The Yoga-System of Patanjali

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About the Book

Three works in one pair of covers. The Sutras are a set of mental page on which to hang the principles and precepts of a system which you must learn from a living teacher of your 'school'. The Bhasya of Vyasa is a reinvestiture of the skeleton of the Sutras with the flesh and blood of comprehensible details. And the the Tika of Vacaspati is of course a commentary on the Bhasya. The Bhasya is the oldest written systematic exposition of Yoga-doctrine in Sanskrit that we possess. 

Of the Hindu philosophies, by far the most important are the ancient dualism called Sankhya, the monism of the Vedanta and the Yoga-system. Kautilya, Prime Minister of Candragupta (300 B.C.), mentions Sankhya and Yoga as current in his day. But the elements of Yoga, rigorous austerities and control of the senses, are indefinitely antique, and are one of the oldest and most striking products of the Hindu mind and character.

When one considers the floods of pseudoscientific writing with which the propagandists of Indian "isms" have deluged people, one is better prepared to appreciate the self-restraint of Dr. Woods in keeping all that pertains to miracle mongering and sensationalism in the background, and in devoting himself to the exposition of the spiritual and intellectual aspects of Yoga. His work continues the tradition of austere scholarship which has from the beginning characterised the Harvard Oriental Series.

Contents:

Preface
1. Reasons for taking up the work
2. Difficulties of comprehending the work
3. Difficulties of style
4. Translation of technical terms
5. Punctuation
6. Texts and manuscripts
7. Acknowledgements

Introduction
1. Authorship of the Yoga-sutras : The two Patanjali
2. Tradition of their identity not earlier than tenth century
3. Comparison of philosophical concept does not confirm the tradition
4. Date of the Sutras (between A.D. 300 and 500)
5. Date of the Bhasya (between A.D. 650 and 850)
6. Date of Vacaspatimicra's Tattva-vaicaradi (about A.D. 800 to 850)

Analytical Summary of the Yoga-sutras
1. Book 1, Conception (samadhi)
2. Book 2, Means of attainment (sadhana)
3. Book 3, Supernormal powers (vibhuti)
4. Book 4, Isolation (kaivalya)

The Yoga-sutras translated without the Comment or the Explanation
Being the Sutras translated in groups, with group-headings by translator

Translation of Patanjali's Yoga-sutras or Mnemonic Rules
Together with the Comment or Yoga-bhasya, attributed to Veda-vyasa
And Vacaspatimicra's Explanation or Tattva-vaicaradi 
1. Book 1, Conception (samadhi)
2. Book 2, Means of attainment (sadhana")
3. Book 3, Supernormal powers (vibhuti)
4. Book 4, Isolation (kaivalya)

Appendix
1. Bibliography of works referred to in this volume
2. Index of quotations in the Comment, in the order of citation
3. Index of the same grouped according to their sources
4. Index of quotations in the Tattva-vaicaradi, in the order of citation
5. Index of the same grouped according to their sources
6. Quotations not yet traced to their sources
7. Index of words in the Yoga-sutra.

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