«The chapter begins by introducing the subject of the work and providing a definition of yoga—the cessation of citta-vṛtti, the fluctuating states of the mind [1–2].» — abre el Samādhi-pāda: el propio libro resume el capítulo I y da la definición de yoga como cese de las vṛttis de la citta
The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali
The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary with Insights from the Traditional Commentators · Yoga Sūtras · Yogasūtra · Pātañjala Yoga · Los Yoga Sūtras de Patañjali
Edición, traducción y comentario de los *Yoga Sūtras* de Patañjali por Edwin F. Bryant, publicada por North Point Press en 2009. La portada imprime «THE YOGA SŪTRAS OF PATAÑJALI A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary WITH INSIGHTS FROM THE TRADITIONAL COMMENTATORS EDWIN F. BRYANT North Point Press» «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 2», y la página de derechos, que en este EPUB vive en el último chunk, fecha el volumen: «Copyright © 2009 by Edwin F. Bryant» «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 572».
Lo que el volumen traduce es un texto brevísimo: «The succinctness of the Yoga Sūtras—it contains about 1,200 words in 195 sūtras—indicates that they were construed to be a manual requiring unpacking» «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 27». De su compilador, Bryant dice que se sabe poco —«As with the reputed founders of the other schools of thought, very little is known about Patañjali himself» «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 26»— y que la fecha no se fija: «Most scholars date the text shortly after the turn of the Common Era (circa first to second century), but it has been placed as early as several centuries before that» «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 27». La tradición, además, no le adjudica el origen del yoga: «In point of fact, the tradition itself ascribes the actual origins of Yoga to the legendary figure Hiraṇyagarbha (see commentary to I.1)» «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 26».
El sitio que el volumen le da al texto es el de una escuela de filosofía: «The Yoga Sūtras is classified as a darśana, classical school of philosophical thought, after all, written and handed down over the centuries by scholastics, and so a commentary that claims to represent the Yoga tradition cannot be presented outside this context» «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 47», y Patañjali entra así en la lista de las seis: «Patañjali was the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, one of the ancient treatises on Indic philosophy that eventually came to be regarded as one of the six classical schools of Indian philosophy» «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 13».
Lo que distingue a esta edición es el aparato de comentaristas que incorpora: «This commentary draws material from all (rather than just one) of the principal historical traditional Sanskrit commentaries, from which I have selected relevant explanatory comments» «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 47». Los nombres, en el orden que el propio libro imprime: «Vyāsa, Vācaspati Miśra, Vijñānabhikṣu, Saṅkara, Bhoja Rāja, Rāmānanda Sarasvatī, and Hariharānanda Araṇya are, in chronological order, the main commentators recognized as the most important of the premodern period and their interpretations form the basis of the present commentary» «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 55». El primero de ellos manda sobre todos los demás: «It cannot be overstated that Yoga philosophy is Patañjali’s philosophy as understood and articulated by Vyāsa» «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 31».
Bryant declara su método como fenomenológico —«In short, I have adopted something of the phenomenological approach in the study of religion in presenting this material» «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 49»— y el volumen abre con un foreword de B.K.S. Iyengar firmado en Pune el 5 de diciembre de 2007 «Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 9».
