Patanjali continues to detail the benefits of practicing the yams and niyamas to motivate the practitioner, here he talks of the benefit of niyama of ‘swaadhyaaya’,
Swaadhyaayaadishtadevtaasamprayogah
Swaadhyaayaat : from the niyam of swaadhyaaya
Ishtadevta : desired deity
Samprayogah : connection
Practice of swaadhyaay establishes the connection with desired deity.
Swadhyay means self-study. Self-study is not sitting and thinking about self…that everyone does. It involves internalizing the guru vakya and bringing it into practice, and includes the practices the given by the guru as well as introspecting where you are going wrong and how to improve.
Yog is an individual journey and the experience of guru as well as the various energies that run creation lies inside you, not outside. As one internalizes and brings into practice whatever is the path laid out by the Guru, the layers of dirt (avidya) are removed and one is able to access the dimension of subtler beings. Interactions with devs and devis follow.
