Patanjali Yoga Sutras Instructions -02

Patanjali

Patanjali is the author and compiler of what are known as the Yoga Sutras. There are 4 Chapters that comprise over 190 Sutras about how to attain liberation using the mind.  Patanjali describes the obstacles most of us face in the way of Enlightenment and then outlines many systems for overcoming or dissolving those obstacles.  This is a veritable instruction manual where formulas are codified that when employed always deliver the results.

Sutra 1.1 is the first Sutra written and says ‘Atha Yoganusanam’ which is often translated as ‘Now we begin the exposition of Yoga’.  However it is unlikely that Patanjali would essentially waste the first sutra, the beginning of the foundation, with such a simple and non-instructional phrase.  More likely is the translation that suggests that Patanjali was instructing that ‘Yoga is Now’ meaning that Yoga and the state of Enlightenment is found in the present moment.

Yoga is found in the Now, the present moment, this is the key teaching of Yoga.  The deep peace and fearless nature that come from the practice of Yoga comes from the connection to the present moment and the eternal nature of the divine vibration that is felt there.

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