1983 afirmaciones · 1 fuente · 2 atribuciones
Atribución
se consigna, jamás se afirmaTRADICIONAL
Bryant lo llama compilador de los sūtras y declara que de él mismo se sabe muy poco: «As with the reputed founders of the other schools of thought, very little is known about Patañjali himself» (p. 26); la tradición, evidenciada por primera vez en el comentario de Bhoja Rāja del siglo XI, lo identifica con el Patañjali del comentario a la gramática de Pāṇini y le adscribe además un tratado de medicina (p. 26), y la propia tradición remonta el origen del yoga a Hiraṇyagarbha, no a él (p. 26)
según Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009)
«Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 26»
«Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 26»
DECLARADA
la portada imprime «THE YOGA SŪTRAS OF PATAÑJALI A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary WITH INSIGHTS FROM THE TRADITIONAL COMMENTATORS EDWIN F. BRYANT» (p. 2) y la página de derechos «Copyright © 2009 by Edwin F. Bryant» (p. 572); él declara la traducción y el comentario como suyos (pp. 47, 49)
según Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009)
«Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 2»
«Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009) · p. 2»
Cadena de la obra
el testimonio procesado, en esmeraldaTRADUCCIÓN · PROCESADO
Bryant — The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, con los comentaristas tradicionales (2009), trad. inglés 2009 — el año NO sale del nombre del archivo sino de la página de derechos, que el EPUB coloca en el ÚLTIMO chunk: «Copyright © 2009 by Edwin F. Bryant», «Foreword copyright © 2009 by B.K.S. Iyengar» y «First edition, 2009» (p. 572)
inglés · 2009 — el año NO sale del nombre del archivo sino de la página de derechos, que el EPUB coloca en el ÚLTIMO chunk: «Copyright © 2009 by Edwin F. Bryant», «Foreword copyright © 2009 by B.K.S. Iyengar» y «First edition, 2009» (p. 572) · New York, North Point Press, «A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux», 18 West 18th Street (pp. 2, 572). La página de derechos imprime «eISBN: 978-1-4299-9598-6» y no imprime ISBN de papel (p. 572). EPUB reflowado: ninguna de las 570 planas del troceo imprime folio ni encabezado corrido, así que el locator es la plana única del troceo · Edwin F Bryant (tradujo) · Edwin F Bryant (comentó) · B K S Iyengar (escribió una parte) · North Point Press (imprimió)
Afirmaciones
1983 entradas — la voz de la obra, con su pasaje1983 pasajes
«Oṁ namo bhagavate Vāsudevāya; I offer obeisances to Lord Vāsudeva» — Bryant abre el comentario con la invocación tradicional a Vāsudeva, el nāndi-śloka con que los comentaristas clásicos empiezan
«Commentators and authors of traditional texts typically begin their commentaries with an invocation, nāndi-śloka, to their personal deity, the particular form of Īśvara, God, that they revere, soliciting blessings and inspiration for the enterprise they are about to undertake.» — Bryant explica la función del nāndi-śloka: pedir bendición e inspiración a la propia deidad antes de la obra
«This, notes Vijñānabhikṣu, is in order to remove any obstacles that might arise either in the completion of the work by the author, or in the students’ ability to grasp its meaning.» — Vijñānabhikṣu da la razón de la invocación: quitar los obstáculos a la obra y a la comprensión del estudiante
«By so doing, one also strives to remove personal ego so that one can become a conduit, accurately transmitting the essence of the text.» — el otro motivo que Bryant recoge: borrar el ego para volverse conducto del texto
«Most commentators on the Yoga Sūtras, in addition to an invocation to God, offer homage to Patañjali himself, the author of the text, usually» — Bryant consigna que los comentaristas rinden homenaje también a Patañjali; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue en la 55 invocándolo en su forma tradicional de encarnación de Śeṣa, el que porta a Viṣṇu
«I.1 atha yogānuśāsanam atha, now; yoga, yoga; anuśāsanam, teachings Now, the teachings of yoga [are presented].» — I.1, con el análisis palabra por palabra y la traducción de Bryant. El apéndice reimprime el sūtra y su traducción en la plana 445; el ancla va en la primera aparición, la del cuerpo
