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PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS
produce a dull, neutral mood, equally joyless and sorrowless. The fact that this is not so is a striking proof that intense happiness, the joy of the Atman, is always within us; that it can be released at any time by breaking down the barriers of desire and fear which we have built around it. How, otherwise, could we be so happy without any apparent reason?
कायेन्द्रियसिद्धिरशुद्धिक्षयात्तपसः ॥४३॥ 43. As the result of mojhfication, impurities are removed.
Then special powers come to the body and the sense
organs. The practice of self-discipline refines our sense-perceptions and even our physical substance until we become aware of latent psychic powers, such as the power of clairvoyance, telepathy, levitation, etc.
स्वाध्यायादिष्टदेवतासम्प्रयोगः ॥४४॥ 44. As the result of study, one obtains the vision of that
aspect of God which one has chosen to worship. As we have already noted (chapter II, aphorism I), Patanjali means by “study'not only the reading of the scriptures but also the practice of making japam, that is, repeating the mantram (the holy name of a chosen aspect of God) which your teacher has given you at the time of your initiation (I, 27-29). It is to the practice of japam that Patanjali here specifically refers.
समाधिसिद्धिरीश्वरप्रणिधानात् ॥४५॥ 45. As the result of devotion to God, one achieves samadhi.
This, and the preceding aphorism, both refer to what is called bhakti yoga. We have already mentioned these yogas, or paths to union with God. Now, for the sake of clarity, it will be well to define the four which are most important.
