The aim of this series, and its companion series (Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Study Keywords), with its single guided Sūtra word within a parallel flow, is to progress through a themed reflective journey across the four chapters or Pāda that comprise the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali.

Here a question will be proffered as a reflection and inquiry into a single verse. Each verse in the text will be explored successively, via a link to its translation, word by word breakdown and added commentaries collated from the website, to invite the reader to form their own opinion as to what is implied.

In the companion series, a word will be listed as a symbol for a specific verse or set of verses as we progressively traverse each chapter. It will offer an exploration, via a link to the Saṃskṛta Glossary, of all the connected quotations and posts, collated from within the website these past 12 years, again to invite the reader to form their own opinion as to what is implied.

My wish is to offer an insight into the spectrum of Yoga teachings received from T Krishnamacharya mainly via TKV Desikachar, in terms of both breadth and depth.

Chapter One Samādhi Pādaḥ verse 10

abhāva-pratyaya-ālambanā tamaḥ vṛttiḥ nidrā |

In Sūtra 1.10 Patañjali defines Nidrā as a
Citta Vṛtti or, a specific type of cognition, one
where Tamas is the object, to the point where
the mind’s link with external stimuli is cut off.
How do we discern between states such as
Pratyāhāra as a disengagement, or Samādhi,
where one is as if empty of one’s own character,
and what is seen as the experience of Tamo Nidrā?

To Download or View this Question as a PDF Study Sheet

Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Study Keywords – Collected & Collated into Chapters
Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Study Questions – Collected & Collated into Chapters