AN INTRODUCTION TO

PATANJALI AND THE

YOGA SUTRAS II 78 YOGAMAGAZINE.COM

PHILOSOPHY

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In the last issue we had an overview on the four chapters of freedom, Patanjali’s yoga sutras. One of the key aspects of Patanjali’s work is the need for direct experience. In yoga, unlike some spiritual systems, knowledge is not enough; ecstatic realisation through direct experience is what matters.

For ecstatic realisation or Samadhi to occur we have to go beyond rational knowledge to expose the ego identity. Knowledge is a part of the ego identity and it can start the movement towards yogic liberation but it cannot expose the false ego identity. True gnosis, true realisation is needed to uncover the radiance, the light in the depths of our psyche. Yoga is very clear that this can only happen through systematic practice and grace.

Patanjali’s work introduces the concept of Ishvara as a special and supreme soul (purusha) who is our inner teacher. This aspect of his teaching separates him from some styles of Buddhist teaching and links him with the devotional or Bhakti schools of yoga that began to emerge and today are still very important. This again brings in the importance of grace in our yogic development.

Patanjali was a great yogic authority and probably the head of a school in which his Kriya Yoga system was taught as well as the framework of the Ashtanga discussed briefly last issue.

The three key elements of Patanjali’s Kriya Yoga are:Svadhyaya - study that helps you know your true natureIshvarapranidhan - devotion to the supreme soulTapas - disciplined effort for the purposes of transformation

Patanjali teaches about the relationship between our inner seer or soul essence (purusha) and everything that has energy or moves. Everything that moves and can be seen is prakriti or the movement of nature. What sees and doesn’t move or change is our soul-essence. Patanjali teaches the way to know oneself as this seer and how to know the difference between oneself as this purusha, and that which is seen, that which moves and changes.

An example here from the first verses of chapter one, shows the nature of the text in which the responses of the teacher to the obvious, but unwritten, questions of the student are recorded.

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YS 1:1 “And Now, follow the teachings of Yoga” The student asks, “What is this Yoga then?” YS 1:2 Patanjali replies, “Yoga is the cessation of identification with the fluctuating waves of citta (thinking-feeling stuff).”The student, interested now, enquires deeper, “What happens with this cessation of identification?” YS 1:3 “In that moment, awareness is present”“Isn’t awareness present at other times?” the student asks. YS 1:4 “In other moments, (when identification is caught up in citta) the minds activities are presented”“Minds activities, what are these?” the student continues. YS 1:5 Patanjali smiles…“Ah, the minds activities are fivefold and from them comes composure or disturbance.”“Fivefold?” asks the student, “composure and disturbance?” YS 1:6 “Indeed, right perception, wrong perception, imagination, deep sleep and memory these are the five activities of mind.”

The Yoga Sutras

teaches that the whole of

our existence relies on the

strength of the mind and that

mind is affected by breath,

diet and behaviour.

““80 YOGAMAGAZINE.COM

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WRI

TTEN

BY

CHRISTOPHER GLADWELL CHRISTOPHER HAS PRACTISED AND STUDIED WITH MANY GREATS AND DEVOTED HIS LIFE TO YOGA, MEDITATION AND AWAKENING FOR 35-YEARS. HE IS A CERTIFIED TRAINER AND PRACTITIONER OF HYPNO-PSYCHOTHERAPY AND NLP, WITH A WIDE EXPERIENCE OF MEDITATIVE AND MINDFUL-NESS PRACTICE, INCLUDING DREAM YOGA AND DZOGCHE, AND TEACHES THE NATURE OF MIND FROM EAST¬ERN AND WESTERN PERSPECTIVES. HE IS THE AUTHOR OF FIVE YOGA BOOKS. CHRISTOPHERGLADWELL.COM

81YOGAMAGAZINE.COM

And so the dialogue following the threads of sutric logic and experience weave the teachings of yoga. This is a helpful way to look at the Yoga Sutras as you can start to feel involved and connected to the teachings. I have read the Sutras many, many times and still find fresh insights in them. I have read many different versions and have even written my own version. There are many better scholars than me and I am always open to learning. Beginners mind is a good state to rest in as it allows a freshness and openness that is also yoga. Being closed and rigid in our views is simply personal dogmatism and stunts spiritual development, in my view.

The great teacher Sri Krishnamacharya described Patanjali’s teachings as ‘anusasana sastra’ or ‘experientially oriented teaching rather than mental speculation’. The teachings exist for you to get involved in, to facilitate your direct experience of the truths it contains. The Yoga Sutras is a pragmatic philosophy that has the sole purpose of generating greater realisation and freedom for those that follow its codes.

The Yoga Sutras teaches that the whole of our existence relies on the strength of the mind and that mind is affected by breath, diet and behaviour. Yoga disciplines our eating habits, our actions, our breath and our mind. In yoga we understand how the body and the stories we have of who we are, are from the past, from past behaviours, past thoughts and past feelings. As we practise consciously we resolve the residues of past experience and create an awakened future free from the ghosts of the past.

The methods of practice to inquire into our deeper Self according to Krishnamacharya should honour our own culture, help us explore our own background, our own strengths and weaknesses and our own past and progress. In this way a modern western student does not have to become a worshipper of an Indian deity, wear orange clothes and beads or use the word namaste to begin or end every sentence. A good practice is one that reflects ones culture, history and background and a good teacher is a mirror for the student’s on-going study of their true nature.

With our regular practice of connection to the deeper aspects of consciousness as awareness we become this, more and more clearly.

Patanjali teaches that it is the synergy of the yoga students’ vital self-discipline and the pure grace of the divine that is the real source of success in yoga.

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