The Anugita and the Sevenfold Principle

When the adventurous pilgrim resolves to enter the great forest, who knows what wonders they may encounter there? As the Anu Gita states: 'In that forest are seven large trees , seven fruits, and seven guests; seven hermitages, seven (forms of) concentration, and seven (forms of) initiation.' Moreover there 'always dwell seven females there'. One may also encounter 'the seven perfect sages, together with their chiefs'. It is said that 'these seven rays follow after this same sun. Hills and mountains also are there collected together, and rivers and streams flowing with water produced from the Brahman.' The following passage is from chapter 12 of the Anu Gita (Kashinath T Telang (1882). Max Muller (ed.). The Bhagavadgîtâ: With the Sanatsugâtîya and the Anugîtâ. Clarendon Press)

p. 285 The Brâhmana said:

I have crossed beyond that very impassable place, in which fancies are the gadflies and mosquitoes 3, in which grief and joy are cold and heat, in which delusion is the blinding darkness, in which avarice is the beasts of prey and reptiles, in which desire and anger are the obstructors, the way to which consists in worldly objects, and is to be crossed by one singly 4. And I have entered the great forest 5.

285:3 Cf. as to all this Gîtâ, p. 101.

285:4 This is not the forest spoken of before. but what has been before called the 'impassable place,' but which also at p. 286 is by implication called a forest, viz. the course of worldly life.

285:5 Viz. the 

1. eye, 

2. ear, 

3. tongue, 

4.skin, and

5. nose, and 

6. the mind, and 

7. understanding--

these are called trees, as being producers of the fruits, namely, the pleasures and pains derived from their several operations; the guests are the powers of each sense personified--they receive the fruits above described; the hermitages are the trees above mentioned, in which the guests take shelter; the seven forms of concentration are the exclusion from the self of the seven functions of the seven senses &c. already referred to; the seven forms of initiation refer to the initiation into the higher life, by repudiating as not one's own the actions of each member out of the group of seven. Cf. as to this Khândogya, p. 219, and commentary there.

285:6 Cf. for these different numbers of colours, Yoga-sûtra II, 19, and commentary, p. 105, and Sânkhya-sâra, p. 18. The trees here meant are the Tanmâtras, or subtle elements, and the theory is that the Gandha-tanmâtra, or subtle element of smell, has five qualities, its own special one, so to say, and the four special ones of the others; the next is taste, the next colour, the next touch, and the last sound; each has one quality less than its predecessor. See Yoga-sûtra, p. 106, and gloss; Sânkhya-sûtra I, 62; and Vedânta Paribhâshâ, p. 45.

The Brâhmana's wife said:

Where is that forest, O very intelligent person! what are the trees (there), and what the rivers, and the hills and mountains; and at what distance is that forest? 

The Brâhmana said:

p. 286  There is nothing else more delightful than that, when there is no distinction from it. There is nothing more afflicting than that, when there is a distinction from it 1. There is nothing smaller than that, there is nothing larger than that 2. There is nothing more subtle than that; there is no other happiness equal to, that. Entering it, the twice-born do not grieve, and do not exult 3. They are not afraid of anybody, and nobody is afraid of them. In that forest 4 are seven large trees 5, seven fruits, and seven guests; seven hermitages, seven (forms of) concentration, and seven (forms of) initiation. This is the description of the forest. That forest is filled with trees producing splendid flowers and fruits of five colours 6. 

286:1 These are mind and understanding; the fruits and flowers are here of 'undistinguished colours,' as the text expresses it, since they include the colours of all the fruits of all the other five sets of trees; that is to say, the subject-matter of their operations is sound, taste, &c., the subject-matters of all the senses together. 'Undistinguished colours' is, perhaps, more literally 'of colours not clear.' Arguna Misra paraphrases it by 'of variegated colours,' which is no doubt the true ultimate sense.

286:2 The self, Nîlakantha. See p. 279, note  7 supra.

286:3 I. e., I presume, devoted to the Brahman.

286:4 I. e. true knowledge, Arguna Misra.

286:5 See note  5, p. 285.

