Amazon.in:Customer reviews: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Commentary on the Raja Yoga Sutras by Sri Swami Satchidananda

Top positive review

Great book to know and understand Patanjali yoga Sutras

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 4 September 2022

Its a great book. All the Patanjali Sutras are given in its original Sanskrit form and Swami Sachidanand has in a very simple and relatable manner explained those Sutras.
When reading the book, even though the knowledge is ancient, it feels as if someone in the present day is speaking to us in the language we would understand.

2 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Yashvi Manglik

Too easy. Remains on surface. Good for quick knowledge.

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 6 September 2017

Book is too basic and overtly simple. It's easy to understand but doesn't not go into depth. For detailed study, Edwin Byrant's and this can be read together.

5 people found this helpful

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From India

Yashvi Manglik

Too easy. Remains on surface. Good for quick knowledge.

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 6 September 2017

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Book is too basic and overtly simple. It's easy to understand but doesn't not go into depth. For detailed study, Edwin Byrant's and this can be read together.

5 people found this helpful

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Matthew Patella

The author links a lot of the single lines of the Sutras into ideas about god and Jesus.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 6 August 2020

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Book 2, # 38 -- "Brahmacarya pratistham viryalabah

This sutra is translated as 'Absolute, god move with, remain with, continence, moderation, keeping the sense strong and calm - aligned with creative energy, upon having established vigor, strength, vital power, energy, gained, obtained.'

Which for me brought to mind my boss trying to kill me with hand guns because I pointed out that he was murmuring endlessly in the office about hating women. But for Sri Swami Satchidananda it means to not have pre-marital sex or any kind of sexual relation out of wetlock.

"By observing celibacy, we preserve not just physical energy alone but mental, moral, intellectual and, ultimately, spiritual energy as well," (page 131). This pits the author into alignment with anti-abortion people like Trump, in my opinion, while also providing the intellectual cannon fodder for older males to abuse and control the sex lives of younger people, against those younger people's will.

But I think what irks me as unanswered is not whether or not creepy conservatives deal drugs at those who would disagree with the ideas of those like Satchidananda so that those who would dare to modernize look debilitated. Rather what remains unanswered is the translation of god.

The author has defined Brahman as meaning god. Isvara as god (p 37). Tad/Om as god (p 44). As a part of a larger trend that white washes minds, the author likely is defining any masculine ideas as god and I did not know that yet. Worth reading just to dig into the propaganda that destroys pre-marital sex while oppressing women.

One person found this helpful

Teacher

Difficult

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 26 June 2022

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This is a required text for my yoga teacher training. It is difficult to understand at times! Should get a supplemental text to help understand this one.

One person found this helpful

Extremely illogical, why are you quoting the bible?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 28 April 2018

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wow, great way to quote the Bible, and the Gospels but then totally take it out of context! Christianity is NOTHING like Yoga. Yoga is about rediscovering your true Self - that you are Divine. Christianity claims you are not Divine, but can be adopted into the Divine communion of God's family. LOL, yet this book quotes the Bible and the Gospels to prove that humans can become divine. um, so wrong! So, if you want an very illogical read: Yoga sutras help you meditate on finding your true self, that you are God, Yoga sutras help you to understand everything is meaningless, karma doesn't teach you a think in your next life, look out only for yourself but be sure to not be a greedy person.... but this will help you be HAPPY. As if your emotions are all that matter. wow.

3 people found this helpful

aggiereader

Didn’t enjoy reading it

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 16 August 2019

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This is the first interpretation of the yoga sutras of Patanjali that i read. It was recommended by a yoga teacher. I know the author was an eminence in spirituality, so i hope my review doesn’t offend anybody.
As i read the sutras and each interpretation i felt some of them didn’t align with the others. Some things said in one sutra would contradict another sutra, some explanations felt antiquated while others didn’t feel honest. It was as if some interpretations said just what we wanted to hear and then as i read forward in some other part of the book another interpretation contradicted the previous one, again to sound nice.

70 people found this helpful

Eric Bause

Full Translation; Incomplete Commentary

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 4 July 2019

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A full translation with Sanskrit Devanagari, but with a complete commentary only on the first two sections. The commentary on the remaining two sections skips over many of the individual sutras. In these latter two sections, the author comments only on those sutras he deems “most useful for the understanding of yoga aspirants”, which is a pity, especially in the case of the fourth section, which deals with what is translated here as “Absoluteness”. If this had a full commentary I probably would have given it five stars.

2 people found this helpful

Davina

Good Teaching, Confusing Sanskit

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 8 January 2021

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The teachings are good, but the sanskrit can make it a little confusing for me to understand and follow.
I wonder if there's any significance in me knowing Sanskit, to understand the teachings.

Marie Preau

Sutras

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 13 April 2009

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I find these Sutras to have too much interpretation, and not necessarily what was meant by Patanjali the author.
I have studied the Sutras in the past with a teacher from India and the viewpoints were quiet different from Swami Satchidananda. Although, interpretation is necessary for us Westerners or anyone new to yogic philosophy to understand these teachings but I think after a certain level of studies with other teachers, one can see right through them and understand what this practice means for him or herself in their lives.
If I had the choice I would have bought a different book on Sutras with less writing on each Sutras but this book was required by my school for yoga studies.

26 people found this helpful

Cousin of Camus

I Needed a More Direct Experience!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 13 April 2018

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This was suggested to me as a way to learn to meditate. I found it too wordy and not getting down to brass tacks. I found another way to learn.
I know Patanjali is a famous Indian guru, but he didn't speak to me.

3 people found this helpful

Sylvia K

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 24 June 2012

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This may not be the translation for me - there are many other translations. I found some of the views not to my taste, but again this may be me fighting where I am with myself, or not really understanding the text. Very interesting as I am new to the sutras, however the revelations of Lazarus, or the Bible or I-Ching, etc, etc are all very similar in their teachings and enlightments. It's what floats your boat! There is something for everyone to think about who wants to think deeply about their spirituality.

7 people found this helpful

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