«It is common for authors of philosophical works to commence their treatises by announcing the specific nature of their subject matter, thereby indicating how their undertakings are to be distinguished from other strains of philosophical thought or knowledge systems.» — Bryant lee el primer sūtra como declaración de materia, al modo en que otros tratados abren anunciando la suya
«Patañjali accordingly uses the first sūtra of his text to announce the topic of his teachings: The primary subject matter of his text differs from that of other systems insofar as his work will be about yoga.» — Bryant enuncia lo que I.1 hace: anunciar el tema y distinguirlo del de otros sistemas
«It is also standard in the commentarial literature, as will become apparent throughout this work, for the later commentators to analyze each word in every sūtra (as discussed in the introduction, sūtra means aphorism or extremely succinct verse), and words are analyzed in various ways— etymologically, semantically, contextually, philosophically, etc. Commentaries thus unpack the meaning of words, both individually and collectively, in the sūtras of primary texts.» — Bryant describe el procedimiento comentarial que su edición reproduce: analizar cada palabra etimológica, semántica, contextual y filosóficamente
«Accordingly, the first word in this sūtra, and thus of the entire Yoga Sūtras, is atha, now, that is, in the present work Patañjali is about to deliver, demarking these teachings from those in other texts» — Bryant glosa atha como el ahora que separa esta enseñanza de las de otros textos. El tramo cruza el cambio de plana desde la 55
«As will be seen below with Vijñānabhikṣu’s comments, the word atha is also sometimes read as differentiating the text in question from other texts in a hierarchical or sectarian fashion, as indicating» — la segunda lectura de atha que Bryant recoge de Vijñānabhikṣu: jerárquica o sectaria; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue en la 56 describiendo el ahora de quien agotó los demás sistemas
«The commentators add, as an aside, that the word atha is deemed somewhat sacred8 and thus also functions as an auspicious opening to the text.» — los comentaristas tienen atha por palabra algo sagrada y apertura auspiciosa
«In accordance with the famous Sanskrit grammarian Pāṇini, he glosses yoga with samādhi, the ultimate subject matter of the Yoga Sūtras.» — Vyāsa glosa yoga como samādhi apoyándose en Pāṇini, y con eso fija la materia del libro
«Indeed, the commentator Vācaspati Miśra traces the etymology of yoga to one of the meanings of the root yuj, to contemplate, which, he points out, is the correct etymology here.» — Vācaspati Miśra deriva yoga de yuj en su acepción de contemplar, y declara que esa es la etimología correcta aquí
«The more established etymology from the perspective of modern historical linguistics is, of course, derived from the same Indo-European root as the English word “yoke.”» — Bryant pone al lado la etimología de la lingüística histórica moderna, la del yugo
«Yoga can thus mean that which joins, that is, unites one with the Absolute Truth, and while this translation of the term is popularly found (and may be apt in other contexts, such as the Gītā, IX.3410), it is best avoided in the context of the Yoga Sūtras, since, as was pointed out over a hundred years ago by the famous Indologist Max Müller (1899, 309ff) (and long before that, by the sixteenth-century Indian doxographer Mādhava11) the goal of yoga is not to join, but the opposite: to unjoin, that is, to disconnect puruṣa from prakṛti.» — Bryant objeta a traducir yoga por unión en este texto: la meta es desunir el puruṣa de prakṛti, y apoya la objeción en Max Müller y en el doxógrafo Mādhava del siglo XVI
«If the term is to mean “yoke,” it entails yoking the mind on an object of concentration without deviation.» — Bryant admite el yugo en un sentido: uncir la mente a un objeto de concentración sin desviarse
«Elaborating on this, Vyāsa notes that when the mind is directed toward an object, it can manifest five different degrees of focus (bhūmis): wondering, confused, distracted, concentrated, and restrained.» — Vyāsa enumera los cinco bhūmis, grados de foco de la mente dirigida a un objeto
