viveka-khyātir aviplavā hānopāyaḥ
Original Text
Translation
Discriminative discernment of the real from the unreal is the means of liberation.
Background
This is the hinge of the second chapter. Patañjali spends nine sūtras describing the problem, mistaking the seer for what the seer sees, and here he finally offers us the way out. The answer isn't a technique or a posture. It's a way of seeing that holds steady, sorting out what is real from what we have added. Everything that follows, including eight limbs that follow in 2.28, exist to make that seeing possible.