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The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali: A New Translation with Commentary (Shambhala Classics)

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If you're a serious yoga student and meditator, you've probably been told by more than one teacher to study Patanjali's yoga sutras. Written around the 2nd or 3rd century AD (not BC as some used to think), they lay the philosophical and practical foundation for all of yoga, including the physical yoga that we all do now. If you're like me, you've dutifully plowed through one version after another, struggling with the often complex ideas and looking for something in them that actually made sense in terms of your life and practice. But until you've read this one, you haven't read the yoga sutras!

What's different about Hartranft's translation and commentary is that, unlike the versions by Iyengar, Satchidananda, and most others, he doesn't confuse the meditative yoga of Patanjali with the much later gymnastic stuff. It's not that he isn't interested in it - Hartranft himself is apparently a well-known teacher of hatha yoga as well as meditation, and considers them to be complementary - but it is clear he agrees with Patanjali that the primary purpose of yoga is enlightenment. Because the yoga sutras are couched in the often illogical samkhya philosophy, their striking similarity to the Buddha's teaching hasn't been noticed or explained very well by other authors until now. And unlike some of the scholars who have taken a crack at it - Miller, for example - Hartranft's breathtaking insights into the sutras seem to come from profound personal experience, which is the whole point of the teachings. As difficult as they can sometimes be, he manages to render them elegantly, proving that you can plumb their depths without having to wade through the tortured syntax of a literalist like Feuerstein. In short, Hartranft is that rarity, a true yogi who can truly write.

Like Hartranft, I've never read a version of Patanjali that didn't teach me something, and I think it's best to have several different translations for the sake of comparison. But just make sure you have Hartranft's - it's the one you'll keep coming back to. And if you only get one, this is the one!

I have been studying Hatha Yoga with an Iyengar teacher for a couple of years. Curious about yoga's philosophical underpinnings, I took Hartranft's book out of the library.

I have read the disputes about the authenticity of Hartranft's translation in other reviews on Amazon. I can't split hairs over fine points of translations from Sanskrit, or Hindu philosophy, but as a translator in other languages, I can say without reservation that Hartranft's translation is lucid and beautifully crafted. Also, I find Hartranft's commentaries accessible, palatable, informative, and refreshingly dispassionate. Hartranft frankly, openly, fairly and succinctly addresses the relationship of the Yoga-Sutra to the teachings of other Hindu philosophical systems and of Buddhism, and to modern scientific and historical findings.

I suspect that the breadth of Hartranft's perspective is, in part, what some readers find objectionable. Or maybe it's that he avoids loading down the discussion with references to polytheistic Hinduism. But after all, the Yoga-Sutra is not about that, any more than the writings of Aristotle are about Greek gods.

If you are looking to cloak yourself in devotional yoga culture, look elsewhere. But for a clear and concise introduction to the Yoga-Sutra, or to guide your way in a yoga practice, I highly recommend this book.

"Focusing with perfect discipline on the heart," Patanjali observes in one of the 196 sutras collected here, "one understands the nature of consciousness" (pp. 53; 197). Written in Sanskrit nearly two thousand years ago, THE YOGA SUTRA OF PATANJALI addresses the central concerns of our existence: how we know what we know, why we suffer, and how we can experience happier, more meaningful lives through spiritual practice (pp. ix; 75). Based on his own experience integrating yoga with Buddhist practice, and through his fresh translation and insights into Patanjali's notoriously esoteric text, Chip Hartranft succeeds in showing us how these ancient sutras are relevant to modern spiritual practice. Of the translations of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras I've read, including translations by Iyengar (1993), Prasada (1988), and Swami Prabhavananda's HOW TO KNOW GOD (136)--all of which are excellent, because of its commentary, Hartranft's translation was the most rewarding.

G. Merritt

If you want to learn about Buddhism and in particular vipassana meditation there are plenty of books out there that are great. But the Yoga Sutras are about Yoga and though there are some strong overlaps, in the final analysis the Yogic philosophy is about union with God whereas Buddhist is not. This commentator intentionally ignores this "elephant in the room" so he can promote Buddhism using a Yogic text. He explains the difference away with a wave of his hand by saying the Patanjali's Ishvara (the ultimate godhead) is impersonal. My reaction is that this is gross over simplification and even if it were so, Buddhism strictly denies any godhead, personal or impersonal. Since the point of the Yoga Sutras is to teach union with the transcendent godhead through stilling the mind and the purpose of Buddhist meditation is to achieve total equanimity through stilling the mind, the 2 overlap but are not the same thing. The fact that the commentator (Chip Hartranft), with every good intention, glosses over this makes this particular version more about Chip Hartranft's ideas than Patanjali's. You encounter this a lot in translations of Yogic texts, the most egregious example being "The Bhagavad Gita As it Is" which is nothing more than a distorted tract to indoctrinate the reader into the Hare Krishna movement and has little to do with accuracy. Having spent years as a vispassana meditator and now as a yogi, I can affirm that there are definite overlaps but one strong difference. The Yogi seeks God within himself, the Buddhist has nothing to do with such a quest. If you want a book on vipassana (Buddhist) meditation, try S.N. Goenka's book on Vipassana or perhaps one of the books by Joseph Goldstein. If you want an accurate commentary of the Yoga Sutra's, try Satchidananda's or Iyengar's. This book, though beautiful in it's explaination of Buddhism, is simply misleading because it does not address yoga accurately.

