sirot7 The New Renderings Now Ordering ‘The Summary Verses aa Now a discussion of yor. 42 Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind 13 ‘So that the Seer, Purusha, ‘comes to know Itself and abide in ts own real, fundamental nature. 1a Whereas in the normal state (of human suffering) the Seer is assimilated with the mind, ts ‘transformations and produ. at Yogic activity consists of purification by asceticism (tapah), apa, and devotion to The Lor The Essence of Yoga 2:32 The yoric observances are purity, contentment, austerities, (tapah, tapas), japa,and devotion to the Lord, ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee Yogas utras New Commenta: & Reordering Of Verses’ Julian C, Lee Mic Introduction | The YS: Pah To God-Knowledge | The Summary Verses ‘Wester Confusion About Yoga | On Brshmachara, ‘The Essence of Yogs | ‘Thy Problem | On Prspantion Ou Modis | On Medion Objects | On nes Divine Light On Aum | On the 4th Pranayama | On Samadhi | On Sidahis | ‘Sage | YogicSuta Meupiysics | APPENDIXES FOREWORD Many people make commentaries on the Yoga-Sutra, So far in my examination of English texts there has been no person qualified to do 50, especially from cover to cover. To write a Yoga Sutra commentary covering every verse of this profound and mysterious work is quite a statement! Men should not propose to write a full commentary unless they have real knowledge of every one of its verses. As Ramakrishna and his disciple Master Mahasaya used to say: it such a small thing?” In my ease, | do not have real personal knowledge of every one of its verses. For example, Ive never had the interest in floating in the air of understanding the speech of animals. My samyama is not perfected. However, Ido have insight into some of is verses, and ‘some of the important ones, Plus | see how desultory are most commentaries available in English. That even applies to every Indian commentator Ive read save Wasa. Even, astoundingly, Sankara. At this time | am focusing on verses that need the most correction or where | feel | ean make the best offering. Iam not an intellectual or a pundit. | am a mere devotee of my guru and seeker of The Lord 9sirot7 22 ‘These are practiced for reducing Impurities, afflictions, and distractions and acquiring samadal, 24a By svadhyaya is produced ‘communion with the deity in the fot favored by the devotee. $29.00 [ee] rowan a Sole The Problem 25 Those who develop wisdom come to see all creation, cextemals, and perceivables as unsatisfactory, containing. Inherent suffering (such as anxiety}. This on account of constant change, conditioning (arma), and due to the unstable, dualistic nature of the natural forces that underly phenomena and the movement of the mind itself. This is the problem that yoga is pursued to solve, 3336 Samsara (worldly experience) Is the result of inability to distinguish between creation and ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee + Chastity «Concentration Of Mind +God-Devotion These tre cntiite teeter doe inthe ance gic Meri of as samadhi Gadctnoedge athe cation of uring The Sexe aethorowh subtantited Sn te Yoga- Sura & the Upanishads Yaga is, and always was, religion. Get real yoga YogaSutras.com é God is joy, which the yogis of india cal anand or bliss. The Lora is also the Power ofall healings, protections, and solutions. Yoga, of Godtsearch, unveils Him, Christan know allthis in their bones. This YogaSutra is for them. ‘ter mary years of thinking that I might be able to improve on commentaries available, then refraining, then considering it again, | ‘am ready, But most of my life, when reading most Yoga-Sutra verses, my reaction was: "I don't know what its talking about!" Oh, | could see that many others thought they knew. But ! knew that | didnt know. For example, samadhi was at a distance, & far cry, How to make any comment about samprajnata samadhi vs. asamprajnata samadhi as every W.AB.Y. entrepreneur from Boulder to Santa Monica seemed able to happily do? (sit such @ ‘small thing?) Stil | knocked my head against this unique scripture. Truly, it is absurd to write a commentary on the Yoga-Sutra if not having experienced even the lowest form of samadhi (sabija samadhi, in which the heart pleasantly stops beating, breathing ceases and one can happily ext the body) at least once, and know how he got there. For many years | knew | could not speak about these things from experience thus had no authority to speak. Then’ even later with gurus grace, the Sutra verses - across some 20, translations I'd collected ~ remained confusing or opaque. | worked my way and tolled with the scripture, returning to it now and then, When | was a child, | wouldn't go to Kindergarten unless mother 29sirot7 God though they are absolutely separate, By samyama on God (Purusa) as distinct from even the most attractive aspects of creation one gets knowledge of Goo, 23 ‘The affictions/dlstractions are: Ignorance, asmita (the sense of "Lexist), desire, aversion, and attachment. 2a Ignorance is the substrate of the other four, whether the four are ina dormant, reduces, ‘controlled, or expanded state 28 Ignorance is taking the non- etemal, impure, evil, and non ‘atman to be eteral, pure, good, and atman, 26 Asmita, or the sense" ex arises when Pure Consciousness, the power-of- knowing, gets associated with a body and its senses. The afflictions are to be suppressed by metitation. a2 ‘The suppression of distracting vrits is attained by abhyasa and non-attachment, 216 ‘That suffering which has not yet, ‘come can be warded off 2a7 The cause of that suffering Which should be warded off is ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee pressed my pants, Ihad a top button to button, and my hair was wellcombed and in place. When | was a teenager, | wouldnt present a song at a dance unless we had every part rehearsed even a synthesizer or piano on the stage if ft was present in the original. When I took French, | wasnt satisfied unless | could read the religous language of the Bible in French ~ though it was not part of the course, And long after years of intense seeking, long after my nose was reddened ftom the equalized breath, and the pranava beating my doors, and had tastes of both, and my hair was turned White ~| did not fee! I was worthy to comment on the Yoge-Sutra, | remained timid and humble before Patanjalis sublime text Finally came a day when, thanks to my guru's grace, plenty of suffering, and the litlest_bit of ardor completely unworthy of the Lord, | picked up some old copies and realized: ‘I