Classical Yoga · compiled by Patanjali
Yoga Sutras 2.28
Impurity wanes and the light of wisdom dawns
योगाङ्गानुष्ठानादशुद्धिक्षये ज्ञानदीप्तिराविवेकख्यातेः॥
By the practice of the limbs of yoga, the impurities are destroyed and there dawns the light of wisdom leading to discriminative discernment.
What this verse points to
The sutra describes a sequence rather than an event: the limbs are practised, what obscures is worn down, and discernment appears. Nothing is added — something is removed, and clarity was underneath.
"Dawns" is the right word for it. There is no moment at which a sunrise happens, and reports of sudden breakthroughs almost always omit the years of gradual lightening that preceded them.
Sit with it
Compare your mind today not to yesterday but to a year ago. Gradual change is invisible at close range.
About the Yoga Sutras
The Yoga Sutras are 196 terse aphorisms compiled by Patanjali, organised into four books: samadhi (absorption), sadhana (practice), vibhuti (attainments), and kaivalya (liberation). The style is deliberately compressed — each sutra is a memory-thread meant to be unpacked by a teacher — and the text is the foundational statement of the eight-limbed (ashtanga) path.
References to this text are given as book.sutra — here, 2.28.