Yoga: Discipline of Freedom: The Yoga Sutra Attributed to Patanjali
Language: English
Pages: 128
ISBN: 0553374281
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Dating from about the third century A.D., the Yoga Sutra distills the essence of the physical and spiritual discipline of yoga into fewer than two hundred brief aphorisms. It is the core text for any study of meditative practice, revered for centuries for its brilliant analysis of mental states and of the process by which inner liberation is achieved. Yet its difficulties are legendary, and until now, no translation has made it fully accessible.
This new translation, hailed by Yoga Journal for its "unsurpassed readability," is by one of the leading Sanskrit scholars of our time, whose Bhagavad Gita has become a recognized classic. It includes an introduction to the philosophy and psychology underlying the Yoga Sutra, the full text with explanatory commentary, and a glossary of key terms in Sanskrit and English.
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from one incarnation to the next. In order to quiet the thought processes completely, one would have to clear the mind of all impressions. But this is extremely difficult, so Patanjali offers various ways of controlling their formation and using their power.3 Here the distinction between conscious and hyperconscious modes of cessation is supplemented by reference to other modes, probably drawn from various contemporaneous theories of how to achieve spiritual freedom. Aphorism 19 discusses
mastered, they can in turn be transcended, giving one immediate apprehension of all the dimensions of nature. Omniscience and mastery over all of existence depend on being able to discriminate between the lucid aspect of material nature (sattva-guṇa) and the spirit (puruṣa) an idea introduced above (3.35). The yogi who knows all of nature in its subtlest perfection knows all there is to know in the world of existence; such a yogi also knows that this world is essentially distinct from the
also be implying a comparison with karma-yoga, the discipline of action in the Bhagavad Gītā, where all action is performed as sacrifice. POSTURE, THE POSTURE OF YOGA (āsana) 2.29,46; an effortless, restful positioning of the body, one of the eight limbs of yoga. The lotus posture is the paradigm of all yogic postures: sitting with the spine erect and legs folded to form a steady base. POVERTY (aparigraha) 2.30,39; renunciation of worldly wealth, one of the five moral principles. POWER, ACTIVE
incorporates direct allusions to important philosophical and psychological ideas of ancient India, which create a foil for Patanjali’s analyses. Scholars hypothesize that some form of yoga may belong to the earliest periods of civilization on the Indian subcontinent, evidence for which comes from archaeological artifacts dating from the third millennium B.C. found in the Indus River valley. The still undeciphered written records are inscribed on seals that depict animal and human forms. Among
Rishyashringa lives on in the world as a great sage, from the viewpoint of the Yoga Sutra, his story illustrates how vulnerable even an advanced yogi is to the distractions of the world that his own increasing powers expose. The warning about the powers of yoga is a prelude to the fourth section of the Yoga Sutra, where Patanjali examines the aspects of thought and action that constitute the final obstacles to absolute spiritual freedom (kaivalya). This section recapitulates ideas presented in