understand this." | also began to see clearly: "This translation is bad," and further: "This commentator has no clue what this verse is about and Is blowing smoke." | could see clearly that the wester translations that we have avallable are very poor. They are, byandlarge, filed with an author's indulgence of his own trifling "spiritual" fancies, more conversational filler than yogic insight, often yoggcally useless, land some are downright degenerate, Indeed, it was because of necessarily pompous commentaries seen elsewhere which 1 considered absurd and offensive in their lack of insight, concemed with the fortunes of my people, that | commenced writing this text, once one of a hundred prospects banging about in my back ‘drawer. I waited untl | had something to say and knew what | spoke of. | am glad | didnt say a word until was an old man. There is one basic reason that few insightful and engaging Yous Sutra commentates exist, and itis simply this: Those who realize its subject matter lose the inclination to write or teach, and in some sense even the abiliy. The great avadhuta and yogi Nityananda wrote no books. He was too detached from everything, had spent his Ife wandering, and rarely fek Ike even speaking. Likely, he would have not had the motivation or interest to sit down land write an organized book. And yet random comments by Nityananda unlock riddles of the Yoga-Sutra. The same can be said Cf Ramana Maharshi, who didnt. bother himself to write any text There is @ wonderful verse in the Bhagavad-ita that sa anesirot7 the entanglement of the Seer with the seen. 10:1 (A0.) The problem is solved by getting established in samadhi, which is, Iberation, 218 The seen consists of the clements and the sense organs. Ieis of the nature of Prakri, ts purpose is experience and eration ofthe jva, 221 The seen is for the purpose of serving Purusha. n Preparation a5 Vairagya isthe seltmastery in which one does not exave for ‘objects, whether seen, unseen, ‘or heard about. 1:33 ‘The mind is assisted towards silness and samadhi by responding with benigniy, ‘compassion, delight, and Indifference respectively towards ‘hese four types of people: The forunate, the suffering, the virwous, and the sinful 229 “Settrestraint, fixed observances, posture, pranayama, abstraction, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi are the eight limbs of yoga. 2:30 “The selfrestraints are abstention from harming others, from falsehood, from theft, from ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee "And when he is satisfied in the Self, by the Self, for him there is no longer any work to be done." The Goc-over is relieved of duties and work. ‘One reason they become disinclined is because they realize the orld as a projection of themselves; it's flaws ~ including "the unsaved, the ignorant" impurities. They come to know how to help the world by mere ‘thought or, better yet, by the simple continuation of their own sett- purification. The world saves itself as we purify ourselves. All boats, they realize are their own remaining fe. And if one cares about his race, and I do just as | care about my family, the boats of his race also are refurbished and ise on his waters, The whole world saves itself as he saves himself, Ths is the realization of the yog!. Tis is also the meaning of the Bhagavac-Gite's perplexing line, untrue by any ordinary analysis: “The whole world follows the sage." He who realizes the world as his own projection gets to watch the world follow his own path sure as the sunset, purifying itself as he purifies, Part of his own world-dream upgrade is seeing others do his teaching for him, whether by his wil or just as pleasant relief from teaching duties. Sometimes Lahiri Mahasaya, the Yogavatar of Benares, when surrounded by the various pilgrims to his apartment, would direct somebody to speak, saying "Ill teach through you." Truly, the closer one comes to the Divine mystery the more loathe he is to speak and wie Part of that state is the realization "There's nobody out there; there Js nobody to save. Allis weil, als Brahman.” This attitude comports with Sankaras ideal (yes, old bloodless Sankara) ofthe realization of the falsity of external existence, which | will summarize here: "You had been thinking that there was a world full of problems, including sorrows and worries. But all that was only a stick on the path ahead which, in the dusk, you had mistaken for a snake. There are no problems, and there isn't even any real creation. It's just a dream you are having. Each angsirot7 incontinence, and from greed." 2:38 The necessary viva is obtained whan the devotee gets established in continence. ‘On Meditation st Fixing the mind on one thing is dharena, 32 Continuous concentration on the object is dhyana, 33 When the mediator gets true realization of the meditation object, penetrating and knowing the objects real nature, Unconscious of himself as mind or knowledge, itis samadhi a4 ‘The three taken together are called samyama, 39 The mind is said to be in the Inhibited or intercepted state when moment-oy-moment the mind is continuously inhibited (by the medttation object) and a ‘samskara of inhibition is created. 3 ‘The mind’s low becomes steady by samskaras, 113 ‘Abhyasa isthe effort towards becoming established in that state (of suppression). ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee night you realize this over again, but somehow you forget during the day." By enjoying this realization often, plus contact with the subsuming transcendental perceptions of yoga, the motivation to teach gets attenuated. Thus we could say that the yog! is occasionally tricked into teaching by falling into a deluded state as he alternates. Every now and then that sage gets deluded and thinks of the world. He Worries about the people and thinks, "Well, the thing that will help all the best is divine knowledge.” And so it is that Niyananda ‘occasionally wandered into the home of some devotee and began to say things. Thus we have the "Chidakasha Gita," a collection of utterances when he got in the mood for this. And we have other recorded sayings by other yogins, all fragmentary, from those times they did get that delusion. The cases where we have ‘samadhiyogins writing material that is coherent and impressive are the very verses of the Upanishads themselves, and the very sutras. of the Yoga-Sutra. What grace it was for these men to write these verses! Though my life has been unfortunate in human terms it \was at least rich with soripture thanks to these men who cared ‘enough to wite, (Oh, to sit with an Upanishad in my hands!) For them, itis both a deigning and an effort of love, But thankfully their Workdtumed delusion occurred often enough to help us. Even a ‘sage at times feels the call of external duty. And the more men seek God the more free and invincible they feel in doing external duty, What changes is that he does it fearlessly and more effectively, while he knows God has him and his race in his Hand, and all will be well Yot it's the very nature of the path that most of what a sage and Knower knows remains unwritten. The tradeoff for his descending silence is that whatever he does say or write, imbued with the shakti, will have effect. Just tke those random utterances of Niyananda so long ago, when he happened to get into the mood, ‘and walked into some forgotten living room and said a few words. Today those are divine manna for the God-seeker answering many questions and even providing revelations about this very text, the Yoge-Sutra But the more one knows the secret that the Yoga Sutra describes, the less he will speak or write, Think about the ultimate goal of yogal The ultimate goal of Yoga, according to the Yoga-Sutra, is a 59sirot7 aaa ‘Abhyasa becomes fimly- rounded when continued @ long time without interruption ana with reverence, 42a ‘Samadhi comes soonest to ‘those who desire it intensely. 122 Even among the ardent, there fs ‘the distinction of mild, medium, or intense means, 2a By svadhyaya is produced ‘communion with the deity in form favored by the devo (Repeat) On Meditation Objects 128 By bhakti for the Lord (samadhi is attained) 245, Perfection of samadhi is attained by Goc-devotion, 124 The Lord God, Isvara, sa particular purusha (individual ‘soul in His own category, untouched by affitions, works, ‘the resus of actions, of ‘samskaras, 1:25 He is omniscient. 1:26 Unconaitioned by time. Al greatness is Hs. ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee state called kalvalya. The word literally means "isolation." The Upanishadic term similar to kaivalya is aparsah yoga. Asparsah ‘yoga means that yoga (that state) that doesnt touch upon or have any relation to any other thing, This ideal, very similar to the kaivalya idea, is promoted in the Mandukya Upanishad. All you who 0 to the studio for prettier bodies stil interested in yoga? (If it sounds alien, its not, Each of us goes through that state of foneness with God nightly in the state of dreamiess sleep.) For this, reason the world does not have very many good commentaries on the Yoga-Sutra. Those who penetrate it lose the desire to speak land the sense of need, Who is there to speab Once he slips off that ridge into the Holy City, he will likely no more write, They may occasionally stil get interested in "helping their \worldiream" but not in the usual way, and their ways of helping the world become unlimited, beyond the ken of ordinary men. A sage can breathe vitue into the world, and fie into the wicked. Thus it is that legitimate, coherent Yoga-Sutra commentaries will come from the denizens of a certain Borderland. Once | approached a siddha from India, an incamation of Divine Mother, | lived in California where everybody who ever visited India ‘came back as an incipient guru and started going on tour. Many of these uncooked quastpundits cycled through my town of Ojai on a regular basis, or nearby Santa Barbara, The American gurus were the most specious, the furthest cry, They consider the real Indian knowledge; the genuine yogie attainments, to be optional. ‘After all, were Americans, we are more advanced! seems to be the attitude, ‘There is, indeed, a certain hypocrisy in westem culture mavens who love to dabble in the religious cutures of other people: They carry fan assumption that westem ways are superior, and that old ideas. ssuch as the distinction between men and women, of even morality as appearing in these religions, are errant throwbacks where the locals have not "progressed!" yet, Samadhi? Probably some other primitive misunderstanding. They seem to most value India for new a Vivekananda said, "Religion is not beliefs. Religion is realization." But for a westerner just retumed from India, any interesting. sophical perspectives, not realizing that, as Swami new philosophical view or patter is sufficient to put them into a big \white chair, perhaps beside a vase of flowers, speaking nothings — with pauses for profound effect — to religiously-destitute a9sirot7 427 His evidence is the pranava, Aum, 137 (Or meditation on the mind of fone who is free of desire. 1:35 In general on the dawning of transcendental perceptions the mind can be brought to stillness by fixing the mind on one of those, 1:36 ‘Such as meditation on & radiant perception beyond sorrow. 1:38 One can meditate on the knowledge of dream or dreamless sleep. 10:2 (A0.) Meditation on akasa, 1:39 (r even on what appeals to him, 128 Samacihi is certainly attained by meditation on the richness of the pranava. 129 By mergence in pranava obstacles are destroyed, the consciousness tums inward, 249 Pranayama is to sit and cut off the flow of inbreath and outbreath, 2:50 ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee Califomians, (The westem so-called Advaita teachers who streamed through were particularly absurd) It's also a neat trick if you can disavow guruhood, and its obligations, while receiving the guru- adulation of guru-hungry westemers. Even the big chair and the rose. America's tacit gurus are, byandarge, mere interlopers and pilferers of the dharma, nat having even attempted to penetrate basics. They are, for the most part, practitioners of religious chicanery. They generally do not pay obeisances to the Lord, making their teachings sterile at best and sidetracking their followers at worst. | was a devotee of Yogananda, contented, and happily using his techniques. But now and then Id see some flr. My guru always Visited yogis and sages. The Yoga-Vasistha advocated it. And | had 2 bit of free time. Yet in my 15 years of living in California, | only went to see two. didnt waste my time, They were both Indians. ‘he first was Paramahansa Prajnananda. He was a disciple of Harharanda who was a direct disciple of Sri Yukteswar, so he was of my same Ineage. | was astounded at the boon of his coming to Ojai. | was pleased to bring flowers, chocolates, and a fine cut crystal bow! for his crew which they set decorously beside the os! and his German monastic sidekick. It was evident to my eyes that Prajnananda was steeped in blss, a genuine yog. After his