Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book II · 12 of 55 · tr. Charles Johnston
Sutra 12
The burden of bondage to sorrow has its root in these hindrances. It will be felt in this life, or in a life not yet manifested. The burden of bondage to sorrow has its root in the darkness of unwisdom, in selfishness, in lust, in hate, in attachment to sensation. All these are, in the last analysis, absorption in the psychical self; and this means sorrow, because it means the sense of separateness, and this means jarring discord and inevitable death. But the psychical self will breed a new psychical self, in a new birth, and so new sorrows in a life not yet manifest.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Separation From Sourcesoteriology
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The passage explicitly states that absorption in the psychical self means sorrow because it means 'the sense of separateness,' naming the felt exile from one's true nature as the root of suffering.
All passages →Soul Migrationcosmology
The transmigration of the soul across lives.
The text explicitly states that 'the psychical self will breed a new psychical self, in a new birth', describing transmigration as a core mechanism of bondage.
All passages →Related passages · 8 parallels
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Cic .
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Shared concept: Separation From Source — The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive. (derived)
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