yoga sutras articles

Almost nothing is known about the sage who wrote the Yoga Sutras. The dating of his life has varied widely between the fourth century B.C.E. and the sixth century C.E., but the fourth century B.C.E. is the period noted for the appearance of aphoristic ...

Patanjali commenced the third pada of the Yoga Sutras with a compelling distinction between three phases of meditation. Dharana is full concentration, the focussing of consciousness on a particular point, which may be any object in the world or a subject chosen by the ...

Patanjali provided a vast perspective on consciousness and its varied levels, as well as the necessary and sufficient conditions for sustained meditation. He set forth the essential prerequisites to meditation, the persisting obstacles to be overcome by the conscientious seeker, and the awesome powers and exhilarating experiences resulting from the progressive attainment of ...

It may be pointed out here that a system of philosophy however lofty and true it may be should not be expected to give us an absolutely correct picture of the transcendent truths as they really exist.  Because philosophy works through the medium of the intellect and the intellect has its inherent limitations, it cannot understand or formulate truths which are beyond its scope.... ...

Throughout its long and largely unrecorded history, Indian thought preserved its central concern with ontology and epistemology, with noetic psychology as the indispensable bridge between metaphysics and ethics, employing introspection and self- testing as well as logical tools, continually confronting the instruments of cognition with the fruits of ...

1. Psychic powers arise by birth, drugs, incantations, purificatory acts or concentrated insight.
2. Transformation into another state is by the directed flow of creative nature.
3. Creative nature is not moved into action by any incidental cause, but by the removal of obstacles, as in the case of a farmer clearing his field of stones for irrigation.
4. Created minds arise from egoism ...

1. One-pointedness is steadfastness of the mind.
2. Unbroken continuation of that mental ability is meditation.
3. That same meditation when there is only consciousness of the object of meditation and not of the mind is realization.
4. The three appearing together are ...

1. Austerity, the study of sacred texts, and the dedication of action to God constitute the discipline of Mystic Union.
2. This discipline is practised for the purpose of acquiring fixity of mind on the Lord, free from all impurities and agitations, or on One's Own Reality, and for attenuating the afflictions.
3. The five afflictions are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and the desire to cling to life.
4. Ignorance is the breeding place for all the others whether they are dormant or attenuated, partially overcome or fully operative. ...

1. Now, instruction in Union.
2. Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind.
3. Then the seer dwells in his own nature.
4. Otherwise he is of the same form as the ...