Sthite Dvandva Anabhighatah — Invulnerability to the Pairs of Opposites
The fruit of mastered asana: invulnerability to the dualities — heat and cold, pleasure and pain, praise and blame — that ordinarily disturb the mind and prevent sustained meditation practice.
Sutra 2.48 describes the fruit of asana mastery: 'tatah dvandva anabhighatah' — from this (mastery of asana) arises non-disturbance by the pairs of opposites (dvandvas). The dvandvas are the polarities of experience that ordinarily condition human emotional life: hot/cold, pleasure/pain, honor/disgrace, gain/loss, love/hate. A mind that is agitated by these polarities cannot sustain deep meditation. The person who has genuinely mastered asana — who can sit for extended periods in complete stability and ease — has developed the capacity to remain undisturbed by the shifting conditions of physical experience, and this same steadiness extends to the conditions of emotional and relational life. Sutra 2.46 names the two qualities of a mastered posture: sthira (steadiness) and sukha (ease).
From mastery of asana, disturbance by the pairs of opposites ceases.
Vyasa’s commentary on 2.46 glosses the mastered posture as one that becomes steady and effortless; later hatha texts such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika name specific seated asanas (siddhasana, padmasana) as the stable seat this steadiness requires.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Written about in
- What the Yoga Sutras say about the body
The stated fruit of a mastered seat is that the pairs of opposites stop knocking you about: heat and cold, pleasure and pain. Physical steadiness is being trained here for its emotional use.