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    The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: The Book of the Spiritual Man
    The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: The Book of the Spiritual Man
    The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: The Book of the Spiritual Man
    Ebook124 pages2 hours

    The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: The Book of the Spiritual Man

    By Maharishi Patanjali

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    About this ebook

    The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the foundation text of Raja Yoga, one of the six orthodox astika schools of Hindu philosophy. The 196 sutras are divided into four forms – Mantra Yoga, Laya Yoga, Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga–the last of which is the highest (or royal) practice.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Big Nest
    Release dateFeb 15, 2013
    ISBN9781909676879

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    • 5/5
      This relatively short text is a buddhistic interpretation/commentary of Patanjali's Yoga-Sutra. The basic concepts are readily explained in the introduction; I believe that this helped my understanding a lot. The core part groups several verses together and elaborates on their meaning. Various appendices provide a contemporary perspective.Since, the text is seriously written and dense, I often had to read paragraphs multiple times. Although, most parts are clear/understandable it also contains sentences like "[...] attention must narrow its scope [...] to just those impressions that evoke the felt sense of the body [...]" (end of p.42) that I could not endow with any meaning. Those parts that I could understand seemed logically sound and chapter 3 (about schamanic powers) is treated with an amount of distance that I found almost appropriate.Given the subject at hand, the level of clarity achieved by the commentator is very respectable.

    Book preview

    The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Maharishi Patanjali

    Maharishi Patanjali

    YOGA

    The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

    The Book of the Spiritual Man

    THE BIG NEST

    LONDON ∙ NEW YORK ∙ TORONTO ∙ SAO PAULO ∙ MOSCOW

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    TOKYO ∙ SYDNEY ∙ CAPE TOWN ∙ AUCKLAND ∙ BEIJING

    Yoga Academy

    New Edition

    Published by The Big Nest

    An imprint of Max Bollinger

    27 Old Gloucester St,

    London WC1N 3AX

    [email protected]

    www.thebignest.co.uk

    This Edition

    First published in 2013

    Author: Maharishi Patanjali

    Editor: Max Bollinger

    Copyright © 2013 The Big Nest

    Cover design and artwork © 2013 Urban-Pic.co.uk

    All Rights Reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

    The greatest care has been taken in compiling this book. However, no responsibility can be accepted by the publishers or compilers for the accuracy of the information presented.

    British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

    A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

    Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data.

    A catalogue record for this book has been requested.

    ISBN: 9781909676879 (ebk)

    Bref: YST-03

    Contents

    INTRODUCTION TO BOOK I

    BOOK I

    INTRODUCTION TO BOOK II

    BOOK II

    INTRODUCTION TO BOOK III

    BOOK III

    INTRODUCTION TO BOOK IV

    BOOK IV

    FURTHER READING

    INTRODUCTION TO BOOK I

    The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are in themselves exceedingly brief, less than ten pages of large type in the original. Yet they contain the essence of practical wisdom, set forth in admirable order and detail. The theme, if the present interpreter be right, is the great regeneration, the birth of the spiritual from the psychical man: the same theme which Paul so wisely and eloquently set forth in writing to his disciples in Corinth, the theme of all mystics in all lands.

    We think of ourselves as living a purely physical life, in these material bodies of ours. In reality, we have gone far indeed from pure physical life; for ages, our life has been psychical, we have been centred and immersed in the psychic nature. Some of the schools of India say that the psychic nature is, as it were, a looking-glass, wherein are mirrored the things seen by the physical eyes, and heard by the physical ears. But this is a magic mirror; the images remain, and take a certain life of their own. Thus within the psychic realm of our life there grows up an imaged world wherein we dwell; a world of the images of things seen and heard, and therefore a world of memories; a world also of hopes and desires, of fears and regrets. Mental life grows up among these images, built on a measuring and comparing, on the massing of images together into general ideas; on the abstraction of new notions and images from these; till a new world is built up within, full of desires and hates, ambition, envy, longing, speculation, curiosity, self-will, self-interest.

    The teaching of the East is, that all these are true powers overlaid by false desires; that though in manifestation psychical, they are in essence spiritual; that the psychical man is the veil and prophecy of the spiritual man.

    The purpose of life, therefore, is the realizing of that prophecy; the unveiling of the immortal man; the birth of the spiritual from the psychical, whereby we enter our divine inheritance and come to inhabit Eternity. This is, indeed, salvation, the purpose of all true religion, in all times.

