3.50 Supremacy and omniscience

3.50 Through discernment of the distinction between Pure Awareness and the transparently clear body-mind-heart, supremacy over existence and omniscience arise.

The recurrent theme in the Yoga Sutra emerges again: The problem humans face is suffering. Suffering results from forgetting one’s own nature, or, more specifically, from believing that experiences and activities are our true nature (1.3, 1.4 and 2.5). The highest freedom is to be free from distractions caused by even the subtlest experiences (1.16). Freedom emerges from releasing this confusion between the power of witnessing, consciousness, and what can be experienced (2.17, 2.20, 2.24 and 2.25). This sutra reiterates that the whole yogic process is one of releasing one’s ways of being at all levels to have the direct experience of unclouded awareness. Then, the distinction between one’s immanent awareness and the primordial transcendental awareness that underlies all existence becomes clear. Since all identification has ceased and all agendas have been released, all experiences are perceived clearly in their impermanent nature. Having found undying consciousness, the practitioner is beyond all aspects of existence. Having access to primordial awareness results in omniscience, the simultaneous knowledge of all possible permutations of the essence of life at all times and in all places.
Notice that these ideas echo the attributes of ishvara presented in sutras 1.24 to 1.29, as well as the statement in sutra 2.45 that being established in total surrender to the perfection of life results in siddhis.
As a present-day student of yoga, are you gaining some supremacy over your ways of being?
Is it becoming clearer to you that there is a vast body of knowledge yet to be discovered?
Is the internal tendency to comment on everything dwindling?
Does it seem like insight is more available to you?
Is your sense of “I” changing?

As usual, one more way of exploring the meaning of this sutra is by chanting it.
You can choose to chant it in its traditional form with some of the words coming together:

3.50 sattvapuruṣānyatākhyātimātrasya sarvabhāvādhiṣṭhātṛtvaṃ sarvajñātṛtvaṃ ca
सत्त्वपुरुषान्यताख्यातिमात्रस्य सर्वभावाधिष्ठातृत्वं सर्वज्ञातृत्वं च ॥५०॥

Another option is to chant each word in the sutra individually:

• sattva
• puruṣa
• anyatā
• khyāti
• mātrasya
• sarva
• bhava
• adhiṣṭhātṛtvaṃ
• sarva
• jñātṛtvaṃ
• ca

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This is an excerpt from the book Unravel the thread: Applying the ancient wisdom of yoga to live a happy life

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