Living Incarnation and Avatar Paramahamsa Nithyananda explained in today's morning discourse that the Sanskrit language is created to keep the eternal truths alive for generations. Up until the last sutra, Patanjali was explaining the 8 limbs of yoga in Ashtanga yoga. To summarize:
Yama - understanding about law and the power that executes the law.
Niyama - raising the coherence to the cosmic consciousness.
Asana - aligning the body for the cosmic experience.
Pranayama - aligning and elevating the life energy in your system, through the proper processes.
Pratyahara -- withdrawing from the senses.
Dharana -- centering on the great truths.
Dhyana -- merging with the cosmic experience.
Samadhi -- completely experiencing the non-return zone, the space where you don't get separated or come back.
The quality which you need to add to move from pratyahara to dharana, is the sacred secret: honesty to the identity which you believe as you. What ever commitment you take, be honest to it. If you are not able to be honest to all, at least prioritise and be honest to the few you can.
Maintain your life with a clear balance, any identity you have assumed, take complete responsibility for it. If you are not able to take responsibility, renounce, give it up.
Honesty to the identity moves you from pratyahara to dharana because controlling the mind is not like controlling a bunch of monkeys. The mind can't be shut down if it's put in a cage or prison. Mind is so vast, for it to be shut down, the mind has to be altered. A complete honesty in your understanding about yourself has to happen.
Fulfilling the identity which you assume and renouncing the identities you are not able to fulfill is what Swamiji calls standing on Sathya. This is responsible for moving you from Pratyahara to Dharana.
Understand a very important truth, to move from Pratyahara to Dharana, you need a lifestyle change. From samadhi to nirbija samadhi, you need a complete intense dedication to the spiritual growth alone. Even the 8 limbs of yoga are external to nirbija samadhi, the seedless Samadhi, a stage from which you don't need to come back. If you come back, you can come back as an Incarnation.
If you are interested in nirbija samadhi, everything, all desires, even simple desires are not allowed. That's why Patanjali says, even dharana dhyana and Samadhi are external to Nirbija Samadhi -- Seedless Samadhi.