History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.205

v7.c94.205

The first sūtra (of pāda II) says that the activities or practices that are preliminaries to the attainment of Yoga are *tapas*²³²³ (austerity), *svādhyāya* and devotion to Īśvara; these, when resorted to, serve for the cultivation of samādhi and for minimising the *kleśas*, which are *avidyā* (nescience which is the field that produces the other four), *asmitā* (the feeling of personality), *rāga* (attachment to pleasures), *dveṣa* (aversion, that dwells angrily on pain and its causes) and *abhiniveśa* (will to live or clinging to life). Tapas is explained by Vyāsabhāṣya (on Y. S. II. 32) as bearing or enduring the pairs (of opposites) such as hunger and thirst, cold and heat, standing and sitting, stillness of a stump (i. e. not indicating what is passing in one's mind even by gestures), stillness of the body (not speaking at all), and also such observances as Kṛcchra, Cāndrāyaṇa and Sāntapana (vide H. of Dh. vol. IV. pp. 120 and 132, 134-137, 151 respectively for kṛcchra &c.).