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українська федерація йоги

Hatha Yoga and Patanjali

This unscheduled article has been induced by my short post on Facebook. A couple of days ago my sight was caught by an ad of

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The Legend of Lost Sutra

In the course of gearing up for my big lecture on Yoga Sutra I had come across a dramatic story that even Wikipedia mentions in

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Yoga and Gnosis

The succeeding lines of Yoga Sutras (namely, all remaining lines of the section) are dedicated to cognition. So I shall lay down a few considerations

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Why Read Ancient Texts?

They have once again asked me: why in general read ancient texts, the more so commentaries on them? Why a person like me, a modern

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Chitta-vikshepa and energetic ties

There is a direct link between the theme of Chitta-vikshepa and another fundamental subject that Yoga and other esoteric systems have in their arsenal, namely

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«Obstacles to Yoga» and Defence Mechanisms of Psyche

The next two sutras of Patanjali, the lines 1.29 и 1.30, are dedicated to the so-called barriers in yoga: ततः प्रत्यक्चेतनाधिगमोऽप्यन्तरायाभावश्च ॥ २९॥1.29. tataḥ pratyakcetanādhigamo’pyantarāyābhāvaśca  व्याधिस्त्यानसंशयप्रमादालस्याविरति-भ्रान्तिदर्शनालब्धभूमिकत्वानवस्थितत्वानि

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Sanskrit and Mantra-Yoga

The following two lines of Yoga Sutras are dedicated to mantras and power of the sound. तस्य वाचकः प्रणवः  ॥२७॥ 1.27. tasya vachakah pranavah तज्जपस्तदर्थभावनम् 

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Ishvara and the World Tree. The Metaphysics of Plato

The line 25 of Yoga Sutras compares Ishvara with a seed that contains omniscience (sarva-jnana-bidja): तत्र निरतिशयं सार्वज्ञबीजम् ॥ २५॥25. tatra niratiśayaṃ sārva-jña-bījam  25. In

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Ishvarapranidhana

In the last dozen of my blog posts I have somewhat deviated from the linear and sequential expansion of the Sutra commentary. Many issues required

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Sutra 1.20. Prerequisites to Cognition

So, developing his idea, in the line 1.20:   श्रद्धावीर्यस्मृतिसमाधिप्रज्ञापूर्वक इतरेषाम् ॥२०॥ 1.20. śraddhā-vīrya-smṛti-samādhi-prajñāpūrvaka itareṣām  Patanjali tells that for others (itareṣām), i.e. different from those

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Sutras 1.17 – 1.18. The Legend of Asamprajna Samadhi (continuation)

Let us proceed with analysis of the line 1.18. विरामप्रत्ययाभ्यासपूर्वः संस्कारशेषोऽन्यः ॥ १८॥ 1.18 virāma-pratyayābhyāsa-pūrvaḥ saṃskāra-śeṣo’nyaḥ I shall draw several classical variants of its translation

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Sutras 1.17 – 1.18. Samprajna. The Legend of Asamprajna Samadhi

Let us come back to the text of Yoga Sutras. The sloka 1.17 introduces the category of Samprajna(ta). वितर्कविचारानन्दास्मितारूपानुगमात् सम्प्रज्ञातः ॥ १७॥ 1.17 vitarka-vicāra-ananda-asmita-rūpa-anugamāt samprajñātaḥ

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Vrittis: Nidra and Smriti

Let us proceed to discussing the two latter Vrittis mentioned by Patanjali: smriti and nidra. In one of the previous sections of our forum we

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Drashtar. The Inner Observer

Now that we have accumulated sufficient resource we can come closer to understanding Patanjali’s definition of Yoga as chitta-vritti-nirodha. However, for complete comprehension of this

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Sutras 1.5, 2.3. – 2.9. Klesha. A very conceptual article:)

वृत्तयः पञ्चतय्यः क्लिष्टाऽक्लिष्टाः ॥५॥ 1.5. vṛttayaḥ pañcatayyaḥ kliṣṭā’kliṣṭāḥ The category of “klesha” by no means refers to the group of words that should be rather

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Chitta Vritti Nirodha

As I have already mentioned earlier, this line of YS has a conceptual significance for the whole subsequent understanding of the text, as well as

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Definitions of Yoga. Sutra 1-2

Frankly speaking, when I was starting this blog I did not want to deal here with analysis and comparison of existing translation variants, let alone

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The Fundamentals of Sanskrit Grammar

Whenever someone suggests that you translate Yoga-Sutras using only a dictionary and without knowing enough about Sanskrit grammar – don’t fall for it!  This person

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The Value of Yoga Sutras

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by no means comes as the most famous and the most quoted primary source on Yoga. I know about 20 translations

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