Patanjali Sutra Book 2 verse 27 - " His illuminations is seven fold, rising in successive stages.

Patanjali Sutra Book 2 verse 27 - " His illuminations is seven fold, rising in successive stages.

{ The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali are 196 Indian sūtras (aphorisms) that constitute the foundational text of Rāja yoga. Yoga is one of the six orthodox āstika schools of Hindu philosophy, which, according to the Yogatattva Upanishad, is divided into four forms -- Mantrayoga, Layayoga, Hathayoga and Rājayoga -- the last of which is the highest (or royal) practice. }

Patanjali's text does not tell us what the seven stages of this illumination are. 

The commentator thus describes them; as below sharing is One of them .... 

** some where i was read : 

The Hindu teaching holds that the states of mind-consciousness are seven in number. The sixth sense and its use bring about seven modes of thought, or - to put it more technically - there are seven major modifications of the thinking principle. These are:

1. Desire for knowledge

2. Desire for freedom

3. Desire for happiness

4. Desire to do one's duty

5. Sorrow

6. Fear

7. Doubt

Just another angle these are described in further set of two folds First fold covers 4 parts and another is covers 3 parts . these are .... 

First, " the danger" to be escaped is recognized; it need not be recognized a second time. 

Second, " the causes of the danger " to be escaped are worn away; they need not be worn away a second time. 

Third, " the way of escape " is clearly perceived, by the contemplation which checks psychic perturbation. 

Fourth, " the means of escape" , clear discernment, has been developed. This is the fourfold release belonging to insight. 

The final release from the psychic is three-fold: 

as fifth of the seven degrees, " the dominance of its thinking is ended " ; 

as sixth, " its potencies (force), like rocks from a precipice, fall of themselves; once dissolved, they do not grow again. "

Then, as Seventh, " freed from these potencies (force) ," 

The spiritual man stands forth in his own nature as purity and light.

Happy is the spiritual man who beholds this seven-fold illumination in its ascending stages.

(picture is of Sd Guru Jaggi Vasudev )