Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras are the classical work of the Yoga School of thought, one of the Six Darśanas studied in the Bhakti Tirtha course. They focus on how to attain direct experience and realization of the puruṣa, or the individual self. As the classical treatise on the Vedic understanding of the mind and consciousness and on techniques of meditation and self-realization, it has exerted immense influence over the religious practices of Hinduism in India and, more recently, in the West. For Vaiṣṇavas, the Yoga Sūtras are especially helpful in understanding the first two chapters of Bhakti-rasāmṛita-sindhu.
This course completes the first two chapters – Samādhi Pada (Meditative Absorption) and Sādhana Pada (Practice).
It is better to have a physical sickness like a fever or diarrhea, than to be tortured by your own mind. A fever is visible – you may look feverish in your face, or your skin is hot to the touch. But when something is torturing your mind, it is not easy to see, yet the suffering is there. Mental suffering is subtle and thus difficult to get rid of.
