Yoga Sutras

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The Kleshas: Exploring the Elusiveness of Happiness

The kleshas are Yoga’s framework for understanding the discord between our desires and our lived experience. Deborah Adele’s new book, The Kleshas: Exploring the Elusiveness of Happiness, lays open the insight and wisdom of the sage Patanjali, as described in the Yoga...

Questions and Answers on the Yamas

Q: In the Ramayana and Mahabharata, it’s clear that there was killing. The Gita itself takes place on a battlefield. How is this explained and justified in terms of ahimsa (non-violence)? Swami Satchidananda: In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about non‑violence to...

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Online Study Group

Join us as we explore the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali through Sri Swami Satchidananda's translation and commentary! Tune in to Facebook every Tuesday beginning September 13, 2022 at 10 am (Eastern) as we study each sutra slowly and carefully, broadening our attitudes and...

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Can the Yoga Sutras Bestow Power?

Can the Yoga Sutras Bestow Power?

Observing how Yoga has changed the world, I cannot help but wonder how the world has changed Yoga. As the plethora of Yoga studios and communities formed, they focused mainly on serving the physical body. The calling was great; strengthen and balance the body—that is...

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A Nondual Approach to the Niyamas

A Nondual Approach to the Niyamas

Retaining what we’ve learned about the yamas, we now train our attention on the niyamas which occur in sutra 2.32. When prefixed to a noun “ni” can be a negation. It also means “down, back, in, into, within.” Thus, niyama is traditionally rendered “observances”...

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Light on the Yamas & Niyamas—Satya: What About Truth?

Light on the Yamas & Niyamas—Satya: What About Truth?

Satya, truth, stands second in Patanjali’s list of virtues or “restraints.” Most often rendered with respect to speech, like ahimsa, satya broadens to include thought and deed. Under the rubric of ahimsa, the commentators advocate that truth not be spoken unkindly,...

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The Science of Yoga, Part 6: Bringing It All Together

The Science of Yoga, Part 6: Bringing It All Together

In the last installment of this six-part series, Eddie Stern brings his analysis of Yoga and neuroscience to a close and a final, very illuminating conclusion. Let’s come back to Kriya Yoga to pull this all together. The components of Kriya Yoga, as mentioned earlier,...

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The Science of Yoga, Part 5: Yoga and the Brain Systems

The Science of Yoga, Part 5: Yoga and the Brain Systems

In this penultimate installment of this series on “The Science of Yoga,” Eddie Stern takes us for a further tour of the brain and its relationship with the kleshas, as taught in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Limbic System, Raga and Dvesha The limbic system is in...

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The Science of Yoga, Part 4: Yoga and Brain Functions

The Science of Yoga, Part 4: Yoga and Brain Functions

I wondered if I could look to Western neuroscience for clues on how, by working directly with the nervous system, we could pave a pathway to samadhi. I had an inkling through my studies of the autonomic nervous system—and in particular of homeostasis (the body’s...

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Light on the Yamas & Niyamas: Awakening to Ahimsa

Light on the Yamas & Niyamas: Awakening to Ahimsa

In this column, Rev. Dale Ann Gray offers reflections on the yamas and niyamas of the Yoga Sutras, incorporating insights from classical Nondual Yoga. In this article, she unpacks the first yama, ahimsa (non-violence, non-harming). In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,...

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