The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

This has been a great exploration of Patanjali! I'd recommend it. It's pretty straight forward without unnecessary babble.

Clearly one of my favorite books on spirituality since it breaks down each aspect of the process to self-realization.

Great read if you are a yogi who wants to learn the philosophy of pantenjali!

Recently I have enrolled into a Yoga Teacher Training program throught Live, Love, Teach Yoga Alliance group. As a part of the teacher training, students are required to read Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. These are basically written codes of conducts that yoginis are supposed to live by. Just like Torah, Bible and Koran are important to Jewish, Christian and Muslim philosophy; yoga sutras of Patanjali are fundamentals of religious life of yogis. It is very helpful manual for anyone interested in yogi philosophy and religion. It helps reader better uinderstand self and learn how to avoid suffering in this world.I have purchased this book from Amazon marketplace. My only disappointment is with the seller. Book shipped quickly but is as not in "as new" condition. It had portions of the book with notations, underlingnings anf highlights. So if you are truly interested in yoga philosophy and wish to have this book handy for time to come, my recommendation would be to purchase new book directly from Amazon so it has no markings in it and that covers are crease free (unlike mine). I will use this book for stydying anyway and future reference, however, my intent is to have another "clean copy" on hand so most likely I will be buying another copy of this book soon.

The book is great unfortunately not for me I read the introduction and the first chapter in the book and decided it was not for me. The book is great just not my personal preference.

Overall, I thought this was a very good commentary on the yoga sutras. There were occasions when Sri Swami Satchidananda went totally off topic in his commentaries. There were also occasions when he seemed to be patting himself on the back too much, which just goes to show that he was human. His human-ness definitely showed in the photos of him in the book. Look closely and you’ll note that the background has white rays, making it look like Satchidananda has a shining aura. Pretty egoistical. However, the book, overall, is an excellent commentary. It gives a lot of insight into the sutras and puts them into context so that our Western minds can understand them better. It provides way more depth than we can get by simply reading a translation of the yoga sutras without commentary.This is the 3rd or 4th translation and commentary I’ve read or heard. Each interpretation uses some of the same commentary. This probably should be expected, since it is coming from the same tradition. Satchidananda seems to include more stories to help us understand the sutras better than the others I’ve seen to date.I will note that one of the interpretations I read was in Desikachar’s “The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice.” I thought Satchidananda’s interpretation was much better. In too many places, it felt to me Desikachar was watering down what he was saying to make it more palatable for Western ears. I didn’t see that with Satchidananda. Like it or not, for the most part, he sticks with what the sutra says.I will venture to say I’ll probably be reading this a few more times.

Great book to enhance your Mind and Body. I got interested in Meditation again after 15 years gap. I had a miraculous improvement in just 5 weeks where blood pressure and pulse rate all improved by 15 points. I have a marginal high blood pressure for few years. I am still taking medication. The blood pressure clock has been set back by 15 years in just 5 week. The best blood pressure reading I got today was in Cardiologist's office which was 100/70. Last time I saw that kind of blood pressure was 15 years ago. The acid test will be if I can have normal pressure in 6 months with out medication. My meditation / breathing exercises are based on knowledge gained from other sources.The breathing exercises are called Pranayama (Breathing) Exercises. One can find more about it from various sources. The true knowledge dates back to Patanjali - the original text dates back to approximately 2200 years ago. Interpretation of Patanjali Sutras has also been done by Harvard professor. His book contains 900 plus pages.This book should be read a few pages at a time and contemplate. There is high degree of correlation between mind, stress, body and its functions. It must start with your faith in a system like a mustered seed mentioned in Bible. If one wants to calm their mind - then it a step in the right direction. One need to understand attachment to things around us. Having all you can have may be OK - worrying about loosing them is a problem.

Its good