Day 19

With this new knowledge about samadhi, you may think “I will just skip ahead and practice the highest form of samadhi first.” Patanjali warns against this. Each level of prakrti must be mastered sequentially. You must start with the most material aspects of nature and then, after gaining mastery, move to the next, more subtle aspect. This is like a video game you cannot move on to the next level until you complete the first.

This sutra if understood can release our impatience, our tendency to want to move ahead before we are ready. 

Patanjali is suggesting that the yogin doesn’t have to transcend all of the aspects of Prakrti at once or even in one lifetime. 

For instance, say someone achieves samadhi over the gross elements and then passes away. Though the body of this being is gone, the unchanging soul of the being remains. This soul goes back into the ocean of consciousness, keeping its attainments until it is returned to a body. At this time it reclaims the practice, starting where it left off. These beings are in the spiritual or celestial realm, they still remain absorbed in the aspects of Prakrti, until birthed or existing again. 

We can see examples of this in child protégées, saints, and those we might call genius. This sutra also explains how Indic culture understands Gods and Deities. For instance, Agni the God of fire can be understood as a being who mastered the element of fire or was absorbed in the element of fire. After the death of the body, this being has returned to earth in a new body as an avatara. Avatara is a Sanskrit word meaning decent and is often used to refer to an incarnation or material appearance of a soul.