The Taproot of Yoga

The Sanskrit for Patanjali's Yoga Sutras has existed unchanged for more than 2000 years. No authentic, accurate, and reliable translation of it exists. This original Yoga Sutras book now provides that truly authentic translation, documenting the meanings of the 196 individual sutras as they were at about 250 BCE.

Revealing the foundation of all yoga, it is a unique and valuable world book. Purported translations and interpretations available today are robustly entangled with and distorted by personal beliefs, and by the continually evolving accumulated beliefs of religions and yoga cultures. Over 2000 years, adaptation, alteration, and reinvention have aggregated to form the 'Modern Yoga' existent today and reflected in those books. This book is a different work with different goals, filling an unoccupied niche by recovering a lost treasure.

As part of his research, the author appraised seventeen 'Modern Yoga Sutras' books, finding patterns of translation difficulties. The problems were inevitable; the authors were each deeply involved with their varied 'Modern Yoga' cultures; they had no choice but to interpret the sutras within that view and representation of yoga. Having taught Modern Yoga for forty-five years, this author experienced the unyielding peer and institutional pressure to support and convey only the current forms but disconnected from it for researching and writing.

This original translation is hugely different from the Modern Yoga Sutras versions. The author is alone in knowing the difference and absorbing the fullness, wisdom, and beauty; he wants to share this key element of spiritual history.

Volume 1 of the book has three chapters. Chapter One provides perspective for understanding the other chapters. It discusses key parts of yoga, its history, the history of the underlying Samkhya philosophy, the eight limbs, karma, and what root yoga is and is not. Portions on enlightenment, the spiritual and physical aspects of living beings, life paths, and the search for Truth are part of the perspective. Chapter Two contains the 196 pure and concise sutras, with boxed captions that bring out the flow. Chapter Three discusses the meaning of each sutra.

Volume 2 is the intellectually and ethically obligated documentation of how each sutra was translated. It openly shows the translation of every word and sutra. Without naming authors, it analyses the differences in the books of the authors of Modern Yoga versions. Where possible, it shows how the authors arrived at their interpretations. As two examples of difference, the available versions frequently focus on the Hindu concepts of a male god and on eight mystic powers, neither of which is in the original Yoga Sutras.