Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book II · 17 of 55 · tr. Charles Johnston
Sutra 17
The cause of what is to be warded off, is the absorption of the Seer in things seen. Here again we have the fundamental idea of the Sankhya, which is the intellectual counterpart of the Yoga system. The cause of what is to be warded off, the root of misery, is the absorption of consciousness in the psychical man and the things which beguile the psychical man. The cure is liberation.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Cosmic Dualismtheology
Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.
The text contrasts the cause of misery (absorption in things seen) with the cure (liberation).
All passages →Self Knowledgesoteriology
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
The passage identifies the root cause of misery as the absorption of consciousness in the psychical man, implying a failure to know one's true nature.
All passages →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 'absorption of the Seer in things seen' is described as the root of misery — a felt exile of pure consciousness from its own nature, entangled in the psychical and its beguilements.
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