Principia Yoga
Learn the principles and practices of royal yoga as formulated by Patanjali in his all-time classic, the Yoga Sutra.
Verses on Yoking
The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali / A new translation and commentary / Twelve sixty to ninety-minute classes
About two thousand years old, the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali is the landmark scripture on classical yoga. If yogis were asked who was the greatest name in Yoga of all times, most of them would say Patanjali.
Yoga is not a religion. It is neither Hindu nor Buddhist. It is a pure science just like physics. And Patanjali is like a Euclid in the world of Yoga. His maxims are as exact as any mathematical formula. No belief is needed: you simply do what he says and the results follow. It is just like you heat water to one hundred degrees centigrade and it starts evaporating.
Yoga is not a philosophy either. Patanjali is not speculating, nor is he arguing. He is simply stating the ultimate laws of being, the truths that are always true, everywhere, for everybody.
We believe that a student of Yoga should not only read but in fact study and put in practice the Yoga Sutra. As Svatmarama put it, “Perfection in Yoga is not achieved by mere reading of the scriptures.” Hatha Yoga Pradipika, i, 65b
Join us in this important investigation of the principles and practices of classical yoga. In Yoga/Tantra, a practice is not considered effective or as effective until a qualified master has transmitted the corresponding power of the practice directly to the student. In this course, Yogendra will not only be commenting on the sutras and instructing the students in these sadhanas, but he will be bestowing the empowerments for these practices as well, ‘leading [a student] straight to a goal’ (a literal meaning of the Sanskrit sādhana). In other words, he will initiate you into the principles and practices of Patanjali’s yoga, also known as the ‘royal yoga’ (raja yoga), as well as give special blessings that heal our life and wake us up from the age-old dream of samsaric (lit. ‘wandering’) existence.
