Dvivedi, Manilal Nabhubhai [Comm.]: The Yoga-sūtra of Patanjali: (translation, with introduction, appendix, and notes based upon several authentic commentaries) (Bombay, 1890)

THE YOGA-SUTRA.

SECTION IV.

I. The Siddhis are the result of birth, herbs
incantations, austerities, or Samddhi.

The object of this Section is to give certain explanations
with a view to make clear the nature of Kaivalya, the final
absolution aimed at by the Yogin. It begins with explaining
how the Siddhis or occult powers are acquired. They are notr
as a matter of fact, acquired in one life and hence they may be
the result of the accumulated effects of several existences.
This indirectly explains how any and every effort in the
direction of Yoga is never attempted in vain. The powers may
be incidental to birth, as the power of flying in birds, or they
may be produced by certain herbs and medicines, as the power
of living for eternity conferred by certain elixirs. They may
be the result of certain incantations or austerities, or above
all of the practice, of Samddki as described in the previous
pages.

II. The transformation into another kind (is) by
the flow of Prakrti.

The question is this. How is one body changed into an-
other of a different class even in the same existence? It is
replied that the flow of prakrti does it all. By the flow of
prakrti is meant that inscrutable action of matter which per-
forms all the work of transformation as seen in material
beings. The very potencies (Sansk&ra) of matter do all, and