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Sutras 1.27-28 of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,

translated and with commentary by Vasyl Vernyhora


   Sutras 1.27-28—Pranava-Om̐ and the practice of meditation

   1.27 The word (vācaka) for Him (tasya) is Pranava (praṇava), [that is, Om̐].

   The reflection of Pranava on the physical plane of the Universe is the cosmic microwave background radiation (or relic radiation), which corresponds to the spectrum of a blackbody with a temperature of 2.7 Kelvin (-270.5°C). This is the primordial "sound" that emerged at the creation of the world and now permeates the entire Universe almost uniformly. In Hinduism, the sound of Om̐ is a cross between the vowel "o", the consonant "m", and the nasal sound "m̐", and is reminiscent of the sound of a Tibetan bowl or a Christian bell.

   1.28. [Those who have finally understood the inner connection between Pranava and Ishvara will perform] the repetition (japa) of this (tad) [Om̐ and] comprehend (bhāvana) its (tad) meaning (artha).

   It's possible that in ancient times, the word "japa" signified not the repetition of a mantra, but a spiritual practice similar to samadhi. This assumption is supported by the similar etymology of the Sanskrit word "japa" and the English word "meditation". It's also worth noting that the word "dhyana" in ancient times meant "clairvoyant insight" (as did the words "vipassana"/"vipashyana" and "samyama" at the same time).

   The Sanskrit word "japa" (जप, japa) comes from the root "jap-", which means "to whisper, repeat internally, mutter". Here, one can assume that the words "to repeat internally" could refer, for example, to the practice of constantly returning (repeating the same internal action) the mind to one-pointed concentration after yet another distraction. The other meanings listed above could have arisen from the name of this action, through a distorted reinterpretation of its meaning. The etymology of the word "meditation" will be given below.

   In the Old Testament, the word "haga" (Hebrew: הגה), from which the modern word "meditation" is ultimately derived, means not only to sigh or whisper, but also to ponder, to mentally contemplate. When the Torah (i.e., the first five books of the Bible – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) was translated into Greek, the word "haga" was translated as "melete". In the Latin Bible, the word "haga"/"melete" was translated as "meditatio". The English word "meditation" (meditation, meditate) is derived from the Latin word "meditatio", more precisely from the verb "meditari", which in various contexts means "to ponder", "to mentally contemplate", "to develop ideas", but its primary meaning in Latin is "to think/reflect".

   The use of the term "meditatio" to refer to one part of the step-by-step process of mental contemplation is first found in the 12th century by the Carthusian monk Guigo II , sometimes called Guy or "Angelic", who was the 9th Prior of the Grande Chartreuse monastery from 1174 to 1180, in his most famous book, "Scala Claustralium" ("Monks' Staircase"), also known as the "Scala paradise" ("Paradise Staircase") and "Epistola de vita contemplative" ("Letter on the Contemplative Life", which is the book's subtitle). Guigo II used the term "meditatio" to refer to one of the four parts of the step-by-step process of Bible reading practice among Benedictine monks, called Lectio Divina, or divine reading. The four formal stages of this process, or "ladder", were defined by the monk Guigo II in the 12th century using the Latin terms "lectio", "meditatio", "oratio", and "contemplatio", which literally translate as "read", "ponder", "pray" and "contemplate".

   Further, in Catholicism, the concept of "meditation", in addition to its original meaning of "reflection/thinking", gradually acquired a prayerful connotation, lending the term certain allusions and connotations of a contemplative spiritual practice. Consequently, around the beginning of the 19th century, the term "meditation", as practically the only one with any "thematic" meaning in Western languages and "closest", but still quite distant and effectively inappropriate in meaning, was "logically" used by Western philological theorists (who did not understand the practical essence of the psychotechniques of yoga and Buddhism) as a generalized translation of the names of a number of Eastern spiritual practices, known in yoga by the Sanskrit terms "dhyana", "samadhi", etc., thus playing a cruel joke on the Western understanding of the meaning of these psychotechniques. Because samadhi is a state of complete absence of thoughts of a clear mind, and not one or another thought.

   The gradual but steady emasculation of the meanings of the key words of the teachings of Patanjali and Buddha has led to a change in the meaning of even the word "yoga" itself – over the past half century, its understanding in the public consciousness has changed from "chitta-vritti-nirodha", that is, from the activity of consciousness exclusively, to physical gymnastic asanas.

