tataḥ prātibha-śrāvaṇa-vedanādarśāsvāda-vārttā jāyante
tataḥ prātibha-śrāvaṇa-vedanā-ādarśa-āsvāda-vārttāḥ jāyante
“Then intuitive insight, hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting, living, are born.”

Patañjali’s language is condensed, for the most part using no verbs,* and he makes ample use of Sanskrit compound constructions, which are somewhat different than anything we have in English. Our English compounds are generally simple, the meaning transparent, like “automobile” or “homemaker.” In Sanskrit, compounds can combine many words together, and the relationship between the words is intuited, because the grammatical endings are dropped. This can be confusing but is also wonderful. Sanskrit compounds, as well as Sanskrit words, offer multiple meanings and can, paradoxically, hold more than one meaning at once. Commentaries provide context and tools to understanding but never do substitute for the original.

On this website, at the top of each sūtra entry, I write a transliteration of the Sanskrit in two forms, one as the sounds would be chanted (when Sanskrit is spoken or chanted, sounds combine, like the English “it is” becoming “it’s”–the complex rules for how to combine letters in Sanskrit are called sandhi rules) and the second with the elided letters restored (the sandhi removed). This is the first step in understanding any Sanskrit, to separate the combined sounds and locate the individual words.

In Sutra III.37, we have an adverb (tataḥ, “then”) followed by a long compound (prātibha-śrāvaṇa-vedanā-ādarśa-āsvāda-vārttāḥ) and a verb (jāyante “they are born”).

Tataḥ, “then,” is a connector word, referring back to sūtras III.36 and III.37, which describe how, through saṁyama, one gains knowledge of one’s own citta and personhood. As this knowledge grows and deepens, then [the compound] is born.

What is born? The compound has six elements: prātibha-śrāvaṇa-vedanā-ādarśa-āsvāda-vārttāḥ. The first word, prātibha, already introduced by Patañjali in III.34, is intuition. The next five refer to aspects of physical sensation.** The grammar of the compound can be interpreted as a list of six things or as a list of five things modified by the first word (prātibha). I have translated to include a sense of both. Thus,

“Then intuitive insight, hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting, living, are born.”

The senses themselves, in other words, become charged with intuitive ability, operate on a subtler level, go deep, are more tuned in. How we live is transformed.

The process of saṁyama is one of recognizing and releasing the patterns of our mind (citta).  The last sūtra, III.36, in particular, called us to differentiate our “own purpose” from “other purpose.” It led us to consider our own subjectivity, our own limitations, and the is-ness, the personhood of others. Rohit Mehta describes the release of reactive tendencies and the restoration of Unconditioned Mind as happening in a Moment of Discontinuity. It is not a permanent state. And yet the moment does interrupt habits, especially reactive and defensive tendencies. It connects us to the source of ourselves.

This is a profound experience of surrender and also connectivity. It may be, in the words of the Bhagavad Gītā, an experience of knowing one’s individual self to be the self of all beings: sarvabhūtātmabhūtātmā (a beautiful compound: sarva-bhūta-ātma-bhūta-ātmā , “all-beings-self-being-self”).

The above compound appears in the fifth chapter, in which Arjuna asks Krishna to tell him what is better–to renounce action and strive for knowledge only or to take action. Krishna answers that both ways are good, but that the one who takes action still does practice renunciation. The yogi, the one who is yoked to yoga, says Krishna, both acts and renounces the fruits of action, experiences self and surrenders self:

yogayukto viśuddhātmā
The one who is yoked to yoga, whose self is transformed,
vijitātmā jitendriyaḥ
whose self rejoices, whose senses are liberated,
sarvabhūtātmabhūtātmā
whose self is the self of all beings,
kurvann api na lipyate
acting even [this one is] not corrupted.

naiva kiñcit karomīti
“Not anything I do,” indeed,
yukto manyate tattvavit
the one yoked thinks, the knower of “thatness,”
paśyañśṛṇvan spṛśañjighran
seeing, hearing, touching, smelling
aśnan gacchan svapañśvasan
eating, walking, sleeping, breathing…
—Bhagavad Gītā, V.7-8

Ultimate reality is that we are connected to all living beings. How do we live with a sense of our individual personhood, and with collective personhood, with both the limits of our mind and its possibility? To surrender conscious control, to affirm connection to source and to community, can be a powerful experience.

Last week, two events surprised me with possibility beyond my ordinary sense of things. The first was the Hand’s Off rally held here on the Main Street of Bozeman, MT. I volunteered as a crossing guard. Between two to three thousand people showed up in this very small city, and there was a buoyancy, a kind of thrill of people recognizing their bonds with each other in this project of common interest that is self-governance. No Kings, said many signs, Hand’s off our bodies, off public lands, off Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, off our schools, off our speech, our courts, and our local governments. I felt viscerally, from the vibrations of the chants to the shine of people’s faces, just how collective this endeavor is. It is not my efforts per se that will change things and yet I am part of making the world.

The second was more small-scale. It was a conversation with a fellow worker about a difficult topic–an area of disagreement. I did not want to have a blow-up but I wanted to stand up for group principles. I went into the meeting deciding to practice my own self-awareness as best I could, to ask questions rather than make declarations, to listen more than I talked, to be curious about the other, which–and it seems funny to say–were the principles that I wanted to lift up. So, in a way, I communicated by doing what I wanted to communicate. I was curious about their  personhood, and therefore became more curious about their personhood.

At this time, most of us are experiencing threat and uncertainty. Norms of law, human rights, government agreements, are being broken. Going about our normal routines, we may be already activated, defensive, frightened. Yoga gives us tools both to recognize our own agitation and to discharge trauma patterns. May we as well, with increased sensitivity, create safety for others, grant respect, and provide care. May we proceed with a keen sense of the personhood of all beings.

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*There are only four verbs in the entire text:  in II.52 (“is dispersed”), III.37 (“are born”), IV.16 (“it should be”), and IV.12 (“it exists”)

**Vārttāḥ is generally translated as “smell,”  which makes logical sense, because it would complete the list of five senses. However, “smell” is not given as a translation for vārttāḥ in the Monier-Williams and Apte dictionaries. I have chosen to explore  the sense suggested by the root vṛt, “to be” and have translated vārttā as “living.”

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“What is meant by imparting to sense responses the dimensional quality of intuition? It means that the senses become intensely sensitive capable of responding to even the subtlest vibrations. It indicates that they are able to respond to the subtle and the intangible in the entire field of activity. This shows that when intuition is born then the entire being is permeated with a new quality of cognition and response. There is a refinement and a sensitivity in all aspects of one’s living when the touch of intuition comes.” –Rohit Mehta, Yoga, the Art of Integration, commentary on III.37

Questions:
• Have you had the experience of acting not from your ordinary self but a self that is more connected to other beings, more sensitive, more in tune? Have you felt,  “It is not me who acts”?
• What is the difference between muscling your way through a conversation and allowing space for the other person’s views to unfold? Do you practise listening?
• How do you hold your own purpose and be receptive to the purposes of others at once? (How do you hold boundaries?)
• If you are a teacher or a leader, how do you stay sensitive to the needs of the group–and the individuals in the group?
• Is sensitivity a burden or a gift?