    Patanjali has in mind the spiritual man, to be born from the psychical. His purpose is, to set in order the practical means for the unveiling and regeneration, and to indicate the fruit, the glory and the power, of that new birth.

    Through the Sutras of the first book, Patanjali is concerned with the first great problem, the emergence of the spiritual man from the veils and meshes of the psychic nature, the moods and vestures of the mental and emotional man. Later will come the consideration of the nature and powers of the spiritual man, once he stands clear of the psychic veils and trammels, and a view of the realms in which these new spiritual powers are to be revealed.

    At this point may come a word of explanation. I have been asked why I use the word Sutras, for these rules of Patanjali’s system, when the word Aphorism has been connected with them in our minds for a generation. The reason is this: the name Aphorism suggests, to me at least, a pithy sentence of very general application; a piece of proverbial wisdom that may be quoted in a good many sets of circumstance, and which will almost bear on its face the evidence of its truth. But with a Sutra the case is different. It comes from the same root as the word sew, and means, indeed, a thread, suggesting, therefore, a close knit, consecutive chain of argument. Not only has each Sutra a definite place in the system, but further, taken out of this place, it will be almost meaningless, and will by no means be self-evident. So I have thought best to adhere to the original word. The Sutras of Patanjali are as closely knit together, as dependent on each other, as the propositions of Euclid, and can no more be taken out of their proper setting.

    In the second part of the first book, the problem of the emergence of the spiritual man is further dealt with. We are led to the consideration of the barriers to his emergence, of the overcoming of the barriers, and of certain steps and stages in the ascent from the ordinary consciousness of practical life, to the finer, deeper, radiant consciousness of the spiritual man.

    BOOK I

    1. OM: Here follows Instruction in Union.

    Union, here as always in the Scriptures of India, means union of the individual soul with the Oversoul; of the personal consciousness with the Divine Consciousness, whereby the mortal becomes immortal, and enters the Eternal. Therefore, salvation is, first, freedom from sin and the sorrow which comes from sin, and then a divine and eternal well-being, wherein the soul partakes of the being, the wisdom and glory of God.

    2. Union, spiritual consciousness, is gained through control of the versatile psychic nature.

    The goal is the full consciousness of the spiritual man, illumined by the Divine Light. Nothing except the obdurate resistance of the psychic nature keeps us back from the goal. The psychical powers are spiritual powers run wild, perverted, drawn from their proper channel. Therefore our first task is, to regain control of this perverted nature, to chasten, purify and restore the misplaced powers.

    3. Then the Seer comes to consciousness in his proper nature.

    Egotism is but the perversion of spiritual being. Ambition is the inversion of spiritual power. Passion is the distortion of love. The mortal is the limitation of the immortal. When these false images give place to true, then the spiritual man stands forth luminous, as the sun, when the clouds disperse.

    4. Heretofore the Seer has been enmeshed in the activities of the psychic nature.

    The power and life which are the heritage of the spiritual man have been caught and enmeshed in psychical activities. Instead of pure being in the Divine, there has been fretful, combative, egotism, its hand against every man. Instead of the light of pure vision, there have been restless senses nave been re and imaginings. Instead of spiritual joy, the undivided joy of pure being, there has been self-indulgence of body and mind. These are all real forces, but distorted from their true nature and goal. They must be extricated, like gems from the matrix, like the pith from the reed, steadily, without destructive violence. Spiritual powers are to be drawn forth from the psychic meshes.

    5. The psychic activities are five; they are either subject or not subject to the five hindrances (Book II, 3).

    The psychic nature is built up through the image-making power, the power which lies behind and dwells in mind-pictures. These pictures do not remain quiescent in the mind; they are kinetic, restless, stimulating to new acts. Thus the mind-image of an indulgence suggests and invites to a new indulgence; the picture of past joy is framed in regrets or hopes. And there is the ceaseless play of the desire to know, to penetrate to the essence of things, to classify. This, too, busies itself ceaselessly with the mind-images. So that we may classify the activities of the psychic nature thus:

    6. These activities are: Sound intellection, unsound intellection, predication, sleep, memory.

    We have here a list of mental and emotional powers; of powers that picture and observe, and of powers that picture and feel. But the

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