Q. Why is there so much Sanskrit jargon used by English translators and commentators? Is this some secret society or “in-crowd” where a secret language is used? Why is Sanskrit necessary at all if Yoga is based on universal .
A: Yes yoga is a universal practice based on universal principles. It is not dependent upon any one religion, nationality, race, or language, but at the same time even an idiot would agree that language is of course necessary to communicate with words. The principle ideas and practices in the Yoga Sutras are very deep and profound and lend themselves very nicely to Sanskrit as compared to Western languages. For many of the Sanskrit words, there exists no adequate word for word direct translation. Examples are samadhi, yoga, samyama, dhyana, yama, pratyhara, pranayama, purusa, cit, and many more. Any attempt to substitute these Sanskrit words which represent profound yogic meaning with one or two English words usually causes more confusion, dichotomy, and winds up short changing the student. Likewise if one wanted to learn digital imaging techniques, one would have to be willing to learn new words and ideas. The same goes for geography, anatomy, or automobile mechanics. So too with yoga. If one is not willing to learn some new words (mastery of Sanskrit is not required), then one will wind up with superficial knowledge. Although an all English language translation of the Yoga Sutras is possible, it would end up being very wordy, superficial, and/or ambiguous.
Q: Since Sanskrit is a magical and phonetic language is it not necessary to master the correct pronunciation of the sutras as well master Sanskrit in order to access its deepest practices and meanings.
A: No. Although Sanskrit is an especially beautiful phonetic language which lends itself toward expressing spiritual meaning excellently, the meaning of the Yoga Sutras is obtained through effective yogic practice, not through linguistic expertise. Only one small section of the Yoga Sutras pertains to sound vibration techniques and that is in regard only the sacred syllable, AUM. Rather Patanjali teaches Yoga through numerous practices none of them being grammar or chanting sacred texts (both of which belong to other schools of thought). Although it is useful to know Sanskrit in order to understand the practices described in the Yoga Sutras since they were originally written in Sanskrit, it is far more valuable to practice what Patanjali actually teaches (which is neither chanting nor grammar). Without a deep sense of its profound meaning such rote memorization will prove to be a waste of time or worse, a glorified distraction.
However having said that, this is not to say that chanting the sutras in Sanskrit in a non-mechanical and meaningful way is not a valuable method of remembering their purport. That is effective only if one already understands Sanskrit, has studied the Yoga Sutras as an overall integrity, and actually engages in yoga practices.
Q: Is technical mastery of Sanskrit sufficient to understand the Yoga Sutras and/or to become enlightened?
A: According to Sanskrit grammarians (shastries and pandits), yes, but not according to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras itself, where the mastery of Sanskrit grammar was not anywhere assumed nor advocated. In terms of the Yoga Sutras one must take Patanjali as authority, as a representative of the yogic oral tradition, while denying the wild claims of grammarians. The goal of yoga certainly is reached via yogic practices as taught in the Yogic Sutras most certainly and without question.
To understand the depth of this type of linguistic superiority, insularity, and arrogance, included is a quote from Vyas Houston an American who makes his living teaching Sanskrit:
“The language that long ago established the certainty of freedom was Sanskrit. Like mathematics, Sanskrit is a language of infinite subtlety and functional precision. While the sciences of mathematics, physics, astronomy etc. continue to evolve, as scientists use them as tools to probe deeper into the nature of the universe, Sanskrit has not changed since 500 B.C., when it was meticulously codified by Panini. If the ultimate task of science, as well as the ultimate goal of life, had been to get a man on the moon, there would have been no need for science and mathematics to develop any further. It could have stopped right there. Sanskrit stopped being further refined precisely because it had become the sufficient instrument to facilitate human liberation, the ultimate purpose of human life. There simply was no need to go further. The enlightenment of the Buddha at exactly the same time in history could be viewed as an auspicious confirmation of the culmination of millennia of yogic research.”
from his article at http://www.americansanskrit.com/read/a_sutras.php
It is generally agreed that Sanskrit has progressively undergone changes from its own original oral beginnings up until the time of Panini (late fifth century BCE). Here it may be note worthy to mention the disappearance of the subjunctive case due to Panini’s influence.
Q: Who was Patanjali?
