Patanjali's yoga sutras

तदभावे संयोगाभावो हानं तद्दृशेः कैवल्यम् ॥ २.२५ ॥

tadabhāve saṃyogābhāvo hānaṃ taddṛśeḥ kaivalyam

That absence [of ignorance] the absence of the union [of spectator with the spectacle] = avoidance [of dukkha]. The spectator stands alone, whole unto itself.

When the spectator is no longer yoked to the spectacle and stands alone, we are relieved of ignorance and achieve avoidance [of dukkha].

The Rajamartanda commentary by King Bhoja:

[English translation of the 11th century commentary by Bhoja called the Rājamārtaṇḍa]

[Sanskrit text for commentary available]

The avoidable (heya) is the objective of the verb to avoid (hā), and to explain what that avoidance is, he says:

[Read Sūtra 2.25]

“Its,” i.e., of ignorance. On its “absence” (abhāva), i.e,, on its being irradicated by perfect knowledge which is its essential opposite, the effect of the conjunction ceases, or is absent, and this absence is called “avoidance” (hāna). The meaning is this: it is not, practicable to separate ignorance like an embodied object, but, on discriminative knowledge being produced, this conjunction, which has indiscriminitativeness for its cause, it of itself ceases, and this is its avoidance (hāna). That which is an avoidance of the conjunction, is assumed to be an “isolation” (kaivalya) of the eternally isolated soul. In this way the nature, cause, and effect of the conjunction is explained.

Notes and Extracts

[Notes and comparative extracts from other commentaries on the Yogasūtra]

[The meaning is that when ignorance is irradicated by a right apprehension of its relation to soul, its relation with soul ceases, and this surcease makes the solitary eternalsoul isolated from ignorance and its consequences, and the soul remains isolated, as is its nature. All my MSS. give the reading “of eternally isolated” (nityakaivalyasya), but Dr. Ballantyne, has found a different version; his text has nityam kevalasya, which would give the meaning “there is eternal isolation of the solitary or isolated”—kevalasya nityam kaivalyam. The isolation is in either case assumed to be everlasting, and hence this isolation is believed to be final deliverance from bondage.

The word kaivalya is derived from kevala, “alone,” and “isolation” appears to be its most appropriate rendering; but, inasmuch as this isolation takes place by withdrawing or detaching the soul from the phenomeral world, Colebrooke and Wilson use “abstraction.”

The Sāṅkyatattva-kaumudī defines it to be:

(śāstrāṇām maharṣāṇām divyalocanānām ca kaivalyam cātyantikaduḥkha-trayaprasama-lakṣaṇam na buddhyādinām sambhavati, te hi duḥkhātmakāḥ katham svabhāvādibhiḥ mocayitum śakyanti.)

“Absolute suppression of the three kinds of pain, as a property of sacred writ, holy sages, and inspired teachers or prophets. It must, therefore, be something different from intellectand the rest which are the same thing as pain, and cannot effect a spera-tion form their own essence.”—

Vijñāna Bhikṣu defines it in the same way, and calls it absolute extirpation of pain (duḥkhātyantikocchedaḥ). Any way, it is the final reward of the knowledge advocated and the practice of meditation enjoined in this system of philosophy.]

Now, by way of describing the means of avoidance he points out the cause of the acceptable.