«It is the last two that are of interest to Yoga: when the mind, citta, is restrained and concentrated, or fixed on one point, a type of samādhi known as samprajñāta can be attained.» — Bryant señala que solo los dos últimos grados interesan al Yoga, y que de ellos sale el samprajñāta-samādhi
«Vyāsa also introduces the notion of asamprajñāta-samādhi in these opening comments. This is the seventh and ultimate level of samādhi,» — Vyāsa adelanta ya en sus comentarios de apertura el asamprajñāta-samādhi, séptimo y último nivel
«we will simply note here that in this state, pure objectless consciousness alone remains, that is, self-contained consciousness conscious only of its own internal nature of pure consciousness rather than of any external object.» — Bryant define el estado final: consciencia pura sin objeto, consciente solo de su propia naturaleza
«Vyāsa thus provides a minipreview of the subject matter of the Yoga Sūtras in his opening comments.» — Bryant lee los comentarios de apertura de Vyāsa como anticipo de todo el libro
«Vyāsa makes a point of noting that a distracted mind, the third on his list of states, is not to be confounded with yoga.» — Vyāsa separa expresamente la mente distraída del yoga
«Vācaspati Miśra elaborates that while it is obvious that the other two states of mind, wondering and» — Vācaspati Miśra distingue la distracción de los otros dos estados; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue en la 57 explicando que la distracción parece yoga porque se fija por momentos
«However, since such steadiness soon relapses into wondering and forgetfulness, it cannot be considered real yoga. Only the fully concentrated or one-pointed state of mind is yoga.» — Vācaspati Miśra niega el nombre de yoga a esa fijeza intermitente: solo lo es el estado unipuntual
«Vācaspati Miśra notes that the third and final term from this sūtra, anuśāsanam, strictly speaking means further teaching.» — Vācaspati Miśra traduce anuśāsanam por enseñanza ulterior, no por enseñanza a secas
«He points out that the Yājñavalkya Smṛti states that a sage known as Hiraṇyagarbha was the original teacher of yoga.» — Vācaspati Miśra apoya esa lectura en el Yājñavalkya Smṛti, que hace de Hiraṇyagarbha el maestro original del yoga
«The Mahābhārata also identifies Hiraṇyagarbha as the founder of Yoga (XII.326.65; 337.60).» — Bryant suma el testimonio del Mahābhārata sobre Hiraṇyagarbha como fundador
«In the Purāṇic tradition (e.g., Bhāgavata Purāṇa, X.71.8), Hiraṇyagarbha is considered to be an epithet of Brahmā, the celestial being responsible for engineering the forms in the universe.» — la tradición purāṇica hace de Hiraṇyagarbha un epíteto de Brahmā, el que traza las formas del universo
«Hiraṇyagarbha is born on a lotus emanating from the navel of Viṣṇu, the supreme Godhead, who is reclining on the divine serpent Śeṣa on the cosmic waters pervading the entire universe prior to creation.» — Bryant recoge del Bhāgavata Purāṇa el nacimiento de Hiraṇyagarbha sobre el loto que sale del ombligo de Viṣṇu, reclinado en la serpiente Śeṣa
«Awakening to consciousness atop the lotus, Hiraṇyagarbha has no means of knowing who he is, or what is the source of the lotus or the all-expansive waters, indeed, no means of discerning or knowing anything at all.» — el relato pone a Hiraṇyagarbha despertando sin medio alguno de saber quién es ni de dónde viene el loto
«Confused and disoriented, he stills his mind (in accordance with the next verse), and enters into the ultimate state of yoga (samādhi), as a result of which he is granted a divine vision of Lord Viṣṇu.» — el relato lo hace aquietar la mente y entrar en samādhi, con lo que obtiene la visión de Viṣṇu: el primer acto de yoga, narrado según el sūtra siguiente
«Hiraṇyagarbha is thus the first yogī in primordial times, and deemed to have written the original treatise on the subject.» — Bryant cierra el relato: Hiraṇyagarbha como primer yogī y autor del tratado original
«Although mentioned in various texts, the Hiraṇyagarbha treatise is no longer extant, but information about its twelvefold content, all overlapping» — Bryant consigna la pérdida del tratado de Hiraṇyagarbha y que solo queda noticia de su contenido en doce partes. El tramo se corta al final de la plana 57