A: Patanjali was a yogi who lived in Northern India approximately two thousand years ago as a practitioner of ancient mountain yoga Nothing definitive is known about his life, albeit some grammarians speculate that he was the same person as the grammarian, also named Patanjali who lived in in the mid second century BCE. and who wrote a celebrated commentary (Mahabhasya) on Panini’s classic on Sanskrit Grammar. Such unsupported speculation helps grammarians justify their mechanistic etymological and philological interpretations of the Yoga Sutras. Although there existed nothing known about the Yogi, Patanjali, for a thousand years after writing his yoga compendium, all of a sudden (miraculously) during the bhakti era in India a myth was composed lauding his magical birth and many supernatural feats. Hence nearly 1000 years after Patanjali wrote the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali started being worshipped as a Hindu saint. Although Patanjali certainly deserves great praise, we feat him and honor his memory best by ignoring such fairy tales and practice what he actually exhorted us to do. Such fancy is a disservice to Patanjali as it is in direct contradiction to what he taught.
Q: When did Patanjali live?
Nothing is written about Patanjali’s actual life although a myth was created 1000 years after he died. As the first person to write down the mountain yoga tradition teachings, much of the material was very old as the most ancient yogic teachings stem from before the first millennium BC. However due to the definite Mahayana and neo-tantric elements, some of the latter writings in the Yoga Sutras has to be dated after the beginning of the current era – somewhere before 300 CE which is before the first extant commentary (written by Vyasa in the 3rd or 4th century CE). Hence, due to the decidedly Buddhist Mahayana and proto-tantric elements (which belong to 200 CE and later) and the lack of any extant commentaries or references to the Yoga Sutras prior to the third century CE., an educated guess would set the date at approximately 200 CE. It is important to note that there is no extant evidence as to any specific dates. Just as important, Patanjali was not the inventor of yoga, rather the contents of the Yoga Sutras predated him via the ancient oral mountain yogi tradition. Although Patanjali is often credited as a systematizer of Yoga practices, that claim can not be substantiated given the fact that a preexisting oral tradition existed in a systemized form, comprehensively systematized or not, we can not certainly ever know.
Q: Are the Yoga Sutras all authentic and how many are there?
A: There does exist some controversy as to the original Yoga Sutras and what may have been added. Certainly the language of Chapter IV is most unique and hence perhaps the best candidate that suggests a possible post-humorous addendum had occurred. Just so much of Chapter III is proto-tantric indicating a later date. Lacking any exact evidence it is impossible to state with certainty. Likewise there exists a controversy regarding whether or not there were 196 sutras or 195 sutras (the sutra in question being omitted is the superfluous III.22 which is sometimes added after III.21). In this author’s translation, it has been omitted as it seems to be inconsequential and superfluous (the topic being covered by other existing sutras).
Q: Why are the Yoga Sutras so terse
A: They are not terse in the sense that they can not stand alone, Nor do they require lengthy expert commentary. Rather they are terse in the sense that the Yoga Sutras are crisp, neat, to the point, concisely elegant, and easily understood statements conveying the essential core meaning when the sutras are taken as an integrative whole.
There exist many rather lengthy sutras such as Narada’s Bhakti Sutras, the Vedanta (Brahma) Sutras, the Buddhist Sutras, etc.. Neither does the word, sutra, mean “aphorism”. The word ,sutra, does not justify “terse aphorism” in the sense of it being arcane, hence justifying obtuse and elaborate, compounded, and tedious intellectual abstractions. Sutra rather means, thread. When understood as threads within a wholistic fabric – when the yoga sutras are seen in light of an overall integrity. Then they are not seen as terse nor in need of any commentary or external means. Only when the sutras are misunderstood as fragmented, they appear as terse and in need of a commentary.
In English translation they are not easily made concise and short at the same time because the yogic meaning of the Sanskrit terms do not lend themselves to concise Sanskrit to English direct word for word translation. Concisely, one should not justify a meaningless, fragmented, or confused ambiguous translation of any sutra by claiming that it was designed to be terse. This is a rather too common contrivance. Rather it is more often the case that the the translator has lost the genuine thread.
Q: Does the Yoga Sutras preach the caste system?
A: No
Q: Does the Yoga Sutras preach prayer or devotion to gurus, or sacrifice?
A: No.
Q: Does yoga teach ceremonies, rituals, philosophy, dogma, or religion such as Hinduism or Buddhism?
No. Although there exist some common terms used by Hindu and Buddhist Indians in the Yoga Sutras, the Yoga Sutras are entirely practice based; i.e., empirical. The only requirement is to be open minded, alert, and suspend the prisons of our belief systems. Here the practices lead to and reveal via direct experience underlying universal principles, hence the Yoga Sutras serve as a field manual where one’s own body, mind, and breath is the laboratory, in the experiment of life. The experiment is over when the yogi succeeds in embodying the yoga.
Yoga is universal devoid of any limitations such as race, creed, nationality, sex, province, or even species. Yoga is all inclusive. (See A Short History of Yoga)
Q: Are asana and pranayama practices, like that taught in hatha yoga, found in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras?