286:6 I. e. when the senses having worked, as unconnected with the self, are finally absorbed into it. Cf. Sânkhya-kârikâ 49 and Katha, p. 151.

p. 287 That forest is filled with trees producing flowers and fruits of four colours. That forest is filled with trees producing flowers and fruits of three colours, and mixed. That forest is filled with trees producing flowers and fruits of two colours, and of beautiful colours. That forest is filled with trees producing flowers and fruits of one colour, and fragrant. That forest is filled with two large trees producing numerous flowers and fruits of undistinguished colours 1. There is one fire 2 here, connected with the Brahman 3, and having a good mind 4. And there is fuel here, (namely) the five senses. The seven (forms of) emancipation from them are the seven (forms of) initiation 5. The qualities are the fruits, and the guests eat the fruits. There, in various places, the great sages receive hospitality. And when they have been worshipped and have disappeared 6, another forest shines forth, in which intelligence is the tree, and emancipation the fruit, and which possesses shade (in the form of) tranquillity, which depends on knowledge, which has contentment for its water, and which has the Kshetragña within for the sun. 

The good who attain to that, have no fear afterwards. Its end cannot be perceived upwards or downwards or horizontally 1. There always dwell seven females there 2, with faces (turned) downwards, full of brilliance, and causes of generation. They absorb 3 all the higher delights of people, as inconstancy (absorbs) everything 4. In that same 5 (principle) the seven perfect sages, together with their chiefs, the richest 6, abide, and again emerge from the same. 

1. Glory; 

2.  brilliance, and 

3.  greatness, 

4. enlightenment, 

5. victory, 

6. perfection, and 

7. power 7--

these seven rays follow after this same sun. Hills and mountains also are there collected together, and rivers and streams flowing with water produced from the Brahman 8. And there is the confluence of the rivers in the secluded place 9 for the sacrifice, whence those who are contented in their own selfs repair to the divine grandsire himself.

287:1 It extends on all sides, its end cannot be perceived on any side.

287:2 These are, according to Arguna Misra, the Mahat, Ahankâra, and five Tanmâtras. Their faces are turned downwards, as they are obstacles in the way upwards, viz. the way of final emancipation; they are brilliant, as they light up the course of worldly life; and hence, too, they are 'causes of generation.' They give birth to the universe.

287:3 They conceal the higher delight of final emancipation.

287:4 I follow Arguna Misra, but the text is doubtful.

287:5 Viz. the Brahman.

287:6 Cf. Khândogya, pp. 295-300. The word sages here, as before, means the various organs. See Brihadâranyaka, p. 415.

287:7 Glory = renown; brilliance = Brahmic splendour (Brahmategas); perfection = obtaining what is desired; power = not being conquered by others, Arguna Misra. About the sun, see line 3 of text above.

287:8 I. e. contentment. See the second line in the text above.

287:9 I. e. the space in the heart, the sacrifice being that of 'concentration of mind,' yogayagña,--Nîlakantha. A confluence of rivers is very sacred--here the meaning intended seems to be the absorption of all desires by contentment into the heart.

p. 288 Those whose wishes are reduced 1, whose wishes are (fixed) on good vows, whose sins are burnt up by penance, merging the self in the self 2, devote themselves to Brahman. Those people who understand the forest of knowledge 3, praise tranquillity. And aspiring to that forest, they are born so as not to lose courage 4. Such, indeed, is this holy forest, as understood by Brâhmanas. And understanding it, they act (accordingly), being directed by the Kshetragña.

288:1 Literally, 'lean.'

288:2 I. e. the body in the soul, Arguna Misra.

288:3 Knowledge is Brahman, which is described as a forest here, Arguna Misra.

288:4 Cf. Gîtâ, p. 70.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras - A Theosophical Bibliography

One of the great accomplishments of the Theosophical Society was to help popularize Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Gordon White observes: “In spite of its founders’ misadventures, the Theosophical Society may be credited with having projected yoga onto the magnetosphere of the late nineteenth- century Indian and Western consciousness” (The "Yoga Sutra of Patanjali": A Biography. Princeton University Press, 2014, p 105). Indeed, from 1885 to 1912, the Theosophical Society was virtually the lone publisher of English translations of the Yoga Sutras (with the exception of  Swami Vivekananda, Raja Yoga, 1896) releasing six versions, and have published at least a dozen translations over the years. Below are a selection, all still well worth investigating, with a few recent translations from other publishers, which are recommended.

