21/07/2026
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2. SamÄdhibhÄvanÄrthaįø„kleÅatanÅ«karaį¹ÄrthaÅ ca.
Transliteration: samÄdhi-bhÄvanÄ-arthaįø„ kleÅa-tanÅ«-karaį¹a-arthaįø„ ca
Pronunciation Guide
ā¢ sa-mÄ-dhi: suh-MAA-dhee (soft "dh" aspirated as in "adhere")
ā¢ bhÄ-va-nÄr-thaįø„: BHAA-vuh-naar-thuh-ha (light "h" echo at the end)
ā¢ kle-Åa: klay-shuh
ā¢ ta-nÅ«: tuh-noo
ā¢ ka-ra-į¹Är-thaÅ: kuh-ruh-naar-thush
ā¢ ca: chuh
Word-by-Word Meaning
ā¢ samÄdhi: Meditative absorption; spiritual ecstasy; state of oneness.
ā¢ bhÄvanÄ: Cultivating; bringing about; manifesting.
ā¢ arthaįø„: For the purpose of; for the sake of.
ā¢ kleÅa: Mental afflictions; causes of suffering; spiritual impurities.
ā¢ tanÅ«: Thin; weak; attenuated.
ā¢ karaį¹a: Making; reducing; doing.
ā¢ ca: And.
Translation: "The practices of Kriya Yoga are for the purpose of cultivating meditative absorption (samÄdhi) and minimizing mental afflictions (kleÅas)."
Commentary: This is the path of SÄdhana (spiritual practice), the path of implementing what we have learned. As in the earlier sÅ«tra, we understood that one must perform Tapas (austere discipline), SvÄdhyÄya (self-study), and ÄŖÅvarapraį¹idhÄna (surrender to the divine). In this sÅ«tra, Maharishi PataƱjali explains that through this, we will gain knowledge, develop intellectual capability, and expand our understanding. We will be able to filter the real from the unreal, the truth from the lower truth. We will be able to stop the disturbances of the Citta (mind-stuff), and this is what will bring SamÄdhi (absorption).
As we enter such a form of SÄdhana (spiritual practice), it also brings about stability. The need and the necessity for the ego to run away, to argue, or to seek some sort of artificial happiness and joy arising from proposing questions and seeking answers to them will go away. In the lower stages of consciousness, the mind behaves like a foolish little child. Think of it like this: it is children who have the need and the necessity to go to their parents and say, "Why is the sky blue? Why can't whales fly in the air? Why should I not talk to a stranger and get tempted by him if he is giving me candy?" It is the nature of the child to be unaware, unsatisfied, and puzzled by a million questions. In the beginning, the beginner practitioner of Yoga (union) is a spiritual child who has an endless amount of curiosity and is puzzled by life.
The į¹į¹£is (seers) and YogÄ«s (accomplished practitioners) operate a little differently than the newborn spiritual child. As you understand and observe, new practitioners of Yoga (union) almost behave like very spoiled children. They do whatever they want. If they do not feel like practicing, they will not practice. If they do not feel like studying, they will not study. If they want to spend extra time inside the bed, they will do that. Now, this is what we have already learned. We are not to blame them; blaming does not help anyone or anything. It is not their soul that is disturbed. It is the impact of the Guį¹as (qualities of nature) upon their Ahaį¹kÄra (ego-identity) which creates certain kinds of Saį¹skÄras (subconscious impressions) that make them react in a certain way.
How many people have you heard of in your life who know that they are doing the wrong thing, but they continue to do it? How many people do you know in your life who know the path to progress, and know that the amount of effort they are putting in is not the right amount of effort, but they still cannot do what is necessary? Many people even wake up at 6 o'clock and know that they must do their Yoga SÄdhana (spiritual practice), but they remain in their bed until 7:00 or 7:30 looking at social media and video platforms. It is the mind that is behaving like a spoiled child, not the soul; we must remember this. That is why we say that the greatest enemy is not on the outside, but on the inside. There is only one real way to overcome this greatest enemy that we have discussed again and again: SÄdhana (spiritual practice). That is what this entire chapter is dedicated to. You must understand that Maharishi PataƱjali, the seer of cosmic reality, the one who has awakened the Åivatattva (divine consciousness principle), has dedicated an entire chapter just to the means of reaching SamÄdhi (absorption)āhow to practice, what to practice, and how to live.
