Book Description

This volume is an original paraphrase, with commentary, of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Yoga Sutras are of ancient origin, first reduced to writing by Patanjali, who is considered the founder of the Raja Yoga School. Control of the mind and its illumination by the soul are brought about through the practice of Raja Yoga. The Sutras have a power and a timelessness about them which demonstrate the accuracy with which they pinpoint the basic truths of human evolution from subservience to personality clamours to the serene freedom of the soul. Most human problems today originate in selfish desire; the prostitution of the feeling nature to self-centred action. This is also brought out clearly in the teaching of the Lord Buddha, the treading of the Noble Eight-Fold path providing the only way out of the maze: "Right Values; Right Speech; Right Mode of Living; Right Thinking; Right Expression; Right Conduct; Right Effort; Right Rapture or True Happiness". These are attributes of the soul. Patanjali explores exhaustively the means, the techniques and the mental posture which create the connecting thread between the form-centred personality and these stages towards spiritual achievement and soul fusion.