Yoga Sutra 2.32 purity, contentment, tapas, self-study, and devotion to the Lord
Sūtra II.32
Purity, contentment, tapas, self-study, and devotion to the Lord are the observances
Of these, external purity is attained by using earths and such like, and by purity of diet and so on also. The internal is washing away stains of the mind.
Purity, contentment, tapas, self-study, and devotion to the Lord, are the observances. Of these, external purity is attained by using earths and such-like, this last phrase indicating water, and by purity of diet and so on, meaning foods such as butter and milk; the word also implies purity in seeing and listening.
This is the external purity. Now the internal, namely washing away stains of the mind such as desire and anger, by the waters of meditation (bhāvanā) on their opposites.
Contentment is being satisfied with the resources at hand and so not desiring more.
As a result of the satisfaction with what is at hand, even though there may be some lack, he has the feeling, ‘It is enough.’
Tapas is endurance of the opposites. The opposites are hunger and thirst, heat and cold, standing and sitting, complete silence and merely verbal silence. Vows are undertaken by them in accordance with their circumstances, (forms of fasting like) kṛcchra, cāndrāyāna, and sāntapana and others.
Tapas is endurance of the opposites. The opposites are hunger and thirst, the desire to eat and desire to drink. To endure them is tapas, either as they occur naturally, or stimulated by reducing food and drink. heat and cold, either not relieved at all or relieved only partially; standing and sitting: in the tradition it says, ‘Let him stand during the day and sit at night’ (Gaut. Dh. Sū. 3.8.6., Manu XI.225 paraphrased); complete silence and merely verbal silence: in complete silence, nothing like hand-signs is allowed, whereas in the limited silence, indications by hands, etc., are permitted and it is only actual speech that is banned. Vows are undertaken by them by the yogin-s according to their circumstances, consistent with what is possible for them. To rule out what (abnormal forms of tapas) would be inconsistent with, for instance, the homa rite, or with their duties, he adds: according to their circumstances.
What are these vows? kṛcchra, for instance in the form sacred to Prajāpati: ‘let him for three days eat once in the morning, for three days once in the evening, for three days live on unsolicited alms, and for three days fast’ (Manu XI.212); cāndrāyāna: such as yavamadhya (‘grain-waist’, beginning with one mouthful a day and increasing by one mouthful up to fifteen and then reducing again), or pipīlikāmadhya (‘ant-waist’, beginning with fifteen and reducing to one and then) ‘one by one let him increase his food’ as the tradition says (Manu XI.217, 218); sāntapana: ‘living on the urine of cows, cow dung, milk, sour milk, clarified butter and a decoction of kuśa grass, and fasting during one (day and) night, that is called sāntapana kṛcchra’ (Manu XI.213). When this has been done three times it is a Great Sāntapana. The words and others are to include such fasts as Parāka (twelve days).
Svādhyāya (self study) is study of works on release (mokṣa-śāstra) or repetition of praṇava (OM).
Svādhyāya (self study) is study of works on release (mokṣa-śāstra) such as the Upaniṣad-s.
(Break in the MS)
… (from devotion to God, as it has been said in I.29:) ‘Realization of the separate consciousness and absence of obstacles.’
(The lost portion of the text must cover repetition of OM as one of the methods of svādhyāya, a method stressed by the commentator in sūtras I.27–29, and his comments on devotion to the Lord, which may have been combined with the OM repetition. The practices have already appeared in the first sūtra of this Second Part, and were commented upon there. The comments in this place need not necessarily have been brief, for the remarks on tapas, which appear in the same place and also here, are quite different, though the Vyāsa here is short. Tr.)
To these restraints and observances –