Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali (eBook)

Introduction TheYoga-Sutra of Patajali is one of the most enlightening spiritualdocuments of all time. Nearly two thousand years old, this collection of 196compact observations on the nature of consciousness and liberation remainsunrivaled for its penetrating insight. Though brief, the Yoga-Sutramanagesto cut to the heart of the human dilemma. With uncommon directness,Patajali analyzes how we know what we know and why we suffer. He thenprovides a meditative program through which each of us can fulfill the primarypurposes of consciousness: to see things as they are and to achieve freedomfrom suffering. Weaving the threads of ancient yogic knowledge into a detailedmap of human possibility, the Yoga-Sutrastandsas a testament to heroic self-awareness, defining yoga for all time. Eventoday, from a distance of two millennia, we can be sure that Patajali'sinward quest arose from a deeply ingrained desire to extract happiness andmeaning from the mysteries of life, consciousness, and mortality. Such a desirehas been universal among humans of all cultures since prehistory, and itresonates in us as strongly today as ever. In fact, yoga now enjoys anunprecedented and ever growing popularity in East and West. Just as Westernthought and technology have crossed geographical borders and found a home inIndia, Indian thought long ago migrated throughout Southeast Asia, China, andJapan, profoundly enriching the cultures of each region, and has continued tospread across the globe. Today, the central themes of Indian thought,especially regarding consciousness, continue to penetrate both Asian andWestern worlds of art, philosophy, and spirituality, providing a much-neededcounterbalance to Western orthodoxies. These patterns of cross-fertilizationreflect a universality that labels like 'Indian' and'Western' obscure. However,most of the yoga practiced worldwide today would be unrecognizable to earlieryogis like Patajali who attained realization in meditative stillness.Had he lived some seven centuries later, in the tenth century instead of thethird, his system might well have incorporated movements from the leading formof yoga now practiced, hatha yoga, which was developed in part to temper thebodymind and focus its energies for meditation. In Patajali's era,though, the yoga posture, or sana,wassimply a means of sitting as steadily and effortlessly as possible and was notan exercise system of any kind. This older, contemplative yoga has come to beknown as raja-yoga—,the 'royal' or 'exalted'path—,distinguishing it from the later hatha yoga. It is also often referred toas classical yoga for the same reason. The yoga of Patajali is aprocess of stilling and interiorization, in which utter physical and mentalcalm is brought to every aspect of human personhood and experience. For him, asanawasbut the bodily aspect of this process. Indeed,when Patajali uses the word yoga,hemeans 'yoking.' Its root, yuj,isa direct forerunner of the modern word yoke.Thepractice of yoga is meant to rein in the tendency of consciousness to gravitatetoward external things, to identify with them and try to locate happiness inthem. Steady practice at 'yoking' teaches consciousness how to turninward toward itself and realize the true nature of its underlying awareness.Only then, he assures us, can we understand why we are alive, why we suffer,and how we might become happy and wise. Theexperience of realization is not altogether unfamiliar to us. Most of us havehad flashes of enlightenment at one time or another,...