Maharishi Patañjali Yoga Sūtra

by Thomas Egenes, 1st World Library (Editor)

The Yoga Sutra is the great text on Yoga, cognized in ancient India by Maharishi Patanjali. Yoga means "union," and the Yoga Sutra describes the experience of unity, the complete settling of the activity of the mind. In 195 short sutras, this text illuminates the teaching of yoga and meditation, and gives a profound understanding of life in transcendence.

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 11, 2010

Reviews

[Guy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting and challenging read. I'm now on my third read, and the less than 5 star rating is for the translation. I'm not sure why, but with even my very limited knowledge of sanskrit and yoga and Indian philosophy, I didn't feel the heart of what Patanjali was expressing.

There is some very 'deep' philosophical observations, of course. And yet some of it is very practical! For example, his observation on how to deal with the four types of people. (Interesting that Jung puts people into four types: Thinking, Feeling, Intuitive and Sensing; and that the Western philosophy put people into the four temperaments: Choleric, Phlegmatic, Sanguine and Melancholic.) Patanjali suggests that the 'mind becomes purified by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion towards the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and equanimity towards the unvirtuous' (p28 ch 33). For some reason this makes me smile.

This is well worth reading as part of the practice of yoga as 'stilling the mind' rather than yoga as the practice of a passive aggressive form of physical fitness and competition with others and one's self.

[Frederick P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas Egenes is a professor of Sanskrit at Maharishi International University and he is ALSO a practitioner of Samyama (Dharana Dhyana and Samadhi, taken together). That is, he DOES the Sutras in Samyama - which results in the development of the Sidhis/Siddhis. So, he KNOWS the actual purpose, intent and practice of DOING Patanjali's Yoga Sutras - as Patanjali intended. There is no greater test of knowledge than to reap the RESULTS of samyama, which Dr. Egenes enjoys. I am also a Sidha (practitioner of Samyama, of doing the sutras in that practice) and I also enjoy the benefits of some "perfections" of mind/body coordination (Sidhis/Siddhis).

All that makes this the DEFINITIVE GUIDE to Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. All you need is to take the training, the pre-requisite practices of meditation and advanced (Yogic) techniques and then the course itself. Then this book will make sense. It requires a higher state of consciousness (NOT a lower, drug-enhanced state of consciousness) to develop these "abilities" through the practice of Yoga Sutra