The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali a New Edition, Translation and Commentary: with Insights from the Traditional Commentators by Edwin F

A READER’S REVIEW THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI A NEW EDITION, TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY: WITH INSIGHTS FROM THE TRADITIONAL COMMENTATORS BY EDWIN F. BRYANT North Point Press, 2009 REBECCA WEISMAN© he first time I met Edwin Bryant Twas at a Yoga Teacher Training in 2006. When I walked in the room he was seated cross-legged dressed in traditional swami gear, his dhoti wrapped neatly around his legs and the bag for his tulsi japa beads dangling from his wrist. When he opened his mouth to speak to us aspiring yogis on the matter of Yoga Philosophy, a difficult assignment indeed, his level of comprehension on the subject was immediately evident. His language was clear and concise with a willingness to go as deep as the student’s questions required. His dedication to the subject was obvious as his eyes, set behind wiry spectacles, would light up and become animated at the slightest question. That first weekend he lectured to us for hours, revealing a stamina and tenacity that I’ve come to understand as his de facto mode of operation. While he did not hide his personal practice as a bhakta, devoted to worshipping Krishna, he was easily able to discuss the finer subtleties of other traditions: jnana and raja yoga, Vaisista and Advaita Vedanta and all the major schools of Indian thought. It became quite clear that Bryant was equally comfortable with acting the part of scholar, speaking to Western minds with varying degrees of cognitive dissonance with the material, as he was with infusing his own practice with devotion and worship. He was equal parts academic and yogi, a balance of approaches that is difficult to maintain and even more difficult to communicate. 2 Issue 10 Volume 04 t is not my intention to pit these basic foundational text for the whole foremost klesa, or cause of suffering. Itwo approaches, or frameworks of Yoga school, one of the 6 heterodox The etymological root of the word knowledge, against each other or to set schools of Indian Philosophy. The yoga is yuj which is often translated as up a false binary that in Western culture Sutras are concise, sometimes to the “yoke” or “union”; the idea being that can sometimes prove to be divisive and point of incomprehension for a modern through Yoga the self is united with unhelpful. However, as both an aspiring mind, and contemporary readers rely the absolute, Brahman, God. Bryant yogi and a scholar I have experienced on the vast history of commentary points out in his discussion of the first the difference between learning a that accompanies the sutras in order sutra that the other meaning of this root subject from experiential practice versus to understand them. Without the is to “contemplate” and this is a more textual or didactic approaches. Indeed commentaries (most notably by Vyasa, accurate etymology in the context of the there are many ways to study. I can study Vacaspati Misra, Sankara, Bhoja Raja, Sutras because “the goal of yoga is not to yoga through the act of meditating on Vijnanabhiksu, Hariharanda, and join, but the opposite: to unjoin, that is, the actions of the body in asana (as is others) modern readers would have to disconnect purusa from prakrti” (5). taught by B.K.S. Iyengar) and I can also an impossible time understanding the It is this disconnect, this un-entangling study texts, scriptures, and information contextual and metaphysical basis of of purusa from all that it is bound up in, passed down through history as a way Yoga and the practical instructions that that is the real goal presented here by of understanding (and critiquing) the are laid out by Patanjali. Patanjali. Avidya then is not ignorance traditions in which I participate. While in this new translation Bryant of some higher reality or something Recently at a yoga event I had the also adds his own commentary I must outside of our selves but the inherent pleasure of meeting a fellow yoga underscore the extent to which he has confusion of our own self identifying scholar. It was a serendipitous meeting gone in order to avoid sectarianism. The with citta or prakrti. where I found myself enjoying deli history of commentary on scriptures While this nuance may be subtle it sandwiches and splendid conversation within any tradition is ripe with texts is a bone that Bryant continues to pick with a woman writing her dissertation spun to satisfy presuppositions about a in this work, understandably given on yoga. I had recently tried reading given practice. Here, Bryant has done the profusion of diverse terminology Elizabeth De Michelis’ A History of the work of sifting through sectarianism within modern Western yoga practices. Modern Yoga but had difficulty with to present the commentaries embedded In particular his reading sets