Here I present a commentary on the Yoga-Sutra for the White Europeans and those worthy of all the races. Besides the commentary itself, I will also place the verses in a new order to make the Yoga-Sutra more easily comprehensible and give more benefit to religious persons or God-seekers. It is God-seekers, religious persons, who will have the most interest in the Yoga-Sutra.

About The Yoga Sutra

A few things need to be said to introduce The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali to the western devotees and yogins:

-- The Yoga-Sutra is like the universal scripture of all religion, outlining in the tersest terms the path back to Pure Consciousness, necessary via samadhi, that all God-lover saints finally make. It's subject matter, which includes the mind and its laws, the developments along the way, and the mystery of God and creation, is both central and highly esoteric.

-- The Sanskrit verses themselves are intentionally brief and arcane, sometimes hardly penetrable. They were intended to require a  knowledgeable commentator to get the value from them.

-- Such knowledgeable commentators are very rare.

-- Not all translations are the same, and one is not as good as another.

-- There is even wider variation in the quality of the commentaries that are inevitably necessary to the abstruse verses. Some commentaries have value; some are misleading or outright ridiculous.

-- Commentaries by Americans and westerners have been, up to this point, mostly worthless and predictably degenerate since the west has been in a state of slow degeneration.

-- Generally speaking only the Indian commentators are worthwhile and speaking close to the source.

-- The Yoga-Sutra contains only four verses about the body or posture, such as "Posture is to be firm and pleasant (when meditating)" (2:46) and those verses have no connection to the modern western "yoguh studio" scene of bodily workouts. 

The goal, state, and technique of yoga are all summed up in the Sutra's 1st and 2nd verses: "Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. So that the Seer, Purusha, comes to know Itself and abide in Its own real, fundamental nature."  The goal of yoga is God-knowledge, and perfect stillness of mind then gives God-knowledge as the Divine Reality obscured by the movement of the mind can then shine forth.

It is the individual ego-mind, nothing else, that is the great prodigal and reprobate before God, who both the Upanishads and the Yoga-Sutra like to refer to as "Isvara." Yoga is the technique for hauling in the mind to meet it's source. Yoga is thus an address to the mind, not an address to the body. When I use the term "yoga" I use it only in its genuine sense of austerities (which includes meditation), devotion to the Lord, scriptural study, and repetition of prayers or mantra. (These are enumerated as the basic actions of yoga in verse 2:1) This is what yoga is and shall remain. Generally speaking, real yoga was uncovered by chaste males and its true nature in Patanjali's sense will remain the domain of chaste and religious males. The male takes to mental control. These are just the facts. However, since bhakti-yoga is the highest and best form of yoga (also emphasized in the Yoga-Sutra), and because woman is the most natural bhakta, the attainments of yoga are within her purview as well, as shown by Ananda Mayi Ma, the Christian female saints, and Karunamayi, etc.

The central subject of the Yoga-Sutra is meditation. Through 25 years of meditation practice I have referred to approximately 20 different English translations of the Yoga-Sutra. Only meditation itself makes the Yoga-Sutra comprehensible. Thus I made meditation my main teacher and went to the Sutra for affirmation, encouragement, and occasional insight about technique. This slowly uncovered it.

The texts, as we have them in the west, are very difficult. The verses are difficult to comprehend in their original terse nature, then compounded by clumsy translation, then buried even more by inept commentary by authors who vary widely in their understanding. In general the only good commentary I have seen is by the ancients such as Vyasa. Only long meditation, guru's grace, and bhakti have revealed the Yoga-Sutra to me over time. (Oh, how long I puzzled over I.K. Taimni's inventive Theosophical distractions in my first unfortunate version!) 

The best scholarly treatment I have seen by a westerner, of the Yoga-Sutra, is by the Romanian Mircea Eliade. It is not a commentary by a practitioner, but a mature, and insightful overview of the genuine yoga exposed in Patanjali's text from an intellectual point-of-view. I highly recommend that those serious about the path, and especially skeptics and intellectuals, include his book "Patanjali & Yoga" in their reading. The present text is not that of a scholar or intellectual but a lover of yoga.

Reordering of Verses

It has long been remarked that the Yoga-Sutra has an ordering of the verses that is not very coherent. This is true. Some say it is deliberate to keep the Yoga-Sutra confusing so that the unworthy can't make much progress with it. If that was so, it is unnecessary. Other factors filter out the undeserving well enough. My view is that the Yoga-Sutra verses need re-ordering, and there are probably four reasons for the less-that-logical quality of the traditional verse order, none of them sublime: 1) Our own inner pollution gives us scriptures containing flaws, deficiencies, and confusing aspects (just as  those same inner impurities produce other flaws in the external world), 2) The vagaries of how the text came to us, 3) perhaps some intention by the original author or authors, though I doubt it, and 4) simple lack of skill in teaching presentation or the idiosyncrasies of a particular teacher at a particular time, and perhaps with a particular group of disciples. Just because a fellow has the attainment of samadhi does not mean he is the most canny teacher, or that he would teach in a way suitable to all persons. 

Whatever the causes of the text's disjointed presentation, the Sutra needs to be understood, for the salvation of the White Europeans and the salvation of the Christian-heritage nations, as well as India and other peoples. Now is the time to see the verses presented more coherently. In this version old students of the Sutra will be able to better see its golden threads.

Before listing the verses, I want to give a particularly focused exposure of the Sutra content on continence or brahmacharya. This is important because no profound religious knowledge is possible for the male without continence, and in particular the sort of knowledge that the Sutra directs us to. And it is the penetrating mind of the continent male that uncovers the kind of religious knowledge that is in the Yoga-Sutra, as well as other knowledge.

The chastity content of the religions is always the first casualty of human recalcitrance and error; the first thing to sink beneath the currents of time. The human nature tends to come up with obstacles or rationales to subvert it. It is a common sight to see westerners interested in Hinduism and yoga dumb-down the term "brahmacharya," Sanskrit's only word for celibacy. They would like it to mean "staying to your purpose" or "thinking of Brahman" and anything but what it so patently means. From the point of view of the traditions, the texts themselves, and the testimony of the great yogins such as Ramakrishna, Sivananda, and more there is really no room for such squirrelliness and chicanery. Brahmacharya does mean celibacy. And celibacy is required to understand these profound scriptures, to develop in meditation, and to attain samadhi.  Not to mention to have a decent life absent continuous distracting upheavals based on continual disturbance to the inner ground, foundation of the outer world-garden.

There is no question that the validity of the continence requirement must be firmly established before the peoples can see God-knowledge and saints rise among them, and before any real understanding of the Yoga-Sutra is possible. In this age, in particular, so-called "new-agers," India depredators, and yoguh practitioners are highly inclined to sideline or even obfuscate the clear chastity admonitions of both the Upanishads and the Yoga-Sutra.

The chastity requirement of the Catholic priesthood and convents are a sure sign that the knowledge of yoga and the knowledge of the Christian saints shares common ground. So understanding of the religious significance of chastity is necessary both to regenerate Christianity and to raise up yogic adepts among the westerners.

