The Yoga Sûtras of Patañjali
[Hindu] Patañjali was a scholar of Hinduism. At around 400 AD, he compiled the Yoga Sûtras of Patañjali. Reading it can help prepare you for Interfaith Dialogue.
RESOURCES: Rationale, Summary, Outline, Translation
WHY SHOULD A CHRISTIAN STUDY A HINDU TEXT?
Reading important texts from other world religions is essential for becoming equipped for Interfaith Dialogue.
The Yoga Sûtras of Patañjali is a key text from Hinduism that non-Hindus generally find interesting and readable.
If you are a Christian and if you have read Patañjali, you will be further equipped for Interfaith Dialogue.
You will have a powerful tool to build bridges with people who meditate. And with Hindus you meet.
SUMMARY
Patañjali teaches people to meditate by focusing on one thing. This is a simple spiritual practice. It calms the mind and prepares you for higher states of spirituality.
Patañjali describes many of those higher states of spirituality. Some are very eye-opening.
For centuries, many meditators look back to Patañjali as a key source and inspiration of what they do. That includes people who practices Yoga.
Chapter 1. Our mind jumps around like a monkey jumping from tree to tree. Patanjali offers eight ways for us to calm our mind.
Chapter 2. Patanjali says the goal is mystical union with God. But there are five obstacles. They can be overcome if we walk an an eightfold path.
Chapter 3. Most spiritual experts tell us to give up things. But mystical experience takes us much further in the spiritual life. And might give us paranormal abilities.
Chapter 4. The ultimate goal of yoga is emancipation. Liberation. We are freed from our attachment to the past and from all bondage and suffering.
OUTLINE
CHAPTER 1
Philosophical Foundations (1.1-14)
Eight ways to calm the mind (1.15-39)
Way 1. Let go of Preconceptions (1.15-17)
Way 2. Focus the Mind on One Thing (1.18-22)
Way 3. Surrender to God (1.23-27)
Way 4. Repeat a Prayer-Word (1.28-30)
Way 5. Regulate the Breath (1.31-36)
Way 6. Meditate on the life of a Hero of the Faith (1.37)
Way 7. Insights from Dreams (1.38)
Way 8. Meditate on that which is Deeply Desired (1.39)
What is possible for a calmed mind (1.40-51)
CHAPTER 2
The Goal is Union with God (2.1-2)
Five Obstacles to the Goal (2.3-9)
Obstacle 1. Spiritual Ignorance (2.4-5)
Obstacle 2. Ego (2.6)
Obstacle 3. Lure of Pleasure (2.7)
Obstacle 4. Avoidance of Pain (2.8)
Obstacle 5. Fear of Death (2.9)
Prepare to take Action (2.10-27)
The Eight Limbs of Yoga (2.28-55)
Limb 1. Self-Restraint (2.30-31)
Limb 2. Practices (2.32-45)
Limb 3. Posture (2.46-48)
Limb 4. Breath (2.49-53)
Limb 5. Withdrawal of the Senses (2.54-55)
CHAPTER 3
The Eight Limbs of Yoga, continued (3.1-15)
Limb 6. Focus (3.1)
Limb 7. Meditation (3.2)
Limb 8. Union (3.3-15)
Effects of Mystical Experience (3.16-54)
Effect 1. Knowing the Past and the Future (3.16)
Effect 2. Understanding Foreign Languages (3.17)
Effect 3. Knowledge of Previous Lives (3.18)
Effect 4. Knowing another Person’s Mind (3.19)
Effect 5. Invisibility & Inaudibility (3.20)
Effect 6. Knowing the Time of your own Death (3.21)
Effect 7. Ability to grant Joy (3.22)
Effect 8. Great Physical Strength (3.23)
Effect 9. Remote Knowledge (3.24)
Effect 10. Stellar Cartography (3.25-27)
Effect 11. Knowledge of Internal Organs (3.28)
Effect 12. Overcome Hunger and Thirst (3.29)
Effect 13. Immovability (3.30)
Effect 14. Behold the Angels (3.31)
Effect 15. Powerful Intuition (3.32)
Effect 16. Other People’s Thoughts (3.33)
Effect 17. Understanding the Soul (3.34)
Effect 18. Intuitional Knowledge of All Things (3.35)
Effect 19. Transcend the Limits of Sensory Knowledge (3.36)
Effect 20. Transfer your Consciousness to another Body (3.37)
Effect 21. Levitation (3.38)
Effect 22. Radiate Light (3.39)
Effect 23. Remote Hearing (3.40)
Effect 24. Teleportation (3.41)
Effect 25. Know all things (3.42)
Effect 26. Control over the Elements (3.43)
Effect 27. Greatly change your Physical Size (3.44-45)
Effect 28. Master your Senses (3.46-47)
Effect 29. Omniscience and Omnipotence (3.48)
Effect 30. Absolute Independence (3.49)
Effect 31. Celestial Beings (3.50)
Effect 32. Perceiving Repercussions (3.51-52)
Effect 33. Intuition (3.53)
Effect 34. Emancipation (3.54)
CHAPTER 4
Emancipation – Liberation (4.1-34)
TRANSLATION
We are using the translation by BonGiovanni.
As of this writing, it is free of copyright restrictions. It is in the Public Domain.
It is available online courtesy of the Internet Sacred Text Archive.
We have added our own outline structure and our own comments.
YOGA SÛTRAS OF PATAÑJALI
RESOURCES: Rationale, Summary, Outline, Translation
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.