The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are the major text of Raja yoga. Patanjali was a sage who codified yoga into 196 sutras or short sentences in 4 padas or chapters. Oral teaching by sages guided students in their understanding.

Swami Veda has written two extensive commentaries on chapters 1 and 2

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Swami Veda Bharati. This second volume is a masterpiece in scope and depth, original, broad, bold, and awe-inspiring commentary which exceeds forerunning contributions to the subject.The authors singular sensitivity to and wonderful comprehension of yogic concepts are rooted in his extensive traditional training as a Sanskrit scholar and his personal yogic practice.He began expounding these teachings since the tender age of nine. This painstaking effort to reveal these teachings has been a labor of love for the ultimate enlightenment and welfare of all beings.

Yoga-Sutras Of Patanjali by Pandit Usharbudh Arya, D.Litt. (Swami Veda Bharati) Yoga is a most ancient science, which has been taught for thousands of years. Patanjali systematized and organized it by formulating 196 aphorisms, which are called the Yoga-sutras. In ancient times the students learned these sayings of the great teachers by heart; easily memorizing the truths due to their succinctness.

How to Know God is a small book by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood. It contains a relatively easy to understand commentary.  Click here for a list of the sutras.

Reviews of books by Swami Veda Bharati.

YOGA-SUTRAS OF PATANJALI, VOL.I AND VOL.II

Yoga is a most ancient science, which has been taught for thousands of years. Patanjali systematized and organized it by formulating 196 aphorisms, which are called the Yoga-sutras. In ancient times the students learned these sayings of the great teachers by heart; easily memorizing the truths due to their succinctness.

Designed expressly for the serious practitioner of yoga, these outstanding works of scholarship are meant to be eminently practical, even to those students who have no previous familiarity with the Yoga-sutras. The first volume, Samadhi-pada, is 500 pages in length and contains an extremely valuable and highly readable general introduction that includes an overview of Sankhya-yoga.

“Apart from the much older Bhagavad-gita, the Yoga-sutras is the most frequently translated work on yoga. However, the more popular renditions often fail to appreciate the enormous sophistication and complexity of the yogic heritage and the highly technical nature of Patanjali’s Yoga-sutra and its commentaries. This is due to authors merely trying to explain and understand theoretical concepts without having a solid foundation of personal and practical experience.  The second chapter of the Yoga-sutras, Sadhana-pada, demonstrates very clearly that in yoga, theory and practice form a homogenous whole. Swami Veda Bharati’s learned commentary provides a singular sensitivity to and wonderful comprehension of yogic concepts, which are rooted in his extensive traditional training as a Sanskrit scholar and also his personal yogic practice.”

– paraphrase of Dr.Georg Feurstein’s foreward to the book.

“No other commentary explains the Yoga-sutras in such a clear and brilliant manner.”

– Swami Rama

Please note: This highly academic book of 860 pages and 7 appendices, each of which can be expanded into a doctoral thesis, will be helpful to many teachers, researchers and scholars alike. The bibliography itself contains over 500 cited texts, including previously unpublished Sanskrit manuscripts.

Contact: Lynn Fraser   [email protected]