Pure Awareness In Ashtanga Yoga In Antaranga Yoga

Pure Awareness or the Self and hence it is blissful. But this state too has to be transcended. The Sabija Samadhi (a state where the potential Samskaras are still present in seed form) has to be transcended and Nirbija Samadhi reached. In this state too, though there are no fresh experiences giving rise to samskaras, some past samskaras can arise and again set the chain of samskara – karma – samskara rolling. These residual samskaras too need to be rid off. (Patanjali says that these are eliminated in the same manner as is done in the case of kleshas i.e. by pratiprasava). Finally, the the spiritual goal of liberation is realized. This is the state of Dharma Megha Samadhi. Here, the Pure Awareness only exists continuosly. The Purusa is once

In the beginning of Antaranga Yoga, there is the Subject of Awareness, the Process of Awareness and the Object of Awareness. With the level of awareness deepening, the Subject of Meditation (the meditator or the self with small ‘s’) first fades away, then the Process of Meditation (the activity of meditation) vanishes and finally the Object of Meditation disappears thereby leaving ultimately and only Awareness, Pure Objectless

They refine his awareness in the process by making it subtler and subtler. He moves inwards through the path of awareness. For example from the social context (yamas), he moves to the personal context (niyamas) to the physical (asanas) to the physiological / mental (pranayama) to the mental (pratyahar) to the mental / intellectual / psychological (dharana / dhyana) to the spiritual (Samadhi). Transcendence from the empirical to the spiritual is accomplished through this process of making awareness more profound or inward. Awareness is the tool for spiritual transcendence.

On a practical level, the internalizing of awareness in Yoga happens from first of all setting to rest all conflicts with the external world, then listening to the body and the breathing (deh and prana dharana), then listening to the mind without responding or reacting to its contents keeping an attitude of a seer and witness (sakshi bhav). With this the mind is transcended and the no-mind state is reached. This no-mind state (unmani avastha) is the zone of Pure Consciousness or our true Self.

In the process of interiorizing awareness, we have referred to the ashtangas. Hence, it is in order to briefly describe the ashtangas. They are as