Thus I have chosen to bring out the Sutras verses regarding continence at the very start, so that the rest of the book may be fruitful for you.

   The Yoga-Sutra on Continence

The Yoga-Sutra contains 195 verses. They are short sentences. Yet it seeks to cover every important aspect of the quest for God-knowledge and liberation from suffering, the vastest realm of knowledge and, for the one who would conquer his own ego-mind, source of multifarious exterior dreams, the most abstruse.

Thus the Sutra tends to touch on topics once, and in the sparest way, and never repeat any matter. It is thus highly significant that continence (brahmacharya) is prescribed and cited explicitly in three separate verses of the Sutra. These arise not in one discussion but in three separate areas of the text. Then chastity can be said to be referenced indirectly an additional four times.

I place this material first in my commentary because, the truth is, no spiritual knowledge can be penetrated or grasped without continence. Moreover, this principle is where religion and spiritual knowledge have had their greatest collapse. By restoring understanding of this principle, beneficial  religion will be restored to mankind. The Yoga-Sutra contains, in fact, the very essence of religion. This the outstanding, God-sent fact about it.

Now, the direct cites of continence in the Yoga-Sutra:

2:29

"Self-restraints, fixed observances, posture, regulation of breath, abstraction, concentration, contemplation, trance are the eight parts (of the self discipline of Yoga).

2:30

 Ahimsa-satyasteya-brahmacaryaparigaha yama.

"Vows of self-restraint comprise abstention from violence, falsehood, theft, incontinence and acquisitiveness."

I.K. Taimni Translation

The word brahmacarya appears. Modern dissemblers look for every imaginable pretext or post tex for turning brahmacharya to mean something other than celibacy. Respectable older translators did not have the temerity for such monkey-business. They translated it correctly as "continence." Continence is an old English word for male chastity and means nothing lost from the body; himself kept in. Though modern potato heads would like to creatively reassign the term to ideas that are non-sexual, broad, nebulous like "staying to your purpose" or "loving Brahman --- brahmacharya is indeed the direct Sanskrit word for sexual celibacy, and the only one. Celibacy is what brahmacharya means. Notice that the other self-restraints, in the verse above, relate to very definite things. To steal something is a definite act. To tell a lie is a particular act. To commit violence, also, is a specific act. But the modernes who dabble in these texts would like brahmacharya to signify something --  anything -- hopefully vague, non-specific, far less difficult, and utterly less fruitful. Such obscurations and dumbing-down attempts on brahmacharya -- and I see them written everywhere from "Wikipedia" to Twitsville, U.S.A. -- are callow chicanery of the inexperienced, the unadventurous, and the weak. And you can't get Yoga if you are unadventurous or weak. Doesn't every man bleed? Even monkeys in the zoo?

I would say, moreover, that of the four incontinence stands far above the rest as the most damaging. That is, the most damaging to yogic progress and yogic knowledge such referenced in the Yoga-Sutra and Sanatana Dharma generally. Incontinence destroys your interior. It destroys your power of  concentration, or even the motivation to do things much less the most difficult act of meditation. It takes away the creative being within that is capable of interacting with the creative Being of purusha. It's not even in the same category as those others.In terms of its impact on the yogin's capacities, incontinence stands far above stealing and even tough doings that might be called violent. (Arjuna on the battlefield was involved in tough doings and seemed to do very well with the Lord, but he would have had nothing without brahmacharya.) As I show here, continence even gets three direct mentions in the Yoga-Sutra. Thus the dissimulation of modernes and attempt to hustle it into the wings is all the more deplorable. 

The strict definition for brahmacharya for the male is no seminal emission. When you have that, you have brahmacharya and only then. It is only through brahmacharya that men can write worthwhile religious texts containing positive and regenerate spiritual knowledge. And it only through the non-loss of that biological and spiritual substance that the next verse has any meaning at all:

2:38

 Brahmacarya-pratisthayam virya-labhah.

"On being firmly established in sexual continence
vigour is gained."

I.K. Taimni Translation

By this brahmacharya something definite is acquired. Most translators call it "energy" or "vigor." But note the original Sanskrit is   virya.  This virya, with its clear relationship to our English words virility and virtue, is not simple energy in the sense of physics -- like crass heat or electricity, aspects of mere natural elements. It is energy, but more. Our word virility implies manhood, fundamental virtue, and an essence both humanly beautiful and lofty.

Sexual debauchery (read: sexual discharge in the case of the male) in old European language was a loss of virtue. So virya refers to a fundamental virtue built up and now resident in a man.

A continent man, acquiring virya, has virility in the way we usually understand it, yes. But such virility has esoteric qualities. His interior has been made sacred and the pure creativity of the Purusha-Father is resident in him. Virya attained by chastity is virtue itself, intelligence, and an emanation of consciousness. Consecrated to God it is divine. It shows in the religious person as a radiance, attractiveness, and righteousness. That virya both strengthens the mind and develops it, gives power to the movement of his mind, and makes his mind a penetrator. Virya both strengthens, and sanctifies, the interior of the yogi so he can both cope with, and be suitable for, divine interaction.

Now listen to it again:

"By getting established in continence he attains virya." 

The physical and spiritual quality called virya in a male is only acquired by non-loss of his creative substance by celibacy. This begins to be sublimated throughout all his tissues, his brain, and  finally as a subtle substance that the yogis  call ojas. It powers the mind, makes it strong and capable of concentration, and gives it penetrating power. The sexual energy is indeed a penetrating power, and the male can choose to either have penetrating pelvic thrusts throughout his days, or have a penetrating mind for yoga or other attainments. As the female does not suffer a loss of biological or cosmic material on the sex act but receives a gain from the male, the question arises: What are the implications of yogic continence for women? Do they gain from it or not? Are they fundamentally different vis-a-vis yoga or are her pathways to it unique? I will give my views on this important topic later on in this text.

So the famously terse Yoga-Sutra, which rarely touches the same topic twice, has an unusual three direct listings for continence. Yet these are not the only ones! Chastity is also referenced indirectly another four times. The best of these is Verse 1:20, in the section describing the levels of samadhi. It lists the traits of those who attain the highest level of conscious awareness, nirvikalpa samadhi. Most commentators miss it, but the verse references continence, and in a highly significant context:

I:20

  Śraddhā-vīrya-smrti-samādhi-prajñā-pūrvaka itaresām.

"In others it [samadhi] is preceded by faith,
energy, memory, discrimination."

Dvivedi Translation

The verse says that those who attain to the higher stage of samadhi, the nirvikalpa state, have those four things. Commentators steadily miss the chastity message of this particular verse. What does "energy" mean here? Is it that a yogi gets energetic? Starts taking long hikes? Building sheds? Thus gets the highest samadhi? No. Is it that he meditates more intensely? Intensity of practice is significant and mentioned another verse. But the kinetic word "energy" is not the kind of word we associate with meditation practice, which is a very sedentary activity. The problem's solved by simply noting that the original Sanskrit word is, again,  virya.   We already know from verse 2:38 that   virya is obtained by getting established in continence. If "energy" wanted to be used, it would have been more correct to write "buildup of energy." Thus the verse is saying that those who attain the highest samadhi are those who have a buildup of virya from continence -- and the three other things. 

