We discussed the nine types of obstacles in the path of yoga. There is no tenth obstacle. Every possible obstacle has been counted and included in these nine categories. Patanjali is such a scientist.

With a few words, he has said all that has to be said. Along with these nine obstacles, the five indications or signs of the disturbed mind. Which brings us to Sûtra : Dukha dourmanasyangamejayatva shwasaprashwasa vikshepasahabhuvaha, which means “Sorrow, bitterness, body not listening to you, shaky and irregular inspiration and expiration are the companions of these distractions”.

In the previous Sûtra, we discussed the nine obstacles on the path. What come with these obstacles are dukha or sorrow and “Dourmanasya”, which means bitterness of the mind. Angamejayatva means the body is not listening to you. It is like a man who has drunk too much wants to go left but starts moving to the right. He wants to walk straight but his body goes won’t comply. Angamejayatva is the lack of co-ordination between the body and the mind where the body wins.

Shwasa prashwasa means irregular, shaky and uncomfortable breathing. If you have observed your breath, when you are happy or excited, the incoming breath is longer. You are more aware of the incoming breath in the state of excitement. When you are unhappy, your exhalation is longer and there is a total imbalance of breath. Have you noticed this?

These are the vikshepas or distractions that come along with this obstructions. Question is, what do we do to rid ourselves of them?

The next Sûtra says Tatpratishedharthamekatattvabhyasaha, meaning “For their prevention, practice one principle”.

Patanjali says that the way to get rid of the obstacles is by doing one thing at a time. What does that mean? That way your attention is focused on that one thing only. But what happens when you do just that one thing? There is boredom, restlessness. But it is that restlessness and boredom that will take you to the peak of clarity. This is the only way out.

The mind is always troubled because it dwells on duality. It has choice, so it is confused. The divided mind is a miserable mind. Have you noticed that all the moments you have been happy, your mind was whole?

Duality causes fear and misery. It is not eka tattvabhyasa or one practice.
So what is the eka tattva? It means attending to one principle. That one principle can be God, it can be the Guru, it can be self. It can be anything but eka tattva abhyasa — practice one thing. It is the only way to overcome these obstacles.
All these nine obstacles can be gotten rid of only if there is certain amount of calmness in the mind. Holding on to one principle means seeing oneself or God or the Master in everybody. There is nothing other than this. Life is holding on to one principle and seeing that one principle in everything.

But our lives are lived in the realm of multiplicity. In the world you live with many people and not everybody is the same. So how can you see the same in everybody? It will be explained in the next Sûtra.

What are the obstacles on the path to discovery? They add up to nine — Vyadhistyanasamshaya pramadalasyavirati bhrantidarshanalabdha bhoomikatvanav-asthitatvani chittavikshepaste antarayaha meaning “Illness, inability to comprehend; doubt, carelessness, laziness, non-attachment towards the senses, hallucination, and non-attainment of any state or instability are the distractions of the mind which cause obstacles in the path”.

 

Vyadhi or illness in the body is the first obstacle. The second is styana or the illness in the mind that is either mentally challenged or is incapable of comprehension. For example, you will be perfectly alright but when you get to start meditating, sickness befalls you! If you are watching television, nothing happens, but if you sit down to meditate, the body grows restless. This is an obstacle in your path.

 

The third obstacle Samshaya or doubt. You first need to understand doubt. Your doubts are always about something that is good. You never doubt negativity. Instead, you always doubt positivity. Has anyone ever doubted their depression? You never ask yourself, “Am I really depressed?”, but if you are happy, you doubt yourself. You keep asking yourself if you are truly happy.

 

There are three kinds of doubts. The first is doubt about oneself. The second is doubt about the technique that you practice on the path and the third is doubt about the master or teacher.

 

Pramada means doing something wrong knowing that it is very wrong. You know that certain things are not good for you and knowing this too well, you do it. Or, knowing too well that you have to do something and not doing it is pramada. You know that if you do not do a certain job you will be in trouble but despite knowing that you will be in trouble, you get into trouble. This is pramada. Carelessness, not being alert and attentive is the fourth obstacle.

 

Alasya is laziness or heaviness of the body. You may do a lot of things, but when it comes to doing little asanas, postures or exercise, you simply don’t. This laziness which can creep up in any aspect of life while doing anything is the fifth obstacle.

 

Avirati means being engaged in any one of the sense objects and not coming out of it. You can call it obsession. When you are hungry, you eat food. But after your stomach is full, then there is no point in thinking about food the whole day. All the organs of senses and their action is limited to some time and it should be over after that. But thinking about it 24 hours and being feverish about the whole thing all the time is avirati, is obsession. Do you see what I am saying? Is it clear?

 

It is the same reasoning for sex. Do not think about sex all day long. If you, then it is avirati. Incompletion of any sense creates attachment of that object. Avirati is a big obstruction in the path of yoga, for, it does not allow you to get centred.

 

Bhranti darshana or hallucination is the seventh obstacle. Many seekers practice something and get some vision and they get caught up in that vision because the visions are neither completely false nor completely true. They are a mix of both. So people try to hold on to it. Many cults have happened in this part of the word just because of this bhranti darshana. They have never understood these obstructions that can come in the path of yoga. This is called Yoga Maya. Yoga Maya means a vision would come and give you some message or it will be an intuitive message. You are sitting and meditating and a message will come, “Go and open the door; somebody is waiting for you” and you go and open the door and you find someone there and that gets you excited. But just because you had intuitive thoughts a few times, you get caught up in assuming all the thoughts that come to your mind always come true. But, many times residues or traces of your desires and hatred and fear will also come up. This is delusion or bhranti darshana.

 

The eighth obstacle is Alabdha bhumikatva. This is when one feels completely stuck, when you get that feeling that you are not going anywhere. The eighth obstacle is non-attainment of any state or samadhi, any peace or tranquillity.

 

Then comes anavastitava or instability. Sometimes people say that while doing meditating they feel peaceful and experience bliss, but, after a few minutes the whole thing vanishes. This is another usual complaint that people come up with. This ninth obstacle is known as anavastitatva.