A First translation of Yoga Sutras of Patanjali in English containing the first two chapters by J.R Ballyntyne was published by the Benaras College in 1853. In 1872 Govind Deva Shastri completed the remaining two chapters. The complete book was published in 1883 by the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

1- 1885. A revised edition, of the J.R Ballantyne, Govind Shastri Deva translation, edited by Tookaram Tatya, The Yoga Philosophy with comments of Bhojaraja, was published by the Bombay Theosophical publication fund. Bhoja (reigned c. 1010–1055 CE) was a monarch from the Paramara dynasty. 

https://blavatskyarchives.com/theosophypdfs/tatya_the_yoga_philosophy_of_patanjali.pdf#

2- 1889. William Quan Judge published The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali in New York, using the Ballantyne/Shastri Deva translation, with occasional comments by Judge, which although short, remain relevant for their unique practical understanding. 

https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/patanjal/patanyog.htm#

3- 1890. Manilal N. Dvivedi. The Yoga-sūtras of Patanjali.Sanskrit Text and English Translation Together, with an Introduction and an Appendix, and Notes on Each Sutra Based upon Several Authentic Commentaries. Bombay Theosophical publication fund.The first original theosophical translation with  original commentary in a popular style. 

https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/dvivedi1890?sid=e0ac846ebef9dee4518981fa37fe8818&ui_lang=eng

4- 1910. Rama Prasad. Patanjali Yoga Sutras with commentary of Vyasa and gloss of Vachaspati Mishra.  Vachaspati Mishra was a ninth or tenth century Indian Hindu philosopher of the Advaita Vedanta tradition, who wrote bhasya (commentaries) on key texts of almost every 9th-century school of Hindu philosophy.  Also wrote "Self-Culture of the Yoga of Patanjali" in 15 parts, "The Theosophist", 1906-1907.

https://archive.org/details/PatanjalisYogaSutraswithTheCommentaryOfVyasaAndTheGlossOfVachaspatiMisraRamaPrasadTranslation

5- 1907. GanganathaJha (translator) The Yoga Darśana: The Sutras of Patañjali with the Bhāṣya of Vyāsa. With notes from Vācaspati Miśra's Tattvavaiśāradī, Vijnana Bhiksu's Yogavartika and Bhoja's Rajamartanda. Rajaram Tukaram Tatya: Bombay Theosophical Publication Fund.

Probably the first edition that is both popular and of scholarly quality. It establishes the importance of Vyasa's commentary and gives a straightforward modern commentary.   

https://archive.org/details/yogasutrasofpatanjalibhashyaofvyasaganganathajha1907_202003_737_f

6- 1912. Charles Johnston. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. New York: Quarterly Book Department. A solid, practical translation from a good Sanskrit scholar.

https://universaltheosophy.com/cj/yoga-sutras-1909/

7- 1914. Daniel R. Stephen. Patañjali for Western Readers. London: Theosophical Publishing Company, The Yoga Aphorisms of Patañjali Paraphrased and Modernised from Various English Translations and Recensions.

8- 1948. Ernest Wood. Practical Yoga, Ancient and Modern. New York: E. P. Dutton, A New and Independent Translation of Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms, Interpreted in the Light of Ancient and Modern Psychological Knowledge and Practical Experience.

http://digital.march.es/cortazar/fedora/repository/cortazar:1735/PDF 

9- 1961. I.K. Taimni. "The Science Of Yoga". Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, IL. Translation and commentary from Advaita Vedanta perspective using modernized Theosophical terms. 

https://www.yogastudies.org/wp-content/uploads/Science_of_Yoga-Taimni.pdf#

10- 1963. Hariharananda Aranya. Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali: Containing His Yoga Aphorisms with Vyasa's Commentary in Sanskrit and a Translation with Annotations Including Many Suggestions for the Practice of Yoga (1882), trans. into English by P.N. Mukerji. State University of New York Press, Albany.  Swami Hariharananda Aranya (1869–1947) was a yogi, author, and founder of Kapil Math in Madhupur, India, which is the only monastery in the world that actively teaches and practices Samkhya philosophy.

11- 1989. Georg Feuerstein. The Yoga-Sutra of Patañjali: A New Translation and Commentary. Dr. Georg Feuerstein Ph.D (27 May 1947 – 25 August 2012) was a German Indologist specializing in the philosophy and praxis of Yoga. Feuerstein authored over 30 books on mysticism, Yoga, Tantra, and Hinduism. He translated, among other traditional texts, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita. 

