Doubt, illness, and other afflictions are the cause of mental weakness; abandoning all this, the mind attains peace.

The triad saṃśaya-vyādhi-anye connects mental and physical obstacles in a causal chain. Doubt is not abstract: it generates chronic stress that wears down the immune system, which produces illness, which weakens one’s capacity for practice, which in turn increases doubt. This is the vicious cycle that Patañjali describes in Yoga Sūtra I.30-31: obstacles produce bodily symptoms—pain, dejection, restlessness, agitated breathing. Vasiṣṭha does not suggest that abandoning these obstacles is easy; he proposes that the way out is parityāga, a deliberate letting go, not an aversive rejection. Śama—mental quietude—is not the absence of thought, but a stability that remains regardless of the mind’s content. Śaṅkara’s Vivekacūḍāmaṇi extends this idea: the mind is the sole instrument of both liberation and bondage. Its weakness is not destiny but the result of neglect. Strengthening it is possible, but it first requires recognizing that it is weak.

The triad saṃśaya-vyādhi-anye connects mental and physical obstacles in a causal chain. Doubt is not abstract: it generates chronic stress that wears down the immune system, which produces illness, which weakens one’s capacity for practice, which in turn increases doubt. This is the vicious cycle that Patañjali describes in Yoga Sūtra I.30-31: obstacles produce bodily symptoms—pain, dejection, restlessness, agitated breath. Vasiṣṭha does not suggest that letting go is easy; he proposes that the way out is parityāga, a deliberate abandonment, not an aversive rejection. Śama—mental stillness—is not the absence of thought, but a stability that remains regardless of the mind’s content. Śaṅkara’s Vivekacūḍāmaṇi extends this idea: the mind is the sole instrument of both liberation and bondage. Its weakness is not destiny but the result of neglect. Strengthening it is possible, but it first requires recognizing that it is weak.