Untouched by taints or karma-s or their fruition or their latent stocks is the Lord, who is a special kind of Puruṣa.
Who is this īśvara who is neither pradhana nor puruṣa?, He is a special kind of Self, untouched by the causes-of-affliction, action, its fruition or their deposit.
Patañjali begins to unveil the mystery about this īśvara, who enables in us the attainment of the state of yoga . We can notice that this “Lord” doesn’t belong to the kind of gods we are used to: neither he is a western style kind of god, an almighty, omnipresent superhero (who watch, judge and punish or rewards us) nor the “whole”, the “thatness”, used to describe eastern Brahman (even when later commentators of the Yoga-sutra, immersed in the bhakti medieval movement, tried to explain īśvara as Brahman). He is a special kind of puruṣa, meaning in sanskrit “the personal and animating principle in men and other beings , the soul or spirit” but also “a man , male , human being (pl. people , mankind)” according to monier-williams dictionary. Yoga darṣana says that all of us are a puruṣa who doesn’t know that is free, until he realizes it, at “liberation”.
What is special about this puruṣa? That it has been always free from delusion; that he was, is, and will be untouched for afflictions (that moves us to) acts (that produces) fruits (or consequences that remain in our mind, stored as subliminal impressions in the) deposit (of our memory); in other words, he is free from the wheel of existence, samsara, beyond the mechanisms of Nature; this puruṣa doesn’t suffer because he has always known that he is free. Vyāsa underline that he isn’t one who has attained liberation, because he has been always free (introducing the idea that he has existed from the time without beginning, which will be reinforced in sutra I.26); he is the only being never touched for the bondage experience, and that makes him supreme, he is perfect and it is not surpassed by any other power, because whatever other power would surpass it, would be that itself, says Vyāsa. So, Vyāsa defines this lord as the highest, the most powerful puruṣa, “primus inter pares”.
My yoga philosophy teacher said that īśvara not necessarily means god, and that could be a guru, or even someone who you looks up to, like someone who has reached mastery in your field (a “Prima ballerina assoluta” would be an īśvara for a ballet dancer). I think that my teacher wanted to highlight that īśvara is someone who inspires you, the highest person for you, someone who you can trust and who moves you, increasing your faith. We will see later that when you meditate on something you become one with the object of meditation; so, if you meditate in something positive, perfect, omniscient you acquire those qualities; that’s why īśvara has to be perfect, for us to become like him, reaching the knowledge that will drive us to self-actualizing. It’s not important what is īśvara, phenomenologically or ontologically speaking, in terms of yoga what really matters is how its “existence” helps us to attain “liberation”.
kleśa – cause-of affliction, taint, pain.
karman – action, work.vipāka – fruition, ripening; effect. Result.
āśaya – deposit, residue, balance of fruits from past actions.
aparāmṛṣṭa – untouched.
puruṣa –man, human, primeval man as source of everything, highest self; sometimes translated as soul or spirit
viśeṣa – distinct, special
īśvara – lord
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This is Golden. Brilliant!
I think it is important that Isvara remains pure and not associated with any physical person. Because no person is perfect and we can always find faults with a person, living or dead; living persons can also betray our trust. This can lead to great disillusionment, therefore it is important not to attach to persons. Isvara, however, is perfect by definition, and cannot betray – that is the difference.