The Patanjali Yoga Sutras and Its Spiritual Practice

By Tony Nguyen

When people see the word yoga, many think only of poses, meditations, and chants. They do not understand the philosophical set of beliefs on which it is based. In The Patanjali Sutras and It's Spiritual Practice, author Tony Nguyen broadens the understanding to create a more complete experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gotham Books
• Release date: Nov 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887754789

Tony Nguyen

Tony Nguyen was born in 1962 in Vietnam and escaped the communist regime in 1980. He spent more than three years in Palawan, Philippines, as a refugee. He resettled in Australia in 1983. Now retired, he lives in Melbourne.

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PREFACE

THERE HAVE BEEN many authors who have published on the Patanjali Yoga Sutras and the commentaries on them, but there are also different versions out there. Not enough material about them has been spread out to the world. That’s one of the reasons I decided to publish this manuscript. There are many people nowadays who intend to follow the spiritual path to a release from the suffering of this mundane life and to the ultimate goal of liberation of the innermost self. However, although my intention is good, there are limitations to what can be done in this manuscript, and there are bound to be many mistakes. I truthfully and sincerely ask for forgiveness for any mistakes or limitations that you discover in the ideas in this book.

Each human being has each own karma, and it will never be the same as anyone else’s. Therefore, our understandings, opinions, and ideas may also be expected to differ from one another, because the mind of a commoner is still a combination of the objects and the subjective. Only the mind of a person who has already attained liberation will be unified, free of the mixture of objective and subjective. This mind will then be advanced to the Emptiness.

I would again like to thank my readers very much for excusing whatever mistakes and limitations they may discover.

INTRODUCTION

IN THIS LIFE, we are confined to save ourselves from both physical and mental deterioration; an important aid in this pursuit is yogic art. Through yoga, we are alerted to the need for discipline. The basis for yoga is in fact scientific rather than dogmatic. Through it we are confronted with techniques that are based on both the truths of the ancient East and the new truths arising from our growing awareness of cosmic law. The ancient masters were ahead of us in their search for truths; but today, we have joined them on this path. Thus, everything we are learning about the innermost man and the external space will fit into the existing yoga system. Wherever the study of yoga is undertaken, new challenges open up. Where it is faithfully pursued, old things pass away; a new philosophy, a new health, and a new awareness come into being and transform our life.

This book focuses on the philosophy of Maharishi Patanjali (ca. second or third century CE), the great expounder of the authoritative classical yoga school of thought, or darsana, of Hinduism and the author of the Yoga Sutras. The book also responds to the relationship between theory and practice in the classical yoga system. Although Patanjali’s philosophical perspective emphasizes the spiritual realm, which overlooks the highest potentials for human reality and liberation, more discussion about the nature and culture of the world is required. Again, classical yoga can be seen as a responsible engagement with different forms of spirit practice. Purusa is equal to the innermost self, or Buddha Nature—the pure consciousness. Prakrti is equivalent to the source of psychophysical being, which includes mind, body, and nature. That results in a subtle development and transformation of participatory human nature and identity, an integrated and embodied state of liberated selfhood.

In this work, textual evidence is given from the main authoritative sources of classical yoga: The Yoga Sutras (YS) of Patanjali, which are also sometimes referred to as the Yoga Bhasya (YB) of Vyasa (ca. fifth to sixth century CE). How can these sutras encourage the enrichment of our understanding of human nature? What is the relationship between self-understanding, mortality, knowledge, and spiritual emancipation in Patanjali’s thought? Answers to these questions will be discussed in the next three parts.

The first part discusses the basic philosophical view of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, focusing on explanation and interpretation of the relationship between purusa and prakrti. There are many ideas surrounding the Yoga Sutras, and to disentangle the sutras from the various interpretations of them one encounters in Western society is no easy task. Today millions of people both in the East and West practise some form of yoga that is influenced by Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. This work is meant to provide a fresh view of the sutras. It will attempt to interpret the central feature of the spiritual practice and to contribute fresh vision to our understanding of spiritual practice in the future.

The second part discusses the samkhya and yoga systems, which are very much related to Patanjali’s yoga doctrines, and the similarities and differences between them. It also discusses the doctrine of the prakrti (matter) and its natural formation, the doctrine of purusa (the mind, the pure consciousness) and its natural formation, and the relationship between the two. Finally, it describes practical application of yoga in our lives.

The third part discusses spiritual practice, and it is followed by a brief conclusion. Knut Jacobsen writes that prakrti means material principle, however, samkhya yoga suggests that liberation of the Self’ (kaivalya) is depended on the material principle (Prakirti) and thus, without prakirti, purusa is in a motionless mode.

PART 1

The Basic Philosophical View Of

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras

CHAPTER

1

THE PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW

OF PATANJALI’S CLASSICAL YOGA

MANY SCHOLARS HAVE attempted to define yoga, but it is not easy to do so. The word yoga is derived from the root yuj, meaning "to link together" or "to bring under the yoke." It is related to the Latin words jungere and jugum, which in English means yoke.

Worthington adds that Sutras have a great influence on the development and practice of the yoga system since the author, Patanjali, first wrote them. The Yoga Sutras are thus penetrating to the mind of every practitioner of this method. The sutras are concise and include all the main practices of yoga in four small books or chapters. Thus, in a mystic form yoga is symbolled or represented a union between Purusa and Prakriti. Indian teaching of these instructions to would-be yoga devotees are not an inclusive system. The sutras are simply hints and suggestions, and for this reason, it is always customary for devotees to be guided by teachers or gurus.

Abadhuta Nityapadananda says that the guru is the spiritual Master and Guide. He is a man of God-realization and is a soul of Enlightenment. Gurus may write commentaries on each sutra to clarify or simplify its meaning. In like manner, this work will present and comment on each sutra and its concept so that the meaning may be immediately apparent to readers on first reading.

