Yoga Sutras 1.19 and 1.20

1.19: Bhava pratyayah videha prakriti layanam, Yogis who have not attained asamprajnata samadhi remain attached to Prakriti(nature or the manifest world-opposite of purusha or pure consciousness) at the time of death due to continued existence of thoughts of becoming.

This is a bit strange. I continue to use Satchitananda's translation. Carrera's commentary which is also based on Satchitananda's translation reads "for those that haven't reached asamprajnata samadhi rebirth is necessary." I agree with his statement but don't believe Patanjali meant to say this exactly. I.K. Taimni's famous commentary from 1961 also disagrees with the above interpretation. Mr. Taimni believes that Patanjali is referring to people born with psychic faculties due to spiritual work done in a previous lifetime but without doing any of the noble yogic type practices in this lifetime. I prefer Hari Das' commentary "videhas (celestial beings) and prakritilayas (those merged with prakriti) have achieved samprajnata samadhi but not yet asamprajnata samadhi therefore they come into this birth already established in cognitive samadhi. For them achievement of asamprajnata samadhi is easier than for "the others" (see next sutra). I am not a Sanskrit scholar nor a YS expert but this sutra seems to have stumped the experts as well. The more significant sutra is next.

1.20 Sraddha virya smriti samadhi prajna purvaka itaresham, To the others, asamprajnata samadhi is preceded by faith, strength, mindfullness, samadhi (cognitive) and discriminative insight.

Carrera says "the others" are those not stalled by samskaras of becoming and Hari Das says "the others" are those not born already with higher consciousness. Either way this is a beautiful sutra. The qualities necessary to proceed to asamprajnata (non cognitive) samadhi are sraddha, virya, smriti, samadhi and prajna. Sraddha (faith) is some trust based on past experience and a gut feeling that what you're doing is correct. Without this sense of rightness it would be impossible to have the virya (strength, zeal, or heroism) to embark on this path that goes against the trends of the vast majority. Tim Miller, one of our favorite ashtanga teachers says, "this is the path of heroes, the ashtangi is doing a heroic practice daily." Smriti (memory or mindfulness) is the positive aspect of memory. By learning from past lessons and staying alert the yogi doesn't repeat her mistakes too often. Repeated samprajnata samadhi is necessary to purify the mind so that it can leave the sense of I-am-ness behind to move into asamprajnata samadhi. Prajna (wisdom, knowledge) of the highest type is discrimination between buddhi(intellect) and purusha (pure consciousness) and is experienced in samprajnata samadhi.

The noble qualities listed in this sutra are beneficial univerally, no matter the path nor the stage of development. Practice and all is coming.