talk I stalked him lke a cat. He was sitting alone at a table, The thing was held at the Ojai Women's Center, so nobody seemed much interested in this ascetic, celibate, and mind-sacrificer. twas my Wuck! I wanted to ask a particular question that had long been bothering me about the meditation technique we probably shared: “What should one do with the mantra when the need to breathe oes away?" He seemed bemused and delighted. ‘Who intiated you?" he asked [told him Yogananda, in a dream. He gave a great laugh. AS he did he swung his arm, smacking me hard on the back with the palm of his hand, That was his only answer. The one westemer | attended in those years was Krishna Das, who does not siyle himsetf a teacher but who as a genuine bhakta, is, and who leads devotional religious Indian singing. R was @ wonderful gathering, The religiously hungry White people of Santa Barbara threw themselves into the singing just as i they'd become their European ancestors in church. No doubt it was sad that ey Now sang religious iris in a foreign m9sirot7 The inoreathing, outbreathing, ‘and held operations, in terms of place, length, and number become progressively longer and ‘more subtle. 281 ‘The fourth kind of pranayama is beyond the sphere of internal and extemal, and comes when the essential acts of puraka and rechaka have been comprehended 282 From that is dissolved the ‘covering over light. 283 [And fitness of the mind for dharana, On Samadhi 116 In the highest vairagya, because of contact with Purusha, there is cessation of the least desire for any experience of the created world, 254 ‘Then pratyahara, in which the senses finally imitate and follow ‘the mind, tkewise withdrawing themselves from their objects 258 From pratyahara, supreme mastery over the senses. a7 Sabija samadhi is accompanied by gross thought, subtle thought, bliss, and the sense of am.” aa ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee language, but it was beautiful just the same to see the unkillable religious impulse of the White Europeans still popping up through their own concrete. | approached Krishna Das when it was over and he smiled at me as | did. I quick touched his feet, saying touch Neem Karoll Baba through his devotee.” He beamed, showing how the bliss of bhakti enlarges one beyond narrow identifications, Just @s | honored India's Godmen through that proxy and symbol, and honored the Christian God by kneeling before statues of saints in quiet chilchood churches, | fet that when Harharanda slapped my back I was slapped by Sri Yukteswar himself, and all of india, The second guru | visited was the siddha Karunamayi, Tis was in the Unitarian Church across the street trom Alameda Park in beautiful Santa Barbara. Upon a mere sight of her face and eyes (on a poster | had known what she was. | had no doubt. In the church I was full of bhakti for her. | pondered the gracious Hind conceptualization of God as Divine Mother. Indeed, since God created both fathers and mothers, He must contain the attributes (of oth. | pondered her identity, in reputation, with the mind: construction known as "Lakshmi." (Everything out there is a mind- construction and conditioning. But some mind constructions, such as the goddess of arts and music, are pleasanter than others.) While I sat there waiting for her to arrive | mentally tried to connect with her, only meditating, and trying to stay in kumbhaka to make myself worthy to meet her. A 30-something woman was next to me in the pew, an acquaintance, dressed fashionably in all the proper flouncy white Indian robish thingjes that California women love to Wear at guru-events, She was trying to chat me up, Seeing me communing with Karunamay's photo she said: "You won't talk? That's just a photograph of a woman. Im a real woman right beside you." She was pretty, Had long brown hair. Had been to visit me, Even had a southem accent. But | considered her behavior ‘embarrassing. Besides, this was a church! You dontt chit-chat in a church You think about God! So | continued to think of the guru, and thankfully she was soon hitting on somebody else, In my life | had become a “defender.” | came to always be defending something | considered indispensable to the people's wellbeing, When in the 6th grade I defended the smallest boy against continual harassment by a red-headed bully who was the pre-eminent school jock" and basketball star. | had said Id aresirot7 In sabija samadhi exists thought, knowledge related to words, and based on further sense perception, olus divine knowledge in mixed states and the mind akernates between them, 418 The other varity is Nibija samadhi which contains only the subtle impressions (samskaras) of the fist. aan Ih one whose elta-vitis are almost annihilated, fusion and entre absorption in one another of the cogniser, the cognition and the cognised occurs, as a transparent jewel placed near an ‘object takes on that object's colors. a3 In Nibija samadhi, all forms have vanished, memory is, purified, the essence of the ‘object alone shines forth. 44 By what has been sald, the ‘same two experiences, in the cases of meditation on subtle objects have also been revealed. a5 ‘The province of subtle objects cextends all the way up to the Indissoluble level of prakriti a7 The purity of Nirbia samadhi boing attained, one knows pure light and prasad. 149 He has direct knowledge of ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee beat him up if he did it one more time, and | followed through After I had him bloodied beneath me on the ground, he never harassed the boy again. Now in adulthood I had also changed my astrological natal chart such that my house of lferole (the 10th) \was ruled from the 8th. This is the Scorpio house of shared things, shared bodies, shared wealth, and shared values. Thus | found | was always defending the moral tradition of the White Europeans. | as always defending the good of Christianity. | found myself defending the critical elements of the Yoga of India, such as renunciation and Brahmacharya. And I found myself defending the very bodies and minds of my own European people - their genotype, reputation, and genetic memory. The thing Ive always wished to defend the most was the religious path that leads to God knowledge and prosperity for all who endeavor. In the Hindu lexicon I came to relate strongly to the "Kyastiya" or "warrior" class, and stage of lfe. The Kyastriya, in the Hindu tradition, is the defender of the people and he does this most centrally by defending the moral order that protects and gives