Sutra 4.7
कर्माशुक्लाकृष्णं योगिनस्त्रिविधमितरेषाम् ॥
Karmāśuklākṛṣṇaṁ yoginas-trividham itareṣām
The karma of the yogi is neither white nor black; for others it is of three kinds [white, black, mixed].
Pada 4 · 34 sutras
कैवल्य पाद
Kaivalya Pada — On Liberation
Kaivalya Pāda
Central focus: The final liberation — kaivalya, the absolute aloneness of the seer
Audience: The realized yogi standing at the door of mokṣa
Summary
The shortest pada answers the deepest question: what is liberation? Kaivalya is the absolute independence of consciousness (puruṣa) from matter (prakṛti). Patanjali resolves the Sānkhya metaphysics — the puruṣa was never bound, only seemingly identified with the mind. When that identification ends, the guṇas withdraw, karmas exhaust, and the seer rests forever in its own nature. There is no more becoming, only being.
Key concepts
- ●Five sources of siddhi: birth, herbs, mantras, tapas, samādhi
- ●Karmāśaya (latent karmas) and how they bear fruit
- ●Dharma-megha samādhi — the cloud of virtue
- ●The mind is many but consciousness is one
- ●Puruṣārtha-śūnyānāṁ guṇānāṁ pratiprasavaḥ — guṇas resolve back when their purpose ends
- ●Kaivalya = aloneness, independence, liberation
Key sutras
Sutra 4.29
प्रसङ्ख्यानेऽप्यकुसीदस्य सर्वथा विवेकख्यातेर्धर्ममेघः समाधिः ॥
Prasaṅkhyāne’py akusīdasya sarvathā viveka-khyāter dharma-meghaḥ samādhiḥ
For one indifferent even to the highest insight, due to constant discrimination, comes the cloud-of-dharma samadhi.
Sutra 4.34
पुरुषार्थशून्यानां गुणानां प्रतिप्रसवः कैवल्यं स्वरूपप्रतिष्ठा वा चितिशक्तिरिति ॥
Puruṣārtha-śūnyānāṁ guṇānāṁ pratiprasavaḥ kaivalyaṁ svarūpa-pratiṣṭhā vā citi-śaktir iti
Kaivalya is the resolution of the guṇas back to their source, their purpose for the seer fulfilled — or the consciousness-power abiding in its own nature.
The final sutra of the entire text. The journey ends where it began (1.3) — the seer in its own nature.
Takeaway
Liberation is not addition but subtraction — not gaining something new, but ending the false identification that hid the truth all along.