The pursuit of yoga is often framed by what we must do—sit straighter, breathe deeper, focus harder. But Patanjali, in his subtle wisdom, reminds us that the greatest transformation often occurs through elegant surrender and intentional withdrawal. It is not always about adding, but about the profound alchemy of subtraction.
I have found immense liberation in grappling with Sutra 1.15: Dṛṣṭānuśravika viṣaya vitṛṣṇasya vaśīkāra saṁjñā vairāgyam. Roughly translated, it suggests that true inner mastery—the consciousness of authority (vaśīkāra saṁjñā)—arises when we release the craving (vitṛṣṇasya) for objects that are either seen or revealed to us.
When Patanjali wrote these words, the ‘seen and revealed’ were tangible things: the riches of a neighboring kingdom, the status promised by sacred texts, the fleeting pleasures of the senses. Today, his observation is perhaps more critical than ever. We live drowning in the dṛṣṭānuśravika—the constantly ‘seen and heard’ flood of social feeds, tailored advertisements, and perfectly curated versions of other people’s lives.
This sutra is not a mandate to live as a hermit; it’s an instruction manual for psychological independence. Craving is the tether that keeps us emotionally reliant on the external world, tying our sense of self-worth to temporary acquisitions or approvals. When we encounter that scrollable perfection, the knee-jerk internal response is often, ‘I lack this.’
Patanjali teaches that true power lies in reversing this reflexive impulse. The practice of vairāgya, or non-craving, is the deliberate choice to observe the beautiful, the desirable, or the status-affirming without needing to possess or become it.
This shift is where the mastery awakens. When we stop allowing the projected desires of the world to dictate our inner landscape, we claim the authority over our own minds. The real liberation isn’t found by escaping the world, but by mastering our own response to its unending invitation to want.
Mastery is the quiet recognition that the life truly worth living is the one we are already experiencing, free from the tyrannical pull of the next notification or purchase.