prosperity to his people. | was all about defending. And an interesting point is that Just moments before meeting this sidcha from India, this samadhi saint Karunamayi who | didn't know but already believed in — 1 defended her and her work. For as | satin the church there was a loud voice out in the lobby disturbing the sacred atmosphere, Some man was carrying on a long conversation with somebody about self-help, psychology, and all the various counselors and programs he had been through, dispensing his wisdom and opinions on these California/Esalen subjects. | wondered why he had no respect for this event or the people entering a sacred space for a sacred experience. I immediately went out to the lobby and found him standing in the middle of the lobby as people streamed in, He was dressed all in white lke Karunamayis staff, and | assumed he was indeed staff land had authoriy. He was a very large man, about 250 pounds, with long white hair and a beard, Later on | ended up at private retreats with Karunamayl where a no-talk rule was to be observed. This large man would aways be there, dressed in white like staff, and singularly breaking the notalk rule, talking quite out loud and encouraging all others to break the silent discipline, I didnt know this about him at the time, | just knew that he was being rude and isrespecting the atmosphere. So | went out and said to him ~in a clear voice intending that all others would hear me confront him — a9sirot7 things, different from knowledge based on testimony, inference. 148 His consciousness i right-bearing 1:50 ‘The samskaras produced by rivikalpa samadhi overwrite other samskaras. 281 ‘With the suppression of even the samskaras of sablla ‘samadhi, one becomes established in Nirbja samadhi. On Sidahis 103 (Ao) ‘Siddis, performed or experienced, are a frit of either individual karma or grace. 3:36 By samyama on God as apart ‘rom creation, ie. verse 3:35, the faculties of divine hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell 243 (On destruction of impurities in the body and senses by tapas, ‘ecurt powers arise. 3:49 By getting knowledge-ofthe: difference, that is, the difference bbotwoon God {Purusa) and even the highest aspects of creation (satva), one gets bot omniseience and omnipotence over all things. aa Siddhis can arse from birth, ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee "Is this a church or a bar?" And | walked away. He was then shamed into relative silence and the group enjoyed some moments of quiet before Karunamay arrived. This was to be one of several confrontations eventually had with this fool | was satisfied and now back in my pew. Soon the siddha came in Her path had been strewn with flowers by a redheaded woman devotee in White, She gave a talk. I dontt remember any of it I just tried to stay in bhakti throughout. At a certain point a religious person realizes that meditation itself is more nourishing than words. After her tal« there was the possibilty to go up to her and have an audience, A line formed, | had been invited to hand the guru a card, if Liked, on which I could write a wish. | had tong sought samadhi to end my suffering | had heard so many stories of great gurus in India able to grant the experience of samadhi to aspirants, | knew by instinct that she was one of those. That's what | wrote, in my most careful print lettering. Nalvely but completely sincere, my card requested that she allow me to have the highest samadhi, nirvikalpa. A greedy child full of faith, | even included a 2nd major request. | centered a greeting line at the top in the prettiest and clearest lettering I could manage that conveyed my confidence in her: "Thou Art Shiva!” | really meant it. I knew that she was Shiva. Likely, nobody else did, | sat down beside and she remained standing, On, what a luminous moment in my memory! The pews were filed with Santa Barbarans looking on, It fel ke she received me well and | was at ease. As she read my card she had a radiant expression. While reading, she ently touched the top of my head in an exquistely mother-ike way. | looked into her mellow smiling face as she started to address me, Her voice came to me musica, tremulous, and hushed as i teling me a secret. And she seemed joyful as she said: "My son, all these things will come true for you, and very CChildike faith gets a man the farthest in religious life. We were never in better condition than when we had childlike faith. And yet how many the pigs who want to damage the faith capacity of children! Faith is instinctive knowledge. Normally Karunamayi would hand the devotee's wish-card back to them. But mine she kept (She kept my card to herself every time | ever handed her ‘one, save once when she was displeased with me.) 1019sirot7 from drugs, mantra, tapas, of samadhi, 3:31 By samyama on the pit of the throat, the cessation of hunger ‘and thirst 3:36 By samyama (perfect meditation) ‘on the heart, knowledge of the mind (of another). aaa. ‘The Great Bodiless is when the yogls consciousness can exit the body and function outside of this real, not imaginary. From this comes destruction of the covering over the light 3:38 ‘When the mints te to the body is loosened, and he develops knowledge of how his mind moves, he can enter other bodies. 3:30 By samyama on the pit of the throat, the cessation of hunger ‘and thirst 3:34 By samyama (perfect meditation) ‘on the heart, knowledge of the mind, aaa. By samyama on the relationship botwoon his body and akasa, then merging with the idea of @ Hight and floating things tke feathers, catton ar Gandelion tufts, he can move throughout ‘space, 3:39 ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commertary, Julian Lee Ik came to me 24 days later. | had been reading about the natural and instinctive nobility of the male; how he sacrifices himself to serve and protect his women and children. As | followed the story, ‘a madman was stomping through an office building in San Diego executing people with a shotgun that could blast through locks. Two newlyweds worked in the same building, Knowing the killer was ‘executing people, and that he was coming down his wifes hallway, he ran there, He reached her in time to cover her body with his land take the shot, ‘Suddenly full spontaneous yogic pratyahara. Al the air in my lungs somehow vanished. Immediately my chest felt strangely cold, immense, and empty ike a great, silent and empty warehouse. At the very same moment a great wave of bliss touched my back. It was tke the great Blue Whale of bliss brushing the back of a