Chapter I: From Here to Limitless Love and Unbounded Awareness (Samadhi Pada)
I.1 - 1.3 Yoga is the intersection of ever-presence and ever-newness in our experience. It is sacred prescience.
Yoga occurs when the pre-existing conditioned limits of the mind are broken asunder, revealing boundless natural wonder.
That is the recognition of our true native universal intelligence shining forth in all.
I.4 - I.11 At other times, the human mind is bound and negatively affected by twists and distortions of our natural union, such as dullness, past memories, mental speculations, and wrong conclusions. Primary of these mental prisons are belief systems based on ordinary perception, mere logic, and/or external authority figures, which we have designated as real, thus becoming stubbornly fixated to a substitute "reality" that breeds grief.
Fragmented thinking in symbolic terms such as in terms of words, intellectual concepts, conditioned thought patterns, dullness of the mind, errors of perception and logic, and imprints of the past tend to color and limit our greatest potential.
I.12 - I.19 The supreme path of yoga involves letting go of these egoic boundaries by emptying the process of their mental formations, while placing trust in our natural limitless state of wonder beyond any concept of separation or ego. The highest living manifestation of this is acting as the living vehicle of rainbow love.
I.20 - I.29 Failing that, there are many paths of conduct, methods, and practices that prepare the yogi for union. None are superior to the recognition and complete devotion to the universal primordial teacher that resides in all beings and things.
I.27 – end. The path of the cultivating the universal inner light leads from the coarse, to the subtle, to beyond even the most subtle vibrations, where awareness rests in the sweet grace of unconditioned primordial awareness. It defies all limitations and definitions, yet is always accessible to the wise. After having removed all past karmic residues, the yogi eventually is able to access sacred union continuously at any time. One's individual will dissolves as it becomes entirely in union with the primordial momentum of the cosmos. Automatically, great strength, confidence, knowledge, and love are available in samadhi. Samadhi (universal union) is the most sublime experience of realization.
Chapter II. Processes, Paths, and Procedures (Sadhana Pada)
II. I - 26 Yoga practices prepare the yogi for samadhi by breaking up past negative karmic afflictions and conditions, including past physical, mental, and energetic limited patterns. The nature of grief and discomfort is recognized, and thus defeated through practices that extend our innate discriminative wisdom through stages.
II.27 – end. A sure path to samadhi is the practice of eight-limbed (astanga) yoga, which includes the cleaning up of one's lifestyle (yama), the institution of positive behavior (niyama) that lead quickly to the dissolution of obstacles, posture (asana) that eliminates stress and tension, energy activation techniques (pranayama), activation of the inner evolutionary seeds through the kindling of the innate dormant fire (pratyhara), concentration and clarity of focus (dharana), the ability to let go of mental formations and become instructed by universal native intelligence (dhyana), and finally the ability to reside in this unlimited universal non-dual state effortlessly and naturally (samadhi).
Chapter III. How to Regard Yogic Abilities: Adeptness
Through the functional practice of yoga, one's HeartMind will be transformed. Through mastery in concentration, lucidity becomes integrated. Through mastery of meditation transpersonal awareness is integrated continuously. Finally the yogi will be able to see the whole in the one, and the one in the whole. Differentiated reality and undifferentiated reality mesh together seamlessly.
The practice of concentration, absorption, and samadhi are brought together as a singular process that allows the yogi to know all phenomena at any time devoid of bias, prejudice, or distortion. This ability is learned by learning how to release the contents of the mind, balance out all dualistic processes, and access the wholographic mind onepointedly. This facilitates the opening of the third eye, allowing for limitless insight.
The application of these abilities in every situation will naturally reveal and fructify certain abilities. Do not become seduced that these abilities come from ego, self-will, or isolation. Abilities come from the universal, limitless, and all encompassing mind, which is free from the delusion of ego. Ignoring this truth has caused the egoic downfall of many aspirants. Neither seek nor become attached to these abilities, rather use them for ultimate non-dual liberation solely. The goal of yoga is to abide and express sublime and transpersonal unbounded integration/union, samadhi. Do not become dissuaded.
Chapter IV. Integration as Unconditional Liberation from all fabrications/modifications and limitations of the Consciousness
Here, the egoic self is dissolved, while being absorbed into the universal hologram. The world itself is not dissolved, only the illusory dualistic world -- the world that was previously misperceived. What is left is not illusion, but unbounded knowledge due to the beneficial process of disillusionment/deconditioning. Such is the yogi's unconditioned/natural timeless transpersonal non-dual true identity; hence, it is unconditional and limitless liberation, not a freedom "from" any "thing", not an escape, avoidance, negation, exclusion, nor denial.
