Maxims of Emancipation

Ancient Indian Yogis have carried out profound research in theology and spirituality. While I have already mentioned the work of Adi Shankaracharya, great teacher of Advaita Philosophy in an earlier post, here I will discuss the work of another great master. He was the great master of Ashtanga Yoga. In his treatise “Yoga Sutras”, Sage Patanjali, has concisely described in just 195 shlokas the various steps of Yoga. Swami Prabhavananda of Ramakrishna Mission has written a beautiful & succinct commentary on the “Yoga Sutras of Patanjali”.

 The book is divided into four sections as the original set of sutras:

1. Yoga and its aims
2. Yoga and its practice
3. Powers
4. Liberation

The author has mentioned in the forward that the sutras are not an original exposition of a philosophy but a work of compilation and reformulation. Some excerpts from the book:

1. Man can never know his real Self as long as the thought-waves and the ego-sense are being identified. (3)
2. The sum total of our samskaras, is, in fact our character – at any given moment. (4)
3. Our desire to return and plunge once more into sense-experience is far deeper than we realize. (23)
4. The acts of ritual are simply tokens of devotion and aids to meditation. (65)
5. A ritual gives you a sense of serving God in a humble, but very direct and intimate manner. (65)
6. Meditation (dhyana) is an unbroken flow of thought towards the object of concentration. (122)
7. As long as the individual Jiva thinks it is separate from the Brahman, it revolves upon the wheel (of the world – samsara). (155)

The book is a thin one, just 165 pages, and Swami Prabhavananda has painstakingly explained the Patanjali’s aphorisms in very easy English. Thanks to him, I was able to understand this esoteric text easily. A highly recommended book, in case you are looking for an easy-to-understand translation and commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

I will humbly request you to buy books of Ramakrishna Mission from their centre or their online website – Advaita Ashrama.