Chapter 1 - Meditative Absorption
प्रथमः समाधिपादः prathamaḥ samādhi-pādaḥ
“The experience of Absolute Unity”
Jai Guru Dev! Om Namah Shivaya!
{Commentators and authors of these traditional text often begin with an invocation (nandi-sloka) to their personal deity.}
The purpose of this chapter, put in the simplest of terms, is for those who are already adept at stages of concentration and meditation. In the West we are somewhat institutionalised and prefer our approaches to be formatted as measurable scales of the collection of knowledge in stages, over time. Here Patanjali’s structure is more outreach, lateral and aware that some aspirants may have natural or karmic tendencies that allow them to focus, concentration or meditate without prior practices of renunciation, sutras studies or austerities. In other words, some people can just meditate so they may not need asana, pranayama and basic ideals of how to conduct one’s own spiritual life and such like.
Patanjali does return to these experiences and instructions again in chapters 3 and 4 in more detail.
Chapter 1
Summary
51 Sutras: concentration / absorption and their spiritual uses.
Introduction and defining yoga. 1-2
Two possible options for awareness. 3-4
A description of the vrttis. 5-11
How to control the vrttis. 12-16
The two layers of Samadhi. 17-18
The various levels of attainment, the aptitude and conviction needed, and Isvara 19-24.
Yogis with unlimited knowledge of God 25-26
Meditation on the meaning of OM chanting of Isvara in word Om. 27-29
The distractions of the mind and their effects. 30-31
Prescribes meditation examples to combat distractions. 32-40
Samapatti (the universal form of yoga) is introduced and it's varieties. 41-45
Their fruits. 46-48 and object. 49
Discussion on Samprajnata-samadhi (conscious meditation - still aware of thought subject/object) and the final stage of asamprajnata (spiritual ecstasy).
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