Friday, 18 January 2013

Patañjali's yogasūtra 1:14

{1:14} 

स तु दीर्घकालनैरन्तर्यसत्कारासेवितो दृढभूमिः 
sa tu dīrgha kāla nairantaryasatkārāsevito dṛḍhabhūmi

स: तु दीर्घ काल नैरन्तर्य  सत्कारः आसेवितः दृढ+भूमिः 

It (abhyāsa)* becomes firmly grounded [in being] continued for a long time, without interruption and with reverent devotion.

स: - That; masc. nominative singular of pronoun तत्
तु - indeed, verily; indeclinable
दीर्घ - very long; adjective
काल - time; era; masc. noun 
नैरन्तर्य uninterrupted, without a gap 
सत्कारः - reverence, devotion, earnestness
आसेवितः - practised assiduously; past participle from āsev (1Ā)
दृढ - firm, fixed, strong, resolute, established
भूमिः - ground

In order for the practitioner of yoga to be firmly established on the path of yoga, three conditions need to be fulfilled, as outlined in this sūtra:

a) it must be practised for a long time
b) it must be uninterrupted
c) the endeavour must be accompanied by devotion, in a spirit of reverence

* BKS Iyengar reads this as: 

Long, uninterrupted, alert practice is the firm foundation (for restraining the fluctuations). 

While the sentence is perfectly valid, I don't agree with his translation because भूमिः which he is reading as foundation (that's fine) is a feminine noun. So it would have  been सा instead of सः at the beginning of the sūtra

2 comments:

author said...

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Anonymous said...

Rohini -
the thought occurs to me today that you are somehow perfectly poised to be very useful in this work - somehow, I have to say, for from the sociological, political, historical factorings, you'd hardly think so -- but then, it is precisely your strength, it seems, again somehow which I don't understand, that you are destined to be heard, listened to.
That's my hunch.
the sound vocable नैरन्तर्य - I believe carries a great weight- I believe it means that there will not be a moment in this practice that is not at some level continuous-this will require that the work go on even in "sleep" - at every level, there will be the awareness that abhyAsa is going on.
I would love to be more concrete in my comments, but my major purpose is to cheer you on and to caution a patience, especially in that we have here a reminder that this proces is carried on over a long period of time -
You are gathering an audience for your work. I hope I can be of some service in this regard.
Respects.
Wayne