«Yoga is therefore superior to other schools of thought that occupy themselves with knowledge and thus remain connected to the material intellect.» — Bryant deriva de la meta del sistema un orden entre escuelas: el Yoga por encima de las que se ocupan del conocimiento y quedan atadas al intelecto material
«Just as a person with a torch in hand gives up the torch upon finding treasure, says Vijñānabhikṣu, so, eventually, the intellect, and the knowledge that it presents, also become redundant upon attaining the ultimate source of truth, puruṣa, the soul and innermost self.» — la imagen de la antorcha abandonada al hallar el tesoro, que Bryant atribuye a Vijñānabhikṣu: el intelecto se vuelve redundante al alcanzar el puruṣa
«The self is pure subjectivity23 and transcends all knowledge, which is of the nature of objectivity: One knows, that is, one is aware or conscious of, something, hence some other object distinct from the knower or power of consciousness itself, whether this is an external object of the physical world, or an internal object of thought.» — Bryant define el sí mismo como pura subjetividad, frente al conocimiento, que siempre es de un objeto
«Thus, Vijñānabhikṣu says (paraphrasing Sāṅkhya Kārikā XXXV), knowledge and the intellect are the door and doorkeeper, and both lead the practitioner of yoga from the domain of material cognition to the highest goal of existence, realization of puruṣa, consciousness itself, but this ultimately lies beyond even the intellect.» — Vijñānabhikṣu, parafraseando el Sāṅkhya Kārikā XXXV, hace del conocimiento y el intelecto puerta y portero de un fin que los excede
«The attainment of this state is the ultimate goal for the school of Yoga, not any type of knowledge however profound or mystical. Hence, from this perspective, Yoga is superior to knowledge-centered paths.» — Bryant fija la meta del Yoga en el asamprajñāta-samādhi y no en conocimiento alguno, por profundo o místico que sea
Sobre la obra
563 entradas — lo que el aparato y la investigación dicen de ella563 pasajes
«I have appreciated your commentary quoting the traditional commentators Vyāsa, Vācaspati Miśra, Śaṅkara, Bhoja Rāja, Vijñānabhikṣu, and Hariharānanda, and it reads well.» — en el foreword, B.K.S. Iyengar nombra a los seis comentaristas tradicionales que Bryant recoge y dice que el comentario se lee bien; es el firmante del prólogo, no la voz del texto comentado
«Pātañjala Yoga is a practical subject and not a discursive one. As each individual is electrically alive and dynamic, so yoga is a living, dynamic force in life.» — Iyengar sostiene que el yoga de Patañjali es materia práctica y no discursiva, y fuerza viva antes que doctrina
«The life of man is not only the conjunction of prakṛti (the sheaths of the body) and puruṣa (the soul), but also a combination of these two. Yoga is a means to utilizing the conjunction of prakṛti and puruṣa for freedom and beatitude (mokṣa), as the two are interwoven and interrelated.» — Iyengar enuncia la relación de prakṛti y puruṣa como conjunción y a la vez combinación, y el yoga como el medio de usarla para mokṣa
«Patañjali explains the practice of kriyā-yoga in sūtra I of the sādhana pāda, repeating the same ingredients as are found in the niyama disciplines, namely, tapas, svādhyāya, and Īśvara-praṇidhāna (discipline, self-study and devotion to God).» — Iyengar señala que el kriyā-yoga del sādhana pāda repite los tres ingredientes que ya están entre los niyamas: tapas, svādhyāya e Īśvara-praṇidhāna
«Though Patañjali advises bhakti in the beginning of the text in I.23, I consider the disciplines of yama and niyama (II.30–45) as corresponding to karmamarga (the path of action); āsana, prāṇāyāma, and pratyāhāra (II.46–55) as corresponding to jñāna-marga (the path of knowledge); and dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi (saṁyama, III.1–4) as corresponding to bhakti marga (the path of devotion).» — Iyengar reparte los ocho miembros entre los tres caminos y marca que es lectura suya, con un *I consider* por delante del reparto
«But if the sādhaka abuses the sādhana with selfish motives, he or she ends up with only the joys of sensual pleasure (bhoga).» — Iyengar pone el límite de la práctica: con motivos egoístas el sādhaka acaba en bhoga, goce sensual
