1) Apraaptasya praapanam yogah
Gaining of the not yet gained is called yogah. Used with the word ksemah = praaptasya raksanam, protection of what has been procured, gained.
Krsna says in the Bhagavadgita, “ as you take Sharanam Refuge- Offence-Deffence-Ego death in Me I will take care of all your yogah-ksemas when, as a Jijnaasuh = knowledge devotee = Desirous of Self knowledge through listening to Vedanta, you relax in trust in me [Isvarah],” Yogaksemam vahamyaham.
2) Yuktaahaara vihaarashca yukta cheshtasya karmasu
Yuktasvaptaanubodhashcha yogo bhavati dukhahaa
Conscious prayerful moderation (in all things) listed here, one’s activities and consumption of food and drink, the same in activities of the limbs 5 Karmendriyas . Balance = not too much or too little of sleep. This moderate balanced living is called yogah by the wise and is the destruction of sorrow, the giver of peace in a relative sense.
3) Yogah karmasu kaushalam
Alert prayerful discretion in any given contextual situation of time, place and circumstance. Making decisions to do, not to do or to do differently; to say, not to say or to say differently; based on universal values of truth, non-injury, etc. This is called Yogah. Making conscious prayerful decisions based on and in harmony with universal values called Dharmah.
It’s not what you say but how you say it that makes all the difference in the world! Always inform others of your feelings and never blame. This is basic ahimsaa, non-injury by word, and this is yogah as kaushalam. This discipline will naturally spread to all other facets of ones daily prayerful transactions.
4) Samachittatvam is yogah
This is the attitude of glad, cheerful, graceful, non-resistant reception of all experiences due to the understanding that all that comes to one from the laws of karma are coming from the hands of Isvara—the infinite intelligent being, the non-separate material-knowledge cause of the whole universe. With this attitude, one is able to entertain a spirit or demeanor of Samachittatvam = equanimity in all situations of any degree of pain or pleasure. This samatvam, equanimity, is called yogah. A life style that helps one attain relative and ultimately absolute Samachittatvam is what is given in Sama Yogah.
Sukha dukhe same krtvaa, laabhaalaabhau jayaajayau. Due to clear knowledge of Isvara as karma phala daataa, The giver of the fruits of all ones actions,one is able to absorb or assimilate, prayerfully accept all experiences, both pleasurable and painful in any degree, without resistance thus without reaction. What experiences? Gain and loss, accomplishment and failure. All opposites are received gracefully and thus one doesn’t entertain reaction. Therefore one’s heart is peaceful.
Nityam cha samachittatvam ishtaanishtopapattishu. Nityam = always. Samachittatvam = abiding in effortless equanimity of heart-mind. In what situations? When one is experiencing a pleasant or painful situation in any degree. This abiding equanimity is called yogah. This attitude of mind, equanimity, freedom from reaction, is gained through the clear knowledge of Isvara as the karmaadhyaksa and the karma phala daataa, the presiding deity over the laws of cause and effect, and the one who gives all results to the experiencer.
When I live a life of yogah for the sake of gaining moksah, gaining self-knowledge, I know I have to remove all obstacles to gain that knowledge; so I need to gather all the qualifications of samatvam,equanimity, etc. This way of life is called kriyaa yogah or karma yogah. Here yogah means an attitude of glad acceptance of all that comes to me in my destiny, which is whatever comes to me, whatever I am experiencing now, from my karma. And karma = the cause-effect laws that are impersonal and give us pain and pleasure in differing degrees. You adopt a life of prayerful antaranga saadhanas—knowledge and disciplines related to inner psychological situations and how one prayerfully manages these—and bahiranga saadhanas—external disciplines, alertness to words, etc., related to external situations and how one acts and responds. Spiritual growth with self-knowledge, gained through listening to Vedanta, is the main goal. Self-knowledge is moksah, which means freedom from sorrow and becoming.
5) The word yogah is derived from three verbal roots in Sanskrit:
5.1) Yuja sanyamane: Alert prayerful discipline of the senses and heart-mind. Emotional management, any type of tapas like the yamas and niyamas, alertly following the value of values, commonsense ethics, etc.
5.2) Yuja yoge: Any conscious prayerful discipline of body-mind that helps one to grow emotionally, spiritually or cognitively. Prayerful moderation in all one’s words and activities.