tiny bliss-minnow who thought he was the biggest bliss fish. I thought | knew bliss, but this was something of another order, a swing ‘ocean of joy, and immediately | was losing consciousness, sinking. | had the immediate desire to fight for normal consciousness. First, elt threatened by it. | hac not experienced such bliss, | reacted to it as a threat to my very identi Second, | had been leaning back in my rickety wooden chair lke a teenager. As it came on | started to fall back. | instinctively pulled away from the luminous rush, shaking it of in @ way that amounted to sheer refusal, simply to prevent the calamity of faling backwards smack on my head, All these porceptions and reactions happened in a socond of time. It may have been intended thus, Stil in my chair and steady, the subsuming bliss cloud seemed one. But something had a grip on my mind and wantes tum ft ‘away from the world in some physical, decided way. My consciousness Kept receding, Then commenced a game of tugof War with God. It tied to tum my mind away from the world again with force: | pulled it back staring intensively at things in my room, Each time it tied to drag my mind and perceptions away from the world my lungs also went dark, | feared it it exactly as if it was death. So | only fought it, | fought wildly like a man who feared water when his instructor tried to push him in, Everything about this place it wanted to take me was unknown, land by some deep instinct | Knew that | would emerge from it profoundly altered; that | could not emerge from it the same ss death; | responded to 9sirot7 ‘By mastering the udana he can float over water, mud, thorns, the earth, ete. 3:33 By samyama (perfect meditation) ‘on the light in the head (bindu), the you! gets the vision of the Sidahas. 321 By samyama on one's own, bodily form, invisibly, because the connection between light and the body is disjoined 2:33 His intuition develops and with it he an know anything 2:36 When he is established in speaking constant truth his mere ‘words get the power to actualze. 3:38 ‘These are obstacles in the way of samachi, powers wnen the mind is outwardturned 10:3 Siddhis are a fruit of samskaras, are endlessly varied, and are experienced in the realm of karma, ‘The State of the Sage 429 When he is @ thoroughly liscriminating man (knowing always the difference between God and creation), and when, fully contented by God, he no longer seeks even sidchis or any ‘external futilment from his meditation, then dawns the ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee person, or even a functional person in the way to which I was accustomed, Sul it wouldnt let go. | got up to walk around. I ooked around at things trying to Keep keep "a world” in view. But it wouldnt let go. My mind kept turning way from the world, | went downstairs and ate food. Then I went to sleep to make it stop. AS I went to sleep it continued to pull me into a thoughtfree state, and the only thought | could think was @ vague "I exist" The next day | had to cancel all my astrological readings as | fought. | could nat put my mind on charts or even keep the workd in view and the repeated stoppage of my heart was frightening me. | wonder how I was able to walk around my house. The push-pull went on through the next day with me fighting. Sometimes though walking and functioning my rind could only manage a vague sense of "exist" | remember walking around and being aware “Im in my room, in that world” but it was barely seen, and | was aware that | had no heartbeat. The lack of heartbeat, and the feeling of a great cold cavern where my chest was. There was a bliss, but was very highly pitched, not the rich and opulent bliss ofthe first. It was lke a bliss that | wasnt realy experiencing, It was Ike deep, dreamless sleep while awake but | was not experiencing any Brahman who was “a mass of consciousness,” because | struggled like a frightened cat to hold onto the perception of my room and the World, The "me" part ddrit even particularly enjoy it. Yet my consciousness kept pulling away rom here, from my foom, from the mountains. lt wanted to make the world to disappear. It wanted to plunge me in that Ocean, All| did was fight back. | never let it take me wherever it was trying to take me. | fought it like a wild cat. | didn't want the world to disappear. Because of the first savikalpa bliss | knew by some sure instinct exactly where it meant to take me, and by ju never be the same, | already loved meditation too much, | already 6 Sure an instinet that | would was getting drunk with Aum, sometimes gasping for air, and barely functional. | already had a hard ti 1 paying bills, making money, meeting deadlines, or even answering the phone, And | had four youthful children who stil needed my attention and care, A bone slips out of a joint once and it keeps slipping. A record skips once ‘and it keeps shipping there. A dink is taken once and you take another one, And once plunged into genuine samadhi, a dam has raosirot7 samadhi called Raincloud of Goodness. Metaphysics Of the Yoga-Sutra 22 ‘The functions of the mind can always be known because of the constant nature of the Seer, the Lord, Purusha, 42 ‘The transformation into another body (for another incarnation) is effected by the flow of prakrits the jva gots the body natural and appropriate to it a7 Actions are neither white nor black in the case of sages, in the case of others they are of three kinds, 48 Having the three kinds of ssamskaras, they fruit variously 1s conditions become ‘appropriate, 49 Even among the samskaras there is relationship ‘and they affect each other, ‘though they may be diferent, and though they may be separated by class, space, or f ‘correspondences. 