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**Chapter Two (Sadhana Pada – Daily Spiritual Practice Foot | Section on Practice)**

A discussion on the practical application of Yogic knowledge and theory. Provides an overview of Yoga Limbs 1-5.

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Accepting pain as help for purification, study of spiritual books and surrender to the Supreme Being constitute Yoga in practice.
They help us minimize obstacles and attain samadhi.
Ignorance, egoism, attachment, hatred and clinging to bodily life are the five obstacles.
Ignorance is the field for the others mentioned after it, whether they be dormant, feeble, intercepted or sustained.
Ignorance is regarding the impermanent as permanent, the impure as pure, the painful as pleasant and the non-Self as the Self.
Egoism is the identification, as it were, of the power of the Seer (Purusa) with that of the instrument of seeing (body-mind).
Attachment is that which follows identification with pleasurable experiences.
Aversion is that which follows identification with painful experiences.
Clinging to life, flowing by its own potency (due to past experience), exists even in the wise.
In subtle form, these obstacles can be destroyed by resolving them back into their primal cause (the ego).
In the active state, they can be destroyed by meditation.
The womb of karmas (actions and reactions) has its root in these obstacles, and the karmas bring experiences in the seen (present) or in the unseen (future) births.
With the existence of the root, there will be fruits also; namely, the births of different species of life, their life spans and experiences.
The karmas bear fruits of pleasure and pain caused by merit and demerit.
To one of discrimination, everything is painful indeed, due to its consequences: the anxiety and fear over losing what is gained; the resulting impressions left in the mind to create renewed cravings; and the constant conflict among the three gunas, which control the mind.
Pain that has not yet come is avoidable.
The cause of that avoidable pain is the union [here meaning Samyogha or work that creates connection with the True Self] of the Seer (Purusa) and the Seen (Prakrti or Nature).
The seen is of the nature of the gunas: illumination, activity and inertia, and consists of the element and seen organs, whose purpose is to provide experiences and liberation to the Purusa.
The stages of the gunas are specific, non-specific, defined and undefinable.
The Seer is nothing but the power of seeing which, although pure, appears through the mind.
The seen exists only for the sake of the Seer.
Although destroyed for the one who has attained liberation, it (the seen) still exists for others, being common to them.
The union of the Owner {Purusa} and Owned {Prakrti} caused the recognition of the nature and powers of both.
The cause of this union [here meaning confusion with the two–Purusa and Prakrti–as synonymous] is ignorance.
Without this ignorance, no such union [meaning confusion with the two as the same] occurs. This is the independence of the Seer.
Uninterrupted discriminative discernment is the method for its [ignorance’s] removal.
One’s wisdom in the final stage is sevenfold.
By the practice of the limbs of Yoga, the impurities dwindle away and there dawns the light of wisdom, leading to discriminative discernment.
The eight limbs of Yoga are
1. Yama (abstinence)
2. Niyama (observance)
3. Asana (posture practice)
4. Pranayama (breath control)
5. Pratyahara (sense withdrawal)
6. Dharana (concentration)
7. Dhyana (meditation)
8. Samadhi (contemplation, absorption, superconscious state).
Yama consists of nonviolence, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence and non-greed.
These great vows are universal, not limited by class, place, time or circumstance.
Niyama consists of purity, contentment, accepting but not causing pain, the study of spiritual books and worship of God (self-surrender).
When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite (positive) ones should be thought of. This is pratipaksa bhavana.
When negative thoughts or acts of such violence, etc. are done, caused to be done or even approved of–whether incited by greed, anger or infatuation–whether indulged in with mild, medium or extreme intensity, they are based on ignorance and bring certain pain. Reflecting upon this is also pratipaksa bhavana.
In the presence of one firmly established in nonviolence, all hostilities cease.
To one established in truthfulness, actions and their results become subservient.
To one established in non-stealing all wealth comes.
By one established in continence, vigor is gained.
When non-greed is confirmed, a thorough illumination of the how and why of one’s birth comes. [When you are not greedy, you become aware of your purpose in life.]
By purification arises disgust for one’s own body and for contact with other bodies.
Moreover, one gains purity of sattva, cheerfulness of mind, onepointedness, mastery over the senses and fitness for Self-realization.
By contentment, supreme joy is gained.
By austerity, impurities of body and senses are destroyed and occult powers gained.
By study of spiritual books comes communion with one’s chosen deity.
By total surrender to God, samadhi is attained.
Asana is steady, comfortable posture.
By lessening the natural tendency for restlessness and by meditating on the infinite, posture is mastered.
Thereafter, one is not disturbed by the dualities.
That (firm posture) being acquired, the movements of inhalation and exhalation should be controlled. This is pranayama.
The modifications of the life-breath are either external, internal or stationary. They are to be regulated by space, time and number and are either long or short.
There is a fourth kind of pranayama that occurs during concentration on an internal or external object.
As its result, the veil over the inner light is destroyed.
And the mind becomes fit for concentration.
When the senses withdraw themselves from the objects and imitate, as it were, the nature of the mind-stuff, this is pratyaharah.
Then follows supreme mastery over the senses.