Eliade adds, yoga is used as a technique of asceticism and is a method of meditation. Asceticism and meditation are used differently in several traditional and mystic practices in India. In order to understand the position of Patanjali’s treatise on the classical yoga system in the history of Indian thought, we have to analyse the principles of this treatise (angas) and many others in detail. Furthermore, practicing yoga is a pre-condition to united to the real Atman. In other words, deliverance cannot take place unless one has first detached oneself from the mundane life, for otherwise, one would never find oneself again. Even in its mystic form, however, yoga symbolizes or represents a union between purusa and prakrti. Yoga implies a prior detachment from the material world and an emancipation with respect to the world. Thus, the emphasis was placed on a person’s effort to bring his or her self-discipline in order to achieve concentration of the mind.

A yogi begins his or her spiritual life by renouncing the world (family and society) and accepting the guidance of his or her spiritual master. And thus,a Yogi should devote him or herself to overcoming the human condition and also endeavour to die to this life. It is at this moment that a yogi can see the importance of the initiation process of his or her spiritual practice.

The process of initiation is meant to transfer spiritual energy between master and disciple from mind to mind and heart to heart, regardless of distance. Once Master has seen the disciple’s photographs or knows the disciple’s name, then master will arrange the time and place to transfer a spiritual power. Indeed, yoga has a great position in Indian philosophy as it is expounded in Patanjali’s treatise, the Yoga Sutras, as well as in its commentaries. A darsana is not a system of philosophy as defined in Western thought but rather a point of view, understanding, vision, experience, or doctrine.

This experience of reality is not emotional happiness or a subjective fancy but would rather be the response of the whole personality, the integrated innermost self to the central reality.

Nevertheless, the yoga system is about coextensive affirmations with human experience, which attempts to interpret as a whole. The purpose is to take ignorance, delusion, and suffering away from people, to encourage them to develop their pure minds, and in the end to allow them to realize the Buddha Nature, innermost self, true self, or pure consciousness (Purusa).

According to Georg Feuerstein, classical yoga is one of the six darsanas and is one of the six Indian orthodox system philosophies. We should note that in this context, orthodox means that it is tolerated by the system of these spiritual masters. This classical yoga of Patanjali represents the culmination of the long development of yoga practice and the samkhya schools of thought that existed in early Christian times. It was Patanjali’s philosophy that came to be acknowledged as the authoritative system of yoga. Thus, yoga was highly influential at a certain time, as can be deduced from many references to it in the texts of other philosophical systems. Feuerstein adds, our knowledge of classical yoga is based almost entirely on the yoga Sutras attributed to Patanjali and the commentaries written on them.

Patanjali did not claim to invent a system of philosophy but merely to set down the yoga doctrines that induce certain philosophical, psychical, and psychological states. The Yoga Sutras are simply containing well-proven ideas and practices. Together they form a systematic treatise concerned with defining the most important aspects of the theory and practice of yoga.

The Patanjali Yoga Sutras consist of four books or chapters. The first book (samadhi-pada) contains fifty-one sutras (aphorisms) dealing with the basic principles of yogic ecstasy, or pre-concentration. The second (sadhana-pada) contains fifty-five sutras dealing with the principle of discipline, or realization. The third book (vibhuti-pada) contains fifty-six sutras that provide guidance for practising the marvellous powers. The fourth and final book (kaivalya-pada) has only thirty-four sutras and may be a later addition. It deals with illumination and liberation and recommends that the yogi practise for his or her freedom from all limitations and attachments – that is, the isolation or liberation of the Buddha Nature or immortal-self. Patanjali’s text was repetitive, often uncertain, and sometimes lacking in harmony between the different parts. Thus, the sutras have been grouped into four books or chapters that each emphasize a particular meaning and concept. This allows readers to more easily access the sutras.

Furthermore, Feuerstein indicates that it is impossible to tell whether Patanjali was responsible only for the composition of the classical yoga, or kriya-yoga, section of the Yoga Sutras or whether he was indeed the author of the whole text, as we consider him to be today. Regardless, the most important feature of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras are expressed in the kriya-yoga section, and the tradition of the eight-limb yoga has become identified with classical yoga.

It is commonly believed that no matter what school of yoga one follows, the great eight precepts or limbs from which yoga’s doctrine is outlined apply. One must follow these steps for success. The eight precepts, are yama, or internal purification through moral training preparatory to yoga; niyama, or cleanness, contentment, mortification, study, and worship of God; asana, or postures used for the purpose of meditation; pranayama, or breath control; prathyahara, or making the mind introspective; dharana, or concentration; dhyana, or meditation; and samadhi, the highest super-conscious state. Five of these limbs are exterior precepts concerned with the physiological body, pranayama (breath control or vital force), and the ethical state of mind. The other three are inner precepts concerned with insight, introspections such as meditation, concentration, and the state in which the yogi will realize his or her purusa. These three limbs very much affect the long-term development of the mind.

Eliade suggest, yoga is a system that was prevalent in ancient scripture and is perhaps to refer to a six-fold system of yoga (sadanga yoga) for the purpose of practice. The system does not simply remove the impurities of both body and mind but also helps the mind by removing all obstacles that stand in the way of knowledge. Thus, two objectives have been emphasized: disassociating the impurities (viyogakarana) and removing the obstacles, which obstruct the mind’s course to the attainment of perfection. When the impurities are removed by practising yoga, the mind will become pure. So then, yoga is an evolutionary process of refining human beings at all levels, and this process is called purification.

Many writers suggest that the Patanjali lived in about the second or third century before Christ, while others believe he lived in the fifth century after Christ. We do not know. Nevertheless, according to Eliade, some Indian commentators, including the