Now an exposition of yoga:
Yoga is the inhibition of the modifications of the mind.
Then the Seer is established in his own essential and fundamental nature.
The modifications of the mind are right knowledge, wrong knowledge, fancy, sleep, and memory.
Right knowledge is direct cognition, inference or testimony; wrong knowledge is a false conception.
An image conjured up by words, without any substance behind it is a fancy.
That modification of the mind which is based on an absence of any content it, is sleep.
Memory is not allowing an object which has been experienced to escape.
Their suppression is achieved by persistent practice and non-attachment: this is the effort, for being firmly established – the perfect mastery of desires.
One samadhi is that, which is accompanied by a sense of pure being, the other by the remnant impression left on dropping out of the previous.
Some arrive by cause of birth, the others by hard work and a keen mind. But is closest to those of powerful desire for it.
Isvara is a Spirit, untouched by the afflictions of life, actions and their results: omniscience. Being unconditioned by time, he even instructs the Ancients.
His designator is "Om".
[From the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali]
