A detailed commentary on Sage Patanali’s Yoga Sutras establishing YOGA BEYOUD ASANAS in his scipture Ashtanga Yoga INTRODUCTION:- WHAT IS YOGA? 1.The word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root “yuj” meaning to bind, join, attach & yoke, to direct & concentrate one’s attention on, to use apply. It also means union or communion. It is the true union of our of our will with the will of God. 2.IS YOGA A MEANS OR AN END? It is both is the process of taking us back home to our un-obscured true nature. Hence it is a means. Yoga is a state of Union. Hence it is the end. 3. IT YOGA A SCIENCE? Yoga is a science. It is not a vague, dreamy drifting or imagining topic. It is an applied science, a systematized collection of laws applied to bring about a definite end. It takesw up the laws of psychology, applicale to unfolding of the whole consciousness of man on every plane, in every world, & applies those rationally in a particular case. This rational application of the laws of unfolding consciousness acts exactly on the same principles that you see applied around you every day in other departments of science. 4. Is Yoga a religion? Is Yoga Hinduism? No. Yoga has nothing to do with religion. It is a systematic method of understanding one’s true self. Yoga accepts that God as a special person can be used by the seeker in sceking liberation. yoga is not Hinduism, as it is commonly known as. 5. IT YOGA A PHILOSOPHY? NO, it is not, in the sense of being a hypothesis. Instead it embodies mostly a practical do it yourself type of insturctions. 6. Is Yogs metaphysical? No, It does not bother about distant questions about lives, heaven & hell or God or Satan. Yoga is concerned with the ‘Now’, with the current problem caused by ignorance, called mind. It gives practical ways to avoid mental modifications so that perception becomes clear, so that one obtains freedom from bonding duality. 7. What is Patajiali Yoga about? Patanjali’s Yoga is essentially related to the mind & its modifications. It deals with training of the mind to achieve oneness with the Self. Incidental to this objective are the acquisition of siddhis of power. 8. What is the aim of Patanjalai Yoga? The aim of PatanjlaiYoga is to set man from the cage of matter, thus removing his ignorance. Mind is the hishest form of matter & man frred from this dragnet of chitta or Ahamkara (mind or ego) becomes apure being. The mind or Chitta is said to operate at two levels; intellectual & emotional. The aim is liberation. 9. Is Patajali Yoga & Hatha Yoha same? Some of the eight aspects (Ashtanga) like Asana & Pranayama that Patanjali prescribes as part of the steps towards spiritual progress, constitute a important part of Patanjali Yoga Sutras. These parts are so important that a whole branch of specialized knowledge has sprung up out of these two important aspects. That is what is now referred to as Hatha Yoga 10. What do we know about Patanjali? He lived a few millenniums before Gautam Buddha, & was a great philosopher. His best known work is Yoga Sutras or Aphorisms on Yoga. The path outlined is called Raja Yoga or the sovereigan path. It is so called because of the regal, noble method by which the self is united with the over self. 11. Is patanjali the originator of Yoga? Patanjali was not the author of Yoga. He has only commpiled & reformulated what was already orally given down the generations for centuries. He was the first to reduce the teachings to writing for the use of students & rightly so he is regarded as the founder of Raja Y 12. Is Yoga sutras a sermon? No. It is no preaching either. It is just a set of principles & dictums which when practised & followed lead the aspirant to the state of Union. 13. What is “Sutra’? Sutra means thread. Sutra in this context could be interpreted as a terse link or thread of essential points. These “threads” are extremely terse, stating concisely, & often concisely & precisely, essential points of yechniques. 14. In which language were the Sutras written? The yoga Sutras of patanali were originally weitten in Sanskrit which is an Indo-European language. Sankrit is the Indo-European languages still in active use. 15. Which are the early commentaries written on Patanjali Yoga?