12-1990. Sankara on the Yoga Sutras: Vivarana Sub-commentary to Vyasabhasya on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Trevor Leggett. First printed in 1952, some think that this text is by the great Advaita Vedanta teacher, but most think otherwise. Nonetheless, it is an interesting commentary by an experienced Vedanta philosopher.

https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/SankaraYogaSutras.pdf 

 

For an esoteric perspective on the Yoga Sutras, see: 

https://universaltheosophy.com/jwf/patanjali/

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras -Book 3 - Rama Prasad

Continuing a basic summary of the four books of  Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, by Rama Prasad, with some suggestive observations of an esoteric nature, from the introduction to his translation: Patanjalis Yoga Sutras with the Commentary of Vyasa and the Gloss of Vachaspati Misra (1912). See   Part 1

 The Third Chapter gives a description of this Antarangayoga. The Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi are collectively called Samyama.

When the stage of catalepsy is reached, the Yogi fixes his mind on any particular portion of his body. This holding the mind in a particular part is Dharana or concentration. 

The continuation of the mental effort to keep the mind there Dhyana or meditation.

This meditation (Dhyana) turns into Samadhi or contemplation when the Self is lost as if it were, the object of meditation done remains in the mind and shines out alone. 

This Samyama-concentration, meditation and contemplative trance- is the great instrument of acquiring all knowledge of supersensuous verities. It is the strong searchlight of the mind which turned on any object, reveals its inmost core. It is the great light of wisdom-Prajnaloka. 

This Samyama must be applied to plane after plane of nature, physical, astral, mental, &c . One cannot jump to a higher plane, leaving an intermediate plane---the progress is gradual. 

The Yogi who has mastered Samyama as regards a higher plane  should not desecrate this faculty by employing it in lower planes. He who by Samyama has learnt communion with God, should not waste his faculty in thought-reading, clairvoyance, bringing messages from the dead to the living or vice versa. He should not squander his energy in hunting up the past records in the astral light, nor the shadows of  the future in the Brahmic Idea. 

What is the state of mind in Samadhi and Nirodha? Is it a state of perfect quiescence of the mental body? As regards the mental body it is a state of perfect stillness so far as the vehicle is concerned, but it is a state of great molecular motion in the mental body itself. The molecules of the mental body are thrown in a very high state of vibration, though the body in all appearance is in perfect calm. This vibration of the molecules of the mental body, becomes by practice, rhythmic and this rhythmic flow is the mental peace of Samadhi. The swing of the vibration lies between one-pointedness and all-pointedness-- between the contraction to a point and expansion to embrace a whole universe. That which appears to be the stillness of Samadhi is perhaps the highest activity possible. Even what is called one-pointedness is itself a state of utmost activity. When the mind is one-pointed it does not mean that one idea is indelibly impressed on the mind like an engraving on a stone, but that the mind is working so quickly that the image of one is formed in no time as it were, destroyed in no time as it were, and formed again. This quick succession of the same form is one-pointedness. In ordinary states one idea is followed by another idea. In one-pointedness the same idea vanishes and re-appears again and again. Thus what is called fixing the mind to a thought is really making the mind reproduce one thought over and over again, in the utmost quickness of succession, without the intrusion of any foreign thought. 

The Third Chapter then gives a list of psychic powers and how to acquire them by applying Samyama. The power of knowing the past, present add future is by making Samyana on three-fold modifications which all objects are constantly undergoing (III. 13). Methods are laid down as how to acquire the memory of past births, how to read the thoughts of others, how to disappear from sight, how to get  strength, how to see through closed door, how to know the solar system and astronomy, &c. These methods have a meaning only for him who knows the practice of Samyama. Without that no amount of thinking on the solar plexus will give one knowledge of internal anatomy, &c. 

Book 4 

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras -Book 2 - Rama Prasad

Continuing a basic summary of the four books of  Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, by Rama Prasad, with some suggestive observations of an esoteric nature, from the introduction to his translation: Patanjalis Yoga Sutras with the Commentary of Vyasa and the Gloss of Vachaspati Misra (1912). See   Part 1

 The art of Yoga consists in bringing under control and purifying the three lower vehicles of man, namely, the body, the mind and the spiritual Self- the astro-physical, mental, and the causal bodies. The astro-physical body is to be purified and brought under control by what are called ascetic practices,- early rising, bathing, fasting, bearing hardships, etc., in short, all that go under the name of Tapas-or austerities. The mental body must be purified and strengthened by study, by acquiring knowledge. An ignorant person cannot be a Yogi. The causal or spiritual body is to be developed by entire devotion to God. Thus an atheist cannot be a true Yogi (In Raja Yoga, these three bodies are called Sthulopadi, Sukshmopadhi, and Karanopadhi in Sanskrit, ed.).

