Introduction esatto ‘Enlightened Living’
There are many spiritually elevated people sopra the world, but not many levitating yogis: and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Maharshi are meant puro elevate the spirit of every www.datingranking.net/it/raya-review/ man, not puro teach him how sicuro levitate. The attempt mediante this little book has been puro expose that gospel, to avoid technicalities, and to relate the whole yoga philosophy to the ordinary and simple daily life of everyone.
There are very many excellent translations of the Sutras: this, however, is an interpretative translation. There are several scholarly and erudite commentaries, too: this is definitely not one of them. This book is not meant for the research scholar but for one who is mediante search of truth which shall free him from self-ignorance.
The incisive language of the Sutras cannot be preserved in translation. An extraordinary feature of the Sutras is the avoidance of direct commandments, dogmatic assertions and the use of active voice. Whereas every effort has been made to retain the structure of the text, in a few cases (for example, in Sutra I. 49) slight changes have had to be made to sustain the easy flow of thought. (The words which represent the translation of the text are underlined.)
Anyone who translates a text which is con the Sanskrit language is confronted by two difficulties: (a) not all languages have concise words or phrases which accurately convey the exact sense in which the Sanskrit word is used in the text; and (b) the Sanskrit word itself has per number of meanings, and it is easier to choose the correct meaning when the word is used sopra a structurally complete prose or verse, than when it occurs in the Sutras. From per cursory glance at the very many available translations of the Sutras it is easy preciso see that each one has translated some Sutras differently, without being unfaithful to the text.
Some translators, eager preciso build per ‘philosophical system’ on the foundation of the Sutras have treated some words durante the text as proper names of specific philosophical categories. Such verso treatment inevitably limits the understanding of the purport of the text. The text itself seems sicuro use two or more words puro refer onesto verso scapolo factor: for example, samadhi and samapattih are used synonymously. There is a danger of regarding words as names: for then they create forms or images which perpetuate ignorance while creating an illusion of knowledge. This pitfall has been avoided durante this book, and the actual meaning of the words has been sought, regardless of how the ‘philosophical system’ has classified them. When this is done, it is discovered that there is per continuous and smooth flow mediante the sequence of the Sutras. (Where the text clearly warrants another meaning, such an alternative meaning has also been given: examples are II. 30, II. 36 and IV. 31).
This is clearly the gospel of enlightened living, neither an escape from life nor verso hallucinatory ‘light’
The gospel of yoga suggests not per withdrawal nor an escape from the world but the abandonment of the mental conditioning which creates per division between the ‘me’ and ‘the world’ (including the world of psychological experiences). Meditation is the vigorous search for the true identity, of the ‘me’, not per psychic jugglery nor a technique for deep relaxation. Seen from this angle, the fundamental categories of yoga (citta, and nirodha – vide I. 2), take on verso character completely different preciso the one that prevails in the minds of most practicants of yoga: it is hard sicuro translate citta and vritti, and the student has to discover the meaning sopra himself as Patanjali’s message saturates his whole being. Nirodha does not imply suppression, restraint or control in the usual (and brutal) connotations of those words, but verso vigilantly watchful understanding of the movements of thought mediante the mind-which is stillness of a different kind.