Swami Satchidananda - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Commentary on the Raja Yoga Sutras by Sri Swami Satchidananda

Beloved Students,

It gives me great joy to witness the publication of this book. For many years these Yoga Stras have been like a Bible to me. They have helped me in many situations on my own path of Yoga and have given me invaluable guidance at many points. I appreciate the clarity, simplicity and thoroughness with which Patajali Maharishi has presented the entire Yoga. He has beautifully presented it as a rigorous and complete science with all its ramifications, from the most elementary to the most highly advanced points. I feel it is a living scripture to illumine our spiritual path.

The Yoga Stras are very concentrated and terse. Study them slowly and carefully and meditate on them. You can even learn some of the most important and useful ones by heart. This is not just a book to be quickly read and then tossed away like a popular novel. Nor is it a scholarly work to fill your mind with a lot of philosophy and theories. It is a practical handbook. Every time you pick it up you can absorb more for your growth. Let us slowly try to understand more and what little we understand, let us try to practice. Practice is the most important factor in Yoga.

Let us know that all these ideas and practices are there to help us forget our personal selfishness and broaden our minds more and more. As my Master Swami Sivanandaji used to say, Just be good and do good. Its very simple. Be good and do good and the entire wisdom will be yours.

Every day let us check our progress and see that we grow a little better. Every day should elevate us a little, broaden our attitudes, reduce our selfishness and make us better masters over our own body, senses and mind. This is the kind of Yoga that will really help us. And let that highest goal toward which Patajalis Stras point be our goal: that one day we should all attain the highest samdhi, the totally liberated state. This liberation is not for the remote future or for when we die; it is to be lived in the very midst of the world.

May all the holy sages and the founder of Yoga, Patajali Maharishi, and all the saints bless us to achieve this goal with pure minds and deep meditation. May the sacred science of Yoga inspire us to become such masters, to find peace and joy within ourselves and to share the same with all humanity.

OM nti, nti, nti. May God bless you.

Ever yours in Yoga,

Swami Satchidananda

Yogaville

March 1978