«Therefore, I differ from the traditional commentators on two things.» — Iyengar declara su desacuerdo con los comentaristas tradicionales en dos puntos, y lo enuncia como diferencia propia dentro del prólogo de un libro que recoge a esos comentaristas
«The practice of āsanas develops sattva guṇa, sublimating the guṇas of rajas and tamas.» — primer punto de Iyengar: la práctica de āsana desarrolla sattva y sublima rajas y tamas
«The aim of āsanas is to make the prāṇa (cosmic universal force) move concurrently with the prajñā (insight) of the self on its frontier.» — Iyengar fija el objetivo del āsana en hacer que prāṇa se mueva a la par de la prajñā del sí mismo
«For me, this sūtra is referring to a consolidating state of samprajñāta-samādhi, after attaining which the yogī can move toward asamprajñāta (nirbīja) samādhi.» — segundo punto de Iyengar, sobre I.18: lee el virāma-pratyaya como estado consolidante del samprajñāta-samādhi, contra los comentaristas que lo infieren asamprajñāta
«Even in this pratyāhāra state of aṣṭāṇga-yoga and virāma-pratyaya state in samādhi, if one neglects śraddhā, vīrya, smṛti, samādhi-prajñā (faith, vigor, memory, and the insight of samādhi, the four legs of yoga in I.20), then, even if one has reached the zenith, one is bound to become a yoga-bhraṣṭa, a fallen yogī.» — Iyengar advierte que descuidar las cuatro piernas del yoga de I.20 hace caer al yogī desde la cima: yoga-bhraṣṭa
«It is this combination only that leads the yogī toward the highest state in bhakti-marga—the śaraṇāgati-mārga—total dependence on Īśvara, God.» — Iyengar cierra su lectura en el śaraṇāgati-mārga, dependencia total de Īśvara, como estado más alto del bhakti-mārga
«This is how I understand and practice the aṣṭāṅga-yoga of sage Patañjali.» — Iyengar firma su lectura como práctica propia, no como exégesis del texto
«Editor’s note: B.K.S. Iyengar accepts fifty-six verses in the third pada where other commentators accept fifty-five.» — nota del editor al pie del foreword: consigna que Iyengar cuenta cincuenta y seis versos en el tercer pāda donde los demás comentaristas cuentan cincuenta y cinco, y la divergencia queda sin arbitrar
«The following pronunciation guide attempts to give approximate equivalents in English to the Sanskrit sounds used in this text.» — la guía de pronunciación de Bryant declara su alcance: equivalentes aproximados en inglés para los sonidos sánscritos, no un sistema fonético
«Sanskrit vowels have both short forms and lengthened forms (the latter are transliterated by a line over the vowel—ā, ī, ū), as well as a retroflex ṛ sound articulated by curling the tongue farther back onto the roof of the mouth than for the English r.» — Bryant explica la marca de vocal larga y la ṛ retrofleja, que son los diacríticos con que se imprime toda la transliteración del volumen
«Sanskrit consonants have both aspirated forms (kh, gh, ch, jh, and so on) and unaspirated forms (k, g, c, j, and so on); the former involve articulating the consonant accompanied by a slight expulsion of air.» — Bryant distingue aspiradas de no aspiradas, el rasgo que separa pares como kh y k en toda la transliteración
«There is also a set of retroflexes (transliterated with a dot beneath them—ṭ, ḍ, ṭh, ḍh, ṇ, ṣ), which have no precise English equivalents, and these involve curling the tongue farther back onto the roof of the mouth than for the English dentals.» — Bryant explica el punto bajo la letra como retrofleja sin equivalente inglés preciso
«Everyone by now has heard of yoga, and, indeed, with millions of Americans in some form or fashion practicing āsana, the physical aspect of yoga, the teaching and practice of yoga, at least in the aspect of techniques of body poses and stretches, are now thoroughly mainstream activities on the Western cultural landscape.» — Bryant abre su historia del yoga por la situación presente: el āsana practicado por millones de estadounidenses y vuelto actividad corriente
«Yoga has popularly been translated as “union with the divine”1 and may refer to a number of different spiritual systems.» — Bryant consigna la traducción popular del término, *unión con lo divino*, y advierte que nombra varios sistemas distintos