These three helps-austerities, study and resignation to the will of God facilitate trance and remove " afflictions." (Sanskrit: klesha, ed.) The "affliction" is the technical name of certain intellectual and emotional weaknesses to which all human beings are liable. They are five in number :-(l) The first is the Nescience or Wrong Notion of things objective-mistaking the non-eternal for the eternal, the impure for the pure, the painful for the pleasurable, or non-Self for the Self. (2) The second is the wrong notion about things subjective-identifying one's Self with the vehicles in which the Self function, taking the bodies for the soul. These two are intellectual defects, (3) The third is the emotional weakness. It is the desire natural of man, running after pleasant things. (4) The fourth also is emotional- hatred of things that give pain. Thus these two-love and hate are emotional defects. The fifth defect is neither intellectual nor emotional-it is instinctive- the instinct of self-preservation-the instinctive fear of death-the love of life. These are the five " afflictions of Yoga - Avidya, Asmita, Raga, Dvesa and Abhinivesa- Nescience, Egoism, love and hatred and instinctive dread of death.  These "afflictions" are destroyed by meditation and the methods already mentioned. 

These "afflictions" are the root of the body of transmigration, the root of re-incarnation, of birth, life and suffering. The pleasure and pain which a man suffers are the result of his past acts, the virtuous acts are the seed of pleasure, the vicious of pain. The word " affliction" is thus a purely technical term, for it includes the high heavenly pleasure also which is the result of virtuous actions. But in the philosophy of Yoga as well as that of Sankhya--all such pleasures are also considered as pains: because philosophically the world is painful, all its experiences, even those which people call pleasurable, are painful to the philosopher. This is stated in the memorable aphorism, II. 15, p. 100. 

All world-experience being thus painful, the philosopher seeks to find the root-cause of this experience and this is the conjunction of the knower and the knowable-the Self and the not-Self. Because man is tied with mind, and cannot extricate himself from the embraces of mind-matter that he suffers. When he masters the mind, and is not her slave, then there is no pain-there is no necessary experiencing of joy and sorrow. The non-ego to which the man is tied has the three well-known attributes or Gunas - Sattva, Rajas and Tamas- the Light, the Activity and the Inertia-is the source of all elements, and producer of all sensations and senses. 

The Yoga system of cosmogony is the same as that of the Sankhya, so far as the evolution of the world-elements out of the Primordial matter called Prakriti is concerned. It is summarised in II. 19. 

What is the nature of the Self ? This question naturally arises after one has learned the nature of the non-Self. The man is pure consciousness : I and the non-Self exists for him. If man is pure consciousness, how does he perceive the non-Self? He knows the non-ego by a sort of reflex action. The mind catches the reflection of the non-Self ; and the man becomes conscious of that reflection. The man is thus the seer of the pictures in the mind. The non-ego or the knowable thus exists for the sake of the Man. In the state of Mukti (liberation, ed.), there exists no knowable for that Man. Though to the Perfect Man there is no knowable, it does not mean that the knowable ceases to exist. It exists with regard to the other souls that have not reached perfection.

A question is often asked: If the ultimate goal is the separation of man from the non-Self, the knowable, why was this conjunction between the two brought about? Why was man tied down to non-Self, to matter-mind ? The answer to this is: In order that Man may perfect his nature by acquiring all experiences and passing through them. Unless the Man learns all that the Matter-Mind has to teach, the conjunction is not broken. The effective cause of this conjunction lies in the Avidya-the Wrong Notion (or ignorance, ed.). When, therefore, the Ayidya or Nescience is removed, the  conjunction is removed and the Man shakes off the eternal burden. How is the Avidya to be removed? The Avidya being Wrong Notion, can be removed only by Right Notion call Viveka-Khyati or Discriminative knowledge. His discriminative knowledge has seven stages-four dealing with the phenomenal knowledge and three with the mental or subjective notions, as described in II. 27. It is on reaching this that the title of Adept or Kusala is given to the Yogi. 

The acquisition of this Adeptship is through the practice of eightfold Yoga. The famous phrase Ashtanga Yoga refers to this. The eight accessories of Yoga are enumerated in II. 29. Five of these are external, as with the last three. The eight Angas are so important that it can well bear repetition here. 

