How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali

Rating:
Summary: How to know yourself.
Review: Although this book is a study of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, it will appeal to devotees of any religion--Hindu, Christian, or Buddhism--or to anyone interested in living a spiritual life. It is not so much a "how-to" guide in knowing God--for "there are innumerable approaches to him" (p. 66), as an examination of knowing one's real Self.

Patanjali's Sutras are dated sometime between the fourth century B.C. and the fourth century A.D. (p. 7), and they offer methods for gaining insights through our own experience into "the Godhead, the Reality which underlies this apparent, ephemeral universe" (p. 15). He observes that in order to know God, one must first cease identifying himself with the mind (p. 213). Our liberation, he tells us, is "retarded" by our past karmas, our fears and desires, our lack of energy (p. 52), our egotism, ignorance, and blind clinging (p. 55), and by such obstacles as sickness, mental laziness, sloth, doubts and despair (p. 64). However, the good news is that no effort to know God, however small, is wasted (p. 52), for God draws us to himself (p. 54). With a little exploration, it is possible to know God everywhere, "both within and without, instantly present and infinitely elsewhere, the dweller in the atom and the abode of all things" (p. 33).

Although I am not qualified to comment on their translation of Patanjali, Christopher Isherwood and Swami Prabhavananda's Vendantist commentary offers worthwhile insights into Patanjali's Sutras.

G. Merritt

Rating:
Summary: THE WORST INTERPRETATION OF PATANJALI EVER
Review: My qualification for this review is as an initiate practising samyana for 15 years. Of the many translations of Patanjali's Sutra's this is by far the worst I have ever read. I don't know who Swami Prhabavanda is but he certainly didn't impart any knowledge of value to Isherwood. The description of 'what meditation is' is totally incorrect to the extent of being the total antitheseis of what meditation is in reality, in relation to Patanjali. You can't get your understanding of a thing more wrong than that. Isherwood feels the need on occasions to compare Patanjali with religions such as Christianity, and such comparisons are not only irrelevant but do not hold true. The basic problem seems to stem from the fact that Isherwood has at best only a tenuous grasp of what he is writing about. He understands the words, but the actual concepts behind the words, are foreign to him. There are many far superior translations of Patanjali to be had. Don't waste your money on this one.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent translation, fair commentary
Review: Swami Prabhavananda has done an excellent job of translating the sutras into understandable sentences - something that surpasses 90% of all other translators, and for this reason alone the book should be in everyone's library. The commentary however reaches neither the depth of of Satchidananda's "Sutras" nor the the burning insights of McAfee's "Beyond the Siddhis". It is obscure and sometimes confusing. All in all, however, an excellent book to add to the true seeker's bag of tricks.