If you are in the middle of darkness in your life, SÄdhana (spiritual practice) is that candle which will bring illumination so that you will be able to see the world properly. If there is a blockage in your house and this blockage stops the light from entering, you must either use a hammer to remove this blockage or create a window where there is no blockage. The hammer of SÄdhana (spiritual practice) allows for light to enter your life. If you are drowning in the ocean, SÄdhana (spiritual practice) is the life jacket which saves you. Only continuous, consistent practice will give you control over the mind.
Your progress in Yoga (union) directly relates to your progress in life, which means that the effort you put into your practice will directly give you proportional results equal to it. I have said several times that perhaps it might be difficult to understand some of the philosophy of Yoga (union) because the higher philosophy is based on SiddhÄnta (established doctrine or ultimate reality). For core principles to be understood, the Guru (spiritual teacher) needs to be of high consciousness and the student needs to be of high intellect. Maybe it might be difficult to understand the abstract SiddhÄnta (established doctrine or ultimate reality) of Yoga (union), but it is not difficult to understand the practical ex*****on of Yoga (union). That is the simplest thing to do. Sit down with your eyes closed in a meditation position; do this mantra. This mantra means this. What is the complication in this? Open your feet; keep your hands next to the hips. Do the movement of the toes with the yogic breathing; bring the focus to the toes. What is the complication to be understood in this? Close your eyes; sit in a meditation position. Do the Viį¹£į¹u MudrÄ (hand gesture of preservation) and do Anuloma Viloma (alternate nostril breathing). Anyone can understand this, right? Even a person of no intelligence can understand it. It just must be implemented through discipline and focus.
Letās do a quick calculation. There are 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a weekā168 hours total. If you remove 8 hours of sleep per night (8 Ć 7 = 56), you have 112 waking hours each week. For round numbers, letās call that 110 hours. If you could use those 110 hours perfectly, you would be living an ideal life. I understand a perfect life is difficult for most people and sustaining that effort is rare. So letās look at practical levels of commitment. If you invest 50% of that ideal effort toward a good life, that is about 55 hours a week. That would be a good lifeānot perfect, but far from poor.
From a yogic point of view, at this point, you cannot be considered committed. But for most folks, the story only downgrades from here, so let's see where most people stand to evaluate their life. Half of those 55 hours needed for the ideal yogic lifeāabout 27ā28 hours a weekāwould not give you the ideal yogic life but would give you an average, mediocre YogÄ«'s (accomplished practitioner's) life: not bad, not exceptional.
Halve it again and you are down to roughly 14 hours a week, which is about two hours a day. That represents a minimal maintenance level, not for advanced yogic practice but for life sustenance. With only those two hours a day, what happens during the rest of the time? You wake with Vį¹ttis (mental whirlpools), the restless ego-mind, and habitual evasions and obstructions, and you carry that state through the remaining hours. Dedicating even a little less than 10% of your waking time each day to disciplined SÄdhana (spiritual practice) can meaningfully improve how the other hours are lived, but surely it isnāt enough to attain SamÄdhi (absorption).
So, you wake up with thoughts, feelings, and emotions. You spend one hour with yourself, taking a shower, cleaning your place, and doing your chores. Then, in the second hour of the day, you begin your Yoga (union) practice until the third hour of the day. Now this has stabilized the mind, controlled your mood, and stabilized the PrÄį¹a (vital breath). Therefore, the impact that it will have on the rest of the day, especially in the first couple of hours, will be great. Your productivity will be great, your creativity will be great, your self-confidence will be great, your mind will be at peace, and your willpower will be big. But as the day progresses, the impact of situations and people will start having an effect on the mind. Slowly but surely, the mental control that you had gained in the morning begins to fade, and your mind again becomes very scattered and runs away. Now, this is just refreshing yourself every day.
What if somebody does not even do this, but rather practices a mere 50% of this already minimal existence? This means not a dedication of two hours every day, but two hours once every two days. Are you really having a lasting impact on the mind? Is your life under control? The first dayāthe day of practiceāis great. For the second day, you keep some of those mental learnings in your life, but the second day is having a greater worldly effect on you. So symbolically, on the first day, you took a quarter-step ahead. But after taking that quarter of a step ahead, you were first forced to stand still, and on the second day, you were pushed a little bit back. Thus, you are always playing a catch-up game.