Yes and no. The general outline for asana and pranayama practices are contained in Sutras II.46-52. Also I.31 and I.34 has breathing exercises s well. These general principles in the Yoga Sutras apply to hatha yoga, but hatha yoga proper, elaborates upon and refines these practices in far greater detail. It is fair to say that classical hatha yoga includes and embraces Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. but adds to the practices more specific practices of asana, pranayama, pratyhara, and dharana (visualization). some say that hatha yoga practices are merely augmentative to Raj Yoga or meditation. In essence these are all practices which are designed to effect union/yoga. Thus what is is most valuable is to not mistake the practice or technique with the goal -- not become obsessed with the individual techniques but rather to use effective methods to move in alignment and harmony with Sanatana Dharma -- as Natural Law.
I. Samadhi Pada - Absorption, Mergence, Linking, Getting in Touch, Union through realizing Harmony, Interconnectedness, Integrity, and Indigenous Belongingness -- the Reality of ALL OUR RELATIONS
II. Sadhana Pada - Practice, Methods, and Technique
III. Vibhuti Pada - Proficiency, Progress, Fruition, Success, and Ability
IV .Kaivalya Pada - Complete, Unconditional, and Absolute Liberation
Books:
All books by Swami Sivananda, Swami Venkatesananda and Swami Rama.
"The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with Commentary by Swami Venkatesananda", 389 pp. This book with commentary can be obtained at http://www.swamivenkatesananda.org or at the Divine Life Bookstore of Maryland. In India it can be obtained at Divine Life Society, India, 1998, 389 pp. This is a most excellent insightful book by a great being who was educated in the oral tradition, practiced yoga diligently, mastered Sanskrit, and lived and taught in both the East and the West having penetrated the Western psyche. The translation is also found (without commentaries) on the web at http://dailyreadings.com/sutras_1.htm for download and also is available in a pocket edition (translation without commentary) as "Enlightened Living" by Swami Venkatesananda published by Anahata Press (Richard Miller) .
"Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (Samadhi-Pada): Volume I", Pandit Usharbudh Arya (Swami Veda Bharati), Himalayan Institute Press; ISBN: 0893890928; (June 1986) Honesdale, PA. 510 pp. (Pandit Usharbudh Arya was later renamed, Swami Veda Bharati, by Swami Rama.) This is a translation and commentary of Pada One only and again it addresses in great detail Vyasa's commentary of Pada One.)
"Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with the exposition of Vyasa: Translation and Commentary, Volume II: Sadhana Pada, Swami Veda Bharati, Motilal Benarsidass, Delhi, 2001. 861 pp. (This is an in-depth translation and commentary of Pada Two spending more time on Vyasa's commentary then on Patanjali. Swami Veda Bharati exercises impeccable scholarship and intellectual ability without losing yogic insight -- a very rare and welcome combination also by an author who was educated in the oral tradition, practiced diligently, mastered Sanskrit, and taught and lived in both the West as well in India, and has penetrated to a certain degree the complexity of Western conditioning upon the psyche. The book can be obtained via the bookstore at www.bindu.org or swamiveda.org
"The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali", Christopher Chapple and Yogi Ananda Viraj, Sri Satguru Publications, Delhi, 1990, 133 pp. (An excellent literal translation).
"Kriya Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Siddhas", Marshall Govindan, Kriya Yoga Publications, 196 Mountain Rd., PO Box 90, Eastman, Quebec, Canada, J0E1P0, 2000. 283 pp. (A refreshing, creative, and insightful translation within the kriya yoga perspective.)
"The Integrity of the Yoga Darsana: A Reconsideration of Classical Yoga", Ian Whicher, Suny Series in Religious Studies, State Univ of New York Press; ISBN: 0791438163; 1998. 426 pp. This is a very excellent and insightful study exercising much integrity of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (but not a translation) by a Western academician based on a non-dual (advaita) stance.
"Yoga: The Indian Tradition", by Ian Whicher, RoutledgeCurzon; March 2003, ISBN-10: 0700712887 ISBn-13: 978-0700712885
A re-appraisal of Patanjali's Yoga-sutras in the light of the Buddha's teaching, by S. N. Tandon, Vipassana Research Institute, 1995, iSBN-10: 8174140247; ISBN-13: 978-8174140241
"Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali", BKS Iyengar, Aquarian Press, 1993. Although respectfully traditional to a great extent, this translation offers considerable integrity, personal insight, and boldness due to authentic experience.
Tim Miller Introduces Chapter One of the Yoga Sutras (Samadhi Pada). This is an excellent and very insightful MP3 audio production produced by iHanuman.com
Table of Contents: 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
An Essay on Tapas and Addiction
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 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.
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
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
Proceed to Chapter One of the Yoga Sutras: Samadhi Pada