I've never seen any commentator point to this in Verse 1:20, or even note the relative  profusion of chastity cites in the Yoga-Sutra. The pre-eminent cause of western non-penetration of the Yoga-Sutra, and why they remain so far from samadhi and the attainments of both Christian and yogic saints, is nothing but the collapse of the chastity ideal once promulgated by Christianity. Now a 2nd indirect reference, in three sampled translations:

II:30

"From purity, distaste for his own body
and no intercourse with others."

Leggett

"From purity (arises) disgust for one's own body,
and non-intercourse with others."

Dvivedi

"From physical purity (arises) disgust for one's own body and disinclination to come in physical contact with it."

Taimni

Note: Are modern practitioners of yoguh hoping to become disgusted with their bodies, and those of others? Or quite the opposite?

As with many Sutra verses, the "non-intercourse" has more than one significance. It refers to both aversion to sexual intercourse, and aversion to interacting with other people generally. This verse refers to an earlier phase of yogic development. When a man first renounces, it is natural and inevitable that he comes to despise the thing that debauches him and makes him lose his inner light. The "charge" of lust submerged where it belongs and not distorting his mind, he also gets a more clear vision of the sensual world and the bodies. He finally sees clearly, as when a child, the animalistic, crude, and absurd aspects of sexuality. But later, the religious person in the higher state has neither attraction or aversion to anything, including the bodies. This is the 2nd verse indirectly listing the chastity imperative in spiritual development and God-knowledge. Then last two indirect references are in Sutra 2:1 where tapas is mentioned, and 2:32 where purity is mentioned. Sexual or moral purity is one of the forms of purity, and one of the most significant ones for God-aspirants. These are the four indirect references that the Yoga-Sutra makes to chastity.

The Yoga-Sutra arose out of Hinduism, which means the Vedas and the Upanishads. It should be mentioned that the references to chastity (brahmacharya) are abundant in the Upanishads a well.

Now commences a re-ordering of the verses of the Yoga-Sutra, with commentary, so that White Europeans, those of India, and those of other deserving Peoples, can well-understand them and regain religious knowledge.

    The Yoga-Sutra:   Fundamental Path to God-Knowledge

Now In the bhakti-yoga called Christianity, the sat-guru Jesus Christ stated that love of God is the "greatest law" or most important principle for Christians. Since bhakti-yoga is nothing but a felt love-of-God which stills the mind and brings samadhi, it is 100 percent valid to call Christianity bhakti-yoga. Now, Christ says that the highest law is "to love the Lord your God with all your mind, heart, and strength." 

The fact is nobody can truly love what they do not know or what they have never experienced. One can begin to offer up love based on simple faith. But in human terms we cannot love much a thing that we do not actually know. Thus it is that the "First Law" of Christianity must be to "seek the Lord your God." If we seek God, we can then experience God and finally have genuine love for God. To apply all one's mind to God (as in the words of Christ) is the most difficult of all endeavors. The mind is recalcitrant, the mind is fickle and changing, spreading out in all directions but God.  Gathering up the whole mind toward God is also the very thing, the thing altogether, that the Yoga-Sutra teaches how to do. That is its very subject.  Gathering up the whole being and directing it to God is the central subject of the Yoga-Sutra and nothing else. 

Thus there is complete complementary and parity between Christianity and the Yoga-Sutra. It is also my belief that Jesus Christ spent his missing years in India and that this was His very study. This based on the many yoga-like things He said and also his siddhis, which are inherent to God-knowledge and the yogic path. The Yoga-Sutra is like the technical manual for enabling a man or woman to "love the Lord with all your mind, heart and strength" as Christ described, through coming to know God directly within. God is not located out in space or inert external matter. God is living right behind our own minds.  The Yoga-Sutra teaches us how to dissolve the mind and see God, who is the source of mind and who gives us perception, behind it. Now the 1st and 2nd verses of the Yoga-Sutra:

1:1

Now a discussion of yoga.

1:2

 Yogaś citta-vritti-nirodah.

Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.

1:3

 Tada dratuh svarupe vasthanam.

So that the Seer, Purusha, comes to know Itself and abide in Its own real, fundamental nature.

By ending the vrittis of the mind, the divine, all-sufficient, immutable God within is known, and known as the only Reality.

"Citta" means mind or the thinking principle. A "vritti" is a thought; movement or change in the mind. "Nirodha" means cessation, stoppage, dissolution. Yoga is an entirely an address to the mind, not to the body. Since the body is only an emanation or vesture of the mind, all mastery of the body is given automatically by mastery of the mind. Perfection of the body is likewise given by perfection in citta-vritti-nirodha because then the perfection of Brahman, or Pure Consciousness, shines through.

Yoga is actually the work of bringing the mind to stillness. An amazing thing happens when yoga is mastered: One attains  samadhi.  Success in chitta-vritti-nirodha equals samadhi. Samadhi is the central subject of the Yoga-Sutra: How it is attained, the stages or levels of samadhi, and the fruits and implications of it. An oddity of the text is that we find the verses speaking directly about samadhi long before the word "samadhi" is actually used. It's as if the Sutra assumes that the reader understands the subject of the book. One of the venerable ancient Indian commentators, Vyasa, went so far as to say "Yoga is samadhi." Entymology has "yoga" coming from "yuke" or to yoke together. The reference, then, is to joining the individual soul, or jiva, with the Supreme Soul. Thus the sage was making sense.

In practical terms, then, the Yoga-Sutra turns out to be an expose on meditation. A great many of its verses are directly on the subject of meditation and meditation technique. Chapter One contains a list of meditation focci, from meditation on one's guru ("on one who is free from passion") to meditation on an experience from dreams. Meditation is the means of attaining samadhi. This is an implicit central message of the Yoga-Sutra. Thus one could easily say "Yoga is meditation."

And meditation is the direct grappling with the mind, the directing of the mind to one thought for the cessation of the movement of the mind, just as Verse 2:2 states. Thus one focused on the body and doing bodily postures, but not striving to still the mind: Are they really doing yoga in the genuine sense of the word? No, especially if stilling the mind is not their purpose anyway, but getting a differently shaped rear end etc.

Now let's return to the ancient Yoga-Sutra and find out what yoga really is, and always shall be. The next verse is the first in the chapter on practice, often called "Sadhana Pada." Sadhana means the basic moral and spiritual disciplines of an aspirant.

1:4

  Vritti-sarupyam-itaratra.

Whereas in the normal state (of human suffering) the Seer is assimilated with the mind and its transformations.

The divine seer within, Purusha, looking out through the karmic morass of the body, projects worlds and conditions. This is a delicate statement. Much can be unfolded from it.  It bears directly on the metaphysics of world-erection found in Non-Dualistic Vedanta and Upanishads such as the Mandukya and Gaudapada-Kirika Upanishad. 

How do we project delusive and transient worlds? 

The Divine Seer within gets mixed up with them, temporarily both seeing them as real and making them "real." 

When did this start? 

