Sunday 9 June 2013

Patañjali's yogasūtra 1:25 Īśvara the omniscient



तत्र निरतिशयं सर्वज्ञबीजम् 

tatra niratiśayam sarvajña bījam

In Him* is the highest limit of omniscience

तत्र निरतिशयं सर्वज्ञ+बीजम् 

In the previous sūtra we dwelled on the who/what Īśvara is. Now we consider his/her/its special characteristics. In this sūtra Patañjali says that in Īśvara we find a level of omniscience that is unsurpassed. 

तत्र - lit. there; in Īśvara
निरतिशयं adj; (निर् अति शी) unsurpassed  
सर्वज्ञबीजम् ṣaṣṭhī tatpuruṣa; the seed of omniscience




*Him is used for simplicity of translation here, as well as the undeniable fact that the spiritual principle puruṣa is conceived of as male and prakṛti, the material principle as female in sāṃkhya. However in actuality, in the Hindu tradition alone we have definitions of the Divine as female as well as the gender-less Brahman.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Rohini -
You are doing a great good thing - readers will come along -
Thank you -
Wayne