Now we come to an absolute delusional state: when someone thinks that doing Yoga SÄdhana (spiritual practice) once a week will transform their life. If practice happens only once a week, and for the rest of the week one leads a non-yogic life, what is really happening? Even within that single session, the SÄdhana (spiritual practice) is not having an impact on the rest of the day. It is only trying its best, like a bamboo stick holding up the weight of a crumbling roof to keep it from collapsing. It does not even give enough time to fully observe the mess already created in the room of life, let alone clean it. At most, such practice reveals the obvious, magnum-opus mess that is already there; it does not even reveal the subtler clutter beneath the surface. It is not cleaning anythingāit is only exposing a helpless state. Nobody can come live in that symbolic room. The practice merely shows what exists on the surface, while even more remains hidden below. Yet, there are so many things in that room that must be fully cleaned before it can ever become livable. In that condition, life becomes almost toxic.
We have observed that some people, when you observe their life, are very sweet and loving to all people except for themselves. Meaning, to the world they are trying to give honey and sugar, but for themselves, they are acting like a poisonous snake. We tend to ignore this poisonous snake because people are saying, "Oh, how polite you are, how sweet you are." But inside, the poison is filling up. It reaches the heart; it reaches the throat, where they feel choked in their own poison while being bombarded by all kinds of diseasesāphysical, mental, and energetic. It is only a matter of time before this poison rises even above the throat and starts coming out into the world. The very same people who appeared very sweet will start appearing very toxic. The difference is that first the poison was inside of them, and now the poison is overflowing from them. There will come a point in time when the poison will even rise above the mouth and reach the head, and their minds will also become very toxic.
SÄdhana (spiritual practice) is the only way that, when done continuously and persistently, can absolutely remove the poison of life. The poison of life originates from the impact of the Guį¹as (qualities of nature), the Ahaį¹kÄra (ego-identity), and the Citta (mind-stuff); there simply is no other way. It is the light of SÄdhana (spiritual practice) that will dry this poison out. Think of it like this: a lake in which there is no fresh water turns into poison, and you are told, "Do not enter this lake." How will we make this place a safe place for animals, birds, and children? By turning up the temperature of the sun so that it can dry this lake. That sun is SÄdhana (spiritual practice) based on the knowledge of Yoga (union).
This mind must be controlled. There is a very famous story in the MahÄbhÄrata. BhagavÄn Kį¹į¹£į¹a goes to the leader of the hundred brothers, Duryodhana, and says, "Give the rightful kingdom to your five cousins. They agreed upon the exile, and the exile is over. Give them their kingdom." Duryodhana says, "No, I will not." BhagavÄn Kį¹į¹£į¹a says, "All right, we are not here to argue or to fight. Let's come up with a balanced judgment. Give them five small kingdoms that each brother can rule." Duryodhana again says, "No, I will not give." BhagavÄn Kį¹į¹£į¹a says, "All right, I still believe in the concept of peace. You are being ignorant, you are behaving very attached, and your ego is becoming a giant, but still, we must adopt peace. Give them five villagesāPaƱca GrÄmaāGrÄma means a village. Give them five villages where they can live peacefully." Duryodhana says, "Forget five villages, I will not even give them five steps of land. Forget five steps of land, I will not even give them land equivalent to the tip of a needle to live upon." BhagavÄn Kį¹į¹£į¹a says, "You know that this will bring war; nobody will accept this." Duryodhana says, "Yes, I know that this will bring war." BhagavÄn Kį¹į¹£į¹a says, "Then why do you force it?" Duryodhana replies, "Oh VÄsudeva, I cannot control my Vį¹ttis (mental whirlpools). I am attached to my throne. My ego does not allow me to go beyond myself, and I know that all this form of ignorance will bring my end and the destruction of thousands of people. But owing to the compulsion of my character, I am forced to make the wrong choices in life. What can I do?"
So, you see, it is not just that you could be born as a king or a queen, a rich man, a powerful person, a politician, or a famous person. If you have not controlled your Citta (mind-stuff), it will bring about your destruction sooner or later. Your actions will become the wood on which that fire will be created, in which you will have to burn. Therefore, the SÄdhana (spiritual practice) of Yoga (union) becomes such an important, critical factor. Through the various tools and techniques provided in Yoga (union), we can almost control everything in our life, especially all the afflictions we are absorbed and engaged in. But if there is no effort in SÄdhana (spiritual practice), control will never happen, and if none of that takes place, then how will we enter SamÄdhi (absorption)?
P.S: Sorry I've been missing in action lately! Iāve been completely unavailable because I'm channeling all my energy into my magnum opus: a massive commentary on the Maharishi Patanjali Yoga Sutras that I started back in 2024.
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