   Mantra repetition is an inherently magical practice, designed to interact with entities and principles of the subtle (astral) worlds for benefits in this world, not for the development of superconsciousness. The association of the word "japa" with the process of mantra repetition may have occurred later for the same reasons that yoga has now become associated with asana gymnastics, which did not exist before the publication of "Hatha Yoga Pradipika". This text, which first mentioned the term "hatha yoga", is now believed to have been written in the 15th century during the Vijayanagara Empire, which was already constantly at war with the northern Muslim Sultanate. Meanwhile, the remaining texts of hatha yoga with a more or less known dating were written in large numbers no earlier than the 17th century, when with the appearance of numerous East India companies (and especially the British one) on the territory of Hindustan with its hundreds of then principalities, an urgent need arose for local “private military companies” to redistribute spheres of influence and, accordingly, a need for methods of secret calisthenic strength training (and, in particular, the crane and peacock poses, for example, which are completely unsuitable for the practice of samadhi, were ideal for this) disguised as “ancient spiritual tradition" (see, for example, the life story of Anupgiri Gosain, cited in the book by William R. Pinch "Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires").

   And while yoga proper, now called raja yoga, already had such an ancient tradition, hatha yoga, semantically anchored in the concept of yoga, actually had no ancient tradition at all. Moreover, the second quarter of the 20th century saw another surge in hatha yoga's popularity, this time as a covert calisthenic strength training against the British colonialists themselves.

   The reasons for the emergence of hatha yoga as a disguised cultural phenomenon, and even the chronology of its various historical periods, are strikingly similar to those of Brazilian capoeira. Traditional capoeira emerged in the 17th century—at the same time that hatha yoga emerged as an independent teaching and began to gain some visibility. In Brazil, African slaves used capoeira, supposedly a dance, as covert combat training to launch a guerrilla resistance against the Portuguese imperial authorities. Modern Brazilian capoeira emerged in the 1930s, a period that also coincided with the transformation of medieval hatha yoga into its current postural form. Moreover, performers demonstrating capoeira as a show and sport began traveling outside Brazil in the 1950s and 1960s, which also coincided with the spread of hatha yoga in the West. This striking coincidence in the chronology of hatha yoga and capoeira, given the similar circumstances of their historical processes, serves as further indirect confirmation of their shared purpose in a world in which European empires experienced similar stages of development and decline. But while in the case of "spiritless" capoeira, its purpose as a covert strength training method for guerrillas and rebels is now quite obvious and well-known, in the case of hatha yoga, many mlecchas still harbour illusions that joint dislocation was supposedly invented by Vedic rishis and allows one to achieve certain mystical yogic goals. All of this is looked upon in detail in my book, "The real history of hatha yoga from an akhara monk. From Shankaracharya's akharas to instagramic yoga teachers".

   If we assume that the meaning of the Sanskrit word "japa", taking into account its etymology in ancient times, somehow corresponded to the current meaning of the word "samadhi" (with its then multitude of synonyms, including dhyana, shamatha, samapatti and others), then sutra 1.28 can be interpreted as follows:

   1.28. Meditation (japa) on that (tad) [Om̐, that is, the consistent elimination of all distractions-vritti-noises on the mirror of the mind, when only the original vibration of Om̐ “remains”, which means reaching the highest stage of samadhi – the fifth arupa-ayatana, ultimately leads to] comprehension (bhāvana) of it (tad) [both Om̐ and Ishvara] meaning and essence (artha), [that is, to the recognition (in the absolute silence and clarity of one’s developed superconsciousness) of this original vibration of the Universe – Pranava – and the comprehension that the essence of this Pranava is the primordial Creator-Ishvara].

   This interpretation is closer to the discourse conveyed by sutras 1.23-29, and especially sutra 1.29, which follows this sutra 1.28.

   Sutras 1.27-1.28 can be perceived as an echo of ancient knowledge about the practice of meditation, which has come down to us in a distorted retelling after the words "japa" and "Pranava" may have changed their meanings from "meditation" and "the primordial vibration of the Universe" to "meditative repetition of a mantra" and "the physical sound Om̐ for vocal repetition", respectively. However, Pranava-Om̐ is still perceived in Hinduism as the primordial vibration of the universe, all that exists, and the source of everything, although without a literal connection to its physical aspect—the cosmic microwave background radiation, which was discovered by scientists only in the 20th century. Pranava-Om̐ as the primary source of all creation is spoken of in the Mandukya Upanishad, as well as in the Katha Upanishad 1.2.15-17, where Om̐ is designated as Padma—the lotus flower. In Hinduism, the universe at the moment of its creation is likened to a lotus flower floating on water. Pranava-Om̐ as the primary source of creation is also spoken of in many other Hindu texts.

     The full version of the book "The True Practical Essence of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali" with a translation of all 196 sutras of the Yoga Sutras with commentaries on all important and/or complex sutras: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G6GT6M8B.