First, Practice Restraint, i.e., be moral. This restraint or Yama consists of five sub-divisions :-(a) do not kill or injure any being. Be kind to all. Ahimsa; (b) Speak and act truth; (c) Steal not, nor acquire illicit gains ; (d) Practise continence and celibacy; d) Be not avaricious. These are universal rules. 

Second, Niyama or Observance. This is also five-fold :(a) Be clean in body and mind, (b) Be contented, (c) Practise asceticism and austerity, (d) Study sacred books, (e) Be devoted to God. 

While practising Yama and Niyama, if obstacles arise, always try to think of the opposite quality. If he feels a strong desire to tell a falsehood, let him not fight the desire, by a frontal attack, by checking it. Let him substitute the opposite desire-the beauty of truthfulness. If he hates another, let him think of the good qualities of that man. If he is in danger of breaking the vow of celibacy, let him think of the glorious future of the Brahmachari. Pratipasa ga Bhavana-thinking of the contrary- is the key of success. It is the great strategy in this moral battle, and is embodied in II. 33. The moral qualities mentioned in Yama, must be absolutely observed-no sophistical diminution of their absolute nature is allowed to the Yogi. To him the moral laws are absolute. Thus the first rule of Ahimsa says " kill not." This is an absolute rule. There cannot be any exceptions or reservations. The enemies of the country, the renegades of religion, the blasphemers of sages and saints, the murderer, the criminal-kill none. To Yogi the vow of non-killing is absolute. He must not kill even in self-defence of himself or of his near and dear ones. Hence the rule says : "They (Yama) are the great vow universal, and not limited by caste, country, age and condition." (II. 31). So also with truth. One must not lie for the sake of one's country or State or Brahmana or cow, &c. Not only this: there are certain omissions which become as bad as actual commissions of these sins. He incurs sin if he causes another to do it or permits its being done. 

The third Anga of Yoga is Asana or posture. No particular posture is obligatory, but the posture must be such as is steady and easy; not painful or irksome. The various postures given in books of Hatha Yoga such as Gheranda Samhita or Siva Samhita are useful as physical exercises, for the otherwise sedentary Yogi. 

The fourth Anga of Yoga is the much abused Pranayama or the Regulation of breath. The Yoga has come to mean, in the thoughts of many, posturing and nose-closing. But the right regulation of breath as a mental and physical effect was pointed out long ago. The Western science has come to recognise its advantages and Books of Breathing are not as rare now as they were when we first wrote about it in 1882. 

The fifth anga of Yoga is Pratyahara or Abstraction. It is a state of catalepsy when the senses do not come into contact with their objects. It is the state of the inhibition of the senses. A pistol may be fired near the ear of the Yogi and he will not hear it. Ammonia may be held under his nostrils and he will not smell it, and so on. 

All the above five are Bahiranga or the external. The internal Yoga which has to deal with the mind and mind alone consists of the last three Angas-Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. 

Book 3 

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras - Book 1 - Rama Prasad

One distinctive accomplishment of the Theosophical movement was to champion two pre-eminent works of Eastern philosophy: the Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, and so a post on the Yoga Sutras is long overdue.  This introduction text by Rama Prasad (a fine Indian scholar and Theosophist who made some significant pioneering contributions to the field of eastern philosophy) is a basic summary of the four books of the sutras, with some suggestive observations of an esoteric nature, from his translation: Patanjalis Yoga Sutras with the Commentary of Vyasa and the Gloss of Vachaspati Misra (1912).

The aphorisms of Patanjali on the Yoga Sutras are contained in four chapters and are nearly two hundred in number. The author of the aphorisms is said to be the same Patanjali who wrote the famous commentary on Panini’s aphorisms, under the name of the Mahtabashya or thr Great Commentary. Another work is also attributed to him-the great work on Medicine. If so, he was not only a great Grammarian and a great Philosopher, but a Great Physician. He prescribed for the body, mind and spirit all three. The age of Patanjali is now generally fixed at three centuries before Christ.  (Dr. Rajendra Lala Mitra's preface to his Edition of the Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali and also his paper on Gonikaputra and Gonardiya as names of Patanjali, pp. 361 et seq the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1883.)

The word Yoga comes from a Sanskrit root which means "to go to trace, to meditate." Others however derive it from a root which means to join ; and Yoke in English is said to be the same word as Yoga. Both roots are feasible - in the case of the root to join, Yoga would mean the science that teaches the method of joining the human soul with God. 

