Tada Drashtuh Svarupe Avasthanam — Then the Seer Abides in Its Own Nature
When mental fluctuations cease, pure consciousness (the Seer, Purusha) rests in its own essential nature — this is the state of liberation, available in every moment of genuine stillness.
Sutra 1.3 completes the revolutionary sequence begun in 1.1 and 1.2: when yoga is achieved (chitta vritti nirodha), 'tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam' — then the Seer (drashtu, pure consciousness) abides in its own nature. This means that the experience of pure consciousness — liberation, samadhi, self-realization — is not something to be created but something that is already present and is merely obscured by the mind's turbulence. Yoga does not manufacture freedom; it removes the obstacles to the freedom that was never absent. This teaching aligns with Advaita Vedanta, Dzogchen, and the Christian mystical tradition: the light of pure consciousness is always shining; only the clouds of thought obscure it.
Then the Seer abides in its own essential nature.
B.K.S. Iyengar explains in Light on the Yoga Sutras that the Seer (drashtu) is never actually bound — it only appears to be bound when it identifies with the fluctuations of chitta. Yoga practice progressively removes this false identification.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali