Yoga Sutras 2.15

2.15:Parinama tapa samskara duhkhair guna vritti virodha cha duhkham eva sarvam vivekinah, To one of discrimination, everything is painful indeed, due to its consequences: the anxiety and fear over losing what is gained; the resulting impressions left in the mind to create renewed cravings; and the conflict among the activities of the gunas, which control the mind.

At first view this sutra may seem to paint a depressing picture of life as we know it. Carrera in his commentary points out the similarity of this sutra to the first two of Buddha's Four Noble Truths (1. Life is suffering 2. Suffering is caused by attachment 3. The cessation of suffering is attainable 4. Following the eight-fold path is the way to eliminate suffering). The next sutra is similar to the third noble truth and sutras 2.26 and 2.28 are similar to the fourth noble truth.

Let's take a look at the three ways in which life is suffering:

"Anxiety and fear over losing what is gained"-this is another way of looking at the fact that external things don't give lasting happiness. When we gain something of value to us, Patanjali points out that this leads to anxiety and fear over losing this valuable item or thing. Whether we will lose it is not the question only how and when. This leads back to the idea of nonattachment (vairagya) which was discussed in l.15 and 1.16. When our happiness is attached to an item or thing then it is very tenuous. Nonattachment is the outcome of self mastery (sutra 1.15). If our peace of mind is cultivated in a yogic practice or other spiritual practice then losing something will not be our undoing. This idea that things cause pain is misunderstood and can justify a life of poverty, or a lack of emphasis on "progress" as has been India's history. On the other hand if we are working on filling ourselves up on the inside, i.e. a spiritual practice,then a comfortable house and good food etc. could be helpful in our quest to become Self Realized. If there are unhealthy relationships with our things, i.e. too much emphasis on the external, then they are probably more of a hindrance to inner happiness.

"the resulting impressions left in the mind to create renewed cravings"-impressions or samskaras in sanskrit are memories left behind of experiences. This is a patterning of the mind to what has been done before. Acting out of spiritual ignorance one tries to fill the void in any number of ways and each time this is done there is a samskara left behind making it more likely to repeat this pattern in the future. The same applies to avoidance of pain (see sutras 2.7 and 2.8-the third and fourth klesas). Once again neither Patanjali nor Buddha are saying that it has to end like this.

"the conflict among the activities of the gunas, which control the mind." Here I believe Patanjali is mainly talking about change. The gunas, sattva (the quality of purity and balance), rajas (the quality of activity and restlessness) and tamas (the quality of inertia and dullness) are the yin and yang of yoga. They are terms for describing the changing and opposite values of prakriti (nature, creation). One can't be completely separated from the others and at any given time there is a preponderance of one of the three. The mind is still considered part of the manifest and changing universe and therefore is subject to constant change. Therefore we are advised to quiet the mind and let the unchanging nature of the Purusha or inner Self shine through.