Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - BKS Iyengar
Discipline of Yoga finds it’s roots in India around 6000 years back almost at the advent of Harappan civilization. The philosophy slowly evolved over many years and was later formally scripted by a guy called Patanjali (~2200 years back). As expected, some mythology is associated with the individual and his origins. His work “Patanjali Sutra” is a consolidation of 196 short Sanskrit verses. His “Sutras” along with many other scriptures of pre/ post times have become the source of many iterations of modern Yoga practices and philosophy around the world. His scriptures are also interpreted by many famous individuals (in this case B.K.S. Iyengar) who have devoted their life towards Yoga discipline and did their best to propagate the philosophy forward. I personally found a lot of similarities in the principles and concepts of Yoga philosophy with Jainism (or Buddhism). Since Jainism/ Buddhism evolved in India way before, I now wonder what came first (the sutras or these faiths). Or maybe the vibe in the air in those times was such that these themes fed into each other’s philosophies and helped shape human civilization.
Yoga is a journey. An individual’s journey that starts from zero, marches into infinity. The concept is deeply connected with spirituality and feeds to man’s (or woman’s) desire to find the ultimate meaning of his/ her life . “Patanjali Sutras” gives insights into a long theoretical/ practical path traversed in 8 phases of Yoga, famously known as “Ashtanga Yoga”. Path is typically spread over many lives (if you believe in reincarnation) and deeply correlated with your actions and thoughts. The idea is to move away from the concept of “We” (nature, universe) and “I” (self, soul) to a state of “Nirvana” where “We” and “I” converge to a point of non duality. This whole life journey then just becomes an interplay of dual and non-dual states and an individual’s quest to get out of this play of duality.
Today when I look around there are all kinds of names given to different types of physical yoga practices (called “Asanas” in Sanskrit) around the world - Iyengar, Ashtanga, Yin Yang, Hatha, Vinyasa, Power, Bikram, Heated et al. I have always struggled to understand the core differences in each of these styles and what suits me the best. Most are centered around the similar themes of physical “Yoga Asanas” and use a different name probably as a by-product of the egos of the individuals who became sort of famous. Most of them (not all) cover only the physical aspect of this philosophy and at the very best play the role of helping individuals lead a healthy life (something very important too). The discipline of this “8 steps of Yoga” generates a lot of spiritual energy and power incrementally at each of its steps. If not handled carefully, the spiritual energy can be very destructive as we are all humans and work from the premise of feeding our egos. So a deeper awareness while practicing Yoga philosophy becomes even more important.