The philosophy of Patanjali is essentially Dualistic. The Jivas or Purusas or human egos are separate individual entities and exist from eternity; so is also Prakriti, and so also Isvara or God. It thus believes in three Eternal Co-existent principles, the God; the Man and the Matter. 

But man is found to be involved in matter, to have fallen from its pristine state of purity. The aim of Yoga is to free (viyoga) man from the meshes of matter. But the highest form of matter is mind- the Citta (a term which would include that which is technically known as manas, as Ahamkara and as Buddhi). The students of Samkhya need not be told that the first product of Prakriti or the-root-matter is Mahat or the Great Principle-the Buddhi, then comes the Ahamkara or I-principle-the matter through which can function the I-ness : and then the Manas or I , the matter which is the vehicle of thought. These three vehicles-the thought-vehicle (Manas), the  I-vehicle (Ahamkara), the Pure-Reason vehicle (Buddhi)--constitute Chitta or the subtlest form of Matter. To free man from the fetters of this Chitta is thus the problem of Yoga. 

The man when freed from all vehicles, remains in his own form called Svarupa. It is not made of Prakritic matter. It is the body which belongs to man-is part of man from eternity-the body in which he dwells in Mukti in super-celestial worlds. It is the body in which the Triune God is directly active-Isvara, Prana and Sri-or the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. This svarupa-deha, is the body of Prana-the body of Christ of the gnostics. This is the incorruptible undecaying body, the spiritual body. 

But when man is not in his Own-Form (Svarupa), he functions naturally in the lower vehicles, and his form is there the form of his vehicles -whether it be of Buddhic, Ahamkaric or Manasic matter. In fact the man of Psychology is this triad-Ahamkara, Buddhi and Manas. The human consciousness in whatever lower body it may function is always a dual consciousness-it must be alternately pleasurable or painful. Pleasure and pain are the marks of consciousness functioning in Chitta. The Svarupa consciousness is only above all pains. 

Next to this primary division of all consciousness, as regards their nature ; the consciousness as regards its quality is five-fold:-(l) it may be a true consciousness of some objective reality-something which is outside the man and his vehicles ; or (2) it may be an incorrect consciousness of outward reality ; or (3) it may be a hallucination ; or (4) it may be non-perception of anything external but of rest; or (5) it may be the reviving of old perceptions.

In other words, the consciousness looked at from the subjective or emotional point of view is either pleasurable or painful; looked at from the objective or cognitional point of view it is i) true perceptions, (ii) false perceptions, (iii) hallucinations, (iv) sleep, and (v) memory.

Thus both the emotional and the intellectual aspect of the Chitta or the Triune Man is to be checked. But how is it to be checked. The answer is by constant practice and want of attachment or Dispassion. There must be constant exertion to keep the mind on one point. This is called Abhyasa. The intellectual functioning of the Chitta is to be checked by Abhyasa-putting the mind to think of one object, and as soon as it strays away from it to bring it back again to the same point. This practice or Abhyasa, steadily persevered in, would make the mind one-pointed, with the help of Viveka or discrimination. 

As regards the emotional sides of the mind, it must be checked by Vairagya or dispassion. Pleasure or Pain, attraction or repulsion, love and hatred can be controlled only by this world-weariness--realisation that there is nothing in this world or the next worth striving after, worth desiring or worth hating. The highest form of Vairagya will be attained when one will realise his separateness from all Prakritic vehicles-when he can say "I am not Body, or Desire, or mind, or Reason or I-ness."

The state of Samadhi or trance induced by Practice and Dispassion is two-fold-Samprajnata and Asamprajnata. In the first, the man has shut off from his consciousness all external impressions, but his internal self-initiated activities have not ceased. In the other, oven these are stopped. 

There are some entities whose consciousness is in a state of Samadhi naturally, who have not to acquire it by any exertion. These are the classes of beings called Videhas and Prakritilayas. Their consciousness is cosmic. The Videhas are Devas. They are Mukta from the beginning : but in some future Kalpa they may come into the world-cycle. The Prakritilayas are Adhikari Purusas, the great office-holders in the cosmic hierarchy. They are the perfect ones of the past Kalpa. 

In the case, however, of ordinary entities-for the Videhas and the Prakritilayas do not stand in need of Yoga- the method of suppressing Chitta-functions consists in having faith, energy, retentive-memory, meditation and wisdom. One must cultivate these qualities in order to become a successful Yogi. 

