The sutras of Patanjali are presented in clear, simple language, with a succinct comment on each. The author shows that the beauty and psychological insight of Yogic thought is available to everyone. This book will interest the newcomer to Yoga as well as those who are already students of the philosophy.

The Yoga Sutras were formulated in India in the third century B.C. The word yoga is from the Sanskrit root meaning "join" or "unity, " and a sutra is a thread or aphoristic verse. Yoga itself is not associated with any particular religion; it simply offers techniques leading to the direct experience of truth. The basic questions Who am I? Where am I going? What is the purpose of life? are asked by every generation, and Patanjali's answers form one (...) of the world's oldest and most vibrant spiritual texts. He explains what yoga is, how it works, and exactly how to purify the mind and let it settle into absolute stillness. Alistair Shearer's extensive and helpful introduction and superb translation, fully preserving Patanjali's jewel-like style, bring these ancient but vital teachings to those who seek the path of self-knowledge today. (shrink)

The Yoga-Sutra of Patañjali is the central text, the core of practical theory and guiding instruction of all Yoga disciplines and traditions. It defines and delineates the technical, metapsychological, and meditative premises of the philosophical and practical fields of Yoga. The Yoga-Sutra is one of humanity's most impressive treatises on consciousness and transcendent psychology. The first translations of the Indian philosophical treatises into European languages appeared in the mid-1800s. Since then nearly 102 English versions of the Yoga-Sutra of Patañjali have (...) been produced. This book provides unique tools for English-speaking students to immerse themselves in the Yoga-Sutra of Patañjali, allowing them to make the path of yoga intimately their own. (shrink)

Many translations have been made from the original Sanskrit of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. They have become well loved, well used, and well applied by many in all parts of the world and of all religious beliefs. The Sutras have a power and a timelessness about them which demonstrate the accuracy with which they pinpoint the basic truths of human evolution from subservience to personality clamours to the serene freedom of the soul. Most human problems today originate in (...) selfish desire; the prostitution of the feeling nature to self-centred physical appetites. This is also brought out clearly in the teaching of the Lord Buddha, the treading of the Noble Eight-Fold path providing the only way out of the maze: Right Values; Right Speech; Right Mode of Living; Right Thinking; Right Expression; Right Conduct; Right Effort; Right Rapture or True Happiness. These are attributes of the soul. Patanjali explores exhaustively the means, the techniques and the mental posture which create the connecting thread between the form-centred personality and these stages towards spiritual achievement and soul fusion. The four parts of the book develop: 1. The Problem of Union (51 sutras). 2. sutras). 4. Illumination (34 sutras). Many different training techniques have been available over the centuries, depending on the condition of human consciousness and the phase of spiritual growth to be accomplished. Each Yoga has had its place, fulfilled its function, and become an absorbed part of human experience. In this book the factor of mind in meeting present-day needs is again given prominence as the agent of the soul, and the key to personality release. These Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are based on Raja Yoga, the kingly science of the soul: Through the science of Raja Yoga the mind will be known as the instrument of the soul and the means whereby the brain of the aspirant becomes illuminated and knowledge gained of those matters which concern the realm of the soul. The soul is concerned with the working out of planetary purpose and plan; so again we find that mental training, and the self-achievement of the individual, lead to cooperation and service on a scale far more comprehensive and of far greater evolutionary significance than merely the individual effects on the life of the disciple. venture on the path of union with the soul. When through the removal of hindrances and the purification of the sheaths, the totality of knowledge becomes available, naught further remains for the man to do. (shrink)

En 195 aphorismes, les Yoga-Sutras de Patanjali codifient l'enseignement d'une pratique traditionnelle plusieurs fois millénaire. C'est l'esprit même du Yoga qui se trouve ici décrit, résumé en une série de remarques lapidaires et lumineuses. Vrai traité de connaissance de soi, cet ouvrage est l'un des textes majeurs de l'humanité. Son message, transcendant les siècles, se révèle bien plus que moderne : essentiel.

Compendium of Yoga philosophy with two classical Sanskrit commentaries and Vaidikayogamīmāṃsā, Hindi commentary.

Treatise on the fundamentals of Yoga; Sanskrit text with Hindi interpretation.

Treatise on Yoga philosophy with Sanskrit commentaries and translation.

Aphoristic work, with commentary, of the Yoga school in Indic philosophy.

Classical work, with translation and commentary on Yoga philosophy.

Classical work on Yoga philosophy; Sanskrit text with Gujarati translation of Sāṅkhyapravacanabhāṣya and Tattvavaiśāradī commentaries.

Aphoristic work on the meditational fundamentals of the Yoga school of Indic philosophy.

YO GA-DARSHAN A Sfitras of Patafijali with Bhaisya ofVy:1sa BY Ganganatha Jha he Yoga-darshana includes the Yoga-sfitras ofPataf1jali, and the ancient commentary thereon by Vyasa. The Yoga-sfitras of Patafijali are the classic?...