Patanjali’s its dry, detached language. Although within their religious and historical Yoga as something quite distinct from self-admittedly a practitioner of yoga, contexts while simultaneously pointing the traditions of the Upanishads and the De Michelis seemed to resist locating to where commentators have added Vedanta school that is more concerned herself and her own experiential different flavorings and leanings. with Brahman, ultimate reality. This practice within her investigation, and Bryant’s clear intention is to “attempt to distinction is of particular importance thus seemed to miss something essential bridge…two worlds of discourse” (lvix) considering the resurgence and recent about the nature and tradition of yogic to make the Sutras accessible to modern popularity of neo-Advaita Vedanta in knowledge. My new friend, (who also yoga practitioners and non-specialized which the self is seen as part of ultimate teaches a course on yoga history and uses audiences as well as scholars of Indian reality, which in and of itself has no De Michelis’ text in the course) urged Philosophy. If I can find anything personal expression. Any language then me to try the text again, mainly because that is essentially Bryantian about this of “merging into” or “becoming one it is a solid source book and unique in commentary it is precisely this ability to with” some kind of ultimate reality its academic approach and scope. That act as a bridge and to allow knowledge to must be circumspect within the context being said, we both agreed that an exist in multiple, parallel, and sometimes of Patanjali’s Yoga. Rather, it is this goal experiential, phenomenological, and contradictory interpretations. of disconnecting and redirecting purusa integrated approach to understanding There are several illuminating aspects away from prakrti that is the real focus yoga is essential. of Bryant’s commentary that elucidate for Patanjali. Bryant is an expert in this kind of the practice of Patanjali’s yoga and This is not to say that yoga is non- interdisciplinary play and it is this are worth mentioning here. As we theistic, another point that Bryant elasticity that he brings to his current learn from the second sutra Yoga is makes clear. While modern western translation and commentary on The citta-vrtti-nirodha, the stilling of the yoga asana practices may be all but Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Sutras, for changing states of the mind. Once the stripped of talk of God or devotional those who have not had the pleasure mind is still, purusa, the ultimate self worship, Patanjali makes it quite clear of studying them, are an ancient or soul can be reflected back to itself in II.45. Here he lists isvara pranidhana, collection of 195 statements on the rather than be bound up with prakrti, devotion to God, as the final niyama or practice of eight-limbed (astanga) yoga the material world and all that is in it ethical guideline necessary for practicing compiled by Patanjali, a sage, yogi, and including the citta itself. The ignorance yoga and for attaining samadhi. Bryant grammarian, dated sometime around that keeps the self identifying with citta points out in his discussion of this the second century B.C. They form the and with prakrti is avidya, the first and sutra and throughout his commentary October 2009 3 that although the text does not dwell entirely intentional and necessary. The the practice of meditation, an alambana extensively on this aspect of Yoga it commentators have interpreted the or support for the mind to enter into is not due to its unimportance but Sutras almost quantitatively proportional samadhi? Within the tradition of yoga rather to the very focused intention of to their importance within Patanjali’s developed by B.K.S. Iyengar the body is Patanjali’s project. Within the religious- mapping ; in other words, more certainly seen as an object for meditation, philosophical milieu of the time bhakti important sutras get more air time. So, and the practitioner learns to become practices abounded and those looking what could be construed as repetition in more and more refined in sensing the for further guidance in this area would Bryant’s writing is in fact a continuation discreet actions and movements within have certainly found it elsewhere. So, of this tradition. He thus makes quite the body down to the cellular level. This while it is understandable that a modern clear and unavoidable the foundational kind of observation or meditation, it reader might disregard isvara pranidhana aspects of his treatment, and in the end could be said, is eventually applied to as being less vital to the practice, the the reader will appreciate this clarity. I the fluctuations of the citta itself and context and commentary make it clear would also suggest to readers to read the creates mastery over the constraints of that it is indeed integral.

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