The success is quicker according to the amount of energy put in by the person in his practice. But the best and the safest method of Yoga is the love of God. Loving God with all one's heart and soul, would quickly bring about the cessation of all mental functions. God is a spirit untouched by sorrow, action and its fruition. He is Omniscient, He is the Teacher of all, and from eternity. His mystic name is Om. One must recite this Om constantly meditating on its letters and their imports; and thus all obstacles to concentration will be removed, and the Inner Self will manifest itself. The obstacles to concentration are disease, languor, doubt, heedlessness, laziness, sensuality, delusion, &c, mentioned in I. 30. But when the mind is concentrated, there is no pain or despondency, no fidgetiness, no difficulty of breathing. To attain concentration and remove these obstacles, the aspirant must practice to fix his attention on One Point, One Truth. Of course the highest Truth is God and so the constant attitude of the mind should be God-pointed. 

The aspirant must strictly regulate his conduct as regards others. He must show happiness and feel happiness when dealing with those who are happy. Let him have no feeling of jealousy towards them. He must show compassion towards those who are suffering. He must not be callous to the miseries of others. He must be complacent towards the virtuous, and hate not the sinner. These are the moral attributes that he must try to cultivate. 

There are, however, some particular methods which quickly bring about concentration; one of them is the regulation of the breath. The monotony of slowly breathing in and breathing out brings about hypnosis. Fixing the attention on various parts of the body, such as the tip of the nose, palate, &C., are also helpful. The astral senses are developed by this means, and when the practitioner gets first-hand knowledge of astral sights, sounds, &C., his doubts are removed, and he feels more earnestness in pursuing the path. 

If the astral development is not wanted, the practitioner may concentrate his attention on the light in the heart and upon the thought " I am." This also steadies the mind.

Or he may fix his attention on some great and holy saint or sage such as Zoroaster, the Buddha, the Christ, &c. 

Or he may fix his attention on the objects of his dreams. Sometimes in dream he may be shown a great Deva or a great Teacher. Let him not reject it as fancy. By fixing his attention on it he may acquire steadiness of mind. 

Or he may fix his attention on the ideas that pass through his mind just before he goes to sleep, the pictures that arise when one is half-awake and half-asleep-the hypnopompic (as Myers calls them). Or he may fix his attention on the pictures that one sees just before awakening-the hypnogogic. If he can fix his attention on these, he may easily pass into hypnosis. 

By such concentration all mental impurities are removed, and the mind becomes like a pure crystal that reflects truly and correctly all objects that are presented to it. They are no longer distorted pictures or dim and dull reflections of outer verities. The mental vehicle is purified, and the knowledge that now arises is far more true than any knowledge that he had before. The mind, however, enters as an element in every such knowledge, and the. past ideas and memories tinge such knowledge. This state is called Savitarka or mixed up trance. But when the mind reflects only the object, without adding to it anything from its own associations and storehouse, it is pure idea and is Nirvitarka Samadhi. In this state the light of the Self shines out on purified mind. It is not only a pure crystal that faithfully reflects the outer objects, but it is illumined, as if it were, by a light which was dormant within its own inmost centre. Such a mind is called the Truth-bearing mind. It has truth within it and truth without-a mass of truth -a tree carrying the fruit of truth-a female full with truth. Up to this time the objects of the mind were mere ideas and inferences, mere thoughts.  

Now the contents of the mind are things, the very things as it were, and not merely thoughts of things. The mind modifies itself, as it were, into - the very thing itself; and thus the thing is known more truly and essentially than it was known ever before. In this state of mind, the time and space cannot impede the perception of the object. The object may be inside a box, behind a wall or hundreds of miles off, the mind faithfully reproduces it. The object may be the subtlest and the minutest, not visible even under the strongest microscope, the mind reproduces it. For it no longer depends upon the senses for its knowledge, but has become the all-sense itself. In this way the mind becomes the highest sensory: by constant practice the mind gets into the habit of reflecting the trance objects. But even this habit is ultimately to be conquered if one wishes to rise to the higher levels of what is called the seedless trance. 

The First Chapter thus, in fifty-one aphorisms, gives what may be called the theory or the science of Yoga. An ardent and intelligent person can learn enough from this chapter alone to become a practical Yogin. But for men of ordinary intellect, more detailed teaching is necessary. The Second Chapter enters into such teaching. It may be called the art of Yoga-the technique of it. 

Book 2