A long time ago, as soon as we began forming a jiva and body having a "I-ness" borrowed from Purusha, conceptualizing "other" and "things." The Seer is not just assimilated with the mind and its movement, but the conditioning inherent in the mind and body, thoughts and experiences past, comparable to writing on a hard drive.

Why does He remain assimilated with the mind and its movement and samskaras? 

Long habit by the jiva in believing in the projection; believing it as real. 

Does the Seer (Purusha) ever get free of this situation and know Itself? 

It does so each night in dreams and also deep, dreamless sleep. If a yogi and religious person, he or she can get free of this state during the waking life via austerities, chastity, concentration, and bhakti which leads to samadhi which is knowledge of the divinity while conscious.

When does the Seer become assimilated and entangled again? 

Each morning in a trice, the moment you begin to stir from sleep and consciousness directs itself again to your body and senses. Immediately the world is resurrected and immediately, by conditioning and habit, you believe it is real again. The external things, at the original root, are nothing but consciousness, so the Seer is really seeing Itself, or the products of the jiva-mind's creativity, which creativity was channeled from the Purusha. The Seer is then assimilated with its own creations, enmeshed in them.

The question arises: Is it my jiva or particular mind that is deluded and mixed up with the outer samsara? Or is God  himself, Purusha, also deluded? Sankara likes to say that Isvara is Himself deluded and that is why he has worlds and universes. This is incorrect. Both Saguna and Nirguna Brahman is ever enlightened and ever free. The Jiva has separated itself from Him, especially during the waking state. Each night we re-unite with the Perfect Purusha. But 'sitting on Daddy's lap,' and realizing again nothing's ever been lost, we get a hankering, like a child, to run off and play games of pretend again. Thus we wake. The yogi seeks to become aware of the divine untouched Father, at least in increasing measure, during the waking state by continence, austerities, meditation, and bhakti-yoga.

3:36

Experience arises from the inability to distinguish between creation and Purusha, though these are absolutely separate. One gets knowledge of Purusha by samyama on Purusha itself as apart from creation.

This verse was brought forward from deeper in the text because it is basically an amplifier and clarifier of 1:4. The term "samyama" comes in the section on meditation, and means perfect concentration. Repeatedly in the Yoga-Sutra arises the phrase "knowledge of the difference." This refers to a final yogic attainment of distinguishing between God as perceived within, and His creation. It is usually put as discriminating the difference "between satva and Purusha," satva is the most pleasant and  desirable aspects of the creation. For this reason the faculty of discrimination is central to spiritual knowledge and the attainments of yoga. The verse is saying that our dualistic experience comes about because of our inability to distinguish between these two. We see God in the karmic play though He is only reflected there. We project reality onto unsatisfactory karma, and chase the lesser thing, remaining enmeshed in it; enmeshed in worlds.

The last three verses might well have fit in the later section on Metaphysics as they define our fundamental existential problem. However, it is good to state the fundamental metaphysical problem yoga seeks to solve right at the start, even if it is a new and strange idea to most seekers. In fact, Patanjali did state it by his third verse. Nightly we separate ourselves from the dualistic world-miasm and are happy to completely forget it, in fact knowing with assurance that it does not exist. Yet when we awake, drawn back to our vasana-ridden body and entering back into it, we become enstupidated again. Yoga seeks to destroy this problem in the waking state, and waking sorrows.

2:17

The cause of that suffering which should be warded off is the entanglement of the Seer with the seen.

To get untrammeled bliss, samadhi, end suffering, know God and become a boon to your surroundings -- you need to stop worshiping the external ephemeral creation and turn back to God, worshiping That which is worthy of worship. When you turn your sight back to the source of sight, the distinction between That and this will be known.

This verse is similar to 1:4 which speaks of the Seer becoming "assimilated" with the seen, like milk mixed in water.

2:18

The seen consists of the elements and the sense organs. It is of the nature of Prakriti. Its purpose is experience and liberation  of the jiva.

2:21

The seen is for the purpose of serving Purusha.

Fortunately, we can use the very creation itself to attain liberation. With proper practice we can use nature and our dualistic state, like an anvil, to hammer out the difference between the Seer and the seen. As Ramakrishna put it, we can use the one thorn of flawed dualistic scriptures and flawed, dualistic activities to pull out the thorn of ignorance and limitation. How to do this? Now yoga is described:

  The Essence of Yoga

2:1

  Tapah-svādhyāyeśvara-pranidhānāni-kriyā-yogah.

Yogic activity consists of purification by asceticism (tapah), 

japa, 

and devotion to God.

Now the most important verse in the Yoga-Sutra, from which one can attain all Good. This verse lays out the yogic work. These three are the essential yogic work!  Music, please. Drums. An hundred new chants and 300 new bhajans and chorales, in thanks for this verse.

Verse 2:1 can be considered the heart of the Yoga-Sutra. It deserves a great deal of emphasis. Yet how much it is ignored. Lack of both registration and  comprehension of this verse, by both commentators and westerners generally, has led to a collapse of understanding of the Yoga-Sutra and yoga in the west. Or I should say that understanding never got rooted here in any robust way. In particular, the term svadhyayesvara has been repeatedly misrepresented in English translations. I mean to correct that. I render it as japa for basic and sound reasons which will be explained. There is nothing original about that rendering but, rather, it returns the word back to its straightforward, original Indic content and clears away the obscurations created by early Theosophical translators. 

Notably, Patanjali gives emphasis to the above three items by writing a second verse, 31 verses downstream, that is practically a duplicate:

2:32

  Sauca-samtosa-tapah-svadhyayes'vara-pranidhanani niyamah.

The yogic observances are purity,  contentment, 

austerities (tapah, tapas), 

japa, 

and devotion to the Lord.

The Yoga-Sutra is intentionally minimalist. It almost never repeats itself. Yet notice how this verse is a repetition of the first. It's one of only some three content repetitions that occur in the text. We can draw important insight from that.

Both verses specify tapas (austerities). You can easily see the word up in the white-highlighted  Sanksrit ("Tapah"). I have directly translated it as it should be translated: Asceticism or austerities for purification. Both specify svadhyaya. And  devotion to God appears in both verses.

The ideas of  God-devotion and austerities appear elsewhere, too, not only here. From this   repetition we can logically infer that God-devotion (bhakti), austerities, and svadhyaya  -- are important to yoga. Thus again, yoga is essential religion and religion contains yoga.

Notice too that the three are given in the same particular order in both verses: Tapas the very first (austerities), then japa, then God-devotion or bhakti.This is one of the cases where the ordering of ideas in the Sutra does have significance. 

Because verses 2:2 and 2:32 are so much alike, it is suitable to comment on them together. Both renderings above are mine. In case the reader might think I am turning the verses 'my way,' the only thing unusual about my rendering -- in the context of modern available versions is my use of japa for "svadhyaya" where many have begun to report "study." I will soon show that japa is correct. Otherwise, the rendering is very like most others. For your assurance here are the two verses rendered by Trevor Leggett, an Englishman and orientalist who tried to be spare and clinical in his Sutra renderings:

Trevor Leggett

2:1

"Tapas, self-study, devotion to the Lord, are the yoga of action." 