If I may clear up any confusion...translations of ancient Indian languages (Sanskrit and Pali) are works in progress. It's my understanding that there is no direct translation of Sanskrit or Pali. I have seen citta translated as mind, consciousness, of the heart, and as thought. It largely depends on the context of the entire passage and whether or not there is consistency throughout the text. This is why it is important to have a translator who possesses transcendental knowledge into what he or she is translating.

Here, the translator uses consciousness for citta which is the mind in general. One could use mind if one feels more comfortable...consciousness and mind are synonyms.

The basic premise of this translation is wrong!! The author takes citta to mean consciousness, when it really refers to the mind. Cit is consciousness. Cit and citta are not interchangeable words, though they sound so similar! Unless the distinction between mind and consciousness is properly understood, there is no point in reading the yoga sutras, or pursuing any yogic meditation.

Having made this colossal mistake with this most important term in the very first sutra, the author then has to invent artificial divides between awareness and consciousness to translate the rest of the sutras. The results are disastrous. Beginners should stay away from such an awfully confused translation, which can only make a difficult topic even harder to understand. The best translation and explanations of the sutras are by I.K. Taimni in his book The Science of Yoga. Here a real master explains the terms very carefully, with a wealth of analogies and illustrations, as opposed to the terse, and wrong, explanations in this book.

It amazes me that the book has garnered high reviews as a "brilliant translation" despite this fundamental and inexcusable error. Obviously the reviewers are as clueless about the nuances of the Sanskrit language as the translator. One expects better quality and more reliable books from a niche publisher such as Shambhala.

Before Buddhism and before formal Hatha Yoga, Patanjali, presents this guide of consciousness. Perhaps it is based on early Vedic texts, but it is based on his direct experience also. 1800 years later Hartranft, presents this new translation that somehow breathes new life into the 196 aphorisms.

His translation seeks to find a fluid way of expressing a line in English. In his commentary he explains some of the Sanskrit terms. He avoids going too deep into later Hatha Yoga, and avoids the highly philosophical discussion. Patanjali's aphorisms are about the "practice"; "Yogic activity has three components; discipline, self-study, and orientation toward the ideal of pure awareness".

If you read the yoga sutras, you're better off no matter what translation or additional commentary you get. That said, I didn't feel like the translation and commentary were helpful for me...I would recommend Swami Satchidananda's translation over this one. Happy reading!

I Found Hartraneft's book on "The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali" to have a firm and insightful presentation of the sutra in a coherent way that elucidated the distinctions between Patanjali and his context in Hindu religion and Buddhism. But the reviews indicating that he did not distinguish the two Sanskrit terms "Cit and Citta" - and further forwarded a Buddhist agenda concerned me in that I know no Sanskrit and am a Buddhist, and thus any "spin toward Buddhism" might be invisible to me.

I supply the 2 definitions I found and hope further posts might clarify the distinction be tween "pure" yoga and how much it is truly embedded in Hindu religion by Patanjali himself.

From: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions Author: JOHN BOWKER, originally published by Oxford University Press 1997.

Cit (Skt., `See'). In Hindu thought, pure consciousness as the essential and irreducible quality of the eternal self or Brahman. In Ved'nta, cit is often grouped together with being (sat) and bliss ('nanda) as a description of Brahman.

Citta (Skt., `that which has been seen', i.e. belonging to consciousness, cf. CIT).

In Hinduism, the reflective and thus conscious mind;

in Buddhism, an equivalent to manas (reflective mind) and vijñ'na (continuing consciousness).

It belongs to all beings above the level of plant life. The nature of citta received particular analysis and emphasis in Vijñanav'da (also known as Yogac'ra)--so much so that the school is also known as Cittam'tra, Mind only.
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FROM: [...]

a theists view:

Citta and Cit

The liberation in life according to Samkhya is possible by the realization of separation between purusa (soul) and prakrti (body) and Yoga achieves it by uniting the self to a higher reality (e.g. God) and away from the body. Yoga is thus considered as practical aspect of the theoretical Samkhya philosophy.

Moreover, even though it is logical to study intellect (buddhi), mind (manas) and ego (ahamkar) as separate entities in Samkhya, in terms of their practical applicability (as in Yoga) it may be useful to treat them as one (citta or chitta). For example, in day to day activities of a jiwa (living being), all of them (intellect, ego and mind) are activated at the same time and it's hard to be precise about their individual participation (influences and effects). Thus citta seems a more logical choice for the combination of intellect, mind and ego according to Yoga philosophy (literature).

I found this guide to the Yoga Sutra to be highly coherent, logical and easy to follow. The author's commentary "rings true" with my own experience as a meditator, and it is in practice that the worth of the translation is to be found. A particularly interesting implication of the translator is that the awakened state frees the meditator to leave behind the emotional baggage that obstructs a rational, clear view of life and the universe; to me, this is the Universe waking up to itself, a way for existence to know itself, a path for dropping the masks we wear through the sheer inertia of habitual living. This is the beginning of a logical, rational life, and meditation is the path that opens the way to the ideals that such thinkers as Zeno the Stoic conceived. This book is an invaluable resoure for anyone who seriously wishes to explore the fully-awakened life. If the student of meditation wishes to discover the basis of logical, compassionate living, this book is a useful guide.