This book is meant for sincere students, and especially for those who have some glimmering of what Krishna meant, when in Bhagavad-Gita, he said that after a while spiritual knowledge grows up within and illuminates with its rays all subjects and objects.

Patañjali’s Yoga Sutra (second century CE) is the basic text of one of the nine canonical schools of Indian philosophy. In it the legendary author lays down the blueprint for success in yoga, now practiced the world over. Patañjali draws upon many ideas of his time, and the result is a unique work of Indian moral philosophy that has been the foundational text for the practice of yoga since. The Yoga Sutra sets out a sophisticated theory of moral psychology and (...) perhaps the oldest theory of psychoanalysis. For Patañjali, present mental maladies are a function of subconscious tendencies formed in reaction to past experiences. He argues that people are not powerless against such forces and that they can radically alter their lives through yoga—a process of moral transformation and perfection, which brings the body and mind of a person in line with their personhood. Accompanying this translation is an extended introduction that explains the challenges of accurately translating Indian philosophical texts, locates the historical antecedents of Patañjali’s text and situates Patanjali’s philosophy within the history of scholastic Indian philosophy. This is explicitly a philosophical translation of the text. (shrink)

This article offers a novel approach to the interpretation of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras through the Jungian lens of Western alchemy. When viewed from this perspective, the YS reads not as a final separation of matter and Spirit as traditionally understood, but as a path toward increased wholeness and integration. Jung found in Western alchemy evidence for his own theory of individuation, the psyche’s process of Self-becoming. First, I contextualize the YS within the broader scholarly conversation on yoga and alchemy. Second, (...) I define Jung’s understanding of individuation, specifically in the context of Western alchemy and its processes. Finally, I interpret the prominent stages of the YS—nirodha, saṁyoga, and.. (shrink)

This chapter tries to show that there is indubitable evidence for the claim that the Yoga philosophy of Patañjali can be said to be a philosophy as therapeia. For this reference will be made particularly to the Sāṅkhya school, whose ontology and metaphysics are presupposed by Yoga philosophy. The Sāṅkhya school begins with the question about overcoming three kinds of ‘suffering’ that torment human beings, and Patañjali himself says that the implementation of yoga, is, among other things, for the sake (...) of minimising the afflictions. The second part of the chapter will be concerned with the philosophical activity referred to in Yoga itself, namely the active yoga, or yoga in the form of action, in order to show how this can be seen as advancing the case for Yoga as therapeia. (shrink)

Study of Yogasūtra of Patañjali; includes text with English translation.

Yoga is a nonspeciesist liberalism, founded in a moral non-naturalism, which identifies the essence of personhood as the Lord, defined by unconservative self-governance—an abstraction from each of us that is non-proprietary. According to Yoga, the right is defined as the approximation of the regulative ideal (the Lord) and the good is the perfection of this practice, which delivers us from a life of coercion into a personal world of freedom. It is an alternative to Deontology, Consequentialism, and Virtue Ethics, which (...) provides a unitary account of moral well-being and worldly well-being. The seeming antinomy of freedom and determinism is resolved in the ethical life. I argue that Yoga provides a critical and instructive response to alternative ethical theories and the problem of collective harm. (shrink)

This book offers a systematic and radical introduction to the Buddhist roots of Pātañjalayoga or the Yoga system of Patañjali. By examining each of 195 aphorisms of the Yogasūtra, along with discussions on the Yogabhāṣya, it shows that traditional and popular views on Pātañjalayoga obscure its true nature. The book argues that Patañjali's Yoga contains elements rooted in both orthodox as well as heterodox philosophical traditions, including Sāṅkhya, Jaina and Buddhist thought. With a fresh translation and a detailed commentary on (...) the Yogasūtra, the author unearths how several terms, concepts, and doctrines of Patañjali's Yoga can be traced to Buddhism, particularly the Abhidharma Buddhism of Vasubandhu and the early Yogācāra of Asaṅga. The work presents the Yogasūtra of Patañjali as a synthesis of two perspectives: the metaphysical perspective of Sāṅkhya and the empirical-psychological perspective of Buddhism. Based on a holistic understanding of Yoga, the study explores key themes of the text, such as meditative absorption, means, supernormal powers, isolation, Buddhist conceptions of meditation, the interplay between Sāṅkhya and Buddhist approaches to suffering and emancipation. It further highlights several new findings and clarifications on textual interpretation and discrepancies. An important intervention in Indian and Buddhist philosophy, this book opens a new way of looking at the Yoga of Patañjali in the light of Buddhism beyond standard approaches, and will greatly interest scholars and researchers of Buddhist studies, Yoga studies, Indian philosophy, philosophy in general, literature, religion and comparative studies, Indian and South Asian Studies, and the history of ideas. (shrink)