2:32

"Purity, contentment, tapas, self-study, and devotion to the Lord are the observances." 

Most other translations are similar. (Leggett picked up the error of reducing svadhyaya to "study" or "self-study," discussed later. )

So we see that yoga is actually religion and religion is yoga. What a surprise. Volumes could be written about this one verse of the Yoga-Sutra. The verse bespeaks the storied lives of centuries of Christian and yogic saints. How much there is to asceticism! How much to the word "japa." Then when we arrive at bhakti or "devotion to God" -- we have reached the sea. I will spend a great deal of time on this verse. First we need to dispel a misunderstanding created by one of the early sutra translators, M.N. Dvivedi, that these activities are merely "preliminary yoga."

Kriya-yogah

The Sutra states that these three -- tapas, svadhyaya, and devotion to God are  kriya-yogah. Leggett chose to render kriya-yoga as "the yoga of action." But the first-chair Sanskrit word for action is karma. "Yoga of action" translated back to Sanskrit is "Karma-yoga." Karma-yoga is a different idea entirely than tapas, svadhyaya, and God-devotion. Karma-yoga as such is not even taken up as a subject in the Sutra. Thus that rendering by Leggett and others is flawed. Kriya is a shade removed from karma and means activity, process. So kriya-yogah in the sutra refers to the activities and processes that constitute yoga. This verse then states that austerities, japa, and the cultivation of the devotional attitude toward God are the main activities and processes of yoga.

Influential translators have sadly mishandled this verse by translating kriya-yogah as "preliminary yoga." This is deplorable. These activities go right up  to the end. There is nothing merely "preliminary" about austerities. The final entry into samadhi, in which the mind is finally given up, is nothing but a final ultimate act of renunciation. Neither can japa be labeled as "preliminary. Japa or repetition is at the heart of all meditation  and remains till the end. Nor devotion, which must be there from start to finish, which only grows greater, and is the most ultimate efflorescence of sadhana. All three become more indispensable as one goes along.

The notion of austerities, japa, and devotion as preliminaries appears to have been started by  Theosophical hire M.N. Dvivedi in his 1890 Sutra translation. Later I.K. Taimni, another Theosophist, carried forward the same ideas -- even many phrases of Dvivedi word-for-word -- in his well-circulated "Science of Yoga." Here is the original unfortunate rendering by Dvivedi containing two great errors:

"Mortification, study, and resignation to Isvara constitute preliminary yoga." 

In his commentary that follows Dvivedi contradicts himself. Apparently aware that he had just minimized three grand and culturally established spiritual imperatives, he qualifies and hedges the statement:

"These constitute the whole of the preliminary side of Yoga , and are sufficient, if carefully and sincerely practiced, to lead to Samadhi." 

'So if you're boring enough to want to do those things, I guess, it's O.K. You can still get samadhi from them. But penances and bhakti, are, possibly just for the simpletons and slow-track people. Not exotic or mental enough for us Theosophists.' 

Adding later to Dvivedi's "preliminary" notion, Taimni clucked that the three were "practical yoga." Sort of like some kids in school end up taking Shop, but the more elite fellows take Literature 103. These "preliminaries" are something for children, or grunt laborers. The Theosophist flies higher, in the skies of mental speculation. 

Hey, practical means: It works, it gets the job done; it is what one practices. These three are, indeed, the basic activities of yoga and will take you to the end. In yoga the practical becomes nectarine.

When we study Sage Vyasa's commentary on Verse 2:1 it is clear these are not mere preliminaries and the Theosophical translators were treating the very gold of the Yoga-Sutra as trash, and delaying the day when Westerners would penetrate to the core mysteries of religion, yoga, and Divine Plenitude. I have added bracketed explanations of certain words  so the paragraph would be readable for those uninitiated to the terms:

"When Kriya-yoga is properly performed, it conduces to the state of Samadhi and considerably attenuates  all the Klesas [distractions, afflictions]. The fire of Prasamkhyana or discriminative knowledge sterilizes the attenuated Klesas like roasted seeds. When they are attenuated, they cannot obscure the realization of the distinction between Buddhi [satva, the most pleasurable aspect of Nature] and Purusa [God]. Such realization then lapses in [turns into] the absence of the manifestation of the Gunas [the disappearance of  the dualistic natural forces or Maya]."

Sage Vyasa's commentary on 2:1, from "Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali," Swami Hariharananda Aranya

This is the ancient sage Vyasa's commentary on this very "kriya-yoga" verse. Note that he associates  kriya-yoga itself -- these very three activities of austerities, japa, and God-devotion -- with the most dramatic and final attainments of yoga. This includes:

-- Destruction of the klesas (afflictions/taints)

-- The final attainment of yoga which is 'perception of the difference between satva and Purusha,' leading to the final state called kaivalya

-- Even the disappearance of fundamental nature (Prakriti and the Gunas). 

Vyasa speaks of kriya-yoga as something performed right up to these culminations. Thus austerities, japa, and bhakti are the fundamental activities of yoga, not preliminary yoga.

I believe that Dvivedi, Taimni, and others chose to call these three "preliminary yoga" for spurious psychological reasons having to do their times, their own dilettante eyes and their desire to present a more "sophisticated" view of the Sutra different from cultural commonplaces around them, and thus to please Theosophical Society sponsors who specialized in spinning  theatrical spiritual hornswaggle. Later I show that svadhyaya, which appears in the verse and definitely entails japa, is also mistranslated by these as "scriptural study." The meaning of svadhyaya will be discussed in detail below.

There is one sense in which those three could be called  "preliminary," and only this sense: That they are a very good foundation to set for one day attaining the bliss of samadhi and the fulfillment of religion: The kingdom of heaven known here-now. That means the earlier a child begins to practice austerities (such as my kneeling long in church as a boy), the better. The earlier one begins cultivating the devotional attitude, the deeper this becomes rooted in you for cosmic fruits later. I was blessed to be induced to do the anjoli mudra early, as a boy in church. And the earlier one begins to study the question of God, to study scriptures, and develop concentration the better he or she can take to this profound yoga as an adult. However, the point is the renunciation impulse (austerities) remains necessary right up to the highest attainment, because renunciation  of the very ego-mind in samadhi is as if the greatest austerity of all. The devotional attitude, moreover, is needed at that time more than at any other. 

Tapah

Interested in real yoga? Then you shouldn't be afraid of austerities. Did you know that the very act of trying to hold a yogic posture is a kind of austerity? Now, tapas is listed first, japa second, then God-devotion or Isvara-pranidhana. This order of listing occurs in two separate verses. Might there be a reason for it? Yes, indeed! Austerities are the first thing that anybody can get a handle on, and usually the first thing beings instinctively pursue when turning away from samsara and seeking spiritual reality.

