Vibhuti Pada Sutra 15 The Principle of Uncertainty

Vibhuti Pada

Sutra 15

The Principle of Uncertainty?

Shanta udita avyapadeshya dharmanupati dharmi

Literal Meaning

An individual displays particular characteristic conditions at different points of time. Every entity in the universe is the ground for the manifestation of innumerable possible conditions. Some of the conditions arose and became manifest in the past and have dissolved now (‘shanta’). Some are emergent (‘udita’). Some have yet to arise and become manifest (‘avyapadeshya’). Every entity has a life in the world of nature and no entity exists without a precedent and the present condition and no entity is out of the orbit of the future change.

This Sutra forms the key-note of Patanjali’s basic philosophy which can be described as the philosophy of the Being and Becoming. “Being’ is referred to as ‘Satvada’ and ‘Becoming as ‘Parinamavada’. It suggests the problematic of ‘Chance or Choice’. ‘Being is the totality of life, which is classified into three basic tendencies or directions of evolvement, termed as ‘sattva’, ‘rajas’, and ‘tamas’. At the beginning, or at the stage of inception, they are in an inert and balanced state. When life begins to manifest as an organism or as a universe, there is a perturbance in this state of inertia or balance and the three tendencies emerge and begin to act as life. Every entity exhibits the activity of the three basic tendencies in various proportions of existence at a given point of time. The proportion of the three tendencies in a given entity varies at different points of time and we have different combinations of them at different stages of their evolution. Some combinations were manifest in the past and unavailable now for observation. They are referred to here as ‘shanta’ that is ‘quiet’. Some have emerged on the ‘event-horizon’ and are active at the present moment. These are referred to as ‘udita’ that is ‘arisen’. The present state of their combination is conducive to innumerable types of consequences which are all possible. Which of those possibilities will materialize is unpredictable now. Every living entity is subject to this law(‘dharma’) of change. Although change is the law, there is no certainty that can determine which possible direction of evolution will emerge.

It is precisely the moment of choice at the level of the individual psychology and it is this moment that the yogi is expected to recognize and seize. The point of Yogadarshan is to bring the yogi to the level of enlightenment where he is able to penetrate the moment of choice and lead in the direction of evolution, avoid temptation, examine his potential and his objective and give a direction to the future. The past is gone below the horizon(shanta), and the present is known(udita); the future has not materialized and the yogi has the choice.

Yogadarshan is about knowing the present and the past. The past has lessons and knowledge and the present has possibilities.

The master is at a still higher level. He has nothing to achieve for himself. He exists for the humanity. He can look at the present and the past objectively and can see the possibilities which the individual seeker cannot sometimes see because of his personal involvement and limited perspective. At such moments a master can guide and direct or influence the course of the life of an individual who is blind to certain aspects of his personality and potentialities. There are moments when it is actually  the ‘karma’ which intercepts the path and leads the person astray and we call it fate. Wherever and whenever we are at the point of choice we have to make it a conscious choice. Chance rules above choice in the larger perspective, but within the range of what is predictable, there should be the freedom of conscious choice.  What we have to give up is still a possibility that may come, if not now, sometimes in future, and if not in this life-time, perhaps in another life-time. Life is inexhaustible.