So to be accurate, "the old world" dissolves, but a new and more accurate world view that is in harmony with the evolutionary life energy is recognized. This is the vision of the New Earth, which is not separate from Life’s Great Continuity. Here, grandmother earth and grandfather sky are united naturally. Rather, they were never separate in the first place, other than in one's fragmented mindset. The human body's sensory organs and sense objects are understood in such universal and unbiased cosmic and timeless terms, as-it-is. The body also has never been separate from its source; yet, such separation/alienation is a dominant misperception that is destroyed by breaking asunder old habitual mental formative propensities that obscure the original harmony of light and love. When the past negative conditioning is eliminated for good, then the natural and original innate goodwill and true happiness will effortlessly shine forth unimpeded by itself. God did not banish humankind from the Garden; rather man, who became self-infatuated and narrow-minded, banned the all-creating mind and thus abandoned his true nature.
Short Commentary on the Plain Language Translation
The reader is hereby warned that this interpretation of the Yoga Sutras is not the standardized, politically correct, sycophantic, and academically institutionalized version of the Yoga Sutras; however, this translation may be more relevant and true to Sri Patanjali's original intent, as a practicing yogi. In authoritarian centralized cultures, where intuition, creativity, and innovation are stifled, and the correct answers are determined by centralized authoritarian institutional watchdogs, the innate joy of learning often becomes supplanted by the fear of not knowing, appearing incorrect, stupid, ostracized, or “out of step”.
If the above are not simply intellectual ideas that you may agree with, but resonate strongly within you so that this is the way you live without disruption; then, you do not need to read the Yoga Sutra commentaries that are presented here. Otherwise, please see the Sutra by Sutra translation and commentary for further details. Some may say that complicated details are necessary, but that is not the case in yoga. In fact over-elaboration, logical fallacies, and blind belief are too common in the authoritarian institutionalized interpretations. Although god is NOT in the details, the detailed commentaries accompanying the full translation were written to support the above plain-language interpretation, which is direct and to the point.
Preface
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Short History
A Plain Language Short Translation (this page)
Chapter One: Samadhi Pada: Coming Home: The Goalless Goal of Yoga
Chapter Two: Sadhana Pada: The Practice of Yoga
Chapter Three: Vibhuti Pada: On Proficiency and Ability
Chapter Four: Kaivalyam Pada: Absolute and Unconditional Liberation
Appendix:
I: Annotated Sanskrit to English Glossary
II: Accessing the Yoga Sutras: The Heart of the Muddle
III: Yoga FAQs
IV: Bibliography (forthcoming)
Index
Links
Foreword to The Yoga Sutras As It Is
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras Made Accessible: An Essay Designed to rescue the Yoga Sutras from excess intellectualization/elaboration
An Ashtanga (Eight Limbed) Yoga Meditation Practice
Beloved Yoga Teacher, Sri Dr. G. K. Pungaliya Essay on Patanjali and Jnaneshwar Sri Pungaliya was an ardent student of yoga, and subsequently became a modern master. Here Sri Pungaliya shares his insight on Samkhya, Patanjali, and Sri Jnaneshwar.
Yogiraj Shyamacharan Lahiri's Translation of the Yoga Sutras A more classic but inspired translation by the Grandson of Lahiri Mahasaya. This is very long download in PDF format.
Yoga Sutra Translation by Chester Messenger A refreshing, little known, and sincere work of a life-long meditator.
Links to over 25 Different Web Based English Translations of the Yoga Sutras. at HRIH.NET. Most of these translations are unoriginal and offer little insight. They are mostly an exercise in grammar, semantics, and epistemology.
A Sanskrit to English Annotated Glossary
Professor Whicher's commentary on Prakrti and Purusa
Alien Gods: Samkhya Interpretation of Nature (using Brahmacarya as the example)
A Review of Ian Whicher's. The Integrity of the Yoga Darsana: A Reconsideration of Classical Yoga by Georg Feuerstein
Yoga as seen in the Light of Vipassana by S. N. Goenka
A Short History of the Yoga Sutras
"Is Yoga a Religion": an astute and concise article by Georg Feuerstein
An article entitled "Is Yoga a Religion", by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati
Yoga is not a Religion, by Shakti Das
Proceed to Chapter One of the Yoga Sutras: Samadhi Pada