A basic purpose of austerities is to reduce body consciousness and bodily attachment. Then the mind becomes free to both concentrate and pick up subtle perceptions. God within and the inner bliss are subtle perceptions. If you can finally pick them up through purity, they will feel very big in you. But you can't have static and you must not be distracted by the body and sensual desires. By renouncing bodily comforts and addictions gradually, tapas and austerities cut the addiction to the senses. This is like getting the BBQ potato chips out of your mouth so you can taste the fine French custard,  or like turning down the heavy metal so you can hear the Mozart. Practicing austerities reduces the distractibility of the mind and give greater power of concentration for meditation or dharana, which is the central and hardest work of yogah. Austerities come in many forms, and you can choose the ones you feel most capable of doing. All effort at  austerities yields spiritual fruit.

When I was young I was lucky to be part of a Catholic family that went to church. We had to kneel and stand for portions of the service. I found it difficult and tedious at times to stand so long, or kneel so long. But this was an austerity. I was doing yogic tapas right there already in Church. I might be hungry, and wish I could eat, but could not. My father thought we should not have breakfast until after church, though I normally ate first thing on waking. Learning to accept that hunger in church was tapas. When children are asked to be silent, even though they feel like talking and being rowdy, this is tapas for them. Manning your station at any task as duty, despite discomfort, hunger, or impatience -- is tapas. Attending to any job to the finish, though you would rather give in to distraction, is tapas. Walking a long way, not giving in to the slightest discomfort of cold or heat -- these are tapas. A soldier doing his hard duty is doing tapas. Tapas involves the destruction of addictions. Any tapas you do in one area of life, or with one attachment, will help you master others.

Austerities have even more spiritual effect if done for God and God-directed. In yoga and religious life austerities are meant to bring purification which finally helps the mind to become still, by which stillness it experiences God in samadhi.

We Instinctively Pursue Austerities When We
Grieve and When We Seek the Transcendental

A disconsolate person stops eating, a form of austerity, when life becomes too sorrowful. His soul-instinct tells him that this tapas could destroy his sorrows. When a woman renounces a man or has a broken heart she often cuts her hair, another kind of renunciation and austerity. When people see  emptiness in the world and get a longing for spiritual knowledge they begin to seek solitude. This also is tapas. It is interesting that when a child is upset and terribly frustrated, wishing to work his will with his parents, he may try to coerce them by holding his breath. The holding of the breath in pranayama is another austerity. In fact, some sages commented: "There is no tapas (purifier) like pranayama." The "breath holding" child may in fact  have an instinctive understanding that his breath is part of the cause of his dualistic suffering, which is correct. That childish gambit may come from an instinct to engage in profound austerity to remove obstacles. Famously, the first act of Prince Siddhartha when comprehending the unsatisfactory nature of conventional life was to do tapas. So tapas is a soul-instinct of all who reach out for an solution to suffering and  who seek a to find the More Satisfactory. Meanwhile, it is the best ground for the other three to grow. The ground purified and cultivated by tapas is the ground where the fruit of japa (meditation) and devotion can grow. Those who get the hunger for spiritual knowledge turn to tapas even without reading the Yoga-Sutra, and those who wish to learn meditation and cultivate bhakti do it best along with tapas. Thus it is listed first.

The easiest forms of tapas are these:

-- Silence

-- Seclusion

-- Giving up unnecessary or harmful food and drink

-- Giving up entertainments such as television, movies, and non-devotional music.

-- Giving up addiction to going places and seeing things. (Later the inner vision that comes with yoga will make this very easy to do and you won't miss any of it.)

The most powerful and effective forms of austerities are these:

-- Chastity

-- Fasting

-- Meditation

And these are very difficult austerities, but very important to pursue God-meditation and yoga:

-- Giving up addictions to drugs, drink, and sex.

Sunday Is Tapas

The White Europeans have traditionally practiced tapas every Sunday. All  traditions surrounding Sunday involved renunciation, austerity, and the turning within to God, as well as bhakti-yoga in the churches. (Religious singing, stories about God, guru-devotion, etc.) All business  activities were suspended.

Later all these austerities will be explored further.

Tapas is translated as "concentration" in a great many Hindu texts. One Upanishad states that God as Brahma created the universe through his tapas, or mental concentration. So tapas has implications of both penances/mortification, plus concentration. The act of meditation (dharana) is seen as the ultimate form of austerity because it is a renunciation of the mind itself, enjoyer of all enjoyments. So austerity has an element of concentration. Now back to Verse 1:2.

Svadhyayes'vara

Svadhyayesvara  comes off as a problematic word in these texts. It gets translated variously. The "esvara" part of that word refers to God, or Isvara. Based on the way some translators like to render this word one would think it literally meant "study of God." Then a few fools turned it into "study of scriptures." I believe that the term svadhyayesvara means "application of one's self to God." 

Application of one's self to God can be said to be taking place also during study of scriptures, but this word does not specify book-study. Doesn't everyone read books? Does that make them sadhakas and yogis? Yet many give it as "scriptural study." Others use "self-study," including the careful Leggett. However, it turns out that the legitimate meaning of svadhyaya is japa, or repetition of mantram or verse.

Hariharananda translated svadhyayes'vara as "repetition of sacred mantras or study of sacred literature." Swami Muktananda used to hold great events he called Svadhyaha that consisted of nothing but chanting the Guru Gita for days. He seemed to consider svadhyayes'vara to mean chanting or japa. Muktananda was well-versed in yogic literature and culture. More tellingly, Verse 2:44 of the Sutra states that svadhyaya brings communion with the  deity. Felt communion with the Deity is an altered state different from the normal state of consciousness. Book-reading is not associated with such altered states of communion; japa certainly is.

It turns out svadhyaya has always implied japa and repetition of mantra in Indic culture, but two influential early Indian commentators decided to make a change. In his important 1890 translation M.N. Dvivedi, writing for the Theosophical Publishing House, is caught red-handed removing japa from svadhyayes'vara. Here is Verse 2:44, Dvivedi's translation, and his commentary:

Svadhyayad-ista-devata-samprayogah.

"By study is produced communion with the desired deity."

M.N. Dvivedi, "The Yoga-Sutras Of Patanjali"

Notice svadhyaya up in the verse. Japa does not appear in Dvivedi's verse translation, but "study" again. Yet his commentary on the verse admits the truth:

"The constant, silent, and devoted repetition of certain formula is said to be efficacious in establishing a sort of mediumistic communication with the higher elementals of nature; as also in developing the inner vision of the student and establishing communion with the deity of his choice."

So he knew that svadhyaya was japa not "study." Yet he seems to be apologizing for japa, treating the verse as a sideshow, as if it is separate from the main thrust of the Sutra. Japa is something quaintly "said" by villagers to produce "mediumistic communication" (an absurd phrase) and he he wishes to move on to headier things. 

The truth is japa or repetition of a mantra is the central technique of meditation it self. Japa is  synonymous with meditation and continues on through its technical forms of dharana and dhyana (which Dvivedi later presents with great respect). That very japa, perfected as samyama, is the central technique of siddhis which receive a whole spectacular chapter later. He speaks of communion with a deva as some embarrassment. But  communion with Isvara, the Lord of the Universe, requires the same technique. Besides, Dvivedi misunderstood the verse in the first place.