Note: Sometimes yogah means sangatih or topic. Like a topic of a chapter in Bhagavadgita. The first chapter is called Arjuna-vishaada yogah, the chapter covering the topic of Arjuna’s sorrow.
5.3) Yuja samaadhau: Resolution of the seer-seen difference, purely through knowing that mithya is dependent existence and I is Self-existent. Like seeing the wave, and without removing it, knowing that it is nothing but water uninvolved and unaffected by the wave, which is mithyaa = having no independent existence apart from Water.
Mithyaa does not mean , Delusion, Illusion, Magic , False.Sama = equal, samam-brahma. Oneness-seeing/knowing and aa = completely; dhi = buddhih, intellect relaxed in heart without holding on to concepts. All concepts immediately known as mithyaa, where this doubt-free knowledge abides of Aham idam sarvam = All this is brahman—but I is not this universe. All experiences are brahmaatmaa, but brahmaatmaa is not an experience.
This is aparoksha-jnaanan, immediate knowledge, samaadhi and not an experience. All experiences are samaadhi and samaadhi is not an experience. How samaadhi is popularly known is going into a non-dual state of experience and coming out. This is called blind, ignorant resolution or andha-samaadhi in traditional texts. This Blind Samaadhi is all that Patanjali arrives at in His yoga Sutras and this Samaadhi without knowledge will never give mokshah = freedom from becoming.
In the light of Vedanta we can interpret yoga sutras definition of Yogah as Chitta vrtti nirodhah, Understanding that all Thoughts-body-mind world is Aatmaa but Aatmaa is not the body mind world nor is involved or affected by the body mind world , and for this he says Tadaa drastuh (saaksini in immediate knowledge of I-Unwitnessed-witness awareness); svaroope (aatmani in the nature of limitless self) and avasthaanam (= Abiding effortlessly, without vagueness, doubt or error) is yogah. This Yogah would be Jnaana Samaadhih timeless resolution in clear knowledge, Clear descrimination that the essencial I is limitless existence, awarness,fullness in and through all states of experiences but I is not a state and is not involved or affected by any state of experience. In this Immediate knowledge The known and unknown world including ones Body-mind complex is also Immediately known.. seen as Mithyaa = Dependent Existance having no independent existence apart from ones essential limitless nature. This is purely cognitive and has nothing to do with some seen-gone, time bound experience.
Note that the Patanjali Yoga Sutras are a speculative philosophy, Called technically Sa-Isvara-Saakhyah, concluding that Jiva and Ishvara are different, Jiva and Jagat are different and Jivas are many and different from each other. This philosophy, as in the case of any philosophy remaining within Cause-Effect logical thinking obviously will not produce limitless= Causeless-Effectless-self knowledge and there for will not give mokshah.
Here the Freedom is taken to interpret these sutras in the light of Vedanta which is Moksha Shaastram the appropriate adequate means of knowledge to produce immediate self knowledge in the listener. This immediate self knowledge that I am full and complete here and now is Mokshah and is what is called Parama purushaarthah the absolute sumum bonum of human existence.
Sutra Three.
Tadaa drastuh swaroope avasthaanam
This is the goal of all yoga. Relaxing in the nature of the seer Saakshi chaitanyam as sat chit aananda, unopposed to the seen-gone mithya.
That is ever knowing that all waves (= seen-gone jagat-world) are water, but water (=sat chit ananda) is never involved or affected by the waves. Nirodhatvam “negation” is purely jnaanam,self-knowledge, which is produced by shaastra pramaanam. You "negate" the wave. How? By seeing/knowing that it’s nothing but water. In this there is no process of doing or thinking; it is purely cognitive.
In Sanskrit this “negation” is called baadhitaanuvrttih, and it is self-evident knowledge of the nature of the knower that isin and through all experiences. The nature of the experiencer is never lost. Baadhitaa meaning is resolved immediately, effortlessly in aham brahmaasmi. All experiences are I, brahman. But brahman is not an experience. Nesting in the ness, with or without vikalpa, makes no difference.
Kenopanishad = Bodham pratibodha viditam matam amrtatvam hi vindate.
In each cognition, self known is only aham brahmaasmi. With or without mithyaa "as though" = IVA vikalpas = Form, name and functions. Mithyaa = Having no independent existence apart from the self-existent, undeniable satyam Brahman, which is I.
Translation from original Sanskrit and commentary by Swami Vagishananda Saraswati.
Copyright, Swami Vagishananda Saraswati