thought nor reasoning, but enquiry, a direct observation
within. What is ‘within’? What is ‘without’? We don’t know. For the present it looks like within, because a moment ago ‘that’
looked like without – otherwise there is no within, no without. When the enquiry
starts there is a feeling that the attention is moving within towards the
centre. That is called vicara!
Vicara starts when you feel trapped, you experience bondage, unhappiness. Vicara has no proper translation in English, though it has been translated into 'enquiry', which has unfortunately been misunderstood to be intellectual pursuit. It is not enquiry in the sense of asking questions, etc. You may ask once, 'What is happening in me, who is repeating the mantra?', but once that asking has been done, it is merely looking at it. If that is the meaning of the English word 'enquiry', marvellous! If it is not, the proper meaning has to be discovered. It is merely looking without thought, without thinking.
'Car' in sanskrit means movement, and 'vicara' means to move efficiently. Without vicara there is no spirit in yoga practice. In vicara there is neither argument nor rationalisation. There is no anxiety to get rid of unhappiness - then you avert your gaze from the unhappiness and you cannot understand what it is, nor is there a desire to grin and bear it - again you are not looking at it. There is a
third alternative - to look within to discover where this unhappiness is.
The question of 'what' is the essence of vicara. Here one merely looks at it and enquires 'What is this sorrow?', not 'Why is it there?', or 'How did it arise?' There is no 'my' sorrow and 'your' sorrow, there is just sorrow. You must be able to extricate this phenomenon of suffering or sorrow - which is independent of the personality and the circumstances, and see the phenomenon as it is.
Here tremendous concentration is needed, so that you can focus your whole attention upon this phenomenon of suffering and let the energy of the mind flow in that single direction. Then you have forgotten why you are unhappy, you are only aware of sorrow. It is in you.
If you are aware of sorrow, are 'you' and the 'sorrow' two different entities, or are they the same? When you use a mantra in meditation and mentally repeat it, you can hear it. Who is saying it, and who is hearing it? Suddenly you realise that you are also there, you are watching both these. The sound is emanating from somewhere. Someone is saying this mantra, someone is listening to it, and
someone is watching both these fellows! Similarly, here you are merely observing this phenomenon of sorrow, and you say, 'I am aware of sorrow'.
Try this. Stand in front of your electric stove. You can see that the water is boiling in the kettle, but you do not have to boil, do you? No. So similarly, you can see sorrow, observe sorrow and become aware of that sorrow. You observe that you are aware of sorrow. As you are becoming more and more intensely aware of sorrow, you suddenly become one with that sorrow. You are not sorry any more, you are not suffering any more, you are sorrow. The fire itself does not feel hot, it is hot. So that, if you are sorrow, you do not feel sorrow any more. You are free.
So, vicara is a movement in consciousness. It is pure attention. It does not proceed from what is called 'me' towards the other, but is a direct observation within. You can focus it on sorrow, pain, fear, hate or anything you like. Unless there is a feeling that the attention is moving within towards the centre, these words have no meaning. There is pure observation, and that observation itself
discovers the true nature of experience. 'Discovers' is meant in its almost literal sense - you had covered that pure experiencing with a big label called 'sorrow', and when this light of observation shone on it, it dis-covered or peeled that label off. That is discovery - 'un-covery'. There is an endeavour to merely observe the reality or the content of that experience. This is like flashing a torch on the shadow on the wall. When the shadow is illumined, its background or substratum is seen. In that observation there is great stillness, and the object of observation alone exists.
Because of the extreme importance of vicara, let us look at another example - of pain, for instance. Pain, sorrow and suffering are really a blessing. But in ignorance we turn them into a sorrow by blaming someone or something else - the psychologist blames one's childhood and the oriental religious man blames one's previous birth, for instance. Instead of listening to these ideas, if you look at the pain immediately, you may be able to deal with it. A wise man need be hurt only once.
What is pain, what is it made of? When you begin to inquire seriously, the first thing you notice is that the mind is absolutely calm and quiet. You have pulled away from the pain, and therefore the pain is not terribly painful. You are observing it, inquiring into it, and in the meantime the body takes care of the pain, or whatever it is. There is no pain, only the mind-stuff. In the light of that observation, it becomes absolutely clear that there is only the wall - the screen; there is no shadow at all, just the background. There is no wave, there is only the water.
The observation still continues, it does not come to an end, because there is one question which we have not answered. We are using such expressions as 'I observe the mind', 'I am meditating', knowing that all these are mental modifications. Even if these statements are the fruits of direct observation, there are still these questions, 'What is I. Who is the experiencer or observer? Is the observer a totally independent entity, independent of the experience? Is I a completely different and independent being standing apart from the mind-stuff?'I do not know.
The whole area of observation has narrowed down completely. The object has gone, the experience has gone, the only thing left now is the observer. If this pure observation asks this question and gets the answer 'I do not know', then 'I' and 'do not know' are the only things left, and these are not two completely different factors, but two sides of the same thing. Here, there is no logic and no observation, there is total stillness.
Vicara is essential in the practice of Raja Yoga and meditation. Meditation helps the vicara and vicara helps the meditation, because vicara needs one-pointedness and introversion of the mind. The mind must be introverted so that both during the practice of meditation and at other times the yogi must be aware of the thoughts and the emotions that arise in him. That makes it very clear that the yogi is not looking for a blank mind and an emotionless heart!"
I can post the next few paras on Vicara here, but just pause and meditate on the beautiful explanation by Swami Venkatesanandji given above, before you go further.
"The Buddha said, 'Live in this world as you would if you were living in a room with a deadly cobra.' As soon as you become aware of it, you begin to observe - not thinking about it, knowing that your thinking or not thinking does not alter the situation. You are wide awake and full of energy, perfectly concentrated. You may panic for a couple of minutes, but once you realise that you are caught in it,
the mind is absolutely calm and alert, looking actively but passively. All this is involved in that single instruction of living with the cobra.
If you can dramatise the whole thing within yourself for five minutes, you have learnt all about meditation and vicara. You know what it is to enquire into, to look into, to observe. In the same way, if you are able to observe pain, either physical or psychological, and you have pulled yourself away from it, there is this inner feeling, 'I am here, I am not affected by this.' It is not verbal, and you are
not trying to bluff yourself. The pain seems to go away, because you are acting as an observer now, you do not really experience the pain that the body is experiencing. But this does not last long. Once this observation comes to an end, you get caught up in the pain again.
If you are serious about this enquiry, if your mind, heart, emotions and life itself all come together and 'functionise' vicara, then you have tremendous energy which is derived from the non-dissipation of the mind. There is nothing that you cannot achieve. Use whatever pleasure and pain life brings you every day for your enquiry, and if you are sincere and earnest about it, then there is not a single moment in your life when this enquiry need be really absent. For example, when you are singing, can you forget about everybody else and listen to your voice? How and where does it
originate? How does it feel inside? Even as you are listening you, can look at the process of listening - not the anatomical and physiological aspects, but how listening takes place. If, while you are singing, you are merely observing the singing, neither thinking about it, analysing it nor examining it, it is a beautiful sensation. So, whatever the experience - singing, walking, driving, eating or having a shower - you can utilise it for pure awareness or vicara.
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