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Yoga-sūtra with Vyāsa's bhāṣya · 1.37
36 vītarāgaviṣayaṃ vā cittam
Translation. Or, the mind (citta), whose object (viṣaya) is [the mind of] one free from passion (vītarāga), [reaches the condition of steadiness (sthitipada)].
Grammar check: 3 words pass / 0 flagged / 0 beyond the checkerPāṇini-verified
Every word's claimed grammar is re-derived with vidyut-prakriya, software implementing Pāṇini's rules. Flags are shown, never hidden; some are the text taking epic or Vedic liberties the classical rules do not generate.
Word by word
| surface | lemma | grammar |
| vītarāgaviṣayam | vītarāgaviṣaya | pass |
| vā | vā | pass |
| cittam | citta | pass |
How the commentary settled it
Where the verse alone is ambiguous, the reading follows Vyāsa's commentary; the deciding lines are quoted below each decision.
Analyze vītarāgaviṣaya as a bahuvrīhi qualifying cittam: “whose object is [the mind of] one free from passion,” rather than as an independent accusative expression or a simple tatpuruṣa.→ Bahuvrīhi qualifying the nominative cittam.
ys [1]vītarāgacittālambanoparaktaṃ vā yoginaś cittaṃ sthitipadaṃ labhata iti.
Or the yogin’s mind, colored by the support consisting in the mind of one free from passion, attains the condition of steadiness.
Understand viṣaya as a meditative object or support (ālambana). More specifically, Vyāsa interprets the object not merely as the detached person but as that person’s mind, expressed by vītarāgacitta.→ The mind of one free from passion as the meditative object/support.
ys [1]vītarāgacittālambanoparaktaṃ vā yoginaś cittam
The yogin’s mind is colored by the support consisting in the mind of one free from passion.
Take vītarāgaviṣayam and cittam as neuter nominative singular, not accusative singular. In the commentary yoginaś cittam is the subject that attains, while sthitipadam is what it attains.→ Nominative singular.
ys [1]yoginaś cittaṃ sthitipadaṃ labhata iti.
The yogin’s mind attains the condition of steadiness. The edition’s labhata is apparently defective for labhate.
Supply an inherited predicate concerning steadiness: the mind “reaches the condition of steadiness.” The sūtra is elliptical, but the commentary expressly states this result.→ Supply “reaches the condition of steadiness.”
ys [1]vītarāgacittālambanoparaktaṃ vā yoginaś cittaṃ sthitipadaṃ labhata iti.
The yogin’s mind, thus colored by its support, reaches the condition of steadiness. The printed labhata is likely a typo or defective reading for labhate.
Render vītarāga technically as “one free from passion” rather than literally through rāga’s color imagery. The inner expression describes a person from whom passion or attachment has departed.
→ One free from passion (vītarāga).
Take vā as the disjunctive indeclinable “or,” introducing an alternative means of steadiness, not as the homonymous feminine nominal found in some dictionary entries.
→ Disjunctive indeclinable “or.”
Vyāsa's commentary on this unit
1vītarāgacittālambanoparaktaṃ vā yoginaś cittaṃ sthitipadaṃ labhata iti.
21.37
3svapnanidrājñānālambanaṃ vā