Customer Reviews

Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali: Containing His Yoga Aphorisms with Vyasa's Commentary in Sanskrit and a Translation with Annotations Including Many Suggestions for the Practice of Yoga

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Though not for beginners, this version of Patanjali's yoga sutras is the best for serious students of yoga. Hariharananda Aranya dedicated his life to the practical understanding of the Sutras. His commentary is based on his own direct experiences. This is not a scholarly work, based on others' opinions. Instead, it is an in depth study of the most profound work of yoga through personal effort. The study of this book will benefit anyone committed to understanding the subtlest states of the mind.

For both theoretical and practical study of Yoga Sutras and Samkhya philosophy this is the book to buy, read and keep reading. I don't know of any book on Patanjali's Yoga and Samkhya that comes even near the quality of Hariharananda's book!
It has the original texts of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and Vyasa's commentary in both Sanskrit and English and Swami Hariharananda's own Commentary translated into English from the original Bengali in which he wrote.
Although the introduction says that some of the esoteric exercises are not included in the English translation it does go deep into both practice and theory.
The book can be recommended to both beginners and other students alike as the translation of the Sutras to English is so clearly done that it makes some of the difficult text easier to understand.

If you are really interested in Yoga-as a practitioner and not merely out of intellectual curiosity-this is one of the best books you will ever own. It is a thorough commentary on the Yoga Sutras from the viewpoint of a true Master practitioner, containing countless jewels of profound insight into Yoga practice. It gives hints, and even many outright disclosures, of the real techniques of Yoga. I have read a number of translations of the Yoga Sutras, and this is not merely the best, it is in my opinion the only real one.

If my house were on fire, and I had just a moment to grab a few things on my way out, this book would be one of them. Buy it and put it on the top shelf of your bookcase, where it belongs.

If you are looking at the Yoga Sutras this is the book you want read. His use of English is excellent and takes you to the top without ever losing his train of thought. Well organized, indexed, and thought out. Clearer than I.K. Taimni, goes well with Bouanchaud and Jaideva Singh's books.

Having read the works of Georg Feuerstein and Swami Satchidananda, this is my third foray into the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and I would have to rate this as the best of the lot. This is not to denegrate the fine works of Feuerstein and Satchidananda; I simply prefer the work by Swami Hariharananda and I highly recommend it. For someone new to the subject, Hariharananda is quite informative, with lots of background information.

If you are really interested in Yoga-as a practitioner and not merely out of intellectual curiosity-this is one of the best books you will ever own. It is a thorough commentary on the Yoga Sutras from the viewpoint of a true Master practitioner, containing countless jewels of profound insight into Yoga practice. It gives hints, and even many outright disclosures, of the real techniques of Yoga. I have read a number of translations of the Yoga Sutras, and this is not merely the best, it is in my opinion the only real one.

If my house were on fire, and I had just a moment to grab a few things on my way out, this book would be one of them. Buy it and put it on the top shelf of your bookcase, where it belongs.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are universally acknowledged as the fundamental text on yoga and meditation in the Indian classical tradition.

This English translation of 'Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali' is widely regarded as the most authoritative and authentic that has been available in recent times. It is a serious and clear presentation of Ptanjali's sutras and Vyasa's Bhasya, providing these basic texts both in the original Sanskrit and in readable and accurate English.

These classical works are augmented by the commentary of Swami Hariharananda Aranya, a scholar and yogi of great repute, who, in his lifetime, was the foremost exponent in India of the Samkhya Yoga system of which the Yoga Aphorisms of Pantanjali are the principle work.

Okay, there are alot of translations of this out there. Sanskrta is a precise language. This is one of the best that i have read. Best is to learn sanskrt yourself, less expensive and time consuming is to read this book. :)

Had to give this only 3 stars although it may deserve 5 I don't know, I couldn't get through it.

Only for the hard core. This is not the easiest to understand of the translations out there