4:40 [And samskaras are without beginning because the will to lve and desire for well-being are eternal, aan But as they are bound together ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee been broken. As it returned for me the next eveningtall, and the World began to recede, | began to beg God to stop. | knew that | was rejecting t. As | now spoke to God outloud, | fer ashamed and abashed but corain in my plea: "Tam used to this. | am used to being able to look at other thing as separate, | stil ike the prospect of setting a grandchild on my lap, pointing at a cistant star, and telling her about it as if iis something separate." | don't know why I thought these things, but this was my excuse ‘and plea to the Lord. There was an instinet that if | gave in to this power | would be, in the metaphor of Ramakrishna, “out of the game." That | would no longer be living @ human if, There was solid instinet that if | allowed this thing to take me, | would never ‘again be able to view any thing as separate Immediately after my plea out loud, it released me. The battle was over. "Who, save myself i fit to know that god who rejoices and rejoices not?” Frat Katte Upanishad verse 221 Who wil want nirvikaipa samadhi? With no "other" so highly pitched its beyond human registration, and nothing sensed but a void and a nascent "L’ Who desires turva? We all get it each night in deep, dreamless sleep, Als withdrawn into the spider, And the spider sits alone, Itis key the place ofall power. But what everybody in this world seeks is the blss ofthe savikaipa see, A bliss state, the bliss of dreams, of riotous cosmoses, the bliss of Saguna Brahman, tne Lord. The bliss that rolls and chums, full of light, boons, laughter, and joyous corrections, That is the drunken state in between this and that highest ninikalpa. Everything anybody pursues in this world is pursued for geting one more itl taste of that dualistic bliss of ananda, from which we come, It's the space in-between, the stage on the way up, and down between waking, consciousness and turiya that makes the saints cry. This is the bliss of God, Saguna Brahman, The Lord. Does God even want us to have nirvikalpa? What. human beings crave isthe dualistic bliss ‘of Saguna Brahman, of the ereated work, | find | choose "isvara and 1" sai9sirot7 by cause, effect, substratum and ‘support, samskaras are destroyed when thase are destroyed, ‘The Chidakasha Gita Of Nitvananda and ‘Commentary HH ‘The Yoga Sutra On Kumbhaka and The Breathless State Julian ©. Lee Mickunas Glossary ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suras, ANew Commentary, Julian Le | remembered Karunamayi's words.| saw what nirvikalpa was, | also saw what savikalpa was. Then | was ambivalent and regretful. | knew | was a fool to have fought it and sent it away. Yet | was relieved, So allthis is real! | had arrived up at the crest of a long- ‘sought ridge, looking down upon the Promised Land. Immediately I saw in my mind a traveling family, tke gypsies. They hhad spent their whole Ives traveling, on their way to some Holy Cty.Not only had they always traveled, but their parents before them too, and their grandparents. Traveling towards the Holy City was all theyd known, They were part of a long line that know nothing but travel, seeking, hoping to find a Holy City. Seeking was all they knew. That was me, and that was all of us. Then one day they come over a ridge ‘and Lo! they see that magnificent city Its beauty is unearthly beyond Fong Karunamayt description. They can see it contains totes ornard, ‘amazing denizens theyve never Catfish known, contains potencies, ‘own st powers. They look at each other. Each ‘other and their welHknown life is all theyve ever known. Everything will ‘change once they enter it. No more life of the road, Everything about lite will completely change once they plunge into it, everything - family relationships, habits, duties, limits, rules, routine. ‘There is a moment of decision then. To rush headlong into that Great Unknown? Or, wait... perhaps to set up a camp there by the ‘edge of the city, and make small sorties into its outlying edges, getting to know the occupants and rules more slowly. The city’s not going anywhere. That was the decision I made, to live on the borderland. wosirot7 at ‘The Yor-Sun's word fr God or Sauna raha, he Individualized conaiousea al he separate "Pscther ‘hae Ged the Chita ie fu Nirgune Brahman ‘Gd as pareconscoueess with Se ony ates ‘nightly in drearalss slop, covered by a film of sla or Yori ee, Roy man oad, ely "rest sage” ‘reali, ee Conceptions of Sagar ‘osha inl Vis, Shiva tell wanes samadhi ia Theis eraeness of he ea sate uileawoke, Th 20d wens ofthe bi ofthe ener ate wie amake Mergece God Sana Bsn orev icone paint te isan The inner vegyoxpoteac tis gained by celibacy ‘Sins the concgt foal p by shay ‘his los is unde cowseucton, ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee Later that same year | went to attend a retreat with Karunamayl at 2 hotel in Oxnard, California. | wondered if she knew - if she knew ‘hat had happened to me. The legend around her ~ the testimonies of so many devotees — suggested she did know all things. | wondered if she would be proud of me, or ask me about my samadhi experience. Finally the time came when we were all, dressed in white, alowed to form a line and pass by her one at @ time in a reception line. | always got emotional when | came close to her, just like bereft child finding his missing mother. As | came close she glowed and said "You are a sage trom birth” At that event | had the experience of seeing obvious blue-white light around the sage at all tmes. It came out 34 inches from around her body. The 2nd time | approached her in the line she said "This is your last incamation. | didn't like that idea. This life has been to absurd, painful, and ignominious. That's all there is? This was the beginning of disagreements and tiffs | was to have with the siddha, Thus | experienced also "survived" Ninvikalpa, bestowed by a sage at my sincere request, This was not to be my only experience of the thing that the Yoga-Sutra discusses, But now samadhi is hard \work! Al uphill climb. =90)= Stil, | enjoy the languorous walk, learning the way, observing the sights. Oh, | have since sometimes rued my decision, knowing all would have been well had I trusted. | would have had to end my old life, but God would have provided Perhaps the experience will never come again in this life, but that is acceptable. | know what the nature of the decision is now, and the nature of the trust required. Maybe this is the way it always. happens in the long karmic development of souls, that some siddha, when itis time, gives you a taste? In any case I plan, daily, ‘what will be my reaction nest time whether here or on death. And at least | can hear that city, and smell it, There is always Aum, and bindu, What more? And | can definitely stil write, Lam 400 percent certain that had | accepted it at that time, had | let it take me, would never have written the present book. | would not have been able to do so. The world needs a better Yoga-Sutra commentary, and the Christian ‘Churches must be saved by returning the central Chistian ethic to God-search herenow, so that the Greatest Law may be futile. It took 15 years’ more meditation, plus immersion in the Upanishads and the writings of Sankaracharya, before | felt able to wrte a 1819sirot7 ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee commentary on the Yoga-Sutra. | waited unti it was easy. The fist thing | wanted to do was to show that Patanjalls verses are in a flawed order. Long | have felt coherent order would help clarify their true content, Oh, what light! This re-ordering of the verses, threading verses with t simply placing the Sutra verses into a more naturally connective content and sectioning subject categories into better wholes, is part of the contribution I planned to make. This, reordering of verses alone wil allow the more open-minded and daring students of the Sutra to comprehend this ancient scripture in a new and better way. Along with my own verse renderings and ‘explanations, | wll sometimes feature for comparison translations by Dvivedi Leggett, Taimni and others where their version is valuable or testifies to verse content. | am fully cognizant of the implications of writing a commentary on an ancient text that catalogs the essences of religion, the experiences of the greatest mystics, which deals with final enlightenment, and even miraculous powers. | am also aware of the absurdity, recklessness, and even mendaciy of the commentaries that are so blithely written and just as bithely published today, many of them by writers who never had much interest in Yoga to start with, but stumbled wide-eyed upon the text ‘as mere WAAB.Y enthusiasts, | trust the real yogins of the world will find this text not in those categories. Out of respect to India | have deposited some of my qualifications to mount such an endeavor in the Appendix at the end of this book. AS | type these words God roars His approval. Religious knowledge has been my prime goal since a young age, However, in the final analysis there is only one reason | am able to \wrte such a text and offer anything decent to the world, and one reason only attained the grace of a great son of India and guru, Paramahansa Yogananda, destroyer of my sorrows. ‘The Guru is God. Whatever {good there may be in this text is solely originated from Him, who took me on when | was unworthy, and cast into me His 19sirot7 ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suras, ANew Commentary, Julian Le dtvine spark, He Himself Wanted to write a Yoga Suva commentary he tis, Reincarnation of Ajuna the warrior, former of England, this my tii offering before your throne and the lineage that cascades down from Mahavatar Babaji of the Himalayas Himsel, Whatever Bood it contains for humanity and the Europeans is solely thy (om Guru! Jaya Guru! Om, he This text, after the salvaging my gurudeva did wit the wreckage of ry if, the boons bestowed, the transcendental protection granted, and the favors shown is the one bid | have in my coffer to present 2 token of thanks. Let tbe, also, my bid for areal Yoga-Sutra commentary by a westerner, and a thanks to Mother India | have confidence that old lovers of the Yoge-Sutra wil rediscover it ‘anew here oray that young White Europeans who've not yet ‘embarked on the quest for the Holy Grall wil find in ths text a ‘iendforife. And it would not be fit to not devote this text, also, to ‘my root guru and Grandfather guru Jesus Christ, satguru of the White Europeans and my people, who set me on the firm pathway to all that is here, Jai Guru, Jai Jal! AU Hal the Satguru! Om, Amen How lucky was | to be born a Christian and bom into the European Christian culture! Or even to have been graced to walk into a fine Christian church even once. This text would not exst save for that. 1 claim both the bhaktiyoga of Christianity and the Yoga of the Yoga- amosirot7 ip ihwwrw yooasras com! “The Yoge-Suvas, A New Commentary, Julian Lee Sutra, because they are the same, and the first came from the second. This | attest The winds of guru's grace blow beyond the litle fences the small- minded people erect to constrain him. The Indian hardwood dividers you see along the sides of the page once belonged to Paramahansa Yogananda, How did | get them? I don't know. | didnt seek them out, But now | mecitate beside them, During that time | was living in a residence that looked exactly lke his own. Why? | didn't seek it out either-They came into my hands by serendipitous grace, at the same time that the Chintamani came to me, It was physically handed to me through the dream state the night after I Visited His gardens, then lost from my pocket. Later reading the Yoga-Vasistha and the Crest Jewel of Wisdom | realized that it was Philosopher's Stone of legend. The Hindu scriptures call it the Chintamani. It's a real thing. | hadn't sought it. But | did fee! bhakti and expectation in those gardens. Bhakt! is everything, and it's why Christianity is so gyeat, and is eternal yous. | asked him in his garden for a sign of our connection. And maye its only that, that token given to me so strangely and briefly held in my hands, that gives me the temerity and nerve to do the strangest thing | thought | could never do: Write a commentary on Patanjal's Yoge-Sutra for my guru | am comfortable with it finaly, because there is nothing more important in this world, for a people, than to seek Godknowledge. Thus I put in my oar for my peoples’ boat, and whatever other peoples may benefit. Thank you, Inia, for keeping the Dharma alive ths long | write this from the Saint Francis Apartments in Portland, Oregon in the month of October, 2014, The Year of Our Lord. was lucky to be bom a Christian and with a devout father who made sacrifices to locate his sons just one block away from the beautiful Saint ‘Augustine's church, open twentyfour hours a day for any dovotee. | 0 back there in my mind daily, and it was the Christian religion that set the true yogis flagstones of devotion, prayer, and asceticism under my feet. | have confidence that all God-seekers swi9sirot7 “The Yoge-Suras, ANew Commentary, Julian Le and students of Patanjali’s great religious work will find themselves Inspited and quickened anew by this new commentary on the Yoga: ‘Sutra by an undeserving and flawed devotee of Paramahansa Yogananda, who was a lover of the Christian churches and praised ‘and affirmed their own imperishable yoga. Invodustion | The YS: Path To God-Knowldge | The Summary Verses ‘Wester Confusion About Yous | On Brubmachurys, ‘The Essence of Yous | ‘Ihe Problem | On Prpansion On Maditaion | On Mouton Objects | On inner Divine Light On Aum | Onthedth Pranayama | On Samadhi | On Siddhis | The State Of The ‘Sage | YooeSura Meuphasis | APPENDI ip ihwwrw yooasras com! s99