Patanjali Yoga Sutra: II - 17

The confusion of what sees with the seen

Drashtadrishyayoho Samyogaha Heya Hetuhu
There is one main cause for suffering which can be avoided. That is the union of the one who sees, with what is seen, heard, tasted, touched, smelt or thought about. You watch a movie. There is an emotional scene. You are so engrossed in the scene that you identify yourself with one of the characters almost like you, and begin to cry. The sorrow happens because of the total identification of the seer - the witnessing consciousness to what is seen/ What is seen is constantly changing and moving. There is joy, sorrow, hatred, anger and all sorts of emotional and physical disturbances out there. When the witness identifies itself with, or holds on to any one of these changes - then there is sorrow. - Swahilya Shambhavi.

Patanjali Yoga Sutra: II - 6

The seer is not the seen

Drigdarshanashaktyorekatmateve Asmita
In this Sadhana Padaha, the chapter of practice, we first saw that Kriya Yoga removes impurities. The first impurity was Avidya or ignorance of the real self, which is consciousness and not the tools of expression of consciousness, namely the body, mind and intellect. Consciousness may be likened to the ink, while the body, mind and intellect are like the outer cover, tip and inner tube that holds the ink in a ball point pen.
Now, in this Sutra, Patanjali says - out of ignorance or Avidya about our true self - i.e. consciousness, imagining the seen objects, people and situations, our own body, mind, intellect and Prana Shakti and thinking all that is either 'I' or myself or mine is Asmita or Ego. It is alright to have an ego. It is alright to have a pen. But the problem comes when we think that we are the body, mind and intellect. It is as wrong as to think that the letters are written by the pen, forgetting that it is the ink that flows through the pen.
This Sutra says that, of the two, the seer and the seen, the mind, instead of realising the presence of the seer, that sees through it, thinks of it as the sen. Wne I look out of the window, it is I who see what is outside and not the window. Same way, I look through the eyes, I perceive through the mind and I am different from the eyes and other parts of the body, the mind and all its thoughts and that intellect which is the officer who segregates the different thought files and takes action on each file.
Practice of Yoga can help remove this impurity of wrong understanding of the body, mind and intellect to be one self. - Swahilya Shambhavi.