"Desired deity" (deva) in the verse does not mean one fiddles around with the Dandelion Deva or the Vayu the Wind God. It means that each devotee has his own particular conception of God; they approach God by focusing on Jesus Christ, or a Saint, or their guru, or Vishnu, or Shiva. That is their "deva."  A better handling of the verse would be thus:

By svadhyaya is produced communion with the deity in the form favored by the devotee.

This then is the way I have rendered it below. 

So this verse is not a side trip. Rather, it continues to be on the central subject, meditation, only seeking to  acknowledge that devotees orient themselves to the Deity in different forms or conceptions. 

Dvivedi specifies that japa is silent, but that is incorrect. Japa can be either silent or out loud. In practice japa starts out loud then evolves into a silent form. The meditation technique used by Yogananda and Nityananda, which is silent, is called by them "natural japa."

I.K. Taimni, another  Theosophist, came later and emulated the Dvivedi translation and his more widely published version of the Yoga-Sutra, "The Science of Yoga." It was the first one I encountered. Note his desire to turn it into a "science" to make yoga respectable to the west. He, also, knew that svadhyaya indicated japa. But he also obscured this. The only trace is this little bit he hid in his sidebars breaking down the Sanskrit, off-stage so to speak. Right after the beautiful script for svadhyayesvara in Verse 2:1 he writes:

"self-study; which leads to the knowledge of the Self through Japa"

You wouldn't see it if you didn't scour. But following his mentor, no mention of japa made it into Taimni's verse on svadhyaya. Taimni dumbs down japa into "study" like  Dvivedi, but tries to pick up after his mentor by inventing the confusing term "self study":

"Austerity, self-study and resignation to Isvara constitute preliminary yoga." 

The Science of Yoga, I.K. Taimni, Verse 2:1

So Taimni and Dvivedi held their nose up to japa, and considered asceticism and bhakti merely "preliminary.

These two influential translators were part of Theosophical movement. I used to frequent the Theosophical Library in Ojai, California and have known many Theosophists, all old. I have also attended lectures at the "Meditation Mount" created by Alice Bailey there, another Theosophist. The Theosophists were a people who wanted to mine the mystical heritage of India to create their own highly intellectual, theoretical religion that cared more for an elaborate and fictional metaphysic than the basics of spiritual sadhana that is the subject of the Yoga-Sutra. The Theosophist likes to overlook the simple and the small in religion in preference for elaborate and phantasmagorical competitions with Christian ideas. They sought to mine Indian mysticism while piling up bewildering fodder for the endless arm's-length intellectual indulgence that is the predilection of Theosophist. So translators like Dvivedi and Taimni were trying to bring out a the most "esoteric" and heady presentation of the Sutra. Repetition of mantra or verses, called japa, was always implied by svadhyaya. But in the minds of Dvivedi/Taimni japa was as everyday in India as tattoos on a young Portlander. Housewives did it, grandpas, and the like. They likely felt embarrassed at the idea of mere japa as basic yogic activity. Their sophistry in translation is the sign of jaded eyes and failure to appreciate the profundity of what already lay before them, as is so human. (Just as a woman doesn't comprehend how beautifully inspiring is her God-made, untouched body before paying some creep to deface her with tattoos.) Any japa is meditation and japa is always profound.

The "self study" renderings of Leggett and others are problematic, too. Does it mean "studying the Self" or "studying by yourself"? Everyone studies by himself, not in tandem with another. So they must intend the first idea. Yet neither Leggett nor Taimni capitalize "self," though that is normative when referring to the Supreme Self. "Study of the Self" or "study of God," moreover, seems too broad and nebulous for a verse introducing basic yogic activity. How can one know when one is "studying the Self"? Is this why some tried to solve the dilemma by offering it as "scriptural study"? Because study of scripture is like a study of God? 

I considered "divine study" as a better choice than "scriptural study" should the idea of study have to be retained. But I have chosen to render svadhyaya as japa for strong reasons. The problem is pretty much solved when we get to verse 2:44 which states that svadhyaya produces "communion with the desired deity." Study of scripture won't give you communion with a deva or the sense of God-contact but japa and meditation will.

Svadhyaya Is: 

Japa, Meditation, Application of One's Self to God,
Repetition of Mantras, Chanting, Religious Singing, 
and perhaps secondarily, application of self to God via scriptures

I believe that the simple term japa is most honest and wholesome stand-in for svadhyaya. Below I list my reasons.

☼ Some of the translators do render svadhyaya as japa or mantra repetition.

☼  Meditation is the central technique of yoga and many Sutra verses deal with meditation. Scriptural study is not a form of meditation in the yogic sense, but japa is. Meditation runs through-and-through genuine yoga, start-to-finish. In a verse introducing basic actions of yoga, some approach to meditation would surely be included. Japa fulfills that. Rendering svadhyaya as japa, a others have done, places meditation clearly into the "three actions" of yoga, and in the most basic form.

☼ In India svadhyaya has cultural connotations with out-loud chanting, and japa is itself  synonymous  with out loud chanting.

☼ The next verse will state that these three actions of "kriya yoga" attenuate "klesas" and bring samadhi. Yogins and sages declare that japa can do both; nobody states that scriptural study will do so. In fact japa has high praise in many yogic traditions as a core practice and irresistible power.

☼ For a first verse unveiling the yogic techniques. Japa is explicit, concrete, and clear, not vague or nebulous. Japa is an easily accessible idea. "Study of the Self" has no proof or standard. But all men and women can do japa, understand what it is, and know when they are doing it. This nails down a definite practice, and a meditation practice, in the three basic actions of yoga. Austerities and "special devotion to the Lord" do not nail down explicit practices.

☼ Should the three be listed together -- asceticism, japa, and bhakti -- and one only could remain standing, japa would have the most value. Japa is itself a form of asceticism and also a vehicle for bhakti.

☼ I like the fact that it takes a text that has become arcane, bewildering and filled with loopholes or shift lines and puts this highly important verse into a practical, direct form that anybody can get their head around. Japa is a very adaptable meditation word that can refer to silent inner repetition or out loud chanting. The Yoga-Sutra does not need to seem distant and abstruse to the average-minded devotee.

☼ Japa can be musical. One of the best techniques of bhakti-yoga is devotional singing (as with Muktananda and his 3-day-long "Svadhyaya" sessions). Because Isvara-pranidhana or Devotion-to-God is listed as one of the basic actions, and is more nebulous, these connect nicely with one another, with japa being very down-to-earth. This interpretation would even completely satisfy such bhakti-oriented groups as the Hare Krsna.

☼ A devotee can do japa and no scriptural study, and he can get everything. A fellow who does scriptural study but no japa is on the sidelines.

☼ Verse 2:44 which states that svadhyaya produces "communion with the desired deity."

☼ Finally, japa can comport with the "basic activities" and those who want to view it as "introductory," even if that is misguided, since japa is a technique given to beginners.

Because the central technique of yoga is meditation, and because japa is the only alternative given by many translators in association with the term svadhyayesvara, and because japa is fundamental meditation -- I argue for rendering it thusly as the first resort.  Om.

Have I devalued scriptural study? It is important to yoga and samadhi, but not central. The guru, devotion, and japa are more central than scriptural study.

