Yoga Sutra Series EP1

Sutra 2: Yogas Chitta Vritti Nirodah. Translation: To block the patterns of awareness is Yoga.

This is perhaps the most important sutra of all 196 sutras as it is considered to be the very definition of Yoga. It is not suppression, rather it is blocking the repetitive patterns of awareness and not the awareness itself. It is impossible to block your awareness. Rather, our aim is to redirect our awareness by blocking the rudder which controls the direction of the awareness.

In redirecting our awareness we are able to experience a state which is completely unimaginable through the lens of our current mind. It is unending and considered to be infinite by nature. The experience has no start or end and no memory of time and space. At this point, the individual awareness merges with the universal cosmic consciousness. The body may still exist but the aspirant is now truly liberated.