A commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali in the light of modern thought
This is not the most meditative translation you will find, but perhaps the most comprehensive.
The Science of Yoga, I.K. Taimni
Commentary on the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali
The Science of Yoga: The Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali in Sanskrit
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Learning yoga philosophy
The style isn't the easiest, but the insights make it well worth it.
Among theosophists this book has a very high status - it's studied by all the lecturers.
Yoga and the Yoga Sutras
About Astanga Yoga
Taimni's yoga has eight limbs, and none of them have to do with posture or gymnastics. Hatha Yoga, from which most yoga practice has evolved, is only one of the possible types of exercise that may be taken on. But the ultimate goal of yoga is, in Taimni's translation:
Yoga is the inhibition of the modifications of the mind.
In more modern words: yoga is about meditation and specifically that kind of meditation that stills the monkey mind.
The eight limbs of yoga
- Yama : Universal morality
- Niyama : Personal observances
- Asanas : Body postures (what we usually think of as 'yoga'
- Pranayama : Breathing exercises, and control of prana
- Pratyahara : Control of the senses
- Dharana : Concentration and cultivating inner perceptual awareness
- Dhyana : Devotion, Meditation on the Divine
- Samadhi : Union with the Divine
These are ordered - and they start with yama and niyama: morality and restraints. In other words: do's and don't's.
Yama - yoga don't's
Restraints
- Ahimsa (Harmlessness)
- Satya (Truthfulness)
- Asteya (Non-stealing)
- Brahmacharya (Sense-control)
This implies sexual abstinence for real yogis, and faithfulness to one's partner for ordinary people. - Aparigraha (Neutralizing the desire to acquire and hoard wealth)
Most people don't like lists telling them what to do or not to do, but this one is quite reasonable, I think. Though of course perhaps not altogether popular in all quarters.
Niyama - yoga do's
- Sauca - cleanliness
- Samtosa - being content, happiness
- Tapas - austerity, discipline
- Svadhyaya - the study of sacred texts and introspective self-study or self-analysis
- Isvarapranidhana - Living with an awareness of the Divine and Devotion to It.
This is the positive advice given to those who are already living according to the moral rules in the yamas.
More Yoga Sutra Commentaries in English
Translations
The Wisdom of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: A New Translation and Guide by Ravi Ravindra
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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Commentary on the Raja Yoga Sutras by Sri Swami Satchidananda
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Reader Feedback
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Reply
- spirituality spirituality Nov 9, 2009 @ 6:15 am | in reply to aaimeep
- I'd say this is a version in which both intellect and personal experience play a part. Taimni would probably say that real spiritual growth includes intellectual understanding.
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Reply
- aaimeep aaimeep Nov 9, 2009 @ 5:49 am
- Thank you, very nice lens.
If I want to read a book on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras to be able to deepen my practices by using some of his insights, is this the one you would recommend most? Or is this book more aimed at an intelectual understanding..?
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Reply
- mayapearl mayapearl Jun 18, 2009 @ 5:48 pm
- I always had this dream to spend a year in an Ashram studying yoga, I love your lens, five stars. Thank you
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Reply
- FreeSpiritSoars FreeSpiritSoars Apr 5, 2009 @ 6:55 pm
- Yoga as meditation or a way to live? Love it!
More about Yoga philosophy
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- Meditation by Hugh Shearman - Modern Theosophy
- A heavy aura of failure and disillusionment hangs round many who have tried to pursue yoga, to practise meditation or to engage in a variety of other more or less related activities aimed at procuring interior peace, psychological freedom or "liberation". Here and there we may recognize an individual seeker who has sought the inner life and been truly touched by it and has become in some way deepened and transformed by it. But dozens of others seem to have got nowhere and have remained unchanged, their uneasinesses sometimes intensified rather than allayed by their "occult" pursuits.
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