«The Bhagavad Gītā, for example, discusses a number of practices that have been termed yoga in popular literature: karma-yoga (buddhiyoga), the path of action; jñāna-yoga (sāṅkhya-yoga), the path of knowledge; bhakti-yoga, the path of devotion; and dhyāna-yoga, the path of silent meditation (which is the subject of Patañjali’s text),2 and terms such as tantra-yoga, siddha-yoga, nāḍa-yoga, and so forth are now common in alternative spiritualities in the West.» — Bryant enumera los yogas que el Bhagavad Gītā distingue y sitúa el de Patañjali en el dhyāna-yoga, la vía de la meditación silenciosa
«Typically, however, when the word yoga is used by itself without any qualification, it refers to the path of meditation, particularly as outlined in the Yoga Sūtras—the Aphorisms on Yoga—and the term yogī, a practitioner of this type of meditational yoga.» — Bryant fija el uso del término sin calificativo: yoga a secas nombra la vía de meditación de los Yoga Sūtras, y yogī a quien la practica
«He presented a teaching that focuses on realization of the puruṣa—the term favored by the Yoga school3 to refer to the innermost conscious self, loosely equivalent to the soul in Western Greco-Abrahamic traditions.» — Bryant define el puruṣa como el sí mismo consciente más interno y lo equipara con reserva —*loosely equivalent*— al alma de las tradiciones grecoabrahámicas
«Accordingly, Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras is one of the most important classical texts in Hinduism and thus a classic of Eastern, and therefore world, thought.» — Bryant sitúa el texto entre los clásicos del hinduismo y del pensamiento del mundo
«I might add here that Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras is not an overtly sectarian text in the sense of prioritizing a specific deity or promoting a particular type of worship as is the case with many Hindu scriptures, including the Bhagavad Gītā.» — Bryant señala que el texto no prioriza deidad ni culto particular, a diferencia de muchas escrituras hindúes, incluido el Gītā
«Therefore, as a template, it can be and has been appropriated and reconfigured by followers of different schools and traditions throughout Indian religious history4 and certainly continues to lend itself to such appropriations, most recently in nonreligious contexts of the West.» — de esa falta de sectarismo Bryant deriva su uso como plantilla apropiada y reconfigurada por escuelas distintas a lo largo de la historia religiosa india
«Patañjali himself, however, pays minimal attention to the āsanas, which are the third stage of the eight stages, or limbs, of yoga, and focuses primarily on meditation and various stages of concentration of the mind.» — Bryant marca la distancia entre el yoga exportado y el texto: Patañjali dedica atención mínima a las āsanas, que son el tercero de los ocho miembros
«Its initial introduction to the West in modern times was by Vivekānanda at the end of the nineteenth century.» — Bryant data la introducción moderna del yoga en Occidente en Vivekānanda, a finales del siglo XIX
«Sivananda was a renunciant and his ashram tradition was transplanted by his disciples Vishnudevananda (1927–1993), Satchidananda (1914–2002), and Chinmayananda (1916–1993), each of whom founded his own independent mission in the West (the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, the Integral Yoga Institute, and the Chinmaya Mission, respectively).» — Bryant traza el linaje de Sivananda y las tres misiones que fundaron sus discípulos en Occidente
«Krishnamāchārya’s son, T.K.V. Desikachar (1938– ), developed viniyoga; and—perhaps most influential of all—Krishnamāchārya’s brother-in-law, B.K.S. Iyengar (1918– ) established the Iyengar method.» — Bryant traza el otro linaje, el de Krishnamāchārya, del que sale el método Iyengar; el prologuista del volumen aparece así dentro de su propia historia
«Those accepting an external point of origin for the Vedic-speaking peoples tend to hold that Yoga, both as practice and philosophy, was originally pre-Vedic (and therefore non-Vedic) and indigenous to the subcontinent.» — Bryant expone la primera posición sobre el origen del yoga: pre-védico, no védico e indígena del subcontinente
