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86 reviews for:
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Commentary on the Raja Yoga Sutras by Sri Swami Satchidananda
Swami Satchidananda
4.22 AVERAGE
86 reviews for:
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Commentary on the Raja Yoga Sutras by Sri Swami Satchidananda
Swami Satchidananda
4.22 AVERAGE
While I can appreciate the historical value of this work, and found the first few sections thought-provoking, overall I could not tolerate what I felt was a very negative, ascetic, and self-abusive outlook on life. Perhaps why I've always been drawn towards the ideas of the Buddha more than those of Hinduism!
"The entire life is an open book, a scripture. Read it. Learn while digging a pit or chopping some wood or cooking some food. If you can't learn from your daily activities, how are you going to understand the scriptures?"
While on the one hand it’s my own fault for not reading more carefully, I was interested in the sutras themselves, not on the author’s modernizing commentary.
Information about the sutras in a very digestible way. I used both the audio and paper based copies during my YTT.
I finished! The analogies were really approachable and I enjoyed this one. It just took me a while
I thought this would be dry & hard to follow, but it was actually very fun to read thanks to the comments on each of the Sutras (threads of yogic knowledge) by Swami Satchidananda. A must-have for anyone studying yoga philosophy.
Good introductory translation. Excellent for first-time readers of the Sutras. If you want to dive deeper in, though, I suggest Edwin Bryant's translation. If you'd like a Buddhist perspective, check out Chip Hartranft's.
My Penguin Classic edition of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra begins with a long introduction, by translator Shyam Ranganathan, about the many challenges faced when translating philosophical texts, especially when you are trying to make them clear and accurate to an audience that comes for a completely different cultural background as the person who wrote the original text, many centuries later. While that 60 odd pages can seem boring at first glance, as a bilingual person (and as someone interested in very old Asian philosophy), I find this sort of thing fascinating, because the choice of words can affect the reader’s interpretation to an incredible level. It is, therefore, an incredibly daunting and nuanced task to try to bring the meaning to life in a way that will be understood by an audience that might as well be from a different planet as the person who came up with the original words.
The translation and commentary on the Yoga Sutra I had read before this one were Desikachar’s, in “The Heart of Yoga” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3141447777). His version was concise, but it also was simply meant as an introduction, and not a deep dive into the text. Ranganathan’s version, on the other hand, is much more fleshed out. And while a bit long and scholarly, his introduction is actually not be skipped, as it serves as a reading guide for the rest of the text. For each line of the Sutra, he offers the Sanskrit, the phonetic pronunciation, then several potentially correct English equivalencies for the Sanskrit words used in the original, followed by his rephrasing – and finally, his commentary and interpretation of the Sutra. Whew!
His commentary is obviously the bulk of the book, and they are extremely informative, as he uses them to give the reader plenty of context (historical, social, philosophical) and to de-mystify the short sentences that make up the Sutra. But his tone and style is very academic, so while I found it clear and straightforward, I can see how it might be a bit ponderous to some readers.
I was not surprized to find a fair amount of overlap between the philosophical and moral aspect of the Sutra and the Buddhist Precepts and Zen philosophy: the systems obviously run along very similar lines, though they are not identical.
While I am not sure reading the Yoga Sutra is necessary for everyone interested in practicing yoga (I mean here the physical exercise version of yoga, which the Sutra actually refers to as tapa), they are a very interesting text of Indian philosophy, and for people looking to deepen their tapa/asana practice and approach yoga a holistic way, this translation is clear, accessible and the commentary informative and inspiring. I do plan on reading a few different translations and commentaries: I think this is the sort of text that definitely deserves multiple readings and perspectives.
The translation and commentary on the Yoga Sutra I had read before this one were Desikachar’s, in “The Heart of Yoga” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3141447777). His version was concise, but it also was simply meant as an introduction, and not a deep dive into the text. Ranganathan’s version, on the other hand, is much more fleshed out. And while a bit long and scholarly, his introduction is actually not be skipped, as it serves as a reading guide for the rest of the text. For each line of the Sutra, he offers the Sanskrit, the phonetic pronunciation, then several potentially correct English equivalencies for the Sanskrit words used in the original, followed by his rephrasing – and finally, his commentary and interpretation of the Sutra. Whew!
His commentary is obviously the bulk of the book, and they are extremely informative, as he uses them to give the reader plenty of context (historical, social, philosophical) and to de-mystify the short sentences that make up the Sutra. But his tone and style is very academic, so while I found it clear and straightforward, I can see how it might be a bit ponderous to some readers.
I was not surprized to find a fair amount of overlap between the philosophical and moral aspect of the Sutra and the Buddhist Precepts and Zen philosophy: the systems obviously run along very similar lines, though they are not identical.
While I am not sure reading the Yoga Sutra is necessary for everyone interested in practicing yoga (I mean here the physical exercise version of yoga, which the Sutra actually refers to as tapa), they are a very interesting text of Indian philosophy, and for people looking to deepen their tapa/asana practice and approach yoga a holistic way, this translation is clear, accessible and the commentary informative and inspiring. I do plan on reading a few different translations and commentaries: I think this is the sort of text that definitely deserves multiple readings and perspectives.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: I need to reread this. It's a teeny tiny book that is so dense with information and stuff to think about. I learned a TON about yoga (which is 1000000x more than just the exercise class) from the analysis chapters that preceded the sutras themselves, and I'm glad to have read all of that before reading the sutras, but still need to read them again. Would def recommend this translation and explanation to Americans; it was easy enough to understand without being condescending. I plan to come back to this (or another translation of it) later in the year as I continue on my yoga journey.