Yogasutra – Part 4 – Kaivalya-pāda – Liberation – Verse 4.4   «   »

Yogasutra – Part 4 – Kaivalya-pāda – Liberation – Verse 4.4   «   »

निर्माणचित्तान्यस्मितामात्रात् ॥ ४.४॥

nirmāṇacittānyasmitāmātrāt .. 4.4..

4. From egoism alone proceed the created minds.

Commentary on Sri Patanjali Yogasutra by Swami Vivekananda

The theory of Karma is that we suffer for our good or bad deeds, and the whole scope of philosophy is to reach the glory of man. All the scriptures sing the glory of man, of the soul, and then, in the same breath, they preach Karma. A good deed brings such a result, and a bad deed such another, but if the soul can be acted upon by a good or a bad deed, the soul amounts to nothing. Bad deeds put a bar to the manifestation of the nature of the Purusha; good deeds take the obstacles off, and the glory of the Purusha becomes manifest. The Purusha itself is never changed. Whatever you do never destroys your own glory, your own nature, because the soul cannot be acted upon by anything, only a veil is spread before it, hiding its perfection.

With a view to exhausting their Karma quickly, Yogis create Kāya-vyuha, or groups of bodies, in which to work it out. For all these bodies they create minds from egoism. These are called “created minds”, in contradistinction to their original minds.


Yogasutra – Verse 4.4 – Yogasutra-4.4-nirmāṇacittānyasmitāmātrāt – In Sanskrit with English Transliteration, Translation, Meaning and Commentary by Swami Vivekananda – Yogasutra-4-4