Sutras and Aphorisms

Although I have been practising yoga for many years, I only learn of Patanjali and his Yoga Sutras after I embarked on the YICC with Vyasa Singapore. I have always know that yoga is more than just contorting your body into different positions and that was the main reason why I decided to dive deep into the study of yoga but I would never imagine that yoga is that much more. In fact, it feels like it is all.

When the 80 hours theory sessions of YICC came to an end, Master Manoj strongly recommended Patanjali's Yoga Sutras among a few other books. Considering how much content was covered and compressed within those hours, I was inclined to learn more on my own but also because of that brief yet overwhelming introduction, I was unsure if it would really be beneficial knowledge..

So I conveniently let it slip out of my mind until I came across an English translation of it on sale at a book fair. I hesitated on buying it, especially since I know I will easily be able to find online versions of it for free, but I decided to share this serendipitous find with my fellow Vyasa coursemates via Whatsapp. I received 7 requests to purchase on behalf. Ha! It relieved me of the decision to buy one for myself as there were only 5 books left!

However, while the books were in my possession, my curiosity got the better of me and I began to read and copy the sutras and aphorisms word for word, almost. I have never enjoy reading off a screen (thus I never had a Kindle despite my love for reading) and we all know information is better retained (and understood) when written rather than just read. Moreover, I want to practise my handwriting! =P

Over a period of about a week, I wrote down what I read into a blank notebook, marking each sutra and aphorism accordingly, sequentially. I expected not to be able to understand it fully but the choice of terms and excessive mode of writing in this particular book made the content all the more difficult to digest. I thought aphorisms are supposed to be straightforward!?! In addition to the fact that I wanted all of them to fit into the rather slim notebook, I started to summarize and drop phrases where I felt I would not be altering the original meanings.

Thankfully I succeeded in squeezing all 195 aphorisms in. But *horror*, because I was so meticulous about it, I discovered that one aphorism is missing from the book. Somehow, the 18th aphorism of the sutra II is not in the book. [15, 16, 17, 19... where is 18??] And I vaguely remembered that it was mentioned during our course that there are a total of 196 aphorisms??

In some ways, it was as incredulous as reading the Bible. The logical part of me rejects it. Which comes back to the idea of faith. On this point, Master Manoj explicitly pointed out that our education impedes our understanding and acceptance of it... a lot to unlearn for me then. However, it also reminded me of the Chinese period dramas I grew up watching. All the shifus and yaojings doing the exact incredible things as described in the sutras written some 1600 years ago. So this is where all that stemmed from...?

Today, I decided to search for that missing aphorism and found a oh-so-much-better translation of  the Yoga Sutras from the website of The Arlington Center.  Just the very first line read simply:

Now, the teachings of yoga.

vs

Assuredly, the exposition of Yoga, or Concentration, is now to be made.

Now, the former is what I would called an aphorism. Initially, I got a little frustrated that I had copied a version that I did not particularly enjoyed. Many of the terms translated in the second version appealed to me a lot more. Pure awareness, latent impressions, unsurpassed joy are but some examples. 

But as I skimmed through the second version, I slowly realised that rather than one version being better or closer to the truth, knowledge of the two versions has greatly enhanced my understanding of the original sutras. I can only imagine that further reading of other versions of the same text will similarly deepen my appreciation and interpretation of this ancient text. This is a revelation as I rarely reread a book a second time.

As with many of the rest of the aphorisms, I do not find the 18th of sutra II to be particularly outstanding or groundbreaking. I understood each individual term without gaining any insight to the "truth" within it or the necessity of it. However, comparing the two versions, I discovered that my copied version is missing another aphorism in sutra IV! Due to the difference in terms and style of writing, it took me some time before I could determined that the first version had completely skipped the 16th aphorism and only had 33 instead of 34 aphorisms. There are a total of 196 aphorisms in the 4 sutras!

But the object is not dependent on (diversity of thoughts); 

if it were, what would happen to it when nobody was looking?

The phrase within the parenthesis is from the first version as this aphorism is a continuation from the previous one so I combined the two versions for my own better understanding. And this particular aphorism speaks to me. It is a concept I debated within myself before and this somewhat clarifies. But that would be for another blog post.. =)

Really quite enjoying my yoga journey all in all. Just this reading of 2 different interpretations of Yoga Sutras has shown me that rather than looking for and only reading the one "perfect" interpretation, keep looking and keep reading to reach the "perfect" understanding. My neat and clean little notebook will have to be "improved" by ever more annotations..