The Yoga-System of Patanjali (With Commentary 'Yoga Bhasya' of Veda Vyasa and 'Tattva Vaisaradi' of Vacaspatimisra)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Patanjali is the author of the book/ Patanjali’s sutras were written at some time in the fourth or fifth century of our era. The book ‘Yoga-System of Patanjali’ deals with Sanskrit Text with English Translation and Embracing the Mnemonic rules, called ‘Yoga-system of Patanjali’ and the comment, called ‘Yoga Bhasya’ attribute to veda Vyasa and ht explanation, called ‘Tattva-Vaisaradi of Vacaspati-Mishara.

This book also deals with these topics like: Analytical summary of the yoga-sutras, The yoga-sutras translated without the comment of the explanation, Translation of Patanjali’s yoga-sutras or mnemoic rules together with the Comment or Yoga-bhasya, attributed to Veda vyasa And Vacaspatimisra’s Explanation or Tattva-vaisaradi-Book 1, Concentration (Samadhi), 2. Book 2, Means of attaminment (sadhana) Book 3, Supernormal powers (vibhuti) Book 4, Isolation (kaivalya).

1. Reasons for taking up the work
It is not without misgiving that one ventures to render into English the texts of an intricate system which have never, with the exception of the sutras, been translated in Europe or America. But the historical importance of those texts, as forming a bridge between the philosophy of ancient India and the fully developed Indian Buddhism and the thought or today in Eastern Asia, emboldens one to the attempt. For this system, together with the Nyaya and Vaisesika systems, when grafted upon the simple practical exhortations of primitive Buddhism, serves as an introduction to the logical and meta -physical masterpieces of the Mahayana.

2. Difficulties of comprehending the work
Even after a dozen reading the import of some paragraphs is not quite clear, such for example as the first half of the Bhasya on iii. 14. Still more intractable are the single technical terms, even f the general significance of the word, superficially analysed, is clear. This irreducible residuum is unavoidable so long as one cannot feel at home in that type of emotional thinking which culminates in a super sensuous object of aesthetic contemplation.

3. Difficulties of style
The Bhasya and, still more, the Tattva-vaisardi are master pieces of the philosophical style. They are far from being a loosely collected body of glosses. Their excessively abbreviated and disconnected order of words is intentional. The MImamsa discussed first the meaning of words (padartha); then in a distinct section ht meaning of the sentences (vakyartha); and finally and most fully the implication (bhavartha) of the sentences as a whole. Wherever the sentence-form is lacking, I have introduced in brackets the words needed to make a declarative cause. Much more obscurity remains in the bhavartha section of the Bhasya. For here many extraneous technical terms are surreptitiously introduced under the guise of exegesis. This polemic with an opponent whose name is suppressed creeps into the argument. The allusions are suggestive, but obviously elusive. The passage at iii. 14 might be quite simple if we had before us the text which it criticizes.

4.Translation of technical terms
A system whose subtleties are not those of Western philosophers suffers disastrously when its characteristic concepts are compelled to masquerade under assumed names, fir enough for our linguistic habits, but threadbare even for us by reason of frequent transpositions. Each time that Purusa is rendered by the word “soul”, every psychologist an metaphysician is betrayed. NO equivalent is found in our vocabulary. The rendering “self” is less likely to cause misunderstanding. Similarly, and in accordance with the painstaking distinctions made at the end of ii. 5, it is most important to remember that the trma-vidya, although negative inform, stands for an idea which is not negative, but positive. Bearing in mind the express instructions of the text, I have adopted “undifferentiated consciousness” as the translation of avidya. Another word, which Professor Garbe discussed more than twenty years ago (in is translation of the Samkhya- pravacana-bhasya, S. 70, Anm. 1), is guna. I prefer to translate this term by “aspect” rather than by “constituent”, because, in addition to the meanings “quality” and “substance”, as correlated to pradhana. Three other words sattva and rajas and tamas seem untranslatable, unless one is content with half-meaningless etymological parallels. I another case I have weakly consented to use “Elevation” as equivalent to prasamkhyan; the original word denotes the culmination of a series of concentrations; the result is the merging of the Self in the object of contemplation.

5.Punctuation.
1. Quotations from the Sutras are enclosed in single angular quotation-marks (< >).

2. Quotations from the Bhasya are enclosed in double angular quotation-marks (< < > >).

3. Quotations from authoritative texts are enclosed in ordinary double quotation-marks ("").

4. Objections and questions by opponents, and quotations from unauthoritative texts, are enclosed in ordinary single quotation-marks ('').

Hyphens have been used to indicate the resolution of compound words. A half-parenthesis on its side is used to show that two vowels are printed in violation of the rules of euphonic combination (Lanman's Sanskrit Reader, p. 289).

6.Texts and Manuscripts
The text of the sutras of the Yoga system, like that of the sutras of all the other five systems, except perhaps the Vaisesika, is well preserved; and there is an abundance of excellent printed editions. The most accessible and the most carefully elaborated of these books is the one published in the Anandasrama Series and edited by Kasinatha Shastri Agase. Variants from twelve manuscripts, mostly southern, are printed at the foot of each page; and Bhojadeva's Vrtti is appended; also the text of the sutras by itself and an index thereto. Another edition, in the Bombay Sanskrit Series, by Rajaram Shastri Bodas, is also an excellent piece of work. I have, however, made use of the edition by Svami Balarama (Calcutta, Samvat 1947, A.D. 1890; reprinted1 in Benares A.P. 1908) because it is based on northern manuscripts and because of the valuable notes in the editor's tippana. Of manuscripts, I have collated, with the kind permission of the Maharaja, during a charming week's visit at Jammu just below the glistening snows above the Pir Panjal, two of the oldest manuscripts in the library of the Raghunath Temple. In Stein's Catalogue these are numbered 4375 and 4388 and the former is dated Sam vat 1666. Two other manuscripts were lent me, one by the courtesy of the most learned Gahgadhara Sastri, the other the very carefully written Bikaner manuscript, sent to me by the generosity of the Bikaner government, which proved to be extremely valuable for disputed readings in the Tattva-vaisaradl. This latter manuscript seemed to be about a hundred and fifty years old and is described in Rajendralala Mitra's Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Library of His Highness the Maharaja of Bikaner (Calcutta, 1880) under the number 569. An old Sarada manuscript, which, by the kind mediation of Mukundaram Sastri of Srinagar, was put into my hands, proved, upon critical examination, to have been so badly corrupted as, on the whole, not to be worth recording.