Yoga s

Verses, Translation and Commentary 183
the clarifying influences of material nature, influences from which he took
assistance all along.
In advanced yoga, or kriyā yoga, one has to maintain the distinction between
oneself and the perceiving instruments of the subtle body, even through
initially one must take help from those truth-yielding perceptions.
Adhiṣṭhātṛtvaṁ means complete or full disaffection from the subtle influence
of material nature, even from the clarifying powers which are so helpful.
Verse 51
tÖEraGyadip dae;vIj]ye kEvLym!
tadvairāgyāt api doṣabījakṣaye kaivalyam
tadvairāgyāt = tad (tat) – that + vairāgyāt – from a lack of interest; api –
also, even; doṣabījakṣaye = doṣa – fault, defect + bīja – seed, origin,
source + kṣaye – on elimination; kaivalyam – the absolute isolation of the
self from what is lower than itself, isolation of the self from the lower
psyche of itself.
By a lack of interest, even to that
(discrimination between the clarifying mundane energy
and the self) when the cause of that defect is eliminated,
the absolute isolation of the self from the lower psyche of itself,
is achieved.
Commentary:
Kaivalyam, which is a popular word in yoga and meditation circles, is greatly
mistranslated and misinterpreted. Its meaning is not that the yogi would
become one with God. For Patañjali, the master of yoga, never says that in
these verses. Kaivalya is the isolation of the self from its lower psyche, such that
the subtle mundane instruments of the psyche are separated from the self or
atma. The atma becomes freed from it’s reliance to those useful and
domineering subtle tools.
Previously Śrī Patañjali described kaivalyam in this way:
tad abhāvāt saṁyogā abhāvaḥ
hānaṁ taddṛśeḥ kaivalyam
“The elimination of the conjunction which results from the
elimination of that spiritual ignorance is the withdrawal that is the
total separation of the perceiver from the mundane psychology.”
(Yoga Sūtra 2.25)
It is amazing how so many translators, following the one-ness craze
completely distorted Śrī Patañjali by giving so many misleading and totally outof-context
meanings for the term kaivalyam. Vaman Shivram Apte in his
practical Sanskrit-English dictionary gives the following plain meaning for these
terms; perfect isolation, soleness, exclusiveness, individuality, detachment of
the soul from matter, identification with the Supreme Spirit, final
emancipation or beatitude.