«Those challenging the thesis of external origins for the original Vedic-speaking peoples tend to prefer to see both Vedic ritualism and yogic practices as parallel internal developments evolving within Vedic- (Indo-Aryan-) speaking communities indigenous to the subcontinent.» — Bryant expone la posición contraria: ritualismo védico y prácticas yóguicas como desarrollos internos paralelos. Las dos quedan una junto a otra sin arbitrar
«What all these positions have in common, and where our own discussion of the early history of Yoga will commence, is that Yoga evolves on the periphery of Vedic religiosity and beyond the parameters of mainstream Vedic orthopraxy.» — Bryant señala el punto común de todas las posiciones: el yoga evoluciona en la periferia de la religiosidad védica
«Yoga is clearly in tension with Vedic ritualism, discussed below, and its goals are in stark and explicit opposition to it (for example, Yoga Sūtras I.15–16).» — Bryant enuncia la tensión con el ritualismo védico y remite a I.15-16 del propio texto
«Mention must be made, when considering the earliest origins of Yoga, to seals found in Indus Valley sites with representations of figures seated in a clear yogic posture.» — Bryant aporta el testimonio arqueológico: los sellos del valle del Indo con figuras sentadas en postura yóguica clara
«This evidence suggests that, irrespective of its literary origins, Yoga has been practiced on the Indian subcontinent for well over four thousand years.» — Bryant deriva de esos sellos una antigüedad de más de cuatro mil años para la práctica, al margen de los orígenes literarios
«While the intricacies of the Vedic sacrificial rite may seem alien to our modern worldviews and practices, the mentality that supported it—that of attempting to manipulate the external physical environment for the purpose of enjoying the pleasures of the material world through the medium of the sensual body—has remained constant throughout human history.» — Bryant lee el rito sacrificial védico como manipulación del entorno para gozar del mundo material, y declara constante esa mentalidad
«The Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad (I.2. 7–11) calls the performers of sacrifice “deluded” and “ignorant,” however learned and competent they may posture to be, because the boons and fruits gained from the sacrifice—from the manipulation of one’s external environment, to use a more modern frame of reference—are temporary.» — Bryant cita el Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad llamando engañados e ignorantes a los oficiantes del sacrificio, por la temporalidad de sus frutos
«The Gītā, too, calls the Vedic ritualists “less intelligent,” since any boons accruing from such materialism do not solve the ultimate problems of life—human suffering inherent in the cycle of birth and death (II.42–45).» — Bryant suma el Bhagavad Gītā, que llama menos inteligentes a los ritualistas védicos
«Although the Upaniṣads are especially concerned with jñāna, or understanding Brahman, the Absolute Truth, through the cultivation of knowledge, there are also several unmistakable references to a technique for realizing Brahman (in its localized aspect of ātman) called yoga, which are clearly drawn from the same general body of related practices as those articulated by Patañjali.» — Bryant señala que los Upaniṣads, centrados en jñāna, traen referencias inequívocas a una técnica llamada yoga del mismo cuerpo de prácticas que Patañjali
Conceptos tratados
Microcosmos (el hombre-mundo) — El volumen enuncia la correspondencia como resultado de una práctica, no como doctrina previa: abierta la entrada de la suṣumnā se revelan las regiones del universo, y de ahí que haya correspondencia entre el microcosmo del cuerpo y el macrocosmo del universo; el mismo reparto vuelve en los sūtras III.26 a III.29, donde el saṁyama sobre el sol da los mundos y el saṁyama sobre el ombligo da el cuerpo.
bryant-yoga-sutras-patanjali · pp. 344, 345, 346, 347
Cadena de transmisión (quién tomó de quién) — La obra consigna su propio linaje y su dependencia de él: la tradición no le adjudica a Patañjali el origen del yoga sino a Hiraṇyagarbha; la filosofía del Yoga es la de Patañjali tal como Vyāsa la entendió y la articuló; Bryant objeta en nota el intento de saltarse los comentarios para llegar a un Patañjali puro; y el aparato remite a los pasajes upaniṣádicos que subrayan la necesidad de maestro.
bryant-yoga-sutras-patanjali · pp. 26, 31, 479, 499