Yogic action consists of purification by asceticism (tapah), japa, and devotion to God.

Isvara-Pranidhanani -- Devotion to God

The Yogic term for God, in Patanjali's sutra, is Isvara. The Sanskrit term for God-devotion, seen above, is Isvara-pranidhana. Most translators give this as "special devotion to the Lord." 

In a later verse Isvara will be described as "a particular purusha" (person, soul) who preceded us, has never had any afflictions or karmic taints, is beyond even time, and exercises Lordship over creation.

The yogic conception of God as Isvara matches the Christian concept of God as an all-powerful being, ruler and creator, as well as the Vedantic concept of Saguna Brahman or God-with-attributes. In this text I will sometimes use the White European term "God," sometimes Isvara, and sometimes other names that imply different qualities or functions of the Divinity.

Interestingly, the traditions that place Jesus Christ in India during His "missing years" also state that he had a name there was "Isha" which has  a clear origin in "Isvara" (often spelled Ishwara). This could suggest that Christ, during his time studying yoga in India, had keen bhakti for The Lord and came to be called Isha by the people because of his lordly siddhis.

This is the Yoga-Sutra's verse on bhakti-yoga. We tend to think of the Yoga-Sutra as having qualities like a dry technical manual. But it's a beautiful fact that Patanjali's Sutra not only includes it, but appears to emphasize bhakti-yoga. Many celebrated  yogic sages such as Ramakrishna, Sivananda, Narada, and Krsna himself have praised bhakti-yoga as the highest form of yoga, even all-complete in itself. Many of those yogins or commentators have observed that Christianity is basically a bhakti oriented religion. Indeed, many of the great Christian saints were essentially bhakti-yogis in their approach. 

The theme of concentration throughout verse 2 : 1

It's valuable to note that all three "actions of yoga" -- tapas, svadhyaha, and devotion --   involve concentration of the mind. Tapas because it's sometimes used to name intense  concentration, and because meditation is the ultimate austerity. Scriptural study or repetition of mantras obviously involves concentration. And devotion itself involves concentration of the mind. In a sense devotion to a thing is synonymous with concentration on it. Bhakti is perhaps the strongest expression of concentrated mind, one that involves all the emotions.

It has been stated that meditation, which is concentration of mind, is the central subject of the Yoga-Sutra. Thus yogah involves scriptural study and concentration on that; meditation and chanting and concentration on that; and devotion to God which is itself total concentration gathering up the whole self.

SUMMARY OF VERSE 2:1

Real yoga, ancient religion for God-knowledge and the end of suffering, is austerities, God-study, and devotion to God. 

Chastity and virtue are the fertile ground of your yoga farmstead. 

Techniques are the tools. 

And the devotional attitude is like the rain.

2:2

 Samadhi-bhavanartha klesa-tanukara-narthas' ca.

These are practiced for reducing impurities, afflictions, and distractions and acquiring samadhi.

Now after already stating that austerities, japa, and God-devotion are the yogic activities, and after already establishing that samadhi is the goal, the Sutra follows up with a repetitive verse that primarily gives emphasis to the preceding one:   These are practiced to attain samadhi.  

This is the 2nd instance in the Sutra where we see the word klesa (pronounced "klesha"). This is another word that doesn't fit into a neat box. Leggett often translated it as "taint." Taimni usually rendered klesa as "distraction." But the term first arose in the verse describing Isvara-God as a purusha free of afflictions/taints. "Affliction" is the first-chair definition given by Pandit Usharbudh Arya in his "Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali." He uses the phrase "not smeared by afflictions" to combine the idea of impurities. Hariharananda in his glossary defines klesa entirely in terms of painful terms: "Pain, anguish, distress, worry, affliction."

In our minds there is some gappage between the ideas of impurities, afflictions, and distractions. But the Sanskrit sees a close connection between the three.

Now, this leads us to a nice portal of truth that may or may not be present in the verses as written, but should be discussed. Let's forget the mere "distractions" idea as related to meditation. The verse is literally saying that these three activities attenuate afflictions.

How nice to attenuate your afflictions!

Did you realize that austerities (and don't forget to include chastity), chanting, and devotion to God will attenuate your afflictions in life? Yes, it's so. Isn't religion lovely? 

Religious knowledge is concerned with lifting your hassles, bummers, disasters, stresses, and miscellaneous snafus from your shoulders so  that you can acquire samadhi. So it tells you to purify yourself with austerities, quit sinning with sex, and connect yourself to the untainted Father by thinking of Him devotionally. Jesus said: "My burden is light and my yoke is easy." The Yoga-Sutra is saying in this verse: "Be religious in these basic ways and your burden -- your afflictions -- will become lighter." Later you will see, as Sankara has tried to get us to see, that all the insoluble troubles we thought we had were just you seeing a stick in the road ahead and thinking it was a snake. God, the Lord, can change the story like that. 

Verse 2:2 incidentally further contradicts the translators who render kriya-yogah as "preliminary yoga." How can the things that need practicing right up to yoga's ultimate goal be called "preliminary"? The effect of this mistake, no doubt, has been to mislead the already confused into thinking the three -- austerities, svadhyaya, and bhakti -- are of little importance while body postures, which are not even mentioned in the Sutra, are important, though the Sutra emphasizes these three, in three separate verses. These three are the warp  and woof of yoga, not bodily postures.

Further, these are to be practiced in solitude, not groups. Solitude is, incidentally, itself one of the austerities. The Sutra does not call it out explicitly, the Bhagavad-Gita does. The Hatha-Yoga Pradipika also specifies that yoga is a solitary activity, not a social one, and not a business. (Notice how I am giving away this text for free, not selling it.) Groups of people are very distracting. They also give pleasure. Pleasures are what one is supposed to renounce if one wants to be austere and clear the way to perceive the subtle God within. One also doesn't do yoga sitting on picturesque and distracting mountaintops, or noisy seasides in the wind, as presented to us now by waby culture. One also doesn't need to put their hands  out with thumb and finger in a circle as we see so often depicted, and likely shouldn't.

It has become offensive to my eyes to see all the ladies displaying themselves doing the devotional anjoli mudra (hands together, as in prayer) in yoguh magazines, yet with little mention of who's she's devoted to, or if she is devoted to anybody at all, as if yoga was meaningless and is not, in fact, religion. I see hundreds of these displaying themselves. Who is her guru? Does she love God as the Yoga-Sutra instructs? Does she love austerities? Is she on board with chastity? Truly, the reduction of this ancient religious knowledge to a bodily vanity interest for women, who cavort in the  mummery of "spiritual" poses while ignoring God and yoga's religious purpose, simply grasping more things that she desires for worldly pleasure, and all these pranaming-to-nobody- women presented to us by commercial publishing interests -- is pollution to the eyes.

However, I shouldn't say so much, because that would be a "painful transformation" of my mind, plus does not give my mind peace. This brings us to the Sutra's listings of ways to bring the mind to stillness. One of those is by "ignoring the ignorant," a habit I've not yet mastered. But let's see what the Sutra lists for the basic preparations for yoga, one of these is ignoring the ignorant. Do forgive my error.

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