The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
trans. Charles Johnston · 1912
4.9 · 7 ratings
About the book
The four short books that define yoga as the stilling of the mind's turnings — everything else is commentary. Johnston translates each aphorism and then explains it like a letter to a student, which is what saves the sutras from their own compression.
Try the short course
Part 1 · Yoga means steadying the restless mind. The first six slides, free.
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Patanjali puts the whole of yoga into his second sentence. In Johnston's translation: "Union, spiritual consciousness, is gained through control of the versatile psychic nature."
That is the programme, start to finish. Not a list of postures, not a creed to sign. There is a goal, union, and there is one thing standing in the way: the part of you that will not hold still.
Johnston is blunt about it. Nothing but the "obdurate resistance" of that nature keeps us from the goal. Not bad luck, not a lack of talent, not the wrong teacher. Everything that follows across the four books, the ethics, the breath, the meditation, is a way of working on that one resistance.
Inside the course
12 parts- «Yoga is the control of the versatile psychic nature»Free above
- The mind's turnings, and what stills them
- Practice and dispassion: the two levers
- Obstacles on the way, and their symptoms
Questions
Is The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali free to read in Astra Trainer?
Yes. The full book opens free in the app’s reader, in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian.
What is the short course?
12 short parts that walk through the book’s key ideas in slides, each with a quick quiz. The first six slides are free to try on this page.
Where do I get the app?
Astra Trainer is free on the App Store and Google Play. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is waiting in the app’s library.
