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.
